Category Archives: Year B

Why do some of us blame others when something goes wrong? Some blame others because they desire to be recognised, appreciated and respected. Some do so because they want to appear good in the eyes of others. Some do so because they think that they are above mistakes, faults and sins. Some do so because they want to hide their true selves which they are afraid to reveal. In reality, when we blame others we are looking for a scapegoat whom we burden with our guilt. This is exactly what happened in the first reading where Adam blamed Eve and Eve blamed the serpent.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus was teaching the people. He was told that His mother and relatives were looking for Him, and Jesus said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother.” This tells us what discipleship is all about, namely, the hearing and doing the will of God. Some people seem to think that Jesus showed lack of respect for Mary by replying in this way. But that is farthest from the mind of Jesus. To Jesus, family ties are not what matters. Mary’s motherhood was important and necessary and therefore she was to be blest for it. But what really matters is to hear and do the will of God. Thus they are the ones who are blest.

By blessing those who hear the word of God and do it, Jesus has put an end to the vicious cycle of blaming. He has placed responsibility where it belongs: on our shoulders. When we allow God to enter our life, when we discover God in the hearing and doing of His will, we also discover ourselves in the process. We discover that before God, we are naked and transparent. We discover that blaming others is a form of pride and others suffer for our mistakes, faults and sins. We discover that there is nothing we can hide from Him and thus we have to be responsible for our acts. Why so? Because hearing and doing God’s will is something between God and us. He not only sees our acts but our motives, too. Blaming others does not take away the guilt from us. We may fool people but we cannot fool God. There is nothing we can hide from God. Moreover, in hearing and doing God’s will, we also discover that others, like us, are also building a relationship with God. Since we share the same goal with everyone else, we are to help instead of blaming others, so that ultimately, we are doing God’s will. Then we do not only become responsible for our acts, we also become responsible for each other, and in doing so, we become true disciples of Jesus.

How do we begin true discipleship? The beginning of discipleship is conversion: “Repent for the Kingdom of God is at hand.” To repent and to be forgiven – to be converted – is to begin our journey to God which consists in first accepting and then doing something about our self-centredness and our sins and then letting God take over. When we accept our faults and sins and be sorry for them, we are reconciling with God which leads to reconciliation with others. It is when we embrace reconciliation with God and with others, we begin to be true disciples.

Do you have a friend whom you could consider a true and good friend? More often than not, our friends are actually merely our acquaintances, since finding a close friend whom you could really trust and depend on is not so easy. A good friend is someone you can turn to for help whenever you are in need. This friend may not be able to solve all your problems but he or she would be there for you through thick and through thin. A truly good friend also challenges you with the truth. He or she can tell things about you that you do not see in yourself and this is done out of love and not out of revenge or to belittle you. Humanly speaking, it is not easy to find a person who fits such criteria of a truly good friend, though we could find a divine good friend in Jesus Christ.

In today’s gospel, Jesus healed the blind man and made him see. Sometimes, we too are blind although we have eyes to see. We are blind when we don’t notice the poor and think of their needs. We are blind when we cannot recognise our weaknesses and mistakes. There are also times, we fail to recognise and see Jesus in others. That is why we need someone to tell us. Jesus helps us come to terms with our inability to see, and helps us restore our sight, just as He did for the blind man.

Today, Jesus invites us to open our eyes to recognise Him in the Eucharist. Jesus gives himself to us as food, so that we may grow, be strong and survive both spiritually and physically. Just as Jesus has given Himself to us, we too must give ourselves to others. We must not to be selfish. Instead, we must learn to love others, even those people whom we do not like. We must also help others, including the poor, the elderly and those who are weak. Just as you have experienced the love of Christ, we must also share His love with everyone you meet. May we be true and good friends to others, just as Jesus is a true and good friend to us.

What is success? What is failure? Are any of us failures? The way the world sees success and failure is quite different from the ways of God. God created everyone for success. God did not create anyone for failure. But what do success and failure really mean? For most people, as for James and John in today’s Gospel, success means to be the best. To succeed means to excel. Success is measured by comparing one’s achievements against the achievements of one’s “competitors.” However, in today’s Gospel, Jesus teaches us a new understanding of success.

For Jesus success means people realising and fulfilling God’s dream for them. Does this mean that God has already determined the outcome of our earthly existence? No. God has an intended destination for which He created you and me. But whether you and I attain this destination or not depends on how much we are willing to cooperate with God’s grace. God gives us free will to choose to cooperate or not.

James and John, on the other hand, represent an earthly understanding of success that encourages ambition, rivalry and unhealthy competition among people. We call such success the rat race, or as some may say, it is a dog eat dog world. On the other hand, Jesus teaches a different kind of success, which encourages mutual cooperation and contentment of realising that we can all be successful because God has created each and every one of us for something different. God has enough dreams to go round, a different dream for everyone, a different success for everyone. Our ambition in life should be to discover and live God’s dream for us.

At the end of the day, are we still seeking success here on earth? Or have we started to seek the kind of success that God has planned for each of us, different though it may be according to each person, but success all the same? May we be willing and humble enough to let go of temporary success, for the kind success which is permanent and eternal.

What is your favourite chapter or verse in the bible? Some of us seem to have a favourite chapter or verse, which we often turn to, to remind us of God’s love, to comfort us when we are facing difficulties, or when we are in need of strength and encouragement. But the bible is not only about such things. The bible also contains chapters and verses which could make us feel quite uncomfortable and uneasy, as the second reading reminds us: “The word of God is something alive and active: it cuts like any double-edged sword…” This means that the bible not only consoles us but also challenges us. It does not only promise blessings but also spells out curses which arise when we fail to remain faithful to God.

Today’s Gospel is one example where reading the bible could make us feel quite uncomfortable or uneasy. Why so? In the Gospel, the rich man claimed that he had kept all the commandments from his earliest days. Then Jesus posed him a greater challenge, “Go and sell everything you own and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.” If you were in the rich man’s shoes, how would you have felt? Quite likely some of you would have been bewildered with such a challenge. It seems crazy and absurd for us to get rid of everything that we have and become a pauper, just to follow Jesus. But what is Jesus really trying to tell us? Are you able to read between the lines?

What Jesus is trying to tell us is quite profound and concerns us as Christians, as His followers, as His disciples. Jesus is reminding us that the kingdom of God is far greater than the kingdom of men. The treasures which we will find in heaven far surpasses and outweighs the riches which we accumulate on this earth. Unless we are prepared to let go of things on this earth by being detached from them, we will not be able to gain treasures in heaven. This is because when we are concerned only on things of this life, which are temporary, will fade, and which we cannot take with us after death, then we are truly being foolish, since we are spending so much time trying to accumulate earthly things which would eventually be lost to us.

But is being rich wrong? No, that is not the point of what Jesus is trying to teach us. What Jesus is trying to tell us is to remove all obstacles, such as our riches, our pride, our wealth and possessions, or our power, which prevent and distract us from following Him and becoming truly His disciples. While we do need to survive in this world, we should not be entangled by what this world has to offer, and lose sight of our heavenly goal. As some may have heard, we should “eat to live” and not be concerned with “living to eat.” This means that, like the camel in the Gospel, we must remove earthly burdens which encumber us, so that we may pass through the “eye of the needle,” if we seek to be in the Kingdom of God.

Some of you may be thinking: giving up our earthly riches and being detached from them? Sounds impossible. We are surrounded by so many forms of temptations to gain more and more of what this world has to offer. How do we tear ourselves from such constant bombardment of earthly attractions? Once again, Jesus assures us: “For men it is impossible, but not for God; because everything is possible for God.” May we seek God’s help and grace, so that we would be able to give up all attachments that will prevent us from following Jesus, so that we would be lightened and free to strive towards His Kingdom.

What does it mean to be married? Is marriage merely an event for show or for display, such as what we see in some of the reality shows appearing on television these days, which treats marriage as a form of entertainment? Some people may say that they have a right to get married, so long as they are at the right legal age, and they love each other. No matter what others say, no matter what the church may say, they insist that they have a right to marry. While the church recognises that individuals have a right to marry, the church also requires that those planning to marry be properly informed about what marriage is all about, in other words, what such individuals are getting themselves into.

Why is the church so fussy about preparing couples for marriage? What is the big deal, some may ask. Is the church behaving like a Big Brother, trying to control our lives, even when it comes to marriage? No. The church is not like that. It is precisely because we have seen many marriages fail, sometimes so quickly and at an alarming rate, that it is a great cause of concern. When affected couples were asked what had happened and what went wrong, it is quite often the same story: they were actually not ready for marriage, even though they had initially thought they were; they had not known each other long enough or well enough; they had not truly and clearly understood what commitment in marriage is all about; they were more concerned about their own needs and issues; and a significant number of affected couples realised that God was not present in their minds when they decided to get married. When you marry without being ready in all sense of the word, you are merely brewing a recipe for disaster, leading to another statistic for marriages gone bust.

The readings today gives us some understanding of what marriage is all about. We must realise that marriage is not a human institution but a divine institution. It is a vocation. Very often, God is forgotten in all the hustle and bustle of making preparations for marriage. Couples are more concerned with so many other things, that God and the church seems to have become a necessary inconvenience. Some couples feel as if they are being forced or pressured by their parents to marry in church. But what they forget is that it is God who makes marriages possible and lasting. If God is absent from our lives, it would really be very difficult to make the marriage work. Also, a marriage calls for couples to experience a conversion in their lives. Conversion must take place because, as Jesus reminds us in today’s Gospel: “the two must become one body.” Conversion must take place for couples to die to their selfishness and learn to live together as one. That is why the preparation is so important. Some people try to find ways and means to take short cuts during the preparation, but what they fail to realise is that Rome was not built in a day. If you want to graduate with a degree, you work hard for it and you pursue it relentlessly. Likewise, if you want to stay married, you must also be properly prepared and work hard for it. Moreover, marriage is about commitment. Love is all about commitment, and never about feelings and emotions. Commitment means accepting the whole package as is, “for better or for worse,” and not just pick and chooose the parts we like. Commitment means learning to forgive not once but again and again, and is more concerned with giving than with taking and receiving. Commitment calls us to change ourselves throughout our lives.

Today, marriages are in trouble. Couples are behaving more and more individualistic. The togetherness and oneness seems to have become lost in translation. Divorces have become so rampant. I recall being present for a hearing for divorce cases at a family court some time back, and on that one day, more than fifty cases were being heard, and each case was disposed like products moving along a conveyor belt. Can you imagine that? What has marriage become? Have some couples become so selfish and self-centred, that people are seen as objects to be used, and when they are no longer seen as useful, they are then discarded? This is why I pray that couples will take responsibility and initiative for their marriage to remain strong. Remember that your children learn from you, and your children too may someday follow in your footsteps. If your marriage is messed up, do something about it and seek help where necessary, don’t play play with your marriage, don’t wait until it is too late. Let us pray that God would continue to bring healing into our lives so that our lives would be filled with selfless love instead of selfishness.

Each and every one of us has got a certain role and purpose as a church. No matter how small, medium or big the role and purpose is, it is necessary and needed. Some of us may feel as if what we are doing in church may seem insignificant or nothing to shout about, but what we often forget is that everything that we do as a church has got a reason, a purpose. The church is the Body of Christ and we could look at the church in reference to the human body. The human body, as we know, has got different parts, and each part has got its own purpose and function. Hands are used for writing, lifting, holding and carrying. Feet are meant for walking. Our eyes are meant for seeing and our ears are meant for hearing. Each part cannot take over the function and role of the other, since each part has been designed specifically for a particular role and function.

The problem that some of us may be facing is when we allow pride, ego, and especially jealousy, to take control of us. When we allow jealousy to rear its ugly head, we become indifferent and blind to the importance and roles of others. We begin to think that whatever we do is the most important, or that we are the greatest, and that our role is indispensable. When others seem to be doing the same thing as we are doing, we begin to feel irritated, threatened and insecure, and we begin to find ways and means to put down or even destroy others so that only our skills and abilities are accepted and recognised. We allow Christ’s mission to be disrupted, when we allow competition to fester in the life of the church.

In the first reading and in the Gospel, we can clearly see how jealousy can cloud our minds, our eyes and our hearts, causing us to lose track of who we are and what is our role and purpose. In the first reading, some of the elders appointed by Moses and who had received the spirit from him felt threatened by others who had not gone through the same selection and yet somehow had received the spirit. What they failed to realise is that God freely gives His spirit to anyone He chooses. Nobody can claim to have a monopoly or control over God, or His Spirit, or Truth. God gives Himself to all. The disciples of Christ in the Gospel also had the same problem. They felt threatened by another man who was able to cast out devils and saw him as a competitor. However, Jesus saw him differently and recognised the gift of the Spirit in this man. This led Jesus to make an important observation: “…no one who works a miracle in my name is likely to speak evil of me. Anyone who is not against us is for us.”

So what does this all mean? It means that we must remember that we are all part of Christ’s Body, and each and every one of us are necessary and important. We must not see each other as competitors. Instead, we must encourage the gifts, talents and contributions of others, since all of us have one common mission, that is to build God’s Kingdom and not our own kingdom. After all, what and who are we trying to ultimately prove? Thus, if we have been jealous of others in the community, if we have been an obstacle to others, or if we have failed to give encouragement, then we must make effort to change, and not expect others to change to suit us. This is what Jesus was trying to tell us in the Gospel when he said: “if your hand, foot or eye should cause you to sin, cut it off.” Let us stop all this nonsense and ridiculous waste of time and energy in blaming others and start taking responsibility for our actions and for the problems we have brought to our church community. May we learn to focus more on doing God’s will and giving Him the glory, instead of trying to gain glory and gratification for ourselves.