TWENTY FIFTH SUNDAY OF THE YEAR - A

25th SUNDAY OF THE YEAR – A: (Is 55:6-9; Phil 1:20c-24, 27a; Math 20:1-16)
Theme: We shall work well in the vineyard of the Lord and we shall receive the reward of his goodness

Reflection:

- After two weeks of the reflection, reflection of the whole of second part of eighteenth chapter of Mathew, over the theme of pardon and forgiveness which has to dominate in the community life and in fact, with which the community itself has to be build up and sustained, today the Mother Church places before us another parable of Jesus which ‘brings us good news of God’s immense goodness’.
- The three passages of today teach us that ‘we need to search for the Lord’ (first reading) and once we find him ‘we are for him either in life or in death’ (second reading) and thus we have the possibility of ‘working in his vineyard right from the morning to the evening and thus we receive a just reward’ (Gospel).
- The goodness of the Lord flow from his bounty of mercy and love: mercy which makes the one to see the struggle of the person and to extend a helping hand; and love which makes the person to offer to the needy (or any person – could be a friend and also could be an enemy – because love doesn’t make differences of the status or relation) his total presence and total being of himself for betterment of the other.
- ‘Taste and see that the Lord is good’ is the prayer and invocation of the Psalmist. The Lord’s goodness is not merely spoken and announced because it is not just a word, but it is to be ‘experienced’ – with the five senses of touch, smell, taste, hear and more over, feel with, and within the heart – because it is his ever loving and everlasting deed for the salvation of humanity.
- With all these preliminary nuances of God’s goodness we are, today, invited to reflect to research and participate to receive from the bounty of the Lord his rewards of justice and goodness.

First reading:

- The superiority of the Lord:
o The text of Second Isaiah is a celebration of the divine transcendence and it expressed in the words of the Lord “my thoughts are not your thoughts” and “my ways are not your ways”. This divine transcendence was very particularly needed of the time, in which, there were people who believed and taking pride in having the gods and forces of pantheism that has materialized the divinity.
o The God of Israel has revealed himself to be superior to all material gods and to all those who have made earthly idols as their gods. For Israel this superiority God gives the enough force to combat with the false prophets and false gods. This supremacy of God is shown as described in the text in the traditional model of vertical line, that is, between the sky and the earth (v.9).
o Accepting this God who has his overwhelming potency and superiority in his revelation, the people of Israel have to become ‘higher and broader’ in their thinking and acting.
o This is the invitation of God to his people through the prophet Isaiah: to leave aside their ways and their thoughts and to hold on to the understanding his ways and his thoughts which are very far away from theirs; and in particular way, God wants them to be growing from the level of ordinary thinking and acting to the mature way of comprehending the meaning and purpose of their life;
o In this way, the superiority of God has become and has to become the ‘way’/’thought’ or model for all his people to stand as superiors in their faith and in their acts of mercy in the confrontations with the other people.

- Nearness of the Lord:
o Till now we have seen the God of Israel as being manifested himself superior to all other gods and in a special way, superior and higher to all the human ways and human thoughts; but his is only one side of God who is Almighty and All powerful.
o There is also another side of God who is merciful and loving and the one who calls every one into his life by personal acceptance and participation. This God is very near and close to the humanity; He is the God who wants to be in the midst of his people; who wants to be for the people; and who wants to live in the hearts of the people in the form of the Spirit;
o The God of Israel has also, thus, manifested himself as God who can be found when searched “search for the Lord when he is found”, and God who can be reached when we near him “invoke him when he is near”.
o This shows that God makes his self and his presence available to his people. He is not a God who keeps himself away or far away or distant for the reaching of his people. He wills and desires ‘to be with’ the people; this is the nearness of God which is very clear in the experience of the people of Israel. They have found the hand or the spirit of the Lord very often in their difficult moments and they completely trusted in the ‘closeness’ of their God to them.

- God is, thus, both superior and closer to his people:
o Vertically, God manifests himself as great and mighty and thus shows his superiority to all the opposing forces who claim their divinity and stands out as the One and Peculiar God of the earth and sky.
o Horizontally, God manifests himself as merciful and loving and thus shows his nearness and closeness to all the people who listen to him and to desire to reach him accepting him as their God and thus he stands out as the Unique and Special God of creation and humanity.
o We are today invited to admire his supreme nature and wonder at it with silent adoration on the one hand; and on the other, to be glad and to rejoice at his closeness and nearness to us and to reach him with faith and works of love.

Second Reading:

- We are one with Christ in our Life:
o St. Paul is very particular to teach the destiny of the one who believe in Christ; He says “for me to live is Christ”. Once we find who is true God and how great and how close he is to his people (first reading) and once we offer him all our being, our thoughts, words and deeds, then, we no longer belong to this world or to this life but everything become Christ; that’s what he says in another place that ‘it is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me’ (Gal 1:20).
o We have only one life thereafter and that is participation in the life of Christ and we become ourselves alterchristus (other Christ); that is the intention and meaning of Paul when he says that for him living is Christ himself. Christ is life and his life is in Christ and Christ himself and that’s the reason why he has committed himself completely to Christ.

- We are one with Christ also in our death:
o For Paul, by now, everything has become same and equal; he does not see any difference between living and dying and this is because he has immersed himself into Christ so much that even death becomes for him, not a cause of fear or worry, but a “merit” or an “earning” and in his intention this earning is the ‘reception of the crown of glory’.
o In life he is living the glory of Jesus and he says once again somewhere else that ‘whether we eat or drink or do whatever, we do it for the glory of God’. Every action of him is transformed into an act of giving glory to God. The same glory is being offered to God in his death; because he is dying for the love of Christ and for receiving the crown of glory and he is very confident about this in his testimony of faith and thus he writes again that ‘I have finished my course and now I await for the premium of glory’.

- Either living or dying is same for Paul:
o The Christian attitude should be formed from the model of Paul for whom ‘living is Christ and dying is earning’.
o He writes this to the Philippians and we know that he is writing to them from the prison and from the context of suffering for Christ;
o He writes to them telling that he has the desire to come and see them and personally meet them all if he is alive and escape the imprisonment; he writes that even the other possibility is no lesser significant; that is, even if he faces death in the prison, he admonishes the people of Philip not to worry since he is going to meet in person his master Christ himself.
o Exalting the people in their commitment and dedication to be the witnesses for Christ, Paul asks them to ‘behave themselves in the mode that is worthy of the Gospel of Christ’ (v.27) as he himself is from the prison and from the moment of suffering, just because they do not lose anything whether they live or whether they die because everything is For Christ.

Gospel:

- Parable of the kingdom of God:
o Once again we enter into the context of the mystery of the kingdom of God proclaimed by Jesus after reflection over many a parable which is comprised together in the thirteenth chapter of Mathew;
o There is no end for the revelation of the kingdom of God; it is like a profound fountain, which we find full of water as we dig and go deeper and deeper inside; so also with effect and potency of the kingdom which Jesus announces in parables. Though each time the nature of the kingdom is revealed and its mystery is manifest with deeper sense, these is still something more and something profound in understanding and assimilating its significance.
o It is the treasure incomparable, the precious pearl which has without limits in its value and it is, as we see today, is also open to all and it is at the reaching of all; all are invited to participate in its mystery and become its members and to enjoy its fruits peace, joy and love for St. Paul says that ‘the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking but peace, joy and love in the Spirit’ (Rom 14:17).

- Parable of the head of the house:
o The head of the family, the responsible holder of the family and specially the Father of the family (could be also the Mother in the feminine domination) has the task of keeping his vineyard clean, irrigated and finally fruitful for the whole family and thus providing a membership of its production for all;
o In today’s gospel we see the five movements of the owner:
 He goes out early in the morning to search for the laborers for his vineyard; the first task of the vineyard holder is this to seek out and bring the workers so that they work a day long.
 He fixes the daily wage and keeps himself in accordance with the workers and this is very important part of the work because each worker has to get his wage;
 He does not stop himself with one time calling and one group’s availability; he still wants more and he still wants to invite more and that’s why he goes out again and again to see if there is anyone else without work and to offer him the daily bread in form of work and payment; and we see it happening at five intervals of the day in the gospel: at dawn, at nine, at midday, at fifteen and finally at seventeen in the evening;
 Retribution for all: the owner has his freedom to give whatever he wants to the worker without damaging the agreement which has been made in the start of the work; here we see the owner asking his accountant to give them what they have to receive as the reward but with the order to start from last one to the first one; it is common for the first ones to observe how much he is paying for the last comers and when they found him paying the same amount which he has promised them at the beginning of the day they have thought that they would get more forgetting the agreement; and when they did not receive as they expected, not as they agreed, they started grumbling.
 The loving attitude of the owner is expressed in calling even those who talk bad of him or his enemies: friend/friends; this attitude of making friendship goes beyond all the mere and uncharitable comments that are being passed.
o The justice is the virtue that has to be followed and kept in practice in the owner-servant relationship; the justice in paying what has to be paid; the justice in dealing with the manner that builds up the rapport between them so that the work would be continued, not just for one day, but in the days to come; we see the owner paying what is just according to the agreement;
o Act of free love: but the parable does not end there; it continues to tell that he paid an equal retribution to all; and there lies the significance of the parable of the owner who has exercised his freedom in offering to his people an act of love which goes beyond the calculations of the work and the payment.

- Parable of the laborers:
o Laborers are those who keep themselves in ‘waiting for work’; they have the task of being available for work without having any attitude of laziness or whiling away time and energy without any occupation;
o They are to show their integrity in making an agreement and being faithful to it though other factors make them fall short of their prudence.
o The work is always there and the holder of the vineyard is always at search irrespective of the hours of the day and it is laborers who have wait with patience and search for work with persistence.
o They have to receive what they have to get and they can even ask for it if they have done justice to their work – sincere and continuous work they have offered in the vineyard; when they receive what is due to them they have to content and satisfied without any prejudices of what others get or receive;
o They have to finally rejoice with the master and with the co-workers for the ‘possibility of work they are invited to’ and for the ‘retribution of goodness’ that the master has extended equally to all; this is the joy of being together ;
o In this way we find five movements also from the part of the laborers:
 Searching for the work
 Accepting the invitation with the agreement
 Working together in the vineyard without having complaints of those who enter in the late hours
 Being content and satisfied with the reception of the due wages
 Moving beyond themselves to ‘see and taste’ the goodness of the Lord for all.

- Two modes of understanding the Gospel:
o One, on the level of history/story: this parable is addressed to the disciples who have asked Jesus about ‘who can be saved?’ (19:25) and in other words ‘who could enter into the kingdom?’; but the parable as such refers not to the disciples directly but to those who have shown their superiority in acquiring the place in God’s kingdom and this parable comes in this context of the question of the Pharisees who think that they have the right to be first in the kingdom (19:3). They have considered themselves worthy of being ‘great and worthy’ and moreover being ‘the first’ to enter into the kingdom; but Jesus with the proclamation of this parable shows that ‘not only the first ones’ who have worked from the morning till the evening but also who have come in the different hours of life will receive the equal retribution; and therefore, the kingdom is not only of the Pharisees who are ‘first’ to enter but also of those ‘last ones’ who listen to his invitation, accept and enter at any time.
o Second, on the spiritual level: on the other part, it is the will of God, who seeks, invites and pays what he wants, that matters. In the eyes of God all are equal and all are called to take equal participation in the kingdom; his goodness is tremendous that he does not see when they have come and for how much time they have worked; all that he sees is that they have accepted his invitation with faith and worked in his vineyard with sincerity; finally it is the ‘mercy and goodness’ of the Lord that wins and that has the say in extending his goodness.

Conclusion:

- Superiority and Nearness of our Lord: we have to adore the Lord who is Supreme and beyond our mere understanding with humility and with obedience and on the other hand, we have experience the nearness of God and his presence in our life because he fixes his tent amidst us and he wants to be our God (first reading);
- In Life and In Death we are Christ’s: when we lead our life in the direction of Jesus there is nothing that affects us much; nothing will change us; nothing will give us preference or choices; everything is same in the sense of life and death; we do not take too many cautions to keep our life luxurious and going according to the standards of life; we do not even fear the moment of suffering and difficult because even death does not make us fumble and tremble; all this transformation is possible because we are in Christ and when we are in Christ, our life is for his glory and our death to earn our crown of glory (second reading);
- Justice and goodness both belong to God alone: we may have our accounts and our calculation but God is just in giving each one his wage and this is on the part of his justice; God has his freedom and his mercy to give anyone anything at anytime because he does not keep counts and he does not make calculations because his thoughts and ways are very distant from ours as the sky is to the earth; therefore, the justice to pay the right wages and the goodness to give the equal rewards flow from the act of love of God and so they are uniquely his and we have to just ‘experience’ this Lord who is just and good and ‘rejoice’ in his immense love for whole humanity (Gospel);
- Be good laborers: we have to be good laborers in the vineyard of the Lord by making five moments: searching for the will of the Lord, accepting it with the faith, working with commitment and sincerity till end of our life (evening), receiving our reward of glory without any complaints and finally rejoicing in the goodness of the Lord;
- Be friends of the Lord: we will become friends of the Lord if we keep on working for him obeying his commands and words; he calls us no more servants but friends at the end of the day because he is content with our work; we have to try to become friends of the Lord and try to remain in this friendship until the last day of our life;
- First will be last and last will be first: a formula or a saying sounds good and easy to quote but it has a tremendous implication as we have seen in the gospel of today therefore, without making any comments on it, let us just get ready to enter into the ‘work of the Lord’ and Let Us Work Well in the Vineyard of the Lord and We Shall Receive the Reward of His Goodness.

TWENTY FOURTH SUNDAY OF THE YEAR - A

24TH SUNDAY OF THE YEAR – A: (Sir 27:30-28:1-7; Rom 14:7-9; Math 18:21-35)
Theme: Pardon is a Fountain to which we come to receive it and from which we return to share it

Reflection:

- Pardon and forgiveness is the central message of today’s readings and the church once again exhorts us to reach the profundity of its nature and to be filled-up with its mission;
- The word of God is offered to us not only just to listen for that time when it was read and preached but to ‘ponder over it and to mediate’ until it become part of our life;
- We come to the fountain to have the breezing experience of the spring that come out it and with the tremendous joy we return to tell it; the experience cannot be passive and will not be ineffective; it always makes the person ‘to come out of himself’ and ‘to reach others’ in order to share what he has seen, heard and touched;
- Pardon, likewise, a fountain of God’s mercy and love; a fountain to which we come to experience its pleasantness and its efficacy of ‘mercy and love’; once we experience this we cannot remain passive and ineffective; the power of the experience makes us ‘to go out of our comfort zones’ - such as our confined homes and even our life which we have often covered with the margins and borders so as not to be disturbed by others – and to break these borders lines and finally ‘to reach others’, even to the enemies (who have offended us), only with one intention of ‘sharing what we have experienced’ and that is of ‘pardon and forgiveness of God’;
- God stands out in the middle as the central force to whom we come and from whom we return to make the experience a living spring; spring is a living one only when ‘it comes out’ from the fountain and ‘go out to reach’ its destiny of offering coolness and breeziness. We become like living springs of God’s mercy and love in the form of Pardon only when we move – to its profundity in the backward direction and it its mission in the forward direction;

First Reading:

- Adding Wisdom to the Law and Worship:
o The book of the Sirach which is also named as Ecclesiasticus is the book which falls under the category of the ‘Wisdom and Poetry’ part of the Bible; in Old Testament we have different ‘categories’: First five books is called ‘Penteteuch’, that is, Torah or the Law, then comes the ‘History’ in the second category which comprises mainly of the judges and kings and third is the ‘Wisdom and Peotry’ which starts from Job and ends with the Sirach; and the fourth and final category is the ‘Prophecy’ in which we have all the prophets and their proclamation;
o The Sirach, the present book of which we are dealing today, is the wise literature which deals with the ‘ethical’ and ‘moral’ life in the man’s either public or private affairs; it tries to search for the significance of the man’s character in his attitude towards himself (therefore inner life) and also towards others (therefore the relationships with others); According to this book, the true measure of the human character is not the ‘money or possessions and not even his status’ but ‘his virtue’.
o It adds ‘meaning and wisdom’ to the Torah which was given by Moses and to the Worship that the people of Israel offer to God; the practice of the law of God should not be a just an act of fulfilling a norm; the worship that is being done by God’s people should not be also a ‘mere ritual or rite’ which has no consequence in the life; either the following the Law or rendering worship to God should be an act of ‘intelligence and wisdom’ which has its fruits and effects in the life that follows;

- Anger a Sword – Pardon a Cord:
o The first reading of today present to us the contradiction between: Anger – wrath (27:30) and Pardon – Prayer (28:2);
o Anger and the wrath are like a Sword that divides the rapport, destroys the relationship and finally demolish the ‘unity’ between the relations (in the family), between the members (in the community), between the individuals (in the friendship) and between the faithful in the church; with the anger the distance becomes more; the misunderstanding takes the reign;
o Pardon and the prayer are like a Rope that unites the broken relationships and the construct the human life, again in the various levels, like that of family, society, friendships and finally in the Christian sense, the Church;
o It is we who have to decide about what to have in our hands: a Sword or a Cord; accordingly we will have either the life and happiness or the desperation and loss of life;
o Once again we have the same purpose as we meditated last week: To Build up the Human Community by the Cord of Pardon and Prayers, keeping aside and giving up of a Sword of Anger and Wrath.

- How and What For to give up this sword and take up this cord of pardon?
o The answer is found again in this reading in the verses 6-7: By remembering our destiny and by keeping in mind our journey towards the future glory;
o The questions of the meaning of life and human destiny in so far he is a Christian make us understand why we need to live in the harmony with our fellow brethren;
o These verses propose that we have to remember at least four things:
 First, we have to remember the end of our life and that will help us to keep aside the hatred and enmity and to repair our broken links: “Remember the end of your life, and set enmity aside” (v.6a): if as humans and limited being we have an end and if our end is to have life in the Lord in whom we believe, we have to lead a life of commitment to God and to the neighbor and when we remember this truth and act accordingly it is not so difficult to throw away the inhuman elements such as enmity and hatred and to embrace the means of pardon;
 Second, we have to remember that we are mere mortals and we are destined to corruption and death: “remember corruption and death, and be true to the commandments” (v.6b): as God’s people we are called to the life of immortality and we are also given the way to follow it so that we would enter into that immortality where the corruption of the body and the death are finally overcome and we enter into the eternal bliss; But this is only a call; it is we who have to answer this call and live accordingly by choosing the way of life that God has revealed in Christ; once we aim at this it is so easy to keep his commandments; by remembering and keeping in action the commands of the Lord we can build up the human unity with the means of reciprocal pardon and prayer;
 Third, we have to remember, as the continuation of the previous one, the commandments that God has given at mount Sion and which are perfected by Jesus in the ‘doubled effected commandment of love for God and for other’: “Remember the commandments, and do not be angry with your neighbor” (v.7a): if the central point of the commandments is that of love and if we want to embrace them to have life in the Lord, then, where is the room for the moments of anger and wrath? No more domination of these abominations which the sinner only holds (27:30), but the ‘God’s and fraternal love’ takes hold of us and leads us;
 Forth, we have to, ultimately, remember the covenant that has been established between God and us, the covenant in which there is the mutual fidelity both on the part of God to be our God and on the part of us to be his people: “remember the covenant of the Most High, and overlook fault” (v.7b): once we remember that we are the chosen people of God Most High and we are raised to the life that is higher than the others and we are given the dignity of being his children, then, with the joy of the alliance we have with God we can simply forget and overlook the faults of others because they are not our aim; instead, our aim is to with God and for God and that happens when we completely engage ourselves in his service of love and mercy for others;
 All this ‘remembrance’ – even Jesus asks us to do everything we do in his memory, that is, in his remembrance – has a goal; and the goal is to be living in the Spirit of the Lord because it is the Spirit that makes us ‘remember’ what we are and where we have to head to and finally our destiny and thus make all of us ‘united’ with one mind and one heart; once this happens then, there is no place for anger and wrath but only the pardon and prayer take precedence;

Second Reading:

- We are for Christ:
o The message of Paul for us today is that of ‘living for Christ’ and if needed even ‘dying for Christ’ and in this way WE ARE HIS – we become his – either in life or in death;
o This messages exhorts us once again of our unity with Christ; we are united to Christ and our unity remains forever; no one separate us from Him as Paul reminds us in the same letter to the Roman, in the chapter eight, in which he speaks that “nothing can separate us from the love of Christ” and even death;
o We are no more ourselves and we are no more for ourselves; we are for Christ and Christ is for all; by sharing the mission of Christ as we follow him we are for others too; in anyway, we live for Christ and for others and not for ourselves;
o Once again, speaking this way, Paul exhorts us to participate in the death of Christ so that we can also rise with him to the life of glory; and if we want to connect it to our theme today, we have to remember that our life ultimately is not for ourselves and it is to offered for Christ; offering to Christ means ‘working for the betterment of others’ and in this way we give glory to his name and to the Father who has blessed us in Christ;

Gospel:
- Context of the text:
o We need not reflect too much about today because we have already mentioned everything of the contextual situation in the last week’s reflection; but to put everything is a word, in summary, we can say that we are still in the discourse of Jesus on the community life – the community which is build up of ‘the small and the little’ and of those who earn his neighbor with the fraternal correction – and the community life has as its central string the message of Pardon and Forgiveness which hold both directions – in the forward, the fraternal correction and in the backward, the common prayer;

- Structure of the gospel:
o Question of Peter and the Answer of Jesus (vv. 21-22)
o The Parable of the settling of the accounts (vv. 23-34)
o The Conclusion with the reference to the Heavenly Father (v.35).
o This is the tentative structure we can make, though not in the manner of biblical theology, in the manner of pastoral understanding; we need this in the pastoral level because we are here to build up our community of faith;
o The first one deals with the question of Peter (v.21): actually the discourse of Jesus on the aspect of the community of life seems to be having an actual ending with the verse 20 in which Jesus tells that “for where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them”. But Peter wants to know more about forgiveness and the exact number of offering forgiveness;
o Immediately Jesus rebukes and answers (v.22): not enough seven time but more than that; and the symbolism of infinite number is ‘seventy times seven’; in word, Jesus keeps aside the numeric and the method of counting in the attitude towards our neighbor though he uses the number seventy time seven just for the demonstration of the unlimited mercy we have to have towards our offenders;
o Parable of the kingdom of God: once again we see Mathew putting another parable on the mystery of the kingdom of God which he has done enough and more comprising everything of what Jesus has said in the form of kingdom parables (chapter 13); but the mystery has no end; mystery has no limit; and the mystery has no definitive and reachable end in time and history; therefore, it needs to be revealed time and again as the situation and the understanding of the people demand; that’s the reason why Mathew never stops himself narrating again and again the mystery of the kingdom in the parables and we see this very often even after dedication of one whole chapter for them; one of such is today’s parable;
 Parable of the King who settles the accounts: it is more than the granting of forgiveness, it is the parable of the king who wanted to restore his kingdom in which different people have to give an answer for their responsibilities; this also signifies the attitude of the king who is keen to see the ‘well being’ of his kingdom so that it would be complete and perfect;
 Parable of the servant ‘forgiven’ because of his prayer: it is also highlights the servant has owed to the master a good amount of debt and who is not in the condition to repay; and finally prayed for the patience and time for the restoration; not that servant asked to cancel the debt but asked for the little more time with the assurance of paying back everything; but the master is merciful and kind has ‘cancelled’ all his debt and left him go with the joy of being forgiven;
 Parable of reciprocal pardon: it is the parable of sharing of the joy of forgiveness; the servant who has been forgiven has not remembered (the first reading – speaks of remembering God’s love and life in the form of alliance) what he has received; he has completely neglected and kept aside the joy of being forgiven; the experience of forgiveness has also the mission of transferring to the others; the servant has not carried in his heart this joy to share it with his companion who has also indebted to him but a small amount; one pardon received does not become pardon shared it is accountable. That’s what happened in the parable; the servant who did not want to share, not what he has, at least what he has received and he has punished for his ‘hardhearted’ act; and finally as the result he is thrown into the prison until the repay of the full debt;

- Significance of the gospel passage:
o The pardon is the central point:
 We ourselves, as weak and incapable humans, cannot offer a perfect pardon to those who done wrong to us; therefore, we need to go back to the fountain to receive the grace and strength to share it with others;
 How much is forgiven or how many times is given forgiveness is not what matters for Christ but the attitude with which it is offered and that is the reason why Jesus at the end of the parable says that if we do not forgive our fellowmen from our heart even God does not offer to us the pardon;
 Even in the great prayer ‘Our Father’ we are reminded of this truth: ‘forgive us our sins AS WE forgive those who sin against us’. We see two phrases here in this supplication: ‘forgive us’ and ‘we forgive’ but there is one conjunctive verb which combines both of them and makes it one prayers and that is “AS WE”. It signifies that we receive the pardon of God only and only when we, on our part, are ready to forgive or have offered forgiveness;
o Christian mode of pardoning:
 Normally we do not want to forgive the offender unless and until he realizes it and comes and says sorry; it is the way of the world and it is the normal attitude;
 Having this normal attitude is not enough at least for us who have acquired the nature of Christ and his love; and we have to learn from him to our first step towards the mission of forgiveness;
 It is we who have to make first step; it is we who have to initiative to go and meet our offender and forgive him; it is what is did on the cross; Jesus has forgiven all this enemies and all those have crucified him even before they realize and would ask sorry; it is the same attitude we have to cloth ourselves with; to forgive other even before their asking for pardon is the way that Christ has taught us and we are ‘after his name’ – Christians – only when we practice it.

Conclusion:

- The Holy Eucharist is the fountain of Pardon:
o We are here around this table to be filled with the joy and experience of pardon of God and to return to our homes full of this grace so that we can easily call our offenders into the ‘joy of forgiveness’.
o Eucharist is the means which makes us ‘united’ into one community with reciprocal sharing of love which includes the offering of mercy and forgiveness;
o We are worthy to participate and receive this Eucharist only when we make peace with those who have done wrong to us, and that’s what makes our offering ‘raised to God’. Jesus asks us to leave our offering at the altar if we have something against our neighbor and to offer it only after restoring peace with pardon and forgiveness;

- We are to spread the mission of Forgiveness:
o Once we have experience the pardon of God at the altar and with the force of the sacraments, we cannot remain inactive, ineffective and passive;
o We are given also the mission of ‘sowing the seeds of forgiveness’ in our family, community and the church; we are given in order that we give to other; we have received so that we share and we share so that we receive again abundantly;
o Therefore, filled up with the joy of being forgiven and made new in the Spirit of Christ, let us rise up and go out to carry on this mission and that what it means when we conclude our Eucharistic celebration with the words of the mission: “the Mass is ended, let us go in the peace of Christ” and we respond ‘thanks be to God’: this the mission given and joy of accepting it by thanking God for giving us this life of joy and glory;

- Remembering the Truth of God’s eternal and unlimited forgiveness:
o Therefore, we keep in mind always this truth that, Pardon is a Fountain to which we come to receive it and from which we return to share it.

TWENTY THIRD SUNDAY OF THE YEAR - A

23RD SUNDAY OF THE YEAR – A: (Ezekiel 33:1,7-9; Rom 13:8-10; Math 18:15-20)
Theme: We are called not to lose our brothers but earn them with love and fraternal correction

Reflection:

- After the great figure of Peter who has exposed both of his complexes of characters and attitudes – of profession of faith on the spiritual side and of blocking the mission of Jesus by rebuking him not to accept what is God’s will on the material side – we move on to completely separate aspect today;
- The church asks us to reflect today not only the spiritual side of our life which we have reflected last week – of the spiritual worship by offering our bodies as a living, holy and raised to God – but also to embrace the human life and human circle of community;
- In this way we are called to EARN for ourselves ‘not the whole world and all the treasures of the world’ (as we have seen in the Gospel of last Sunday) but to Earn our brothers and sisters;
- The only way we can construct or build up our community is by bringing back the lost members of the communion with the fraternity and with the mutual correction;

First Reading:

- Prophet is a guardian of the house of Israel:
o Through the mission and call of Ezekiel the Lord has made known the truth of the ‘identity of the prophet’ and that is to be a guardian: “I have made a sentinel for the house of Israel” (v.7);
o Being a sentinel is to be ‘custodian of the every member of the house of Israel’. It is the mission that the Lord has entrusted to the prophet for the reason that He never wanted even a single member of the community to be lost in their ways and in their mortality;
- Prophet has to speak the word of God for himself and also for the life of each individual:
o The responsibility of the prophet of ‘speaking of what come out of God’s mouth’ (v.7) has to be carried on even if the listener not in a position to accept it;
o The mission is to save the members who have gone away from the ways that are indicated and that are to be followed and to save ‘himself’ just because he is doing what he has received from the Lord as his command;
o This saving of the ‘self’ and ‘others’ has to take the prior lead in the life of every listener of God’s word, not only the prophet though it is his primary mission;
- Prophecy is for the construction and not for the destruction:
o Every prophecy is for the ‘building up’ of the house of Israel; in this ‘construction’ each word that is proclaimed and prophesied ‘serves as a brick’ and ‘accepting’ it as ‘cement’ which keeps the whole building as a ‘unity of all the members’.
o Every prophecy – keeping aside of its acceptance or rejected by the listeners – is directed towards giving the life; the word of God is life-giving; when God speaks man comes to life; this is the reason why the prophet has to admonish the unfaithful not to condemn them but to lead them into ‘conversion’ of the heart.
Second reading:

- Paul recalls the nature of love which stands as the fulfillment of all the laws and prescriptions;
- Therefore, love does not exclude all the possible rules and regulations and laws, instead it boosts the people to follow them with commitment for the betterment of the ‘individual person’ and also ‘the common good’ and all this is for the construction of the ‘loving community’ in which each one lives not only for himself but for others;
- Living for others is the highest value that is implied in the virtue of love: therefore, ultimately love realizes its finality by helping the people to follow the norms of life which will keep them and lead them to the better life and also by constructing the ‘community of fraternity’ to which we are called to be the members;

Gospel:

- Text should be read in the Context:
o The primary requirement for understanding of the text is to keep in mind where we are:
 We are in the Gospel of Mathew and we have to keep always what is the content and context of the Evangelist;
 Mathew writes to the Jewish community which has come to believe in the Good News of Jesus and he presents Jesus as the Promised Messiah of the Old Covenant who by his presence and mission completes and renovates the Old Law and immerses it in the New Law of God whom he calls Father;
 Since he is writing to the Jews he is particular in making discourses on the ‘unity of the Christ’s followers’ who stand upright even in the midst of the persecutions and insults created by the Jewish authorities;
o In the Jewish dominating background Mathew brings out the importance of ‘being together as the Christ’s disciples’: in this way he injects the four discourses of Jesus on the ‘aspect of the community’:
 First - The sermon on the mountain (Math chapters 5-6-7): Jesus speaks of the superiority of the New Law given by him on the Old Law which is not abolished but completed in the different manner and Mathew is keen to spell out the ‘community of Jesus’ is different from that of ‘Jews’ and the difference is seen in following Jesus with the New Law of love and mercy;
 Second – the discourse to the disciples and sending them in mission (Math 10: 1-42): Jesus explains the nature of the disciple and their mission to testify what they have seen and received to the people so that the ignorant are brought into the discipleship of Christ and thus form the ‘community of Jesus’.
 Third – the parables of the mystery of the Kingdom of God (Math chapter 13): Jesus’ main motive behind teaching to the people in the form of the parables itself is to ‘reveals the nature and effect of the kingdom of God’ which he has come to establish and to invite everyone into this kingdom; the believers and followers of Christ should ‘live and grow’ into the community which presents the kingdom of God to the world;
 Forth – the discourse on the communitarian life (Math chapter 18): Jesus brings forth a totally and radically different community which is placed as the paradox to the worldly and temporal community; the different is seen in the attitude of the brothers and sisters of the community, that is the church; this community that Jesus proposed and exposes underlines the incredible newness that it is the love of the ‘Father who is in heaven’ that has been infused into the relationships between the members of the community and in the particular way towards those who are ‘little in faith’ and towards those who are ‘away from the unity’ of the community;

- Particular context of the fourth discourse of Jesus in the chapter 18 of Mathew:
o The fourth discourse on the community life is divided into two parts:
 First: “Great and Small” (18:1-14): The community that Jesus inaugurates is of those who are ‘little and small’ in their attitude; this answer of Jesus to his disciples to be ‘least ones of the world’ comes in the discourse on the question ‘who is great in the kingdom of heaven’ (18:1) and Jesus, not using many words and without giving many lectures, takes a child and places him between them and just pointing him to them, asks them to be just like ‘this child’; ‘to be’ or ‘to become’ like the little children means ‘to be obediently and with the dependence available for the action of God’. Jesus proposes this community of small ones and insignificant ones and places it as the opposed and contrary society for the world; there is no question of greatness and there is no fight for the big post in the community that Jesus indicates; all are equal and all have the same position and finally all share the same life of the ‘Father who is in heaven’ (18:14);
 Second: “Pardon and restoration” (18:15-35): The community of Jesus is built up on the ‘reciprocal pardon and the bringing back of those who have gone away’ from the fraternal unity; Jesus proposes this type of society as his preferred and willed community because each and every individual member has to be not for himself but for others; in this community the principle of unity and binding force between the members is to be ‘at the correction of others and the restoration of the community’. Jesus concludes this discourse with the parable on the ‘importance and significance of forgiveness’ (18:21-35) proposing the only way for receiving the forgiveness of God and this as an answer for Peter and all those who are content and satisfied with the minimum fulfillment of the law of Moses which asks them to forgive one’s brother for seven times; We see also how the ‘servant who is granted the pardon is again punished because of his failure to share the pardon with others’. Again Jesus concludes with the participation in the life of the ‘Father who is in heaven’ (v.35).
o The Source and the fountain of this community is the ‘Father in Heaven’: whether the community that Jesus proposes is of the ‘small and little ones’ or of that in which there is ‘fraternal correction and forgiveness’, at the end, there is only One Family of the Father as its basis and foundation; we see this clearly when Jesus ends both of these two-but-integrated parts have as their ending reference not to the God who is in heaven but to the ‘Father who is in heaven’ (v.14 and v.35);

- The two pillars of the community of Jesus: fraternal correction and prayer
o Leaving aside the last part of the chapter eighteen, that is, the parable of the forgiveness, we go straight away analyzing today’s gospel reading which again has two significant parts:
 The fraternal correction
 The community prayer
 And both of them having the ‘ministry of forgiveness’ as the centre;
o Fraternal Correction: for the restoration of the community
 Jesus shows the three ways for the mutual correction of the ‘member’ who has done something wrong; the main purpose is the gain back/ earn back the lost and gone away;
 First is that of ‘personal contact’: it is the responsibility of the victim who has to go to the one who has hurt him and take the initiative of making him know what has been done and where went wrong and how to be corrected; this personal approach has a tremendous impact because the way that Jesus proposes is quite different: “if another member of the church sins against you, go and point out the fault when the two of you are alone” (v.15); it is not the normal way of ‘ignoring the situation’ and ‘developing the hatred’ for the enemy which is the norm of the world; in the community of Jesus it is always the victim who takes the first step to wake up from the ‘wrong done’ and has to go personally ‘to meet and to let the wrongdoer know’ the truth; there should be a friendly atmosphere and fraternal encouragement; more than advising the wrongdoer with words, “moving towards him in person taking the courageous step to be with him” itself is the biggest message of ‘fraternity’ that will make a positive impact on the person at wrong; this is not only a simple sermon from Jesus but he himself has done it from the cross to all those who have hurt him by crucifying him;
 Second is that of ‘eye witnesses or the friends circle’: the second way that Jesus proposes for the fraternal correction is to take him to the witnesses or the friends so that they also would mobilize him to ‘acknowledge his mistake’ and come back to their company: “But if you are not listened to, take one or two others along with you, so that every word may be confirmed by the evidence of two or three witnesses” (v. 16); in the personal contact or in the company of the friends it is not so much disguising for the reciprocal understanding and accepting the wrong that has been done and be corrected;
 Third and final resort is ‘to take the issue to the presence of the community’: “If the member refuses to listen to the, tell it to the church” (v.17). Finally the whole community has the responsibility to bring back the member who has committed a wrong; and therefore, the whole church has to work for the member to make him know the fault and acknowledge it to the community because the wrong that has done to the single individual, now has hurt the whole body of the community; therefore, there needs a fraternal correction on the level of the community;
 All this process of ‘three-step’ correction is to be always mutual; it is not for the exercise of the superiority on the part of the few; it is not humiliating the wrongdoer; nor it is for giving big lecturers by placing the wrongdoer on the accused zone; not even, finally, to leave him alone to his fate and wrongness; the correction is not possible and not authentic outside of the fraternity; the only purpose of this fraternal correction is: “TO GAIN BACK/ TO EARN BACK’ the member that has gone away and thus RESTORE THE COMMUNITY TO ITS FULLNESS AND PERFECTON;
o The community prayer: for the unity and sustaining of the Church
 Jesus dedicates the second part of the gospel passage today to the prayer and the prayer raised to the Father in Heaven;
 The prayer is not a task of the individual but in the Christ’s community it is the prayer that unites them; therefore, all the members should become ‘one voice’ and ‘one word’ and ‘one prayer’ and that’s what Jesus intends when he says: “Again, truly I tell you, if two of you agree on earth about anything you ask, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven” (v.19); it is the unity of the words and unity of the hearts that matter in the community prayers and this is the reason why ‘the community prayer is given so much importance in the Church’ and that why there are common prayers and community liturgy; there are no and there should not be any difference and disunity in the words we use in the prayers because only then it become ‘One Word’ and ‘One Church’.
 If the fraternal correction is for the restoration of the community, the prayer is for its ‘unification and sustaining’.
o Pardon and forgiveness: the central point for correction and prayer:
 When we observe the gospel reading today, between the two parts (18:15-17 and 18:19-20) there is another verse, the central verse 18:18 which holds them together and pushes them forward in their journey to restore and sustain the community and that is: ‘the mission of pardon and forgiveness’, “Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven”. Without this mission there is no fullness for the first part, that is, for the fraternal correction; and without this mission there is not meaning for the second part, that is, the community prayer;
 Jesus who has given this authority and obligation to forgive to Peter alone in the sixteenth chapter of Mathew which we have seen few weeks back, now extends this responsibility and mission (more than as an aspect of authority and obligation we have to look at this mission as a responsibility) to the whole community;


Conclusion:

- Our community should be after the model of ‘community of Mathew’
o We too have to be always ready to extend our willingness to forgive all those who do us wrong and we have to take the first step without waiting for them to realize their mistake and come back to us; the latter is done by the people of this world; we are the house of God and so we follow Christ who has forgiven his enemies even before they ask him pardon;
o We call God our Father and we are worthy of calling ‘OUR’ only when we are of ‘one heart and one spirit’ and with ‘one voice and word’; otherwise we only pretend to be the ‘community’ without knowing and living the authentic unity;

- We are called to earn/to restore our fraternity:
o With the mutual correction, placing ourselves too in the zone of acknowledgement, we have to call for the restoration of the member that has wronged;
o With the prayer, which is the ‘binding force’ of the community, we are called to raise up our voice to God with the one heart and one soul;

- We are accountable for the community:
o We are responsible not only the individual life but also for the community life; we have to take care and have interest for the common good and for the buildup of the fraternity;
o We have to give an account for every individual to whom we become a scandal or stumbling block by doing them wrong and thus putting them in trouble; we gesture of ours will be judges according to the justice;
o Finally, our Christian aim is to ‘create – sustain and restore’ the community in which we live and to which we belong;
- The only thing we have to do is:
o We should not loose anyone and anything of the community life;
o We have to EARN OUR BROTHER AND SISTER with the fraternal correction;

TWENTY SECOND SUNDAY OF THE YEAR - A

22ND SUNDAY OF THE YEAR – A: ( Jer 20:7-9; Rom 12:1-2; Math 16:21-27)
Theme: We shall leave to God to think for us

Reflection:

- The readings that the Church propose for us today which is the continuation of the gospel of the last week, teach us that ‘we need worry about what to think… but we leave aside everything to become aware of what God thinks for u’.
- God is the one who takes initiative for our life and even our thoughts should be thrown into his; He thinks for us; He decides for us; He wills for us; Our task is just ‘to know and follow’ what he prepares for us;
- The preparatory part is God’s; let us not worry about what to prepare and how to prepare our life and its day today situations; God prepares and we follow; that should be the attitude we have to ‘learn’ today with the reflections of the readings;
- That is the ‘central message’ of the gospel today: “You are a stumbling block to me; for you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things” (Math 16:23). The closer translation could be: “you are a scandal to me; because you are not thinking as God thinks but as men”. Therefore, in the matters of God and the life he offers, it is better to leave God to think for us; if we try to think as we want ‘we’, or our thoughts, words and finally our life, would become a ‘stumbling block’ or a scandal;
- In a word: We have to leave everything of what we are to the ‘Will of God’. As Jesus somewhere says that ‘doing the will of his Father is his food’, so also we have to earn our food of life by ‘throwing ourselves into the net of the will of God’.

First Reading:

- Anxiety and the depression of the prophet Jeremiah:
o Jeremiah pleads for the help of God (or assurance of God’s help) over and over again in his prophecy; he knows that ‘proclaiming the word of God’ is not that easy and not that approachable; it has lot of consequences;
o Very soon he has come to realize that the people are stubborn and do not heed to him though he speaks, not his, but God’s word;
o The word of God is ridiculed; is belittled; is neglected; and is thrown away; the prophet no longer finds any use of speaking because the people are not only not ready but not in the grade of listening it either;
o We see this anxiety and pouring out of the sorrowfulness on the part of the prophet many a time even before this chapter; in the previous chapters we see how the prophet appeals or complaints to God the behavior and attitude of the people to whom he is sent;
- Not only the word proclaimed but the preacher himself becomes a scandal:
o The situation is changed, it has become worsened; it has moved still further in its brutal consequence ‘from not hearing the word to the rebuking and persecuting the preacher’;
o This made the prophet still more frightened and fearful; he wanted to escape the situation of proclaiming the word by fleeing away from the ‘will of God’.
o He himself denounces his persecutors with the anguish of fear and resentment: “For whenever I speak, I must cry out, I must shout, ‘violence and destruction’ and the word of the Lord has become for me a reproach and derision all day long” (v.8).
o The presence of the prophet himself has become the ‘stumbling stone’ or ‘a scandal’ for the life of the people and for their attitude to exercise what they want; the prophet Jeremiah laments over this kind of situation in which he is found and pleads to God that he cannot anymore hold this task of preaching the word because ‘both the word and the preach have become a scandal’ for the impious people.

- But the Word is Proclaimed in anyway:
o In spite of its being hated and reproached, either the word or the prophet, the word continues to be proclaimed;
o The persecutions and the frightening moments in its preaching ‘cannot and should not block’ the task of being proclaimed; the word is in anyway proclaimed;
o The prophet, in spite, the rejections and condemnations he faces, has the ‘responsibility’ and ‘must situation’ to proclaim the word;
o The efficacy of the word is always present; if it is accepted it has its fruits of life and happiness; if rejected it has its consequences of condemnation; but God’s word is always effective and powerful in its movement towards its destiny;
o And the prophet is always ‘the voice and the word’ of God though there could be many stumbling stones and scandals that arise because of his preaching; because the nature of the word is to be proclaimed and the nature of the preacher is to proclaim; one cannot exist without the other and one cannot remain without effect in the presence of the other;

Second Reading:

- Spiritual worship:
o St. Paul helps us understand what is real worship and how can it be known as authentic and true;
o We have to offer our bodies and all that it contain - thus included the mind, heart and even soul, because all these realities are embodied in the human person – as the living sacrifice;
o A sacrifice is worthy of its name when it is ‘living’, ‘holy’ and ‘raised to God’. And all this is called, in the words of Paul, the spiritual worship;
o On one hand speaking of offering of the bodies, Paul speaks it of the ‘spiritual worship’ on the other hand; this signifies that in the offering of the body there is also the worship in the spirit just because the body is the temple of the Holy Spirit as he says somewhere else (1Cor 3:16-17).
o Already the prophetic theology proposes an inseparable connection between the prayer and the life, between the liturgy and the justice (Hos 6:6; Is 1:10-20; Ger 7:21-25; Micah 6:6-8); and only with the donation of the entire existence our body can become “the temple of the Holy Spirit” (1 Cor 6:19) in which the perfect ‘spiritual worship’ can be celebrated.
- From ‘Worship’ to the ‘Will of God’:
o This the journey that each individual Christian should make; he cannot remain in the level of worship and adoration; he has to move towards ‘living’ and ‘following’ what we have worshipped and adored;
o This journey is possible, as St. Paul indicates again, only in the transformation of our mode of thinking; we should not no longer be we who should think but it should be God thinking for us; this is the meaning of the renewing of our thinking;
o All this renewal and transformation is to discern the ‘will of God’ (v.2); ultimate end and destiny of all the forms of worship and renovation is to know the will of God and to follow it; and thus we move on to the concrete will of God from our temptation of mere prayer and simple worship;

Gospel:

- ‘Blessed Peter’ becomes ‘Satan’:
o Just few hours before Jesus called Peter ‘blessed’ (16:17) which we have reflected in the readings of last Sunday; Jesus appreciated and accepted the ‘revealed answer’ that has come from the mouth of Peter, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God” (16:16) and for this answer, though a revelation from His Father, Jesus gives him the title, “blessed”: “Bless are you, Simon son of Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven” (16:17);
o This blessed peter and his ‘blessed words’ have disappeared in the matter of few minutes; Jesus continuing his discourse of mission which has to be completed in the death and resurrection that await him, foretells what is going to happen in Jerusalem (v.21). In fact, they are heading towards Jerusalem and Jesus explains the reason why they have to enter into it;
o The same Peter, who is usually in little hurry to answer and to give voice to all in the first place, speaks once again; of course, this time not with the help of revelation but with his own knowledge and interest for Jesus and we can also see the particular gesture proper to him: “(Peter) took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, ‘God forbid it, Lord! This must never happen to you.” (v.22). He takes Jesus aside as though he has something to tell him in secret or to tell him what has to be done;
o He has forgotten the meaning of the profession of faith he just has made: ‘You are the Messiah’; or he has not understood properly the exact meaning of the words he has used; Messiah is the one who saves; and Peter must have thought of the salvation in the manner of the world which is quite and completely different and distant from what Jesus has come to do;
o Therefore, Jesus calls him Satan to make the clear difference between “the revelation of the Father” and “the revelation of the flesh and blood”; thus between the ‘will of the Father’ and the ‘will of the world’; thus, finally, between ‘blessed of God’ and ‘the cursed of Satan’; and tells him: “Get behind me Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; for you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things” (v.23);
o Jesus does not just call him Satan without any reason; he immediately makes Peter know why he has called him in this way;
 Satan and his actions are always contrary to God’s and to the good actions; Satan is always at work to stop all the means that God provides for the salvation of man and proposes and stirs up the desires opposing to them; in one word, as Jesus says, Satan becomes the stumbling stone by blocking the ‘action of God’;
 Peter too, in the same way, was trying to block the designs of God for the mankind through the mission of Jesus, the Messiah; in this way Peter becomes the stumbling block for Jesus and the finally, with this kind of thinking and attitude, which Jesus tells him that he is not thinking as God thinks, Peter blocks the ‘will of God’;
o Will of God must take priority in everything that happens; when one tries to discern what could be the will of God (second reading) it is the real and true sacrifice that is made in the perfect spiritual worship.

- Pain of the Cross and the Gain of Life:
o Taking this situation and context into account, Jesus makes the discourse on the mission of the cross and self-denial the fruit/result of which would be the life and glory of God;
o This discourse on the donation of the self has three phases:
 ‘leaving the self and taking the cross’ (v.24): one has to leave aside what he thinks and what he will and has to be available for the ‘action of God’ and that is to take up the cross; cross is not just something painful and burdensome but it is ‘whole thought of God’ for us; it is not so easy to accept and carry what God thinks for us; thus, taking up the cross, in the higher manner, signifies accepting the ‘will of God’ for us;
 ‘save-lose’ – ‘lose-find’ life (v.25): complexity of words and confusion of the verbs and words; but the theology is very simple; Life is God’s donation; if we re-donate it for God it will be ours completely and for eternity; if we misuse it and offer to Satan and its action, we lose it permanently in this life and in the life to come; renunciation of the self and the donation of the self is not for ourselves, but, it has to be oriented (giving to other) towards the finding (v.25) the ‘treasure’ in the kingdom of God (Math 13:44);
 Economic terminology (v.26): the words that Jesus uses - such as ‘profit’, ‘gaining’, ‘losing’ and ‘change’ – seem to have character of economy which always deals with the ‘price’ and ‘profit’; by taking this aspect into consideration and using this terminology Jesus wants to declare that ‘no reality, even of highest splendor, can be equaled (compared) to the great gift of the ‘proper person’ who is inserted into the kingdom of God; in this context we can remember the words of Jesus himself who talks about the value and meaning of the person: “Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?” (Math 6:26); for God human person is of more value and of highest honor just because He himself created him in his own ‘image and likeness’.

Conclusion:

- Complex reality has to turn into the clear way of life:
o Like Peter we too are, many a time, a complex reality; we often do good and exhibit our Christian and good conscience by being ‘faithful’ and ‘prayerful’ and thus we take the title of ‘blessed’ from Jesus; and on the other part, we more often we exhibit our too much preoccupation for the worldly thoughts and needs, which indeed are necessary and with the worry we have of them we tend to lose or give up our time for the things not necessary and finally find ourselves ‘lost in the pit of destruction’ and thus become also the ‘heirs of the evil’ and receive from Jesus the unwanted comment ‘Satan, you are a blocking stone for my actions’.
o We need not worry too much about this ‘doubled nature’; sometimes the situations and circumstance that surround us make us to be like this and we immediately blame them for our conditions; as long as we are in this world and live in the midst of ‘developed and developing attractions’ and ‘false ideologies’ we are dragged into them;
o We should not worry just because we are Christians and we do not belong to this world and to its traps; we are called and place above this world; the remedy for our condition is very simple:
 We have to see the reality and accept that we are and we are to be in this passing world;
 We have to, each moment of our life, keep on reminding ourselves ‘the life of grace we are called to’ and thus telling ourselves that we are ‘Christians’ and ‘the true followers of Christ’.
 We have to transform, finally, with the help and the strength of the ‘word’ and the ‘sacraments’, our thoughts into God’s and our will into God’s.
 In a word, we have to leave to God what he thinks for us;
o In this way we have to journey from the ‘status of complex reality of the self’ to the ‘clear way of the cross’ for the life of glory;

- Cross is our life and life is God’s gift and we have re-donate it to him:
o Cross is no more a stumbling block for those take it up and go behind the one who carries it for us, and thus ‘following Jesus’;
o The true happiness and true joy is present in the ‘donation of life’ for others; this is the true love which has no measures and which has no boundaries and Jesus tells “no one has greater love than giving his life for others” and finally we have to know the truth that ‘life is not ours’ but it is God’s. For this reason we are not able to balance our life as we want because every particle of the force has to come from the goodness of the Lord; Once we know this truth we offer this life back again to God from whom ‘all life comes’.
o The question of Jesus has to be posed each moment in our lives: “What can we give in exchange to the falling soul?” and this keeps us alive and active to heed to the will of God;
- Let us therefore, leave all our thoughts aside and ‘allow God think for us’ and this would be his will for us and ‘discerning the will of God for us and fulfilling it in our life offering our whole life’ would be the ‘highest and perfect spiritual worship’ (second reading), the worship which is ‘living, holy and raised to God’. Amen.

TWENTY FIRST SUNDAY OF THE YEAR - A

21ST SUNDAY OF THE YEAR – A (Is 22:19-23; Rom 11:33-36; Math 16:13-20)
Theme: Our profession and our praise is to be “Glory be to you Jesus, you are the Christ, the Son of the Living God”.

Reflection:
- In the frame work of two weeks we have again the figure of Peter who has become and who has to become the “Rock of faith” for the “Construction of the Church”.
- Peter who has walked sometime back on the sea and begged his help in the moment of his drowning into the waters and thus merited a ‘comment’ of the sadness of Jesus who called him ‘You of little faith’ (Math 14:31), now after a little while, as today’s Gospel indicate, receives another ‘comment’: “Blessed are you, Simon, son of Jonah!” (v.17) and receives the ‘commission’ as well as the result of the profession of faith which has expelled from him the doubt and little faith: “you are Peter and on this rock I will build my church” (v.18).
- Even the last week, the Gospel has highlighted the ‘recognition and appreciation’ of Jesus to the Canaanite woman, “Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish” (Math 15:28). Jesus is always ready to compliment us when we profess the real faith and as the premium he gives ‘each one’ who professes the true faith in him ‘a great blessing’ as “the healing of her daughter” to the Canaanite woman and as “the foundation stone of his building” to Peter.
- It shows that anyone and everyone can become the ‘part of his blessing’ only if we really recognize who he is and if we truly and with commitment profess our complete faith in him. Nothing and no one can block this ‘bond of relationship between the one who professes and the one who is professed’, that is, between Jesus and his faithful.


First Reading:
- God needs the human means:
o God has his projects for the salvation of man and the creation; He has his methods and plans to bring to the completion; but he always wills that ‘it is through the human means’ that he wants bring the salvation to its realization;
o All the prophets have spoken of this plan of ‘human means’; in fact, it is God himself who has spoken to them and through them to the humanity of particular time and history; already choosing of ‘prophets, kings and judges’ for himself and for his proclamation is itself a great significance that God does everything or wants to do everything only with the ‘human mediation’, though he could do even otherwise, that is even without it, because nothing is impossible to him;
o Time and again God transfers this ‘mediation’ from one person to the other, not because it is his play but because of the infidelity of the ‘mediator’. It happened in the instance of king Saul; when Saul has become infidel and unfaithful in his kingship for God’s sake, God immediately dethroned him and elected David to be the next ‘mediator’ for him. It is quite normal in the biblical context to find the situations of this kind;
- Transfer of power is for the ‘safeguarding of the house of Israel’:
o In today’s first reading we see the oracle of God through the prophet Isaiah;
o Prophet, who is to be the authentic interpreter of the story and the signs of the time, speaks to Shebna what God has asked him to reveal; God will always denounce those ‘officials’ who seek for the self-glory than the glory of him who has brought him to this position of being ‘a mediation for his will’. Every self seeking official will be a disgrace to the God’s loving plan of salvation and that is why the prophet is very keen and attentive in making the oracles of God.
o The context of today’s text falls under the ‘pages of oracles’ made concerning various cities (which starts from the chapter fourteen of Isaiah);
o The strong words that are used in this context are very powerful and shows the impatience of God with the ‘self-seeking stewards’ of his vineyard; while making this oracle we see in the previous verses how the prophet expresses God’s words to the present steward of God, Shebna: “O you disgrace to your master’s house” (22:18).
 Every steward is called to be the ‘throne of honor’ for the task he is entrusted with;
o That’s what God desires when he chooses someone to be the ‘mediator’ between him and his people; once it doesn’t happen he will immediate act on the particular person dethroning him and electing and appointing a new one in his place; this is exactly what has happened in the case of Shebna;
o Shebna is given the warning by the prophet Isaiah who says, “I will thrust you from your office, and you will be pulled down from your post” (v.19). God does not leave his people alone without any mediation; he immediately chooses another; here is ‘predication’ of the future steward who will take the throne of the previous unfaithful steward;
- Person and position do not matter for God, but Faith and faithfulness
o God chooses whomever he wants; he does not have any preference; it is by his grace that the person is chosen not because of the person’s merits; this is the procedure of election throughout the Old Testament pages;
o Once he elects the person and gives him the position of honor to be ‘his steward’ and his mediator; all this happens according to his will and plan for the people he has chosen for himself.
o Therefore, the person and the position he enjoys are not matters of importance for God because they are just the work of his hands; what matters for him is the ‘faith’ that has to be professed and the ‘faithfulness’ that has to be preserved by the person chosen and elected; as long as one is faithful and profess his faith by his words and actions he is worthy of the ‘throne of honor’ (v.23) for him.
- Being a Father and being a throne of honor is the task of God’s mediator:
o God take away from Shebna the power and authority and gives it (passes on, or transfers it) to the next steward and he already declares before who he is: “On that day I will call my servant Eliakim son of Hilkiah……”.
o The procession of the generation is importantly shown here; Eliakim is chosen; but he is not Eliakim in the air but son of certain man called Hilkiah; by making the reference to the genealogy God manifests that:
 The election is made in the ‘particular time, in the particular place, and in the particular context’;
 The election is made in the ‘history of the certain man and therefore it is not a myth but a concrete event’.
 The election is according to the ‘procession’ (thus being generated: thus from the Father to the Son) and not according to the imagination and fantasy.
o God gives the ‘authority to his hand’ (v.21) to be the ‘father to house of Israel’;
 Authority offered/given is not for the exercising of the superiority and the power as one wishes but to be the ‘father’ after the heart of the God who has chosen him and placed him to be the father.
o God gives the ‘keys of the house of David’ (v.22) to be the ‘throne of honor’:
 Power of the key is to exercise the prudent usage of opening and closing of the door of life;
 It is not given to makes use the power as one likes and for his self glory but the glory of God and the glory of Israel; and thus “he will become a throne of honor to his ancestral house” (v.23).
- Therefore, through the passage of today the prophet invites us to discover that in the story of the Church and in the story of the salvation God has willed to have the ‘need of human mediation’.
- The keys which are the symbol of power, and the linked verbs which are referred to it ‘open and close’ which are the sign of function and authority, are now given to Peter by Christ;

Second Reading:
- Also Paul who writes to the Romans the ‘greatness and profundity’ of the mystery of God and of his knowledge through which the ‘ways’ are prepared and offered to man to receive the salvation testifies that ‘everything is from him, and through him and for him’ who has become ‘The Way’ of God, Jesus Christ who says of himself, “the Way, the Truth and the Life”.
- This is the reason why we have to ‘give glory’ to him: “to him the glory in eternity, Amen’ (v.36); We are called into the life of God and into the life of Glory and thus we have to always ‘profess and praise his glory’ telling him ‘Glory to you O Jesus, you are the Christ, the Son of the Living God’ (Gospel).

Gospel:
- Jesus is John the Baptist, Elijah, Jeremiah, and one of the prophets:
o It is the comprehension of the common people and it is surprising to see how the people think and consider of Jesus to be this way;
o It is very easy to fall into this kind of misinterpretation and misunderstanding of person of Jesus; the common people who have heard of the prophets and recently of John the Baptist, have seen in Jesus all that was previously revealed to them by these personalities:
o Who are these prophets:
 John the Baptist and Jesus:
• John is the voice of God in the wilderness and specially he preached the ‘baptism of repentance’ and ‘forgiveness of sins in the waters of river Jordan’.
• Jesus came and started preaching the kingdom of God and his first words of the first proclamation, according to Mark, are: “the time has come, the kingdom of God is near, repent and believe in the good news” (1:15);
• When people heard of Jesus preaching the ‘repentance and conversion’ they have immediately seen may be ‘John the Baptist’ who was preaching the same repentance has come back in the person of Jesus and thus they are not in considering Jesus as John the Baptist with their common understanding capacity;
 Elijah and Jesus:
• The Prophet Elijah has raised to life the “widow’s son” (1Kings 17:17-24); he has manifested the power of God before the priests of Baal (1Kings 18:20-40);
• Jesus came and started doing miracles and one of them is certainly restoring to life of a girl (Math 9:18-26); although Jesus has raised to life the “widow’s son” from the dead as narrated by Luke (7:11-17) and the calling into life of the Lazer who is dead and buried (John 11), they manifested the power of Jesus to give life; Jesus also testified the ‘the Father who does everything in him’ and thus rebuked the priests of that time for their ignorance and arrogance to believe in God the Father and in Him his Son;
• When people have seen these miracles of Jesus and manifestation of the power of the Father in him, they immediately go back to see the prophet Elijah in him because of the similar acts completed by him;
 Jeremiah and Jesus:
• The prophet Jeremiah called for the new understanding of the works of God and especially he has preached the ‘piety, social justice and loyalty to God’ than to giving up of oneself to the worldly and passing powers; he also spoke of the ‘new covenant’ which will be written in the hearts of those who accept God fully and completely;
• Jesus also came and manifested in his words (the proclamation of the kingdom of God) and in his deeds (miracles and the works of mercy) the piety (his prayer), the social justice (his appeals to the authorities) and his loyalty to his Father (his obedience); he has also called to accept the Father as our Father so that the ‘new covenant will be established’.
• When people have observed all that Jesus was preaching and performing they easily compared him to the prophet Jeremiah because they have read also the scriptures in which it is written of Jeremiah;
 One of the prophets and Jesus:
• Any prophet is the ‘voice’, the ‘Law’ and the ‘the manifestation’ of God; all the old testament prophets have been like this;
• Jesus has come as the ‘word’ of God and he said, “I do not speak of anything of my own but all that my Father commands me to speak”; Jesus has come as a New Law and he has often quoted the old law which was given and how it is perfected in the new law of love which he gives; Jesus gives the testimony for the Father’s work of salvation and thus manifests God and his love for the humanity;
• When people have seen Jesus as being ‘the word’, ‘the Law’ and ‘the Manifestation’ of God, they must have, immediately, thought him to be one of the prophets;
o Therefore, for the common people Jesus is just as they have heard of him ‘in the prophets and in the scriptures’ and their understanding has not gone anyway further from here.

- Question to the disciples and the answer of Peter:
o Now is the time to enter into particular moment; now is the hour to leave the general understanding and embrace the particular comprehension of Jesus; what other said is over and now there should be the recognition from the part of the disciple who have been there with Jesus all the time;
o Now is the time to make a movement to the outside to the inner experience; now is the hour to enter into the profundity of the understand of Jesus and his ways (second reading); and it is proper only to the disciples and that’s what Jesus wants to discover and he asks them thus: ‘But, oho do you say that I am’ (v.15).
o The conjunction ‘But’ is very important; it does not wipe away all that has been said; it only keeps it aside to open up a new understanding; it only serves as the ‘foundation and basis’ for the further construction of the truth; it shows that Jesus is not fully content with the previous answers and wants to know little more and little better; and he is very happy when Peter has come up with the beautiful and incomparable answer: “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God” (v.16).
o ‘Amazing and at the same time un-understandable answer’: Peter have not just said the answer but he has ‘professed the faith’; he himself must have surprised with the answer that has come out of his mouth and even more the other disciples; it is sometimes wonderstruck to see the ‘answers of Peter’; even some time after he would say ‘you have the words of eternal life and to whom shall we go’. Only Jesus knows how and from where has come these words of inspiration and he knows certainly that the same Father who is working in him is also now working in his disciples;
o That is the reason why Jesus immediately exclaims: “Blessed are you Simon, Son of Jonah, it is not your flesh or blood which have revealed this to you but my Father in heaven” (v.17);
 Here once again we see, the reference to the procession (first reading reflections) when speaks of Peter and from where he comes from, ‘his father’ and thus ‘son of Jonah’;
 It shows also neither the person and nor personal intelligence which has come through the sharing of ‘flesh and blood’ of the human generation, has the capacity to reveal who is unless and until ‘His Father’ works and makes him to profess;
 Therefore, the recognition of Jesus and professing the faith in him is not the work of ‘flesh and blood’ and all that man contains but ‘the grace that comes from above’, the spirit, which makes one to profess this kind of faith;
o ‘Profession of faith’ is always accompanied by the ‘blessing’ or ‘glory’: Jesus immediately makes Peter a Rock and a Foundation on which he wants to build his community of believers, the Church; and gives him ‘the keys of the kingdom’ of God as the fruit for the humble recognition and reception of Jesus as the Son of God;
- Three movements/moments: QUESTION – REVELATION – MISSION:
o Question of Jesus: the search for the true identity and presence of Jesus: who is he and what he means for us is the question we have to pose always and try to find out the answer; this search is to be present always and it should be an on-going research for the true meaning of life in Christ:
o Revelation by God: when there a sincere search and authentic disposition for the knowledge of God and his ways, there will be certainly the revelation; when our search reaches its final and yet limited sphere, there enters the Spirit of God to makes us travel still further in our understating; it is free choice of God and he offers this possibility of revelation for all those who seek him with the committed faith and that is the spiritual meaning of Jesus words, “ask and you shall be given, seek and you shall find and knock and the door shall be opened to you” (Math 7:7);
o Mission and Commission: the search and the revelation do not stop there; every search/question and every revelation has a mission; it has a further procedure; it has to be passed on from one to the other and from the other to another; as the power is passed on from the person to the person (first reading) so also the revelation has to be passed (given in succession) from one to another; this act of passing on this revelation is the mission of each one who receives this revelation;

- Revelation sustains the ‘unity’ between the ‘question’ and the ‘mission’:
o It is the revelation of God that makes the true seeker to find an answer for the question of meaning of life and meaning of God’s presence;
o It is the same revelation that makes the faithful finder to carry on the act of passing on of this faith by his words and deeds and in one word, by the testimony of his life;
o It is the revelation who balances the ‘true seeker’ and ‘faithful finder’ to be always and at same time a man of the profession of faith;

Conclusion

- Meaning of the readings for us today:
o We are here in the Church, the place of revelation and the mountain of manifestation of God;
o We are here ‘in the moment of revelation’ between ‘the question of life’ with which we have entered into this presence of God and ‘the mission of faith’ with which we will proceed after this revelation of the truth of God;
o Therefore, the revelation, which comes to us in the form of the word proclaimed (the Scriptures) and the bread broken (the Eucharist), is the central and important and sustaining moment of our Christian life;
o Without this revelation (the mass and the prayers) our questions of life and the quest for the truth has no meaning; and without this revelation our life has no mission and thus we do not manifest what we are and thus we become ‘the men of little faith’ or ‘the men of the world’, not of God;
o In this way, this moment of the mass is very important to know what is God for me and you and what is his mission from now on for me and for you; if we miss this moment of revelation (and thus the moment of meeting Jesus and having his manifestation in the Word and in Sacraments) we miss everything in life: we miss our true identity and we miss our destiny; without ‘identity’ and ‘destiny’ what are we on earth?

- Each one of us is called to be the ‘custodian’ of the family of God, the Church:
o Each one of us is given the ‘authority’ to be the master of himself and the ‘responsibility’ to be the ‘guardian’ of the community; and not vice-versa, that is, we are not called to be the masters of others, making use of the authority given to us for our self-glory and self-growth (first reading); we are to accept God’s ways in Jesus for whom everything exists and for whom and in whom we have life (second reading) and thus give glory to God by professing our faith in Him by giving him glory because He is ‘The Christ, the Son of the Living God’ (Gospel);
- Thus let us all proclaim and profess with one voice our faith: “Glory to you Jesus, You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God, Amen.”