DAILY HOMILIES #freedom

St. Paul tells us today: “Do not yield your members to sin as an instrument, but yield yourselves to God.” There is an extent to which a slave would give trouble that the master will have no choice but to let the slave go. You only become a slave when you stop resisting and give up the struggle.

Has the past been painful? Then why are you still holding on to it? According to Elkhart Tolle, this is the insanity of humankind. We easily forget the good people do for us but we never forget the hurts people inflict on us. We hold on to our pain like children refusing to let go of some debris they picked up from the dustbin.

You can always determine who will be your Master and you can only have one Master. If you desire to be free from slavery to sin, you must subject yourself completely to God.

Truly, God cares. Just as He saved the people of Israel from bondage, God saves us from the bondage of our sicknesses and diseases when we call on him. The people of Israel cried to Him from Egypt and He rescued them. Do not lose heart, cry to God and He will rescue you.

Do not be surprised when Pharaoh along with his cohorts becomes hostile to us. They hate us because we don’t belong here. If out of love for Egypt, we begin to compromise our faith, swim in sin and deny God, we would be making ourselves slaves in a foreign land whereas our true homeland is flowing with milk and honey.

Most of us Christians today only pretend that we love God. We worship God just for the benefits we gain from God. We are like one who marries a person because he/she is rich. When the money is no more, they leave! If you truly love someone, you would sacrifice everything for that person. No wonder, in today’s Gospel passage, we hear Jesus saying to us, “If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.” (Luke 9:23)