NOTHING COMPARES WITH THE LOVE OF CHRIST

XVIII SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME: Romans 8:35,37-39

When Paul says that “nothing can come between us and the love of Christ” (Ro 8:35), he is speaking from his own experience. He had been a persecutor, doing all in his power to eradicate Jesus’ name. And then a special encounter with Jesus took place, which turned his life upside down. He fell from the horse of his pride and selfrightness, blinded by the light that cured and transformed him. In his encounter with the risen Lord, Paul did not face condemnation for his crimes, but experienced the greatest love of his life, the love of Jesus, who left his heart in fire, burning with that infinite love. And with the love received from Jesus, he was able to pass through hardships, sufferings and persecutions, and he realised that nothing can separate us from the love of Christ. In the darkest moments of our lives, Jesus is by our side, leading us to resurrection and life.

The call of Isaiah echoes through the centuries and can be heard today: Come! Come to me! You need no money. Why to look for joy and peace in things that cannot satisfy your hearts? Come. Listen to me and you shall live (Is 55:1-3).

LIKE SOLOMON, MANY LEADERS START WELL AND END BADLY

XVII SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME: 1 Kings 3:5,7-12

In the first reading of this Sunday’s liturgy, we are presented with Solomon at the beginning of his reign. As we hear the passage being read, we get the image of the young king encircled by God’s love and protection. Solomon is shown as a humble young man, full of ideals, who dreams of excelling in the service of his people, and for that he asks for wisdom, the wisdom that gives discernment in the carrying out of his duties as ruler of the people. He did not care about wealth, prestige and power. So it seemed. And God was well pleased with his attitude, and granted him not only wisdom but also wealth and fame.

The Bible presents Solomon as the great king, who brought about the golden age of the kingdom of Israel. He was remembered for the building of the temple, which became the symbol and the glory of Israel. And he was praised by his wisdom in the administration of his kingdom. He reorganised the State, and the country enjoyed a period of peace and development.

However, Solomon’s aura did not last. By the end of his reign, he had became a corrupt and unfaithful king, breaking the covenant with God and becoming an idolatrous king, who built temples to the gods of his wives.

Solomon started well, but ended badly. He was full of promises and people had put on him great expectations. However, little by little his power and his arrogance were felt by the people, who had to pay heavy taxes to pay for his magnificence, luxury and extravagance. During his reign, people kept quiet, but when he died, they had the courage to go to his successor and ask for a reduction of taxes, so that their lives might become bearable again (1 Ki 12:4).

Most of our politicians are like Solomon. Their promises fill people’s hearts with the expectation that their lot will improve. But, in the end, many of them serve their own interests, forgetting about the people and the service that they promised to them. And they are ready to trample on the most sacred values, which they promised to promote and defend, in order to protect their own power.

Let us pray that the Lord may grant our leaders, religious and political, a spirit of service and humility, so that they remain faithful to the ideals and the promises they made to God and to the people.

GOOD AND EVIL MIXED TOGETHER

XVI SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME: Mt 13:24-43

Time and again, we hear people complaining about this world and the people who live around us. It is a rotten world, which needs cleansing - they say. It is a world in which the moral values have been turned upside down;, needing someone to put it straight and get rid of all the rottenness that makes it stink. And there are people who assume this task and organise themselves in order to carry it out. There are radicals, like the Al-Qaida or the Boko-Haram, who see themselves as righteous people who have been called to cleanse the world; and in doing so, they commit horrendous crimes, feeling proud about it.

People who are unable to accept those who are different from them, seeing them as enemies that should be eradicated, cannot have a true experience of God, even though many of them claim to do it in the name of God. God is the Other, the Different, who challenges us in all circumstances. The difference of the other reveals us to ourselves, and the destruction of the other will lead to our own destruction.

This Sunday’s parable shows us clearly how the attitude of self-righteousness that leads to an effort of annihilation of the perceived enemy, in order to cleanse the world, is the wrong attitude, because it leads to the uprooting of many innocent people. Indeed, in times of conflict and war, the innocent are the ones that most suffer.

How can you understand that an airline plane from Malaysia, carrying people from many nationalities, is shot down by people whom they have nothing to do with, just to affirm their power. Nothing is sacred, even though many people claim to do their wars in the name of what is most sacred.

As Church, we must examine ourselves, since we are made of the same stuff of all those radicals who are ready to kill and destroy. Human history and also Church history is full of blood, shed on all sides. Personally, many of us have no blood in their hands, but we must remember that we come from a bloody past and we are part of a society that is violent in many aspects. 

In the parable, Jesus told his disciples: “Let them both grow till the harvest”. Then, it will be the time for the selection, for reward or punishment. Meanwhile, we live together, side by side, good and evil, and we cannot judge the other, because each one of us carries good and evil in his heart and in his life, making a daily effort to strengthen the good and reduce the evil.

A LISTENING HEART

XV SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME: Mt 13:1-23

The parable of the sower can be approached from different angles. We can look at the seed or at the sower or at the soil where the seed is sowed. Jesus himself said the seed is the Word of the Kingdom of God, the Good News of salvation. It is a good and certified seed, so that the seed cannot be blamed for a poor harvest.

In the parable, the sower was Jesus Christ himself. He uses the broadcast method, where seeds are thrown wide, falling on a variety of places. The sower is the preacher, who proclaims the Good News, and he preaches in different places, at different times and to different people, whenever the opportunity arises.

Paul wrote to the Romans that it was his “ambition to proclaim the good news” (Ro 15:20), and he admonished Timothy to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ: 

“I solemnly urge you: proclaim the message; be persistent whether the time is favourable or unfavourable; convince, rebuke, and encourage, with the utmost patience in teaching” (2 Tm 4:1-2)

This ambition and this urgency on the part of the sower are essential for a good harvest. How can people believe, if they do not hear the word? How can be converted, if they are not challenged? How can they produce good fruits for eternal life, if they are not shown the way?

We must not proclaim the Gospel for personal gain or personal glory. It is a duty, and we shall be answerable for the way we preach or for our refusal to speak out and announce the good news.

The parable puts a lot of stress on the type of soil where the seed fell. The different types of soil represent different attitudes on the part of the audience. A listening attitude is essential. This listening attitude means openness of heart with an welcoming attitude and an effort at understanding. As one hears the message, he must allow himself to be questioned and challenged, in readiness to change. 

Jesus had noticed the different attitudes of those who came to him and moved around him. They came with different motives: while some were spying on him, others were moved by curiosity; some were in search of miracles, while others just followed the crowd. Many just passed by Jesus, while a few others were touched by him, and that encounter would remain a guiding star in their lives.

We cannot be disciples of Jesus Christ without this basic attitude of listening. In fact, listening and being touched and transformed by our listening is a corner stone in any relationship, and so in the relationship of faith with Jesus Christ.

The results will not be the same in each person, but all those who have a listening heart will produce fruits for eternal life.

IN JESUS, WE FIND PEACE

XIV SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME: Matthew 11:25-30

There are so many people who walk around with a heavy heart, so many who go through darkness without a flash of light to bring hope and so many who suffer pain, as there are so many who feel abandoned or experience oppression. The glamour of the high life is but for a few, and even that glamour many times hides the reality of hopelessness and despair that many of those who enjoy it go through.

In this Sunday’s gospel, Jesus presents himself as the source of hope, the light that brings darkness to an end and the comforter who offers relief and brings peace to troubled hearts. His words are reassuring: “Come to me, all you who labour and are overburdened, and I will give you rest.” (Mt 11:28).

I remember when I was called to give the anointing of the sick to an old lady. She used to come regularly to church, but now she had gone blind. In spite of that, she looked full of life and joyful. When I suggested that it looked like cataracts and that with a simple operation, she would see again, she replied that there was no need of that. The Lord had been so good to her all her life! Why should she not accept what was being given to her now that her life was coming to an end? She had put herself totally in the hands of the Lord, and after a short while he took her to his kingdom.

Imitating Jesus Christ, we, who are his followers, must be a source of hope and must give comfort to all those who feel overburdened.

PETER AND PAUL, APOSTLES OF JESUS CHRIST

FEAST OF ST. PETER AND PAUL - 2 Timothy 4:6-8,17-18; Mt 16:13-19

Peter was one of the first disciples to be called and then chosen to be part of the restricted number of the Apostles, in which he rose to prominence, being outspoken and forceful in his approach to Jesus. He was Simon, a married fisherman from Capernaum, to whom Jesus changed the name into Peter, or Rock. When Jesus spoke about his impending death, he was ready to contradict him, affirming that such could not be the destiny of the Messiah, and he was ready to boast about his faithfulness, when Jesus warned him about his betrayal. This Simon, the Rock, proved to be a coward, ready to hide and protect himself, instead of being truthful and faithful.

St. Peter, the patron of my home parish, Tarouca.

As outspoken, he became the spokesman of the whole group, expressing aloud what all the others were thinking in their hearts. And he proclaimed the faith that constitutes the rock upon which the Church is founded: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Mt 16:16). We cannot belong to the Church without professing this faith that Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ, the Son of the living God. For this profession of faith, Simon, the Rock, stands out as a pillar of the Church, and Jesus put him in charge of the Church.

Peter sinned, and his sin was great, but he recognised his weakness in tears and accepted Jesus’ love and compassion. Having sinned, he became aware that in him  there was nothing to boast about, and that only Jesus Christ could transform him into a new person.

Paul’s journey was even harder and bumpy than that of Peter. In fact, nobody can walk in straight line to God, but in spite of our crooked lines, God is able to guide us to safe port.

Although a Jew, Paul was born in the diaspora as a Roman citizen. Brought up as a pharisee, in spite of the Greek culture that surrounded him, he was a fundamentalist, observing the Law in all its rigour. That fundamentalism led him to persecute the Christians, intent on uprooting them. But then Jesus found him out, and his life was changed for ever.  He put his life totally at the service of Jesus Christ and opened the doors of the Church to people of all nations, becoming the Apostle of the Gentiles.

At the end of his life, he could say: “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith” (2 Tm 4:7).

May we keep the faith that Peter proclaimed and may we centre our lives on Jesus Christ as Paul did, and then like them we will receive the crown of glory.

GIVE US THIS DAY OUR DAILY BREAD

FEAST OF THE EUCHARIST - Jn 6:51-58

In “Our Father”, the prayer that supersedes all others, because in it we pray with Jesus’ own words, we ask:

Give us this day our daily bread.

There is another possible translation: 

Give us this day our bread for tomorrow.

And this makes it clear that we are not just asking for food to keep us alive in this passing world. In the end, we must remember that “man does not live on bread alone”, as the first reading reminds us (Dt 8:3). We need bread, that is we need food to keep us alive, and God took care of that, while the people of Israel wandered in the desert. 

As we pray: Give us this day our daily bread, we must remember that are many people starving in the world, who are not able to find their daily bread. And this starvation is degrading to the point that there are whole populations starving to death. And this happens while multitudes of other people suffer from obesity due to over eating. They have much more than their daily bread, and throw their surplus to waste.

However, we need much more than food for our bellies; we need to be fed by the word that comes from the mouth of God, a word that is liberating, because it is a word of peace, life and salvation. So we pray to have this day our bread for tomorrow, or the bread that is a guarantee of life, received to the full. We need today this bread that takes us beyond the present and gives us the strength to walk towards the tomorrow of fulfilment lived in God.

The daily bread, which is also the bread for tomorrow, is Jesus Christ himself, who said: “I am the living bread!” (Jn 6:51). And Jesus gives himself to us as the living bread in the Eucharist. This bread, which is the bread of live, is the body and the blood of Jesus Christ, as he said: “the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh” (Jn 6:51). And this is the bread that we pray for, whenever we pray “Our Father”.

This bread - the body and the blood of Jesus - is to be shared, as all of us sit at the table of the Lord, so that all of us may become one in Jesus Christ.

The celebration of the Eucharist demands sharing and building of the community, a community which is the body of Christ. As Jesus shares his body and blood with us, and by doing so, gives us life, so must we share, building up a community in which each one is ready to give and to die so that the others may have their share in life. A true celebration of the Eucharist has a social and even political dimension, and if we are true to ourselves and true to Christ, there should be no starvation in the world, because the rich stop being rich, sharing with the ones who are starving.

“Give us this day our daily bread, that is our bread for tomorrow”, so that we may have the strength and the courage to walk together towards the Father’s house, where we will enjoy life to the full.