Homily for Friday of the 29th Week in Ordinary Time. Bible Study: Ephesians 4:1-6, Psalm 24:1-6 and Luke 12:54-59.
“I, therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called.” (Ephesians 4:1)
Dear friends, whatever vocation we find ourselves in life comes with its expectations, guidelines and mode of operation. As Christians, we must constantly ask ourselves: “Am I the person God expects me to be?” St. Paul, writing from prison, begs us today to lead a life worthy of our calling. And this entails that certain qualities are found in us – meekness, patience, forbearance, eagerness to maintain unity in one God.
Following the events that have happened in the last few days here in our country, one would be tempted to gloss over these qualities St. Paul mentions but you see, this is a time for us to remind ourselves that we are Christians and that we do not belong to this world. We are sojourners heading for our true homeland.
As much we desire a better world right now and are angry over the situation of things, let us not take our gaze away from heaven. With these qualities, we can still achieve our aim of contributing to a better country without violence. In fact, coming down to our Gospel passage, we can hear Jesus telling us to make peace even with our accusers.
“As you go with your accuser before the magistrate, make an effort to settle with him on the way, lest he drags you to the judge, and the judge hand you over to the officer, and the officer put you in prison.” (Luke 12:58) Once again the qualities St. Paul mentions in our first reading are required to do this. It takes a great deal of meekness, patience and forbearance to settle things with your accuser when you know that you are right and he/she is wrong.
Jesus says: “make efforts to settle with him on the way…” This is how we lead lives worthy of our calling. A quarrelsome Christian (an unforgiving Christian) is a very bad advertisement of Christ who himself forgave those that nailed Him to the cross.
Seen from another perspective, Jesus is saying that we don’t have to wait to the last moment of our lives before we seek to reconcile with God. Now is the best time to repent. Now is all we have. Yesterday is gone and tomorrow will never come; now is all we have. Let your light shine, child of God.
Let us pray: Lord Jesus, give me the grace to be who I ought to be as your child. Amen.
Be Happy. Live Positive. Have Faith. It is well with you. God bless you.