TWENTY-NINTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME, YEAR C, 2025 (World Mission Sunday) BY FR. MARTIN EKE, MSP

 

Exodus 17:8-13; Psalm 121:1-8; 2 Timothy 3:14-4:2; Luke 18:1-8

Today is World Mission Sunday. Pope Pius XI instituted World Mission Sunday in 1926 to be an annual day of prayer and expression of support for the Catholic Church’s missionary vision and character. It is a Sunday that is set aside for Catholics all over the world to recommit themselves to the Church's missionary activities through prayer and offering. We are invited, constantly, to pray for the success of the Church’s missionary activities in every part of the world. We pray for missionary institutions and missionaries, especially those work in conflict areas and dangerous places.

We pray for seminaries and religious houses, formators, seminarians, novices, and candidates. We pray that the Lord of the harvest sends more laborers for his harvest (Matthew 9:37-38). We also pray for men and women of goodwill who sacrifice their talents and resources to support God’s work in the missions. In addition to our prayers, we are, also, invited to offer material and financial support to the Church’s missionary activities. We are all missionaries, either by going to the missions or by praying for missionaries or by giving material and financial support to sustain the missions.

In his message for World Mission Sunday 2025, Pope Leo XIV says, “Our world, wounded by war, violence and injustice, needs to hear the Gospel message of God’s love and to experience the reconciling power of Christ’s grace. In this sense, the Church herself, in all her members, is increasingly called to be a missionary Church that opens its arms to the world, proclaims the word … and becomes a leaven of harmony for humanity…. We are to bring to all peoples, indeed to all creatures, the Gospel promise of true and lasting peace…. I would conclude by encouraging you to continue to be missionaries of hope among all peoples.” 

St. Paul reminds us in the second reading that although we are in a world that has become more and more irreligious and more and more opposed to Christian values, the Catholic Church mission must continue to, “Proclaim the word; be persistent whether it is convenient or inconvenient; convince, reprimand, encourage through all patience and teaching.” We pray for the grace.

While there are missionaries of hope, love, and joy in faraway lands, we are missionaries of hope, love, and joy to one another, especially to the “wounded” and the needy. By the wounded, we mean those who are soulfully and spiritually wounded by painful physical and psychological experiences, damages, injuries, and harm. We are called to be channels and missionaries of healing to them.

The first reading tells us about the mission before Israel. The mission was to defeat Amalek in order to continue their journey to the Promised Land. We can see the division of labor for the mission. Joshua and the soldiers went to the warfront for the physical battle. Moses and two men climbed to the top of the hill for the spiritual battle. “As long as Moses kept his hands raised up, Israel had the better of the fight, but when he let his hands rest, Amalek had the better of the fight. Moses’ hands, however, grew tired; so they took a rock and put it under him and he sat on it. Meanwhile Aaron and Hur supported his hands, one on one side and one on the other, so that his hands remained steady until sunset” when Joshua and the Israelites defeated the Amalekites (Exodus 17:11-12). This event speaks of the power of prayer; and the importance of persistent and enduring prayer. It speaks also of the importance of spiritual warfare to accompany all our material engagements.

Jesus gave a parable in today’s gospel to teach us the importance of persistent and enduring prayer. The widow never gave up appealing to the dishonest judge until she received justice. Jesus assures us, “Will not God then secure the rights of his chosen ones who call out to him day and night? Will he be slow to answer them? I tell you, he will see to it that justice is done for them speedily” (Luke 18:7).

Every important mission has ‘Amalekites’ (challenges) in its way. What are the ‘Amalekites’ in the way to our ‘Promised Land’ (goal)? Let us not be frightened and discouraged by the ‘Amalekites’ as to abandon our mission. Let us not give up. Let us battle bravely like Joshua and the soldiers, but like Moses engage in spiritual warfare until the ‘Amalek’ is conquered. Let us persevere like the widow in today’s gospel. Someone says, “A prayerless Christian is a powerless Christian.” St. Augustine puts it this way, “Pray as though everything depended on God. Work as though everything depended on you.” As we work hard and pray hard, may God grant us success. Amen.

TWENTY-EIGHT SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME YEAR C, 2025 BY FR. MARTIN EKE, MSP

 2 Kings 5:14-17; Psalm 98:1, 2-4; 2 Timothy 2:8-13; Luke 17:11-19

The readings of today invite us to reflect on the importance of gratitude. When Naaman bathed in the River Jordan as directed by Elisha, “he was cleansed of his leprosy.” He was grateful to God and returned to Elisha with a gift to express his gratitude. Naaman was a Syrian. Syria, then, was considered a pagan territory because they were Baal worshippers. Naaman said to Elisha, “Now I know that there is no God in all the earth, except in Israel. Please accept a gift from your servant.” This happened during the last years of the reign of King Ahab and his wife, Jezebel, and their children who, on the contrary, led the Israelites to idolatry. While the Chosen People were ungrateful to God by worshipping pagan gods, Naaman, the Syrian, expressed gratitude to God and proclaimed, “Now I know that there is no God in all the earth, except in Israel.”

In today’s gospel, Jesus healed ten lepers. Nine were Jews, and one was a Samaritan. The nine Jews took their healing for granted and did not return to Jesus to express gratitude. The Samaritan did. Meanwhile, the Jews looked down on the Samaritans as pagans and foreigners. Yet, it was the ‘pagan’ (the foreigner) “who returned [to Jesus] glorifying God in a loud voice; and he fell at the feet of Jesus and thanked him.” Jesus emphasizes the importance of gratitude by asking, “Ten were cleansed, were they not? Where are the other nine? Has none but this foreigner returned to give thanks to God?”

Some of us are like the nine Jews who took their healing for granted. Many times, we take our blessings for granted by showing no appreciation. We are invited to limit our complaints, fault finding, whining, and nagging, and to increase our gratitude.

A story is told of an 80-year-old man who recovered from Covid-19 during the Pandemic. In his bill was $5,000 charge per day for use of ventilator. He could not hold back tears. When he was asked why he was crying, whether it was because of the high bill. He said, “I am not crying because of the bill. I have a good health insurance and I can handle the co-pay. I am crying because all my life I had taken God’s free air that I breathe for granted, but have to pay $5,000 per day for use of ventilator.”

There is a saying that those who cry because they have no shoes need to realize that there are people who have no feet. This is to say that those who are not content and are unhappy with what they have need to know that there are people who are living in abject poverty. Failure to give thanks and acknowledge God’s blessings and provisions is a sin of ingratitude. It is also a sin of ingratitude to be extravagant and wasteful failing to realize that there are people who are hungry and starving.

Another story, a rich man looked out of his window and saw a poor man picking up things from his trash can, he said, “Thank God I am not poor.” The poor man looked around and saw a naked man misbehaving on the street, he said, “Thank God I am not mad.” The mad man looked ahead and saw an ambulance carrying a sick person, he said, “Thank God I am not sick.” A sick person in a hospital saw a trolley carry a dead body to the mortuary, he said, “Thank God that I am not dead.” Why not thank God today for all your blessings and for the gift of life? Each of us has something for which to be grateful to God.

The spirit of gratitude has spiritual effects in our relationship with God and our fellow human beings. It is a gift from God for our good but our duty. Common Preface IV of Eucharistic celebration prays, “It is truly right and just, our duty and our salvation, always and everywhere to give you thanks, Lord, holy Father, almighty and eternal God. For, although you have no need of our praise, yet our thanksgiving is itself your gift, since our praises add nothing to your greatness but profit us for salvation …” The Psalmist says, “Those who offer praise as a sacrifice honor me.” Expression of gratitude in itself is a prayer that God offer us more opportunities to express gratitude to him.

For us human beings, expression of gratitude is delightful, encourages, enlivens, and empowers. Ingratitude discourages, diminishes, and is repulsive. Expression of gratitude is uplifting and promotes healthy environments. Ingratitude is sickening, creates anxiety, stress, aches, and pains.

Both in our relationship with God and our fellow human beings, expression of gratitude multiplies blessings. Ingratitude denies blessings.

We hear it often said that ingratitude is the worst of all vices. St. Ignatius of Loyola explains why. He says, “The cause and origin of all evils and sins is the sin of ingratitude.”

St. Paul urges us, “Give thanks always and for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus to God the Father” (Ephesians 5:20).  “In all circumstances give thanks, for this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus” (1 Thessalonians 5:18).

O Lord, grant us a grateful heart. Amen.

TWENTY-SEVENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME YEAR C, 2025 BY FR. MARTIN EKE, MSP

Habakkuk 1:2-3, 2:2-4; Psalm 95:1-26-9; 2 Timothy 1:6-8, 13-14; Luke 17:5-10

Prophet Habakkuk prophesied in Judah about 600 years before Jesus Christ. At that time, there were political decadence and abandonment of the worship of Yahweh. The first reading was a section of Habakkuk’s lamentation over the situation in Judah. Habakkuk questioned God about his silence over his and the people’s cry and prayers: “How long, O Lord? I cry for help but you do not listen! I cry out to you, ‘Violence!’ But you do not intervene. Why do you let me see ruin; why must I look at misery? Destruction and violence are before me; there is strife, and clamorous discord.”

There are people whose conditions are as it was with Judah, and like Habakkuk, in their grief and desolation they think that God is silent. They ask God many questions: “Why me?” “Why this?” “Why that?” “Where are you, God?” “Where are your promises?” And many other questions. Some people think that it is not proper to ask God questions. Questions to God with faith are prayers in themselves. It is praying to God as we are, according to our mood, and according to our situation. That is why we have different Mysteries of the Rosary and different seasons of the Church’s liturgical calendar. Every season has its kind of prayer. There are many prayerful questions to God in the Scriptures. Jesus prayed on the Cross with a question to God from Psalm 22:1, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46). Jesus did not stop at the question; he set an example for us by his act of faith: “Father into your hands I commend my spirit” (Luke 23:46). Inappropriate questions are questions to God asked with doubt and unbelief.

Habakkuk encourages us, “For the vision still has its time, presses on to fulfillment, and will not disappoint; if it delays, wait for it, it will surely come, it will not be late. … The just one, because of his faith, shall live” (Habakkuk 2:2-3). Jesus gives the same assurance, “Will not God then secure the rights of his chosen ones who call out to him day and night? Will he be slow to answer them? I tell you, he will see to it that justice is done for them speedily” (Luke 18:7-8). Prophet Isaiah says, “No, the hand of the Lord is not too short to save, nor his ear too dull to hear” (Isaiah 59:1-2).

St. Paul writes in the second reading, “Beloved: I remind you to stir into flame the gift of God that you have through the imposition of my hands. For God did not give us a spirit of cowardice but rather of power and love and self-control…”  (2 Timothy 1:6-7). “Take as your norm the sound words that you heard from me, in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus” (2 Timothy 1:13). St. Paul encourages us that no matter what happens, we are to keep our spirit and faith alive. In these virtues lie our strength. Do not despair! Do not give up!

In today’s gospel, we read, “The apostles said to the Lord, ‘Increase our faith.’ The Lord replied, ‘If you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you would say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea, and it would obey you’” (Luke 17:5-6). Jesus tells us that by our Baptism, the fire of faith is ignited in us. If it is now smoldering, it is in our hands to fan it into flame.

Yes, our faith will be tested as that of the servant who came in from hard work in the field. The servant was not allowed to get some rest. Immediately, the servant’s master tasked the servant to prepare a meal for him. After the servant prepared and served him the meal, the master ordered, “Put on your apron and wait while I eat and drink. You may eat and drink when I am finished” (Luke 17:7-10).  He remained obedient and faithful. St James writes, “The testing of your faith produces perseverance” (James 4:3). St. Paul says that perseverance produces proven character, and proven character produces hope, the hope that does not disappoint (Romans 5:4-4). When my faith is tested, what does it produce?

The victory over this world is our faith (1 John 5:4). St. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5:7, “We walk by faith, not by sight.”  Jesus bade some persons farewell, recognizing the power of their faith: To the repentant woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.” (Luke 7:50).  To the Samaritan healed of leprosy, “Rise and go; your faith has made you well” (Luke 17:19). To the woman healed of hemorrhage, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering,” (Mark 5:34). To blind Bartimaeus, “Go, your faith has healed you” (Mark 10:52). What will Jesus say to me about my faith?

However, it does happen that we have the faith that uproots trees and moves mountains and have the perseverance that produces proven character yet we do not receive what we have prayed for. At such times, we do not give up but do what Jesus did at Gethsemane and on the Cross. He prayed to God, “… not my will, but yours be done” (Luke 22:42); “Father into your hands I commend my spirit” (Luke 23:46).

Let us pray: O Lord, may we see your hand in all our unanswered prayers. May our unanswered prayers come together for our good. May our unanswered prayers produce joyful and thanksgiving testimonies. Amen.