Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we listened to the words of the Scripture speaking to us about the importance for us as Christians to live righteously and devote ourselves to serve God in everything that we do, so that we may be truly worthy to be called children of God and as His followers, heeding the examples of our holy predecessors as we heard in our Scripture passages today.

In our first reading today, we heard of the story of the conflict that occurred between Abraham and Lot, who are each others’ close relatives, and each of them possessed a lot of wealth and possessions, cattle and animals, servants and goods, that resulted in the conflict that happened between their servants and amongst their flocks and possessions. In the quarrels that ensued, Abraham decided to part ways with Lot amicably, knowing that if they have stayed in the same lands, even more conflicts would come to happen.

In this way, Abraham truly acted nobly and wonderfully even though he could have given in to the temptations of pride and desire. He could have made it such that he benefitted from the conflict, or claimed parts of the wealth, flocks and possessions of his own relative for his own, and many others things he could have done as how we mankind often behaved in this world. But he chose not to do all of that.

Instead, Abraham showed the best of his upright and good attitude, as someone whom the Lord had indeed chosen among all the people to be the one with whom He was pleased with and with whom He was about to make a great Covenant, as mentioned in the same passage, how God blessed Abraham and promised to him that his descendants would be as numerous as the stars and beyond.

In the Gospel passage today, the Lord Jesus spoke to His disciples mentioning just how difficult it is in reality for us all to pass through the gates of eternal life, that is for us to enter into the glory prepared for us by God, as we have to be righteous and good throughout our lives, and we have to be worthy to be recipients of what the Lord has promised all of us in the Covenant He had made with us.

This does not mean that we have to be perfect in our lives, as even Abraham himself was not perfect, he did sin just like any one of us. The holy saints of God were themselves not perfect and were sinners just like us, and yet, they made sure that they did not allow sin to rule over them or to have sway over their lives. They did what is righteous and just, good and acceptable to the Lord, and in their righteousness, God made them all worthy.

What matters is for us to do what the Lord has commanded us to do, and that means, instead of succumbing to the temptations of pride whenever we encounter others and having our desires within us, to be recognised, to be praised, to be acknowledged and to have achievements in our lives, we should instead be humble, knowing that no amount of pride can do us any good. If we let pride to have its way in our lives, and greed to lead us in our way, there will be endless conflict and unhappiness ahead of us.

Let us all learn to be more faithful like Abraham, to be more compassionate, loving and be more concerned about each other, just like our holy predecessors, Abraham and all those saints who have gone before us have shown us with their own righteous and worthy lives. The path to enter into the kingdom of God and eternal life is indeed a narrow one, but it does not mean it is necessarily difficult to enter. What we need is the will and the desire to truly love God first and foremost in our lives, and to love one another just as much as we love ourselves.

May the Lord guide us through this narrow path that all of us may be reconciled and reunited with Him, and so that we may be ever closer and be ever more worthy to be in His loving presence, by our faithfulness and our commitment to serve Him, each and every days of our lives. Amen.