Friday, June 21, 2019

Reflection for June 26, Wednesday: Twelfth Week in Ordinary Time; Matthew 7:15-20


Gospel: Matthew 7:15-20
Jesus said to his disciples: “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but underneath are ravenous wolves. By their fruits you will know them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? Just so, every good tree bears good fruit, and a rotten tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a rotten tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire. So by their fruits you will know them.”
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Reflection:
Do you value external appearance?

To many people first impression is very important. External appearance also is very much valued by them. But first impression is usually false and external appearance is normally fake. How would we know the real character of a person? Listen to his/her language, watch his/her actions and get to know that person better.

There are times that we are easily taken by external appearance only to discover later that it is not real. The modern world that we are in right now is full of unreal and pretentious people. Let us therefore not be taken by first impression and by our naked eye for its usually false.

In the gospel, Jesus speaks about false prophets, who are these people? They are the ones who are good at speaking about God but very much lacking in living the teachings of God. They put up a very good external appearance so that so that their followers would not uncover who they really are.

They manipulate their followers to entrench themselves in their ivory towers. They tell their followers to practice this and that ritual but they themselves don’t practice it. There are many false prophets today we have to be careful and discerning. – Marino J. Dasmarinas

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