25^th Sunday-Year A

Is 55:6-9

Ps. 145:2-3, 8-9, 17-18

Phil 1:20c-24, 27a

Mt. 20:1-16a

You are my friends …I no longer call you servants (John 15:13-15).

Beloved in Christ, Isaiah in the first reading today tells us to “seek the Lord” not only to experience his love and mercy, but also to be transformed and become that love and mercy which we receive from God. In us, God’s love and mercy should be personified. St Paul in our second reading tells us that for the Christian, to say I have life is to live like Christ and to conduct oneself in the way of the Gospel. Our gospel reading teaches us who God is, calls on us to develop the mind and attitude of Christ.

If you take the gospel reading today as an economic principle, you will miss the point. Jesus is not talking about how to run your business and pay your workers. He is also not saying that you can just stay home and refuse to work but demand your paycheck at the end of the month. No! We need to get into the background of today’s gospel reading in order to understand this parable. The community that Matthew was writing to was made up of Jews and gentiles. One of the problems in that community was that the Jews thought they should have special privileges in the eyes of God and in the community because they came to know God first. They struggled with the idea that God would treat the gentiles the same way he treated the Jews. Many of the Pharisees and scribes had problems with Jesus because he treated both the righteous and the sinner the same way. That is why Jesus told this parable to explain to them that God’s love and mercy is for all and that it is never too late for anyone to come to God.

I don’t think we have that problem today, do we? I think we do. We may not have a problem with people becoming Christians at any time. I don’t think any of us has a problem with the four beautiful children who were be baptized into our parish community this weekend. Or do you have a problem with that? I don’t think so; but let’s take a moment to ask ourselves: Deep down in your heart how do you feel when others are praised and you are not? Deep down in your heart, do you want to be the center of attraction and receive all the praises or are you happy when others receive the praise too. Are you able to celebrate peoples’ success when you feel things are not going the way they should be in your own life?”

There is one phrase in the gospel that sums up the entire message: “My friend”. This parable, like all the parables of Jesus, surprises us because the landowner saw the workers not as his slaves or even laborers, but as his friends, and treated them as such. Beloved in Christ, that is how God sees all of us, When he looks down from the cross he does not see human beings as slaves, or laborers. He sees all of us as children and his friends; and that is how he has and will always threat us: We are his children and his friends. In the gospel of John, Jesus defines who a friend is: "Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends …I no longer call you servants…instead, I have called you friends" (John 15:13-15). This understanding of friendship is totally different from the way some people define friendship today. Jesus is not talking about friendship like what at times we have on Facebook, those we can delete at any time or those who can delete us when we annoy them. No! Jesus is talking about a friend as one who will lay down his/her life for another. It is very unfortunate that in our world today not all families live as friends. There are some husbands and wives who are not friends; there are siblings who are not friends; there are parents and children who do not find friends in one another.

Beloved, if friendship means laying down one’s life for others, then what a blessing it is to have God as my friend. He will lay down his life for me, and what a blessing will it be if I can be a friend of God and lay down my life for him! What a blessing will it be if Isis will live with Christians and other minority groups as friends in Iraq, lay down their lives for them rather than kill them! Husbands, do you find a friend in your wives? Wives do you find a friend in your husband? Children, do you find a friend in your parents and siblings. Do you find a friend among your friends, one who will lay down his life for you? Do people find a friend in you? Can they count on you to lay down your life for them? Can God find a friend in you? Beloved, if you answered “no” to any of those questions, do not lose hope. Jesus tells us it is never too late to begin to do it right. I pray that each of us will hear the words of Jesus again in our hearts telling us: “I no longer call you servants…instead, I have called you friends" so that we can also lay down our lives for God and for one another.

23^rd Sunday- Year A

Ez. 33:7-9

Psalm 95: 1-9

Rom. 13:8-10

Mt. 18:15-20

Silence is NOT always golden; at times souls perish when we keep silent

Beloved in Christ, life is journey and, at times, a very difficult journey. Each human being is on that journey to finding true love, true peace, and true joy in this life. Every human being is on a journey towards a life that is more beautiful and more fulfilling than what this world alone can offer, that kind of life that we Christians call eternal life, which is the fullness of life found only in Christ Jesus. We all need help, support, and guidance because we can lose our way; and in most cases we do lose our way. God knows that we cannot travel this life journey alone and so he gives us the gift of family, church, community, and society. That is why we were born into a family. God did not make us drop from the sky because we need other human beings to walk with us in life. In the Old Testament times God chose prophets to guide the people into the Promised Land and help them find love, joy, and peace that only God can give.

After guiding the people of God to walk away from slavery and oppression, Moses prayed that all human beings become prophets (Numbers 11:29) so that we all can guide one another to find true fulfillment in life. In Joel 2:28, God promised to pour his Spirit on all human beings so that they can walk with each other on this difficult journey of life. Beloved, that promise was fulfilled on the day you were baptized; that day when God poured his Spirit on you and made you a prophet so that you can guide others to find the path to life in God. Our readings today remind us of our identity and responsibility as baptized prophets of God and how we can best carry that out.

In our first reading today, God tells us that if we refuse to help people who go astray God will hold us responsible for standing aside silent while people destroy their lives. The reading reminds us that Silence is Not Always Golden. When we fail to speak the truth in love, souls perish. St. Paul in the second reading tells us that helping each other to find the right path to life is not an option. We owe it to people to point our their mistakes in love and help them on their journey. We call that spiritual work of mercy. That is what it means to be a Christian, and being charitable goes beyond giving people food and money. True charity, (caritas) calls for caring not only about the physical needs of people, but also caring about their souls.

However, Beloved in Christ, it is not easy at all to live our prophetic calling. How many times have you heard somebody saying: “It’s my own life, don’t tell me how to live it”. Today, almost every act of fraternal correction is mistaken as “judgment”, and one of the most popular sentences today is “don’t judge me” or “I don’t want to judge”. As I reflect on this, I ask myself: Do I keep silent when I see a soul perishing? How do I receive the prophets that God sends to me?

Many of us Christians hide behind this phrase “I don’t want to judge” and ignore our call to be prophets for one another. Beloved, there is difference between judgment and fraternal correction. Judgment is condemning somebody and choosing not to have anything to do with that person. Fraternal correction says “I love you too much to stand aside and see you destroy your life so I want to walk with you and help you overcome this weakness and find true peace and joy”. This kind of spiritual work of mercy calls for understanding the world as a family, it calls for abolishing individualism and relativism and embracing values, such as collective and communal responsibility.

Jesus gives us a three-step strategy to help us succeed in our role as prophets. If a brother or sister refuses to listen to you, call two or three people to help you approach the person. If that does not work, let the church know. If he/she refuses to listen to the Church, treat the person as a sinner or a tax collector. Jesus did not mean we should give up on the person; that would have been very easy. But No, when Jesus said treat him like a sinner or a tax collector, he was calling the disciples to follow his example: the way he treats sinners and tax collectors like Matthew. He continues to love them even through their struggles.

Have you given up on anybody? Have you given up on your son or daughter, your sibling, your friend, your co-worker, your teacher, your students, your husband or wife etc? Beloved, we need each other. As a prophet, you were called to walk with people in good and in bad times, when they are at their best, but also when they are at their worse. At times, when we keep silent, many souls perish. May God grant us the wisdom to know when to keep silent but also when to speak so that souls do not perish.