Today’s Gospel ［Memorial of Saint Josaphat, Bishop and Martyr］: )【We might not be accustomed to habits expressed in today’s gospel passage. Present day people would expect that servants would be thanked after their work but it was different in Jesus’ time. But Jesus was not supporting the habits mentioned. He was only using the habits of the time to make a point. After we have completed God’s work, we should not aggrandize ourselves or demand others to be thankful to us before we are satisfied. We should rather be humble and be conscious that what we have done is our obligation, that is, “we have done what we were required to do.” This would raise our attitude to a higher level: “When you have done all you have been commanded, say, ‘We are unprofitable servants; we have done what we were obliged to do.’” We also wish to pray for the Philippines suffering from the typhoon disaster with possible deaths of ten thousand people, that the people would recover well from this blow. We also pray that the people would become more deeply aware of the need to care for the environment. These environmental disasters will only become more and more fierce and would occur at more and more frequent intervals, unless we break our habits of damaging the environment. The world conference of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (Cop19) is being held from 12 to 22 November at Warsaw. Similar to past conferences, concrete success rate is not expected to be great. And the chief of the Philippines delegation, Yeb Sano, had deep feelings of the seriousness and urgency of the situation. He openly said that he would fast every day of the conference until concrete progress had been achieved. In fact, everyone of us must care for the earth and in doing so, also say: we have only done what we should do. Mr Sano, the chief of the Philippines delegation, said he was not just speaking for those who lost their lives but for the thousands who were now orphans. He told the meeting he would refuse to eat until progress is made. In solidarity with my countrymen who are struggling to find food back home, I will now commence a voluntary fasting for the climate, this means I will voluntarily refrain from eating food during this Cop (Cop19), until a meaningful outcome is in sight. What my country is going through as a result of this extreme climate event is madness, the climate crisis is madness. We can stop this madness right here in Warsaw, he said.】(Lk 17:7-10) 2013-11-12 Tuesday (Saint Josaphat, Bishop and Martyr)
Posted on: Tue, 12 Nov 2013 16:07:36 +0000
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