By Pravin S, CSC –
Readings: 1Kgs 8: 22-23, 27-30; Mk 7:1-13
The liturgy of the day invites us to be faithful to God. On account of our faithfulness to God we need to be a prayerful person who prays from the heart not from the lips. We are busy in doing many things and mostly we are lost in doing our responsibility and works. So, as a result we get very little time to pray to God the Almighty. Many people try to pray but it remains at lips level.
It may be due to tiredness so we could not concentrate fully; we may feel sleepy while we pray so we could not pray at heart-level to God. So, Jesus gives a beautiful invitation to each of us to be faithful to God and abide in his love by praying every day and thanking him for the gifts and blessings we have received from him. In the first reading we get beautiful message that God’s love is unconditional and he wants us to be with him and united in him.
We the faithful people should remember and thank him for the wonders he has done in our life, giving many talents to be faithful and successful in the world. He invites us to spend more time in prayer to feel his presence and remain in his love to work for the greater glory of God.
In the gospel reading Jesus makes us to understand that the tradition is not important, but the prayers and commandments are important. In many places we give much importance to tradition and the rituals, but we forget the real essence of prayer and presence of God practically. So today Jesus gives an invitation to all of us that all should keep prayer as primary and the rest should take place after that. So let us ask Jesus to give us grace to understand him and be a faithful and committed person.