DAILY HOMILIES #Love

No matter how difficult it may be to love and honour your parents (and elders), bear in mind that it is part of what it means to follow the narrow door that leads to eternal salvation.

Whenever you consciously do something to hurt your spouse deliberately, it always backfires. On the day of your marriage, you were no longer two people, but one person. Treat your spouse with all the love and respect you can muster just as you would treat your leg or hand that is wounded. You don’t cut off a hand or leg because it is injured, you treat it.

HEAVEN HAS NO BRANCHES. Heaven is one place, there are no separate departments in heaven, there are no branches in heaven, and there is no such thing as Catholic Heaven, Pentecostal Heaven, or Redeemed Heaven. It is the same Jesus Christ that we serve; there is no Catholic Jesus as separate from Pentecostal Jesus.

Consider a privilege each time you meet someone poor or in need of your help, and treat them with kindness even if they are not strong enough to ask for your help. If you have what you need, remember that whatever is extra doesn’t belong to you. You are blessed to bless others.

Jesus was well aware of the law and he knew the implication of healing this man on the Sabbath day. Jesus also realized there was one law that the Pharisees were not aware of; the law of doing good or better put, the Law of Love. So, Jesus asked them, “Is it lawful to do good or to do harm, to save life or to destroy it on Sabbath day?”

Forgiveness is one virtue that enables us to resemble Christ more. No matter what others may have done to us, no matter what they may have taken away from us, no matter what privileges they may have denied us, if we do not forgive, we are not yet Christians. We don’t forgive because the person who has offended us deserves it, we forgive because of our Faith in Christ Jesus who was able to forgive the very persons who executed Him on the Cross of Calvary. It does not make sense (humanly speaking) to forgive, but it takes a Christian to forgive. Remember, as Christians, we do not operate according to human wisdom, but Divine Wisdom.

Hostility towards others is a sign of the absence of true inner spirituality. Just as Jesus’ detractors were hostile to him looking for faults at every instance, we could relapse into such hostility and forget the essence of our faith in God is love for our neighbor. Once we no longer love others, our worship of God becomes mere religiosity.

The essence of the Christian life is COLLABORATION, not COMPETITION. Why engage in a fight with someone who in a few years from now would become dust just like you under the ground? What is the point of boasting or treating people like garbage when we do not know what tomorrow holds?

Jesus was impressed not just with her faith (her unwillingness to give up), He was impressed by her deep-seated humility. Jesus worked this miracle for her to teach us the need to be persistent with our prayers and to always apply the virtue of humility in our relations with others. Remember, the hand that begs is longer. Learn to be humble. Don’t interpret everything as an insult; you never can tell if the so-called insult is just a test. No matter how highly placed you think we are, there would always be someone who has something that you lack. Never look down on anyone. If suffering doesn’t teach you humility, nothing else can.

In pain and disappointment, Mary and Martha buried Lazarus. It is not easy to speak of faith when we are faced with serious challenges; when prayers are not answered or when tragedies strike. When Mary and Martha were still mending their heart-aches, Jesus showed up. He asked Martha this question: “Do you believe?” Now imagine yourself in Martha’s shoes. what would your response be?

God keeps us alive despite our sinfulness not because He condones sin but just so that we may have the opportunity to repent. We serve a merciful God – let us extend this mercy to our brothers and sisters; especially those who offend us or are still living in the darkness of sin.

The heart of Jesus is first sacred because it is the heart of God. It is also a typical shepherd’s heart, a heart so full of love and concern for the good of humanity who are His Sheep.