DAILY HOMILIES

Try to put yourself in this young man’s shoes and allow the words of Jesus to resound again in your ears: “If you want to be perfect, go and sell what you possess and give to the poor.” Are you going to walk away? Will you bluff over this message and go about your normal day-to-day activities? Or will you take an excursion to your wardrobe and bring out clothes you no longer need so that you can clothe some poor people who cannot afford such?

Don’t be foolish and cheat yourself by staying away from Holy Communion. Let your desire to receive Holy Communion daily become your greatest motivation to live above sin, avoid temptations, have a pure heart, and study the Bible. The more Communion you receive, the stronger you become spiritually, and the fewer temptations overpower you.

Children who grow up without any idea of God end up becoming spiritually deficient. Let your children come to God. Take them to Sunday School. Let them participate in the catechism class. For many of us, those things we learnt in catechism as children sustain our Christian faith to this day. Those who say: “I don’t want to indoctrinate my child. I want the child to grow up and decide for himself whether or not to believe in God or follow religion”, always end up having social media carry out negative indoctrination for them.

Since there are no perfect humans, and Jesus says divorce is not an option, how can couples find joy in marriage? The answer is forgiveness. Forgive quickly. St. Paul would say: “Be angry but do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil.” (Ephesians 4:26-27). If couples learn to forgive each other seventy times seven times, marriages would be blissful.

Finally the Immaculate Virgin, preserved free from all stain of original sin, when the course of her earthly life was finished, was taken up body and soul into heavenly glory, and exalted by the Lord as Queen over all things so that she might be the more fully conformed to her Son, the Lord of lords and conqueror of sin and death

The first step Jesus recommends is to “go and point out the fault when the two of you are alone.” (Matthew 18:15). Note that this is a reconciliatory move; Jesus did not say go and quarrel (fight, insult, pour out your anger, or beat them up), He said ‘go and point out the fault.’ The person may not even be aware they have offended you. We often assume people know what they are doing, but the reverse is the case. This is why Jesus prayed for his killers, saying: “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.” (Luke 23:34).

God’s kingdom does not operate like our human empires where might is right, where the poor, the weak, and the little ones are trampled underfoot. The principle of greatness before God is not how much money you have or what you have achieved in life. No. The principle of greatness in God’s sight is humility and service. Jesus says: “He who is greatest among you shall be your servant.” (Matthew 23:11)

Aim for perfection. It is better to avoid offending others than insisting on your rights. Some wars are not worth fighting. You may be right, but sometimes, it is wiser to make peace than to stoke the fires of war. Jesus could have argued with the tax collectors or forced them to believe in His Divinity, but He chose the more convincing option: He worked a miracle to pay the tax. He did something only God could do: ask Peter to catch a fish with a coin.

Why do we quickly forget what God has done in the past when our expectations are unmet? Why do we abandon our admiration, faith, and devotion when our prayers are not granted? Bitterness, whether against God, others, or ourselves, dries up our faith. We stop seeing the brighter side of our situation and begin to wish for or expect only the worst. Every day is not Christmas Day; Life is a symphony of good and bad days.

St. Lawrence did not simply give to the poor; his giving was at the risk of his own life. Jesus says that unless a grain of wheat falls and dies, it remains alone, but after it dies, it bears much fruit. It is always painful whenever we make sacrifices for God’s sake, but we must remember that our pain, like the death of the seed buried under the ground, will yield a great harvest.

Jesus is inviting us to invest in eternity and live in such a manner as to be worthy of heaven after our death. If you do not attain heaven, everything else is useless. Regardless of one’s length of days or riches attained, without heaven, one has only lived a wasted life. Go to the graveyard; you will observe that you cannot tell the difference between those who lived in affluence and those who barely survived. What truly matters is where we spend eternity; it is neither how much we gather nor how much we leave for our children. To die in a state of disconnect with God is the worst kind of death.

That God is a God of the second chance is again revealed in His willingness to entrust great responsibilities to us despite his full knowledge of our human weaknesses. Jesus knew how fragile Peter’s faith was and how rash he could be in thinking, yet he made him the first pope. “You are Peter, and upon this rock, I will build my Church.” (Matthew 16:18).