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Wednesday, July 2, 2014

KALIS Homily



“Meddle with Us, Jesus!”
July 2, 2014, 13th Wk in Ordinary Time
Readings: Amos 5:14-15, 21-24; Ps 50:7,8-9,10-11,12-13,16-17;Mt 8:28-34.

In the course of the days after Pentecost Sunday, we had been hearing a lot from the gospel of Matthew. We heard of Jesus and his preaching and healing ministry. We heard of his powerful words and deeds that have healed the wounded soul and spirit. We heard from the gospel yesterday a very dramatic episode wherein Jesus calmed the violent storm that the apostles met on the lake. Today we hear about Jesus encountering two demons who were terrified upon seeing  him.  The demoniacs might have been [quote-unquote] ‘at peace’ in the tombs, but suddenly, they met Jesus, and that was not at all a ‘peaceful’ experience for them.
I propose that we reflect on the reactions of the gospel characters towards Jesus. First is the reaction of the demons upon seeing Jesus and second is the reaction of the Gadarenes to what Jesus did. I believe we can mirror these reactions in our experiences here in the community.
The first reaction, “Why meddle with us, Son of God?” In our daily lives here in the seminary, we are caught up with many tasks; paper works, our office and extra – curricular activities inside and outside of the seminary. We are too caught up with them that sometimes we forget there are other more important things to do like sitting down having quiet time to reflect and be immersed in God’s presence in prayer. Like the demons, sometimes trying to settle down and see Jesus is a  disturbance of our busy routine because we need to beat the deadlines. Jesus disturbs the [quote-unquote] ‘peace’ that we find in busying ourselves up because of work and too much work. We sometimes wrongly convince ourselves that “my work is my prayer”. We become uncomfortable when we have nothing to do or when we are put into silence. My brothers, do we come to a point in saying “Why meddle with ME, Son of God in my busy schedule?”
Second reaction, the Gadarenes begged Jesus to leave. We strive to be a community of those chosen to live as Christ did. Our activities are always geared towards the configuration of our hearts to the heart of Jesus. When taking the extra mile is for my greater glory, when appraising our brothers because of jealousy or pride becomes a show of hasty undiscerned judgment and when praying and faithfully following the newly revised seminary handbook becomes a show of self-preservation and self-righteousness, we have taken the wrong path towards configuration to the heart of Jesus. Sometimes little do we know it, our unconscious takes over our conscious self. When selfish motivations take over, the configuration will be temporarily halted or much worse, permanently halted.  When we allow this to happen, it is like making Jesus leave our hearts. We set Him aside. The worth of our work becomes weightier than that of Jesus’ worth in our lives. Our formation becomes futile because we become those little monsters that give Pope Francis the goosebumps.
Where do these reactions lead us? It leads us to our destruction. Soon enough, if we find Jesus to be a disturbance to us, we trigger the destruction of the self, of our relationship with others in the community, and most of all, of our relationship with God. But my dear brothers, if we allow ourselves to be disturbed by Christ, we allow Him to come to us. We recognize the need for Him in our lives. It should lead us more to Christ who is the prince of peace. Being disturbed by God is not something negative. What matters is our response to it. Let us allow Christ to meddle with our affairs so that we can always discern if we are on the right track and be disturbed if we are already doing things on our own or when our personal issues take over. It takes a lot of humility and acceptance to allow God through Jesus to come in and be at peace with Him. Let us ask for the grace of inner peace that only God can provide.


Weng Pelingon