3rd Week: Jan 22-27:
Jan 22 Monday: (Day of Prayer for the Legal Protection of Unborn Children): Mk 3:22-30:
The context: Today’s Gospel passage gives Jesus’
crushing reply to the slander propagated by the observers from the Sanhedrin,
that Jesus expelled devils using the assistance of the leader of devils.
Jesus refutes the false allegation raised against him by the
Sanhedrin scribes with three counterarguments and a warning: 1) A house divided
against itself will perish and a country engaged in civil war will be ruined.
Hence, Satan will not fight against Satan by helping Jesus to expel his
co-workers. 2) If Jesus is collaborating with Satan to exorcise minor demons,
then the Jewish exorcists are doing the same. 3) Jesus claims that he is using
the power of his Heavenly Father to evict devils, just as a stronger man can
tie up the strong man who has guarded all his possessions, and take all the
strong man has acquired. The evil one, the strong man, has muh of the world as
a guarded possession, but Jesus is stronger that the evil one and will destroy
the captor and free the captives. – by dying on the cross in willing sacrifice
to save all of us, 4) Finally, Jesus gives a crushing blow to his accusers,
warning them that by telling blatant lies they are blaspheming against the Holy
Spirit and, hence, that their sins are unforgivable (unless, of course, they
repent).
Life message: 1) Jesus teaches that we can be
influenced by the evil spirit if we listen to him and follow him. Hence, we
have to keep our souls daily cleansed and filled with the Spirit of God,
leaving no space for the evil spirit to enter our souls.
Fr. Tony (https://frtonyshomilies.com/)
Jan 22nd, 2024 is the 51st anniversary
day of Roe versus Wade judgment by the Supreme Court in the U.S. legalizing
abortion. The number of unborn children slaughtered in the wombs of
their mothers is 4400 per day in the U.S. Hundreds of old or terminally ill
people are killed in advanced countries, under the names “mercy killing” or
euthanasia. Suicide is the eighth leading cause of death for all U.S. men and
it took the lives of 30,622 people in U.S.A. in 2001. “Physician-assisted”
suicide for the terminally ill is now legal in at least one state in the U.S.
Other forms of destruction of life are homicides and embryo destruction for
scientific experiments.
Why should we respect life?
1)The Bible teaches that life is a gift of God and hence we
have to respect it from womb to tomb. Based on the word of God, the Church
teaches that an unborn child from the moment of its conception in its mother’s
womb is precious because it carries an immortal soul. (a) Psalm 139:
13-16: You formed my inmost being; you knit me in my mother’s
womb. (b) Jeremiah 1: 5: “Before I formed you in the womb I knew
you, before you were born I dedicated you, a prophet to the nations I appointed
you.
2) It is God’s commandment that we shall not kill. (Exodus
20: 13: “You shall not kill. The embryo’s heart starts beating
from the 25th day and its brain starts functioning on the 40th day.
3) International Law forbids the killing of innocent, defenceless
people. Abortion is the killing of a defenceless child in its safest abode by
its own mother, mostly for selfish motives.
4) Abortion harms women physically, emotionally,
psychologically, socially and spiritually.
5) Advocates of pro-choice follow a dangerous principle of
far-reaching consequences in the society. If it is justifiable to kill unwanted
children by abortion, then the old, the sick, the handicapped, the mentally
ill, and the retarded can also be killed.
Messages
1) We need to respect and protect all forms of human life
from conception to natural death; we need to work and pray vigorously to end
the culture of death.
2) We need to speak and act against abortion in private and
public forums. Protecting human life is no more a sectarian creed than the
Declaration of Independence is a sectarian document. Because all rights depend
on life, the right to life is the most fundamental issue of all; if that is
eliminated, the rest will follow.
3) We need to work to have the government enact
anti-abortion, anti-euthanasia and anti-Physician-assisted suicide laws; these
killings violate justice, and therefore the command of God to love one another.
4) We need to give real care, support and assistance to
mothers with unwanted pregnancies, contemplating abortion. The Church promises
any woman who has had an abortion that if she truly repents of her sin, she
will find welcome and forgiveness. However, she has to understand the fact that
abortion is a mortal sin, and it brings an automatic excommunication upon those
who procure it, perform it, or cooperate in it.
Jan 23 Tuesday (Saint Vincent, Deacon and Martyr;
The context: As Jesus became a strong critic of
the Jewish religious authorities, his cousins, taking Mary His mother with them
(though she supported him and all he was doing) to get a hearing by Jesus and
take him to Nazareth by force, perhaps because they feared that he would be
arrested and put to death, and that they might be next
Jesus’ plain statement: Today’s Gospel episode seems to
suggest that Jesus ignored the request of his mother and close relatives who
had traveled a long distance of 20 miles to talk to him. But everyone in the
audience knew that Jesus loved his mother and had taken care of her for years
before he started his public ministry. Besides, Jesus’ plain answer, “Whoever
does the will of God is my brother, and sister, and mother” was
actually a compliment to his mother who had always listened to the word of God
and obeyed it. Jesus was declaring, “Blessed are those who hear and keep the
word of God as she is faithfully doing” (Vatican II, Lumen Gentium,
58). Jesus was also using the occasion to teach the congregation a new lesson
about their relationship with God. Being a disciple of Jesus, or a Christian,
is first and foremost a relationship of mutual love, service,
and unity with God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and so with all who belong
to God as His children. Jesus has changed the order of relationships and shows
us here that true kinship is not just a matter of flesh and blood. God’s
gracious gift to us is His adoption of us as His sons and daughters. This gift
enables us to recognize all those who belong to Christ as our brothers and
sisters. Our adoption as sons and daughters of God transforms all our
relationships and requires a new order of loyalty to God and His kingdom. “Everyone
who does the will of the Father,” that is to say, who obeys Him, is a
brother or sister of Christ, because he is like Jesus who fulfilled the will of
his Father. But he who not only obeys but converts others, begets Christ in them,
and thus becomes like the Mother of Christ” (“Commentary on St. Matthew”,
12:49-50.)
Life message: 1) Let us remember that by Baptism we
become the children of God, brothers and sisters of Jesus, and members of the
Heavenly family of the Triune God. Hence, let us observe our obligations of
treating others with love and respect and of sharing our love with them in
corporal and spiritual works of mercy. We are also His disciples, and so are
obliged to be hearers as well as doers of the word of God.
Fr. Tony (https://frtonyshomilies.com/)
Jan 24 Wednesday: (Saint Francis de Sales, Bishop
and Doctor of the Church):
The context: Today’s Gospel passage gives us the
parable of the sower, the seeds sown, and the yield depending upon the type of
soil. It is the first parable of Jesus in the New Testament about the Kingdom
of Heaven. It is also a parable interpreted by Jesus himself. This parable was
intended as a double warning: to the hearers to be attentive to, and to the
Apostles to be hopeful about, Jesus’ preaching in the face of growing
opposition to the Master and his ideas. Jesus wants all of us to open our
hearts generously to the word of God and then to put that word into practice.
The sower is God, the Church, the parents, the teachers, and we ourselves. The
seed sown is the high-yielding word of God which is “a sharp sword” (Is 49:2),
“two-edged sword” (Heb 4:12), and “fire and hammer” (Jer 23:29).
Soil type & the yield: The hardened soil on
the footpath represents people with minds closed because of laziness, pride,
prejudice, or fear. The soil on flat rock pieces represents emotional types of
people who go after novelties without sticking to anything, and are unwilling
to surrender their wills to God. “I will remove the heart of stone from
their flesh and give them a heart of flesh” (Ez 11:19). The soil
filled with weeds represents those who are addicted to evil habits and evil
tendencies, those whose hearts are filled with hatred or jealousy, and those
whose greed focuses on acquiring money by any means and on enjoying life in any
way possible. The good and fertile soil represents well-intentioned people with
open minds and clean hearts, earnest in hearing the word and zealous in putting
it into practice. Zacchaeus, the sinful woman , the thief on Jesus’ right side,
St. Augustine, St. Francis of Assisi, and St. Francis Xavier, among others,
fall into this category of the good soil.
Life message: Let us become the good soil and
produce hundred-fold yields by earnestly hearing, faithfully assimilating and
daily cultivating the word of God we have received, so that the Holy Spirit may
produce His fruits in our lives.
Fr. Tony (https://frtonyshomilies.com/)
Jan 25 Thursday (The Conversion of Saint Paul the
Apostle): Mk 16:15-18: Paul, the “Apostle to the Gentiles” and the
greatest missionary of the Apostolic age, was a Roman citizen by his birth in
Tarsus (in Cilicia), and a Jew born to the tribe of Benjamin. His Hebrew name
was Saul. Since he was a Pharisee, Saul was sent to Jerusalem by his parents to
study the Mosaic Law under the great rabbi Gamaliel. As a student, he also
learned the trade of tent-making. He was present as a consenting observer at
the stoning of Stephen. But Saul was miraculously converted on his way to
Damascus to arrest the Christians. After that, Saul, now called Paul, made
several missionary journeys, converted hundreds of Jews and Gentiles and
established Church communities. He wrote 14 epistles. He was arrested and kept
in prison for two years in Caesarea and spent two more years under house arrest
in Rome. Finally, he was martyred by beheading at Tre Fontane in Rome). Paul’s
spiritual journey was a spiritual experience (Mysica), that produced a
transformation (Metanoia) and impelled him to assume a mission of
evangelization (Missio).
Today we celebrate the feast of the conversion St. Paul
(described thrice in the New Testament: Acts chapters 9, 22, and 26) an event
which revolutionized the history and theology of the early Church. Saul of
Tarsus, because of his zeal for the Jewish law and Jewish traditions, became
the most outrageous enemy of Christ and his teaching, as the apostles started
preaching the Gospel. Saul consented to the martyrdom of Stephen, watching the
cloaks of the stoners. After the martyrdom of the holy deacon, the priests and
magistrates of the Jews raised a violent persecution against the Christian
communities at Jerusalem, and Saul was their fanatical young leader. By virtue
of the authority he had received from the high priest, he dragged the
Christians out of their houses, chained them and thrust them into prison. In
the fury of his zeal, he applied to the high priest and Sanhedrin for a
commission to take up all Jews at Damascus who confessed Jesus Christ and bring
them bound to Jerusalem to be properly punished. He was almost at the end of
his journey to Damascus, when, at about noon, he and his company were suddenly
surrounded by a great light. As Saul fell to the ground, he heard a voice say,
“Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?” Saul answered, “Who are you, Sir?”
And the voice said, “I am Jesus, the one you are persecuting. Now, get up and
go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.” Saul rose and, blind,
was led by his companions into Damascus.The Lord sent a Damascus disciple named
Ananias to heal and instruct Saul. Ananias entered the house and, obeying
Jesus’ orders, laid his hands on Saul and prayed over him so that he might
regain his sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit. And immediately something
like scales fell from Saul’s eyes. He regained his sight, got up, was baptized
and, having eaten, recovered his strength. Saul had realized the truth that
Jesus was the mysterious fulfillment of all he had been blindly pursuing. He
could easily identify Jesus with Jesus’ followers. He stayed several days in
Damascus with Christian disciples and started teaching in the synagogues that
Jesus was the promised Messiah and the Son of God.
Life message: Saul’s conversion into Paul
teaches us that we, too, need conversion and the renewal of our lives by a
fresh anointing of the Holy Spirit, which will enable us to bear witness to
Christ, as St. Paul did, by exemplary lives.(Feast Day gospel: Lk 10:1-9)
Fr. Tony (https://frtonyshomilies.com/)
Jan 26 Friday (Saints Timothy and Titus, Bishops):
Mk 4:26-34: (Feast Day gospel: MT 23:
8-12)
The context: Using the mini-parables of the
growth of wheat seeds and mustard seeds in the field, Jesus
explains the nature of the growth of the Kingdom of God or rule of God in human
beings and human societies. In the case of both wheat and mustard seeds, the
initial growth is slow and unnoticeable. But within days a leafy shoot will
emerge, and within months a mature plant with numerous branches and leaves,
flowers and fruits will be produced. The growth is silent and slow but steady,
using power from the seed in the beginning and transforming absorbed water and
minerals for energy in the later stages. Jesus explains that the Kingdom of God
grows this way in human souls. The Kingdom of God is the growth of God’s rule
in human hearts that occurs when man does the will of God and surrenders his
life to God. It is slow and microscopic in the beginning. But it grows by using
the power of the Holy Spirit, given to us through the Word of God, the
Sacraments, and our prayers. Finally, God’s rule in the human heart transforms
individuals and communities into God’s people, doing His will in His kingdom.
Life message 1) As we learn God’s will from His
words and try to put these words into practice, we participate in the growth of
God’s Kingdom on earth, a growth which will be completed in our Heavenly life.
But we need the special anointing of the Holy Spirit to be doers of the word of
God, so let us offer our lives before God every day, asking for this special
anointing.
Fr. Tony (https://frtonyshomilies.com/)
Jan 27 Saturday: (Saint Angela Merici, Virgin): Mk
4:35-41:
The context: Mark’s emphasis on Jesus’ wondrous works
helps him to reveal Jesus’ true Messianic identity. The role of God in calming
the storms of life is the central theme of today’s Gospel. By describing the
miracle, Mark also gives the assurance to his first-century believers that
nothing can harm the Church as long as the risen Lord is with them. The
incident reminds us today to keep Jesus in our life’s boat and to seek God’s
help in the storms of life.
The storm: The Sea of Galilee is lake thirteen miles long
from north to south and eight miles broad from east to west at its widest. It
is notorious for its sudden storms. When a cold wind blows from the west, the
valleys and gullies and hills act like gigantic funnels, compressing the winds
and letting them rush down to the lake to create storms with violent waves.
Unable to control their fears in just such a storm, the disciples awaken Jesus,
accusing him of disregarding their safety. Jesus' response is immediate. First,
Jesus rebukes the winds and the sea, producing perfect calm, to
the great astonishment of his disciples. Then only does he reproach them for
their lack of Faith.
Life messages: 1) We need to welcome Jesus into the
boat of our life. All of us are making a journey across the sea of time to the
shore of eternity, and it is natural that, occasionally in our lives, we all
experience different types of violent storms: physical storms, emotional
storms, and spiritual storms. We face storms of sorrow, doubts, anxiety,
worries, temptations, and passion. Only Jesus can give us real peace in the
storm of sorrow or console us at the loss of our dear ones.
2) When the storm of doubts seeks to uproot the very
foundations of our Faith, Jesus is there to still that storm, revealing to us
His Divinity and the authority behind the words of Holy Scripture. He gives us
peace in the storms of anxiety and worries about ourselves, about the unknown
future, and about those we love. Jesus calms the storms of passion in people
who have hot hearts and blazing tempers.
Fr. Tony (https://frtonyshomilies.com/)
