32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time

Life on earth is too short; so we must live it well. It is not how long we live here on earth that matters most but how well we live our lives. Why life here on earth is too short? Well, we are not meant to stay here on earth forever though we are meant to live forever. Our life here on earth is a gift of God for us. As a gift from God, our life attains its perfection when we see Him the Giver of life which will happen in a life hereafter. Jesus said in the Gospel of Luke 20: 34-36, "The sons of this age marry and are given in marriage; but those who are accounted worthy to attain to that age and to the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage, for they cannot die any more, because they are equal to angels and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection. Clearly there is a life hereafter. There is eternal life after we die. But Jesus also implicitly stated that while we live here on earth, we have to live our life well and do not just waste it just because we are assured of a life hereafter. No! What we can do for today in order to have a better life we have to do it and be happy doing it. In the life hereafter, life is surely far different as Jesus said it so. And because we are not there yet in what we call eternal life, let us prepare ourselves for it by living a good life here and now. The best way to prepare for the life to come is to live well the life we have at this time.

31st Sunday in Ordinary Time

Human as we are, we want to belong to someone or to a group or community. We want to be recognized that we too exist in this world. In a world like ours, a world of competition, there are those who strive hard to win the approval of many so that they can satisfy their need for belongingness. In our Gospel (Lk 19:1-10),  Zacchaeus is a figurehead of a person who seeks another person or community to belong to. When he climbed a sycamore tree, he wanted to show to the world that he could be greater than anyone else. And when Jesus saw him and asked him to come down quickly, Zacchaeus thought he did it his way to satisfy his need for belongingness by showing Jesus that he could do great. What he never realized, it was Jesus who initiated everything to make him feel accepted and to satisfy his need for belongingness. Jesus clearly stated, "For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save what was lost.” It means then that Zacchaeus did not have to do anything in order to belong to Jesus. He could simply show himself before Jesus and everything would be fine. This is the same lesson we need to learn as a Catholic. We do not have to do great works in the parish so as to feel that we belong to God. If a parishioner works hard just to impress his/her parish priest, he/she could not do the same before God. Whether he/she does something big or small in the parish, it does not matter because God loves him/her as who he/she is and not because of what he/she can do best.

30th Sunday in Ordinary Time

It is nice to see good people praying in the church. It is nice to hear good news from people who are doing good for the church. But good people should be aware that in doing good, they should never put down those who have failed to do good. Rather, they have to pray for them and encourage them to take the first step of choosing what is good. In our Gospel (Lk 18:9-14), the Pharisee failed to do good as well as to be good to the tax collector. Instead of praying for the poor man's soul, the Pharisee criticized him. The litany of his goodness is now placed in nowhere. If the Pharisee was indeed a good person, he would never act in such manner. In short, the Pharisee was just faking his goodness. Jesus then reminds us through this Gospel passage that we have to be good in the real sense of the word and not just too good to be true.