DAILY HOMILIES #righteousness

An adage says, “When oil touches one finger, it spreads to the others.” In other words, the evil of one person is capable of destroying others. In the same way, the good deed of one person is capable of saving the world. This is what St. Paul explains in today’s reading: “Just as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience, many will be made righteous.” (Romans 5:19).

What is the cure for covetousness? It is faith in God. Trust God to provide when you are kind to others. Remember that when you give to others, you are not losing anything but storing treasures in heaven. We need strong faith to know that no one ever became poor by giving to the needy. We need faith to recognise that there is a better home for us, more precious than this earthly dwelling.

In today’s Gospel passage, Jesus likened the scribes and Pharisees to whitewashed tombs, beautiful from the outside but full of dead men’s bones inside. Jesus also condemned the fact that the Scribes and Pharisees had a practice of adorning the tombs of the prophets (who were killed for speaking the truth) to exonerate themselves from the crimes of their ancestors.

If we are to understand hell as the place of the unfaithful, it follows that there is a place other than heaven and hell where souls go to receive either a severe or a light beating. This place is what the church calls purgatory. As the Catechism puts it: “Purgatory is the final purification of the elect, which is entirely different from the punishment of the damned.” (CCC 1030-1031) This purification is done to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven.

Do not be carried away with sayings such as: “A bird in hand is better than a thousand in the wind.” As long as God is ignored in that plan, the so-called “bird in hand” will become a bone in your throat later. Our people have a parable: “If one rushes to put food into their mouth, they could easily put the food in their nose.” Although it is true that “heaven helps those who help themselves”, if such “help” involves sin, we are no longer helping ourselves but setting ourselves up for regret.

Judas Iscariot said, “This oil could have been sold and the money given to the poor.” Meanwhile, he said this not because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief. Do you sometimes feel that some people are doing too much for God? Let God be the judge. We may deceive others by pretending to be good, but nothing is hidden from God. It is better to be a light than a hypocrite pretending to be a light.

Righteousness is a reproach to the ungodly. Seeing the light in you, they try to win you over to the darkness or make your life challenging. This was Jeremiah’s experience in today’s First reading. It was also Jesus’s situation in today’s Gospel passage, and as Jesus warned us, we cannot follow in his steps unless we are prepared to face such difficult moments.

Why Does Goodness Attract Enemies? The Book of Wisdom says: “Ungodly men reasoned unsoundly: ‘Let us lie in wait for the righteous man, because he is inconvenient to us and opposes our actions. Let us test him with insult and torture.” (Cf. Wisdom 2:12-21). Evil doers, having made themselves God’s enemies, are constantly at war with God’s children.

This parable teaches us to repent of vices such as using others to measure one’s progress in life, making others look small and unimportant, speaking ill of others, and praying against them. Repent from the philosophy of “I beta pass my neighbour.” Compare yourself only with who you were yesterday. Seek to improve, not to impress.

The scribes and Pharisees were more concerned about their appearance than their holiness. They invested heavily in looking good but remained ugly in God’s sight. They took seats of honour at banquets but remained unworthy of the eternal banquet. They sat in the front rows of the synagogue, but without oil in their lamps, they were destined to stay outside like the foolish virgins. (cf. Matthew 25:1-13). They enjoyed the respect of men but had no integrity in God’s sight; they didn’t deserve the titles they gave themselves.

Today’s feast, the baptism of Jesus, marks the second significant moment of the revelation of Jesus’ divinity. Luke reports: “When Jesus also had been baptised and was praying, the heaven was opened, and the Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form, as a dove, and a voice came from heaven, ‘Thou art my beloved Son; with thee, I am well pleased.’” (Luke 3:21-22). All those present at the baptism of Jesus saw the dove and heard the voice from heaven. Like the Magi, they must have fallen on their faces to worship Jesus when they saw this mighty display of God.

Today’s celebration serves one purpose: to make us think of heaven and increase our longing for heaven. Don’t just be a Christian; strive to be an exceptional Christian; live according to the beatitudes, and follow what today’s Psalm says—generations after you will continue to celebrate you. Your name will be heard on the lips of many long after you have gone. This is what it means to live forever.