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Matthew 18: 12-14 | Advent Tuesday Week 2 | King James Audio Bible | KJV | Daily Bible Verses Advent
12 How think ye? if a man have an hundred sheep, and one of them be gone astray, doth he not leave the ninety and nine, and goeth into the mountains, and seeketh that which is gone astray?
13 And if so be that he find it, verily I say unto you, he rejoiceth more of that sheep, than of the ninety and nine which went not astray.
14 Even so it is not the will of your Father which is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish.
In these verses of the Bible, Christ expresses the love of God for all people. Christ’s is not an exclusive calling, nor especially a calling to those who most clearly, visibly, seem to adhere to the requirements of the Old Law; he has come to bring home to God those who have wandered, sinners who have fallen far from the Law. When a sinner comes home to God, there is incredible rejoicing in heaven. So we, though we may sin, should never be afraid to return to the Church, to say sorry, confess our sins, and find forgiveness.
The little ones in these verses are children. Asked who is greatest in the kingdom of heaven, Christ has called a child to come to him, so that he may the more forcibly tell us that we must become like children to enter into the kingdom of heaven. Children reflect the innocence, purity, simplicity and tenderness of our Lord, and these are virtues we are called to imitate.
Furthermore, we are asked to pay special attention to protecting the children, the little ones, and those most vulnerable in our society. None must be allowed to perish through the moral corruption present in our society. Each is precious.
‘Unfortunately we witness the moral pollution which is devastating humanity, disregarding especially those very little ones about whom Jesus speaks. What must we do? We must imitate the Good Shepherd and give ourselves without rest for the salvation of souls. Without forgetting material charity and social justice, we must be convinced that the most sublime charity is spiritual charity, that is, the commitment for the salvation of souls. All souls are saved with prayer and sacrifice. This is the mission of the Church.’ Pope John Paul II
Concluding Prayer | Love Revealed By Jesus Christ
Lord God,
all the ends of the earth have seen your salvation.
Give us the grace to await with joy
the glorious day of our Saviour’s birth.
We make our prayer through our Lord
King James Audio Bible | Endnotes
Children In Christian Faith And Jesus Of Nazareth | Pope Francis
Children face challenges that have a lasting impact on their lives. Challenges include moral decay, loss of family values, and increasing violence and insecurity.
The Bible speaks directly, reminding us that ‘sin is a reproach to any people’ (Proverbs 14:34) and that ‘people will seek teachers who will feed their own desires instead of enduring sound doctrine’ (2 Timothy 4:3-4).
Pope Francis has addressed this challenge, noting that ‘we are living in a culture of relativism that denies absolute truth’ and that this culture ‘errs in teaching that each person has his or her own truth’.
A challenge facing children is loss of family values – therefore breakdown in social fabric of communities. The Bible instructs us to ‘honor one’s parents’ (Exodus 20:12) and to ‘raise children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord’ (Ephesians 6:4).
Pope Francis has emphasized importance of family values, stating that ‘the family is the foundation of coexistence and a remedy against social fragmentation’. Pope Francis adds that ‘children have the right to grow up in a family with a father and a mother who can create a suitable environment for their development and emotional maturity’.
Children face violence and insecurity. The Bible teaches us to be ‘peacemakers’ (Matthew 5:9) and to ‘live peaceably with all people as far as possible’ (Romans 12:18). Pope Francis has spoken out against violence and insecurity, reminding us that ‘we are called to promote peace and to reject a mentality of hostility, hate, and enmity’.
The world described in the earliest books of the Bible did not arise in isolation. Canaan (the southern Levant, broadly corresponding to present-day Israel, the Palestinian territories and adjoining parts of Lebanon, Syria and Jordan) had already been inhabited for millennia when Israel appears in the surviving historical record. Its towns and villages belonged to a region linked by trade, warfare, diplomacy and imperial government to Egypt (in northeastern Africa, centred on the Nile Valley), Anatolia (the peninsula comprising most of present-day Turkey), Syria (on the eastern Mediterranean coast and its inland hinterland, within and around modern Syria), Cyprus (the island in the eastern Mediterranean, south of present-day Turkey) and the Aegean (the sea and surrounding lands between present-day Greece and western Turkey). During the centuries around 1200 BC, much of that political world changed. Some kingdoms disappeared; others survived in reduced form; new settlements and communities became visible. The transition is conventionally called the Bronze Age Collapse [ … ]
Saint Vincent of Lerins addresses one of the most enduring questions in Christian theology: how the faith can develop through time while remaining faithful to its original substance. Writing in the fifth century, at a time when the Church was clarifying its doctrine in the face of heresies, Vincent offers a nuanced account of continuity and growth. His central concern is to distinguish between true development and corruption of doctrine [ … ]
The seventy have been sent ahead of Jesus to prepare the way for Jesus; they have been sent to the towns and places – the ‘cities’ of the Gospels are for the most part small towns and villages – to which Jesus intended to travel. These disciples have been sent in a spirit of poverty, told by Jesus to trust in God, and so as a corollary in human hospitality. The disciples have borne the message that the kingdom of God is imminent. In humility as in poverty, they have been sent by Jesus as evangelists. In Bible verses, we witness the first missionaries, swelled with good news, return to Lord Jesus to share the joy of the initial, explosive success of their work of evangelizing [ … ]
