First, “Happy Mercy Day” to all the Sisters of Mercy and all the Mercy Institutions The Readings today, surely give us a real “Invitation to live our lives to the fullest”. In the First Reading we are encouraged to be generous and to be generous “in the moment” and not just on our own time or when we decide to be generous. The First Reading encourages us to be light hearted, confident in our faith and see the goodness and the joy in life. We are also reminded to live our lives in a just and righteous way, being humble and grateful for the blessings in life that we receive daily. In the Responsorial Psalm we are reminded about the greatest command, which is to, “Love one another as God loves us”. If we can keep love for our fellow human beings alive and enriched we will be able to follow and live the commands/ the lessons that have been taught. Love for others helps us develop an appreciation and confidence to seek the truth in all of our life experiences. The Gospel is quite explicit - “No one who lights a lamp conceals it with a vessel or sets it under a bed; rather, he places it on a lampstand so that those who enter may see the light”. These words clearly tell us to share and use our unique gifts and talents to make the world a better place for all. Yet, in order to appreciate and “know” our gifts we do need to spend some time in reflection to appreciate who we are and how we can best share ourselves with others by being open to the needs of others and by being generous with sharing our gifts. “Take care, then, how you hear”. What a loaded statement…… this Gospel is so 'dead on' regarding the human condition and our human nature which filters out what we maybe don’t want to hear, what we hear, how we hear it and then ultimately respond. And at the end of the Gospel we are again reminded about sharing our gifts and not to simply “gather them in” for our own use or pleasure or advancement, for if we are not truly generous in sharing, to make the world a better place for others, our gifts will not flourish and we will be left with nothing to share or rejoice in. |