13th Sunday in Ordinary Time

In the history of the Church, the first Christians were persecuted by hanging them on the cross, burning them at stake, fed them to wild beasts and were even decapitated. But before they faced the final execution, they were put first in prison. There they prayed to God, keeping their faith alive. Yet there were some who denied their faith in exchange for their freedom. They valued their life, liberty and property more than their faith in God. It was in this kind of situation therefore that those Christians who were about to face death, needed more graces from God to keep their faith alive. It was in this kind of event that Tarcisius, a thirteen year old boy was sent to those Christians in jail to give them the Body of Christ. But on his way to jail, some unbelievers saw him and tried to take away the sacred host, the Body of Christ from him. But Tarcisius never allowed them to get hold of the sacred host. So the unbelievers threw stones on him until some  Christians arrived to help the little boy, Tarcisius.  Before he died, he made it sure that the sacred host, the Body of Christ was on a safe hand of a bishop.   My dear friends in Christ, this story of Tarcisius, the patron saint of altar servers reminds us of the meaning of Christianity. What it means to be a Christian? We know that to be a Christian is to be a follower of Jesus Christ. And in being a follower, early Christians would mean it literally as they were not afraid to face death for the sake of their faith in Christ. But in our time, how do we follow Christ? Well, we are lucky enough that in our time, we do not face death because of our faith. We are never persecuted because we follow Christ. So how do we follow Jesus Christ now? In our Gospel according to Luke 9:58, it is implied that Jesus would tell us that in following him, we have to realize that he did not promise us a comfortable life. From time to time, we face problems of life. Can we still believe in Him when life becomes difficult?  In Luke 9:59, it is also implied that Jesus did not promise us he would erase death. Can we still believe that there is God when death visits our beloved ones? In Luke 9:60, it is implied that Jesus did not promise us that there is no distraction in life. Man needs to exert more efforts to focus on following Christ. All these mean that it is not easy being a Christian even today in our easy world. We need God's grace. We need grace in order to sustain and maintain the faith we have in Christ. If we receive God's grace, then we can be able to follow Christ and be like Christ. We will not just sit down and do nothing for our faith. Like Christ, we have to preach the message of God. Like Christ, we have to become God's channel of his love. With Christ, our faith should always be seen in action. We cannot allow ourselves to be indifferent if we are true followers of Christ. If we want to follow him, then we have to follow him all the way. Amen.