Desist from using others!-HOMILY FOR MONDAY OF THE 16TH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME 24TH JULY 2023
Desist from using others!-HOMILY FOR MONDAY OF THE 16TH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME 24TH JULY 2023 Exodus 14:5-18; Ex.15; Matthew 12:38-42 Desist from using others! The readings of today call us to re-evaluate the basis of our relationship with others. The basis on which Christ instructed that we relate with one another is Love. If we are not loving one another, then whatever we are doing with the other person does not please God. In the first reading of today, Pharaoh and the Egyptians could not bear the thought of the absence of the Israelites. They couldn’t imagine themselves doing the dirty jobs they had enslaved the Israelites to do for them. Even though Pharaoh had asked the Israelites to go (after the tenth plague), he changed his mind and pursed them. They wanted the Israelites back, not to love them but to use them; not to feed them but to milk; not to cater for their welfare but to enslave them. Likewise in the gospel reading, Jesus refer to the Scribes and the Pharisees as “an evi...