Tuesday, June 5, 2018
TODAY'S REFLECTION- TUESDAY-9TH WEEK-ORDINARY TIME
St. Boniface, bishop, religious, martyr
2 Peter 3:12-15a,17-18/Psalm 89:2-4,10,14,16/Markk 12:13-17
BE AN EXEMPLARY CITIZEN
Beloved, St. Boniface, whose feast day Mother Church celebrates today, was baptised Wynfrid, a name which meant, "joy and peace". His name was Latinized to Boniface, a name which means, " doing good ". He was popularly called "St. Paul of Germany". St. Boniface was trained in sanctity and knowledge. He excelled in preaching and witnessing. Through him, many German tribes got converted to the faith. He unified missionary endeavours, restored obedience of the clergy and their bishops in union with the pope and established many houses of prayer.
St. Peter, in our today's first reading, continues to urge us to live holy and saintly lives as we wait for the day of God to come. We are to live lives without spot or stain. Our dream is to experience the "new heaven and the new earth" (2 Peter 3:13), the home of righteousness, which Christ would fully establish at his second coming.
Friends, the Pharisees, in our today's Gospel reading, came to Jesus and tried to trap him with a shrewd question, in order to accuse him if he took sides. Their question was whether it was lawful to pay tribute/taxes to Caesar or not? Jesus' answer was to give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and give to God what belongs to God. For Jesus, the state should not elevate itself to the divine level, and the Church should not take sides in or meddle with temporal affairs anyhow. Jesus made a distinction between those duties that relate to society and those that refer to God. The political community and the Church are autonomous and independent of each other in their own fields. Nevertheless, both are devoted to the personal vocation (Second Vatican Council, Gaudium et Spes, 76). Let us pray for the grace to live lives pleasing to God. Let us not mix up earthly things with heavenly things. Let us continue to pray for our BECE candidates. BE BLESSED.
Fr. Gaa (0206854323/0240308878)