Hope in the Resurrection (John 11:17-27)

All Soul's Day & All Saint's Day (A)

Wis 3:1-9; Rom 5:5-11; Mt 5:1-12a; Jn 11:17-27

01-02 November 2023

Hope in the Resurrection

On the Feast of all saints, we honor all the saints. And on the feast of all Souls, we pray for the souls of all those who have died, especially all our near and dear ones. The faith journey of our dear saints gives us courage to persevere still for the ever-lasting life with God, and that they make efficacious prayers for our dearest departed ones. The liturgy of the day presents us with different Biblical readings. And we want to focus on our faith and belief in the resurrection of the dead. Jesus promises us eternal life with the Triune God. The Gospel story of the raising of Lazarus presents us many reflective insights about our faith. 

When Lazarus had fallen ill, his sisters Martha and Mary had sent word to Jesus. On his arrival at Bethany, he found that Lazarus was dead and had been buried for four days. The crying Martha said to Jesus that if he had been there, his brother Lazarus would not have died. Jesus promised that Lazarus would rise from the dead. And Martha affirms her belief that there will be resurrection of the dead in the last days. 

Jesus promises much more - that he himself is the Resurrection and the life for all those who believe in him. Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God – alpha and omega. This is the profession of faith we continue to make, and it is the promise on which we base our hope for eternal life for ourselves and for all those who have died. This is the faith that the martyrs and saints held strong and offered their lives, shed their blood for Christ. They believed in his death and Resurrection. He has conquered death for all those who believe in him. Whether cremated and the ashes been spread in the sea or buried, our dearest departed people will be risen on the last day to receive judgement. God will raise all of them on that day as he raised the dead with their dry bones to life – that we read in the book of Ezekiel 37: 1-10. “Nothing is impossible for God”.

We believe that we continue to share a relationship with those who have died seeking even ardent intercessory prayers of our dearest saints. When we pray for the souls of the faithful departed, we are praying for those whose souls are journeying through purgatory. They are preparing for eternal life in heaven. They are like a plant in our garden that is fallen on the ground looking for some support of a stick. We believe that our prayers would be like that of a stick giving support to the fallen plant. Our prayers will help them to speed up their journey to eternal life with God in heaven. Martha professed her faith acknowledging that Jesus is Christ, the Son of God. And in the same way “Blessed are YOU merciful: for YOU shall obtain mercy. Blessed are YOU the pure in heart: for YOU shall see God”.

A CHALLENGE OF FORGIVENESS (Matthew 22:34-40)

30th Sunday in Ordinary Time (A)

Ex 22:20-26; 1 Thes 1:5c-10; Mt 22:34-40

October 29, 2023

A CHALLENGE OF FORGIVENESS

A lawyer asked Jesus which was the greatest among all of the 613 laws in Hebrew Scriptures. Jesus responded to the lawyer's question with two quotations from the Torah, the first five books. The first quotation was "Hear this, O Israel, Shema Israel, God is One. You shall love your God with your whole heart, your whole soul and your whole mind." Dt 6:5. The second comes from the Book of Leviticus, 19:18, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." 

The heart of Christian morality is the desire to love God fully, completely, and to love others as unique reflections of God's love. Jesus is not calling us to be minimalists. He is calling us to love God and neighbor completely. God wants us to love him with our whole mind. He wants us to offer him our whole mind. Are we distressed? Do we despair? Have your children or your parents, relatives or friends hurt you? Give him those thoughts and he will transform them to his way of thinking. We all have negative thoughts regarding other people. Their very existence irritate us. We give our negative thoughts to God, past memory, guilt conscience that’s been stored up. He will turn them into a source of grace. Prayer is amazing. Not only does God listen to our needs. He heals us when our own minds attack us. 

Jesus wants our whole heart. He wants us to love him with every part in our heart. If there is a part of our love that we may have for someone else, then that itself is not real love because God is not in that love. The real love gives. Giving oneself to the satisfaction of the carnal desire is not true love of God. The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately corrupt; who can understand it? (Jer 17:9) “from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, (Mk 7:21) a pure heart is a gift to God. Loving God with our whole heart is really loving our neighbors as ourselves.

God wants our whole soul. God wants all those qualities that distinguish us from animals. He wants our ability to love and to think, but also our ability to imagine, our ability to choose, our ability to express ourselves as individuals, our ability to be who we are, created in his image and likeness. Then we have to give all we have back to God. “Love your neighbor as yourself.” 

In his encyclical on love, Deus Caritas Est, God is Love, Pope Benedict noted the three words for love used by the ancient Greeks: eros, philia, and agape. Eros refers to physical love without any spiritual qualities. Philia refers to the love of friendship. This is the love people have for each other. Agape refers to love that is the heart of the relationship with God. Agape is the love that wants others to join us in a relationship with God. Christian love should be shared with everyone, even to those who continue to hurt us: “Love your enemies”. 

Let’s say you entered into a business partnership with a friend. As time goes on, the business was not showing the profit it initially showed. Then, after a few years, the government came knocking. Taxes had not been paid because your partner had been embezzling from the business. Not only do loses the business, lose home, car, and so forth. Now the family has to make due in a small apartment. Meanwhile, the former partner has initiated a law suit against. And Jesus says, “Love your enemies.” It is tough. Well, when we get into a situation like this, we have to strengthen our relationship with God by increasing our prayer life. 

We need to pray that our former partner will turn from evil embrace a relationship with God. This is tough. And Jesus wishes that he changes his life and goes to heaven. God wants our love to win others over for him. That is the meaning of “when someone slaps you on your right cheek, offer him your left cheek.” Being a Christian is tough business. It means following the one who on the cross forgave his executioners, “Father, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing.” Love God with your whole heart, our whole soul and your whole mind, and love your neighbor as yourself.”

‘Give and it shall be given unto you’ (Matthew 22:15-21)

29th Sunday in Ordinary Time (A)

Is 45:1,4-6; 1 Thes 1:1-5b; Mt 22:15-21 

October 22, 2023

‘Give and it shall be given unto you’

In today’s Gospel Jesus and the religious leaders in Jerusalem continue their tense exchange of questions and challenges. At this point the disciples of the Pharisees, together with the Herodians, try to entrap Jesus by their question about the payment of taxes.  The matter of taxes was a real problem in the actual ministry of Jesus and the early Church too.

This question of tax-paying was not of merely historical interest. Matthew was writing between A.D. 80 and 90. The Temple had been destroyed in A.D. 70. So long as it stood, every Jew had been bound to pay the half-shekel Temple tax. After the destruction of the Temple, the Roman government demanded that tax should be paid to the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus in Rome. It is obvious how bitter a regulation that was for a Jew to stomach. 

But Jesus was wise. He asked to see a denarius, which was stamped with the Emperor’s head. In the ancient days coinage was the sign of kingship. Every king struck his own coinage. Jesus asked whose image was on the coin. The answer was that Caesar’s head was on it. Jesus said, “give it back to Caesar, it is his, and give to God what belongs to him.” With his unique wisdom Jesus never laid down rules and regulations. That is why his teaching is timeless and never goes out of date. He always lays down principles. 

Every Christian has a double citizenship. Christian is a citizen of the country in which he lives. He owes the safety against lawless men which only settled government can give. He owes all public services. To take a simple example, few men are wealthy enough to have a lighting system or a cleansing system or a water system of their own. These are public services. In a welfare state the citizen owes still more to the state--education, medical services, provision for unemployment and old age. This places him under a debt of obligation. The Christian has a duty to the government in return for the privileges that the government brings.

But the Christian is also a citizen of heaven. There are matters of religion and of principle in which the responsibility of the Christian is to God. It may well be that the two citizenships will never clash. But when the Christian is convinced that it is God’s will that something should be done, it must be done. Or if he is convinced that something is against the will of God, he must resist it and take no part in it. A real Christian is at one and the same time a good citizen of his country and a good citizen of the Kingdom of Heaven. Peter says, “Fear God. Honor the emperor ( 1 Peter 2:17). Malachi 3: 10 Saya, “Bring one-tenth of your income into the storehouse so that there may be food in my house. Test me in this way,” says the LORD of Armies. “See if I won't open the windows of heaven for you and flood you with blessings.

Wedding Garment of Righteousness (Matthew 22:1-14)

28th Sunday in Ordinary Time (A)

Is 25 : 6-10a; Phil 4:12-14,19-20; Mt 22:1-14

October 15, 2023

WEDDING GARMENT OF RIGHTEOUSNESS

After criticizing the religious leaders through the parable of the tenants in last Sunday’s Gospel, Jesus proceeds to tell another parable, again directed at the religious leaders. In the parable of the wedding feast, Jesus offers an image of the kingdom of heaven using the symbol of a wedding banquet. In today’s first reading from the prophet Isaiah and in today’s psalm, the Lord’s goodness is evident in the symbol of a feast of good food and wine. The image of a wedding feast is a symbol for God’s salvation. 

But it appears that accepting the king’s invitation brings certain obligations. The guest who failed to dress in the appropriate wedding attire is cast out of the feast. We are reminded that while many are invited to the kingdom of heaven, not all are able to meet its requirements. God invites us to his feast, giving us his salvation. Yet he asks us to repent for our sins.

If we go to visit in a friend’s house, we do not go in the clothes we wear in the shipyard or the garden. We know very well that it is not the clothes which matter to the friend. It is not that we want to put on a show. It is simply a matter of respect that we should present ourselves in our friend’s house as neatly as we can. The fact that we prepare ourselves to go there is the way in which we outwardly show our affection and our esteem for our friend. So it is with God’s house. 

This parable has nothing to do with the clothes in which we go to church; it has everything to do with the spirit in which we go to God’s house. It is profoundly true that church-going must never be a fashion parade. But there are garments of the mind and of the heart and of the soul—the garment of expectation, the garment of humble penitence, the garment of faith, the garment of reverence, the garment of righteousness—and these are the garments without which we cannot approach God. 

Very often we go to God’s house with no preparation at all; if every man and woman in our congregations came to church prepared to worship, after a little prayer, a little thought, and a little self-examination, then worship would be worship indeed—the worship in which and through which things happen in men’s souls and in the life of the Church and in the affairs of the world.

Jesus’ message in the parable cautions against exclusive beliefs about the kingdom of heaven. The parable also teaches about humility. Those who assume that they are the invited guests may find that they have refused the invitation, and so others are invited in their place. To accept the invitation is also to accept its obligations. God wants our full conversion in complete acceptance of his mercy.

A Call To Audit The Gifts Received (Matthew 21:33-43)

 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time (A)

Is 5:1-7: Phil 4:6-9; Mt 21:33-43

October 8, 2023

A CALL TO AUDIT THE GIFTS RECEIVED

Today's Gospel follows directly the last Sunday's Gospel about the two sons. Through the parable of two sons he addressed the wickedness of the elders and chief priests of the temple. Jesus once again speaks to the priests and elders with another parable. He urges them to listen him and believe that he is the only begotten son of God and that he comes from God. In today’s parable we have some questions like, who is the landowner? What is the vineyard? Who are the tenants? Who are the servants to collect the portion of the harvest? Finally, who is the son of the landowner to collect his rent? 

In telling this parable, Jesus is clearly drawing upon Isaiah 5:1-7, which is today's first reading. Jesus doesn't, therefore, have to explain the symbolism of the parable. The vineyard represents faithful or the kingdom of God, the landowner represents God himself, the servants represent the prophets, and the bad tenants represent the religious leaders. Yet Jesus nonetheless explains the meaning of the parable for his audience. The Kingdom of God will be taken away from the unbelieving chief priests and elders because they did not believe in Jesus as the only son of God and Messiah. That’s why it is given to the faithful who sincerely believe in Jesus as the only begotten son of God. 

Clearly this Gospel shows the tension that was mounting between Jesus and his audience like the religious leaders and unbelieving pharisees. Because they thought that no one could claim to be the son of God. that’s why Jesus’ message was dangerous and bringing conflicts and tensions in the temple.

We are born of God and became adopted sons and daughter of God in Christ Jesus. Jesus taught us to call God Abba Father! Do we really believe in this? This Gospel reminds us of the importance of listening to Jesus’ word First. Secondly, We become tenants or custodians of many things in our Baptismal life. We have taken so many gifts from God like that of family, children, office responsibilities. God through his Son Jesus asks all of us to audit and submit the account. We need to be ready. Today he demands for the submission of the account of the gifts we received from him. He demands all of us through the Holy Mother Church and her custodians. Are we ready to audit our transparency in Christian Baptismal life? 

If we are able to do it be thankful to God. If not, let us not mask ourselves. Come closer to him. He will ease our burden and bless us to be more useful and trustworthy tenant or custodian in his vineyard, the kingdom of God.