TWENTY SEVENTH SUNDAY OF THE YEAR - A

27TH SUNDAY OF THE YEAR A
(Is 5:1-7; Phil 4:6-9; Math 21:33-43)

Theme: The garden of joy is in our hands and we have to make it grow with good fruits

Reflection:

- Last Sunday we have reflected that to attain the kingdom of God it is not enough to be sincere and authentic only in the beginning days of life of faith, but this attitude should continue until the last day of our life on earth. ‘Humiliation’ or ‘glorification’ belong to God and to his judgment; we should not be too fearful when the moments of humiliation/being less/ or of abasement come because ‘being in humility’ is a virtue according to Christian Faith; on the other way, we should not also be too proud and arrogant when the moments of ‘goodness’ or ‘glorification’ come because ‘being in glory’ is a reward according to Christian Faith and that which is offered by God himself for those who obey and listen to him even until death.
- The two modes of answering - either yes by mouth and no by action or no by mouth and later yes by action – the summary of the Gospel of last week - opens a new way, the third way of responding to the call and that is – to say ‘Yes’ and to stand by it until the end by Doing it. As we have already meditated, Christ himself is the greatest example and model for us for this type of attitude. This is the ‘mind’ and ‘heart’ of Jesus and in a word, this is the whole life of Jesus and, this is what called the ‘mentality’ of Jesus, and therefore, let us learn and live by it. We are called and invited by the parable of two sons to imbibe the same ‘mentality’ of Christ and preserve it until the last day of our life.
- And today, the twenty seventh Sunday of the Ordinary Time of the Liturgy, we have the readings that teach us to ‘prune well the garden of life and thus make it produce the good fruits’. We are both ‘the masters’ and ‘the servants’ of the vineyard. We are the masters insofar we are the guardians and the holders of the house of faith in and by which we are living and we are the servants insofar we are to take care and sweat for its well being and fructification and insofar we work for it day and night to keep it good condition.
- God alone is the author and the life-giver for his people, the vineyard he has chosen for himself; God alone is the ‘beginning and the end’ for our mastership and the servanthood; whether we be the masters of the house of faith that God has entrusted to us or we be the servants for the growth and goodness of the house, we are still In the Lord; thus all our call and life is in the Lord; In one word, as summarizes today’s Gospel, we receive everything from Him and we have to give back to him all that we have because ‘everything is His and we too are His Possession’.


First Reading:

- The vineyard of the Lord is the House of Israel:
o Vineyard is the ‘Thought’ and the ‘Deed’ of the Lord Yahweh:
 He has ‘thought’ in his mind and heart to have a group of people for him; he will that he should have for himself a faithful group among many infidels of the groups, and a group through which he can call all other groups into his ‘salvific action’.
 Once he has willed he has worked for it; the thought is being transformed into an action; the will has become the work; he has worked to make his people a chosen ones and it his ‘Action’, in the process of bringing his idea into realization, there are various steps: first he has elected one honest and faithful man, Abraham; then, he made Abraham and his family grow well; and then, he has provided them all that they wanted – which includes giving them the earthly possession and victories over the enemies. And thus finally, he called this people ‘His People’ and His vineyard.
o The depiction of the vineyard by the prophet Isaiah:
 This particular song is born from the ‘work’ and from the ‘workers’ of Jewish people when they are in the vineyard which is their main and principal occupation and there for them it is the ‘hymn of the vineyard’; this song from the prophet Isaiah the direction accusation that is made to the man who wanted to be only the ‘disinterested spectator’ who does not want to do anything but just to watch; the vineyard is not to be just watched but to be worked in; the prophet is very keen to condemn the one who neglects his ‘given work’ and stays lazy without reaping any fruits in the life of faith;
 The first stanza of the hymn (vv. 1-2): shows the love of the master expressed in his great work for the vineyard; he clears the ground from the rocks and from the thorns; he constructs the tower to safeguard it from the force of the enemies; in this way he works hard to ‘express’ his love for the vineyard; love is expressed in the action, in working for it; love is not a simple word but a committed action for the well-being of the lover; this is, therefore, a hymn of love of the master for his beloved which is here the chosen people of Israel;
 The second stanza of the hymn (vv.3-4): the expected response for the love expressed both by word and action is negative; the expected fruit for all the effort and fatigue put in is the production of the good fruit but on the contrary there comes out wild fruit which is not useful and not eatable and which doesn’t give any gain for the worker; therefore, there is a sorrowful tone of the master for his vineyard asking the inhabitants of his town to be the judges for all that he has done and for the vineyard which has produced bad fruit instead of good; the question of worry and anguish arise only from this result: what still I have to do that I did not do for my vineyard and why it has produced wild fruit when I was waiting for the good ones?
 The third stanza of the hymn (vv.5-6): ‘Now’ is the word with which this stanza starts and this is the word that stands out as the link between the previous one which is the ‘unfruitful fatigue’ and the following one which is the ‘consequence for not bearing the expected fruit’. The master has given up all the hope and he has decided to destroy it and make it a desert just because it has become ‘useless’ and it occupies unnecessarily the land;
 The final verse of the day (v.7): ‘It is we who are the vineyard of the Lord’. Whatever was there before and whatever has happened earlier is part of ‘the work done – fruit expected and – the unwanted result that is come out’. All this does not delete the truth that ‘It is WE who are the Vineyard of the Lord’. It shows that God still wills that we become pruned well and we become little more faithful to work in his vineyard of life and thus be ‘the fruit bearers’ of the life that He has offered for us by calling us and by saving us.
o Various Moments and Movements of the vineyard:
 First – the love of the Master for his vineyard and the amount of work he puts in for its betterment and for its being faithful;
 Second – Expectation of the good results and tasty fruit after the work is normal and conditional and the master is very eager to reap the good fruits just because he has done all that he could and there is nothing that he does not need to do anything further;
 Third – the harvest time has become the time of negation and the time of negligence; the fruit is wild and the reaping is useless; When the time came for the testing of the faith the ‘non-committed’ believer becomes unproductive and disinterested;
 Fourth – as the consequence he received the condemnation and being left in the desert – alone and without any hope of further salvation;
 Fifth – beyond all these happenings and above the merits of the servant stands the ‘love of the Bridegroom (God) for his bride (His People)’ and that gives the ‘continuous hope’ that we are still and always ‘the vineyard of the Lord’.

Second Reading:

- Our hearts and our thoughts are in Jesus Christ:
o St. Paul writing to the people of Philippines exclaims that we have to be always ‘grateful and thanksgiving’ to God with the prayer and with the supplications because He has kept us faithful and peaceful in His Son Jesus. This is the marvelous deed that He has fulfilled for us;
o It gives us an assurance to be at the peace of God because we do not need to lose heart and we do not need to lose our mind for any unwanted or unexpected situation and even for any unbearable suffering or difficulty, just because our mind (thought) and our heart (will) are fixed and protected in and through Christ Jesus;
- We are to be after the mind and heart of Jesus:
o Knowing the fact that God kept us safe and intact in Jesus His Son, we are to bear in mind and heart the mentality and the will of Jesus himself;
o This makes us to have in our minds all that is ‘true, noble, just, pure, lovable, honorable and that is laudable’ (v.8) and it is through these objectives that we have make our thoughts and thus we become worthy of the mentality (mind) of Jesus;
o Insofar we know all these things well and insofar we have ‘learnt, received, listened and seen’ and all that what is said in the previous verse, we have to follow them and we have to live them unconditionally and thus we become worthy of the love/the will (heart) of Jesus;
- This the only way through which the peace of the Lord is with us:
o It is God who does everything for us in Jesus Christ just because He is the Master of the vineyard, that is, of the life; we are only to be available for the ‘working of the Spirit of Jesus Christ’; He does all that has to be done and completed in us for the glory of his name and for the bearing of the good fruits; we just have to be ‘his hands’ and ‘his instruments’; Therefore, we are not to worry about anything; once we know this truth we are at peace and the Peace of God dwells in us.
o Without God we can do nothing is our belief as we are Christians; Without his knowledge nothing takes place in our life; the causes may differ but the consequence we certainly face in our life; God never wills that we are in anguish and we are in pain; we gives us the way to come out of all these circumstance; we have to only trust in him and leave everything to him; once we put all our trust in him leaving all our burdens for his care, we are at peace and the Peace of God dwells in us.

Gospel

- The biblical interpretation: the kingdom will be taken away from the Jews and will be given to the Ones who would accept Jesus’ message and produce good fruit:
o This parable is read in all the three synoptic gospels, Mathew, Mark and Luke and it is placed in view of the nearness of the Passion of Jesus. The vineyard referred here is already prefigured in Isaiah 5: 1-7, which stands out to be our first reading today. The vineyard is the handwork of the Lord and it is been surrounded by the care of the Lord and still it is presented as not producing the expected good fruit but wild fruits; therefore, it comes to be removed from those who were its ‘said-to-be-masters’, that is, the high priests, the scribes and the elders, and will be given to other groups who are ready to work on it with sincerity and commitment;
o The absence of the master (v. 33): the master gives his vineyard to the workers and goes to a long distance and it is seen here the ‘temporary absence’ of the master here. The absence of the Lord signifies here his ‘invisible presence’ among his people; from the part of people it is expected that even in the absence of the Lord they have to wait on him working thoroughly and without any negligence; it recalls the ‘continuous vigilance’ of the people (Mathew 24:42-51). The conduct of the faithful during this absence should be the same as in his presence.
o The maltreatment of the servants sent (vv. 34-36): the Jewish traditions always narrate that number of prophets were killed; we see it also in Heb 11:35-37; and Jesus also retakes this aspect when he says “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, that killed the prophets that are sent to you” (Math 23:37; Luke 13:34). Even the first martyr Stephen proclaims this: “who are the prophets whom your fathers have not persecuted? They killed those who were announcing the coming of the Just” (Acts 7:52).
o Beloved Son is sent finally and He too is killed (vv. 37-38): Mathew puts here ‘His Son’ whereas Mark and Luke are precise in referring Jesus as “Beloved Son” and “the Only Son” consecutively; this makes us remember the word and the testimony of the Father about his Son at his Baptism and at his Transfiguration (3:17; 17:5); after the different missions of the various prophets and servants there appears finally the Son and the letter to the Hebrews clarifies it (1:1-2) and this title ‘beloved Son’ indicates also the connection and unity between the Father and Jesus.
o They threw him outside the vineyard and killed him (v.39): it refers to death of Jesus outside Jerusalem; Jesus is thrown out of the city of Jerusalem and is put to death (27:32; John 19:17); Jesus who is the hirer of the Father is excluded from his property: “he has come to his people but his own did not accept him” (John 1:11 and Heb 13:12).
o I tell you that he will take it away from them and give it to those who make it produce fruits (v.43): “I tell you” is mainly of Mathew. From here Jesus gives the application of the parable: “God’s kingdom will pass from the Hebrews to a ‘new people’.” it was the same thing that Paul was preaching in the synagogue of the Antioch and it is the pagans who were rejoicing at the hearing of the message (Acts 13:44-49).

- Spiritual interpretation: the true Israel is the one who accepts and practices that has been listened and thus produce the good fruit in the vineyard of the life of faith:
o In this parable of wicked tenants we see the ‘story of salvation’ in its various stages that are dark at one time and luminous at other times;
o The wicked tenants here seem to be the leaders and the Hebrew people of that time; the servants instead are the prophets who are sent; the landowner is god himself;
o With the son of the owner the narration reaches its peak and its summit as the story of Israel has had with Christ its decisive turn.
o Jesus, after explaining the story of the Old Testament, now narrates his story and of kingdom of God;
o Jesus does not reveal that the destiny of his coming is the ultimate appeal to the conversion, but he reveals it above all to present the mystery of sin and hostility on which the judgment of God depends;
o The true Israel is the people who listen to the voice of the Lord and who believe in His Son and the salvation here seems to be ‘the acceptance of the Son’, the corner stone that was rejected (v.42) on which ‘every construction grows well ordained to be the holy temple for the Lord’ (Eph 2:21).

- Meaning for Today: We are the Masters and We are the Servants of the Vineyard: we guard the vineyard as the masters and at the same time we work for its growth and fruitfulness as its servants:
o Thomas Aquinas says that “Love does not permit God to remain alone”; therefore it is for love that the Lord has created the world and he had given to man so that he would make it grow, cultivate it and thus becomes like a landowner who has planted the vineyard and given it to the tenants as we see in the Gospel.
o God, out of love for the man and for the whole of creation, has been always participating fully in his creation; God (the Father) who has created everything with his two hands, the Word and the Spirit, as Irenius says, is always at work and is always present in this creation in every moment. He has not abandoned it not even for a single moment from the time of it existence; He is always at work in and through his creation as a sculpture who works with the raw and unrefined material which is full of imperfections. God, without cancelling the wrongs that man does in his use of freedom, brings a new design from them and gives it a perfection; all this is because he does not will that anything in his creation loses its way and identity;
o In the creation and because of the freedom of man, there are, many a time, mistakes and falls; there are the destructive forces which act contrary to what is good; and God fights and struggles with them as an artist who works with the weak material for bringing out all that is good possible from the bad.
o Man is not passive or indifferent in this divine act of modification and causing the growth but he is, above all, called to be the hero, the helping creator and collaborator of God. In this way man is the landowner and the guardian of the world; with his wisdom and intelligence he can know and use the laws of the nature and is in grade of serving himself with the marvelous riches of the creation and he has to use it per edifying and constructing a better world and building always a life that is comfortable, conditioned for his well being and for the well being of the others.
o But Man has become a Bad Tenant: as said above man has to be the custodian of the creation but instead he has become a bad tenant like in the Gospel of today; he has not safeguarded the world; he has not cultivated it as a garden which can give place for many; he has not utilized it according to the plans of God; he has, on the other hand, destructed it and corrupted it according to his own and selfish projects making it a place which has become fearful to live in and as the proverb affirms: “the forest goes before man and the desert follows him.”
o God has created or prepared the vineyard as in the Gospel and gave to the man so that he will, as his responsibility, keep it under his control, not to become its slave but to be its master who governs it and who edifies it according to the plans of God and not according his own; as seen in the Gospel the landowner has built one tower so that man could utilize these instruments to dig and to care the vineyard in accordance with the divine will.
o Finally, to conclude and to apply the meaning of the Gospel for us today, we are called to work in the vineyard of the Lord and we have to always keep in mind our position and our condition and we should also take care not to cross our limits by sinning in order to grab to ourselves what is God’s, as the wicked tenants have done in the gospel. God called us to be the custodians and the servants of the vineyard (of the world) so that he shares truly and concretely in the identity and in the image that God has made him – that is, sharing in the image and likeness of God himself.



Conclusion:

- Accepting the invitation to work in the vineyard is the first step and we have to be ready to face also the consequences and the requirements of the invitation: the sincere and commitment in working till the end;
- Producing the fruits: the land is given to us and in a word, the world is given to us. It is kept before us so that we cooperate in the creating work of God and make it grow and bear fruits; if the land does not give the fruit, even after the attention and care provided properly, the existence of the land is questioned and it would be and it will be made a desert; therefore, bearing the fruits or producing good fruits and expected fruits is the answer we have to give back to God.
- We have respect those who are sent by God, the prophets and servants of God who come in his name to teach and to preach and to guide them and we have to render our attention and our care for them; if we maltreat them as the tenants have done in the gospel then we will be thrown away from His house and our existence will be put to test;
- Therefore, let us till the ground using all the possible talents we are endowed with and make our life, the vineyard of the Lord, fruitful and successful in faith and in love. And in a word, the garden of joy is in our hands and, let us make it grow with good fruits.

TWENTY SIXTH SUNDAY OF THE YEAR - A

26TH SUNDAY OF THE YEAR - A
(Ezek 18:25-28; Phil 2:1-11; Math 21:28-32)

Theme: We are to imbibe the same ‘mentality’ of Christ and preserve it until the last day of our life

Reflections:

- After reflecting the parable of the laborers in the vineyard of the Lord of the last week of which we can drew few concluding points in order to enter into the next parable again of the work in the vineyard of the Lord:
o God’s call may come at any time/any hour of the day
o The laborer has to be always ready ‘waiting’ and ‘watching’ for the work
o Once the call comes he has to respond to it with zeal and with enthusiasm without worries about the payment
o Payment is always of the Owner : the Owner is the Lord who pays with the justice
o The workers need not envy other co-worker who go ahead of them or who drew little more payment just because the goodness of the Lord cannot be measured by the human mind.
- We are still in the parable-oriented preaching of Jesus:
o It was not only in the thirteenth chapter of the Gospel of Mathew but the whole gospel is full of parables of the kingdom and of the just retribution that God gives to those who accept him until the last day or that God rejects to those who neglect his call and go their own way.
o Moreover, in the ending chapters, in a special way from 21st chapter, we find more of these again to indicate and to teach the upcoming judgment of the Lord for the attitude of man in his confrontations with his God.
o One of such parables is also today’s. It not only tells us that God sends us into his field of work but also expects/demands our free and total committed response to him and our response should last until the last hour of the work.
- Jesus invites us today to meditate upon these two sons of which the first one who saying yes in the beginning but does not go neglecting his answer ‘yes’ and goes in his own way not mind what has accepted to do and the other who saying no at the start and then has an examination of his conscience with regard to his answer to his father, repents and goes for the work and thus finally accepts his father’s word.
- Jesus invites us today to see also to which category we belong to: to the first or to the last. The first accepts but does not commit to do it, instead, the second reject at the first place but accepts and goes to work;
- Jesus invites us today to be ‘those who are ready to accept and do his work’ in the first call itself.

First Reading:

- The Unjust has the possibility of salvation if only he comes out of his injustice
o The passage from Ezekiel deals with the individual responsibility of man. Man has to make a choice between accepting and walking in the way that the Lord shows and of rejecting and going astray from the path of the Lord to his own condemnation.
o God gives us the option or the possibility either for acceptance or for rejection; because God allows man to choose in his freedom; God respects the human freedom; But He ultimately wants and demands that man chooses the right path in order to obtain the redemption.
- Even the just man has no guarantee of salvation if he does not remain consistent to the last day
o On the other hand, the just man has to persevere in his justice and keep going forward without turning back;
o There will be lot of difficulties and lot of trials (though not willed always and only by God) which will test him often and more; he has to endeavor till the last breath if he wants to be in the Lord;
o There is no guarantee or warrantee for the attainment of salvation only because the man is ‘sincere and just’ in the beginning of his life and then goes away from the path of the Lord; remaining intact till the end is the only qualification for the redemption.
- The conversion of the self from the path of injustice and evil makes the person enter into the realm of the possibility of salvation and it breaks the chains of the condemnation and opens a new story of the life and hope.
- The situations and the response to these conditions are always a possibility; finally, the force of man’s liberty and the divine grace that win at the end of the day that will provide salvation.


Second Reading:

- The Paschal Hymn:
o The letter to the Philippians which is written by Paul from the prison and suffering highlights the hope and joy of the Christian in the Risen Jesus and for this the letter exalts the believer in Christ to be joyful: “rejoice, again I say rejoice” (4:4).
o This joy gushes from the victorious triumph of Jesus Christ over the darkness of sin and from the sting of death; therefore, this joy has no boundaries and limits.
o Though the sufferings and hardships toss the boat of our life, the Christian, has always the strength of the Risen Jesus to accept them and win them by being constant and persevering in the hope that the same Jesus gives him.
o This hymn holds the contradiction:
 humiliation on the descending side and
 the crown of glory on ascending side
o By taking to himself, the virtue of humility Jesus has given meaning to the humble life and obedient life: he has humbled himself to taking a form of a servant and he has been obedient even unto death on the cross.
 To be humble means to make oneself emptied and stand before the other with empty hands and with total dependence: here Jesus did not hold on to his glorious status of enjoying the heavenly life but has given it up and taken a human form, a human who is less even than of the angels (Ps 8), and more than that taking the form of a servant, a servant who bends down to wash the feet of men (John 13).
 To be obedient means to make oneself available for the given work/task and stand before the other with total ‘giving of self’ in order to fulfill the will of the other: here Jesus did not hold on to his personal will for he says, “doing the will of my Father is my food”. And he has accepted all that God his Father has given him to do, even a suffering on the cross, “like a sheep to the slaughter’s house, he has walked in silence and obedience” and in his fullness of obedience he has accepted even death on a cross.

o Therefore, the hymn gives us meaning for our life, and answers many of the questions we find hard to answer:
 Why innocent has to suffer? The innocent Christ has accepted the suffering willingly although he has nothing to do with it. He has suffered and opened a new meaning for the suffering, be it by the innocent or be it by any other; in this way, the suffering itself is a possibility for the obtaining a grace and hope.
 Why the evil prevails always? Why can’t God stop this injustice? Why God is so silent? The evil is not the creation of God; the injustice is not the will of God; God who has seen everything good and beautiful will that everything should be such; God who has created man in his ‘image and likeness’ has endowed him with ‘freedom’ and ‘dignity’. It is in the freedom that the man has to choose either to be with God or to be without God. In this process of free choice that man chooses what he wants and what he wishes to have, leaving aside what his Creator wills; it is in this process that evil prevails and God leaves the man to choose what he wants in his freedom making the choices for him and so God is not silent but always works in man with the conscience, the presence and the effect of the Spirit, to make him choose right path and the right choice.

o Humiliation verses Exaltation! NO: Exaltation through the humility
 Both the humility and glory now do not stand against each other but complements each other and leads one to the other and stands as the prerogative to the other.
 We need not be discouraged or lose the self or the life just because we are humiliated; because our Model is Jesus himself who has won the crown of glory and the moment of exaltation only through the life of humility and obedience;
 We may not invite the moments of humility to have the possibility of glory but when those situations come on our way we need not fear or worried too much for the new angles of life but we go forward facing them with hope and joy.


- Having the same mentality of Jesus:
o Jesus invites us to be united in/with humility:
 The four characteristics of ‘if’ are an appeal of Paul to be united in the joy:
• If one needs a consolation in Jesus
• If one desires a comfort of the charity
• If one wills the communion of the spirit
• If one has the sentiments of love and compassion
 He himself becomes the motive of this ‘unity in humility’ because he has given himself and all his life for the realization of the kingdom of God and in particular, the accomplishment of God’s will through it.
 He does this by being ‘the suffering servant’ that was prophesied by Isaiah 53. Therefore, the two virtues of being attuned with/in God are: being in suffering and being servant. This Christ has fulfilled until the last day and last breath without hiding or saving anything for himself.
o The mentality of Jesus is to be ‘consistent in doing His Father’s Will even until death’ on a cross:
 Once we have accepted for entering into the kingdom of God we have to be ready to be ‘in humility and in obedience’.
 We will not give preference to any personal wishes or desires but to that of God’s. God’s call becomes the first food and first drink of the day.
 The same Jesus who has walked ‘straight in the path’ of His Father says that ‘if anyone wants to follow me let him not turn back’ and “one who places the hand on the plough and turns back is not worthy of my kingdom” (Lk 9).
 The good and authentic Christian has to remain in the ‘work’ and in the ‘call’ of God until his last breath and with the same tempo and the same enthusiasm.
 In this the first day of God’s call should be until the last day and the last day remains forever the first day. Therefore, the first day of Jesus in which he has entered into the world by incarnation with love and compassion for mankind is been until the last day in spite all the sufferings and insults he had to undergo.


Gospel:

- Parable of the two sons:
o Jesus always uses this type of parable to indicate the difference between the two brothers in the family;
o In all the cases the love or the demand of the father is same for both of them and therefore, the nature of the father remains unchanged;
o Jesus wants to explain how the members of the same family differ in the same situation given to them;
o It was same when he spoke of prodigal son and it is same today;


- Parable of the ‘Two Modes of responding to the call of God’:
o Jesus’ main intention in speaking about the two sons in form of a parable is to show the clear cut distinction between ‘the first called’ and ‘the second entered’:
 Those who are called into the kingdom first are those to whom the law of Moses is given and those who think that they ‘own’ and to them ‘belong’ the God’s kingdom and all others are just ‘outside’ this circle.
 Those who are invited into the kingdom by Jesus and those who willingly accept his call are those who are called ‘little later’ but all the same are called and they with all the humility and simplicity work hard to remain in the call.
o Jesus is very much displeased with those to whom the kingdom was offered first because out of their selfish wish they have become proud and arrogant and on the other hand, he is pleased with the simple and the poor who have listened to his voice and following him constantly.
- The First who says ‘Yes’ by mouth but remains ‘No’ in action:
o The attitude of the first son is that he willingly says yes immediately after the call of the father; and only in the process of its exposition into the action it is known that he is only the ‘man of words’ or the ‘man of promises’ and he forgets them soon after their escape from the mouth.
o He lacks consistency and continuance; he only starts; he only begins; he only says; in the words of Jesus he is like the ‘one who without measuring starts the building/ or the one without counting his strengths and limits goes for the battle against the great enemy; in these cases, in fact, he starts well but in the end he misses everything because he has no good planning and he has no commitment to fulfill what he has owed.
- The Second who say ‘No’ by mouth but repents and keeps himself in action:
o The attitude of the second son is that he hesitates to do what the father says and that’s why he immediately says No; and in the course of the day/life realizes how he has shown disobedience to his father and ‘converts himself’ from the false words and ‘comes out’ of what has been rejected and goes and does in silence all that father says.
o He regains his authenticity and his obedience; though he flatters in the beginning, though he wavers in the start with the ‘asking’ of the father to do something in his vineyard, finally, he realizes his mistake and coverts his word ‘no’ of his mouth into his action of ‘Yes’ of the heart and becomes like the ‘one who before the start of the building sits and does the good measurement’ and like the one who counts his ‘status fighting’ before entering into war with the strong opponent.
- The Third Way and the ‘authentic way’ is to be ‘ALWAYS READY TO DO’.
o Either of the son’s attitude has its limits and its backdrops because of their inconsistency in ‘Listening and Doing’ and therefore, imbalance between the ‘Word and Action’ and therefore, finally, connection between the ‘mind and the heart.’
o We are called today to be neither as the first nor as the second but as the One who says ‘yes’ and does immediately what he has accepted. This is the Third Way of living in and for will of God. That is, to be always ready to ‘obey and fulfill’ the word of the Lord.
o The greatest model for this type of ‘being’ is Jesus Himself who never said ‘no’ and never ‘failed’ to do what his Father has willed – that’s what we see in the second reading of today – he has obeyed doing the will of His Father till the last moment of his death, even death on a cross.
o There is a premium for this type of attitude: the glorification and the crown of joy in the presence of God;

Conclusion:

- To attain the kingdom of God it is not enough to be sincere and authentic only in the beginning days of life of faith, but this attitude should continue until the last day of our life on earth (first reading).
- ‘humiliation’ or ‘glorification’ belong to God and to his judgment; we should not be too fearful when the moments of humiliation/being less/ or of abasement come because ‘being in humility’ is a virtue according to Christian Faith; on the other way, we should not also be too proud and arrogant when the moments of ‘goodness’ or ‘glorification’ come because ‘being in glory’ is a reward according to Christian Faith and that which is offered by God himself for those who obey and listen to him even until death (second reading).
- The two modes of answering - either yes by mouth and no by action or no by mouth and later yes by action – which we heard today in the reflection of the Gospel, opens a new way, the third way of responding to the call and that is – to say ‘Yes’ and to stand by it until the end by Doing.
- As we have already meditated, Christ himself is the greatest example and model for us for this type of attitude. This is the ‘mind’ and ‘heart’ of Jesus and in a word, this is the whole life of Jesus and, as we see today this is, the ‘mentality’ of Jesus, and therefore, let us learn and live by it.
- We are called and invited today by the parable of two sons to imbibe the same ‘mentality’ of Christ and preserve it until the last day of our life.

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.