25th Sunday - C (September 18, 2022)

 

Children of Light

Luke 16: 1-13

 

In this Gospel passage, Jesus uses the expression, “children of light.”  That’s us.  We have been entrusted with the greatest treasure – the light of God. 

 

Moreover, the light of God is not just some quality of God.  Jesus said, ““I am the light of the world” (John 8: 12).  St. John testifies, “God is light” (1 John 1: 5).

 

Consequently, we have been entrusted with the treasure of God’s very self.  We are privileged to be God-bearers.  We are called to bring God to the world. 

 

Through the Prophet Isaiah, God said to Israel the words later applied to Jesus.   Now God says to each of us, “I will make you a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth” (Isaiah 49:6). 

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25th Sunday - B (September 19, 2021)

Jesus’ Patience

Mark 9: 30-37

 

Last week, we heard Jesus telling the disciples that he, the Christ, must suffer and be killed, and he would rise.  The disciples did not get it.  Peter even tried to change Jesus’ mind.

 

Today, Jesus tells the disciples the same thing the second time.  And again, they don’t get it.

 

While we won’t hear it in church as a Sunday Gospel passage, but Jesus will tell the disciples the same lesson the third time (Mark 10: 32-45).  And sure enough, the disciples still fail to get it. 

 

The disciples won’t get it even when Jesus is arrested, crucified, and died.

 

Eventually, they would get it.  In fact, they all embraced their own sufferings and crosses out of love for Jesus.

 

They needed time.

 

And Jesus was patient with them. 

 

We too need time to learn Jesus’ Gospel and to live his way of life.

 

We know that Jesus is patient with us.  

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25th Sunday - A (September 20, 2020)

 

I Deserve This.

Matthew 20: 1-16a

 

The first group of laborers complained to the landowner, “You have made them equals to us.”  (emphasis is mine).  They also credited themselves, “We bore the day’s burden and the heat.”

To be fair to them, they were there at dawn, ready to work. 

 

We hear these kind of expressions that often.  We all probably have said or thought similarly about ourselves too.  We worked hard.  We took our job seriously.  We deserved it.  Then we compare ourselves with others, “We work harder.  They don’t deserve it.”

 

There is room for a system of merits and rewards in human society.  Sometimes, it’s even a matter of justice.

 

But we are wrong to apply this way of thinking to God and God’s gift. 

 

If the landowner had not given the laborers work, all of them, including the first group, could be “standing idle all day.” 

 

God’s forgiveness, mercy, and love are all given to us unconditionally. 

 

If God had not created us, we would not even exist.  Moreover, God gave us God’s only Son to die for us sinners to save us and to make us children of God.  The Holy Spirit is present to guide us to eternal life with the Trinity. 

 

Therefore, gratitude is the only thing we have to offer.  

 

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25th Sunday - C (September 22, 2019)

True Wealth

Luke 16: 1-13

We are alive!  God has given us the gift of life.

It’s more than biological life.  Through Jesus, God’s only Son, God has given us a share in God’s divine life.

That is true wealth. 

Thus, Pope Francis taught, “We have a life to communicate: God, his divine life, his merciful love, his holiness!”

We soon begin October, the Extraordinary Missionary Month.  May each of us feel the privilege of being a missionary of God’s divine life.  

25th Sunday - A (September 24, 2017)

Matthew 20: 1-16

“Go into my vineyard”

The owner of the vineyard offers the same invitation to five group of laborers. 

It is the same invitation for those who are ready to work “at dawn.”  It is the same invitation for those who are “standing idle in the market place” at 9 o’clock, those who were there at noon, and at 3 o’clock.  And finally, with the same words, he invites those who have been “standing idle all day.”

All are invited to labor in the vineyard.

At what hour in my journey of life does God invite me?  More importantly, it does not matter what type of laborer I am.  What matter is that it is God who offers me the invitation, “Go into my vineyard.”

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25th Sunday - C

Commentary

Luke 16: 1-13

God’s Stewards

“Thus should one regard us: as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God,” wrote St. Paul in his First Letter to the Corinthians.

Certainly, God is nothing like the rich man in the parable of today’s Gospel.  Scripture commentators often interpret that most likely the owner followed the common practice of the day of levying heavy interests when loaning out money or goods.  This practice was common, though it was against the Law of Moses.  Therefore, the rich man was in a bind when his steward gave away the interest.  The rich man could not take his steward to court or let it be known publically that he had done this to people. 

Our God is nothing like the rich man in this parable.

Our God is generous and full of love and care for all.

As stewards of the generous God, we have been given so much.  Now, it is our turn to share all God has given us so that others may come to know the generosity and compassion of our God.  

25th Sunday - C (September 18, 2016)

Readings

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25th Sunday - B

Commentary

Mark9: 30-37

Jesus' Secret

Some years ago, Dan Brown wrote The Da Vinci Code with the premise that some people in the Catholic Church have a secret to hide in order to stay in power.

The disciples in this Gospel passage of Mark 9: 30-37 also have a secret that they want to keep from Jesus. Their secret is also about power.

Jesus himself has a secret. In this passage, he is journeying with his disciples, and he does “not want anyone to know about it.” To them alone, Jesus teaches the secret of who he is: the one who suffers and dies to give the whole humanity life when he rises again. That is his secret, the secret of loving service to the point of laying down his life for his friends.

The disciples did not understand it then when Jesus taught them the lesson by his words.

But once Jesus taught them the lesson by his action – his death on the cross and his resurrection, they then understood it.

And the disciples themselves would follow his example. They got the secret then.

How well do I know Jesus' secret? And am I ready to live it?

25th Sunday - B (September 20, 2015)

Readings

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25th Sunday - A

Commentary

Matthew 20: 1-16

“Am I not free to do what I please with my own?”

The landowner hires five groups of laborers.  Yet, it is only with the first group does he have an agreement with them about their wages. 

At the end of the workday, he pays them the agreed amount.

Jesus does not say anything about the attitude of all the laborers who were hired late in the day.

Only the first group complains.  It is probably understandable that they feel cheated.  But they receive the amount they have agreed with the landowner.

Jesus begins the parable with, “The kingdom of heaven is like.”

Membership in the kingdom is not something upon which we agreed with God.  God is not obliged to give it to us, as the landowner asks the first laborers, “Am I not free to do what I please with my own?”  

It is a grace, freely given.  Blessed are those who recognize God’s graciousness to us.

25th Sunday - A (September 21, 2014)

Readings

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25th Sunday - C

Commentary

Luke 16: 1-13

What Belongs to Another?

“If you are trustworthy in what belongs to another, who will give you what is yours?” (16:12) is a confusing question. 

One way of interpreting Jesus’ question is to break it down and ask, “What belongs to another?”

But first, who is this “another?”

Earlier in Chapter 12, Jesus tells the parable of the rich fool, with the warning that nobody has control over one’s own life.  Thus the warning, "You fool, this night, your life will be demanded of you; and the things you have prepared, to whom will they belong?” (12:16-21)

Looking at the question of 16:12 this way, this “another” can be a reference to God, to whom all things belong.

God has given us life, and everything else.  And it is up to us to make friends with what belongs to God  so that when all fails, “you will be welcome into eternal dwellings” (16:9).

25th Sunday - C (September 22, 2013)

Readings

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