22nd Sunday - B

My brothers and sisters!
In today’s gospel we hear how Jesus criticized the Pharisees who honor God with their lips but their hearts are far from Him. Jesus hates hypocrites. Let us look also to ourselves what it means if we say that we are believers; how we live our faith; how we understand as a member of the church.
As a believer first we should understand that it is not about having religion, but having faith. A believer can be seen as a member of a church or of a denomination, as we can say about ourselves as a catholic, a member of the Catholic Church. But this identity is very artificial. The most important to be a believer is we have faith. In the creed first we say that we believe in God, and then in Jesus Christ, and last but not least we say that we believe in the Holy Spirit. In the relation with the Holy Spirit who guides the Church we also say that we believe in the Holy Catholic Church with all his teachings about the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body and the eternal life. But faith is not only an acknowledgement on our lips. Faith is relational. If we say that we have faith, we have a relation with the God the Trinity. In reality, the relation in faith with God we realize in a relation of love. We will have a close relation, a true faith if we have much love to God and to our brothers and sisters.
Second, if we acknowledge that we are believers, we can see ourselves, if being a catholic is a burden for us or a privilege; we are happy and proud as a catholic or religion makes us stress. Jesus came to the world to save us, to make us free. If we experience our religious life as a burden, it means that we misunderstand our faith. We have to be re-evangelized; we have to deepen again our understanding about our religion, about our faith.
If we understand that the laws from God and from the Church as something that make us in fetters, we are not a true believer. A true believer is a free man. A true believer doesn’t see the laws as obstacles in his or her life, but as guides and signs that help us to get a true direction in our journey. We can liken all the laws in the church as traffic signs on the street. There is limitation for our speed; there are regulatory and warning signs and so on … and all of this is for the benefit of our safety. Hope that we can see the values behind every rule and law in our church. For example:
Do you know why the Catholic Church holds tight the rule of the inseparable catholic marriage? We cannot answer that the Bible or God says so. But why does God say so? He has a reason with this. So this is the task of theologian to seek the reasons and they found three reasons why God insists the inseparable marriage.
First, we believe that a catholic marriage is God’s will. The couple is united by their love for each other, and we know that God is love. If once God has united you, He will not change His mind after a couple of years. God doesn’t play with our life. It is the same as my vocation as a priest.
Second, we believe that a marriage or a family life is also a way to holiness. If a couple has many problems in their family life, it means that there is something wrong within each one of them. If they decide to divorce, it means that they run away from the problems. It’s childish! But if each one of them tries to control one self and to see what’s wrong within one self and then tries to change one self … so each one of them will grow to a more mature personality, that means that they will grow to perfection, they grow to holiness. God wants that by your marriage, you also can gain heaven.
And the third reason why God wants the inseparable marriage is because of the children. The children will suffer most when their parents get divorce. God loves children and He wants them to be raised in a family, full of love.
My brothers and sisters, we have many rules in our Church. For me I understand that as our riches, not as our burden or obstacles, if we really get the values behind the rules. I know that many of the catholic do not really understand all of the rules and laws, because you have no chance to study them. And it was sad then when some of them leave our Church and join another one. You know, a few weeks ago in San Antonio Express – News, there were news about them. They left the Catholic Church because they cannot accept the church teaching about the sacrament of penance, the devotion to saints and also they say that they don’t like our monotonous liturgy and they want to study more the Bible.
They said that they didn’t get what they were looking for in our Church. But did they really look for the truth? Did they deepen the riches of our Church? In my opinion they didn’t find because they didn’t make any effort to deepen their faith, to look for a better understanding of their faith.
I want to encourage all of us: don’t be satisfied with our spiritual life as what we have now. We have to deepen our faith always. To attend the Mass every Sunday is not enough. That’s why we have look for another way how to nourish our faith. Don’t be afraid to make your Shepherd busy.