Word of Life

Word of Life 

On 17th Jan 2025  

Meditating the Words of Jesus from Holy Scriptures 

Jesus said: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.

  Jesus was tested by evil and he was ready to accept the situations and face the temptations. He never allowed devil to take advantage on his spiritual mortifications. Jesus was fasted fourty days to overcome all kinds of temptations the evil try to impose on him. Satan was quoting the Scriptures to Jesus to get him into temptations. Mt 4: 5-9 ‘If you are Son of God,’ he said, ‘throw yourself down; for scripture says: He has given his angels orders about you, and they will carry you in their arms in case you trip over a stone.’ *  7 Jesus said to him, ‘Scripture also says: Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’ *  8 Next, taking him to a very high mountain, the devil showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendour. 9 And he said to him,. The Devil constantly tricks us with his schemes to lure us into doing various sins. He never stops working on his goals.  He never stops roaming around our minds like a roaring lion in order to trick our souls when we are asleep. He might provide a variety of delusions, hopes, and promises of wealth. We may believe that we may live a good life after achieving material success. We can forget God once we have experienced all of this world's joy. Js 1: 13-14 God cannot be tempted by evil, and he does not put anybody to the test . 14 Everyone is put to the test by being attracted and seduced by that person’s own wrong desire. God cannot be tempted by evil, and Jesus will not be tempted by evil either. He disproved evil with God's power. Every temptation that enters our minds is a result of our desires.  By asking the Lord to have pity on us, we can put our faith in him to help us conquer any temptations. The Word of God is the sole means by which evil can be vanquished. Therefore, in order to resist temptations, we must pray in specific scriptures, and Jesus will guide us through his Spirit as we pray. Mt 4: 9-11I will give you all these, if you fall at my feet and do me homage.’ 10 Then Jesus replied, ‘Away with you, Satan! For scripture says: The Lord your God is the one to whom you must do homage, him alone you must serve.’ *  11 Then the devil left him, and suddenly angels appeared and looked after him. We can see how Jesus is casting out evil by quoting the Holy Scriptures and he shouted ‘Away with you Satan’ The Word of God is the sword we have to use to refute evil, so pray by reading the Word of God with a humble and repentant heart. Eph 6: 17 And then you must take salvation as your helmet and the sword of the Spirit, that is, the word of God. 

Word of Life

 

The Baptism of the Lord 

Word of Life

On 12th Jan 2025 

Meditating the Words of Jesus from Holy Scriptures 

Happy Feast of Baptism of the Lord 

“This is my Son, the Beloved; my favour rests on him.”

  Today is the Feast of Baptism of our Lord. It was God’s plan for Jesus to take the Baptism from St John the Baptist, this way Jesus shows us how to practice the real humility in the service of the Lord. The baptism of Jesus, which is detailed in the Below passage by St. Matthew the Apostle and the Evangelsit, involved a lot of events. John was not prepared to baptize Jesus because he believed that he was not worthy of doing so; instead, he stated that Jesus should perform the baptism for him. "Do all that uprightness demands in this way," Jesus urged. As an upright man, John the Baptist prepared and modeled for the Israelites the humility and repentance necessary to withstand the Lord's faith, which pleased the Lord. All of heaven opened with blessings for everyone when Jesus was baptized, and baptism opened a sacred entrance for people to become true Christians. The salvation of all people, whether they were Jews, Greeks, Romans, or any other gentile country on earth, began at this point. We are all baptized as children for this reason, or some of us become Catholic later in life. At Jesus' baptism, another significant event occurred: a voice from heaven declared, "This is my Son the Beloved; my favor rests on him." St John Chrysostom says on John 3:5: "Unless a man be born again of water and the Holy Ghost," etc.: "When we dip our heads under the water as in a kind of tomb, our old man is buried, and being submerged, is hidden below, and thence he rises again renewed." Therefore it seems that immersion is essential to Baptism. 

  So through the baptism we are born again in Christ Jesus. Then Jesus appeared: he came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John. Mt 3: 14- 17John tried to dissuade him, with the words, ‘It is I who need baptism from you, and yet you come to me!’ 15 But Jesus replied, ‘Leave it like this for the time being; it is fitting that we should, in this way, do all that uprightness demands.’ Then John gave in to him. 16 And when Jesus had been baptized he at once came up from the water, and suddenly the heavens opened and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming down on him. 17 And suddenly there was a voice from heaven, ‘This is my Son, the Beloved; my favour rests on him.’ * 

Word of Life

 

On 9th Jan 2025 

Meditating the Words of Jesus from Holy Scriptures 

St John the Baptist said: ‘Repent, for the kingdom of Heaven is close at hand.’

   Mt 3: 2-3 Repent, for the kingdom of Heaven is close at hand.’ 3 This was the man spoken of by the prophet Isaiah when he said: A voice of one that cries in the desert, ‘Prepare a way for the Lord, make his paths straight.’ *John the Baptist came in this world to prepare a way for Christ. He proclaimed the message of repentance to everyone. He told everyone to produce fruit in repentance. Let us ask Jesus to give us the repentance and believe in him and come back from the old ways of life. Jesus said about John the Baptist that, he is the greatest among born from a woman. John the Baptist says about, what is his mission and what is the mission of Jesus: I baptise you in water for repentance, but the one who comes after me is more powerful than I, and I am not fit to carry his sandals; he will baptise you with the Holy Spirit and fire. John the Baptist was doing the baptism of water for the repentance, but Jesus came to baptise everyone by the Holy Spirit. John wants to make the path straight for Jesus and of those are repenting and give them the baptism with the water. Ps 51:17  Sacrifice to God is a broken spirit,  a broken, contrite heart you never scorn. Psalmist also says to have repentant, God never despise a broken heart soul, He will lift him up Prophet Joel says: Joel 2: 12-13 Yahweh—come back to me with all your heart, fasting, weeping, mourning.’ 13 Tear your hearts and not your clothes. How to repent ourselves is with fasting, weeping and mourning. When we are facing the absence of God in our soul and mind, means we are fallen into sin. So we have to get more closer to God again. Only a penitent person can melt the heart of God, He will hear the prayer of him and relent on such persons and forgive their sins

Word of Life

Word of Life

On 5th Jan 2025 

Happy Feast of Epiphany to All

Let us meditate the Words of Jesus from the Holy Scritpures 

Jesus said: Anyone loves me will keep my Word 

Lk 2: 1-  After Jesus had been born at Bethlehem in Judaea during the reign of King Herod, suddenly some wise men came to Jerusalem from the east 2 asking, ‘Where is the infant king of the Jews? We saw his star as it rose and have come to do him homage.’ 3 When King Herod heard this he was perturbed, and so was the whole of Jerusalem……….King Herod asked the wise men which date they have seen the star, as he wants to calculate when was the birth of Jesus. The kings saw the star which was guiding them to place where Jesus was born. King Herod told them to come back to him and tell him about the child, where he was born. But the Kings of the east has gone different way without meeting King Herod as they have seen a dream that, they should not go to King Herod. 

In the Gospel of Mathew Chapter 1 explains about the geneology of Jesus Christ. This chapter tells us how he became the son of David. Then in the same chapter 1: 18-25 says how virgin conceives Jesus in her womb without the intervention of a man, but by the power of God through the Holy Spirit. Joseph was betrothed to Virgin Mary but he found she was pregnant and the angel of God came to him in vision and told him to accept Mary as his wife. Mt 1: 23-25 Look! the virgin is with child and will give birth to a son whom they will call Immanuel, *  a name which means ‘God-is-with-us’. 24 When Joseph woke up he did what the angel of the Lord had told him to do: he took his wife to his home; 25 he had not had intercourse with her when she gave birth to a son; and he named him Jesus. This prophecy of Isiah was fulfilled as the birth of Jesus is going to happen. As we all celebrated Christmas and we are taking so many resolutions. Let us think, how we can will fulfill the mission of Jesus. Jesus needs our love and nothing else, let us make some kind of sacrifices for to live a life of holiness. How can we show him that whether we love him, by keeping his commandments, Jn 14: 23, Jesus replied: “Anyone who loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we shall come to him and make a home in him”.