Wednesday, October 21, 2026 - Are you good because of fear of punishment or hope of reward, or are you good because it is good to be good?

 

Wednesday, October 21, 2026 - Are you good because of fear of punishment or hope of reward, or are you good because it is good to be good?

To read the texts click on the texts: Eph 3:2-12; Lk 12:39-48

The text of today is the one immediately after Jesus has begun to exhort his disciples’ to watchfulness (12, 35-38). Based on instructions given in earlier contexts, however, readiness here means trust in God as a heavenly Father, putting away all hypocrisy, handling one’s material possessions faithfully, obeying the ethic of the kingdom, and making life a matter of constant prayer. Peter’s question regarding whether this “parable” was for the disciples alone or for everyone, does not receive a direct answer from Jesus. However, in his response to the question, Jesus responds with another “parable”, which is about the faithful and unfaithful servant/slave. While there will be a reward for the faithful servant, there will be punishment for the unfaithful servant. God will seek much from those to whom he has given much, because everything has been given in trust.

Each of us has a specific role to play in the world, which is confirmed by the fact that we are unique and that there is not one else exactly like us anywhere. Since this is the case, we have to be faithful to that to which we are called. If we do not do what we have to do, no one else will do it and it will remain undone. Besides this it will also mean that we have been negligent in our duty and not appreciated enough the uniqueness of our creation.

Tuesday, October 20, 2026 - Since we do not know WHEN God will call us, we live this day as if it were our last

 

Tuesday, October 20, 2026 - Do you live one moment of one day at a time or are you living only in the future?

To read the texts click on the texts: Eph 2:12-22; Lk 12:35-38

The sayings in these verses are a call to watchfulness and readiness. The call to be dressed for action would mean literally to draw up the longer outer garment and tuck it into the sash around one’s waist so as to be prepared for strenuous activity. If the servants/disciples are so ready, they will be able to be prompt in responding to the master’s knock, and will be blessed. This blessing will take the form of a reversal of roles. The master will become servant/slave. The time of the coming of the master is not known and he may come at any time, but if the servant/disciple is always ready, he/she will be blessed.

It is not difficult for us as Christians to relate to this reversal of roles, simply because our God in Jesus has already become slave. It is now left to us as servants to be ready at all times.

Monday, October 19, 2026 - Do you possess things, or do things possess you?

 

Monday, October 19, 2026 - Do you possess things, or do things possess you? If God were to call you to himself at this moment would you be ready to go?

To read the text click on the text: Eph 2:1-10; Lk 12:13-21

The text begins with someone in the crowd asking Jesus to serve as judge in the division of an inheritance. While Jesus will not accept this role, he points the man and the crowd to a different understanding of the meaning of wealth and life. This different understanding is explicated through a parable, which is found exclusively in Luke. It is about a rich man who had more than he required and soon became possessed by his riches. This possession leads him to focus on making provision to store his great wealth so that he can use it exclusively for himself in future. It is self-centeredness at its worst. The only ones in the parable are the rich man and his wealth. In the midst of all his planning and calculations, God speaks to him addressing him as “fool”. There is a sharp contrast between the rich man’s planning for “many years” and the “this very night” of God. It is clear that first of all when God calls, he will have to go and second that when he goes he can take nothing of what he has stored with him. There is the very real danger of forgetting God if one allows oneself to be possessed by one’s riches.

The manner in which some of us accumulate things seems to indicate on the one hand that we think we are going to live forever and on the other hand that even if we have to die that we can take all of which we have accumulated. The parable of today calls us to realise first that we can be called at any time and hence must live in such a manner that we will have no regrets no matter when that might be and second that whenever we are called we can take nothing of what we have gathered together but will have to leave it all behind. Thus, while planning for the future may be necessary, obsession with the future is uncalled for.

Sunday, October 18, 2026 - Fidelity to our duty to other humans and also to our duty to God

 

Sunday, October 18, 2026 - God and Caesar

To read the texts click on the texts: Isa45:1, 4-6; 1 Thes 1:1-5b; Mt 22:15-21

There are times when we wish that certain incidents narrated by the evangelists, in which Jesus speaks, would have been omitted. The Gospel text of today is one such incident. This is because, if taken out of context, the saying of Jesus to the Pharisees and Herodians “Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s”, can be used to justify the clear division that some are wont to make between the sacred and the secular and to divide these into two autonomous realms. Others may interpret the saying as a call to unswerving loyalty and obedience to “secular” authority.

The first reading, however, makes clear that loyalty and obedience are always to the Lord though it may seem, at first glance, that it is a human being who is responsible for the salvation of people. Thus, though it was through the Persian king Cyrus that the Jews in Babylon were given their freedom, he was but an instrument in the hands of the Lord. It was God who guided him to disarm other kings and to open the gates of freedom by “grasping his hand”. The whole world must be made to see that it was the Lord and the Lord alone who brought liberation.

This is why, in his response to the Pharisees, Jesus goes beyond the question asked by the Pharisees and adds that what is God’s must be given to God. This does not mean a separation of religion and politics, but rather that the kingdom of God embraces every aspect of human life. Ultimate loyalty is always to God and the kingdom rather than to narrow and parochial political interests.

The question of the Pharisees is not a general question. That they intended to trap him through his answer is clear when one realizes that the tax referred to was the “census”. This was the Roman head-tax which had been instituted when Judea became a Roman Province. Payment of the tax was a burning issue and the tax could be paid only in Roman coinage. A “Yes” answer on the part of Jesus would alienate the nationalists who were against paying the tax. A “No” answer would probably lead to the arrest of Jesus by the Romans. Ironically the Pharisees, who considered the image and inscription on the coin idolatrous, have a coin and that too in the sacred precincts of the Temple. In principle, that Pharisees resented and rejected the payment of the tax but would not go so far as to physically oppose it. Though Jesus’ answer is an indirect “Yes” .he makes clear by the addition “and to God the things that are God’s” that God always has first place. While material things may be given to the Caesars of this world, the human person belongs only to God. If one rendered to the state its restricted due, all the more was one to render to God his unrestricted due, namely, the totality of one’s being and substance, one’s whole existence, was to be rendered to God. Loyalty to Caesar must always be set in the larger context and thus be relativized by the full submission of the self to God. The bottom line for the disciple of Jesus is to “render to God the things that are God’s” Since the human person bears the image of God he/she cannot be given to Caesar, but only to God.

The Psalmist reiterates this theme in his invitation to all peoples to give glory and honour only to God, since he alone is God. He is the one who made the heavens and is king of all peoples. The Lord alone must be worshipped and no one else. The worship offered to the Lord is one offered in holiness. His governance is a governance of equity.

When we are aware that we are made in God’s image and that everyone we encounter is made in God’s image we may feel less inclined to separate ourselves from each other. Yet it is equally important that we retain our identity as children of God whether we are functioning as members of our household, our workplace, our neighbourhood, or our city or nation.

As committed Christians we are also obliged to look into the faces of our neighbours and see God, especially when we are tempted to see those neighbours as aliens. The Holy Spirit can work with us and through us when we do not separate ourselves from that image, as he did in the life of Paul and the Christians of Thessalonica. We then render to God our very selves in obedience and service, which will in time touch all we have and own.

Saturday, October 17, 2026 - Will you depend on God today? How will you show this dependence?

 

Saturday, October 17, 2026 - Will you depend on God today? How will you show this dependence?

To read the texts click on the texts: Eph 1:15-23; Lk 12:8-12

The sin against the Holy Spirit that Jesus speaks about in the Gospel reading of today does not refer to a particular sin or action. It is not an impulsive, momentary rejection of Jesus, such as Peter’s denial of Jesus in the courtyard, but a persistent, obdurate rejection of God’s saving grace through the work of the Holy Spirit. It is, in other words dependence only on self and not on God.

Today the sin against the Holy Spirit is to no longer believe that the Holy Spirit can transform me. It is to give up before one can begin. It is to give in to despair and to lose hope. It is not to make a resolution for fear of breaking that resolution. It is not to trust, not to hope and not to believe.