30 July 2023 – 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year A)

by Fr Joachim Robert

Dear friends,

In our journey of life, we all make many decisions. And sometimes we make the right decision. Sometimes the wrong decision. And the decision we make, right or wrong, defines who we are and where our heart is. If we make good decisions along the way, or decisions that comes from our own heart, it also reveals things about ourselves, of what we value and what we hold dear to us.

And decisions we make, sometimes important, sometimes not so important. We make decisions or choices about food, clothing, what house to buy, what courses to study. And all these, dear friends, shows us some aspect of our own life that comes to light. But the question is:

Do we make choices, do we make decisions guided by the Holy Spirit?

And when we make decisions guided by the Holy Spirit, we know ultimately it leads us to a sense of freedom, a sense of joy because that decision comes from the Holy Spirit, comes from within that makes be liberated, makes us be free. 

As I mentioned, the choices we make, the values we hold, reveals certain part of us. And those decisions as well is also where we concretely encounter God. Those choices and those decisions made, makes us realise that God is really in our lives. And if we make choices in our life and it is guided by the Holy Spirit, as I mentioned, it brings us to liberation, gives us freedom.

And I am sure pilgrims who are here today you had to make a choice in this whole journey that you are going through life, you made the conscious decision to come, to go on this pilgrimage for something which you want to be open to. To see where God is leading you, guiding you, so that you are able to find that compass of where the direction of your life should be.

The question is: How do we discern?

It you take a look at the First Reading of today, from the book of Kings, we see Solomon, a son of King David, inherits this whole kingdom after his father’s death and God appears in his dream and says:

Ask what would you like me to give.

And Solomon in his own inadequacy was able to seek God’s will in his life. And he says:

Give your servant a heart to understand how to discern between good and evil.

And the choices we make, dear friends, the choice between good and evil, gives us this opportunity to realise of what God wants of us and where we find peace, we find happiness. And sometimes the decisions that we make, perhaps because we are confronted with so many obstacles and challenges around us, because Solomon was so young, he did not know how to face those challenges that were in front of him. He felt small, he felt inadequate but deep down as we look through that reading, we see that his heart was open to where the Lord was guiding and leading him.

Let us ask ourselves, dear friends, let us take a moment to reflect and ask:

If we are faced with these circumstances and situations in life, issues with family, relationship, community, ministry, the church, how are we responding?

We may find ourselves perhaps inadequate because we feel small because the problem seem so big. But we need to be reminded once again that we serve a God who is always faithful. And even our smallness, our littleness, if it is done in love, God magnifies it so that His will, His kingdom, may be real in our lives.

As you look at the Gospel of today, it gives us some glimpses of how we should discern the decisions in our lives. We see that the fisherman throws his dragnet and casts it into the sea and hauls all kinds of things from the sea. And when they haul everything in, they need to sit, they need to see and tell, to choose between good fish and perhaps things that they need to throw away.

And when we make decisions, dear friends, we need to ask ourselves what is good and what is not good. And that process of the fisherman, of choosing between good and bad is a laborious process. A process that requires discernment, a process that requires skill to know what is good and what is not good. And through our journey in live, we know that we make many, many decisions that brings us life, brings us joy, brings us happiness. And for that we need some form of intelligence.

We need to use our mind to think, to see what is right and what is wrong. With the knowledge that has been given to us, with the skill that has been given to us, that God has bestowed so generously, we also must have a heart and a will to choose what is right and what is wrong.

So we need intelligence, we need the skill to choose between right and wrong, we need a heart to choose what is right and what is wrong. And from that, dear friends, we make that choice to see where our treasure is.

And the second parable, or the second images that Jesus gives is the image of the merchant looking for pearls. He is in the marketplace and he is able to make choices to see what is the pearl of precious value. In our choices that we make, the options that we take, are we able to sell everything and make choice for that pearl of great value? To sell everything and go after that pearl of great value?

And the other image given to us is one who tills the soil, plows the soil and finds treasure. He sells everything, goes after the treasure and takes possession of the treasure. Are we willing, dear friends, in the situations and the discernments of life, to find Jesus in every circumstances and situations in life. Ordinary it may be, ordinary circumstances it may be. God provides us the opportunity to seek Him, to sell everything and choose what is from God. In that process of discernment, dear friends, we come to find what is the pearl of great value, the treasure that we hold because Jesus becomes our ultimate source of joy and happiness.

As we make that choices and discernment, that decision that makes us choose the right things because we love God, because we love Jesus. In the same of so many pilgrims come to St Anne’s, come to go to pilgrimages to find this God who loves them, to find this God who reaches out to them in love. Are we willing to make the choice for Him in every aspect, in every choices in our lives?

And if we love Jesus, we become faithful, we become aware of the law that He gives to us. And the law He gives to us is the law of the ten commandments. And the law of the ten commandments edged into our hearts because our conscience will tell us what is right and what is wrong.

The Responsorial Psalm so beautifully says today once again:-

Lord, how I love your law.

If we love the law of God, we are showing our love for Him even more each and every day, by the choices we make, with the options we choose, by the decisions we make.

Let us pray, dear friends, that the Lord gives us the opportunity to choose him in every situation of live. And even today as you make your decision to come to church to be united, to be connected to God and to be nourished by God, it is a choice you make because of your love and commitment for Jesus.

And let us pray that God may continue to allow that little efforts that we make to show our love for him grow more and more so that we can grow in our relationship with Him. And when we grow in our relationship with Him, we allow God’s kingdom to reign in our lives. Let us pray for that grace, for that openness of heart and mind to embrace His love for us and to say ‘Yes’ to Him.

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