DAILY HOMILIES #repentance

“If God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O men of little faith?” (Matthew 6:30) Enter this New Year as a man/woman of great faith. Believe that you serve a God who knows how to provide, how to create dry roads in the midst of rivers, how to make ways where there seems to be no way. Expect the best.

Do not be so glued to social media, spend time with real human beings, mend broken fences, forgive past hurts, and the peace of God, which passes all understanding will keep your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Let us not be like stubborn sheep refusing to follow the shepherd back to the fold. No matter how sweet sin is, it is never sweeter than righteousness.

If you can succeed in making a person repent, renounce his former ways, and start living righteously, then I tell you there would be a lot of dancing in heaven because of you just as a man would dance when he finds a lost sheep.

One of the easiest way to forgive is to consider the fact that the person(s) I am angry with still has some good potentials. I only need to overlook the bad side and pay some attention to the good that person(s) is able to do.

The more I repent and leave my sins behind, the brighter my future will be. Who knows what calamities I could have attracted to myself due to my sins?

As we celebrate the feast of St. Matthew today, we not only reflect on lessons to be learnt from the manner of his call, we also reflect on the fact that God has called each of us as well through the various gifts and talents he bestowed upon us.

Let us examine ourselves today by asking: Am I really worshiping God from my heart or am I only concerned about what others would say about me? Repentance is the key.

Jesus performed countless miracles, He even raised the dead to life many times but one miracle Jesus would not work is to force you to repent. This requires your active cooperation.

Jesus said: “Leave the dead to bury their own dead.” For those not willing to repent, they are living dead. You cannot kill yourself for their sake. The best way to preach to them is to be good, you start shining. Be the best version of you. Be the salt that will make the entire pot of rice sweet.

God is inviting us today to rise from where we have fallen, to pick up our Cross again, to say with the Prodigal Son, “I will arise and go to my Father.”

In our Gospel passage today, Mark tells us that Jesus began his public ministry by preaching saying: “This is the time of fulfilment. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel.” In other words, “today is all we have, this is the time, repent now and believe the Gospel.” In our first reading, we see a very similar message being preached by Jonah to the people of Nineveh: “Forty days more and Nineveh shall be destroyed.” In other words, there is no time, we cannot postpone repentance otherwise, we shall be destroyed. Even our Second reading today contains the same message: “The appointed time has grown very short…”