Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, the message of today’s Scripture readings is very clear. It is calling us to reflect on our actions in this world and think about how we should live in order to become better and more devoted followers of our God. It is a call for us to reject the way of this world, the way of greed and pride, and instead embrace the way of love and humility as espoused by the Lord Jesus and which He taught to His disciples and passed down to us through His Church.

It was mentioned by St. James in his Epistle about the discord and the troubles that appeared among the faithful, because of the clashing interests and ways of different peoples, each of whom acted in ways that is in self-preservation and in the fulfilment of the desires of each person. And because those desires are inherently selfish, it is inevitable that it would cause conflict between them.

And he mentioned that this is not the way that the faithful should behave. They must not succumb to the ways of this world. They must learn how to resist the temptations of the flesh, and cast out those ego, pride, selfishness, and all other forms of negativities that prevented them from being found truly worthy in God. We are encouraged as Christians, by the words of St. James, to live a truly Christian love, to show humility and love in all that we do.

A Christian should not be proud or be boastful of his or her own achievements. This is also the message of the Gospel passage today, where Jesus spoke of power and authority, and rebuked the Apostles and disciples for having disputed with each other about who was to be the greatest among them. Christians should not act in ways that show worldliness and in succumbing to such desires and the wishes one have for fame, glory, power, acknowledgement, wealth or any other things that the world desires.

Christians are called to challenge the way that we mankind have lived for all these while. It is unfortunately in our human nature to be proud, greedy, deceitful, filled with anger and wrath, to be desiring things that sometimes are beyond our means. And if we do not get ourselves out of these things and succumb to their pull, it will be hard for us to get out, and it will certainly gather in ourselves all the wickedness and the vile things that this world is feeding us with.

We have been often too distracted in our lives, too many concerns and wants, and there are many obstacles that prevent us from finding that path we need to walk on towards God. And that is because this world is indeed full of distractions and things that prevent us from being able to recognise the Lord present in out lives. This world is offering us many things that seem to be better as compared to following the Lord, and we grow accustomed to these things.

How is this so? We just have to look at the amount of materialism and consumerism that are around us. There are so many advertisements and encouragements for us to satisfy the desires of our flesh, and these serve as the obstacles that prevent us from living as true Christians. Are we able then, to listen to the advice of Jesus, which He told us to help us on our way to Him?

He brought children up to Him, and He told them, that unless they had the faith like those of small children, they would not find their way to the kingdom of God. Why is this so? If we have noticed small children before, they are innocent, kind, good and are willing to learn anything. They are like blank sheets waiting something to be written on them.

That means, they have no worries or concerns, wishes or desires that are obstacles in our path as we try to reach out to the Lord. They were still pure and good, innocent and blameless, while we ourselves have been tainted by the many things in this world that are pulling us away from God and His ways. Jesus told us all that we need to get rid of these distractions so that we may be able to reorientate ourselves and find our way to the Lord.

And the best way to do this is through prayer, devotion, commitment both to our God and to our fellow brethren around us. This means that we should practice our faith in our lives, showing love to one another, rejecting selfish ways and attitudes, and clear our hearts and minds from vicious and vile desires. We have to be disciplined in our own lives, focusing all of our efforts to do what is good and righteous in the sight of God.

Let us all commit ourselves anew to God, and may all of us, in all of our actions, be able to draw closer to the salvation which God has promised to all those who kept their faith in Him. Let us all do our best in order to be ever more devoted and committed children and follower of our God, having pure and genuine faith Him, and resist the temptations and the lies of the world. May God bless us all in our endeavours, now and forever. Amen.