English Español Mary Immaculate
Catholic Church / Pacoima, CA

Christ Draws Us The Path Of Life

Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time

“Blessed are they who follow the law of the Lord!”Ps. 119

In this world, values are achieved with effort, as Jesus also said: the Kingdom of God suffers violence, and with effort it is conquered. Like all values. Lying in bed you don’t get your doctor’s degree or earn money; everything that is worth, costs. If the current of the world leads us to perdition, we must go against the current, as Jesus also did, giving us an example to follow.

You learn by spending time, listening or reading, meditating, studying and thinking. We need to be challenged and motivated to move, to make an effort, since the natural tendency of the ego is the minimum effort, the easy and comfortable, the pleasant and what flatters our ego.

Many false prophets flatter our ears with what we want to hear and will not tell us the hard truths that Jesus often spoke to us about, judgment, heaven and hell, salvation or damnation, taking up the cross or persecution.

We should all be in the fight to live the ideal to which Jesus calls us, as his disciples that we are; Let’s not lower the ideal that we preach to what we live, let’s preach JS because it is his voice that we must listen to and follow.

Jesus does not call us to worship him but to follow him. Many admire and adore him, but do not follow or imitate him, nor do they strive for such a thing. They think it’s just a matter of admiring and adore, but they live in sin without any remorse.

Many are catechized, but not converted. Many know things about God, but lack a living faith live the gospel with enthusiasm and be witnesses of Christ transmitting his faith to others. This renewal of faith usually occurs in RETREATS, when we open a little more space to God in our time and in our minds, so that He can enter with more force: the encounter with Christ awakens living faith that fills our hearts and makes his witnesses. And that is the foundation of a new life.

Without that living encounter with Christ, the commandments, like what we see in this Sunday’s Gospel, are a heavy burden and impossible to carry humanly. But embracing him, we let him be our strength and he fills us with love and the desire to live as new men, children of God and citizens of heaven, his ambassadors on earth.

THE GOOD THING IS THAT CHRIST HIMSELF IS OUR STRENGTH, UNITED TO HIM BY FAITH, WE CAN BEAR FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT AND DO HIS WORKS of him. He not only shows us the way, but gives us the strength to take it, if we let him in.

Lord, he fills our souls with the action of your Holy Spirit, so that we may be true missionary disciples in whom you are pleased.

Readings for the Week

Monday: Gn 4:1-15, 25; Ps 50:1, 8, 16bc-17, 20-21; Mk 8:11-13
Tuesday: Gn 6:5-8; 7:1-5, 10; Ps 29:1a, 2, 3ac-4, 3b, 9c-10; Mk 8:14-21
Wednesday: Gn 8:6-13, 20-22; Ps 116:12-15, 18-19; Mk 8:22-26
Thursday: Gn 9:1-13; Ps 102:16-21, 29, 22-23; Mk 8:27-33
Friday: Gn 11:1-9; Ps 33:10-15; Mk 8:34 — 9:1
Saturday: Heb 11:1-7; Ps 145:2-5, 10-11; Mk 9:2-13
Sunday: Lv 19:1-2, 17-18; Ps 103:1-4, 8, 10, 12-13; 1 Cor 3:16-23; Mt 5:38-48

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