First sunday of lent-A

First Sunday in Lent-A 

Good morning every one...Welcome to celebrate today's Holy Mass. Our Special welcome to all our parishioners, visitors and every one here today. 

Once an older man was speeding on 401 and was stopped by the police. The police said, "Why are you speeding two o'clock in the morning. The older man said, "I am going for a lecture". "What lecture at two o'clock in the morning?" The older man said, "It's on evil of alcohol drinking and smoking". The police was kind of suspicious and said, "Who is giving you a lecture at two o'clock in the morning?" The man said, "My wife". 

As a group of pilgrim were flying to holy land, they met with turbulence. They all ran to the priest and pleaded saying, " We are all going to die, please do something religious". Do you know what the priest did...he took up a collection. 

They say that the devil knows our name but calls you by your sins and God knows our sins but calls us by name. 

As we enter into Lenten season today.  The season of Lent consists of forty days of fasting, prayers and works of charity. Today we reflect on the temptation of Christ our Lord. It's a testing of Christ...right after His glorious baptism before entering into public ministry, Christ was taken to a wilderness or a deserted place where he spent forty days and forty nights praying and fasting. On the fortieth day, the devil came to test Him. 

At Jordan, Christ was revealed to all as the only Son of God and yet, the Son of God in His human flesh spent time with God and was prone to testing and temptation. Though we are all children of God, we are humans and weak. In order to protect ourselves from temptations, we need prayers and keep involved in spiritual practices. 

They say that the great wall of China is a gigantic structure which cost an immense amount of money and labor. When it was finished, it appeared unbreakable. But the enemy breached it. Not by breaking it down or going around it. They did it by bribing the gatekeepers. 

What is temptation? Its seduction to evil and its solicitation to wrong.  

Once there lived an amazing farmer in the island of Ireland. He was so happy to spend more time in his field and one day as he was dying, he asked his son to take him to the field where he reached down and clutched some soil onto his hands and died a happy man. 

As he was entering into heaven, the angel asked him to let the soil go but he refused. So he was let outside. Thousand years later, the angel came to him and said , 'Come into heaven and let the soil go". He again refused. Two thousand years later, the angel insisted upon him and he finally let the beloved soil of Ireland go. When he entered into heaven, the first thing he witnessed was, his beloved island Ireland was waiting for him in heaven. 

What we leave behind for the sake of others and for our own sake and what we sacrifice for the well-being of others, will always be counted in heaven. 

In today's gospel we see how our Lord Jesus Christ the only Son of God is facing with three types of testing or temptations namely physical, spiritual and material. 

For the physical temptation, Christ our Lord said to the devil, "One does not live on bread alone but every word that comes from the mouth of God".  

Once a man wants to become a monk, was advised to do some reflection and meditation on the special call. While he was sitting comfortably to do so, he saw a beautiful woman walking by and he was distracted. The next day, he closed his eyes and was doing his meditation and he could still hear her walking by and was distracted again. The next day, he closed his eyes and ears and this time, he could smell her. So the next day, he covered his head with a brown bag and was doing his meditation on how to become a catholic monk. Time went by, when it was ten 0'clock, his mind began to act out saying, "This is the time. She is supposed to be walking by...where is she? Where is she?" 

Physical temptation can easily stop a person from loving God. Through the Lenten discipline of prayer, fasting and works of charity, we are given more strength to face our physical temptation. 

Let us remember that we do not have a soul. We are a soul and we have a body and our soul is stronger with Christ. So let us remember we do not live on bread alone but every word that comes from the mouth of God. 

The second temptation is called 'Spiritual temptation'. 

As Christ used the biblical verses to answer the Devil. The Devil is using biblical verses to Him saying, "why don't you jump from here and angels will come and protect you and you are just going to be fine" 

The devil used the biblical text without context. That's we say "A text without context is a pretext". 

Christ says, "Do not put the Lord your God to the test". 

Today there are so many people saying, "I come to Church and practice my faith and why my family is suffering. Why do I have this and that problem". The strongest temptations of all is spiritual temptation which leads us to even go against our Creator God". 

To the third temptation namely to the material sin, Jesus answered the devil saying, "Worship and serve only the Lord God". 

Yes, we are all sent here  to serve and worship God alone. So during this season of Lent and every day of our life, let us say "Yes" to God and "No" to our sins 

Once two men went to  a spiritual Master and said, "we have sinned and want to find God and what should we do". Master said, "Tell me about your sins". The first man said, "I have committed grave sins". The second man said, "I am not like this man. My sins are very small". Then the master looked at them both and said, "This is what you must do. Each of you must go and bring me a stone for each of your sins". The first man brought two heavy rocks and the second man brought about hundred small pebbles. Then the spiritual master said, "go and put them back where you found them". The first man put them back exactly where he found them. But the second man who brought about hundred pebbles could not find the exact place of all those pebbles. 

Then the master said, "If a man commits greater sins and is truly sorry and his sins will be forgiven. But if a man is constantly doing small things and is not feeling sorry for his sins...then he remains a sinner". 

So it is important to avoid little sins as big ones".  

Thus let us enter into the season of Lent. Amen.

Eight Sunday-A

Eight Sunday-A 

Last week I visited a family and as the wife said that her husband is going to be forty-five soon, I said, "Did he have his mid-life crisis yet?' And she said, "My husband has mid-life crisis every day". 

One day as a mother and her son were coming home from Sunday Mass, the mom looked at a beautiful double rainbow in the sky and said, "Son, God painted this just for you. Look how beautiful it is". The boy looked at his mom and said, "Thanks mom and God did it left handed". The mom was kind of confused and said, "why do you say God painted it with left hand?" The son said, "Because at Sunday school they said that Jesus sits on God's right hand". 

Does anyone has any change?...wow...he is rich and I haven't seen a hundred dollar bill for long time.  

Money is not evil.  It's a blessing. We see in the Old Testament how God blessed all His servants, believers and followers with wealth. The book of Job begins like this. Once there was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job. That man was blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil. There were born to him seven sons and three daughters. He had seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen, five hundred donkeys, and very many servants. He was highly blessed by God. Those who fear God will be greatly blessed by wealth. 

Being rich and having money is a blessing. Once a man said, "I have enough money to live comfortably for the rest of my life, if I die next Tuesday". Someone said, "The only exercise I have done this month is running out of money". So many things are said about money. 

Last week a friend of mine said, "The best way to make money at the casino is just staying home".  Money in itself is not an evil thing but the people who love money are evil. 

 Money is not our Master but servant. And that is why at the temptation of Christ we see when the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor and said to Christ, "I will give you all these, if you will fall down and worship me". 

What did Jesus say? He said, "Away with you, Satan! For it is written, "Worship the Lord your God and serve only Him".  That is why Christ our Lord said to the man who said to himself after a big produce, "I am going to pull down my small storage and build a bigger one and where I will store all my produce and now I have ample goods, a lot of things to enjoy. So my soul, be happy and enjoy life and Christ said, "You fool. This very night your life is demanded of you and then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?" What is the point of gaining the whole world and forfeiting our soul? 

And that is why in today's Gospel passage, Christ who showed us the way to the Father says, "No one can serve two masters. We can not serve both God and wealth". 

We are called to serve God and make money serve us.  

There is a story about a woman who was struggling with a decision as to whether or not to have cosmetic surgery. She was thinking about having a facelift. But it was very expensive. Hence, she was totally confused. She said to her husband, "The surgery is so expensive and what if I drop dead three months after I have this surgery? Then what would you do? The husband thought for a moment and said, "Well, I guess we would have an open casket for your funeral". 

Created things will never satisfy a person. The longing in Him will never go away. The black hole in his heart will remain forever unless a person serves the Master, the Creator. 

As we serve God using our money and other means, we will know how to deal with our worries, anxieties and pain and suffering. Every living or non-living thing will help us to stay stronger.  

Jesus asks us to look at the lilies of the field who neither toil or spin and yet heavenly father keep them beautiful.  

When we serve God using our money and other means, we will know how to deal with our worries, anxieties, pain and suffering. Every living and non-living thing will help us stay stronger. 

Jesus asks us to look at the birds. They neither sow nor reap and yet 

 the heavenly Father feeds them. So He who loves us all with His unconditional love will look after us. All we have to do is surrender ourselves to Him and serve Him.  

So let us not worry about tomorrow but live today serving Him who loves us. Amen.

7th sunday-A

Seventh Sunday In Ordinary Time- A 

Good evening/morning everyone, once there was a man who was always bragging about his love for children. One day, he was pouring a new driveway of cement and some of the children in the neighborhood ran right through his freshly poured driveway. Some even wrote their names in the cement. When the man saw it, he got so mad and was screaming. Then one of his neighbor came over and said, "I thought you said you loved children". The man said, "Well, I do love them in the abstract, but I don't love them in the concrete". 

Today our Lord Jesus Christ teaches us to be holy as God the Father is Holy. He teaches us four methods or ways to be holy like the Father. 

1. The first method is to abstain from all forms of retaliation:  In those days, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth method was applied. Some people love to take revenge and punish others for their wrong doings.  Gandhi once said, "If we apply an eye for an eye, soon the whole world will be blind" One day truck driver stooped at a restaurant for dinner and ordered a steak. Before he could eat it,  in walked a motorcycle gang. They took the man's steak and cut it in pieces and ate it. The truck driver said nothing. He simply paid the bill and walked out. One of the gang members said, "The man couldn't talk"  Another said, "He couldn't fight either". Then the waiter added saying, "I would say he couldn't driver either". On the way out of the parking lot, he ran over six motorcycle crushing all of them. Sometimes we love this kind of story of retaliation. But Christ calls us to forgive those who sins against us. 

2.  The second method of becoming holy as God is holy is to take the offense gracefully and love the offender: Christ our Lord says if anyone strikes us on one cheek, let us turn the other cheek too to him. If anyone wants to take our coat, let us give our cloak as well and if anyone forces us to walk a mile, let us walk an extra mile with that person and thus let him know that we are not offended in any way.  Once a 24 year old boy seeing out from the train's window shouted... "Dad, look the trees are going behind!". Dad smiled and a couple sitting nearby looked at the 24 year old's childish behavior with pity and the boy again said, "Dad, look the clouds are running with us". The couple could not resist and said to the old man...  

"Why don't you take your son to a good doctor?" The old man smiled and said,  "I did and we are just coming from the hospital. My son was blind from birth and he just got his eyes today".  Let us not judge or offend others, the truth might surprise you. 

3. The third method to be holy like the Father is by unconditionally and whole-heartedly forgiving the offender without planning revenge in any form: There is an old story about a woman going to her parish priest saying, "I had a vision and Jesus talked to me..." She kept coming to him every day and saying the same thing and one day to make sure that she was really having a vision, the priest said, "The next time when Christ appears to you. Ask him about my personal sins". She did come to him the next day and do you know what she said? She said, "Jesus Christ said that He forgot all your sins". That is called real forgiveness. Forgiveness is not only forgiving the offender but also forget what the person did. 

4. The fourth method to be holy like the Father is to dedicate ourselves to pray for our offenders' spiritual and physical welfare. 

Our body is the temple of the holy Spirit and as we want to experience the presence of God, it is our duty to forgive and accept others. The world will come to know that we belong to God only by the way we love and accept others. So let us love each other and bring His message of love and forgiveness to all. God bless. Amen.