HOMILY FOR TUESDAY OF THE 1ST WEEK OF LENT.
THEME: The Lords way of Praying taught by our Lord Jesus Christ.
BY: Fr. Deotacious Chikontwe SMA.
*READINGS OF THE DAY*
Isaiah 55:10-11
Psalm 33:4-7,16-19
Matthew 6:7-15
*LITURGICAL COLOUR*
PURPLE
*FROM OUR FIRST READING*
There is a lovely image in today’s first reading of the life-giving power of the Lord’s word. Isaiah says that it is like the rain and snow that water the earth and make it yield seed for the sower and bread for eating. Just as the rain from the sky provides the bread that people eat, so the word from the Lord satisfies an even deeper and more fundamental hunger in the human person, the spiritual hunger for intimacy with God.
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*FROM THE GOSPEL READING*
When we listen to today’s gospel reading, we can appreciate the power of the Lord’s word. The Lord’s teaching on prayer there has been a powerful inspiration to believers down the centuries. Jesus teaches us how to pray by giving us a prayer to say. The Lord’s Prayer, as it has become known, is not just one prayer among many but a school of prayer, a teaching on how to pray. The first words, ‘Our Father’, teaches us that we are not praying to a distant God but to a God who wants us to address him in the way Jesus did, as ‘Abba, Father’. We are being drawn into a sharing in Jesus’ own relationship with God.
*CONCLUSION*
The initial focus of our prayer is what God wants, the coming of God’s kingdom, the doing of God’s will. Only then do we focus on our own needs, bread for the day, forgiveness for our sins and protection from the evil one who puts our faith to the test. Jesus implies that all of our prayer should have something of these elements. The petition ‘give us today our daily bread’ links into the first reading. We are praying both for the satisfaction of our physical hunger and our spiritual hunger. As the Jewish Scriptures remind us elsewhere, we do not live on bread alone, physical bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.
May you Have a Blessed Tuesday dear friends.
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