21st Sunday-B
Good morning/evening everyone. Welcome to the best Church in town.
Once a family invited me for their reunion (family gathering) and they said, “It’s our tradition to meet every year and you can join us too...”. I said “OK” and then at one point, somebody asked me whether my family is in Canada”. And my answer should be, “No, I don’t”. But I said, “Thank God, I don’t”. And then the family feud started, one person is saying, “That’s your son and another person said, “No, it’s your daughter and people were standing around and were looking at them and I went and did something religious, yes, I said, “Jerry, Jerry...”
Once what happened was, a pilot announced over the intercom that they are all going to die and there is no hope because the flight got some major, major problem. People saw a priest with them and said, “Oh father, we are all going to die and please do something; something religious”. So, the priest got up and you know what he did, he took up a collection”.
Once there was a famous religious leader and he did everything well according to the tradition and he had a cat. Every time he did prayers and any religious service, the cat used to come and jump up and down and run here and there. So, what he did was, before he did anything religious service, he tied the cat to a pole and thus he did everything. It went for a while and one day, the spiritual Master died, and his disciples continued to do the same, tying the cat to a pole and doing the religious services. Then one day, the cat died, the disciples got so confused and you know what they did, they bought a brand-new cat and tied it to a pole before doing their religious service. Then one of his disciples wrote a beautiful ritual book on how to tie a cat before any religious service.
Today’s readings explain what true religion is. It is not simply a scrupulous, external observance of rules, laws, traditions and rituals. It is a loving, obedient relationship with God expressed in obeying His Commandments, worshipping Him, recognizing His presence in other human beings and rendering them loving and humble service. Prayers, rituals, Sacraments and religious practices only help us to practice this true religion in our daily lives.
In those days, in the time of Christ our Lord, the Pharisees and the Scribes and the leaders and the elders imposed so many rituals, rules and regulations on people. They tied up heavy burdens on ordinary everyday god-fearing people but they themselves didn’t want to lift a finger to move them.
Those Pharisees wanted to be addresses as ‘Rabbi’. They wanted to sit in the seat of honor in the synagogue and be greeted in public places and so many other things. They imposed so many religious rituals and customs on ordinary people and they themselves didn’t observe at all. And that is why Christ our Lord called them as white-washed tombs. They are so beautiful outside but inside full of dead people’s bones and filth.
Religious rituals and customs should liberate a person from sin and they should show the way to the God the Father.
Those Pharisees and Scribes were teaching the people only the rituals and religious customs not the love, kindness and forgiveness of God almighty.
Once a man invented fire and he got so excited and went everywhere teaching the people how to make fire and cook. People loved the fire-man and his fame began to spread everywhere and what happened was the religious leaders became so jealous of him and killed him. Then, they made a people statue of him and installed in every synagogue and temples and beside the statue they also put the instruments that he used to make fire and thus people used so many rituals to worship him but forgot how to make fire.
True religion teaches to make ‘Fire’ not just worship the instruments that helped to make the fire. And if we ever use any ritual, let us use it not to wash our cloths, hands and feet but to wash our hearts, mind, body and soul and thus to unite ourselves with Christ the one who is the way to life. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment