Martin Jumbam

Catholic Meditation: 13th Sunday of Ordinary Time – Year C

By Martin Jumbam

The Universal Church celebrates Sunday, June 30, 2013, as the thirteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time – Year C. In the entrance antiphon we pray: “All nations, clap your hands. Shout with a voice of joy to God. Amen.”

In the first reading, from the first book of Kings, the fearless prophet Elijah anoints his successor, Elisha, who immediately abandons his old ways and dedicates himself entirely to the service of God, through his mentor, Elijah. His wholehearted commitment to God is a reminder to us that we too must fully commit ourselves to the service of God. In the second reading, from the Letter to the Galatians, Saint Paul tells his converts of Galatia that Jesus freed us from sin, fear, death and evil so that we could remain free forever. He who follows Christ knows only one law, that of love of God and love of neighbour. In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus tells us that once our hand is on the plough, there should be no looking back. He wants all his followers to completely detach themselves from all that is worldly and follow him unconditionally. Some found the conditions for his discipleship too hard to follow and went off to bury their dead, a religious obligation, or say goodbye to their parents, but Jesus’ discipleship calls for total commitment on the part of his followers to carry their cross and follow him, irrespective of whatever obstacles and difficulties they may find on their way. In the course of this Eucharist, let us pray for the grace to hear our Lord’s call to follow him and ask the Holy Spirit to strengthen our faith so we can truly follow our Lord whenever we hear his call.

Catholic Meditation: Twelfth Sunday of Ordinary Time - Year C

By Martin Jumbam

The Universal Church celebrates June 23, 2013 as the twelfth Sunday of Ordinary Time – Year C. The words of today’s first reading, ‘they will look on the one whom they have pierced’, poignantly express the way Christians have looked down the centuries towards the crucified Christ. Jesus crucified is our hope and salvation. The messianic character of this message finds echo in the Gospel where Christ directs our attention to his real mission on earth: he is of the house of David and the Messiah who will achieve his work through his death and resurrection in Jerusalem.  In the second reading, Saint Paul bluntly states that whatever a person’s colour of skin, race, social status, or sex, all are welcome in Christ’s Church. Faith, not the law, is the meaning of our salvation that comes to us through Christ the Redeemer. Through his death and resurrection, he conquered sin and through baptism we too have put on a new life in Christ. We are a new creation, vested with the Holy Spirit. In the course of this Eucharist, let us pray for the grace to accept our cross because the cross leads to glory and suffering to salvation.

Catholic Meditation: Eleventh Sunday of Ordinary Time – Year C

By Martin Jumbam 

The Universal Church celebrates June 16, 2013 as the eleventh Sunday of Ordinary Time – Year C. In the entrance antiphon we pray “Lord, hear my voice when I call to you. You are my help; do not cast me off, do not desert me, my Saviour God. Amen.”  

Two powerful readings, the first reading and the Gospel, present the theme of God’s forgiveness. In the first reading, King David, who lived over a thousand years before Christ, was considered a model king and a man utterly devoted to the worship of God. We are, however, told that he greatly sinned against God by committing adultery with a foreign mercenary’s wife and then made sure that the man was killed in battle. Yet when the prophet Nathan challenges David he immediately confesses his guilt with a sincerity that wins God’s immediate forgiveness. In the Gospel, Christ continues to offer men and women of this world forgiveness and peace. He shows his host, Simon, the Pharisee, that we are all sinners in dire need of forgiveness. The woman, whom everyone condemns as a sinner, shows great love for Jesus and thus receives forgiveness for her sins; whereas those of the Pharisee, who shows only contempt for Christ and the fallen woman, remain intact. In his concern for us, Christ never abandons us, even though we are sinners. In the second reading, Saint Paul tells his Galatian converts that good work alone is not conducive to salvation. Faith in the crucified Christ is the only way a man can be saved, Jew or Gentile alike.  

 

Catholic Meditation: 10th Sunday of Ordinary Time – Year C

By Martin Jumbam 

 The Universal Church celebrates Sunday, June 09, 2013, as the tenth Sunday of Ordinary Time – Year C. In the entrance antiphon we pray “The Lord is my light and my salvation. Who shall frighten me? The Lord is the defender of my life. Who shall make me tremble? Amen.

In the Gospel, the evangelist Luke presents us one of the most moving passages in Sacred Scripture: Jesus shows his compassion for the widow of Nain by raising her only son from the dead. Before Jesus, the prophet Elijah, in the first reading, also raises to life the dead son of the widow of Zarephath in Sidonia, the stronghold of the prophet Baal. The widow and her son had earlier welcomed Elijah, who had shown God’s power by providing them with grain and oil that never ran out. God then operates through Elijah to bring back to life the widow’s son. Unlike Elijah, who is a mere instrument of God, Christ raises the son of the widow of Nain by his own power. Both the first reading and the Gospel show us how God views grief. His response is a compassion that heals and restores. As the Psalmist sings in the Responsorial Psalm, which is a psalm of thanksgiving, nothing is greater than to be snatched from the jaws of death. God, who is present among men in the person of Jesus Christ, continues to choose sometimes very unlikely people to bear witness to him. That is what happens to Saint Paul, a former violent persecutor of the faith, whom Jesus chooses to be his apostle to the Gentiles, as we hear in the second reading from the Letter to the Galatians. God serves everyone through faith. In the course of this Eucharist, let us pray for the grace to comfort those who grieve around us so as to bring hope and joy where there is sorrow and despair.

Catholic Meditation: The Feast of Corpus Christi

By Martin Jumbam 

Mother Church celebrates Sunday, June 02, 2013, the ninth Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year C, as the Feast of the Body and Blood of Christ, more commonly known by its Latin title, “Corpus Christi” (the Body of Christ).  Corpus Christi is a special feast to the Body and Blood of Christ introduced into the calendar of the Universal Church in 1264 when Saint Thomas Aquinas wrote the prayers and hymns for this feast.

Church historians tell us that this feast of Corpus Christi became a mandatory feast in the Roman Church in 1312. But nearly a century earlier, Saint Juliana of Mont Cornillon, promoted a feast to honor the Blessed Sacrament. From early age Juliana, who became an Augustinian nun in Liége, France, in 1206, had a great veneration for the Blessed Sacrament, and longed for a special feast in its honor. She had a vision of the Church under the appearance of the full moon having one dark spot, which signified the absence of such a solemnity. She made known her ideas to the Bishop of Liége, who ordered that the feast be celebrated in his diocese. Pope Urban IV, after extolling the love of Our Savior as expressed in the Holy Eucharist, ordered the annual celebration of Corpus Christi on the Thursday after Trinity Sunday.