Mission Sunday

Mission Sunday



Good morning every one. I am so happy to welcome you all to celebrate ‘world Mission Sunday’ today. My special welcome to all our parishioners, visitors and every one who is here today and I also thank you all for coming out today to celebrate Christ our Lord. Dear friends, every time we come to church, we come to know how God sent His Only Son Jesus Christ to us, every time we come to Church, we celebrate the sending of the Apostles into the world and every time we come to Church, we are called to go everywhere and preach the Good News to all.
Once a missionary went to a distant land to preach the good news. While he was walking with a guide, he asked different questions about the people, culture, language and food. Then at one point the missionary looked at the guide and asked, “what about cannibals. Do you have cannibals among you?” The guide laughed at his question and said, “No, Father; we do not have any cannibal because the last one we ate it yesterday”.
Today our Catholic Church celebrates mission Sunday. Today we pray for all our missionaries who preach the good news of our Lord Jesus Christ to all and also pray for ourselves to know that we are by the very sacrament of baptism called to be missionaries of the Good News.
One day a man visited a spiritual Master and offered him two gold coins and asked, “Master, what should I do to become a missionary to preach the good news to people?” The master without answering the man picked one of the gold coins that he gave him and threw it in the river. The man right away jumped in the water and searched to find the coin when he could not find it, he asked the master, “Where did you throw the coin?” For that the master took the other coin and threw it in the water and said, “Right there”. Then the master with compassion looked at the man and said, “Son, if you want to be a missionary, you should first know how to unbind yourself from all material things”
When our Lord Jesus Christ called the Apostles to follow Him, the first thing they did was leaving behind everything and then He asked them to go everywhere to preach the Good News. The Good news has the power and freedom. The good news will unbind us from everything that controls us. Jesus gave them wisdom and knowledge. He gave them freedom and will to go everywhere to proclaim the Good News.
One day a man came to a spiritual master and said, “Master, I want to be a lay missionary and go everywhere like the apostles to preach the Good News. But before that I want to stop drinking or at least I want to know the limit” The Master looked at him and said, “look at those four people when you see those four people as eight people, then stop drinking and you will be fine” The Man said, “Thank you, master. But by the way, master, they are not four people but only two”.
Today we are all called be His missionaries. Yes, by the very sacrament of baptism, we are called to preach the good news to all. We should tell the people that God loves them and Jesus still continues His miracles and wonders. It is important to let every one know of His kindness and compassion.

And as today’s gospel says when we love God almighty with all our heart, mind and body and love our neighbor as ourselves then we complete our missionary call. Amen.

Render unto God-29th sunday year A

Render unto God who belongs to Him…

Good morning every one. I am so happy to welcome you all for today’s celebration. My special welcome to all our parishioners, visitors and every one who is here today, I would also thank you all to celebrate today’s Holy Mass. Dear friends, every time we come to church, we celebrate our belonging to God Almighty, every time we come to church we celebrate the revelation of God Almighty in Jesus Christ and every time we come to church we celebrate our image and likeness of God in Christ.
Once a little boy wrote a letter to God that was forwarded to Ottawa and the prime minister was happy to read it and then He asked the people to send ten dollars to the boy. When the boy got the ten dollars, he was so happy. Then he wrote a thank you note to God saying, “God, I am so happy that you sent ten dollars but by the way I noticed that you sent the money through Ottawa and as usual they kept most of it.
In today’s gospel, a group of Pharisees and Scribes come to Jesus and ask, “whether they should pay taxes or not?” They wanted to put Jesus in trouble and they wanted to trap Him from His answers. But Christ our Lord says, “Render unto Caesar what belongs to him and unto God what belongs to Him”.
When Jesus asked the people whose image is on the coin and whose inscription is there, they said, “Creaser’s” then He said to give that belonged to Caesar and then He added saying, “Render unto God what belongs to Him”
The question today is what belongs to God. Whose image and likeness we carry? If we are created in the image and likeness of God, then we have to give ourselves to God alone.
Once a real incident happened in one of the South American counties where people grow banana. By exporting banana, they make their living. Once the ships that carry their bananas to different countries came late, instead of coming on Wednesday, they came on Saturday evening. So people were so busy loading them in ships except one man. When people asked him why. He said “ tomorrow is Sunday and I want to go to church not loading bananas’. People were laughing at him saying, “If you do not do it now, you are going to lose more than fifty thousand dollars. You will become so poor. The ships are leaving by tomorrow. And he instead of harvesting bananas went to church that Sunday. When he came home, he noticed all ships left the port except one because it had some mechanical problem. When the ship was ready to leave, they didn’t want to go empty handed, so they went to that man whose banana was not sold yet and said to him, “we would like to pay you three times more and please give your bananas”. He made more money that year than any one else because he respected the image and likeness of God in him. He loved God and practiced his faith.
Jesus our Lord says we should give to God what belongs to Him. Yes we belong to Him and when we give him, we will find things different.
There is a story about a man who went to parish in France where he bought rather inexpensive necklace and when he came back to his country, he wanted to find out the value of the necklace and took it to a jeweler and asked the price, the jeweler put it under the magnifying glass and examined and said, “$ 50,000 thousand dollars. The man was so surprised to know the price and he took it to another jeweler and asked the same question, the man too put the necklace under a magnifying glass and studied and said, “about $100,000dollars. The man then looked at the jeweler and asked why is it so this much… the man then asked him to read what was written in the necklace that said, “To Josephine from Napoleon”. The value of the necklace came from its identification with the famous person. Likewise our value and dignity come from Christ our Lord. When we are with God, we will be valued so high.

In today’s gospel, Christ our Lord says, “Give to God what belongs to Him”. Yes when we give ourselves to Him, we will come know more of everything. Let us be God’s children and help others to know their value and dignity in Christ. Amen.

Thanksgiving Sunday

HAPPY THANKSGIVING



Good morning/evening every one. I am so happy to welcome you all to celebrate thanksgiving Mass today. My special welcome to all our parishioners, cottagers, visitors and every one who is here today and I would also thank you all for coming out today to celebrate and thank Jesus for everything. Dear friends, every time we come to church, we thank God our Father for sending His only Son Jesus to save us and every time we come to church we thank Jesus for sending His Holy Spirit upon us all and every time we come to church we thank God through Jesus Christ in the Holy Spirit for our family, friends and all.
One day an elderly man in Toronto called his on in Calgary and said, “Son, I am so sorry to ruin your day, but I have to tell you that your mother and I are divorcing; forty-five years of misery is enough. The son was not happy and said, “dad, what are you talking about. Please do not do anything. Then he called his sister in Halifax and explodes on the phone. Then the sister called the dad and said, ‘Dad, please do not do anything until we come home. Let us talk. We will talk to mom. Please do not move out” The old man hangs up the phone and looked at his wife and said, “honey, our children are coming home for thanksgiving. Now what do we tell them for Christmas?”

This day, on this thanksgiving day, we especially thank God for everything. When we thank God, we will be given more. The gospels say that those who have more will be given and those who do not, even what they have will be taken away from them. Yes, people get more because of the way they show their gratidute, respect and love. That is why St. paul says that we should thank God continuosly and enjoy our spiritual gifts.
One day a woman looked out of her kitchen window and noticed her neighbor hanging out her laundry to dry. Then she noticed that the whites looked gray and the colored looked dull. She said to her husband, “ what a shame the woman does not even know how to wash her clothes clean. Then she notice on the third week, the whites sparkled in the sunlight and the colored clothes were radiant. The woman looked at her husband and said, “finally our neighbor learned how to do laundry clean”. Her husband then said, “well, it should yesterday I washed our kitchen window”.
Sometimes we all ask ourselves thinking, ‘why should I thank God?” Nothing is going well. The world is a terrible place to live. If we read the newspaper or watch TV, all we haer is bad news and more bad news. But if we know how to keep our windows clean, then we will look at things differently and thank God for everything that is happening in the world. God is good and He will never abandon His children. The God who was so kind enough to send His only Son will not reject us in any way. All we have to do is thank God without ceasing and then we will find meaning in everything.
In today’s gospel, we see the parable of the wedding feast. The king is preparing a feast for His Son Jesus and invites the pharisees, scribes and all but they refused. They were called again and they not only refused but they mistreated the king’s servants. There is an Arabian fable which tells about a man who went to his neighbour and asked to borrow a rope. “I can’t lend it, because I am using it to tie up a pile of sand.” his neighbour answered.“But,” the man came back, “you can’t tie up a pile of sand with a rope.”To which his neighbour replied, “Oh, yes you can.. In fact, you can do anything with a rope when you do not wish to lend it to your neighbour.”
When the king invited them for the wedding feast, they all came up with different excuses. But on the other hand, ordinary, simple people gladly accepted the invitation and participated.

Dear friends, today we are invited to particiapte the wedding feast of the Lord. Yes every time we come to church, we do participate the festival. When we particiapte with thankful heart, then we find more meaning in everything. When we particiapte with gratitude, we find more life and happiness in everything. So let us thank God today for everything and celebrate our life every day. Amen.

27th sunday

The owner and the tenants

Good morning/evening every one. I am so happy to welcome to all for today’s Holy Mass. My special welcome to all our parishioners, summer parishioners, visitors and every one who is here today and I would also thank you all for coming out to celebrate Jesus our Lord. Dear friends, every time we come to church we celebrate the God Almighty who is the owner of the creation; every time we come to church we celebrate Christ the Only Son of the owner and every time we come to church we celebrate our life in Christ our Lord.

One day a doctor looked at his patient and said, “I have a good news and a bad news today”.

The patient looked at the doctor and asked, “What is the good news?”

The good news is that the tests show that you still have twenty-four hours to live.

And what is bad news?

I forgot to tell you yesterday.
Once a gallery owner looked at a painter and said, “I have a good news and a bad news for you?’What is good news?
A man came in and asked whether the price of your paintings would go up after you die and I said yes and he bought every one of your paintings.
What is the bad news?
The man was your doctor.



Today’s gospel is full of good news and some bad news for people who went away from the Lord. The owner- God Almighty who created every thing was happy to see them all growing and flourishing; celebrating life and praising their Creator. When everything was in order and there was a rhythm of peace and harmony; He let the synagogue leaders and temple priests; Pharisees and the scribes to bring His unending joy to all. But they by their shortcomings and human weakness failed again and again. Thus He sent His prophets, kings, Holy men and women to bring them back to them to Him but they instead of accepting and listening to them, they beat one, stoned another and killed many. The Master then sent His only son thinking that they would listen to His Son but they instead killed him. They thought that by killing His Son, they could inherit everything but the Master took the Vineyard His creatures away from those bad people and punished them all according to their sins.
1. Every time we come to Church we celebrate God who is the owner of all creation: After disobeying God, Adam and Eve were hiding from Him and God who came to visit them called them and said, ‘Adam… Adam where are you?” I am hiding because I disobeyed you”. Then God who smiled said, “Adam, this is my house and how can you hide from me?” Since everything belongs to God, how can a person run away from God or hide from Him. Every time we come to Church we celebrate the God who is the source of all. In today’s gospel, we see how God planned everything according to His will and then let people look after them. But they faltered but still He did not loose hope in Man, and then He sent prophets, kings and Holy men and women whom people refused and went away from Him. But God’s way is special and unique and He found something unexpected one, Yes, He sent His Son Jesus.
2. That is why every time we come to Church we celebrate Christ the Only Son of God. Once a Hindu sage was having the life of Jesus read to him. When he heard that His own people rejected Him in Nazareth, the sage said, “A Rabbi whose congregation does not want to drive him out of town is not a rabbi” And when he heard how it was the leaders of the church who put Jesus to death, he said with a sigh, “ It is hard for Satan to mislead the whole world, so he appoints prominent ecclesiastics in different parts of the globe” And Today Jesus Himself says how He is going to be killed because He came to claim responsibility and authority for His father’s property. He came and proclaimed that everything belonged to Him and He came to give them life and happiness; there He was rejected. But His very death opened paradise to those who believe in Him.
3. That is why every time we come to church we celebrate our life in Christ our Lord. Today we are given the responsibility and power to look after the vineyard. Every time we do something for the least of our brothers and sisters, we do to the Lord and every time we come to church and receive the church’s sacraments, we prepare ourselves to enter into the kingdom of God. Amen.

The parable of the two sons

Good morning/evening every one. I am so happy to welcome you all for today’s Holy Mass. My special welcome to all our parishioners, summer parishioners, visitors and every one who is here today, and I would also like to thank you all for coming out to celebrate today’s Holy Mass. Dear friends, every time we come to Church, we celebrate Christ who said “yes” to His Father to come down to be with us and every time we come to Church, we say “yes” to God our Father and every time we come to Church we help out brothers and sisters in need to say, “yes” to Jesus who loves us unconditionally.
Once a man saw an ad in the newspaper for a job in a zoo and he got the job dressing like a monkey and was entertaining people. Everything went well for several months. And one day he was so happy and jumped up and fell into the lion’s cage. He was so frightened and was praying to God saying, “God, please save me and I will come back to church and do everything well” and he became to cry. The lion that was so furious looked at him and said, “Do not shout. We both will lose our job”.
dear friends, in today’s gospel our Lord Jesus Christ tells the parable of the two sons. He said to the first son, “Son, go and work in the vineyard and he said that he would not go and then he changed his mind and went. The father said the same thing to the other son and he gladly accepted but he did not go.
Once an old rabbi was dying and all his disciples came to him and were talking great things about him. One disciple said, ‘His wisdom can be compared to that of Solomon. This man always did everything well and helped people to have right judgment. Then another disciple said, “His faith is equal to that of Abraham. Because of his faith filled preaching, many people came back to God and then another disciple said, his patience is that of Job. He was very patient and kind person and every one went on and on about his greatness. When they all left the rabbi’s wife looked at him and said, “your disciples are thinking highly of you and why are you still looking sad’ the rabbi looked at her and said, “My modesty. No one mentioned my modesty”.
The son who said to his dad, “Yes’ but did not go to the vineyard in today’s gospel is compared to all the teachers of the law, Pharisees, scribes and elders. They kept the commandments and divine words but they failed to recognize the kingdom of God and Christ our Lord. They were always looking up thinking that God would shower upon them manna forgetting their own brothers and sisters in need. They wanted to be praised and be glorified but they did not set an example for others.
On the other hand, people who were outcasts, tax collectors, rejected and the poor who did not say, ‘yes” in the beginning did understand the love and kindness of God our Father in Jesus Christ and thus did what He commanded.
Once a well educated catholic scholar and an uneducated convert were asked to say something about their faith. The educated catholic scholar got up and full of pride began to read a verse from the Bible saying, “My soul glorifies the Lord my Saviour…’ when he finished reading every one got up and clapped their hands and some were asking once more. Then the uneducated convert got up and recited the same verse from the bible by heart. This time there was a deep silence and every one sat still. Then at the end the educated catholic got up and said, “ my faith was knowledge based and the old man’s faith was heart and soul based”.

Some times people whom we consider unfaithful, not so pious or unreligious and non-spiritual get closer to God and experience more of His love and kindness than we do.

Conclusion: Dear friends, some times or most of the times we have the character of the both sons, we say “Yes” then change our mind and some times we say “no” then we do what according to His will. Let us say courage to say to the Lord and know the love and kindness of God our Father. Amen.

Walking on Water

Walking on Water
Good morning/evening every one. I am so happy to welcome you all to today’s Holy Mass. Our special welcome to all our summer parishioners, cottagers, visitors and every one who is here today. I would also thank you all for coming out today to celebrate Christ. Dear friends, every time tough we come to Jesus with our fears and anxieties, He blesses us with love and kindness; though we come to Him with doubts and questions, He blesses us with faith and hope and though we come to Him with empty-handed, He fills us with unending joy and happiness.
One day a man sent a mail to his friend who was living outside of the county and wrote, “your cat is dead”. The man replied him saying, “You should know how to deliver bad news tactfully. You should first say, “your cat is acting out” then you might say “your cat is missing” and then finally “you should say that your cat is dead”. And a month later the man sent a mail saying, “Your mom is acting out”.
One day man’s house was on fire, so he ran up to his roof for safety. Then all his friends came standing in the street below holding a stretched-out blanket for him shouting, “jump…jump” The man said, “No, I do not trust you. If I jump, you will pull the blanket away to make a fool of me”. They said, “no, we will not. It is serious, please jump”. The man then said, ‘I do not trust you. Lay the blanket on the ground and I will jump”.
What is faith? Faith is complete trust in some one or something. To St. Thomas who doubted the resurrection, Christ our Lord said, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.
When we talk about faith, the first person who comes into our mind is Abraham the father of faith. He was called by God at the age of seventy-five to leave behind everything and follow Him. Abraham without hesitation followed God. As God asked Abraham to sacrifice his only son Isaac for him, He without any hesitation followed the will of God. Because of his faith, God abundantly blessed him, was filled with wisdom and understanding and thus he achieved enlightenment in God almighty. The difference between knowledge and enlightenment is when we have knowledge we use a torch to show the way and when we are enlightened, we become a torch. But Abraham too doubted, questioned and struggled with his faith.
We all know the story of Job the pious man who worshiped God five times a day and kept all God’s commandments. But when Job was older and was approaching his end, his faith was tested. He began to lose one by one everything that he had. Job who was a faithful man never cursed God instead he said, “I trust in God. Naked I came into this world and naked I shall return”. But Job too doubted, questioned and struggled with his faith.
One day a farmer forgot to take his prayer book with him. He said to God, ‘dear God, without my prayer book, I cannot recite any prayer. So now I am going to recite very slowly the alphabet five times and you who knows everything put the letters together and make a prayer’. That night God called all his angels and said, ‘today of all prayers I heard, this is the best prayer because he is a very faithful man and it came from his simple and sincere heart’.
All the apostles were called to follow the Lord in their older age. Though they were older, their faith was not stronger. They too doubted, questioned and struggled with their faith. In today’s gospel, Jesus who asked Simon Peter to walk on the water, says, “you of little faith, why did you doubt”.
But as they doubted, questioned and struggled with their faith, their search to find meaning continued, they struggled to find God continued and because of their unceasing faith, they did find God.Dear friends, today when you see your children, grandchildren, friends and others do not practice their faith, you doubt, question and struggle with your faith and you begin to drown in doubt, there if we cry out to Jesus saying, “Jesus, save me… He will hold our hands tight and say, ‘you of little faith, why do you doubt. Trust in me and they will change. Walking on water happens when we have complete faith in Christ, we do need to change others but all we have to do is increasing our faith in Christ and everything will change automatically. Amen.

25th sunday in year A

GENERROUS LANDOWNER

Good morning/evening every one. I am so happy to welcome you all to celebrate today’s holy Mass. My special welcome to all our parishioners, visitors and everyone who is here today and I would also thank you all for coming out today to celebrate Christ. Dear friends, every time we come to Church, we celebrate the divine generosity of Jesus our Lord and every time we come to church we celebrate our human generosity towards our neighbors and others and every time we come to church, we are blessed to deepen ourselves into divine and human generosity.
Once Genie appeared to a man and said, “I am going to give you anything you want but with one condition”. The man said, “what is the condition?’ Genie said, ‘whatever you ask you will get it but it will be doubled to your neighbor. The man said, “what?’ I said, “ Your neighbor will get twice as much what you get”. The man did not even think a second; he right away said to Genie, “beat me half dead”.
In today’s gospel, Jesus talks about a god who is so generous and compassionate. Our God is slow to anger and ready to forgive. He gives us all more than what we ask. When we go to Him, we will all be filled with love and kindness. The divine generosity of God surpasses everything.
Once a spiritual master had a neighbor who lived a carefree life. The woman never went to Church or practiced her faith. On weekends, all the spiritual master heard from her house was music and dance. Every time he saw people going in and out of her house, he thought to himself, “This lady will never be happy after death. She will have eternal punishment”. Then one day the lady died and a month later, the spiritual master also died and went to heaven where the angels, all saints, holy men and women came to welcome him and then he noticed a strange thing. Yes, the lady was among the holy people. He got so mad and went to God and asked, “God, why is she here celebrating everlasting life?” God looked at him and said, “Son, you kept all my commandments and did everything well and that is why you are in heaven and she is here because at the last moment, she really felt sorry for all her sins and purified herself and now she is with me celebrating unending life. I am generous with her because she is also my beloved child”.
God our Father is so generous and that is why though people went away from Him, He sent His only Son Jesus Christ to us. God knew the suffering of His son, He knew His son’s crucifixion and death and He still sent Him because we are His children and He loves us unconditionally. It is more than when we come back to Him; yes it is all about how we are coming back to Him.
If God who is our Father is generous then we who are children should also be generous. That is the duty of His children being nice and generous with others. When we are generous and compassionate towards others, we will experience the presence of God everywhere. The world is still a place to live because of the generosity of God our Father.
One day a man shared his personal spiritual experience with a group saying, ‘when I an alcoholic, my family hated me. My wife separated from me and went away and my children also went away with her. They expected me to change but I did not know how. Every time I visited my parents and siblings, they all again and again said that I should change and I did not know how. Then at last I met with one of my friends who comes to church and practices his faith thinking that he would say the same thing, “Change” but instead he looked at me and said, “friend, I accept you as you are and I love you”. That moment I experienced the love of God and I changed. I have been sober for seven years and my wife and children came back and all my siblings are nice to me again. I changed because of my friend’s generosity. He did not condemn or judge but instead he accepted and showed me love.
Dear friends, every one’s spiritual experience is different. Some people may find and experience divine love earlier in life and others may find later but God loves them both equally. In the sight of God every one is precious and important. It is very important to be generous like our Father. And we are all filled with both divine and human generosity. Jesus the perfect example of both divine and human generosity showed compassion and kindness to all.
Once a great religious war broke out in the land and the three pillars of religion namely scripture, worship and charity appeared before God and began to complain, “Dear God we did everything well but we could not stop the religious war out there, we are afraid, religion is going to disappear”
God looked at them and said, ‘do not worry. I will send something bigger than you all and he will save people’s faith in me”
They said, “who is greater than we are?’

God said, “self-knowledge that can bring back divine and human generosity” and he will do greater things than any of you have done. Yes, let us be aware that we belong to God only and then divine and human generosity will begin to flow in and through us. Amen.