8TH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME, YEAR C (2ND MARCH, 2025)

This is your usual programme: 'GOD IS WITH YOU' by your humble servant, Rev. Fr. Emmanuel Bartholomew Koroma, CSSp. A member of the Congregation of the Holy Ghost Fathers and Brothers commonly known as Spiritans. Our First Reading today is taking from Sirach 27:4-7. The book of Sirach provides reflective wisdom about the relationship between a person’s inner character and their outward actions, particularly in their thoughts and speech. The writer uses some images to convey his message. The sieve; tool to separate finer and coarser particles, “the kiln tests the potter’s vessels” to mean a person’s words are the test of their true character, the metaphor of a tree, to mean the care that the fruit tree had received produces a such. The Reading goes on to say that physical appearance could be deceptive. It is what comes from within us that determines who we are and what we are. The Second Reading is coming from 1 Corinthians 15:54-58. This passage is the peak of Paul’s teaching on the resurrection in 1 Corinthians 15, which is frequently referred to as the "resurrection chapter" in the New Testament. In this passage, Paul advocates for the bodily resurrection of the dead as a fundamental aspect of the Christian belief, illustrating its theological importance and triumph over death and sin. Paul clearly asserts that the temporal, perishable bodies of believers on earth will be transformed into eternal, imperishable, and immortal bodies, liberated from decay and death, as part of the ultimate realization of God's plan for creation during the resurrection. Our today’s Gospel is coming from Luke 6:39-45. The Gospel passage contain three parables, the parable of the blind leading the blind, the parable of the splinter and the wooden beam, and the parable of the good tree and the rotten tree. In these parables, Jesus is instructing his followers what it means to live as true disciples, stressing ethical behaviour, judgment, and the nature of genuine discipleship.