A WORD FOR TODAY 27 SEPTEMBER 2019

A WORD FOR TODAY

OUR IDENTITY AS CHRISTIANS COMES FROM JESUS

In the first reading of today, the Lord through the prophet Hagai encouraged the people of Israel to go on and rebuild the temple, for He will abide with them and give them all they need to achieve their goal. He promised that the latter splendour of the temple shall be greater than the former. Rebuilding the temple will e forbtheir own good, because God will dwell in it to bless them and give them prosperity as never before.

God is ready to bless us if we are ready to hearken to His voice and do what He commands. Everyday we wake up is an opportunity to seek the face of God and to know what He wants us to do. We must strive to make contributions to rebuild His temple and let Him come and dwell in His house, so that we shall be blessed. We must give God His place if we expect to receive blessings from Him.

We may not have done well in the past, we may have destroyed God's temple through sin and disobedience. Now is the time to hear God's voice and return to Him. He will help us to heal and He will restore our lost glory for He alone has the power to make a sinner to become a saint. This is our time to rise again and we should not let the opportunity pass us by.

In the gospel reading Jesus asks His disciples two important questions about His identity to know if truly they have understood all He has been teaching them as He journeys towards Calvary. They told Him who the people are saying He is and Peter representing the other disciples said to Him, 'you are the Christ of God' This answer satisfied Jesus and He continued to instruct them on His mission.

If we must follow Jesus and represent Him, we must strive to know Him and what His mission is, because that is the only way we will be able to show Him to the world. We must know Him as the Anointed One of God in whom we shall find salvation, healing, mercy, forgiveness, restoration, transformation, peace, success, breakthrough e.t.c We must show the world who He is because His identity gives us our own identity. If we belong to Him we must also be ready to carry the cross as He carried the cross and head to calvary, but by His power we shall rise again unto glory.

Our mission will be to seek everyday to know deeply who Jesus is, so that we will be able to let others know about Him in whom we have life and who has brought us salvation. We can only know about Him if we spend quality time in His presence and create time to study the Scriptures. He us ready to show us who He is, if we are ready to dwell in His presence and learn from Him. It is only when you have known Him that you will be able to profess Him and let others know about Him.

Today we celebrate the memorial of saint Vincent De Paul (1581-1660) He was a priest who devoted his entire life to the service of the poor. He founded the congregation of priests for missionary work and in union with St. Louis de Marillac founded the daughters of charity. Let us learn from him to love the poor and do our best to help them as much as we can to find joy in their lives.

Good morning dearest one. Smile😊as you do your work and do have a wonderful day. May Jesus give you the grace to know Him more so that you will be able to represent Him. Amen. And may the Almighty God bless you: the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Meditation: Hagai 2:1-9/Psalm 43:1-4/Luke 9:18-22

Watch-Word: The Son of man came not to be served, but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many.

If you know Jesus and identify with Him, you must be ready to walk the path He walked, but be rest assured that you will share in His glory.

(Friday of the 25th week in the Ordinary Time, Year C)