October 17th, 2018

Memorial of Saint Ignatius of Antioch, Bishop and Martyr

LECTIONARY
469

FIRST READING
GAL 5:18-25

Brothers and sisters:
If you are guided by the Spirit, you are not under the law.
Now the works of the flesh are obvious:
immorality, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry,
sorcery, hatreds, rivalry, jealousy,
outbursts of fury, acts of selfishness,
dissensions, factions, occasions of envy,
drinking bouts, orgies, and the like.
I warn you, as I warned you before,
that those who do such things will not inherit the Kingdom of God.
In contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace,
patience, kindness, generosity,
faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.
Against such there is no law.
Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified their flesh
with its passions and desires.
If we live in the Spirit, let us also follow the Spirit.

PSALM
PS 1:1-2, 3, 4 AND 6

Response: Those who follow you, Lord, will have the light of life.

Blessed the man who follows not
the counsel of the wicked
Nor walks in the way of sinners,
nor sits in the company of the insolent,
But delights in the law of the LORD
and meditates on his law day and night.

He is like a tree
planted near running water,
That yields its fruit in due season,
and whose leaves never fade.
Whatever he does, prospers.

Not so the wicked, not so;
they are like chaff which the wind drives away.
For the LORD watches over the way of the just,
but the way of the wicked vanishes.

GOSPEL
LK 11:42-46

The Lord said:
“Woe to you Pharisees!
You pay tithes of mint and of rue and of every garden herb,
but you pay no attention to judgment and to love for God.
These you should have done, without overlooking the others.
Woe to you Pharisees!
You love the seat of honor in synagogues
and greetings in marketplaces.
Woe to you!
You are like unseen graves over which people unknowingly walk.”

Then one of the scholars of the law said to him in reply,
“Teacher, by saying this you are insulting us too.”
And he said, “Woe also to you scholars of the law!
You impose on people burdens hard to carry,
but you yourselves do not lift one finger to touch them.”

Daily Reflection

17th October 2018

St. Ignatius of Antioch

Paul contrasts the life led by the flesh – those enslaved by the Law- with a life led by the Spirit. He gives us two lists: notice that the “works of the flesh” are haphazard and an incomplete list as opposed to the list of the “Fruit of the Spirit” which are systematic. Paul also uses the singular “Fruit” of the Spirit to emphasise that a life led by the Spirit is not fragmented but an integrated whole. The Spirit liberates us and produces different facets of the same holiness in us.

Speaking to the Pharisees, Jesus rebukes them for their hypocrisy. They follow the smallest detail of the Law and in the bargain overlook the basic premise on which the Law is based – Justice & Love of God.

We celebrate today the feast of St. Ignatius of Antioch who bore great witness for Christ. On being arrested and being taken to be thrown to be devoured by the Lions, he is famously quoted as saying “We are the wheat of Christ. If we be ground in the mill of suffering; may we be found pure bread.”