OUR DAILY BREAD TUESDAY, MARCH 18, 2014, SECOND WEEK OF LENT Is. 1:10, 16-20; Ps. 50; Matt. 23:1-12 “Whoever exalts himself will be humbled; but whoever humbles himself will be exalted.” THEME: IN THE NAME OF THE FATHER AND … It is in His Name that we are Christians. It is in the Name of God that we, His children, do everything on earth as citizens of heaven. Christ is inaugurating a new Family in His own Blood. We have only one Father (Our Eternal Father) and One Teacher (This is my beloved Son, listen to him). But Christ is NOT forbidding the use of father and teacher on earth for human beings or for his followers. He makes it clear that in his New Family, [just as the Father sent him with all the authority in heaven and he in turn sends his disciples, the Church, with the same authority (Matt. 28:19-20),] we now do everything in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Those who play fatherly roles in the Church and Christian families do so in the same Name; and those who teach equally do so in the same Name. No one is truly father or teacher on earth in his own right. When Paul called himself the father of the Corinthian Church, he was doing so in the name of God (1 Cor. 4:14-15). In the Church, we are all channels of God, carrying eternal treasure in earthen vessels. It calls for humility and sincere effort to practice what we profess. Christ condemned the hypocrisy of the Pharisees, but confirmed their teaching authority on the chair of Moses. Now that the Church has been given similar duty on Christ’s own Teaching Authority (Matt. 28:19-20), symbolized by the Chair of Peter, he warned them to avoid hypocrisy and pride. Irreverence for the Name of God is a great sin. Even when we pray in the Name of the Trinity, we rarely give him any serious attention or humble ourselves greatly at the mention of such Great Name. We are not awed at being able to pray and act in the Name of the Most High God. We toy with the Sacred, both in our words and in our deeds. Pretense, pride and irreverence for God are the real sins Christ condemns here. But he is not just out to condemn. He wants to wake us up to the deep divine riches available to us in His New Family only if we live in humility. Whoever humbles himself will be exalted. Lord, create in me a humble awareness of the great Name you have given me as a member of your Family. Let the Holiness of your Name be constantly upheld in my life.
Posted on: Tue, 18 Mar 2014 05:50:26 +0000
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