Category: Bible Reading & Meditation

“Enter through the narrow gate.” –Matthew 7:13 To make the right decision, we must ask the right question. For example, if we ask “What do I want?”, we are setting ourselves up to make the wrong decision, for reality is not based on what we want but on what God wants. To make the right decision, we must decide by faith and not by sight (2 Cor 5:7). For example, Lot saw that the land of Sodom and Gomorrah looked like the best land (Gn 13:10-11). So he chose to settle there. Little did he know that this land would...

“If you want to avoid judgment, stop passing judgment.” –Matthew 7:1 We must not judge a person’s character and motives. Those things are none of our business. Also, we must not pronounce a verdict on others (Mt 7:2). Nor should we sentence them to punishment. We are not to judge in these ways. We must judge whether or not people have specks in their eyes, that is, we should judge if they are sinning. We must do this in order to remove the specks from their eyes after we have removed the planks from our own eyes (Mt 7:4). The...

“The Lord addressed Job out of the storm.” –Job 38:1 You’re in a veritable hurricane of difficulty, and all you can see of Jesus is that He’s asleep. You want to scream, “Jesus, don’t You care?” (see Mk 4:38) However, Jesus “cares for you” (1 Pt 5:7). “Indeed He neither slumbers nor sleeps, [your] guardian” (Ps 121:4). Since Jesus never slumbers on the job of guarding you, His sleeping in the boat of the Church and of your life must carry another meaning. Possibly, Jesus’ act of sleeping in the boat is yet another case of Him giving us an...

“Stop worrying, then, over questions like, ‘What are we to eat, or what are we to drink, or what are we to wear?’ The unbelievers are always running after these things.” –Matthew 6:31-32 In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus warns us that we cannot serve two masters (Mt 6:24). He means we cannot give ourselves to God and money (Mt 6:24). In saying “giving ourselves to money,” Jesus means “worrying about our livelihood.” We are not to worry about what we are to eat, drink, or wear (Mt 6:25). If we do, Jesus accuses us of having weak faith...

“If your light is darkness, how deep will the darkness be!” –Matthew 6:23 Have you ever been in a room illuminated only by a black light? Such a room is very dimly lit. Everything that’s white shows up, such as teeth and white socks. Dark objects are barely visible. It’s difficult to see how things interrelate. Picture the same room with the black light replaced by a hundred-watt bulb. Now that the room is brightly lit, it’s easy to see and understand the proper relationship of all objects in the room. Jesus describes a similar situation in today’s Gospel. In...