Twenty-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).

Is God a Torturer?

When I read the Gospel passage for today I was a bit shocked when I reached the end of the passage. This was because it was written there that Jesus said that his heavenly Father would also do unto his disciples if they do not forgive every one of their brothers or companions. This means that his heavenly Father would also deliver them to torturers if they do not forgive their brothers and sisters.

Listen to the flow of Jesus' concluding statement to this parable. Jesus concluded: "Then in anger his master handed him over to the torturers until he should pay back the whole debt. So will my heavenly Father do to you, unless each of you forgives your brother from your heart."

Notice the word "So". The original Greek word here can be translated "thus" and "in this way". In some versions it is rendered as "also". In the first edition of the New American Bible which I personally use the words are very explicit. This Greek word is translated "in exactly the same way". It means that his heavenly Father will "in exactly the same way" hand over those who do not forgive to torturers.

The logical question to ask is: Is Jesus' heavenly Father, God, also a torturer?

The logical answer can only be: Yes, Jesus' heavenly Father is also a torturer.

This shocked me a bit because we were not taught in our catechism classes or in our theological studies that our God can deliver us to torturers. Our usual image of God is a loving person who takes care of us and overlooks our sins.

But here we have a seemingly completely different picture of God, a God who hands us over to torturers. And the one who gives us this picture is no other than his son Jesus, who alone knows him best and most accurately.

Is this a true picture of God? After much meditation I agree with Jesus that this is a true picture of God. God can and does hand us over to torturers.

I would have thought that picturing God as a torturer is a blasphemy of our imagination, thinking of God in this way is a sin, a very serious sin. But this is one picture Jesus gives us of his Father. We need to know what we can learn from this picture.

It is somewhat surprising that not one of the twenty or so commentaries on this verse I read alluded to such a picture of God. Either they thought Jesus did not really mean what he said or he was using only a hyperbole, a figure of speech of exaggeration to drive home his point on the necessity and importance of forgiveness. Or they did not just care to comment on this remark of Jesus. Or they did not notice such a picture of God as given by Jesus.

But when we look at the whole picture, at the description of God in the Old and New Testaments we cannot fail to notice this description of God which comes from Jesus himself. God does hand over to torturers those who do not forgive their brothers and sisters in the faith.

The Bible, medical science, and common sense bear this out: God can and does hand over persons to torturers.

And we are fortunate that we have heard this from Jesus himself so that we can behave accordingly.

Maybe some of you have heard this distinction made between the God of the Old Testament and the God of the New Testament. The distinction says that the God of the Old Testament was an angry God, one who went on killing his enemies, while the God of the New Testament is a loving God, wanting to save all. John 3:16 has been used to highlight this distinction. "Yes, God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him may not die but may have eternal life."

Some groups have even taught that the God of the Old Testament is different from the God of the New Testament.  These are the atheists, agnostics and secular humanists who follow the teachings of Marcion who existed in the second century.

The truth is that God's nature is the same in the Old Testament and in the New Testament. He was and is always a God who hates sin, who abhors iniquity, who keeps on purifying his people.

God destroyed completely the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, men, women, children, infants, animals and plants because of their sins. Only Lot and his two daughters survived. Look at the record in the Book of Numbers. Only 2 of the 603,550 Israelites aged 20 years old and above survived the journey from Egypt to the promised land, namely Joshua and Caleb. God caused the rest to die in the wilderness. God did not tolerate their disobedience and lack of faith. God commanded the Israelites to completely annihilate the Canaanites, including helpless and innocent infants. (Exodus 23:33, Deuteronomy 7:2, 16). God does punish and he punishes ruthlessly.

It is not without reason that he said, "Vengeance is mine" (Romans 12:19). For, indeed God does inflict vengeance on his enemies.

At the same time this God is most merciful. Our responsorial Psalm witnesses to this. This is one of my most favorite Psalms. It says, 'The Lord is kind and merciful, slow to anger, and rich in compassion. He pardons all your iniquities, heals all your ills. He redeems your life from destruction, crowns you with kindness and compassion. He will not always chide, nor does he keep his wrath forever. Not according to our sins does he deal with us, nor does he requite us according to our crimes. For as the heavens are high above the earth, so surpassing is his kindness toward those who fear him. As far as the east is from the west, so far has he put our transgressions from us.' And in Isaiah we read of God telling the Israelites, "It is I, I, who wipe out, for my own sake, your offenses; your sins I will remember no more." (43:25).

These two aspects of God are to be held by us together. God is just and gets rid of all unrighteousness. At the same time God is infinitely merciful and forgives us and forgets all the evils we have done against him.

The New Testament image of God is the same. God is just and winnows out the unjust. Jesus pronounced woes or curses on the cities which rejected him, namely Capernaum, Chorazin, and Bethsaida (Matthew 11:21-23). They are even now only ruins, not fit for a dwelling place. He pronounced woes also against the Scribes and Pharisees. They were soon tortured, driven to other lands, reduced to only a memory.

And yet this same Jesus forgave those who crucified him, forgave his chief persecutor, Saul, and transformed him to Paul, the Apostle to the non-Jews.

God does deliver people to torturers. The Bible says so. And God does forgive and forgets the offence done against him.

Medical science also gives the same verdict although some medical scientists do not believe in God.

In the website ethoughts.org a story is told about a minister who after 20 years concluded that over 90 percent of all health problems are rooted in unforgiveness. "90 percent of all health, marital, family, and financial problems came from unforgiveness."

Those who do not forgive are indeed tortured by their conscience, by their mind. It is God who designed that their minds are so tortured with distress, regrets, worries, which produce psychological and physical problems in their personality make-up.

Here are statements from other websites: "Unforgiveness causes a lot of stress and a lot of health problems. This can cause fear, depression, frustration, anxiety, self-hatred, and loneliness. It's quite a catalogue of problems, isn't it?"

Medical science shows that God tortures those who do not forgive by producing all kinds of problems in their life. I guess that if all forgive one another, our hospitals and clinics would immediately be half empty.

Common sense also tells us that God can and does torture those who do not forgive their brothers and sisters in the faith. The history of wars waged by Christians against other Christians attests to this. Common sense tells us that wars are the fruit of unforgiveness among nations. Those who engage in these wars are professed Christians. In the movie CROMWELL we see the absurdity of one group of Christians calling on God to kill their enemy Christians who also at almost the same time call on God to kill the first group of Christians. The result? God tortures both of them with dead and wounded soldiers, with widows and orphans.

The first reading is very clear about the evils of unforgiveness and the benefits of forgiveness.   Sirach says, 'Wrath and anger are hateful things, yet the sinner hugs them tight. The vengeful will suffer the LORD's vengeance, for he remembers their sins in detail."

And our second reading tells us the reason why we need to forgive. Our life is no longer our own. St. Paul says, "Brothers and sisters: None of us lives for oneself, and no one dies for oneself."

Let us bow our heads in prayer.

Thank you, Jesus, for giving us a clearer picture of your and our heavenly Father. We now realize that your heavenly Father who is also our heavenly Father is a just and righteous God who infinitely hates sin but is most merciful to us. We who are his children can only imitate him and forgive from our heart those who have wronged us so that we enjoy the best of health. 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 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).

Commonly Misused or Least Observed Verses in the Bible?

In 1973 a group of Christians from Springfield, Missouri, U.S.A., sent me a very beautiful plastic book marker with the image of a pair of hands clasping each other as in prayer with these words below, "Again I say unto you, That if two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them." (AV)

These verses are in our Gospel reading today. At the time I received that book marker with those verses I thought that they meant that if any two Christians agree on anything that they ask for in prayer, the thing they ask for would be granted to them by God.

I was surprised to find out later that that was not the real meaning of those verses. They have a completely different meaning.

Because most who read these verses think that their meaning is that if two Christians agree on what they ask for in prayer that which they prayed for will be given to them, some Bible commentators have labeled this verse as one of the four passages in the Bible which are commonly misused. The other passages are 2 Chronicles 7:14, Jeremiah 29:11 and Matthew 7:1.

2 Chronicles 7:14 reads, "and if my people, upon whom my name has been pronounced, humble themselves and pray, and seek my presence and turn from their evil ways, I will hear them from heaven and pardon their sins and revive their land."

Jeremiah 29:11 reads, "For I know well the plans I have in mind for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare, not for woe, plans to give you a future full of hope."

And Matthew 7:1 reads, "If you want to avoid judgment, stop passing judgement". Most of us memorised the Authorised Version of this verse, "Judge not, that ye be not judged."

The reason given why the verses in our Gospel reading have been included in the list of the commonly misused Bible verses is because they are taken out of context in their interpretation. Here is an explanation from Tim Chaffey of midwestapologetics.org.

"Now let’s take a look at the context. This section deals with a subject that most churches completely neglect: church discipline. Jesus said that if you have a brother who sins against you, then you need to go to him and try to work it out. If he refuses to acknowledge his fault, then you bring one or two more witnesses to help work things out. So including you, that would make two or three witnesses—recognize that phrase? Not only is it repeated in these verses, but it comes from the Old Testament (Deuteronomy 19:15 and more). Legal cases needed to have two or three witnesses to establish a matter.

"Back to Jesus’ story. If the sinning brother did not make things right in the presence of two or three witnesses, then the case was to be brought before the church. If he refused to listen to the church’s decision, then he was to be thrown out of the congregation. I know that sounds harsh in our day because precious few churches practice discipline as Jesus instructed, but that is what we are commanded to do.

"It is with this in mind that Jesus said that the Father would grant the request of two or more who gather together in Christ’s name and are in agreement. Agreement on what? On disciplining the erring brother. That’s what this passage is about and yet so many Christians use it as though Jesus promised to answer their prayers when offered in certain situations."

It is very clear from this explanation that the agreement is not about anything but about disciplining a member of the church.

In the course of his explanation Tim says, "This section deals with a subject that most churches completely neglect: church discipline."

The three readings for this Sunday indeed deal with a subject that most churches, including our own Catholic Church, completely neglect: church discipline in the context of loving one another.

The first reading from the prophecy of Ezekiel is very clear on this matter. Let us listen to him again.

"Thus says the LORD: You, son of man, I have appointed watchman for the house of Israel; when you hear me say anything, you shall warn them for me. If I tell the wicked, "O wicked one, you shall surely die, " and you do not speak out to dissuade the wicked from his way, the wicked shall die for his guilt, but I will hold you responsible for his death. But if you warn the wicked, trying to turn him from his way, and he refuses to turn from his way, he shall die for his guilt, but you shall save yourself."

This passage originally applied to Ezekiel the prophet. But this also applies to us because by baptism we have been made prophets, that is, spokepersons, for God. That is why the Church puts this passage as our first reading because it applies to us. And yet we neglect this command of God through Ezekiel. We do not have the courage of John the Baptizer telling Herod of his sins.

When we see our members and leaders, civil or church, doing something wrong we seem not to care. But the word of God is very clear,  "you do not speak out to dissuade the wicked from his way, the wicked shall die for his guilt, but I will hold you responsible for his death." Perhaps we do not care because our lives are also not above reproach. We also do the evil ways that our fellow members and leaders are doing.

We cannot say with honesty what Jesus told the Jewish leaders, "Can any one of you convict me of sin?" (John 8:46).

Our second reading today also deals with a subject that most churches completely neglect: love for one another. Let us listen again to Paul the Apostle.

"Brothers and sisters: Owe nothing to anyone, except to love one another; for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. The commandments, "You shall not commit adultery; you shall not kill; you shall not steal; you shall not covet," and whatever other commandment there may be, are summed up in this saying, namely, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." Love does no evil to the neighbor; hence, love is the fulfillment of the law."

This is an echo of what Jesus said, "The command I give you is this, that you love one another." (John 15:17). Jesus qualifies this kind of love. He says, "I give you a new commandment: Love one another. Such as my love has been for you, so must your love be for each other. This is how all will know you for my disciples: your love for one another." (John 13:34-35).

In other words we are to love other followers of Jesus as Jesus loves us. Alas, we neglect this! We live our own individual lives without caring for the lives of other baptized around us, particularly the poor.

And our Gospel reading is clear. "Jesus said to his disciples: "If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have won over your brother. If he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, so that 'every fact may be established on the testimony of two or three witnesses.' If he refuses to listen to them, tell the church. If he refuses to listen even to the church, then treat him as you would a Gentile or a tax collector."

Jesus knew that later this advice of his would no longer be followed. Instead we go about telling the faults of others at their back, without their knowing that we have destroyed their reputation.

It is most appropriate that today the Church reminds us of our work as prophet, to denounce the wickedness around us and of our task of loving other followers of Jesus the way Jesus loves us, and of showing this love in brotherly or sisterly correction.

So, are these verses commonly misused or least observed? Maybe they are also least observed.

Let us bow our heads in prayer.

Thank you, Jesus, for reminding us through your Church that we have work to do while we wait for your second coming, the work of denouncing the evils around us as your prophets and the task of loving your other followers, baptized Christians, the way you love us, even that by brotherly and sisterly correction. 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-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).

First Base in Christian Life

According to the Wikipedia baseball is the national sport of the United States of America. It has been known traditionally as "America's Pastime". In popularity though it is only second to football. Only nearly half of Americans are baseball fans. It is estimated that an average of 3.5 million view per game of baseball through personal attendance and through television. It is a very popular game indeed.

Not many of us know that baseball has a very relevant bearing on our Christian life. It has rules which can be used to illustrate what happens in our Christian life.

In today's Gospel reading Jesus tells us about the first requirement if we are going to live the Christian life, a life of following Jesus. In baseball we need to step on first base before we can go on to second base, third base and the home run. This first requirement is most necessary in both the baseball game and in our Christian life. Without following this first requirement there can be no home run, there can be no real Christian life.

This is what Jesus says in our Gospel reading today: "Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me."

For Jesus the first thing we are to do if we want to come after him, to be a Christian, is to deny ourselves.

Self-denial is the first base in Christianity. Without self-denial we cannot go to second base, we cannot do properly, genuinely and fruitfully the other activities of a Christian. Without self-denial all our so-called Christian acts are, as it were, foul, invalid. We shall later see that the Church sees this requirement as most necessary to such an extent that if this is not met, all the succeeding sacraments are invalid, without meaning and without use.

When I read the commentaries on this Gospel verse about self-denial, I was surprised to find out that most of them missed the real thought of Jesus on this matter.

Most of them teach that we are to deny this or that thing if it is not going to please God. Thus they say that we deny ourselves pleasures or worldly entertainments if these are contrary to our Christian duties. Following is a quotation showing such kind of teaching.

"To deny ourselves, is to put off our natural affections towards the good things of this life, let them be pleasures, profit, honours, relatives, life, or anything, which would keep us from our obedience to the will of God." (Matthew Poole's Commentary)

This is not what Jesus meant when he said that we must deny ourselves if we wish to come after him. He did not say that we must deny ourselves this or that activity. He simply said that we must deny ourselves. In the original Greek the verb means "to refuse to recognize, to ignore".

Fortunately there are a few commentators who teach us the real meaning of what Jesus said.

The great Reformer John Calvin explained in his Commentary that this statement of Jesus means to "give our consent to be reduced to nothing".

James Nisbet comments that many deny things to themselves who never deny self. And he continues, "Only there does self-denial exist, where Christ takes the place of self for all life's decisions."

As usual William Barclay has a beautiful description of this self-denial from the viewpoint of Jesus. Here is his description:

"To deny oneself means in every moment of life to say no to self and yes to God. To deny oneself means once, finally and for all to dethrone self and enthrone God. To deny oneself means to obliterate self as the dominant principle of life, and to make God the ruling principle, more, the ruling passion, of life. The life of constant self-denial is the life of constant assent to God."

Jesus did not and does not allow us to interpret this verse according to our opinion. His succeeding sentence plainly tells us what he meant. To deny self means to lose our life for his sake, to cease on living for his sake, to die so that he may live and reign in us and through us.

Thayer has also a picturesque description of this self-denial. He wrote that to deny oneself is "to forget one's self, lose sight of one's self, and one's own interests".

My own interpretation is that self-denial here means to throw away the self, to kill it and to bury it, never to come back to life again.

That is the meaning of our baptism. Our Catechism says that in baptism we die with Christ and are buried with him. We lose our lives in Jesus. By this sacrament we are no longer our own selves. Our selves have died and are buried with Christ.

Our Catechism teaches: "This sacrament is called Baptism, after the central rite by which it is carried out: to baptize (Greek baptizein) means to "plunge" or "immerse"; the "plunge" into the water symbolizes the catechumen's burial into Christ's death, from which he rises up by resurrection with him, as "a new creature". (1214)

Several paragraphs later the Catechism continues: "According to the Apostle Paul, the believer enters through Baptism into communion with Christ's death, is buried with him, and rises with him: Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life." (1227)

This is the first of the sacraments. Without this sacrament no other sacrament can have meaning or effect.

Thus this self-denial, this dying to self, is our first step in following Jesus. James Nisbet says that it implies a definite act and decision, as introductory to a life of consecration and discipleship.

What I want to emphasize is that in the Christian life Jesus wants to take over our life so completely that there is no more room left for ourselves. We just throw ourselves away at the feet of Jesus.

St. Paul has a better imagery in the second reading. He says: "I urge you, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God, your spiritual worship." He wants us to offer our bodies as a living sacrifice. We offer ourselves to God as a sacrifice, to be burned away. In this way we are being transformed to what God wants us to be, perfect reflections of his son Jesus.

The first reading describes the condition of a person who has denied his self. He is a person who has been duped, he is an object of laughter, everyone mocks him. The word of the Lord has brought to Jeremiah derision and reproach all the day. There is a fire burning in his heart which he cannot endure. He has given his self to God to suffer.

Do not think that if you give yourself to God all will be smoothly sailing. It was not so with Jeremiah. It was not so with the Apostle Paul. He wrote to the Corinthians: "Five times at the hands of the Jews I received forty lashes less one; three times I was beaten with rods; I was stoned once, shipwrecked three times; I paused a day and night on the sea. I traveled continually, endangered by floods, robbers, my own people, the Gentiles; imperiled in the city, in the desert, at sea, by false brothers; enduring labor, hardship, many sleepless nights; in hunger and thirst and frequent fastings, in cold and nakedness." (2 Corinthians 11:24-27)

It was not also smooth sailing with Jesus. He died a most shameful and most painful death on the cross.

But that is the Christian life, a life which begins with self-denial. Glory does follow, as in Jesus, but not without self-denial, the cross, death and burial.

Let us bow our heads in prayer.

Thank you, Jesus, for reminding us that the Christian life is not a bed of roses, but a life which begins with our death to self, signified by our baptism. You are now the one living in us and through us. Thank you for your life lived in us, through us, and for us.

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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.