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SOCL, 8C

Updated: Mar 15


ree

Sunday March 02, 2025


(Quinquagesima)


See


We eagerly diagnose others' flaws while remaining blind to our own: this paradox reveals how self-deception protects our fragile egos. We construct elaborate justifications for our actions while holding others to impossible standards, creating a cognitive asymmetry that distorts all our relationships.


In families, workplaces, and online forums, this dynamic plays out daily. Parents criticize children for behaviors they themselves model; colleagues point fingers while hiding their own shortcomings; social media becomes an arena where everyone judges yet no one examines their own prejudices—thorn-bushes expecting to be praised for their grapes.


Transformation begins when we turn our analytical gaze inward first. The courage to confront our own "wooden beams" creates space for genuine growth and compassionate understanding. Only by tending to the roots of our own tree can we produce the authentic fruit of wisdom that nourishes rather than diminishes others.


Listen



Reflect


(Luke 6:39-45)


-Jesus compares hypocrisy to having a large beam in your eye while trying to remove a tiny speck from someone else’s. Think about times when you easily criticize others without noticing your own mistakes. What keeps you from seeing your own flaws? How would your relationships change if you looked within yourself first before correcting others?


-The story of the trees and their fruits reminds us that, in the end, our actions reveal who we truly are. Take a look at what you produce in your life—your words, your decisions, and the impact you have on others. What do these fruits say about you? In what areas could you strengthen your roots to grow better?


-Jesus also teaches that what we say reflects what we carry inside. Think about your recent conversations and the emotions behind your words. When have your words revealed something unexpected about you, whether good or bad? How could that awareness help you grow spiritually today?


Pray


Lord , you see clearly what we so often hide even from ourselves. Grant us courage to examine our hearts honestly, wisdom to recognize our own wooden beams, and humility to address them before attempting to correct others. Help us nurture good roots through your grace, that our lives might produce fruit that nourishes rather than harms. Transform our critical impulses into compassionate understanding, so our communities might reflect your healing love.



 
 
 

SOCL, 7C

Updated: Mar 15


ree

Sunday February 23, 2025


(Sexagesima)


See


There exists a fundamental paradox in our relationships: we meticulously calculate our emotional investments seeking equivalent returns. This emotional accounting seems sensible, but reveals our profound insecurity: we fear unilateral generosity because we intuit its destabilizing power. The extraordinary doesn't dwell in reciprocity but in apparent waste.


Turning the other cheek constitutes not weakness: but radical subversion. What appears as submission paradoxically represents freedom—it interrupts the predictable narrative, bewilders the aggressor and exposes a power that needs not impose itself to manifest. True strength emerges precisely where we anticipate vulnerability.


Forgiveness operates as counterintuitive investment: not because it primarily benefits the forgiven, but because it liberates the forgiver. Overflowing abundance doesn't arrive as external reward: it springs from the very act of giving without calculation, revealing that our restrictive economies were always defenses against available fullness.


Listen



Reflect


(Luke 6:27-38)


-Examine where you calculate your generosity as a transaction: a friendship, family relationship, or community commitment where you measure what's given against what's received. What fruit does this emotional accounting produce?


-Remember a moment when you responded to offense with offense, perpetuating destructive cycles. Imagine how an unexpectedly generous response would transform that conflict. What prevents you from choosing this subversive path?


-Identify three people you judge harshly and reflect on what these judgments reveal about your own unrecognized wounds. What would change in you if you practiced mercy toward them?


Final Prayer


God of radical abundance, free us from our petty calculations to love without guarantees, forgive without conditions, and give without fear, reflecting your boundless mercy in every encounter with friends and enemies.



 
 
 

SOCL, 6C

Updated: Mar 15


ree

Sunday February 16, 2025


(Septuagesima)


See


Jesus's Beatitudes shatter our metrics of success like a hammer striking glass. Where we chase comfort, Jesus exalts deprivation. Where we cultivate influence, He blesses the excluded. Where we pursue satisfaction, He pronounces blessing on the hungry. These are not gentle suggestions but explosive inversions of everything our society holds dear.


The poor, the hungry, the grieving – these are not conditions to escape but portals through which divine grace floods in. Our desperate attempts to avoid suffering and secure comfort become the very barriers that block our path to true blessing. Each "woe" Jesus pronounces falls like a thunderclap on our carefully constructed fortresses of self-sufficiency.


Modern life tempts us to curate our image, satisfy every appetite, and accumulate endless security. Yet Jesus' words strip away these illusions, revealing that our emptiness, not our fullness, creates space for God's kingdom to take root. The path to blessing runs straight through the valley of vulnerability.


Listen



Reflect


(Luke 6:17, 20-26)


-Stand with Jesus on that level ground, surrounded by the desperate and broken crowd. How have you been running from your own poverty – spiritual, emotional, or material? What would it mean to embrace it as a gateway to God's kingdom?


-Picture the hungry multitude hanging on Jesus's words. Consider the empty spaces in your own life that you rush to fill with food, entertainment, or activity. Can you let that hunger become holy ground?


-Enter into the scene of disciples being denounced and excluded. Where in your life have you compromised your values to maintain others' approval? What truth is Christ calling you to speak, regardless of the cost?


-Witness the false prophets receiving universal praise. Examine your own desire for validation and acceptance. How might your pursuit of others' approval be blocking your receptivity to God's voice?


Pray


Lord, you turn our world upside down to set it right, break open our hearts where they have grown hard with comfort. Transform our poverty into possibility, our hunger into holy longing, our tears into testament. Make us brave enough to be blessed in the way of Your Son, finding treasure in empty hands and fullness in sacred sacrifice. Amen.



 
 
 
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