Gospel: November 27, 2024
November 27, 2024 (Wednesday)
34th Week in Ordinary Time
Psalter: Week 2 / (Green)
Responsorial Psalm: Ps 98: 1, 2-3ab, 7-8, 9
Great and wonderful are all your warks, Lord, mighty God!
1st Reading: Revelation 15: 1-4
Gospel: Luke 21: 12-19
Before all these things happen, people will lay their hands on you and persecute you; you will be delivered to the synagogues and put in prison, and for my sake you will be brought before kings and governors. This will be your opportunity to bear witness.
So keep this in mind: do not worry in advance about what to say, for I will give you words and wisdom that none of your opponents will be able to withstand or contradict.
You will be betrayed even by parents and brothers, by relatives and friends, and some of you will be put to death. But even though, because of my name, you will be hated by everyone, not a hair of your head will perish. By your patient endurance you will save your souls.
Reflection:
“Bear witness to Jesus.”
Deception often results in betrayal. Betrayal brings enormous sufferings. Betrayal could easily be committed when one is put under persecution. Jesus’ true witnesses are those who are able to stand a severe persecution without giving in to the temptation of being an accomplice to persecution. As Christians, we are called to bear witness to Jesus and to the gospel values.
At times, persecutions can be experienced without pains. There are times when persecutions are experienced in a manner that is akin to sugarcoating. We may reflect on the point that today’s consumerism is a sugarcoated form of persecution. In the first place, giving in to the temptation of a consumeristic lifestyle runs contrary to the gospel values of simplicity and self-sacrifice.
With the lack of awareness of the adverse effects of our consumeristic lifestyle, adding gravely to the ever-worsening condition of climate crisis, we are betraying Jesus and the gospel values. Who suffer when we continue with our lavish and environmentally destructive way of life? Both the natural world and the people suffer. This is clearly a betrayal of the kind of life Jesus proclaimed. Nonetheless, it is not yet too late to change and bear witness to a simple lifestyle.
