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.

Fourth Sunday of Easter Cycle C

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

Eternal Is Not Everlasting

Our reflection today is about a topic which is not only difficult, but impossible to understand, for us human beings. This is because it is a topic beyond human understanding. Then you may rightfully ask, If this topic is beyond our human understanding why do we reflect on it? Why do we think and ponder about this topic?

We reflect on this topic because although it is beyond our human understanding, God has given us someone who will teach us to understand it. God has led us by his own way so that we can understand it, not with our human understanding but with some other kind of understanding which he has freely given us.

This topic is about the eternal life which we have just heard in our Gospel reading today. Jesus said, "I give them eternal life". Jesus gives us eternal life. What is this eternal life?

The word "eternal" is "aionion" in the original Greek of John's Gospel. "aionion" means that which is without beginning or end. It is different from the word "everlasting" or "aidios" in Greek, which only means without end. Eternal life then is a life which is without beginning or end. In other words it is a life that is always there, even before our worlds were created. It is a life outside of time because time has a beginning and an end.

Most think that eternal is the same as everlasting. They are not the same. In fact in many aspects they are opposite to each other. Eternal is without beginning and without ending. Everlasting is with a beginning but it has no ending in time. If time ends what is everlasting also ends. But what is eternal never ends even if there is no more time, that is, even if there is no more sun or moon or any other heavenly body with which we can measure time. For our present time is measured by the movement of the earth around itself and around the sun. One day is one complete turn of the earth on its axis. One solar year is one complete turn of the planet Earth around the sun. That is how we measure time. But eternal has no measure because it has no beginning and it has no end. Eternal is not the same as everlasting.

As human beings we have never seen something that did not begin. We have seen and experienced many things which have ended but we have not seen or experienced something that did not begin. As human beings we can only understand what is in time. The things around us began sometime in the past, distant or recent. The ideas that we have in our mind have a beginning. That is why as human beings we cannot understand eternal life because it is a life that has no beginning and we have not seen or experienced something that did not begin. We can only see and experience something that has a beginning. But because eternal life has no beginning we have not seen or experienced it as human beings.

What is then the importance of reflecting upon this topic which as human beings we have not seen or experienced, which as human beings, I repeat, we cannot understand?

It is important, very important that we reflect upon this topic because on this depends our living life to the fullest on earth and in heaven. Jesus said that he came that we might have life to the full (John 10:10). Other translations say, Jesus came to give us abundant life. But this abundant life is the eternal life that Jesus gives us. Hence if we do not know what this eternal life is we can never experience the abundant life that Jesus came to give us.

Lest our present discussion seems too difficult or too uninteresting for us to think about, let us go to the heart of this reflection.

If we use our mind even just a bit we realize that the only one who has eternal life is God because he has no beginning and no end. Therefore the life that Jesus said he would give us is the life of God himself. When he said, I give them eternal life, he means that he gives us the life of God himself. It is as if he said, I give them God's life or I give them divine life.

What is wonderful about what we are reflecting is that Jesus has given this eternal life to us and we have actually received it already if we were baptized. This life of God was given to us when we were baptized and our parents and godparents have received this divine life for us.

Our Catechism of the Catholic Church from number 1213 to number 1284 teaches us the benefits this eternal life gives us. By this life we are freed from sin and born again into the family of God. God has truly become our father because he gives us his own life. We become members of Christ's body, the Church, and we are made prophets, priests, and kings. We have become a new creature. We are now part of the kingdom of God. This is God's most beautiful and magnificent gift to us. Nothing can be greater than this gift, neither wealth, beauty or fame. It is a gift because it is given to us freely, without any requirement on our part. This eternal life makes us holy, as holy as God himself. We have become partaker of the nature of God himself. We are now given the power to live and act under the prompting of the Holy Spirit through his gifts. In other words God now guides us in our life, in everything we do.

But why do we seem not to feel or enjoy these benefits? Why do we seem still enslaved by our sins? Why do we get irritable? Why are we surrounded by so many problems in life, material, physical, financial, psychological and spiritual? Why are we not so excited about this eternal life as we would if we won in the lotto?

This is because we have not actualized the eternal life that was given to us. In the Declaration "Dominus Iesus" issued by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith when Pope Emeritus Benedict the Sixteenth was still its prefect or head, we read the word "actualize" twice. Because most of us were infants or small children when we received this eternal life in baptism through our parents and godparents we were not aware of it. There was a need to make this eternal life actual in our life. In the analogy used by our Charismatic brothers and sisters there is a need to unpack this gift of eternal life and follow the instruction on how to use it. Otherwise if it remains unpacked we can never enjoy this gift. This actualization of this eternal life is done by the Holy Spirit, according to this Declaration.  

Now we understand a bit about this eternal life that Jesus said he gives us. It is the life of God himself, making us live, think, speak and act like God. That is the real abundant life.

Let us then ask the Holy Spirit to make this eternal life actual in our life so that we can truly experience it, feel it, be excited about it, and share it with others or help others actualize it.

We bow our heads to pray.

Holy Spirit, Spirit of Jesus, you have given us eternal life when we were baptized. Help us to actualize this life in our life so that we can enjoy it while we are still on earth and continue to enjoy it in heaven with you. Amen.

Third Sunday of Advent Cycle C

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

The Fire That Purifies Us

Fire has many uses. I have a list of 18 uses. The most common in this list is cooking. We use fire to cook our food. We use it also to give light, to produce heat or warmth, to purify metal, to join metals, to destroy things, to produce a signal, to propel a mechanism, to protect ourselves from wild animals, to preserve energy by trapping it as in a charcoal, to torture, to kill, to clear areas for construction or rehabilitation, to fertilize, to manage a landscape, to clear a filed for planting, to drive vehicles, to produce electrical power.

There may be other uses not in that list. They all tell us that fire is very useful.

There is another use not in that list which most of us are not aware of. Fire is also used to baptize.

When we use or hear the word "baptism" what comes immediately to our mind is water. Water is poured over somebody or someone is immersed in water. We usually do not associate baptism with fire. \

But the gospel reading today tells us of a baptism by fire. We heard John the Baptist announcing, "He will baptize you in the Holy Spirit and in fire" (Luke 3:16).  He was referring to Jesus.  He proclaimed that Jesus would baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire, in contrast to his baptism by water.

Jesus baptizes by fire  He himself was baptized with fire when he cried out on the cross, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"  Here he was referring to that unquenchable fire mentioned also by John the Baptist in our reading. Jesus entered into that fire, was immersed in that fire for us so that we may no longer need to be put there. Jesus redeemed us from that fire. And in order to redeem us from that fire he had to go into that fire. It is like a fireman going into a house blazing with fire in order to rescue its residents trapped there. This is the baptism he referred to when he said, "I have a baptism to receive. What anguish I feel till it is over" (Luke 12:50).

And Jesus is the he one, according to John the Baptist, who baptizes with fire.

The fire that Jesus uses to baptize us with is the agent that destroys the vestiges of sin in us. He said, "I have come to light a fire on the earth. How I wish the blaze were ignited" (Luke 12:49). Fire produces warmth. The two disciples going to Emmaus felt this warmth as they testified, "Were not our hearts burning inside us as he talked to us on the road and explained the Scriptures to us?" (Luke 24:32).

Who produced this warmth inside their hearts?  It was Jesus by the fire that accompanied his words as he explained the Scriptures to them.

Today Jesus still produces that fire which gives warmth to our hearts by his words.  He baptizes us with fire through his words, purifying us from the remains of sin in us.

During this last meal with his disciples before he died he told them, "You are clean already , thanks to the word I have spoken to you" (John 15:3). His words produces the fire that cleans us of the dirt of sin in us. As we listen to Jesus like his disciples going to Emmaus we feel a burning inside our hearts. This fire keeps us close to Jesus, providing us with the strength and perseverance not only to live a truly Christian life but also to be equipped with the proper attitudes to prepare for his first and second coming.

Do you have a sin in your life which you want to get rid of but you have not succeeded despite your trying and trying again? Do you have unseemly tendencies which continue to bother you? a quick temper? a tendency to use profane language? a proclivity to think about sexual enjoyment outside of marriage? An attraction to a person of your sex? These are vestiges of sin in your life waiting for purification by the baptism of fire from Jesus. Turn to him and be baptized by fire.

This purification, as St. John of the Cross taught, will be passive since you have tried your best but have failed. You simply give in to the purification of Jesus . He purifies you by his word. Listen to him. One word from him is enough to cure you of your vexatious malady. As we pray just before communion, "just say the word and I shall be healed." Let us bow down our heads to pray.

Jesus, you came to baptize us with fire. You produce fire in our hearts to warm them so that we be purified of the effects of sin in our lives. Thank you for this baptism of fire. Thank you for going through yourself the baptism of unquenchable fire so that we may escape the fires of hell.  Amen.