Daily homily for Saturday of 23rd Week in Ordinary Time Cycle I
Theme: Our relationship with God
By: Fr. Benny Tuazon
Homily for Saturday September 11 2021
(Lk. 6:43-49) Saturday of the Twenty Third Week in Ordinary Time
In today’s Gospel Jesus gives an analogy of who we should be in relation to God. A tree is known by its fruit. Good trees bear good fruits while rotten trees bear are not expected to produce good fruits. Also, a good heart will produce something good and an evil heart an evil deed. Since we came from God, we are holy and blameless. God gave us a good heart. We ought to do good always. Jesus pointed out our hypocrisy. We dare call Jesus “Lord” when we always fail to follow His commands. There is something wrong with our relationship with God. The parable of the house built on rock and sand shows it. When we do not follow Jesus, we are like a house built on sand. However, those who are faithful are like houses built on rock.
It is clear that discipleship does not only consists in membership or being called Christian. We had been told about this a lot of times. Discipleship requires practice, that is, living our faith in order for us to attain salvation. Of course, knowledge of the faith is important. That was the promise made by our parents and Godparents when we were baptized. If they were true to their promise, then we achieve the basic part of faith. However, teaching the faith should not only be verbal It is very much witnessing. We can get a perfect score in our Religion classes but that does not mean we are good Christians. For us to be grounded on rock, we ought to make the words of Jesus alive in us. But if Jesus’ teachings remain theories, we could easily be swayed by a new and attractive one, and we are back on square one. The grace of salvation will remain free from our grasp.
Living the faith, practicing the words, and following the commandments are not a piece of cake or a walk in the park. But our experiences will teach us a lot of lessons and great realizations on what the words of Jesus can give. Besides, experience will help us understand people and situations. We will be more compassionate and credible. At the same time, we will come to terms with our humanity and attain solidarity with everyone. It was Jesus’ mission to save humanity. He did it by becoming one like us. He was the Word of God made flesh. He expects us to do the same. Our mission is to be saved and help others be saved. That can be achieved if we do not only utter “Lord, Lord” but let the Lord be seen and felt in us. The Word of God should be enfleshed in our person which means in what we say and do.
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