19 July, Tuesday – One Family in Christ

Tuesday of Week 16 in Ordinary Time

Mic 7:14-15,18-20
Mt 12:46-50

“Anyone who does the will of my Father in heaven, he is my brother and sister and mother.”

I spent a good 20 minutes reflecting about the readings today before the words came to me. Many are challenged with discerning what is the will of the Father, what is God’s will for me, how may I let thy will be done.

I guess there is no one answer for it, nor the same answer for life. I feel today’s readings share with us the will of our Father in heaven, and that is, to love everyone as a brother, sister and mother. For this is how God sees us, as in the Gospel today, and how He invites us to see each other in the same way. Deeper than how we are all one family in Christ, the greater message is to love as we would love our family.

What is this love then? The first reading shows us a glimpse of how God led “your people to pasture”, He led them “out of Egypt”. A God who “taking fault away, pardoning crime, not cherishing anger for ever but delighting in showing mercy”

A love that seeks to unite rather than divide, a love that seeks to forgive rather than fault, a love built on trust rather than fear, a love that seeks to give rather than take and a love that creates rather than destroys.

While it is so hard to earn the respect, trust and approval from man, it is already given to us by our God, for He sees us as brother, sister, mother, whether we are deserving or not.

Just as Jesus sacrificed for His family here on earth, may we learn to love and cherish those we meet. For even when they do not seem like a brother, sister, mother, Jesus still saw them that way and we should too; for it is then we know we are doing the will of our Father in heaven. Amen.

(Today’s OXYGEN by Benjamin Mao)

Prayer: [do say a prayer for your family, that we may continue to support each other in doing the will of our Father]

Thanksgiving: Thank you Lord, for our families, for teaching us what it means to be family. Thank you Lord, for your mercy. Thank you Lord, for your love.