13th Sunday- Ordinary time- A

13th Sunday in Ordinary time-A 

In today's Gospel, Christ our Lord calls us in a special way to 'Love Him' more than anyone else in the world. 

Loving Christ more than anyone else means committing ourselves completely to Him and Him alone.  

As many scribes and scholars asked Christ about loving God, 

Christ our Lord said, "Love God with all your heart, mind, body and soul...". It's because Christ loved us first and we should love Him back. It's because He proved His unconditional love by dying on the cross for us and we should love Him back and it's because He promises eternal life for us who follow Him and we should love Him back. Yes, we should love Him with all our heart, mind, body and soul.  

As we love Him more than anyone else, all others will come to know the loving kindness of God our Father. This is the only way to let the world know that our God is a living God and He made us to know and love Him with all our heart, mind and body.  

1. Once the famous scientist, writer and painter Leonardo Da Vinci who prepared to paint the famous Last Supper, was searching for a man who could pose Jesus Christ in that painting. He looked for a man whose face would have divine peace and calmness, whose face would reflect love and kindness, forgiveness and mercy and Da Vinci finally found a man who posed as model for Christ the Lord. And thus Da Vinci finished painting Christ and then one by one he painted all other apostles except Judas Iscariot who betrayed our Lord. By then he spent more than two year and then he began to search for a man whose face would reflect ugliness and revenge; deception and other horrible characters and after a long search, Da Vinci finally found a man who exactly fit for his ideas and he asked him to pose for Judas and thus he finished the beautiful painting of last supper. The man who posed for Judas as he was leaving the studio looked at Da Vinci and said, "Do you remember me?" Da Vinci said, "No...I don't and who are you?' The man said, "I am the same man who posed for Jesus two years ago and now you asked me to pose for Judas too" 

You know what the man said. He said, "Except the Lord our God, I loved everybody else". 

As we love the Lord our God more than anyone else, we find purpose in our lives and become like magnet and attract others towards God and ourselves.  

2. Loving Jesus more than anyone else means forgiving others and taking up our cross daily and follow Him. 

The biggest challenge today is practicing forgiveness.  

Once a man prayed to God saying, "God, give me your blessing so that I can change the world...." Years went by and nothing happened and then in his forties, he prayed saying, "God, please give me your blessing and I could change my country and years went by and nothing happened" and in his fifties, he prayed to God saying, "God, give me your grace and I could change my community" and years went by nothing happened and in his sixties, he prayed to God saying, "God, give me your blessing and at least, I could change my family and children". Years went by and everybody remained the same and at last in his eighties, he prayed to God saying, "God, give me your blessing and I could change myself" Then he felt something new and wonderful. Forgiveness is accepting others as they are and changing oneself. When we change ourselves, people will change, the world will change and everything else will begin to make sense.  

Loving Jesus more than anyone else means preaching the Good News of salvation to all and living our lives for the glory of God. 

The thirty years of Christ our Lord are so important and when we boil them down, the three years of Christ become so important. When we move further, the three days of Christ become so important and as we move further, the three hours of Christ is the most important in human history. Yes, the last three hours changed everything.  

We are called to preach the life that Christ brought through the Cross . We are saved in Christ and as we live like people of hope, joy and happiness, the whole world will come to know that Christ is alive. Let us keep Christ at the center of our life and help others to love Him more than anything and anyone else in the world. Amen.

12th sunday-A

12th Sunday in Ordinary time-A 

Once an older lady who was flying first time, got so afraid though four bishops were sitting behind her. As the flight took off, she opened her eyes and saw out the window, one of the four engines broke loose and disappeared into the clouds. She began to scream saying, "We are all going to die. We are all going to die". One of the flight attends came and said, "Please don't be afraid, we can land safely with three engines besides we have four bishops to pray for us". The older lady said, "I would rather have four engines and three bishops".  

We are all afraid of so many things. There are people afraid of living and others dying. There are people afraid of being in a crowed and others being alone. There are people afraid of talking about their religion and others not talking about their religion. Fear is crowding us each and every day.  

But on the other hand, Christ our Lord is inviting us not to be afraid of proclaiming the Good News of salvation. 

During the time of Emperor Nero, the whole city of Rome was set on fire.  And everyone knew that the emperor himself set the city on fire, he blamed the followers of Christ and many innocent Christians were dragged from their homes and were put to death in unspeakable ways. Those innocent Christians witnessed Christ boldly. St. Tertullian says that the blood of  martyrs are the seeds of Christianity. 

When an holy man was dragged and was combed his flesh with iron comb. He was praying to Jesus and others were asking him where he got the courage to witness Christ and he said, "I love the Lord with all my heart, mind, soul and strength and now I want to love Him with my life".  

Today's gospel gives us three reasons why we should not be afraid.  

It’s because those who go against the believers of Christ cannot succeed at all. And God will expose their evil plan and deeds. Nothing is covered up that will not be uncovered.  

Today the mortality rate is 100 percent. Yes, everybody will die. So we should not be afraid of those who stop us from loving Christ the Messiah. 

And Christ asks us not to be afraid of our enemies or opponents, it's because  those who kill the body cannot kill the spirit. The immortality rate is also hundred percent. Those who do good will enter into the father's house and others for everlasting punishment.  

When St. Chrysostom was told if he did not renounce his faith, the emperor would have him banished from his kingdom. Chrysostom said, "I am not afraid because the whole world is the kingdom of my father". Then the emperor said, "I will take away your life". The saint said, "you cannot. My life is hid with Christ in God".  We then will take away all your possession. The saint responded saying, "you cannot. My treasure is in heaven where my heart is" The king could not do anything to him. The fearlessness of Chrysostom changed the mind of the emperor. 

In today's gospel, Christ our Lord says that we should not be afraid of preaching the Good News of salvation to all. It's because God's compassionate love is always with us and we are more important than many...many sparrows.  

Conclusion: Everyone who acknowledges Christ before humans, Christ will acknowledge that person before His heavenly Father and if we deny him, then He will also deny us.  

So let us proclaim the love and kindness of Christ; let us proclaim his compassion and mercy to those who are away from Him. Amen, 

Corpus Christi........

Corpus Christi and Father's day. 

Today the Holy Catholic Church celebrates the feast of Corpus Christi namely the precious body and blood of Christ our Lord.  Jesus says that unless we eat His body and drink His blood, we cannot enter into the kingdom of God. He is the bread of life that came down from heaven. Our ancestors ate manna in the wilderness and they all died and perished but on the other hand, anyone who eats the bread that comes down from heaven, will live forever. 

Few years ago, I met with a woman whose husband recently returned from Afghanistan and I asked her how she coped with his absence for two years. She said as newly married couple it was not easy for me. I struggled a lot without him and more so thinking that he was in the battle field. In the night time, I used to have his t shirt on and thus I felt that he is closer to me. The longing of the wife for her husband and their deep love for each other and likewise, Christ who created a deep longing in us, when he went up to the Father, did not abandon us instead the groom left the Holy Eucharist to his bride to celebrate and connect with him until he comes. 

The Holy Eucharist heals us from all infirmities.  

A noncanonical story says that once God sent all His angels down to find out the pressing needs of the people. Then the angels reported to God saying, "People hungry. They are hungry for love and hungry for food". Then God said, "I will send down my son who will fulfill all their needs and thus Christ gave His own body and blood".   

Ego sum panis vite and ego sum panis vivente namely I am the bread of life and I am the living bread. As Christ invited people to eat His flesh, many of His disciples left Him saying, "who will follow this command and it is so hard and thus went away from Him but the apostles said,  

"Jesus, to whom shall we go, you have the words of eternal life". Yes, every time, we come here that's we say, "Jesus, to whom shall we go, you have the words of eternal life and thus participating in the Mass we witness the mere bread and wine change into the real body and blood of Christ called transubstantiation. Let us receive Him and become like Him. 

Today we also celebrate father's day. Let us thank God the Father for sending His only Son who gives His body and blood as our food and also let us thank Him for our fathers who sacrifice their time, energy and resources to make us stronger in Christ Jesus. 

Once a father who saw his  trying to move a heavy rock said, "Son, are you using all your strength?" The son who was exhausted said, "Yes dad, I am". Then the dad said, "No, you are not. You haven't asked me to help you". 

Today I begin to see more and more dads involved so much in their children's life. The last two months, I got about six phone calls for baptism and four calls from fathers. The time is changing for better and it is really healthy to see how men are more involved in spiritual things. We need stronger spiritual leaders at home. When a father leads a family prayer, rosary and bible study, we can surely say that the children are going to be spiritually stronger. 

Once a dad who was so busy getting ready to go to work noticed that one of his children was using his electric shaver to shave his head. He got so mad at him and said, "what are you doing? Why are you keep bothering me, you need a good spanking". The son said, "Dad, don't get mad at me. Go and see what Charlie did. Charlie his second son came to him completely shaved head. The dad got so upset and said, "why are you doing these to me?"  They said, "Because we want to be like you".  

That's a desire of every child trying to be like his dad. 

Once a group of children went to see an ocean for the first time and when they came back to school the next day, they were sharing their experience with others saying, "No one can swim across the ocean. It is so huge and one of the children who did not go to the trip and who never saw an ocean said, "What about my dad. He can do anything".  

Fathers are role models and guide and they build and shape their children's future. 

So let us thank God almighty for our fathers who nourished and nourish us physically and spiritually. Let us thank Him for His Son who taught us to call God, 'Father". Amen.