Tenth Sunday in ordinary time-B

TENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME-B 

Good morning/evening everyone, 

Some people who went to Ireland for a visit said that all the churches in Ireland are being served by missionary priests who come from different countries and they did not understand them. And I said, "This is called payback time..." When the Irish missionaries went to different countries to preach, people didn't understand them either and now it happens in Ireland too and that is why our Catholic Church will always stay a mystery. 

Once a bishop looked at his priests and said, "you know what before you begin a homily or a talk, start with something unexpected like a joke, story or even with a statement to draw the attention of the people. For example, the last time, before giving the homily, I looked at the people and said, "I am in love with a married woman...then I gave a pause and looked at them all and said, "her name is Blessed Virgin Mary". One of the priests thought that was a wonderful idea and on Christmas day, he looked at the crowds of people and said, "I have an announcement to make. Our bishop is in love with a married woman and then by seeing the huge crowed, he got nervous and said, "I forgot her name". 

Friends in Christ Jesus,  

 St. Jerome says, "Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ".  Galileo says, "The bible shows the way to heaven not how the heaven goes". As we begin to read the bible with faith, hope and love, we come to know God's unconditional love and kindness; His mercy and compassion. 

For example, Christ often talks about faith and anyone who comes to Him for physical and mental healing, Jesus always asks them, "Do you believe? Do you have faith? And as they say, "Yes, Lord, I have faith.... and thus, He immediately heals and gives them life even on Sabbath day saying, "Law is for people and people are not for the law".  Christ our Lord defines our faith saying, "Even if we have faith the size of a mustard seed, we can easily move mountain and do great things in the name of Christ our Lord'. 

When He talks about Hope, He deepens our humanity saying, "You who are labored and heavy burdened, come to me and take my yoke upon you and learn from me. My yoke is easy and my burdened is light...for I am gentle and humble of heart". Yes, our hope will be increased every day as we have Christ for us. As St. Paul says, "When we have Christ for us, who can be against us". 

As Christ was talking about love, we always think about His unconditional and unlimited forgiveness from the stories of prodigal son and lost sheep and so on. As the Son came home from wandering around, the dad didn’t reject him, instead he said, "the son of mine was dead and now he is alive, and he was lost and now he is found"  

The bible is filled with faith, hope and love and all we have to do is, open the Bible and read it diligently every day. 

In today's gospel, our Lord Jesus Christ the only Son of God, who by dying on the Cross, destroyed our death and by rising, restored our life and there is no death for those who believe in Him, says, "Anyone who does the will of the Father is my Mother, brothers and sisters".  

Once there was a holy man who listened to the words of God and did His will. He had a horse that helped him to make some money. One day the old man's horse ran away from home and his neighbors and others came to him and said, "now how are your son and you going to survive? The only income source is gone and why don't you curse God instead of doing his will and being nice to others" The old man said, "everything happens for a reason and let it be according to the will of God..." Then few days later, his horse came back but not alone bring with him four more wild horses and this time, the neighbors couldn't say anything. Then one day as his son was training those wild horse, fell off the horse and broke his leg and then the neighbors and others came criticizing him saying, "Now stop saying...that you do everything according to the will of god and stop being nice to people and he said, "God is good and let me praise his name. He was like a junior job. Then one day, military officials came to his village and collecting all men to send to war and seeing his son with his broken legs, let him behind and then the man said, "Yes, everything happens for a reason and let me do the will of God".  

What is the will of God? Not only receiving the church's sacraments and not only coming to church but the will of God is putting our faith into practice. Christ our Lord says in Mattew chapter 25 that anything that we do to the least of our brothers and sisters, we do to Christ our Lord and thus we do the will of God. Doing the will of God means loving God and our neighbor and doing the will of god is helping others in need and thus we will be called mother, brothers and sisters of Christ our Lord.