Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time Cycle A

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).

Teaching Without End

Most of us have gone to school in one way or another. Some have reached college. Others have finished high school while still others have only reached the elementary grades. Whatever level of education we have reached we were under teachers. There was always the teacher who was the boss in class, who told us what to do and how to do it, and who graded us according to our performance.

This figure of the teacher is too familiar with us. The teacher has something to teach us, whether it is just reading and writing or a book to understand or a mathematical problem to solve. And he or she has the means to perform his or her job. He or she has a lesson plan, a chalk and an eraser, a pen. Nowadays teachers may have computers, projectors and screens to make a power point presentation of their subject matter.

In the Gospel reading today we meet a very different kind of a teacher, a kind that is very different from our image of the teacher today. For one thing, he did not have a written lesson plan. He did not have a chalk and eraser or even a pen. He just had himself. We reflect on this teacher today.

Ray Pritchard in his article entitled “Why Was Jesus called “Teacher”” says that Jesus was addressed 60 times in the Gospels as teacher. There are 30 more times where he is described as a teacher or as teaching. It was indeed the people’s favorite address to, and description of Jesus. Jesus accepted that he was a teacher but this was not his favorite title. His favorite was “son of man”.   

It is very fortunate and appropriate that in our translation of this passage from the Gospel according to St. Matthew, which is the New American Bible Revised Edition, the reading is “He began to teach them”. This is because in this narration of Matthew Jesus does begin his teaching ministry. The word-for-word translation in the original Greek of this passage is “And having opened his mouth he taught them”. But here in our Gospel reading we read “He began to teach them” for here indeed Jesus began his teaching ministry.

So many things can be said about Jesus as teacher. He has been called the Master

Teacher, the Greatest Teacher of all time, the Best Teacher, and other such expressions. Today we reflect on the uniqueness of Jesus as a teacher, what set him apart from all other teachers in the world, whether classroom teacher or online teachers or just plain instructor in a certain field of human activity, like singing and dancing.

First of all Jesus did not have a textbook. Almost all teachers have a textbook or a manual or a module from where the subject matter is to be taught. What Jesus taught was not just some branch of knowledge like English or Geometry. The principal subject matter of Jesus’ teaching is himself. He clearly said this. He said, also in Matthew’s Gospel, “Learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart and ye shall find rest unto your souls" (11:29 AV). He also said that he was the way, the truth and the life (John 14:6). If we want to know what is truth in any subject Jesus is this truth. He taught himself, not some subject matter outside himself. The Apostle Paul said that all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden in him (Colossians 2:3). Whatever we want to learn, as long as it is truth, it is in Christ. Therefore studying Christ will lead us into all these treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

That is why our Catechism of the Catholic Church says “In catechesis "Christ, the Incarnate Word and Son of God,. . . is taught – everything else is taught with reference to him - and it is Christ alone who teaches . . .” (427).

  

Secondly in the case of Jesus there is a personal relationship between teacher and learner which is necessary in order to learn from him. In other teaching situations there is no need of this relationship. We do not have to know the personal circumstances, for example, of our teacher in biology in order to know biology. In the case of Jesus it is necessary for proper learning. That is why in his case the student is called a disciple, a learner, a follower. We have met teachers who taught us in class but after the class we do not have communication with this teacher in order to learn more of his subject matter. At best we have a consultation, but not an ongoing personal relationship. In the case of the teacher Jesus we can only understand him if we have this personal relationship. This is the reason why so many of us seem to have difficulty understanding the Bible or we do not have an ongoing, growing desire to read and understand the Bible. It is because we do not have a personal relationship with Jesus. We do not talk to him very often or try to understand his thoughts and feelings.

Thirdly, this relationship or teaching relationship is forever. In our classes usually the relationship with our teacher ends when we graduate. There are cases, of course, where teacher and student develop a romantic relationship which ends in a marital relationship. But sooner or later even this relationship ends with death. With Jesus our relationship goes on forever unto eternity. Jesus has always something to teach us and we have always something to learn from him. His teaching is without end. Our learning is also without end. There is always something personal about Jesus which we learn even into eternity.

Jesus' physical body is no longer with us but he continues to teach us through his Spirit and his Church. Before he left us he promised that he would send to us his Spirit who would teach us all things, not just religious things but all things. And we have church leaders and teachers who continue his teaching ministry.

Jesus is indeed a unique teacher. Let us bow down in prayer to this greatest and unique teacher in our lives.

Lord Jesus, you are our teacher. You teach us all things through your Spirit. Teach us to have a personal, loving relationship with you so that we can understand what you teach in the Scriptures and in the Church. Amen.  

- - - - - - - - - -

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.

Labels: Homily, homilies, sermon, sermons, Christ-filled homily, Sunday sermons, Jesus is teacher, the master teacher, the best teacher

Third Sunday in Ordinary Time Cycle A

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 Most Mysterious Physical Reality

Have you asked yourself what is the most mysterious physical reality? After running through the indefinite number of phenomena that the sciences study I have come to the conclusion that light is the most mysterious physical reality.

Without light nothing worthwhile can be done. We cannot see anything. We cannot move from one point to a farther point in space. Light is a most obvious reality. Every morning we wake up to it and every evening we close our eyes to it. And yet the most learned scientists – and there are very many of them - have not yet concluded their study of light. For many centuries, even before the birth of Jesus, it was thought that light was a particle, like a baseball that emanates from its source to an object. Then in the seventeenth century it was found out that it also behaves like the wave of an ocean. So for another set of centuries it was debated whether light is a particle or a wave. Today most scientists agree that light is both a particle and a wave. And they also agree that sometimes light does not behave like a particle or a wave. So what is it? They agree that it is electromagnetic radiation. But this makes it too complicated for us to understand. It is indeed a mysterious reality.

What most people are not aware of is that there are two kinds of light, one that is visible to the human eye and another that is invisible to the human eye. The light from the sun and the candle is visible to the human eye. But there are x-rays, infrared rays, ultraviolet rays that are not visible to the human eye. Some of these rays are visible to certain animals but not to human beings. A light that is not visible? We thought light is visible. But science tells us there is invisible light, like the light that can see through our body but we cannot see it, as in an x-ray. Light indeed is mysterious.

Another mysterious thing about light is color. All the colors are in the ordinary light that we see but we do not see these colors unless we use a prism. All the combinations of colors, from the most simple drawn by a crayon to the most elaborate drawn by electronic lights and fireworks are all in the ordinary light that we see. But thank God we do not see these combinations of colors in the ordinary light, otherwise we would be dizzy from viewing all these mixtures of colors. Light is indeed a mystery,

Ordinary, physical light is already a mystery. Our Gospel reading today compounds this mystery because it applies this physical reality to a person, Jesus, the son of Mary. How can a person be a light? Is it true that a person can be a light? That is what our first reading and our Gospel tell us. Light can be a person, the person of Jesus, our Savior and Lord.

In the Gospel today Matthew identifies Jesus as the light predicted by Isaiah the prophet. He wrote, “He (Jesus) left Nazareth and went to live in Capernaum by the sea, in the region of Zebulun and Naphtali, that what had been said through Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled: Land of Zebulun and land of Naphtali, the way to the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles, the people who sit in darkness have seen a great light, on those dwelling in a land overshadowed by death light has arisen.” The context tells us that this great light is Jesus who in Matthew’s narrative begins to proclaim the kingdom of God.

Our first reading gives the prophecy of Isaiah about this event. He wrote, “First the Lord degraded the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali; but in the end he has glorified the seaward road, the land west of the Jordan, the District of the Gentiles. Anguish has taken wing, dispelled is darkness: for there is no gloom where but now there was distress. The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; upon those who dwelt in the land of gloom a light has shone.”

As we can observe Matthew’s quotation of Isaiah’s prophecy is not word for word but the idea is there that a great light has come upon the people living in the land distributed to the two sons of Jacob, Zebulun and Naphtali.

Certainly this did not mean that the people saw Jesus like a candle walking around or like a luminescent figure going around. Some commentators say that the message of Jesus gave light to the lives of the people living in that region, guiding them in their life. But Matthew is clear, the people have seen a great light, not the people have heard a message which enlightened them concerning their affairs in life.

Jesus is indeed light. John’s Gospel is more explicit. It describes Jesus as “the real light which gives light to every man” (1:9). In two other places John records Jesus as saying, “I am the light of the world” (8:12 and 9:5). And in the first letter of John God is equated with light. God is light; in him there is no darkness (1:5).

How is Jesus light? There are at least three ways that Jesus is light.

He is light because he made light. He is physical light. Today our main source of light is the sun. But a time will come when Jesus himself will be our physical light, what the sun is to us now. In the Book of Revelation it is written that the lamp of the future world is the lamb of God who is Jesus. There will be no need for the sun and moon there because its physical light will be Jesus. (21:23). Perhaps this is the reason why scientists cannot determine definitely whether physical light is a particle or a wave or what else other than particle and wave because Jesus the Son of God is in this physical light.

Jesus is light because he enlightens our mind. Light enlightens us. Jesus enlightens our mind. John describes Jesus as “the true light that enlightens everyone” (1:9 in Christian Community Bible). He is the logos, the word, the idea that enables us to understand all the ideas we have. All the branches of sciences are made possible by his enlightening the minds of all those who study these sciences. Jesus is the light of our mind.

Thirdly Jesus is the light of the heart. He enlightens our hearts to prepare them to accept his message and himself. He is the lamp shining in our heart to make us love God above all things. The Bible with our Church tradition is written with words. Jesus enlightens our mind to understand these words as part of a language. But he also enlightens our hearts to receive these words with humility, real understanding and love which produce joy in our hearts. He does this through his Spirit whom he poured upon us.

We almost forgot the second reading. The reason why it is put there is because unless Jesus as light enlightens us and unless we receive the full light of Jesus our churches will always be divided. As in Corinth the church was divided into factions. Some said they followed Paul. Others said they followed Apollos. Still others said that they followed Cephas or Peter. Then there were those who said they followed Christ in contrast to Paul and the other apostles. There were divisions because they did not possess the full light of Christ. Jesus enlightens our minds and hearts to accept other Christians who do not think and feel as we do. In this regard we can imitate our Pope Francis who accepts Christians of other churches as Christians, as brothers and sisters in Christ.

For our prayer today we will borrow from the poem of St. John of the Cross, The Living Flame of Love. Jesus is that living flame which enlightens our heart. We take the first, third and fourth stanzas. Let us bow our heads in prayer as you join me in praying this prayer.

O living flame of love

That tenderly wounds my soul

In its deepest center! Since

Now you are not oppressive,

Now consummate! if it be your will:

Tear through the veil of this sweet encounter!

O lamps of fire!

in whose splendors

The deep caverns of feeling,

Once obscure and blind,

Now give forth, so rarely, so exquisitely,

Both warmth and light to their Beloved.

How gently and lovingly

You wake in my heart,  

Where in secret you dwell alone;

And in your sweet breathing,

Filled with good and glory,

How tenderly You swell my heart with love. Amen.

- - - - - - - - - -

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.

Second Sunday in Ordinary Time Cycle A

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).

A More Meaningful Classification of Sins

Most of us are familiar with the traditional classification of sins. There are mortal sins and there are venial sins. Recently mortal sins are labeled as serious sins and venial sins are labeled as less serious or light sins.

Mortal sins are those sins which are about serious or grave matters, like murder, kidnapping, and done with deliberate intent with full freedom or with no coercion involved. Venial sins are those which involve light matters, like cheating in a class exam, shoplifting a small grocery item, or a serious matter not done with deliberation or restricted in freedom, like over-killing someone in self-defense.

Our Gospel reading today tells us of another classification of sins. It is grammatically a simple classification of sins but this classification has a very significant consequence in our life. Grammatically sins are either singular or plural. A sin is either singular, sin, or plural, sins. That is how simple it is. But the difference can spell a life of freedom or a life of slavery.

The very first sentence in our Gospel today reads, "John the Baptist saw Jesus coming toward him and said, "Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world." There we have the first kind of sins. It is sin. It is singular. John the Baptizer did not make a mistake in using the singular form. He meant it to be singular. He was referring to the sin of the world. This is the sin that Jesus took away with his passion, death and resurrection. Jesus took away also our many sins but he also took away the sin of the world.

Jesus did take away our personal sins together with our original sin, and that is plural but John the Baptizer affirms that he takes away the sin of the world. By the way this is the sentence that the priest or other Eucharistic minister uses to address us before he takes communion and gives the sacred species to us. He says, “This is the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. Happy are those who are called to his supper.” But this time the Ritual for the Mass has turned the “sin” to “sins”, it has become plural. 

So today we reflect on what this sin of the world is which John the Baptizer says Jesus took away.

Several Bible commentators have noticed this difference and have shown us why in this particular instance the singular form is used.

Bible.org in its series on John says: ““Sin” is singular, heaping together all the trillions of sins in human history into one gigantic pile.”

Johann Albrecht in Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament has this very significant comment: “The singular number, with the article, [gives it] the greatest force. [There was] the one plague, which seized on all; He bore the whole; He did not so bear one part [of our sin], as not to bear the other.”

In other words the singular emphasized the collective character of sin. Sin had infected all humanity, and not only all humanity, but even all the world. It is in every facet of our life, in all our thoughts, words and actions. It has infected not only our planet earth or our solar system but all the world, with its billions of stars, planets and whatever creatures may be there.

This is the sin that Jesus as lamb of God takes away. The Greek word used for “takes away”, like other Greek words, has more than one meaning. It also means take upon oneself, lift up, bear. So the full meaning can be: Jesus takes upon himself the sin of the whole world, lifts it up to all of us to show its hideousness and ugliness and removes it away from himself and from all of us and the rest of the universe.

As Johann Albrecht says: “The Lamb of God first took the load of sin off the world on Himself, then rolled it off from Himself.”

  

Why is this so important? Because it addresses two problems we have about sin or sins. The first problem is in our personal inner experience. Many of us have gone to confession confessing the same sin over and over again. It may be lack of self-control in our anger or in our sex drives. Or a lack of honesty in our business dealings. Or a bad habit which we want to get rid of, like smoking or drinking without control. Or just a repugnance towards a certain person which we think is not correct. We experience the drive within us to commit sins. Theologians label this as concupiscence, the tendency to sin.

The second problem we have about sin is that we see sins all around us. We just have to open the news report in our television or switch on our radio to see and hear that such and such crimes have been committed: murder, terrorism, rape, kidnapping, robbery, theft, drug abuse, corruption of government officials, and so forth.

These two problems are with us, the inner tendency to sin and the occurrences of sins all around us, seemingly out of control.

We may not realize that our Gospel reading for today solves these two problems. When the Holy Spirit through John the Baptist tells us to look at Jesus, the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, he means that Jesus is taking away the sin in us and in all the world.

Coffman in his Commentaries on the Bible gives this comment: “Christ removes sin far away. He takes away the guilt, the penalty and the practice of sin.”

Notice carefully what Coffman says. Jesus takes away the guilt, the penalty and the practice of sin.

That is why our second reading is very brief but to the point. It only takes half a minute to read it. Here it is again: Paul, called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Sosthenes our brother, to the church of God that is in Corinth, to you who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be holy, with all those everywhere who call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” Very brief indeed.

This letter is addressed also to us, as it was addressed to the Christians at Corinth. Paul affirms in this letter that we have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, we are called to be holy. How did this happen? It happened in Christ Jesus. Notice Paul’s words “sanctified in Christ Jesus”. In Christ we do not have any sin, because he has taken any sin that we have and nailed it to his cross. In Christ we have the new resurrected life that he has, which life is beyond sin.

This is the secret of a sinless life, a life where our concupiscences or bad tendencies are under complete control by the Spirit of Jesus, not by our will power. It is either we believe Paul the Apostle as he writes to us by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit or we continue in our sins.

The Corinthian Christians were also surrounded by wickedness, especially sexual wickedness. But Paul says they have been sanctified. This is because as John the Baptist says, Jesus takes away their sins.

The first reading tells us that this glorious situation of a sinless world after Jesus has taken away our sins is universal. It has reached the nations, the ends of the earth.

That is true because we believe. For those who do not believe they are still in their sins. But for us who believe the situation is completely different. The new life, the resurrected life of Jesus is in us, and we are spreading it around despite the crimes we see around us.

Let us pray with our heads bowed down. Lord Jesus, you are the lamb of God who takes away the sin in us and around us. Help us to believe what Paul your apostle said that in you we have been sanctified and are called to be holy. Amen.

- - - - - - - - - -

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.

The Epiphany of the Lord Cycle A

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).

A Thankless Job

In the 1950s in many parts of the southern Philippines when the priest was about to give his sermon (it was not yet the custom then to call this a "homily") many men would go out of the church building to hold a conversation among themselves and smoke a cigarette or two. When they heard that the sermon was ended they would enter the church again.

Such was the situation in many churches when Latin was still the language used in the Mass. Those men of course did not understand the Latin and when it was time for them to listen to something that was intelligible to them either in their dialect or in English, they would leave the church building to do some gossiping among themselves.

The women would remain in church listening to what the priest was saying in his sermon which could sometimes last an hour or so.

But that situation did not last forever. The short courses in Christianity (Cursillos en Cristianidad in Spanish) spread throughout the land and people began to understand more of their faith. Then the reform of Vatican Council II came with the Mass in the language of the people. Then many groups gathered to study the Bible and many Bible based groups arose in the Catholic Churches.

These events in our church history tell us that there is someone who guides the church members to understand their faith, the treasures of our Catholic faith. This someone is no other than the Chief Shepherd mentioned by Peter the Apostle in his first letter (5:4).

Today in our Gospel reading we read about the prophecy concerning this shepherd. It is a quotation from the prophet Micah (5:1). “And you, Bethlehem, land of Judah,

are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; since from you shall come a ruler,

who is to shepherd my people Israel."

In the first reading we are told that nations shall walk by the light of this shepherd. These nations shall come from afar, represented by those magi who visited the child Jesus, whose visit we celebrate today.

In the Responsorial Psalm our response is that every nation will adore this shepherd. And in the second reading St. Paul makes clear that the people shepherded by Jesus is not only the members of the tribes of Israel but even non-Jews. Paul says that the Gentiles are coheirs, members of the same body, and copartners in the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel. They are also part of the people of God, shepherded by Jesus, the Good Shepherd.

The title of Jesus as shepherd is significant because when we study what is a shepherd it is a job which has few consolations. In fact I call it a thankless job because no sheep ever goes to its shepherd to say “Thank you” for shepherding it. Unlike a dog whose appreciation for its master is seen by its face and wagging of its tail, the sheep does not have this feature of a dog.

In the online Bible Dictionary we have this description of the job of a shepherd: “The duties of a shepherd in an unenclosed country like Palestine were very onerous. In early morning he led forth the flock from the fold marching at its head to the spot where they were to be pastured. Here he watched them all day, taking care that none of the sheep strayed, and if any for a time eluded his watch and wandered away from the rest, seeking diligently till he found and brought it back. In those lands sheep require to be supplied regularly with water, and the shepherd for this purpose has to guide them either to some running stream or to wells dug in the wilderness and furnished with troughs. At night he brought the flock home to the fold, counting them as they passed under the rod at the door to assure himself that none were missing. Often he had to guard the fold through the dark hours from the attack of wild beasts, or the wily attempts of the prowling thief.”

Such is the work of a shepherd, a very onerous one, and the sheep do not say “Thank you” to him.

And many of us are like that. One Bible commentator John Trapp describes Jesus the shepherd as “the arch-Shepherd, that feeds his people daily, daintily, plentifully, pleasantly, among the lilies” (John Trapp Complete Commentary). We are fed by Jesus the shepherd daily, daintily, plentifully, pleasantly and like sheep we fail to say “Thank you” to Jesus.

May we always be grateful to Jesus for shepherding us.

Let us bow our heads and say from the depth of our heart, “Thank you Jesus for shepherding me. Amen.”

- - - - - - - - - -

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.