29th Sunday in Ordinary Time – World Mission Sunday (Mk 10:35-45)

A call to participate in the Mission

Introduction

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 The usual vocabularies of today’s church are ‘year of faith’, ‘ new evangelization’, ‘re-evangelization’, ‘synod of bishops-2012’, ‘50^th year of Vatican 2’, etc.

-          The vocabulary of this Sunday is two – world mission Sunday and canonization of 2^nd Filipino saint, Pedro Calunsod.

-          World mission Sunday was constituted by Pope Pius XI in 1926. The collection of that Sunday is distributed for the mission work of the church.

Content

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 When we think of mission we often associate it with the clergy and religious. But in reality we all are missionaries. Jesus has given us the command to all his disciples (Mk 16:15) to proclaim the good news. Therefore it is the duty of all the Christians.

-          How can we participate in the mission?

o   Spiritual participation

§  Praying for the mission, missionaries and people living in the mission area.

§  Offer our sacrifices and penances for the mission

o   Emotional support

§  Love the mission

§  Have a desire for the mission

§  Read, know and get inspirited about the mission

§  Share and inspire other for the mission

o   Material support

§  Sharing our material blessings for the mission.

o   Physical support

§  If anybody feels that he/she has a call to fully dedicate their life for the mission, it can be considered as a special vocation of God for the mission.

§  We may use our time, energy and talents for the mission.

§  In this time of communication and internet we can do mission work if we have time and will.

Conclusion

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 St. Pedro Calunsod was a man who fully dedicated his life for the mission. Let us be inspired by his life to love, support and work for the mission of Kingdom.

28th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Jesus and the rich man (Mk 10:17-30)

Wealth beyond Money

Introduction

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 Story of treasure hunter – he was given only 10 minutes inside the cave to collect as much as he can – he could not come out of the cave in 10 minutes because of the heaviness of the collected gold and diamonds. He was trapped inside the cave and never came out.

-          The new version of the story can be of a rich father and his four male children. The father was in his late 50s and considering himself as a rich fool. He had plenty of wealth but all the four boys were so detached from home and always quarreling. Among them three were alcoholics. The rich man could accumulate wealth but ignored the biggest wealth, his family and children.

-          The story of the rich man in today’s gospel, who was over attached to material wealth repeats at present in very many ways.

Content

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 We live in a materialistic world where “matter” is considered to be everything. Money decides the rest of the things.

-          We divide the nations into developed and developing. It is based purely on economic basis. But what is the real development? Is it only the growth in material things?

-          According to paper encyclical ‘rerum novarum’ by Pope Leo XIII, the development should be based on integral development. If that is the case the Asian countries are much more developed than the Europeans because we have happiness, compassion and love of God and neighbor in our culture. We are more spiritually oriented as we see people flock in the worshiping places.

-          An example of a developed person is Francis of Assisi. He did not have any material wealth. But he was one of the happiest persons at his times.

Conclusion

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 What is important? It is explained in today’s gospel

o   Give first place to God in our everyday life.

o   Obey his commandments and

o   Follow his ways.

-          If we put our trust on perishable things we will be disappointed someday. Instead, if we put our trust and faith in God we will be satisfied. Then we will have the joy and happiness that nobody can take away from us..