Christ the King
My dear brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ,
Today on the last Sunday of the liturgical year we celebrate the Feast of Christ the King. CROWN identifies a King. Jesus is a King and he had a crown but one that is made of thorns. Moreover, he is not seated on a throne but is hanging on the cross. Christ as King is different from the kings we knew in this world in two ways he exercises his Kingship: FIRST, Jesus exercises his kingship by dying on the cross. By dying on the cross, Jesus is saying that his kingship is not about prestige and power but of SERVICE and SACRIFICE.
It seems to me that sometimes it is difficult for us to imagine Christ’ Kingdom or even just Jesus as a King. We usually think of a king as someone with a lot of authority and maybe with some personal privileges. We think a King should be able to protect himself from just about anything. Jesus Christ, the King, tells us that a true King does not fill himself up with possessions or surround himself with protection, but empties himself with love.
There is a beautiful passage from St. Augustine, "In Christ we are forever young." That is the way it will be for those incorporated into his being.
Prophet Ezekiel depicts the Lord God as a conscientious shepherd, concerned for the well-being of his flock. He not only sees to it they are well fed but protects them from danger and assists those who are weak or wounded. Still more remarkably, he searches out those who go astray and are in danger from wild beasts, being separated from the shepherd and the flock. In short, God watches with loving care over all his people, and none, weak or strong, wounded or healthy is devoid of his efficacious attentions. This concern for all is a characteristic of a true King. He has a personal and permanent relation to all those over whom he rules.
SECOND, Jesus will exercise his kingship not in this world but in the Kingdom he promised for all of us. In John 18:36, Jesus says 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 a king like the rulers of the earth. His kingship does not depend upon the powers of this world and is not inspired by them. The first enemy to the Kingdom of Jesus is sin because “The kingdom of God cannot exist alongside the reign of sin” (Origen, priest):
We cannot forget that sin is, first of all, as our catechism teaches us “an offense against God”. It is a rejection of God and his kingdom.
Then we can see the consequences of sin in our lives and our society. There is war and terrorism; lack of justice and violence. The culture of death is still present in many ways. The dignity of the human person is not the basis for the common good. There is also our own personal weaknesses and sins. We are here today to reject sin and to tell Jesus that we want Him to reign in our own lives:
Then Jesus talks about the most important characteristic of his kingdom. It is charity. Love of God and love of others. We are not even asked to do things perfectly or in a heroic way, but to try to do simple things in a charitable way: Things that we all can do in our ordinary life.
Who among us cannot do some of these things, “you welcomed me, you visited me, and you gave me some food and drink”
The specific actions mentioned in the gospel today are (i) feeding the hungry, (ii) giving drink to the thirsty, (iii) clothing the naked, (iv) sheltering the homeless, (v) visiting those in prison, and (vi) taking care of the sick. Add (vii) burying the dead, and you got it; you have the traditional Seven Corporal Works of Mercy. The Final Judgment on whether we are true Christians or not, whether we belong to the kingdom of Christ or not, will be based on whether or not we have done the corporal works of mercy. This is our number one Christian obligation both as individual men and women and as a family of believers.
Whatever we do to the least of these needy children of God, these brothers and sisters of Jesus, we do to Jesus Himself.
What is our greatest need? The greatest need of all of us is ‘Our need for love.’ Each one of us, whoever we may be, married, single, priest, lay person, religious, we all need above all LOVE, to feel that we are loved, to believe that we are loved for ourselves, and to have someone for us to love. This is what our Divine Lord was talking about when he said, "Feed the hungry" and so on together with the physical needs.
A beautiful Christian ideal to have before us is that Jesus is present in my neighbor. Jesus is in the person next to me, the person behind me, in front of me, in the person with whom I live and work. One person in recent history who lived this is Mother Teresa of Calcutta.
Where will we get the power to love Jesus in others in this way as he asks in the Gospel today? (Matt 25:31-46) In a letter to the people of Albania on April 28th 1997 Mother Teresa gives the key to being able to see Jesus in others. The key to loving others is prayer. She wrote,
“To be able to love one another, we must pray much, for prayer gives a clean heart and a clean heart can see God in our neighbor. If now we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten how to see God in one another. If each person saw God in his neighbor, do you think we would need guns and bombs?”
Jesus’ idea of king and power is totally opposite to the world’s idea of a king and power. That is why the preface in today’s Mass describes Jesus’ kingdom as
a kingdom of truth and lifea kingdom of holiness and gracea kingdom of justice, love and peace.
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

33rd Sunday:Parable of Talents: the third servant
My dear brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ,
Our attention in today's Gospel is immediately drawn to the third servant - the one who was given only one talent.
In the parable we hear about “a man going on a journey who summoned his slaves and entrusted his property to them; to one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability” (Matt 25:15). From the beginning of the story we are told that the servant who received just one talent is a man of little ability. Yet it is interesting to note that the master has a talent even for his relatively disabled servant. All God’s children have got their talents, even those who appear to have very minimal abilities in comparison with the more gifted ones. See here God gives to us according to our ability.
A "talent" is a biblical term for a large sum of money. The best estimate I was able to find is that it's roughly equivalent to 75 pounds of pure silver. I checked on the Internet this week, and silver was going for about $17.50 an ounce, or $280 a pound. That makes a talent worth about $21,000.
The other place I found said it was much higher. It said that a talent was worth about 6,000 drachmas. A drachma was a silver coin, and it was the standard day's wages for a worker. If you figure $7 an hour, times 8 hours a day, that's $56 a day – I know they worked longer hours back then, but stick with me – times 6,000 coins, that's $336,000.
Any way you look at it, a talent is a lot of money!
So, the master or the employer gives one person five of these talents – that's 375 pounds of silver. Another person gets two talents – 150 pounds. The third person gets one measly talent – just 75 pounds.
This third servant seems to be a rather unfortunate man and he makes us uncomfortable too because, in some ways, he reminds us of ourselves.
'... I was afraid ...' He digs a hole in the ground and buries his one talent. Why does he do that? Because he is afraid he is going to lose it if he trades with it. He must have reasoned like this: “Well, those with more talents can afford to take a risk. If they lost a talent, they could make it up later. But me, I have only one talent. If I lose it, end of story! So I better play it safe and just take care of it.” Many of us in the church are like this third servant. Because we do not see ourselves as possessing outstanding gifts and talents, we conclude that there is nothing that we do. The third guy's basic problem was fear. He didn't want to make a mistake. He'd been watching the market go down and down and down the way it has recently. And he didn't want to lose the money he'd been entrusted with. I think he was just like us. We talk a lot about using our talents, but a whole lot of the things God gives us are never used. We're afraid. God gives us everything. If we happen to think that we have so little that there is nothing to share and give to others, then we are like the ‘one’ with the one talent who buried it. We're afraid. So we bury them. We bury them just like the third guy in today's story.
Some of us surely feel like the third one – untrustworthy and poorly equipped to bring about any real change in the world. Others may have the confidence of the first slave, but the same results as the third. We simply hang on to what we have – be it money or skill – rather than risk it to accomplish more.
Our medieval ancestors in the faith were so moved the implications of this story that they coined the word “talent” as a term to describe any ability that God might have given us. It was a reminder to them – and to us – that our skills and our insights, our minds and our bodies, our interests and our specialties are all resources that can be used to change the world. It is also a reminder that these things, alongside any material wealth we might have, are not ours. They are not a birthright. They are a trust, given us by the One who has created us.
And that One expects … demands … a return on that investment.

I know this won’t be a good example but just take the current issue. Our elected President Barak Obama when he decide to stand for the presidential election, he could have thought of like this “who am I! I am just a black American, no Back American in the history of America stayed in the White house as a president, I am just young man who has no much experience in politics, my party opponent is senator Hilary Clinton. So I won’t win. Why should I waist my money.” He didn’t stop. He didn’t bury his talents he tried and he won the election. “If you wanna win, you got to play.”
A man got mad with God. “God,” he said, I have been praying daily for three years that I should win the state lottery. You told us to ask and we shall receive. How come I never received all these three years I have been asking?” Then he heard the voice of God, loud and clear. “My dear son,” says God. “Please do me a favor and buy a lottery ticket.”
The problem we face is that our hearts and souls are too often filled with an emotional fear, a negative fear that causes us not to act, that leads us into a selfish gathering of things that we keep only for ourselves. It is a paralyzing fear that leads us to be like turtles hiding inside a thick outer shell that prevents us from loving others, that keeps others at a distance, and that isolates in a self-imposed hell of loneliness.
Booker T. Washington was right on target when he said that “Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles that one has overcome while trying to succeed.”
Yes dear brothers and sisters learn how to count our blessings and count them. St. Paul reminds us [Romans 8:15], we are not heirs of a spirit of slavery and fear; we are children, adopted and claimed by the spirit of God.

Dedication of Lateran Basilica :We are the Temple of God

My dear brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ,
Today we celebrate this feast in honor of the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica. The Church of Saint John Lateran is the cathedral church of the Archdiocese of Rome–Saint Peter’s Basilica is not the cathedral church of Rome–so this is the Pope’s cathedral. Today, perhaps with good reason, all the major basilicas of Rome are considered more or less cathedrals of the Pope. It is an ancient building. There is not a saint by the name of Saint John Lateran, but rather it is a church named after Saint John the Evangelist and The Lateran, the land which once belonged to the noble Roman family, the Laterani, was given to the bishop of Rome by the Roman emperor, Constantine. That is how it has its name.
We have the physical church building, we have the new and eternal Jerusalem (in other words, the eternal temple of God in heaven), and then we have the temple which is our own body. In order to be able to truly understand what the dignity of this feast is, we have to be able to understand each of these elements. I think all of us would understand reasonably well the dignity of the eternal temple in heaven, but also I think we all see the importance and the dignity of the church building. But the problem is that we are the living members, the living stones, that make up that eternal Jerusalem and it is the dignity of our own self that most of us tend to miss.

Once, a woman in a coma was dying. She suddenly had a feeling she was taken up to heaven and stood before the judgment Seat.
Who are you?” a voice said to her.
“I am the wife of the mayor,” she replied.
“I did not ask you whose wife you are but who you are”
“I am the mother of four children.”
“I did not ask whose mother you are, but who you are”
“I am a school teacher.”
“I did not ask you what your profession is but who you are.”
And so it went. NO matter what she replied, she did not seem to give a satisfactory answer to the question, “Who are You?”
“I am a Christian.”
“I did not ask what your religion is but who you are.”
“I am the one who went to church every day and always helped the poor and the needy.”
“I did not ask you what you did but who you are.”
She evidently failed the examination for she sent back to earth. When she recovered from her illness she determined to find out who she was. And that made all the difference.
Your duty is to be. Not to be somebody, not to be nobody- for therein lies greed and ambition-not to be this or that- and thus become conditioned-but just to be.
Yes dear brothers and sisters, do you know who you are? In today’s readings, St Paul is giving an idea that you are the temple of God. And the Spirit of God dwells in you (1Cor. 3:11-17) .This Holy Spirit dwells in us personally and individually, but also dwells in us as the chosen people, the community saved by the death and resurrection of Christ Jesus. If we do not recognize the dignity of our own temple, which is a microcosm of the new and eternal Jerusalem, and which in fact is a living member of that new and eternal Jerusalem, then we will have no part of it. The body, as Saint Paul says, is not made for immorality. It is made for holiness, so we are to use our bodies to express in the physical world what it means to be an image of God, to show in a physical way what it means to live as members of Jesus Christ and as children of God.
Prophet Ezekiel presents us with the image of water flowing from the temple. This water is the blood of Christ poured out for us, it is the Holy Spirit poured on us, and it is the love of the Father embracing us. Whatever this water touches brims with life. My dear brothers and sisters, it is the right time to think whether the living water of God is flowing from us, the temples of God.
At first glance, this reading seems to be about the Temple building and the need to keep that space holy. In order to pay the required Temple tax, people had to convert their Roman and Greek pagan coins into religiously correct, imageless currency. For the sacrifices, most people purchased unblemished animals from the Temple markets - doves, sheep and cattle, a range of animals for a range of budgets. Most could only afford the cheapest option. A dove that cost 15 cents on the streets of Jerusalem cost $15 in the Temple market. These were expensive burdens for the mostly impoverished faithful, who sacrificed mightily to travel from all corners of the empire to Jerusalem. Jesus was enraged because the merchants were mistreating the people, overcharging and cheating the poor who came to worship. Jesus knew that the great Temple itself would be destroyed. Jesus also knew that God had made his dwelling place not in a building, but in “his Father’s house”, the House of Israel, the people themselves.
When the temple priests tried to stop Jesus, Jesus told the people that if the temple was destroyed He could rebuild it in three days. They thought Jesus was talking about the actual temple (the building) which had taken forty-six years to build. But Jesus meant the temple of his own body, which would be destroyed by death (He would die on the cross) but His body would be raised to life again after three days.
This is a radical shift in perspective. In that day, religions taught that God had to be found in certain designated places, such as the Temple building or at Jacob’s mountain in Samaria. Now Jesus is saying something entirely new. He is saying that God can be found in each person’s own heart and soul. As Paul says in the Second Reading, we ourselves are “God’s building.… The temple of God, and the Spirit of God dwells” in each one of us.
We are the living stones, and we carry the church around with us wherever we go. Each of us has a small part of the whole, and it is our job to put those pieces together, day by day and year by year. This is how the church of Jesus lives on. And make no mistake; it would be easier just to build a big stone temple. Anybody can build a building. It’s much more of a challenge and exciting and rewarding to build a community. And we all together form that community; the Church.
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.

30th :Love God And Neighbor
My dear brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ,
Jesus is asked about the greatest commandment in the law. The book answer, of course is love of God. But Jesus does not stop there. He goes on to give a more practical answer. True love of God and true love of neighbor is practically one and the same thing.
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.
Our love of God is manifested in how we love the neighbor. (And by neighbor, the gospel writer is not talking about the guy next door. It is any person, and most especially any person that we would rather not love, indeed, perhaps, an enemy). “If anyone says, ‘I love God,’ but hates his brother, he is a liar; for whoever does not love a brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. This is the commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother” (1 John 4:20-21).
Perhaps, the image of the cross is the best that captures this creative tension between love of God and love of neighbor. The cross would not be the cross without the two beams. The vertical beam corresponds to our love of God; it is the foundation for the entire enterprise, but it is not a cross. The horizontal beam corresponds to our love of neighbor. It is built upon the vertical, and without the vertical it would fall, and it itself, is not a cross. It is the arms outstretched in a sign of total and radical self-giving to and for others. Only the two together make the cross, the love of God and the love of neighbor. And yet, our love of God is primarily displayed in how we love our neighbor, how our arms are outstretched.To direct us all our lives to love God with our heart soul and mind, God has given us guidelines, the Ten Commandments.
The first three of the Ten Commandments show us how to love God. The next seven commandments show us how to love our neighbor.
How do we love?
A little girl had a brother who was in need of a bone marrow transplant in order to survive. Now this brother was not always particularly nice to her…in fact, as big brothers sometimes do, he picked on her quite a bit. As she was the perfect match for her brother, her parents came to the little girl and asked if she would agree to donate her marrow to allow her brother to live. She thought about it quietly, then, said simply, “Yes.” On the morning of the procedure, as the little girl was being prepped for the transplant, she looked up at her mother and asked, “Mommy, will it hurt when I die?” She mistakenly thought that she would have to lose her life so that her brother might keep his. She truly loved God. And this is the kind of love to which we are called. A total self-gift. Holding nothing back. No, we don’t always have to die physically…but we do need to die to self – to put others first.
If you are going to love someone with all your heart, soul and mind, you are going to be completely focused on that person. Jesus wants us to live our day to day lives in a loving, intimate relationship with God.
Then Jesus goes on to say our relationship with God is connected to our relationship with others. By adding the second commandment – loving your neighbor as yourself – Jesus was telling them how to love God. He was calling them to action. Not simply the feeling of emotional love, but an active love of total self-gift to our fellow human kind.
What would it mean to love our neighbors as ourselves? First of all, we have to love ourselves, which means we have to be nice to ourselves, to be merciful and nonviolent to ourselves, to forgive ourselves, and to treat ourselves with kindness. Every one of us needs to work on this, to be kind to ourselves. Loving ourselves in a proper way is necessary for us to love others. Why? The answer lies in an old Latin phrase, Nemo quod dat non habet - you can't give what you yourself don't possess. In other words, you can't love others correctly and in a proper way unless you have loved yourself enough first. Here, Jesus presumes that loving others is preceded by loving ourselves in a proper way.
You cannot be a loving person who shows compassion and mercy to others if you first do not show compassion and mercy to yourself.
My dear brothers and sisters, we almost never violate our beliefs. We hardly ever act against what we really believe. We live in line with our beliefs - not always with what we say we believe, but with what we actually believe. So if you want to change someone's lifestyle or behavior, what are you going to have to do? You're going to have to change the way they see things, how they believe about things, their understanding of things. If I want to change my mind and my beliefs about that thing, I've got to study and reflect and think about it until I get to the point where I find myself believing it.
To The World You Might Be One Person; But To One Person You Might Be the World. Love your God and Love your neighbor as yourself.
In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.

29th :Give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar
My dear brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ,
Jesus' enemies, having heard the good news about God's compassionate and reconciling love that Jesus had preached. They weren't interested in it. All they thought about was their own power. So they wanted to trick Jesus.
The Pharisees and the Herodians, religious and political parties respectively, teamed up to entrap Jesus. The Pharisees were opposed to taxation by the Romans. On the other hand the Herodians, as supporters of King Herod, felt there was an obligation to pay the tax. And so the Pharisees, in the presence of the Herodians, asked Jesus, “is it lawful to pay the census tax to Caesar or not?” If Jesus had answered “yes, it is lawful,” the Pharisees would have had justification to persecute him. If he answered “no, it is not lawful,” the Herodians would have arrested him for opposing the tax. It’s a real trap more than we can expect. But Jesus, as he so often did, provided the perfect answer, saving himself from punishment by either party while teaching us something at the same time. He answered, “repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God.” In saying this, Jesus acknowledged that both Caesar and God have certain rights. Neither party could arrest him.
The question was whether one should give (Greek didômi) tribute to Caesar. But Jesus' answer spoke of giving back, paying back (paradidômi), as if one already owed something. Jesus’ answer could be paraphrased as: "Give back to Caesar what is Caesar's due, and to God what is God's due." Instead of answering the direct question of whether one should pay the forced tribute to Caesar or not, Jesus raises the question to another level, that of the principle of justice. Greek philosophers before Jesus defined justice as "giving back to everyone what is their due." Jesus seems to be saying that the only binding obligation is that of justice, that of giving back to every person what is due to them. Serving God is basically a matter of justice? If God has given us all that we are and have, then we are bound in justice to give back to God some gratitude, loyalty, and service. The central act of Christian worship is called Eucharist, which means "thanksgiving." It is basically a question of paying back the debt of gratitude we owe to God.
The answer our Lord gives has very serious implications for you and for me. First, it means that you and I have dual citizenship: in the kingdom of heaven and in the kingdom of earth. Second, it means that our citizenship in heaven and all that it demands must serve as the litmus test for how we conduct ourselves as citizens on earth. This makes sense: how we behave here will help decide whether or not we reach our heavenly citizenship. Third, it causes us to consider the role of the Catholic in public life. We have a civic duty. Tell me brothers and sisters, if it is not a law or mandatory to come to the Sunday Mass; will you all be here today? And if there is no Law in this free world what will be our future? Bishop Robert J. Herman, the administrator of the Archdiocese of St. Louis, asked the faithful to consider what kind of witness they give to God when they enter the voting booth on Election Day.
Jesus asked to bring a coin and The inscription on this coin reads “Caesar Augustus Tiberius, son of the Divine Augustus.” To Jesus, this was blasphemous: the coin claims that Augustus was a god.
One interpretation of Jesus’s words was that he was making an analogy — the coin is made on the orders of the emperor and is stamped with the image of the emperor, and the emperor may call on you to give it to him in tribute; by analogy, you were made by God and in God’s image, and you must therefore devote your life in tribute to God, rather than Caesar.
Tertullian, (in De Idololatria,) interprets Jesus’ saying to render “the image of Caesar, which is on the coin, to Caesar, and the image of God, which is on man, to God; so as to render to Caesar indeed money, to God yourself. Otherwise, what will be God’s, if all things are Caesar’s?”
So we give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s. Give God what is God’s? What is God’s? If God is the Creator, then it’s not enough to say that everything belongs to God. It’s even more than that. We are all in God. The world and the cosmos and time and space and everything else. It’s mind boggling that God takes interest in anything in this world. Anything that we can give. God doesn’t just want anything. It’s not like he needs money. Or food. Or anything. Actually, in the Bible, God says a couple of times that it’s not sacrifice that he desires. He even said that he is repulsed by stuff that people bring him. All the festivals and ceremonies. What does God want from us? Is it not us that he wants? He wants me and you, the real me and you. He wants me to seek him, like he’s real, and like he’s what matters most. I used to bring God my religious self, not my plain self. I still do sometimes. But he wants to have a frank relationship with me. He doesn’t want to be my religion. He wants to be my God. God wants to see me be like him. In the same passage where he says he doesn’t want sacrifices, he says he wants mercy. He wanted to see his heart and compassion in people. But people were selfish and ruthless and mean to each other.
This week, as you go about whatever God has called you to do, see in the works that you do, the hand of God building His Kingdom, one act, one brick ,one small act of love at a time. And know that in the end, you can look back and see that the house of love that you've helped build is the Kingdom that God has prepared for all of us, from the beginning of time. And that is what the missionaries are doing; doing their duty as citizen of Heaven and citizen of earth. Helping others to become the citizens of heaven. No matter how little, if that is the best you could, that is good enough for God. In the final analysis, it is not your ability that counts, but your availability and your mentality.
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.

28th :Parable of the Vineyard and wicked tenants
My dear brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ,
Parables are narrative time bombs. The parables were meant to blast people into new awareness, new understandings, and new ideas.
This parable is one of only three that appears in all of the synoptic gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Curiously, some of Jesus' best-known parables (like the Good Samaritan) occur in one gospel alone but nowhere else. Only the parables of The Sower, The Mustard Seed, and The Tenants get repeated in the synoptic gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke.
Today's gospel calls for responsibility and accountability in our dealings with God, which include our dealings with our fellow human beings.
Let us also identify all the players of the parable. The vineyard is the nation of Israel -- the chosen people of God. The owner of the vineyard is God. The tenants are the religious leaders of Israel who were responsible for the cultivation of fruitful holiness and the wellbeing of the people of Israel. The servants sent by the landowner are the prophets who God sent to warn, to encourage, to challenge and to reassure; yet they were often greeted with threats of violence and even death. The son in the story is Jesus who is sent by His heavenly Father.
The parable teaches us a lot about God and how God relates to us. First we see the PROVIDENCE of God. "There was a landowner who planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a wine press in it, and built a watchtower"(Matthew 21:33a). Before God entrusts a responsibility to you, He makes provision for all that you will need in carrying out the responsibility.
"Then he leased it to tenants and went to another country" (verse 33b). This shows God's TRUST in us. We all have at least received life from God. Life is given to us in trust. We are expected to cultivate and manage this life in such a way that it bears good fruit - fruit that we can present to God the owner of our lives on the day of reckoning. God does not stand looking over our shoulders, policing us to make sure we do the right thing. God leaves the job to us and goes on vacation to a far country, so to say. God trusts that we will do the right thing. Unfortunately many of us don't. The story also highlights God's PATIENCE with us. God sends messenger after messenger to the rebellious managers who would not render to God what is His due. Our God is a patient God. Just as the landowner sent several servants in multiple waves to collect his payment of produce, God also seemingly gives us chance after chance to respond to his unique call to us. Do we recognize and appreciate the patience of God? With each messenger, God provides another chance for us to put an end to rebellion and do the right thing. Finally there comes a last chance. God plays His last card and sends His only son. If we miss this last chance, then we've missed it. In the end we see God's JUDGMENT in which rebellious humanity lose their very lives, and their privileges are transferred to others who are more promising. The picture is that of a provident, trusting, patient, but also just God.
There is lot more to understand. First we see human PRIVILEGE. Like the managers of the vineyard, everything we have is a privilege and not a merit. This is what we mean when we say that everything is God's grace. Grace is unmerited favor. Another word for this is privilege. Life itself is a privilege which can be taken away from any of us at any moment. Privilege comes, however, with RESPONSIBILITY. We are ultimately responsible and accountable to God for the way we use or abuse our God-given privileges. God has given us all that we need to make a judicious use of all our privileges, yet we retain the ability to abuse them. This is called FREEDOM.
St John Vianney used to try to move his people to love one another, to love God, to be faithful to their Mass, to their marriage partner but he couldn’t and he wept. They asked him ‘Why do you cry?’ and he said ‘because you won’t’.
In the final verses of this parable, Jesus asked, “Didn’t you ever read in the Scriptures? Psalm 118:22 ‘The stone rejected by the builders has now become the Cornerstone. This is the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous to see.’” Ephesians 2:20 tells us that Jesus is the chief corner stone in the structure of God’s house (see Psalm 118:22, Isaiah 28:16).
What is the vineyard now? The vineyard for us is everything God has given to us. We are the tenants looking after the vineyard that God has given to us. What is our attitude to the vineyard? You and I are tenants of many vineyards.
The vineyard of your marriage: are you looking after it? Is it bearing proper fruit?
The vineyard of your family: mother – father; son – daughter?
The vineyard of this parish: Are we listening to the Word of God, living it, proclaiming it? Are we drawing others to Christ?
And finally, each one of us is the tenant of a special vineyard called our soul. It is the most important vineyard of all. What condition is it in? Is it bearing fruit?
Are we grateful for everything God has given to us? Are we like the tenants acting as if we own everything God has given to us and forgetting that we are to produce fruit for God? Are we forgetting about the Giver who has given us all these beautiful gifts?
Yes dear brothers and sisters in John 15:16 Jesus says, “I chose you from the world to go out and bear fruit, fruit that will last.”
In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.

22nd sunday:Follow Jesus with your cross
My dear brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ,
In Aug 28, 2008 CNA News there was a story about 25 year-old African young girl named Olivia, who despite not being baptized at the time and not having any legs, crawled 2.5 miles every Sunday to attend Mass. The sisters who gave her accommodation said that although “the sand from the road burned the palms of her hands during the hottest times of the year,” the young woman crawled to Mass, “giving witness of perseverance and heroic faith.”
Jesus said to his disciples “whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross and follow me”
So many of us here are already carrying crosses. You do not have to go looking for them. They find us.
The point is that, if you want to be a follower of Jesus, you have to be able to make a total commitment. No excuses! In fact, there is much common sense in what Jesus is saying. For example, if you embark on a medical or legal career you have to study hard, give up many nights on the town, and follow your professor’s instructions. There are no free rides. No crosses, No growth. No pain, no gain.
In fact it is not one cross that we have to take up, but three. The first is the cross of inconvenience. There is no point in praying for change in the world without putting ourselves out to do something to help make that change. In other words, I must inconvenience myself to make that change. Say, for example, there is no point in praying that your mother will get well if you don’t drive her to the doctor to get some care..... The second is the cross of witness. To carry this cross, we must not be afraid to stand up for what we believe in and be counted. A good example of this witnessing is those people who are involved in social action and justice campaigns. And finally there is the cross of martyrdom. And this comes in two forms, wet and dry. Wet is when blood is spilled, like that of Oscar Romero. And dry is when we are wounded in the spirit and that can happen in so many different ways and on a daily basis.
It seems altogether fitting that one of the Christian martyrs of our time, Archbishop Oscar Romero, received a bullet in the heart just as he was about to pronounce the words of the Mass from behind the altar of the Chapel of the Divine Providence in San Salvador: "This is my body given for you."
The first martyrs of the Christian church in Uganda were young pages at the court of the king. When they were about to be burned alive for their faith, each was asked to name the charge against him. Each said, "For following Christ." They understood what Jesus meant when he said, "If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me."
Edith Stein was a German Jew who was converted to Christianity and became a Carmelite nun. When World War II came, she was hunted down by the Nazis and taken to a concentration camp -- Auschwitz -- where, until she was gassed, she busied herself with comforting and consoling the other internees.
Last week the burning alive of a woman in an orphanage and attacks on many churches in Orissa in India are most shocking. At present 14 people are dead in the state of Orissa with two more seriously injured? At least 41 churches (Catholic and Protestant) were destroyed; hundreds of homes were damaged; four convents, five hostels and youth residences, six Catholic volunteer institutes were devastated; plus hundreds of cars and other personal objects were set on fire during raids carried out by Hindu fundamentalists.
This month August 16, 2008 Fr. Thomas Pandippally, a member of the CMI Congregation was brutally murdered while he was returning home on his motorbike after celebrating the Eucharist in Andhra Pradesh. Even though he was killed on Saturday night, his body was found only the following day on the road. On his body there were 18 stab wounds. He sustained many more wounds on his face and hands during the struggle with his murderers which probably went on for about an hour. According to the postmortem report, his head was hit with sticks and boulders. One eye was pierced with a knife. Fr. Thomas literally shed his blood because of his commitment and dedication to the Gospel of Jesus.
Graham Stuart Stains was an Australian missionary who was burnt to death along with his 9 and 7 years sons while sleeping in his station wagon in Orissa, in India in January 1999. Graham Staines had been working in Orissa among the tribal poor and especially with leprosy patients since 1965.
On 25 February 1995 when I was studying theology in North India, Sr Rany Maria one of the Franciscan sisters was murdered in the bus on her way to see her parents. The murderers pulled her by her hair from the bus and stabbed her 52 times and she was in the pool of blood. Forty travelers and the bus driver left the place for their safety. I was there for the rally and the funeral. Her body was put to eternal rest in special tomb prepared in front of the parish church at Udayanagar. But that time I didn’t know that she is going to be a martyr. She is now called a servant of God. She has sacrificed her life to do God’s will. With the courage of a prophet she faced the challenges in her work to uplift the poor and the downtrodden.
The follower of Christ must be a person for others, just as the Master was. If you wish to be my followers deny yourselves and take up your cross and follow me. He will give the reward. St Paul says in I Cor. 1:18 “The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.”
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

21 st sunday : The Church and Our Role in the Church
My dear brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ,
You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it (Matthew 16:18).
John XXIII was pope during the chaotic and restless (turbulent) 1960s when it seemed that everything was falling apart. The priesthood was in crisis, religious life was in crisis, marriage was in crisis, faith was in crisis, and the church was in crisis. The pope worked long and hard hours trying to address these problems. One evening, after an exhausting day in the office, he went to his private chapel to do his daily Holy Hour before going to bed but he was too exhausted and too stressed out to focus or pray. After a few minutes of pointless effort, he got up and said, “Lord, the church belongs to you. I am going to bed.” Difficulties might have driven the Pope to acknowledge that the church belongs to Christ. But Jesus Said in Today’s Gospel: You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it (Matthew 16:18).
This passage is crucial for a proper understanding of what the church is, and our role in the church. For this is the most explicit statement that Jesus makes in the Gospels about the church. There are two main points in this sentence.
Firstly, it tells us that Jesus is the owner of the church. Neither Peter nor the disciples owns the church. Pastors and church leaders who think and act as if they own the church are like farm workers who go about posing as if the farm belongs to them. All God’s people have been called together as co-workers in Christ's vineyard, though some work as foremen overseeing others. But we do not own the church. We belong to the church. The owner of the church is Christ.
Secondly, Jesus is the one who builds his church. He is the master builder who has the building plan in his hands. Human co-operators are like masons and carpenters employed by the master builder to help him with the building. Our role is to listen and follow his instructions, doing our own small part in the grand design of the master. HE is in Control.
If Jesus is the owner and builder of the church, where then do we come in? We come in precisely where Peter comes in. Together with Peter we are the building blocks of the church. Peter is the foundation rock and we are the pieces of stones with which the church is built: Our role is to allow God to use us.
We must not forget that no matter how small a piece of stone we may be, the master builder could still use it to do something beautiful.
A famous stained-glass artist was commissioned to make a huge portrait for the window of the cathedral in Chartres, France. First he laid all of the pieces he was going to use out on the floor of the cathedral. Among these awesome pieces of glass was a small, clear piece about as big as a fingernail. As the stained-glass portrait was assembled, that little piece remained on the floor. Only the big colorful pieces were used. On the day of the window’s completion the entire city gathered to witness the unveiling of the portrait. The artist pulled away the cover cloth and the crowd gasped at the beauty of the colorful window glowing in the sunlight. After a few seconds the crowd grew silent. They sensed that something was missing, that the portrait was unfinished. The great artist then walked over to where the little clear piece of glass lay, picked it up, and placed it in the portrait, right in the centre of Jesus’ eye. As the sun hit that little piece, it gave off a dazzling sparkle. The work of art is now complete. Without the small piece the work was incomplete. In the grand design of building the church of God, each one of us could consider ourselves to be that small piece of glass – so small and yet so indispensable.
Dear brothers and sisters, the two questions that Jesus poses to His disciples today - “Who do people say I am?” and “Who do you say I am?” are questions that every disciples has to face at some time in their lives. Throughout our lives, we hear different things about Jesus. Some of them will help to develop our understanding about Jesus - others will challenge us - and others may confuse us.
Like Peter today, we will hear all sorts of things about Jesus - but, eventually, we will have to look at them all and decide what we believe about Jesus. Who is this real Jesus for ME? Don’t be stubborn to our foolish knowledge but ask for the wisdom to know the Truth. We may think that we are intelligent people but our decisions may end up in foolishness.
Once a spider built a beautiful web in an old barn. She kept it clean and shiny so that flies would buzz a bit nearer. The minute she got a visitor she would clean up on it so the other flies would not get suspicious.
Then one day a fairly intelligent fly came buzzing by the clean spider web. The spider called out, "Come in and sit." But the fly said, "No, ma’am. I don’t see other flies in your house, and I am not going in alone!"
But presently the fly saw on the floor below a large crowd of flies dancing around on a piece of brown paper. It was delighted! It was not afraid if lots of flies were doing the same. So the fly came in for a landing.
Just before it landed, a bee zoomed by, saying, "Don’t land there, that’s flypaper!" But the fly shouted back, "Don’t be silly, those flies are dancing. There’s a big crowd there. That many flies can’t be wrong." Well, you know what happened, the fly got stuck and died.
Isn’t it strange, my dear brothers and sisters, how some of us want to be with the crowd so badly denying the church and the Christ forgetting that Jesus is the builder and the master of the church and we are the bricks with which Jesus builds His church!
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

20th sunday Perseverance in prayer
My dear brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ,
The Canaanite woman in our Gospel today reminds us of St Monica, the mother of St Augustine who lived in Tagaste in North Africa which is called Algeria today. Augustine her son as a teenager influenced by the loose living of his companions. He didn’t have faith. His mother shed tears for 20 years for her son and he received the baptism. Five days later Monica caught a fever and went into a coma and died after nine days. Augustine went on to become a priest at the age of 36 and a bishop at the age of 41 and was Bishop of Hippo in North Africa for 35 years. And all of this due to the persistent prayer of his mother St Monica.
If you read today’s Gospel text closely you will see that the woman was refused three times by Jesus before he granted her request. The first time Jesus didn’t answer her. The second refusal was when Jesus refused his disciples’ request on her behalf. The third refusal was when Jesus said the children’s food shouldn’t be thrown to the dogs. By that Jesus meant it was not correct to give her who was not a Jew what was meant for the Jews. ‘Dogs’ was a frequent description of Gentiles (non-Jews) at the time of Jesus. Finally, the fourth time, her plea was answered. Jesus said, “Woman, you have great faith. Let your wish be granted.” And from that moment her daughter was well again. Like Monica who had received many refusals during almost twenty years of praying for Augustine’s conversion, the Canaanite woman persisted in prayer before God. And her patient persistent prayer was answered.
My dear brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ, Prayer is our active dependence on God, our turning to Him, acknowledging that we need him. When we pray we are reminded of who God is, of what He has done, of what He will do, of what He has promised.
Just as the repeated blows of a hammer eventually have an effect, in the same way patience and persistence in prayer produces results.
In other words, time is involved in the making of everything of worth. And this is where patience links hands with perseverance.
We must wait on the Lord. Proverb 20:22 says “Wait on the Lord and He shall save you”
Perseverance and patience are not easy virtues, especially for us here in New York. In heavy traffic, we run the risk of road rage; we want our food faster and faster, never mind better and better; even weight loss must be quick, or we give up. Such experiences and attitudes don’t help us when we turn to prayer. We want an answer, an emotional lift, some outcome right now, or prayer is obviously not working.
There is a story about Robert Bruce; King of Scotland. He was hiding in a hut in the forest. His enemies were seeking him far and wide.
Six times he had met them in battle, and six times he had failed. Hope and courage were gone.
Bruce had given up all as lost. He was about to run away from Scotland, and to leave the country in the hands of his enemies.
Full of sorrow, he lay stretched out on a pile of straw in the poor woodchopper's hut. While he laid thinking, he noticed a spider spinning her web.
The spider was trying to spin a thread from one beam of the cottage to another. It was a long way between the beams, and Bruce saw how hard a thing it was for her to do.
"She can never do it," thought the king.
The little spider tried it once and failed. She tried it twice and failed. The king counted each time. At length she had tried it six times and had failed each time.
"She is like me," thought the king. "I have tried six battles and failed. She has tried six times to reach the beam and failed."
The spider tried the seventh time, letting herself down upon her slender thread. She swung out bravely.
"Look! look!" shouted the king. "She has reached it. The thread hangs between the two beams. If the spider can do it, I can do it."
Bruce got up from the straw with new strength and sent his men from village to village, calling the people to arms.
The brave soldiers answered his call and came trooping in.
At length his army was ready to fight, and when the king led them in a great battle against the enemy, this time, like the spider, Bruce won.
Yes dear brothers and sisters remember the English word Push when you pray: P.U.S.H: Persevere Until Something Happens. Never give up. Most of the time we give up just one moment before our success. When we wait long time for a Bus; just at the time we jump into the taxi there will be a Bus right behind us. When our hopes are dashed let us turn to Jesus. He is the answer to all our hopes and dreams. He will not let us down. When Winston Churchill was asked to give the commencement address at Oxford University. His now famous speech consisted of only three words: “Never give up!”
I believe this poem is by St Jude.
“When things go wrong as they sometimes will,When the road you're trudging seems all up hill,When the funds are low and the debts are highAnd you want to smile, but you have to sigh,When care is pressing you down a bit,Rest if you must, but don't you quit.Life is strange with its twists and turnsAs everyone of us sometimes learnsAnd many a failure comes aboutWhen he might have won had he stuck it out;Don't give up though the pace seems slow -You may succeed with another blow.Success is failure turned inside out -The silver tint of the clouds of doubt,And you never can tell just how close you are,It may be near when it seems so far;So stick to the fight when you're hardest hit -It's when things seem worst that you must not quit.”
Yes dear brothers and sisters Pray Until Something Happens: Push and keep waiting on God.
In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

19th sunday :Fix your eyes on Jesus and spend time alone with Jesus

My dear brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ,
A famous Indian surgeon told his students that a surgeon needed two gifts: freedom from nausea and the power of observation.
He then dipped a finger into some nauseating fluid and licked it, requesting each of the students to do the same. They steeled themselves to it and managed it without flinching.
With a smile, the surgeon then said, “Gentlemen, I congratulate you on having passed the first test. But not, unfortunately, the second, for not one of you noticed that the finger I licked was not the one I dipped into the fluid.”
Today from our Gospel reading we could observe two main facts: Importance of spending time with God and fixing our eyes always on Jesus.
“After dismissing the crowd Jesus went up to the Mountain by himself to pray.” Mt.14:22.Time alone with God really isn't easy in our world, everything around about us says "be busy, do something, do something, do something again."
In Dr. Stephen Covey’s book The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, 1990
He tells the story of Arthur Gordon, who realized that his energy wasn't in his work anymore. There was a malaise somehow in his life and he went to see his physician to see if there was something physically wrong. And that's a good move if you feel that in your lives: to check things out to see if there's something physically wrong. His physician did all the tests and there was nothing physically wrong, but he said to Arthur Gordon, "I need you to respond to something for a day. Can you give me tomorrow?" And Arthur Gordon said, "Yes, I can give you tomorrow." He said, "I'm going to give you four prescriptions. Go to the beach. You are to open them at three hour intervals." And Arthur Gordon did this.
He got there the following morning and at nine o'clock he opened the first prescription. It said, "Listen carefully." He had three hours to listen carefully. He didn't know what to do with the time, but as he listened he began to hear things he had missed.
And he opened the second prescription and it said "reach back," reach back to your memories. Memories that were happy, memories to lift him up and memories that brought him down, that dragged him down, that held him back.
The third prescription was to, "Examine your motives." He realized that he had not been following the motives that he wanted to follow in life.
In the evening and the last prescription was opened. It said, "Write your worries in the sand."
As we do those things, as we listen carefully, as we reach back, as we examine our motives, as we write our worries, not just in the sand but in the hands of God to take and carry them off from us, it's remarkable what happens to our lives.
Time alone. Being still before God. Time listening carefully to God, to God's word, to the creation around about us. Time alone to reach back. Time to examine our motives, our purpose, our reason for doing what we do. Time to write our worries in the palms of God's hands to bear away from us and for us.
My dear brothers and sisters, If you want to grow, this is a habit that should be a part of our lives. Follow the path of Jesus to the mountain.
The second part of the gospel is a lesson for all disciples who are tempted to take their eyes off Jesus and to take more notice of the threatening circumstances around them. Whatever Jesus commands us to do he gives us the power to do it. And the ordinary man, Peter, begins to walk on the seas, coming to Jesus. “But when he noticed the strong wind, he became frightened, and began to sink” (verse 30) While Peter kept his eyes fixed upon Jesus, and upon his word and power, he walked upon the water well enough; but when he took notice of the danger he was in, and focused on the waves, then he became afraid and began to sink. “For we walk by faith, not by sight” (2 Corinthians 5:7).
Now many of us have a temptation to blame peter for his little faith. But many of us would never do anything like what Peter did. Instead, we would prefer to stay in our comfort zones and never risk.
A Californian Presbyterian pastor John Ortberg wrote a book in 2001 “If You Want to Walk on Water You’ve Got to Get Out of the Boat” Ortberg proposes that Peter was not a failure, but a success. And if Peter was a failure, there were eleven even worse failures in the boat who never even attempted to step out and trust Jesus.
But only Peter knew two other things as well. Only Peter knew the glory of walking on the water. He alone knew what it was to attempt to do what he was not capable of doing on his own, then feeling the euphoria of being empowered by God to actually do it.
And Only Peter knew the glory of being lifted up by Jesus in a moment of desperate need.
The worst failure is not to sink in the waves. The worst failure is to never get out of the boat. The boat can serve as a metaphor for comfort.
Observing St Peter we realize Peter doesn't begin to sink until he starts looking around at the wind and the waves. All of a sudden, the boat seemed awfully small and far away. There was nothing but black, churning water all around him. The waves were lapping at his feet, water was stinging his eyes. And then, just like that, the water under his feet let go.Taking our eyes off Jesus, and focusing on the difficult circumstances will cause us to get under our problems. But when we cry out to Jesus, he catches us by the hand and raises us above the seemingly impossible surroundings.
We are a lot like Peter, my dear brothers and sisters; there are times when we grow alarmed at the high winds and the high waves of being a Christian in today’s world. And, like Peter, for a brief moment we take our eyes off Jesus. And that is our fatal mistake. We begin to sink. When trouble is all around - keep your eyes on Jesus. He will never let you sink.
In the letter to the Hebrews. 13:6 we read “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.”
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

17th sunday Mission appeal and Wisdom of God
My dear brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ,
I am Fr Sunny John, a Carmelite priest from India. I am coming from a country where there are more than 1.1billion people and there are 23 official languages. India is a federal republic of twenty-eight states and seven Union Territories.You May not fully understand me, you know why, because English is not my language. But we all know the Language of God the language of Love. So you will understand me.
Once there was a famous competition in the School Curriculum. The sports teacher was watching a boy who was very intense in his prayers before the Statue of blessed Mother. The race was over and the result came out. This boy failed. The teacher was so upset and came to this very smart and loving child and told him: “son, I am so sorry that you failed even after you prayed a lot.” he replied “teacher, who told you that I was praying for the prize; I was not praying for the prize but I was praying for the strength not to cry when I fail.”
God gave Solomon a blank cheque "ask what you would like me to give you". (1 Kgs 3:5) What a question, yet what an answer that came out of Solomon's mouth. God I want to think like you. I desire to look at life in the way that you look at life because only in this way I can reach my full potential as a human person. This is true wisdom, not the wisdom that emanates from a human brain, but a wisdom that comes from the heart of God. True wisdom for all of us who believe in Jesus Christ is to be able to see life from God's point of view. This is the reason why Solomon prayed in this manner, "Give your servant a heart to understand how to discern between good and evil".
You know why I am here today. I found the Treasure. I do not have enough Money to buy the Land, where the treasure is, so I am asking your help.
In RABINDRANATH TAGORE'S GITANJALI "Song Offerings" He writes “Leave this chanting and singing and telling of beads! Whom dost thou worship in this lonely dark corner of a temple with doors all shut? Open thine eyes and see thy God is not before thee!

He is there where the tiller is tilling the hard ground and where the pathmaker is breaking stones.
He is with them in sun and in shower, and his garment is covered with dust. Put off thy holy mantle and even like him come down on the dusty soil! Yes dear brothers and sisters, God is out there with the people who are suffering. We all are called to be missionaries going out to the whole world and spreading the good news. We can never help anyone in this world when we are fully equipped or wealthy. There are millions of people who have nothing to eat a day. Whatever you wanted to do for the people in the third world countries you need financial help, if you want to teach them you have to provide food clothing and transportation.
God is not asking us to be a mother Theresa but he is giving you and me a chance to do what we can do to help at least one family or a person to lead a life worthy of human being.
There is nothing big or nothing small in giving, even a small sacrifice you make today for the Missions in the world will prayerfully be remembered by someone who is in utter need of your help.
One evening a mother and a child were coming back home after a long evening walk and on the way they got into a restaurant and picked up their dinner package. While they were walking this little child saw a poor man in the nearby waste barrel searching for his daily food. This child remembered the catechism class where she learned about the loving God. She hold tightly on her mothers’ arm and asked Mammy, mammy let me ask you a question. Is God alive, yes, is our God is a good and loving God? Yes. Mammy my teacher told me today Our God is a good and loving God and wherever you are in need you pray to God and God will send angels to help you. Is it True Mom? Yes indeed. If that is right why didn’t God send and angel to help this poor man to find a meal a Day?
Wow that is a real aching question. Mammy just paused a moment. And said “honey, who told you that God did not send an angel today. He did send you. Take our dinner packet and go and give it to that poor man and be an Angel of God Today.
Yes dear brothers and sisters. By helping the Mission you are becoming an angel of God for someone.
I thank most sincerely Bishop Anthony m Pilla, Fr Stephen Vellenga the director of the propagation of faith and your loving and caring Pastor George Vrabel and the Assistant pastor ………………and all the staff and parishioners of St Mary’s Church for your love and support. I assure my prayers ask the Mother Mary to help you in all your needs and I humbly ask your prayers for the missions.
In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

16th Sunday and Mission in Trumbull,CT
My dear brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ,
I am Fr Sunny John, a Carmelite priest from India. I am coming from a country where there are more than 1.1billion people and there are 23 official languages. India is a federal republic of twenty-eight states and seven Union Territories.You May not fully understand me, you know why, because English is not my language. But we all know the Language of God the language of Love. So you will understand me.
In today’s gospel he takes up a couple of the things which could worry us. And what wonderful encouragement he gives.
Consider the first parable, the parable of the darnel. How often people wish they had greater faith, greater hope and greater charity. In short, that they were much better Christians, much better people of the Kingdom.
He says, “Leave it to me. Just keep me central to your sense of self and others. Theirs and your dignity, worth and destiny are there because I love you. You are my people. I’ll provide for all that. I’ll get you all cleaned out when the harvest time comes”.
And this is where things get interesting. It’s this word darnel. In English we miss the point if we translate the Greek word as weeds. It’s not just any weed. Darnel looks very much like wheat. In the early stages you can’t tell the difference. Only when it is mature can you tell the difference easily. Genetically it is related to wheat but it’s poisonous.
Don’t worry; the kingdom is growing in each of you and all of you. The kingdom starts as a little seed or a small piece of yeast. So it is with you; it will reach out mightily, but quietly and unseen. It is God’s work. You just be there for me.
A harried businessman, rushing from home to catch a flight to a distant city in order to close an important deal, narrates the adventurous ride and the valuable lesson he learned from a wise cabbie:“One day I hopped in a taxi, and we took off for the airport. We were driving in the right lane when suddenly a black car jumped out of a parking space right in front of us. The taxi driver slammed on his brakes, skidded, and missed the other car by just inches. The driver of the other car whipped his head around and started yelling at us. The taxi driver just smiled and waved at the guy. To my astonishment the cabbie was genuinely friendly! So I asked, 'Why did you just do that? That guy almost demolished your taxi and sent us to the hospital!' This is when the taxi driver taught me what I now call 'The Law of the Garbage Truck.' He explained that many people are like garbage trucks. They run around full of garbage: frustration, anger and disappointment mounting inside of them. As their garbage piles up, they need a place to dump it, and sometimes they'll dump it on you. Don't take it personally. Just smile, wave, wish them well, and move on. Don't take their garbage and spread it to other people at work, at home, or on the streets.’”
Because God loved everyone, it is our duty to love our brothers and sisters who are in need. St James 2:15 we heard that “if a brother or sister has nothing to wear and has no food for the day, and one of you says to them, “ go in peace, keep warm, and eat well,” but you do not give them the necessities of the body, what good is it?’
As John Lennon said: Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans.
We are called to be missionaries going out to the whole world and spreading the good news. We can never help anyone in this world when we are fully equipped or wealthy. God is asking to show our love towards others. By the fact we are helping the people who help the people we are becoming part of that universal mission of Christ. There are millions of people who have nothing to eat a day. Whatever you wanted to do for the people in the third world countries you need financial help, if you want to teach them you have to provide food clothing and transportation.
God is not asking us to be a mother Theresa but he is giving you and me a chance to do what we can do to help at least one family or a person to lead a life worthy of human being.
There is nothing big or nothing small in giving, even a small sacrifice you make today for the Missions in the world will prayerfully be remembered by someone who is in utter need of your help.
One evening a mother and a child were coming back home after a long evening walk and on the way they got into a restaurant and picked up their dinner package. While they were walking this little child saw a poor man in the nearby waste barrel searching for his daily food. This child remembered the catechism class where she learned about the loving God. She hold tightly on her mothers’ arm and asked Mammy, mammy let me ask you a question. Is God alive, yes, is our God is a good and loving God? Yes. Mammy my teacher told me today Our God is a good and loving God and wherever you are in need you pray to God and God will send angels to help you. Is it True Mom? Yes indeed. If that is right why didn’t God send and angel to help this poor man to find a meal a Day?
Wow that is a real aching question. Mammy just paused a moment. And said “honey, who told you that God did not send an angel today. He did send you. Take our dinner packet and go and give it to that poor man and be an Angel of God Today. Yes dear brothers and sisters. By helping the Mission you are becoming an angel of God for someone. I thank most sincerely Bishop William E. Lori, Fredrick L Saviano the director of the propagation of faith and your loving and caring Pastor Fr Bernard M. Dolan and all parishioners of Christ the King Parish for your love and support. I assure my prayers and I humbly ask yours for the missions.
In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

All souls Day

All souls Day
My dear brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ,
On this day we remember all of those who have died and have not been saints. That is most like the great majority of those who have died. We pray for them because we know that prayer for the dead is important. We do not know how those who have died are purified to be in the presence of the living God, but we recognize that such purification is truly necessary. It could happen in the very act of dying or it could happen in some other way. We Christians have always believed that this purification is necessary to come into the presence of God. So we can offer good works for those who have died, such as almsgiving, indulgences and works of penance. In 2 Maccabees Chapter 12: 39-46 when Judas Maccabees found his men slain and he was about to bury their bodies, they found pagan amulets under their tunics, which is a sin against the great Commandment. You shall have no strange gods before me.
Instead of despair and in great sacrifice to themselves, Judas and his men took up a collection of two-thousand silver drachmas and sent it to the Temple in Jerusalem so sacrifices would be offered in the temple on behalf of these men who had fallen in battle and had not lived as they should have; there were issues that had to be tied up. They did so for if they could do anything in reparation, this act of sacrifice would be accepted by God to pay their debt.
The Book of Wisdom (3:1-9) has often brought comfort to those who mourn. It teaches us that always we are in God’s hands, both during our life and at the time of our death. We can rejoice in this teaching: Those who trust in him shall understand truth. Always our faith helps us understand the truth about life and the truth about God. It is trusting in the Lord that helps us believe that those who have died in this life have not died forever, but are now with God in peace. Upon death, it is believed that souls have not yet been cleansed of sin. Praying for souls of loved ones helps to remove the stain of sin, and allow the souls to enter the pearly gates of heaven. Through prayer and good works, living members of the church may help their departed friends and family.
There is always a dispute in believing in Purgatory. Purgatory doesn't contradict the Bible and that it makes a lot of sense: if nothing unclean can enter heaven and if the Holy Spirit hasn't finished his work of making us like Christ when we die, then before we can face God in heaven, he has to clean off any remaining attachment to sin that we might still have - and that's Purgatory.
It is interesting that King Henry VIII of England granted himself to be the Supreme head of the Church in England and the first thing he did was do away with Purgatory. If I got on the observation desk of the empire state today and looked south I couldn’t see St Patrick’s Cathedral and although it wasn’t in the news today, I am sure Cathedral is still there. Just because I can’t see it doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. Well King Henry VIII announced, “Purgatory? No more Purgatory.” It is interesting to note that when Henry VIII lay dying, he called for a Roman Catholic priest so that he might go to Confession and not one of those who had taken an oath of fidelity to King Henry VIII.
We could say that he who intervenes on behalf of the dearly departed is helping himself because, in the presence of God they will be eager to help those who intervened and helped them be released from purgatory. The great pain in Purgatory perhaps is the pain of knowing you are going to Heaven but you aren’t there yet. The longing to see God must be a great pain for the soul, but we don’t know for sure.
We should pray for the souls that everyone has forgotten. They have a greater interest rate because no one has remembered them. Think of all the people who lived around the Pacific Rim on December 26th last year when the Tsunami hit; it just reached up to shore and dragged whole families out to the ocean and they died right there. So they have no families to pray for them, they have no one alive to pray for them. Also perhaps, many of them were pagan so no one who could pray for them that were left alive would pray for them. But we can reach right in and pray for them; we can pray for the most forgotten souls in Purgatory. We have to see that we have everything at our disposal and everyday great sacrifices come our way. Every day we have life so we have an opportunity to do something.
“The last thing you should do before you go to sleep at night is say a prayer for the Poor Souls in purgatory because by morning you may be in their company.”
And we pray, as the church has ever prayed: Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord, And let perpetual light shine upon them. May they rest in peace.Amen.And may the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace… Amen.