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.