{"id":37805,"date":"2015-08-08T03:44:08","date_gmt":"2015-08-08T03:44:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/malankaraorthodox.tv\/?p=37805"},"modified":"2015-08-08T03:44:08","modified_gmt":"2015-08-08T03:44:08","slug":"devotional-thoughts-for-the-1st-sunday-after-the-transfiguration-9th-aug-2015","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/malankaraorthodox.tv\/?p=37805","title":{"rendered":"Devotional Thoughts for the 1st Sunday after the Transfiguration. 9th Aug 2015"},"content":{"rendered":"

Reading: From the Gospel according to: St.Matthew21:28-32<\/span><\/p>\n

Dear and Respected Brethren,<\/span><\/p>\n

Our Lord is teaching us a great lesson of doing the will of the Father<\/span>
\nthrough the ordinary and simple parable. He said: a certain man had<\/span>
\ntwo sons. He came to his first son and asked him to go the vineyard<\/span>
\nand work a full day. First of all the son denied the request and later<\/span>
\nhe repented. The first son went to the field and worked as his father<\/span>
\nlonged from him. The father went to the second son and requested the<\/span>
\nsame. On hearing his father, the second son said: “yes Dad, I will go<\/span>
\nto the field and work from now onwards.” But he did not turn that<\/span>
\nside. Here our Lord is asking: who has done the will of the father?<\/span>
\nThe answer was given by the listeners without much delay. They were of<\/span>
\na single opinion that the first son had done the will of their father.<\/span><\/p>\n

Immediately our Lord said “Verily I say unto you, that the publicans<\/span>
\nand the harlots go into the kingdom of God before you.” (Verse 31) We<\/span>
\nmight also wonder why our Lord was very harsh and hard in replying so.<\/span>
\nBut when we would read and listen the next verse we will realize the<\/span>
\nreason for our Lord’s worry. Our Lord himself explains: when John came<\/span>
\nunto you in the way of righteousness and you did not believe him. But<\/span>
\nthe publicans and the harlots believed him. And when you had seen it<\/span>
\nyou did not repent and you did not try to believe him.”\u00a0 In St. Luke<\/span>
\n7:29we read “And all the people that heard him and the publicans<\/span>
\njustified God being baptized with the baptism of John”.<\/span><\/p>\n

St. John the Baptist’s only message all along his mission on earth was<\/span>
\nan exhortation to ‘repent because the Kingdom of God is at hand’. (St.<\/span>
\nMathew 3:2) Those who believed St. John and his timely exhortations<\/span>
\nrepented well and they got forgiveness for their sins. They got back<\/span>
\nwhat they had lost.\u00a0 They all got united to God Almighty through the<\/span>
\nbaptism given by St. John. Our Lord is telling about them that who got<\/span>
\nbaptized by St. John the Baptist.<\/span><\/p>\n

Now let us think about ourselves. We all were once united to God<\/span>
\nAlmighty through the baptism. We all had been blessed to live a<\/span>
\nvirtuous life, growing spiritually, by making use of the holy<\/span>
\nsacramental life. Through the baptism, we died with Christ, we were<\/span>
\nburied with Christ and we all rose from the dead. (When\u00a0 the infant is<\/span>
\nimmersed in the water of the baptism tub, the candidate undergoes the<\/span>
\nphysical death and burial with Lord Jesus and when the celebrant would<\/span>
\nlift up the child from the water, it undergoes the resurrection with<\/span>
\nLord Jesus, as explained by St. Paul in his epistle to Romans 6th<\/span>
\nchapter)<\/span><\/p>\n

And still are we in Lord Jesus? How far we are serious about our<\/span>
\nspiritual growth? We all are supposed to grow to the perfection of the<\/span>
\nsalvation. Are we making use of the Sacraments for the spiritual<\/span>
\nnourishment of our souls? A proper and systematic sacramental life is<\/span>
\nthe free gift of Lord Jesus to one and all members of the Holy<\/span>
\nApostolic Church. As we are living in the world where chances are many<\/span>
\nto err and get away from God, we all are supposed to repent when we<\/span>
\nrealize that we are away from our Lord God. In the Holy Church a<\/span>
\nproper established system is there for our repentance and forgiveness<\/span>
\nof our sins.<\/span><\/p>\n

We should not give a chance to our Lord God to say that publicans and<\/span>
\nharlots will inherit the kingdom of God before us. We must long for<\/span>
\nand try to be in the kingdom of God.<\/span><\/p>\n

We all are supposed to do the will of God in our daily lives. We must<\/span>
\nthink and find out to whom we do often identify to the first son or<\/span>
\nthe second son of the father about whom our Lord spoke. We often<\/span>
\npretend to be good and obedient. So there is every chance for us to<\/span>
\nidentify to the second son. But our Lord wants us all to be similar to<\/span>
\nthe first son who rose to the circumstance and repented.<\/span><\/p>\n

Let us try to repent well, as and when we feel the need. Let us try to<\/span>
\nbe with our Lord God always.<\/span>
\nMay God bless us all.<\/span><\/p>\n

Jose Kurian Puliyeril<\/span>
\nKottayam<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reading: From the Gospel according to: St.Matthew21:28-32 Dear and Respected Brethren, Our Lord is teaching us a great lesson of doing the will of the Father through the ordinary and … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37805","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-devotional-thoughts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/malankaraorthodox.tv\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37805","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/malankaraorthodox.tv\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/malankaraorthodox.tv\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/malankaraorthodox.tv\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/malankaraorthodox.tv\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=37805"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/malankaraorthodox.tv\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37805\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37806,"href":"http:\/\/malankaraorthodox.tv\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37805\/revisions\/37806"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/malankaraorthodox.tv\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=37805"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/malankaraorthodox.tv\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=37805"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/malankaraorthodox.tv\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=37805"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}