August 14, 2016 - 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time - Bishop Ricardo Alcaraz

The Goal of Understanding the Times

Let us help ease the anguish of the Lord by discerning and responding to the signs of the times.

Jeremiah 23:23-29

Although God is great and knows all things, yet He is not far from us.

Hebrews 12:1-6

We are to look to the Lord, so we can run with endurance the race of faith.

Psalm 82

Luke 12:49-56

(v.49-53) Commitment to God can be costly but worth it.

(v.54-56) Do not just be knowledgeable about earthly things but also about heavenly things.

“While we are living in the earth, we must live with heavenly standard.”

Fire – symbolic of purification and/or judgement.

“The Lord rejoices when we spend eternity with Him but He is saddened when others spend eternity in hell.”

2 Peter 7-10 – But the heavens and the earth which are now preserved by the same word, are reserved for fire until the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up