Seventeenth 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).

Only A Threat, Not a Prediction?

We now come to the third group of parables in chapter thirteen of St. Matthew's Gospel, the last group in our Gospel readings. As I told you two Sundays ago, the Church wants us to read the whole chapter thirteen during these three Sundays.

Today's Gospel reading with the Second Reading has sparked heated controversies in our Church for centuries. Our Gospel reading has a parable which some theologians have not understood literally. Here is the second to the last parable in this chapter of Matthew's Gospel.

Jesus said, "Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net thrown into the sea, which collects fish of every kind. When it is full they haul it ashore and sit down to put what is good into buckets. What is bad they throw away. Thus it will be at the end of the age. The angels will go out and separate the wicked from the righteous and throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth."

Some theologians say that when Jesus said that the wicked will be thrown into the fiery furnace, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth, he was only giving a warning to us so that we would mend our ways and do good. That is, he did not really mean that the angels would throw the wicked into a fiery furnace, into hell. He was not predicting that they would end up there, he was only issuing a threat.

As one writer said, Jesus was like the exasperated mother warning her son, “If you don’t clean up your room right now, I’ll kill you!” She does not really mean it but hopes it will motivate her son to change. (themelios.thegospelcoalition.org).

I have brought this topic out into the open today because more and more people think and believe that hell is only a figurative expression, it is not a reality. Their basic argument is that God is absolute love and God cannot condemn or throw people into hell to suffer forever.

Some of you listening to me now may be of this opinion that indeed hell is only the expression of Jesus to warn us so that we do not misbehave in the kingdom of God.

But our Second Reading tells us otherwise. Let us read it in full again.

St. Paul wrote to the Romans: "Brothers and sisters, we know that all things work for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose. For those he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, so that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. And those he predestined he also called; and those he called he also justified; and those he justified he also glorified."

St. Paul tells us that God a long time ago, even before we were born, predestined people to be glorified. To do this he called this people to himself and justified them, made them just, made them holy. Those people whom he did not predestine to be glorified are of another kind.

The mistake of these people who think that there is really no hell because God is all love, and some of them are very intelligent persons, is that they forget that those who will be thrown into the furnace of fire, into hell, are evil from the beginning of their life. They were not good human beings who turned out bad. They were bad from the very beginning of their lives.

The fish and other creatures which were thrown away from the net were useless and bad from their nature. They were not good fish which turned out to be bad. They were bad from the very beginning.

The parable of the bad seeds last Sunday helps to explain this. The seeds were the seeds of the enemy, they were not the seeds of God which turned out to be weeds later as they grew. From the beginning they were weeds but when they grew they appeared to be wheat. But their grains told the farmer they were really weeds.

Where does this lead us to? It leads us to examine ourselves. By baptism God has given us sanctifying grace but this does not mean that we are automatically saved. It means that we are to live as children of God and not behave as children of the devil.

If there are some baptized among who behave like children of the devil as killing others, raping boys and girls, cheating the citizens of their taxes, and so forth, then we pray for their conversion that they may repent and mend their ways. Because if they don't repent, this may mean that they are really children of the devil and their destination is hell, the furnace of fire where they will wail and grind their teeth.

  

That God predestined us to glory is clear from our Catechism. It says, “We can adore the Father because he has caused us to be reborn to his life by adopting us as his children in his only Son: by Baptism, he incorporates us into the Body of his Christ; through the anointing of his Spirit who flows from the head to the members, he makes us other "Christs." “God, indeed, who has predestined us to adoption as his sons, has conformed us to the glorious Body of Christ. So then you who have become sharers in Christ are appropriately called "Christs." “The new man, reborn and restored to his God by grace, says first of all, "Father!" because he has now begun to be a son." (2782)

Because as the Catechism has just said that we are adopted sons of God, we cannot be thrown into this fiery furnace. But this does not make us too presumptuous of our salvation. Because we might be weeds in the form of wheat.

Again in number 600 our Catechism says, “To God, all moments of time are present in their immediacy. When therefore he establishes his eternal plan of "predestination", he includes in it each person's free response to his grace.”

This subject of predestination has caused heated arguments in our Church for many centuries, even until now. In 1581, a heated argument erupted between the Jesuits, who advocated Molinism, and the Dominicans, who had a different understanding of God's foreknowledge and the nature of predestination. In 1597, Pope Clement VIII established the Congregatio de Auxiliis, a committee whose purpose was to settle this controversy. In 1607, Pope Paul V ended the quarrel by forbidding each side to accuse the other of heresy, allowing both views to exist side-by-side in the Catholic Church. 

The Molinists or followers of Fr. Molina, a Jesuit, hold that in addition to knowing everything that does or will happen, God also knows what His creatures would freely choose if placed in any circumstance. He said that grace is not intrinsically efficacious. God only knows that the person would accept the grace of God but God does not will him to do that. He only knows that that would be his choice.

On the other side were the Dominicans, followers of Fr. Banez, spiritual director of St Teresa of Avila. Fr. Banez taught that “Grace is intrinsically efficacious”, that is, God has willed to be saved those whom he predestined. (www.newadvent.org)

On the other hand we have the controversy between the Catholics and the Protestants led by John Calvin and his followers. The Calvinists have been interpreted to say that God has predestined some people to heaven and others he foreordained to hell. This is the teaching of double predestination. Our Church does not teach that God ordains some people to hell. The parable of this Sunday tells us that God does not throw good people to hell. These people end up in hell because from the beginning they were bad and useless for the kingdom of God.

What can we say then? Let us thank God for the gift of grace given to us in baptism and the other sacraments. Secondly, let us pray for those among us who behave like they are children of the devil. We pray for their conversion. Their end is terrible if indeed they are children of the devil.

While preparing for this homily I viewed certain YouTube presentations of the torments in hell. Remember, the three children in Fatima were presented by our Lady with visions of hell. The pains there were extreme, to say the least. And they are eternal. While viewing these videos the thought came to me that that is what Jesus suffered for us on the cross so that we would not go there.

For Jesus hell was real. He went there. He suffered the torments there for us. If we are not going there it is because Jesus saved us from that place by his sufferings, death and resurrection.

To know this reality is the wisdom given to King Solomon in our first reading. God made him the wisest of all kings. But God has made us wiser than Solomon because we have the mind of Jesus. And this mind tells us hell is real.

Let us thank Jesus for saving us. Again let us recite a part of our Responsorial Psalm, the prayer of a person who has been found to be a good fish, not the one to be thrown into the fiery furnace. We bow our heads.

Lord, I love your commands.

I have said, O LORD, that my part is to keep your words.

The law of your mouth is to me more precious than thousands of gold and silver pieces.

Let your kindness comfort me according to your promise to your servants.

Let your compassion come to me that I may live,

for your law is my delight.

Lord, I love your commands.

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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.

Sixteenth 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).

No Herbicide, Please!

On March 12, 2000 Pope John Paul the Second led the asking of forgiveness from God for the sins which the sons and daughters of the Church had committed over the last 2000 years, Five cardinals and two bishops confessed specific sins committed by these sons and daughters. The sins included the killing of heretics, those who disagreed with official church teaching.

Last June 22, 2015 Pope Francis in Turin, Italy asked forgiveness from the Waldensians on behalf of the Catholic Church, for the un-Christian and even inhumane positions and actions taken against them. These actions included murdering the Waldensians for their heresies or ideas which were contrary to our Church's teachings.

Then in January 25, 2016 Pope Francis asked Protestants for forgiveness for persecution in the past centuries. This persecution included killing these Protestants for teaching and promoting beliefs different from those taught by our Church.

The killing of these heretics, Waldensians and Protestants is the opposite of what Jesus commanded in our Gospel reading today. He never wanted them to be killed, to be uprooted even if they were as they were supposed to be by Catholics children of the devil for holding on to these heresies or different doctrines.

For us who live in the twenty first century and who do not witness these religious persecution of non-Catholics we do not feel the enormity of these sins. But for the people affected during the time of persecution it was a terrible experience. Here is a passage about what happened during those years of persecution by members and leaders of our church. I will read now excerpts from a passage which depicts these atrocities.

“In the year 1209, When the King of France refused to lead the pope's Crusade, Pope Innocent III put his legate, Arnald-Amalric, the General of the Cistercians (or "Trappist") monks at Citeaux, in charge of the "Christian" forces.  On their way to the Holy Land, they made a stop at the French town of Béziers.

"Arnald called on the Catholics in the town, an Albigensian, (that is heretical,) stronghold, to hand over the 200 or so known heretics.  If they didn't they would suffer with them.  The townsfolk decided to stand together against these foreigners.

        

“The townsfolk took refuge inside the cathedral and the great churches of St. Jude and St. Mary Magdalene. . .  The command went out from Arnald:  'Kill them all: the Lord will look after his own.'

“Behind the locked doors of St. Mary Magdalene's, the clergy tolled the bells, while celebrants vested in black for a requiem.  The churches, places of sanctuary from time immemorial, were crammed.  In that church alone there were 7000 women, children and the elderly.  To the sound of priests chanting Mass was added that of axes splitting the timber of the doors.  When the doors gave way, the only noise in the church was the Latin of the liturgy and the babble of babies in their mothers' arms.

“The invaders, singing lustily Veni Sancte Spiritus (Come, Holy Spirit) spared no one, not even the babies.  The last to be cut down were two priests in the sanctuary.  It was, said Lea, in his book The Inquisition in the Middle Ages, 'a massacre almost without parallel in human history'.

“The crusaders then destroyed everything in the town, including the cathedral.  'All that was left of Béziers was a smouldering heap under which all the citizens lay dead.'

“In the cool of the evening, the monk Arnald settled down to write to his superior (the Pope).  'Today, your Highness, 20,000 citizens were put to the sword, regardless of age or sex.'  Slaughtering babies was bad enough, but it was an unspeakable crime to cut priests down as they celebrated the ritual sacrifice of Calvary.  It has been reckoned that in the last and most savage persecution under Emperor Diocletian, about 2,000 Christians perished, throughout the empire.  (Yet) In the first vicious incident of Pope Innocent III's crusade, ten times that number of people were slaughtered.  Not all were Albigensians or heretics, by any means.  It comes as a shock to discover that, at a stroke, a pope killed far more Christians than (the pagan emperor) Diocletian.” (from jesuswouldbefurious.org)

Now, let us listen to Jesus in our Gospel reading about these people who were murdered by Catholics. 'No, if you pull up the weeds you might uproot the wheat along with them. Let them grow together until harvest.' In other words Jesus wanted them to live and grow together with the Catholics. But the Catholics had uprooted them from the earth, murdered them by burning them or drowning them or by other ways of torture.

It was indeed a great sin for Catholics to have persecuted and killed thousands of non-Catholics or people who held different beliefs than us. And the two popes, John Paul the Second and Francis, asked forgiveness for this great sin which we have committed against them and against God.

Incidentally one of our best theologians, a very great doctor of the Church, unfortunately has taught something opposite to what Jesus commanded in our Gospel reading today. This great Church doctor is held up as a model theologian by the Church. He is the Patron Saint of theological studies. His name is St. Thomas Aquinas, a Dominican. It is most unfortunate and very sad that this passage is found in his writings: "Wherefore if forgers of money and other evil-doers are forthwith condemned to death by the secular authority, much more reason is there for heretics, as soon as they are convicted of heresy, to be not only excommunicated but even put to death." (Summa Theologica).

Jesus completely disagrees with such statement of St. Thomas Aquinas, one of the reasons why our recent Popes have asked pardon for the killing of non-Catholics or would be non-Catholics. This statement of that Saint had sanctioned the killing of thousands of heretics.

But we must be fair. This is not the sin only of our leaders and brothers and sisters in our Church. The Non-Catholics, Protestants, Anglicans and Lutherans and others had also killed Catholics for believing differently than them. We rightly expect that they too reciprocate the actions of Pope John Paul the Second and Pope Francis by asking forgiveness from us for killing our Church leaders and members.

The Lord Jesus does not want to spray us with herbicide in order to kill the weeds among us. He wants the weeds to grow with us.

This parable of Jesus is very instructive because in Palestine the wheat and the weed called darnel look the same as they grow. The Forerunner Commentary says that wheat and darnel are exact in their appearances during growth. Both plants are lush green and can be distinguished only when they mature and produce fruit: Wheat berries are large and golden, while darnel berries are small and gray. Thus, if the farmer attempted to uproot the tares before maturity, he would wreak havoc on his wheat. (bibletools.org)

And that is the real situation among us. The real Christians and the fake Christians are very difficult to distinguish. Both are baptized. Both receive the sacraments. Both do good works. Both appear to love their neighbor. Both seem to be children of the Kingdom of Jesus.

The great difference which cannot be seen is in the heart. The real Christians are motivated by love of God. They do everything for the glory of God. While the fake Christians are motivated by love of self. They do everything for themselves. Both of these Christians may dress the same, even the smile may be the same, but their hearts are worlds apart. Since the difference is in their hearts we cannot really distinguish them.

Sometimes we can distinguish them, but only by their fruits. As the Commentary we cited said, the grains of the wheat are large and golden, while those of the darnel are small and gray. The real Christians are meek and good mannered, while the fake Christians are irritable and abrasive in their manners. But who are we to judge and decide who are the fake and the real?

The message of our first reading is very clear: to have mercy, even on the fake Christians. It is a prayer addressed to God. It tells God that he judges with clemency, and with much lenience governs us, permitting repentance for our sins. He is indeed a God who does not desire the death of the wicked as the Bible tells us.

Some of these fake Christians may be sitting beside us now. They may even be daily church goers. But they do this to be seen by men and to be honored as religious so that on election time people will vote for them.

Jesus tells us, Have mercy on them. Do not kill them as churchmen had killed heretics before. In our parlance Jesus would have said, do not spray them with herbicide. You may kill the real Christians along with the fake Christians.

And that is what actually happened. People have killed saints. King Henry VIII killed Thomas More, venerated by us as a saint. Pope Innocent III killed thousands of real Christians in the time of the Crusades.

And our Responsorial Psalm confirms this view of God. We said to God, Lord, you are good and forgiving, abounding in kindness to all who call upon you.

Our second reading tells us that it is God who knows what is inside us, for he searches hearts and knows the intention of the Spirit. He only, knows who are the wheat and who are the darnel among us. He alone knows who among us are the children of the kingdom and who among us are the children of the devil.

Let us pray as we bow our heads.

Jesus, you want us to live with disciples who are fake, as you lived with Judas whom you called a devil. May your Spirit bring to fruition your life in us so that we will later on be gathered into your barn after we have lived with those who claim they are yours but are not. 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.

Fifteenth 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).

Multiplication, Not Addition

Today we begin with the parables of Jesus in our Gospel readings. In the next two Sundays we will continue with these parables. So these three Sundays beginning today the Church focuses on the parable chapter of Matthew's Gospel which is chapter 13.

It is important that today we set the background and proper understanding of these parables. All of these parables concern the kingdom or reign of God, his complete dominion over us which Jesus introduced into our world. In these parables Jesus describes the kingdom of God, the central reality he was primarily concerned with since the theme of his preaching was, "Reform your lives! The kingdom of heaven is at hand" (Matthew 4:17).

The first parable of Jesus which is the Gospel reading for this Sunday is about the parable of the sower. This is how Jesus called this parable. He said, "Hear then the parable of the sower". This then is about the sower who sows seeds in four different places: on the path, on rocky ground, among thorns and on rich soil. Each of these places has a meaning for Jesus which he explains to his disciples.

Let us first listen to Jesus' explanation of these kinds of places where the seed fell. He said that the seed sown on the path is the one who hears the word of the kingdom without understanding it, and the evil one comes and steals away what was sown in his heart.

He also said that the seed sown on rocky ground is the one who hears the word of the kingdom or reign of God and receives it at once with joy. But he has no root and lasts only for a time. When some tribulation or persecution comes because of the word, he immediately falls away. 

According to Jesus the seed sown among thorns is someone who hears the word of the kingdom, but then worldly anxiety and the lure of riches choke the word and it bears no fruit.

Finally, for Jesus the seed sown on rich soil is the one who hears the word of the reign of God and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and yields a hundred or sixty or thirtyfold.

Notice what Jesus said in the last part of our Gospel reading. He said that the one who hears the word and understand it is the one who bears fruit.

This means that we need to understand what Jesus said. And we can only do this if we take his own explanation of his own parable. Otherwise we may understand something that was not in the mind of Jesus when he taught this parable. That is why we first listened to what he said was the meaning of his parable of the sower.

We notice Jesus' own title of this parable. As I earlier pointed out, Jesus called it the parable of the sower. Most commentators have turned this into the parable of the different seeds, the seeds on the pathway, the seeds on shallow stony ground, the seeds among thorns and the seeds in good soil. Let us stick to Jesus' own understanding of this parable, the parable of the sower.

Bible commentators agree that the sower here is Jesus. And we too agree. The sower is Jesus himself. As he himself states later in that same chapter of Matthew’s Gospel, "The farmer sowing good seed is the son of man" (13:37). But it is not only Jesus who is the sower. The sower is any other person who sows the word of the kingdom among other human beings. And when we understand the reason why this time Jesus preached from a boat along the shore we realize that he was preparing others to sow the seed or the word of the kingdom after he would be gone from them physically.

In the beginning of Jesus' ministry he taught in the synagogues. But we notice that the Jewish leaders became more and more critical of him, opposed him, pushing him out of the synagogues. One time he was even almost physically thrown out of the synagogue into a ravine (Luke 4). That was why Jesus resorted to teaching in the open spaces, away from the synagogues.

This was the reason why Jesus took especial care in explaining his parables to his disciples because he knew that they in turn would be the ones to teach the people about the kingdom of God. They would be the sowers of the word of that kingdom later on.

We add to this the fact that in the succeeding parables in that chapter of Matthew Jesus introduces each one saying, "The reign of God may be likened . . .". We can then reconstruct the introduction of the first parable to "The reign of God may be likened to the sower who sowed seeds." If we accept this reconstruction it is clear that the focus here is about the sower, not about the different kinds of soils which have been the focus of almost all commentaries on this parable.

With this focus, on the sower and not on the soil, we get closer to Jesus' idea. He was telling us that the reign of God is like someone who preaches and teaches about the kingdom of God. Some will not understand him, so the devil takes away what they have heard and puts this into oblivion. Others will receive his message with joy but they soon drift away when difficulties arise. Still others will receive his message and will try to understand it but the cares of life are too much for them, they soon turn away their attention from the kingdom of God. The fourth kind of listeners will not only listen but will understand the message and they will persevere to bear abundant fruit, some thirtyfold, sixtyfold and even a hundred fold.

Jesus wants us to understand that that is the kingdom or reign of God. The sower of this kingdom encounters four different people. But he goes on sowing, knowing that sooner or later there will be an abundant harvest.

What kind of harvest Jesus expected? Just like the harvest of grains. We know that if we plant a grain of seed and this grows and bears fruit, one seed can produce thirty more seeds or sixty or even a hundred seeds.

And here we come to a mathematical description of the increase in the number of fruits of the preaching and teaching of the reign or kingdom of God. Jesus envisions an increase by multiplication, not addition, in the word of the kingdom. In the Acts of the Apostles the Holy Spirit says, "The word of God continued to spread while at the same time the number of the disciples in Jerusalem enormously increased" (Acts 6:7). And in Acts 12:24 we read, "Meanwhile the word of the Lord continued to spread and increase."

The word translated as “increased” is the Greek “epleythuneto” which means "multiplied". So the increase was not by addition but by multiplication.

This was now the fulfillment of Jesus' parable of the sower, the word bore fruit by multiplication, not by addition.

This is the desire of Jesus, that the word of the kingdom spread and multiply by leaps and bounds despite the obstacles.

In the first reading we are told that the word of God is powerful. Isaiah says that

the word of God will not return to him void, but shall do his will, achieving the end for which God sent it. It will make us fruitful. It will spread and will be multiplied among us.

In the second reading we are told by St. Paul the Apostle that this word of God has produced already in us the firstfruits of the Spirit, so that we wait for the redemption of our bodies, the release of our bodies from all suffering and decay into the glory of God himself.

Our responsorial psalm tells us that God shall make the soil of our souls fertile so that we bear fruits for God. He has visited our soul and watered it; greatly has he enriched it. He has prepared the soil in our heart, drenching its furrows, breaking up its clods, softening it with showers, blessing its yield. As St. Paul says elsewhere, "I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase." (1 Corinthians 3:6 AV).

The kingdom of God has come in Jesus. God reigns over our lives, in every detail of our life through his Spirit. We have been reached by God’s word and this word keeps on spreading, multiplying among us and beyond us. Let us rejoice and give thanks to God.

For our prayer let us say again the responsorial psalm which tells us how God has been good to us, as he enriches the soil of our hearts to receive his word of the kingdom of God. Let us bow our heads.

Lord, You have visited the land and watered it;

greatly have you enriched it.

God's watercourses are filled;

you have prepared the grain.

Thus have you prepared the land: drenching its furrows,

breaking up its clods,

Softening it with showers,

blessing its yield.

You have crowned the year with your bounty,

and your paths overflow with a rich harvest;

The untilled meadows overflow with it,

and rejoicing clothes the hills.

The fields are garmented with flocks

and the valleys blanketed with grain.

They shout and sing for joy. 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.

Fourteenth 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 Primacy of Rest

There is a group of insects which we see are very busy all the time. In fact the Holy Spirit has put up this group of insects as models of industry and antidotes to laziness. In Proverbs 6:6 we read, "Go to the ant, O sluggard, study her ways and learn wisdom."

Yes, we see that ants are very busy looking for food, transporting food, greeting other ants on their way. They seem not to sleep.

But they do. Ants do sleep although they do not sleep like humans. They take naps, plenty of naps. In one YouTube presentation ants are shown sleeping. We know they sleep because when they are touched by a tip of a ballpoint pen they just turn over, while those not fully asleep run.

What do ants have to do with our Gospel reading today? If we live like ants we would need the Gospel reading today. And many of us live like ants, always busy and never properly resting. Jesus invites us to rest. Jesus invites us to rest in him, with him and for him. Let us listen to him again.

"Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for yourselves. For my yoke is easy, and my burden light."

When I looked at the commentaries on this text of Scripture I found out that almost all of the commentators dwelt on spiritual rest. They explained that Jesus was inviting his disciples to rest from sin, from the laws of the Jewish religion, from striving to do good with one's power.

Perhaps the reason why those commentators dwelt on spiritual rest was because they had no problem with their food, clothing and shelter. These were amply provided for them by their type of work, teaching or preaching.

But Jesus did not mean here only spiritual rest. Jesus did not say, "Come to me, all you who labor spiritually and are burdened spiritually by your sins, and I will give you rest from your sins and from worrying about your sins." He simply said, "Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest."

And remember Jesus here was not talking to Bible commentators, preachers or teachers or priests. He was talking to ordinary people whose main preoccupation was how to get their next meal.

Jesus addressed himself to all who were working and who found their work burdensome. He told them to come to him and get rest from him.

And this brings us to the primacy of rest in our lives. This passage clearly tells us that Jesus wants us to rest. He himself is an example of a person who takes rest seriously.

Genesis tells us that after creating the world and all that was in it for six days, he rested. Let us listen to this book, chapter 2, verse 1 to 3.

"Thus the heavens and the earth and all their array were completed. Since on the seventh day God was finished with the work he had been doing, he rested on the seventh day from all the work he had undertaken. So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work he had done in creation."

Jesus as God worked for six days as he created the world. On the seventh day he rested. He is a model of rest.

Many times Jesus told his disciples to go apart and take their rest. One such instance is recorded in Mark 6:31. There he told his disciples, "Come by yourselves to an out-of-the-way place and rest a little."

While we read in other passages of the Gospel stories that Jesus was accused by the religious leaders of violating the rest on a Saturday, he made it clear that that was not the rest he wanted us to observe, which for the Jewish leaders was merely ceremonial. Jesus wanted us to have real rest, not a mere ceremonial rest, like not carrying a mat or walking some extra mile, as specified by the religious leaders.

When Jesus created us he built within us a mechanism which would lead us to rest. That mechanism is the feeling of tiredness. When we feel tired, our body is telling us to slow down and take a rest.

This is primarily what Jesus meant in our Gospel passage. In effect he was saying, When you are tired, come to me, take your rest from me. And he was referring to any labor which made us tired, whether physical like plowing a field, or mental like studying, or spiritual like avoiding the occasions of sin. This is plain from the words he used. He said, "Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest."

This rest is so important that lack of it drove the Israelite nation out of the land God gave them. They were told by God through Moses that on the seventh year they were to make the land rest. "But during the seventh year the land shall have complete rest, a sabbath for the Lord, when you may neither sow your field not prune your vineyard." (Leviticus 25:4). The Israelites did not follow this commandment of God. So God exiled them and by force the land had complete rest for the period when it was not given rest by them. "Until the land has retrieved its lost sabbaths, during all the time it lies waste it shall rest while seventy years are fulfilled." 2 Chronicles 36:21

Even men and women of the world who may have no religious inclination emphasize the importance of rest. Here is one statement from Joshua Becker, in his article "The Lost Practice of Resting One Day Each Week", "Physicians, athletes, philosophers, poets, religious leaders, and corporate leaders all tell us the same thing: take time to rest. It is absolutely essential for a balanced, healthy life." He also says in that same article, "Rest is as essential to our physical health as the water we drink and the air we breathe." And he gives a quote reputed to have been uttered by Benjamin Franklin, "“He that can take rest is greater than he that can take cities.”

But the rest that Jesus is giving us is not like what most of us think. Most of us think that to rest is to sleep, to sit around quietly observing nature or meditating or going to a movie or watching television or simply doing nothing. No. The rest Jesus gives us is different.

First, he tells us to come to him. It is a rest in him and with him and for him.

Then, he tells us to take his yoke. The yoke was an instrument of work. It was put on the neck of an animal so it could pull something like a cart or a plow. Some commentators explain it this way. We are invited by Jesus to take our yoke as Jesus has already taken his yoke and Jesus and we both do our work. But because Jesus is stronger than us he exerts all the effort while we just go with him. This was the explanation given in the article "The Call To Discipleship: An Invitation To Rest (Matthew 11:28-30)" in bible.org.

And this is also the message of our first reading. It says there that we are to rejoice because our king shall come to us, meek and riding on an ass. He shall banish the chariot from Ephraim, and the horse from Jerusalem; the warrior's bow shall be banished, and he shall proclaim peace to the nations. Jesus gives us rest from war and turmoil.

And in the second reading, Paul the Apostle tells us that we are not in the flesh; on the contrary, we are in the spirit, if only the Spirit of God dwells in us. The one who raised Christ from the dead gives life to our mortal bodies also, through his Spirit that dwells in us. If we live according to the flesh, we will die, but if by the Spirit we put to death the deeds of the body, we will live.

This explains the rest Jesus gives us. It is a rest for our mortal bodies also. But it is a rest in the spirit, which puts to death the tensions and anxieties we feel in our bodies.

Thirdly, Jesus told us to learn from him. This is still part of our rest in Jesus. While resting we listen to Jesus as he teaches us. There we find rest. We imitate Mary the sister of Lazarus who just sat in front of Jesus listening to his words. Mary found rest in Jesus. So too can we if we just sit and listen to Jesus.

There was a hymn in our churches before which we sang during communion time. It was entitled “O What Could My Jesus Do More”. It will be worth our while to take that hymn as our prayer. That hymn tells us that true rest, whether physical, mental or spiritual, is only in Jesus.

Let us bow our heads as we listen to the first stanza of this hymn:

O what could my Jesus do more 

Or what greater blessing impart

O silence my soul and adore 

And press Him still nearer thy heart.

Tis here from my labor I'll rest 

Since He makes my poor heart His abode.

To Him all my cares I'll address 

And speak to the heart of my God. 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.

Thirteenth 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).

Divine Networking

According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary the word "networking" was first used in 1967. But its reality extends as far back as the Old Testament. The first networking I find in the Bible was in the days of Moses in the wilderness as he led the people of Israel to Canaan, the promised land.

In the eighteenth chapter of Exodus we have the story of how Jethro, Moses' father-in-law brought the latter's wife and his two sons to join God's people in the wilderness in their walk towards Canaan. The next day after his arrival Jethro noticed that so many people went to Moses to consult him about this and that problem. This was going on from morning till the evening. Jethro noticed that Moses was overworked by attending to these people. He then advised Moses to appoint able and God-fearing men who would be officers for groups of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties, and of tens. The people would bring their problems to these officers and not to Moses. It is only when these officers could not solve the problem brought to them that they were to consult Moses.

Here was a perfect example of networking in the Old Testament. The starting at the base is a group of ten, headed by an officer. Five groups of ten compose a group of fifty which is headed by another officer. Two groups of fifties compose a group of one hundred headed by another officer. Then ten groups of one hundred compose a group of one thousand headed by another officer.

Jesus used a similar pattern in the distribution of bread in the wilderness. In the account of Mark, chapter 6, beginning with verse 34, the story is that Jesus fed the people with bread and fish. He first told them to sit down in groups or parties. Verse 40 gives us a picture of how the people sat down in the grass. Mark says, "The people took their places in hundreds and fifties, neatly arranged like flower beds." This was also networking.

Today of course we are familiar with networking in business. There are uplines who enroll us in their business. We are the downlines they enroll who become uplines as soon as we have a downline, a group of people under us. The goods sold in networking range from personal health products like soap and medicines to appliances and other things. I buy something, like soap, from a networking company. I like the soap. I recruit others to buy this soap. They get a discount and I get my commission.

When Jesus proclaimed the coming of the kingdom of God he knew that he had only a few years to physically live on this planet earth. Since he wanted his work to continue even after he left earth physically, he established a network of workers who would continue his work. And that is what happened as narrated in the Gospel according to St. Matthew, chapter 10. The beginning of this chapter says that he chose twelve of his disciples to become apostles, persons whom he would send to do the work for him and in his name. They were to expel unclean spirits, cure sickness and disease of every kind.

Our Gospel reading today is the end of this chapter 10 in Matthew's Gospel and it describes another kind of networking, something very unique, something that most of us are not aware of. I call this divine networking.

Let us read once again this unique kind of networking. It starts in verse 40. Jesus said to the twelve disciples whom he commissioned to do his work away from him, "Whoever receives you receives me, and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me. Whoever receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet's reward, and whoever receives a righteous man because he is a righteous man will receive a righteous man's reward. And whoever gives even just a cup of cold water to one of these little ones to drink because the little one is a disciple—amen, I say to you, he will surely not lose his reward."

Notice the lines of the network here. The disciple goes out to heal the sick. When the people receive the disciple, they not only receive the disciple. Jesus says, they also receive Jesus in the person of that disciple. The line does not stop there. Jesus says, the people not only receive Jesus, they also receive the one who sent him, that is, God the Father. So here we have four groups of people in our divine networking. The people who receive the disciple, the disciples who follow the command of Jesus to cure the sick, Jesus himself, and God the Father.

The next sentence is illustrated by our first reading. Jesus said, "Whoever receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet's reward, and whoever receives a righteous man because he is a righteous man will receive a righteous man's reward".

In our first reading we have the story of Elisha, the successor of Elijah. In Shunem a well to do woman received him to dine with her and this woman asked her husband to arrange a room for Elisha with a bed, table, chair, and lamp, so that when he came to that place again he could stay there. Sometime later Elisha arrived and stayed in the room overnight. When Elisha asked what could be done for her as a reward, his servant Gehazi answered, "She has no son, and her husband is getting on in years." Elisha said, "Call her." When the woman had been called and stood at the door, Elisha promised, "This time next year you will be fondling a baby son."

The rest of the story in the second book of Kings, chapter 4, tells us what happened. The woman did bear a son and this son grew up and died of a heat wave or sunstroke or something. And again Elisha gave a favor to this woman by raising this boy back to life.

The woman received a prophet and got a reward, a son and a resurrected son, a boy who lived twice.

The second reading also tells us of a networking. Paul is saying that what happened to Jesus happened also to us and this is illustrated by baptism. Baptism is a picture of burial, burial in water, because as our Catechism tells us the meaning of baptism is immersion (1214). This signifies our burial with Jesus so that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might live in newness of life. When Jesus died, we died with him. We now, Paul says, must think of ourselves as dead to sin and living for God in Christ Jesus.

What does all this tell us? It tells us that we are in a big networking activity of God. God is networking with us. In networking there is a good that is passed from one person to another. Otherwise it is not networking but pyramiding. In the case of God, the good that is passed from one person to another is the life of his Son Jesus. Jesus passed his life and authority to his disciples. Thus they were able to cure diseases as Jesus did. His disciples passed this life of Jesus to other disciples, who passed it still to other disciples, until this life reached us, Jesus' disciples in this age and part of the world.

It is now our turn to pass this life of Jesus to others who would be disciples of Jesus. They are our downlines and we are their uplines.

It is not primarily teachings that are passed around for us to understand and observe. What is passed down to other disciples is Jesus' life. Paul says, as Jesus lived, died and rose to a new life, so too we live, die with Jesus and rise with him to a completely new life.

Our life now is completely new, thanks to the networking activity of God.

Let us pray as we bow our heads.

Thank you, Jesus, for including us in your networking business, the business of passing on your life to your disciples who passed this to other disciples until it reached us. Thank you for this new life you have given to us by your death and resurrection. And enable us to pass your life to others so that more and more will know you and love you.

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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.