6^th Sunday of Easter

Introduction:

Good morning/evening everyone. I am so happy to welcome you all to celebrate today’s holy Mass and our special welcome to all our visitors and cottagers. I would like to thank you all for coming out today to deepen your faith in Christ our Lord who was, who is and who will be.

In today’s gospel, Jesus tells His disciples that He is going to the Father; He will send another advocate-the Paraclete and then He asks them to keep His commandments.

1. He is going to the Father. We come to know from the gospels how much the disciples were suffering without Christ. When Christ was crucified, they thought that the story was over. They thought that He would not come back to life. They were sad and insecure. They were hiding behind locked doors for the fear of authorities and others. They did not go out publicly. They did everything hidden. Then on the third day, Christ our Lord appeared to them saying, “peace be with you”. He breathed on them the Spirit. They were so happy and there was a celebration called the Alleluia festival. But their happiness did not last forever. Now Christ is talking to them about His going to the Father, His departure. They all became sad again. But Christ is saying that they will not be abandoned.


2. He will send another advocate: Jesus says that He will not leave them as orphans but send another advocate-the Paraclete. One day the explorer of South Pole called his wife and said, “I will not return home until I discover the end of the world. Now I am taking this homing pigeon with me. Once I discover the end of the world, I will let this come home. When you see this pigeon, you know that I am alive and reached the end of the world. His wife waited for many many years and nothing happened. Then one day while she was looking out the kitchen window, there she saw the pigeon flying high circling the sky. She screamed saying, “My husband is alive. My husband is alive”. The bible talks about the Holy Spirit in the form of dove. But it is more than a mere communicator. When Jesus was baptized, the Holy Spirit in the form of dove came upon His and there came a voice saying, “this is my beloved son listen to Him’. Jesus is talking about the same Spirit today. What is a Paraclete? Paraclete is also called advocate, counselor, helper, guide and so on. The Paraclete is the one who stands beside. Yes, the Holy Spirit helps us to know and love God and humanity. The Holy Spirit guides us to know what Jesus did and taught. He fills us with wisdom and knowledge, understanding and right judgment.


3. He asks us to keep His commands; one day a manager from a big corporation called his six executives and said, “I am leaving this job in six months. Yes, I am going on pension and before that I would like to appoint one of you to this managing director position”. They said, ‘what about your sons or your wife”. He said this job needs qualification and education. And I see good qualification and high education that you all have and one of you deserve to be the managing director of this company but before that I am going to have a small test. Yes, I am going to test you. They were all excited and then he giving them each a plant pot saying, “I sowed a potential seed in each pot. And whoever water regularly and make it grow well will get the job”. They all thought that he was going to test them with they educational qualification and potentially but not thinking to grow a plant. So they all tried their best and after six weeks they all came to him with their grown plant. They were all looking so beautiful and gorgeous except one. He did not have any plant in his pot. They director looked at him and asked him why. He said as you commanded I did everything but nothing came up. Then he looked others pot, they had grown beautiful tall plants blooming. He finally said, ‘I am offering the managing director position to the man who did not grow any plant because the pot I gave you did not have any seed at all and you all in order to impress me did so many things but this man kept what I said. Today so many people instead of doing what Jesus said, they run from place to place to know more of God and they then end with nothing. But if we keep His golden commandments of loving god and neighbors then we will be given life that will never end.Conclusion: Jesus is going away not to leave us as orphans but to send the Holy Spirit who will teach us everything. So let us keep the commandments of Christ and thus enter into the kingdom of God. Amen.

I AM THE WAY THE TRUTH AND THE LIFE

Dear friends in Jesus Christ,

In today’s gospel, once of His apostles St. Thomas asks Jesus, “Jesus you say you are going to go away from us and how can we know the way to follow you?’

Jesus then looking at all His disciples says, “I am the way, the truth and the life”.

I am the way

We all often ask the question, “What is the way?” there are two ways the good way or the bad way. When we choose the good way that is Jesus, it leads us to life and happiness.

One day a man while walking on seashore, noticed a boy ahead of him picking up starfish and throwing into the sea. The man reached the boy and asked what he was doing. The boy said, “I am saving the lives of these star fish”. The man laughed at the boy and said, ‘look at here, there are so many starfish on the shore and how can you say that you are making a difference throwing starfish into the sea?’ the boy said throwing a starfish into the sea, “I make a difference to this starfish”.

When we come to Jesus, our life will be so different and be blessed. We not only find a way in Christ, we ourselves become a way to so many people in this world. No one can go to the father except through Him. Jesus alone is the way. He is the Alpha and the Omega, yes; He is the beginning and the end. Nothing can exist without Him. When we abide in Him, we will have more of everything.
I am the truth

Jesus our Lord says that He is the truth. What is truth? We who believe in Christ and we who come to church and practice our faith know that the word of God is truth and Jesus is the word of God that means He is the truth. The word of God can be heard only when we open our hearts and minds to the love of God our father.

When Jesus said to Pilate that He came to witness the truth, Pilate asked Him, ‘what is truth?” Christ is the truth.

One day four blind people tried to know how an elephant would look like. The first blind man by touching its legs said, “it looks like pillars and another by touching its ear said it looks like a fan and the four touching different parts of the elephant came to different conclusions. That is way we too understand truth, because of our limited knowledge and wisdom, by our limited understanding and language we come to conclusion of different things and say that is the truth. But Jesus is the only truth and by believing and giving ourselves to Him, we not only find the truth but we become truth for many.

I am the life

We all ask the meaning of life and our own existence. What is life? Life can by understood only by living. Yes, life can be understood only by living in Jesus Christ.

From the life story of St. Augustine we can understand. He went everywhere to find the meaning of life and he spent everything that He had to find life but he never found and one day when he opened the Bible, there He found life. Yes life begins and completes only in Christ. There will be no life without Christ. He is the life. No one can say that he or she lived a complete life without Christ. Christ completes our life.

Conclusion:

As we celebrate Christ who is the way, the truth and life, let us deepen our faith in Him. Let us again and again go to Jesus like Thomas and other apostle and ask Him what we need and He will fulfill everything with compassion and love. Amen.

Third sunday in Easter

Easter third Sunday

Welcome everyone to celebrate the third Sunday in Easter. I would like to thank you all to come out to celebrate life and happiness, to celebrate faith and forgiveness.

In today’s gospel, we meet with the two disciples of our Lord Jesus Christ on the way to Emmaus. They looked sad and unhappy; they looked distressed and low. But they were still talking to each other and every time they talked their sadness increased. While they were talking, a mysterious man came along and joined them asking, “ what are you talking about and why are you looking sad”. Then they explained how they lost their Master and Lord. They said, “We hoped we would save us and others. We thought He was our Messiah and Lord”. Then the stranger explained to them everything from the Old Testament to the New Testament. He explained to them why it was so necessary that the Messiah should suffer, die and on the third day rise again. He opened their minds and hearts. He opened them to reality. And then while He was breaking the bread, they recognized that the stranger was not a stranger at all, the mystery man was not a mystery man at all. He was their Master and Lord. He was their good shepherd and God. Then the Master vanished from their eyes but their heart, soul, mind and body was filled with Christ alone.

They said to each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us? Were not we so happy and satisfied in His presence?

Dear friends when we are sad and unhappy. When we are in need and in trouble, we are not alone, Christ will come to us and He will fill us with His love and kindness. And God gave us all another earthly person to understand and help us in our need yes that wonderful and beautiful creature is called, “Mother”.

Mothers are God sent. The growth of a family, society and a nation mostly depend on mothers. Out of perfection only perfection comes out and from a good mother there comes out only good children.

One day three children decided to send beautiful gifts to their mother on mother’s day. So the first son bought a beautiful big house and the second son bought a BMW car and the third son got a parrot that could recite the whole bible upside down. All you have to do is just say Matthew gospel chapter 25, the parrot would say how Jesus would come to judge the world.

Few days later the mother sent thank you notes to each of her children. To the first son she said, “son, I am getting old and I can not maintain a big house. So I cannot accept your gift. But thank you for your kind thought. To the second son, she said son, as you know I am not driving anymore and I cannot accept your BMW. Anyhow thank you very much. She then wrote a long letter to the third son saying, “son you are the best and you understand what a mother want. You know I am a religious person. Thank you for all your prayers and the mother’s day gift. Son the world needs people like you who can help others to know God and His kindness. Thank you very much for your gift. Then she wrote son by the way… the bird was so so delicious”.

The gospel says that Jesus experienced love and kindness at home. His mother Mary looked after Him well. When He disappeared at the temple in Jerusalem, His parents were distressed and His mother asked Him, “why did you do this to us?” Mary influenced Him in man ways. The bible says by listening to His parents, Jesus grew in wisdom and knowledge and he was found favor with God and people.

Mothers play a vital role in the growth of children. They make everything come true for their children and their sacrifice and suffering bring happiness and joy in their children. They influence their children greatly. The first miracle of Christ was done by the influence of His mother Mary at Cana of Galilee.

As we celebrate mother’s day let us pray to God for our mothers and ask God to protect and keep them safe.