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

God’s Ways are Not our Ways

A few years ago, I visited a Pentecostal church in Florida and had a very inspiring conversation with the pastor after the church service. He shared some inspiring story with me. He told me he spent 7 years in prison for a crime that he did not commit. The first three years, he was very angry and frustrated with God for allowing this to happen to him; but at a point in time, he decided to ask God, “what do you want to do with me for bringing me here?” He did not receive any immediate answers, but it was in prison that he received the desire to become a pastor. When he came out of prison, he joined a church and, after 15 years, became the head pastor. For the past 10 years, he has helped about 300 drug addicts to overcome their problems and turn their lives over to Christ. Four of them have also become pastors. What really surprised me was when he said the best thing that has ever happened to him was the time he spent in prison. Beloved, was God fair to this pastor?

In a society where everything is measured from a monetary perspective, today’s gospel is pretty shocking. In ancient Israel, at the time of Jesus, people worked in the farms for long hours. If you worked for 12 hours a day, you were paid a full day’s wage, usually called the denarius. As we do in our society today, most jobs pay by the hour. Will you be happy if you discover that your co-worker does only one-hour shift and receives the same pay as you if you do a 12-hour shift? Will you consider that unfair? Surprisingly, Jesus says that is how the Kingdom of God is like. What does Jesus mean? He is not proposing an economic principle for our day, but rather describing the nature of God to his disciples. 

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 are for all and that it is never too late for anyone to come to God. God is just and merciful, and He will save both the righteous and the sinner! He chooses to save all, no matter what their sin or status in life is because all are his children. He did not see those workers as slaves or even laborers but as his children and treated them as such. Both those who worked all day and those who came the last hour needed a full day’s wage to be able to take care of their families. So what God was looking at was not how much the workers had put in but how much each needed to survive and take care of their families. To those who worked all day, God was just, and for those who worked for just an hour, God was merciful and generous because they needed more to take care of their families than they earned in one hour. 

For us, it is mind burgling, but as the Prophet Isaiah tells us in the first reading, God’s ways are not our ways, and his thoughts are above our thoughts. For us, human beings, justice and mercy are two opposing concepts, but for God, justice and mercy are not opposed but come together to define the very nature of God as Love. 

St. Paul tells us in the second reading that if we want to live a meaningful life, then we need to live like Jesus Christ, and if we want to die a meaningful death, then we should die like Christ. That is what St. Paul means by saying to live Christ! May God give us the grace to lay down our lives so that others will have life. May God lead us by the light of truth to find the narrow way and become more life-giving to others.

24^th Sunday-Year

SIR 27:30—28:7

PS 103

ROM 14:7-9

MT 18:21-35

Take Practical Steps to Restore Broken Relationships

Beloved in Christ, our readings today invite us to take practical steps to restore our broken relationships. The first reading from Sirach tells us not to hold on to anger, vengeance, and other hateful things but to forgive one another so that God will hear our prayer and forgive us.

Beloved, I received a beautiful email from a couple that I was privileged to walk through one of the most difficult moments in their marriage. One sentence in the email almost brought me to tears. It read: "Father, we have come to realize that God is faithful, and no matter how "crazy" life gets, God is always up to something good." I got to know this couple for 12 years ago. The woman was Christian, but the husband did not believe in God even though he had been baptized as a child. After two years of happy married life, things started going wrong. The husband lost his job, got depressed, started drinking heavily, and began withdrawing from his wife and children. The wife cried and prayed, but the situation only seemed to get worse. As if these problems were not enough, the wife found out that her husband had a child with another woman. The wife decided she could not do it any longer and asked for a divorce. One the day she was to sign the papers, she decided to go into the chapel, pray before the blessed sacrament, and then sign. As she was praying, she heard a voice, "Don't do it! Forgive him! Carry his sufferings with him." And She responded, God, I can't. But with tears in her eyes, she went back home and told the husband I forgive you! Those words turned the husband's life around. He apologized to his wife. After five years of working through these challenges together as a couple, through counseling, therapy, etc., the husband stopped the affair and the drinking. He and the wife accepted the new baby, and he is living with them now. Beloved, that is what God can do when we dare to put his words into practice. Is it easy to do? No! But is it the path that leads to life? Yes!

You may be thinking, good for this woman! It worked out for her, but what about those instances of forgiveness that may not end like her story? What about those instances where you forgive and the person actually even does worse things? What should you do? Our gospel reading answers that question. The Jewish teaching at the time of Jesus was that the Israelites were supposed to forgive a person three times in gratitude to God, who saved them from slavery in Egypt, and after three times, one was not obliged to forgive. So when Peter asked Jesus whether to forgive 7 times, he thought he was being very generous. But Jesus says, no, even seven is not enough. We have to forgive seventy times seven times, which means infinite or always. Why does Jesus ask us to do this? Because that is how our Heavenly Father treats us. Can you imagine if God forgives us only seven times?  I am very grateful that God does not stop at seven. If God were to mark our sin, who would survive? If I had only seven chances, where would I be? I thank God that he is loving and merciful and forgives eternally. Beloved, the whole business of Christianity is about restoration. God is restoring the world, and his invitation to us is to join him to do precisely that. It would have been easy if our job was just to be cheerleaders. God did not call us to be cheerleaders, but participants who will enter the game and play with him. Forgiveness comes from God, but somebody has to make that forgiveness concrete for his people.

St. Paul tells us that we are so essential to God's restoration of the world through forgiveness that we should live for that, and even if it takes our lives, we should die for it. Why is St. Paul saying that? Because he has come to know that with God, every risk is worth taking. God will bring something good out of every risk you take for his name. Living God's call to forgive may not be easy, but God will not let your effort be in vain. Beloved, I don't always succeed in forgiving others, but there are times I actually do. Three things have worked for me. First, anytime I find it difficult to forgive somebody, I go to confession. Not because I think I am at fault, but because I need the grace to forgive. Receiving God's forgiveness always reminds me that I need to forgive too. Second, after going to confession, I spend time to forgive myself. It reminds me that somebody needs forgiveness too. And finally, I talk to my spiritual director or somebody to help me work through the pain and hurt to be able to forgive. Beloved, there are some hurts that you might have experienced that might be traumatic, and would not just go away because you told people you have forgiven them. If you need counseling, therapy, spiritual direction, or any other professional help to overcome the pain and be able to forgive, please seek it. May God give us the grant us the gift of his heart so that we can love the way he loves us.  

23rd Sunday-Year A

Ez. 33:7-9

Psalm 95: 1-9

Rom. 13:8-10

Mt. 18:15-20

Admonishing the Sinner is Love

Beloved in Christ, I have a question, and I need an answer. What is the purpose of the Mass we have gathered here to celebrate? Why did Jesus give out his body to be broken for us? Why did he allow his blood to be poured out? It is to get rid of sin in the world. Sin is a violation of love. It destroys the sinner, family, Church, and society. We can only live in love, peace, and joy if we get rid of sin in the world. But how can we get rid of sin if we cannot even call it by name and describe it as it is?

How many times have you heard somebody saying: “It’s my own life, don’t tell me how to live it.” We live in a world that tells us that you are in charge of your own life, you are in charge of your own body, your money, and any other gifts that you have, and you can use it any way you want. That you can do whatever you want and still have peace and joy. That is not true. 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 anybody. 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 a 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.

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 accountable 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 one another to find the right path to life is not optional. We owe it to one another to point out our mistakes in love and help so that we can get rid of sin and cooperate with God to make our world a better place. Calling sin what it is and admonishing the sinner is an act of love. 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. 

In the gospel, 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 to 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. So he tells us even if we point out sin in love and people refuse to listen to us, we should not give up on them. We should continue to love them and pray for them.

Have you given up on anybody? Have you given up on your wife, husband, son, or daughter, your sibling, friend, co-worker, or even your priest? 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 worst. May God grant us the wisdom to know when to keep silent but also when to speak out so that the sacrifice we offer today will not be in vain.

22^nd Sunday-Year A

Jer. 20: 7-9

Psalm 63

Rom 12: 1-2

Mt. 16-21-27 

It Takes Sacrifice

One of my favorite Christian music artists is Matthew West. He played a song called Do Something. In that song, Matthew West says he woke up one day and felt very sad about all the evils and problems in the world: the poverty, the killing of innocent people, the wars, families that are broken, human trafficking, 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! 

Beloved in Christ, life can be tough, and there are so many types of suffering in life that are beyond our control. We cannot control natural disasters like the storm we just experienced here in our city and other parts of the country. We cannot stop hurricane Laura and other natural disasters. But there are different types of suffering that we can help end and make the world a better place. Last week, our scriptural readings reminded us that the destiny of the world does not lie only in the hand of God. It equally lies in our hand, and that God has given us the key to open the door of the kingdom so that we can help make this world a better place. Our readings today remind us that it takes sacrifice to fulfill the mission God has entrusted to us.  

Our first reading from the Prophet Jeremiah was written about 600 years before Christ. The Prophet talks about the suffering he had to endure in order to preach the Word of God and help make life better for his people. Not only did the people refuse to listen to him, but they also laughed at him and called him crazy. Some even hated Jeremiah and wanted to kill him. From the very beginning, when he accepted the call to help God make life better for his people, Jeremiah knew that it would be a difficult task, but he did not know that it would be this difficult. In our reading today, he is tempted to give up, but he says he cannot give up because it is only the Word of God that can bring life to his people and restore their broken world. Jeremiah came to realize that he had to sacrifice his life if that is what it takes for his people to have a better life.

In the gospel, our Lord Jesus is teaching his disciples that they have to be ready to lay down their lives if they want the world to become a better place. Peter pulls Jesus aside and tells him to stop talking about suffering because it did not make sense to him. Jesus rebukes Peter and tells him to stop thinking the way Satan thinks and begin to think as God thinks. Last week, Peter was happy to accept the keys to the kingdom and all the honor and privileges that come with it, but he was not ready to accept the sacrifices that needed to be made for that key to be effective. But we cannot condemn Peter. It is important to understand that Peter did not have all the hindsight we have about how Jesus’ suffering and death would lead to a happy ending. So, humanly speaking, what Jesus said about the need to suffer and die for others did not make sense to Peter. But beloved, this gospel teaches us that the call to be a Christian is a call to sacrifice your life so that others will have life. 

This is not an easy teaching to embrace and live. The world will call you a fool and a failure when you try to live the gospel. They will call you crazy if you try to put others first. But, beloved, if you are not ready to be called crazy and weird, you cannot be a good Christian. St. Paul, in our second reading, reminds us that the only way we can put Jesus’s words into practice is to refuse to conform to the wisdom of this age and be transformed by the renewal of our minds and hearts. The wisdom of this age tells us that life will be better for me if I focus on “me” and make choices that make me happy and comfortable. But the Wisdom of the Cross invites us to think “We,” but not only “I.” It is about them and not about me. 

Beloved, it takes sacrifice to feed the poor and end poverty. It takes sacrifice to forgive someone who has offended you. It takes sacrifice to heal and restore broken relationships. It takes sacrifice to bring hope to those who have lost hope in life are giving up. That is what it means to take up the cross, deny yourself, and follow Jesus. As we lament the sufferings of the world and call on God to do something about the problems in our lives, families, communities, and country, God reminds us today that he has done something; He has created you, He has created me! May Christ be our light, may he shine through the darkness of our world and make us light for his people. May Christ. Amen!