Twenty Third Sunday of the Year: Hating Those We Love (Luke 14:25-33)

We know the old commandment, “Honour your father and your mother” (Exodus 20:12). We know the new commandment of Jesus, “Love one another; even as I have loved you” (John 13:34). And we come here today and we hear these words of Jesus: “Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:26). How can we reconcile these seemingly contradictory demands? How can we “hate” those we are supposed to love? And, more importantly, why?

The paradox of hating those we love was dramatized in a most fascinating way on Saturday, September 8, 2001 in the women’s finals of the US Open tennis tournament in Flushing, New York. For the first time in the history of the tournament, the world watched a sportive and emotional roller-coaster as two sisters who love themselves so much that they live in the same house and share the same hotel room fought each other. Could you imagine what was going on in the minds of Venus and Serena Williams as they battled and slugged it out against each other, suspending their love for each other and at least temporarily “hating” each other? They had to “hate” each other because the one was standing in the way of the other becoming the world champion. The one was an obstacle to the realization of the other’s dream to wear the world crown. And so they had to hate and fight each other.

Venus won. But she did not do her usual victory leap and celebratory display. Instead she ran to the net, put an arm around her defeated junior sister’s shoulder and said, “I love you.” Why did she say that? Because the game is over now and her sister is no longer an obstacle in the way of her victory. She said, in other words, “I am sorry, but I had to do it: I had to fight you so hard, I had to “hate” you because you were standing in my way. But I still love you.” That was a rare example of hating those we love, and from it we can learn much about the injunction to “hate” our loved ones.

Ordinarily Venus loves Serena, except when Serena becomes an obstacle that could prevent her from realising her ambition to win the crown. Similarly we are lo love our parents and siblings and spouses, and indeed everyone else, except when they become obstacles in our bid to win the crown of eternal life. The crown of heavenly glory that the Father gives us is worth much more than the ephemeral crown that Venus won on that day. So we should be prepared to wage an uncompromising war to see that no person or thing stands in our way to make us lose the crown. Possessions constitute a formidable obstacle in many people’s bid for the crown of salvation. That is why Jesus concludes today’s gospel with these words: “So therefore, none of you can become my disciple if you do not give up all your possessions” (v. 33).

Jesus implies that to be his disciple is to relativize every other thing in life: family or wealth, prosperity or health, pleasure or fame. He means that on the list of our goals and priorities in life, attaining the kingdom of God must come first and then everything else will follow. It is a matter of life and death. And the examples he gives to illustrate the seriousness of his teaching come from the field of war.

The first illustration is that of the man who intends to build a tower. The tower in the ancient world was basically a strategic structure for the defence of the city in time of war. The second illustration is that of the king marching out to war. Notice that the king has only 10,000 troops whereas the enemy has 20,000. Identifying ourselves with the king in the parable, we can see that the enemy outnumbers us two to one. “For our struggle is not against enemies of blood and flesh, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 6:12). We are bound to fail unless we appeal to a stronger king to come to our assistance. And that powerful king, the King of kings, is none other than God Himself.

Today’s gospel, therefore, shows us how absolute and how radical are the demands of discipleship. Following Jesus is much harder than winning the US Open. The good news is that Jesus recognises our human weaknesses: we are 10,000 strong and the enemy is 20,000. It is, therefore, an invitation for us to have recourse to God, for without God we can do nothing.

Twenty Third Sunday of the Year: No Longer Slave but Brother (Philemon 9-10, 12-17)

In the days of institutionalized slavery in the United States of America, the slaves devised an intricate network of roads, pathways and secret contacts for escaping known as the Underground Railroad. The Underground Railroad was an arduous and very risky venture, but it took successful runaway slaves to freedom in the Free States and Canada. Can you imagine slaves risking their lives in a daring escape to freedom in Canada only to be sent back to their former slave owners from whom they had just escaped? And yet this is apparently what Paul is doing to the runaway slave Onesimus in the second reading. Paul has been criticised for condoning slavery. He teaches that people should remain in the same social condition in which God called them and that slaves should not seek their freedom (1 Corinthians 7:20-21). Yet the same Paul says that “There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28). What can we make of Paul’s teaching on slavery?

Our first observation is that Paul is not interested in human or social values for their own sake. For him the only thing that matters is to be in Christ. You remember the story of the slaves being loaded off the slave ship, naked and in chains, and a Christian minister sprinkling them with holy water and baptizing them as they disembark. For this minister, being in chains does not really matter, what matters is being baptized and saving one’s soul. We have come a long way from that position. Today we know that freedom and human rights are of value in themselves, whether the people affected are Christians or not. Today we are aware of human rights and values which should be defended for everyone irrespective of their religious affiliation. Today the church has a social gospel in addition to the traditional spiritual gospel.

Paul’s gospel, however, was a spiritual gospel. It is good news addressed not to the whole of humanity but to those who are in Christ Jesus. In Christ, social status does not matter, it does not count. In Christ there is no longer Jew or Greek, slave or free, male or female, since in Christ everybody is equal. Those outside of Christ do not share in this equality. Paul appeals to Philemon to receive Onesimus back “no longer as a slave but more than a slave, a beloved brother” (verse 16) not because slavery is morally wrong, not because a Christian should not keep slaves, but because a Christian cannot keep a fellow Christian, a brother or sister of equal standing before God, as a slave. Later, as Christians began to realise that what is good for the goose is good for the gander, that what is good for Christians is also good for non-Christians, they would begin the campaign to abolish slavery from the face of the earth.

As Christians in the 21^st century reading a personal letter that Paul wrote 2,000 years ago, what good news do we find in it? How does it challenge us?

Paul’s Letter to Philemon reminds us that as Christians we need to have higher standards of moral behaviour among us than what obtains in the society at large. If it is true that among us “There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28), then we need to have more egalitarian structures in Christian communities and churches than what obtains in the wider society. Our oneness in Christ should come before our differences of age, race, gender, and social status in such a way that non-Christians seeing the way we live can say, “See how much they love one another.

Secondly, Paul’s Letter to Philemon is a sad reminder to us that even Paul did not have all the answers. As a church, Jesus promised us that the Holy Spirit will guide us into all the truth (John 16:13). The Spirit has led us to see that the gospel of Christ is for the total liberation of the whole person, body and soul, social and spiritual. Let us pray today that we may be more keenly aware of the abuses of human rights that are going on in our homes, in our communities and in our world.

Twenty Second Sunday of the Year: Preferential Option for the Poor (Luke 14:1, 7-14).

Joseph de Veuster was a Belgian missionary priest working among the islanders of Honolulu. His bishop had trouble finding a priest to work in the leper settlement of Molokai. Joseph, better known as Father Damien, volunteered to go and work in the "living graveyard that was Molokai." His solidarity with the lepers was so complete that he contracted the disease himself and died at the age of forty-nine in service to the poorest and most abandoned. Some of his contemporaries accused him of imprudence and foolhardiness. Today, however, he is recognised worldwide as a hero of the faith: Damien the Leper.

Father Damien made a total life commitment to the poor long before the church recognised the preferential option for the poor as a pillar of the church's social teaching. The Gospels teach us that as Christians we should give priority to the poor in the way we administer and dispense our resources. This is what we see in today's gospel reading. Some people see today's gospel as Jesus teaching table etiquette and good manners in choosing seats when invited to a dinner. But when we try to read it through the eyes of the early Christians whose assembly was mainly to share in the feast of the Eucharist, we begin to see that there is much more than etiquette involved here. Jesus is teaching the basic Christian virtues of humility and solidarity with the poor. And he does this in two stages using two parables.

The first parable, on the One Invited to the Wedding Feast (verses 7-11), is addressed to Christians as those who are invited to the feast of the Lord's supper. Irrespective of social status and importance we come to the Eucharist as brothers and sisters of equal standing before God. This is the only place where employer and employee relationship, master and servant distinctions dissolve and we recognise one another simply as brothers and sisters in the Lord, as together we call God "Our Father." The Letter of James reports and condemns a situation where Christians "make distinctions" in the Christian assembly:

If a person with gold rings and in fine clothes comes into your assembly, and if a poor person in dirty clothes also comes in, and if you take notice of the one wearing the fine clothes and say, "Have a seat here, please," while to the one who is poor you say, "Stand there," or, "Sit at my feet," have you not made distinctions among yourselves? (James 2:2-4).

Jesus is challenging his followers to abolish the rich-poor distinction among them and to recognise and treat one another as brothers and sisters of equal standing before God. "For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted" (Luke 14:11)

The second parable, on the One Giving a Great Dinner (verses 12-14), is addressed to Christians as those who invite others to the feast of the Lord's supper.

When you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbours, in case they may invite you in return, and you would be repaid. But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind (verses 12-13).

In this second part of his teaching Jesus goes beyond levelling out the distinctions and calls for a preferential treatment of the poor and the disabled among us. He calls for affirmative action. Give the preference to the poor and the handicapped. A chain is only as strong as its weakest point. That is why priority of attention is to be given to the weakest link in the chain. It is in the best interest of the entire chain. It is in the best interest of the Christian community to give priority to the poor and disabled in our distribution of resources.

Does our parish community measure up to the criterion of preferential option for the poor? Do we consider wheel-chair access to our churches to serve “the crippled and the lame” a priority? What about providing sign-language translation in our services for the benefit of “the deaf” and braille Bibles and prayer books for “the blind.” This is what it means to "invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind" (Luke 14:13).

Twenty Second Sunday of the Year: The New Covenant Worship (Hebrews 12:18-19, 22-24)

In a certain community of priests the daily celebration of Holy Mass is an occasion for petty bickering. At the “I confess to Almighty God,” half of the community says “and to you my brothers and sisters” as in the missal. The other half looks round and seeing that there is no woman in attendance, says “and to you my brothers.” Should a woman be in attendance they say, “and to you my brothers and sister.” Why mention sisters when there are no women present, they argue. Yet, properly understood, Christian worship always includes more than eye can see.

In the past we regarded Hebrews as one of the Letters of Paul. Today, it is generally believed (a) that Hebrews was not written by Paul, and (b) that is not a letter written to people who are absent from the writer but a sermon delivered to believers gathered in worship. With this understanding, today’s second reading from Hebrews 12:18-24 can be seen as an attempt by the preacher to give the congregation a better understanding of the mystery we walk into when we attend Christian worship. There are two parts to the reading. The first part begins in verse 18 “You have not come to …” and the second part begins in verse 22 “But you have come to …”

First the preacher tries to correct a wrong impression that some people in the church have about Christian worship.

You have not come to something that can be touched, a blazing fire, and darkness, and gloom [that can be seen], and a tempest, and the sound of a trumpet, and a voice [that can be heard] whose words made the hearers beg that not another word be spoken to them (12:18-19).

These observable things were signs of God’s presence with His people in the Old covenant worship on Mount Sinai. They can all be perceived by the senses of sight, sound and touch. The grandeur of the worship was measured by its audio, visual and emotional effect. According to the preacher, this is not what we gather for when we assemble for Christian worship.

When we gather in worship, the preacher then goes on to teach, we participate in a seven-fold spiritual reality.

You have come (1) to Mount Zion, the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, (2) to innumerable angels in festal gathering, (3) to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven [that is, fellow believers who are alive and worshipping with us], (4) to God the judge of all, (5) to the spirits of the righteous made perfect [believers who are dead, whose souls are now with God], (6) to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, (7) and to the sprinkled blood [of Christ] that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel (12:22-24).

We can see that what we have come to are spiritual things, as opposed to those things that we have not come to, which are things perceivable by the senses. To appreciate and participate meaningfully in Christian worship what we need above all is not eyes or ears or feelings but faith. Secondly, the things we have not come to have to do with things, whereas what we have come to has to do with persons: God, Christ, angels, spirits, and fellow believers. We come not to experience some-thing but to fellowship with some-one: God together with all who belong to Him. Communion is not something we receive into ourselves, communion is something we do with others: fellowship with God, God’s angels, and our fellow believers, living and dead.

Do you perhaps know some brothers or sisters in Christ who complain that they get nothing out of the church service because the singing is dull and the preaching boring? Maybe you should tell them that next time they come, they should bring more faith than eyes or ears. The good music and the good preaching we hear, the altar decorations and the flowers we see, these can contribute to our appreciation of the worship, but the most important thing we need to have a great worship is faith.

Twenty First Sunday of the Year: Where is the Soul of Princess Diana? ( On the Gospel)

On August 31, 1998, the first anniversary of the death of Princess Diana, many papers came out with the headline "Where is the Soul of Princess Diana." They were reporting the story that some women in England had withdrawn their children from an Evangelical Sunday school because the Sunday school teachers were teaching the kids that the soul of Princess Diana was in hell, whereas the women had already told their children that the soul of the Princess was in heaven. As a result, the question, "Where is the soul of Princess Diana?" became an issue. A popular radio station in Toronto went as far as to interview the Archdeacon of the Anglican Diocese to find out exactly the whereabouts of Princess Diana's soul.
How would Jesus have answered such a question? Suppose Jesus was on earth today and a reporter went to him and asked him, "Where is Princess Diana's soul?" what would be his answer? I think Jesus would look the reporter in the eye and tell him or her, "Try and save your own soul now that you still have the chance."
This is exactly what is happening in today's gospel. Jesus is going through the towns and villages teaching and making his way to Jerusalem. Someone interrupts him and asks, "Lord, will only a few be saved?"(Luke 13:33). What does Jesus answer? "My friend, strive to enter through the narrow door; for many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able" (verse 24). We see that Jesus is not really answering the man's question: "Will only a few be saved?" In fact he is answering a more important question, "How can I be saved?"
As far as the important question of our salvation is concerned, there are two kinds of questions we could ask. We could ask curiosity questions aimed at obtaining information, facts and figures that do not affect our salvation one way or the other. Or we could ask a relevant question, which is a sincere quest for the truth that leads to salvation. Go through the gospels and you will find that Jesus has no time for questions of curiosity. In fact whenever someone asks a question of mere curiosity he does not answer it but uses the occasion to answer the relevant question that such a person should be asking. "Lord, will only a few be saved?" is a typical question of curiosity. If you know the answer, how will it affect your salvation one way or the other? So Jesus switches the question around, to one that is relevant for salvation and responds to the inquirer, "Strive to enter through the narrow door..."
Curiosity questions have a special appeal to the mass media and to popular imagination. When will the world come to an end? When is Armageddon coming? Who is the Anti-Christ? What is 666, the mark of the Anti-Christ? What will be the rapture? I want you to see that these are all questions of curiosity. Jesus does not answer such questions. Just before his Ascension his disciples asked him, "Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?" How did he reply? "It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." (Acts 1:6-8).
On a lighter mood, an open-air evangelist, preaching on today's gospel text was warning his congregation about the eternal damnation. "On the day of Judgment," he said, "there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth." An old woman in the crowd had a problem, "Look preacher, but I got no teeth!" "Never mind, Madam" says the preacher, "teeth will be provided." A curious question indeed!
So you see, it is a waste of breath to ask, "Where is the soul of Princess Diana?" It is a good example of a question of curiosity. Rather we should be asking questions of personal importance like, "What do I need to do to be saved? How can I serve G od better in my present situation in life? How can I make use of the opportunities God gives me here and now for my eternal salvation?" Let us take a moment and ask ourselves some of these relevant questions today.

Twenty First Sunday of the Year: Prepaid fro Glory (On the Epistle)

The credit card is a great invention. With just a plastic card one can go into a shop and buy whatever one wants - a dress, a pair of shoes, grocery, a television set, and even a car - take it home and begin to enjoy it, all with just a promise to pay later, as money becomes available. It is a wonderful system that could be a lifesaver to someone in temporary financial crisis. But the credit card system can create in people the mentality of "have it now and pay later," which does not work in life generally. In the real life, most of the goods that come to us are prepaid. To pass your exams, you have to study beforehand. You cannot pass your exams now with a promise to complete the required courses later. To win a football match, the team must practice hard before the match, not after. Most goods and blessings that come to us in life are prepaid.
Discipline is the name we give to the necessary hard work and self-denial that people endure in order to prepay for a future reward. Discipline, as everyone knows, can be a very painful experience, but those who succeed after going through the rigour of discipline usually look back and agree that it was worth it. As today's second reading from the Letter to the Hebrews says, "discipline always seems painful rather than pleasant at the time, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it" (Hebrews 12:11).
Wise parents raise their children with discipline. With discipline children are helped to cultivate good habits, such as, early to bed and early to rise, brushing their teeth and taking a shower, cleaning their rooms and helping out in the kitchen. With discipline children learn how to join the in the family meal rather than watch television all the time, how to make time to do their homework rather than browsing the internet all night long. At the time, they may object and think that their parents are harsh, but later in life, when they begin to reap the rewards of a disciplined life, they will thank their parents for inculcating some discipline into them,
Our second reading today compares God to good parents who discipline their children out of the love they have for them.

My child, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, or lose heart when you are punished by him; 6 for the Lord disciplines those whom he loves, and chastises every child whom he accepts. 7 Endure trials for the sake of discipline. God is treating you as children; for what child is there whom a parent does not discipline? (Hebrews 12:5-7)

What discipline are we talking about here? For the early Christians it was the discipline of enduring the persecution, in which they were expected to remain steadfast in confessing their faith in Christ in the face of false accusations, torture and a painful death. This is seen as a discipline because it is a temporary pain and suffering that leads to eternal life, peace and happiness with God forever. For us today, our discipline could be the courage to speak the truth, to do what is right, and to keep the commandments of God, even when it is no longer fashionable to do so. Such a discipline will be inconvenient momentarily. It may cost us our friends, our jobs and some financial gain, in the short run. In the long run, however, it brings us the rewards of joy, peace and the contentment of a good conscience both in this life and in the world to come.
The passage ends by strongly urging believers to brace themselves up and overcome the disease of spiritual laziness that affects us all: "Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, 13 and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint, but rather be healed" (Hebrews 12:12-13). Why are many of us nominal and lukewarm Christians? Because we are hesitant to submit ourselves to God's discipline. Let us today resolve to take upon ourselves the yoke of God's discipline, knowing that God has given it to us out of love and that this is the only way to make ourselves worthy of the future glory that our heavenly and loving Father has graciously reserved for His faithful children.

Twentieth Sunday of the Year: The Holy War Preach by Jesus

The new millennium has witnessed and continues to witness much violence. Hardly any day passes that we do not hear the sad news of violent aggression and brutality unleashed against innocent people somewhere around the world. To make matters worse, perpetrators of these acts of violence often try to justify these atrocities by claiming that they are fighting a holy war in God’s name. Think of the crusades, the Taliban in Afghanistan, Al Qaeda in Iraq, and the Lord’s Resistance Army in Uganda. Today’s readings are indeed a call to war: not a war against other people but a war against sin and corruption; not a war against people we perceive as evil, but a war against the evil one, the devil. Let us listen to these words of Jesus:

Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division! From now on five in one household will be divided, three against two and two against three; they will be divided: father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law. (Luke 12:51-53)

Scholars tell us that Jesus is speaking here not about the purpose of his coming but about the inevitable consequence of his coming. Jesus came to reveal the true sons and daughters of God who listen to God’s word, and the children of this world who oppose God design. This divides all humankind into two camps, the camp of the godly and the camp of the ungodly. There is perpetual conflict, a state of war, between these two groups as one group strives to raise the world up to God and the other to pull it down to hell. These two groups do not live in two different parts of the world, they live side by side in the same neighbourhood, they live together under the same roof, and in fact the forces of good and evil often exist together in the same person.
The holy war to which Christ calls us, therefore, is not a war against people of certain nationalities or cultures, creeds or ideologies, but a war in which we first have to identify the forces for evil in our own persons and in the persons of those who are dear to us (father, son, mother, daughter, mother-in-law, daughter-in-law) and then declare an uncompromising war against these forces.
What are some of these evil forces that we are asked to war against? Well, why don’t we start with the Seven Deadly Sins: Pride (superiority complex), Covetousness (greed, seeking material prosperity at the expense of one’s soul), Lust (sexual abuse of minors, pornography, treating women as objects of pleasure), Anger (bitterness, hate, bearing grudges), Gluttony (excessive eating and drinking), Envy (self hate, rivalry), Sloth (seeking success without working for it). To these we can add the mother of all evils, injustice. If we declare war against these then we are fighting a holy war.
If we are at war then we should be prepared for some roughness. The enemy is also fighting against us and we may have to suffer some harm or hardship. Jeremiah in the first reading was fighting a holy war against the false prophets who prophesied only what the king and his officials wanted to hear. But Jeremiah stuck to the truth. And where did he end up? In a well of mud. But God sent a foreigner, an Ethiopian to come and save him. God never abandons His people. Jesus, our leader in God’s holy war did not escape the suffering and death on the cross. But on the third day God raised him to life victorious. God never abandons his people. He will not abandon us if we fight His holy war — the war against evil in ourselves and in the world.
With this thought that God never abandons his own, the author of Hebrews encourages us in the second reading to not grow weary or lose heart. We shall close with his words of advice:

Consider him who endured such hostility against himself from sinners, so that you may not grow weary or lose heart. In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. (Hebrews 12:3-4)