17th Sunday-B

SEVENTIENTH SUNDAY B. 

Good evening/morning everyone. 

Once our former Italian bishop visited the parish where I was and asked, "What people do here?" I said, "This is a village and women like baking and men make maple syrup and the both love watching, Jerry Springer show". 

The next day after Mass, as he came to the hall, people shouted saying, "Bishop, bishop..." 

Once I said a non-Catholic joke and the bishop called me about it. All I said was, "A woman invited her friends to her wedding and one of her friends asked, this is your fourth marriage and what happened to your first husband, she said, "He ate poison mushroom and died". What about the second husband? The same thing, "he ate poison mushroom and died and what about your third? He had a broken neck and died. How come? Because he refused to eat the mushroom. 

So, the bishop said, "I heard about the joke and it's funny. Where do you get your materials? I said, thanks to St. Google. 

Dear friends in Christ Jesus, 

Our Lord Jesus Christ the Only Son of God, the Messiah and the one who saved us from darkness and death; gave us eternal light and life, is so kind and compassionate. He loves us with His unconditional love and looks after us with His compassionate heart. 

Compassion means feeling the feeling of other. Though He knew that He was going to raise Lazarus to life, as His heart is always beating for us, cried for the death of Lazarus. Though He knew His power healed the woman, who touched His cloak and, said, 'go in peace my child." There is no boundary for His love and compassion.  

As someone asked Him once, "Oh Jesus, how much do you love me? What did He do? He showed this much stretching out His hands and died on the cross. Yes, Jesus is our love and life and because of Him, we have life. He will never say, "No" to us. 

In today's gospel, we see how our Lord Jesus Christ who had compassion for the people, saw them like sheep without a shepherd and thus taught them many things and then He experienced their hunger too. And thus, He said to Philip one of the apostles, the one who said to Nathanael, "Come and see", we have found the Messiah, "Where are we going to buy bread for these people?" He should have said, "Oh Jesus, you are the bread of life and we don't need to go anywhere". But, he innocently answered our Lord, "Not even six months wages not enough to feed these people?" 

Then Andrew comes running to Jesus saying, "Oh there is a boy, a little child here who has five loaves and two fishes and what are they among so many people?" 

Once these apostles prevented little children coming to Christ and now they themselves are saying, "There is a little child here with five loaves and two fishes". "Let the children come to me and such as these, the kingdom of God" 

What we sometimes consider useless and nothing and what we look down upon and reject become so important in the sight of God. God makes everything out of nothing and that Christ out of those five loaves and two fished fed more than five thousand men besides so many women and children. 

Miracles are happening every day. And those who have faith in the Lord see and experience millions and millions of miracles each and every day. As we have faith and trust in the Lord, we too multiply His love and forgiveness; His kindness and compassion among people. 

As I was walking with another priest, I said, "There are lot of miracles happening every day". He said, "I haven't seen one and I don't see one". Then as we were walking, I heard a baby crying for away and people walking with their dogs talking, laughing and doing different things. I saw trees and water, birds singing and the sky so blue and beautiful and yet we say, "we don't see miracles". If you want to see a beautiful miracle today... go and look at yourself in the Mirror and there you will multiply into millions in happiness and joy. God bless