27^th Sunday (Year B)

Gen. 2:18-24; Ps. 128; Heb. 2:9-11; Mark 10:2-16

Those who did accept Christ, He gave power to become the children of God.

Beloved in Christ, I have a question for you?  How does a foreigner become a citizen of a country?  By going through a process called Naturalization.

 In the US, Naturalization is the process by which citizenship is granted to a foreigner after he or she fulfills the requirements established by Congress in the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA). So can somebody say I want to become a citizen but I don’t want to fulfill the requirement set by Congress? NO!

Okay, let us apply the same principle to Christianity. If you read the Gospel of John, chapter 1 verse 11, the Bible says, Jesus came to his own people, and they did not accept him. “But to all who did accept Him, who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God” So, can somebody say I am a Christian but I cannot accept all the teachings of Christ? No! Who then is a Christian? One who accepts ALL the teachings of Christ? Yes, we may struggle to live them. But to reject the teachings is to reject Christ. You cannot claim to be a Christian and reject any of the teachings of Christ.

One of the teachings of our Lord Jesus Christ that some believers are struggling to accept is about marriage. In our world today, many people are confused as to what marriage is. There is a debate as to whether marriage is between a man and a woman or a man and another man, or a woman and another woman. Our first reading and the gospel today give us an answer about God’s teaching on marriage.  There are two important facts about the doctrine of marriage revealed in our readings today:

Beloved, do you believe this truth? Will you lay down your life to defend this teaching of Christ? Can God depend on you to teach this truth to our society today?

Beloved, if you have gone through any civil divorce, the Church shares your pain and will help you start all over again as you but marriage validly celebrated in the Church CANNOT be broken. The Church, of course, can allow separation when the is any danger in a couple living together but this separation is always permission given to the couple to stay apart for sometime as they reflect and pray about their marriage and with the help of God’s Church, family, friends, and expert marriage counselors restore their marriage. Also, the Church grants annulment, which should not be confused with divorce. Annulment is a finding by a church tribunal, or court, that no valid marriage bond was formed because the requirements for valid consent were not met at the time of the wedding.

So in sum, marriage is a divine institution and there is no divorce in sacramental marriage, as Jesus says in our Gospel today. Can you accept these teachings of Christ? My Dear People of God, True Christians are those who accept ALL the teachings of Christ. Not some of the teachings but ALL the teachings of Christ. True Christians are those who allow God to be God!

26th Sunday (Year)

Dt. 4:1-2, 6-8; Ps. 15; James 1:17-18; 21b-22, 27; Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 20-23

Living our Calling as true Prophets of God

My dear People of God! Our second reading today invites us to seek what is most important in life, the Kingdom of God; and our Gospel tells us to stop at nothing in entering the Kingdom and helping others to do the same. This is the work that was entrusted to Moses whom we read about in our first reading.

Our first reading is about a prayer that Moses made centuries ago.  Looking at the huge responsibility he had to lead all the people to God, Moses prayed that God would give His Spirit to all the people so that each person would become a prophet.  God answered that prayer by choosing 70 people and giving them His Spirit. From that time on, God continued to choose prophets for the Israelites. In the New Testament, Jesus, the God who become man, promised to send down the Holy Spirit upon all who believe in Him. Therefore, all those who are baptized into Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit are called to be Prophets of God.

Who then is a prophet? This word comes from the Greek “propheme” which literally means, “to speak”.  A prophet then is someone who speaks in the name of God, a messenger of God.  In the Gospel reading today, Jesus gives a deeper meaning to what it means to be a messenger of God; one who speaks and acts in the name of God.

Beloved in Christ, our Scripture readings today invite us to reflect and imitate Moses in our own roles at Prophets of God. There are so many things that Moses did but I would like to mentioned three of them for our reflection today.

There were many times that the people offended Moses and God (eg. Num 21) but Moses forgave them and interceded for them. If you pay attention to that story you will notice that Moses had to learn to forgive the people first before he could pray for them.

Today, all of us, parishioners of STA, must dare to be the prophets that we were baptized to be. Like Moses, we must first forgive those who have offended us and then ask God to forgive then. When Fr. Seda, our Pastor, heard that one of our parishioners set our Church building on fire, the first thing he did was to ask the staff to visit our parishioner, express our forgiveness to her on behalf of all the people of our parish, and to bring her God’s forgiveness. As a staff, we have done that on your behalf but each one of you must make a personal decision to forgive her for any inconvenience that she might have caused you. It is only when you take the first step to forgive her that you can pray for her. This is what it means to be a prophet at STA today, this is what it means to speak and act in the name of Christ. Are you willing to speak and act in the name of God? Are you willing to be the prophet you were called to be?