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 Gospel passage of this Sunday in fact speaks about an unnamed person’s encounter with Jesus and his profound question to Jesus about eternal life.

In recent years, 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.

Jesus’ teaching of putting a millstone around a person’s neck and throwing him into the sea; plucking out the eye, cutting off limbs if one sins is rather disturbing and puzzling for a good teacher like Jesus.

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.

If I asked anybody if they love to experience pain, particularly physical pain, well I'd think you were a masochist if you would ever say yes. Well … believe it or not, pain is very necessary in life and, ironically, pain is life-saving.

Today, the first reading is taken from the book of Prophet Isaiah.  He tells the timid people, those who are uneasy about the Word of God, whose hearts live in fear “Be strong!  Fear not!” 

“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)