Twenty Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time Cycle C

Welcome to read homilies for the Sundays of the year. These are sample homilies which you can read with devotion. You may use them in your own homilies without asking my permission. You may also change or edit these to fit them to your audience. A unique quality of these homilies is that they are Christ-filled. From beginning to end they present to us some aspect of Jesus so that beholding his glory we “are being transformed from glory to glory into his very image” (2 Corinthians 3:18 NAB).

Our True Guides

There have been many success stories of people who engage in business using only the computer, the Internet and their credit card. This type of business is called by many names such as online business, internet marketing, online marketing, online job, job on the Internet, and so forth. It is estimated by people engaged in this type of work that for every 100 persons who try their hand on Internet business only 1 or 2 succeed. The 99 or so end up as failures. Many are scammed. Some lose interest after a month or two in this kind of work.

The majority of those who do succeed tell us that they only succeeded when they found a guide who showed them how to effectively do business online. They call this guide a mentor.

In the business of living we need true guides or mentors who will show us the way how to handle life effectively and successfully. These guides are a necessity. They are not optional. Failing to have them inevitably leads us to failure in living.

Succeeding in life is immeasurably more important than succeeding in business on the Internet. And if internet business requires a guide to succeed the more so we need guides to succeed in the business of living.

Our Gospel reading today tells us who these guides are. And the one who identifies them as our guides is one who never made an error in life and never can make such an error because he is the one who makes all success, of any kind, possible, the man Jesus.

Jesus told us who these guides are. Today he still tells us they are our guides.

In our Gospel today Jesus tells us a story. Some teachers of the Bible say that this story actually happened because Jesus used the name of a character, that of Lazarus; it is not a parable, a story made up to teach us a lesson. Whether it actually happened or was just a parable or fiction, Jesus used it to show us our true guides in the business of living.

This story has only four characters, five if we include the dogs. The characters are the unnamed rich man (who was once called Dives because dives is Latin for rich man), Lazarus, the angels and Abraham. The dogs are the fifth character.

The story is very familiar to us. After some time the rich man and Lazarus died. The rich man went to hell. Lazarus, as related by Jesus, was carried to Abraham's bosom by angels. The rich man asked help from Abraham to assuage his terrible thirst in the midst of fire. This was refused. The rich man then asked Abraham to help his five brothers so that they would not end up in hell also. Abraham told the rich man that his brothers had guides so that they would not end up where he was. Those guides are Moses and the prophets.

Of course, it was Jesus who thought up this story and it was he who put into the mouth of the character Abraham the words "They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them." So it is Jesus himself using the character Abraham who says, "They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them."

Through this story Jesus is telling us today, 'If you do not want to end up like this rich man, you need to hear Moses and the prophets. These are your true guides.'

Because we live in the twenty first century after the birth of Jesus, because we have the Old and the New Testaments in our Bible, we tend to forget that in the time of Jesus and his apostles there was no New Testament yet. All they had was the Old Testament. And the Old Testament can be expressed in two words, Moses and the prophets or the law and the prophets. These were the only books for Jesus and the apostles. These were their only guides, Moses and the prophets. And they were superbly successful in their lives following these guides, except for one who made money his guide, the apostle Judas Iscariot.

Today, more than two thousand years after his birth Jesus still tells us that these are our true guides. We need to hear them and follow them. And what do they tell us to make the business of living successful? They tell us about Jesus.

Jesus once told the Jews, "Search the Scriptures (that is, the Old Testament, Moses and the prophets) for in them ye think ye have eternal life, and they are they which testify of me" (John 5:39 AV).

In the first page of the Christian Community Bible we read these words: "You have opened the Bible; now look for Christ as you read."

The Old Testament, Moses and the prophets, are our guides to Jesus. Reading them, hearing them makes us know more of Jesus.

I will give only one instance where reading the Old Testament can give us a clearer and more intimate knowledge of Jesus.

In the first two chapters of the Old Testament, that is, in Genesis 1 and 2 we read about the creation of the world, the sun, the stars, the moon, the earth, plants, animals, and the creation of human beings. We read in the first sentence, "In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth . . .". But John 1:3 tells us "Through him (the Word of God) all things came into being, and apart from him nothing came to be." Putting these two verses in our mind they tell us that it was Jesus before he became man who created the heavens and the earth.

During our recitation of the Creed we say "We believe in one God the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth." Using only these words we tend to forget that God the Father created everything by his Word and this Word is Jesus, as John the Evangelist writes, And the word was made flesh and dwelt among us, as we say in the Angelus.

If we compare this with the world of corporations, God the Father is the chairman of the board and he is ultimately responsible for everything in the corporation and Jesus the Son of God is the CEO or chief executive officer, in charge of the actual operation of the corporation.

If we realize that Jesus as God created everything and if we consider him as our dear friend, we would lovingly take care of his creation, as Francis of Assisi did. We would not indiscriminately kill insects and bugs. We would treasure the trees that Jesus causes to grow around us.

Our true guides, Moses and the prophets, lead us to Jesus. And with Jesus life is always successful. We will not end up like the rich man in the Gospel story. We will be like Lazarus, resting in the bosom of our father in faith Abraham.

Let us bow our heads in prayer. Lord Jesus, by your story about the rich man and Lazarus you point to us our guides who will lead us to know more and more about you. Help us to read the Old Testament with reverence and understanding and application so that like Lazarus we will one day rest in the bosom of Abraham, our father in faith. Amen.

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Note for the readers:

The Mass readings are from the New American Bible Revised Edition (NABRE). This is where our Lectionary gets the readings.

NAB stands for New American Bible (before it was revised). This is the translation I use. Unless otherwise stated the text I use is from this translation.

AV stands for Authorized Version of the Bible. It is more commonly referred to as the King James Bible. It is the version most used in English literature, therefore it is the one known more by the English speaking world.

Twenty Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time Cycle C

Welcome to read homilies for the Sundays of the year. These are sample homilies which you can read with devotion. You may use them in your own homilies without asking my permission. You may also change or edit these to fit them to your audience. A unique quality of these homilies is that they are Christ-filled. From beginning to end they present to us some aspect of Jesus so that beholding his glory we “are being transformed from glory to glory into his very image” (2 Corinthians 3:18 NAB).

 

The Best Use of Money

Today we are going to learn something very practical from our Lord.  He discusses the use of money in our Gospel reading. He tells us to use it to make friends. Here are his precise words from our Gospel. "I tell you, make friends for yourselves with dishonest wealth, so that when it fails, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings."

There have been many commentaries on this passage. Some commentaries have considered this as one of the most difficult passages to explain in the Bible.

The commentaries have explained who these friends are referred to by Jesus. Some think that these friends are the poor to whom we give money so that they can be helped out of their poverty. Others think that the friends here are God, the persons of the Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and the angels because they are the ones who will receive us in the eternal dwellings or heaven.

Today we will not deal with any of the interpretation of these commentaries. We will just take the words of Jesus as simply as the Holy Spirit leads us.

First, Jesus tells us, in fact commands us because he uses the imperative mood of the verb here, to make friends for ourselves. And he means just that. He wants us to make friends.

Jesus values our effort to make friends. He himself made friends with people. The most obvious friends he had were in the family of Lazarus, Mary and Martha. He also wants to make friends with us. His church is a society of friends. He called his disciples friends.

There are four qualities or characteristics of friends. The first is that friends know each other personally and they grow in this knowledge. Jesus wants us to interact with people so that we know them personally and they also know us personally. There is nothing of the impersonal relationship with Jesus.

Second is that friends share the goods with one another. These goods can be intangible like ideas or conversations or they can be tangible like money.

Third is that friends come to the help of one another in time of need. When Jesus heard of the death of his friend Lazarus he made plans to visit the family. He restored Lazarus to his sisters from death.

Fourth, and this is explicitly mentioned in the command of Jesus to make friends. Friends receive each other in their dwellings. You and I welcome friends in our homes.

Not only does Jesus want us to have friends and to make an effort to have friends, but he tells us to use our money for this purpose. It is unrealistic for us to make friends but then we do not spend anything for this purpose. Friends do cost money.

For Jesus this is a wise of our money. We use it to have as many friends as possible.

Finally Jesus tells us the result of this making of friends. When we lack something or fail in something our friends will help us. Which is common sense. Who else will help us but our friends. The reason why Jesus used the words eternal dwellings here is because he refers to the places where our friends are. Some commentaries mean heaven by these eternal dwellings, because heaven is an eternal place. But the word "dwellings" here is from a word which means tent. So we can render these words as eternal tents, tents that have no beginning and no end. They can mean heaven. They can also mean a state or situation of the friend. This state or situation is eternal because it is the eternal God himself who brings about this situation, one of happiness, one of contentment, one of complete obedience to God.

Again, Jesus wants us to make an effort to make friends with the use of money that we have. This for him is the wise use of money. As stewards of God's resources this is the best we can do, use it to spread the kingdom of God by making friends with other people.

Having friends means that we know people personally and they also know us personally, we both grow in this personal knowledge, we share with one another our ideas and resources, we help one another and we welcome each other in our homes.

This is the practical and most effective way to spread the Kingdom of God. In heaven we will all be friends. We start our heaven now by using our money to make friends as good stewards of the Lord.

Let us bow our heads in prayer. Lord Jesus, you willed that your followers will be friends of one another. Help us to use our money to have more friends on earth and in heaven. Amen.

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Note for the readers:

The Mass readings are from the New American Bible Revised Edition (NABRE). This is where our Lectionary gets the readings.

NAB stands for New American Bible (before it was revised). This is the translation I use. Unless otherwise stated the text I use is from this translation.

AV stands for Authorized Version of the Bible. It is more commonly referred to as the King James Bible. It is the version most used in English literature, therefore it is the one known more by the English speaking world.

Twenty Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time Cycle C

Welcome to read homilies for the Sundays of the year. These are sample homilies which you can read with devotion. You may use them in your own homilies without asking my permission. You may also change or edit these to fit them to your audience. A unique quality of these homilies is that they are Christ-filled. From beginning to end they present to us some aspect of Jesus so that beholding his glory we “are being transformed from glory to glory into his very image” (2 Corinthians 3:18 NAB).

Seeker of the Lost

I have a practice which I learned when I was still a boy and which until today I still resort to when I lose things. After a considerable time looking for that something which I lose and I do not find it, I pray to St. Anthony of Padua to help me find what I lost. The item can be very simple, a misplaced cellphone, a pair of eyeglasses, a notebook which is needed at the moment or anything of that sort. Invariably I would find the thing I am looking for through the intercession of St. Anthony of Padua, the famous Franciscan saint.

St. Anthony has been called the patron of lost things. He helps us find things which we lose. In contrast Jesus does not only help us find lost people. He himself looks for them. This is the meaning of our gospel reading today. Jesus seeks the lost.

But first let us clarify what class of people does Jesus seek. He does not seek those who knowingly, willfully, and obstinately refuse him. During Good Friday we listen to the Seven Last Words of Jesus. The first of these is most familiar to us. Father, forgive them for they do not know what they do. We place emphasis on the words "forgive them". We portray Jesus as a compassionate, merciful, forgiving person. We seem to forget that this forgiveness Jesus asked of his heavenly Father was given on a condition, that is, his persecutors did not know what they were doing. If they knew what they were doing Jesus would not have asked forgiveness for them.

Peter in his sermon after the cure of a crippled man affirmed that those who nailed Jesus to the cross did not know what they were doing.  He told his listeners, "Yet I know, my brothers, that you acted out of ignorance, just as your leaders did" (Acts 3:17).

In the Book of Leviticus when the forgiveness of sins was discussed it was always for sins that were done out of ignorance. In chapter 4 this phrase recurs "inadvertently commits a sin" whether it was for the sin of a priest, of the community, of the prince or leader, and of a private person.

In the New Testament the same is still true. Only sins done out of ignorance can be forgiven. The Letter to the Hebrews says that if a person sins willfully after receiving the truth, there remains for him no sacrifice for sin, only a fearful expectation of judgment and a flaming fire to consume the adversaries of God (cf. Hebrews 10:26-27).

Jesus himself said, "whoever says anything against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come" (Matthew 12:32).

The reason why Paul in the second reading tells us that he was forgiven was because he did not know what he was doing. He said, "I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and arrogant, but I have been mercifully treated because I acted out of ignorance in my unbelief."

It is clear then that Jesus does not seek those who knowingly, willfully, and obstinately refuse him.

Rather he seeks three kinds of persons represented by the three lost items in our Gospel reading. The lost items are the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son. Each of these represents a class of people.

The lost sheep represents persons who are distracted by the cares of family duties and go astray from following Jesus. Sheep can be distracted by a sound, a sight of greener pasture, a rippling of flowing water. So also people can be so distracted by their work and think that this is all important, to support their families, to care for the education and upbringing of their children that they forget Jesus and his kingdom. Jesus seeks out these persons.

The lost coin represents persons who have fallen into a bad environment. Coins fall and are easily lost in the things around the house. These represent persons who are influenced by their environment that they forget Jesus as the most important person in their life. They mix with their environment and get lost from Jesus. They include the drug addicts, the drug pushers, the prostitutes, the corrupt politicians and even misinformed terrorists. Jesus seeks out these people.

The lost son represents the person who thinks he has enough of this world's goods and thinks that he does not need to study and find a job somewhere to support his family. He is the rich guy who inherits his father's wealth. He too forgets the following of Jesus because he is comfortable where he is. Jesus also seeks him out.

These are the people Jesus seeks out to bring into his kingdom. He wants to reign over them. He wants to be their Lord and all. These are the poor who think of scraping a living, the victims of an evil environment, the self-satisfied well to do who thinks he is comfortable where he is. Jesus is looking for ways to seek them and gather them into his embrace.

And when he finds them and embraces them the whole court of heaven with all the myriads of angels and spirits of just human beings rejoice with him.

In some of our churches today we sing the hymn Amazing Grace. Its first stanza runs this way, 

Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound,

That saved a wretch like me.

I once was lost but now I'm found,

Was blind, but now I see.

The writer of this hymn was John Newton who was indeed lost but was found by Jesus. He was an English sailor in the eighteenth century who later became a captain of slave ships. "During his 1748 voyage to England his ship encountered a severe storm off the coast of Donegal, Ireland and almost sank. Newton awoke in the middle of the night and, as the ship filled with water, called out to God. The cargo shifted and stopped up the hole, and the ship drifted to safety. Newton marked this experience as the beginning of his conversion" to real Christianity (Wikipedia). Jesus found him. Newton eventually renounced his trade of buying and selling slaves. He became an Anglican priest. He worked for the abolition of slavery.

In the commentary of the Christian Community Bible on the lost sheep we read these words: "In large cities today, the church seems to be left with only one sheep. Why does she not get out, namely, let go of her income, privileges or devotions of a commercial style, to go out looking  for  the  ninety-nine  who  got  lost?  To  leave the comfortable circle of believers who have no problems,  to  look  beyond  our  renewed  rituals, and to be ready to be criticized just as Jesus was criticized, is the challenge today."

This commentary tells us that the situation now is reversed in large cities. In the Gospel the 99 sheep were safe, only 1 was lost. That commentary tells us that now only 1 is safe, the 99 are lost.

We are the lost sheep, the lost coin, the lost son Jesus is seeking. Until we make Jesus all important in our life we are lost. If our family or business or looks or honor becomes too important for us that we forget the all importance of Jesus we are lost and Jesus seeks for us. When he finds us he rejoices, all the angels and saints also rejoice. He exclaims again what we heard in our Gospel reading today, ‘Rejoice with me because I have found my lost sheep.’ And again he says, Now we must celebrate and rejoice,because your brother was dead and has come to life again; he was lost and has been found.’”

Let us bow our heads in prayer. Thank you, Jesus, for seeking us, your lost sheep and your lost brother and your lost sister. Bring us to your kingdom. Make us love you above all things with all our mind, with all our heart and with all our strength. Amen.

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Note for the readers:

The Mass readings are from the New American Bible Revised Edition (NABRE). This is where our Lectionary gets the readings.

NAB stands for New American Bible (before it was revised). This is the translation I use. Unless otherwise stated the text I use is from this translation.

AV stands for Authorized Version of the Bible. It is more commonly referred to as the King James Bible. It is the version most used in English literature, therefore it is the one known more by the English speaking world.

Twenty Third Sunday in Ordinary Time Cycle C

Welcome to read homilies for the Sundays of the year. These are sample homilies which you can read with devotion. You may use them in your own homilies without asking my permission. You may also change or edit these to fit them to your audience. A unique quality of these homilies is that they are Christ-filled. From beginning to end they present to us some aspect of Jesus so that beholding his glory we “are being transformed from glory to glory into his very image” (2 Corinthians 3:18 NAB).

The Burden That Carries Us

On Good Friday when the people approach the crucifix to kiss the figure of Jesus we sing the hymn The Old Rugged Cross. This song ends with this sentence, "I will cling to the old rugged cross, And exchange it someday for a crown."

If you notice the whole thought and imagery of that song, it is singing about the cross of Jesus, not about our cross. Even in the first stanza the cross it is referring to is "that old rugged cross where the dearest and best for a world of lost sinners was slain." This is the cross on which Jesus died. It is a beautiful song about the cross of Jesus.

But in our Gospel reading today Jesus was referring to the cross that we have to carry if we are to be his followers and disciples, our cross, not his cross. Here are his words as read today: "Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple." Clearly here Jesus was referring to the cross that we have to carry.

The topic of the cross that we have to carry has been so talked about in our hymns, books, articles, conversations, preachings that most people think about this cross as a form of suffering or inconvenience that we have to bear with if we are to keep our life look like a Christian life. Thus we have the expression "bear your cross with patience". Thus most people think that the cross can be a physical or mental handicap, a jobless period in our life, a divorce or rejection by the one we love, a situation of poverty, a sickness or an incurable ailment, like AIDS, or anything making our life miserable.

But this was not the meaning of the cross that we carry according to Jesus. In another passage in Luke he tells us that we carry our cross daily (9:23). This certainly does not mean that every day of our life we face some kind of sickness or misfortune or untoward incident. This would make a Christian a victim of circumstances. But as Paul the Apostle says, We are more than conquerors because of Jesus who loved us (Romans 8:37). 

First, let us get the literal meaning of the cross as Jesus meant it. The Greek word Luke uses for what we translate as cross is stauron. This means a pale or stake. A person condemned by the Romans to be crucified would carry this pale or stake to the place where he would be crucified. Except for some good movies Jesus is portrayed by them as carrying the wood with already the cross beam nailed to it. Even in the famous movie The Passion of the Christ by Mel Gibson Jesus is portrayed as carrying the two pieces of wood fastened across each other already. In the movie King of Kings Jesus is pictured as carrying the wood with the beam across it already but the thieves were carrying only the beam. Their pale or stake was already on the place of crucifixion.

That is the literal meaning of the word "cross" for Jesus, a piece of wood which the man condemned by the Romans to death would carry to the place of the crucifixion. It was only one piece of wood, not two pieces crossed against each other as we see in pictures of the Stations of the Cross.

Now to the real meaning of the cross as Jesus meant it. He meant the literal cross, the stauron, a piece of wood carried by the condemned man. But as we know Jesus used pictures or parables to drive home his point. By telling us that we carry our  cross daily and follow him he meant that like him we behave as men and women carrying the instrument of our crucifixion, of our cruel death. We are ready to die always, every day of our lives for him. This is what he meant.

He did not mean that he would send us sickness or pain or sorrow or anything inconvenient in our life and we have to bear this patiently. He simply meant that we would be ready to die for him daily, anytime. And the other sentences in the Gospel reading clarify this.

We are told by Jesus to hate our father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, and even our own life. In other words we are ready to leave them for his sake. We have to calculate the cost of following him lest others laugh at us. The cost is renouncing all our possessions as though we are dying.

Renouncing all that we have whether persons or things is not just for the monks, religious and clergy. This is basic for all Christians. Unless we do this we cannot call ourselves real Christians. This is what Jesus said, Unless you do this you cannot be his disciple, a real follower of his.

The Christian life is a dying life, a life dying to all we possess whether things or persons and dying to our own self.

The book Imitation of Christ has a beautiful chapter on the Cross. It is chapter 12 of Book 2 of the Imitation. It is entitled "The Royal Road of the Holy Cross". Here we read, "If you carry the cross willingly, it will carry and lead you to the desired goal where indeed there shall no more suffering." The cross is the burden that carries us forward in our Christian life.

The cross for each one of us is our death sentence. We are ready to die for Jesus, for his sake, for the sake of spreading his kingdom. This we carry every day of our lives, ready to shed our blood and life for Jesus. We are men and women condemned to die. That is what Jesus meant when he said that we carry our cross. We carry our death sentence. Let us imitate Paul the Apostle who wrote to the Corinthians, "I face death every day" (1 Corinthians 15:31).

Let us bow our heads in prayer.

Lord Jesus, you told us to carry our cross daily. Yes, we are willing to die for you daily, any time of the day, leaving our family, friends and possessions. This is the only way to be happy with you every day. Amen.

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Note for the readers:

The Mass readings are from the New American Bible Revised Edition (NABRE). This is where our Lectionary gets the readings.

NAB stands for New American Bible (before it was revised).

AV stands for Authorized Version of the Bible. It is more commonly referred to as the King James Bible. It is the version most used in English literature, therefore it is the one known more by the English speaking world.