Sunday August 17, 2008: Isaiah 56:1, 6-7; Romans 11:13-15, 29-32; Matthew 15:21-28

The story of the Canaanite woman in today’s gospel reminds me of the story of one of my favorite movies John Q starred by my all time favorite actor, Denzel Washington. John Q’s son needs an organ transplant and his insurance will not cover it. John Q doesn’t have the money to pay in order for the child to get on the list of those waiting for an organ. When all attempts to persuade the hospital failed, he decided to hold everyone in the hospital hostage. At some point, he is so desperate that he decides to take away his own life so that the son will live. The woman in today’s gospel was so desperate and was willing to take all insult in order for her daughter to be healed. She first was ignored, then was told she is an outsider and if that was not enough, Jesus Christ called her a “dog” a very negative association. This will not necessarily be our expectation of Jesus Christ. This Jesus looks mean and unkind towards this woman who is in great need. Some scholars have tried to argue that Jesus’ use of the word “dog” for her was not derogatory because the kind of dog Jesus was referring to was a pet. This kind of interpretation misses the point that Jesus Christ is trying to communicate in this encounter. This is a teaching moment for Jesus Christ. He uses this incident to teach the woman humility and persistence and to teach the apostles about faith and to introduce them to a universal mission.

When this woman called on Jesus, she was first ignored. Jesus Christ did not ignore her because he did not care about her. Jesus knew her heart and was going to minister to her. St. Augustine tells us that this woman was not ignored so that mercy will be denied but that desire will be enkindled and not only that but also so that humility will be praised. If Jesus Christ had immediately responded to her and give her what she wanted, her great value would have been diminished. Jesus Christ stretched her and pulled her from her safe zone. Her persistence shows her great desire. There is a difference between the actions of Jesus and that of the apostles who wanted to get rid of her. She was a nuisance to them. Jesus Christ on the other hand wanted to engage her and bring out the value in her, which is her great faith. While the poor need our handouts, they treasure most our engagement with them and entering into their world. I personally don’t just enjoy handing out money to beggars on the street. I try to engage them. Unlike the Canaanite woman in today’s gospel, sometimes the beggars walk away from me because they feel like if I am interrogating them. While I will want to help, I am not ready to feed their alcohol or drug addictions either. The woman in today’s gospel was very sincere about the help she needed. This encounter of need teaches humility. We can say this woman was a humble woman. She was willing to accept all insults for the sake of her daughter.

Jesus Christ credits this woman great faith. In last week gospel, Jesus Christ described Peter as man of “little faith.” In today’s gospel, “great faith” is credited to this woman. What the Jewish Peter did not have, the gentile woman had. This will not be the last time Jesus will credit a gentile with great faith and it will not be the last time he will refer to his closest Jewish followers as having little faith. This woman stands as a model of faith not only to the apostles who wanted to get rid of her but also to all of us Christians. It is unimaginable that a Canaanite woman would be set as a model by Jesus Christ for his disciples. Canaanites were enemies of Israel and in Exodus 23:23, God even called for the extermination of the Canaanites together with the Amorites, the Hittites, etc. Jews were not to associate with them in anyway. Here, Jesus Christ is not only associating with her, but he is presenting his faith to us as a model of true faith.

This woman is also an example of Jesus Christ’s outreach to the gentiles, his universal mission. Although Jesus Christ came for the “lost sheep of the house of Israel,” he understands his mission as having a more universal significance – Israel here being those that believe in him. The first reading of today echoes that sentiment. The saved are not only the people of the Old Israel but also the new Israel which will comprise of a lot of foreigners would also be saved if they keep the covenant of God. That Covenant now is Christ. It is not given in Sinai but it is given in the life, passion, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and we enter into it through baptism. The story in today’s gospel comes between two feeding accounts. The first feeding account is in Matthew 14 where Jesus feeds 5000 and the second account is in Matthew 15 where Jesus Christ feeds 4000. Some scholars have argued that the second account and the first are a repetition of the same account. I do not accept this reading because the second account has a nuance that is not in the first account. The second account is a symbolic representation of the gentile mission. In the second account, the initiative to feed these 4000 is that of Jesus. Since Jesus Christ performed this miracle in Galilee and for Matthew Galilee is made up of Gentiles, it will be proper to understand this account of Jesus’ feeding of 4000 gentiles. These are the people that Jews were not to associate with. Jesus is opening up a new outreach to them. Since food sustains life, Jesus Christ is offering them not only earthly life but also is interested in their salvation. These outsiders, foreigners, the undeserved of salvation, etc. are being ministered to by Jesus Christ. He commands in Matthew 28:19 that as his apostles, we need to go out and minister to these people.

We all have people we consider outsiders. They are either outsiders because of their moral problems, religious affiliations, political leanings, ethnic background, color of their skin or choices. These outsiders may be family members, friends, co-workers or even members of our community. We do not treat them as one of us. Jesus Christ invites us to reach out to these “outsiders.” We have made them outsiders for too long. Jesus Christ made the woman in today’s gospel an outsider but he brought her right back in. Those people we have made outsiders, we are challenged by Jesus Christ today to go and bring them back inside.

Sunday July 20, 2008: Wisdom 12:13, 16-19; Romans 8:26-27; Matthew 13:24-43

Two weeks ago we began our study of Romans 8. St. Paul gave us a wonderful teaching on what it means to live in the Spirit and to live in the flesh. He made it clear to us that the way of the flesh is completely opposite to the way of the Spirit. We have a choice between the Spirit and the flesh. The Spirit leads to eternal life and the flesh leads to death. For those of us who have chosen the life of the Spirit, St. Paul reminded us last week that we are not only adopted sons and daughters of God, but we are also the first fruits of his revelation. We await the total adoption of all of creation. We have an important responsibility in Christ’s work of redemption.

Even though we have received this special privilege of adoption and revelation from God, we still live in a world where there is sin and corruption. This is the constant battle of every Christians. St. Paul tells us in Ephesians 6: 12ff, our fight is not against flesh and blood but against the principalities and powers of darkness. We struggle every day to live out our Christian vocation in the midst of this challenging world. There is sin and corruption in the world because the world has not fully experienced the redemption or revelation which we Christians are the first fruits. This contrary power in the world makes us weak and sometimes we don’t even know how to pray and even when we try to pray, we do not know the way to pray. We all have this kind of experience and sometimes we just give up praying. There are times we come to prayer it seems like nothing is happening – we aren’t sure if our prayers are even answered. St. Paul knows this feeling and says to us today that at these times, the spirit comes to help us pray as we should. When we are not sure of how to pray or what to pray for us because of our weakness, the Holy Spirit comes to our aid and helps us offer the prayers.

St. Paul challenges us today to pray in the Spirit. Praying in the spirit means recognizing our weaknesses and letting the Holy Spirit offer the intercessions for us. This requires a lot of faith and this is what sometimes we do in the Charismatic renewal and people think that we are crazy. When people say I am crazy, I just feel it is because I have more faith and I can trust that the spirit will do it for me. We need to develop the attitude of letting go of our agendas we bring to prayer and letting in the Holy Spirit to carry out the agenda of the Lord. We do not come to prayer with our wills dominating the prayer session – “God I want it to be done in my own way, at my own time.” Praying in the spirit means letting the spirit take control of our lives and filling our lips with what we can say. We do not know what we want to ask for. Sometimes we ask for wrong things in prayer – things we do not need or things that will not bring us greater good. God’s wish for every one of us is to live our full potential and achieve the greatest good possible. Any request less than that, you are not asking for the right thing.

Praying in the spirit means opening ourselves up to the Holy Spirit to use us. Sometimes we get too structured and give no room to the Holy Spirit to move us in powerful ways. We need not control what happens in prayer is the work of the Holy Spirit and not our own work. I am amazed how sometimes you ask a Catholic to lead in prayer and they become uncomfortable because they were not told ahead of time so that they would have the prayer written. If you tell our separated brothers and sisters, they will say, “bring it on.” We always spend so much time structuring and writing our prayers that by the time we say them, they sound like some scholarly theological text rather than prayer. When the Apostles went about ministering, they had to pray on several occasions, they did not excuse themselves because they were not told ahead of time. They let the Holy Spirit lead them to minister at the moment to the person that God has put before them. St. Paul tells us in Ephesians 6: 18 that we should pray at every opportunity in the Spirit. Whenever we are called upon to pray, let us not look for excuses why we cannot do it but as people of the Holy Spirit, let us embrace it as another wonderful opportunity to do the work of the spirit.

It is not uncommon to hear Catholics say to me, “I cannot pray.” They usually give this as a reason why they do not pray. If you believe that prayer is about what you are doing, then I can accept with you that you may not be able to pray. We know that prayer has nothing to do with what you are doing during that session, it is about what the Holy Spirit wants to accomplish. There have been many times I have sat through my prayer time doing nothing at all – not saying anything, not thinking about anything, not expecting anything – just sitting there alone and empty before God and I leave feeling so refreshed and enriched.

Prayer is impossible without the Holy Spirit. We need the Holy Spirit to be able to cry “Abba Father.” If you do not get the help of the Holy Spirit, your time of prayer is in vain. That is the reason we need to specifically invoke the Holy Spirit to come to our aid at the beginning of prayer. David sings in his psalm 51: 15, “O Lord open my lips , and my mouth will declare your praise.” The Church traditionally prays at the beginning of the rosary, “Come Holy Spirit and fill the hearts of your faithful.” St. Paul tells us in Romans 8:26 today that it is the Holy Spirit that leads us to pray properly as we should.

Let us today ask the Holy Spirit to come and teach us how to pray. May the spirit open our hearts and lead us into communion with the Holy Trinity.

Tuesday July 15, 2008: Isaiah 7:1-9; Matthew 11:20-24

Jesus Christ rebukes the people of Chorazin, Bethsaida and Capernaum for their failure to believe in him. After performing mighty deeds in their midst, they were still lukewarm towards him and failed to believe in him. Sometimes, being lukewarm and indifferent could be worse than persecution. These people allowed Jesus within their midst, yet they were indifferent to the great sign they had among them. Sometimes we Catholics are like these people. How many Catholics are indifferent towards the Eucharist? They come to church on Sundays not because of the great gift of the Eucharist but just to avoid mortal sin. As you speak with Catholics who cannot freely practice their faith, they will tell you how much they crave for the Eucharist. As I have done some missions in rural Africa where they get to have Mass only may be once or twice a month, it is not uncommon to have people walk for about two miles just to have the Eucharist because it is a precious gift to them. Yet, we have the opportunity to have the Eucharist daily and we find it so difficult to do.

Jesus Christ tells us today that he is here in our midst and we must respond to him in faith. Our prayer today is for faith to always celebrate the Eucharist with joy knowing that Christ is among us doing mighty deeds.

Sunday July 13, 2008: Isaiah 55:10-11; Romans 8:18-23; Matthew 13:1-23 or 13:1-9

In today’s second reading, St. Paul continues his teaching concerning life in the Holy Spirit. Paul discusses the theme of our adoption in Jesus Christ. His understanding of adoption is different from the way we will understand adoption today in our society. An adopted child today has access to his biological family when he has reached certain age. In some instances, the child continues to have communication with his or her family. Adoption in the Greco-Roman world was a total separation from the previous family. All ties with the person’s family were completely severed once the person was adopted and no longer had access to his original family. The person in a sense took on a new life in which his debts of the previous life cannot be carried over to this new life. It wasn’t uncommon to have people take on a new name to signify their new personality. For St. Paul, this is what our adoption in Christ Jesus means.

By virtue of our baptism in Christ, we are adopted sons and daughters of God. As Jesus Christ tells us in the Gospel of John 1:12, “But to those who accept him he gave power to become children of God.” Our baptism empowers us to become the children of God and we can rightly cry “Abba, Father.” Our adoption eliminates our previous debts, debts that were paid by the precious blood of Jesus Christ on the Cross of Calvary. We can now embrace a new life free from corruption and sin. That is rightly the reason at baptism we take a new name to signify that we have become a new creation in Christ.

We are a privileged people to receive this special gift from God. We are privileged because we are the “first fruits of the Spirit.” What God is intending to accomplish in the whole of creation, he has chosen us as the first. The revelation which all of creation awaits with eager expectation, we have already experienced that revelation. It is the revelation of Jesus Christ and this we celebrate at every Eucharistic celebration. We have seen what the world have not seen – the Way, the Truth and the Life. We have been already set free from sin and corruption. All we wait for is the redemption of our bodies when we will truly unite with our heavenly Father in His/Our kingdom.

Given this rare privilege that we have, we must live truly as people who have hope. We must live in hope because what we have awaiting us is greater than whatever we experience in this world. The pains and sufferings of this world may overwhelm us and we begin to doubt God’s promises for us. We need to stand firm in faith knowing that the glory that is to be revealed to us is greater than the pains and sufferings of this world. These pains and sufferings are only temporal but the glory of God lasts forever. In his glory, there is righteousness, peace and Joy.

As first fruits of the Holy Spirit, we have an active role to play in God’s salvation of all creation. We need to be the face of Christ to all of creation by how we love. We must actively work to lead people away from the bondage of sin into the freedom of the children of God which we all have received. We have a lot of work cut out for us but it is easy if we live each day of our lives in the love of Christ and the love of neighbor. If we do this, then we are active agents in God’s revelation to all of his creation.

Sunday July 6, 2008: Zechariah 9:9-10; Romans 8:9, 11-13; Matthew 11:25-30

Our second reading today is from one of the most important chapters of the New Testament. For five Sundays in a row, we will be hearing from Romans Chapter 8. In this chapter of the bible, St. Paul gives us a wonderful teaching concerning life in the Spirit. St. Paul contrasts this life in the Spirit with life in the flesh. Both lives are heading in different directions and there is no meeting point between them. Life in the flesh leads to death and eternal damnation and life in the Spirit leads to everlasting life with Jesus Christ in the kingdom of God.

To live in the flesh is to continue to live a life of the past, a life dominated by sinfulness. For St. Paul, a life in the flesh is not just sexual sins but it is all that is sinful in the human nature. This life is absorbed by self-centeredness and selfishness and it is characterized by a lack of trust in God. It is a pursuit of the momentary and temporary pleasures of this world and a rejection of God. It is a life without Jesus Christ in the center. A life we lived before our encounter with Jesus Christ.

Earlier on in Chapter 7 of Romans, St. Paul gave a teaching on the Law, the Mosaic Law. He says that Christians are freed from the law. “But now we are released from the law, dead to what held us captive, so that we may serve in the newness of the spirit and not under the obsolete letter.” At the beginning of the eight chapter of Romans, he is also critical of the law: “For what the law, weakened by the flesh, was powerless to do, this God has done: …” Why will St. Paul condemn the law? Isn’t the law something that is good? Didn’t Jesus Christ say that he has not come to condemn the law but to fulfill it? Yes, the law is good. However, with the coming of Christ, the purpose of the law has been fulfilled. Jesus Christ is now our new law. What the law could not do, Jesus Christ can now do. The law could not empower us to live as the people God has called us to be. The law only gave us do’s and don’ts without any empowerment to live our full potentials as God’s people. With the coming of Jesus Christ who took on our human nature and lived like every one of us except sin, he has shown us an example of perfect obedience and give us his spirit to be able to live like him.

The empowerment that comes to us through Jesus Christ enables us not live a life in the flesh but to live our full potential as people of the Spirit. We are freed from the law in order not to return to a life of the flesh but we are freed from the law in order to live a life of the spirit. In Galatians 5: 13 – 26, St. Paul makes this point clearer. He tells us that our freedom should not be used as an opportunity for the flesh, but we should rather use it to serve one another in love. St. Paul goes on to list the works of the flesh and these works are opposed to the Spirit: “immorality, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, hatreds, rivalry, jealousy, outbursts of fury, acts of selfishness, dissensions, factions, occasions of envy, drinking bouts, orgies and the like.” To use our new found freedom in Jesus Christ to do these works of the flesh is to misuse our wonderful privilege and opportunity. The reward for doing these works is death and St. Paul warns us that if we do them, we “will not inherit the kingdom of God.” When we chose to do the works of the flesh, we are choosing to remain in slavery. What these things do is to hold us captive. Think about how you are a prisoner to jealousy or alcohol? Think about how these things rule your life?
St. Paul challenges us Christians to live spiritual lives. The fruits of living in the spirit are: “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.” These things are not controlled by the law but they fruits of our complete and total dedication of our lives to Jesus. To live in the Spirit is to live every moment of our lives trusting in Jesus and his unconditional love for us. It is living for and only for God. When we live in the spirit, we make Jesus Christ the number one priority of our lives. It is only when we live in the Spirit that we can live our full potentials.

It is very unfortunate that many Christians today do not live their full Christian potentials. It isn’t enough to come to Church on Sunday and spend an hour in worship. We must develop a solid prayer life every day of our lives and invite the Holy Spirit to take total and absolute possession of our lives. If we do not live our full Christian potentials, we cannot enjoy the fruits of the Spirit and thereby cannot enjoy the kind of freedom that Jesus Christ has paid a great price for us. I want to invite you this week to dedicate your lives to the Holy Spirit. At the beginning of each day this week, the very first thing in the morning before you even say “Hello!” to your spouse, I want you to pray, “Come Holy Spirit and help me today.” Try to be aware of the presence of the Holy Spirit in your life throughout the day and I can guarantee you that you will see changes in your life.

July 4, 2008: St. Elizabeth of Portugal & USA Independence Day

On this day, the Catholic Church celebrates the feast of St. Elizabeth of Portugal, the patron saint of Catholic Charities. Although she was born into enormous wealth, her freedom led her to give away her riches to the poor. She remains a model of authentic Christian freedom. Our freedom should not be a freedom from God but should be a freedom for God. So often, we mistake freedom to be just physical and external. Freedom comes from within. St. Elizabeth is quoted of saying that, “God made me queen so that I may serve others.” She saw her whole success as rooted in God and this success is not for her own selfish ends but for her selfless service to others.
As we celebrate our independence day today, what is our independence or freedom? Is it from God or for God? As much as we may complain about the direction of our country or the problems in our country; as much as we may be cynical about our politics or our politician, we still remain the best democracy in the world. God has blessed us so much and we have the responsibility to share those blessings with others. Our freedom must lead us to bring freedom to others who are in bondage. Sometimes our own policies have not promoted freedom in other parts of the world. While some countries are politically independent, they are still economically dependent on us and sometimes our policies do not necessarily promote their own good but our own good. As a Christian people, we must always stand for what is right and just in the world even if it means making us look “unpatriotic.” I dare to challenge you that we are first Christians and then Americans.
Like St. Elizabeth of Portugal, let us work hard to bring about peace and justice everywhere in the world. We must look at the problems in Zimbabwe as our problems; the problems in China as our problems; the problems in Palestine, Jerusalem, Pakistan, Iraq, Afghanistan, etc. as our problems. Their welfare must be our utmost priority as our own welfare because we are all created in the image and likeness of God.

Sunday June 1, 2008: Deuteronomy 11:18, 26-28, 32; Rom 3:21-25, 28; Mathew 7:21-27

In today’s readings, we are presented with a choice: a choice between doing the will of God and doing our own will. At the heart of this is an expectation from God that we his people will chose to do his will rather than our own will. God expects us his own chosen people to be obedient to him. In the Gospel of today, as Jesus concludes his sermon on the mountain, he reminds all of us his followers to choose to do the will of God. At the end of day, it is not enough to profess that we are Christians, it isn’t even enough to do many good works in the name of Jesus. As St. Paul tells us in the second reading of today, we are not justified by the works we do, we are justified by our faith, doing the will of the Father.

To choose to do the will of God comes with many blessings and to choose to do our own will comes with curses. God will expect us to choose his will over us because he believes that if we look at history, it is more rational to choose his will. Throughout history, he has always been faithful to us even when we were not faithful. He has always been present to us in the most difficult circumstances when all our hopes were lost. At the moments we felt that we had hit the rock, God was there to lift us up and change our lives. In Deuteronomy 11, he reminded the people of Israel how he saved them from the hands of Pharaoh and his army. He also reminded them how he sustained them at the desert and how he conquered the Reubenites Dathan and Abiram and the ground opened and swallowed them. Beneath these stories is also the consequences of disobediences. When Pharaoh refused to obey the command of the Lord to let his people go, he was severely punished; When the Reubenites Dathan and Abiram opposed the rule of Moses, a man placed in their midst by God in Numbers 16, God punished them severely, the ground opened and swallowed them. The historical lessons of God’s goodness and faithfulness to the people of Israel should be enough to make them accept the commands of the Lord.

God doesn’t ask much from us. He only asks three things from us. In Deuteronomy 10: 12-22, he tells us what these three commands are:

1. Fear the Lord your God and follow his ways exactly. Fear here does not mean being afraid to approach him. Fear here means a deep reverence and respect for him. We must acknowledge God for who he is and give him the respect that is due to him. This is recognizing him as the author and finisher of life. If we know this, then we must follow his ways and not our own way. To follow our way is to make God our equal, is to deny him the respect and honor that he deserves and at the same time elevating ourselves to the rank of God.

2. Love and serve the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul. We have been first loved by God. He should have our first love. Our first love shouldn’t go to ourselves, not our spouse or even our children but to God. This is because he is love himself and our love is only a generous gift from God. If we love him, then we must serve him with all our hearts and souls. He deserves all that we have. This means we must put him first in our list of priorities. Sunday worship of God is not one of those things I have to do in order not to incur a mortal sin, but it is part of my being – it is a place I love God in return for all his love for me.

3. Hold fast to him. In and out of season, we must hold fast to the Lord. In the story of the people of Israel, every now and then we see some of them let go of him and beginning to make their own gods. When things became rough and challenging in the desert, they begin to complain and try to abandon God for other Gods. This is repeated again and again through the Old Testament history of the people of Israel. Letting go of God signifies our lack of trust in him. We must hold on to him when things are difficult, we must never let go. God will always be faithful to us.

If we do these things, God promises his blessings. I want to share with you four of those blessings.

Ø God will look after your land. He will take charge of your home and be the head of your household. He will make his peace reign in your home and there will be happiness in your home.

Ø He will provide rain to water our crops and for grass to grow so that our animals will feed on them and we will not lack food. The promise here is that we will not lack anything. He gives this same promise in Deuteronomy 28: 12, The Lord will open up for you his rich treasure house of the heavens, to give your land rain in due season, blessing all your undertakings so that you will lend to many people and not borrow from anyone. You will be at the head and not at the tail and you will always go higher and not decline.

Ø There is nothing that shall stand on your way. You will dispossess mightier and greater nations and people. You will dispossess those problems in your life that will try to crush you. You will overcome disease, financial problems, family problems, etc. In Exodus 23: 25 he tells us that our reward for obedience is that, he will bless our food and drink and he will remove all diseases from our midst and he will give us a full span of life.

Ø The last promise is the one I love the most. The Lord will spread fear and dread of us in any land were we set our foot. Even before we approach the place, God will dispossess those who wish us evil. Before you begin that new job, God is ahead of you to prepare the place for your arrival. That meeting in which some people were going to be against you, God will dispossess their attacks even before you enter into the meeting. In Deuteronomy 1: 29-30, he tells us, “have no dread or fear of them. The Lord, your God, who goes before you, will himself fight for you.”

When you obey the commands of the Lord, it means you have God on your side. What better person can you have on your side? That is the reason Jesus Christ tells us in the gospel of today that when you do the will of God, when you keep to his commandments, it is like you have built your house on a solid rock. When you keep to the commands of the Lord, you have built your life on a solid rock and as we heard in the Psalm today, God is our rock of safety. There is no need to be afraid because God will always be there to save you.