Three more parables After explaining to His disciples the parable of the wheat and the weeds, Jesus tells them three more parables. The parable of the hidden treasure (Matthew 13:44) and the parable of the pearl (Matthew 13:45-46) tell us how two persons gave up everything they had for the sake of one ultimate prize. Indeed, the common words shared by these two parables are that after they “found” the treasure, they “went and sold all that they had to…
Patience for the harvest The parable of the wheat and the weeds tells us that in the world, those who do evil exist side by side with those who are good. If we think of the landowner as God and the harvest time as the end of the world, then we can see clearly that God intends to separate the bad from the good in the world at the final judgment. But why does God wait until then? The parable…
Life in the Spirit One of the most powerful letters of St. Paul is contained in Romans chapter 8. There we see the tension between the flesh and the spirit, slavery and adoption, present suffering and the hope for future glory. Romans chapter 8 is a great material for meditation and reflection. Our Lord Jesus Christ completed His work of redemption through His suffering and death on the Cross, thereby destroying the power of sin over man. However, St. Paul…
July 9 is the Feast Day of the Holy Martyrs of China。 With the bishop’s permission, we will celebrate it on Sunday, July 5, 2020. Where your heart is In the Gospels, Jesus tells His disciples not to seek security in the things of this world, but in the treasures of heaven. Hence, Jesus exhorts them to be steadfast in faith, and He tells them a parable to illustrate what He means: A servant was entrusted with his master’s household,…
Losing your life for Christ This verse appears in all four Gospels, which underlies its importance: Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. (Matthew 10:39) For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and that of the gospel will save it. (Mark 8:35) Whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it, but whoever loses it will save it.…
Fear of the Lord Is God to be feared, or is God to be loved? The fear of the Lord is one of the most misunderstood things in the bible. Both the Old and the New Testaments mention the fear of the Lord. The Book of Isaiah mentions the fear of the Lord as one of the attributes of the ideal Davidic king: “The spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him: a spirit of wisdom and of understanding,…
The Bread of Life The clearest expression of the doctrine of the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist is found in chapter 6 of John’s Gospel. There, Jesus teaches the crowd about the Eucharist – His very own Body and Blood. Jesus also teaches the crowd about faith – the unique and special faith needed to accept His difficult teaching about the Eucharist. Many of Jesus’ disciples lacked the faith to believe in the Real Presence. When Jesus walked…
The Holy Trinity There are many ways in which people have come to know God: the God whom we have come to know as the origin of all that is, we call God the Father; the God whom we have come to know as the Word made flesh, we call God the Son; the God whom we have come to know as the divine presence in the world, we call God the Holy Spirit. The Father, the Son and the…
Pentecost Sunday Jesus, the Word of God, completed His mission of redemption through His suffering, death and Resurrection. Those who repented and believed in Christ obtained salvation. This work of salvation continued after Jesus ascended into heaven to return to the Father. Jesus founded the Church upon Peter, but the mission to bring grace, to sanctify and to guide the Church, was left to the Holy Spirit. The work of the Holy Spirit, in the Church as in individual souls,…
The Ascension of the Lord The Ascension is an important event not only in the life of Christ but also in the life of the Church. The two primary scripture passages on the Ascension are found in the Gospel of Luke (24:50-51) and the Acts of the Apostles (1:9-11). The event of the Ascension, which took place forty days after the Resurrection, links the life of Jesus in the Gospels to the life of the Church in the Acts of…