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Our Lady - Star of the Sea |
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Homily for the Sixth Sunday of Ordinary Time: Year A, 2011
There were two monks who traveled together in a
long journey. On their
way, they have to cross the water to continue
their journey. They met
a beautiful young lady who waiting for someone
to help her to cross
the water without getting wet. She asked the
first monk to carry her
to the other side of the river. This monk said:
I can’t because I have
to keep the vow of chastity. She asked the
second monk, and the monk
carried her above the water to the other side.
Then the monk lets her
down and continues his journey. After a while,
the first monk said to
his friend: why did you carry a beautiful young
lady? You have
committed an impure act. The other monk replied:
Yes, I carried her
through the water and I put her down at the
river, but you still have
her in your mind until now.
Law is a complicated thing to talk about. Jesus
had to give us a
guideline for us to fulfill his commandment
perfectly. He said:
“unless your righteousness surpassed that of
the scribes and
Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of
heaven.” So, what did
scribes and Pharisees do to observe the laws?
They followed the letter
of the laws, not the spirit of the laws. So when
Jesus came, he
changed the way of practicing the laws.
Remember: spirit of the laws
is important, not the letter of the laws. In
other words, humans look
for hard evidences like murder, adultery, or
lie, but God looks
through the intention of our heart. Laws are
created to serve human’s
happiness, and to help us to live together in
peace. In order to do
this, we have to go beyond the laws. When we
examine our conscience,
we don’t say: I don’t kill, I don’t commit
adultery, I don’t say a
fault oath, so I don’t sin. This is an
imperfect examination of
conscience. When we examine our conscience, we
have recall if we hurt
our wife, our husband, our children, or our
neighbor emotionally, and
physically. To Jesus, emotion and intention are
as important as
physical acts. That is why all kind of anger,
lustful thoughts,
unfaithful acts, or untruthful words are sins
before the Lord.
Dear friends, any words or actions which divide
the Body of Christ are
sins. Eucharist is a table of love and
forgiveness. God wants us to
come to the table to share his love and
forgiveness. So, how can we
come here with un charity or hateful thoughts to
our brothers and
sisters. This is what the sign of peace in the
Mass for; “let us offer
each other the sign of peace.” This is the
time we can say to our
spouse, to our children and to our friends that:
I am sorry, I want to
be in peace with you again. Or, I forgive you,
let us live in peace
again. etc.
In the book of Sirach, we just heard that God
gives us freedom to
choose between good and evil, life and death.
God created all things
except sins. When we sin, God is not with us. He
knows the intention
in our heart, and he is never pleased
when we sin against others.
Reconciliation is the sacrament to restore our
relationship with God
and his Church. We have to use it more often in
order to keep us on
track.
May God’s spirit be with you and help you to
discern life, not death. Amen.
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