TWENTY SEVENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

“Therefore, I say to you “the kingdom of God will be taken away from you andgiven to a people that will produce its fruit”

Mt. 21, 33-43

Rev. Alexander Diaz

We are celebrating the twenty-seventh Sunday in ordinary time, Jesus keeps on explaining to us the Kingdom of God thru parables, thru those parables, He wants us to have knowledge of the truth.

This Sunday’s parable is known as the “homicidal tenants”, the Lord resumes the history of salvation. He compares Israel to a chosen vineyard, with a hedge around it, with a wine press in it, and a high watch tower, where the guard in charge of protecting it will stand. God had spared no effort cultivating and beautifying His vineyard.

He has given us all the resources, so we can work and develop this vineyard to the maximum. Each of the elements with which the Lord has prepared this vineyard has its own significance: the servants, sent to the vineyard by the Lord, are the Prophets, that throughout history have been responsible to announce the good news to the people.

They were charged to ensure that the people increase their knowledge and be aware of the graces God was bestowing and providing on the vineyard. To denounce to the people their small appreciation without the vision of all the graces that were given to them by the Lord.

The Son is Jesus, killed outside the walls of Jerusalem, let us remembered, He was crucified on the Golgota, outside of the great city, condemned with scorn and hate by the tenants of the vineyard, who are the unfaithful Jews, the Scribes and Pharisees, who thought themselves owners of the temple and the religion at that time. Hence, forgetting that they had their positions by the mercy and grace of God, the creator and Lord of all.

The other people, who will become tenants of the vineyard were the pagans, non-Jewish people. They were looked down at, seeing with disdain and despised by the authorities of the time. They were, after all, the ones who really listened and practiced the teachings of Jesus. The absence of the owner shows us, that God really confided His vineyard to Israel and its leaders. From there comes the responsibility of these leaders and the demands of the owner to be accountable, hence the reason He sends His servants to obtain His produce.

Again He sends more servants, more numerous than the first ones, to claim what was justly owned Him, but they have the same fate as the first group. This is in reference to the ill-treatment infringed, given to God’s prophets by the kings and high priests of Israel.

St Matthew tells us in the Gospel passage that: “the high priests and the Pharisees, upon hearing the parables understood He was referring to them”. Finally, the owner sends His own Son, thinking they were going to listen and respect Him. But when the tenants saw the Son, they said to one another: “This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and acquire His inheritance”. That was the despicable plan of the leaders of the Sinagogue, blinded by ambition and selfishness, they planned to become the owners of Israel by killing Jesus.

For us, Christians of this time and all times, this parable is an exhortation for us to be more faithful to Christ. Then we won’t reoffend God with the same offenses of the Jews in the parable.

We should be aware of the gifts that God gives us. This Sunday ‘s gospel invite us to reflect on the time and the gifts that God has given us throughout our lives. Sometimes we become aware that our life is passing by and when we try to add the fruits we have given out for the good of the world, the Church and the souls, we end up with very poor and rickety results.

¿What happened? ¿Have we used our intelligence, our will and the gifts we have received? ¿Have we lived like an abandoned vineyard without realizing that our mission was to produce sweet grapes? ¿Or have we lived like the tenants of the vineyard, worrying about ourselves and not of the love that the vineyard owner felt?

Times keeps passing on, while there is life, there is hope for true conversion, for real transformation. ¿How many people when confronted by Mother Theresa and taken to her house in Calcuta, discovered in those poor dying men and women, that they had to and were supposed to do something with their lives? Let us not wait until tomorrow to discover this in our own lives.

God expects a lot from us. We are His vineyard, His favorite vineyard, and He is happy and glorified when we produce lots of fruits. The fruits are in relation to our meekness and docility to the actions of God.

Therefore, to give good fruits it is necessary to be meek to the plans of God. Each one of us has his/her own vocation and have been situated in the precise place in the Church, we are where we are supposed to be. Each one of us therefore, has a personal and not transferable mission.

We are not to carry out our mission any way we want or according to our whim. Our fruitful and spiritual success is based on our obedience to God’s plan, as we can see it in the lives of all the Saints.

The secret is based on our identification with the obedient Christ, who suffers and gives His life for the rescue and the salvation of all men and women. The spiritual fertility always goes thru the cross and the pain. Whoever wants to be fruitful running away from this law of salvation is mistaken, and one day will end up bitterly disappointed.

“Without the shedding of the blood, there will be no redemption.” AMEN!!

TWENTY-FOURTH SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME

“¿Lord, if my brother sins against me, how often must I forgive?”

Mt. 18, 21-35

Rev. Alexander Diaz

This Sunday’s gospel is challenging and to a certain extent, hard to apply to our own lives, because it touches one of the most vulnerable and difficult parts to understand.  To forgive is not easy, because it means, closing a wound without asking for an explanation. Forgiveness is one of the most crazy inventions of God, it is difficult to understand, accept and apply. 

Peter had a very hard time understanding it and in order to feel better, he goes to the Teacher and asked, in order to clarify his confusion: “¿Lord, if my brother sins against me, how often must I forgive?   ¿As many as seven times?”  Jesus answered:  “I say to you, not seven times but seventy-seven time” (Mt. 18,21-22)

In other words, always.  It will be necessary a great interior change, in order for this forgiveness to take place.  First to be able to understand it.  Then, to apply it even in circumstances where it is natural and fair to feel hate and vengeance.  And afterwards, to ask the strength to live above contradictory feelings. 

To love the one who loves us it’s common and very easy to carry on, it is to do good to whomever does us good, every human being does that, more or less. But the follower of Christ has to live a more superior love.  He must love also when he is insulted and persecuted. He must forgive, a very difficult element to accept because our fragile human nature will not accept it.  

When Peter talks about seven times, is using the number of spiritual perfection.  Jesus answered seventy times seven, which means that we are to forgive all the time, always, as long as the person who offends you is in a disposition of being forgiven.  Jesus speaks to us in an explicit way, He tells us that we are not to keep an account of how many times we have forgiven. It does not pay to keep an account of how many times we have been insulted or offended. 

What is  gained by doing that?  What we can gain is to live a bitter existence, to sink deeper in our hateful misery, our desperation and bitterness. If God should keep count of our offenses, we all will be lost, because we offend Him constantly and excessively.  Therefore, we should erase from our memory the many times we have forgiven and the many times we have been offended or insulted. 

Mother Theresa used to say: “To forgive is a decision, not a feeling, because when we forgive we don’t feel the offense anymore, we don’t feel any resentment. Forgive because by forgiving your soul will be at peace and the soul of the one who insulted you will be at peace also.” To forgive from the heart is a huge challenge that man has. To forgive as we are forgiven. Only the one who realizes what sin really is, an offense to God; who sees sin as an authentic mystery of iniquety,  can perceive the greatness of God, who forgives and learns the difficult and divine way to love.

“Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us” we pray daily, probably many times during the day.  The Lord awaits this generosity that will make us look like Him.  Because if you forgive others their trespasses, also your celestial Father will forgive you. 

This disposition is part of the norm frequently confirmed by our Lord throughout the entire gospel.  Absolve and you will be absolved.  Give and it shall be given to you. The measure you use for others is the same one that will be used for you.  

Jesus invites us to acquire the habit to forgive as God forgives us. The Lord came to give heart to human forgiveness, from there, from the heart, is from the place where we will understand the parable that we have just heard.   In order to forgive, we should have in mind certain elements:

     - To forgive and be merciful towards the one who offended or insulted us

     - To forgive ourselves

     - We are a reflection of God’s forgiveness for our brothers and sister and for ourselves.

For Christian forgiveness it is important to be conscious that we are forgiven by God, since forgiveness really acquire real  meaning when you see it through the eye of God and from His divine dimension, without it, it turns to be a simple false and without meaning. 

Only the one who forgives his fellow-man can await the forgiveness of God, this is what Jesus tells us in today’s gospel, hence every sin we commit against Him, is a huge fault.   To summarize, we have to forgive from our hearts.  God looks at the heart, where sin forges,  it is also where forgiveness should be forge.

AMEN!!

TWENTY-SECOND SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

“Whoever wishes to come after me, must deny himself”

(Mt. 16,21-27)

Rev. Alexander Diaz

Today’s gospel is a direct continuation of last week’s, it shows us a Peter that turns from a hero to becoming a stumbling stone.  All caused by his inability to see what is going on from God’s view.  In his simplicity, he allows his feelings to dominate the reality of his life.  Jesus began to show them that He had to go to Jerusalem and suffer greatly from the elders, the chief priests and the scribes, be killed and on the third day be raised. 

These ideas made no sense in the heads and minds of the twelve, since suffering and death were not in their priority list, least of all the characteristics in reference to the Messiah.  Jesus began to openly speak to them.  He talks to them about the suffering and the death that awaited Him, also talked to them about the resurrection, most of them saw this thru a fatalist mentality. 

Peter, being the impulsive one among them, trying to be the Teachers counselor, took Jesus aside and began to rebuke Him, saying: “God forbid, Lord. No such thing shall ever happen to you”. (Mt. 16, 21-27).  Jesus’ reply to Peter was very harsh: “Get behind me, Satan!  You are an obstacle to me.  You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do”. 

Surprisingly this hard answer of our Lord to Peter, more so, when a few moments before Peter had been named as the great Leader of the Church and Jesus had congratulated him for recognizing him as the Messiah.  That is why Jesus calls Peter, “Satan” and accused him of thinking as human beings do and not as God does. 

God’s thinking is very different from the world’s way of thinking.   The problem is that we, human being, instead of adapting our thoughts to God’s, we want God to adapt to ours.   Peter with his natural wisdom and the unique comfort of the human being invites us to look for the most comfortable position.

Peter thinks as many of us do, he thinks that suffering is not necessary or significant, that it is totally negative to the human being and that is an obstacle for the development of the present life.   Even though the Lord’s answer is sharp, there is in the language used by Jesus, a lesson to be learned, where he wants to let us know that everything has a different meaning if seeing thru the eyes of God.

When we think that this or other thing happening in our lives are a certain misfortune, humanly speaking, we have to look at the deepest significance where it is shown to us God’s will for our existence.   A true follower of Jesus, follows Him thru pain, with the honor of being a proven and determined Christian.

It should not be the other way around, the one who follows Jesus only to be honored to be His follower, but not by participating in His pain and suffering.  Jesus sets certain specific conditions for His followers:

 

  -Deny himself  = this means to forget ourselves, which is not easy to do. It is to tell my ego, which we all have inside and that inclines us to be self-centered, autonomous and  self-sufficient, we do not want to follow our own plans, and least of all our own interests, instead we want to depend for all and in all on God, and not to suffer at all.  I think that the greatest obstacle to follow Jesus is not the circumstances of our lives, nor the people around us, the greatest obstacle to follow Him is ourselves.  It is too hard for us to allow God to guide or direct our personalities.

   - Take up the cross = this is not to take, in a masochistic way, our daily problems. It is to accept our cross for Christ with the necessary optimism and willingly, embracing it respectfully, even though many do not understand the reason why we embrace the things we do.  It is to embrace the cross with passion and joy, even though it is heavy and weight us down.

  -  Follow me = This means to walk in God’s rhythm, the rhythm of His will.  Not the other way around, most of the time we want God to walk at our rhythm, this is what happened to Peter, it is not what we want, but what God wants to put in front of us for our personal, moral and spiritual development.

To follow Christ, you have to lose your life. We have to renounce to what seems to be life, renounce to what the world present us as if it was the most important thing in life.  Pleasure, power, wealth, success, riches, comfort, satisfactions, attachments, all these things, some of which are licit, they are all part of “that life” to which we have to renounce in order to be able to embrace the cross that Jesus presents us. 

If we are willing to lose all that, we will obtain the Real Life, in other words, the one that await for us after we leave this earth.  If by contrast, we find all those things and others, more important and mistakenly try to save them as if they were the only thing in life, we can take the risk of losing it all:  what is here and what is there, the life and The Life. For “¿What profit would there be for one to gain the whole world and forfeit his life?”  (Mt 16,26)

Amen!!