29 October 2023 – 30th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year A)

by Fr Francis Anthony

Dear friends, 

“Let us be people who seek God“

That was the opening line of today’s entrance antiphon but we had a hymn.

“Hear and seek the Lord.“

When I speak: “Hear and seek the Lord“, how am I going to do it? It is given very briefly in today’s Gospel text. The two big commandments. We are all familiar with the Ten Commandments but Jesus has summarised it into two: Love God and Love Neighbour.

So seeking God in the situation that I am in, I am looking whether love is in me. Yes. Loving is not just “I love God“, “I multiply all my prayers and devotion” but my relationship with the people with whom I am living.

Yes. I am seeking God through my own personal relationship. And this has been captured beautifully in today’s Second Reading where Saint Paul writing to these Thessalonians, to this great scholars. Thessalonia is in Greece. And what he says to them:

You observe the sort of life I lived.

He did not start of with “Your own philosophy and big leaders”. No. You saw me, the way I lived. And that brought you to seek through the Holy Spirit and accept the Gospel message.

Yes. What is the example that we give? Yes, example is not just saying “I am saying the rosary“, “I go for all devotions” but the way I live. And this is a very demanding challenge for all of us today.

Yes, you will see we are trying to have a Solidarity Week from today to be in line with the Palestinians. But this does not mean, as it came out in the mass media, teaching the students to carry arms, to violate the sacredness of the flag of Israel. No. Solidarity with that is not to be angry and to fight and ridicule the other.

Remember Jesus said to us:
Love your enemies. Do good to those who hate you.

Yes, very demanding. And in today’s situation, Solidarity Week:-
We promote peace.
We stand for peace.
We stand for respect.
We stand for fellowship.
We stand for honesty.

Yes it so happened, this Solidarity Week is coming and it had been twisted, unfortunately, in a certain school putting the students to carry arms, handmade guns, standing on the flag. No. Solidarity with one is not at the expense of another. Love your enemies.

I do not say the Israelites are the enemies or the Hamas are the enemies. Look at the people who are suffering. Just imagine 1.1 million people had to leave the northern part of Gaza to go down. And it is only much later Egypt opened the gates to allow aid to come into Gaza.

So when the war is happening, there is suffering. And let us ask God to help us and that’s what is given in the First Reading in the Exodus that we have concern for strangers. Let us not oppress anyone.

Dear friends, I can carry on talking on this but let me go back to the prayer we had. In the Opening Prayer, it went like this:
Almighty ever-living God, increase our faith, our hope and charity. And make us love what You command.

So let us go on bended knees and to pray and in solidarity with the people who are suffering. That we through our prayers and our Government has already opened the doors to give financial help to see how help can be given to these people who are suffering.

It so happens our Readings today is in line with the need of the nations. That does not mean Somalia is okay, Uganda is okay, Yemen is okay. All these places are in one way or another suffering.

Let us pray for them and be with them. Let us ask God as we had in the Opening Prayer, to increase our faith, our hope, our charity so that we may love one another.

Click below to listen to homily and watch video:-

Click to live-stream Mass on 29 October 2023