General. Thanksgiving and empathy are the hall-mark of the Eucharist. Thanksgiving to God for having given us life and love within us, and empathy with all that is good and God-like. Making God the centre of our life will launch us to be loving and merciful with our neighbour just as He has been loving and merciful towards us, thus making Heaven present as from this world even to those who are forlorn of hope due to the circumstances of their lives.

Isaiah. The Lord’s Day will arrive when he shall come to do justice on earth. This will be the day of Judgement. Yet Jesus was already here before to set his image as the Servant of the Lord, meek, humble and leaving justice in the hands of the Father. This led him to his passion and death inasmuch as to his resurrection as Son of God, for having accomplished the Father’s Will through his obedience. So shall those nations and peoples who perform God’s Will be saved by the Lord and gathered into his fold for all time to come.

Epistle to the Romans. St Paul argues that nations and peoples normally act by making comparisons, even if these are somewhat illogical at times. The crux of all however lies in life everlasting which he bestows on all those having faith in him and are thus obedient to him. God’s time spans are infinite and He works in centuries, so that the conversion of peoples is fully at His bid, not ours, and He shows mercy to whom He wants and whenever He pleases.

St Matthew. The woman from Cana showed Jesus that she had great faith in arguing with him on his mission. Jesus had until then preached to the Jews and to the lost sheep of Israel to gather them back within the fold, but from then on he dediced to open up to all peoples. Prayer involves obstinate concentration on one’s need and so, the emphasis of one’s address to God should be that it is His Will that should be done in the accomplishment of what is considered to be for one’s own good. Thus, the Christian’s prayer should always end with Jesus’ words in the Garden of Gethsemane, ‘yet not my will be done, but your will.’

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