11th Sunday in Ordinary Time:  C

As we journey through the Year of Mercy, our daily reflections on the Word of God and in the participation of various Sacraments, constantly encourages us to reflect upon the Mercy and the compassion of God in our lives. While we enjoy the Mercy of God, we are also invited to be the agents of God’s mercy and forgiveness to our brothers and sisters of our time.

 According to the evangelist Luke the Public ministry of Jesus begins with the proclamation of His mission statement (Lk 4:14-30) that is to bring good news to the poor. This good news had been through curing the sick and the possessed, being kind to women, feeding the hungry, giving hope to the hopeless, forgiveness of sinners.

The Gospel reading today focuses on one such good news to the poor, that is, how Jesus forgives the woman who acknowledged her many sins and thus courageously came forward in the midst of men, to touch and kiss the feet of Jesus. 

In the gospel narration it is assumed that the woman has heard from Jesus about God’s offer of grace. Acknowledging her many sins, she has repented. Experiencing so much gracious forgiveness, she is moved to express the great love that wells up within her and, hearing that Jesus has been invited to a banquet, she comes to be with him and present to Jesus some precious, perfumed oil. Because of her gratitude and love for Jesus, she breaks all social taboos by letting down her hair to wipe away the tears. She then anoints his feet with the perfume. 

I am sure, at times we all feel the need of God’s forgiveness in our lives. The truth is that God is always ready to welcome us and always wants us to be united with him. This is the prayer of Jesus for all of us, “ Father they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us.” (Jn17: 21). The moment we turn towards God, he is so happy to welcome us with his open arms. So, let us constantly turn towards our Father, through the worthy celebration of the Sacrament of reconciliation, where Jesus meets us with love, mercy and compassion. 

Wish you all a joyous week ahead! God bless 

Fr. John Sebastian OMI

23rd Sunday In Ordinary Time Year A

Readings: Ezekiel 33:7-9; Romans 13:8-10; Matthew 18:15-20

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus, today we are all invited to become the agents of love, peace and unity in our families, society and in the world. St. Paul in his first letter to the Corinthians talks about the nature of love. He says, “Love is patient and kind; love is not jealous or boastful; it is not arrogant or rude. Love does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in the right. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends; as for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.” (1 Cor 13:4-8)

Today’s reading explains one such nature of love: that is how one should participate in the life of our brothers and sisters, who might have done wrong to us. As members of the mystical body of Christ, we are not alone in the journey to attain our salvation. We journey along with others and thus it is our duty to take care of our brothers and sisters who struggle to keep up to the unity in the society by their unbecoming behaviours.

In the first reading, we see how the prophet Ezekiel is asked to be "watchman for the house of Israel.” He is obliged to warn Israel of their moral dangers.  If Ezekiel refrains from speaking God’s word to them, God will hold Ezekiel responsible for the death of the wicked people. In other words this reading clearly indicates to us, how each one becomes agents to achieve unity, peace and harmony in our families, society and in the world. In general the 18^th Chapter in Matthew’s gospel is a discourse on mutual relations within the Christian community and, especially, what to do when divisions arise.

To fulfil this moral responsibility of ours, today’s Gospel gives us the following three-fold methods of dealing with the persons: in the first stage, it is between the two people concerned. If it works Jesus says: "You have won back your brother." To win back is a Jewish technical term for conversion.

The second stage: if the offender refuses to listen to his "brother", then others should be brought in as confirming witnesses. It is a necessity, because the law says, "A single witness shall not prevail against a man for any crime or for any wrong in connection with any offence that he has committed; only on the evidence of two witnesses, or of three witnesses, shall a charge be sustained.” (Deu 19: 15).  If neither of these two steps works and if he still refuses to listen, then he has the duty to report to the Church. The 'Church' here is understood as the local community because during the time of Jesus the term Church was not in use.

If you analyse these three methods that Jesus proposes: one could clearly see how anger is slowly being broken down. When you are angry you may be led to take a hasty decision but when you anger is broken, you are given more time to think about your decision and the wellbeing of the other, which will result in winning back your brothers and sisters in healthy relationship.

Here is an advice of a tribal leader to his members: “If you have quarrelled with a brother and you have decided to kill him,” he said, “first sit down, fill your pipe and smoke it. When you have finished smoking you will realise that death is a severe punishment for the mistake he has committed and you may decide to give a good whipping instead. Then you fill your pipe a second time and smoke it to the bottom. By then you feel that the lashes will be too much and instead some simple words of reproof would be sufficient. Then when the third time you have filled your pipe and smoked it to the finish, you will be better convinced that the better thing to do is, going to that brother and embrace him.

Dear friends, during this week, please set aside sometime for yourself, and find out, how you deal with the disputes you have between the members of your family, friends, relatives and work colleague? Please remember, love is our guiding force to achieve unity.

Wish you all a Happy Father’s Day celebration!

God bless

22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time - A 

Readings: Jeremiah 20:7-9; Romans 12:1-2; Matthew 16:21-27

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus, today’s Gospel clearly out lines the important qualities that is demanded of Jesus’ disciples: “If anyone wants to be a follower of mine, let him renounce himself and take up his cross and follow me.”

Last Sunday we meditated, how Jesus appreciated Peter for recognizing him as the Messiah and thus placed Peter as the head of the Church; calling him as rock and on this rock I will build my church. But today we see entirely a different picture of Jesus’ attitude towards Peter, calling him as Satan. Why did Jesus strongly admonish Peter? Though Peter had grasped the fact that Jesus was the Messiah, but had not grasped it fully as to what it really meant.

When Jesus foretold his disciples about his suffering, death and resurrection, Peter started to remonstrate with Jesus and said, ‘this must not happen to you.” It is to say that Peter was telling Jesus what direction he should take in his life. It all happened because Peter did not understand the divine plan for His Son Jesus. 

The disciples were still thinking of Jesus in terms of a conquering Messiah, a warrior king, who would sweep the Romans from Palestine and lead Israel to power.  In other words the disciples were seeking the path of glory but to Jesus it was the path of cross.

The attitude of Peter towards Jesus raises  this fundamental question in me: what do I mean when I say that I am the disciple of Jesus? The very purpose of God sending his only Son into the world was to love us and redeem us by sacrificing his only begotten son on the cross. In other words God sacrificed his Son, so that we may have life, life in abundance.

If I see Jesus, just as a miracle worker, then I have missed the whole point of being the disciple of Jesus. This is what happened to the disciples, when Jesus foretold his disciples the kind of death he was to undergo. Prior to today’s passage, when we go through the previous chapters in Matthew’s gospel, we will see how the disciples witnessed to the miralces of Jesus: feeding  five thousand people, waliking on the water and so forth. As a result of these Peter could not accept Jesus, the Son of the living God would expercise his royal messiahship from the throne of a Cross. He thus attempts to stop Jesus’ journey towards Jerusalem.[1]  “But Jesus turned and said to Peter, ‘Get behind me, Satan! You are an obstacle in my path, because the way you think is not God’s way but man’s.’

Yes, dear brothers and sisters, if I truly want to be the follower of Jesus then crosses are inevitable. Bonhoeffer, a German Theologian, in his book “The Cost of Discipleship” clearly defines who is a disciple?  He says, “Just as Christ is Christ only in virtue of his suffering and rejection, so the disciple is a disciple only in so far as he shares his Lord’s suffering and rejection and crucifixion. Discipleship means adherence to the person of Jesus, and therefore submission to the law of Christ which is the law of the cross.”[2] It is evident from his understanding of discipleship that suffering is included in one’s effort to follow Jesus.

In this context it is good to meditate on the approach of Mother Teresa to those who wanted to join her order.  This is how she used to address the candidates, when they expressed their desire to follow her spirituality, she said, “Our work is hard. We are serving the poor and the homeless 24 hours a day.” In other words, she was clearly indicating the words of Jesus to them: “If anyone wants to be a follower of mine, let him renounce himself and take up his cross and follow me.”

Dear friends it is a human tendency to avoid suffering and to embrace happiness. But in reality it is not possible, because to achieve something we all need to undergo some nature of suffering. So let us not worry about the temporary thing rather worry about what is to come. Fulton J Sheen says, “Unless there is a Good Friday in your life, there can be no Easter Sunday.”

So, let us follow Jesus courageously, by embracing the daily crosses that come on our ways. The crosses are not permanent but a reality to be endured before we see our Saviour face to face.

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[1] Francis J. Moloney,  This is The Gospel of the Lord, (St. Paul’s Publication, 1992). 172.

[2] Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship,  (London: SCM Press, 1971). p. 77.

21st Sunday in Ordinary Time - A

Readings: Isaiah 22:19-23; Romans 11:33-36; Matthew 16:13-20

Dear brothers and sisters, the liturgy of the word for today invites us all to answer this question: Who is Jesus to me? As the members of the mystical body of Christ, we try our best to listen to Jesus and thus try to model our lives after Him. In doing this, do we really understand and profess about the person whom we follow?

In today’s gospel Jesus is posing to his disciples two questions with different emphasis: Who do people say the Son of Man is? And who do you say I am? When you go further into these two questions, the first question is more about what do people (public opinion) think about Him and the latter is more personal.

Jesus asked these two questions in the region of Caesarea Philippi. It is not a Jewish territory rather Caesarea was a Hellenistic city, populated mainly by gentiles and was a home to a cultic shrine dedicated to the deity Pan. This is to say that Jesus is now away from the surveillance of his opponents and thus poses these two important questions to his disciples. Jesus asked these two questions having spent sometime with them, because he wanted to make sure that they are on the right path.

When Jesus asked the first question, who do people say the Son of Man is, the disciples started to answer him immediately, because it did not demand any personal reflection rather it was just telling Jesus what people thought that Jesus was. They said, ‘Some say he is John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets. In all these responses the common thread that unites these opinions is the perception that Jesus stands in the line of the prophets.

Now Jesus likes to know what his disciples thought about Him, so Jesus asked them, “who do you say the Son of Man is? Peter said, “You are the Christ the Son of the living God”. Peter was able to say this because of his previous encounter with Jesus one such was walking on water towards Jesus (Mt 14: 28). When Peter expressed his understanding of Jesus, then Jesus immediately told him that ‘Simon son of Jonah, you are a happy man! Because it was not flesh and blood 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 Church.

For today, let me just reflect with you on this statement of Jesus about Simon Peter: ‘Simon son of Jonah, you are a happy man! How did Simon Peter receive this appreciation from Jesus? This is merely through his finding of God in his life. Similarly when we find and profess that Jesus is our Lord and master then we all become a happy person. So, let us try to find God in everything we do and thus profess his name at every moment in our lives and thus live a life of happiness joy and love.

So, let us continue to ask ourselves: Who is Jesus to me?

God bless