Lent-5 A

Lazarus...come out (Lent-5) 

Once an older lady knew that she was about to die and here asked her pastor to give her the sacrament of the anointing of the sick. After being anointed she said, "Soon I will be rocking in the bosom of Moses". "No my friend" corrected the pastor, "the bible says the bosom of Abraham". She replied, "Father, at my age, you don't care too much whose bosom it is". 

A man was so surprised to read the announcement of his own death in the obituary column of the local newspaper. Calling his close friend he said, ' Did you see the announcement of my death in the paper this morning?' The friends who was so frightened hearing his friend's voice said, "But where are you speaking from? Heaven or hell?" 

In today's gospel, we meet with three characters namely the disciples of Christ, Martha and Mary. 

We meet with the apostles:  

Once a preacher visited a home of an elderly parishioner and over a cup of coffee, he was answering some of the questions that grandma was putting him. 

She said, "Father, why does the Lord send us natural disasters and calamities every so often?" 

The priest said, "Well, sometimes people become so wicked they have to be removed and that’s why the Good Lord allows disasters and calamities". But the woman said, "then why do so many good people get removed with the bad?' 

"The good ones are summoned for witnesses." And the Lord wants to give every soul a fair trial".  

It's we who don't understand the doing of God and everything that God created has an order and rhythm. Everything continues its function according to His divine design.  

In today's gospel, we see how the disciples struggled to understand what Christ was saying to them. And that is why they tried to stop Christ from going to Bethany in Judea saying, "A short while ago, the Jews tried to stone and kill you and why do you want to go there again". When Jesus said, "Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep". They replied saying, "If he sleeps, he will get better". And then Jesus opened their minds and hearts saying, "Lazarus is dead and I am happy for your sake that I was not there so that you may believe". 

   God's plan is not human design. As we immerse ourselves in prayer, God's design will be revealed to us. 

We then meet with Martha:  

There is a beautiful story about the scientist Isaac Newton who spent almost eight years to write an important book which was destroyed by his pet dog diamond. He wasn't angry at his dog instead he said, "Diamond, you didn't know what you did and then he stared write all over again".  Patience is a virtue and those who wait reap the reward. Once a man prayed to God saying, "Please God, give me patience but give it to me now....right now". 

Martha was not patient enough and wanted everything to happen in her own time and that is why, as Christ our Lord was coming, she went and met him saying, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would have died and even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask of him". Jesus said, "Your brother will rise again".  

She right away answers saying, "I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day". And Christ says,, "I am the resurrection and the life". Whoever believes in me, even though they die, will live and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die".  

Patience is a virtue and it can be known through prayer and fasting. 

Then we meet with Mary the sister of Martha and Lazarus 

There is an old story tells of an angel who met a man carrying a heavy bag and asked what was in it. The man said, "My worries". The angel said, "Let me see them". And when he opened it, that was empty. The man was astonished and said that he had two great worries. One was yesterday which now became past and the other of tomorrow which had not yet arrived. The angel told him that he needed no bag and he gladly threw it away. 

When Martha went to see Jesus, Mary stayed behind and she was clearly discouraged. And Christ himself was looking for her. That itself gave her hope and let her worries go and witnessed the great miracle of her brother Lazarus coming out of the tomb. 

We are all worried and confused when things do not go according to our way of thinking and designing but God has a plan and God who sent His son Christ will never abandon us and God who created us in His own hands, will not forsake us. Let us  put our trust in Him and find meaning for our very existence. 

Conclusion: When Christ called out Lazarus, he came out and Christ is still today calling us to come out of our doubts, fear, hopelessness and challenges... as we come out, there we are going to witness Christ Himself is waiting for us. Let us come out of our selfishness and bring hope to all. Amen. 

Fourth Sunday of Lent-a

Fourth Sunday in Lent 

Once an Ontario farmer and a Texan  talked to each other. The Texan said, "how much land do you have". The Ontario man said, "About hundred acres". Then the Texan, "if I begin to drive my car in my ranch, it takes almost evening to reach the other end". The Ontario farmer said, "I can completely understand...I used to have a car like that".  

Once a husband and wife went a camping trip and in the middle of the night, she woke her husband up and said, "What do you see?" The husband said, "I see millions of stars". And what does that tell you? The husband said, "Astronomically, there are billions of galaxies up there and astrologically, the Venus is in Leo and theologically, God who created all is almighty and we are nothing but dust". 

The husband then looked at his wife and said, "What does it that tell you?" The wife said, "you genius...somebody has stolen our tent". 

The husband was clever enough to know the complexities of the stars but missed what was plain and simple. Today's gospel reading is about a whole lot of people who miss the point. In Jesus' healing of a blind man, the Pharisees missed the amazing miracle by divine intervention. 

When I was studying philosophy, our seminary asked us to have a different experience with people who were physically or mentally challenged. I went to help blind children at home for the blind run by sisters of Charity belonged to Saint Mother Teresa. All I had to do is just read a book to a blind boy and everything went well for a week and one day, because of monsoon and torrential rain, the electricity went off. Everything was completely dark and I was afraid to get out. That time, that little blind boy said, "Please hold my hand and I will take you out". All long I was judging him so low and that boy opened my eyes that day to see the reality. Everyone is so precious and important in the sight of God and thus we see how Christ loved the blind man so much and opened his eyes.   

There is a beautiful story about Cardinal Newman. When he was a teacher at Oxford, he got sick and he wanted to go home in England but no transportation was available. As he was waiting alone, he cried out to God saying, "Lead kindly light amid the encircling gloom. Lead thou me on. The night is dark and I am far from home; lead thou me on. Keep thou my feet and I don't ask to see the distance scene-one step enough for me and thus he concluded the beautiful poem asking God to lead him to light and thus he finally arrived home, yes he converted to Roman Catholic faith. 

Cardinal Newman's cry is everybody's cry today. We are all blinded by so many things and are struggling to find God in and around us. 

We have all heard the phrase, "Seeing is believing". The idea comes, I suppose, from skeptical people who won't believe anything until they see it for themselves. 

For example, St. Thomas, " I will not believe unless I put my finger into His wounds and my hand in my side".  What did Jesus say, "Blessed are those who haven't seen and yet have come to believe".  

Today's gospel 'seeing is believing' is paradoxically both proved and disproved. It's proved that the blind man who got his sight recognized Christ as the Son of God. But on the other hand, those Pharisees and Scribes could not see and recognize Christ. The blind man could see but the sighted Pharisees failed to see. 

Conclusion: 

Though we are given the blessing of sight, Do we see and recognized Christ in our everyday life. Do we see Him in our brothers and sisters in need. As we celebrate Lent, let us open our eyes and see Christ as our Lord and God. 

There is an old story about a blind beggar with a sign saying, "Please help me  I am blind". Every day the blind beggar was largely ignored by the passersby. One day, a man rewrote that sign and went away. The blind man didn't know what was written but everyone who saw the sign stopped by and helped the blind man. Yes, the sign said, "What a beautiful day and I can't see. Please help"   

As we celebrate the season of Lent, let us open ourselves to see what is going on around us and find Christ in every suffering person. God bless. Amen.  

Third Sunday of Lent -A

The Samaritan Woman. 

By the way, last Thursday, I went to the Anglican church for Lenten talk and I said that once an Anglican man called the Catholic priest and said, "Father, would you please come and pray for my wife who is sick?' The priest said, "No...problem and what happened to your minister?' The Anglican man said, "We love our minister so much and my wife has a mysterious illness and we don't want him to get sick". Then I continued saying, "If I get sick coming to this church, I will blame it on you Anglicans".  

Two men are ice-fishing on Sunday and feeling a bit guilty about not being in Church. One man said , "I wouldn't have gone to Church anyway? The other asked 'Why?'  Because my wife is sick in bed with flu". 

Once after the birth of his baby brother, a little boy was completely annoyed at all his crying and screaming. He asked his mom, "where did he come anyway?' The mother said, "He came from heaven". The boy said, "Now I know why they threw him out". 

They say that the longest journey in life is from head to heart. The first step on the path to wisdom is the ability to say, "I do not know...." We like to believe that we know a great many things but we understand far few of those things. Once we know that we don't  know  many things and then we will have that willingness to change. We thus come out of our comfort zone and see that there are so many spiritual realities are hidden from us. 

One of the apocryphal gospels, Jesus says,  "Whoever knows the all and fails to know himself , lacks everything". 

Today's gospel passage deals with a Samaritan woman who failed to know herself and also failed to Know God. Then Christ the light opened her mind to spiritual reality and she received the light of Christ. 

Rossini was a famous Italian who composed some beautiful music. The King of France gave him a wrist watch as a token of appreciation. Rossini was very proud of that expensive watch and carried with him so many years and one day as he showed it to his friend who touched a secret spring and a little inner case flew open revealing a beautiful little painting of Rossini himself. The composer never knew that the painting was there. 

Christ our Lord reveals to her that she was also a child of God and from that time onwards everything became so different. 

Today's gospel passage shows the longest interaction of Christ our Lord. 

Christ is crossing so many barriers to reach that lonely, rejected women. He breaks the Jew and Samaritan barrier. He breaks the enmity between the two groups and then He breaks the barrier of men and women. 

Even today in the name of honor killing and even today in the name of family secrets and in the name of religion, community...women are being treated cruelly, they are being stoned to death and abused, physically and sexually tortured. 

They say that no one can be perfectly free till all are free; no one can be perfectly moral till all are moral; and no one can be perfectly happy till all are happy. 

Christ our Lord broke the barrier long ago and gave living water to all who thirst for justice and peace; to all who long for love and forgiveness.  

As the woman of Samaria was longing for life-giving water, Christ said, " The water that I will give a person will become in him a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.  

After receiving the life-giving water, the woman went to her community a changed person. Those who rejected her and those who were looked down upon her began to hear her wods and thus she brought them all to Christ our Lord. 

This life-giving water that Christ is talking about is about our baptism. As we were baptized in Christ, we became so precious and important. We became a changed new spiritual beings.  

There is a story about St. Louis of France who used to sign his documents not, "Louis IX, King' but 'Louis of Poissy". Someone asked him why and the king said, "Poissy' is the place where I was baptized. I think more of the place where I was baptized than of Rhims Cathedral where I was crowed". It is a greater thing to be a child of God than to be the ruler of a kingdom'. I will lose this kingdom at death but the baptism will be my passport to an everlasting glory". 

The Greek orthodox tradition venerates and calls the Samaritan woman as  St. Photina or photiona. Photo means light. Since she was enlightened by Christ the light of the world, she got the name. She then became a great missionary of Christ and thus she offered her life for Christ.  

Conclusion: Since we are all received the light of Christ at baptism, we are also called to offer ourselves to Christ the light of the world. So let us abstain from anything that stops us from loving Christ and continue our Lenten journey. Amen.