DAILY HOMILIES

Always remember the end; always remember that even the air you breathe is borrowed and you will have to relinquish it someday. Thinking of our death often helps us to be less materialistic, it also helps us to forgive easily.

In today’s Gospel passage, Jesus likened the Scribes and Pharisees to whitewashed tombs which were beautiful to look at from the outside but were full of dead men’s bones inside. If people get close to me, would they see something different from what I portray in public?

As we reflect on the life of Bartholomew, we are called to look at our own lives. How committed am I to living uprightly? Do I tell lies? How close am I to God? How good is my prayer life? Do I still recognize Jesus Christ as God? Or have I come to take Jesus’ presence for granted?

Let us examine our consciences and repent. We should not be so interested in attempting to convert anyone as much as we should be interested in living in the light ourselves.

One question I often ask myself is: “After walking away from Jesus, did the crowd eventually find the bread they were looking for?” If you consider the commandments of God as too difficult to keep or as a hindrance to your happiness, will you find happiness by worshipping the devil?

Am I simply a signboard that points to a particular direction but never goes there? On the other hand, have I become a stumbling block preventing others from going to heaven through my scandalous actions?

Love is empty if it doesn’t require anything from you. True love requires sacrificing for others especially for the old. Just as loving God demands our wholehearted worship, loving our neighbours also demands sacrifice on our part.

Just as no one forced Jephthah to make a vow, no one forced this man into the marriage feast. He came on his own. He was supposed to do just one thing; put on a wedding garment like all the others who were invited freely. But in the end, he got what his actions deserved.

Like the workers who were recruited for work in the vineyard at different times of the day, we are not all gifted the same way, we were not all born the same day, and we did not come to know God the same day. However, in the end, we all shall be rewarded not according to how much work we have done but according to what is rightfully our due.

Just as Jesus said that with God, all things are possible, the Angel said to Gideon: “But I will be with you, and you shall smite the Midianites as one man.” That is to say, if we are to depend on ourselves, we are nothing but if we have God on our side, nothing will be too hard for us.

Given that he was not willing to give away his possessions, the young man walked away from Jesus sad. Do not make a god of your possessions. We brought nothing into this world and when we die, we cannot take anything with us. What shall it profit you to gain the world but lose your soul? Help the poor. Learn to give things away.

In John 6:51, Jesus said: “I am the living bread which came down from heaven; if anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever.” Jesus tells us that anyone who eats and drinks his body and blood will live forever. How much more the woman who carried Him in her womb for nine months?