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?’
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