21/06/2022 | Reflection 1516 | Fr Xavier Dias OP on Matthew 7:6, 12-14 скачать в хорошем качестве

21/06/2022 | Reflection 1516 | Fr Xavier Dias OP on Matthew 7:6, 12-14

Do support us to produce these videos. If you wish to support us in our mission to spread the Word of God, kindly write to us: dominicanministriesgoa@gmail.com or drop a Whatsapp message: +91 7559384942 My dear brothers and sisters, in today’s Gospel Jesus, tells us ‘Do not give dogs what is holy and do not throw your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under foot and turn to attack you’ this saying of Jesus seems to demand an exclusiveness which is reverse of the Christian message. This saying was used in two ways in the early church. Firstly, it was used by the Jews, who believed that God’s grace and God’s gifts were for Jews alone. It was used by those Jews who were the enemies of Paul. And who argued that a gentile must become circumcised, accept the law, and become a Jew before he could become a Christian. This text was used in the interest of Jewish exclusiveness. Secondly, the early church used this text, when the early church was under a double threat. Threat from outside and threat from inside. The early church was an island of Christian purity which was surrounded by immorality, and it was liable to be infected with the taint of impurity, this was a threat from outside. The threat from inside was there were people whose speculations would wander and they tried to compromise between Christian and pagan thought, and to arrive at a conclusion which would satisfy both. If the Christian Church was to survive, it had to defend itself from the threat from outside and from inside. Especially, the early church was very careful about whom it admitted to the Lord’s Table or the Eucharist. In the liturgy of the early church, an announcement was made shortly before communion: The Lord’s supper began with the announcement; ‘Holy things for holy people. Didache also mentions, ‘Let no one eat or drink of Your Eucharist except those baptized into the name of the Lord. Once Tertullian also complained that the heretics allow all kinds of people, even the heathen, into the Lord’s supper and by doing so, ‘that which is holy they will cast to the dogs and pearls to swine. In all these instances, this text is used as a basis of exclusiveness. Dear friends, it was not that the church was not missionary minded. The church in the early days had the desire to win everyone. But the church was aware of the necessity of maintaining the purity of faith. My dear brothers and sisters when Jesus says ‘Do not give dogs what is holy and do not throw your pearls before swines’ the meaning could be that there are certain people who are not fit, not able, to receive the Christian message which the Church is so willing to give. Thus, this statement becomes a practical difficulty of communication of preacher And not a statement of exclusiveness. The universal truth is we can not talk to everyone about everything. Within a group of friends, we may sit and talk about our faith. Some people cannot receive Christian truth, their minds must be shut or we and they have absolutely no common ground on which we can argue. What can be done with these people? Since they are not willing to listen or not able to pick the pearls up, we cannot abandon them. What Christian words cannot do, a Christian life can often do. A man may be blind and untouched by any Christian argument in words; he can have no answer to the demonstration of the Christian life. Therefore, we are to live the Golden rule which our Blessed Lord has taught us in today’s Gospel ‘whatever you wish that people would do to you, do so to them’ This is a positive rule which demands an active and creative love, and it includes forgiveness and love of enemies. Dear friends, to live this golden rule is to walk the narrow path, which is hard, but it assures us the entry to the kingdom. Today let us ask the Lord to grant us the grace to live the Golden rule and hence we may become witnesses by our way of the Christian life to bring many more souls closer to God. Like us on Facebook at   / indiandominicans   Website: www.dominicans.in #dominicanmediamission #DOMINICANFRIARSINDIA