Liturgical Colour : Green
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, we have heard today of the doubt of the Pharisees, and how they doubted the works and the authority of Jesus, when He taught in the Temple, by challenging Him to provide the origins of His teaching authority, which came to clash with the authority with which the Pharisees themselves had taught.
The Pharisees were jealous with the popularity of Jesus, who from time to time again proved to be able to draw big masses of people who clamoured and wished to hear the truth which Christ had brought into the world. The Pharisees taught as with they were judging the people, by asserting how they were right and that the people whom they taught were wrong. Well, Jesus did the same too, but when He taught them, His teaching was such that it was done with true and clear authority.
It is indeed like what we heard from the first reading from the Book of the prophet Sirach or Ecclesiastes, on the nature of revelation of God’s truth in us. It is like a people who had longed for something good and then saw what they want. Truly, once they saw it, they would do all in what they are able to in order to find it and get hold of it. And thus, the same too happened with the people who longed for the truth, and having been oppressed for a long time under the lies of the world.
The moment they see the truth which Christ brought, it was like a great Light which pierced the darkness of the world, and which pierced the darkness that had once veiled our eyes. What Christ had taught, is done with true authority and rings true in our hearts, because deep within all of us, we have that desire to love the Lord and to follow what is right.
The Pharisees refused to listen and believe, because they have that one weakness which all of us also have and share among us, that is our pride. The human pride is one of the greatest obstacles that prevented us from being truly faithful and devoted to the Lord. It prevented us from being able to introspect into ourselves to look at our shortcomings and weaknesses, which we truly ought to seek the Lord who could have helped us to redress the issue.
Therefore, one of the first thing that we must do is, to throw far, far away our pride and to learn humility, that is the readiness and willingness to listen to others, and not least of all, but in fact the most important is, for us to be able to listen to the Lord, our loving God. We are often too distracted with the variety of things, temptations and other things in the world, and all these noise prevented us from truly hearing the word of God, which He spoke softly inside our hearts.
We often miss this because we are unable to perceive the subtlety of the Lord speaking to us because we are so occupied with the things of this world. We are too busy with ourselves to even pay attention to Him and to spare some thoughts to Him. That is why we have the tendency to always think that firstly, we are always right. We always blame others first in all things.
Can we learn to dispose our ego and cast away our pride? If we are unable to do so, then I fear that the word of truth, that is the word of God will be drowned in the ocean of ego and human desires. If we want to move forward in the path towards salvation and eternal life, then the only way is by growing deeper in our spirituality, and most importantly, by nurturing our prayer life. If we are able to pray regularly and frequently with genuine intention, then we will be able to communicate more efficiently with our Lord and know what is His truth.
Let us learn to take a break from all the distractions and noise in the world, and learn to quieten ourselves down, so that we may find the voice of God in us, and speak with Him in the silence of our hearts. Let us devote ourselves ever more to the Lord our God. God bless us all. Amen.
petercanisiusmichaeldavidkang 