FIRST SUNDAY IN ADVENT

First Sunday of advent-C 

Good morning/evening everyone, I am so happy to welcome you all for today’s Holy Mass. 

Once as a man was checking his cellphone and minding his own business, his wife came behind him and hit him with a frying pan. He was so shocked and asked her why. She said, ‘I found this piece of paper in your pocket and it is written Janes and who is Janes?’ The husband laughed and laughed and said, “Oh, that is a name of a horse I was betting on”. The wife apologized and went away. And within two days, again she hit him with a bigger frying pan, and he asked why. She said, “That horse who were betting on, called you this morning”. 

Friends in Christ Jesus, as we begin the new season of Advent, we are presented with the second coming of Christ our Lord.  the bible says that there is a season for everything. What is here today, will be gone tomorrow. God has made everything suitable for its time; moreover, He has put a sense of past and future into everyone’s mind and yet they cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end. 

Christ Jesus who left behind His apostles, disciples and followers to continue to His great mission of preaching and healing, is coming back to glorify them and give them life. 

Even before His coming, there will be great cosmic changes. There will be sings in the Sun, the moon and the stars”. Yes, the Sun and the moon will be darkened. The stars will lose their power. The book of Genesis says that in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth, and those first created things will begin to change. They will shape into new eternal form to welcome the Lord our God who asks us to be awake and alert. Our very essence of human will begin to change. We will become new persons. That day, we will know that that the sun light or the moon light are like mere shadow in the light of Christ. He is coming to bring new light and new light to all who believed and followed Him. 

The gospel today asks us not to be worried about our daily things forgetting the coming of Christ our Lord. Today there are so many people worried about worldly and material things. A child who is going to school is a very difficult and hard thing and complains going to school, will also complain to go to work saying, “this job is killing me, and I can’t wait for Friday and that same person once get married would say, “I am not a marriage material and this marriage is so hard to live and once they bring children into the world, would say, “I cannot raise children in this world and then grandchildren are not good and on and on. Then as you go and visit them in the nursing home, all they will say, “I want to go home, and this is not my place”. And thus, life will end in complaining. They are so worried about every day thing and forget the real meaning of life, happiness, joy and encountering Christ our Lord every day. 

There is a beautiful story about a man who was sleeping, had a horrible, horrible nightmare in which he was being chased by a lion. As he was running away from the lion, there comes in front of him a tiger and then he realized that he was being surrounded by so many ferocious animals, what should he do to escape? It’s so easy, since he is sleeping and dreaming, all he has to do is just, get up.  

Friends in Christ, you have to get up from your sleep and say “No” today from so many things that are hindering you from going to Christ and loving Him. As we know that Christ is the only way to the Father, we will be given enough strength to face all our challenges, to face all our difficulties and to face all our pain and suffering knowing that Christ is coming to give us life, life that will never end. So let us keep away and renew ourselves in Christ every day. Amen. 

CHRIST THE KING

Christ the King-feast day 

Good evening/morning everyone, I am so happy to welcome you all for today’s Holy Mass.  

As a man was reading a newspaper, his wife came behind him and hit him with a frying pan and he looked at her and said, ‘What is wrong with you and what did I do now?” She said, ‘I found this piece of paper in your pocket written Monica and who is she?” He began to laugh and laugh and said, ‘Honey, Monica is the name of the horse that I was betting on”. Then she apologized and went away. Within three days, she again hit him with a bigger pan and got mad at him. He said why are you hitting me again. She said, “Because this morning your horse called here”. 

Today we celebrate the great feast of Christ the king. Christ the universal king or we may say, the cosmic king. Kings and queens sent people to fight their battle, to suffer their suffering and die for them. But there was only one king Christ our Lord suffered for others, fought for His people and at last died for His people and He is our eternal king. 

We celebrate Christ the king. Christ means Anointed one. For example, the Holy Bible says, in those days, the prophet Samuel went to Bethlehem and found the right person to rule the people of Israel. Yes, He with the oil anointed a shepherd by name David. Christus means anointed one. Christ is the anointed one to be King of the universe. He is our eternal king, and, in His kingdom, there is no end. 

Some years ago, a Canadian soldier on a bus in Sweden told the man sitting next to him, “You know what in Canada, anyone can go to the parliament and freely talk to our prime minister. We live in a wonderful country. The man said, “That's nothing, in Sweden, the King and the ordinary people can travel on the same bus” 

When the man got off the bus, the Canadian soldier was told by other passengers that he had been sitting next to the king Gustav Adolf VI. 

Our King is the king of all kings. He who humbled Himself to be like you and me, He who accept willingly humiliation and suffering and ultimately death on the cross, is our eternal king. He lowered Himself to our level, so that we can get up to His level. 

In today’s gospel, Pilate asks Christ saying, “Are you the king of the Jews?” Jesus says, ‘Do you ask on this own? Or did others tell you about me?” He says, “I am not a Jew, am I? Your own people handed over to me and what have you done? 

My kingdom is not from here. If it were from here, my disciples were fighter over to keep me from being handed over to others. So, you are the king. You say so and anyone who belongs to the kingdom will know the truth. 

There is a beautiful story of a king before whom people brought a man accused of murdering people. The king listened to everything and then said, ‘In my kingdom nothing ever happened like this. This is the first time, a man was brought before me accused of murder and before serving my judgment, the accused may talk. But the man stood still and didn’t say anything, anything at all. Then the king looked at the man and all and said, “I order him to be executed...” then the amazing thing happened, the king got up from his throne and took off his outer robe and went down to the people and said, “As your just king, I served you all judgement but now as this man’s father, I will accept his punishment and thus He died on the cross”. 

Yes, friends, this is the story of Christianity. This is the story of salvation and this is the story of you and me. Christ the king came to accept your sin and guilt. As we humble ourselves, we too will enter into the kingdom of truth and peace, the kingdom of serenity and harmony and the kingdom of love and forgiveness. 

Amen.

33 sunday- B

33rd Sunday-B 

Good evening/morning everyone, two weeks ago, we had that wonderful old-time gospel choir that was wonderful. And a non-Catholic came to the event and looking at the holy water in the front, he made a joke saying, “oh I didn’t know that you have a bowl of water at the entrance to wash hands and then he said, ‘where is the soap?’ I was equally laughing and said, you are looking for soap, ask your wife. Then she came in, looking at me said, “Father, you have a beautiful smile and I said, ‘don’t tell your husband, he might be jealous’.  

Then I said at the gospel choir a non-Catholic joke. Once what happened was, a minister saw one of his parishioners was so upset and sad and after service, he looked at her and said, “Sheila, what happened to you and how come you look so sad?’ She said, “Last night my husband died’. What your husband died. I am so sorry to hear that. What were his last words?’ Sheila looked at the minister and said, “he looked at me and said, “Sheila, for heaven sake, put that gun down”. 

Friends in Christ Jesus, where there is Christ, there are love and kindness and where there is Christ, there are only acceptance and forgiveness. Yes, where there is Christ, there are justice and peace. 

As we reflect on the four gospels, we know how they talk about the birth, life and miracles, wonders of Christ and then His suffering, crucifixion and death and then His glorious resurrection and then when we read the 14 letters of St. Paul, first he talks about the resurrection, death, crucifixion, suffering and then His miracles and wonders. Thus, the gospels and Paul meet at one place, mostly it is at the Good Shepherd place where we meet with Christ the good shepherd who longs to find the one sheep that was lost. He is going after that one sheep that was lost and after finding that sheep, He celebrates uncontrollably. 

That same Jesus, the compassionate, kind, loving and forgiving is coming again. This time, He comes with more compassion, with more kindness and with more love and with more forgiveness.  

Yes, the Son of Man is coming to not to punish His followers who believe in Him, coming to church, receiving churches' sacraments and above all else putting their faith into practice. 

Once Simon Peter said to Jesus, “Oh Jesus, we have left everything for you” and Jesus said, “You who have left everything will receive hundred-fold in the kingdom to come”. So, you will be highly blessed on that day.  

Once Christ our Lord said, ‘The day will catch you unexpectedly. If the owner of the house had known at what time the thief was coming, he would not let his house be broken into...” The day of the Lord would also be like this. But today, Jesus our Lord gives us more hope to interpret the cosmic events. As we look around what is going on, we should be awake and be ready, because the one who was taken up, is coming down. 

That is the most joyous day of our life. It’s because we come to Church longing to see Him and we receive churches’ sacraments longing to find Him and we put our faith hoping to see Him in our brothers and sisters and He is coming soon. Once I went to a ministerial meeting where all the other churches ministers were very busy of talking about the rapture. The Lord Jesus is coming, and He will take the good people with Him and the bad people will be left behind. The Pentecostal minister said, “we will be taken up to heaven”. And everybody was clapping hands for him and then the other ministers were all saying the same thing, they were all clapping hands and then they look at me saying, “What about Catholics, will they be taken up to heaven. Will they go with Jesus?” 

And I looked at them all and with my so-called cool voice said, “By the way, we are the ones who make the rapture...”