DAILY HOMILIES

As simple as it sounds, loving our neighbours as ourselves is a sacrifice. When we love others, they respond with hatred. They take advantage of us when we are kind, sincere and open. If you expect people to appreciate you for living a righteous life, love you for loving them, or even reciprocate your kindness, you are wasting time. Whatever good you do for others, know that you do it for God.

Do not be ashamed of testifying to our Lord, … but share in suffering for the gospel in the power of God.” (2 Timothy 1:7-8). Jesus Himself declared: “So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven; but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven.” (Matthew 10:32-33).

The worst kind of enemy is the one who comes to you as a friend. It is easier to avoid a known enemy than to hide from an enemy who pretends to love you. In today’s Gospel passage, the Pharisees and Herodians came to Jesus pretending to be his friends. They began by praising him. Who doesn’t like to be praised? Be careful of praise singers. Not all that glitters is gold.

The tenants in Jesus’ parable forgot they were only tenants, that the land could never be theirs. Nowadays, you hear phrases such as: “my body”, “my truth”, etc. We live in a world that has turned its back on God. A world where people live as if there is no God. It is not just your body; it is God’s temple. You don’t own yourself; you must account for your life before God. There is a day of reckoning.

As we celebrate the Trinity, let us think of our oneness as humans: we all came from one God and are related to one another. If we trace our family origins, we will discover we are more united than we often assume. St. Paul says, “Mend your ways, heed my appeal, agree with one another, live in peace, and the God of love and peace will be with you.”

The chief priests asked Jesus who authorised him to cleanse the temple. They did not know they were talking to God. Does anyone need permission to clean their house? Jesus had performed several signs and wonders that only God could do, yet none of them convinced them that He was God; their hearts were hardened. If you are waiting for anyone to give you approval before doing what is right (what God has put into your heart to do), you will wait forever.

Jesus did not curse the temple; instead, he restored its original purpose by driving out those who were buying and selling and scattering their tables. If we must bear fruit, we must constantly look inwards and cleanse ourselves of those things within us that God hates. At the end of each day, take some moments to examine your conscience and find out if there are things to be thrown away or built upon.

St. Peter emphasises our call to holiness by describing us as priests. As priests, we are a chosen race. That is, we are set apart and different from the rest of the world. We have been “called out of darkness into God’s marvellous light.” Bartimaeus could have asked for money, cars, houses, and so on, but he only asked for his sight. Let us pray that God may open our eyes to see who we are and what truly matters.

When James and John asked for these special seats, Jesus tried to discourage them by asking: “Are you able to drink the chalice that I drink, or to be baptised with the baptism with which I am baptised?” Without asking Him to explain the meaning of the chalice or the baptism, James and John said, “We are able.” As the saying goes, talk is cheap, but actions speak louder than words.

“There is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands with persecutions and in the age to come eternal life.” (Mark 10:29-30).

We are not giving Mary too much praise by celebrating her as Mother of the Church; instead, we are only recognising the honour that God gave to her by taking flesh in her womb. Mary is the Mother of the Church because she fulfilled the prophetic declaration in Genesis. She was present at all key moments in the church’s development, and as her children, it is our responsibility to take her home.

The Holy Spirit is everything to us. The Holy Spirit is our Life. He is the breath of God in the life of a Christian. Therefore, as we celebrate the Coming of the Holy Spirit today, let us incline ourselves more readily to His mighty working in our lives. If we are good Christians and bear fruit for God, keeping His Commandments means we have the Holy Spirit in us.