DAILY HOMILIES

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.”

Jesus is saying to us today: “Whatsoever you do to the least (the smallest, the unimportant, the poorest, the minority, the outcast), that you do unto me.”

Just as every sin begins with a temptation, the struggle against sin begins with the ability to know how to deal with temptations. Hence, on this first Sunday of Lent, our Gospel passage narrates how Jesus succeeded in overcoming temptations in the wilderness.

The honest truth is that riches bring a lot of happiness and security but there is a certain extent to which the continuous increase in riches no longer affects one’s state of happiness.

Aspire for sainthood. Place your trust in God. Be detached from worldly goods. God surely knows how to take care of his own.

Lent invites us to conversion, to a change in mindset, so that life’s truth and beauty may be found not so much in possessing as in giving, not so much in accumulating as in sowing and sharing goodness.

Fast from selfishness, fast from self-centeredness, leave your comfort zone, visit the poor, the lonely, the oppressed, those who have nowhere to stay or cannot afford to buy clothes, and help as much as you can.

Those who are good at pointing out the sins of others do not often give time to examining their own lives and as a result, they develop a false sense of self-perfection.

Wash the inside of your cup. Believe that you can do without sin. Make efforts like the men who brought their paralytic friend to Jesus through the roof. Let Jesus see your faith and He would reward you with grace to overcome temptation. Don’t look down on yourself.

God listens to all but that of a righteous man, that of an innocent child, that of a pure heart is different! In fact, as Jesus said: “whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.”

Your marriage will succeed, when you learn to judge yourself rather than judging your partner; when you learn to admit your faults and say: “I am sorry.”