General. In attending the Eucharist we should not be present thereat with any sense of pride. We should attend with all humility and if we lack it, we should beseech God to grant us same so that we might recognize ourselves as his adoptive sons and daughters, shorn of the worries which material gains and benefits bring along with them. Church is a place for prayer where other worldly thoughts should be left out.

First Book of Kings. Interpreting who God is has been a task which many a believer has set upon himself throughout the ages. Most often force has been associated with his almightiness, as seen here in the case of a strong wind, a quake and a fire, which are three forceful elements of nature. Yet God made an appearance in a gentle breeze, showing that God is indeed a livening power which does not destroy but compassionately gives out of His love to those who need it.

Epistle to the Romans. St Paul now follows Christ and regrets that his people, the Jews, who are the same people of Jesus, do not also follow him. God’s pact has been made with the Jews and he has no qualms about that, but still he prefers the love for Christ, in reciprocity to the love he has shown for the world, to keeping at one with his own people who had chosen to keep their ways.

St Matthew. Jesus is again witnessed praying in solitude notwithstanding his knowing what was about to befall his disciples. While Peter walks towards Jesus, facing up to him, he has no worry to keep moving forward and riding the seas, representing death in Jewish belief. Yet when Peter starts doubting his doing, looking down at the waters (death) he is trodding over, he starts sinking. It is only faith in Jesus that leads him to implore salvation. Jesus responds immediately, calling him a man of little faith and asking him why he has doubted. Seeing is believing, and those who saw Peter safe back on the boat believed that Jesus is the Son of God. The same with us, who should keep looking up to Jesus and not to sin and our past lives.

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