Visit to New York Aquarium
Saturday, February 23, 2008
Lent 3A SAmaritan woman
God cares about you! Samaritan storyMy dear brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ,
We have this long Gospel today which is a wonderful expression of Jesus' love for us and for all people.
In the Book of Exodus the people thirst, but they don't want God's will. They want their physical thirst satisfied. Most of us are just the same. We want our physical needs satisfied before we will give our attention to the Lord. We almost refuse to walk with God unless He takes care of us.
From God's side we are always taken care of, but not always in the way that we want to be taken care of. God knows us more than we know ourselves. Nothing ever happens in our life in which God’s love is not present. Even the worst things that we can imagine happening to us can still bear the imprint of God's love and care for us.
Do you know the legend of the Cherokee {cherrekee} Indian youth's rite of Passage?
His father takes him into the forest, blindfolds him and leaves him alone. He is required to sit on a stump the whole night and not remove the blindfold until the rays of the morning sun shine through it. He cannot cry out for help to anyone. Once he survives the night, he is a MAN.
He cannot tell the other boys of this experience, because each lad must come into manhood on his own. The boy is naturally terrified. He can hear all kinds of noises. Wild beasts must surely be all around him. Maybe even some human might do him harm. The wind blew the grass and earth, and shook his stump, but he sat stoically, never removing the blindfold. It would be the only way he could become a man!
Finally, after a horrific night the sun appeared and he removed his blindfold. It was then that he discovered his father sitting on the stump next to him. He had been at watch the entire night, protecting his son from harm. We, too, are never alone my dear brothers and sisters. Even when we don't know it, God is watching over us, sitting on the stump beside us. When trouble comes, all we have to do is reach out to Him. Just because you can't see God, doesn't mean He is not there.
The music for the Broadway show Les Miserables, gives us a song sung by one of the play’s principal characters, Fantine. Her song is a lament. She sings a sad song to her lost youth, her lost innocence, and her lost beauty. It reflects a song many of us have in our hearts as she sings:
"I had a dream that life would be so different than the hell I'm living, So different now than what it seemed, Now life has killed the dream I dreamed."
The first reading from Book of Exodus, presents us with a whole nation of people feeling that burden, experiencing that depression, that despair. Only a little while earlier God had delivered them from slavery in Egypt, protecting from Pharaoh's pursuing armies by parting the Red Sea for Moses and then swallowing up Pharaoh's army in those same Red Sea waters. Moses spoke to them of God's love for them and pointed out that God's Promised Land, a land flowing with milk and honey was soon going to be theirs. Yet here they were wallowing in self-pity, hurting and angry with God. Worst of all they were longing to return back to slavery in Egypt.
My dear brothers and sisters, does the present look bleak to you now'? Don’t repeat Israel's mistake. The condition in which you find yourself now doesn't have to be the situation in which you'll find yourself in the future. The present doesn't put handcuffs on you and imprison you. God still has His power and with that power, your life can change. Remember, always remember, that without God you are powerless and can do relatively little. Without God you can accomplish nothing. But with God there is nothing you cannot accomplish. With God's power there's a whole lot about your future that will change. With God, things can and will change. You just ask Him for that eternal life giving water.
We should never lose our heart when we pray because God will make a way. Jesus will give you Living water. He takes care of all. Don Moen writes:-God will make a wayWhere there seems to be no wayHe works in ways we cannot seeHe will make a way for meHe will be my guideHold me closely to His sideWith love and strength for each new dayHe will make a way He will make a wayWhy does Jesus make such a tremendous impact on the Samaritan woman? Because for the first time in her life she meets a man who really understands her, probably the first man to know her so well without rejecting her. Jesus never ever rejects us.
The Samaritans receive the Good News not through the “Twelve Disciples” but through a Samaritan sinful woman!
They said to the woman, "It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the Savior of the world." (4:42)
We see that there are two stages in the believing or conversion process: 1). believing because of what someone told us about Jesus, and Number 2. believing because we have come personally to know Jesus ourselves.
What is that miraculous water, that life-giving water of life? That water is LOVE. For God, the wellspring and source and of all life, is Love. This divine water of the Holy Spirit, this fountain of life, is what we call also the “grace”. The Holy Apostle St. John says "God is love, and he that dwells in love dwells in God and God in him." (I John 4: 16). So my dear brothers and sisters let us ask today for that living water so that we will not thirst again.
One day a priest came to visit a lady who was gravely ill… he said to her… ‘I will pray for your healing.” The lady replied… “yes Father, do that, I believe in that… but also… pray that I will experience God’s peace… if I am healed, I will get sick again, maybe many times, and each time I will be dismayed and fearful…. unless I learn to put myself in God’s hands, whatever may come… - so, above all pray for peace… for that will last….”
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Saint John the Martyr Catholic Church 250E 72nd street. NEW YORK
To watch our little precious catholic church please double click the link
Saturday, February 09, 2008
Lenten Holy Hour Monday reflection
Suffering
First Day
Dear brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ,
I am aware that I had taken a very difficult theme to explain; suffering but together we will try to get the heart of it.
A man found a cocoon of a butterfly.
One day a small opening appeared, he sat and watched the butterfly for several hours as it struggled to force its body through that little hole. Then it seemed to stop making any progress. It appeared as if it had gotten as far as it could and it could go no farther.
Then the man decided to help the butterfly, so he took a pair of scissors and snipped off the remaining bit of the cocoon.
The butterfly then emerged easily.
But it had a swollen body and small, shriveled wings. The man continued to watch the butterfly because he expected that, at any moment, the wings would enlarge and expand to be able to support the body, which would contract in time. Neither happened! In fact, the butterfly spent the rest of its life crawling around with a swollen body and shriveled wings.
It never was able to fly.
What the man in his kindness and haste did not understand was that the restricting cocoon and the struggle required for the butterfly to get through the tiny opening were God's way of forcing fluid from the body of the butterfly into its wings so that it would be ready for flight once it achieved its freedom from the cocoon.
Sometimes struggles are exactly what we need in our life. If God allowed us to go through our life without any obstacles, it would cripple us.
We would not be as strong as what we could have been.
And we could never fly.
If we think that because we are being faithful to God’s will and following his commandments that we will walk unmolested through life, we are mistaken. Scripture forces us to understand that our righteous actions will be met with resistance in this secular world. If we are following the Lord because we think that path will always provide happiness and peace, we are mistaken. If you want to do the right thing always you are sure these right things are not always the easy thing.
Brenda was almost halfway to the top of the tremendous granite cliff. It was her first rock climb. As she rested there, the safety rope snapped against her eye and knocked out her contact lens. 'Great', she thought. 'Here I am on a rock ledge, hundreds of feet from the bottom and hundreds of feet to the top of this cliff, and now my sight is blurry.'
She looked and looked, hoping that somehow it had landed on the ledge. But it just wasn't there.
She felt the panic rising in her, so she began praying. She prayed for calm, and she prayed that she may find her contact lens.
When she got to the top, a friend examined her eye and her clothing for the lens, but it was not to be found. Although she was calm now that she was at the top, she was saddened because she could not clearly see across the range of mountains. She thought, 'Lord, You can see all these mountains. You know every stone and leaf, and You know exactly where my contact lens is. Please help me.'
Later, when they had hiked down the trail to the bottom of the cliff they met another party of climbers just starting up the face of the cliff. One of them shouted out, 'Hey, you guys! Anybody lose a contact lens?'
Well, that would be startling enough, but you know why the climber saw it? An ant was moving slowly across a twig on the face of the rock, carrying it!
The story doesn't end there. Brenda's father is a cartoonist. When she told him the incredible story of the ant, the prayer, and the contact lens, he drew a cartoon of an ant lugging that contact lens with the caption, 'Lord, I don't know why You want me to carry this thing. I can't eat it, and it's awfully heavy. But if this is what You want me to do, I'll carry it for You.'
I think it would do all of us some good to say, 'God, I don't know why You want me to carry this load. I can see no good in it and it's awfully heavy. But, if You want me to carry it, I will.'
God doesn't call the qualified, He qualifies the called. Sometimes we complain that our cross is very heavy and I can’t take it anymore. But remember He is the one who helps us to that point. He keeps me functioning each and every day Without Him, I am nothing, but with Him....I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me. (Phil. 4:13)
It is not the suffering of Jesus that is redemptive - it is God’s willingness to share in it that saves. This is the pattern that Jesus Christ sets for us in his life and death – solidarity in suffering that leads to healing of individuals and communities alike. That kind of healing has a cost. Sharing in suffering is painful. Take an example. You may be helping the homeless people throwing out couple bucks into their box. When you decide to work for the uplifting of their lives; then the whole situation will change. it is difficult to go to sleep at night, hearing someone you knew, someone you cared about, coughing and shivering just outside your window. Then you will feel that “It was much easier when you were living at a distance from this kind of suffering.”
It is so much easier when we live at a distance from this kind of suffering. It is easier to cure a patient than to risk healing one who cannot be cured. It is easier to give a homeless man some pocket change, than to listen generously to his story. It is easier to live at a distance, because at a distance we do not have to risk sharing pain, we do not have to risk sharing in loss, we do not have to risk sharing in grief. It is easier to live at a distance. From a distance, there is nothing to fear.
We know there is suffering in the world. And if we ask, “What is God doing about it?” we are asking the wrong question. The question we should ask is, “What are we doing about it?” For many of our sufferings come from us or our fellowmen. That old man was suffering from lung cancer because he smoked. If you don’t want to get cancer, don’t smoke. We have to act not God.
I know and you know that we cannot think like God. And that is okay.
But what about this command to carry our cross and follow Jesus? How do we do that if we do not fully understand the mystery of the cross and how it all works?
What does this command really mean?
It means that sometimes doing the will of God is hard, and involves suffering.
It means that sometimes following the example and teaching of Jesus is a real challenge.
It means that doing the right thing and loving our neighbor can be downright dangerous.
It means that sometimes loving demands sacrifice.
And so many of us here are already carrying crosses. You do not have to go looking for them. They find us.
And I think if we could see each other’s crosses we would be humbled and in awe. Then we won’t complain about our silly matters.
Suffering bruises us in various places and many times will eventually kill us. Salvation and healing are side effects. But they are not automatic-they work only if we work with them. Suffering can teach us a great deal, but only if we are good learners.
Suffering teaches us something about reality. We learn very little from success because success teaches us that we know how the game is played, and that we are doing something right. Then suddenly something blows up—and we learn that we don’t know everything, that we can’t do everything, and that there is always more than we can see that we are not in charge of reality.
The mere fact that every day we ask each other, “How are you?” shows just how vulnerable we are to daily misfortune.
Suffering can teach us something about ourselves. When we are poked and scratched by suffering, we discover whether we are real, sound and solid, or just cheap imitations. As the Philosopher Karl Jaspers said, “It is only in extreme situations that we become aware of what we are.” These are the times we either fall to pieces or we dig deep within our souls to draw on the strength God has ingrained us.
A great tragedy can either burn all the trash out of our life or reduce us to ashes. So in those times when our lives are relatively painless, we need to plan a strategy against suffering. First, we need to link it with the pain of Jesus. We don’t need to know how that works; better there than sunk in a bottomless black hole. When in pain we must remember that every suffering is a new window open to reality. Let us not close that window until we see everything there is to see.
Suffering happens. It is part of life. No one, not the richest person or poorest, not saint or sinner, can get through life without suffering. God doesn’t cause it; God doesn’t plan it. God is just there to see us through it. When we say yes to God, God’s life becomes our life. And we open ourselves to the peace, courage and perseverance that God’s love offers. It can be so much easier to endure suffering when we know that our good and loving God is with us, as close as the next breath we take in.
Jesus says that no matter the circumstances, no matter how much it may seem that evil is prevailing, God's goodness is still present, is still at work in our midst. And God's goodness will overcome the evil. The suffering will be transformed into the reign of God, with justice, peace, joy and fullness of life all present.
“Where is God? Does God really care about me? How could God possibly know what we have to suffer?” These are questions that we may ask sometimes, especially in moments of pain. The answer to these questions is, “God does really care, God is closer than your own heart and God does indeed understand your suffering.”
‘The Word became flesh.’ Why? Because God does care. God had absolutely no need to become one of us but did so to convince us how much we mean to him. Think about how much you mean to God! You mean so much to God that God became a human, just to convince you, and if that isn’t enough to convince you, Jesus died for you. What more can God do to convince you he cares about you?
I would like to conclude today with the beautiful sentence from St Paul’s Letter to Ephesians and will continue this theme of suffering following Monday.
May the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, give you a spirit of wisdom and perception of what is revealed, to bring you to full knowledge of him. May he enlighten the eyes of your mind so that you can see what hope his call holds for you, what rich glories he has promised the saints will inherit. (Eph 1:17-18)
Oh Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar
Be everywhere praised and adored.
First Day
Dear brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ,
I am aware that I had taken a very difficult theme to explain; suffering but together we will try to get the heart of it.
A man found a cocoon of a butterfly.
One day a small opening appeared, he sat and watched the butterfly for several hours as it struggled to force its body through that little hole. Then it seemed to stop making any progress. It appeared as if it had gotten as far as it could and it could go no farther.
Then the man decided to help the butterfly, so he took a pair of scissors and snipped off the remaining bit of the cocoon.
The butterfly then emerged easily.
But it had a swollen body and small, shriveled wings. The man continued to watch the butterfly because he expected that, at any moment, the wings would enlarge and expand to be able to support the body, which would contract in time. Neither happened! In fact, the butterfly spent the rest of its life crawling around with a swollen body and shriveled wings.
It never was able to fly.
What the man in his kindness and haste did not understand was that the restricting cocoon and the struggle required for the butterfly to get through the tiny opening were God's way of forcing fluid from the body of the butterfly into its wings so that it would be ready for flight once it achieved its freedom from the cocoon.
Sometimes struggles are exactly what we need in our life. If God allowed us to go through our life without any obstacles, it would cripple us.
We would not be as strong as what we could have been.
And we could never fly.
If we think that because we are being faithful to God’s will and following his commandments that we will walk unmolested through life, we are mistaken. Scripture forces us to understand that our righteous actions will be met with resistance in this secular world. If we are following the Lord because we think that path will always provide happiness and peace, we are mistaken. If you want to do the right thing always you are sure these right things are not always the easy thing.
Brenda was almost halfway to the top of the tremendous granite cliff. It was her first rock climb. As she rested there, the safety rope snapped against her eye and knocked out her contact lens. 'Great', she thought. 'Here I am on a rock ledge, hundreds of feet from the bottom and hundreds of feet to the top of this cliff, and now my sight is blurry.'
She looked and looked, hoping that somehow it had landed on the ledge. But it just wasn't there.
She felt the panic rising in her, so she began praying. She prayed for calm, and she prayed that she may find her contact lens.
When she got to the top, a friend examined her eye and her clothing for the lens, but it was not to be found. Although she was calm now that she was at the top, she was saddened because she could not clearly see across the range of mountains. She thought, 'Lord, You can see all these mountains. You know every stone and leaf, and You know exactly where my contact lens is. Please help me.'
Later, when they had hiked down the trail to the bottom of the cliff they met another party of climbers just starting up the face of the cliff. One of them shouted out, 'Hey, you guys! Anybody lose a contact lens?'
Well, that would be startling enough, but you know why the climber saw it? An ant was moving slowly across a twig on the face of the rock, carrying it!
The story doesn't end there. Brenda's father is a cartoonist. When she told him the incredible story of the ant, the prayer, and the contact lens, he drew a cartoon of an ant lugging that contact lens with the caption, 'Lord, I don't know why You want me to carry this thing. I can't eat it, and it's awfully heavy. But if this is what You want me to do, I'll carry it for You.'
I think it would do all of us some good to say, 'God, I don't know why You want me to carry this load. I can see no good in it and it's awfully heavy. But, if You want me to carry it, I will.'
God doesn't call the qualified, He qualifies the called. Sometimes we complain that our cross is very heavy and I can’t take it anymore. But remember He is the one who helps us to that point. He keeps me functioning each and every day Without Him, I am nothing, but with Him....I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me. (Phil. 4:13)
It is not the suffering of Jesus that is redemptive - it is God’s willingness to share in it that saves. This is the pattern that Jesus Christ sets for us in his life and death – solidarity in suffering that leads to healing of individuals and communities alike. That kind of healing has a cost. Sharing in suffering is painful. Take an example. You may be helping the homeless people throwing out couple bucks into their box. When you decide to work for the uplifting of their lives; then the whole situation will change. it is difficult to go to sleep at night, hearing someone you knew, someone you cared about, coughing and shivering just outside your window. Then you will feel that “It was much easier when you were living at a distance from this kind of suffering.”
It is so much easier when we live at a distance from this kind of suffering. It is easier to cure a patient than to risk healing one who cannot be cured. It is easier to give a homeless man some pocket change, than to listen generously to his story. It is easier to live at a distance, because at a distance we do not have to risk sharing pain, we do not have to risk sharing in loss, we do not have to risk sharing in grief. It is easier to live at a distance. From a distance, there is nothing to fear.
We know there is suffering in the world. And if we ask, “What is God doing about it?” we are asking the wrong question. The question we should ask is, “What are we doing about it?” For many of our sufferings come from us or our fellowmen. That old man was suffering from lung cancer because he smoked. If you don’t want to get cancer, don’t smoke. We have to act not God.
I know and you know that we cannot think like God. And that is okay.
But what about this command to carry our cross and follow Jesus? How do we do that if we do not fully understand the mystery of the cross and how it all works?
What does this command really mean?
It means that sometimes doing the will of God is hard, and involves suffering.
It means that sometimes following the example and teaching of Jesus is a real challenge.
It means that doing the right thing and loving our neighbor can be downright dangerous.
It means that sometimes loving demands sacrifice.
And so many of us here are already carrying crosses. You do not have to go looking for them. They find us.
And I think if we could see each other’s crosses we would be humbled and in awe. Then we won’t complain about our silly matters.
Suffering bruises us in various places and many times will eventually kill us. Salvation and healing are side effects. But they are not automatic-they work only if we work with them. Suffering can teach us a great deal, but only if we are good learners.
Suffering teaches us something about reality. We learn very little from success because success teaches us that we know how the game is played, and that we are doing something right. Then suddenly something blows up—and we learn that we don’t know everything, that we can’t do everything, and that there is always more than we can see that we are not in charge of reality.
The mere fact that every day we ask each other, “How are you?” shows just how vulnerable we are to daily misfortune.
Suffering can teach us something about ourselves. When we are poked and scratched by suffering, we discover whether we are real, sound and solid, or just cheap imitations. As the Philosopher Karl Jaspers said, “It is only in extreme situations that we become aware of what we are.” These are the times we either fall to pieces or we dig deep within our souls to draw on the strength God has ingrained us.
A great tragedy can either burn all the trash out of our life or reduce us to ashes. So in those times when our lives are relatively painless, we need to plan a strategy against suffering. First, we need to link it with the pain of Jesus. We don’t need to know how that works; better there than sunk in a bottomless black hole. When in pain we must remember that every suffering is a new window open to reality. Let us not close that window until we see everything there is to see.
Suffering happens. It is part of life. No one, not the richest person or poorest, not saint or sinner, can get through life without suffering. God doesn’t cause it; God doesn’t plan it. God is just there to see us through it. When we say yes to God, God’s life becomes our life. And we open ourselves to the peace, courage and perseverance that God’s love offers. It can be so much easier to endure suffering when we know that our good and loving God is with us, as close as the next breath we take in.
Jesus says that no matter the circumstances, no matter how much it may seem that evil is prevailing, God's goodness is still present, is still at work in our midst. And God's goodness will overcome the evil. The suffering will be transformed into the reign of God, with justice, peace, joy and fullness of life all present.
“Where is God? Does God really care about me? How could God possibly know what we have to suffer?” These are questions that we may ask sometimes, especially in moments of pain. The answer to these questions is, “God does really care, God is closer than your own heart and God does indeed understand your suffering.”
‘The Word became flesh.’ Why? Because God does care. God had absolutely no need to become one of us but did so to convince us how much we mean to him. Think about how much you mean to God! You mean so much to God that God became a human, just to convince you, and if that isn’t enough to convince you, Jesus died for you. What more can God do to convince you he cares about you?
I would like to conclude today with the beautiful sentence from St Paul’s Letter to Ephesians and will continue this theme of suffering following Monday.
May the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, give you a spirit of wisdom and perception of what is revealed, to bring you to full knowledge of him. May he enlighten the eyes of your mind so that you can see what hope his call holds for you, what rich glories he has promised the saints will inherit. (Eph 1:17-18)
Oh Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar
Be everywhere praised and adored.
Lent 2nd Sunday Year A 2008
Transfiguration of JesusMy dear brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ,
The scripture readings today provide us with a vital insight for living an authentically Christian life. The Book of Genesis recounts for us the call of Abram, and his moving from one place to another, from the familiar to the unknown. Our second reading from St. Paul’s Second Letter to Timothy reminds us of the hardship which the gospel entails, a hardship necessarily connected with change. And, our Gospel reading from St. Matthew describes for us the transfiguration of Jesus on Mount Tabor. What do these three readings reveal to us about the Christian life? That transformation, moving from one state to another, from the familiar to the unknown, is at the very core of the Christian life. The process of transformation often involves hardship, even pain and suffering, which are connected with movement or change. When we link these three scripture readings together, we see more clearly a fundamental process in life: transformation happens only through some kind of movement or change and it is usually effected only when it involves hardship, pain, sacrifice or self-denial. As one traditional idiom states: "no growth without change and no change without pain." Or, as a more contemporary idiom would phrase it: "no pain, no gain."
Transformation cannot take place without a movement or change on our part and that will cost us. It will involve the hardship which the Gospel entails, but God will also give us the strength we need. Transformation is gradual; it does not happen all at once, nor does it happen once and for all.
A young and successful executive was traveling down a neighborhood street, going a bit too fast in his new SUV. He was watching for kids darting out from between parked cars and slowed down when he thought he saw something.
As his car passed, no children appeared. Instead, a brick smashed into the SUV’s side door! He slammed on the brakes and backed the SUV back to the spot where the brick had been thrown.
The angry driver then jumped out of the car, grabbed the nearest kid and pushed him up against a parked car shouting, "What was that all about and who are you? Just what the heck are you doing? That's a new car and that brick you threw is going to cost a lot of money. Why did you do it?" The young boy was apologetic. "Please, mister...please, I'm sorry but I didn't know what else to do," He pleaded. "I threw the brick because no one else would stop..." With tears dripping down his face and off his chin, the youth pointed to a spot just around a parked car. "It's my brother, "he said "He rolled off the curb and fell out of his wheelchair and I can't lift him up."
Now sobbing, the boy asked the stunned executive, "Would you please help me get him back into his wheelchair? He's hurt and he's too heavy for me."
Moved beyond words, the driver tried to swallow the rapidly swelling lump in his throat. He hurriedly lifted the handicapped boy back into the wheelchair, then took out a linen handkerchief and dabbed at the fresh scrapes and cuts. A quick look told him everything was going to be okay. "Thank you and May God bless you," the grateful child told the stranger. Too shook up for words, the man simply watched the boy push his wheelchair-bound brother down the sidewalk toward their home.
It was a long, slow walk back to the car. The damage was very noticeable, but the driver never bothered to repair the dented side door. He kept the dent there to remind him of this message: "Don't go through life so fast that someone has to throw a brick at you to get your attention!" It was his Tabor experience.
God whispers in our souls and speaks to our hearts. Sometimes when we don't have time to listen, He has to throw a brick at us. It's our choice to listen or not.
There is a mysterious story in 2 Kings that can help us understand what is going on in the transfiguration. Israel was at war with Aram, and Elisha the man of God was using his prophetic powers to reveal the strategic plans of the Aramean army to the Israelites. At first the King of Aram thought that one of his officers was playing the spy but when he learnt the truth he dispatched troops to go and capture Elisha who was residing in Dothan. The Aramean troops moved in under cover of darkness and surrounded the city. In the morning Elisha’s servant was the first to discover that they were trapped in and feared for his master’s safety. He ran to Elisha and said, “Oh, my lord, what shall we do?” The prophet answered, “Don't be afraid. Those who are with us are more than those who are with them.” But who would believe that, when the surrounding mountainside was covered with advancing enemy troops? So Elisha prayed, “O Lord, open his eyes so he may see.” Then the Lord opened the servant's eyes, and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha (2 Kings 6:8-23). This vision was all that Elisha’s disciple needed to reassure him. At the end of the day, not only was the prophet of God safe but the invading army was totally humiliated.
What Peter and his fellow disciples needed was for God to open their eyes and then give them a glimpse of God’s abiding presence with their master Jesus.
The Transfiguration experience was, therefore, God’s way of delivering the disciples from a crisis of faith. The cause of their crisis of faith was the way in which they saw people and things around them. God helped them out of it by enlightening their vision so that, at least for a moment, they could see from God’s own perspective. Seen from below, in ordinary human light, people and things around us may look drab, commonplace and sometimes repulsive. But seen from above, in the light of divinity, the same people and things take on a more honorable, resplendent and lovable appearance. This glimpse into the true nature and divine aspect of persons and things can be called a transfiguration experience. It is the kind of experience which makes us say with Jacob, “Surely the Lord is in this place, [person, or situation] and I did not know it!” (Genesis 28:16).
Every time we gather for the Eucharist we experience a moment of transfiguration where our divine Lord is transfigured before our eyes in the forms of bread and wine.
Here is a story. Once upon a time there was an oyster, let's call him Oliver and he lived in a shell at the bottom of the Ocean. One day in the course of the oyster’s development, a foreign substance such as a grain of sand gets into the little muscle and irritates the oyster. In response, the oyster covers that irritant with a secretion. The longer the irritation is there, the more the oyster coats it. Pearl oysters vary in size and can be quite rough and ugly. Yet what is happening inside is a combination of rainbows, moonlight, and bits of flame. Once the oyster accepts the irritation as part of itself, the pearl begins to develop. The worst storms, gales, even hurricanes will not dislodge it. As time goes by and this oyster is finally pulled up from the bed where it has been for many years, it is opened only to reveal a beautiful pearl.
Yes dear brothers and sisters today we have two options in front of us. We can blame the sand which got into our life or we can transform this uncomfortable sand into a beautiful pearl.
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
St Valentine's Day 2008
Today is Valentine's Day, the day set aside to express our love in a giving way to our spouse, family, friends, and people in general. I can't think of a better Valentine gift than the one given to all of us today in today's Gospel. Jesus said to his disciples, and to us: "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives; and the one who seeks, finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened." Where else will you find a Valentine promise like this? Whatever you want that is good for you or others, is yours! "Your heavenly Father will give good things to those who ask him."
The White Friar Street Carmelite Church is a church in Dublin, Ireland maintained by the Carmelite order. The church is noted for having the relics of Saint Valentine, which were donated to the church in the 19th century by Pope Gregory XVI from their previous location in the cemetery of St. Hippolytus in Rome.
Admittedly, we don't know anything for sure about St. Valentine, but there seems no reason to dispute there was a St. Valentine.
Have you ever noticed how certain trappings of Christian culture capture people's imagination? St. Blase -- who knows anything about him, other than the blessing of the throats and the candles? St. Francis of Assisi is far better known, but what lives best in folks' memory? Blessing of animals. So the development of St. Valentine's Day is hardly surprising.
Valentine's Day started in the time of the Roman Empire. In ancient Rome, February 14th was a holiday to honor Juno. Juno was the Queen of the Roman Gods and Goddesses. The Romans also knew her as the Goddess of women and marriage. The following day, February 15th, began the Feast of Lupercalia. In the early days of Rome, fierce wolves roamed the woods nearby. The Romans called upon one of their gods, Lupercus, to keep the wolves away. A festival held in honor of Lupercus was celebrated February 15th.
The lives of young boys and girls were strictly separate. However, one of the customs of the young people was name drawing. On the eve of the festival of Lupercalia the names of Roman girls were written on slips of paper and placed into jars. Each young man would draw a girl's name from the jar and would then be partners for the duration of the festival with the girl whom he chose. Sometimes the pairing of the children lasted an entire year, and often, they would fall in love and would later marry.
Under the rule of Emperor Claudius II Rome was involved in many bloody and unpopular military campaigns. Claudius the Cruel, as he was known at the time, was having a difficult time getting soldiers to join his military leagues. He believed that the reason was that roman men did not want to leave their loves or families. As a result, Claudius cancelled all marriages and engagements in Rome.
This was when a Christian priest named Valentine came to defend love in the empire. Valentine began to secretly marry couples despite the emperor’s orders. When Emperor Claudius was informed of these ceremonies Valentine was sent to prison where he remained until his death on February 14 in the year 270, when Valentine was clubbed, stoned, then beheaded. History claims that while Valentine was in prison awaiting execution, he fell in love with the blind daughter of the jailer, Asterius. Through his unswerving faith, he miraculously restored her sight. He signed a farewell message to her "From Your Valentine", a phrase that still lives today. If this is true, that would have been the first Valentine's card.
It wasn't until a few hundred years later when Valentine's Day began to develop as we know it. At the time Christianity was beginning to take control of Europe. As part of this effort the Church sought to do away with pagan holidays. Valentine's Day came to replace a mid-February fertility festival called Lupercalia. In honor of his sacrifice for love, Valentine was made a saint and Lupercalia renamed in his honor.
For many of us, though, Valentine’s Day only pretends to celebrate what we like about love while actually undermining it. True romance comes unscheduled, unruly, “a madness most discreet,” quotes Romeo. For those who feel well loved, every day, of course, is Valentine’s Day. For the rest, no card can console.
The minute love feels duty; it has lost its purpose. “Love sought is good,” Shakespeare observed, “but given unsought is better.”
The White Friar Street Carmelite Church is a church in Dublin, Ireland maintained by the Carmelite order. The church is noted for having the relics of Saint Valentine, which were donated to the church in the 19th century by Pope Gregory XVI from their previous location in the cemetery of St. Hippolytus in Rome.
Admittedly, we don't know anything for sure about St. Valentine, but there seems no reason to dispute there was a St. Valentine.
Have you ever noticed how certain trappings of Christian culture capture people's imagination? St. Blase -- who knows anything about him, other than the blessing of the throats and the candles? St. Francis of Assisi is far better known, but what lives best in folks' memory? Blessing of animals. So the development of St. Valentine's Day is hardly surprising.
Valentine's Day started in the time of the Roman Empire. In ancient Rome, February 14th was a holiday to honor Juno. Juno was the Queen of the Roman Gods and Goddesses. The Romans also knew her as the Goddess of women and marriage. The following day, February 15th, began the Feast of Lupercalia. In the early days of Rome, fierce wolves roamed the woods nearby. The Romans called upon one of their gods, Lupercus, to keep the wolves away. A festival held in honor of Lupercus was celebrated February 15th.
The lives of young boys and girls were strictly separate. However, one of the customs of the young people was name drawing. On the eve of the festival of Lupercalia the names of Roman girls were written on slips of paper and placed into jars. Each young man would draw a girl's name from the jar and would then be partners for the duration of the festival with the girl whom he chose. Sometimes the pairing of the children lasted an entire year, and often, they would fall in love and would later marry.
Under the rule of Emperor Claudius II Rome was involved in many bloody and unpopular military campaigns. Claudius the Cruel, as he was known at the time, was having a difficult time getting soldiers to join his military leagues. He believed that the reason was that roman men did not want to leave their loves or families. As a result, Claudius cancelled all marriages and engagements in Rome.
This was when a Christian priest named Valentine came to defend love in the empire. Valentine began to secretly marry couples despite the emperor’s orders. When Emperor Claudius was informed of these ceremonies Valentine was sent to prison where he remained until his death on February 14 in the year 270, when Valentine was clubbed, stoned, then beheaded. History claims that while Valentine was in prison awaiting execution, he fell in love with the blind daughter of the jailer, Asterius. Through his unswerving faith, he miraculously restored her sight. He signed a farewell message to her "From Your Valentine", a phrase that still lives today. If this is true, that would have been the first Valentine's card.
It wasn't until a few hundred years later when Valentine's Day began to develop as we know it. At the time Christianity was beginning to take control of Europe. As part of this effort the Church sought to do away with pagan holidays. Valentine's Day came to replace a mid-February fertility festival called Lupercalia. In honor of his sacrifice for love, Valentine was made a saint and Lupercalia renamed in his honor.
For many of us, though, Valentine’s Day only pretends to celebrate what we like about love while actually undermining it. True romance comes unscheduled, unruly, “a madness most discreet,” quotes Romeo. For those who feel well loved, every day, of course, is Valentine’s Day. For the rest, no card can console.
The minute love feels duty; it has lost its purpose. “Love sought is good,” Shakespeare observed, “but given unsought is better.”
First Sunday Lent 2008
What are you seeing. Look close they are sitting on chairs
Temptations of Jesus Christ
My dear brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ,
An elderly carpenter was ready to retire. He told his employer-contractor of his plans to leave house-building business and live a more leisurely life with his wife enjoying his extended family. He would miss the paycheck, but he needed to retire. They could get by. The contractor was sorry to see his good worker go and asked if he could build just one more house as a personal favor. The carpenter said yes, but in time it was easy to see that his heart was not in his work. He resorted to shoddy workmanship and used inferior materials.
It was an unfortunate way to end a dedicated career. When the carpenter finished his work, the employer came to inspect the house. He handed the front-door key to the carpenter. "This is your house," he said, "My gift to you."
The carpenter was shocked! What a shame! If he had only known he was building his own house, he would have done it all so differently.
My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, so it is with us. We build our lives, a day at a time, often putting less than our best into the building. Then, with a shock we realize we have to live in the house we have built. If we could do it over, we'd do it much differently. But, we cannot go back. This is the time God gave us to build our house.
Our Gospel today is on the Temptation of Jesus in the wilderness. In each of these three temptations what the devil is saying to Jesus is, "Come on; use what you have to get what you want." And in each case Jesus overcomes the temptation by replying, "No, we can only use godly means to satisfy our God-given needs or to pursue our goals in life."
In the first temptation, Jesus had fasted for forty days in the wilderness and at the end of it he was very hungry. The devil puts an idea into his head: "If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread" (Luke 4:3). Notice that the first thing the devil does is sow a doubt in his mind: "if you are the Son of God." "Are you really sure God is with you?" The same thing happened in the Garden of Eden. The first thing the Tempter said to Eve was, "Did God really say you should not eat of any fruit of the garden" (Genesis 3:1). Temptation always begins with a doubting thought. Jesus overcame the temptations by refusing to entertain such doubts and by standing on the word of God.
Secondly, that people are tempted only with what they need or want. After his fasting Jesus needed to eat. So the devil tempted him with food. It is not a sin for Jesus to eat after fasting. The sin may lie in how the food is obtained. Should he follow the normal way of obtaining bread or should he take the shortcut suggested by the devil to obtain instant bread? Jesus refuses to take the devil's shortcut. The means we employ to satisfy our needs must be in accordance with the word of God.
In the second temptation the devil shows Jesus all the kingdoms of the world and promises to give him authority over them if only Jesus would worship him. Remember that Jesus was about to begin his public life and was looking for a way to get the whole world to know him and accept his message. Again the devil tempts him to use what he has (his heart, his soul) to get what he wants (the loyalty of the whole world). Again Jesus says no. The end does not justify the means. "It is written, 'Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him'" (verse 8).
The devil is a deceiver! And he deceives himself the most! He believes he possesses all the wealth of the earth, because he thinks that all power on earth belongs to him. But Jesus is there! He is the Master of the universe! Since the Incarnation, through the "yes" of Mary his Mother, Jesus defeated and dominated the whole world!
In the third temptation the devil asks Jesus to throw him down from the pinnacle of the temple as a way to prove that he was the Son of God. Remember that the people were asking Jesus for a sign to prove that he was the Messiah. Jesus wanted to convince them that he was the one. But how do you do it! The devil suggested this sensational sky jump without a parachute. Again, use what you have to get what you want. Use your supernatural power to get the people to recognize you and believe in you as the Son of God, the Messiah. Do some magic?
No animal craves power and self-exaltation as we humans do. The devil offers it for a price: immersing ourselves in the culture of death, that is, worshipping him. After that comes despair, “throw yourself down from here.”
Mel Gibson tells about having everything our society values: success, good looks, money, prestige, adoring members of the opposite sex who would do anything for a moment with him. He had it all, yet felt so empty and miserable that he wanted to throw himself out of a window.
The devil is not stupid. These temptations worked for him in the past. He knew it. The devil is also not lazy. He doesn’t give up easily.
Think if we are tempted during Lent, it should be being tempted to do good. And I think those three temptations of Jesus are a good framework. Take the first one, temptation from hunger. What can we do during this Lent for the hungry of the world? Come up with one little thing you would do during Lent that would make this a better world for the hungry, either close at home or across the world. But there’s another kind of hunger. The other is spiritual hunger. I think we are all spiritually hungry but don’t always know it. You know what happens when people are starving and it gets really bad? They lose their appetites. I think, much of our lives, we lose our appetites for things of the spirit. Lent is a good time to nourish our spirits, our spiritual hunger. We all just have to slow down, and that’s a good way to deal with our spiritual hunger.
The next one is power and control. We all want to be in charge. We all want power and control. I think the best antidote for power and control is gratitude and inner peace. So what I would suggest during Lent, we might every day take a few moments to think about people that we are thankful for. Developing gratitude and an inner peace will really deal with the temptation for power and control. What about the third one? What about miracles? There are things we pray for. We pray for people who are sick. We pray for people who are hurting. Maybe, during Lent, let’s, instead of praying for God to do it, instead of praying for God to make a miracle, say “How can I be an instrument of the very thing I am praying for?” Maybe a visit to someone who is sick, maybe a phone call to someone who is lonely, maybe dropping a card to someone who is distant. Satan’s greatest triumph is that he has caused many people to no longer believe that he really exists. Jesus tells us who he is when he said: "I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven” (Luke 10: 18). My dear friends, Satan is real and his actions in the world are very real. We have to fight.
You are the carpenter. Each day you hammer a nail, place a board, or erect a wall. "Life is a do-it-yourself project," someone has said. Your attitudes and the choices you make today build the "house" you live in tomorrow.
Build wisely!
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
My dear brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ,
An elderly carpenter was ready to retire. He told his employer-contractor of his plans to leave house-building business and live a more leisurely life with his wife enjoying his extended family. He would miss the paycheck, but he needed to retire. They could get by. The contractor was sorry to see his good worker go and asked if he could build just one more house as a personal favor. The carpenter said yes, but in time it was easy to see that his heart was not in his work. He resorted to shoddy workmanship and used inferior materials.
It was an unfortunate way to end a dedicated career. When the carpenter finished his work, the employer came to inspect the house. He handed the front-door key to the carpenter. "This is your house," he said, "My gift to you."
The carpenter was shocked! What a shame! If he had only known he was building his own house, he would have done it all so differently.
My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, so it is with us. We build our lives, a day at a time, often putting less than our best into the building. Then, with a shock we realize we have to live in the house we have built. If we could do it over, we'd do it much differently. But, we cannot go back. This is the time God gave us to build our house.
Our Gospel today is on the Temptation of Jesus in the wilderness. In each of these three temptations what the devil is saying to Jesus is, "Come on; use what you have to get what you want." And in each case Jesus overcomes the temptation by replying, "No, we can only use godly means to satisfy our God-given needs or to pursue our goals in life."
In the first temptation, Jesus had fasted for forty days in the wilderness and at the end of it he was very hungry. The devil puts an idea into his head: "If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread" (Luke 4:3). Notice that the first thing the devil does is sow a doubt in his mind: "if you are the Son of God." "Are you really sure God is with you?" The same thing happened in the Garden of Eden. The first thing the Tempter said to Eve was, "Did God really say you should not eat of any fruit of the garden" (Genesis 3:1). Temptation always begins with a doubting thought. Jesus overcame the temptations by refusing to entertain such doubts and by standing on the word of God.
Secondly, that people are tempted only with what they need or want. After his fasting Jesus needed to eat. So the devil tempted him with food. It is not a sin for Jesus to eat after fasting. The sin may lie in how the food is obtained. Should he follow the normal way of obtaining bread or should he take the shortcut suggested by the devil to obtain instant bread? Jesus refuses to take the devil's shortcut. The means we employ to satisfy our needs must be in accordance with the word of God.
In the second temptation the devil shows Jesus all the kingdoms of the world and promises to give him authority over them if only Jesus would worship him. Remember that Jesus was about to begin his public life and was looking for a way to get the whole world to know him and accept his message. Again the devil tempts him to use what he has (his heart, his soul) to get what he wants (the loyalty of the whole world). Again Jesus says no. The end does not justify the means. "It is written, 'Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him'" (verse 8).
The devil is a deceiver! And he deceives himself the most! He believes he possesses all the wealth of the earth, because he thinks that all power on earth belongs to him. But Jesus is there! He is the Master of the universe! Since the Incarnation, through the "yes" of Mary his Mother, Jesus defeated and dominated the whole world!
In the third temptation the devil asks Jesus to throw him down from the pinnacle of the temple as a way to prove that he was the Son of God. Remember that the people were asking Jesus for a sign to prove that he was the Messiah. Jesus wanted to convince them that he was the one. But how do you do it! The devil suggested this sensational sky jump without a parachute. Again, use what you have to get what you want. Use your supernatural power to get the people to recognize you and believe in you as the Son of God, the Messiah. Do some magic?
No animal craves power and self-exaltation as we humans do. The devil offers it for a price: immersing ourselves in the culture of death, that is, worshipping him. After that comes despair, “throw yourself down from here.”
Mel Gibson tells about having everything our society values: success, good looks, money, prestige, adoring members of the opposite sex who would do anything for a moment with him. He had it all, yet felt so empty and miserable that he wanted to throw himself out of a window.
The devil is not stupid. These temptations worked for him in the past. He knew it. The devil is also not lazy. He doesn’t give up easily.
Think if we are tempted during Lent, it should be being tempted to do good. And I think those three temptations of Jesus are a good framework. Take the first one, temptation from hunger. What can we do during this Lent for the hungry of the world? Come up with one little thing you would do during Lent that would make this a better world for the hungry, either close at home or across the world. But there’s another kind of hunger. The other is spiritual hunger. I think we are all spiritually hungry but don’t always know it. You know what happens when people are starving and it gets really bad? They lose their appetites. I think, much of our lives, we lose our appetites for things of the spirit. Lent is a good time to nourish our spirits, our spiritual hunger. We all just have to slow down, and that’s a good way to deal with our spiritual hunger.
The next one is power and control. We all want to be in charge. We all want power and control. I think the best antidote for power and control is gratitude and inner peace. So what I would suggest during Lent, we might every day take a few moments to think about people that we are thankful for. Developing gratitude and an inner peace will really deal with the temptation for power and control. What about the third one? What about miracles? There are things we pray for. We pray for people who are sick. We pray for people who are hurting. Maybe, during Lent, let’s, instead of praying for God to do it, instead of praying for God to make a miracle, say “How can I be an instrument of the very thing I am praying for?” Maybe a visit to someone who is sick, maybe a phone call to someone who is lonely, maybe dropping a card to someone who is distant. Satan’s greatest triumph is that he has caused many people to no longer believe that he really exists. Jesus tells us who he is when he said: "I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven” (Luke 10: 18). My dear friends, Satan is real and his actions in the world are very real. We have to fight.
You are the carpenter. Each day you hammer a nail, place a board, or erect a wall. "Life is a do-it-yourself project," someone has said. Your attitudes and the choices you make today build the "house" you live in tomorrow.
Build wisely!
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
Saturday, February 02, 2008
Ash Wednesday 2008
Ash Wednesday
My dear brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ,
Welcome to the season of Lent.
There are two special features about this year’s Ash Wednesday; first of all this will be the earliest Ash Wednesday we have had for the past twenty years. The second is that it is a Leap Year Ash Wednesday. We are starting today the forty days of preparing ourselves for the great feast of Easter. Forty is an important number in scripture. In the time of Noah it rained for forty days and forty nights. The Children of Israel after being brought through the waters of the Red sea wandered for forty years in the wilderness because of their unfaithfulness toward God; Moses went into the cloud and up on the mountain for 40 days and 40 nights before returning with the Ten Commandments. Prophet Elijah fasted forty days. And finally, Jesus was in the wilderness for forty days before being tempted by the devil.
Take the example of an empty container .If God wants to fill our heart; you and I need to empty everything that is there which will kill that sanctifying grace. That is why Prophet Joel said tear not your garments but that which cover your heart; that which dirty your mind. God means to fill each of you with what is good; so cast out what is bad! If he wishes to fill you with honey and you are full of sour wine, where is the honey to go? The vessel must be emptied of its contents and then be cleansed." So this is the time for emptying our heart for making place for God.
On Ash Wednesday, the Church signs our foreheads with the cross, in ashes, and says, “Remember, you are dust, and unto dust you shall return.” Diamonds may be forever, but you and I definitely are not. The things we have, the goals we accomplish, our personal relationships, even pain and pleasure, had a beginning not that long ago, and they will end. In the words of a song, “Is That All There Is?”
For us believers the good news of Jesus Christ is that our living and dying are not all there is. There is a new meaning for us in Jesus, in our life in him.
When parents send their children to school, they want them to learn the basics: how to read, write, and work with numbers. With those three skills - reading, writing and arithmetic - a child can succeed in this world. Today Jesus gives us the three basics in order to succeed spiritually, that is, to attain a relationship with God. The three basics are prayer, fasting and almsgiving.
We are called to conversion, to a turning away from our own special idolatries and a turning toward the true God in Jesus Christ. That’s the meaning and purpose of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, the three traditional Lenten practices of Catholics.
Of the three basics, prayer has first place. To use a human comparison: If you desire friendship - that is, a relationship with another human being - you have to do things together, be in each other’s presence, talk...and listen. The same applies in our friendship with God. As Jesus says, don’t do it for show – so that people will think what a spiritual person you are – but to grow in your friendship with Jesus. Prayer draws us to listen to God and respond.
The second basic practice is fasting. The goal of fasting is not to have a sleek body one can be proud of. Don’t think that heaven’s door is a narrow door. Some saints were quite corpulent, others were virtual skeletons, but they had this in common: They practiced the voluntary self-denial of fasting. We need to say “no” to some of our distractions and indulgences, so that we are freer and more attentive to say “yes” to God as he meets us in our lives, especially through others.
Finally, we come to almsgiving. St. John Chrysostom said that after we have satisfied our own basic needs and of those we are directly responsible for, all the rest belongs to the poor. We have to give not by human standards, but according to God's generosity. Almsgiving is the practice of giving to others needier than ourselves, especially at the cost of some sacrifice on our part. Some people decide to abstain from something and fast but they keep and save that money for buying some expensive things that they were craving for. This is not fasting. You have to give out all what you save from your Lenten observances.
Joel’s call for the people to repent even after they are already adorned in sack cloths and ashes and fasting and weeping and mourning is a call to repent and rend their hearts, not their clothing. It is a call to turn, to refocus, and to set their minds on a different path.
What is the turning he invites? Perhaps it is not so much a call to turn away from, as much as it is a call to turn toward. Perhaps not so much a call to give up or reject, but to reclaim and embrace. Perhaps it is an invitation to remember our interconnectedness and God’s desire for relationship, rather than separation and alienation.
When we are able to do this kind of turning with our hearts, we are perhaps more likely to experience Lent as the little boy who overheard a young priest practicing his sermon in the pulpit on Saturday evening. The small boy sat in the back of the church, watching the priest who was so serious in the church full of empty pews. It struck him as funny and he started to laugh. Hearing laughter, the Priest said: “Don’t you know that we don’t laugh in church during Lent?”
“Why?”
“Because Lent is a time when we remember Jesus died for us.”
“Is Jesus dead?”
“No Jesus died, but he didn’t stay dead. He arose from the grave and is living in you and me right now.”
The boy thought for a moment and replied: “I think… I think it must have been the Jesus alive in me that made me laugh.”
Because Jesus lives in us, the laying on of ashes need not be only a heavy reminder of our sinfulness, a reminder that we are dust and to dust we shall return. The anointing of ashes can serve as a hopeful reminder of God’s interconnectedness with us and our interconnectedness with each other and our ability to find healing, strength, peace, hope and justice through and in each other if we are willing and able to trust in God’s healing and abiding peace with us.
The ash cross on our foreheads reminds us that soon, very soon, you and I will return to dust. How do you want to use the time God has allotted to you my dear brothers and sisters!
My dear brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ,
Welcome to the season of Lent.
There are two special features about this year’s Ash Wednesday; first of all this will be the earliest Ash Wednesday we have had for the past twenty years. The second is that it is a Leap Year Ash Wednesday. We are starting today the forty days of preparing ourselves for the great feast of Easter. Forty is an important number in scripture. In the time of Noah it rained for forty days and forty nights. The Children of Israel after being brought through the waters of the Red sea wandered for forty years in the wilderness because of their unfaithfulness toward God; Moses went into the cloud and up on the mountain for 40 days and 40 nights before returning with the Ten Commandments. Prophet Elijah fasted forty days. And finally, Jesus was in the wilderness for forty days before being tempted by the devil.
Take the example of an empty container .If God wants to fill our heart; you and I need to empty everything that is there which will kill that sanctifying grace. That is why Prophet Joel said tear not your garments but that which cover your heart; that which dirty your mind. God means to fill each of you with what is good; so cast out what is bad! If he wishes to fill you with honey and you are full of sour wine, where is the honey to go? The vessel must be emptied of its contents and then be cleansed." So this is the time for emptying our heart for making place for God.
On Ash Wednesday, the Church signs our foreheads with the cross, in ashes, and says, “Remember, you are dust, and unto dust you shall return.” Diamonds may be forever, but you and I definitely are not. The things we have, the goals we accomplish, our personal relationships, even pain and pleasure, had a beginning not that long ago, and they will end. In the words of a song, “Is That All There Is?”
For us believers the good news of Jesus Christ is that our living and dying are not all there is. There is a new meaning for us in Jesus, in our life in him.
When parents send their children to school, they want them to learn the basics: how to read, write, and work with numbers. With those three skills - reading, writing and arithmetic - a child can succeed in this world. Today Jesus gives us the three basics in order to succeed spiritually, that is, to attain a relationship with God. The three basics are prayer, fasting and almsgiving.
We are called to conversion, to a turning away from our own special idolatries and a turning toward the true God in Jesus Christ. That’s the meaning and purpose of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, the three traditional Lenten practices of Catholics.
Of the three basics, prayer has first place. To use a human comparison: If you desire friendship - that is, a relationship with another human being - you have to do things together, be in each other’s presence, talk...and listen. The same applies in our friendship with God. As Jesus says, don’t do it for show – so that people will think what a spiritual person you are – but to grow in your friendship with Jesus. Prayer draws us to listen to God and respond.
The second basic practice is fasting. The goal of fasting is not to have a sleek body one can be proud of. Don’t think that heaven’s door is a narrow door. Some saints were quite corpulent, others were virtual skeletons, but they had this in common: They practiced the voluntary self-denial of fasting. We need to say “no” to some of our distractions and indulgences, so that we are freer and more attentive to say “yes” to God as he meets us in our lives, especially through others.
Finally, we come to almsgiving. St. John Chrysostom said that after we have satisfied our own basic needs and of those we are directly responsible for, all the rest belongs to the poor. We have to give not by human standards, but according to God's generosity. Almsgiving is the practice of giving to others needier than ourselves, especially at the cost of some sacrifice on our part. Some people decide to abstain from something and fast but they keep and save that money for buying some expensive things that they were craving for. This is not fasting. You have to give out all what you save from your Lenten observances.
Joel’s call for the people to repent even after they are already adorned in sack cloths and ashes and fasting and weeping and mourning is a call to repent and rend their hearts, not their clothing. It is a call to turn, to refocus, and to set their minds on a different path.
What is the turning he invites? Perhaps it is not so much a call to turn away from, as much as it is a call to turn toward. Perhaps not so much a call to give up or reject, but to reclaim and embrace. Perhaps it is an invitation to remember our interconnectedness and God’s desire for relationship, rather than separation and alienation.
When we are able to do this kind of turning with our hearts, we are perhaps more likely to experience Lent as the little boy who overheard a young priest practicing his sermon in the pulpit on Saturday evening. The small boy sat in the back of the church, watching the priest who was so serious in the church full of empty pews. It struck him as funny and he started to laugh. Hearing laughter, the Priest said: “Don’t you know that we don’t laugh in church during Lent?”
“Why?”
“Because Lent is a time when we remember Jesus died for us.”
“Is Jesus dead?”
“No Jesus died, but he didn’t stay dead. He arose from the grave and is living in you and me right now.”
The boy thought for a moment and replied: “I think… I think it must have been the Jesus alive in me that made me laugh.”
Because Jesus lives in us, the laying on of ashes need not be only a heavy reminder of our sinfulness, a reminder that we are dust and to dust we shall return. The anointing of ashes can serve as a hopeful reminder of God’s interconnectedness with us and our interconnectedness with each other and our ability to find healing, strength, peace, hope and justice through and in each other if we are willing and able to trust in God’s healing and abiding peace with us.
The ash cross on our foreheads reminds us that soon, very soon, you and I will return to dust. How do you want to use the time God has allotted to you my dear brothers and sisters!
4th sunday Ordinary time 2008
Beatitudes
My dear brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ,
The eight beatitudes we have in today’s gospel constitute a road map for anyone who seeks to attain this happiness of the kingdom. The Eight Beatitudes do not describe eight different people such that we need to ask which of the eight suits us personally. No, they are eight different snapshots taken from different angles of the same godly person. In them we find the "attitudes" of Jesus.
A parent is walking in the woods searching for a lost child. Suddenly, in the distance, the parent hears what sounds like a faint cry for help. The parent stops--the sound of the dead leaves being crushed underfoot drowns out the faint cry. The parent is motionless, even to the point of not breathing. In the woods at this moment the parent has become a listening presence. That special love between a parent and a child allows the parent to hear what the other searchers will never hear. Love recognizes the faintest cry in the distance and distinguishes it from the other sounds in the woods. Without that love relationship, the faint cry would not be heard. Without that relationship we won’t understand God’s word.
The Beatitudes lie at the heart of Christ's teaching, for they describe our relationship to the Kingdom in three ways. First, these simple rules address our highest desire: happiness with God. For, only God can satisfy the heart. Second, they describe the path to God for us as individuals and together as a Church. Through the Beatitudes, we share God's very life (sanctifying grace) because we enter into his Kingdom. Finally, they challenge us to live moral lives by putting God first. If we want to know what it truly means to be a Christian we need to listen and understand the Beatitudes in Matthew.
1)"Blessed are the poor in spirit, Spiritual poverty recognizes that all we have and all we are, is a total gift from God. We are totally dependent on God, a good and loving God, who is in charge of the universe and of our lives. They are those who are aware of their own smallness and emptiness. This Beatitude assumes that someone either already has certain possessions or gifts and is nevertheless poor in spirit, or that he does not have certain things but is detached from what he doesn’t have. Do you know we can be attached to things we don’t have? In either case, poverty of spirit is “detachment of spirit.”
To be detached in spirit so that we use the gifts we have as God wants us to use them, and to enjoy them only insofar as the Lord wants us to enjoy them, but never to take complacency in any creature.
The rich in spirit don’t hunger for anything. They are “full of themselves,” self-satisfied. When offered an opportunity to grow spiritually, they protest “but I’m a good person and worship God in my own way” or “I go to Mass every Sunday, isn’t that enough?” They may be able to get excited about the Super bowl, but never about heaven.
2) "Blessed are they who mourn… Now as you know, there is trouble with our English language. Because, while the labels remain quite constant, the meaning of what’s behind the label is determined by the persons who use the language.
There is distinction between sorrow and sadness. Christ does not mean “happy those who are sad.” Sadness is mourning. It is either mourning over the wrong object or excessive mourning.
Sorrow, on the other hand, is grief over what deserves to be mourned (and mourned in the right way). The Gospels give us a fine description of what is to be mourned in the two episodes where we are told that Our Lord wept. He wept over Jerusalem and at Lazarus’ tomb. Why did Christ weep over Jerusalem? Because Jerusalem was sinning! What, then, is a correct object for mourning? Sin. Christ Himself, the Son of God, not only mourned over Jerusalem, but what happened in Gethsemane? He was in positive agony. We say, with some justification, this was in anticipating His sufferings, but mainly it was due to sin—our sin.
At Lazarus’ tomb, Christ sorrowed over Lazarus’ death. We, too, sorrow over the loss of people we love. Those who are honest about their sorrows and sins will gain the consolation of the Lord. They know how little they are without God. In their sorrow, they will be comforted.
3) "Blessed are the meek… the meek know that God is ultimately in control, and they are about doing the divine will. Gentleness is strength restrained by love. Only strong people can be gentle. Others can seem to be, but they are not. Gentleness, therefore, is not weakness; it is just the opposite. It means that someone has hurt me but I don’t hurt back. How many times in public you have been told things when everything in you cries out to tear a person to shreds. But you don’t, not because you can’t, but because love keeps you from doing that which nature urges you to do.
4) "Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness…We all have longings: for meaning, for intimacy, for depth. You name the desires and we’ve got them. The highest ideal of all is to desire above all else to put God's righteous will into action and then work unceasingly with his help to grow in holiness, justice, and truth. Truth in the following of Christ consists in desiring and then choosing what is right.
5) "Blessed are the merciful…If we give mercy, we shall get mercy. Mercy is love that overcomes resistance. Mercy is love in the face of sin and injury. I love in spite of the fact that I am not loved. I love those things which cause me difficulty and trouble. I love even those who not only don’t love me, but who may oppose me, who may hate me. This is what God’s mercy is towards us. It is His love overcoming resistance. And you know who offers resistance to God’s love—we do. Yet in spite of us, God loves us. That is mercy.
6) "Blessed are the clean of heart… The pure of heart are those who are not defiled and polluted by values and attitudes that take us away from God. We know that our seeing is dependent upon the condition of our hearts. They put on the mind and heart of God, looking on others with the eyes of Jesus. There are many meanings to the expression “purity of heart.” But the one that we cannot omit is the internal chastity of mind, symbolized by the biblical word “heart.” Chastity confers clarity of vision.
7) "Blessed are the peacemakers… God's peace is the rightness of relationships. Peace embraces four satellites: truth, charity, freedom and justice. Peacemaking means reconciliation: first with God, the highest kind of peacemaking; with themselves, and within themselves.
8) "Blessed are they who are persecuted …The Quaker founder of Pennsylvania, William Penn, once said, "No cross, no crown." To stand up for what is right, especially in the face of mockery, rejection, and verbal and even physical abuse, is to stand with Jesus Christ and help him carry his cross. Jesus never promised us a rose garden; he did promise us eternal happiness united to the Blessed Trinity.
Like any ideal of happiness, the road is as important as the destination. Striving to live the Beatitudes day by day opens us to God's lead and the way to his Kingdom. Think of the Beatitudes as Jesus taught us as attitudes for happiness. They will require us to change our lives. But the payoff? Happiness. Thomas Aquinas said: No one can live without joy.
My dear brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ,
The eight beatitudes we have in today’s gospel constitute a road map for anyone who seeks to attain this happiness of the kingdom. The Eight Beatitudes do not describe eight different people such that we need to ask which of the eight suits us personally. No, they are eight different snapshots taken from different angles of the same godly person. In them we find the "attitudes" of Jesus.
A parent is walking in the woods searching for a lost child. Suddenly, in the distance, the parent hears what sounds like a faint cry for help. The parent stops--the sound of the dead leaves being crushed underfoot drowns out the faint cry. The parent is motionless, even to the point of not breathing. In the woods at this moment the parent has become a listening presence. That special love between a parent and a child allows the parent to hear what the other searchers will never hear. Love recognizes the faintest cry in the distance and distinguishes it from the other sounds in the woods. Without that love relationship, the faint cry would not be heard. Without that relationship we won’t understand God’s word.
The Beatitudes lie at the heart of Christ's teaching, for they describe our relationship to the Kingdom in three ways. First, these simple rules address our highest desire: happiness with God. For, only God can satisfy the heart. Second, they describe the path to God for us as individuals and together as a Church. Through the Beatitudes, we share God's very life (sanctifying grace) because we enter into his Kingdom. Finally, they challenge us to live moral lives by putting God first. If we want to know what it truly means to be a Christian we need to listen and understand the Beatitudes in Matthew.
1)"Blessed are the poor in spirit, Spiritual poverty recognizes that all we have and all we are, is a total gift from God. We are totally dependent on God, a good and loving God, who is in charge of the universe and of our lives. They are those who are aware of their own smallness and emptiness. This Beatitude assumes that someone either already has certain possessions or gifts and is nevertheless poor in spirit, or that he does not have certain things but is detached from what he doesn’t have. Do you know we can be attached to things we don’t have? In either case, poverty of spirit is “detachment of spirit.”
To be detached in spirit so that we use the gifts we have as God wants us to use them, and to enjoy them only insofar as the Lord wants us to enjoy them, but never to take complacency in any creature.
The rich in spirit don’t hunger for anything. They are “full of themselves,” self-satisfied. When offered an opportunity to grow spiritually, they protest “but I’m a good person and worship God in my own way” or “I go to Mass every Sunday, isn’t that enough?” They may be able to get excited about the Super bowl, but never about heaven.
2) "Blessed are they who mourn… Now as you know, there is trouble with our English language. Because, while the labels remain quite constant, the meaning of what’s behind the label is determined by the persons who use the language.
There is distinction between sorrow and sadness. Christ does not mean “happy those who are sad.” Sadness is mourning. It is either mourning over the wrong object or excessive mourning.
Sorrow, on the other hand, is grief over what deserves to be mourned (and mourned in the right way). The Gospels give us a fine description of what is to be mourned in the two episodes where we are told that Our Lord wept. He wept over Jerusalem and at Lazarus’ tomb. Why did Christ weep over Jerusalem? Because Jerusalem was sinning! What, then, is a correct object for mourning? Sin. Christ Himself, the Son of God, not only mourned over Jerusalem, but what happened in Gethsemane? He was in positive agony. We say, with some justification, this was in anticipating His sufferings, but mainly it was due to sin—our sin.
At Lazarus’ tomb, Christ sorrowed over Lazarus’ death. We, too, sorrow over the loss of people we love. Those who are honest about their sorrows and sins will gain the consolation of the Lord. They know how little they are without God. In their sorrow, they will be comforted.
3) "Blessed are the meek… the meek know that God is ultimately in control, and they are about doing the divine will. Gentleness is strength restrained by love. Only strong people can be gentle. Others can seem to be, but they are not. Gentleness, therefore, is not weakness; it is just the opposite. It means that someone has hurt me but I don’t hurt back. How many times in public you have been told things when everything in you cries out to tear a person to shreds. But you don’t, not because you can’t, but because love keeps you from doing that which nature urges you to do.
4) "Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness…We all have longings: for meaning, for intimacy, for depth. You name the desires and we’ve got them. The highest ideal of all is to desire above all else to put God's righteous will into action and then work unceasingly with his help to grow in holiness, justice, and truth. Truth in the following of Christ consists in desiring and then choosing what is right.
5) "Blessed are the merciful…If we give mercy, we shall get mercy. Mercy is love that overcomes resistance. Mercy is love in the face of sin and injury. I love in spite of the fact that I am not loved. I love those things which cause me difficulty and trouble. I love even those who not only don’t love me, but who may oppose me, who may hate me. This is what God’s mercy is towards us. It is His love overcoming resistance. And you know who offers resistance to God’s love—we do. Yet in spite of us, God loves us. That is mercy.
6) "Blessed are the clean of heart… The pure of heart are those who are not defiled and polluted by values and attitudes that take us away from God. We know that our seeing is dependent upon the condition of our hearts. They put on the mind and heart of God, looking on others with the eyes of Jesus. There are many meanings to the expression “purity of heart.” But the one that we cannot omit is the internal chastity of mind, symbolized by the biblical word “heart.” Chastity confers clarity of vision.
7) "Blessed are the peacemakers… God's peace is the rightness of relationships. Peace embraces four satellites: truth, charity, freedom and justice. Peacemaking means reconciliation: first with God, the highest kind of peacemaking; with themselves, and within themselves.
8) "Blessed are they who are persecuted …The Quaker founder of Pennsylvania, William Penn, once said, "No cross, no crown." To stand up for what is right, especially in the face of mockery, rejection, and verbal and even physical abuse, is to stand with Jesus Christ and help him carry his cross. Jesus never promised us a rose garden; he did promise us eternal happiness united to the Blessed Trinity.
Like any ideal of happiness, the road is as important as the destination. Striving to live the Beatitudes day by day opens us to God's lead and the way to his Kingdom. Think of the Beatitudes as Jesus taught us as attitudes for happiness. They will require us to change our lives. But the payoff? Happiness. Thomas Aquinas said: No one can live without joy.
Saturday, January 26, 2008
3rd Sunday Ordinary time 2008
Expect a call from God from an unexpected time and place!
My dear brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ,
There are moments in life when something unexpected happens which makes all the difference. It happens to us. It happens in us. These are events which change the course of our life, often in a radical manner. Such was the case of the four fishermen: Simon and Andrew, James and John, the borders of whose world coincided with the area of the Lake of Galilee, until the day they met Jesus.
“Come after me!” Jesus called them. And immediately they abandoned their boats, their nets, their crew, their relatives . . . and became his followers – the first recruits of a peaceful army tasked to conquer the world.
An unexpected invitation, a prompt response, an immediate departure for an unknown destination. Four hearts were set aflame. Four lives would never be the same again.
What impelled Simon, Andrew, James, and John to leave everything behind and follow Jesus? There was his promise, of course, that he would make them “fishers of men” (Mk 1:17). But what moved those four fishermen to be so radical in their response was the fascinating personality of the Caller: JESUS. They saw him, they heard him, and they made up their minds. Their hearts had been conquered by him.
It was like falling in love, when everybody else in the world seems to vanish from sight or become unattractive, and all that remains and counts is just “the beloved one.”
God is calling us to repentance though different channels and persons. You know the conversion story of the leading actor of film Bella; Eduardo Verástegui .
Eduardo Verástegui was not only playing the stereotypical Latin lover. He was living the role. Money… Cars… Girls...You name it, he had it.
Verástegui said "God changed my heart and I had to repent of my past. And from that day on, I promised that I would never do anything that will offend God or my Latino heritage. I would never do anything to compromise my faith. That's the moment I realized that the purpose of my life was to know and to love God."
“It is clear to me now that I wasn’t born to be a movie star,” Verástegui said. “I wasn’t born to be famous. I wasn’t born to be a CEO of a company. I was … born to know and to love and to serve Jesus Christ.”
So, how did a loose-living, self-described Casanova get from there to here? Not surprisingly, women played a key role—starting with his mother.
"There is nothing more powerful than the prayers of a mother," says Verástegui, "When I was pursuing fame, pleasure, and success, my mother started going to her prayer groups and saying, 'OK, if my words don't touch his heart, one day my prayers will.'"
After 12 years in the entertainment industry, Verástegui realized he was empty – thanks to his English teacher whom the Lord used to change his heart.
His teacher was a devout Christian and as she taught him English, she also questioned him about the purpose of his life.
“Why do you want to be an actor? Why are you doing what you’re doing?” she would ask Verástegui.
After six months of conversation, God did a work in Verástegui, and he was broken over the sin in his life. He came to the stark realization that he had used his talents in projects that were poisonous to society, while hurting his family, himself and others in the process.
“But the one thing that broke my heart was when I realized that I offended God with talent that He gave me…It was a moment of grace where He revealed all the things that I was doing with my life. And thank God that He is a God of forgiveness.”
Christ changed Verástegui’s heart and became the center of his life, which could have meant the end of his career as an entertainer. But that didn’t matter to Verástegui.
“The price of changing my path was that I was never going to be able to work again,I was at peace with that.”
While he can’t change his past or erase the remnants of a career rooted in pop culture, Verástegui can begin anew, and he is doing just that by seeking to live a life that brings glory to Christ – right in the middle of Hollywood. Yes dear brothers and sisters Jesus is calling each one of us for a radical change; a repentance of heart.
If Jesus approaches you and asked you to follow him, what would you say? What would you do?
Peter and Andrew were working fishermen. They were gainfully employed, living their lives, and immersed in their own here and now… And as Galilean fishermen, we know that they were probably quite comfortable and quite prosperous. But Jesus called them.
Tom believes he should be a soul winner for Christ. In the parish Bible class he has learnt how to share his faith with people and lead them to Christ. But he has never done it. Tom prays to God to give him a sign so that he would know exactly when to start. One day Tom is travelling in the subway to meet his Bible study friends. He has his Bible in his handbag. A young man about his own age enters the train and sits next to Tom. He wears a T-shirt with the slogan, “who has the most toys wins.” Tom bends his head and says a little prayer, “Lord give me a sign when to start.” The young man’s cell phone rings. His friend wants him to come and pick him up. After arguing with his friend awhile, he says, “All right, I will come to the church and pick you up, but I will not enter the church. You will find me at the parking lot,” and hangs up. Tom bends his head a second time and prays, “Lord, I’m still waiting for the sign!” Finally, the young man turns to Tom and says, “You know, I got this weird friend who skips work on Sundays to go to church. I don’t get it.” Tom smiles, bends down his head once again and says, “Lord, the sign, the sign!”
If we are in the place of them what we would think! “Fishers of men? We’re doing quite well here as fishers of fish, thank you very much”… Come follow you on the road? But, we have families? We have responsibilities? We have the boat… and it’s almost completely paid off. We have to drive the kids to soccer at ten and then get the oldest one to play practice by twelve. We got mom to take care of now and midterms are coming up… and did you know that prescription prices are going through the roof? No, no thanks. We’ll stay right here and tend to the boats and the nets and we will wait for a greater sign. Come back tomorrow or maybe next Sunday or the next time you’re in town… we’ll be right here, Jesus. We’ll be right here living our lives and maybe things will be easier then…
You get the point. Peter and Andrew weren’t all that dissimilar from you and me… and their lives weren’t that dissimilar either. What they did, did take great courage and tremendous faith. They dropped their nets and they followed Christ.
And this is our challenge. To do what Peter and Andrew did, which does take great courage and tremendous faith. To let the people we interact with every day know what we believe in. To let the people we meet think, “there’s something different about that person.” To show by our actions and our priorities… that we do feel called by Jesus. And today that same Jesus who called them, calling each one of us for repentance.
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
My dear brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ,
There are moments in life when something unexpected happens which makes all the difference. It happens to us. It happens in us. These are events which change the course of our life, often in a radical manner. Such was the case of the four fishermen: Simon and Andrew, James and John, the borders of whose world coincided with the area of the Lake of Galilee, until the day they met Jesus.
“Come after me!” Jesus called them. And immediately they abandoned their boats, their nets, their crew, their relatives . . . and became his followers – the first recruits of a peaceful army tasked to conquer the world.
An unexpected invitation, a prompt response, an immediate departure for an unknown destination. Four hearts were set aflame. Four lives would never be the same again.
What impelled Simon, Andrew, James, and John to leave everything behind and follow Jesus? There was his promise, of course, that he would make them “fishers of men” (Mk 1:17). But what moved those four fishermen to be so radical in their response was the fascinating personality of the Caller: JESUS. They saw him, they heard him, and they made up their minds. Their hearts had been conquered by him.
It was like falling in love, when everybody else in the world seems to vanish from sight or become unattractive, and all that remains and counts is just “the beloved one.”
God is calling us to repentance though different channels and persons. You know the conversion story of the leading actor of film Bella; Eduardo Verástegui .
Eduardo Verástegui was not only playing the stereotypical Latin lover. He was living the role. Money… Cars… Girls...You name it, he had it.
Verástegui said "God changed my heart and I had to repent of my past. And from that day on, I promised that I would never do anything that will offend God or my Latino heritage. I would never do anything to compromise my faith. That's the moment I realized that the purpose of my life was to know and to love God."
“It is clear to me now that I wasn’t born to be a movie star,” Verástegui said. “I wasn’t born to be famous. I wasn’t born to be a CEO of a company. I was … born to know and to love and to serve Jesus Christ.”
So, how did a loose-living, self-described Casanova get from there to here? Not surprisingly, women played a key role—starting with his mother.
"There is nothing more powerful than the prayers of a mother," says Verástegui, "When I was pursuing fame, pleasure, and success, my mother started going to her prayer groups and saying, 'OK, if my words don't touch his heart, one day my prayers will.'"
After 12 years in the entertainment industry, Verástegui realized he was empty – thanks to his English teacher whom the Lord used to change his heart.
His teacher was a devout Christian and as she taught him English, she also questioned him about the purpose of his life.
“Why do you want to be an actor? Why are you doing what you’re doing?” she would ask Verástegui.
After six months of conversation, God did a work in Verástegui, and he was broken over the sin in his life. He came to the stark realization that he had used his talents in projects that were poisonous to society, while hurting his family, himself and others in the process.
“But the one thing that broke my heart was when I realized that I offended God with talent that He gave me…It was a moment of grace where He revealed all the things that I was doing with my life. And thank God that He is a God of forgiveness.”
Christ changed Verástegui’s heart and became the center of his life, which could have meant the end of his career as an entertainer. But that didn’t matter to Verástegui.
“The price of changing my path was that I was never going to be able to work again,I was at peace with that.”
While he can’t change his past or erase the remnants of a career rooted in pop culture, Verástegui can begin anew, and he is doing just that by seeking to live a life that brings glory to Christ – right in the middle of Hollywood. Yes dear brothers and sisters Jesus is calling each one of us for a radical change; a repentance of heart.
If Jesus approaches you and asked you to follow him, what would you say? What would you do?
Peter and Andrew were working fishermen. They were gainfully employed, living their lives, and immersed in their own here and now… And as Galilean fishermen, we know that they were probably quite comfortable and quite prosperous. But Jesus called them.
Tom believes he should be a soul winner for Christ. In the parish Bible class he has learnt how to share his faith with people and lead them to Christ. But he has never done it. Tom prays to God to give him a sign so that he would know exactly when to start. One day Tom is travelling in the subway to meet his Bible study friends. He has his Bible in his handbag. A young man about his own age enters the train and sits next to Tom. He wears a T-shirt with the slogan, “who has the most toys wins.” Tom bends his head and says a little prayer, “Lord give me a sign when to start.” The young man’s cell phone rings. His friend wants him to come and pick him up. After arguing with his friend awhile, he says, “All right, I will come to the church and pick you up, but I will not enter the church. You will find me at the parking lot,” and hangs up. Tom bends his head a second time and prays, “Lord, I’m still waiting for the sign!” Finally, the young man turns to Tom and says, “You know, I got this weird friend who skips work on Sundays to go to church. I don’t get it.” Tom smiles, bends down his head once again and says, “Lord, the sign, the sign!”
If we are in the place of them what we would think! “Fishers of men? We’re doing quite well here as fishers of fish, thank you very much”… Come follow you on the road? But, we have families? We have responsibilities? We have the boat… and it’s almost completely paid off. We have to drive the kids to soccer at ten and then get the oldest one to play practice by twelve. We got mom to take care of now and midterms are coming up… and did you know that prescription prices are going through the roof? No, no thanks. We’ll stay right here and tend to the boats and the nets and we will wait for a greater sign. Come back tomorrow or maybe next Sunday or the next time you’re in town… we’ll be right here, Jesus. We’ll be right here living our lives and maybe things will be easier then…
You get the point. Peter and Andrew weren’t all that dissimilar from you and me… and their lives weren’t that dissimilar either. What they did, did take great courage and tremendous faith. They dropped their nets and they followed Christ.
And this is our challenge. To do what Peter and Andrew did, which does take great courage and tremendous faith. To let the people we interact with every day know what we believe in. To let the people we meet think, “there’s something different about that person.” To show by our actions and our priorities… that we do feel called by Jesus. And today that same Jesus who called them, calling each one of us for repentance.
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
Sunday, January 20, 2008
2nd sunday ordinary time 2008
Humility
My dear brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ,
Only a person who is humble can always remember why he is here for and then does his duty when the time comes. Today in our Gospel with all his humility St John the Baptist revealed Jesus Christ as the Lamb of God. Truly, nothing is more beautiful than to know Christ and to make him known to others.
My dear brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ,
Only a person who is humble can always remember why he is here for and then does his duty when the time comes. Today in our Gospel with all his humility St John the Baptist revealed Jesus Christ as the Lamb of God. Truly, nothing is more beautiful than to know Christ and to make him known to others.
One day a sage came to a King for an interview. The sage had to wait for a long time because the King was very busy. Finally, the King said he could come in. When the sage entered the hall, the first thing he did was to take off his hat and bow to the King. Immediately the King took off his crown and bowed to the sage. The ministers and others who were around the King asked, "What are you doing? He took off his hat because he is an ordinary man. But you are the King. Why should you have to take off your crown?"
The King said to his ministers, "You fools, do you think I wish to remain inferior to an ordinary man? He is humble and modest. His humility is a peerless virtue'. He showed his respect to me. If I did not take off my crown, then I would be showing less humility than an ordinary man, and I would be defeated by him. If I am the King, I should be better than everybody in everything. That is why I took off my crown and bowed to him!”
Humility is the most basic of all of the Christian virtues. A person is humble not because of a poorly conceived self-image, but because he knows of the goodness and the perfection of God and also knows that he himself is lacking in these areas, as in others.
One day, the famous news correspondent, Walter Cronkite, was sailing down the Mystic River in Connecticut, following the channel's tricky turns through a stretch of shallow water. A boatload of young people sped past his boat and its occupants shouted and waved their arms. Cronkite waved back a cheery greeting and his wife said, "Do you know what they were shouting?" "Why, it was 'Hello, Walter,'" Walter Cronkite replied. "No," she said. "They were shouting, "Low water, Low water.'"
Let us think of this great virtue today my dear brothers and sisters; Humility comes from the Latin word “humus” meaning “earth”. Humility is not about demeaning oneself; it is not the baptism of the inferiority complex. Nor is it therefore a question of denying one’s own dignity, giftedness or accomplishments. Humility is more aptly interpreted as “being grounded”, “being earthed”, having a firm foundation in the truth, living and thinking, not in arrogant fantasy, but in the beauty of the truth.
Humility is a way of living and relating with others at a deeper level of their reality. First and foremost, humility is our need to affirm that you and I are children of God; we are sons and daughters of God the Father. This is a very basic and essential reality that we must always keep in mind when we live our lives and relate to others daily.
St. Theresa of Avila gives a definition. She said that humility is living in the truth (“andar en la verdad”). We are supposed to live in the truth in our relationship with God, ourselves, and our neighbor. First of all, we need to remember that God is God and we are not. We live out our relationship with God by being lovingly obedient. Secondly, we live in the truth with ourselves by being just who we are and not trying to be something that we are not. Finally, we live in truth with our neighbor through mutual respect, kindness, and acceptance.
Humility is not an easy virtue to acquire. Benjamin Franklin once wrote: “There is perhaps no one of our natural passions so hard to subdue as pride. Beat it down, stifle it, mortify it as much as one pleases, it is still alive. Even if I could conceive that I had completely overcome it, I should probably be proud of my humility”.
A famous football coach was on vacation with his family in Maine. When they walked into a movie theater and sat down, the handful of people that were present in the theatre applauded. He thought to himself, "I can't believe it. People recognize me all the way up here." Then a man came over to him and said, "Thanks for coming. They won't start the movie for less than ten people."
Humility really means being honest and truthful, seeing God as He is, seeing others as they are and seeing ourselves as we are.
We all limp our way in the life of virtue, for who can say he is without sin? We must be humble, that is, honest and truthful, about other people. When we are truly humble about ourselves, we no longer make ourselves the center of attention. We become free enough to see others as they are, with their strengths and abilities, with their weaknesses and limitations. We can then acknowledge that we are all very similar, prone to that selfishness that leads us to sin yet struggling, with God’s grace, to rise above our sinfulness, to be generous, compassionate, kind and forgiving. We can honestly admit that others are not perfect because we ourselves are not perfect. When we are truly humble about ourselves, we can honestly admit our radical dependence on the Lord, our absolute need for His transforming grace in our lives.
St. John Simachus tells us that humility is the only virtue that the devil cannot imitate. If pride made angels into demons, humility makes demons into angels. There is the story of Satan appearing to one of the desert monks. He kept appearing to him in the form of an angel of light giving him messages and trying to make him feel so special and proud. This monk continued living his life of simplicity and humility. After some time, the devil getting frustrated said to him, “all that you do, I can do; but the only thing you do that I cannot do is your humility.” The monk was able to resist the devil because of his humility.
Humble people are able to look at themselves and say; I have really made wrong choices. People who are not humble would always look for ways to justify away their mistakes. They always look for people to blame for their mistakes. They never appreciate others hard work.
We are told in the book of James 4:10 “if you humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, the lord will lift you up. “
There is a funny saying "Humility is a virtue all preach, none practice, and yet everybody is content to hear. The master thinks it good doctrine for his servant, the laity for the clergy, and the clergy for the laity."
Please pray with me if you know--Reinhold Niebuhr’s serenity prayer:-
God, grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
the courage to change the things I can;
and the wisdom to know the difference.
Living one day at a time;Enjoying one moment at a time; Accepting hardships as the pathway to peace; Taking, as He did, this sinful world as it is, not as I would have it; Trusting that He will make all things right if I surrender to His Will; That I may be reasonably happy in this life and supremely happy with HimForever in the next.
Amen.
The King said to his ministers, "You fools, do you think I wish to remain inferior to an ordinary man? He is humble and modest. His humility is a peerless virtue'. He showed his respect to me. If I did not take off my crown, then I would be showing less humility than an ordinary man, and I would be defeated by him. If I am the King, I should be better than everybody in everything. That is why I took off my crown and bowed to him!”
Humility is the most basic of all of the Christian virtues. A person is humble not because of a poorly conceived self-image, but because he knows of the goodness and the perfection of God and also knows that he himself is lacking in these areas, as in others.
One day, the famous news correspondent, Walter Cronkite, was sailing down the Mystic River in Connecticut, following the channel's tricky turns through a stretch of shallow water. A boatload of young people sped past his boat and its occupants shouted and waved their arms. Cronkite waved back a cheery greeting and his wife said, "Do you know what they were shouting?" "Why, it was 'Hello, Walter,'" Walter Cronkite replied. "No," she said. "They were shouting, "Low water, Low water.'"
Let us think of this great virtue today my dear brothers and sisters; Humility comes from the Latin word “humus” meaning “earth”. Humility is not about demeaning oneself; it is not the baptism of the inferiority complex. Nor is it therefore a question of denying one’s own dignity, giftedness or accomplishments. Humility is more aptly interpreted as “being grounded”, “being earthed”, having a firm foundation in the truth, living and thinking, not in arrogant fantasy, but in the beauty of the truth.
Humility is a way of living and relating with others at a deeper level of their reality. First and foremost, humility is our need to affirm that you and I are children of God; we are sons and daughters of God the Father. This is a very basic and essential reality that we must always keep in mind when we live our lives and relate to others daily.
St. Theresa of Avila gives a definition. She said that humility is living in the truth (“andar en la verdad”). We are supposed to live in the truth in our relationship with God, ourselves, and our neighbor. First of all, we need to remember that God is God and we are not. We live out our relationship with God by being lovingly obedient. Secondly, we live in the truth with ourselves by being just who we are and not trying to be something that we are not. Finally, we live in truth with our neighbor through mutual respect, kindness, and acceptance.
Humility is not an easy virtue to acquire. Benjamin Franklin once wrote: “There is perhaps no one of our natural passions so hard to subdue as pride. Beat it down, stifle it, mortify it as much as one pleases, it is still alive. Even if I could conceive that I had completely overcome it, I should probably be proud of my humility”.
A famous football coach was on vacation with his family in Maine. When they walked into a movie theater and sat down, the handful of people that were present in the theatre applauded. He thought to himself, "I can't believe it. People recognize me all the way up here." Then a man came over to him and said, "Thanks for coming. They won't start the movie for less than ten people."
Humility really means being honest and truthful, seeing God as He is, seeing others as they are and seeing ourselves as we are.
We all limp our way in the life of virtue, for who can say he is without sin? We must be humble, that is, honest and truthful, about other people. When we are truly humble about ourselves, we no longer make ourselves the center of attention. We become free enough to see others as they are, with their strengths and abilities, with their weaknesses and limitations. We can then acknowledge that we are all very similar, prone to that selfishness that leads us to sin yet struggling, with God’s grace, to rise above our sinfulness, to be generous, compassionate, kind and forgiving. We can honestly admit that others are not perfect because we ourselves are not perfect. When we are truly humble about ourselves, we can honestly admit our radical dependence on the Lord, our absolute need for His transforming grace in our lives.
St. John Simachus tells us that humility is the only virtue that the devil cannot imitate. If pride made angels into demons, humility makes demons into angels. There is the story of Satan appearing to one of the desert monks. He kept appearing to him in the form of an angel of light giving him messages and trying to make him feel so special and proud. This monk continued living his life of simplicity and humility. After some time, the devil getting frustrated said to him, “all that you do, I can do; but the only thing you do that I cannot do is your humility.” The monk was able to resist the devil because of his humility.
Humble people are able to look at themselves and say; I have really made wrong choices. People who are not humble would always look for ways to justify away their mistakes. They always look for people to blame for their mistakes. They never appreciate others hard work.
We are told in the book of James 4:10 “if you humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, the lord will lift you up. “
There is a funny saying "Humility is a virtue all preach, none practice, and yet everybody is content to hear. The master thinks it good doctrine for his servant, the laity for the clergy, and the clergy for the laity."
Please pray with me if you know--Reinhold Niebuhr’s serenity prayer:-
God, grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
the courage to change the things I can;
and the wisdom to know the difference.
Living one day at a time;Enjoying one moment at a time; Accepting hardships as the pathway to peace; Taking, as He did, this sinful world as it is, not as I would have it; Trusting that He will make all things right if I surrender to His Will; That I may be reasonably happy in this life and supremely happy with HimForever in the next.
Amen.
Saturday, January 12, 2008
Christmas decoration in the church of St john the Martyr Catholic church by Fr Sunny John O.Carm.
Baptism of the Lord- 2008
My dear brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ,
In African countries the baptism of a child is usually followed by a happy reception where children are sure to eat rice. As a result, the baptism dress is sometimes referred to as your rice dress. Thinking of baptism easily makes people think of rice. And sometimes when you are talking of the rites of baptism, all they hear is the rice of baptism. Though the connection between baptism and rice is altogether accidental, let us utilize it as a memory aid for the meaning of baptism.
What does baptism mean? The meaning of baptism can be found in the four letters of the word RICE. R stands for Rebirth. In baptism we are born again by water and the Holy Spirit. We are cleansed from original sin and become sons and daughters of God in a special way. I stands for Initiation. At baptism we are initiated or admitted into full membership in the church, the community of the children of God in the world. C is for Consecration. In baptism we consecrate and dedicate ourselves to seek and to spread the kingdom of God. We commit ourselves to be servants of God, to do God’s will and serve God with our whole lives. And E is for Empowerment. At baptism the Holy Spirit comes into our lives and empowers us, equips us, gives us the moral strength to say no to evil and to live as God’s children that we have become.
The baptism of John is not like our baptism; it is not a sacramental baptism. We believe, of course, that we are conceived in Original Sin and that the primary effect of that sin, which is to bar us from eternal happiness, can be washed away only by sacramental baptism.
You may have a question arising in your mind or someone already asked you about: “Why would Jesus, Son of God, who never committed sin, who could not commit sin, why would he come for baptism? We know one thing; that was totally unnecessary for him. But it was a wonderful sign to everybody else.
There is only one possible answer: Jesus takes the place of the sinner; He identifies Himself with sinners; Jesus became just like us. By entering the waters to be baptized by John he was saying, "I am truly one of you. I am taking all of your sins upon myself. I have not sinned. I have come into this world to make possible your salvation."
He took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows. He stepped into the Jordan and received the baptism of repentance as if He were a sinner. There was a law in Tokyo around the year 1900 that no foreigner could take up residence there unless he had a "substitute." There were natives who hired themselves out for this purpose. If the foreigner broke any law, the substitute suffered the penalty for it, even if the penalty was death.
Jesus – in the Jordan, upon the cross, and in the grave – is our substitute. He took our place. He paid the penalty on our behalf. And, while He stands where a sinful people should be standing, He is identified as the Messiah: John the Baptist recognizes Him as such, the Spirit descends on Him, and God's voice from heaven says, "This is my Son."
There is so much theology, so much Church teaching in this very simple Gospel, for example, the teaching of the Trinity. We are told, "The heavens opened. The voice of God was heard from the heavens. There was a brilliant light. The dove appeared as the voice of God was being heard, 'This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.' “Commentators on the Scriptures say this is a clear sign of the Trinity, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. This, too, was an epiphany.
Scripture scholars speak of three epiphanies and this is the second of the three, that when Jesus went to be baptized he was revealed to be the Son of God by the voice of God his Father and the appearance of the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove. The first one you know the feast of the Epiphany when the Wise Men, the kings if they were that, came to visit Jesus after he had been born in Bethlehem.
Then there was a third epiphany when Jesus began his public life and went to a wedding feast in Cana to which Mary, Jesus and his followers had been invited.
There were three things happened in the gospel today:
1: heaven is opened for him
2: Descending of the Holy Spirit upon him
3: God the father is pleased and accepted as beloved son
These three things should happen when we pray; Heaven opened, anointing of the Holy Spirit and the voice from the Father.
To hear these three let me make two conditions; there is no condition from God.
a) Pray that our attitude will change even if our situation will be the same. Concrete example. When I moved here on July 2007, almost every day morning I have to see the homeless man in front of the church door and sometimes inside the church. I was really annoyed by that and ask them to move and looked at them badly. Then I prayed; the situation is same but now when I open the door he will be there to say good morning to me and if I pass him on the road he will make sure he greets me. So pray for a positive attitude towards our negative situation.
b) Forgive others and forget the wounds that costs by others. Let me give you a story. Two friends were walking through the desert. During some point of the journey, they had an argument; and one friend slapped the other one in the face. The one who got slapped was hurt, but without saying anything, wrote in the sand: Today my best friend slapped me in the face’. They kept on walking, until they found an oasis, where they decided to take a bath. The one who had been slapped got stuck in the mire and started drowning, but the friend saved him. After he recovered from the near drowning, he wrote on a stone: “Today my best friend saved my life”. The friend who had slapped and saved his best friend asked him, “after I hurt you, you wrote in the sand and now you write on a stone, why?” The friend replied “When someone hurts us we should write it down in sand, where winds of forgiveness can erase it away. But when someone does something good for us, we must engrave it in stone where no wind can ever erase it,” Learn to write your hurts in the sand and to carve your benefits in stone. People say; it takes minutes to find a special person, an hour to appreciate them, a day to love them, but then an entire life to forget them.
Then you will hear the voice of God and you will be empowered by the Holy Spirit and you will see the Heaven opened for you.
My dear brothers and sisters, Each one of us is beloved of God, no matter what we have done, no matter what our lives have been, no matter how many failures we feel we are guilty of, no matter how many sins we have committed, no matter how worthless we feel, no matter how we feel we have to conceal our true selves from others because we think we are no good inside. God loves every single one of us, no matter the past, no matter the present. God says, "This is my beloved son. This is my beloved daughter." I cannot think of anything more encouraging. You are my beloved son. You are my beloved daughter. God does not want you to be somebody else. God loves you because you are you, made in his image and likeness.
My dear brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ,
In African countries the baptism of a child is usually followed by a happy reception where children are sure to eat rice. As a result, the baptism dress is sometimes referred to as your rice dress. Thinking of baptism easily makes people think of rice. And sometimes when you are talking of the rites of baptism, all they hear is the rice of baptism. Though the connection between baptism and rice is altogether accidental, let us utilize it as a memory aid for the meaning of baptism.
What does baptism mean? The meaning of baptism can be found in the four letters of the word RICE. R stands for Rebirth. In baptism we are born again by water and the Holy Spirit. We are cleansed from original sin and become sons and daughters of God in a special way. I stands for Initiation. At baptism we are initiated or admitted into full membership in the church, the community of the children of God in the world. C is for Consecration. In baptism we consecrate and dedicate ourselves to seek and to spread the kingdom of God. We commit ourselves to be servants of God, to do God’s will and serve God with our whole lives. And E is for Empowerment. At baptism the Holy Spirit comes into our lives and empowers us, equips us, gives us the moral strength to say no to evil and to live as God’s children that we have become.
The baptism of John is not like our baptism; it is not a sacramental baptism. We believe, of course, that we are conceived in Original Sin and that the primary effect of that sin, which is to bar us from eternal happiness, can be washed away only by sacramental baptism.
You may have a question arising in your mind or someone already asked you about: “Why would Jesus, Son of God, who never committed sin, who could not commit sin, why would he come for baptism? We know one thing; that was totally unnecessary for him. But it was a wonderful sign to everybody else.
There is only one possible answer: Jesus takes the place of the sinner; He identifies Himself with sinners; Jesus became just like us. By entering the waters to be baptized by John he was saying, "I am truly one of you. I am taking all of your sins upon myself. I have not sinned. I have come into this world to make possible your salvation."
He took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows. He stepped into the Jordan and received the baptism of repentance as if He were a sinner. There was a law in Tokyo around the year 1900 that no foreigner could take up residence there unless he had a "substitute." There were natives who hired themselves out for this purpose. If the foreigner broke any law, the substitute suffered the penalty for it, even if the penalty was death.
Jesus – in the Jordan, upon the cross, and in the grave – is our substitute. He took our place. He paid the penalty on our behalf. And, while He stands where a sinful people should be standing, He is identified as the Messiah: John the Baptist recognizes Him as such, the Spirit descends on Him, and God's voice from heaven says, "This is my Son."
There is so much theology, so much Church teaching in this very simple Gospel, for example, the teaching of the Trinity. We are told, "The heavens opened. The voice of God was heard from the heavens. There was a brilliant light. The dove appeared as the voice of God was being heard, 'This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.' “Commentators on the Scriptures say this is a clear sign of the Trinity, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. This, too, was an epiphany.
Scripture scholars speak of three epiphanies and this is the second of the three, that when Jesus went to be baptized he was revealed to be the Son of God by the voice of God his Father and the appearance of the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove. The first one you know the feast of the Epiphany when the Wise Men, the kings if they were that, came to visit Jesus after he had been born in Bethlehem.
Then there was a third epiphany when Jesus began his public life and went to a wedding feast in Cana to which Mary, Jesus and his followers had been invited.
There were three things happened in the gospel today:
1: heaven is opened for him
2: Descending of the Holy Spirit upon him
3: God the father is pleased and accepted as beloved son
These three things should happen when we pray; Heaven opened, anointing of the Holy Spirit and the voice from the Father.
To hear these three let me make two conditions; there is no condition from God.
a) Pray that our attitude will change even if our situation will be the same. Concrete example. When I moved here on July 2007, almost every day morning I have to see the homeless man in front of the church door and sometimes inside the church. I was really annoyed by that and ask them to move and looked at them badly. Then I prayed; the situation is same but now when I open the door he will be there to say good morning to me and if I pass him on the road he will make sure he greets me. So pray for a positive attitude towards our negative situation.
b) Forgive others and forget the wounds that costs by others. Let me give you a story. Two friends were walking through the desert. During some point of the journey, they had an argument; and one friend slapped the other one in the face. The one who got slapped was hurt, but without saying anything, wrote in the sand: Today my best friend slapped me in the face’. They kept on walking, until they found an oasis, where they decided to take a bath. The one who had been slapped got stuck in the mire and started drowning, but the friend saved him. After he recovered from the near drowning, he wrote on a stone: “Today my best friend saved my life”. The friend who had slapped and saved his best friend asked him, “after I hurt you, you wrote in the sand and now you write on a stone, why?” The friend replied “When someone hurts us we should write it down in sand, where winds of forgiveness can erase it away. But when someone does something good for us, we must engrave it in stone where no wind can ever erase it,” Learn to write your hurts in the sand and to carve your benefits in stone. People say; it takes minutes to find a special person, an hour to appreciate them, a day to love them, but then an entire life to forget them.
Then you will hear the voice of God and you will be empowered by the Holy Spirit and you will see the Heaven opened for you.
My dear brothers and sisters, Each one of us is beloved of God, no matter what we have done, no matter what our lives have been, no matter how many failures we feel we are guilty of, no matter how many sins we have committed, no matter how worthless we feel, no matter how we feel we have to conceal our true selves from others because we think we are no good inside. God loves every single one of us, no matter the past, no matter the present. God says, "This is my beloved son. This is my beloved daughter." I cannot think of anything more encouraging. You are my beloved son. You are my beloved daughter. God does not want you to be somebody else. God loves you because you are you, made in his image and likeness.
Saturday, January 05, 2008
Feast of Epiphany of the Lord
My dear brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ,
There is a legend of the Robin bird. When Jesus was born in Bethlehem, many came to witness the divine event, having been led there by a wondrous star that came and shone over a humble place where the Holy Family rested. A little robin passing that night was also led to the stable by the star.
There the robin saw the glorious infant surrounded by worshippers. No one noticed the plain brown bird. By and by, when the visitors and Magi left, the baby slept, and Joseph built a fire to keep the family warm through the Night, But Joseph and Mary fell asleep and the fire died down.
Seeing this, the robin bird swooped in and fanned the fire with his wings until the coals began to blaze warmly again. His breast grew red with the heat, but he stayed until morning, keeping the fire aglow. Baby Jesus woke and smiled at the robin.
And that is why, today, the bird robin is known for its cherry red breast- a symbol of faithful service.
Today we celebrate the feast of Epiphany of the Lord.The word Epiphany comes from the Greek meaning “to appear” or “to be shown forth” According to Roman Catholic tradition, Epiphany signifies the first appearance of Christ to the gentiles in the story of the visit of the three wise men to the divine infant Jesus. As the three wise men represent all the known peoples of the world, this signifies an appearance to the entire world, not just a few who call themselves Christians. Sometimes the three men represent the three ages of youth, middle age, and old age, sometimes the three known continents. since there were three gifts, it was assumed that they were three. According to medieval legends, the three Wiseman were named Melchior Balthazar and Gaspar. Each of them came from a different culture: Melchior was Asian, Balthazar was Persian and Gaspar was Ethiopian, thus representing the three races known to the old world. These three priest-kings and wise men brought royal gifts to the divine infant: gold, frankincense and myrrh. Melchior brought a golden cup, which, according to legend, was preserved by the Blessed Virgin Mary and was the same cup used in the institution of the Holy Eucharist. Balthazar brought a gold box of frankincense. Gaspar brought a curiously chased flask of myrrh, royal embalming oil.
The reaction of the Magi is interesting too…… when they enter the presence of God… revealed in his humble baby in a manger… they immediately open up treasures chests filled with gifts…… this must be our reaction too, in the presence of God….. when we come before the presence of Jesus… we too must open up our hearts and offer God our gifts…… the response of a person to the revelation of God’s presence is one of openness, generosity and service………
He receives three mysterious gifts: gold, frankincense and myrrh. What do they signify?
Second century writer, Irenaeus of Lyon, gave the most likely interpretation: the gifts signify Jesus’ kingship, his Godhead and his sacrificial death. It is no surprise that gold, the most precious of metals, symbolizes royalty. Frankincense, an aromatic substance brought from far away Nubia, was burned before the Holy of Holies. It signifies Jesus’ divine nature. Myrrh, also brought from Africa, formed part of a preservative ointment. It represents Jesus’ sacrificial death.
The gift of gold symbolizes the kingship of Christ, which represents our own true royal Selfhood and our giving of love and service as directed and commanded by that Self. The gift of frankincense symbolizes the Godhead of Christ and our own gifts of honor and reverence to our indwelling Divinity. The gift of myrrh is a prophecy of the death and burial of the earthly body of Christ, which represents our understanding and empathy for the suffering of humanity.
The wise men’s journey of a thousand miles or more westwards from Persia which could have taken three months is really a symbol of the inward journey they made in their hearts, a journey from paganism to belief in Jesus as the Savior of the world. Indeed not just the wise men but all of us are on a journey to get closer to Jesus our Savior. Our journey may not be from reading stars and consulting horoscopes but we each are called to allow Jesus be Lord of each part of our lives, not just when it suits us. We each have a journey to make to Jesus because none of us is yet fully converted and each of us has corners in our hearts and lives in need of Jesus’ healing and redemption. Like the wise men we too are relying on the grace of God to lead us to the light of Jesus our Savior.
The Spanish poet Lope de Vega wrote about a beautiful poem about this. Its title is: La llegada de los reyes magos. The arrival of the Magi Kings. Lope de Vega describes how the star guided them in the dark night, but when they found Jesus, the stars faded.
You Kings, who come from the East,are searching the night skylooking at the their beautiful lights.
Do not follow them nowfor where the sun isthe stars have no light.
The Child shines upon you.And where the sun isthe stars have no light.
In the West, in the middle Ages the houses were blessed on Epiphany. Holy water was sprinkled in each room. The father of the house took the blessed chalk and wrote over every room that led outside: AD 20+C+M+B+08 which are for the Latin Christus Mansionem Benedicat (Christ bless this house). At the same time the letters are the first letters of the names of the wise men: Caspar, Melchior and Balthasar. which also stands for "Anno Domini 2008-- Caspar, Melchior, Balthasar" and means "The three Holy Kings, Caspar, Melchior, Balthasar, in the year of Our Lord, 2008" or whatever the year may be. This tradition of blessing the doorways symbolizes the family's commitment to welcome Christ into their homes on a daily basis through the year.
The quest of the Magi reminds us that God is truly with us. Sometimes during our journey, clarity disappears and we begin to doubt. Let us remember that Jesus is always with us. He is Emmanuel, God with us. Like the shining star, He is present in the tabernacle, just as He was present in the manger of Bethlehem. Let us go Him and Bless and adore him today.
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
My dear brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ,
There is a legend of the Robin bird. When Jesus was born in Bethlehem, many came to witness the divine event, having been led there by a wondrous star that came and shone over a humble place where the Holy Family rested. A little robin passing that night was also led to the stable by the star.
There the robin saw the glorious infant surrounded by worshippers. No one noticed the plain brown bird. By and by, when the visitors and Magi left, the baby slept, and Joseph built a fire to keep the family warm through the Night, But Joseph and Mary fell asleep and the fire died down.
Seeing this, the robin bird swooped in and fanned the fire with his wings until the coals began to blaze warmly again. His breast grew red with the heat, but he stayed until morning, keeping the fire aglow. Baby Jesus woke and smiled at the robin.
And that is why, today, the bird robin is known for its cherry red breast- a symbol of faithful service.
Today we celebrate the feast of Epiphany of the Lord.The word Epiphany comes from the Greek meaning “to appear” or “to be shown forth” According to Roman Catholic tradition, Epiphany signifies the first appearance of Christ to the gentiles in the story of the visit of the three wise men to the divine infant Jesus. As the three wise men represent all the known peoples of the world, this signifies an appearance to the entire world, not just a few who call themselves Christians. Sometimes the three men represent the three ages of youth, middle age, and old age, sometimes the three known continents. since there were three gifts, it was assumed that they were three. According to medieval legends, the three Wiseman were named Melchior Balthazar and Gaspar. Each of them came from a different culture: Melchior was Asian, Balthazar was Persian and Gaspar was Ethiopian, thus representing the three races known to the old world. These three priest-kings and wise men brought royal gifts to the divine infant: gold, frankincense and myrrh. Melchior brought a golden cup, which, according to legend, was preserved by the Blessed Virgin Mary and was the same cup used in the institution of the Holy Eucharist. Balthazar brought a gold box of frankincense. Gaspar brought a curiously chased flask of myrrh, royal embalming oil.
The reaction of the Magi is interesting too…… when they enter the presence of God… revealed in his humble baby in a manger… they immediately open up treasures chests filled with gifts…… this must be our reaction too, in the presence of God….. when we come before the presence of Jesus… we too must open up our hearts and offer God our gifts…… the response of a person to the revelation of God’s presence is one of openness, generosity and service………
He receives three mysterious gifts: gold, frankincense and myrrh. What do they signify?
Second century writer, Irenaeus of Lyon, gave the most likely interpretation: the gifts signify Jesus’ kingship, his Godhead and his sacrificial death. It is no surprise that gold, the most precious of metals, symbolizes royalty. Frankincense, an aromatic substance brought from far away Nubia, was burned before the Holy of Holies. It signifies Jesus’ divine nature. Myrrh, also brought from Africa, formed part of a preservative ointment. It represents Jesus’ sacrificial death.
The gift of gold symbolizes the kingship of Christ, which represents our own true royal Selfhood and our giving of love and service as directed and commanded by that Self. The gift of frankincense symbolizes the Godhead of Christ and our own gifts of honor and reverence to our indwelling Divinity. The gift of myrrh is a prophecy of the death and burial of the earthly body of Christ, which represents our understanding and empathy for the suffering of humanity.
The wise men’s journey of a thousand miles or more westwards from Persia which could have taken three months is really a symbol of the inward journey they made in their hearts, a journey from paganism to belief in Jesus as the Savior of the world. Indeed not just the wise men but all of us are on a journey to get closer to Jesus our Savior. Our journey may not be from reading stars and consulting horoscopes but we each are called to allow Jesus be Lord of each part of our lives, not just when it suits us. We each have a journey to make to Jesus because none of us is yet fully converted and each of us has corners in our hearts and lives in need of Jesus’ healing and redemption. Like the wise men we too are relying on the grace of God to lead us to the light of Jesus our Savior.
The Spanish poet Lope de Vega wrote about a beautiful poem about this. Its title is: La llegada de los reyes magos. The arrival of the Magi Kings. Lope de Vega describes how the star guided them in the dark night, but when they found Jesus, the stars faded.
You Kings, who come from the East,are searching the night skylooking at the their beautiful lights.
Do not follow them nowfor where the sun isthe stars have no light.
The Child shines upon you.And where the sun isthe stars have no light.
In the West, in the middle Ages the houses were blessed on Epiphany. Holy water was sprinkled in each room. The father of the house took the blessed chalk and wrote over every room that led outside: AD 20+C+M+B+08 which are for the Latin Christus Mansionem Benedicat (Christ bless this house). At the same time the letters are the first letters of the names of the wise men: Caspar, Melchior and Balthasar. which also stands for "Anno Domini 2008-- Caspar, Melchior, Balthasar" and means "The three Holy Kings, Caspar, Melchior, Balthasar, in the year of Our Lord, 2008" or whatever the year may be. This tradition of blessing the doorways symbolizes the family's commitment to welcome Christ into their homes on a daily basis through the year.
The quest of the Magi reminds us that God is truly with us. Sometimes during our journey, clarity disappears and we begin to doubt. Let us remember that Jesus is always with us. He is Emmanuel, God with us. Like the shining star, He is present in the tabernacle, just as He was present in the manger of Bethlehem. Let us go Him and Bless and adore him today.
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
Friday, January 04, 2008
Ordination day and the Feast of John Neumann
My Priestly Anniversary and the Feast of John Neumann
A priest’s vocation is to bless, absolve, and teach. These are not acts, but part of an attitude. We are to be present in the world in such a way that those we meet feel absolved without asking for absolution, feel blessed without asking for blessing, feel instructed without asking for teaching. And this attitude needs to be so intrinsic to our beings that there is never a moment of time when we are not this way. "From this task of absolving and blessing, both implicitly and explicitly, of living an absolving existence and a blessing existence, there are no days off, no vacations, no remissions.
Today I am celebrating eleventh anniversary of my Ordination. On January 5th, 1997, I was ordained to the priesthood.
There is a humorous story about a conversation between a recently ordained priest and his elderly pastor. Actually, it was a heated argument about a pastoral issue. In exasperation the pastor finally said, "Don't argue with me. I've had forty years experience as a priest."
The young priest looked at him and said. "No you haven't. You haven't had forty years experience. You had one year's experience and you repeated forty times!"
Well, I admit there has been much repetition in these past one decade:
But I always ask myself: What is required to be a happy priest? Or to be more precise, what can I do to be a happier priest?
St. John gives us one of the keys to happiness. When people came out to the desert to hear him, they asked John, "What should we do?" He replied that the person who had two cloaks should share with the one who has none. In some ways, that is pretty obvious advice. One of the keys to happiness is to share - or give away - as much as possible.
Of course, financial giving must always be accompanied by a deeper giving. St. Vincent de Paul said, "It is for your love alone that the poor will forgive you the bread you give them." To be able to give to another - whether materially or spiritually - is a great privilege. And we must always be open to receiving. No one is so rich that he has nothing to receive - and no one is so poor that he has nothing to give. I imagine that the man who had two cloaks thought of himself as poor: one cloak to wear and one cloak to wash. But St. John told him to give to the person who has none.
So as I speak to you on this day, the anniversary of the day when I celebrated my first Mass, I think I would like to say that the life of a priest is, can and should be a worthy one and a happy one. I have never regretted my decision to be a priest. I hope and trust the Lord will give me grace to persevere to the end. I believe that the vocation of a priest is a precious gift for the Church. But it makes demands on the man who gives himself to it. St. Paul says in his letter to the Thessalonians, that he “handed over to God’s people and to the Church, not only the Good News, but his whole life as well”. (1 Thess. 2:8). That is what a priest is called to do. He must in an extraordinary way ‘put on Christ’, be like Him. By his words and example he must show Christ to others. There is a little passage from St. Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians, “Glory be to Him whose power, working in us, can do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine” (Eph. 3:20). I ask you, my dear sisters and brothers, to pray with me and for me to the good God who can do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine. He loves his Church. He loves his people. And he loves this world for which his Son, Jesus, gave his life.
Saint John Neumann
This American saint was born in Prachatitz, Bohemia (Czech Republic) in 1811. He was taken the same day to the parish church, baptized and named for one of the patron saints of his homeland, John Nepomucene.
In addition to his native German and Bohemian, he knew Italian, Spanish, Greek and Latin. In Prague, he undertook to learn English and French as well. In later life, he taught himself Gaelic in order to minister to Irish immigrants.
He was looking forward to being ordained in 1835 when the bishop decided there would be no more ordinations. It is difficult to imagine now, but Bohemia was overstocked with priests. John wrote to bishops all over Europe but the story was the same everywhere - no one wanted any more bishops. John was sure he was called to be a priest but all the doors to follow that vocation seemed to close in his face.
John didn’t give up. He was inspired by the missionary writings of Bishop Frederic Baraga in America, and because he had learned English by working in a factory with English-speaking workers, he wrote to the bishops in America. Finally, the bishop in New York agreed to ordain him. In order to follow God's call to the priesthood, John would have to leave his home forever and travel across the ocean to a new and rugged land.
John was appointed bishop of Philadelphia in 1852. Bishop John Neumann chose the motto of “Passion of Christ strengthen me” in his Coat of Arms. As bishop, he was the first to organize a diocesan Catholic school system.
John never lost his love and concern for the people. In 1860, John Nepomucene Neumann died due to a stroke at the age of 48 while walking down a street in Philadelphia. He was canonized by Pope Paul VI on June 19, 1977, and became the first American bishop to be so honored.
A priest’s vocation is to bless, absolve, and teach. These are not acts, but part of an attitude. We are to be present in the world in such a way that those we meet feel absolved without asking for absolution, feel blessed without asking for blessing, feel instructed without asking for teaching. And this attitude needs to be so intrinsic to our beings that there is never a moment of time when we are not this way. "From this task of absolving and blessing, both implicitly and explicitly, of living an absolving existence and a blessing existence, there are no days off, no vacations, no remissions.
Today I am celebrating eleventh anniversary of my Ordination. On January 5th, 1997, I was ordained to the priesthood.
There is a humorous story about a conversation between a recently ordained priest and his elderly pastor. Actually, it was a heated argument about a pastoral issue. In exasperation the pastor finally said, "Don't argue with me. I've had forty years experience as a priest."
The young priest looked at him and said. "No you haven't. You haven't had forty years experience. You had one year's experience and you repeated forty times!"
Well, I admit there has been much repetition in these past one decade:
But I always ask myself: What is required to be a happy priest? Or to be more precise, what can I do to be a happier priest?
St. John gives us one of the keys to happiness. When people came out to the desert to hear him, they asked John, "What should we do?" He replied that the person who had two cloaks should share with the one who has none. In some ways, that is pretty obvious advice. One of the keys to happiness is to share - or give away - as much as possible.
Of course, financial giving must always be accompanied by a deeper giving. St. Vincent de Paul said, "It is for your love alone that the poor will forgive you the bread you give them." To be able to give to another - whether materially or spiritually - is a great privilege. And we must always be open to receiving. No one is so rich that he has nothing to receive - and no one is so poor that he has nothing to give. I imagine that the man who had two cloaks thought of himself as poor: one cloak to wear and one cloak to wash. But St. John told him to give to the person who has none.
So as I speak to you on this day, the anniversary of the day when I celebrated my first Mass, I think I would like to say that the life of a priest is, can and should be a worthy one and a happy one. I have never regretted my decision to be a priest. I hope and trust the Lord will give me grace to persevere to the end. I believe that the vocation of a priest is a precious gift for the Church. But it makes demands on the man who gives himself to it. St. Paul says in his letter to the Thessalonians, that he “handed over to God’s people and to the Church, not only the Good News, but his whole life as well”. (1 Thess. 2:8). That is what a priest is called to do. He must in an extraordinary way ‘put on Christ’, be like Him. By his words and example he must show Christ to others. There is a little passage from St. Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians, “Glory be to Him whose power, working in us, can do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine” (Eph. 3:20). I ask you, my dear sisters and brothers, to pray with me and for me to the good God who can do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine. He loves his Church. He loves his people. And he loves this world for which his Son, Jesus, gave his life.
Saint John Neumann
This American saint was born in Prachatitz, Bohemia (Czech Republic) in 1811. He was taken the same day to the parish church, baptized and named for one of the patron saints of his homeland, John Nepomucene.
In addition to his native German and Bohemian, he knew Italian, Spanish, Greek and Latin. In Prague, he undertook to learn English and French as well. In later life, he taught himself Gaelic in order to minister to Irish immigrants.
He was looking forward to being ordained in 1835 when the bishop decided there would be no more ordinations. It is difficult to imagine now, but Bohemia was overstocked with priests. John wrote to bishops all over Europe but the story was the same everywhere - no one wanted any more bishops. John was sure he was called to be a priest but all the doors to follow that vocation seemed to close in his face.
John didn’t give up. He was inspired by the missionary writings of Bishop Frederic Baraga in America, and because he had learned English by working in a factory with English-speaking workers, he wrote to the bishops in America. Finally, the bishop in New York agreed to ordain him. In order to follow God's call to the priesthood, John would have to leave his home forever and travel across the ocean to a new and rugged land.
John was appointed bishop of Philadelphia in 1852. Bishop John Neumann chose the motto of “Passion of Christ strengthen me” in his Coat of Arms. As bishop, he was the first to organize a diocesan Catholic school system.
John never lost his love and concern for the people. In 1860, John Nepomucene Neumann died due to a stroke at the age of 48 while walking down a street in Philadelphia. He was canonized by Pope Paul VI on June 19, 1977, and became the first American bishop to be so honored.
Tuesday, January 01, 2008
Happy New Year 2008
Happy New Year my dear brothers and sisters,
The name "January" comes from the Roman god Janus, the god with two faces, one looking to the past and the other looking to the future. This is indeed a time to look back at the year 2007 that has just ended and to look forward to the New Year 2008 ahead of us.
There are people who tell you that there is no point making New Year resolutions. Do not believe them. We must set goals and make resolutions as a necessary conclusion to our review of the past year. And we do need to review our lives from year to year because, as Socrates says, the unexamined life is not worth living.
I have five suggestions for the New Year for all of us. First one is; we try to learn something. Look at the year past. Did you learn anything? In the movie “Rudy” a priest is saying; “In my thirty years as a priest, I have learned two things. There is a God and it’s not me.” That’s not a bad lesson for all of us. Try to learn something from the year past.
The second thing I would suggest is to see if you can let go of a lot of garbage (resentments, angers, what if, if-only). You can’t let go of it. I remember the story of a lady who moved from her small apartment to a brand new house and the movers came in and they said, “What do you want to move?” And she said, “Take everything.” They took her seriously. When she moved into her beautiful new house there was trash. There was garbage. There were orange peels. There were empty bottles. There were old newspapers. They took everything and they moved it along to her new house. Don’t take everything into the New Year. See if you can let go of some of the garbage.
Getting rid of all the old, hung-onto, grief and grievances is like you feel lighter, the world brighter and you, more in control. You just feel incredibly free and relieved. Sing with me if you know this small song:
Let go and Let God has its wonderful way; Let go and Let God has its way;
Your sorrows will vanish, your nights turn to day; Let go and Let God has its way.
Thirdly, look forward to a lot. Our world, we ourselves have a long way to go. And look forward to it with hope.
Fourthly start and live every single day with happiness and joy.
How many times did you hear Happy New Year today? How many times did you give that same greeting to others? Was it just a conventional greeting or was it a real wish? In other words is it really possible to find happiness in the New Year?
It would be a mistake, of course, to expect perfect happiness this year or any year in this life. As St. Augustine said, “Lord, you have made us for yourself and our hearts are restless until they rest in Thee.” But there is a deep, lasting peace that everyone can have in this life.
Happiness consists not in amassing possessions. If things could make people happy, Americans would be the happiest people in the world. We have more things than any other generation. Unfortunately we begin by possessing things and end up with things possessing us. It is the desire, the craving for things we do not have that causes so much unhappiness. We are supposed to love people and use things. In our affluent society we turn that around and love things and use people to get the things we love.
We cannot find happiness by seeking it. The fact of the matter is, the moment you seek it you lose it. Happiness is always a by-product, green stamps, and lagniappe (lan-yap).
But what is happiness a by-product of? What is it that has happiness as a side effect? The answer is to be found in Bethlehem. Let us go to Bethlehem to see what it is. Look into the cave. Take your eyes away from the beautiful babe wrapped in swaddling clothes lying in the manger and look around. There is none of those things in which we seek happiness. There is no riches, no fame, no power, no conveniences, no pleasure, nothing but an empty, cold cave on the outskirts of town.
Now look at Mary and Joseph kneeling before the manger. They must be tired. They have traveled 75 miles or so from Nazareth to Bethlehem on foot and on the jolting back of a donkey. They must be very hungry. They haven’t had a real meal since they left Nazareth some 3 days ago. They must be cold in this damp cave in the midst of winter. It must have been very humiliating for them to discover no room among their relatives in their ancestral home or at the village Inn.
Yet in the midst of all of this, Mary and Joseph are the happiest people to walk the face of this earth. Here in Bethlehem they are teaching us the amazing paradox that it is only when we lose ourselves in the love and service of Jesus do we find happiness. Happiness that this world can never give and no one can take from us. But how can we lose ourselves in the love and service of Jesus? Jesus has made it very simple, “Whatever you do for one of these least brethren you do for me.”
And finally, do not close the heart but pray for the light. Let us take a real example. You are here listening to me; I am certain most of you are not following me because of my Indian accent and poor English. You have two options; one you can open your heart and listen and after few minutes or times you could follow; or you can close your heart totally and start reading the bulletin or go out and have a cup of coffee. It is same in our families; we could either listen to them and can change our attitude or we can close our heart and keep the revenge.
Yes dear brothers and sisters, and that is what the New Year is all about . . . the clean mind and the open heart. .. And the new life that Jesus gave to us. So I wish you a very happy, joyous, healthy and blessed New Year: may we all live our lives to the fullest degree, rejoicing in the great gift of newness and renewal that Christ’s birth brings to us each year.
A M E N.
Happy New Year my dear brothers and sisters,
The name "January" comes from the Roman god Janus, the god with two faces, one looking to the past and the other looking to the future. This is indeed a time to look back at the year 2007 that has just ended and to look forward to the New Year 2008 ahead of us.
There are people who tell you that there is no point making New Year resolutions. Do not believe them. We must set goals and make resolutions as a necessary conclusion to our review of the past year. And we do need to review our lives from year to year because, as Socrates says, the unexamined life is not worth living.
I have five suggestions for the New Year for all of us. First one is; we try to learn something. Look at the year past. Did you learn anything? In the movie “Rudy” a priest is saying; “In my thirty years as a priest, I have learned two things. There is a God and it’s not me.” That’s not a bad lesson for all of us. Try to learn something from the year past.
The second thing I would suggest is to see if you can let go of a lot of garbage (resentments, angers, what if, if-only). You can’t let go of it. I remember the story of a lady who moved from her small apartment to a brand new house and the movers came in and they said, “What do you want to move?” And she said, “Take everything.” They took her seriously. When she moved into her beautiful new house there was trash. There was garbage. There were orange peels. There were empty bottles. There were old newspapers. They took everything and they moved it along to her new house. Don’t take everything into the New Year. See if you can let go of some of the garbage.
Getting rid of all the old, hung-onto, grief and grievances is like you feel lighter, the world brighter and you, more in control. You just feel incredibly free and relieved. Sing with me if you know this small song:
Let go and Let God has its wonderful way; Let go and Let God has its way;
Your sorrows will vanish, your nights turn to day; Let go and Let God has its way.
Thirdly, look forward to a lot. Our world, we ourselves have a long way to go. And look forward to it with hope.
Fourthly start and live every single day with happiness and joy.
How many times did you hear Happy New Year today? How many times did you give that same greeting to others? Was it just a conventional greeting or was it a real wish? In other words is it really possible to find happiness in the New Year?
It would be a mistake, of course, to expect perfect happiness this year or any year in this life. As St. Augustine said, “Lord, you have made us for yourself and our hearts are restless until they rest in Thee.” But there is a deep, lasting peace that everyone can have in this life.
Happiness consists not in amassing possessions. If things could make people happy, Americans would be the happiest people in the world. We have more things than any other generation. Unfortunately we begin by possessing things and end up with things possessing us. It is the desire, the craving for things we do not have that causes so much unhappiness. We are supposed to love people and use things. In our affluent society we turn that around and love things and use people to get the things we love.
We cannot find happiness by seeking it. The fact of the matter is, the moment you seek it you lose it. Happiness is always a by-product, green stamps, and lagniappe (lan-yap).
But what is happiness a by-product of? What is it that has happiness as a side effect? The answer is to be found in Bethlehem. Let us go to Bethlehem to see what it is. Look into the cave. Take your eyes away from the beautiful babe wrapped in swaddling clothes lying in the manger and look around. There is none of those things in which we seek happiness. There is no riches, no fame, no power, no conveniences, no pleasure, nothing but an empty, cold cave on the outskirts of town.
Now look at Mary and Joseph kneeling before the manger. They must be tired. They have traveled 75 miles or so from Nazareth to Bethlehem on foot and on the jolting back of a donkey. They must be very hungry. They haven’t had a real meal since they left Nazareth some 3 days ago. They must be cold in this damp cave in the midst of winter. It must have been very humiliating for them to discover no room among their relatives in their ancestral home or at the village Inn.
Yet in the midst of all of this, Mary and Joseph are the happiest people to walk the face of this earth. Here in Bethlehem they are teaching us the amazing paradox that it is only when we lose ourselves in the love and service of Jesus do we find happiness. Happiness that this world can never give and no one can take from us. But how can we lose ourselves in the love and service of Jesus? Jesus has made it very simple, “Whatever you do for one of these least brethren you do for me.”
And finally, do not close the heart but pray for the light. Let us take a real example. You are here listening to me; I am certain most of you are not following me because of my Indian accent and poor English. You have two options; one you can open your heart and listen and after few minutes or times you could follow; or you can close your heart totally and start reading the bulletin or go out and have a cup of coffee. It is same in our families; we could either listen to them and can change our attitude or we can close our heart and keep the revenge.
Yes dear brothers and sisters, and that is what the New Year is all about . . . the clean mind and the open heart. .. And the new life that Jesus gave to us. So I wish you a very happy, joyous, healthy and blessed New Year: may we all live our lives to the fullest degree, rejoicing in the great gift of newness and renewal that Christ’s birth brings to us each year.
A M E N.
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