In sports, the dream of an athlete is to be the best, to be at the top, to be number one. Unfortunately, sometimes in the process, a good number might resort to various ways of doing it either legally or illegally.

The dialogue between Jesus and a young man in the Gospel story for 28th Sunday of Ordinary time, is so profound. A young man comes to Jesus, asking “What should I do to inherit the eternal life?” 

Recently, marriage has been quite a hot topic in various sectors of society. At one end, there are advocates for “marriage equality” which means you can marry any person regardless of their gender.

What a weird world it would be if we took today’s Gospel at face value! Jesus spoke about cutting-off body parts and plucking-out one’s eyes. Did he really mean that his followers should do this?

During his prime, Muhammad Ali, the heavyweight-boxing champion of the 60s and the 70s proclaimed one day, “I am the greatest! I am the greatest!” When he said this nobody tried to refute it, for during his time, he was indeed the greatest. 

Knowing who Jesus is and what following him means is something that each one of us as Christians needs to grow more deeply in every single day. It is a lifetime journey.

For some reason, it seems to be a part of human nature to delight in catching someone out! Putting another down is so common. By putting someone down, we raise ourselves up, and make ourselves seem better and brighter than the other.

“After hearing Jesus (as he taught in the synagogue at Capernaum), many of his followers said, ‘This is intolerable language! How could anyone accept it?”. (John 6:60)

Maybe once in a while we have met some people who seemed to have everything in life; a good house, a flash car, a high-paying job, manage to travel around the world at a moment’s notice but somehow there’s something that is missing.

There was a company, which was working in the forest and looking for a woodchopper. One day, two woodchoppers applied for the job. The manager said that they would only accept one. So he invited both of them to a test.