"If he listens to you, you have won your brother over."
Lectionary Readings for the 23rd Sunday Ordinary Time, Year A
http://catholic.pcentral-online.net/lectionary/23rd-sunday-a.html
We often experience people correcting us or we ourselves correcting others. It could be actualized or done sometimes in our thoughts and hearts through prayer. Whatever be the way we correct others, most of the time, the reaction of the one corrected is, "who is he to say that to me?". This reaction is one of pride. It is very rare for people to accept correction because humility is very rare. It is a very important virtue but one people do not really seek for. For it is in humility (how we see ourselves before God), that we discover what is the reason for the correction.
Jesus tells us that if we see a fault in our brother and go point it out to him, it should be done amongst ourselves alone. Only when our brother refuses correction do we appeal to a third party so that there may be witnesses in the case. At this level, the "legal" situation is somewhat serious. However, if the correction is only something personal and does not really involve anything serious, we can easily appeal to God to grant us the humility to receive the correction or we can pray to God that the person we corrected will also appeal to God to grant him the gift of humility. If however, the case involves more than just the personal level, then this is something that can be taken to others. In law, it means "appealing to a higher court".
Correction is good because it helps us in our pathway to God. If we do not correct others, we will be not doing our Christian responsibility of leading others to God. On the other hand, if we ourselves do not accept correction, then our pathway to God will be blocked and we will never grow in our relationship towards Him.
Let us pray that we Christians will always pray for the gift of humility before the Lord because it is this virtue that will help us correct our brother in the right way and for ourselves to accept correction in the right way. The pathway to humility is not easy but it is made available to us through the example of Christ himself who sought more to serve than to be served. Let us always have an attitude of a servant-leader who leads others by example to serve their brothers and sisters by teaching them that the pathway to God, the pathway to Jesus, the pathway to the eternal life promised to us, is through humility and service.
Sunday, September 04, 2005
Sunday, August 28, 2005
22nd Sunday Ordinary Time, Year A
"If a man wishes to come after Me, he must deny his very self, take up his cross, and begin to follow in my footsteps."
Lectionary Readings of 22nd Sunday Ordinary Time, Year A
http://catholic.pcentral-online.net/lectionary/22nd-sunday-a.html
We who are fortunate to be in an information rich society and context sometimes forget that there are poor among us who may not even know how to read and write. They may live below the poverty line - where they have to live on a very small amount of income. There are also those who are spiritually poor: the despondent, those who are discouraged and faint-hearted, those who suffer from lack of faith or hope, etc.
How often we forget that to follow in Christ's footsteps means denying much of our self and needing to go out of our comfort zones. Though we need not be missionaries who go out into the jungles of Africa or Papua New Guinea, or go up the mountains of much of Asia, we can just go out of our ordinary routine and help the person we know who is suffering from a problem or difficulty in life.
The communicant I give to (she is a senior citizen who suffers from shingles), tells of how she would, in our present hard times, encourage a friend not to give up hope and faith in God. Her friend has many problems and suffers from many difficult situations in life. However, this sick (not really very sick since she can still drive though she wants to stay at home on Sundays to take care more of her wheelchaired sister), goes out of her way to take time to encourage this friend of her to hold on to God, to continue to go to Sunday Mass and not to abandon the Catholic faith. And, after all her positive and encouraging proddings and through the own efforts of her friend herself, her friend was able to slowly recover from her difficult situation and slowly returned to a stronger faith in God.
This gospel passage is a call for us to go out of our comfort zones. To deny ourself some conveniences in order to take up the responsibility of Christ (share in His cross to build the Kingdom), and follow Him in His desire to save people from despondency, darkness, discouragement, loneliness, and all forms of realities that choke the gift of life that God has given us. How we will do this: to deny ourself, take up our cross and follow Christ - depends on our state of life and the social environment in which we find ourselves. One thing is for sure though. If we take to sincere heart this injunction and directive of Christ, we too shall share in eternal life with Him forever in His kingdom. And we will have glimpses of this kingdom when we ourselves have acted according to His will in our daily life.
Lectionary Readings of 22nd Sunday Ordinary Time, Year A
http://catholic.pcentral-online.net/lectionary/22nd-sunday-a.html
We who are fortunate to be in an information rich society and context sometimes forget that there are poor among us who may not even know how to read and write. They may live below the poverty line - where they have to live on a very small amount of income. There are also those who are spiritually poor: the despondent, those who are discouraged and faint-hearted, those who suffer from lack of faith or hope, etc.
How often we forget that to follow in Christ's footsteps means denying much of our self and needing to go out of our comfort zones. Though we need not be missionaries who go out into the jungles of Africa or Papua New Guinea, or go up the mountains of much of Asia, we can just go out of our ordinary routine and help the person we know who is suffering from a problem or difficulty in life.
The communicant I give to (she is a senior citizen who suffers from shingles), tells of how she would, in our present hard times, encourage a friend not to give up hope and faith in God. Her friend has many problems and suffers from many difficult situations in life. However, this sick (not really very sick since she can still drive though she wants to stay at home on Sundays to take care more of her wheelchaired sister), goes out of her way to take time to encourage this friend of her to hold on to God, to continue to go to Sunday Mass and not to abandon the Catholic faith. And, after all her positive and encouraging proddings and through the own efforts of her friend herself, her friend was able to slowly recover from her difficult situation and slowly returned to a stronger faith in God.
This gospel passage is a call for us to go out of our comfort zones. To deny ourself some conveniences in order to take up the responsibility of Christ (share in His cross to build the Kingdom), and follow Him in His desire to save people from despondency, darkness, discouragement, loneliness, and all forms of realities that choke the gift of life that God has given us. How we will do this: to deny ourself, take up our cross and follow Christ - depends on our state of life and the social environment in which we find ourselves. One thing is for sure though. If we take to sincere heart this injunction and directive of Christ, we too shall share in eternal life with Him forever in His kingdom. And we will have glimpses of this kingdom when we ourselves have acted according to His will in our daily life.
Sunday, August 21, 2005
21st Sunday Ordinary Time, Year A
"You are the Messiah,"..."the Son of the living God!"
Lectionary Readings for 21st Sunday Ordinary Time, Year A
http://catholic.pcentral-online.net/lectionary/21st-sunday-a.html
This statement and confession by Peter was praised by Jesus because Peter exclaimed it not of his own accord but as inspired by the Spirit of God. We know that Peter is human and also has its faults. But despite all his faults and all his defects of personality and character, Jesus still chose him to be the "rock" by which the Church would be built. It was not because of Peter's merits then that Jesus chose him but because Peter had faith in Jesus as the Messiah and as the One who would save man from his sins.
Peter represents the papal leadership in our Church. Like Peter, there are popes in our history who have committed many mistakes and may even have caused shame to the Church because of their deeds. But this is because the Church is human and all its leaders, despite their being chosen by God are also human and can be subject to temptation and fall into sin. What is important though is that we continue to believe that God-in-Jesus has seen in the seat of Peter, the very foundation by which the Church would follow his teaching. We therefore are called to have the same faith in a leadership that was founded by Jesus Himself.
And what about the "Peter" in us? How is the level of our faith in Christ? There may be times when we understandably feel that our faith is weak and we trust in many other things other than God. When we do so, let us not forget that it is by the Spirit of God that Peter was able to confess that Jesus was the Christ, the Messiah, the Anointed One, the Savior who is to save us from our sins. Therefore, if we pray for the gift of faith and genuine trust in God, we shall truly not forget that it is in God that we can really have genuine faith in the teachings of Jesus. The Spirit will strengthen us and help us to place our trust where it should really be placed.
Our level of trust in Jesus as the Savior shall grow and mature as we journey like Peter, who after he confessed in the Spirit that Jesus was the Christ, eventually learned by experience that that confession will be tested very much when Jesus became powerless in his eyes and was captured by the Roman authorities under the instigation of the Jewish religious authorities. We in our time will also be tested after we truly confess that Christ is our Savior. We will be tested many times over through various experiences which will make Christ's message appear ridiculous to us or the Catholic faith as something negative and scandalous. But we must not lose faith for if we cry out to the Lord to help our unbelief, and repent of our sinfulness, we will be restored in our faith in Christ. Each time that we are restored in our faith and in our relationship to Christ (like Peter was), we will be called to strengthen our brothers and sisters in the faith context we are living in: the family, the workplace, the parish or the community.
Lectionary Readings for 21st Sunday Ordinary Time, Year A
http://catholic.pcentral-online.net/lectionary/21st-sunday-a.html
This statement and confession by Peter was praised by Jesus because Peter exclaimed it not of his own accord but as inspired by the Spirit of God. We know that Peter is human and also has its faults. But despite all his faults and all his defects of personality and character, Jesus still chose him to be the "rock" by which the Church would be built. It was not because of Peter's merits then that Jesus chose him but because Peter had faith in Jesus as the Messiah and as the One who would save man from his sins.
Peter represents the papal leadership in our Church. Like Peter, there are popes in our history who have committed many mistakes and may even have caused shame to the Church because of their deeds. But this is because the Church is human and all its leaders, despite their being chosen by God are also human and can be subject to temptation and fall into sin. What is important though is that we continue to believe that God-in-Jesus has seen in the seat of Peter, the very foundation by which the Church would follow his teaching. We therefore are called to have the same faith in a leadership that was founded by Jesus Himself.
And what about the "Peter" in us? How is the level of our faith in Christ? There may be times when we understandably feel that our faith is weak and we trust in many other things other than God. When we do so, let us not forget that it is by the Spirit of God that Peter was able to confess that Jesus was the Christ, the Messiah, the Anointed One, the Savior who is to save us from our sins. Therefore, if we pray for the gift of faith and genuine trust in God, we shall truly not forget that it is in God that we can really have genuine faith in the teachings of Jesus. The Spirit will strengthen us and help us to place our trust where it should really be placed.
Our level of trust in Jesus as the Savior shall grow and mature as we journey like Peter, who after he confessed in the Spirit that Jesus was the Christ, eventually learned by experience that that confession will be tested very much when Jesus became powerless in his eyes and was captured by the Roman authorities under the instigation of the Jewish religious authorities. We in our time will also be tested after we truly confess that Christ is our Savior. We will be tested many times over through various experiences which will make Christ's message appear ridiculous to us or the Catholic faith as something negative and scandalous. But we must not lose faith for if we cry out to the Lord to help our unbelief, and repent of our sinfulness, we will be restored in our faith in Christ. Each time that we are restored in our faith and in our relationship to Christ (like Peter was), we will be called to strengthen our brothers and sisters in the faith context we are living in: the family, the workplace, the parish or the community.
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