Category: Bible Reading & Meditation
“Where do the conflicts and disputes among you originate? Is it not your inner cravings that make war within your members?” —James 4:1 We have soldiers, bombs, policemen, and lawyers to deal with conflicts and disputes. We spend a fortune on our symptoms but avoid dealing with the causes, that is, our inner cravings making war within our members. Only the “Holy Spirit, Who is within” (1 Cor 6:19), can deal with the war within. “The flesh lusts against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh; the two are directly opposed” (Gal 5:17). “My point is that you should...
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“When Jesus arrived at the house His disciples began to ask Him privately, ‘Why is it that we could not expel it?’ He told them, ‘This kind you can drive out only by prayer.’ ” —Mark 9:28-29 Demons are part of everyday life on earth. The Lord allows demons to tempt us and even harass us. We live in the midst of demonic degradation and destruction (see 1 Pt 5:8; Eph 6:12). However, we can greatly minimize demonic influence in our surroundings by being baptized and living fully our Baptisms. When we were baptized, we rejected Satan, all his works,...
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“But what I say to you is: offer no resistance to injury.” —Matthew 5:39 Jesus sounds so naive. Everybody knows we must resist injury. Jesus says that after we’ve been hit on one cheek, we should turn the other. We’ll seemingly get killed if we take His advice. However, the Sermon on the Mount is not “advice”; it is the Lord’s command. Nonetheless, we rationalize that Jesus’ message in the Sermon on the Mount is poetic, symbolic, anything but literal. Sometimes Jesus does not speak literally, as when He said to gouge out our eye (Mt 5:29). So we’re tempted...
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“Jesus replied, ‘Blest are you, Simon son of Jonah! No mere man has revealed this to you, but My heavenly Father. I for My part declare to you, you are “Rock,” and on this rock I will build My Church.’ ” —Matthew 16:17-18 Only the Catholic Church would celebrate a chair. We Catholics don’t need much of a reason for a party. The chair represents the authority of the Pope and the unity of the Church. We believe Jesus chose St. Peter as leader of the Church and intended that others succeed Peter as its leader. We rejoice in this...
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“If anyone in this faithless and corrupt age is ashamed of Me and My doctrine, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when He comes with the holy angels in His Father’s glory.” —Mark 8:38 We are never to be ashamed of Jesus (Mk 8:38), His words, or the Gospel (Rm 1:16). We should never be ashamed “of the law of the Most High and His precepts, or of the sentence to be passed upon the sinful” (Sir 42:2). We should never be ashamed of taking measures to be just, cautious, and discreet (Sir 42:3-8). We should always...
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