indonesian catholic online evangelization

18^th Sunday in Ordinary Time [A]

August 2, 2020

Matthew 14:13-21

The miracle of the multiplication of the bread is one of the few stories that appear in the four Gospels. This may point to the veracity of the miracle itself that impressed and impacted the lives of the apostles. Though the general plot is the same, every Evangelist has presented their own emphasis. Today we are zeroing in the Gospel of Matthew and his particular emphases.

One of these particular emphases is the special role of the disciples. Certainly, without Jesus, there will be no miracle at all, but Jesus makes sure that His disciples also will participate in His miraculous work, and amazingly, the disciples respond well to Jesus’ invitation. Let us look into some details.

Firstly, the initiative is coming from the disciples. They are the ones who notice the condition of the people, exhausted and famished. They propose a practical solution to the situation: send them away to look for food. They may come up with such a plan because of a noble reason. They wanted their tired teacher as well as the people to find some rest after a long and grilling day of teaching and healing. Yet, they forget that Jesus is the rest Himself, as He once said, “come to me you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest [Mat 11:28].” For Jesus, the initiative is commendable, but He is not satisfied with the solution. Thus, He says to them, “You give them food yourselves.”

We can imagine the faces of the disciples as they are looking at each other and baffled. Yet, instead outrightly dismissing His demand as something absurd, they do even something extraordinary. They offer Jesus what they have. It is small and far from enough, yet a sincere offering nonetheless. From here, we can already detect that the disciples have somehow grown. They have followed their Master for some time and they have witnessed many miracles of Jesus, listened to countless of His teachings, and seen how Jesus tenderly loved the people. They have grown like Jesus. They have faith that Jesus can do the impossible, and they become more and more compassionate like Jesus.

It is no wonder that after Jesus blesses and breaks the bread, He chooses to give them to the disciples. He trusts now that the disciples will carry on His mission of caring and loving the people. Indeed, they faithfully bring the broken bread to the people. This miracle is the first yet crucial step for Jesus and His disciples because later, Jesus will entrust the same disciples to bring Jesus Himself to His people in the Eucharist.

Jesus surely can perform the miracle by Himself, and as God, He has no need of any man’s help. Yet, because His very nature is love, He wants people He loves to become the loves themselves. Jesus invites the disciples to participate in His miracle of love, and so that they may learn to love deeper. As Jesus shares His life to them, the disciples as the sharers of His mission will eventually love till the end.

That is how Jesus forms us as His disciples. He invites us to actively participate in His life and mission. This is a mission to feed, to care, and to love His people. This is the beauty of our faith and religion. It is not a passive and powerless faith, yet a faith that is truly alive, shared and enriching, a faith that grows into hope and hope perfected into love.

Valentinus Bayuhadi Ruseno, OP

17^th Sunday in Ordinary Time [A]

July 26, 2020

Matthew 13:44-52

The parables of the hidden treasure and of fine pearl are among the shortest yet loveliest parables of Jesus. Finding a fine pearl or a hidden treasure is surely an exciting discovery.  We can naturally share the joyful experience. Yet, the key to unlock the secrets of the parables is to spot the surprising twists. If we find a treasure, we instinctively grab it and bring it home.  If the treasure is exceedingly huge and many, we can grab some and use them to buy the land. It is a bit reckless to sell everything first and then buy the land. What if the owner of the land suddenly refused to give up the land? The same goes for the purchase of the fine pearl. Sometimes a businessman would make a risky investment to gain more profit. Yet, to throw everything for a pearl is a bit of foolishness. The merchant still needs money to sustain his daily life and business, and what if the investment fails?

Through two parables, Jesus teaches His disciples that His kingdom is immensely precious, and in order to achieve it, we have to give up everything. We cannot cheat or steal it. We have to merit it in the right way. The teaching itself is not something novel in the gospel of Matthew. Back in chapter 10, Jesus tells that those who love their parents more than Jesus, is not worthy of Jesus. It is all or nothing for Jesus. It is the same with His kingdom.

Is it possible to give up everything for Jesus and His Kingdom? The answer depends whether we consider the Kingdom as something truly precious for us. The merchant, for example, may recognize that it is a fine pearl, but if he does not see it as extremely precious, he will not sell everything he has to buy that pearl. To simply know is existentially different from accepting it as precious. One remains in the mind and the other goes down to the heart. We may recognize that Jesus is our Savior and Lord, but do we value Him and make Him as our top priority? We may be aware that the Church is the Kingdom of God, but do we hold her a precious? Do we give up everything for Jesus and His body, the Church?

How do we make something precious? When we love someone or something, we value them. When they are valuable, we treasure them. When they are our treasures, there our hearts are. We see a little child. She loves her toys. These become valuable to her. And as her valuables, she spends her time with them and takes care of them. When we love our work, we value it and we make it our priority. When we love our family, we treasure them, and we exert our time and effort to make them happy.

We may be baptized as a Catholic and our parents teach us that Jesus is our Lord. We may study in Catholic schools and go to the Church from time to time. But, do we love Jesus and His Church? Are Jesus is valuable and precious to us that we are willing to surrender everything for Him? Do we treasure Jesus and place our hearts in Him?

Valentinus Bayuhadi Ruseno, OP

16^th Sunday in Ordinary Time [A]

July 19, 2020

Matthew 13:24-43

The parable of the wheat and weed is one of a kind. If we survey the details, we are supposed to raise our eyebrows. Firstly, if you become a person who will destroy your opponent’s field of wheat, you know that there are several other effective ways to accomplish that. We can simply set a small fire on the wheat, and the entire field will eventually turn to be an inferno. But, the enemy chose unorthodox tactic: to sow seeds of weed during the planting period. While the weed may disturb the growth of the wheat, they will not sufficiently damage and stop the harvest.  So, what is the purpose? What is surprising is that the decision of the field’s owner. When he was notified about the presence of the weed, he immediately knew the culprit, and instead to act promptly and protect their wheat, he decided to allow the weeds to thrive among his wheat.

As expected, the disciples were puzzled by the parable, and when the disciples asked the meaning of this parable, they found another mind-blogging answer. The owner of the field is God Himself and He allowed the children of the evil one to grow among the children of God both in the world and in the Church. Yes, God allows that! He allows His children will not have a smooth journey and growth in the world. God allows His children to be harassed, bullied, and even persecuted by the evil one. God allows His children to experience trials and difficult moments. The question is why?

We may take the cue from St. Paul. He once magnificently wrote, “We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose [Rom 8:28].” God allows bad things to happen because these are for our good! What kind of goodness why we may ask? From our human perspective, perhaps it is nothing but absurd, but from His vantage point, things fall into its proper places.

Jesus invites us to call God as Father, and letter to the Hebrews reminds us, “for the Lord disciplines those whom he loves, and chastises every child whom he accepts [Heb 12:6].” Trials and difficulties are God’s pedagogy toward whom He loves. As parents, we know care and discipline have to work hand in hand. We are well aware that true discipline is also a way of loving. If we want our children to succeed in their lives, we need to teach them to delay their gratification. We allow them to experience pain and difficulty first before we give them a reward. My parents used to ask me to study and finish their homework first before I could enjoy watching television. It resulted not only in good grades, but also my acquired habit not to run from problems, but to endure it.

I do believe that it is also the same as our Father in heaven. He loves us by allowing us to endure the pain in this world so that we may truly appreciate the spiritual gifts. Allow me to end this reflection, by quoting St. Paul, “We also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character [as children of God], and character produces hope,and hope does not disappoint us..” [Rom 5:3-5]

Valentinus Bayuhadi Ruseno, OP

15^th Sunday in Ordinary Time [A]

July 12, 2020

Matthew 13:1-23

In today’s Gospel, we observe the reaction of the disciples after Jesus spoke His first parable. They were puzzled and confused. Why? because Jesus took a sudden change of method. In previous chapters, Jesus taught them plainly, like in the sermon of the Mount [Mat 5-7], and His teachings were as clear as broad daylight. Yet, Jesus made an unexpected turn that make many people and including His disciple lost. What really happened?

To understand parable, we need to see that parable has been used even before Jesus, in the Old Testament. One of the classic examples is the parable of prophet Nathan addressed to king David [See 1 King 12]. King David has done unthinkably grave sin by committing adultery with Bathsheba and orchestrating the murder of her husband, Uriah. Then, prophet Nathan confronted David, yet indirectly by narrating him a parable. It was about a rich man who forcefully robbed an ewe of a poor man. Listening to the story, David was infuriated and declared that the rich man should die. Then, Nathan dropped the bomb: “David, you are the rich man!” Fortunately, David was a kindhearted and faithful king, and he repented when he was reminded.

That is the power of parable. It is an indirect and concealed message to make people think deeper about themselves. Jesus began to talk in parables as Jesus realizes that the opposition of the Pharisees and the scribes were worsening, and many people who just want to be entertained rather than to follow Jesus.

Thus, the parable of the sower expresses the real condition of Jesus’ ministry. The elders and the Pharisees were like the pathway. They heard Jesus’ preaching, but still chose to be under the influence of darkness, and sought to destroy Jesus. Many people were like the rocky ground because they simply looked for Jesus to satisfy their needs. Other were like soil filled with thorns because they followed Jesus for a time, but when the trials came, they abandoned Jesus. Lastly, the rich soil was the disciples.

The parable of the sower is not reflecting different kinds of hearers of Jesus during His time, but it is also revealing the reality of our time. Some of us are like the pathway, perhaps we were baptized Catholics, but we never live as such, and still living in sin. Some of us are like rocky ground. We treat Jesus and His Church as place of entertainment, and we simply look for ourselves rather than God. Some of us are like soil filled with thorns. We are elated of being Christians, but we do not go deeper in our faith, and when the trials or doubts hit, we easily leave the Lord. And hopefully, many of us are like the rich soil. We do our best to receive God’s Word and see to it that it will grow and bear fruits.

The good news is the word of God is exceedingly powerful that even it can bear fruit is the rocky ground. Yet, the initial grace is free but it is not cheap, and we need our part. It is our mission to transform even the rocky ground into the rich soil for the Lord.

Valentinus Bayuhadi Ruseno, OP