Jan 17 Monday (St. Anthony, Abbot):
The context: Today’s Gospel passage gives Jesus’ reply to the question raised, perhaps by some well-meaning Pharisees, disciples of John the Baptist, asking why Jesus’ disciples ate and drank and feasted, while they (John the Baptist’s disciples), and the Pharisees in general, fasted and prayed. Prayer, fasting, and almsgiving were the three cardinal religious practices — the “good deeds”– of Jewish religious life.
Jesus’ reply: Jesus responded to their sincere question
using three metaphors: the metaphor of the “children of the bridal chamber,”
the metaphor of patching torn clothing, and the metaphor of wineskins. First,
Jesus compared his disciples with the children of the bridal chamber. These
were the selected friends of the bride and groom who feasted in the company of
the bride and groom during a week of honeymoon. Nobody expected them to fast.
Jesus assured the questioners that his disciples would fast when he, the
Bridegroom, was taken away from them. In other words, fasting is necessary when
we sin and our union with Christ begins to fade, as happens when we get
addicted to evil habits and evil tendencies, leading us to sin. As Catholic
Christians, we are uniquely blessed to experience Jesus’ presence in the
Eucharist. In the same way, we are to welcome both the joys of Christian life
and the crosses it offers us. But Joy is the chief characteristic of a
Christian – joy even in tribulation. Using the comparisons of the danger of
using new, unshrunken cloth to make a patch for an old garment, or old
wineskins to store new, still-fermenting wine, Jesus told the questioners that
they must have more elastic and open minds and larger hearts to understand and
follow his new ideas which were, in many cases, different from traditional
Jewish teachings. Jesus is challenging us to be open to radical transformation
so that we may receive him and, with his grace, reflect his love, mercy and
forgiveness to others.
Life message: 1) We need to be adjustable
Christians with open and elastic minds and hearts. The Holy Spirit, working
actively in the Church and guiding the teaching authority in the Church,
enables the Church to put into practice new visions, new ideas, new adaptations
and new ways of worship in place of old ones. So, we should have the generosity
and good will to follow the teachings of the Church. 2) At the same time, we
need the Old Testament revelations, the New Testament teachings, and the Sacred
Tradition of the Church as main sources of our Christian Faith. Fr. Tony (https://frtonyshomilies.com/)
Jan 8 Tuesday:
The context: Today’s Gospel passage gives Jesus’
teaching on the purpose of the Sabbath and on its proper observance. This was
his response to a criticism and a silly accusation made by Pharisees against
his disciples. On a Sabbath, to satisfy their hunger, they had plucked ears of
grain from a field, removing the husks by rubbing the grain between their palms
and blowing away the chaff. The Pharisees accused them of violating Sabbath
laws by performing three items of work forbidden on the Sabbath, namely,
harvesting, threshing and winnowing. God Himself, the originator of the Sabbath
(Gn 2:3), ordered the Jewish people to avoid certain kinds of work on this day
(Ex 20:8-11; 21:13; Dt 5:14) to leave them free to give more time to God. As
time went by, the rabbis complicated this Divine precept. By Jesus’ time they
had extended the list to 39 kinds of forbidden work (Navarre Bible
Commentary).
Counter-arguments: According to Matthew, Jesus
gives three counter-arguments from Holy Scripture defending the apostles. But
Mark gives only one of those arguments. Jesus argues that basic human needs,
like hunger, take precedence over Divine worship and Sabbath observance. In
other words, the commandment to keep the Sabbath holy does not come before the
duty to seek basic sustenance. Jesus cites from Scripture the example of hungry
David and his selected soldiers. They approached Abiathar (Mk 2: 26), the high
priest of Nob (or his father, priest Ahimelech — 1 Sm 21:1-6) who gave them for
food the “bread of the Presence” which only the priests were allowed to eat.
The bread of the Presence consisted of twelve loaves or cakes placed each
morning on the table in the sanctuary, as homage to the Lord from the twelve
tribes of Israel (cf. Lv 24:5-9). The loaves withdrawn to make room for the
fresh ones were reserved to the priests (Navarre Bible Commentary).
Life message: Like the Jewish Sabbath, the
Christian Sunday is to be: 1) a day of rest and refreshment with members of the
family; 2) a day for thanksgiving and the recharging of spiritual batteries
through participation in the Eucharistic celebration (for Catholics); 3) a day
for parents to teach religious Faith and Bible to their children; 4) a day to
do works of charity in the neighborhood and in the parish; 5) a day for
socializing with family members, neighbors, and fellow-parishioners. Fr. Tony (https://frtonyshomilies.com/)
Jan 19 Wednesday:
The context: Today’s Gospel describes a
miraculous healing done by Jesus on one Sabbath as a public violation of
Sabbath law to prove that God’s intention for the Sabbath was to do
good and to save life rather than to do evil or to destroy
life.
The incident and the reaction: Ex 20:8 and Dt 5:12
instructed the Jews to keep the Sabbath holy. But the Scribes
and the Pharisees had amplified God’s law on the Sabbath by misinterpreting it
and had made it burdensome for the common people through man-made laws. Jesus
wanted to demonstrate in public the original intention of God in declaring the
Sabbath holy. For Jesus, the Sabbath was a day of rest to be used in adoring
God, learning and teaching His laws, and doing good to/for others. Hence, Jesus
took the liberty of granting healing to a man with a withered hand in the local
synagogue immediately after the worship service, thus infuriating the scribes
and the Pharisees.
Life messages: 1) Our Christian Sabbath, that
is, Sunday, observance of participating in the Eucharistic celebration is meant
to recharge our spiritual batteries for doing good to/for others and avoiding
evil. 2) Our Sunday observance is also meant to be an offering of our lives to
God on the altar, to ask God’s pardon and forgiveness for our sins, to present
our needs before the Lord and to participate in the Divine Life by Holy
Communion. 3) It is also a day for us to spend time with the members of the
family and to participate in the activities of our parish and
neighborhood. Fr. Tony(https://frtonyshomilies.com/)
L/22
Jan 20 Thursday (St. Fabian, Pope, Martyr) ; (St.
Sebastian, Martyr):
The context: Today’s Gospel describes how both
Jews and Gentiles from Galilee and all surrounding areas gathered around Jesus
practically every day of his public ministry of preaching and healing. Jesus
preached the Good News of God’s love and demonstrated by his healing ministry
the mercy and compassion of God his Father.
Jesus’ mission was universal, attracting Jews and pagans
alike. He exercised his Divine power of healing, using his human body to
demonstrate to people that he was both God and man. Jesus instructed the healed
ones not to publicize him, as the expected Messiah because he did not want to
bring his public life to a premature end. The ordinary Jews believed that the
expected Messiah would declare himself King of the Jews after overthrowing the
Roman rule. Hence, it was dangerous to let people regard him as the Messiah.
Life messages: 1) Jesus continues to preach the Good
News and heal the sick through the Church and through us, his followers. He
welcomes our response to him and calls us to come to Him through the
Sacraments, and especially through our participation in the Eucharistic
celebration, with trusting Faith and confident expectation. 2) “The holy human
nature of our Lord is our only route to salvation; it is the essential means we
must use to unite ourselves to God. Thus, we can today approach our Lord by
means of the sacraments, especially and pre-eminently the Eucharist. And
through the sacraments there flows to us, from God, through the human nature of
the Word, a strength which cures those who receive the sacraments with faith
(cf. St. Thomas Aquinas, “Summa Theologica”, III, q. 62, a. 5). Fr. Tony(https://frtonyshomilies.com/)
Jan 21 Friday (St. Agnes, Virgin, Martyr)
The context: Today’s Gospel passage gives a
short account of the call and mission of the Apostles. Jesus is the first
missionary, sent by his Father with the “Good News” that God, his Father, is a
loving, merciful, and forgiving Father Who wants to save everyone through His
Son Jesus. Today’s Gospel describes how Jesus selects and empowers twelve
future missionaries as apostles, giving them his own mission along with a share
of his power to preach, and to heal the sick as proof of the truth of their
message. Then, Jesus sends them in pairs to the Jewish towns and villages as
heralds, to prepare the people to receive the Good News.
Special features: Jesus selected very ordinary people, most
of them hard-working fishermen with no social status, learning, or political
influence, because he was sure that they would be very effective instruments in
God’s hands. It was a strange mixture of people. Matthew was a hated
tax-collector for a foreign power, while Simon the Cananaean was a Zealot and
fanatical nationalist who belonged to a militant group determined to destroy
Roman rule by any means. The others were mostly professional fishermen with a
lot of good will, patience and stamina. At first it was only their admiration
and love for Jesus that united them. Jesus selected them after a night of
prayer and gave them his own powers of healing and exorcism and his own mission
of preaching the “Kingdom of God.”
Life message: 1) As Christians, we have the same
mission that Jesus entrusted to his apostles: to proclaim the word of God to
all the world. We fulfill this mission primarily by living out Jesus’ teachings
and by promoting and helping the world-wide missionary activities of the Church
with prayer, moral support, and financial aid. Fr. Tony (https://frtonyshomilies.com/ (L/22)
Jan 22 Saturday:
The context: Today’s Gospel tells us how Jesus’
relatives and fellow villagers wrongly judged him as out of his mind and
consequently tried to take him by force back to Nazareth to his safe, secure
job as a good carpenter. That might be one reason why Jesus once remarked, “a
man’s enemies will be the members of his own household.” (Mt 10:36).
However, Jesus met opposition with grace and with determination to fulfill his
Father’s will.
There were five reasons why Jesus’ family thought he was mad
and attempted to dissuade him from his preaching and healing mission. First,
Jesus had abandoned his safe, secure job as a much-needed village carpenter
with a steady income to become a wandering preacher with no residence or steady
income. Second, Jesus had chosen a band of fishermen with no political or
social influence, a hated tax-collector and a fanatic zealot among his
disciples. Third, Jesus had begun to criticize the power lobby – the chief
priests, elders, scribes and Pharisees – in the Jewish religious headquarters,
Jerusalem, labeling them hypocrites. Jesus’ relatives might really have been
afraid that Jesus would be arrested, and they would be persecuted with him for
criticizing those in power. Fourth, Jesus had indirectly claimed to be the
long-awaited Messiah and had worked miracles to support his claim. Fifth, they
might have been jealous of Jesus’ huge popularity throughout Palestine.
Life messages: 1) Since Jesus experienced rejection by his own relatives, he can sympathize with the hurt and rejection we receive from our family members and console us in our pain. 2) Let us learn to forgive the modern “liberal-minded” people who find our Christian beliefs and practice “crazy,” and face them with the courage of our convictions based on Christ’s Divine authority and the reliability of his doctrines and promises. 3) Let us remember that many saints, following Christ’s example, have been taken for madmen–but they were mad with love, mad with love for Jesus Christ, their God. Fr. Tony (https://frtonyshomilies.com/
