Cycle A - Year 1:  

5 November 2017:  Thirty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time 

(Liturgical Color: Green)

Readings:

First Reading:        Malachi 1:14b--2:2b, 8-10

Second Reading:   1 Thessalonians 2:7b-9, 13

Gospel:Please Read  Matthew 23:1-12

To be servant of all!

There are two types of leaders: one who simply gives commands for his followers to execute, and the one who works with the team to achieve the goal. Who do you think is an effective leader between the two?

In the practical world, we say that leaders should "walk the talk", meaning they live what they preach.

In today's Gospel, we hear our Lord Jesus Christ's harsh condemnation of the scribes and Pharisees who were the religious leaders of His time.

Jesus addresses Himself to the multitude and to the disciples and criticizes the scribes

and the Pharisees because of the incoherence between their words and their actions. Their basic error is that they speak but they themselves do not do.

Now Jesus recognizes the authority and knowledge of these leaders. "The scribes and the Pharisees have taken their seat on the chair of Moses. Therefore, do and observe all things whatever they tell you, but do not follow their example. For they preach but they do not practice." (Mt 23:2-3)

Thus, our Lord Jesus is talking about hypocrisy,  that of yesterday during His time, as well as today, in our own generation. He condemns the lack of coherence and of sincerity in the relationship with God and with the neighbor.

Going further, Jesus enumerates the diverse point which reveal this incoherence. For example, some scribes  and Pharisees imposed heavy laws upon the people. They know the laws well, but they did not practice them; neither did they use their knowledge of the law to lessen the weight imposed upon the people.

This hypocrisy and incoherence is happening down to our generation among those we look up as leaders.... in civil society, political field, and even spiritual or religious groups. And the corruption of the best is the worst, because people get demoralized over scandals involving spiritual leaders.

So how do we overcome this hypocrisy and incoherence? How should a Christian community be?

Well, leadership and whatever titles we earned or given are good as long as they remind us of and lead us to God's presence. But we should give more importance to service rather than to honors and titles. And all community functions should be assumed as a service to God through our neighbors. But are we willing to give up certain privileges for the sake of serving God and our neighbor?

The parting words of Jesus in today's Gospel is clear: "The greatest among you must be your servant."

A blessed Sunday to us all. and thank you for a moment with God.

Ad Jesum per Mariam!

Cycle A - Year 1:  

29 October 2017:  Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time 

(Liturgical Color: Green)

Readings:

First Reading:        Exodus 22:20-26

Second Reading:   1 Thessalonians 1:5c-10

Gospel:Please Read  Matthew 22:34-40

Love is the greatest commandment!

The joke is that laws are meant to be broken. But when lawmakers themselves become lawbreakers, society is in serious trouble. Because nobody has a more sacred obligation to obey the law than those who make the law.

In the Gospel this Sunday, our Lord Jesus Christ teaches us about the greatest and the first of all the laws.

We will witness once again an encounter between Jesus and a group of Pharisees. Recall that they have been attempting to find a reason to have Jesus arrested but without success. So this time they use a scholar of the law, or a lawyer, to try to entrap Jesus. (Now this incident tells us that even during the time of Jesus lawyers may not always be reputable.)

So the lawyer asked Jesus: "Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?"

We are familiar with Jesus' answer: "You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment.  The second is like it: you shall love your neighbor as yourself." (Mt 22:37-39)

In other words, Jesus reduces all the law to just two commandments, "love God", and "love the neighbor". In this case, the word "neighbor" here means especially whoever is in need.

Jesus is teaching us that love is at the heart of the commandments. Love is the heart of personal relationships. Thus, love is at the core of Christianity. Because the very motivation of Christian behavior is not a law feared due to punishment, but a person loved.... the Person of God, the person of the neighbor.

For it was His love for the Father and His love for us human beings that moved the Son of God to enter into our world and upon the work of our salvation.

So that when we begin to love, we look at the world around us very differently, we appreciate new things and we make sacrifices that seem small for the sake of the beloved. Thus, love transforms our lives for the better.

In sum, a person who genuinely loves God also loves his fellows. Because they are brothers and sisters, children of the same Father, and redeemed by the same previous Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ.

So, all our external worship and piety becomes empty and meaningless if it does not express our internal loving attitude. And without such love in our hearts, following or observing God's commandments become burdensome.

For Christians, the heart of our faith is the love of God, which is shown concretely in love for others, especially the poor and the helpless. Love then is the very foundation of our Christian living. 

Let us pray, that hopefully it will be our love of the Father and of the neighbor that will motivate all our thoughts and actions, forcing them into expressions of Christian living.

A blessed Sunday to us all. And thank you for a moment with God.

Ad Jesum per Mariam!