Faith

Vigil of the Assumption

In our first reading (1 Chronicles 15-16), King David finally brings the Ark of the Covenant into Jerusalem with shouting, music, and joy. But to get to this happy day, David had to learn a painful lesson about how to handle the presence of God. In his first attempt, David tried to move the holy Ark on a common oxcart. It was modern and convenient, but it treated God’s presence with casual familiarity. When the oxen stumbled and a man named Uzzah reached out to touch the Ark, he died on the spot.

David realized his mistake. You cannot carry the uncontainable glory of God on a lazy cart of convenience. It requires consecrated human shoulders to bear the weight. Fast forward to the Gospel (Luke 11:27-28). A woman in the crowd shouts out to Jesus, “Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts that nursed you!”

On the surface, it sounds like a beautiful compliment. But this woman is making the exact same mistake David made with the oxcart. She is looking only at the outer container. She is treating Mary like a passive, biological box that just happened to transport Jesus into the world. Jesus instantly corrects her focus. He says, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it!”

Jesus is not insulting His mother. He is unmasking her true greatness. He is saying, “Do not just look at her biology. My mother is the ultimate Ark because she chose to offer her life, her heart, and her ‘shoulders’ to carry God’s Word.” The old Ark was holy because it held the written law on stone; Mary is the true Ark because she heard God’s voice at the Annunciation and answered with a radical, obedient “Yes.”

This brings us to the heart of the Vigil of the Assumption. Why does God take Mary, body and soul, into heaven? It is because she was the ultimate tabernacle. God looked at the holy vessel that carried His Son and declared that the decay of the grave could not touch her flesh. The Assumption is God claiming His sacred property.

Look at the mirror today, because this feast isn’t just about Mary’s history; it is a prophetic preview of your destiny! By the power of your Baptism and the weight of the Holy Eucharist, you didn’t just visit the tabernacle, you became one! You are walking around right now carrying the uncontainable, real presence of Jesus Christ inside your actual flesh and blood.

But the warning of the oxcart and the teaching of Jesus are shouting the exact same thing to our generation: You cannot carry a holy God with a casual lifestyle! You cannot build a destiny on a cart of lazy convenience, trying to reduce the Creator of the universe to a one hour  Sunday routine.

God isn’t looking for passive admirers; He is looking for people who will take His Word, lock it into their hearts, and put it into action. Think about it like a high-end, fragile package delivered to your door. You don’t just leave it sitting out on the porch to get ruined by the weather, and you don’t carry it around carelessly with one finger while talking on the phone. You lift it with both hands, treat it with respect, and bring it safely inside.

That is exactly how we need to treat God’s presence in our daily lives. Stop staring at the bad weather, the struggles, and the trials standing right in front of your face. Start looking up at the heavenly temple opened above you. When you choose to hear God’s voice and actively carry His truth with both hands through obedience, you walk directly into Mary’s victory. The storms of life might howl around you, but when you are holding onto the Word, no enemy on earth can drop you out of His hands!

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Friday, 19th week in ordinary time – 14th August 2026 – Matthew 19:3-12

Jesus wraps up His teaching of the community discourse in Chapter 18. He now leaves Galilee and heads straight toward Judea. Our Lord does not succumb to the applause of his disciples. He refuses to play the celebrity game even as the crowds continue to swarm Him for a quick fix. Bypassing the religious noise, He rolls up His sleeves to heal them and deliver raw mercy on a strict deadline, fully aware that the shadow of the cross looms large with Jerusalem waiting at the end of this road. After all, true compassion doesn’t consult a calendar.

Having already set in motion the plan to kill Jesus, the Pharisees are now stacking up evidence to use against Him. The Pharisees aren’t just asking questions; they are building a weapon, stacking up evidence because they are terrified of the popularity of this itinerant rabbi. They didn’t show up to have a theological debate or test His knowledge, they showed up to test His authority and drive a wedge right down the middle of His ministry to scatter the disciples.  

So what’s so deadly about this contentious question?  This question wasn’t just a theological debate; it was a weaponized trap carefully designed to force Jesus into a public relations minefield. By asking if a man could legally divorce his wife for any cause, the Pharisees threw Him into a vicious catch-22 that had already split the Jewish community right down the middle. They weren’t looking for a divine revelation; they were looking for a dividing line.

At the heart of this issue were two rabbinic schools of thought. The school of Hillel held that divorce could be granted for some rather frivolous reasons. A man could divorce his wife over bad cooking or because the wife left her head uncovered, or to say nothing of the ‘must happen’, the inevitable; a fight with the in-laws. All these and more could be grounds for a divorce. On the other hand, the school of Shammai, held that divorce could be granted only in the case of moral impurity such as adultery.

We have no idea which school of thought was behind the question posed to Jesus but we can be sure of this: He understood the implications of even appearing to take any particular side. Jesus was not here to take sides but to go back to the truth.

When the Pharisees stepped up with their traps, Jesus didn’t just dodge the question; He completely flipped the script to expose the hypocrisy hidden beneath their robes. He looked right at these highly educated, deeply religious experts and dropped a truth bomb that cut straight through their pride: If anybody on this planet should have known the answer, it was them—but they had been flipping through the pages of scripture so fast trying to find a rule to enforce that they completely missed the Revelation standing right in front of them. You see, you can memorize the text and still miss the Truth, because information without intimacy always leads to hypocrisy!

Jesus takes the discussion to where it all began; the Garden of Eden. He takes a step back in time, even before the matter found reference in Deuteronomy 24.  For Jesus, the bigger picture begins with what God ordained. Marriage is His idea, not ours and so we have no business to alter, delete, subtract or alienate.

Interestingly, Jesus is doing some serious course corrections. While the issue in question seems to be divorce, the real issue lies with the understanding of marriage. That is why Our Lord re-visits the first human marriage.  

 Stop trying to build a covenant on a cliché! We have completely romanticized marriage in our culture, painting a picture that looks great on Instagram but collapses in the living room because families keep pushing people into a lifelong commitment just to check off a social expectation. Marriage is not easy, and we have to stop treating it like it is the only destination for a fulfilled life because God has not called everyone to the exact same path. If you enter a covenant based on a fantasy, you will abandon it the second you face a reality check.

That is exactly why the Church doesn’t let you stand at the altar and read some poetically written, fairy-tale vows that you found on Pinterest; she forces you to look truth in the eye and say words that actually matter. The traditional vows don’t hide the scars of real life; they lean right into the friction, forcing a couple to acknowledge that there will be bad times, dark seasons, and worst-case scenarios. Because true biblical love isn’t a feeling you stumble into when things are good, it is a daily, intentional choice you lock into when everything else falls apart!

Marriage is not a tool to fix ‘broken people.’ So often we hear people say, “Get him(her) married and the problem will be solved, he(she) will become responsible.”  Marriage is a sacred covenant, not a rehabilitation clinic. As a holy sacrament, it requires deep reverence and spiritual commitment, not the expectation that a spouse will fix your broken pieces.

Parents who insist that their children marry in Church even when their child has professed himself or herself to be a non-believer or a lapsed catholic, do a great disservice to the sacrament. In our desire not to be embarrassed before our relatives and to ‘look good’ to the world we cause grievous harm to the sanctity of the sacrament.

The same must be said of mixed marriages in Church. While the Church, with conditions, permits the ‘nuptials’ to be held in Church, it should not be done primarily to please the parents or society. It is God we ought to please, for it is with Him as a witness, that we pledge love and fidelity. Sadly, most Catholics who enter into ‘disparity of cult’ marriages (Catholic with a Hindu/Muslim/Jew etc) are not even aware that such a marriage, even though held in Church, is not a sacrament but merely a ‘nuptial rite.’

As a pastor I have seen more than my share of Catholics who marry a person of another faith in the Church, merely to please mummy and daddy, with mummy and daddy insisting on the ‘mass’ being celebrated while there is a perfectly valid nuptial rite that can be held; reading, homily et al but without the eucharistic prayer. But sadly, mummy and daddy want to be made happy or want catholic society to be happy – not God.

Finally, to married couples – Marriage needs to be approached with the purpose that God had in mind; mutual love and procreation. When couples speak of not having children or ‘postponing’ conception, they violate the very reason for marriage. This is not some personal choice that you make. If you choose to freely be married in the presence of almighty God and his Church, then you do it, keeping his idea of marriage in mind and not change the goalpost along the way to suit your comforts and personal beliefs. Contraception is a grave moral sin and that cannot be changed because you find it a hard pill to swallow while conveniently swallowing other pills.

It would be better not to be married in Church if one has already intended to disregard the purpose of marriage as ordained by God.

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Thursday, 19th week in ordinary time – 13th August 2026 – Matthew 18:21-19:1

Matthew chapter 18 is the Community Discourse. It is Jesus’ blueprint for how we live together, love together, and lock arms together. Jesus teaches us how to deal with a sinful brother or sister.  He does not say ignore it, he does not say cancel them, he talks about carefrontation. Not confrontation. Carefrontation.

Look at how we handle conflict. We usually default to one of two broken extremes. Either we come in with cruel truth, or we settle for cowardly comfort. Some of us in the room, and I’m putting my hand up first; we just confront. We slam people with the facts and break the person to prove a point. That isn’t righteousness. That is cruelty. Truth without love is brutal.

But then the rest of us? We swing to the other side. We comfort people right in the middle of their compromise. We see the toxic behavior, we see the sin destroying their life, and we say nothing because we want to avoid the awkwardness. We call it “keeping the peace,” but Jesus calls it a lack of love. Love without truth isn’t kind. It is sentimental garbage. It lets people drown so we don’t have to get wet. Jesus is calling us to a third way. He is calling us to Carefrontation.

In the text of today, Peter has a hypothetical situation or perhaps one that he was struggling with himself. What does one do with a member of the Church who sins against another member of the Church? How often should one forgive that member? Notice that the Gospel of Matthew is the only Gospel that uses the word ‘Church,’ which, from the Greek, translates as ‘a calling out of.’ That is what a Church is, ‘people called out.’ Ironically, we have become a people who are comfortable in!

Peter doesn’t just ask the question; he tries to flex his own formula. The culture back then said you forgive a brother three times. But a Gentile? An outsider who doesn’t look like you or believe like you? Zero times. They labeled them “the enemy” and locked the door. And isn’t it crazy how 2,000 years later, we are still running that same broken script? We have upgraded our technology, but we haven’t transformed our terminology. We can launch rockets into space, but we still can’t launch grace across the room. We have grown mentally in our systems, but we are completely stunted in our spirits, still treating the people who are different from us like they are disqualified from the mercy of God.

Peter assumes that his generous offer to forgive seven times, four times more than what his Jewish brothers would have done, should have earned him a meritorious mention by Jesus. Peter’s jaw must have certainly dropped at the Lord’s answer. Seventy times seven was certainly not the answer he imagined. Peter must have thought that Our Lord had finally lost it. Sure, the Lord had said some rather challenging statements in the past but this was not challenging, this was outright ridiculous. Perhaps, it was Peter’s look of disbelief and horror that prompted the parable of the ‘unforgiving servant.’ (verse 18:23-19:1)

The parable has many little details that are of great interest. Sadly, these little details in the parable get overshadowed compared to the larger message of forgiveness that we have got accustomed to hearing or the teaching that this parable ought to bear upon us. So, the question we need to ask at first is, how in God’s name did the servant of the King end up with a debt so high and even more how did the King permit such a debt to accumulate?

Ten thousand talents are no small amount.  One talent is equal to 5,475 denarii (one dinar is a day’s labour) and the debt had stacked up to 54,750 denarii or about 150 years of labour. So how did the King slip up in overlooking the debt of his servant, or did he?

The eye of the King and I am not talking about some earthly ruler in a story. I am talking about Jesus Christ, the King of Kings. When you look at that debt, a debt so massive it represents 150 years of backbreaking labour. That tells a story! It means we have been reckless. It means we have been spiritually bankrupt in our choices, running to His throne not just for help, but to overborrow mercy.

Borrowing grace has become our habit. We have let the debt pile up to astronomical proportions, running up a spiritual tab that we have absolutely no capacity to pay. And here is the absolute irony of our insanity: we look at that unpayable mountain of debt, and what do we do? We go right back to the counter and try to borrow again. We keep drawing from a well we never dug, expecting the King to just keep covering our compromise.

The King on the other hand is fully aware of the debt owed and even more fully aware that the debt can’t be paid back to Him. His magnanimous heart has already figured this out and he knows that He will have to cancel the debt even though the threat of punishment is part of the deal. Yet he forgives and waves off the debt; an act of generosity unmatched by human kindness.

So here is the ultimate question we are left holding today: if you have been standing under a waterfall of infinite grace, how dare you try to hand out forgiveness with a measuring cup? How can we look at the unpayable, astronomical mountain of debt that Jesus just wiped clean from our record, and then turn around to someone else and say, “Alright, you get seven chances, and then you’re cut off”?

Peter finally got the point. The math of the Kingdom isn’t about limits; it’s about mirroring. If the King gave you limitless mercy, you owe limitless mercy. Peter woke up to the truth and my prayer for you today is that we finally get it too!

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Wednesday,19th week in ordinary time – 12th August 2026 – Matthew 18:15-20

We have reached the fourth major teaching section in Matthew’s Gospel. Matthew 18 is the community manual directed at Peter and the rest of the followers, focusing on how believers relate to one another. The chapter begins with a question from the disciples about who holds the highest rank in heaven’s kingdom. To understand this passage correctly, we must look at it strictly through the lens of that original question instead of imposing modern ideas or current viewpoints.

This question asked by the disciples is a bit of an oddity. You won’t be asking this question when twice before this; in rapid succession (Matthew 16:21-23 and 17:22-23) Jesus has declared his passion, death and resurrection.  The disciples weren’t just asking a random, casual question. They were stressed out! Why? Because Peter just got the promotion.

Just two chapters earlier, Jesus looked right at Peter and said, “You are the rock, and on this rock, I’m building my church!” Suddenly, Peter’s got the keys. He’s got the title. And the rest of the crew? They’re looking at each other going, “Wait a minute… if he’s the rock, what are we? Pebble number one and pebble number two?” They weren’t just curious about heaven; they were insecure about their status. They wanted to know where they stood on the charts of power!

Jesus places a child in their presence as an answer to their question. They were driven by the desire to be given status and Jesus clearly demands that they change their mindset. Using a double negative he insists they will never enter the kingdom of heaven if they are driven by such earthly titles and honours.

The community discourse was thus meant to be a guidepost to the leaders of the Church. It was their duty to ensure that their very behaviour would shine ‘like a light’ for the rest of the community and not scandalize the little ones. These little ones were not to be despised but to be protected and defended from the forces of evil within and without.

With this larger framework, we now look at the text of today. This text (15-20) has often been seen as some sort of a handbook for resolving matters rather than what it was meant to be; concern for others. In its context, this text is sandwiched between the parable of the lost sheep and the mandate to forgive seventy times seven. The purpose of the process is not to win the argument, but to win back your brother.

If you are surrounded by the message of love, it is improbable that the core of your learning turns out to be rotten. This text is cushioned with love. If the shepherd left the ninety-nine sheep in search of the one lost, would he bring him back only to put him on trial? Grace doesn’t hunt you down to lock you up; it rescues you to bring you home.

As I said earlier, the point of this text in dealing with a sinful brother is not to haul him over the coals but to restore a wounded relationship. Matthew is asking his community to settle matters of dispute by tapping into the resources of the community and not to seek recourse in some external judicial kangaroo court. However, the disputes taken to the community are not meant to be trivial matters but those grave in nature and that gravity was highlighted by the word ‘sinful’.

A community of believers is not insulated from disagreements. The words of Jesus seem to indicate a hypothetical situation highlighted by the word IF, which is repeated five times in the text. But this hypothetical situation is more than just a hypothesis for we know that sparks fly when people live in a community. The Lord, mindful of such possible conflicts, wanted them to be addressed, for conflicts that are not addressed only fester.

Some of us have turned Matthew 18 into a weapon. We look at this text like it’s a four-step execution plan, and we can’t wait to get to step four so we can finally cut somebody off! We hide behind the letter of the law because it gives us a religious excuse to do what our flesh wants to do anyway. But let me tell you, if your goal is the expulsion, you have completely missed the expectation! The heart of God is not excommunication; it is restoration. The whole point of the process isn’t to push people out, it’s to pull them back in!

The sensitivity in this text oozes over. The member in question is ‘sinful’, there is a grievous wound caused due to the action of the person. Individual sins of a member hurt the community at large. There is no sin, no matter how personal, that does not injure the community. The Confiteor or the I confess is said as a public admittance of our individual sins and while it does not sacramentally absolve us of our sins it is an appropriate way to prepare ourselves to celebrate the sacred mysteries, admitting our sins which wound the body of Christ.

Hence the sin of a sinful brother needs to be dealt with and done so sensitively. The temptation would be to gloss over the sin, after all addressing such a matter is embarrassing for all. All the same, it must be ‘pointed out’ and be done privately or ‘alone’ to avoid embarrassing the person thus allowing the member to begin with a clean slate.

But then again, the perception of sinfulness may have not permeated into the consciousness of the errant member and in that case may warrant the intervention of a few more members.  Perhaps their eyes haven’t opened to the blind spot. In that case Jesus suggests you bring in a few more people.

What you need to understand is that bringing a few more people to settle the matter is not a matter of calling backup to bully them! Jesus is clear, these ‘few more people’ are partners in restoration, not a prosecution team out to destroy them.

Yet If that sinful brother or sister still closes their ears, that’s when you bring it to the Church. And if they reject the Church, you treat them like an outsider, because they are choosing to walk outside the covenant. The goal is always a rescue mission to win them back, not a religious courtroom with a pack of church lawyers out for blood!

Matthew is the only Gospel that uses the word, Church. (Ecclesia, meaning a calling out or an assembly) In this text, you will find the word used thrice. It is to this Church, that is granted the gift of ‘binding and loosening,’ a gift that was given to St Peter in Chapter 16:19. This is incredible power and with great power comes great responsibility.

The text must therefore always be seen as a responsibility that is thrust on the shoulders of the Church to make every effort to heal the wounds of division. Jesus will back this text with his response to Peter’s question; you MUST forgive seventy times seven.

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Tuesday, 19th week in ordinary time – Memorial of St Clare – 11th August 2026 – Matthew 18:1-5,10,12-14
If you want to understand the weight of what Jesus is saying here, you have to back up and look at the whole picture from verse 1 to 14, because context determines your breakthrough. We are officially stepping into the fourth of the five great discourses in the Gospel of Matthew. This isn’t just a casual conversation by the campfire; Chapter 18 is the “Community Discourse.”
Jesus is pulling Peter and the rest of the disciples into a huddle to give them the ultimate masterclass on community relations. He isn’t teaching them how to build an empire; He’s teaching them how to build a brotherhood. He’s looking at a group of competitive, hot-headed men and saying, “Before you try to change the world, you’ve got to learn how to live with each other.”
The text opens with the disciples asking Jesus who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. The entire pericope must now be seen on the basis of this question and not through a modern-day application of issues or our own interpretation.
Look at the disciples in Matthew 18:1, because their timing is completely off and it exposes exactly how we miss what God is actually saying. They pull up to Jesus and ask, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” which is a wild question to ask when you look at the context. It’s an absolute oddity! You don’t ask for a promotion when the CEO just told you the company is about to go through a crisis.
Twice before this, back-to-back in rapid succession, first in Matthew 16 and then again in Matthew 17, Jesus had just laid it all on the line. He looked them in the eyes and declared His passion, His death, and His resurrection. He’s talking about a cross, and they are competing for a crown! He is trying to prepare them for a burial, but they are too busy trying to plan their political coronation.
They are asking for a seat at the table of power while entirely ignoring the sacrifice that pays for the room.  Perhaps what was bogging the minds of the disciples was the primacy of Peter, for Jesus in Chapter 16: 16- 19 had declared him to be ‘the rock’ and now the others wanted to know where they stood on the charts of power.
Jesus places a child in their presence as an answer to their question. They were driven by the desire to be given status and Jesus clearly demands that they change their mindset. Using a double negative, he insists they will never enter the kingdom of heaven if they are driven by such earthly titles and honours.
Children, in first century Palestine were considered the lowest on the social strata. While they were loved and cared for, they certainly had no rights. Jesus was not asking the disciples to emulate the faith of child but rather become like a child who has no rights. In verse five, Jesus humbles himself identifying with a child who has no power and wants the disciples to do the same.
It is with this context in mind that we should read verses 6-9. The desire for power and position in the community is stumbling block for the others. This word ‘stumbling block’ used seven times in four verses is translated in Greek as ‘skandalizos’ from where you get the English word, scandal.
When the leaders at the top start fighting for power, the people at the bottom are the ones who pay the price, and Jesus has zero tolerance for that. The moment the elders and leaders of the community get caught up in a toxic power struggle, it becomes a massive counter-sign, a total stumbling block to Matthew’s ‘little ones,’ the brand-new converts who just stepped into the faith.
Jesus looks at these power-hungry leaders and doesn’t give them a gentle slap on the wrist; He advocates a watery grave with a heavy millstone dragged around their necks! Why a millstone? Because that massive stone ensures that those corrupt, selfish thoughts sink straight to the absolute bottom of the sea. Jesus wanted to bury those prideful desires so deep under the waves that their thirst for power would never, ever find its way back to the surface again! Jesus would rather drown your ego in the depths of the sea than let your pride poison the purity of His house.
So, any part of the body, be it the eye, hand or foot that drives the rest of the body towards the lust for power should be discarded than have the entire body be burnt in the fires of Gehenna. The word hell used in verse nine was a reference to the valley of Gehenna which was situated outside the city of Jerusalem where the rubbish of the city burnt constantly.
This community discourse wasn’t just a casual conversation; it was a divine GPS and a protective guardrail for the leaders of the Church. Jesus is laying down the law, showing them that it is their absolute duty to live in a way that doesn’t just blend in, but glows.
Leaders are called to illuminate the path, not create a hazardous roadblock that scandalizes the “little ones” who are just trying to find their way. These new believers aren’t target practice for your frustration, and they aren’t collateral damage for your church politics. They are not to be despised! They are to be aggressively protected, fiercely defended, and shielded from every toxic force of evil, whether it’s sneaking in from the outside world or brewing right inside the walls of the church!
However, there was always a possibility of the sheep straying.  Unlike Luke’ Gospel where the sheep was lost, Matthew’s Gospel refers to the sheep that chooses to stray away. This perhaps was a reference to a community member who lost his faith or simply decided to be adventurous and move away.
Technically it is foolishness to leave ninety-nine sheep vulnerable to wolves while the shepherd goes in search of one lost but this is exactly what Jesus desired. He desired us to risk all for the sake of one in order to highlight how precious every soul in the community is. Jesus desires us to have the right concern for every member of the community especially those who have gone astray.
If leadership in the Church plays the number game, then we will be happy with the ninety-nine and the seemingly packed Church at Sunday mass. We fail the Lord when we take comfort in a full house at Sunday mass. Sadly, a count of the sheep may reveal that in the course of time the number that strayed away in not one but one too many.
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