Christ the King

Christ the King
My dear brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ,
The Magi leave their homeland to search for the King. Herod does not accept His presence and attempts to have Him killed. Simeon tells Mary that He will be the fall and the rise of many in Israel. Just before His passion, the people proclaim Him king as He rides into Jerusalem on a donkey. Caiaphas, the high priest, charges the King with blasphemy. Pontius Pilot asks Him if He really is the King of the Jews and Jesus answers that He is a king, and that His kingdom is not of this world. A sign bearing a message in three languages is nailed above the crucified King: Jesus, King of the Jews.
Today on the last Sunday of the Liturgical Year, the Church celebrates the solemn feast of Christ the King. In Jn 18:36, Jesus tries to clear up Pilate’s misunderstandings by stating that: “My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom where from this world, my followers would be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not from here.” This means that Christ is not king like the rulers of the earth. His kingship does not depend upon the powers of this world and is not inspired by them.
Then what is the Kingdom of Jesus?
By summarizing all of the teachings of the New Testament on the kingdom we can clearly see that the kingdom is a three dimensional reality: the life of grace within every individual who does the will of God, the Church here on earth, and eternal life in Heaven.
The kingdom first establishes itself in our hearts, thus allowing us to participate in God's inner life. We are elevated and transformed through sanctifying grace. This supernatural life of grace comes to fulfillment in the eternal life of Heaven. Kingdom of Jesus is a kingdom of LOVE.
Essentially, the one characteristic that marks the way we are to live our lives is love. Let us remember that love is the total, self-sacrificing donation of our entire being.
God’s love for you is unconditional. In reality, Christianity is a love story: God loves you unconditionally and he calls you to love him unconditionally. His Kingdom is a kingdom of Love. We are called to love. This is the meaning of our lives. Every act of service, every act of kindness, every act of self giving must be seen as an act of love.
And who are we loving? “Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me” (Matthew 25: 40).
Before his conversion, Francis of Assisi was ridding his horse through the countryside. Suddenly he came up upon a leper. Despite the ugliness of the terrible disease, Francis was so moved with pity, that he jumped off of his horse and flung his arms around the unfortunate man. As Francis looked at the leper, the man’s face changed and it appeared as the face of Jesus.
Blessed Mother Theresa certainly showed the modern world how to love. She once said, “What I can do, you cannot. What you can do, I cannot. But together we can do something beautiful for God. Yes, you must live life beautifully and not allow the spirit of the world that makes gods out of power, riches, and pleasure makes you to forget that you have been created for greater things – to love and to be loved”.
We must never be surprised that the spiritual life is a battle. A battle between the two kingdoms will always take place in our heart until the day the Lord calls us to the kingdom of Heaven. If you struggle, you will conquer. If you conquer, you will be given the crown of victory. To ensure that Jesus is always the king of our hearts requires great commitment, sacrifice, conviction, hard work and a lot of prayer to assure that Jesus is always the king of our heart.
Knowing that Christ is King is not enough for us. To seek his kingdom means to seek the TRUTH. God’s kingdom is where this truth reins .The words truth and true, used 39 times in John. Jesus is king in the sense which he himself defines: he bears witness to the truth (Jn 18:37).
Pontius Pilate asked Jesus, “Are you a king?” the Lord replied, “You say that I am a king. For this I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.” Jesus came to give witness to the truth — to the truth about God and his love; to the truth about us, who we are and who we’re called to be. Jesus’ Kingdom is a kingdom of Truth.
On this day we are reminded of who it is that should be the center of our lives, Jesus Christ, our Lord and King.
Many of you may remember the animated film called the Lion King. There is a particular scene that I would like to focus on today. After the death of his father, Simba the little lion cub is confused and is trying to plan his future. As he contemplates, a baboon by the name of Rafiki comes on the scene and tells Simba that he is confused because "you don't even know who you are." Simba replies "And I suppose you do?" Rafiki responds, "Yep, You are Mufasa's boy.” Rafiki then takes Simba to a nearby river to show him that his father Mufasa is still alive. He tells Simba to look in the water and tell him what he sees. Simba responds, "that's just my reflection." Rafiki insists, "No. Look harder!" As Simba looks in the water more closely, he then sees the image of his father, King Mufasa. Rafiki then makes the point, "See. He lives in you.”
Christ the King lives in each of us in a very real way! At Baptism, we were anointed with Sacred Chrism as Priest, Prophet and King. In other words, we share in the Kingship of Christ. We belong to the Heavenly Kingdom of the King of Kings!
If Christ is truly King of the Universe and King of my life, then he must be King of every part of my life. I must let him rein in all parts of my life. So this feast is a great day to ask ourselves whether Christ is truly King of our lives, whether he rules everywhere. Is he king of my time, is he king of my life, is he king of my home and if I really believe and seeks to live in His kingdom then I can truly say, “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.

33rd Sunday Homiy

Today is the first day of the rest of your life.

My dear brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ,
At the bottom of the pond little grubs were crawling around. They wonder what happens to their members who climb up the stem of the lily and never come back. “I wonder what its like up there.” They agree among themselves that the next one who is called to the surface will come back. The next little grub that finds itself drawn to the surface by nature crawls up the stem and out on the surface on the lily leaf. It was really bright up there. It had been so dark and murky down below. They won’t believe this. Suddenly something begins to happen. The grub begins to open out. The grub spreads out two huge beautiful colored wings and becomes a beautiful dragonfly. It never imagines that this could have happened. It thought it would remain a grub forever. It flew back and forth across the pond. It could see the other grubs in the pond below but they couldn’t see it. It realized there was no way it could get back and that they could not recognize such a beautiful creature as ever having been one of them.
My dear brothers and sisters this will be true when we think of the second coming of Jesus and the resurrection day. Many times our culture avoids consideration of death. Many attempt to avoid the fullness of the eschatological teachings of the Gospels. There is a heaven. However, it is also equally true that there is a purgatory and that there is a hell.
Some day, as yet unknown to us, this life will come to an end and God will judge us according to our deeds. "For you yourselves know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief at night. Therefore, let us not sleep as the rest do, but let us stay alert and sober" (1 Thessalonians 5: 2, 7). We need to be ready as the prophet Malachi warns us. “Lo, the day is coming, blazing like an oven, when all the proud and evildoers will be stubble, and the day that is coming will see them on fire, leaving them neither root nor branch, says the Lord of hosts” (Malachi 4: 1).
The temptation to interpret these events literally through the Book of Revelation would be very dangerous. In Mark we read "But of that day or hour, no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son of Man, but only the Father" (Mark 13: 32).
In the Catholic liturgy we pray: "In your mercy keep us free from sin and protect us from all anxiety as we wait in joyful hope for the coming of our Savior, Jesus Christ".
On May 19th, 1780 in Hartford, Connecticut, the sky darkened portentously, and some of the members of the State House of Representatives, glancing out the windows, feared the end was at hand. Quelling a clamor for immediate adjournment, Colonel Davenport, the Speaker of the House, rose and said, "The Day of Judgment is either approaching or it is not. If it is not, there is no cause for adjournment. If it is, I choose to be found doing my duty. Therefore, I wish that candles be brought in to the chamber." Rather than fearing what is to come, we are to be faithful till Christ returns. Instead of fearing the dark, we're to be lights as we watch and wait.
Fear must not control us. There is a humorous story about two explorers who were on a jungle safari. Suddenly a ferocious lion jumped in front of them. "Keep calm" the first explorer whispered. "Remember what we read in that book on wild animals? If you stand perfectly still and look the lion in the eye, he will turn and run." "Sure," replied his companion. "You've read the book, and I've read the book. But has the lion read the book?"
I am not minimizing the magnitude of the challenges that confront us. Nevertheless, if we truly wish to experience the joy that the virtue of hope provides, we must abandon ourselves with total confidence to the loving hands of God our Father who knows all things.
You have a Big Day ahead of you, and so do I. It’s the day we will die. The whole world and all of humanity also have a big day that lies ahead, the Day of the Lord, that day in which the world as we know it will come to an end. Both our own Big Day and the world’s will each be a day of reckoning, that day in which we will account for all that we have done and all that we have not done through neglect, indifference and simply not caring.
How does the Catholic Church want us to think of that Day of the Lord? What’s the right attitude and vision that we should have about that day, a day that we will all certainly face?
Now the Catholic Church doesn’t ignore the fact that the world will come to an end and that Christ will come again in judgment on the Last Day. But our Church does ask us not to spend a lot of time and energy pondering over when He is coming. It does want us to pay attention to the fact that He will come again.
Why is this so important? Because death gives meaning to life. If we ignore the fact that we will die and give a reckoning to God, then we’ll forget about how we should be living here and now – today, tomorrow, the rest of the week, the rest of the year, and so forth. If we ignore that we are facing a Day of Judgment, both individually and collectively, we will ignore the way we treat others. We’ll forget about accomplishing the tasks we all have here and now in revealing God’s presence in our own lives and in the lives of others.
The Church puts the Last Days in front of our eyes so that we can judge what it is we’re doing for Christ these days, here, right now. The most effective way to ensure the value of the future is to confront the present courageously and constructively. The Lord speaks to us of the End of the World because thinking about it puts our present day’s values in proper perspective.
While it’s quite true that you may die tomorrow in some sudden and unexpected accident, your value in death, the value of the days you have lived among us, will depend on what you have done with the days God has already given you as well as upon what you have done today. So do I. We should plan ahead and work as if we’re going to live forever… and we should live like we’re going to die tomorrow. Today is not only the first day of the rest of your life here on earth; it is the first day of your eternal life.
Many people in our world, people that we know, live without caring a bit about the end of their individual lives as well as about the end of our world. If we don’t care about the Final Day of Judgment, and if we don’t care about our own particular day of judgment (the day we die) then we won’t care about what we’re doing today and tomorrow, about what’s important in life, or about the way we treat other people, or the world’s resources, or about making the world a more beautiful place.
So today is the first day of the rest of your life – both your life here on earth as well as your eternal life.
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.

St Stephen's Senior Citizens

Every Tuesdays at 1pm our senior citizens meet together to have fun and playing BINGO

God loves a cheerful Giver

"God loves a cheerful giver."
My dear brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ,
Let me start with a true story which appeared in a Guidepost magazine.
A new boy at a school was segregated from the other children and often alone. He wore hand-me-down clothes. His clothes had a "vintage" look before the "vintage look" was in style. One day the teacher announced that she wanted the children to bring money to school the next day to help needy people in the community. The next day the teacher asked the children who had brought some money. Only that one young lad put his hand. He moved decisively up to the front and put in her hand a nickel (a coin worth five cents). He quietly told her that he guessed he could go without lunch that day. The teacher took her class's donation to the principal's office. She was embarrassed at only having a nickel to show for her efforts. But when she told the principal of her meager (unsatisfactory) results, the principal was amazed. He showed her the list of the most needy families in the area requesting help. The name at the top of the list was the family of that boy who had made the sole contribution.
Dear brothers and sisters, the irony of that story is the same irony as in the story of the widow's mite. The stories of widow in our readings are really challenging.
We measure the greatness of actions by their external appearance and impression. Christ tells us here that he looks into our heart, and he reads our dispositions. This is very encouraging. If all we have the opportunity of giving him is a small act of kindness and not an earth-shattering gesture, he still measures it by the love in our heart as we give it. We sometimes think we have very little to offer him, but we can always give him our whole heart.
It is not a matter of having many things to give, but to be generous with what we have. If we are generous in small things we will be generous in the big, when the opportunity comes to give them.
There is a famous funny story about a little Swiss church at the turn of the 20th century. The roof of the hall of this little church was falling down, so the members of the church decided to hold regular prayer meetings in the hall after the service to pray for funds to repair the roof. Now there was an old man known to be very tight with his money who used to attend the prayer meeting. He would always sit near the back of the hall so that he could sneak out just before the collection plate came round at the end of the meeting. One Sunday, he was held up on his way to the prayer meeting, and could only find a seat at the front of the hall. During the meeting a piece of the roof fell and hit him on the head. Feeling spoken to by God, he stood up and said, "Lord, I'll give two thousand dollars." A voice at the back of the church was heard to say, "Hit him again, Lord!"
This is our way but Jesus sees things differently. Jesus pays special attention to the poor widow whose clothes were unspectacular and who probably was overlooked by almost everyone. Oh yes, many rich people put in huge sums. But Jesus commended the woman who put in a penny. Why? It wasn't tossed in with great finesse but placed in with great humility. Because the others did it for show out of abundance; she did it for God with "all she had to live on." Others made a contribution. But the widow made a sacrifice. Two cents was all she had. It wasn't all she had in her purse at the time; it was all she had, two cents and a vault full of faith.
But when we see the collections in the Catholic Church all over the world, we may wonder are we giving tips to God. We may give more money as a tip at the restaurants than what we give in the church. And we have no problem. A minister challenged himself and his congregation one Sunday morning. When the ushers had taken up the offering one Sunday and brought the plates down to the altar, he took the plates and held them up in the air. Then he prayed: "Dear God, regardless of what we say about you with our lips, this is really what we say about you, this is really what we feel about you. This is really what you mean to us. Amen." (Raoul Comninos: The Widow's Offering: Four Principles of Tithing, Dec 2000). No more beating around the bush. This prayer hits the nail on the head: our giving doesn't just matter - it is an expression of our love for God.
Jesus turned a two-cent gift into a headline because of the sacrifice the gift represented. It's not the size of the clang that matters most. It's the sacrifice that involved in the giving. Our gifts are not measured by how much we give, but by how much we keep for ourselves. Our giving must cost us.
When we look into the day-to-day life of the Catholic Church, The majority of us, I believe, recognize the difference between a mean spirited person and the one who is generous in his or her attitudes. It is a difference which shows itself in those who live "on" society and those who live "for" society; it is the difference that shows itself in those who consistently take more from living than they put into it. President John F. Kennedy, in his inaugural address in 1961, put it well when he challenged the country "And so, my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country". And I add to that sentence do it what you can do for the Church.
It is above all one's intention that counts. It is on this intention that we will be judged. It is the intention of the widow that Jesus glorified in the eyes of his disciples: What can God do with our gold and silver? It is our heart which God wants for himself! Even if we have nothing, neither gold nor silver, there is still one thing that we can give to God, the only thing which has value in his eyes: our love! My dear brothers and sisters, Jesus asks us to examine our values. To what do we cling? The scribes clung to power and their own resources. The poor widow had little, but she trusted in God to give her what she needed. God asked Abraham to leave the country and everything he had and go to the Promised Land .When he had a son in his old age God asked him to sacrifice Isaac. Isaac was the only son he had. But he was ready to give everything to God and put trust in him. It is the time to examine ourselves about where our choices are and whether we’re choosing God in our choices.
What Jesus said of the scribes may be true to us. There is no pretence or hiding before God. We may cover up the kind of people we are, but that could only be in the sight of people. He sees into our hearts, and he spoke of us as white sepulchers, white and bright on the outside, but full of rotten bones within.
"God loves a cheerful giver." "The amount which you measure in your giving to others will be the measure of how you yourself will receive."
The bottom line is: “Do what you do to please God rather than to please others. Whatever we do, let it be from the heart.” God loves a cheerful giver.

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.

To watch the sunday Homly

To watch the sunday homily of Fr Sunny John 11-05-2006 please click here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKhi22yCgOU

“If you love, you will be loved.”

“If you love, you will be loved.”
My dear brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ,
There is an immortal poem written by Englishman Leigh Hunt about a man called Abou Ben Adhem. Abou Ben Adhem woke from his sleep one night and saw in his room an angel writing in a book of gold the names of those who love God. “And is mine one?” inquired Abou. “Nay, not so,” replied the angel. “I pray thee, then, said Abou, “Write me as one who loves his fellow men.” The following night the angel came again and displayed the names of those who love God and Abou Ben Adhem’s name topped the list.
This poem makes the point that true love of God and true love of our fellow human beings are like two sides of the same coin. One cannot exist apart from the other. That is what we find in today's gospel. Jesus is asked about the first of all commandments in the law.
“Which is the first of all the commandments in the law?” This question was very important for the Jews, because they had so many commandments, six hundred and thirteen of them. And they had to follow them all. To answer to this question, Jesus first cites a passage from Deuteronomy that everyone knew because it was the profession of faith that pious Israelites recited every morning and evening, “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one; you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with your soul, and with your mind, and with all your strength” (Deut 6:4-5). And then Jesus adds, “The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” The answer of Jesus was clear: the first and greatest commandment: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind”. Notice the three “alls”: all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind. If you really love, your love cannot be half your heart, half your soul and half your mind. To love is to give oneself totally to the beloved one. We read in the book of the prophet Isaiah: “The Lord said: this people draws near with words only and honors me with their lips alone, but their hearts are far from me” (29:13).
The second commandment is like the first: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself”. In his first Epistle, St. John gives us an acid test to prove whether we love God and Neighbor in chapter 4. If not we are liars. He writes “Anyone who says, ‘I love God’, and hates his brother, is a liar, since a man who does not love the brother that he can see cannot love God whom he has never seen. So this is the commandment that he has given us, that anyone who loves God must also love his brother” (1 John 4:20-21)
If we love God we prove our love by keeping his commandments.
To direct us all our lives to love God with our heart soul and mind, God has given us guidelines, the Ten Commandments. The commandments are not meant to restrict us, not meant to make life less enjoyable for us, but are meant to make life more enjoyable for us because they save us from the potholes that we could fall into going through life. The commandments are not to restrict our behavior but show us the values in life to love, the qualities in our personalities to develop for happiness in life.
The first three of the Ten Commandments show us how to love God.
1. I am the Lord your God, you shall not have strange gods before me.
2. You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.
3. Remember to keep holy the Sabbath day.
The next seven commandments show us how to love our neighbor.
4. Honor your father and your mother.
5. You shall not kill.
6. You shall not commit adultery.
7. You shall not steal.
8. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
9. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife.
10. You shall not covet your neighbor’s goods.
In today’s gospel Jesus is reacting against a one-dimensional understanding of love. For Jesus, true love must express itself in three dimensions. These three dimensions are (a) love of God, (b) love of neighbor, and (c) love of oneself. The first two are positively commanded; the last one is not commanded but presumed to be the basis of all loving. The commandment to love your neighbor as yourself presumes that you love yourself. If you hate yourself you will not bother to love God or neighbor! If you close yourself up in your selfishness, you do not love yourself. If you are turned in on your own interests, you hate yourself; you are ruining your life and making yourself sad.
Again, Jesus took the commandments a step further. He told us that what is in our heart is also important, not just the externals. Jesus told us we can offend God even by the way we think. So to love God with all our heart, soul and mind and to love our neighbor as ourselves we have to begin with our thoughts. What way do we think? What are our attitudes? Some people say that even when they do something good they get something out of it for themselves, a bit like job satisfaction, so we can have very mixed motives sometimes. If we do not always think in a very Christian way I believe we can take control of our thoughts. We can correct our way of thinking. If we want to love God with all our heart, soul and mind, and our neighbor as ourselves, if we want to feed our minds with Christian thoughts, we need to cut out unchristian influences. A beautiful Christian ideal to have before us is that Jesus is in the other person. Jesus is in the person next to me, the person behind me, in front of me, in the person I live with and work with.
You might have paid attention to the captions we read when we travel by subway “The man who stands by the door will someday will be your Boss”

So my dear brothers and sisters, Love your God and neighbor because if you love, you will be loved.”
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.

Sister Church in art to St Stephen's

The Church of Holy Innocents(www.innocents.com) is really identical to the artistic style of St Stephen's Church.Constantino Brumidi did the paintihe Roman Catholic Church of The Holy Innocents is located in the Fashion Center, mid-town Manhattan. Founded in 1868.The Church Of The Holy Innocents128 West 37th StreetNew York, N.Y. 10018Phone: (212) 279-5861Fax: (212) 714-9313

For More phots of holy innocents Church check my photos in the Linkhttp://picasaweb.google.com/vincentocarm

Photos of Trinidad

For more photos of Choir-St Michael and the Photos of the Carmelites in Trinidad please check the links -my Photos.

All Saints Day 2006

Happy All Saints Day

My dear brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ,
We are celebrating today all the saints, not just the saints whose names are mentioned in the Mass texts, not just those were canonized saints by the Pope, but all those who enjoy the happiness of heaven, whether canonized or not and we hope that our loved ones, relatives and friends are among the saints of heaven.
A saint is this: a human being who belongs to God, who has been set apart from the world by the Blood of Jesus Christ, shed on a cross and received in the Holy Communion. Nobody else is a saint, and there is no other qualification. We are holy because of God’s action in our lives, or we are not. Every member of the Church in heaven is a saint; and every member of the Church on earth whose broken heart is faithful to Jesus Christ, who puts his trust in Jesus Christ and in nothing else, not even in himself, is just as much a saint right now. And dear brothers and sisters we all are called to be saints.
As we reflect today on those who have gone before us into everlasting life and the communion of saints, we rejoice with all of those who lived the fullness of life with God. But we also understand that we, too, have begun to live that life. So we are filled with a sense of joy and peace but also with the determination and the courage to live now the way of the reign of God, to make sure we live out what we believe. Remember what St Paul said in Ephesians 2.
"So then you are no longer strangers and sojourners, but you are fellow citizens with the holy ones and members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the capstone. Through him the whole structure is held together and grows into a temple sacred in the Lord; in him you also are being built together into a dwelling place of God in the Spirit" (Eph. 2: 19-22).
The saints whether famous and canonized or unknown and not canonized are an example to us. We could apply this verse from the letter to the Hebrews to the saints,
“With so many witnesses in a great cloud all around us, we too, then should throw off everything that weighs us down and the sin that clings so closely and with perseverance keep running in the race which lies ahead of us. Let us keep our eyes fixed on Jesus who leads us in our faith and brings it to perfection: for the sake of the joy which lay ahead of him, he endured the cross disregarding the shame of it and has taken his seat at the right of God’s throne.” (Heb 12)
We may doubt “Why do we pray to the saints sometimes, why not just pray directly to God?” We pray to the saints because they can help us on journey to Jesus. They are now gathered around the throne of God and they can intercede for us and help us. And we know that they do intercede for us and help us because so many people claim to have received favors through praying to a particular saint. And indeed for anyone to be beatified or canonized a major miracle inexplicable by natural means must have taken place. So praying to the saints is powerful. They are our brothers and sisters from every country and from every generation and they can help us on our path to God. We have one ultimate goal in praying to the saints, that through their prayers we may join with them one day in heaven by sharing in God’s victory as they have done. We ask them to help us allow Jesus’ victory over evil on the cross to be reproduced in our lives as it has been in theirs.
Yes dear brothers and sisters, if we know who we are, we will know how to act. The elephant doesn’t know how huge it is that is why it obeys the mahout. The Solemnity of All Saints today reminds us of who we are and what a bright future can be ours. As we celebrate today all the saints, both those canonized and those who are unknown, we are joyful that they have reached the goal of life, heaven. They remind us to keep our sights fixed high, to remember who we are and the glorious possibility that God offers us. Who are we? St John answers that beautifully in our second reading (1John 3:1-3);
We are God’s children now; what we shall be has not yet been revealed. We do know that when it is revealed we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.
How do we follow the footsteps of the Saints and live a saintly life? Jesus is giving us the shortcuts to become saints in our Gospel today. The Sermon on the Mount starts off with those beautiful sayings that we call the Beatitudes. They are so paradoxical because they seem to contradict what we think of as common sense: Blessed are the poor; those who live simply are the ones blessed. Blessed are the gentle, the merciful, those who hunger and thirst for justice, the peacemakers, those who are always reconciling and forgiving. You live in the reign of God with those values.
To be poor in spirit is not having any money. One could have lots of money and be poor in spirit. Being poor in spirit is admitting that we are sinners in need of God’s grace and help.
Jesus meant when he said “happy are those who mourn” is “happy are those who are sorry for their sins and the sins of others.” When we see the almost daily murders in our country now we mourn as we watch the news. One of the Psalms says “Tears stream from my eyes because your law is disobeyed.” (Ps 119:136) That is an example of someone mourning because the law of God is broken. We know that many good people in countries around the world mourn because their countries have introduced laws allowing babies in the womb, who could be a saint, to be killed.
A footnote includes us in the Beatitudes: "You, too, when you are abused and persecuted, when you are 'bucked and scorned' and lied about on account of the name of Jesus. Take everything as a compliment, and know that you are in good company. "
The definition of Saint is one who is baptized and tries to do the will of God. That's Jesus -- the model of our own sainthood. He was baptized into that project, and so are we. The only tragedy is not to be a Saint. God’s grace will lead us to the company of saints. Today we ask all the saints to pray for us, so that we too will join in their company.
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.