Thursday, January 10 – Deal or No Deal

10 Jan

The Perceptive Shopkeeper

A young girl was a probationer nurse at a large London hospital. She went into a bookshop to buy an urgently needed textbook. The assistant showed her a copy that was new and very expensive. Being almost penniless, she asked if he had any second-hand copies. “Of course not,” he retorted brusquely. “It’s a new edition.”

Fighting back tears of disappointment, she watched him climb a ladder to replace the book on a top shelf. Then suddenly it fell to the ground with a thud.

Without a flicker, the assistant dusted it off, handed it to her and said, “It’s shop-soiled – half price.”

- What thoughts, feelings, occurred to you while you went through the story?
- What do you think is the ‘moral’ of the story?

- taken from “Persons Are Gifts”, by Hedwig Lewis, SJ
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1 John 4:19-5:4

We are to love,
because God loved us first.
Anyone who says, ‘I love God’,
and hates his brother,
is a liar,
since a man who does not love the brother that he can see
cannot love God, whom he has never seen.
So this is the commandment that he has given us,
that anyone who loves God must also love his brother.

Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ
has been begotten by God:
and whoever loves the Father that begot him
loves the child whom he begets.
We can be sure that we love God’s children
if we love God himself and do what he has commanded us;
this is what loving God is -
keeping his commandments;
and his commandments are not difficult,
because anyone who has been begotten by God
has already overcome the world;
this is the victory over the world -
our faith.
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Luke 4:14-22

Jesus, with the power of the Holy Spirit in him, returned to Galilee; and his reputation spread throughout the countryside. He taught in their synagogues and everyone praised him.

He came to Nazara, where he had been brought up, and went into the synagogue on the sabbath day as he usually did. He stood up to read, and they handed him the scroll of the prophet Isaiah. Unrolling the scroll he found the place where it is written:

The spirit of the Lord has been given to me,
for he has anointed me.
He has sent me to bring the good news to the poor,
to proclaim liberty to captives
and to the blind new sight,
to set the downtrodden free,
to proclaim the Lord’s year of favour.

He then rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the assistant and sat down. And all eyes in the synagogue were fixed on him. Then he began to speak to them, ‘This text is being fulfilled today even as you listen.’ And he won the approval of all, and they were astonished by the gracious words that came from his lips.
____________________

There is a worldwide syndicated game show called “Deal or No Deal”. The premise is a game of chance in which the contestants selects one out of many briefcases containing an unknown amount of money (hopefully the highest for grabs). Through the game, they open the other briefcases in a bid to narrow down the amount in theirs. Offers will be made at various intervals to buy their briefcase. It is during these offers when the contestant needs to answer the question “Deal or no deal?”. In other words, it’s a game of chance. One that actually gets pretty intense as more and more cases are opened and the nerves rack up.

It may seem like matters like the ones on game shows happen, well, only on game shows. They don’t; they occur day in, day out. They don’t happen to game show contestants either but to each and every one of us. We know how intense and nerve-wrecking things can get too. Difficult choices? Some would call them that. They sure don’t seem easy though. Just like how God’s commandments do not appear easy. Difficult? John begs to differ and he speaks true.

In the past two sharings, we’ve seen how faith aids us in love and against fear. Isn’t that what we usually think about when making choices? Are they in love and/or against fear? Yes, my sisters and brothers, I will not say that the choices we make are difficult for they can’t possibly be if following God’s commandments aren’t. The extent to which they are not easy as well depends on the extent to which we, as shared over the past two days, offer them up in faith for God to bless them. This is what John and the other disciples did in the early days of the Church when they faced persecution for loving others. It is what Jesus demonstrated in His ministry through His teachings and proclamations, which, unlike the one we have in the Gospel passage, were often controversial and sparked ire.

As we look forward to the rest of the year (356 days thanks to the leap year), we will be presented with many many decisions to make. “Deal or No Deal” has a bunch of friends and relatives are allowed to sit near the contestant and give them support and advice during the critical moments. You know what? God is sitting near us.

(Today’s OXYGEN by Aloysius Ting)
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Prayer: Lord, bless our days and bless our nights.

Give thanks to the Lord for: For accepting our “offerings” of worries and concerns.

Upcoming Readings:
Thu, 10 Jan – 1 John 4:19 – 5:4; Luke 4:12-22
Fri, 11 Jan – 1 John 5:5-13; Luke 5:12-16
Sat, 12 Jan – 1 John 5:14-21; John 3:22-30
Sun, 13 Jan – Isaiah 42:1-4, 6-7; Acts 10:34-38; Matthew 3:13-17; Feast of the Baptism of the Lord; Catechetical Sunday
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