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31 March 2012
Fatherly Advice – Extracted from Ecclesiasticus/ Sirach, Chapter 13:
Mix with your equals
1 Whoever touches pitch will be defiled, and anyone who associates with the proud will come to be like them.
2 Do not try to carry a burden too heavy for you, do not associate with someone more powerful and wealthy than yourself. Why put the clay pot next to the iron cauldron? It will only break when they bang against each other.
3 The rich does wrong and takes a high line; the poor is wronged and has to beg for pardon.
4 If you are useful the rich will exploit you, if you go bankrupt he will desert you.
5 Are you well off? - he will live with you, he will clean you out without a single qualm.
6 Does he need you? - he will hoodwink you, smile at you and raise your hopes; he will speak politely to you and say, 'Is there anything you need?'
7 He will make you feel small at his dinner parties and, having cleaned you out two or three times over, will end by laughing at you. Afterwards, when he sees you, he will avoid you and shake his head about you.
8 Take care you are not hoodwinked and thus humiliated through your own stupidity.
9 When an influential person invites you, show reluctance, and he will press his invitation all the more.
10 Do not thrust yourself forward, in case you are pushed aside, but do not stand aloof, or you will be overlooked.
11 Do not affect to treat him as an equal, do not trust his flow of words; since all this talking is expressly meant to test you, under cover of geniality he will be weighing you up.
12 Pitiless is anyone who retails gossip; he will not spare you either blows or chains.
13 Be wary, take very great care, because you are walking with your own downfall.
15 Every living thing loves its own sort, and every man his fellow.
16 Every creature mixes with its kind, and human beings stick to their own sort.
17 How can wolf and lamb agree? - Just so with sinner and devout.
18 What peace can there be between hyena and dog? And what peace between rich and poor?
19 Wild desert donkeys are the prey of lions; so too, the poor is the quarry of the rich.
20 The proud thinks humility abhorrent; so too, the rich abominates the poor.
21 When the rich stumbles he is supported by friends; when the poor falls, his friends push him away.
22 When the rich slips, there are many hands to catch him, if he talks nonsense he is congratulated. The poor slips, and is blamed for it, he may talk good sense, but no room is made for him.
23 The rich speaks and everyone stops talking, and then they praise his discourse to the skies. The poor speaks and people say, 'Who is this?' and if he stumbles, they trip him up yet more.
24 Wealth is good where there is no sin, poverty is evil, the godless say.
25 The heart moulds a person's expression whether for better or worse.
26 Happy heart, cheerful expression; but wearisome work, inventing proverbs. |
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The paralyzed man was cured immediately - Extracted from the Gospel of John, Chapter 5:
1 After this there was a Jewish festival, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
2 Now in Jerusalem next to the Sheep Pool there is a pool called Bethesda in Hebrew, which has five porticos;
3 and under these were crowds of sick people, blind, lame, paralyzed.
4 for at intervals the angel of the Lord came down into the pool, and the water was disturbed, and the first person to enter the water after this disturbance was cured of any ailment he suffered from.
5 One man there had an illness which had lasted thirty-eight (38) years,
6 and when Jesus saw him lying there and knew he had been in that condition for a long time, he said, 'Do you want to be well again?'
7 'Sir,' replied the sick man, 'I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is disturbed; and while I am still on the way, someone else gets down there before me.'
8 Jesus said, 'Get up, pick up your sleeping-mat and walk around.'
9 The man was cured at once, and he picked up his mat and started to walk around. Now that day happened to be the Sabbath,
10 so the Jews said to the man who had been cured, 'It is the Sabbath; you are not allowed to carry your sleeping-mat.'
11 He replied, 'But the man who cured me told me, "Pick up your sleeping-mat and walk around." '
12 They asked, 'Who is the man who said to you, "Pick up your sleeping-mat and walk around"? ' 13 The man had no idea who it was, since Jesus had disappeared, as the place was crowded.
14 After a while Jesus met him in the Temple and said, 'Now you are well again, do not sin any more, or something worse may happen to you.'
15 The man went back and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had cured him.
16 It was because he did things like this on the Sabbath that the Jews began to harass Jesus.
Sharing:
Poor man, his illness of 38 years last longer than the age of Jesus, who was then around 32 years old. The paralyze man could also been abandoned by his family and friends... He must have felt very depressed, what he could see in his future could be total darkness without any hope...
See, Jesus who is the perfect man and the most compassionate God approached him first to ask if he wanted to be healed (verse 5)- God loves us and He does not impose Himself upon us. Even in this special healing, He wanted the consent of this paralyzed man.
Have you wondered why many sick were not healed during Jesus’ 3-year public ministry. Obviously, He preached the Good News to all around, and possibly everyone around Jerusalem, Galilee and the surrounding regions knew that He could heal, but they refused to approach Him… Why? Probably, they did not want to hear him and be transformed by Him…
God, though is our Creator, He gives each of us a free will… Even God would not impose His Will upon us to make us walk in the right path, He left the decisions to us and all of us need to accept the consequences of what we do, either to be life-giving or death-inflicting to those that God have put on our way in life… No matter what’s your religion.
Don’t you agree with me that the good would be saved, no matter what’s your religion? 8-) See the Letter of Saint James, Chapter 2:14-26 .
In verse 14, Jesus told the healed man, 'Now you are well again, do not sin any more, or something worse may happen to you.' What’s that “something worse”? We have shared this with many around us whom we considered as wise, and they gave us the following answers: That “something worse” could be bad luck, curse from God, strife and unhappiness at home, betrayer by those they love, having no peace of mind, having severe mental disturbances, being abandoned by family and friends, suffering a long or fatal illness...etc. and eventually be condemned in hell. Well, don’t you think only a fool would test the aforesaid by trying out himself ? 8-(
With the above mentioned, we want to share with you the lyrics of the Song “He will carry you” to encourage you if you are down. We hope that you will not lose hope even in the most desperate & hopeless situation, when you think you have no solution... Just call upon the name of “Jesus”, don’t you know that He loves you and He would carry you so that you would emerge “harmless” through the difficulty? 8-)
He will carry you
There is no problem too big God cannot solve it. There is no mountain too tall He cannot move it. There is no storm too dark God cannot calm it. There is no sorrow too deep He cannot sooth it.
If He carried the weight of the world upon His shoulder, I know my brother that He will carry you. If He carried the weight of the world upon His shoulder, I know my sister that He will carry you.
He said, ‘Come unto Me, all who are weary, and I will give you rest.’ (See Matthew 11:28 extracted below)
You could also listen to this song in http://www.youtube.com
Jesus will give us rest- Extracted from Matthew, Chapter 11: 28 'Come to me, all you who labour and are overburdened, and I will give you rest.
29 Shoulder my yoke and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
30 Yes, my yoke is easy and my burden light.' |
