2013/09/22 - Homily - 25th ord. Sunday

Imprimer

Today’s readings lead us to consider our attitude towards 3 important aspects of life.


Firstly:  DEFENDING THE POOR « hear this, you who trample the needy and do away with the poor of the land,... I will never forget  anything they have done » (Amos 8,4 to 7).


Secondly:   PRAYING FOR OUR RULERS « I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone, for kings and all those in authority..” (1Timothy, 2,1 to 8)


And thirdly:  DECIDING WHO WE SERVE, GOD OR MONEY?: « No servant can serve two masters : either he will hate the one, and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.” (Luc 16,13)


This is all based on St Paul’s conviction that “God will have all men to be saved, and to come  to a knowledge of the TRUTH. (1Timothy, 2, 4)”


But what is this TRUTH?  Truth about God or God’s truth?  God loves us and desires to share his love with all men.  We, who believe that, have to firstly accept God into our lives and secondly to tell others, to share the Good News.  We have to go through three stages:


Firstly:  For God, defending the poor is the most important thing and is how salvation is understood in the Old Testament. All the time, everywhere, even in Hong Kong, injustice is so frequent.  Perhaps you feel / that you are / a victim of injustice?


Knowing that God doesn’t accept this,  is not sufficient, « I will never forget  anything they have done», we must rise up against all forms of injustice. And there are so many ways to do this. 
But the most important thing is remembering that God desires ALL MEN BE SAVED. 
In others words, we must seek justice / through our human efforts / without forgetting that REAL justice comes only from God.
Only God is able to see the just relationship between « wrong doing » and “responsibility”


Secondly:  we must pray for our rulers who have such heavy responsibilities.
Often / their manner of ruling doesn’t fit with Christian values, and sometimes it is totally opposed. But sometimes it does follow God’s commandments to respect one another in the love of God.


The christian meaning of authority is clear: God first because he is able to see all with perfect justice and love.
Of course the playing out of rulers’ decisions with the Christian faith is often not very clear. By our prayer, we can improve the consequences of their decisions and perhaps / hopefully / influence their actions.
The light of God penetrates by our prayer.  It is as important for them / as it is for ourselves, / because through prayer / we become much more able to receive the real Grace of a life lived with real love.


Finally, in the Gospel, the words of Christ are clear. 
He makes it so clear  that we can ask ourselves (and him)  about this radical position. Is it really possible to be like that ?
What should our attitude be / towards money? Can we live without sharing our material possessions?


Today’s Gospel deals with the right attitude towards God and this right attitude is something we must
look for during our earthly lives.


Christ invites us to look deeper inside ourselves. What are our lives based upon? What is really important for us? 
We spend our lives earning money because we need it to live. Even monks living on bread and water don’t need very much / but they still need some money.
We spend almost all our time at work to earn money. But TODAY Christ invites us to look at what we do with it and our attitude towards it.
Our destiny is not this earthly life. We must seek first heavenly gifts. 


Mamon / in Hebrew / means something that is safe, reliable and will last, something where we find our security. But we know this isn’t the case with our earthly riches.


Our only insurance is Christ, poor and humble of heart. The Pope, following in St Francis footsteps,  invites us to wear our soul with the poor Christ living within us, and go beyond the churchs’ structures to announce him to all men.  This is our Christian mission.


Coming here to share Sunday mass means we are already ready to hear that and ready to live with it.


Thanks be to almighty God for putting such great gifts into our hearts, as well as our minds and hands in order to share His loving strength with all men.