Readings
I - 1Sam. 15: 16-23
II - Mk. 2: 18-22
St. Anthony, Abbot (Memorial)
LISTEN, DISCERN AND LIVE
There is time for everything. Time for fasting and time for feasting; time to rejoice and time to mourn; and time to work and time to pray. We cannot mess up and miss the meaningful living. It is not fitting to mourn at the celebration and rejoice at the funeral. In today’s Gospel passage, the people accuses the disciples of Jesus for not fasting like the disciples of John the Baptist and the disciples of the Pharisees. Jesus defends his disciples and justifies them saying that they need not fast as long as the bridegroom was with them; for Jesus, the Son of God and the Promised One was with them.
We have to catch up to the time and conduct our lives suiting to the same. We have to make our life relevant and befitting by discerning the signs of the time rightly otherwise our lives will be life like new wine in the old wineskin where both will be getting spoiled. Listen the signs of the times; discern right in the light of faith and live a relevant and meaningful life.
The Church today remembers St. Anthony, the abbot and a man of God. He was ascetic and lived a life of solitude. He has said, “A time is coming when men will go mad, and when see someone who is not mad, they will attack him, saying, ‘you are not mad; you are not like us”. We need not follow the world order but pray through the intercession of this saint to make our living a relevant one in the light of the ways of God marked by love. May our mind and heart resonate with the prayer: “Lord Jesus, Lead us to the truth”
