"RETURN GOOD FOR EVIL"

 21st January 2022

FRIDAY, SECOND WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

Memorial of Saint Agnes, Virgin and Martyr 

(1 Sm 24: 3-21); (Mk 3: 13-19)

"RETURN GOOD FOR EVIL"

Dear faithful in Christ, today as we paid attention to the expressions of the Scriptures, we are called to mimic on everything the Lord had said to us through the records of David and how he saved Saul, the King of Israel, and not killing or harming him despite having the ideal chance to kill him. Then, at that point, we additionally heard the calling of the Twelve Apostles as those whom the Lord had chosen as the ones to be His central aides in lecturing the Good News and in connecting with whatever number individuals as could be allowed. Above all else, as we heard from the primary perusing from the Book of Samuel, we heard how David who was sought after by King Saul needed to crawl under a rock from one spot to another, and needed to go into the cavern wherein they were encircled. Yet, Saul and his supporters didn't know that David was simply inside their compass. Right then and there, when Saul was resting, it was the ideal opportunity for David to strike at Saul and guarantee the Kingship of Israel for himself. 

All things considered, he had been made the legitimate ruler and the picked, blessed one of God through the prophet Samuel. However, David didn't do as such, and just cut a piece of the ruler's robe, and surprisingly that was grieved by him. He realized that Saul himself was blessed by God such as himself. In spite of the fact that God had for sure picked him as the new King over all Israel to supplant Saul, yet David actually acted with honor and remembered him still as ruler, and he didn't need damage to come either to Saul or any of his men. Assuming David had needed it, he might have snatched the open door and finished his own wretchedness and preliminaries, getting the power that was legitimately his. Be that as it may, he didn't do as such. That is the place where we see what sort of man David was. He was really loaded up with affection for God, a valid and fair love for his Lord and Master. He did everything to serve the Lord and to extol His Name, and therefore, he put himself in the upright method of the Lord. 

For despite the fact that he has been picked as the new King of Israel, however that ought not have given him the defense to kill an individual in the hour of his shortcoming, less still to do as such for the quest for power and individual magnificence. He decided to share himself and his destiny with the Lord, and came to accept Saul. It was at that exact same event wherein Saul perceived David as the following, legitimate King or Israel. In the Gospel section today, we then, at that point, saw from the tale of the calling of the Twelve Apostles, whom God browse among His pupils as a whole. The Lord called His Apostles to be the ones to do His works and to deliver the Good News of salvation to the entire world, as they did in those years after He has climbed into Heaven. 

The Apostles went to many spots, doing the Lord's works and setting up the underpinnings of the Church and building the Christian people group in those places. They drove the devoted through their upright and just administration, and through all that they had done in putting God's works prior to all the other things. They forfeited a great deal in their endeavors, enduring separations and in any event, shedding their blood and bite the dust for the greatness of God. They needed to endure exile and different types of challenges, but then, they persevered temperate and patient, brimming with confidence in the Lord and they didn't permit the allurements and tensions from their general surroundings to influence them in any case. In actuality, we all are likewise given the great confidence and models as set by St. Agnes, a conspicuous Roman saint from the hour of solid mistreatments of Christians and the Church. 

St. Agnes was naturally introduced to a respectable family in Rome, and she was additionally brought into the world as a Christian. Around then, the Roman state and the Emperor were especially against the Christian confidence and the Church, and in one final fierce endeavor to kill them and annihilate the danger that Christianity presented to the customary Roman convictions and religion. St. Agnes as a youthful Roman aristocrat had numerous admirers and the people who were keen on her. A significant number of those admirers were dismissed by St. Agnes as she had committed herself to the immaculateness of her devotion to God. She sanctified herself and her virginity, not permitting any of those men to taint her virginity and sacredness. This prompted some among her admirers to resent her, and announced her to the specialists as a speculated Christian, which was a wrongdoing then deserving of death.

The Roman administrator, named Sempronius sentenced her to a ridiculous degree and endeavored to kill her by different strategies. In any case, the endeavors by a few men to pollute her virginity fizzled in light of the fact that they were quickly struck visually impaired before the deed. The endeavors to hurt her by different means, for example, consuming on a stake likewise bombed when the flares would not consume the wood. Ultimately, it was by executing or being wounded in the throat that St. Agnes met her end through affliction, but her prize in God is heavenly. 

Brothers and sisters in Christ, through what we have recently talked about and through the duration of St. Agnes of Rome, we can perceive how God was consistently with us and He has consistently directed us and ensured us similarly as how He kept those men from polluting the hallowed virginity of St. Agnes. The Lord has been 100% of the time with us and He will watch us against those that expect to hurt us. We should have confidence in Him and put stock in His fortune. Siblings and sisters in Christ, let every one of us hence put ourselves in the possession of the Lord and subscribe to His hug, realizing that in Him alone lies our expectation and our salvation. May the Lord be with every one of us and may He give us the solidarity to follow Him sincerely from now into the foreseeable future, and consistently, without dread or stress. Amen .