SPEAK AND STAND FOR THE TRUTH WITHOUT FEAR OR FAVOUR FOR ANYONE
The Christian life and practice is not a hypocritical service of going to the Church as a Christian or being in the Church as a priest or pastor, but speaking out and standing for the truth without fear or favour for anyone. It is the hard line to defend the faith against hypocrisy, pretentious prudence or diplomacy in the name of God or the Church.
The fact is that being a Christian is not just about going to Church or being in the Church as a religious leader, nor it is about being “sacramentalized” or indoctrinated to follow rites, rituals or belief patterns: as a priest, a pastor, religious or members of pious groups or associations in the Church.
ORDINARY TIME OF THE CHURCH’S LITURGICAL YEAR
The Sundays and weeks of Ordinary Time, on the other hand, take us through the life of Christ. This is the time of conversion. This is living the life of Christ. Ordinary Time is a time for growth and maturation when the mystery of Christ is called to penetrate ever more deeply into history until all things are finally caught up in Christ. The goal, toward which all of history is directed, is represented by the final Sunday in Ordinary Time, the Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ: King of the Universe”.
OUR THEMES
The readings of this Sunday invite us to take a radical and fundamental stand of faithfulness or steadfastness to God, the truth, justice, honesty, and sincerity, especially against evil and wickedness in the high places. A firm stand against ungodly but religious people to whom the Christian faith and its practices mean picking and choosing what suits them and twisting, denying or manipulating what challenges their hypocrisy.
FIRST READING: JEREMIAH 20:10-13
In the first reading, Jeremiah 20:10-13, the prophet was ridiculed, laughed at, and even made a jest of everything he said and did, that is his manner of speaking: crying out, condemning out rightly or denouncing publicly and the matter he spoke about of injustice, evil and corrupt practices in Israel political and religious life. They even plotted against him not just as a weak or helpless man but reproached and misrepresented him as a bad man and dangerous to the government.
Yet, amidst all the stresses or threats from enemies, he holds to his confidence in God: the Dreadful Warrior, who will defend and deliver him from these seemingly powerful religious and political figures.
The first reading today is from the Prophet Jeremiah. He had lots of people trying to end his life and to make his life difficult if he lived. He tells us that even his friends had been working against him.
Yet he knows that God is with him and that he need not fear. So to have God with us is not magic; we can still encounter challenging situations. But if our trust is in the Lord, we know that in the end, all shall be well. The challenge is to cling to the Lord!
SECOND READING: ROMANS 5:12-15
St. Paul in Romans 5:12-15 did not only explain to us the root of sin, evil and death through Adam´s disobedience to God, as well as grace, goodness, freedom, and salvation through Christ’s obedience to God. For Paul also, the Christian life is a gracious free gift of God and not a merited gift. It is, therefore, up to us to live favourably to the lavish gift of God in conformity to Christian life and its practices or principle of truth, justice, and goodness.
The second reading today is from the Letter to the Romans. This reading tells us that sin has entered the world through one man, Adam, but that through another man, Jesus Christ, the grace of God overflows for the many. The message is the same: sin and evil and wrong things will not triumph in the long run. Rather, God will triumph and will vanquish all sin and evil. To cling to this promise of the Lord is the challenge of our spiritual life!
THE GOSPEL: MATTHEW 10:26-33
In the Gospel of Matthew 10:26-33, Jesus spells out clearly what it means to be a true Christian: “ to acknowledge Him me before others in deeds, words and lifestyle without fear or favour to conform or compromise the Christian principles of truth, justice, goodness, love, grace, faith, or hope.
Today’s Gospel presents that we Christians are more and more likely to encounter problems. The values of Jesus, the teachings of Jesus and the Church, and our Christian lifestyle are now being spurned in our world and called into question.
If we cling to these teachings and words, we are accused of being people of hate and promoting “hate speech” or archaic and out of touch. This condition in our world will most likely only increase. Christians are already the most persecuted group in the world.
Courage is we should not abandon our faith to avoid being rejected, mocked, criticized, scorned and judged by others. The challenge for us is to hold fast to the words of Jesus: “Fear no one.” That also means that we must cling to the teachings of the Lord Jesus without any fear or favour even without concern for what may happen to our lives. He, the Lord is with us always and everywhere.
THE BASIC FACTS OF THE GOSPEL TEXT
a. If a man is loyal to Jesus Christ in this life, Jesus Christ will be loyal to him in the life to come.
b. If a man is proud to acknowledge that Jesus Christ is his Master, Jesus Christ will be proud to acknowledge that he is his servant.
c. The Church of today is built on the unbreakable loyalty of those who held fast to their faith.
d. The Christian can never escape the duty of being different from the world. It is not our duty to be conformed to the world; it is our duty to be transformed from it.
e. Jesus bids his disciples not to be afraid. For Christ, his true follower must be a certain courageous fearlessness which marks him out from other men.
f. There is still left in the Christian life a place for what we might call a holy fear.
g. There are things which are worse than death, and disloyalty is one of them.
h. The God who made the world and who controls all history is the God who gives men food.
i. This is how we can deny Jesus Christ: (i) We may deny him with our words. (ii) We can deny him by our silence. (iii) We can deny him by our actions.
There is skilful plotting and willingness on every side to outwit and twist the TRUTH OF LIFE AND FAITH in a manner suitable and acceptable to the world. Sad enough, the Church and Christians conformed to standard and watered values of faith and Christian living due to political correctness and diplomacy.
Christianity has lost its grip on the truth because many pastors and Christians prefer lies to the truth. We need the Spirit of truth to help us to live responsibly to our Christian calling with a firm YES against all odds.
OUR PRAYER
Lord Jesus Christ, at our baptism we were all anointed as dignified Kings, uncompromising and true Prophets, as well as celebrative and gracious Priests like You. Hence, we merit bearing the name: Christian and the membership of the One, Holy, Apostolic, and Catholic Church. Help us to be authentic witnesses of your gospel and the Christian life with our words, actions, and lifestyle without compromising or conforming to worldly pressures and without fear or favour of anyone irrespective of who they are. Amen.
One Comment