Category: English

Today, we celebrate the Solemnity of Christ Our Universal King.  In the first reading, Christ’s kingship was anticipated in the crowning of David as the King of the whole Israel.  The gospel laid bare for us the type of King Our Lord is.  He is the one who hung on the cross for the sake of his brothers and sisters.

The kingship of Christ today challenges our assumption about power and leadership.  As king, Christ “chose not to save himself but instead offered himself for our sake to reconcile us to God”.  His kingship is not about earthly power, glory and wealth nor of national and political pride.  It is spiritual.  Christ’s kingship is a scandal to a world trapped in the struggle for power and prestige today.

In fact, the two thieves that hung at the two sides of Christ represent this struggle.  Each of them personified one of the two interpretations of kingship. One is the political and the other is the spiritual.  While the criminal who mocked Christ, asking him, “Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us,” represents the wrong understanding of kinship of Christ as a political leader, the other thief, who rebuked his brother and asked Jesus to remember him when he comes to his kingdom represents the true meaning of Christ’s kingship—a spiritual savior and messiah.

Dearest ones, how did this “good thief” know who Christ was?  He began by acknowledging his sins reminding his brother that they were suffering for their evil actions while this man is innocent.  He also contrasted their anger and annoyance with Christ’s calmness, love and forgiving spirit towards his tormentors.  Jesus was full of mercy even in his agony and pains.

Just like this “converted thief”, Christ would want us to be a sign of his future kingdom.  He doesn’t want us to carry placards and banners but to live and act like him.  He wants us to be people of peace, truth, joy, mercy, and so forth.  To describe Christ’s kingdom, one would say that its banner is the cross, its emblem is suffering, its flag is service, and its passport is love.  Just as citizens of a country are known through their passport, we are to be known through our love and mercy since we are citizens of Christ’s heavenly kingdom.  It is to this kingdom that we all are called to be.

Someone told a joke about a man who visited Israel and described to a friend that in Israel they have three Sabbaths each week:  Friday for Muslims, Saturday for Jews, and Sunday for Christians. And then the friend responded, “Did you hear of the atheist who was converted?  He was tired of being the only one who didn’t have a day off.”

In these last days, we have been hearing about what will look like an “everlasting day off” — our departure from the world to rest with God forever.  I can imagine heaven being for me like my Tuesday day off.  The only difference is that it will be eternal.  While our readings today described the terrible things that will happen at the end of the world, Malachi and Jesus remind us that the just ones should not be afraid.  That means that each of us should concern ourselves with how to live a holy life in order to go to heaven.  Remember, what is important is not how one dies but whether he or she goes to heaven.

Malachi tells us that it is only those who fear the Lord and, as Jesus also puts it in the Gospel, only those who preserved the faith will be saved.  Dearest ones, now is the time for each of us to take stock of how we have lived so far.  Paul, in the second reading, reminds us that our lives affect others in the community.  He asked the Thessalonians to imitate him and his companions.

Paul’s admonition brings home the truth about how we are connected to each other.  If we do evil, people are influenced by our actions just as much as when we do good.  Jesus warned us in the Scriptures about not being the cause of scandal for others.  If we look at our lives now, can we in sincerity tell us others to imitate us?  Will our influence bring them closer to Christ or take them further away from him?

As parents or grandparents, is your life having a positive influence on your kids and grandkids?  Is it bringing them closer to Christ?  One way to show a good example, as Paul tells us, is to avoid meddling in other peoples’ affairs.  We are called not to be busybodies, interfering with other people’s lives.  Rather than compounding peoples’ problems through gossip and slander, can we pray for them?  Through prayer we can help others more.

The book of Wisdom tells God:  “what you hated, you would not have fashioned, for you love all things that are”.  This love of God is seen in Jesus’ statement to Zacchaeus “come down quickly, for today I must stay at your house . . . for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save what was lost”.

Dearest sisters and brothers, our God always and in every moment cares for us, in spite of how sinful and imperfect we are.  Zacchaeus, as we know, was a wealthy tax collector who extorted and defrauded the poor.  He was very much loathed by all because of that.  In the gospel today, he received forgiveness after having made the extra effort of climbing the tree to see Jesus.  What lessons are there for us?

The first is the call for us to overcome all obstacles preventing us from encountering Jesus.  Zacchaeus knew that his short stature was an impediment to seeing the Lord.  He devised a means to overcome that.  Again, at the encounter with the Lord at his house, his ill-gotten wealth would be another impediment, but he got rid of it by making restitution to those he defrauded and giving half to charity.

Today, Zacchaeus’ situation mirrors ours.  Jesus loves and cares for us as he did for Zacchaeus and is calling us right now to embrace Him.  What are the obstacles preventing us from having a full relationship with him?  Can we honestly look inward to find them?  Zacchaeus’ efforts today happen in two levels:  the first was the physical effort he made to climb the tree.

In the same way, what are the physical obstacles preventing us from encountering Jesus?  Is it coming from our present relationships?  Is it coming from our places of work or occupation that is preventing us from having enough time for God?  Is it coming from our material achievements, wealth and riches, talents and gifts etc.?

At the second level, Zacchaeus also dealt with spiritual impediment.  He got rid of his greed, pride and ambition when he encountered Christ.  In our own case, what are those spiritual obstacles?  Are we greedy, prideful, ambitious, etc.?  Like Zacchaeus, are we ready now to go the extra-mile to get rid of these spiritual defects to right our relationship with God?  Can we take that bold leap to do away with whatever obstacle that is preventing us from having a full-blown relationship with Jesus?  Until we do, the joy of the Lord that Zacchaeus had today may not fully materialize in our lives.

Today, we celebrate the Solemnity of all the nameless Saints.  As Revelation says, “I had a vision of a great multitude, which no one could count, from every nation, race, people, and tongue.  They stood before the throne and before the Lamb, wearing white robes and holding palm branches in their hands”.

If we are to reflect on the symbol of their white robe and palm branches, we would understand them better.  The white cloth makes reference to the baptismal purity, joy, and resurrection.  The newly baptized are always clothed with white cloth to show the new life in Christ.  Today, for all the saints to be wearing them means that saints are those who have remained faithful to their baptismal vow and made efforts not to taint their lives with sin.

The palm branches they hold in their hand is a sign of victory.  They ended their lives’ battles victoriously, surviving the great distress and washing their robes in the blood of the Lamb.  Just like in every battle, they remained in absolute obedience to Christ, the battle commander.

Dearest sisters and brothers, like these saints, we are called to absolute obedience to Christ through life of fidelity.  To be faithful to Christ in this present life is to be blessed.  Life of mourning, meekness, hunger and thirst for justice, mercy and peace-loving are all ways of participating in the divine life.

People sometimes think that life without pain and suffering is synonymous with joy.  In reality, that is false as Jesus makes us aware in the gospel.  It is only a life lived for God that is really blessed and joyful—a life ready to sacrifice and bear pains for others for the sake of God.

The saints we honor today know that so well.  None of them is where he or she is today because of ease but because of faithfulness in spite of the challenges.  Like the saints, today’s celebration calls us to faithfulness in deed and thoughts.  These saints made the world beautiful, filled it with warmth, light, and hope.  They witnessed God’s love in their lives. Let us imitate them in present lives too to be tomorrow where they are now.

In today’s gospel, the Pharisee who went to the Synagogue to pray, said:  “I thank you (God) that I am not like the rest of humanity, greedy, dishonest, adulterous – or like the tax collector.”  Dearest sisters and brothers, in these few words, we see the worst of our human attitude—a tendency to judge oneself as being better than others.  A heart that sees oneself as the best while it sees others as the worst.

In this one single phrase, we see human pride, jealousy, scorn for fellow human beings and ingratitude to God all combined.  That was why Jesus remarked that the Pharisee spoke to himself rather than to God.  In the first reading, Sirach warns us against the attitude of pride in our prayer, reminding us “the prayer of the lowly pierces the cloud”.  The Tax Collector showed that in these simple words:  “God be merciful to me, a sinner.”

A look at the Pharisee’s actions highlights one major problem that we  have today. As someone rightly remarked, “the Pharisee set up his own standards of life and conducted and judged himself accordingly”.  How often we do that today?  While the Lord and His Church have given us moral standards to follow, many times we try to lower the standard to give ourselves a pass for doing so little.

Sometime we are so concerned only with the external requirements of the law without adequate spiritual disposition of the heart that loves God and neighbor.  The Lord in this parable teaches us that the standard is himself and not our own individual standard.  We are not self-sufficient, only God is!  It is the standard to love our neighbor which the Pharisee failed to do.  It is the standard not to forget to be merciful in our judgment of others as we do not know what their struggles are.  It is the standard of humility in our relationship with God, our neighbor and ourselves.

Humility is being truthful to ourselves knowing that before God we are dust and sinners.  Humility as someone remarked “is not supposed to destroy our self-esteem but to purify it”.  The problem of the Pharisee does not lie in the acknowledgement of his good works but in attributing the success to himself and not to God.  May we always be humble enough to remember that every good work of ours is due to God’s grace!

The readings of today present to us the importance of perseverance especially in our prayers.  In the first reading, Moses held his hands raised up until the Israelites won the war.  In the Gospel, the widow kept pestering the unjust judge until he gave in to her request.  Paul in the second reading encouraged Timothy to persevere in good work.

Dearest sisters and brothers, in the context of today’s fast-moving world made possible by technology, perseverance in life, especially in our prayer, is a challenge for each of us.  The virtue of perseverance and patience is lacking today.  We live in a world where “we want instant relief, quick action, prompt service, and instant product.”  Everything we want today must be given to us now.  No one has the ability anymore to wait.

Yet from Moses and the widow of the parable, God reminds us that patience and perseverance is a true sign of faith in Him.  Through those virtues, we live out the truth that everything depends on God’s timing which is always the best.  “As we pray, our frame of reference changes from self-reliance to a complete dependence on God”.

Prayer is a privilege given to us as creatures.  To pray is to acknowledge the importance of God in our lives and praying always means living constantly in God’s presence.  Spiritual progress is time consuming and we need to be working on it every second of our lives without given up.  Spiritual perfection is not an “instant coffee”.

Also, the readings remind us of the importance of supporting each other in prayer and actions.  It is true the Israelites won their battle against the Amalekites; however, Moses needed the support of Aaron and Hur for his weary hands to be steady.  In the same way, we need the support of each other in our spiritual journey.  And we can do that through prayers and actions.

In the first reading, Naaman returned to Elisha to give thanks while in the Gospel, the healed Samaritan, returned and thanked Jesus.  Today’s lessons among other things brings home to us the importance of thanksgiving.  St. Paul in his letter to Thessalonians says that thanksgiving is the basic foundation of our lives as Christians.  Looking at our society, ungratefulness is one major crisis we have today.

This ungratefulness has manifested in the way human life has been cheapened.  From abortion, suicide, euthanasia, to constant mass killings, all are manifestations of lack of gratitude to God for life.  When life is thankfully accepted as a gift, it is usually manifested in how a society cherishes it and does everything to preserve it.

Being thankful extends to everything we are and everything we receive.  The Jews who were healed in today’s gospel perhaps took it for granted that as Jews, they were entitled to God’s healing.  That is false.  Jesus rebuked them and showered praise on the Samaritan who knew that his healing was an unmerited favor from God.

Being grateful therefore means not taken anything for granted.  As someone rightly said, “we tend to take for granted what we’ve always had, as though it was ours by right”.  Dearest sisters and brothers, from God’s perspective, nothing is ours by right.  As St. Paul asks us, “what do you have that you have not received?  Everything is a gift and we are called always to be grateful for them.”

Being grateful begins with contentment.  If we are not contented with what we have, we wouldn’t know that we already have so much.  Truly, in life, we do not need much to be happy.  Yet, we are always bombarded with the latest material goods that makes us think we need more and more and we are constantly in desire.  “Day after day advertisements (commercials) try to inflame us with so many desires, that we can forget the blessings we have already.”

Being thankful means also trusting God not only in good times but in bad as well as knowing that everything He allows to happen is for our own good.  Alexander Whyte who was famous for daily thanksgiving to God, on the day a blizzard covered the ground with a deep layer of snow and the power lines were down, prayed “We thank you God that every day is not like today”.   Jesus today calls us to develop that thanksgiving mindset in all things.

The readings of today reminds us about the importance of faith.  The Lord answered Habakkuk in the first reading “the just one, because of his faith, shall live”.  In the Gospel, Jesus tells his apostles, “if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you would say to this mulberry tree, be uprooted and planted in the sea, and it would obey you”.

Dearest sisters and brothers, the virtue of faith is extremely important and it is the foundation of our lives as Christians.  As its foundation, faith helps us see the truth that God is our maker on whom everything we are and have depends.  It is only through Him and in Him can our lives be meaningful.  Faith helps us to understand this truth; making us see everything, interpret and judge every event that happens and the world around us from God’s perspective.

I often think of faith which is seeing things from God’s perspective as looking at Memphis from 15,000 feet from the sky.  If you travel through the streets, you will never appreciate fully the beauty of this city until observed from above, where you will see how well ordered the streets are, well structured the houses are, and how the roads snake through the woods and so forth.  Looking at things from our human perspective is just seeing Memphis from the street alone where its beauty is hidden.

As Cardinal Sarah reminds us “faith is not simply an intuition, an emotion, or a feeling but the shape, the mold of our whole life, both private and public, personal and social.  It is an openness to accept many unanswered questions about life, trusting in the power and goodness of God no matter how bad the situations are.  Simply put, it is like our computer default mode.  When we have faith, we will understand life as a gift which Paul tells Timothy in the second readingm reminding him to “stir into flame the gift of God that you have”.

Each of us is a gift from God and we are called to be gifts to each other, humbly knowing that we cannot boast about anything at all since all are gifts from God, including our lives.  May our lives always be guided by this fundamental truth.

In today’s readings, we are presented with the fundamental truth about our lives.  We are created by God and only for Himself.  Everything we do in this life must conform to that one single truth.  In the first reading, Paul reminds Timothy to “lay hold of eternal life to which he is called”, meaning that all his works must have eternal life with God in view.  It is this truth that the rich man in the gospel “who dresses in purple garments and fine linen and dined sumptuously each day” forgot.

For the rich man, life on earth was simply an end to be enjoyed to its fullness.  There is no other life after it.  Unfortunately, he only discovered the truth too late when he hadn’t time to make amends.  It is this truth about life that each of us is called to reflect upon.  It is not a coincidence that today we live in a society that has all the temptations that trapped the rich man in his luxury.

I tend to think about all the luxury and innovations we have at our beck and call today:  the entertainment, the gadgets, and the wealth that inebriates and inundates our lives every day.  Samsung has launched its 10+ and Apple few weeks ago its latest iPhone 11.  Our film and entertainment industries:  the drama series, like The Game of the Thrones; the Netflix films like Black Panther, Aviator and others, have the power to keep us in our comfort zone.  Today we talk about artificial intelligence, internet of things, augmented reality, etc.

While they make life easier and help us to relax and do our stuff, think about what their abuses have done to our psyche and spiritual life.  Can we still manage time for some moments of spiritual quietude and silence?  While in the Church, some divide their attention between their phone messages and the Eucharist.  At home, we are treated to wild orgies that fill our television stations.

Dearest sisters and brothers, it is important to remind ourselves that the rich did not end up in hell because of wealth but how he used it.  He never had time for God and spiritual silence was a taboo for him because he spent his entire life feasting.  He never knew that Lazarus was in need because all of his attention was on himself.

Let us pause for one moment to ask ourselves:  What do I spent my time and resources on?  Am I aware of people around me who need my help?  Remember, your eternal salvation depends on that.

In the gospel, Jesus says, “for the children of this world are more prudent in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light”.  This admonition was clearly manifested also in the lives of those cheating the poor in the first reading as recounted by Amos.  They, like the steward in the Gospel, were only concerned with their personal gain and that is why they were fixing their scales.

Dearest sisters and brothers, among the lessons from today’s readings is a call for us to once again re-evaluate our relationship with material goods and the role they play in our lives.  Are they means for us or an end?  In Genesis 1: 28, God said to us, “be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over every material thing on earth”.

If we ask:  what is the meaning of that mandate?  It is that God from the beginning, has set what our relationship with material things should be.  That we should be their master and not their slaves.  It is this relationship that was overturned in today’s first reading and the Gospel.  The dishonest people in the first reading, and the steward in the Gospel, were all dominated by their greed, and their desire for wealth, and riches had dominion over them.

How does material goods rule over one?  When they are pursued as if they are the only thing that matters in life that one’s life is centered on them.  For example, when our desire to acquire money to buy a house, buy a car, throw a party for Quinceñera, etc., becomes more important than our spiritual life, like coming to Mass on Sunday, being honest in our places of work or our businesses, attending to our spiritual needs in all its forms, saying our daily prayers, etc., then we are slaves to our desires.  In other words, one lives only for his or her wealth.

Again, material goods rule over one when they are more important to one than one’s fellow sisters and brothers.  It is obvious to us that when quest for wealth takes utmost importance in life, fellow human beings are treated as objects, means, and instruments to be exploited.  In fact, human beings are to such a one, another number.

In Genesis, God after creating material things, gave us the mandate to use them as means to sustain life and not as an end to be adored and worshiped.  It is only human beings that are created in God’s image and they are the only one that are an end in themselves.  Anytime one regards material goods as more important than fellow sisters or brothers, one is serving mammon and not God as Jesus warns in the Gospel.