WHO LOSES HIS LIFE FOR MY SAKE WILL FIND IT.

XIII SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME - Matthew 10:37-42

One day, while Jesus was surrounded by a big crowd, they told him: Your mother and your relatives are looking for you. It seems that Jesus did not bother and gave an answer that left his listeners puzzled. To the crowd, he asked: “Who are my mother and my brothers?” And looking about at those who sat around him, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! For whoever does the will of God, he is my brother and sister and mother.” (Mk 3:32-35). Jesus’ answer made it clear that blood ties don’t matter. He has a different family - the true family of believers, whose only concern is to do the will of God. The will of God is paramount, taking precedence over everything else. The ones who do that follow Jesus’ footsteps and are his true disciples.

In this Sunday’s gospel, Jesus demands a clear-cut decision from all those who follow him: they must put God first and above everything else. Among the Bembas, there is the saying “abafyashi e balesa ba bubili” (parents are a second god). We may accept the statement as true, since they cooperate with God in the work of creation, bringing forth new life. However, we have to be reminded that there is not a second god. Only God is God and to him alone we give honour and glory. There is a commandment ordering us to honour father and mother (Ex 20:12). However, if they take the place of God and demand the obedience that belongs to God alone, then we must prostrate ourselves before God.

The discipleship of all those who have chosen to follow Jesus is very demanding: “Anyone who does not take his cross and follow in my footsteps is not worthy of me. Anyone who finds his life will lose it; anyone who loses his life for my sake will find it.” We must carry the cross, as Jesus did. And the saving of our lives is not of paramount importance and doesn’t override everything else. Throughout the centuries, many Christians seemed to be reckless with their lives, being ready to shed their blood for Jesus Christ. They are the ones who found true life. Being one with Christ in death, they became one with him in resurrection. Indeed, “But we believe that having died with Christ we shall return to life with him” (Ro 6:8).

DO NOT FEAR THOSE WHO HATE YOU

XII SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME - Matthew 10:26-33

It is dangerous to be Christian. Through the centuries, Christians have been the most persecuted religious group. We may ask ourselves why? In which way do Christians constitute a threat to the established elites and those who decide the destiny of the world? Christians are despised and suffer persecution in many parts of the world. However, we should not be surprised. Jesus warned his disciples about that:

“A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master. It is enough for the disciple to be like his teacher, and the servant like his master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign those of his household.” (Mt 10:24-25)

“If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you: A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you.” (Jn 15:18-20).

We live in the world but we do not belong to the world. The values we preach and the way of life we lead are in contrast with the great values accepted by the world and deemed by us as false values. We do not consider wealth and power as the way to happiness. As followers of Jesus Christ, we are called to have the spirit of the poor, putting our trust in the Lord. We accept our limitations and shortcomings and reach out to God for deliverance and salvation. In no way can we get the plenitude of life and salvation on our own. We chose to follow Jesus, being certain that he is the only way to God, who accepts us as his children. That’s why Jesus told his disciples:

“Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul”. And he insisted: “So there is no need to be afraid”.

God takes good care of us. He is our refuge and our salvation. In times of suffering and persecution, it may seem that God has abandoned us but we are simply following Jesus behind, walking in his footsteps. And with Jesus, we may address the Father with confidence, as the psalmist does:

In your great love, answer me, O Lord.

It is for you that I suffer taunts,

  that shame covers my face,

that I have become a stranger to my brothers,

  an alien to my own mother’s sons.

I burn with zeal for your house

  and taunts against you fall on me.

In your great love, answer me, O Lord.

This is my prayer to you,

  my prayer for your favour.

In your great love, answer me, O God,

  with your help that never fails:

Lord, answer, for your love is kind;

  in your compassion, turn towards me.

Let us pray for all Christians who suffer persecution. May the Lord give them strength and endurance to be true witnesses of Jesus Christ.

HE DIED TO MAKE US RIGHTEOUS

XI SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME - Romans 5:6-11

After Pentecost, the liturgy of the Church presents us with three celebrations that lead us to focus on love. In the Holy Trinity, we celebrate God as relationship and communion or, as we are told in the first letter of John, as love, “because God is love” (1 Jn 4:8). In the solemnity of Corpus Christi, we celebrate the great love of God in Jesus Christ who feeds us with his body and blood, so that we may live by him. Finally, in the solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, we celebrate Jesus’ love, the love that led him to shed his blood for our redemption, so that we may be reconciled with God and accepted as his beloved children.

In this Sunday, the second reading, taken from the letter to the Romans, Paul invites us to meditate on God’s love revealed in Jesus Christ. The proof of God’s love is that “Christ died for us while we were still sinners.” “We were still enemies”, “when we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son”. Jesus “died to make us righteous”. By his death, he reconciled us to God. That’s why “we may count on being saved by the life of his Son”. By this assurance, “we are filled with joyful trust in God”.

And Christ entrusted to his disciples the ministry of reconciliation (2 Co 5:18). He chose the Apostles and then prepared and trained them to carry on with this ministry of reconciliation. Today’s gospel speaks of the twelve chosen and then sent by Christ with the mission to “proclaim that the kingdom of heaven is close at hand.” (Mt 10:7). Like the apostles, we are called to be witnesses of God’s love in Jesus Christ, proclaiming the Kingdom of God.

 A COMMUNION WITH THE BODY OF CHRIST

SOLEMNITY OF CORPUS CHRISTI - 1 Corinthians 10:16-17

Immediately after the resurrection, the disciples began what has been kept up to now: they gathered on the first day of the week to read the Scriptures, to pray and to partake of the bread, doing this in obedience to Jesus who had given them this commandment: “Do this in remembrance of me.” (1 Co 11:24). Since then, the Eucharistic celebration has been in the centre of the Church. There is no true Church without the Eucharist since it is through the Eucharist that we make one body with Jesus Christ. He said: “As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me.” (Jn 6:57).

In the middle of the second century, Saint Justin wrote about the Eucharist:

“This food we call Eucharist, of which no one is allowed to partake except one who believes that the things we teach are true, and has received the washing for forgiveness of sins and for rebirth, and who lives as Christ handed down to us. For we do not receive these things as common bread or common drink; but as Jesus Christ our Saviour being incarnate by God's word took flesh and blood for our salvation, so also we have been taught that the food consecrated by the word of prayer which comes from him, from which our flesh and blood are nourished by transformation, is the flesh and blood of that incarnate Jesus. For the apostles in the memoirs composed by them, which are called Gospels, thus handed down what was commanded them: that Jesus, taking bread and having given thanks, said, "Do this for my memorial, this is my body"; and likewise taking the cup and giving thanks he said, "This is my blood"; and gave it to them alone.”(nº 66)

In his first letter to the Corinthians, Paul makes it clear that “the bread that we break is a communion with the body of Christ” and “the blessing-cup that we bless is a communion with the blood of Christ”. That’s why, as St, Justin says, “we do not receive these things as common bread or common drink”; they are the body and the blood of Christ and, when we receive them, we are in communion with Jesus Christ, becoming one with him. And through this communion with Christ, we become one body with Christ. St. Paul stresses this truth saying: “The fact that there is only one loaf means that, though there are many of us, we form a single body because we all have a share in this one loaf.” The Eucharist builds the Church by building us up as the body of Christ. The communion with the body and blood of Christ is a guarantee of eternal life:

“I tell you most solemnly,

if you do not eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood,

you will not have life in you.

Anyone who does eat my flesh and drink my blood

has eternal life,

and I shall raise him up on the last day.” (Jn 6:53-54)

A GOD OF TENDERNESS AND COMPASSION

HOLY TRINITY SUNDAY - John 3:16-18

The mystery of God pervades all revelation throughout salvation history. As a mystery, it is above and beyond our understanding. It does not mean that we understand nothing about it but that it always transcends whatever we may know and say about God. In the Scriptures, since the beginning, God is affirmed as being one, meaning that only Yahweh - the revealed name of God - is God. There are no other gods. Then, as God reveals himself and intervenes in human history, He is perceived as being a relationship, since he affirms himself through the relationships he establishes with human beings. It is in the Christian faith that this reality of God is acknowledged and affirmed clearly by speaking of the one and only God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit - that is the Holy Trinity. Since the beginning of the history of the Church, there appeared anti-trinitarian groups that denied the mystery of the Holy Trinity and, as a consequence, denied the divinity of Jesus Christ. Islam began as an offshoot of these anti-trinitarian groups. Even though they accepted Jesus as the Messiah, they refused to speak of him as the Son of God. For them, Jesus is no more than a Messenger of God. Then, Islam established itself as a strictly monotheist religion, professing a God that manifests himself by power, not by love. Allah is a lonely God, to whom everything has to submit and with whom the only possible relation is that of a slave. The Islamic god cannot be called father, since he has no children and he relates to everything else as the master.

For Jews and Christians, the Holy Scriptures present Yahweh, the Lord, as the only God who affirms himself by establishing a covenant with his people. He revealed himself as a God of love:

“Lord, Lord, a God of tenderness and compassion, slow to anger, rich in kindness and faithfulness.” (Ex 34:6).

Indeed, 

“God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son,

so that everyone who believes in him may not be lost

but may have eternal life.

For God sent his Son into the world

not to condemn the world,

but so that through him the world might be saved.”

And this salvation is carried out by Jesus Christ, through whom we become children of God.

In his second letter to the Corinthians, Paul wrote:

“The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.” (2 Co 13:13)

ALL BAPTISED IN THE ONE SPIRIT

PENTECOST SUNDAY - John 20:19-23

It was on the first day of the week, a Sunday evening. The disciples were gathered behind closed doors. John stresses that the doors were closed for fear of the Jews. Since that Sunday, the first day of the week became the day of the Lord for all generations. It was a new beginning, only possible with the risen Christ. He is the Prince of peace. That’s why he repeated twice: “Peace be with you”. We receive peace from Christ and peace only becomes a reality when we share it and become instruments of peace, the peace that comes from Christ.

Jesus entrusted to his disciples the same mission he had received from the Father: “As the Father sent me, so am I sending you.” This mission is the reason for the existence of the Church. Jesus goes on to repeat the same words for us today. We are being sent. It is not an easy task, since it implies following in the footsteps of Jesus. Then, Jesus breathed on them. At the beginning of time, God breathed the breath of life into the nostrils of man, for him to become a living creature (Gn 2:7). In the same manner, Jesus breathed on his disciples to make them a new creation filled with the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit. It is the Holy Spirit that makes the Church possible as a people reconciled between themselves and God. By giving them the Holy Spirit, Jesus entrusted the ministry of reconciliation to his disciples and constituted them witnesses of his victory over sin and death.

We must not forget that 

“In the one Spirit we were all baptised, Jews as well as Greeks, slaves as well as citizens, and one Spirit was given to us all to drink.” (1 Co 12:13).

I AM WITH YOU ALWAYS

ASCENSION SUNDAY - Matthew 28:16-20

Jesus had promised that he would not leave his disciples orphans (Jn 14:18). And he assures us that he is with us always, “to the end of time.”

At the end of his earthly ministry, Jesus entrusted his disciples with the mission he had received from the Father. Using the authority he received, Jesus commands us: Go and make disciples. We are ordered to go. Where? Everywhere, to all nations. We are given the mission of leading people to Jesus, that is making disciples of them. That is not done by any kind of imposition, but by a simple testimony that leads people to recognise the love of God in Jesus Christ. Once people encounter Jesus and recognise him as Christ, the Son of the living God, they must be baptised, thus being born of water and the Spirit (Jn 3:5). Grafted in Jesus Christ, they become children of God. Then, they must learn how to behave as God’s children, following the commandments that the Lord Jesus gave us.

Can we ignore the Lord’s commandment and refuse to go and announce his Gospel? Nowadays, some people consider the mission as finished and outdated. According to them, there is no need of calling others to Jesus Christ. It seems that Jesus spoke in vain and that we don’t need to obey him and to be his witnesses before the world. Today’s gospel reminds us of our duty as followers of Jesus Christ: we must announce the Good News of salvation in Jesus Christ. May the Lord give us the resolution, the courage and the strength to carry out the mission entrusted to us: 

“Go, therefore, make disciples of all the nations; baptise them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teach them to observe all the commands I gave you.”