03 September 2023 – 22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year A)

by Fr Johanes Robini, OP

Dear brothers and sisters,

I don’t know whether you agree or not with me that one of the big problem that we face today is the glorification of the body. When we talk about a while ago about the theme of today’s Gospel, it is about ‘take up your cross‘. Well I think the other extreme that we face is not about take up the cross or people are reluctant to take up the cross because we have the mentality of glorification of the body.

It is not difficult to find these situation. How do we see the lifestyle that we have? How do we portray or see our lifestyle and for example also the lifestyle is not just only about how we conduct our life but how we really appreciate our body. You know sometimes we priests, I am sure that Fr Joachim and the rest see it also like me, it is difficult to talk fasting, about abstinence. But people are easy to understand ‘diet’. If I talk about fasting/abstinence, nobody is going to do it but people are easy or prone to be easy to take notion of ‘diet’ because ‘diet’ is connected to ‘beauty’ and ‘healthy’.

I come from Indonesia. I am here for medical check-up and thank Fr Joachim to allow me to be here. I am here not to want to preach but I want to say thank you to all of you also for gathering to meet here today. But you know, once again, there are many Indonesians come here not for medical check-up also right? For dermatology, you know what I mean? Aging, you know, aging treatment. So it means that you are talking about not health issues but well-being issues, lifestyle.

That is why the Gospel today seem nonsensical to many. ‘Take up the cross’, what? 

But my brothers and sisters, come to think about it that we have to admit that we have or we had fallen through our first parents. So for the wounds of the sins, what we call original sins, are still there. Even after baptism, what we call concupiscence, the inclination to do evil or to be easily seduced by the devil, seduced by the devil are really a fact and it is really concrete. 

By the way, I am an exorcist. I am appointed as exorcist in my Diocese actually. Temptation are around. Sometimes it is about bodily things as I said. So body is not to be followed as the inclination leads us. That is different.

Today maybe the Lord through the Second Reading from our beloved Saint Paul try to ask us to put into perspective what ‘body’ is according to the design of the Lord. He wants us to go back to the prior destination of the body. That body is to serve the purpose of its creation by the Lord.

That is why we understand that the Lord said: “Come on, think about it. Don’t be seduced by the world. That you want to conquer all the world. But you have to take up the cross. Deny yourself.” Self-denial is not about a negative invitation that we don’t want to enjoy everything. Come, to be honest, the world is created by the Lord and we know it is all good according to the first chapter of Genesis. So the Lord doesn’t ask us to set aside the beauty of creation, the beauty or the enjoyment of all the created world. What He says that “put into perspective and to serve the purpose of those created one, including us.“

So the lifestyle take it must be our wake-up call also every day.  Be careful about our lifestyle. Are we going too much to glorify our body? Because I think that when you go to the department store, full of aging treatment, beauty treatment. You know, you see I am not old okay but my hair is all white. I have no hair anymore. Sometimes people said “You go to this doctor to enhance the growing of your hair.” And I think and I say: “Brothers, I cannot but to admit growing old is mandatory.” Right? Growing old is mandatory, the call of nature. I cannot do otherwise but have to accept somewhere and some time I am like this. I have no choice. Growing old is mandatory. So you want me to go to any dermatologist, the fact is the same that I am not young anymore.

But come to think about it, I don’t know about you, how much that you spend for this kind of things, the lifestyle things to beautify your life, your body, without thinking to put into perspective what body’s purpose in the whole of creation order?

But I know this is not easy if we are not seduced by the Lord.

Jeremiah dared to face persecution/trials because of what? Seduced by the Lord. What we call infatuation. Infatuated by the Lord. People will not dare to suffer, will not dare to be taking up the cross if they are not seduced by the Lord. Seduced by the Lord is the first or even the prior or the main reason why we dare to take up our cross. It means grace to be seduced by the Lord. It means also the Lord takes the initiative to put us into the very loving relationship.

So come to think about it. How do we live our life as a Christian? Are we seduced by the Lord? Are we really seduced by the Lord, infatuated by the Lord? And how is our relationship with the Lord? Are we having a good intimate relationship with the Lord that make us, impels us, dare to “suffer” with him? To take up the cross?

It is not easy. Come to think about it, our brothers and sisters in another region that are not practising their faith very well because of the persecution and everything. They do not have this gathering or Sunday like this big gathering because they are not allowed. How do they take up their life? We are much better. We should be happy and thank the Lord that we can gather on Sunday like this. And I thank the Lord I meet you today not because of anything but to just to say ‘hello’, we are one brothers and sisters, we come together. That is why the word of consolation, the word come forth and strengthen faith to each other that can be practiced like the ancient church.

So let us pray to the Lord that He might renew us. I am very glad, very happy to see the beginning of the Mass. We are praying for the Holy Spirit. Only the Spirit can make us a fire again. Make us a fire again to have a beautiful and loving relationship with God. And we pray that today we might be seduced again by the Lord. Enticed again. Infatuated again with the Lord. So our faith will be alive. Thank you Fr Joachim for this beautiful Sunday. Thank you very much.

As introduced by Fr Joachim, I am from Pontianak actually. Very near. Near Sarawak actually. What I am doing is easy. We are establishing Catholic University, the first Catholic University in Borneo. So I am helping there in the Catholic University, Saint Augustine of Hippo. Actually I was thinking several times to go into this region, especially Sarawak and Kuching, to talk about collaboration because this is the first Catholic University in the whole island actually. So established by our Bishop and the Dominican Order. I am Dominican by the way. So we can have a fruitful exchange, collaboration with Diocese.

And thank you very much for our gathering here. We praise the Lord that when you pray about Holy Spirit, we pray about contact also. That the miracle of tongue happen, you know. I don’t know, you don’t know me. Now you know me. And we know each other because we speak the same language, like the first church. The language of Gospel.

Thank you very much and have a good blessed Sunday. And we pray that we may be infatuated, may be enticed, may be seduced by the Lord again. 

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