17-sunday B

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.

16-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 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.

15th- sunday ( two by two)

15th Sunday-B

Good morning/evening every one. I am so happy to see you all and our special welcome to all our parishioners, cottagers, visitors and every one who is here today. Dear friends, every time we come to church we celebrate our discipleship- our way of life in Christ. We celebrate the Good News of Christ our Lord in our life and every time we come to church, we prepare ourselves to go out and proclaim the love and forgiveness of Christ to all.

Once a preacher who preached against drinking alcohol and said, “If I had all the beer in the world, I would take it and throw it in the river”. If I had all the wine in the world, I would take it and throw it in the river and if I had all the whiskey in the world, I would take it and throw it in the river’. When he finished saying this, the choir lady with a big smile announced, “ For our closing hymn, let us sing, “shall we all gather at the river”.
The preacher was not happy with the choir lady and the next Sunday he preached on forgiveness. After preaching thirty minutes, he asked the people how many are going to forgive others and about fifty percent of them raised their hands and again he explained the importance of forgiveness for ten more minutes and this time all of them raised their hands except the choir lady. So the preacher looked at her and said, “ do you not like to forgive your enemies” she said, ‘ I don’t have any enemy” The preacher invited her to the front and pointing her said to the congregation, “look at her. She is ninety-two years old and she does not have any enemy. Then he asked her, “ please tell us what is the secret of not having any enemy’ she looked at the preacher and said, ‘I outlived all those stupid idiots”.


In today’s gospel our Lord Jesus Christ calls the twelve disciples whom He chose in a special way and called them all with new names and He kept them for three years with Him and thus they were with the Master and learned the importance of the kingdom of God. When Jesus healed the sick or gave sight to the blind or even raised the dead to life, they personally witnessed the miracles and wonders. They all become His disciples by proving their fidelity to their Master but still He sends them two by two to proclaim the kingdom of God because they could support each other in faith. Between the two, usually one will be weak and the other strong. The weak is sent to support the strong. Because Satan is more interested in the strong rather in the weak. He will tempt the strong and make him weak. When the strong becomes weak the destruction will be huge and immense. For example, Sin and death entered into the world when Eve was alone. She was tempted to go against the will of God. So if you are strong in faith, then you will be the one who will be tested and tempted.
And also as Jesus our Lord promises in the gospel, when two or more in His name, there He will be with them, giving them courage and strength. For example, the two disciples on the way to Emmaus, though they were sad and confused, they discussed to each other about Christ and Christ joined them and gave them new life. Though they went two by two, it is not they who did the preaching and healing but Christ. Yes, through them Christ performed miracles and wonders.
Dear friends, when we preach the good news and heal people in His name, it is not we who do but Christ who lives in us does everything. So all the praise, honor and glory goes only to Him.
As Jesus sent them two by two, He gave them power and authority to do their mission. The power and authority were given to them to humble themselves in the presence of Christ and others. Though Christ had divine power and authority in His humanity, He was obedient to His Father. He respected and learned from His parents. Power and authority mean responsibility and they help a person to humble himself before God and others.
And in today’s gospel, Christ asked His disciples to go empty-handed to preach the Good News namely they carried everything in their hearts. When the heart is full, a person will never go after material things because they will come to him. Yes, they will be blessed with everything.
Christ told them about welcoming and rejection too. He said if anyone welcomes you, stay there and preach the Good news. If they reject you, even shake off the dust that is on your feet that means do not hold grudge or anger against people who did not welcome you. Be happy with everyone.
Conclusion:

Dear friends, as they apostles went, in the name of Christ, they preached the Good news and did miracles and wonders. And today we are asked to continue His divine miracles and wonders by going out two by two namely finding peace at home first; it is important to be nice to our own family members and friends and then our hearts will be filled with divine love and kindness to go out to preach the Good News to all. Amen.