A sower went out to sow....

Deal or No Deal? 0 comments

"How can I be truly happy?" Maybe it is also one of your questions ... questions also of many. Search in bookstores and you'll find many books written about it. It also asked by the rich young man in our Gospel this Sunday. "Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?" The "eternal life" if translated into our modern term is "happiness". Good man, law-abiding people ... none of the laws missed, but Jesus still sees something lacking. "You want to be happy? Sell all your possessions, give to the poor and follow me ..." Jesus surprised the young man for he is rich. But Jesus never changes his response; for him it is "deal or no deal?" The young man went away sad. Where lies our happiness? The wealth? The obedience to the law of God? Being "goody-goody Christian"? Jesus replied: “Let go all the "attachments" in our lives and follow Him ... deal or no deal?”

Jesus actually points out important elements of discipleship. Discipleship is not just about following the Commandments because, if memorizing and keeping the Commandments is the basis of being a disciple, then the rich man in the Gospel who has followed all the Commandments would have inherited eternal life.

Discipleship is about renunciation and sharing of goods and gifts with others. The rich man has kept the Commandments but has difficulty giving up his goods and sharing them with the poor.

Jesus defines discipleship as a total identity with the poor and the powerless. Discipleship is being free from material possessions and being willing to share with others with great love. In other words, discipleship is a professed faith manifested in action. But this is not an easy thing to do, especially when wealth and riches are involved.

Wealth is not a bad thing as long as it does not dominate a person and as long as it becomes a means to serve others who are in need. In fact, riches are given to some people to be shared with others because these others are their neighbors. At the end of the day, in the kingdom of God, we are all equal, all are dependent on God for salvation. In other words, it doesn’t make any difference whether one is rich or poor. However, those who have riches have the moral obligation to care for those who have nothing and failure to do this is clearly reflected in the image of the rich man in the Gospel: “How hard it is for those who have wealth to enter the Kingdom of God.”

Jesus does not say that we cannot be wealthy, even the poor can also have the material things for their lives. This would mean that we should know what are the real values and priorities of our life. Wealth or property should not hinder our love for God and neighbor. God must be the first in our lives. The fulfillment of His will should be the first... deal or no deal?

Listening 0 comments

"My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it." (Lk 8:21).

Listening is fundamental if we are to be a part of Christ's family. But listening especially to the Word of God is not only about lending it an attentive ear but also opening one's heart to it. We are to put it into practice, to obey to it.

But our tragedy is that we don't listen. Our ears are more at tuned to flatteries and gossips. We shout out what contradicts our plans and ideas. Our ears are closed because our hearts are far from God. We are deaf to the Word of God because it is not appealing and because many times we don't understand it or wish to understand. Yet in our prayers we expect God to listen to us. To know the will of God, it is necessary to listen. St. Paul says —"Faith comes through listening." The Father declares — "This is my Son. Hear Him." Mary is blessed because she is accustomed to keep the Words of God faithfully in her heart. We too can become blessed, be brothers and sisters of Christ by listening. "Blessed are those who hear the Word of God and keep it."

God is writing the story 0 comments

It is quite difficult for me, a Javanese, to trace my genealogy because most of the Javanese do not have family name. Even sometimes I do not recognize that somebody is closely related, although we already met many times or talked for a long time. So, tracing relations whenever we gather is a real challenge for me. In tracing relations like this, no subject carries more interest for the insider, or more boredom for the outsider. That shows that it’s an intimate subject.

Today’s reading is a genealogy. The strangeness of the names and the people in it should put it well beyond our interest. But in the end it is about Jesus, and that makes it an intimate subject.

It cannot be taken as history; it has an almost mathematical abstraction. There are three sections of fourteen names each. Matthew often uses the number 7, symbolizing completion. So it simplifies down to 3x14 = 3x2x7 = 6x7. Jesus then would be the first name in a seventh group of seven. At least that's someone’s interpretation.

The names have a great deal of shock-value. All ordinary human life is there: murder, treachery, incest, adultery, prostitution…. In the first list of fourteen names there are three women, an unusual feature: Tamar, Rahab and Ruth. Tamar gave birth to twins by her father-in-law; Rahab was a prostitute, and Ruth was a Moabite, a foreigner. In the second list of fourteen, there’s another woman, Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah the Hittite. We know how King David observed her bathing from the roof of his house, and invited her in and seduced her; then he had her husband killed, so that he could marry her. At the end of the third section a fifth woman is mentioned: Mary the mother of Jesus. It is an unedifying litany of names that leads us to Mary and Jesus. This is the world, our world, they entered.

We must also remember that this story is still ongoing, and we are in the midst of it. We are still moving toward the full realization of God’s peace. Like Micah, we do not understand fully how this part of the story will play out, or what the details will look like. Like Joseph, we may find ourselves perplexed and struggle to reach the right choices with imperfect information. But we have great comfort in knowing that God is indeed with us (Emmanuel), and He is writing the story.

[Feast day of the Birthday of Blessed Virgin Mary].