Homily: September 26, 2022, Monday of the Twenty-sixth Week in Ordinary Time.

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We heard in the Gospel today: "Whoever receives this child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me."

We all have been to grocery stores. You see shelves and shelves of everything you need, rows and rows of vegetables and meat, packed, weighed and priced in advance, so you can just pick up what you want. 

Back in my childhood, there were no grocery stores in the local village. So to buy vegetables, we go to the vegetable market on Sundays. For meat, we go to the butcher. Every Saturday, they would slaughter a buffalo and sell the meat.

Once, my mummy sent my brother and I to buy some meat from her regular butcher. We didn’t know how to choose the best meat but we thought, the butcher would help since he knew my parents very well. Instead, he cheated on us, and packed bad quality meat for us to bring home. Mummy was very upset. The butcher knew we went to buy on behalf of our mummy, his regular customer, but he did not respect that. When he cheated us the children, he was in fact cheating mummy. We didn’t buy from him anymore after that.

In the same way, God sent Jesus to bring the good news to the world. One of the mysteries of our faith is that we have never seen God. Jesus told us “No one has ever seen God. The only Son, who is the same as God … he has made him known”.

Jesus came as a little child and from the very beginning of his earthly life, people have tried to eliminate Him. Then Jesus sent his disciples, and the same happened. Many did not listen to the good news preached by Jesus, His disciples, now His church.

Till today, we see people choosing to believe in bad news, fake news, media and political lies, instead of the real, good news. They choose to ignore and reject the teachings of church, the traditions of the disciples, the way of Jesus, thus they are rejecting God.

God’s ways are simple and straightforward, not packaged to tempt our vanity nor seduce our lust, like an innocent child, pure and authentic. 

If we have wisdom, we will see how God is reaching out to us. Let us be humble and seek Him, welcome Him, receive Him who comes to us through the small, simple moments of our daily lives. 

Amen 


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