DGeMs- Daily Gospel eMessage
Dear Friend in the Lord,
“Fruits of our Faith”: In today’s Gospel, Jesus proclaims to His disciples, “A sound tree produces good fruit, but a rotten tree, bad fruit. You can tell them by their fruits.” Ponder on, “Do we find peace, courage, selflessness, mercy, compassion, service for the good of others as fruits of living our faith? These are signs that we are a “sound tree” that produces good fruits.
Fr Philip Heng, S.J.
Matthew 16:13-19
When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi he put this question to his disciples, ‘Who do people say the Son of man is?’ And they said, ‘Some say John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.’ ‘But you,’ he said, ‘who do you say I am?’
Then Simon Peter spoke up and said, ‘You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.’
Jesus replied, ‘Simon son of Jonah, you are a blessed man! Because it was no human agency that revealed this to you but my Father in heaven. So I now say to you: You are Peter and on this rock I will build my community. And the gates of the underworld can never overpower it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of Heaven: whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven; whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.’