Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time - July 26, 2020

Reflection

Even economists concede that wants will always be more than the needs. The human heart is always hungry for something but ultimately each heart is only looking for that ultimate happiness and fulfillment. To test Solomon's heart, the Lord asked the young king what is his deepest drive. The young Solomon pleased the Lord by asking for understanding, that is, to see things from God's perspective so as to rule the chosen people with justice and wisdom.

This vision of a society ruled by the justice and wisdom of God is the precursor of the Kingdom envisioned by Jesus Christ. Jesus was not a politician nor was he driven by a Utopian vision for Israel. He envisioned a nation of believers who have subjected their hearts to the Will of God, and this he called the Kingdom of God. More than a politics nor a social structure, the Kingdom of God is a relationship between God and a community of believers.

At the heart of this relationship is the Will of God, or the commands of God or law of His mouth as the psalm would describe. God's will is not imposed on people but rather is followed out of love because of its kindness and compassion. It is a will that seizes the human heart just as the parables of Jesus described. It suspends all wants because it fulfills all needs. God satisfies all human desires and when man truly finds God he seeks nothing else.

St. Paul in our readings remind the early Christians and us, that it is in Jesus that we see this perfect relationship. Jesus is fully taken up with the Will of his Father. He seeks nothing else but to share this relationship with his disciples. The Son, being firstborn, seeks to make sons and daughters out of our rebellious hearts. In him we share this destiny.

Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time - July 19, 2020

Reflection

A person who understands the plight of another is not quick to judge. The role of understanding is important in accepting the context of people and situation. Where is this coming from? Why do they do the things they do?

God is presented in our readings today as one who fully understands mankind’s plight. He understands that while man is capable of wickedness, is himself also a victim. God’s mercy reaches out abundantly to those who suffer and hurt. He is good and forgiving.

Human weakness is taken advantage of time and time again by the enemy. This brokenness and sinfulness is the source of all sadness and pain. Original sin is poetically referred to by St. Paul when writing “we do not know how to pray as we ought”. Despite being made for God and is always yearning for God, a great divide separates the human heart from its maker.

God’s mercy however undoes all this evil. He does not only take away sin and stop it from corrupting humanity. He continues his work of forming man into his image, teaching him, rebuking him, and above all giving him time. He gives man his own Spirit to act both as fire and water - fire to burn away all impurities and water to quench a deeper human thirst in the human heart.

God plants his Word and Spirit in all human hearts. While others allow evil to stifle the growth of the seed, most will bear fruit. It is through the human heart that the Kingdom grows. Our hearts are the fields and God is our sower. Weak though we are, the seed only needs a receptive soil and a willing heart to be cultivated. There is mercy and patience in God.

Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time - July 12, 2020

Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time - July 12, 2020

Reflection

Jesus, in sharing the parable of the sower, highlights the fruitfulness of the Word. Just as a husband tells his wife how much he loves her, God speaks to creation and specially to humanity of his love. This speaking is his mind, his feelings, his ideas, and in fact is God's very self, communicated to us. Just as each "I love you" tugs at the strings of our hearts, so does the Word spoken by God resonates within our inmost being.

The Word bears a rich harvest because God's love is fecund. Like a seed it buries itself and grows within each heart that receives it. Everything that love touches bears fruit. An act of kindness can change a person, forgiveness restores a broken heart, and the love of husband and wife bears children. So does the Word change, transform, and bear fruit in us.

For the Christian, this growth is hidden. It is obscured in the midst of difficulty and struggle, and of ordinary life. But the Word remains within a believing heart. Fear and death has no power over it. St. Paul writes that the promise of a rich harvest is the hope that creation is waiting for. This rich harvest is the eternal life planted in and growing within us.

As Jesus sat down the boat and looked at the crowd gathered before him, he must have seen a large field that needed planting. He, the Word made flesh, is now speaking to plant the Father's Word in humanity. The world is groaning waiting for the Word that we hear today bear fruit in us.

Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time - July 5, 2020

Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time - July 5, 2020

Reflection

The psalms in the Bible is a collection of songs and poetry that were used for ritual purposes. But they are also sung by the Israelites at home because they contain the people's response to God's graces. The people lived God's goodness. Throughout their history, their God has been a gracious God.

The messianic prophecy in Zechariah foretells of this gracious God visiting his people. He does not only hand out graces from a distance. His very presence is the grace that ends all wars and subdues all pain. Zechariah sees a vision of God enveloping the whole of creation with his gentle power.

This gentleness and grace of God became man in Jesus. He embodies the fullness of God, makes concrete God's mercy and meekness. What has been hidden in God, Christ has made known to his disciples. He invites them to draw out from the spring of God's richness in Him.

St. Paul knowing that sin is the cause of death, sees in Jesus the new life of a Christian. The flesh in the mind of Paul has been tarnished by sin. Yet in baptism, Christ supplants this evil by the presence and indwelling of his Spirit. God does not just grace creation from afar, he comes to truly visit his people and dwell within them. By this, the spring of God's life and grace now flows from each Christian, through Jesus, in the Spirit.