I pray that God’s word is
spoken through me, through my mouth, and that you will receive it. Psalm
119 talks about how that the Word of God is to be treasured and meditated upon
with all our heart. You can’t expect much from God’s Word if, in the
first place, you don't pay attention to it. Hear the Word of God spoken
at this time, throughout the whole Mass. Listen!
Today is the Sixth Sunday of Epiphany. Our theme is “Striving Together on
Christ’s Higher Way.” As Christians, as sons of God, our standards are
supposed to be higher than society’s moral standards. As the
Church, we should be setting the Family Code in our Country. It is not
Congress; it is the Church’s job. It is a shame that in Muslim
countries, their law is based on their sacred book. In our country, do we
base our laws on the Bible? We used to, but not anymore. We are to
strive together and walk according to Christ’s higher way, that is, unity;
oneness; love among brethren.
We have to first
understand that Ecclesiasticus 15 tells us that we make our own choices, our
own responsibilities. We choose to act faithfully or not is a matter of
our own choice. We can't blame anyone. We are responsible for our
own actions, no one else. Not Eve, not the serpent, not the devil, not
your in-laws, not your spouse. We are responsible for our own
choices. Life and death placed before us, we choose our own
way. We have free will.
Proverbs 6 describes
the worthless, wicked man. One of his characteristics is that he
points fingers and blames others for his own actions. Ecclesiasticus says
that fire and water are before you; stretch out your hand for whichever you
wish. Why else would God give us the commandments if He gave us free will?
Why would He give us the commandments and make us choose if we don’t have free
will?
God’s will for us to
choose life. He says, "Behold, life and death are before you. Choose
life." There is the commandment, but we do the choosing. It is
our own choice. He wants us to be like Him – holy people, not holy robots
or holy puppets. We are holy people like Him not to be compelled to love
one another but choosing to love another. Love is a choice; it is not a
feeling or an emotion. It is not based on, “You are nice to me so I
will love you in return.” “You give me this and so I will give you love in
return.” When we choose, it does not matter whether a person is lovable
or unlovable. It is a choice, a commitment that we make and we do the choosing.
In the great wisdom of the Lord, He gave us free will.
If we choose to look down
on our brother and call him good for nothing, as worthless, it is putting them
down and taking away their dignity as a servant for whom Christ died. We
assassinate the character and the dignity of our brother which God does not
like. Scriptures show Jesus, Paul, James using the word fool or foolish.
It depends on the context. You can give a constructive criticism or a
derogatory criticism. The motive behind the words is what comes out of the
heart. It is constructive versus destructive. The kingdom of God is
about building up, edifying, not tearing down. It is not putting down
people, taking away their dignity, not taking away their self-esteem or their
faith in God. It is building up. This is why it is always on the
increase. This is why God is eternal because He always builds up.
He always blesses and so He is always blessed.
We, as opposed to the
devil, don't steal, kill and destroy. We, like Jesus, give life. We build
up; we edify; we enrich. We don’t tear down and operate on crab
mentality. 1Corinthians 10 says, “Don’t seek your own good but that of
your neighbor.” As Christians, this should be our motive
always. Verse 33 says, “We are not to seek our own profit but that
of the many that they may be saved, edified or built up.” 1Corinthians 14:12
says "Seek to abound for the edification, for the building up of the
Church." As Christians, this is what God commands us and expects us
to do. Verse 26 says, “Let all things be done for edification.”
As leadership, we have
been reviewing all the Church activities, and out thrust now is not to just
come up with an activity. We don’t say, “This is a good idea. We do
this. We will have fun if we do this.” No, what we think of
now are activities that would minister to people. If we just come up for
something just for fun, then, are we being the Church? All things
are to be done for the building up of the Body. We can have fun but what
is the purpose? Sometimes, we have activities that don't build
up. There are activities that we really don’t want to go to and we drag
our feet. We want to make people understand that we serve because
our purpose is to edify the Body; to build up because all things are to be done
for edification.
Jesus says that conflict
divides. When we come to Church and we have an offering, and before or at
Offertory we remember that somebody has something against us, we are to leave
the offering and be reconciled with our brother. And then come back and
give your offering. You have to be reconciled first. This is
historically the reason why the exchange of peace was place in that part of the
Liturgy.
Centuries ago, the peace
was a judicial process. Sometimes, it took two hours for the exchange.
This is how important it is. We have to have pure hearts and no conflict
with each other when we come before the Altar and give our offerings.
Jesus said that if you have conflict with somebody, you be reconciled with
them, and you come back. Some of our members have conflict with
some of us and they don’t come back. They don’t even take the next step
of being reconciled with us. One says, “I have conflict with you, so I am
leaving.” It is not what Jesus said. He said, “Be reconciled so that
your conscience is clear when you do make an offering.”
One says, “I will go to
another Church or meeting.” It is the same Altar of God, not a different
one. The commandment is: be reconciled and then fix it. It is
easy to fix; just say sorry or ask for forgiveness. At least, try to do
it. Jesus talks about the seriousness of it that if it takes your arm or
your leg, cut if off and enter life. Make a sacrifice toward
reconciliation, toward clean conscience so that you can offer your gift.
Fix your conflicts!
Isaiah 1:15-17 says, “When
you give your offering and you have dissension or strife, I will not listen to
your prayers and regard your offering.” Isaiah58 says, “The people say,
‘We fasted and you do not see and God does not see.’” God says,
“This is because you fast for contention, strife and disunity.” God
will answer if you remove the pointing of the finger, the blaming of each
other, and the speaking of wickedness – malicious, false, harsh, unjust talk.
Eliminate these
things. Matthew 15 says that we need a change of heart because out of the
heart comes evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false
witness, slanders or character assassination. In Tagalog it is “siete;
chismiz; scoop.” It has no place in the church. We are to
love one another.
1 Timothy 2:8 says, "I want men in every place to pray, lifting up holy
hands, without wrath or dissension but with a pure conscience." Pure
conscience is obtained after being reconciled and being at peace with
everyone. In our Church, every day in the morning, during the
week, the priests are available for the Sacrament of Reconciliation.
Every morning, we are on call. We will be here to administer
Confession. It is also all-day on Wednesday. Also, we are even
looking at having confession before Mass on Sunday.
This is what we need to do
before we go to the Altar of God. Jesus says that even looking at a woman
with lust in your heart is already adultery. Pop culture says it is okay
to look at the menu and eat at home. This is to say that it is okay for
married men to look at women as long as they go home to their wives.
Proverbs says, “Can a man take fire in his bosom and his clothes not be
burned?” You don’t even play with fire. Jesus says, “If you have
that in your heart in the first place, then, you have already committed
adultery.”
1 Corinthians 3 reminds us
to walk in Christ’s higher way because we are not mere men. We
are not fleshly, worldly, and like the unbelievers. Verse 3 says, “Strive,
division, schism, factions, jealousies stunt the growth of the Church.”
They prevent us from moving on and growing. When Israel was in the
wilderness, the people and even the brother and sister of Moses became jealous
of him and they stood up strife. Nothing happened bad to Moses, but
something bad happened to his sister. They had to stop their
journey. They had to be stagnant for a while until the thing was
resolved.
Proverbs 6:12-15 says that
a wicked man has a perverse mouth and points fingers and spreads strife. Calamity
will fall on him, not on whom he hates.” God hates strife. It is
our own choice and responsibility. What we sow is what we reap
because the Lord hates those who spread strife among brothers. God’s
moral standards are higher and different than ours. Sometimes, we
think that heinous crimes are those like rape, murder, and plunder. Yes,
they are serious but these things were not mentioned in Proverbs among the
things that God hates. What God hates is the spreading of destructive
rumor against brothers. It should not be among us. When we do
spread strife and we speak rumors about somebody, many times, we think it is
because we think they did something very wrong. It is not realizing the
fact that we spread it and not cover it is worse than the crime that we
actually talked about. If somebody is unfaithful to a spouse, and
when we try to destroy them by gossiping about them, in God’s eyes, that is
worst than their sin.
In the gospel about a
woman caught in adultery, Jesus said, "I don’t condemn you.” He
doesn’t say, “Go sin and commit adultery.” He said, “Sin, no more.”
He doesn’t condone the sin and says to contain it and spread it. “You can
come to Me for confession. We will work on this.” We see the speck
in other peoples' eyes and we miss the log that is more serious that is in our
eyes. Proverbs 10:12 says, “Hatred stirs up strife, but love
covers all transgressions.” 1 Peter 4:8 says, “Love covers a multitude
of sins.”
Proverbs13:10 says,
“Through presumption comes nothing but strife." We have to
admit that sometimes, we don’t know the truth of a matter. We have our
presumptions. We are all guilty of this. We don’t know a person,
but when we hear a story about him, we say something like, “Look at the way he
parts his hair. It gives away his being dishonest.” “Watch the way
he walks. It gives you a clue of his sin.” “Look at the choices of
colors of his clothes.” We go into presumptions. We don’t really
know the matter. We don’t really know the issue. We don’t know the
person, and we have presumptions about the person. Through presumption comes
nothing but strife.
Proverbs 16:28 says, “A perverse man spreads strife, and a
slanderer separates intimate friends.” This is sad which God hates.
Contentious means argumentative; loves to engage in endless
debates. Romans 1:28-32 talks about the symptoms of wickedness. “Just
as they did not fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a
depraved man, to do those things which are not proper, being filled with all
unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife,,
deceit, malice; they are gossips, slanderers(those who destroy), haters of God, insolent (not submissive to authority),arrogant,
boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, without understanding ,
untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful; and although they know the ordinance of
God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do
the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them.” These things have no place in the
hearts of God’s people or in the assembly of His church.
God hates division,
factions and spreading of strife. 1Corinthians 3:4, “For when one says,
‘I am of Paul,’ and another, ‘I am of Apollos,’ isn’t that being
devisive?” It is asked, “Who is Paul? Who is Apollos?”
They are servants of God. I ask you this, “Who is Bishop
Ariel?” “Who is Archbishop Hines?” “Who is Fr. Roberto?” “Who
is Fr. Gary?” “Who is Fr. Dino?” “Who is Fr. Patrick?” “Who are the
Deacons?” All are servants of God! Some plant, some water, but all
are servants. We are all servants. We don’t need to follow
personalities. Follow Christ! We don’t have a two-party
system or a multi-party system. We have one God and Father of all!
God’s word is: he who
plants or planted and he who waters are one! Both work for the same
purpose. Both serve the same God. Both love you and pray for you
daily. They are even awakened in the night and pray for you. They are
ONE! Listen! To use St. Paul’s language, he who plants and he who
waters are nothing. They are servants. It is God who causes the
growth. He who plants and waters will receive their reward but they are
one. They have one purpose; one God and they minister to one flock.
Don't look at personalities. Look at God! We are all
servants! I am not saying, “They are just them.” Give them
the respect due them, but see that they are servants and it is God who causes
the growth. You are God's building. God’s! It is God
who owns and possesses His building, not anyone of His servants. The
servants and you should be one! The clergy are your leaders. Obey
them. Give them the respect they are due. Submit to them.
1Timothy 6:1-5, “Let
all who are under the yoke as slaves regard their own masters as worthy of all
honor so that the name of God and our doctrine may not be spoken against.” All those who are servants regard
their own masters. “Let those who have believers (Christians) as their masters (or bosses or they are submitted to
Christians), not be
disrespectful to them because they are brethren, but let them serve them all
the more.” The more you are
to please one who is a Christian that we are in submission to. If
your boss in your company is a Christian, all the more serve them. I
believe, moreso, should it be in the Church. Your leaders are
Christians so give them respect.
“If anyone advocates a
different doctrine and does not agree with sound words, those of our Lord Jesus
Christ, and with the doctrine conforming to godliness, he is conceited and
understands nothing; but he has a morbid interest in controversial questions
and disputes, about words, out of which arise envy, strife, abusive language,
evil suspicions, and constant friction between men.”This is not God’s will.
We are to walk according
to Christ’s higher way. Our standards are higher because we are not mere
men. We are children of God. We are to walk according His higher
ways. Psalms says let them curse, but you bless! Repay evil with
good; overcome evil with good. We are to be humble; not arrogant, not
insolent, not contentious. If we have been this way, let us not condemn
ourselves, each other, but consider our ways.
Let us repent from it
because Jesus is speaking to us. God’s will for us is unity, harmony, and
growth. Pursue the things which make for peace and the building of one
another because, my dear friends, this is exactly the way it is in the kingdom
of our God.
