25th Week: Sept 25-30
Sept 25 Monday:
The context: Today’s Gospel passage is taken
from Luke’s version of Jesus’ teachings following the parable of the sower. We
are reminded that we are the light of the world and that our duty is to receive
and radiate around us Christ’s Light of love, mercy, compassion, and
forgiveness. The image of light and lamp: Lamps help people to see, move, and
work in the dark, and their light prevents our stumbling and falling down. For
the Jews, light represented the inner beauty, truth, and goodness of God. God’s
Light illumines our lives with light, celestial joy, and everlasting peace. The
glory of the Lord shone around the shepherds at Bethlehem (Lk 2:9); Paul
experienced the presence of God in a blinding Light (Acts 9:3; 22:6); God
“dwells in inaccessible Light” (1 Tm 6:16). That is why Jesus claims to be the
Light of the world. When the Light of Christ shines in our hearts, we will be
able to recognize who we are, who our neighbors are, and who God is, and to see
clearly how we are related to God and our neighbors. When we live in Christ’s
Light, we will not foolishly try to hide truths about ourselves from ourselves,
from our neighbors, or from God. Christ’s Light will also remind us of the
consequences of our loving the darkness of sinful ways and bad habits.
The paradox of the rich getting richer: In today’s
Gospel, Jesus makes the comment, “for to him who has, will more be given,”
following the warning “Take heed how you hear….” Jesus is telling us
that if we listen to Him with open minds and open hearts and walk in Jesus’
Light, the tiny bit of wisdom and understanding that we’ve already gained will
grow and grow with God’s help. If, on the other hand, our hearts are closed to
Jesus, even the little bit of wisdom that we think we’ve got will be lost.
Jesus is not talking about money or wealth in any form. When we prayerfully
immerse ourselves in the Scriptures, we are encountering God Himself. Jesus is
talking about the extent and depth of our connectedness to God. If we are
already deeply rooted in God, our spirits will grow larger, richer, and fuller
by the day. But if our connection to the Lord is only superficial, it certainly
won’t grow, and it may well not last at all.
Life messages: As “light of the world” it
is our duty 1) to remove the darkness from around us and 2) to show others the
true Light of Jesus, His ideas and ideals through our model Christian life.
(Fr. Tony) (https://frtonyshomilies.com/)
Sept 26 Tuesday: (Sts. Cosmas & Damien, Martyrs)
The context: As Jesus became a strong critic of
the Jewish religious authorities, his cousins, bringing his Mother with them
(as a wedge in the door, so Jesus would listen to them?) came to take him back
to Nazareth by force, perhaps because they feared that he, and they themselves,
would be arrested and put to death
Jesus’ plain statement: Today’s Gospel episode seems to
suggest that Jesus ignored the request of his mother and close relatives who
had traveled the long distance of twenty miles, probably on foot, to talk to
him. But everyone in the audience knew how Jesus loved his mother and had taken
care of her until he started his public ministry. Besides, Jesus’ plain
answer, “My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God
and do it,” was indeed a compliment to his mother who had always
listened to the word of God and obeyed it. It also dismissed, without
mentioning them, all claims kindred might make which would interfere with His
Messianic Mission. In other words, Jesus was declaring, “Blessed are those who
heard and kept the word of God as Mary was faithfully doing” (Vatican II, Lumen
Gentium, 58). Jesus was also using the occasion to teach his listeners a
new lesson in their relationship with God. Being a disciple of Jesus, or a
Christian, means first and foremost having a deep, growing, personal relationship
of love and unity with God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit and with
all who belong to God as His children. Jesus changes the order of relationships
and shows us that true kinship is not just a matter of flesh and blood. God’s
gracious gift to us is His adoption of us as His sons and daughters. This gift
enables us to recognize all those who belong to Christ, actually or
potentially, as our brothers and sisters. Our adoption as sons and daughters of
God transforms all our relationships and requires a new order of loyalty to God
and His Kingdom in absolute, unquestioned, first place. Everyone who does the
will of the Father, that is to say, who obeys Him, is a brother or sister of
Christ, because he or she is like Jesus who always fulfilled the will of his
Father.
Life messages: 1) Let us remember that by
Baptism we become the children of God, brothers and sisters of Jesus, and
members of the Heavenly family of the Triune God. Hence, we have the two-fold
obligation to treat others with love and respect and to share our love with
them by corporal and spiritual works of mercy. 2) Let us grow as true disciples
of Jesus by becoming doers as well as hearers of the word of God, for thus we
will be welcomed to God’s Everlasting Family Reunion in Heaven.
(Fr. Tony) (https://frtonyshomilies.com/)
Sept 27 Wednesday (St. Vincent De Paul, Priest) For
a short biography, click on:
The context: Today’s Gospel describes the
commissioning of the twelve Apostles. Sent out with “power and authority
over all demons and to cure diseases,” they exercised their preaching
and healing mission according to the detailed action-plan given by Jesus.
Jesus’ instructions and travel tips. By these instructions,
it is clear that Jesus meant the apostles to take no supplies for the road.
They were simply to trust that God, the Provider, would open the hearts of
believers to take care of their needs. The Jews supported their rabbis, and
judged doing so a privilege as well as an obligation, because hospitality was
an important religious tradition in Palestine. Jesus’ instructions also suggest
that the apostles should not be like the acquisitive Jewish priests of the day,
who were interested only in gaining riches. They should be walking examples of
God’s Love and Providence in action. They should choose temporary accommodation
in a reputable household, they should bless the residents with God’s peace, and
they should be satisfied with whatever food and accommodation they receive, and
not search for better.
Life messages: 1) We, too, have a
witness-bearing mission: Each Christian is called not only to be a disciple but
also to be an apostle. As apostles, we are sent out to evangelize the world by
sharing with others, not just words, or ideas, or doctrines, but our
experiences of God and His Son, Jesus. It is through our transparent Christian
lives that we are to show the love, mercy and concern of Jesus to the people
around us.
2) We also have a liberating mission: There are many demons
which can control the lives of people around us, making them helpless slaves
—the demon of nicotine, the demon of alcohol, the demon of gambling, the demons
of pornography and promiscuous sex, the demons of materialism and consumerism.
We need the help of Jesus to be liberated from these demons ourselves and to
help Jesus liberate others from their bondage, locked in the chains of
self-centering selfishness and addictive evil habits (Fr. Tony) (https://frtonyshomilies.com/)
Sept 28 Thursday ( St. Wenceslaus, Martyr, St.
Lawrence, Ruiz and Companions, Martyrs)
The context: Although King Herod respected and
feared John the Baptist as a great prophet, he was not converted, and he was
maneuvered into beheading John by his vengeful, intolerant, immoral, jealous
wife Herodias. When his personal staff started reporting stories to Herod about
the new prophet, Jesus, as the reappearance of Elijah the prophet, Herod
expressed his fear that Jesus was the reincarnation of John the Baptist whom he
had unjustly killed. He wanted to see Jesus — not to hear Jesus preaching of
the Good News, but in order to get rid of his fear and feelings of guilt.
The haunting conscience: Herod Antipas was one of the
several sons of Herod the Great, the King of Israel who had divided his kingdom
among four of his sons. Herod Antipas ruled over Galilee and Perea from 2 BC to
37 AD until he was exiled by the Roman emperor. (It was his father, Herod the
Great who ordered the massacre of the Holy Innocents). The conscience of this
immoral oriental tyrant, Herod Antipas, started destroying his peace of mind
when he realized the heinousness of his crimes of an illicit and immoral
relationship with his niece and sister-in-law, Herodias, in gross violation of
Mosaic laws, and his cooperation in the murder of John the Baptist. His
discomfort led him, not to repentance, but to the fear that John had come back
from the dead to punish him, a fear that might have prompted Herod’s wish to
see Jesus in person. His wish was finally realized when Jesus was dragged to
him during Jesus’ trial before Pilate. But Jesus did not yield to Herod’s
demand for a miracle and kept silence.
Life messages: 1) We need to keep our conscience
clean by repenting of our sins daily and by being reconciled with God and His
Church in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Otherwise, our sins will haunt us,
making our lives miserable. 2) It is necessary that we should have a clear
understanding of Who Jesus really IS. We need to see, experience,
and accept Jesus as Son of God and Son of Man, our personal Lord and Savior.
Such an acceptance should lead us to a total adoption of Jesus’ ideas and
ideals and way of life. Otherwise, we will be like Herod, who resembled the
people of Jesus’ day, and of our own, who flock to healing serviceslooking for
miracles, but not for Jesus. If our following of Jesus causes in us no change
that transforms our souls and radiates Jesus outward from us, our attempts to
have mountain-top experiences will be meaningless and vain.
(Fr. Tony) (https://frtonyshomilies.com/)
Sept 29 Friday:(St. Michael, Gabriel and Raphael,
archangels) For a short account, click on:
The Archangels: Michael, Gabriel, Raphael: The
angels are pure spirits (and so immortal), created by God before He created
man. They are meant to be extensions of God’s love and provident care for us.
Their role is to praise and worship God, act as God’s messengers, do God’s
will, and protect human beings: “He will give His angels charge over you to
guard you in all your ways” (Ps 91:1). God sent His angels to
destroy the evil cities, Sodom and Gomorrah, and to save Lot’s family. God gave
Moses an angel to support and guide him: “My angel shall go before you” (Ex
32:34). It was an angel who helped Jesus in the desert and encouraged Jesus
during His agony in Gethsemane. The Acts of the Apostles (1:14) describes how
God sent an angel to liberate Peter from the prison. The Archangels form one of
the nine orders of angels. The most prominent among them in Scripture are
Michael the protector, Gabriel the messenger of God, and Raphael, the healer
and guide for humans. All their names end in the suffix –el. This is a
reference to God called Elohim in the Old Testament. Michael then means “Who is
like God?” Gabriel means “God is my strength.” Raphael means “God heals.”
Michael: Michael means “Who is like God?”
from the challenge he flung at the rebel angels led by Lucifer. In the Book
of Daniel, he is the great prince who defended Israel. In the Book
of Revelation, he is the mighty prince who fought with Lucifer and
who dragged the serpent into Hell. Since he is the protector of the Church we
pray the prayer to him, composed by Pope Leo XIII.
Gabriel: He is God’s messenger. (Gabriel
means “God is my strength”). It was Gabriel who announced to
Elizabeth’s husband, the priest Zechariah, the happy news that his barren wife
would conceive a son, John the Baptist. He announced the “good news” to Mary, that
she was to bear the Son of God. He may have been the unnamed angel sent to
Joseph in a dream to tell him that he was to take Mary into his home as his
wife, “for it is through the Holy Spirit that this Child has been
conceived in her. She will bear a Son, and you are to name Him Jesus because He
will save His people from their sins.” Gabriel also announced the birth of
Jesus to the shepherds; he may have been the messenger instructing the Magi to
return to their lands by another route rather than returning to King Herod, and
also the messenger who appeared to Joseph in a dream to instruct him to return
to Israel, as, “They who sought the life of the Child are dead.”
Raphael means “God is my strength.” He is
man’s God-appointed guide and healer. He guided Tobiah’s journey, did Tobiah’s
task of collecting his father’s money from Gabael of Rhages, arranged Tobiah’s
marriage with Sarah, gave Tobiah the means to heal Tobit’s blindness, and
protected Sarah from the devil.
Life messages: 1) Dependable angelic assistance
is a salutary, encouraging assurance for us to remember in our fears. 2) The
truth that an angel is always watching us is an incentive for us to do good and
to avoid evil. 3) Angelic protection and assistance form a great provision for
which we must be always thankful to God.
Sept 30 Saturday: (St. Jerome, Priest, Doctor of the
Church)
The context: Coming down from the mountain after
His Transfiguration, Jesus healed an epileptic boy. Today’s Gospel begins with
the reaction of the crowds to this cure: “and all were astonished at the
majesty of God.” But Jesus uses this occasion of high popularity to
explain that, in order to reveal Jesus’ real majesty, “the Son of Man
is to be delivered into the hands of men.”
Jesus’ least understood prediction: His coming suffering and
death: In fact, Jesus foretold three times great suffering through betrayal,
rejection, and the punishment of a cruel death. The Apostles could not take the
prophecies, partly because they were dreaming of a political messiah in Jesus.
Besides, Jesus showed His glory to three of them on the mountain and baffled
everyone by instantly healing an epileptic boy whom the Apostles could not heal,
so plainly, no one could do this to Jesus by their own power.
In addition, Jesus’ disciples were really frightened by such a prediction,
perhaps fearing the same fate for themselves. They may also have been ignorant
of the “Suffering Servant” prophecy of Isaiah, where the Messiah was
pictured as making atonement for sins through suffering and death. When Jesus
called Himself the “Son of Man,” the Apostles probably got the
impression of the Messiah coming in glory as described by Daniel.
Life messages: 1) Jesus paid the ransom for our sins by His blood and freed us from the tyranny of sin and death through the Resurrection. Hence, it is our duty to live and die as free children of God, released from all types of slavery to sin, evil habits and addictions. 2) We should ask Jesus for help to carry our daily crosses in the same spirit of atonement for our sins and those of others that marked Jesus’ willing, sacrificial sufferings and death for all of us. (Fr. Tony) (https://frtonyshomilies.com/)
