Good morning/evening everyone. I am so happy to welcome you all. Our special welcome to all our summer parishioners, cottagers, visitors and everyone who is here today, I would also thank you all for coming out today to celebrate Christ. Dear friends every time we come to church, Jesus the sower sows the word of God in us and every time we come to church, He makes the words of God that are sown in us to grow and multiple as thirty, sixty and hundred fold and every time we come here, He makes us laborers of His harvest to go out and help people to know His love and kindness.
In today’s gospel, Jesus says that the words of God like seed are sown in every one of us and according to our reception of them; they grow and multiply in us.
One day a news reporter went to a remote village to interview a man and saw the man sitting in the morning at home smoking and drinking. The news reporter asked, “ please tell me the secret for your living long without having any physical or mental problems” The man said, I live long because I drink and smoke and have fun and I do not worry about anything. The reporter looked at him and said, “you look so old, May I know how old you are? The man who spent his whole life enjoying such as drinking and smoking and not doing anything said, “I am thirty-six”
There are people today live without any aim or spiritual goal and they are like pathway. The words of God may fall in them, but without any use. They disappear without any use.
And there are people like rocky ground, when they hear the word of God, they became so happy and want to do something but when little challenges come along, they leave behind the words of God and disappear.
Once a woman from different denomination came to me and said, ‘father, I would like to be catholic and we taught her the basic things about Christianity. Jesus in His whole life taught about only two things namely divine love and His forgiveness. After a year, she became catholic and she was so happy to come to church for three weekends and then one day she came to me and said, “I don’t want to be catholic anymore and I asked her why. All she said was, I don’t like that lady and that person” and then she never came back.
These people are like rocky ground; they might receive the word of God but without any use.
And words of God do fall on thorny bush too. They get rooted and begin to grow well but before they bring fruits, they are soaked by worldly pleasures and material things and they disappear.
Once a spiritual master was asked by some villagers to send a priest to their village and the master instead of sending one priest, sent four. The other disciple who saw what the master was doing asked him, ‘Master, why do you send four but they asked only one”. The master said wait and see. While all the four were traveling, one priest left his priesthood and went home and the other thought it was hard, so he also gave up and the other thought he wanted to do something different and finally only one reached the village.
One day a man shared his experience saying when I was young I was an alcoholic and my family, children and friends expected me to change but I could not. I used to practice my faith but I was not liked very much and I left the church too. Then one day I met a man who became a good friend to me. And I shared my stories and he said. “I don’t want to change and I accept you as you are. There I felt a great change in me. Yes, everything changed in me”. We all change and become new when we feel accepted and forgiven. Let us not judge others but accept them as they are. They will change too. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment