fourth advent (not completed)

4th Sunday in advent




Good morning everyone, I am so happy to welcome you all for today’s Holy Mass. Today we celebrate the fourth Sunday in Advent. This Sunday is called peace Sunday; yes the prince of peace is coming to give us eternal and spiritual peace. His peace brings life, way and truth to all. His peace brings light to the world and anyone who walks in the light of Christ will never see darkness. He will be given unending life and happiness.

Today’s gospel speaks about the visitation of our blessed Virgin to her relative Elizabeth in a Judean hill country. Before Her visitation, the annunciation of the Lord happens. The angel Gabriel comes to our Blessed Virgin Mary and announces the glad tiding saying, “Hail Mary, full of grace and the Lord is with you”. When Mary heard the angel’s greeting, she was confused and was perplexed saying to herself, ‘what sort of greeting this might be”. The confusion happened not because she did not want to become the handmaid of the Lord or carry out divine mission; it is because she was humbling herself before the Lord.

Humility is a virtue that connects us with God. Because of humility, we begin to love God more and more and we come to know that He is looking after us twenty-four seven.
When Mary was confused and was hesitating, the angel Gabriel said, ‘Do not be afraid Mary… God is with you”. She continued saying, “how is it possible, I the lowly person will become the mother of God. And I am Virgin…” The angel said, ‘The Holy Spirit will come upon you. By the power of God, you will become virgin mother”.
As Mary listened to the words of the Angel, she completely surrendered herself to God saying, ‘I am the handmaid of God, let it be done according to His will”.
The response of Mary reminds us of the wise man who asked Jesus, ‘Master, we have all the ten commandments and which is the best of all?” Jesus said, “The first commandment is love your God with all your hearts, with all your strengths, with all your body, mind and spirit…”
Yes, Mary loved God with all her mind, body and soul and thus God elevated her to become the mother of God.
When we love God with who we are, we will become bearers of Christ our Lord. We will become His mothers, His brothers, His sisters and we will become Christ’s messengers.
In today’s gospel, we heard the story of the visitation of Mary. As she received the good news of becoming the mother of God, Mary did not become housebound instead the gospel says, “Mary arose in those days and she hurried to the hill country of Judea where she met with her relative Elizabeth.

Here we may recall the second commandment of our Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus said, “The second commandment is love your neighbor as yourself”. Yes, Mary who experienced the love of God began to help others. She rushed all the way to Judean hill country to help Elizabeth.
Elizabeth who saw Mary recognized the presence of God and began to praise her saying, “Blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb”.
Here we understand how the first part of the Hail Mary prayer was coined or formed. The angel said, “ Hail Mary full of grace and the Lord is with thee”. Then Elizabeth said, “Blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb”. Then the Holy Catholic Church added the second part of the prayer saying, “Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners…now and the hour of our death”.
As we meditate upon the annunciation and the visitation of our Blessed Mary, the one person who comes into our mind is Blessed Mother Theresa. (continued)

HOly Family

Holy Family




Good morning everyone, I am so happy to welcome you all for today’s Holy Mass. Dear friends, every time we come to Church, we celebrate Christ our Lord who is the source of every human family, every time we come to church, we celebrate Christ who increases peace and serenity; happiness and joy in every family and every time we come to church we celebrate Christ who instituted human family by the sacrament of Holy Matrimony.

Once on the feast of the Holy family, a priest invited one of his parishioners called Paul in front of the whole congregation and looked at the people and said, ‘In two weeks, Paul is going to celebrate his fiftieth wedding anniversary. These days people are struggling to be with each other and hold on to their commitment but this man for fifty years, living a committed married life”. Then he looked at Paul and asked, “Paul by the way what did you do for your twenty-fifth wedding anniversary?” Paul was so happy and looked at the people and the priest and said, “I took my wife to France and thus she had a chance to visit her parents and siblings”. The priest and the people clapped their hands and then the priest looked at Paul and asked, “What you are going to do for your fiftieth wedding anniversary?” Paul was so happy and proud and looked at the people and the priest and said, ‘I am going back to France to pick my wife up”.



Today the Holy Catholic Church celebrates the feast of the Holy family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph. In this family, we first meet with Mary and Joseph who were spiritual people. They both strongly believed in the love and kindness of God and they practiced their faith. They both were blessed to have an angle come to them. They often had ultra spiritual experience.

They both were community-oriented people. Yes, because of their faith in God, they extended themselves in helping others. For example, Blessed Virgin Mary went all the way from Nazareth to Judea to help Elizabeth. When Jesus came to His hometown with His apostles for the first time, people began to say to each other, “We know His Father Joseph and we know His mother Mary…” Every body knew Joseph and Mary in the community. They were known for their faith in God and their generosity towards others.

And the both were good parents. Though they knew Jesus was the Son of the Father, the divine son, God, they did their duty as parents. For example, when Jesus disappeared at the temple, they did not hesitate to question Jesus. Mary looked at Jesus and asked, “Son, why did you do this to us?”

At Cana, when people did not have enough wine, Mary asked Jesus to help them. And Jesus our Lord listened to His parents and thus grew in wisdom and knowledge.



Today we celebrate the feast of the Holy Jesus, Mary and Joseph. The Holy family is called the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph not Joseph, Mary and Jesus. We put Jesus as the head of the family then only a family becomes Holy. When Jesus is in the center of the family, then it becomes holy. When everything in a family revolves around Jesus, then the family becomes holy. Nothing can exist and can give meaning without Jesus. Jesus is the maker of every family. Today let us renew our faith and keep Christ in our families. Let us renew ourselves in the presence of God and keep Christ as the only head of the family. Amen.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas


Good evening every one, I am so happy to welcome you all for today’s Christmas Eve Mass celebration. Today we celebrate the biggest event that ever happened in human history, the unimaginable thing; yes God the Creator, the Source of all became human and lived among us like you and me. Today’s celebration of the glorious event of the birth of Christ the Only Son of God tells us that God never abandons His people and He will not leave anyone alone. His love surpasses everything.

When His own chosen people whom He loved without condition went away from Him, when His own people faced with pain and difficulties; when His own people began to worship false gods and rejected His mercy and compassion, God the Father did not abandon them. He knew people’s condition. He knew people were weak and fragile and He knew that they would come back to Him. And in order to bring them back to Him, He sent His kings, prophets, Holy men and women to them. Then at last, as the expression of His unconditional love, God sent His Only Son Jesus Christ Our Lord through whom everything came to exist and for whom everything was created. Yes, God sent His Son the Redeemer Jesus our Lord.

Jesus who was born in Bethlehem lived with poor, outcaste and rejected people and at the age of twelve, He manifested divine love at the temple in Jerusalem telling all the teachers, wise men and Pharisees and Sadducees that God loves everyone and everyone belongs to the kingdom of God.

At the age of thirty while He was baptized, the heavens opened and there came a voice saying to all, “this is my beloved Son with whom I am well pleased. Listen to Him alone”. Then Christ our Lord with His disciples went everywhere preaching the Good News of Salvation to all. Jesus again and again says in the gospels that anyone who follows Him will have life everlasting and they will be with God Father forever.

Dear friends, every time we celebrate the miraculous birth of Jesus our Lord, we celebrate our birth, we celebrate our joy and happiness. Jesus is our Lord and Saviour. Today we celebrate our new life in Child Jesus. Dear friends, every time we come to Church, we celebrate Christ’s birth, every time we receive anyone of the churches sacraments, we celebrate His life and every time we come here, we become like Christ our Lord, yes we become the God we worship. Today, what is our gift to child Jesus? Since everything what we see and have belongs to Him and what can we possibly give Him? We can give ourselves. Yes, we are the precious gift for Him. Let us give ourselves to child Jesus and join the angels and the shepherd and sing, “Glory to God in the Highest and peace to people of good will”. Amen.

Third sunday in Advent

The third Sunday in Advent-C




Dear friends in Christ, I am so happy to welcome you all for today’s Holy Mass. Today we celebrate the third Sunday in Advent. Dear friends, every time we come to Church, we recognize the presence of Christ our Lord in the sacraments that He instituted for our spiritual development and we recognized Him in our brothers and sisters in need and every time we come to Church, we recognize Christ our Lord in our prayers and spiritual intentions.

Today we celebrate the third Sunday called “joyful Sunday”. It is called joyful Sunday because Christ the Light of the world is coming to give us unending life and joy. The gospel says that Mary arose in those days and went with haste to the hill country of Judea to be with Elizabeth her relative. As she was filled with the Holy Spirit, Mary recognized the importance of being with others and extended her help to people in need. The very presence of God motivated her to leave behind certain things and go to distant land to help Elizabeth. When Elizabeth recognized the presence of God with Mary, the child in her womb leaped for joy. Elizabeth who was filled with the power of the Spirit acclaimed with a loud voice saying, “Blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb”.

As we come to Church, we recognize the presence of Christ our Lord in the sacraments. The very recognition of the presence of Christ helps us to leave behind certain things and hold on to Him who is full of love and kindness. Yes, the sacraments teach us that we are here only temporarily. This is not our home and we belong to the eternal home called heaven where we shall see our God face to face and celebrate life without end. The very recognition of Christ in the sacrament helps us to leave behind certain things namely the things that hinder us from going to Him, they can be physical or emotional challenges. They can be material or world things. As we leave behind like Mary we too get up and go to others in need.

The result of recognizing Christ in the sacrament leads us to others, because we find the image and likeness of God our father in each and every one of human being. As we help others, we find more of Christ’s love and kindness; His compassion and forgiveness overflowing everywhere. There will be a mutual recognition of Christ in us. As Mary went to Elizabeth; Elizabeth also found Christ in Mary. Thus we all begin to celebrate God in us.

As we help others, we then begin to pray more and do more spiritual practices. We begin to recognize our spiritual side and begin to thank God for everything. Yes, this third Sunday invites us to know that we belong to God alone. So as we are going to receive a special anointing for healing and reconciliation, let us thank God for sending His only Son Christ among us and let us thank Him for helping us to deepen our faith in Him each and every day in Christ our Lord. Amen.

Second Advent-C

Second Sunday in Advent-B

Good morning everyone, I am so happy to welcome you all for today’s Holy Mass. Dear friends, every time we come to Church, we welcome the Lord our God in our hearts, we welcome Him to change our society a better place to live and every time we come to church we ask His blessing to help others to welcome the Lord into their lives.
Today’s Sunday is called John the Baptist Sunday, a Sunday of hope. It is not that easy to understand John the Baptist today. Even some two thousand years ago, people could not fully understand John. But few people comprehended what John meant when he said, “prepare the way of the Lord and make His paths straight”. Fewer people could even understand him when he said, “I am unworthy to untie his sandals” Thus John the Baptist invited people to repentance and baptism.
The question today is what was John about? And why did he do what he did?
John the Baptist is the very voice of Advent- the voice of the coming of the Lord to intervene in the relationship between God and ourselves. What he said was not merely a word about Jesus, it was the gospel, and it was the beginning of the Good News for the world.
The words of John still inspires those who want to walk with Jesus, who want to find their way out of the wilderness and into the promised land.
There is an old Chinese proverb tells us that a journey of a thousand miles must begin with one step. John came to point out what that step must be. He pointed out that the way of the Lord must be prepared, and that way is not simply a highway in the desert but rather it is a highway in our hearts.
There is a story about a man who went to a spiritual Master and said, “Master, I want to find happiness. In search of happiness, I studied the scriptures and visited all the holy places and did everything according to the commandment of God. But I could not find happiness, what should I do?” At this point, the master began to serve him tea. He poured the man’s cup full and then kept on pouring and pouring. Since the cup was full, tea began to run on the floor. The man then stopped the master and said, “My cup is full. Please stop pouring”. Then the master looked at him and said, “Like this cup, you are full of your own opinions and speculations. And how can I show the way unless you first empty your cup?’

How can we welcome Christ, how can we enter the Promised Land with Him, if we have no place in our hearts for Him?
John the Baptist came to prepare the place for Jesus the Lord.
The message of John the Baptist was, “Repent and be baptized for the forgiveness of sins”. Repent: What does the word repent mean? Repent means to turn around, to change direction. It means to face a new way and have the courage to leave behind the old way.
And be baptized for the forgiveness of sins
Conclusion: As we celebrate the second Sunday in Advent, we are called to become John the Baptist, we are called to prepare the way of the lord helping others to repent and be baptized for the forgiveness of their sins. It is our duty to help them to know the love and kindness of god and it is our duty to help them to know the real meaning of divine forgiveness. So as we celebrate advent, let us prepare the way to welcome Christ our saviour in our hearts. Amen.

First Advent-C

1^st Sunday in Advent

Good morning every one, I am so happy to welcome you all for today’s Holy Mass. Dear friends, every time we come to Church, we recall the promise that God made to His people namely sending His Only Son to save us all and every time we come to Church, we recall the promise of Christ our Lord namely He would come again in an unexpected time and every time we come to Church we prepare ourselves to Welcome the Lord our God.

One day a priest was assigned to a new parish and when he got there, he learned that some of the people had alcohol challenge. They came to church drunk and he tried his best to help them but nothing happened. Then one day he showed to the people a clear glass with a piece of liver in it and then he said to them, “now I am going to pour some alcohol in it and you will see what is going to happen to the liver”. When people saw what was happening to the liver, they were all terrified. Then one man got up and said, “ Father, thank you for teaching a good lesion. On behalf of this community, I promise that we will never eat liver again”.

Today the Holy Catholic Church celebrates the first Sunday of Advent. Advent means “coming” and in this season, we prepare for the coming of Christ. One of the ways we prepare for His coming is by making an advent wreath and lighting its candles to remind us of the gifts Christ brings to the world.

The Advent wreath includes many symbols to help us think about Christ and His gifts. The wreath itself is in the shape of a circle. A circle has no end. This reminds us that there is no beginning and no end to God and that God’s love and caring are forever.

The light from the candles, which will grow stronger and stronger each Sunday in Advent, reminds us that Christ is the light of the world and He is coming to the world as His promised before His ascension into heaven.

Today’s we light the candle of hope. The people of Israel hoped in God’s promises and were not disappointed. Again and again, God delivered His chosen people from their enemies. We too in our every day life have the same experience. Though we go away from God, He protects us from bad and gives us life. This happens in Christ our Lord.

Last century, in 1947 a shepherd while looking for his lost sheep stumbled into a cave and found so many clay jars that contained information regarding the old Jewish community called the essence. They were spiritual people who separated themselves from Jerusalem into the wilderness in order to follow closely the commandments of the Lord. They were apocalyptic people. Yes, they focused on the final coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. In order to welcome the Lord, they spent time in prayer and fasting. They were not living in fear but in joy because they prepared themselves well to welcome the Lord. They lived in community sharing with one another. Yes, they learned the importance of giving and forgiving.

As people of hope and apocalyptic people we are also asked to give and forgive others and thus prepare ourselves to welcome the Lord. The lord is coming so let us welcome Him with stretched out hands. He is coming to take us with Him so that where He our Master is there we will also be. So let us welcome Him with our preparation. Amen.

Christ the king-34 sunday

34^th Sunday-B

Good morning every one, I am so happy to welcome you all for today’s Holy Mass. Dear friends, every time we come to Church, we celebrate Christ the king of kings and the Lord of all, we celebrate His unconditional love and forgiveness and every time we come to church we celebrate the kingdom of Christ where we all be one in Christ celebrating life everlasting.

Once a priest preached about the danger of drinking alcohol and showed the congregation a clear glass with a piece of liver inside and poured some alcohol inside and let the people watch what would happen to their liver if they drink, then a man got up and said, “Father, I promise I will never eat liver again”.

Once there were a Baptist minister, an Anglican pastor and a catholic priest. One day the Baptist minister went to get a hair cut, after the barber cut his hair, he wanted to pay him, but the barber said, “oh no, I will not accept money from a man of God” so the next day when the barber opened his shop he saw a loaf of bread with a thank you note. Then to the Anglican pastor too, the barber after cutting his hair said, “I will not accept money from a man of God” then the next day, when he opened his shop he was a bottle of wine with a thank you note. Then the catholic priest went for his haircut, again the barber said, “oh, no I will not accept money from a man of God”. Then the next day, when he opened his shop he found ten more priests standing with a thank you note.

Today the Catholic Church celebrates the solemn feast of Christ the king. This celebration of Christ the king concludes of Liturgical year and thus next weekend we begin a new liturgical year with Advent. This feast invites us to meditate upon the kingship of Christ the Lord.

Once there was a king who was so famous for his judgment. He was filled with wisdom and knowledge. He feared god and according to the will of God, he did everything for his people. Every one wanted to live in his kingdom and then one day, a man was brought before the king for justice. The man was accused of stealing from others and destroying people’s property and murdering them. The king listened to all the complaints well and then he asked what the man wanted to say, since the man did not say a word but just looked at the king, the king then granted justice saying, “this man was found guilty and I order him to be executed. There was a deep silence because that was the first time a man was ever executed in his kingdom. Then the unexpected and extra ordinary thing happened. The king got up from his throne and took off his king’s robe and garment and said to the people, “As your just king, I granted you all justice but now as the father of this man, I will take his place”

The king said, ‘I will take his place and die”. Dear friends this is called the summary of Christianity. Jesus who is the king of kings and the Lord of all accepted to die for humanity on the cross. He gave up His life to save us all. When Pilate asked Christ, “Are you the king of Jews?’ Christ the Lord said, “You say that I am and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice”.

1. Christ the king said, “I am your servant and I came to serve you and not to be served”. In the time of Jesus, servants were not treated well. The owner of the house used to call every one by name and he would call his dog with proper name but not his servant. Servants were slaves and they did not have names. They were rejected ones and Christ the king accepted to be a servant and thus he washed the feet of the apostles. As He lowered Himself God exalted Him above all. Jesus says, those who humble themselves in the presence of God and others will be highly exalted and they belong to the kingdom of God. As we serve others, we will be exalted in the kingdom of Christ our Lord.
2. Christ the king said, ‘I am the good shepherd and lead my sheep to life everlasting. He calls us all by names and feed us with unconditional love and forgiveness.
3. Christ the king said to the repentant thief, ‘this very day you will be with me in paradise with me” yes His kingdom is heaven and today we are called to prepared ourselves to enter into that kingdom where we see Him face to face and celebrate unending life.

Conclusion:

Let us celebrate Christ the king and prepare ourselves to welcome into our hearts, and help others to know His kingdom, a kingdom of love and kindness, a kingdom of justice and peace and a kingdom of life and happiness. Amen.

33 sunday-B

33rd Sunday-B


Good morning everyone, I am so happy to welcome you all for today’s Holy Mass. Dear friends, every time we come to Church, we prepare ourselves to meet the Lord God, and we prepare ourselves for the last day-the judgment day. Every time we come to church, we celebrate the second coming of Christ our Lord.
One day a catholic church was completly burned down and the priest didn't have a place to say Mass, the local bar owner said, "father you can use my bar on sundays to say Mass and the priest said, "I heard you have a parrot in the bar that uses bad language". The owner said, 'no, my parrot is a good catholic one and it does not use bad language at all". so the priest made necessary arragements to use the bar to say mass on sundays. when the priest went in the bar, the parrot looked at him and said, 'wow.. we have a new bartender". when the altar servers went in, the parrot said, 'we have new waiteress" and when the parishioners went in for the Mass, the parrot looked at them and said, 'Wow... same old customers".

Today’s gospel reading invites us to think about the second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Christ our Lord promised that He would come back the way He was taken up to heaven. Every time we acclaim the mystery of faith, we say that Christ has died, He has risen and He will come again. Yes, Christ is coming back to take us with Him so that where He our Master is there we may also be.

The great emperor Alexander had three death wishes. He wanted his coffin being carried by physicians or doctors to show to the world that no one can stop death not even physicians. He wanted gold, silver and precious stones being thrown before his coffin till his graveyard to let the world know that nothing is precious but only what we do for others. He finally wanted his hands dangling from the coffin to show the world that he came into the world empty handed and he is going back empty handed. Nothing is permanent. Life becomes meaningless without Christ. Everything comes from God and ends in God alone and that is why Christ our Lord says when He comes again, the sun will be darkened, the moon will not give light and the stars from the sky will be falling and the heavens will be shaken. Yes, before Christ the light of the world, everything will lose its power. They all bow before His holy name.

The second coming of Christ invites us to prepare ourselves to meet the Lord God and thus be with Him forever celebrating life everlasting.



The second coming of Christ is called the judgment day. On the day, he will send out His angels to gather His elects from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven. Yes, He is coming to judge His people and give them eternal life.

One day a man went to a spiritual Master and said, “Master, teach me the secret of the coming of the Son of Man”

The master said, “Go and sit still within your cell, the cell will teach you the secret of the second coming of the son of Man”

The man said, “but I do not have a cell and I am not a monk”

Then the master said, “of course you have a cell, look within”


Yes, the secret of the second coming of Christ our Lord is given to us all and all we have to do is just to know how to be with the Lord and pray continually. Yes. Christ promises that the chosen people will not pass away until all He promised have taken place.

There will be many signs happening around the world regarding the second coming of Christ our Lord. And people who are with the Lord and who continue to prepares themselves will know how to interpret those sings and thus prepare to meet the Lord. And in today’s gospel, Jesus says, ‘look at the fig tress, as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts forth its leaves, you know the summer is coming or near. So also, when you see things happening, you should prepare yourselves to celebrate the coming of Christ our Lord.


Conclusion:

As He promised, The Lord is coming

with His angels and archangels to judge us. And His judgment will open the gates of

paradise for us who believe in Him.

And the forth one is about eternal punishment or hell, and we who were baptized into the

holy catholic church and we who put our faith into practice, need not to be afraid of

eternal punishment because our home is paradise and we are called to enter into life

everlasting one day and until then let us continue our spiritual journey with hope. Yes,

HOPE is a good thing and it is the best of all things. Amen.

31st Sunday-B

Good evening/morning every one, I am so happy to welcome you all for today’s Holy Mass. Dear friends, every time we come to Church, we renew our baptismal call saying, we will love God with all our heart, mind, body and soul and every time we come to Church, we renew our Christian call saying to Christ our Lord that we will love others as we love ourselves and every time we come to Church, we become new in Christ our Lord who is our beginning and end.

Once a teacher asked her students if they would give $ 1,000,000 for the poor

They all screamed, “yes, we will”

Would you give $ 1,000 for the poor?

They all shouted, “yes”.

What about $100?

Yes, of course, we will.

Then she looked at them and asked, would you give a dollar for the poor?

Every body said, “yes” except Tommy and the teacher asked, Tommy why won’t you give a dollar for the poor.

Tommy said, “Because I have a dollar”.

In the time of Jesus, religious discussion among rabbis, teachers, scribes and Pharisees were so vigorous because they were about 618 commandments and they argued and discussed on which one was the most important and which were the ones they had to follow every day. The gospel says when Jesus was at the age of twelve; He was in Jerusalem temple talking to famous teachers and rabbis. Jesus was answering their questions and explaining the divine love and compassion of God our Father. Those who heard Him speaking were all amazed at His knowledge and wisdom. It was their custom to have vigorous debate on God and divine commandments.

Once a man went to a famous rabbi and asked, “What is the central rule of the Torah?” The rabbi said, “Whatever you find hateful, do not do to others”. This is the rule of the Torah and all others are just commentary.
Once a man went to a spiritual Master and said, “ You said finding God is easy, I go to Church every day, pray to God five times a day, fast twice a week and keep all the commandments but I still can not find God”. Then the master took him to a lake and there he suddenly pushed his head down into the water for a minute and let him go then asked him, “when you were in the water, what were you thinking, the disciple said, ‘I was not thinking anything and all I thought was just to breath and breath”. The Master looked at his disciple and said, “Son, all your prayers, offerings and fasting will not help you to find God unless you begin to love God with your whole heart, mind, body and soul”.
In today’s gospel, Jesus our Lord gives us out a secret to find happiness and joy namely loving god with our whole heart, mind, body and soul. Those who love God with their whole self, will never experience loneliness, stress, depression or anxiety and all they will find is unending happiness and joy. Yes, Jesus invites us to submit ourselves to God and thus to increase our happiness and joy.

Once a man went to a spiritual Master and said, “Master, I want to love god, please help me”. The master said, “Have you ever loved any human being or a pet animal?” The man said, “I did not have time to love anybody because I want to love God”. The Master said, “Since you have not loved any of divine creature, I can not help you to love God. If you know how to love others, then you know how to love god.

The second commandment is, Jesus said, ‘love your neighbor as yourself”. The gospel says when Jesus will look at faithful people, He would say, “come you blessed by my Father and enter into the kingdom of God, you did so many great things for me. When I was hungry, you fed me, when I was thirsty, you gave me something to drink, when I was naked you clothed me and when I was in prison, you visited me. The righteous looked at Him and asked, “Jesus, when did we see you hungry, thirsty, in prison or naked or lonely and Jesus said to them, “anything you did to one of these little ones, you did it for me”.
Yes, friends, when we love our neighbor, we love god and when we love God, we find happiness and joy on earth and accumulate treasures in heaven. So let us love God with all our heart, mind, body and soul and love our neighbor as ourselves. Amen.

30th Sunday-year B

30th Sunday-B

Good morning every one, welcome to celebrate today’s Holy Mass. Dear friends, every time we come to Church, we come to know that we are not alone but the Savior who made us is always with us and every time we come to Church we come to know that those who call on Him will never be abandoned but be given life and every time we come to Church, we call on Christ saying, “Jesus, Son of God, have mercy on me… sinner”.
There was a famous French painter called Nicholas Poussin, one of his famous painting was Bartimaeus and one day two people a poet and an ordinary person were asked about the beauty of picture. The poet said, ‘the figure of Christ and the grouping of the people, the color and the structure of the picture and the ordinary man said, the beauty of the picture is the discarded cane lying on the steps. When Jesus called the blind man, he threw the cane away knowing that Christ was going to heal him, going to giving him sight. Yes, faith in Christ brings life.

There are so many methods of prayers and ways to pray to God. The essence of Muslims prayer is, “God is the greatest, and I praise and glorify God. He protects me from Satan the condemned”. The essence of Hindu prayer is “Lead us from Untruth to Truth, from Darkness to Light, from Death to Immortality. Om peace, peace, peace” and the Buddhists pray to God saying, “ I take refuge in you… O Ocean of Oneness. You are everywhere and lead me to life”. And all religions teach us to pray to God and connect ourselves with higher being.

There is a prayer from the Easter Orthodox tradition, it is more like a mandra or repetion of a prayer. This prayer is so famous and every one repeats in the Church all day every day and it goes like this, “Jesus, Son of God, have mercy on me… a sinner”. The origin of that prayer is found in today’s gospel. Though in the time of Jesus, many people thought that sickness and poverty were the punishment of God, Christ our Lord proclaimed the Good News saying, “ Everything happens for the glory of God”. God is not a punishing one but forgiving and kind Father and that is why a blind man named Bartimeus came to Christ crying, ‘Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me”.

We often see in the gospels people being healed saying there came a man to Jesus or there came a woman behind Jesus saying, ‘even if I touch the fringe of His cloak, I will get well’ but in today’s gospel, the name of the blind man is given saying that was Bartimeus son of Timeus so that people could come to know the kindness and compassion of God Almighty and so that everyone would come to know that God sent His Son not for some particular people but for all. His mercy surpassess everything and anyone who goes to Him will have life and happiness.

Though the crowd tried to stop him saying, ‘do not yell or do not bother the Master”. The blind man screamed at loud voice saying, ‘Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me”. No crowd could stop a faithful, no one can stop a man from loving God. when we have strong faith, nothing can stop us from practing our faith or coming to chruch and receiving churches sacraments. Then Christ our Lord said, ‘let him come to me”. When Christ looked at him with love, the first questin He asked was, ‘son, what should I do for you?” though Jesus knew what the man wanted, Christ asked him saying what he wanted because He wanted to make the conversation, He wanted to let him know that Jesus actually listnes to the needs of every one. yes, that is our God who wants to make conversation with His people. The book of Genesis says that even after creating man, God visited with Him and talked to Him every day. God not only listnes to our prayers but connects with us through variuous means. the blind man said, “I want to see again”. I want to see life and experience happiness and joy and Jesus our Lord said, “Son, your faith has saved you, go in peace”.

Conclusion: Dear friends, there are millions of ways to connect ourselves with God and the best way to talk to God is having deep faith in Him. when we bring our prayers and petition to God Almigthy with faith, God listens to our prayers so let us say, “Jesus, Son of God, have mercy on me”. As we pray to Him with faith, God Himself will come to us and talk to us in person so let us say, “Jesus son of David have mercy on me. And when we experience His love and healing, let us go out let every one know about the love and kindness and compassion of God almgihty so let us say, “Jesus, son of David have mercy on me”. Amen.

26th sunday-B

26th Sunday-B

Good morning every one, I am so happy to welcome you all for today’s Holy Mass. Dear friends, every time we come to Church, we celebrate the love of God, we celebrate the kindness and the forgiveness of Christ our Lord and every time we come to Church, we are given a special blessing to love and forgive others.
Once two evil brothers went to the same church and though every one knew about their wickedness, they acted as though they were perfect followers of Christ and one day, one of the brothers died and the other man came to the priest and said, ‘I am donating 100 thousand dollars to the church and you have to say that my brother was a saint in your funeral homily and the priest accepted and cashed the check and the next day at the funeral, the priest said, “this man was an evil man and he abused his wife and children and did so many bad things to many people but compared to his living brother, he was a saint”.

The understanding of the apostles of Jesus was so different from any other people because He was with them and He called them in a special way. As He was performing Miracles, they did help Him in different way. After preaching the Good News, Jesus in private explained the deepest meaning of it to His apostles. He encouraged them to ask questions and doubts. He knew their weakens and strength; their failures and victories.
When the apostles came to Christ and said, “Jesus, we left everything behind for you and what will we get in return? And Christ our Lord promised them saying, “Any one who leaves behind his family, his property for my sake and the sake of the gospels, will receive eternal life. He will receive hundred fold of everything.

As the apostles proclaimed saying, “Jesus, you are the Master, the Only Son of God…” Jesus said that they were all given divine gift from God Almighty.
The apostles by obeying Christ cast out demons, healed the sick and did so many wonderful things and Jesus looked at them and said, “you are all blessed and you will do greater things in my name”.
So the disciples felt important and special. And that is why when they saw someone in the name of Christ was chasing out demons and was doing great things. They could not control their human weakness or anger and came to Christ and said, “Jesus, the person who was not called by you, the person who was not special and important is driving out demons in you name and he is doing miracles in you name”.

Christ our Lord looked at them with compassion and kind and said, “Let them do. Those who are not against us are for us”.
And Christ our Lord continues saying, “anyone who does anything in His name, he will be blessed and be given eternal reward. Nothing will go unnoticed or nothing can be ignored. Every one will receive blessings according to their act.
What is my reward? What am I going to get by practicing my faith or doing something good in the name of Christ? Dear friends, any one who gives to the poor, receives from God. Sometimes we do not recognized the blessings of Christ or other times we ignore His presence in our lives but Christ who promises saying, ‘even if a person gives a glass of water in His name will receive the reward. Yes, Christ will never abandon His followers; they all will be looked after. Though sometimes it may look that we are left alone or abandoned, the blessings and presence of God continue in our lives because he chooses us.

In the second part of the gospel, Jesus brings a new vision into our reality saying, we should encourage others to do great things in His name, we should never stop any one from doing good in His divine name. Even our hand or eye or foot causes us to go away from the love of God or doing good things in His name, we should remove them. The Christ who healed people with withered hands, people who were blind or physically or mentally sick says we should have courage to remove from us what stop us from loving Christ. Yes, Jesus loves us so much and He does not want us from going away from Him. He wants us to be with Him and He says that we should remove what hinder us from going to Him. Yes, Jesus completes us. He fills us with love and kindness and anything that separates us from the love of Christ does not come from Him. Jesus is our ultimate reality and we should prepare ourselves to go to Him.
Conclusion:



So dear friends, as followers, disciples and apostles of Christ, let us preach the Good News and help others to do so and if we see anyone promoting the love and kindness of God, let us encourage the person to continue his mission. Let us adore Christ who lives in us. Amen.

24-Sunday

24th Sunday in ordinary time.

Dear friends in Christ, I am happy to welcome you all for today’s Holy Mass, every time we come to Church, we join the apostles and all the holy men and women and profess our faith saying, “Jesus, you are the Christ, you are the Only Son of God, the beginning and the end. Everything comes from you and ends in you”, every time we come to church we celebrate our discipleship in Christ our Lord and dear friends, every time we come to Church, the messianic secret is being told again and again to deepen our faith in God through Christ our Lord.
1. In today’s gospel, Jesus is with His disciples in the region of Caesarea Philippi, a non-Jewish region like last weekend gospel and He then asks His disciples what people think about Him. It is not because He wants to be identified or be known by all. Today, we face so many challenges because of identity issues or problems. Some people do anything to be recognized by others. There are many physical and emotional development stages and when a person did not have a proper physical and emotional growth according to their age, and then they will have identity crisis. So in order to get others attention, they will do anything they can. And our Lord Jesus Christ in today’s gospel asks His disciples what people think about Him. It is not because He has identity crisis. It is because He is almost at the middle of His public Mission and after doing all His miracles, wonders, healing and preaching to all, He wants to know the mind of the people. And the disciples said, “ People think that you are Elijah one of the Old Testament prophet who preached about the love of God to all and invited people to come back to God almighty. He healed the sick and raised people to life. Others thought that He was John the Baptist, whose birth was different from other human beings and who lived in a desert meditation upon the mysteries of God and he invited people to come back to God and others thought that Jesus was one of the prophets. Who is a prophet? A prophet is the one who foretells the coming events mainly spiritual and divine events. Since people saw all the miracles of Christ, they thought that he was chosen by God in a special way to bring the Good News; even today the Jews and Muslim consider Christ as a holy prophet of God.
2. Then Jesus our Lord asks the same question to His disciples saying, ‘who do you think that I am?’ because He wants to prepare His disciples to the coming events. Jesus who is God who became human to save humanity and He came to fulfill the divine will. The one who descended from heaven has to ascend to heaven. No one can live here permanently because from where we come to there we have to return and Jesus has to fulfill His mission and has to go back to His Father. And that is why He asked His disciples and Simon Peter who in the name of all the apostles came forward and said, ‘You are the Christ”. The anointed one, the living God, the alpha and Omega. You and the Only Son of God. Dear friends, when we recognize Christ from our personal experience, then our approach towards the world, people and His creatures will be so different. We may join the apostles and we may join the Holy men and women and we may join others and say, “Jesus, you are the Christ and the Only Son of God” but that can not be our personal experience and we should have personal experience of the Holy divine to experience His love and kindness. Unless we have at least some personal experience, we cannot find God in anything we do.

3. When the apostles recognized the divinity in Christ and when they identified His holiness, Jesus revealed the Messianic Secret to them. The Bible says that not every one who is called is chosen but only a few. And the chosen apostles were given the blessings to know the secret. The Messianic Secret is that the Son of man should under go great suffering and be handed over to the elders, the chief priest, and temple Pharisees and the Scribes and they will kill Him but on the third day, Jesus will come back to life”. When He revealed the messianic secret, the apostles were so shocked because it was unacceptable for them. Jesus is the Messiah, the Only Son of God and how come he be killed. And that is why Simon Peter and all other apostles tried to say, “No” to the Messianic Secret and Jesus said, ‘you are approaching things with human mind but divine plan is different.

4. Conclusion: Dear friends, God’s plan is different from human. People struggle to accept so many things in their lives because they judge them according to their own human standard but when we pray to God and in His presence we begin to think, we will understand things in a different way. Let us try our best to understand that God’s way is not our way. His way is full of love and compassion and His way is full of forgiveness and kindness and let us experience divine love and kindness in what we do. Amen.

22-sunday-B

22nd Sunday-B




Good morning/evening every one, I am so happy to welcome you all for today’s Holy Mass. Dear friends, every time we come to Church, we celebrate God who sent His Son to us and We celebrate Christ who taught us saying, “There is nothing outside a person that by going in can defile them, but the things that come out of a person are what defile them”. And every time we come to church, we promise God in Christ to keep His loving commands and thus to find Him everywhere.
ats are valued highly in some cultures, they are almost considered divine. And one day a cat died and went to heaven, an angel of the Lord welcome the cat and said, “ Is there anything that I can do for you?” The cat said, ‘though people loved me so much, I never slept well because of the hard floor, please do something”. The angel gave the cat a beautiful soft and smooth pillow. Some days later, a group of mice came to heaven and the same angel welcomed them all and said, “what can I do to make you comfortable?’ the mice said, ‘when we lived on earth, everybody chased us around and our feet are sore and painful and please do something?’ the angel gave them all skateboards with tiny little wheel” and thus they were running around in heaven. Then one day, when the angel saw the cat asked, “how are you enjoying heaven?’ the cat said, ‘everything is fabulous and I am sleeping well and by the way, the meals on wheels are so delicious”.

Dear friends in today’s gospel, we meet the Disciples of Christ who had broken the tradition and are eating with defiled hands and the Pharisees and the scribes who are so made and complaining against them to Christ our Lord and then we meet with Christ who says, “evils things come from within and they defile a person”.

1. We meet the Disciples of Christ:
Our Lord called them in a special way to follow Him. Jesus the Son of God taught them many things about the traditions, cultures and customs and the bible says that Christ Himself closely followed the traditions and customs. For example, when He went to His hometown with His disciples, as His custom, He went to the synagogue and did many things according to the traditions of the time. But Christ our Lord says that we are not for the Sabbath but all the traditions and customs should help us to get closer to God not taking us away from His love and kindness.

Once a very famous spiritual master had a beautiful cat and every time we performed or did any spiritual ceremonies or prayers, the cat always used to come around him and jump up and down or run around. It was a big distraction for him so every time he did prayers or any ceremony, he asked his disciples to tie the cat to a pole. It went on for many years and one day the spiritual master passed away and his disciples who continued the ceremony and others spiritual rituals did the same, they tied the cat to a pole and continued everything and then one day the cat died. The disciples were all confused and shocked. They didn’t know what to do so they bought a brand new cat and tied it to the pole and continued their every day ceremony and then people who came to see them, they all bought cats and tied them around their houses before their daily prayers and rituals. They were told that if any one did not have a cat tied before their daily ceremony, they commit a mortal sin. The ritual of tying a cat became so important than their actual prayers and other spiritual practices.

Dear friends when some of the disciples did not wash their hands before eating, the Pharisees and the scribes condemned them saying, they go against divine will and they are sinners and outcasts. Instead of promoting the love of God, they focused on the punishment.

2. We meet with Pharisees and the scribes

In the time of Christ, those Pharisees and the scribes were considered holy and important, because they taught people about God and His divine law. They were self- righteous people. They kept divine law and did everything according to their call. Once we see how our Lord Jesus Christ observed the actions of a self-righteous Pharisee. What he did was, he went to a synagogue and he did not even enter into the synagogue. All he did was just stood outside so that every one could see him and then top of his voice he prayed to god saying, “O Almighty father, King of the universe, thank you for creating me. I thank you day and night by keeping all the commandments. I pray five times a day, fast twice a week and go to the synagogue every day and I give even ten percent of all my income. Thank you for making me wonderful and holy. What he did was so good and wonderful but what Jesus was saying that time was, the man will go to the Father and will have endless life because of his proud heart.

And those Pharisees and the scribes were the ones who told Jesus about His disciples, those were the ones who criticized Christ for His disciples’ defiled hands.
2. We finally meet Christ our Lord

Jesus the human-divine, the master of all, He who knows all and who continues to love every one with their limitations says, “ It is not what goes in defile a person but it is what is coming out from the heart of a person. The evil intentions that destroy a person.

EPhPhatha-23 sunday

23 Sunday in ordinary time




Good morning/evening every one, I am so happy to see you all and our special welcome to all our parishioners, cottagers, visitors and everyone here today. Dear friends, every time we come to Church, we hear Jesus saying to us, ‘Ephphatha’ means be opened to the divine words and we experience the healing power of Christ our Lord and every time we come to Church, we acclaim, “Christ has done everything well; even He makes the deaf hear and the mute speak”.

Once a man who thought that his wife was going deaf stood behind her and called, ‘honey, what are you doing?” there was no answer. So he got close to her and called again, ‘honey, can you hear me?’ there was no answer. Then he decided that his wife was hard hearing so he got very close to her and at the top of his voice said, ‘honey, you are getting deaf”. Then his wife calmly looked at him and said, ‘for the third time, I can hear you well’.
Once a man looked at his friend who was hard of hearing and said, ‘what did your wife say when you got home late last night?’ she was yelling and screaming at me. Then what did you do? Then man said, ‘I just turned out the light’.
In today’s gospel, our Lord Jesus Christ is found in the region of Despoils. He went to a non-Jewish region to teach His disciples and all that every land, every human and everything belong to Him. God is the author of everything and everything lives, moves and has its being because of Him alone. Today there are so many people fighting over lands, properties; communities and countries not knowing that nothing belongs to anyone. We are here to find god and share His love with one another.
We often hear people saying, ‘I have seen a beautiful bear crossing the road. I have seen a deer running around and we all get excited to see an animal or a rare bird or a tree but no one ever tells that he has seen a human-being full of love and forgiveness. Once a philosopher in broad daylight, with a lighted candle went to a market place and searched for something and when people asked him what he was looking for. He said, “I am looking for man”. When Pilate saw Christ, he said, ‘Ecce Homo’, behold the Man. Yes, Christ is the man, the divine man from whom we can learn love and kindness; compassion and forgiveness.
When He came with His disciples to a non-Jewish territory, people brought to Him a man who was deaf and mute. Jesus did not heal him immediately by saying, ‘your faith has saved you, go in peace’ or you are healed and celebrate instead He took him aside in private because He knew the minds of the people. He wanted to heal him according to their mind-set.

For example, when Christian missionary came to India to preach the Good News of Christ, they knew that India was mainly female gods worshipping country. So they brought Christian faith through Blessed Virgin Mary. Christianity rooted in every country according to its culture, custom and tradition.

Jesus put His fingers into his ears to show that He is God. Yes, the Bible says that God wrote the Ten Commandments using His fingers and His finger saved the people from the slavery and sin. His finger brought life on earth.
Jesus is the life giver and anyone who goes to Him will have an abundant life.
In today’s gospel, we see how our Lord Christ takes the deaf man aside away from the crowed and by touching his ears and mouth heals him. Jesus took him aside because He understood the situation of the deaf man. He needs lone time to recover and to understand the surroundings.

Then Christ our Lord uses the word “Ephphatha” it is an Aramaic word which means be opened. We see in the gospels how the Aramaic words are used to indicate the love of Christ and the intensity of the situation. Jesus said to the little child who died, ‘Talita cum” which means little child get up, and He said on the cross, “ Elai, elai lama sabactani”. Every time Jesus used some particular word, we see how He looks up in the sky and talks to His father. He thus let us know that His father and Him are the same and anyone who comes to Him for healing will receive what he needs.

And dear friends today our catholic community needs Ephphatha experience, yes, we have to open ourselves with the help of Christ to what is going on around us. and we have to open ourselves to the love and kindness of God and we have to open ourselves to people around us.

Conclusion: let us be with God almighty and celebrate life. amen.

21-Sunday

21-Sunday in ordinary time

Good morning/evening every one, I am so happy to welcome you all for today’s Holy Mass. Our special welcome to all our parishioners, cottagers, visitors and every one here today. Dear friends, every time we come to church, we celebrate the divine word of God, we celebrate Christ’s miracles and wonders and every time we come to Church, we join the apostles and say to Christ, “To whom shall we go, you have the words of eternal life”.

Dear friends in Christ, These past four weeks, we have been hearing the powerful divine words of Christ our Lord and how He multiplied the bread and fish and thus He fed more than five thousand people. Then Christ our Lord saw in them a great longing to be physically and spiritually satisfied. They saw the suffering and pain of people to get every day meal and the wanting of their physical health. He noticed in people a deep cry to find God in everything they were doing and saying and that is why Christ our Lord called the people to Himself and said, “If you want to have endless life… you need to listen to the divine words of God and understand, you have to experience the presence of God in the world and you have to keep all the commandments of God and see the miracles and wonders happening in His name and I know by doing one thing, you could receive everything. The words, miracles, wonders, loving God and others, yes, everything will complete in doing one thing that is eating the flesh of the Son of Man. And the people who heard Him saying were confused and were shocked. And in today’s gospel, Christ our Lord continues saying,

He again insists them the importance of the spiritual celebration of eating His flesh. Yes, He is saying that even to have life, one should eat His flesh. Let us put endless life behind and think about the very life we have. In order to have life, one should eat His flesh and thus he may come to know that he is not alone but the Creator is with him always. Everything that we see and enjoy and everything that moves and has life is given by God almighty. How can a person live without light? If a person really wants to deepen himself into the divine reality, he has to open himself to the inner light that is Christ our Lord. No truth means no life and we are all constantly looking for truth and unless we go to Christ, we can never experience truth because Jesus is the truth. The very life comes from Christ alone. When people who were so obsessed with perishable things heard that He is the living bread that came down from heaven, they went away from Him criticizing. They laughed and ridiculed Him because they were struck in the mundane reality.

I am from above and He descended from heaven and as I ascend and then you will understand.

Then our Lord Jesus Christ who called the apostles in a special way to follow Him looked at them and asked, “ Do you also wish to go away from me?” It is a very powerful negative question that kindles their very core of their faith. They were all shocked to hear a negative question from Christ. Jesus always asked them questions such as what do people say that I am and what do you say that I am and this is the first time, He asked them a negative question saying, “Do you also wish to go away from me?”

And Simon Peter who in the name of all the apostles came forward and said, “Jesus My Lord and God where can we go?” You have the words of eternal life. Those apostles were all in their forties and fifties and they all had different worldly experiences. They knew so many things. Because of their age and experience, they said, where can we go, there is nothing in the world outside of you, as St. Augustine said, “Unless my soul rest in God, I will never rest”.  Jesus, where can we go? You are everywhere because everything belongs to you. You are the beginning and end. You are the creator, protector and sanctifier and where can we go? All good things come from you alone. You are the healer and good shepherd and where can we go. And above all else, you can the words of eternal life. We do not live on bread alone but every divine word that comes from your mouth because you are the bread of life. Jesus, give us this food every day.

Conclusion

Dear friends in Christ, as we come to Church and receive His precious body the one thing that will happen to us is a constant longing. Yes, a longing to find God in everything we do and say and a longing to get closer to Him day and night and a longing to find Christ in our neighbors and others and a longing to pray and meditate and thus to become like Christ. So let us receive the body of Christ and experience the deep longing in us. Amen.

The body of Christ( the flesh and blood) 20th sunday

Dear friends in Christ, I am so happy to welcome you all for today’s Holy Mass and our special welcome to all our parishioners, cottagers, visitors and everyone here today. Dear friends, every time we come to church we celebrate Christ who gives His the living bread, who gives His body as the source of life and every time we come to church, we eat His body and become like Him our Lord and God.

Past three weeks, we have been hearing the teaching of Christ our Lord who invites us to eat His body and drink His blood and thus to have life that would never end. Many people who saw Him speaking about the life giving bread and they criticized and put Him down. But they were keep coming to Him because He multiplied the five fish and the two fish and thus more than five thousand people ate and were satisfied but as He began to talk about the divine manna namely His own body, they began to murmur and complain against Him.

Today I would like to focus more on the two kinds of faith namely emotional faith and intellectual faith.

Emotional faith

As our Lord Jesus Christ saw the crowd who listened to His divine words being tired and helpless, He had compassion for them and He multiplied the five loaves and the two fish and people who ate were all satisfied and then they began to praise and glorify Him saying, “He is the prophet who is to come into the world. Let us make Him king. Because of the food and physical satisfaction, they began to act emotionally. Their faith was not stronger since it was based on their emotions. When some amazing things happen to people in the name of God, they began to praise and glorify God for a while until they are being challenged intellectually. Once missionaries who went to preach the good news to distant counties, in order to attract poor people they gave them rice and people who got rice from the missionaries, immediately began to follow Christ. As the missionaries began to stop giving rice and start talking about faith and Christ, they went away from them criticizing and even people treated the missionaries bad. The gospels talk about so many incidents of emotional faith. For example, when a man saw Jesus doing amazing things coming to Him and said, “Jesus, I keep all the commandments and I should I do more to enter into the kingdom of god? And Christ said, “go and sell all your possessions and give to the poor and come and follow me”. The man was not happy because he was rich and He went away from Him. Today there are people who would like to die for Jesus and they will do anything for the kingdom of god until something happens to them. When they face certain challenges in their lives, they will immediately blame on God and go away from Him. A person’s faith that is based on his emotions will not take him to the kingdom of god, it is like a seed that falls on the path, and it will soon disappear.

These days we are seeing in the gospel, so many people coming to Jesus not because of His amazing teachings but because of His miracle the multiplication of the loaves and fish. When Jesus asked them to deepen their faith in Him they began to criticize and put Him down.

Intellectual faith 

Our Catholic Church invites us to have strong intellectual faith. It is so important to understand the four different types of body of Christ to deepen our faith in Him. they are physical body, resurrected body, mystical body and the sacramental body. The physical body of Christ was the visible one. Jesus was born at Bethlehem like you and me and lived among people doing every day chores for thirty plus three years and those years, people saw him as a person with body and soul. He was just human. The physical body of Christ was conditioned with so many things.

The resurrected body: Jesus after His resurrection appeared to His disciples with his resurrected body and asked them to believe in His name. For example, the two disciples on the way to Emmaus had the experience with the resurrected body. Then comes the mystical body namely the Church. The Catholic Church called the Mother Church of all churches is the mystical church. Because Christ is the one who founded and he is the one who leads the Church to His father. And that is why the Church is stronger than ever and it doing wonderful for two thousand years. And then the sacramental body, every time we come to Church and celebrate Mass, the mere bread and wine become the body and blood of Christ our Lord.

Unless we have a clear idea of these concepts of the body of Christ, it is not easy to deepen our faith in Christ our Lord.

Conclusion: today we are called to become the body of Christ namely giving life to lifeless, hope to hopeless and finally becoming everything for people who search for God in Christ. Amen.   

The bread of life

The Living Bread


Dear friends in Christ, I am so happy to welcome you all for today’s Holy Mass. My special welcome to all our parishioners, cottagers, visitors and every one here today, dear friends, every time we come to church, we celebrate our special calling to follow Christ our Lord, we celebrate our special meal that is the bread of life and every time we come to Church we become life giving source for our brothers and sisters in need.
Once a church received a new priest and while he was preaching the first time, he drank a whole pitcher of water. And after Mass a man asked his wife about the new priest and she said, “I like him very much and He is the first windmill that I ever saw that was run by water.
And one day the new priest noticed a man walking out during his homily and after Mass, the man’s wife came to the Father and said, “Father, please forgive me, I was so embarrassed to see my husband walking out during your homily and by the way Father, my husband walks in sleep ever since he was a child”.

In today’s gospel, Jesus continues to tell people, “ I am the bread of life that came down from heaven”. The very words I am are often used by our Lord Jesus Christ to indicate His divine centric human. He says I am the good shepherd, I am the light of world, I am the gate of the sheep and I am the beginning and end and every time He uses the words I am, they indicate His divine centric humanity. Yes, when Moses approached the burning bush and asked the voice, “ who are you Lord?” The voice responded saying, “I am who I am” Go and tell my people I am has sent you to them. Every time Christ uses the words I am, they indicate His divinity and God and Christ are the same.
That is why, when we use the words I am saying I am catholic, I am a follower of Christ or I am a disciple of Christ, it carries certain divine centric strength with them. Yes, every time we say I am catholic, we promise to Christ that we will put our faith into practice, we will act as Christ did loving God with who we are and loving our neighbor as ourselves.
Then Christ says I am the bread of life. The food that we eat helps to maintain our health and it strengths us physically but what about our spiritual side. There is a constant struggle between body and soul in every one of us. The tension between body and soul is continuously pulling us into two different directions, what about the loneliness we feel in us. Though we are found in a big crowed, we feel lonely and many of us are so comfortable sitting in front of the TV than coming out and be with others. All these emotional and psychological challenges can be met with only the bread of life. Any one who has Jesus with Him is not alone. This spiritual food helps us to find Christ in others and us. We then find Christ in everything we do and say.

And in today’s gospel, Jesus our Lord says that I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Who can come down from heaven? Holy men and women, saints and angels can come down from heaven. They come down from heaven to help living beings. Those who come down are pure, holy, blameless, imperishable and beyond time and space and when Christ our Lord said that He came down from heaven, people began to criticize Him saying, we know your Father Joseph, your mother Mary and all your relatives, friends and family members and how can this carpenter from Nazareth acting more than a baker from Galilee saying, He came down from heaven. They began to complain, murmur and talk against Him as the people of Israel in the wilderness did. Yes, they went against Moses saying, “ Why did you want to liberate us?” we were suffering in the hand of Pharaoh but still we had enough food. Then Moses prayed to God and God gave them Manna from heaven. Because they were chosen people and God loved them without limit and likewise when people began to murmur, Jesus said, “ you can not come to me unless my Father blesses you, my father chooses you in a special way. The Old Testament says, God knows us even before we were born and called us by our names.
And Christ our Lord says that whoever comes to me, I will feed you with bread of life and as you eat the bread of life, you will have life everlasting. Yes, we will never die. Dear friends, as we enjoy life and have no death, we are here to spread the good news of everlasting life to all. Today so many people easily give up because of hopelessness and not finding any meaning for their lives. They need to hear Christ the living bread. And we should ever remember that if we do not have the bread of life, we are toast. Amen.

Good morning every one, I am so happy to welcome you all for today’s holy Mass and our special welcome to all our parishioners, cottagers, visitors and everyone here today. Dear friends, every time we come to church we celebrate Christ who is the way, the truth and the life and every time we come to church, we celebrate Christ who is the beginning and the end and every time we come to church, we celebrate Christ the bread of life.


Jesus our Lord after feeding more than five thousand people with five loaves and two fish that were multiplied heard from people saying, ‘This is indeed the prophet and come let us make him king and He withdrew from them because that was not the divine plan. The divine plan was Christ had to undergo great suffering in the hands of people and to die on the Cross and thus by dying, he would destroy death and by rising would bring life everlasting for those who believe in him.

When people could not find him many of them went home praising and glorying God but some of people began to search for Jesus and thus they came to Capernaum where they found Him and saying to him, “Master, when did you come here and we were looking for you. Jesus our Lord who knows the hearts of the people looked at them and said, ‘you are looking for perishable things from me but I am here to give you imperishable things. I am here to take you with me to the father so that where I am you may be too. And those people who were looking for physical satisfaction, food came all the way to Capernaum and they stopped doing their every day chores to get food from Christ and Christ said, “perishable things can be found by any human person but imperishable and eternal life be given only by me.

In the time of St. Paul, a group of people especially in Thessalonica, stopped working and were going around influencing people saying, ‘Jesus is coming. He is coming to judge us so stop doing what you are doing and spread the news to all” st. Paul who heard this wrote a letter to people saying, ‘those who do not work should not eat. The Christ who promised that he would come will come but we do not know when he is going to come until then let us do what we should do. He will not give perishable things to satisfy us and the material things and all the perishable things that we see have limited lifetime and they all have to pass away. We should know how to hold on to non-perishable or imperishable things such as love, kindness, forgiveness and divine grace. Now we know why God does not grand us certain things. Instead of asking food, we should ask him enough strength to work, instead of a man or woman, we should ask him to give us love and forgiveness and good characters so that you will find that right person in life.

But our God is full of love and kindness and we are all so precious in the sight of God and the people who came to him looking for food, the ordinary every day people who did not want to work, Jesus used them as an instrument to give wonderful message to the world. When they asked what should we do to get bread of life, Jesus said, ‘I am the bread of life and those who eat this bread will never die but will have everlasting life. What we consider small and useless becomes so important and precious in the sight of God. For example, when we look for God, we always look up to heaven. Even right after the ascension of Christ our Lord, the Angel looked at the apostles and said, “ o men of Galilee, what are you looking up in the heaven. The Christ who was taken up into heaven will come back”. It is our human understanding to look for God in heaven. But only in Christianity it happened that God was looking up for man. Yes, when zachias was in the tree, Jesus the only Son of God look up for him and said, “ come down I am here and I am going to be at your house today’. most of the time, people get so confused and disappointed looking for God in far away places. But the God who sent His only Son, the God who showered upon us all the spirit of life is with us. yes, when we look for God among humanity, we will find divinity and life will bring more meaning.



In today’s gospel Christ says, the Manna that your ancestors ate did not give them life and they all died. Koran the holy book of Muslim also speaks about Manna, it was like fine, flake like things God gave to Israel to continue their journey in the desert. It did not remove their original sin; it did not bring divine happiness and joy. Manna did not give them courage to call God Father; Manna did not heal them physically and mentally. It did not teach them that God not a punishing one but on the other hand the bread of life brought some thing new in every one of us. Every time we eat the body of Christ we become new and wonderful.



Yes, dear friends, Jesus is the bread of life and as we begin to help and accept others, the living bread that is we eat every time we come to church will begin to nourish us. let us put our faith into practice and draw more spiritual energy from the bread of life that we eat. Amen.

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17-Sunday-B







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, cottagers, visitors and every one who are here today, dear friends every time we come to church we celebrate the miracles and wonders of our Lord Jesus Christ and every time we come here we celebrate Christ who continues to multiply divine love and kindness among us and every time we come to Church we become the bread of life for those longing for divine love and kindness.


One day a pastor noticed that one of his parishioners Stephen was standing outside of his house and doing something, the priest yelled at him saying, “Can you not hear the church belling calling you for holy Mass?” Stephen looked at the priest and said, “What?” “ Can you not hear the church bell calling you for Holy Mass?’ what Father. “ I said can you not hear the ringing of the church bell calling you for the Holy Mass?’ Stephen then said, ‘Father, speak up, I can not hear you because of the church bell”.


Then one day, Stephen came to church with a banana in hear ear. So the priest called him out and said, “Steve, you have a banana in your ear’ what Father? I said you have a banana in your ear. What? You can a banana in your ear? Stephen then looked at the priest and said, ‘Father, speak up; I have a banana in my ear.
Then Stephen and his wife Doris celebrated their fiftieth wedding anniversary and when they came home, the wife was so happy that everything went well. She then looked at her husband and said, ‘honey, you are a very good husband and I am so proud of you”. Steve looked at her and said, ‘I am tired of you too”. His hearing never got better and what happened to Doris then, I will tell you all about Doris next weekend.
Dear friends, last weekend Gospel talked about Christ who saw the people who were like sheep without a shepherd and had compassion for them. Yes, Christ our Lord had a deep compassion for His people. Compassion means feeling the feelings of others; more like suffering with the people who suffer. For example, our Good Shepherd, though He did miracles and wonders, raised the dead to life when saw Martha and Mary crying for their brother Lazarus’ death, He also wept. He experienced their suffering and anguish. When the woman touched His cloak for healing, with compassion He looked around and said, ‘who touched my cloak and I experienced the power going away from me. I felt the person suffering and anguish. After healing when only one leper came to Christ, with compassion He asked him, were not ten healed what happened to the other nine. His compassion surpassed everything and He stretched out His hands and died for each and every one of us.
In today’s Gospel, Jesus our Lord after preaching the Good News to all, looks at His disciples and especially looking at Philip says, “Where are we going to buy food to feed these people?’ Why did Jesus our Lord asked Philip the Apostle because he was the one when Nathaniel said, “Can anything good come from Bethlehem?’ said, “Come and see the Messiah’. Bethlehem means house of bread, bread of life. Jesus is the bread of life and anyone who comes to Him will completely be satisfied. And thus Bartholomew became the disciple of Christ. And today Jesus asks Philip who indicated the bread of life to Bartholomew to feed the people.
Every word in the Bible has a deep meaning and when we begin to meditate on them, we will be filled with awe and amazement.
Jesus who after spending forty days and nights in the wilderness fasting and praying was famished and that time the devil came and gave to Him some stones and said, ‘If you are the Son of God change these stones into bread and reduce your hunger”. Our Lord Christ who came to heal humanity said, ‘Man does not live on bread alone but every word that comes from the mouth of God” and the same Christ, has compassion for His people because they were fed with the word of God and now they need to be fed with basic physical needs, food. The Bible says even before we ask Him, Christ our Lord knows what we need and thus He gives life that never ends. He felt the need the people who came to Him and thus when His disciples brought the five loaves and two fish, He took them and not just gave them to people but before hand He looked up to heaven and gave thanks to God, yes after Christ our Lord blessed the bread and the fish, they began to multiply into thousands.
That is the very reason, we bless our food and ourselves before we consume or eat. By asking Christ to bless our food, we experience physical and spiritual satisfaction. The blessed food becomes our healing agent; we experience the presence of Christ and His healing power in us.
After eating the bread and the fish, they were all completely satisfied both physically and spiritually. After their satisfaction, something wonderful happened in them. Yes, they did not just say ‘Good-bye” to Christ and His disciples instead they began to ponder over the words of Christ and their life style changed. They left behind their former way of life and began to hold on to the newness of life. They began to say to each other, “This is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world”. Yes, He is indeed the Messiah, Good shepherd and Savior of the world. And that is why the disciples came to Christ and said, “Jesus, where can we go. You have the words of eternal life”.
Conclusion:
The bread that Christ multiplied two thousand years ago is still keep multiplying and is satisfying the hunger and the suffering of others. Where are breads now? We are His bread today. We are asked to go out and satisfy the spiritual and physical hunger of those who are suffering. Every time, people see us, they have to experience Christ and say, ‘Christ is indeed the Son of God who came into the world to save us” Amen.

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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, cottagers, visitors and every one who is here today, dear friends today we celebrate our life in Christ, we celebrate our body and soul by loving God with who we are and today we celebrate the unending love of Christ.

One day a woman called her pastor and said, ‘Father, my husband won two million dollars in a lottery but I am afraid to tell him. You know he has heart condition, his heart is weak and I don’t want anything to happen to him. If you don’t mind, would you please talk to him? The priest called him and said, ‘Hi Stephen, I have a question for you. If you win a million dollars, what will you do? He said, I will build a house and do some charity and I always want to send my wife back to Ireland. That is too much information. But by the way if you win two million dollars, what will you do? Stephen looked at the priest for a minute and said, ‘I will give million dollars to the church”. Imagine the priest took a heart attack and died.

And I know why you don’t give million dollars to the church because you love your priest and you don’t want me to be dead.

Then Stephen felt so guilty about the pastor’s death and did not come to church for long time and then when he finally came to church, he wanted to go to confession. When he saw the confessional, he was so surprised. Everything looked so different. There was a beautiful shelf full of chocolates, soft drinks, some magazines and water. Stephen looked at the priest and said, ‘Father, I have not been to confession for a while and I could not believe how much it changed. The priest looked at him and said, “Get out that is my side”. Stephen got so mad and left the church again and when he came back after a long time, he looked at the new priest, because the other pastor took a heart attack and died and said, “Father, do you know why people get arthritis?’ The priest who knew what happed to the former pastor looked at him and said, you know what causes arthritis, money, and too much money that is what causes arthritis. Smoking yes that is what causes arthritis and alcohol that is what causes arthritis and nightlife yes that is what causes arthritis. Then the priest calm down and looked at Steve and asked, ‘why did you ask me?’ Stephen innocently looked at the priest and said, ‘this morning I heard that the Pope has arthritis”.

And there are so many things about Stephen but if I continue to tell our Bishop will not like it because he thinks that I am stealing his jokes’.

Dear friends in Christ, in today’s gospel our Lord Christ who sent His apostles two by two to preach the Good News of the Kingdom to all looked at them how tired and exhausted they were. They were experiencing spiritual exhaustion and He asked them to come to a deserted place all by themselves and take rest.
Yes, Spiritual exhausted or weakness can happen to all people who put their faith into practice. When you pray for others by laying your hands on them, spend time with the sick person in the name of Christ and practice your faith to bring the Good News, it is possible to have spiritual exhaustion or weakness and many people especially saints and holy men and women were sick often because of their spiritual exhaustion. That is why our Lord Jesus Christ invites His disciples today to come to a deserted place and be with Him for a while.
Holy people spend time alone with God to regain spiritual strength to continue their mission and the greatness of being spiritually exhausted is as we lose, we will gain more strength and courage to continue.
And spiritual exhaustion happens to faithful people because there is a constant fight between good and bad in them. Once a grandson looked at his grandpa who looked so sad and asked why he was looking sad and he said, ‘my grand son there is a constant fight between two wolves in me. One is the good and the other bad. Grandson asked which one would win. The grand pa said the one, which I feed.
The people who come to church have to fight constantly because of their moral and ethical stand. Though they make right choice, they do get exhausted and feel week and that is why Jesus invites us to go to a deserted place and be with Him for a while.
And people who come to church and receive all the churches sacraments experience inner awakening namely all their five senses will be opened fully. As they have full awakening, they begin to see things differently. They will see the love and kindness of God in everything they say or do. They will see but also see the goodness of Lord in everything. They will taste but also taste the goodness of the Lord in everything and hear but also hear the goodness of the Lord in everything. This very awakening will make them exhausted or weak and that is why Jesus today invites us to go to a deserted place and be with Him for a while.
Conclusion:
Yes, Dear friends every time we come to Church or pray at home you can have deserted experience. When you are alone with Christ, the experience will fill you with spiritual energy and strength and you will be given more and more to continue your spiritual journey on earth. So let us find a place to be with Christ. Amen.