A short reflection on the reading from the Gospel of Saint
Matthew 9: 9-13
My beloved brothers and sisters in the name of the Lord Jesus
Christ,
My sharing is in the use of simple and easy to understand
language. I use this method so that those who are weak and do not have higher
education can understand the message and meaning of what is written here. I am
also the same as all of you, I don't have any advanced studies and only know
how to read the Catholic Bible, that's a simple understanding and the way of
the village people.
We are all sinners and no human being is perfect unless we
want to be the same and be arrogant like the devil, the father of all lies or
the name we often hear "the devil, king of all lies." (Gospel of
Saint John 8: 44). In the Gospel of Saint Matthew, we can re-evaluate the
term "sinner". These sinners mean people (humans) who, because of
their own behavior or because of their position, have a bad reputation, and
according to the Jewish view are unclean and should not be invited to associate
with each other. In our cultural society, this is a kind of "mix-mix" way
of socializing and mixing to sit and eat together. So at the time of this
incident in the Gospel of Saint Matthew, there is a connection between the way of
life of the Jews among them, it seems that they did not comply with many of the
laws regarding halal and unclean food. It is because of the many regulations
and laws that there is a problem whether people can eat together and among
themselves (Gospel of Saint Mark 7: 3-4).
If we were given a choice from Jesus today, would we want to
return to Heaven right now? If that choice is from Jesus' prayer for me and
you, are you willing to never want to sin again? And if we were given the
opportunity today to be honest in prayer, would you and I want to continue this
honest way of life in prayer? I want all of you to re-evaluate what kind of
sinner you are, those who are honest in prayer and ultimately pray honestly
before God will definitely get happiness in Heaven. These words of Jesus are
not only to remind us all to correct our mistakes and bad attitudes, but to
prioritize an honest and merciful heart rather than carrying out Torah laws
that are strict and only superficial. Therefore, if we still want to be at
peace with God, want to always be blessed by Him and want to pray well, it is
good that today we all re-evaluate our own way of prayer and behavior. If we
have ever been reprimanded to obey the rules, for example "It is
forbidden to smoke in rental rooms and toilets, it is forbidden to throw
cigarette butts and rubbish all over the place, it is forbidden to take and eat
drugs, it is forbidden to cheat and lie, it is forbidden to throw away leftover
food, it is forbidden to throw used bottles of poison in the river" but
we still clap and smoke freely and without interruption, and continue those
wrong and less good habits and actions, do we feel that our prayers are
acceptable in His presence and blessed by God?
The answer I can give here is no because our behavior and
attitude turns out to be sinful and assumes that God is blind and does not see
us 24 hours a day. And when we pray, our prayers are not honest with God and
are only superficial. This method can make us unwilling to correct mistakes and
sins and indirectly our spiritual life does not produce the fruits of the Holy
Spirit. That's actually the situation where we sometimes act like we want to be
Pharisees but actually act pretending when we come to the Catholic Church to
pray and serve. What's worse is that they want to assert themselves by taking
on many services in the church so that they surpass the Pharisees who judge
Catholic priests who often celebrate the Eucharist. Sometimes respect for a
Catholic priest is like an ebb and flow because they consider themselves the
best at praying at Holy Mass (Gospel of Saint Matthew 9: 9-13). Therefore,
my dear brothers and sisters in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, it is better
for us to reflect and pray that the Holy Spirit will always guide us and
imitate Saint Matthew, the tax collector who repented and finally followed
Jesus (Gospel of Saint Matthew 9: 9).
Prayer to Saint Matthew:
Saint Matthew, you are a tax collector who has repented and been saved, pray for us to Jesus Christ, the good Shepherd so that through your prayers, we obey the Word of Jesus today, now and throughout all time. Amen.
Jonathan Fabian Ginunggil,
Most High Servant,
Jesus, Mary, Joseph Ministry of Love (Blessed and Saints and the Nine
Choirs of Angels)
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