4^th Sunday in Ordinary Time-Year B

Deut. 18:15-20

Psalm 95:1-2, 6-9

I Cor. 7:32-35

Mk. 1:21-28

Who is Your Life’s Coach? Jesus or the World?

Beloved in Christ, today is the day for the NFL Super Bowl for 2015. It will be played between the Patriots of New England and the Seahawks of Seattle. How many of you will watch to the game? Good! Which team do you think will win the game? Okay, I don’t know which team will win the game but I can tell you one thing: any team that wins, the winning will have something to do with the extent to which the team members listen to the instructions that their coach gives them. The Super Bowl, in some ways, remind me of some experience I had as a child learning how to play soccer. Usually, when my parents took me to practice, they would be sitting among the other parents and instead of just watching the game, they would be shouting so loud giving me instructions on how to play. They would be shouting “Richmond, Score! Score! Score!” This would usually happen at the same time the coach would be telling me “Richmond pass the ball! Anytime my parents did that, I got so angry and confused and I felt like telling them “Would you just keep quiet, I know you are good parents but soccer is not your area of specialization” J But I dared not say that because I knew if I did I would be grounded for a yearJ. My Brothers and Sisters in Christ, there is some relationship between obeying the right voice and success in life.

As Christians, our desire is to win victory for God. That victory is to make the world a better place, a place were all human beings and created things find a home, feel welcome; a place where God is glorified. When it comes to learning how to change the world for the better and fulfill God’s plans for our lives, only one person has the specialization: JESUS! There is no better coach than our Lord Jesus Christ when you really want to learn how to please God! He is the prophet that God promised Moses in the first reading that He would send into the world so that the world will have life. Beloved, our success in life depends on the extent to which we listen to the voice of Jesus as we hear from Scripture and the teachings of the Church. That is why our responsorial psalm today tells us: If today you hear his voice, do not harden your heart!

In the Gospel today, St. Mark reminds us that Jesus’ teaching is the only teaching with authority to make life better for people. When we obey Jesus, life becomes better. When the evil spirit submitted to the voice of Jesus in the gospel and left the boy, what happened? The boy’s life became better. If you reflect upon your life and the choices you have made, you will see that anytime you obeyed the voice of Jesus, you made life better for yourself and those around you!

That is why St. Paul is telling us in the second reading to make sure that nothing stops us from listening to the voice of God. St. Paul tells us that not even your desire to fulfill an important obligation such as fulfilling your duties towards your family should make you disobey God. Because the truth is when you disobey God, you cannot be a blessing to your family. St Paul acknowledges the blessings in marriage and family life but he also acknowledges the fact that the world puts so much pressure on married people that can force them to make choices that contradict the teachings of God. St. Paul is saying not even the struggle to keep your family going and happy should make you disobey the voice of God. Do you remember the story of Miriam Ibrahim? She is the 27 year-old woman from Sudan, who was imprisoned because of her faith in Christ. She was pregnant with her baby girl at the time and they threatened to kill her and her family if she did not give up her faith in Christ. This was just last year. She refused to denounce Christ and said she would not let the gift that God had given her, her baby and her husband, prevent her from showing her love to the giver of those gifts. What an example! I wish I can say the same all the time that I will never let any gift that God has given me prevent me from obeying the God who gave me that gift! Even though Miriam was ready to die, God saved her because the whole world cried against the government on her behalf and the pressure made the government set her free. The story is online. Just Google Miriam Ibrahim and you can read more about her. This is what St. Paul is talking about. Let nothing make you disobey the word of God. Not even your love for your family!

My Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ, each one of us needs to answer this question for yourself: “Who is the coach of my life? It is Jesus or the world? Whom do I listen to?

2^nd Sunday in Ordinary Time-Year B

I Sam 3:3b-10, 19

Psalm 40

1 Cor. 6: 13c-15a, 17-20

Jn. 1: 35-42

Behold the Lamb of God

One of my favorite Christian music artists is Matthew West. He recently sang a song called Do Something. In that song, Matthew West says he woke up one day and felt very sad with all the evils and problems in the world: the poverty, the killing of innocent people, the wars, families that are broken, children dying of hunger, people who are killing themselves because they have lost hope in our world and have lost hope in God. In that song, Matthew West said he prayed to God asking God to do something and then he heard a voice telling him: I have done something: I have created You! I remembered the words of that song when I heard St. Paul reminding us in our second reading today: You are the Temple of the Holy Spirit! The power of God, who makes all things new and beautiful, dwells in you! That Statement should remind us of the honor and the responsibility we have as sons and daughters of God. I think that honor and responsibility are what Dr. Martin Luther King Junior remembered, that is what made him move beyond the walls of his church to bring the gospel of Christ into his community, transform the American society, and leave the legacy we celebrate this on Monday as a nation.

That honor and responsibility are what our scriptural readings today call our attention to. In the gospel, we hear John the Baptist inviting us to behold the Lamb of God. As Catholics, everyday at Mass we hear the priest repeating those words of John the Baptist. What does it mean to behold the Lamb of God? I need an answerJ The word “behold” as used by John the Baptist does not only mean to look at or to admire; it means opening one’s heart and lifting up one’s gaze with attention in order to embrace something and become what one embraces. So when the priest says during Mass: “Behold the Lamb of God”, he is inviting you to open up to Christ, lift up your gaze and heart to embrace Christ in order to become like Him. That is how the disciples of John understood the invitation to behold the Lamb of God. That is why they followed Jesus, invited him into their lives, embraced him and stayed with him. The result was that they become like him and were able to transform their society. John the Baptist understood his life as helping people to listen to the voice of God, to embrace God, and help them become the means of grace that God uses to transform the world. In the gospel, we see people whom God was calling to become means of grace for the world: Andrew, Peter, and the other disciple whose name is not given. But one thing that they all needed was somebody to teach them how to listen to the voice of God, embrace God in their daily experience, live with Him, and become like him so that they would became the grace that transformed and restored the fallen situations and relationships that their time. In the first reading, we heard about the call of Samuel, a young boy who was being called by God but needed somebody to help him come to know God, embrace him, so that he would become a blessing to Israel. If you remember the story of Samuel’s life as recorded in I and 2 Samuel and 1 Kings, you will see that the whole nation of Israel would not have become the great nation it was without that little boy we read about. He became that means of grace for Israel because Eli taught him how to listen to God and embrace him.

Beloved, each of us is God’s answer to some problem in the world. Our first reading and the gospel remind us that God places people in our lives so that we can direct them to God. God places us in specific situations and in the lives of specific people and those lives and situations are the ones that he expects us to transform. As Christians, all our words and actions should shout out that single invitation to the world: Behold the Lamb of God! As we celebrate the Eucharist today, we need to ask ourselves: Does my attitude at work tell people to behold the Lamb of God? Do my words and actions invite my family, friends, and people in my community to behold the Lamb of God?

My Brothers and Sisters in Christ, that is what all of us are called to do as Disciples of Christ. Yes, you may be thinking “…but how can I, as an individual person, living in Ames, Iowa, transform the situation in Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Nigeria etc?”. Beloved, perhaps all God is asking you to do is to transform the little world around you, your family, your church, and your community, and pray that people everywhere in the world will allow Christ to influence their thinking and actions and so become that grace that transforms the world. Perhaps you are also worried about some problem in your family, some problem in your church, or community and you are asking God to do something. His response is “I have done something: I have created you!”