19th sunday

19th Sunday-C
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 our faith in Christ and hoping that Christ our Master will come one day as He promised to His apostles and others and every time we come here, our expectation in His second coming intensifies and as we receive church’s sacraments, we get ready to welcome the Master who is going to come in an unexpected time.
Once there was an old priest in a remote village and he was known for his devotion to his long years of religious works in a small village and even Vatican was impressed at his dedication and hard work. So they sent reporters to interview him as they wanted to use his story to inspire other priests. The reporter looked at him with pride and happiness asked him what is your secret to this dedication and hard work. The old priest said, “two things my child. coffee and rosary”. then he leaned back on his chair and yelled towards the kitchen: “Rosary! please bring in two coffee”.
After His Resurrection and before His Ascension in heaven, Jesus instructed His disciples saying, “Go, therefore everywhere and baptize them all in the name of the father, Son and the Holy Spirit and preach the Good News to all. I will be with you until the end of time”. This is called the great commission of Christianity and He also promised that He would come back to take us all with Him so that where He is, we may be too.
What did the apostles believe about the second coming of Christ?
Though there is no clear evidence about their expectation of Christ’s second coming happening during their time, some theologians suspect that the apostles waited not writing the gospels thinking that Christ would come back to take them with Him. Once they received the Holy Spirit, they deepened their faith in Christ and began to go everywhere to preach the good news of salvation.
St. Paul also strongly believed that the second coming of Christ would occur during His time and when people of Thessalonica in the hope of His second coming stopped working or doing anything but instead began to interrupt other, St. Paul had to intervene them saying, “ I hear that some of you are not doing anything but keep interrupting others. those who are not working should not eat”. The Lord is coming in an unexpected time, let us prepare ourselves doing good works and preach the good news to all.
The beauty of the second coming is no body knows when He is going to come but He will come as He promised and that is why Christ said, “no one knows not even the son of God but only the Father”.
Jesus says that we should be like those who are waiting for their master’s return, should be dressed for action and lamps should be lit. Be dressed for action... yes, we should keep our faith alive and active. Those who have faith in Christ will never die. They will witness the second coming of Christ on that day.
One day a spiritual master with his disciples was going to a village to preach the good news. As he was going, he was stopped by some people and they said, ‘we know you preach the good news and do miracles and wonders and why can’t you pray for some rain. we are here dying without rain. The spiritual master right away knelt before God and began to pray and that time, one of his disciples began to plead him saying, “Please do not pray for rain because we have to go far away and we did not bring any umbrella either. That is called faith. The disciple really believed in the Master. when our faith is stronger, then we can say that we are dressed for action and we are ready to welcome the Master.
In today’s gospel, Jesus our Lord asks us to let our lamps lit. Yes, when our hope is stronger, people could see the love and kindness of God in and through us. we can shine like the sun before all. As we follow Christ, we will be like Him shining brightly. Once a king said to a Rabbi, “ I want to see your God who is the creator of all and who loves you so much”. And the Rabbi said, “That is impossible”. The king said, “you must show Him”. Then the Rabbi took the king out and it was summer and said to the king, “ look at the Sun” and the king said, “I can not, it is too bright” for that the rabbi said, “If you can not even look at the Sun, which is one of the servants of the Holy one, how shall you loot at the Holy one Himself”.
He is coming in an unexpected hour and all we have to do is keep our faith and let our hope shine before others by helping and accepting them all and on the day when the Master comes, He will glorify and bless us all and take us with Him so that where He is, we may be too. Amen.