💖 HOMILY - DECEMBER 12 💖

First Reading - Numbers 27:2-17

Gospel - Matthew 21:23-27

The Bible is filled with the accounts of God's power and authority over everything that exists. The authority of God is not only evinced in creation but also in the events of our lives. We have a glimpse of God's authority in the readings of the day that make us humble to accept the events of our lives in faith for God does and acts even through unfavourable situations of our lives and makes that favourable.

The gospel presents an open confrontation of Jesus with the religious leaders.This gospel reading comes from the beginning of the final confrontation between Jesus and the Temple authorities. Jesus has already ‘cleansed’ the Temple, that is, made a demonstration that the worship carried out in the Temple was vain. He will soon go on to tell the parable of the Wicked Vine-Dressers, indicating that the current custodians of the Temple were no better than the ones whom Isaiah, in the days before the Babylonian Exile, had castigated as unworthy keepers of Israel, the vineyard of the Lord.

The religious leaders find the actions of Jesus offensive and question his authority for those actions. Jesus counter-questions them about the baptism of John whether that was from heaven or man. The religious leaders could not assert their authority by failing to answer the question of Jesus and thus Jesus upholds his authority of what he did.

The first reading exhibits the authority of God even in the situation when that is unfavorable. The people of Israel were on move to their promised land and meanwhile they encamped wherever they found a suitable place. The king Balak was terrified by the advancing Israelites to his territory so he sent his prophet Balaam to curse the people of Israel so that God's favour might be withheld from them. The prophet Balaam realized that the people of Israel are protected by God thus he declaimed blessing and prosperity for the people of Israel and gave them hope for the emmergance of a great leader from among them like the star. This incident of a great prophecy of blessing reveals the authority of God to stand by His chosen people; to have control over unfavourable situation to make that better.

My dear friends, we can have power and authority of the world but ultimate authority lies with God over everything. He is the controller of everything but still He needs our co-operation. He can make even the unfavourable situation favourable and suitable for us, let's trust in His power and authority. Let's never lose hope in Him.