The parable of the two sons

Good morning/evening every one. I am so happy to welcome you all for today’s Holy Mass. My special welcome to all our parishioners, summer parishioners, visitors and every one who is here today, and I would also like to thank you all for coming out to celebrate today’s Holy Mass. Dear friends, every time we come to Church, we celebrate Christ who said “yes” to His Father to come down to be with us and every time we come to Church, we say “yes” to God our Father and every time we come to Church we help out brothers and sisters in need to say, “yes” to Jesus who loves us unconditionally.
Once a man saw an ad in the newspaper for a job in a zoo and he got the job dressing like a monkey and was entertaining people. Everything went well for several months. And one day he was so happy and jumped up and fell into the lion’s cage. He was so frightened and was praying to God saying, “God, please save me and I will come back to church and do everything well” and he became to cry. The lion that was so furious looked at him and said, “Do not shout. We both will lose our job”.
dear friends, in today’s gospel our Lord Jesus Christ tells the parable of the two sons. He said to the first son, “Son, go and work in the vineyard and he said that he would not go and then he changed his mind and went. The father said the same thing to the other son and he gladly accepted but he did not go.
Once an old rabbi was dying and all his disciples came to him and were talking great things about him. One disciple said, ‘His wisdom can be compared to that of Solomon. This man always did everything well and helped people to have right judgment. Then another disciple said, “His faith is equal to that of Abraham. Because of his faith filled preaching, many people came back to God and then another disciple said, his patience is that of Job. He was very patient and kind person and every one went on and on about his greatness. When they all left the rabbi’s wife looked at him and said, “your disciples are thinking highly of you and why are you still looking sad’ the rabbi looked at her and said, “My modesty. No one mentioned my modesty”.
The son who said to his dad, “Yes’ but did not go to the vineyard in today’s gospel is compared to all the teachers of the law, Pharisees, scribes and elders. They kept the commandments and divine words but they failed to recognize the kingdom of God and Christ our Lord. They were always looking up thinking that God would shower upon them manna forgetting their own brothers and sisters in need. They wanted to be praised and be glorified but they did not set an example for others.
On the other hand, people who were outcasts, tax collectors, rejected and the poor who did not say, ‘yes” in the beginning did understand the love and kindness of God our Father in Jesus Christ and thus did what He commanded.
Once a well educated catholic scholar and an uneducated convert were asked to say something about their faith. The educated catholic scholar got up and full of pride began to read a verse from the Bible saying, “My soul glorifies the Lord my Saviour…’ when he finished reading every one got up and clapped their hands and some were asking once more. Then the uneducated convert got up and recited the same verse from the bible by heart. This time there was a deep silence and every one sat still. Then at the end the educated catholic got up and said, “ my faith was knowledge based and the old man’s faith was heart and soul based”.

Some times people whom we consider unfaithful, not so pious or unreligious and non-spiritual get closer to God and experience more of His love and kindness than we do.

Conclusion: Dear friends, some times or most of the times we have the character of the both sons, we say “Yes” then change our mind and some times we say “no” then we do what according to His will. Let us say courage to say to the Lord and know the love and kindness of God our Father. Amen.

Walking on Water

Walking on Water
Good morning/evening every one. I am so happy to welcome you all to today’s Holy Mass. Our special welcome to all our summer parishioners, cottagers, visitors and every one who is here today. I would also thank you all for coming out today to celebrate Christ. Dear friends, every time tough we come to Jesus with our fears and anxieties, He blesses us with love and kindness; though we come to Him with doubts and questions, He blesses us with faith and hope and though we come to Him with empty-handed, He fills us with unending joy and happiness.
One day a man sent a mail to his friend who was living outside of the county and wrote, “your cat is dead”. The man replied him saying, “You should know how to deliver bad news tactfully. You should first say, “your cat is acting out” then you might say “your cat is missing” and then finally “you should say that your cat is dead”. And a month later the man sent a mail saying, “Your mom is acting out”.
One day man’s house was on fire, so he ran up to his roof for safety. Then all his friends came standing in the street below holding a stretched-out blanket for him shouting, “jump…jump” The man said, “No, I do not trust you. If I jump, you will pull the blanket away to make a fool of me”. They said, “no, we will not. It is serious, please jump”. The man then said, ‘I do not trust you. Lay the blanket on the ground and I will jump”.
What is faith? Faith is complete trust in some one or something. To St. Thomas who doubted the resurrection, Christ our Lord said, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.
When we talk about faith, the first person who comes into our mind is Abraham the father of faith. He was called by God at the age of seventy-five to leave behind everything and follow Him. Abraham without hesitation followed God. As God asked Abraham to sacrifice his only son Isaac for him, He without any hesitation followed the will of God. Because of his faith, God abundantly blessed him, was filled with wisdom and understanding and thus he achieved enlightenment in God almighty. The difference between knowledge and enlightenment is when we have knowledge we use a torch to show the way and when we are enlightened, we become a torch. But Abraham too doubted, questioned and struggled with his faith.
We all know the story of Job the pious man who worshiped God five times a day and kept all God’s commandments. But when Job was older and was approaching his end, his faith was tested. He began to lose one by one everything that he had. Job who was a faithful man never cursed God instead he said, “I trust in God. Naked I came into this world and naked I shall return”. But Job too doubted, questioned and struggled with his faith.
One day a farmer forgot to take his prayer book with him. He said to God, ‘dear God, without my prayer book, I cannot recite any prayer. So now I am going to recite very slowly the alphabet five times and you who knows everything put the letters together and make a prayer’. That night God called all his angels and said, ‘today of all prayers I heard, this is the best prayer because he is a very faithful man and it came from his simple and sincere heart’.
All the apostles were called to follow the Lord in their older age. Though they were older, their faith was not stronger. They too doubted, questioned and struggled with their faith. In today’s gospel, Jesus who asked Simon Peter to walk on the water, says, “you of little faith, why did you doubt”.
But as they doubted, questioned and struggled with their faith, their search to find meaning continued, they struggled to find God continued and because of their unceasing faith, they did find God.Dear friends, today when you see your children, grandchildren, friends and others do not practice their faith, you doubt, question and struggle with your faith and you begin to drown in doubt, there if we cry out to Jesus saying, “Jesus, save me… He will hold our hands tight and say, ‘you of little faith, why do you doubt. Trust in me and they will change. Walking on water happens when we have complete faith in Christ, we do need to change others but all we have to do is increasing our faith in Christ and everything will change automatically. Amen.

25th sunday in year A

GENERROUS LANDOWNER

Good morning/evening every one. I am so happy to welcome you all to celebrate today’s holy Mass. My special welcome to all our parishioners, visitors and everyone who is here today and I would also thank you all for coming out today to celebrate Christ. Dear friends, every time we come to Church, we celebrate the divine generosity of Jesus our Lord and every time we come to church we celebrate our human generosity towards our neighbors and others and every time we come to church, we are blessed to deepen ourselves into divine and human generosity.
Once Genie appeared to a man and said, “I am going to give you anything you want but with one condition”. The man said, “what is the condition?’ Genie said, ‘whatever you ask you will get it but it will be doubled to your neighbor. The man said, “what?’ I said, “ Your neighbor will get twice as much what you get”. The man did not even think a second; he right away said to Genie, “beat me half dead”.
In today’s gospel, Jesus talks about a god who is so generous and compassionate. Our God is slow to anger and ready to forgive. He gives us all more than what we ask. When we go to Him, we will all be filled with love and kindness. The divine generosity of God surpasses everything.
Once a spiritual master had a neighbor who lived a carefree life. The woman never went to Church or practiced her faith. On weekends, all the spiritual master heard from her house was music and dance. Every time he saw people going in and out of her house, he thought to himself, “This lady will never be happy after death. She will have eternal punishment”. Then one day the lady died and a month later, the spiritual master also died and went to heaven where the angels, all saints, holy men and women came to welcome him and then he noticed a strange thing. Yes, the lady was among the holy people. He got so mad and went to God and asked, “God, why is she here celebrating everlasting life?” God looked at him and said, “Son, you kept all my commandments and did everything well and that is why you are in heaven and she is here because at the last moment, she really felt sorry for all her sins and purified herself and now she is with me celebrating unending life. I am generous with her because she is also my beloved child”.
God our Father is so generous and that is why though people went away from Him, He sent His only Son Jesus Christ to us. God knew the suffering of His son, He knew His son’s crucifixion and death and He still sent Him because we are His children and He loves us unconditionally. It is more than when we come back to Him; yes it is all about how we are coming back to Him.
If God who is our Father is generous then we who are children should also be generous. That is the duty of His children being nice and generous with others. When we are generous and compassionate towards others, we will experience the presence of God everywhere. The world is still a place to live because of the generosity of God our Father.
One day a man shared his personal spiritual experience with a group saying, ‘when I an alcoholic, my family hated me. My wife separated from me and went away and my children also went away with her. They expected me to change but I did not know how. Every time I visited my parents and siblings, they all again and again said that I should change and I did not know how. Then at last I met with one of my friends who comes to church and practices his faith thinking that he would say the same thing, “Change” but instead he looked at me and said, “friend, I accept you as you are and I love you”. That moment I experienced the love of God and I changed. I have been sober for seven years and my wife and children came back and all my siblings are nice to me again. I changed because of my friend’s generosity. He did not condemn or judge but instead he accepted and showed me love.
Dear friends, every one’s spiritual experience is different. Some people may find and experience divine love earlier in life and others may find later but God loves them both equally. In the sight of God every one is precious and important. It is very important to be generous like our Father. And we are all filled with both divine and human generosity. Jesus the perfect example of both divine and human generosity showed compassion and kindness to all.
Once a great religious war broke out in the land and the three pillars of religion namely scripture, worship and charity appeared before God and began to complain, “Dear God we did everything well but we could not stop the religious war out there, we are afraid, religion is going to disappear”
God looked at them and said, ‘do not worry. I will send something bigger than you all and he will save people’s faith in me”
They said, “who is greater than we are?’

God said, “self-knowledge that can bring back divine and human generosity” and he will do greater things than any of you have done. Yes, let us be aware that we belong to God only and then divine and human generosity will begin to flow in and through us. Amen.