OT XXIX [B]IS 53: 10-11; HEB 4: 14-16; MK 10: 35-45

It may sound unbelievable, but it is true that Asia's first Nobel Prize winner in Literature, Rabindranath Tagore, was behind the three great national anthems of three great nations,

viz. Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka. He was also the first non-westerner to win the Nobel Prize in literature. He did so in 1913. He wrote this short poem:

I slept and dreamt that life was Joy; Then I awoke and realized

that life was Service.

And then I went to work - and, lo and behold, I discovered that

Service is Joy.

Today’s gospel teaches us that true happiness comes from surrendering ourselves completely in humble service to God through Christ. The CEO in Jesus’ kingdom is the one who serves the needs of all the others. For Jesus, true service means putting our gifts at the disposal of others.

The request of James and John in this gospel revealed their lack of understanding of true leadership. They were looking for positions of power and prestige. They thought that leadership came from where you sat rather than how you served. The other disciples were angry and resentful at James and John's attempt for preferment. Obviously, they're looking for power and prestige too, just as much as the two brothers.

If you are angry you are involved somehow; you too are in the running.  If the others were not also thinking just like James and John, they would not be angry with them, they would simply pity them; they would take them aside and have a little brotherly chat with them.  But they were angry, they were in no way different from them – except that they were cleverer, less forthright.  It is always instructive to look with clear sight at our anger.  It always has something to tell us. 

In today’s culture there is an over emphasis on our actions which leads us to prize our jobs. People are proud of being a manager, a supervisor, a boss, a director. And it is overused precisely because rank and status are confused with our identity, and because they are prized. The mistake is to think that important jobs make us important people. They do not. Nor does the lack of such importance make us unimportant.

What do success and failure mean? It does not mean to be head of the pack. Success is not measured by comparing one's achievements against the achievements of one's "competitors."

Alexander Woolcott, one of the most famous alumni of Hamilton College, New York, was asked to give a major address at the college's centennial celebration. Woolcott gave a memorable speech which began with these words: "I send my greetings today to all my fellow alumni of Hamilton College, scattered all over the world. Some of you are successes, and some of you are failures - only God knows which are which!" This is a wonderful reminder to us that in our measurement of success and failure, "God's thoughts are not our thoughts, nor are our ways God's ways. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are God's ways higher than our ways, and God's thoughts than our thoughts" (Isaiah 55:8-9).

For Jesus success means people realizing and fulfilling God's dream for them. Jesus tells us, contrary to popular thinking, that anybody cannot be anything. Before people come into this world, divine providence has already crafted a dream for each person to live out. We do not come into life to write our own job description, we come with a divine job description in our hands and with the physical and mental traits necessary to get the job done. God has an intended destination for which He created you and me. But whether you and I attain this destination or not depends on how we cooperate with God's grace.

Greatness consisted, not in reducing other men to one's service, but in reducing oneself to their service. Such people are considered great. Hannibal Barca was a military commander of the Carthage army in 247 BC. He led a famous campaign in the second Punic War against the Roman army, remaining undefeated until the very gates of Rome. What was the secret of his success.  He was a man who led by example. He would sleep among his soldiers and would not wear anything that made him distinct above his soldiers. He would lead the armies into battle and be the last to leave the battlefield. Even today he stands as a model for leadership.

Jesus told his disciples plainly what his mission was, how he was going to accomplish it and what should be the criteria of greatness among his disciples. He summarized his mission in one sentence: "The Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many." According to Jesus, greatness consists not in what we have, nor in what we can get from others but in what we give to others. Jesus thus overturned all our values, teaching us that true greatness consists in loving, humble, and sacrificial service. For Jesus, true service means putting our gifts at the disposal of others. For our contemporaries Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King and Mother Teresa, greatness lay in the giving of their whole self to the very lowest, treating them as brothers and sisters and living close to them. Every position of power calls for humble service.

The best place to begin the process of ―self-giving," is in our own homes and in the workplace.  We have to look upon our education, training, and experience as preparation for service to others. All of us feel comfortable serving who are rich, strong, handsome or beautiful. But to serve the poor, weak and unattractive is a challenge.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus connects service with suffering. Suffering and service go hand in hand.  Service always involves suffering because one can’t help another without some personal sacrifice.

Dr. Lloyd Judd practiced medicine in rural Oklahoma. He had to drive to their homes to treat people. One day he checked into a hospital and learned that he had terminal cancer. His thoughts turned to his children. He had a lot to tell them, but they were too little to understand. So he recorded a set of tapes for them. One dealt with with practicing medicine. He said to his children: "Are you willing to get out of a warm bed on a cold night and drive 20 miles to see a sick person, knowing that they can't pay you and couldn’t wait until morning to be treated? If you can say yes to that question, you are ready to study medicine.” 

We are a community of equals and we share in the responsibilities of being community. In order to be effective, we need leaders who will help us to form a relationship that will assist us to become what we must be in order to wash one another’s feet. We require leaders to call us to the ways of social justice. Let’s remember that we have a leader who washed his followers’ feet and cooked fish for them on the sea of Tiberius after his resurrection. He always walks before us like a shepherd allowing us to see what he does and giving us what we need. Let’s pray that we may have political and religious leaders who really serve the people and faithful rather than like to be served.

OT XXIX [B]IS 53: 10-11; HEB 4: 14-16; MK 10: 35-45

Today’s gospel teaches us that true happiness comes from surrendering ourselves completely in humble service to God through Christ. The CEO in Jesus’ kingdom is the one who serves the needs of all the others. For Jesus, true service means putting our gifts at the disposal of others.

The request of James and John revealed their lack of understanding of true leadership. They were looking for positions of power and prestige. They thought that leadership came from where you sat rather than how you served.

Now a days there is an over emphasis on our actions which leads us to prize our jobs. People are proud of being a manager, a supervisor, a boss, a director. And it is overused precisely because rank and status are confused with our identity, and because they are prized. The mistake is to think that important jobs make us important people. They do not. Nor does the lack of such importance make us unimportant. The mistake is to believe that one is either a somebody or one is a nobody.

But what do success and failure mean? It does not mean to be head of the pack. Success is not measured by comparing one's achievements against the achievements of one's "competitors."

Alexander Woolcott, one of the most famous alumni of Hamilton College, New York, was asked to give a major address at the college's centennial celebration. Woolcott gave a memorable speech which began with these words: "I send my greetings today to all my fellow alumni of Hamilton College, scattered all over the world. Some of you are successes, and some of you are failures - only God knows which are which!" This is a wonderful reminder to us that in our measurement of success and failure, "God's thoughts are not our thoughts, nor are our ways God's ways. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are God's ways higher than our ways, and God's thoughts than our thoughts" (Isaiah 55:8-9).

For Jesus success means people realizing and fulfilling God's dream for them. Jesus tells us, contrary to popular thinking, that anybody cannot be anything. Before people come into this world, divine providence has already crafted a dream for each person to live out. We do not come into life to write our own job description, we come with a divine job description in our hands and with the physical and mental traits necessary to get the job done. God has an intended destination for which He created you and me. But whether you and I attain this destination or not depends on how we cooperate with God's grace. To say that whatever people are or do in life is what God created them to be and do is determinism. The Bible teaches predestination (God has something in mind for creating you and me) but does not teach determinism (whatever we are or do is what God has predestined for us). God gives us free will to cooperate with divine grace or not. That is why, even though God predestined Mary to be the mother of our Savior, when the time came for her to accomplish this mission, God sent an angel to seek her cooperation. She is a perfect example of success because she courageously said yes to the word of God detailing to her what Providence has in store for her.

Greatness consisted, not  in reducing other men to  one's service, but in reducing oneself to their service. Such people are considered great. Hannibal Barca was a military commander of the Carthage army in 247 BC. He led a famous campaign in the second Punic War against the Roman army, remaining undefeated until the very gates of Rome. What was the secret of his success.  He was a man who led by example. He would sleep among his soldiers and would not wear anything that made him distinct above his soldiers. He would lead the armies into battle and be the last to leave the battlefield. Even today he stands as a model for leadership.

Jesus told his disciples plainly what his mission was, how he was going to accomplish it and what should be the criteria of greatness among his disciples. He summarized his mission in one sentence: "The Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many." According to Jesus, greatness consists not in what we have, nor in what we can get from others but in what we give to others. Jesus thus overturned all our values, teaching us that true greatness consists in loving, humble, and sacrificial service. For Jesus, true service means putting our gifts at the disposal of others. For our contemporaries Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King and Mother Teresa, greatness lay in the giving of their whole self to the very lowest, treating them as brothers and sisters and living close to them.

The best place to begin the process of ―self-giving," is in our own homes and in the workplace.  We have to look upon our education, training, and experience as preparation for service to others. All of us feel comfortable serving who are rich, strong, handsome or beautiful. But to serve the poor, weak and unattractive is a challenge. When are we weak and unattractive, and unable to defend ourselves ?…it is at both ends of our life- in embryo and old age, at near death. A government that ignores human beings at these two stages of life is not a civilized government, it is barbaric. Make sure you do not vote to power a government that promotes to legislate to terminate the “useless” stages of life. Remember we all will have a useless stage in our life, when we won’t be able to stand for what our rights. Let’s defend the voiceless. Mother Teresa says: “It is a poverty to decide that a child must die so that you may live as you wish.” This country has shown its abject poverty by legalizing abortion. And now is trying to force the Catholics who believe in the sanctity of life to help contribute to abortion. We have to stand up for what we believe. I would urge you to read at least once the faithful citizenship link published on our parish website before you go to vote. A good number of Catholics do not know what the official Church’s position is. When we go by what the Church teaches we are sure of not making mistakes. But when we believe different from what the Church teaches we are on our own to find out what is good and evil, the responsibility will be our own before God for choosing the wrong. As Catholics we are not single-issue voters. A candidate’s position on a single issue is not sufficient to guarantee a voter’s support. Yet a candidate’s position on a single issue that involves an intrinsic evil, such as support for legal abortion or the promotion of racism, may legitimately lead a voter to disqualify a candidate from receiving support.

Choosing to vote for a candidate who wants to promote what is intrinsic evil makes you complicit in his actions and the inexorable consequences. Last weekend when I preached about avoiding choosing the candidates who stand for something that is intrinsic evil and mentioned abortion, some friends of mine told me father, I believe what you said. I personally believe abortion is intrinsic wrong. But I don’t like you preach that from the pulpit. I have one answer to them. When I was ordained, the bishop took the gospel and set it before me and said, receive the gospel of Christ, believe what you read, preach what you believe. The bible doesn’t expressly say abortion is wrong. But it says God knit me in my mother’s womb. When you start putting two threads together you say you started knitting. When you start a single thread you don’t usually say that. And so I believe life begins at conception and this is what the Church teaches too. So I am duty bound to do that. I am sorry.

As Christians we have only one way to follow: the way of Christ. Let’s believe and practice what we believe. Let’s not say like some politicians I believe it, but I don’t want to impose it on others. Ok, don’t impose it on others, practice it yourself. And don’t try to propagate what you really yourself don’t believe. When I don’t propagate what I really myself believe, and am encouraging the wrong things to spread. Let’s pray that all of us here may have the mind and heart to serve the weak and become great before God.

O T XXVIII [B] WIS. 7:7-11; HEB 4:12-13; MK 10: 17-30

African hunters have a clever way of trapping monkeys. They slice a coconut in two, hollow it out, and in one half of the shell cut a hole just big enough for a monkey's hand to pass through. Then they place an orange in the other coconut half before fastening together the two halves of the coconut shell. Finally, they secure the coconut to a tree with a rope, retreat into the bush, and wait. Sooner or later, an unsuspecting monkey swings by, smells the delicious orange, and discovers its location inside the coconut. The monkey then slips its hand through the small hole, grasps the orange, and tries to pull it through the hole. Of course, the orange won't come out; it's too big for the hole. To no avail the persistent monkey continues to pull and pull, never realizing the danger it is in. While the monkey struggles with the orange, the hunters approach and capture the monkey by throwing a net over it. As long as the monkey keeps its fist wrapped around the orange, the monkey is trapped. The only way the monkey could save its life is to let go of the orange and flee.

This hunting system works because it hardly occurs to the monkey that it cannot have both the orange and its freedom. The rich young man in today's gospel probably was like this monkey. He wanted eternal life, but he did not want to share his property with the poor.

If you are a lover of animals and you see the monkey struggling to get the orange while the hunters are closing up on it, what would you do? You would probably shout to the monkey to abandon the stupid orange and run for dear life. This is exactly what Jesus does to the rich young man. He sees the man in danger of losing his bid on eternal life on account of his attachment to wealth. So he calls on him to give up his wealth and save his life.

Jesus told the young man that, if he wanted to be perfect,

keeping the commandments was not enough. We do not possess anything in our life that we refuse to surrender to the Lord.  We cannot just surrender only one aspect of our life and take the other half for ourselves. The first commandment tells that we need to honor God with all our being. Some Christians think that by coming to Church on Sunday really fulfills all what they owe to God. What I do outside the Church does not really need to match up with what I believe.

You cannot be a true Catholic and vote for a candidate who is pro-abortion. With hardly three weeks remaining for the election to take place, the Bishops urge the Catholics to be responsible voters. Before I go any further, let me tell you one thing. I don’t have affiliation to any political party. I don’t have a voting right, I have only permanent residency, not a citizenship here. But I am obligated to teach you what the official church’s position when you go to vote in November. There is one very important question to ask when you go to vote for a candidate.

 “The question to ask is this: Are any of the candidates of either party, or independents, standing for something that is intrinsically evil, evil no matter what the circumstances? If that’s the case, a Catholic, regardless of his party affiliation, shouldn’t be voting for such a person.”  – Archbishop William Lori, Diocese of Baltimore.

"Is it ever licit for a Catholic to vote for a pro-abortion candidate. Is it ever valid?"

"No. You can never vote for someone who favors absolutely the right to choice of a woman to destroy a human life in her womb. Where you don't have any candidate who is proposing to eliminate all abortion [voters may] choose the candidate who will most limit this grave evil in our country. But you could never justify voting for a candidate who not only does not want to limit abortion but believes that it should be available to everyone." – Cardinal Raymond Burke

“I certainly can’t vote for somebody who’s either pro-choice or pro-abortion. Jesus tells us very clearly that if we don’t help the poor, we’re going to go to hell. But Jesus didn’t say the government has to take care of them, or that we have to pay taxes to take care of them. Those are prudential judgments. You can’t say that somebody’s not Christian because they want to limit taxation. To say that it’s somehow intrinsically evil like abortion doesn’t make any sense at all.” – Archbishop Charles Chaput, Diocese of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

“One might argue for different methods to address the needs of the poor, to feed the hungry and to solve the challenges of immigration, but these are prudential judgments not intrinsic evils… You need to think and pray very carefully about your vote, because a vote for a candidate who promotes actions or behaviors that are intrinsically evil and gravely sinful makes you morally complicit and places the eternal salvation of your own soul in serious jeopardy.” – Bishop Thomas Paprocki, Diocese of Springfield, Illinois  

“Other pieces of legislation touch on the building of a good and just society and may be open to prudential judgment, … [but] ’Forming Consciences’ tells us that in the political debate today there is no other issue that rises to this level of moral certitude: Abortion is always wrong. To support political platforms that protect so-called ‘abortion rights’ is to participate in the inexorable conclusion: many, many innocent unborn children will be killed. Sometimes a single issue will be so important it overrides a whole range of lesser issues.” – Cardinal Donald Wuerl, Archbishop of Washington, D.C.

“In all of Church teaching, the Life Issues, particularly the protection of unborn children against the crime of abortion, has to be our greatest priority. This is an ongoing slaughter of 4,000 children every single day for the last 40 years. If we support and promote persons who have pledged to extend it and intensify the slaughter, then we bear great responsibility with them.” – Bishop Robert Finn, Diocese of Kansas City, Kansas

“A committed and convinced Catholic is always pro-life on the issue of abortion and euthanasia, and that includes in the voting booth.” – Archbishop Dennis Schnurr, Diocese of Cincinnati, Ohio 

Along with defending unborn life, preserving the dignity of traditional marriage is of central importance and must never be undermined because marriage is a cornerstone of any stable society. Any attempts to redefine marriage as something other than between a man and a woman, should be vigorously opposed by a Catholic as contrary to reason, the natural law, and the divinely revealed truths of the Bible. Bishop Felipe J. Estévez, Diocese of St. Augustine, FL

Jesus says we cannot serve God and mammon at the same time. You cannot follow two contradicting values in your life. We are called to give absolute and unconditional priority to God and his word.

The first reading advises us to use the God given virtue of prudence and to seek true wisdom in preference to vanishing realities like riches, or political and social influence.  Solomon chose Wisdom before everything else.  But when he received Wisdom, he received everything else along with her. Since Jesus is Wisdom Incarnate, when we put following Jesus ahead of everything else we receive everything else along with Jesus. Jesus said to the rich young man, you are lacking one thing. Let’s examine and find out what we are lacking in our attempt to be true follower of Jesus.

OT XXVII [B] (Oct 7) Mark10: 2-12 (2-16) L/12

Today’s gospel gives Christ’s explicit teaching on marriage and divorce, the divine origin of marriage, the sacredness of family life and the indissolubility of marriage.  These are difficult messages to preach in a society that embraces co-habitation and ignores both the escalating divorce statistics and the dangerous consequences of divorce.  The Gospel teaches that family life is sacred, that husband and wife are partners with equal rights and that the destruction of the family by divorce will result in the destruction of society. 

The creation story in chapter two of Genesis shows that the ancient Israelites knew the importance of man and woman being joined one to another. The woman is made of the rib of man, and, hence, she is “bone of his bone, flesh of his flesh.” Figuratively, “bone” stands for strength and “flesh” stands for weakness. A woman has the strength and weaknesses complementing to that of man.

Man and woman complement each other relationally, emotionally, spiritually, and physically. From the moment of creation, woman is seen as a suitable partner for man. Woman is intended to be the one in whom man finds support and strength. This does not mean subservience in any way, for she is a "partner." It does speak to marriage relationships.

In answering to the Jews, Jesus did not claim to introduce a new teaching. He reminded the Jews that his doctrine went back to the original intention of God. He was not addressing to the legality but the morality of divorce. He was speaking of the expediency in marriage. He declared that no man was allowed to separate what God had joined together (Mt 19:6).  These words might have reminded the Pharisees of

Yahweh’s warning given through his last prophet: “I hate

divorce” (Malachi 2:16).  Jesus also explains that Moses'

permission for divorce was only a temporary concession to

control the growing rate of divorce even in his time, by

introducing a law governing divorce.

What form of divorce did the Hebrews practice before Moses gave them the law? It was probably the same "triple express" rule that obtained among their Semitic neighbours, like the ones practiced by Muslims even today, whereby a woman was considered divorced if her husband pronounced a divorce formula three times in the presence of two male witnesses. By oral statement alone a divorce could be concluded in an instant in a fit of anger. But requiring a letter of divorce in a culture where only the temple priests could read and write meant that a divorce process could take months to conclude. This would give the couple time to sleep over it, and friends and family members to mediate and resolve the conflict. The demand for a letter of divorce saved many marriages that would have ended in a hasty divorce in the old "triple express" system.

In fact, viewed against its cultural background, the provision to divorce with a letter was not to facilitate separation of husband and wife but to protect the indissolubility of marriage.

  According to the Mosaic sanction, men were allowed to divorce their wives, but wives were not able to divorce their husbands.  By denying the man’s right to divorce, Jesus places the husband and wife on an equal footing in marriage and teaches that no Mosaic regulation dealing with a temporary situation can alter the permanency and unity of marriage which God intended.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church summarizes the Church’s teaching: “Divorce is a grave offense against the natural law.   It claims to break the contract, to which the spouses freely consented, to live with each other till death......  Divorce is immoral also because it introduces disorder into the family and into society.  This disorder brings grave harm to the deserted spouse, to children traumatized by the separation of their parents and often torn between them, and because of its contagious effect which makes it truly a plague on society” (CCC nos. 2384, 2385). The indissolubility is based on 3 things. 1.It is rooted in the will of God. Couples are united in God’s will which is immutable. Sacrament of Marriage is patterned in the love of Jesus for the Church who died for his Church. 2. Sexual intimacy, in God’s plan, has a real, specific purpose: it is meant to be a language of love between spouses.  A sacramental marriage which is consummated is indissoluble because children born of marriage can not be undone by divorce. 3. Divorce gives rise to instability of society.

Stability in marriage: Of course, it is not always easy for the two partners in a marriage to get along with each other.  The

husband and wife bring to the marriage their strengths and

weaknesses, loves and hates, hurts and wounds, hopes and

fears.  Hence, the first requisite for a lasting marriage is that the spouses learn to accept each other as they are:  two imperfect and vulnerable human beings. 

When the marriage relationship breaks down and reconciliation is not possible, the Church recognizes the right of the couple to separate and live apart permanently.  If divorced Catholics then enter into a civil marriage, they are allowed to receive Eucharistic Communion only if they refrain from sexual relations.

The Church’s teaching on divorce and remarriage  is easy to be misunderstood  to claim that annulments are just a Catholic form of divorce. But in fact the two are quite different. Divorce and remarriage claims that a true marital bond was really formed, then broken, and then another one formed. But an annulment is a recognition that from the beginning something actually obstructed the formation of the marital bond, so that the spousal union of persons never really occurred. In that case, a person is still free to marry, to make the exclusive, permanent union with someone else.

Sometimes the cause of “failed” marriages can be traced back to these kinds of conscious or unconscious flaws in the original consent. Sometimes serious difficulties in a marriage may require, for the good of the spouses or of the children, separation, or even civil divorce (for example, in the case of physical abuse), and Catholics in these situations can still be in full communion with the Church. Annulments and separations are always painful, which is one of the reasons why the Church encourages her children to prepare well for marriage. Not only by attending marriage preparation classes – which are important – but most importantly by living a life of virtue, prayer, and faith, and by ridding themselves of the widespread “divorce mentality.” I think our divorce mentality has so much in common with our yard sale mentality. We dispose of things in yard sale, things that have some defect, which we don’t want to fix and bring to use. The same mentality creeps into family life too. Some human defect or weakness, in the spouse is taken seriously and instead of both spouses trying to fix it together, is taken to the verge of divorce.

We must reach out to those who have been hurt by bad marriages.  Those who are divorced must be taught that God has not abandoned them.  The parish community needs to accept them with respect, compassion, and sensitivity.  It is the duty of the Christian community to love and support them.  Those who are divorced and remarried must not be excluded from our community.  While the Church cannot sanction remarriage unless the previous marriage was declared annulled by the diocesan marriage tribunal, we must make it clear that the church is not issuing a condemnation.  “They should be encouraged to listen to the Word of God, to attend the Sacrifice of the Mass, to persevere in prayer, to contribute to works of charity and to community efforts for justice, to bring up their children in the Christian faith, to cultivate the spirit and practice of penance and thus implore, day by day, God's grace” (CCC 1651). 

As we continue with this Mass, let’s thank God for patiently showing us the true meaning of marriage, and let’s pray for all Catholic marriages and families.

Let’s ask God to give them the grace they need to discover and fulfill their beautiful, powerful vocation of being mirrors of God’s self-forgetful love in this self-centered world.