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.