Sunday-22 -A

Sunday- 22nd year A 

Good morning every one, I am so happy to welcome you all for today's Holy Mass. Our special welcome to all our parishioners, visitors and every one. 

Last week end as I was leaving the former parish, I looked at them all and said, "If I have offended you in any way or hurt your feelings, all I want to say is, you are too sensitive". 

Once a wife looked her husband and said, "By the way, you are a wonderful man and as I went shopping I saw a beautiful dress and as I was trying it on, the devil whispered to me saying, "That is so beautiful and buy it" and I bought it and it was only $10.000. The husband was shocked and said, "Why did you not tell the devil, "get behind me, Satan". She said, "I did and he said, my dress looked fabulous from behind too". 

Dear friends in Christ Jesus, it's because of Christ, we live, move and have our being and it's because of His life, death and Resurrection, we have life that will never end and it's because of Him, we have meaning and purpose in our life. And as He was foretelling His glorious death and Resurrection, Simon Peter tried to stop Christ from being tortured and killed.  

When Christ called Simon Peter to follow Him, he immediately left everything and followed Him. It's because he experienced the magnetic love and kindness of Christ our Lord.  

When Christ our Lord asked His apostles about what they were saying about Him, it was Simon Peter who came forward in the name of all the apostles and said, "You are Christ the living God. You are the Alpha and Omega and you are the beginning and end and with you everything is possible. 

And when Christ asked them whether they too want to go away from Him, it was Simon Peter who said, "Christ Jesus to whom shall we go?" You have the words of eternal life. 

And that is why as Christ was talking about His suffering, crucifixion and death, Simon Peter tried his best to stop not knowing the mission of Christ and not knowing the divine love and forgiveness of Christ for humanity. 

And then Christ invites us to know the meaning of suffering saying, "If anyone wants to become my follower, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me". 

Once a man prayed to God saying, "God, you know how much I love you but the cross you gave me is too heavy to carry... please help me and do something". That night an angel of the Lord appeared to him and took him to a huge place like an auditorium and there, they were so many different size crosses, big, small, light and heavy and so on. And the angel then looked at him and said, "Now you can pick any cross you want...". The man looked at all the different types of crosses and then he finally picked up a smallest cross and said, "I want to carry this cross". Then the angel laughed at him and said, "This is the cross you were carrying all along".  

Yes, God will not give us anything too heavy to carry. He loves us so much and that is why He sent His only son our Lord Jesus Christ to die for us. Let us have courage and take up our cross and follow Him daily. So, let us carry our crosses and follow Him. Amen.