Jesus helps us understand through the parable that when we profess our faith, we must be open to God working in us and through us. It is because of this that the length of time spent or type of work we have done for God’s glory matters little. Even deathbed contrition can garner souls a place in heaven.
This Sunday’s Gospel reveals God’s immense mercy, even to those that decide to change at the very last minute. There is hope for all until death. This is what those who have always been with God must understand and refrain from being judgemental toward converted brethren and bitter about God’s decisions of favor.
The Lord’s Prayer urges us to forgive as we expect to be forgiven. We understand that only refuge in the Holy Spirit will protect us from giving in to temptation, and we learn to trust God that He will, through Christ, release us from the stronghold of Satan, once and for all, at the end of time.
Exhibited in countries such as the United States of America, Canada and Malaysia, the Art for God exhibition will make its Macau debut this coming Friday, September 22nd. Organized by the Macau Catholic Culture Association and co-organized by the Regina Apostolorum Foundation from neighboring Hong Kong, the exhibition will display over 50 calligraphy, brush painting and seal carving artworks created by Father Joseph Tham Kit-chee.
In this month of September, O Clarim brings to you a three-part series on Spirituality by Fr Fausto Gomez OP. In the third part, Fr Gomez writes that contemporary spirituality is a plural and varied spirituality, continually enriched by saints, mystics, experts, writers, and honest ordinary people – and non-Christian brothers and sisters.
The mystery of the Blessed Trinity is difficult to grasp at first instance. Steady spiritual growth and advancement in the virtues of faith, hope and love, will systematically reveal in an interior understanding and conviction the fullness of this mystery that theologians and scholars have tried and failed to convey with complete success.
The sin that Jesus addresses in this passage is the sin of unforgiveness. It clearly depicts the wrath of God that will be inflicted upon those who refuse to forgive others. The “wicked servant” to whom this is addressed was a man who was forgiven a “huge amount” by God. This is all of us.
Just as God is willing to forgive us any and all wrongdoings we are culpable for, we too must extend the same mercy to our brethren if we are to reflect the glory of God.
The recently-appointed Apostolic Vicar of Aleppo for Catholics of the Latin rite, the Syrian Hanna Jallouf, Friar Minor of the Custody of the Holy Land, knows better than anyone the reality of that troubled region.
He was one of the few priests who continued to serve and comfort small Christian communities in the territories of Idlib province, controlled during the war by jihadist militias.
This petition has a specifically Christian sense. The CCCC (593) says: “Since ‘man does not live by bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of God’ (Matthew 4:4), this petition equally applies to hunger for the Word of God and for the Body of Christ received in the Eucharist as well as hunger for the Holy Spirit….”