Humbly submit your will to God (thy Will be done) and consecrate yourself to the Sacred Heart of Jesus through Mary and Joseph.
Jesus said to the crowds:
“Amen, I say to you,
among those born of women
there has been none greater than John the Baptist;
yet the least in the Kingdom of heaven is greater than he.
From the days of John the Baptist until now,
the Kingdom of heaven suffers violence,
and the violent are taking it by force.
All the prophets and the law prophesied up to the time of John.
And if you are willing to accept it,
he is Elijah, the one who is to come.
Whoever has ears ought to hear.” MT 11:11-15
What a difficult Gospel. John the Baptist, the last great prophet whose sole purpose is to usher Christ into the world is less than the least in the kingdom of heaven. Christ is warning those around Him that the Kingdom of heaven is in their presence and they are not listening. This must have been frustrating for Him. Jesus is preaching that he has come to fulfill the law and prophets. He is the long awaited Messiah. Jesus’s Word is fully alive and will never pass away. “Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words shall not pass away.” MT 24:35
This message is for us today, too. Do we listen to Jesus? Do we believe he truly is the Messiah? Do we believe He is the Savior of the world and died for our sins? How do your actions show it? How do you live your life differently from others who are not Christian? Jesus warns us, “Whoever has ears ought to hear.” Are you listening and making real changes in your life or just going through the motions? I know I need a lot of work. This is why habits are important. Advent is a great time to work on pushing out bad habits and making good ones to replace them. Jesus is with us in the Eucharist, in Adoration, in the tabernacle, in our hearts, in every person we encounter today. Be present, open your ears as well as your heart, and listen to what Jesus is telling you. The rewards are eternal!
Today’s challenge: Really listen to Jesus in your heart. Be still and listen in silence. Change your actions and words and live more like Christ to prepare yourself for the Kingdom of heaven.
We are saints in training! Be a servant, become a saint!
#Christian YOLO
It is telling us that we need to listen when Christ is talking to us and that we need to believe the truth even if it is difficult.
Jesus is telling us that even though John is the greatest human on Earth, he isn’t close to as great as the lowest in Heaven. This means that we won’t ever be as holy or perfect like those in Heaven. Jesus says that Heaven is being attacked by an evil force. That evil force is the devil and all those who are in Hell. “Whoever has ears ought to hear”
It is saying that God has made a purpose for everyone and everyone has a job to do God knows your worth and you have to find your worth. The people who are distant from God don’t know their faith or call in the Church. Knowing and having a relationship with God is very impacting in your life and can be a change in the way you, your family, your friends look at their faith.
I think this trying to tell us that we have bad habits, and bad sins we make that we should try to fix. Advent is our time where we’re preparing for Jesus. We can prepare for him by being the best that we can.
Jesus is telling us that we are no greater than Heaven. He tells us how we need to get to Heaven because it is such a great place. He is also telling us how we should listen to Him . If we don’t listen to what God tells us to do then we will not make it to Heaven which He described as a great and powerful place. We must listen to God first to get there by reading Scripture and going to Mass.
The question for us today is do we believe in Jesus? Do we really believe or do we just go through the motions just to get it over with. Jesus is real and he is here with us and for us. He died and gave up everything so we can be happy with him. Lets not waste our time on this earth sinning and pretending to love God.
I think the Gospel Is trying to tell us that If you are willing to listen to them they are willing to listen to then and the other way around. When God listens to us he is fully aware of are problems we should listen to what he has to say instead of just asking for things and giving nothing back.
I think today’s scripture is saying we should not make excuses to not go to mass or not read the scripture. If we know that Jesus will love us and we’ll be happy if we have a relationship with Him why don’t we praise and worship Him every day. We are Catholics here at St. Francis and we need to act like them. Catholics who don’t go to mass or worship God are worse then people who have never been introduced to Jesus because as Catholics we know what Jesus did for us and we know that He is our only way to be happy.
Today the scripture is telling me that people can be unreasonably stubborn. Some of them wouldn’t believe Jesus when He said that the Kingdom of God is at hand. It’s what they had been waiting for for centuries and they still wouldn’t accept it just because they it wasn’t perfect in their eyes. They wanted power and they wanted to be free of their oppressors because of their brokenness. They wanted to be a great nation again. In a way, that’s kind of what God did. Christians are the dominant religion of the U.S. That’s kind of big. But they were stubborn.
“Among those born of women there has been none greater than John the Baptist; yet the least in the Kingdom of heaven is greater than he.” In today’s scripture, Jesus tells to the crowd that the least heaven is greater than the greatest on earth. We need to be ready because the Kingdom of heaven is near. “Whoever has ears ought to hear.”
This is a pretty interesting Gospel. Jesus is basically saying that though we may be judged by our place in society on earth, (Using John the Baptist as an example) everyone is great in heaven, everyone is equal.
I think this scripture is saying that no matter who you are you should never be treated any different than the “cooler” people around you. Just because you may not be as “cool”, or as “pretty”, or as “popular” as someone doesn’t mean anyone should ever get treated unfairly.
I will listen to God and know him as the truth.
Jesus says “among those born of women there has been none greater than John the Baptist; yet the least in the Kingdom of heaven is greater than he.” He says that here on earth, there is no one greater than John the Baptist but in heaven everyone is greater than John the Baptist.
We need to remember that Jesus is born on Christmas. We often forget that Christmas isn’t about us, but about the birth of Christ. St. Joseph was overwhelmed with Mary’s Pregnancy, but he still listened to God. He knew that Mary was a very holy woman, but he did not know of what was to come. He loved Mary with all of his heart and trusted that she was speaking the truth about not being with another man. It was a lot for Joseph to take in, but He eventually knew that he was to be Jesus’ father. Mary and Joseph are my examples of what kind of parent I want to be when I grow up and have a family. And I want all of my children to act like Jesus the best that they can. It is very important to recognize the stress that Mary and Joseph were having while raising Jesus, the King. It is also important to remember that they got through their stress with Love.
This scripture is saying we should always treat others how we want to be treated and to stay close to God.
Jesus could come at any moment, so you must listen to God and be ready.
God has sent prophet after prophet after prophet. He wants us to follow Him, yet He still gives us a choice. Even so, that doesn’t mean that we should turn away. “WHOEVER HAS EARS OUGHT TO HEAR.” If we’re able to listen, then we should.
Today’s scripture Jesus is saying if u want to be accepted into His holiness and become a better person with Him.
What reached out to me was, “Whoever has ears ought to hear”. The reason that this reached out to me was because, as Catholics, we should be using everything that we have to spread the word of God, and to grow closer to him. If every Catholic just put in a little effort, there would be great results.
What stuck out to me was “Amen I say to you”. Jesus is still talking to us today through scripture. He wants us to hear him.
In this scripture God is telling us to believe in Him. We need to trust the Lord. God is also telling us there is violence in our broken hearts that He want to fix because He loves us, His children. We need to pray and love Him.
The scripture is telling us that do you believe john the baptist and do you believe in me it like he saying do you believe in the things that i do and that i can do such amazing stuff its like he talking about how john is helping like people to get baptized to get there sin away so they have a chance to a least go to heaven so they can live a happy and wonderful life.
I really need to listen to Jesus. He is always trying to build a relationship with us. We should use the gifts God gave us to carry out good. This gospel also talks about John the Baptist. I should act more like him. I should prepare the way of the Lord. Jesus says that he is one of the greatest person to ever live. In conclusion, i should use more ears to truly hear what God is trying to say to me.
This scripture makes me think about if we really do listen to Jesus. when we pray do we just ask for things and not take the time in silence to hear the response that he gives. God is always talking to us when we pray we just need to be quiet an see what he is doing in our lives.
I think what Jesus is trying to say hear is that when we’re born we need to choose to believe and not to make people believe. We are being attacked because we’re weak in our faith because we act like we believe but we have to show it to the world that our God is mighty if we just believe.
Were ever you are and God is trying to talk to and if there is a lot of noise you can steel hear God speaking to you and you will always here God speaking even when you are making any noise.
I think this scripture is telling us that Jesus came to fulfill the prophet but none of us listened. While the presence of the King, the messiah, was infront of us we didn listen. That scripture was telling me is that we need to listen to Jesus and believe in Him.
I think this scripture is telling us in this scripture that John the Baptist was not God but his job was to prophesy the Jesus. And also that John the Baptist was a good man but he wasn’t Jesus, for example when it says this: “among those born of women
there has been none greater than John the Baptist; yet the least in the Kingdom of heaven is greater than he.”
When Jesus says, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words shall not pass away.” it means that everything is temporary except his word because it is the truth. If you want to hear his word you must listen for it in prayer. We don’t just open our ears to listen to his word, you have to open your hearts. Sit in silence and open you hearts to hear His word and have guidance.
The heavens are announcing John the Baptist arrival/proclaiming the good news and how exceptional John is to this world. How he is the one that all should listen too.
Just because we hear what Jesus is telling us, doesn’t mean that we believe, or listen. We need to hear, listen, and actively believe what we are being told. Listening is simply hearing what we are being told. We also need to follow God’s advice, and then actively transfer it to our everyday lives. Listening, hearing, and following are all very different things. We need to do all three.
We hear that John the Baptist has the most difficult job, but the Kingdom of Heaven suffers when we are violent and sin against God.
“The Kingdom of Heaven is suffers violence.” This is saying that we have so much violence. If we want to get to heaven we have to stop hurting people with words and with our fists. This sticks out to me because If we fight then we are no step closer to getting to know God.
It think what this scripture is telling us is that if we are willing to accept the Lord coming to us it will do us great wonders. The Lord is greater than anything and we have to believe in him so he can help us lead a holy life. We have to be willing to accept his help and be willing to want to see him and want to hear him.
I think the Gospel is saying we have to listen for God calling out to us. God might be calling out to us, and we wouldn’t even pay attention because we are focused on something else. Things that distract us can distract us from what God is saying.We should anticipate God telling us what we are supposed to do with our lives.
“Amen, I say to you” i saw this and then i realized that he was putting everything on the on the line He didn’t care he just belied in his faith and his faith only. that is why he treated us like kings so we would be comfortable with Christ and his teachings. if we weren’t comfortable with his teachings we wouldn’t know what to do and we would hesitate. we don’t need to hesitate with god he knows what is best for us.
The Gospel is telling us that there is no greater prophet than John the Baptist. In the Gospel it says that the kingdom of Heaven is in great violence. The people who are violent are doing it over and over and we need it to stop. That is my encounter on today’s gospel.
“Whoever has ears ought to hear” We need to listen to Jesus’s words in the scripture, and at least attempt to understand what is being said, which means giving our full attention at mass and while we are reading the scriptures so that we can be able to understand what Jesus wants to tell us.
“the Kingdom of heaven suffers violence” this is what stood out to me in today’s scripture. Heaven suffers violence. It stood out to me because when I think of heaven I think of a peaceful place that is calming and sweet. I am not saying that it is not but that there is violence. I think that the violence is us. I am not for sure but we are sinners. We are the cause of pain and suffering. Saton is tempting us to do bad and we give in sometimes.
Today scripture is very powerful. I really had to take little bits of it and really think about what it meant. ¨Do we listen to Jesus¨? That part stuck with me the whole time. I get caught out in all this media telling me otherwise that at some points it is trying to tell me to not believe in Jesus. We all need to listen to Jesus. Sometimes we ask him why did you have to do this to me. Jesus does good and bad things to us because he believes we can get through then in a loving and good way. Jesus does everything for a reason. Even if we don´t see it right away, it will surely come to us. So, whenever you have free time truly try to listen to God. Most likely he will have something good to say.
“Whoever has ears ought to hear” I think that’s saying if you hear God then trust in Him on what he is doing. You should listen and take the right path that he has chosen for you.
“The Kingdom of heaven suffers violence” what I think Jesus is trying to say in today’s gospel is that the people on earth are making Heaven suffer. All the actions people are taking in our society always seem to be the opposite of what Jesus is telling us to do. Then when the Catholic Church tells them that they can’t do that they immediately think the Catholic Church is a book of rules. But it’s not!!! It just God trying to help us get to Heaven and we as a society need to realize that and get our act together and prepare for Jesus’ second coming.
Jesus is telling us that he is God. He is the one that John the Baptist was telling the people about. He is here to fulfill Scripture and the prophecies. John the Baptist, the last prophet, was making way for Jesus the Son of God to save us.
I think that this scripture is telling us to serve God more so He can win these battles in Heaven with not using vilence. God is becoming weaker because more and more people are beleiving in false gods and He does not want us to go away from Him. It almost is like real life how you get in these pointless fights and it affects others and also you and fights could also hurt Him.
Imagine you are the greatest prophet of the time. Now imagine a person saying that the least in heaven are greater than you. Ouch.
Yet, this message isn’t an insult to John the Baptist, rather it shows that it doesn’t matter how popular you are, how talented you are, or how extraordinary you are, the goal is heaven. Even the lowest in heaven, are greater than John the Baptist. Heaven is that great. So, we should strive for heaven in our everyday lives, with the thought of the end of time always on our minds. If we are living as Jesus would want us to and are in the state of grace, as long as we live as though the end of time could come at any point, we are going to heaven. So, in an attempt to live life to the fullest, choose to live like Jesus. Live like a saint.
“…there has been none greater than John the Baptist;
yet the least in the Kingdom of heaven is greater than he.”
What is being said here is that John is a cool guy, but he isn’t as good as the least in Heaven, just proving how powerful Heaven is.
In today’s scripture I think it is telling us to listen to God. If we are willing to open up to God about our brokenness he will listen, and we have to pray and listen to God to hear our calling.
what its saying is that we need to always listen to God and cant make excuses to Him.
That God wants us to be with him like John the baptist and we need to follow him threw life with God.
I think today’s scripture is trying to tell us that we need to listen to God and be more aware. We need to believe that He is the Savior of our world and that he died for our sins. We need to start listening to Jesus more and think about our actions.
I think this scripture means that we should try to find the symbolization in the bible.
The Gospel is telling me today that you hear Jesus in the silence.
I think the message is that nothing is greater then the kingdom of God. People think it is for just a little time and than we go back to the ground this is eternal life not for a year if is eternal. We can’t forget that we are children of God also if we forget think this God gave us all these thinks and sometimes we don’t thank him.
The scripture is saying that there are no greater man born of a woman greater than John the Baptist yet in heaven the least is greater than him. It also says there will be violence no matter what but you have to overcome it and allow yourself to be sacrificed to God in heaven.
What I got out if this scripture is that we need to stop and pray and listen for God. I believe that he will talk to us if we listen and are silent and still. I also think patience is a big part of this. If you have patience you will hear Him.
This Gospel is telling us that God is wanting us to listen to His words. He wants us to focus on what the bible is telling us. so when we open the bible don’t just scan through it actually read it and think about what it is telling you.
The phrase that sticks out to me is “Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words shall not pass away.” It sticks out to me because one day everything will be gone when everyone in the world has passed. Even though it is a sad and hard time we still have to remember that we will soon be up there with our loved ones. Death isn’t something we should be afraid of, it is something to look forward to because you are going back up into Heaven to see God.
I think this Scripture reflection is talking about the suffering of sin, and following what is right. It says the kingdom of heaven suffers violence. I think this violence is the sins of the world. If we all disobey God, not follow his will, or don’t really try to connect with him, we have given in to sin. And when we give into sin we give in to the devil. Jesus is really saying to follow John. To see the light in the world. The truth. To believe in God.
This gospel tells us about do you listen and believe in Jesus do you go to mass do you pray to God. You need to really listen to hear Gods words. You have to be silent and block everything out and just have your whole mind on Jesus. Talking to Jesus creates a relationship with God and is a ticket to enter the kingdom of heaven.
Today’s gospel says that John the Baptist was the greatest man to be born from men and was the greatest profit.
A part of this piece of scripture that stuck out to me was “If you are willing to accept it”. To me, this means that we must accept God, and the Kingdom of Heaven. “God put you into this world without your permission, but will not bring you to heaven with out your cooperation” -Fr. Jarrod’s homily on Tuesday, December 7. We must accept the Word, and we must accept God’s help to get us to heaven.
This Gospel means to me that we the people need to listen more with our ears. Jesus says “Whoever has ears ought to hear”. This means that we the people need to sit in silence more and listen to what Jesus is trying to tell us.
I think it means whoever care to listen to God will here what He has to say and you will find what He has called you to do.
Live life like John the Baptist, he was such a great role model of the faith an if we follow him we will be successful with our life and get closer with God. Do God’s will which will set us up in the long run.
Do we listen to God? This really got me thinking. I don’t listen to God the best. I know he is telling me to do right but I seem to always do wrong. I seem to always block him out of my head. I know a couple of times where I really stopped and listen to him. I realized that I did this and my day turned out better then ever. So I need to listen to God that way that he listens to me.
“Whoever has ears ought to hear” I think that today Jesus is telling us that even if we are there, we are hearing the words, it will do nothing for us if we don’t listen, you’ll only get as much out of it as you put into it.
The Gospel today is telling me that we should not compare ourselves to other people. God made us the way we are and we should appreciate everything we have. You should always love yourself and not put yourself down just because you think you aren’t as pretty as someone else.
Jesus says the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than John the Baptist. This shows us how amazing the kingdom of heaven will be. We should be hyped and exited to enter the kingdom of heaven. We should be motivated to do the right things today to help us get to the kingdom of heaven.
I think its saying that you need to believe in God and put him first.
Today one thing in the gospel says, “whoever has ears ought to hear.” We know that it means to listen to what God is telling you. The one thing that we forget and have to remember is to act on it too. Juan Diego had to not only listen, but act by going to see the bishop three times in order for him to believe that our lady had actually appeared to him.
This scripture speaks of using our eyes and ears to listen. Why? The Kingdom of Heaven is in our presence. We need to know that its always there and we just need to listen. That’s why Jesus is trying to help us to listen, but we can’t if we won’t let Him.
I think it tells me to not compare myself to other people. Or compare other people to me. Everyone is unique in their own special way, like God made us to be. God loves everybody the same, so we should love everyone equally.
In this gospel, Jesus is saying that the “Kingdom of heaven suffers violence.” I believe that he refers to us. Though most of us are Catholic, still, many people still do not go to mass every Sunday. Or put our whole heart and sole to God. We’re doing it just to do it.
This gospel is telling me to listen. People hear but don’t truly listen. We need to hear and believe.
John the Baptist was the greatest, Jesus said. “But the least in Heaven is greater than he.” So the greatest on earth is still not greater than the least in heaven. Heaven has the all the sinners who have repented and given themselves up to God. Whoever has ears ought to hear the good news to repent and get to Heaven. We all ought to hear what goes on. Do we? We have to hear and understand. Get to heaven. You will be the greatest and least.
That God wants us to be with him like John the baptist and we need to follow him threw life with God.
This is a very hard Gospel to understand in full. This is one of many passages that many give up when they try too understand it. This is where much interpretation comes into play when we try to understand the Gospel. I Believe that Jesus is saying that in Heaven, the least are greater than the greatest in Heaven, but the violence mentioned I interpret as the battle between the angels and the fallen angels in Heaven before time was even a concept. Others may think otherwise, and that’s ok. It’s perfectly fine to have a different view on what Jesus says, it’s all about perception.
I think this gospel is about us breaking our bad habits and we should not make excuses to see God. We should keep our word and go to mass and God will return a favor. We should also break the bad habits of thinking it’s OK to skip Mass or to think that I will just go to confession and God will forgive me.
To end violence, or the hatred attacking God’s kingdom, we must stand up for the faith and defend one another. If we want to believe this hard, then we must help keep the Church alive and well.
In order to stop Violence, or hatred attacking God’s kingdom, we must stand up for what we think is right. We must defend one another and help keep the Church alive and well.
That scripture is gonna be a tough nut to crack. John the Baptist is least in heaven. Ouch. Must suck then. Even though he was a great prophet. he´s still the least. Jesus was telling them that heaven was near but they were being dumb and not listening. Tough, even for Jesus. To end off, LISTEN. TO. JESUS.
This scripture reflectino is telling me that we all need to be ready for when he comes. We need to be able to hear him calling out to all of us. We need to be ready to go to heaven. We need to start preparing for what he says, and what we need to do to get to heaven. We all need to start listening.