Commentary on the Gospel of
In the concluding words of the sermon on the mount, Jesus stresses the need to live and to practice the beatitudes and the new interpretation of the Law. The community constructed on the foundation of this new law will remain standing against all storms. There are some opposition and a few contradictions that exist even among ourselves. There are people who continually speak of God, but who do not do God’s will. There are those who use the name of Jesus, but do not practice a relationship with the Lord in their life.
There are people who live in the illusion of working for the Lord, but eventually will find that they have never known Him. The constructions on the rock and the sand are the vivid images of such contradictions. The parable of the house builders is invitation to bridge the gap between faith and life, between speaking and doing, between teaching and practicing. The witness of life has to be emphasised as the most effective proclamation of the Gospel. To be evangelized by God’s word first of all by assimilating the spirit of Gospel into one’s own life is the key. We too can long to deserve the praise that Jesus showered on his Mother: “Blessed rather are those who listen to the Word of God and put it into practice” (Lk 11:28).
June 26
Wretched would be a term to explain the state of a leper: ostracized, helpless and hopeless. Anybody who touched him would remain unclean! This is why the lepers had to remain far away (Lev 13:45- 46). But that leper had great courage. He needed someone more than human to restore him back to his humanity and dignity. He transgressed the norms of religion in order to be able to enter into contact with Jesus. The faith of this leper is Jesus is striking. Jesus’s gracious response ‘I do want to do it’ is his way of treating any one in need. Jesus did the unthinkable by touching him. He came close to the sick person in his loneliness and exclusion. Jesus threw off the norms of his times to restore a person to dignity. Jesus’ compassion knows no barriers. As Jesus reached out to the leper, God in Jesus has reached out to all who are enslaved to evil. In all these events Jesus revealed is who he is what is true face of our God. Sin makes the soul wretched. Only Christ’s healing touch can miraculously take away our sins and restore us to the joy of living. We need to turn to Jesus, accept our inability to heal ourselves and seek divine help.
June 27
The narration of the healing in today’s reading is remarkable. The one who is healed belonged to the camp hated by Jesus’ contemporary Jews. The centurion was part of the oppressors who occupied their land and taxed them. A Jewish teacher was not expected to visit a gentile’s home and defile himself. Being a gentile, the centurion could not receive Jesus at his house either. However, Jesus receives the centurion with respect and listens to him with kindness. Jesus was moved by the faith of the pagan centurion which surpassed the faith of every Jew who was in constant contact with God and Torah. The Jewish people thought that they would inherit God’s Kingdom just because of their origin. The message of Jesus, the new law of God proclaimed from the top of the mount of the Beatitudes is a response to the deepest desires of the human heart. The sincere and honest pagans like the centurion and so many others coming from the east and the west saw in Jesus the response to their yearning and they accepted it. The message of Jesus is not, in the first place, a doctrine or morals, nor a rite or a series of norms, but a deep experience of God which responds to what the human heart desires. It is this experience of God that people look for in the Church, or in their seeking through other religions, and we should live and radiate this way of God to others and to seekers. Today’s episode shows that it is only by faith and adherence to Jesus one will merit God’s graces.
June 28
The words of Jesus are crystal clear. He doesn’t hide the truth in his teaching the demands of the discipleship and the mission one is called to do. Jesus clearly makes his disciple aware of what it means to accept his discipleship. He wants to encourage them not to lose heart when they face unexpected and grave difficulties in proclaiming the Good News to the brothers and sisters of their time. Carrying the cross by the disciples is given new outlook. In those days, the cross was the death sentence imposed by the Roman Empire for thieves and the marginalized. To take up one’s cross and follow Jesus was equivalent to agreeing to be marginalized by the unjust system of the Empire. On the other hand, Jesus’ cross is the consequence of the free commitment taken on to reveal the Good News that God is Father and that, therefore, all are to be accepted and treated as brothers and sisters. Because of this revolutionary proclamation, Jesus was persecuted and was not afraid to give up His life. Greater love than this no man has, that he lay down his life for his friends. St. Paul had a similar experience. For instance, for him to be faithful to Jesus and obtain life, he had to lose everything he had: career, the respect of his people, and suffer persecution. The same happened to many Christians. Christians were persecuted for being Christian. Paul says, “I am crucified with Christ”. “I wish to experience His cross and his death, so that I may also experience His resurrection.” “I am crucified to the world and the world to me”. This is the paradox of the Gospel: The last is first, the one who loses wins, the one who gives all keeps all, the one who dies lives. The one who has the courage to lose life obtains it.
June 29
Peter and Paul, different personalities, but by their love for Jesus, and their suffering, they constitute one. Formerly called Simon, Peter was renamed because he became the rock of faith. Formerly called Saul, Paul had his pride transformed into humility. His name Paulus, meaning “little, less,” demonstrates this. Both saints were shaken out of their early paths and invited to follow Jesus, and lead the Church in its beginning, through the way of the cross. Both the Apostles had very intimate and personal experience of God in Jesus, which enabled them to witness to him before the whole world and withstand persecution and martyrdom. They were certain that the Lord was with them and worked in and through them always. Given their history, no one in their right mind would have picked Peter and Paul to lead the church. But God’s ways are not our ways. God chooses the least likely who have the most potential. As the scripture says: God does not look at outer appearances, but at the heart of a person. These are role models of what it means to be a follower of Jesus today. How closely do we follow their example: listening to the leadership of Peter, and living with the missionary zeal of Paul? Here are the words from St. John Paul II, “In their apostolic mission, Saints Peter and Paul were obliged to face difficulties of every kind. But, far from deterring their missionary activity, these difficulties reinforced their zeal for the Church’s welfare and for the salvation of mankind. They were able to overcome every trial because their trust was not based on human resources but on the grace of the Lord, who delivers his friends from every evil and saves them for his kingdom. May our holy patrons, Peter and Paul, sustain us and obtain for us that missionary zeal which made them witnesses of Christ to the ends of the then-known world.”
June 30
“We are lost!” It is this desperate situation of the disciples that Gospel portrays for our reflection. The text tells us that Jesus went into the boat and that the disciples accompanied Him. Jesus is the Master. The disciples followed him not knowing the dangers awaiting them. Dangerously strong winds and a tempestuous sea was in store for them. The evangelist depicts the contrast in the response to the same situation. The disciples cried out in fear, “Save us, Lord, we are lost!” Jesus on the other hand was in profound sleep unnerved by the storms around. This is image of a person who trusts in God and abandons one’s life to Him who controls and directs the course of life to the best possible ways. Jesus asked, “Why are you so frightened?” The disciples did not know what to answer. They only said to themselves, “What kind of man is this, that even the wind and the sea obey Him? Today’s men and women, tossed by the pandemic that we face, might experience the similar plight of the disciples at the sea: “we are lost.” The words of Jesus can comfort and encourage everyone: “Why are you so frightened, you who have so little faith!” There is going to be calm at his powerful words.
