8th Sunday in Ordinary Time

One Bible passage which seems there is no need for priests to interpret for Christ’s faithful is Matthew 6: 24-34. In this Gospel, Jesus was clear to say that no person can serve two masters. He will either hate one and love the other. But for the sake of the Millenials, this Gospel needs to be explained because they are these generations who can do many things at the same time. In short, they can say they can do serve two masters. As we can observe, children these days can play computer games while texting using their cellular phones and listening to some music using other devices or gadgets. There are also instances where a family man, though he goes to work, he is also enrolled in an online class. Now, are the words of Jesus still relevant to those generations when we tell them they cannot serve two masters? Well, our experiences teach us that one day somehow, we decide or worst we are forced to stop doing all other things and focus on just one thing.

Jesus also said that one cannot serve both God and money. This is self-explanatory. Though we need money, our need for it should not be the reason to make God less important in our life. We also must not use God just to make money. Jesus even urged God’s people to seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be theirs as well. It means we do not only prioritize God, we do not only make Him first in our hearts, but He alone must be the one and only in our soul, mind, heart and body. This seems to be exaggerated yet this is how we strictly construed the words of Jesus. If God is the only one for us, then it is like having a father who owns everything. He will grant us what we need.

My dear friends, the words of Jesus are clear but we have the difficulty in following them word for word. Though we have experienced many times how God has helped us, we still entertain anxiety, doubts and fear that God might come too late to help us. God understands us that is why Jesus was there to remind us of this. We only need to convince ourselves that there is only one choice for us and that is to entrust everything to God. Amen.