The readings of this Sunday present us with a clear picture of persistence and perseverance through faith in prayer and the final success that this achieves. Especially, amidst the hopelessness and the powerlessness of life’s situations around us.
Gratitude or an act of thanksgiving seems like something very insignificant. However, it is the purest form of worship of God. It is the most important way of expression that sustain our human relationships as well as our relationship with God.
We must not only appreciate people when we need something from them but also after receiving it from them. Gratitude or appreciation has many faces: acts, gestures, words, things and even thoughts.
Living faith is an active faith against all odds of life. It is an indomitable faith that overcomes all contraries of life trusting the absolute mercy, grace and providence of God. Indeed, faith is one of the superlative forces or energies of conviction in God, on the earth and in heaven that can change, transform or overcome any and everything that comes on us.
The main theme of this Sunday´s readings is the warning of the sin of omission against charity. It is a warning that the selfish blindness to the needy and extravagant use of God’s blessings. A reminder that our wealth, time, energy, talents and personal qualities like words, smiles, and sense of humour are to help the poor, the depressed, the troubled, and the needy. The act of omission is a serious sin that deserves eternal punishment. Today’s readings stress the truth that wealth without active mercy for the poor is great wickedness.
The gospel of today presents us with an eternal truth: the love of God and money are two parallel ways. They cannot or will never meet or cross each other. We are either for God or for the world. Hence, it presents us towards the end with some crucial lines of a hard or brunt truth: “No slave can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.”
What makes Christianity unique from all other religions is the inexhaustible mercy of God in Christ Jesus. The Christian faith is never a religion of punishment. No matter the gravity of our errors, how many times and the manner of our mistakes, the mercy of God reaches all. In Christianity, therefore, Christ is the face of God’s mercy shown to lost humanity.
Today’s readings invite and challenge us to become true Christian disciples of Christ with total commitment and no half-measure with God. You cannot be a Christian with certain preferences or conditions to follow God.
The greatest lesson of our Christian faith is that we have a humble but powerful God who reveals himself to us daily in people, things, or events of our lives. The humility of God calls and challenges us to a humble, meek and gentle lifestyle.
On a personal and communal level, the Christian life is not an easy vocation or road to travel by. It entails a lot of ups and downs. It is a life of many struggles and challenges to maintain a steady upward and onward way to heaven. However, it is a life of grace marked by many failings and errors humanly.
Explicitly, the fire Jesus brings into the world, which is ready to burn is the fire of truth. The truth divides people for Christ or against him. As Frederick Nietzsche, the 18th-century German Philosopher said, you could tell much about a man’s character by how much he could tolerate.