Do You Believe?

Twenty-sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time 29 September 2019
First reading Amos 6:1, 4-7

Alas for those who are at ease in Zion, and for those who feel secure on Mount Samaria.

Alas for those who lie on beds of ivory, and lounge on their couches, and eat lambs from the flock, and calves from the stall; who sing idle songs to the sound of the harp, and like David improvise on instruments of music; who drink wine from bowls, and anoint themselves with the finest oils, but are not grieved over the ruin of Joseph! Therefore they shall now be the first to go into exile, and the revelry of the loungers shall pass away.

Second reading                                                          1 Timothy 6:11-16

As for you, man of God, shun all this; pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, gentleness. Fight the good fight of the faith; take hold of the eternal life, to which you were called and for which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.

In the presence of God, who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus, who in his testimony before Pontius Pilate made the good confession, I charge you to keep the commandment without spot or blame until the manifestation of our Lord Jesus Christ, which he will bring about at the right time-he who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords. It is he alone who has immortality and dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see; to him be honour and eternal dominion. Amen.

Gospel                                                                          Luke 16:19-31

(Jesus said to the Pharisees):
“There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. And at his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, who longed to satisfy his hunger with what fell from the rich man’s table; even the dogs would come and lick his sores. The poor man died and was carried away by the angels to be with Abraham. The rich man also died and was buried.

In Hades, where he was being tormented, he looked up and saw Abraham far away with Lazarus by his side. He called out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am in agony in these flames.’ But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that during your lifetime you received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner evil things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in agony. Besides all this, between you and us a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who might want to pass from here to you cannot do so, and no one can cross from there to us.’

He said, ‘Then, father, I beg you to send him to my father’s house- for I have five brothers-that he may warn them, so that they will not also come into this place of torment.’ Abraham replied, ‘They have Moses and the prophets; they should listen to them.’ He said, ‘No, father Abraham; but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ He said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.'”

Reflection

By Benj Santiago

“If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced if some one should rise from the dead.”

About 2000 years later, billions of people still do not believe in God that we Catholics believe in. Even in Jerusalem where the Lord Jesus was born, a lot of people there remained in unbelief that Jesus is the Messiah. That He is the Son of God!

I thank God that I was born and has been raised to believe in God, and that Jesus is Lord. I believe because God does not impose, or force everyone to believe Him. He allows the unbeliever to experience Him in a personal way. 

In moments of unbelief, do not harden your hearts! Listen to God's gentle voice calling you.

Prayer

Heavenly Father, we thank You for the grace and wisdom to believe that Jesus is your Only Son. That He is our Savior. We thank You Father for the gift of faith in You! We ask You to make us a beacon of light that others might believe in You too! We ask this in Jesus' mighty name, Amen. 

THE LAW OF THE HARVEST

 

“ God will not hear our prayers unless we acknowledge ourselves to be sinners. We do this when we ponder on our own sins alone, and not on those of our neighbor. “ - St. Moses the Ethiopian

First Reading: Ezekiel 17: 22 – 24

Thus says the Lord GOD: "I myself will take a sprig from the lofty top of the cedar, and will set it out; I will break off from the topmost of its young twigs a tender one, and I myself will plant it upon a high and lofty mountain;

on the mountain height of Israel will I plant it, that it may bring forth boughs and bear fruit, and become a noble cedar; and under it will dwell all kinds of beasts; in the shade of its branches birds of every sort will nest.

And all the trees of the field shall know that I the LORD bring low the high tree, and make high the low tree, dry up the green tree, and make the dry tree flourish. I the LORD have spoken, and I will do it."

Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 92:2-3, 13-16

Second Reading: 2 Corinthians 5: 6 - 10

So we are always of good courage; we know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord, for we walk by faith, not by sight. We are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord.

So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive good or evil, according to what he has done in the body.

Gospel: Mark 4: 26 – 34

And he said, "The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed upon the ground, and should sleep and rise night and day, and the seed should sprout and grow, he knows not how. The earth produces of itself, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. But when the grain is ripe, at once he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come." And he said, "With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable shall we use for it?

It is like a grain of mustard seed, which, when sown upon the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth; yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes the greatest of all shrubs, and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade." With many such parables he spoke the word to them, as they were able to hear it; he did not speak to them without a parable, but privately to his own disciples he explained everything.

Reflection

By: Gharri Tulabut

Have you ever been in a situation when you were so helpless you cannot defend your beliefs against detractors from other faiths? I did. And it was very frustrating!

We can cite many reasons why we Catholics lack deep understanding of our faith. I used to blame the clergy for not exerting extra time to really engage us in study of the Bible. A twenty-minute homily per week seemed to be enough for them and leave everything up to catechists and religion teachers. Oh, how I used to envy born-again Christians who have their regular Bible studies and Sunday school. Some blame their parents for not bringing them to Church early in their lives. Some even blame the Bible itself for being not so straight forward and open to many different interpretations.

But because of the many frustrations I had in not being able to defend my faith, I started to search. I read many devotional and apologist books, joined fellowship groups and Bible studies, subscribed to Catholic magazine, attended seminars, conventions, and conferences, and optimized the use of internet to improve my knowledge of our faith. Most of all, I stopped blaming others but myself. And that was the for me to make efforts to improve my knowledge about our faith, little by little each time.

Now, though I am still very far from being an apologist or expert, there are times that I am surprised when I am able to explain certain things about our faith to my nephews and nieces and even to some of my friends. I know that with the desire to improve, God will intervene and help us increase our wisdom. As mentioned in Wis 6:12, “by those who love wisdom, it is readily seen, by those who seek wisdom, it is readily found.”

I think this is also true in other aspects of life, may it be our finances, our profession or our relationships. We cannot change things over night. But with the little consistent efforts we can accomplish our goals. Some call this the law of the harvest. Whatever you plant no matter how small, you will have harvest in the future.  Even our faith, though as small as a mustard seed, may become the largest of trees.

Prayer

Thank you Holy Spirit for the gift of wisdom! May we continue to improve our understanding of our faith so that we may be able to spread the branches of Good News to the world, Amen!

Whoever Loves the Most Makes the First Move

The Baptism of the Lord
10 January 2010


Come, let us worship Christ, the beloved Son, in whom the Father is well pleased.

First reading Isaiah 42:1-4,6-7
Thus says the Lord:
Here is my servant whom I uphold,
my chosen one in whom my soul delights.
I have endowed him with my spirit
that he may bring true justice to the nations.
He does not cry out or shout aloud,
or make his voice heard in the streets.
He does not break the crushed reed,
nor quench the wavering flame.
Faithfully he brings true justice;
he will neither waver, nor be crushed
until true justice is established on earth,
for the islands are awaiting his law.
I, the Lord, have called you to serve the cause of right;
I have taken you by the hand and formed you;
I have appointed you as covenant of the people and light of the nations,
to open the eyes of the blind,
to free captives from prison,
and those who live in darkness from the dungeon.

Psalm or canticle: Psalm 103:1-4,24-25,27-30

Second reading Acts 10:34-38
Peter addressed Cornelius and his household: ‘The truth I have now come to realise’ he said ‘is that God does not have favourites, but that anybody of any nationality who fears God and does what is right is acceptable to him.
‘It is true, God sent his word to the people of Israel, and it was to them that the good news of peace was brought by Jesus Christ – but Jesus Christ is Lord of all men. You must have heard about the recent happenings in Judaea; about Jesus of Nazareth and how he began in Galilee, after John had been preaching baptism. God had anointed him with the Holy Spirit and with power, and because God was with him, Jesus went about doing good and curing all who had fallen into the power of the devil.’

Gospel Luke 3:15-16,21-22
A feeling of expectancy had grown among the people, who were beginning to think that John might be the Christ, so John declared before them all, ‘I baptise you with water, but someone is coming, someone who is more powerful than I am, and I am not fit to undo the strap of his sandals; he will baptise you with the Holy Spirit and fire. Now when all the people had been baptised and while Jesus after his own baptism was at prayer, heaven opened and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily shape, like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, ‘You are my Son, the Beloved; my favour rests on you.’


Reflection
By Gharri Tulabut

As we celebrate The Baptism of the Lord this Sunday, I would like share a Catholic Apologist’s simple explanation of why we Catholics baptize infants. This is in reply to a question posted at the Catholic Answers Forum of Catholic.com.


Q: Why should Catholic babies be baptized?

A: Children don’t have to understand the significance of the sacrament of Baptism to benefit from it. This sacrament’s great value lies in what it does to the soul by bestowing on it sanctifying grace which makes us co-heirs of heaven with Christ. Through Baptism the life of Jesus becomes our own. This means that we are raised to the level of the divine, which we could never achieve on our own.

We don’t wait for children to understand the value of vitamins before we give them vitamins. Why would we ever want to wait to give them the greatest gift possible—life in Christ?

- Fr. Vincent Serpa, O.P. (http://forums.catholic.com/showpost.php?p=2632501&postcount=2)

There are so many less important things infants don't even need or understand (e.g. – first birthday party, branded clothes, even jewelry) but we grant these to them. Why not give them the most important gift of all?

There was one baptismal rite I attended as a substitute godfather. The presiding priest had this to say during the ceremony as if also to answer why Catholics baptize infants:


Priest: Does this baby know Jesus? Not yet.

Does Jesus know this baby? Of course, yes.

Do the parents know Jesus? Yes, I hope so.

Does this baby love Jesus? Probably not yet.

Does Jesus love this baby? Well, of course.

Do the parents love Jesus and the baby?

Parents: Yes!!! (this is the only time the parents answered)

Priest: Then whoever loves the most makes the first move.


Very applicable… not just in baptism.

Father, Thank You for Your love beyond compare! And thank You for giving us the greatest gift of all – a life in Christ. Amen.


Next week on God-speak Doing My Father's Affairs