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 treasure that is our faith, and what we need to do in order to preserve this faith that is within each and every one of us. We carry in us this faith in the Lord Jesus which is necessary for us to endure through the many temptations and challenges of this world, all of which are obstacles for us in being faithful to God.

In our Gospel passage today, we heard of how the Lord Jesus exhorted to His disciples that they ought to be careful in their lives that they did not give in to the temptation to sin, as sin is something that is very dangerous and corrupting, and if we are not careful, we will end up being corrupted by those sins. We should not even contemplate the idea of sin, for when we allow sin to enter into our hearts and minds, it is too late for us.

What the Lord mentioned in today’s Gospel passage was not to be taken literally for surely it must have been horrifying for us to even contemplate the thought of cutting out one’s own eye or to cut out one’s own limb in the case when these led us into sin. In fact, the Lord was just making a point and comparison, of using those body parts as a metaphor for sin, as the limbs, eyes and our body organs are by themselves blameless.

It is the heart that leads one into sin, heart filled with sin and the desire to sin will cause our actions to be ones that lead us down the path of sin. On the contrary, should our hearts and minds be filled with righteousness and good things from God, not only that it would have been much more difficult for us to commit sin, but our actions and our bodies will be used for the greater glory and purpose of God.

Therefore, today, in fact all of us to reflect on how we are to carry on living our lives from now on. Are we going to continue to allow ourselves to be tempted and swayed by sin? Or are we going to try our best to resist those temptations and seek to remain pure at all times despite the challenges and the pressures to do otherwise? God has given us all the free will to choose between goodness and wickedness, between obedience and disobedience.

In our first reading today, again, as I mentioned, all of us have received the gift of faith, kept in the treasures of clay, a reference to our own bodies and selves, made from the dust of the earth. But that treasure of our faith is truly a great treasure indeed, waiting to be unveiled and shown to all. The choice is ours whether we want to keep this treasure inside us and leave it as it is, or to allow that treasure to be shown forth and to grow.

Let me refer to the example of the parable of the silver talents that the Lord Jesus taught His disciples, in which a master presented three servants with the silver talents for them to make use of during his absence. Two of the servants made good use of the silver talents, invested them and worked with them, and made double the result as compared to the initial amount entrusted to them by their master.

On the contrary, the lazy servant hid the silver talent and did nothing with it, and returned the silver talent to the master exactly as how he had been entrusted with it. The ones who were praised and commended were those two servants who had willingly and diligently made good use of their silver talents. In the same way, therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, each and every one of us have been entrusted by God with different talents and abilities.

But are we willing and able to make good use of those abilities and talents? Let us all think about this and reflect how we can be ever more faithful and be more dedicated to God, with each and every moments of our lives, and with every faithful and dedicated actions we do for the sake of the greater glory of God. Let us all renounce our sinful ways and reject any further temptations to sin from now on. May God bless us all, now and always. Amen.