DAILY HOMILIES

If you ever find yourself in a position of service, consider it a privilege, an opportunity to improve yourself, to learn, and to grow. Serving others helps you to understand people, it makes you discover your talents and acquire new skills. To the world, it may appear as though you are simply slaving for the benefit of others but in truth, service rendered with a cheerful heart makes you a star.

If you really want to know who you are, forget about your titles or what anyone is saying and find out what your actions (especially those you do in secret) are saying about you.

To condemn is to write off a person as good for nothing, irredeemable, beyond repair, and disposable. If God never gives up on us, why should we give up on our fellow human beings? As our responsorial psalm sings: “O Lord, do not treat us according to our sins.” If this is our prayer, then we too should not treat people according to their sins.

The journey to anything excellent and beautiful is usually marred with a lot of obstacles and pot-holes. Even serving God is not easy. No one, not even Jesus Christ the Son of God was spared suffering, pain, and sorrow. Like gold which has to experience fire, you would face a lot of fires that would remove impurities from you. Don’t give up on God. Don’t think that your prayers are in vain. Things would not always be like this. Don’t worry – after the story comes the glory.

Can you change your feelings toward your enemies? What if you decide no longer to talk about them in a negative light? What if decide to remember only those good things they did to you and not the painful ones? What if you start praying for their conversion and deliverance rather than for God to destroy them?

Has the past been painful? Then why are you still holding on to it? According to Elkhart Tolle, this is the insanity of humankind. We easily forget the good people do for us but we never forget the hurts people inflict on us. We hold on to our pain like children refusing to let go of some debris they picked up from the dustbin.

Believe that you will get what you ask for even before you start praying. Jesus draws an analogy with a child asking his father for bread or fish saying that if we who are evil can be trusted to give our children what they ask for, how much more, God. To remind us that God is really a Father, Jesus taught us to begin our prayer with “Our Father who art in heaven.”

If you were told that you have only forty days left to live, how would you spend your last forty days? Wouldn’t you seek to make amends? Wouldn’t you seek reconciliation with God? As we hear in the Stations of the Cross, “those you love will part from you, you too will die one day, a day you do not know, are you prepared for it?”

Do not rush in prayer. First, recollect yourself, then place yourself in the presence of God and remember that God is first your Father. This is why Jesus begins with the words: “Our Father who art in heaven.” Jesus presents an important principle of life: You cannot take without giving. Prayer is not just about asking, it also involves doing. Jesus makes clear the point: “If you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.”

Learn to see the face of Jesus in the suffering. Help people not simply because you seek to be compensated but because you realize it is Jesus you are helping. Whatever you give to the poor may not come back now but it becomes a great treasure stored in heaven where no thief can break in and steal nor rust destroys. (Matthew 6:19-20)

I like how Matthew concludes today’s Gospel passage: “Then the devil left him, and behold, angels, came and ministered to him.” There is nothing as sweet as overcoming temptation. Each time we defeat the devil, we are visited by Angels and the consolation they bring always far outweighs whatever fun or pleasure the devil had promised us if we sin. Meanwhile, if we agree to the lies of the devil, we soon realize within a short time, like Adam and Eve did that we were deceived.

There are two kinds of sinners; those who admit they are sinners and are willing to repent and those who believe they are perfect. Jesus gave the parable of a physician with reference to the second group. Unlike the Pharisees, Levi admitted his faults; he knew he needed a physician. While the Pharisees were busy running their mouths, Levi and his friends were having a foretaste of heaven; enjoying a banquet with Jesus Christ.