Good evening everyone, I am so happy to welcome you all for today's Holy Mass. Our special welcome to all our parishioners, visitors and every one here today. Let us thank God almighty...now let's prepare ourselves to celebrate the sacred mystery of our Lord Jesus Christ, calling to our mind...
One thing I realized these days that being multi-lingual is not an easy thing. You can easily be judged. On the other day, I talked to one of my friends in Sudbury and for something she said, "Thank you". And I said, "Prego". Prego in italian means "You are welcome". She did not like me saying 'prego'. I said, "it's italian...prego mean you are welcome'. I think it's better to stick with one God, one language and one hour. Oh did I say why she did not like me saying, "prego" because she thinks I am teasing her becasue she is pregnant.
Once two priests were working in a parish but they didn't get along well. They were criticizing each other. And once in a parish event, one of the priests thanked people and said, "you all know that Fr. Matthew and I are not getting alone well. It's because he does everything his own way and I do God's way.
Once Fr. Matthew was speeding and was stopped by the police. He said, "Oh there are five hundred people are waiting for me to say mass". But this did not go well. So he tried another method. he said, 'My diocese is so poor and they don't pay me well. Please let me go and I am a poor preacher'. The police officer looked at him and said, "I know Father...I heard it".
In today's gospel, Christ our Lord says that we cannot serve God and wealth. We can not have two masters. Yes, we can not walk with God holding hands with the devil. The law of human nature is that our supreme affectiion can be fixed on only one object. There is nothing more spiritually practical and practically spiritual than an investigation into proper Catholic attitude and approach towards material possession.
We Catholics should clearly understand that materil things are not bad at all. They are very necessary to improve our quality of life on earth. Other wise, every Catholic church you go, the priest, the finance committee or other organizations will not ask for money. Every time we go to church and that is all we hear, 'money..money and more money'. And that is why I stopped asking for money...I am seriously thinking of accepting debit and credit cards.
Though some say that Church does not have any authority to talk about economic, finance and business life and church should stick with religious and faith matters because economic, finance and business life are secular matter. It is not true at all. We should know that there is no purely independent secular realm at all. Everything comes from God and goes back to Him alone. The two important social principles of the catholic church are subsidiarity and solidarity. If you ever want to read a church document on social teachings please read the document called Centissimus annus by Pope John Paul ii. We should work hard and share the benefit with others especially those who are not given enough opportunity like us and thus make the world a better place to live. But on the other hand, if we hold on to our material possessions saying, 'I worked hard and it's mine and then we begin to serve not God but money'.
I remember that beautiful story of a police rabbi. Once a visitor went to see him and noticed the rabbi did not have anything in his house at all. He asked him, "Are you a minimalist? where is you furniture and where are your books?" The rabbi asked the visitor, "Where is your furniture and where are your books?" The man laughed and said, "I am just a visitor and why should I carry them with me". The master said, "So am I my friend...so am I".
If we have the same approach towards life then we will work hard and do everything for the glory of God.
Once I asked the shool children what they wanted to do in the future... most of them said, "they all want to make money..." It is parents duty today to help them to know God and spiritual things. "If you give a pig and a boy anything they want...do you know what you will get? A good pig and a bad boy.
We have a very powerful mind and it has to be occupied all the time and if not, it will create problems. It will hold on to God or money. As we train them to use our material things to serve God and then we could easily say that we are serving God. We are called to serve God and Him alone.
There are misconceptions that if anyone decided to serve God, he should be prepared to live a sad and boring life. There is a social stigma attached with people who practice their faith and come to church today. But people serve God are those who are actually happy. We are again and again reminded that God is with us. Yes, when God is with us, who can be against us. So let us serve God using all other God-given gifts and talents. Amen.
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