Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Also Read: Mass Readings for 02 March 2025 Sunday Reflection by Mike – 02 March 2025
First Reading: Sirach 27: 4-7
Cultivate!
Its fruit discloses the cultivation of a tree; so a person’s speech discloses the cultivation of his mind. (6)
Closing in on the holy season of Lent, this Sunday’s readings direct our minds towards internal purification. Our speech discloses so much about ourselves! We ask the Holy Spirit to guide us as we discern whether to open up or not.
In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Responsorial Psalm: Psalms 92: 2-3, 13-16
The righteous flourish like the palm tree, and grow like a cedar in Lebanon. They are planted in the house of the Lord; they flourish in the courts of our God.
Alleluia!
Second Reading: First Corinthians 15: 54-58
Prune!
But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved, be steadfast, immovable, always excelling in the work of the Lord, because you know that in the Lord your labour is not in vain. (57-58)
St. Paul explains to us the mystery through which we have been saved. Only through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ we can be raised to new life. In the previous verses (v.49) he says, we will bear the image of the son of heaven! Therefore, we are to rejoice and work in hope. He sees our efforts and knows our hearts. The good Lord will bless the work of our hands. Let us keep the faith and fight the good fight like St. Paul. In Jesus’ name, Amen!
Alleluia: Philippians 2: 15d, 16a
Alleluia, Alleluia! So that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, in which you shine like stars in the world. It is by your holding fast to the word of life that I can boast on the day of Christ that I did not run in vain or labour in vain. Alleluia!
Gospel: Luke 6: 39-45
Filter!
How can you say to your neighbour, ‘Friend, let me take out the speck in your eye,’ when you yourself do not see the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your neighbour’seye. (42)
In words somewhat stinging, Christ pronounces many layers of teachings. The most bitter lesson seems to be from the “…speck in the neighbours’ eye!” What may be some specks we find in the neighbours’ eyes? How easy and convenient is it for us to find faults with others around us? Do we stop and reflect on our words and actions? If each one of us, turn into self-reflective persons; we will be able to reform ourselves thereby creating change in the world around us.
In Jesus’ name, Amen!
