My yoke is easy and my burden light
While talking to young people, it is not rare to hear this sort of expression: “Oh, I cannot engage in premarital relationship, just because I am a Christian.” The subtext of this line is a perception that Christianity restricts me, it controls me, it is a burden! If some pastors of the Church have given the followers of Christ such an image of Christianity, it is a pity really!
Joy of the Gospel:
Surely, Pope Francis would not like to burden the followers of Christ with the nitty-gritty details of moral casuistry. The Pope said in an interview during the first year of his pontificate (Sept 2013): “The dogmatic and moral teachings of the church are not all equivalent. The Church’s pastoral ministry cannot be obsessed […]
Year A
Year A Sunday Sermons
Sermon for the 13th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Year A Homily
13th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Year A
Discipleship (Mt 10: 37-42)
We continue to listen to the “Missionary Instructions” of Jesus (Mt 10) addressed to his apostles as he sends them out on their mission to the Jewish villages. These instructions also capture elements of discipleship that feature more explicitly in the Gospels of Mark and Luke. There are two important themes, that are related to each other, that emerge in the gospel of text of today. The first part is an invitation to surrender, and the second part is a promise of reward. Let us reflect on these two themes.
An Invitation to Surrender
Discipleship is marked by a sense of clinging to something beyond ourselves. To be able to cling to the master, the disciple has to go through a process of self-emptying. That is […]
Sermon for the 12th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Year A Homily
12th Sunday – Cycle A
Do not be Afraid! (Mt 10:26-33)
This is the 2nd Sunday after the celebrations of the Easter festivals and the follow on. This being Year A in liturgy, we continue with the Gospel of Matthew. One of the explicit characteristics of Matthew is that it was written in and for a Jewish community. Hence to understand that Gospel we need to be conscious of the Jewish background. Flowing from this setting, an interesting detail in the Gospel is that Matthew collects various sayings of Jesus delivered at different contexts into a compendium, breaks them into five parts, and places them at five locations, demarking the Gospel into “five-books” symbolically representing the five books of the Torah! Have a look at this:
Part 1 – Sermon on […]
Sermon for Feast of the Precious Body and Blood of our Lord
Body to be eaten and Blood to be drunk
Holy Eucharist as a Sacrificial Meal
During the liturgical year there are at least two feasts that invite us to meditate on the mystery of the Eucharist: the Maundy Thursday and the Feast of the Precious Body and Blood of our Lord (that is today!). On the Maundy Thursday, the reflection on the Eucharist is centred on the Passover meal and the institution of the priesthood. In the context of the Easter triduum (the three days of preparation towards Easter), the celebration of the Eucharist of the Maundy Thursday is also emotionally coloured by the impending passion, death and resurrection of Jesus. The feast of today gives us yet another opportunity to contemplate the mystery of the Eucharist.
Allow me to begin our reflection with a very concrete structure in the Church: the […]
Sermon for the Ascension of the Lord – Year A: I am with you!
“I am with you always” (Mt 28:20)
Seeking redress for injustice is a human need: when we perceive that we are unjustly treated we want justice to be restored. There are mainly two ways in which we desire justice. One: by wanting revenge on the unjust aggressor; that is, by harming or wanting to harm the unjust aggressor we feel consoled, and our status restored. Though the Hebrew Scriptures see this means of seeking justice to be right, the teachings of Jesus totally rule this out. The second way that we seek justice is by appealing to a higher authority – even God – to defend us and prove us righteous. This is often referred to as the vindication of the just; that is, without necessarily causing harm to the unjust aggressor, the integrity of the victim is restored.
He made him […]