The Solemnity of All Saints, November 1: The Beatitudes: Road Map to Happy Eternity (Rev. 7:2-4, 9-14; 1 Jn. 3:1-3; Mat. 5:1-12)

Why is it necessary to celebrate the feast of all saints? All year round we are celebrating feasts of saints: Thomas Aquinas, January 28; Augustine of Hippo, August 28; Theresa of Lisieux, October 1, etc. Why then is it necessary to set apart a day to celebrate the feast of all saints? I can think of two important reasons.

1. Beside the handful of saints whose feast days we celebrate on specific days in the year, there are countless other saints and martyrs, men, women and children united with God in the heavenly glory whom we do not celebrate. Many of these would be our own parents and grand-parents who were heroic women and men of faith. Today we keep their honourable memory. In many ways, therefore, today's feast can be called the feast of the Unknown Saint, in line with the tradition of the Unknown Soldier. We celebrate what the first reading calls "a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, robed in white, with palm branches in their hands" (Rev 7:9).

2. This celebration gives us a peek into our eternal destiny. The saints we celebrate were men and women like us. Where we are now they used to be, and where they are now we hope to be someday.

 As Christians we know that a person's life story is not limited to what happens to them between the day they are born and the day they die. Our story starts before we are born, at our conception, and goes beyond the day we die, to all eternity. That is why we do not simply forget people after they die. Didn't St Theresa of Lisieux say that she would spend eternity doing good on earth? In our mortal eyes she is dead and gone. But in the eyes of faith we know that she is alive now more than ever, because she is now fully alive in God. She is now more alive than we are because the life she now enjoys can no longer be diminished by suffering, disease and sin, or death.

Unfortunately, our reaching the fullness of life with the saints does not happen automatically. "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven" (Matthew 7:21). How do we live a life of doing the will of our heavenly Father? The answer is given us in today's gospel, the Beatitudes, where Jesus gives his followers a road map to a happy eternity. All the saints we celebrate today walked the hard and narrow path of the Beatitudes to arrive at heavenly bliss. On the feast of All Saints the church invites us and challenges us to walk the walk, not just to talk the talk, of the saints.

The Beatitudes propose to us a way of life, inviting us to identify with the poor, those who mourn, the meek, and those who hunger and thirst after justice. They challenge us to be compassionate people, to be men and women who are pure in heart, and to become the peacemakers in our dealings with one another, in our families and in the society at large, even when this approach to things exposes us to ridicule and persecution. None of the saints we celebrate today had it as their aim in life to amass wealth, to acquire power or to gain popularity. Rather they looked forward to the eternal reward which God gives to his faithful ones at the end of this short earthly life of illusion.

Today we are invited to walk the path of the saints, the way of the Beatitudes. The way is narrow and hard. We need faith and courage to walk it. The example of the saints and their prayers encourage us and help us on. St Augustine found it hard to live the Beatitudes, but when he read the lives of the saints he said, "What these ordinary women and men have done, why not me?" Why not? Faith assures us all who heed the call of Jesus and live the life of the Beatitudes that at the end of life we shall, together with all the saints, hear the consoling words of the Lord, "Well done, good and faithful servant, enter into the joys of your master" (Matthew 25:21).

Thirtieth Sunday of the Year: Love in three Dimensions (Ex. 22:21-27; 1 Thes. 1:5-10; Mat. 22:34-40)

There is an immortal poem written by an Englishman Leigh Hunt about a man called Abou Ben Adhem. Abou Ben Adhem woke from his sleep one night and saw in his room an angel writing in a book of gold the names of those who love God. "And is mine one?" inquired Abou. "No, not so," replied the angel. "I pray thee, then," said Abou, "write me as one who loves his fellow men." The following night the angel came again and displayed the names of those who love God and Abou Ben Adhem's name topped the list. This poem makes the point that true love of God and true love of our fellow human beings are like two sides of the same coin. One cannot exist apart from the other. That is what we find in today's gospel. Jesus is asked about the greatest commandment in the law. The book answer, of course is love of God. But Jesus does not stop there. He goes on to give a more practical answer. He gives the other side of the coin as well, which is love of neighbour. True love of God and true love of neighbour are practically one and the same thing. As Jesus said:

"You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind." This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: "You shall love your neighbour as yourself." On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets" (Matthew 22:37-40).

Jesus is here reacting against a one-dimensional understanding of love. For Jesus, true love must express itself in three dimensions. These three dimensions are (a) love of God, (b) love of neighbour, and (c) love of oneself. The first two are positively commanded; the last one is not commanded but presumed to be the basis of all loving. The commandment to love your neighbour as yourself presumes that you love yourself.

Even though Jesus' answer touched on all three dimensions of love, what is the emphasis, the point Jesus is trying to make? When you ask a question that demands one straightforward answer and the person answers your question and goes on to add another thing that you did not actually ask for, it is most likely that the person is trying to get your attention on the second element of the answer. We saw it last week when Jesus was asked about paying taxes to Caesar. Jesus answered, "Give back to Caesar's what is Caesar's," and then went on to add "and to God what is God's." Here the emphasis of Jesus is not on Caesar's rights, which are apparently obvious, but on God's rights which they were ignoring. In the same way, the emphasis in today's question about the greatest commandment is not on the obvious love of God but on the love of neighbour which they were trampling upon.

Remember that the persecution of Jesus and his followers was championed by well-meaning religious people motivated by what they believed to be zeal and love for God. The same people asking about the first commandment are the ones trying to entrap and kill Jesus. They are so conscious about love of God. Why then are they so insensitive when it comes to love of neighbour? Saul who later became St Paul is a good example of this kind of skewed religiosity. Jesus prophesied that "an hour is coming when those who kill you will think that by doing so they are offering worship to God" (John 16:2).

The error of the Pharisees is still here with us. There are still many Christians who try to separate love of fellow human beings from love of God. Their commitment to faith does not include commitment to human rights and to justice and peace issues. We shall do well to heed the message of Jesus in today's gospel: that true love of God and true love of neighbour are two sides of the same coin. Any attempt to separate them is a falsification of the message of Christ."Those who say, 'I love God,' and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen" (1 John 4:20).

Twenty Ninth Sunday of the Year: Giving Back to God and Ceasar (Isaiah 45:1, 44-6; 1 Thessalonians 1:1-5; Matthew 22:15-21)

"Give to Caesar what is Caesar's, and to God what is God's" (Matthew 22:21). For some politicians and rulers this verse ranks among the most popular verses in the Bible. Until a few years ago, many African countries were under a military dictatorship. The military succeeded in disorganising the labour union and the academic elite. The only viable resistance left was the church. The Bishop's Conference (of Ghana) issued fearless and incisive statements denouncing the dictatorship. The military often replied by quoting this passage and accusing the church of interfering in politics. Didn't the Bible say to give to Caesar what is Caesar's -- meaning the whole sphere of civil, economic and social affairs -- and to God what is God's -- meaning the sphere of spiritual affairs? According to this interpretation, human affairs are divided into two areas: the spiritual side which belongs to God and God's ministers, and the secular side which belongs to civil authorities. Does Jesus really teach this kind of dualistic view of human existence? To understand the full import of this saying of Jesus we need to consider it in relation to the context in which Jesus said it originally.

While the statement, "Give to Caesar what is Caesar's, and to God what is God's" is true, we must not forget that Jesus said it as a way to escape from a trap. "The Pharisees went and plotted to entrap him in what he said. So they sent their disciples to him, along with the Herodians, saying, ... Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor, or not?" (Matthew 22:15-17). This is not a sincere question coming from people who really wanted to know the truth about church-state relations. It would, therefore, be wrong to treat the saying as a straightforward teaching of Jesus on the ideal relationship that should exist between church and state. Faced with the double-ended trap of the Pharisees and Herodians, in which it was unsafe to clearly say yes or no, Jesus framed his answer in such enigmatic language that it would be hard for either party to trap him. In this way he succeeded in confusing not only his interrogators but also many of us who read the Bible today. If you think Jesus meant that we should have two parallel loyalties, it might help to know that the Pharisees who heard him did not understand it in that way. In the trial of Jesus before Pilate one of the charges they brought against him was that he forbade paying taxes to Caesar (Luke 23:2).

An interesting shift in Jesus' answer could point us in the direction of the import of the saying. The question was whether one should give (Greek didômi) tribute to Caesar. But Jesus' answer spoke of giving back, paying back (paradidômi), as if one already owed something. What Jesus said could be paraphrased as: "Give back to Caesar what is Caesar's due, and to God what is God's due." Instead of answering the direct question of whether one should pay the forced tribute to Caesar or not, Jesus raises the question to another level, that of the principle of justice. Greek philosophers before Jesus defined justice as "giving back to everyone what is their due." Jesus seems to be saying that the only binding obligation is that of justice, that of giving back to every person what is due to them. Serving God is basically a matter of justice? If God has given us all that we are and have, then we are bound in justice to give back to God some gratitude, loyalty, and service. The central act of Christian worship is called Eucharist, which means "thanksgiving." It is basically a question of paying back the debt of gratitude we owe to God.

To conclude, what then is Jesus teaching here regarding loyalty to civil authority? Jesus is recommending not absolute but qualified loyalty. That is to say, if a government provides needed goods and services then we must, in justice, give back to the government our loyalty and support. But where a government is a dictatorship that imposes itself on the people's will, a leech that sucks itself fat from the life-blood of the people and provides no services, what then do the people have to give back? To such despotic governments, the principle of justice does not demand that people give their loyalty and support. To use this passage as a justification of unconditional loyalty and support of corrupt and totalitarian governments in a misunderstanding of what Jesus is teaching. Christians must together discern whether and to what extent a given government and its policies merit their loyalty and support. But total and absolute loyalty and service is a debt that we owe to God and to God alone.

Twenty Eight Sunday Of The Year: Are We Having Fun Yet? (Is. 25:6-10; Phil. 4:12-14,19-20; Mat. 22:1-14)

At a church conference in Omaha, people were given helium-filled balloons and told to release them at some point in the service when they felt joy in their hearts. All through the service worshippers kept releasing balloons. At the end of the service it was discovered that most of them still had their balloons unreleased. If this experiment were repeated in our church today, how many of us would still have our balloons unreleased at the end of the service? Many of us think of God's house as a place for seriousness, a place to close one's eyes and pray, but not a place of celebration, a place where we can have fun. The parable of the Great Supper in today's gospel paints a different picture. The Christian assembly is a gathering of those who are called to the Lord's party. In the Eucharist we say of ourselves, "Happy are those who are called to his supper." The Lord invites us to a supper, a banquet, a feast. Can you imagine a wedding feast in which everyone sits stone-faced, cold and quiet?
The parable shows us three possible kinds of guests. There are the absentee guests who initially accepted the invitation, but when the time came to honour the invitation they drew back. There are the guests without wedding garments who attend the feast but do not take the trouble to prepare adequately for it, as the occasion deserves. And then there are the guests with wedding garments who make the necessary preparation to present themselves fit for the banquet of the King.
The scary thing about the absentee guests is that they are not sinners. They were not engaged in sinful activity. One went to his farm, another to his business. These are gainful and noble employments. Sometimes what keep us away from the joy of the kingdom is not sin but preoccupation with the necessities of life. To be serious with your job is a good thing, but when your job keeps you away from attending the Lord's Supper, then it becomes an obstacle that hinders you from experiencing the joy of the Lord in your life. There is a saying that the good is the enemy of the best. If only those absentee guests knew what they were missing by not attending the feast! It used to be that people attended church service to fulfill a "Sunday obligation," otherwise it would be counted against them as sin. This kind of fear no longer motivates young people today. More people would probable come to church if they knew they were missing out on the fun of celebrating and feasting with the Christian community.
On the guest without the wedding garment, to speculate on whether he had enough time to go home and put on his wedding garment is beside the point of the parable. The point of the parable is: if you must go the dance, you must wear your dancing shoes. If you must go to a wedding, you must wear your wedding garment. By not wearing a wedding garment, he was physically in the party, but his mind and spirit were not there. He was in the feast but he was not in the mood for feasting. Jesus hates this kind of hypocritical attitude. In fact, it is better not to attend at all than to be there and yet not there. The invitation is to all, the party is free for all, yet anyone who decides to attend has a responsibility to present himself or herself fit for the king's company. The kingdom of God is freely offered to us. Those of us on the way to the kingdom must spare no effort in acquiring the moral and spiritual character that is consonant with life in the kingdom.
Finally there are the guests who attend the wedding feast, taking care to appear in the proper wedding garment. They are the only ones who have fun and enjoy the party. They are the models whose example we should follow. Today's gospel sends a message to those who are keeping away from the Lord's Supper that they are missing out on the joy of life. To those of us who have accepted the invitation to come in, this parable warns us not to take God's grace for granted but to clean ourselves up and become the most beautiful person that we can be in God's sight. The message is the same as we have in Colossians 3:14: "Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony."

Twenty seventh Sunday of the Year: Giving God his Due (Matthew 21:33-43)

Two brothers went treat-or-tricking and collected some eggs. The elder said to his younger brother, "I will give you one dollar if you let me break three eggs on your head." The little boy knew it was going to be a painful experience, but because he needed the dollar he agreed. The bigger boy then went on to break an egg on his brother's head. His brother took it with an "Ouch!" Then he broke the second egg on his little brother's head. This time it really hurt and his little brother cried out in pain. But the young lad was determined to get his dollar. So he braced himself for the third and last egg, but his senior brother walked away laughing. "Come on, bring on the third egg," said the little boy. "Nope!" said the bigger brother, "I don't wanna lose my dollar."

One could dismiss the story as kids playing pranks, but there is something more serious going on here. It is called breach of contract. We are talking about the sense of responsibility, the recognition that every privilege we enjoy comes with a price tag. Like the big brother in our story, some people go about trying to take advantage of others, of the society, and even of God. We see that in the parable of the rebellious farm managers in today's gospel, who enjoy the benefits that accrue to them as managers but withhold the benefits that should go to the landowner. Think of the story that was in the media some time back about some Nigerian women who seized the facilities of an oil drilling company complaining that these companies enrich themselves from their land without giving back anything to the owners of the land. Today's gospel calls for responsibility and accountability in our dealings with God, which include our dealings with our fellow human beings.

Jesus directed the parable at the Jewish leadership of his day. The parable has a lot to teach us about stewardship. As such it has very important lessons for church leaders in particular but also for all of God's people in general. We all have at least received life from God. Life is given to us in trust. We are expected to cultivate and manage this life in such a way that it bears good fruit - fruit that we can present to God the owner of our lives on the day of reckoning.

The parable teaches us a lot about God and how God relates to us. First we see the PROVIDENCE of God. "There was a landowner who planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a wine press in it, and built a watchtower"(Matthew 21:33a). Before God entrusts a responsibility to you, He makes provision for all that you will need in carrying out the responsibility.

"Then he leased it to tenants and went to another country" (verse 33b). This shows God's TRUST in us. God does not stand looking over our shoulders, policing us to make sure we do the right thing. God leaves the job to us and goes on vacation to a far country, so to say. God trusts that we will do the right thing. Unfortunately many of us don't. The story also highlights God's PATIENCE with us. God sends messenger after messenger to the rebellious managers who would not render to God what is His due. With each messenger, God provides another chance for us to put an end to rebellion and do the right thing. Finally there comes a last chance. God plays His last card and sends His only son. If we miss this last chance, then we've missed it. In the end we see God's JUDGMENT in which rebellious humanity lose their very lives, and their privileges are transferred to others who are more promising. The picture is that of a provident, trusting, patient, but also just God.

From this we can learn a lot about ourselves and how we stand in relation to God. First we see human PRIVILEGE. Like the managers of the vineyard, everything we have is a privilege and not a merit. This is what we mean when we say that everything is God's grace. Grace is unmerited favour. Another word for this is privilege. Life itself is a privilege which can be taken away from any of us at any moment. Privilege comes, however, with RESPONSIBILITY. We are ultimately responsible and accountable to God for the way we use or abuse our God-given privileges. God has given us all that we need to make a judicious use of all our privileges, yet we retain the ability to abuse them. This is called FREEDOM. The Parable of the Wicked Husbandmen, as it is called, is a parable on the misuse of human freedom. Let us today pray for the wisdom and the courage never to abuse our privileges but rather to make a judicious use of all the privileges and opportunities that God gives us.

Twenty Seventh Sunday of the Year: Why Worry When You can Pray? (Philippians 4:6-9)

The story is told of one of Napoleon's generals, Massena who, with his army of 18,000 soldiers besieged an Austrian town that had no defences whatsoever. The town council met to discuss how to surrender. Just then an elderly man, the dean of the town church, reminded the council that it was Easter and suggested that they hold the usual Easter services and put the problem in God's hands. The council took his advice, went to the church and rang the church bell to assemble the townsfolk for worship. Napoleon's forces heard the joyful ringing of the bells and concluded that the Austrian forces had arrived to rescue the town. Immediately, they broke camp and beat a retreat, and the town was saved.

This story illustrates what Paul is saying in today's second reading from the Letter to the Philippians. Faith in Christ affects how we face the problems of life. Whereas people who have no faith usually respond to life's problems with worry, people of faith respond to life's problems with prayer. As we can see in the story of the Austrian town, worry only makes us surrender in weakness to the challenges facing us. In prayer, on the other hand, we raise our hands to our all-loving and all-powerful Father, who is able to draw us out of the pit into which we have sunk, even if it should take a miracle to do so.

And so Paul enjoins us: "Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God."(Philippians 4:6). First Paul reminds us that prayer is not simply reading a shopping list of our needs before God. It also includes thanking God for the blessing of life and faith that we enjoy already ("thanksgiving") and lifting up before God all other people and their needs ("supplication"). Much of what passes for Christian prayer is too self-centred. But Christian prayer should be God-centred, just as Jesus taught us to pray in the Lord's prayer. From that prayer we learn the fours components or ACTS of Christian prayer. Christian prayers is made up of A-C-T-S. "A" is for Adoration, in which we praise God for His goodness. "C" is for Contrition, in which we ask forgiveness for our failures. "T" is for Thanksgiving, in which we thank God for blessings received. And "S" is for Supplication, in which we ask God for our needs and the needs of all of God's people.

"And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus" (verse 7).This is what happens when we learn to take all our problems to the Lord in prayer. We trade our stress and worry for peace of mind. It was George Mueller who said that, "The beginning of anxiety is the end of faith, and the beginning of true faith is the end of anxiety."

"Beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honourable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things" (verse 8). The second thing Paul teaches us in this passage is that prayer is more than just praying. Prayer is not just what we do on our knees. It also includes what we think about all day long. Prayer includes what Norman Vincent Peale calls "positive thinking." A person of prayer is a person who thinks always of what is true, honourable, just, pure, pleasing, commendable, excellent, and worthy of praise. Paul does not ask us to spend our days thinking about our needs, our failures or what is wrong with the world, as some of us tend to do.

"Keep on doing the things that you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, and the God of peace will be with you" (verse 9). Finally, prayer involves action. A person of prayer should be a person of action. The formula, as the saints tell us, is to pray fervently as if everything depends on God, and then to act decisively as if everything depends on us. The key to finding peace in a world of stress and distress is not worry but prayer, thinking positively, and doing what is right We start here now in church with prayer, we leave church and continue with positive thoughts, and we follow it up with doing the right thing. That way, the peace of God will be with us.

Words whichs appears beautiful and good deeds: nTwenty Sixth Sunday of the Year (Matthew 21:28-32)

An associate pastor, new to the parish, saw the need to start a Bible study group where people could learn to read the word of God and deepen their faith. After service one morning, he presented the idea to the people and received a unanimous and enthusiastic feedback. "It is a wonderful idea," they all said. Then the young associate pastor went and told the pastor that the people were happy with the idea of starting a Bible class. The older and more experienced pastor told the associate to rephrase the question and consult the people again. The following day the young priest asked the same congregation, "Who would like to sign up for the Bible study group? Only four hands went up. Then it dawned on the young man that saying yes to an idea is one thing and doing what is required is another.

In today's gospel Jesus tells the parable of two sons who say one thing and do another. Asked by the father to go and work in the vineyard the first son said no but later reconsidered his decision and did the work. The second son, on the other hand, courteously said yes to the father but failed to do the work. Who actually did what his father wanted? Clearly it is the first son, the same one who had said no to him.

Jesus told this parable in the temple in Jerusalem just days before they would arrest him and put him to death. For three years he had been preaching to the people, inviting them to repent and believe the Good News. He had discovered that, in fact, it was public sinners like the tax-collectors and prostitutes who responded to his invitation. The religious leaders, the scribes and Pharisees, even after they perceived the divine origin of the message of Jesus, still opposed it rather than believing it. They had greeted John the Baptist with the same attitude. They knew John's teaching was from God but they would not admit it. As Jesus said to them, "even after you saw it, you did not change your minds and believe him" (Matthew 21:32). Religious people are sometimes so bent on proving that they are right that they fail to hear the voice of reason and the voice of God.

The parable likens the tax-collectors and prostitutes to the son who first said no but later did what the father wanted, and the Pharisees and scribes to the son who enthusiastically said yes but did not go. One group has no fine words but they have good deeds. The other group has fine words but no corresponding good deeds. They represent two kinds of people and the different ways they try to relate to God. There are those who have no fine words: like those who profess no faith, who do not go to church, who do not pray. But sometimes when there is injustice in the city they will be the first to rise up and condemn it. When there are people out in the cold they will be the first to donate a blanket. Wherever there is famine or earthquake they will deny themselves a packet of cigarettes to contribute to help the victims. These people have no fine words to say to God or about God but when they do things such as these, they are doing what God has commanded us all to do.

Then there are those of us who have the fine words: who come to church every Sunday and say to God "Amen! We believe." We wear badges and medals as ways of professing our faith. But sometimes when it comes to concrete action in support of what we know to be the will of God, we are found wanting. If we carry on like this, then we should heed the warning that those other folks are going into the kingdom of God ahead of us.

To conclude, we need to point out that today's parable is really the parable of two bad sons. Which of the two boys would you have as an ideal son: the one who bluntly says no to his father's face or the one who says yes and does not follow up on it? The answer is none of the above. Ideal sons and daughters are those who say yes to their parents and then go on to do what is commanded. This is what we should aim to be -- men and women who profess our faith in word and deed - knowing that "Not all those who say to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but those who do the will of my Father who is in heaven" (Matthew 7:21).