Christ the king

Christ the King of the universe. 

Good morning/evening 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 here today. Friends in Christ the king, let us thank God Almighty for brining us all here to this beautiful Church of St. Paul the Apostle. Let's thank Him for sending His only Son our Lord Jesus Christ to be with us for ever. Let us thank Him for showering upon us His countless blessings each and every day. 

Now let us take a moment to prepare ourselves to celebrate the sacred mystery of our Lord Jesus Christ calling to mind our sins, short-comings, failure, pain and sufferings, asking divine assistance and Christ our Lord's forgiveness, mercy and compassion. 

Last week one of our parishioners called me saying, "Father, you owe me $50 because you said, "If we pronounce your last name right, you would give us fifty-dollars and I did, you didn't.  I am the only one who speaks my language here and even if you pronounce the name right, I am going to say 'No'. So suck it up butter cup".  

Once a taxi driver and a priest died and were standing in line before entering into heaven. The angel sent the taxi driver into heaven saying, "Well done good and trust-worthy friend". Then looking at the priest, "Go to purgatory for now and we will decide your case later". The priest wasn't happy and said, "Why are you sending the taxi-driver to heaven and I who preached the word of God to purgatory? The angel looked at him and said, "Because every time he drove the taxi, people prayed to God and every time you preached, people slept". So suck it up butter cup. 

Dear friends in Christ, 

Every time we come to Church, we celebrate Christ the king of kings and the Lord of all; we celebrate His unconditional love and forgiveness and every time we come to church, we celebrate the kingdom of Christ where we all be in one day enjoying life-everlasting. 

 At the age of nineteen, my grandpa converted to Catholicism and one day I asked him what made him to accept Christ as his personal Savior and he took me to the Church and showed me the big statue of Christ the king outside standing and underneath were the words saying, "Come to me , you who are weary and heavy burdened, I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you and learn from me. For I am gently and humble in heart and my yoke is easy and my burden is light". Every day as he went to school and college, those words of Christ inspired him and thus he became Catholic and he never missed reading the bible. 

Every time I think about him, I thank Christ the king. With this feast of Christ the king, we conclude a liturgical year and next week-end, we begin a new liturgical season called Advent. And when I think about my grandpa, I always remember the story of an old man looking sad and when his grandson said, "Grandpa, why are you looking sad? He said, "its because two forces fighting within me, a good one and a bad one. Which one is going to win grandpa. The grandpa said, "The one which I feed the most". He fed the good one. 

It looks like I am giving you today, 'Family homily'.  

I came to know a story of a king or more like a prince when I was small. You may say that I am still small. That is why, my friends never borrow money from me because I am always a little short or I can say that I am concentrated.  

It's a story of a prince who left his palace first time and he met with four types of people that changed his life for ever. First He met with the old man and asked why the man looked like that. People said, "It's because he is old and it's called aging process. Most of us have to go through this aging process. Then he met a sick man and he was told that he is not at ease but he has disease and people get sick , weak and fragile. Then the prince saw a dead man being carried by others and was told that that is going to happen to all and it is called death. Seeing an old man, a sick person and a dead man made him think about life and living and then he finally saw a Guru,  priest, sage walking by and people said to him, "That man renounced everything and was searching for God".  

That inspired the king and he renounced his kingdom and became a spiritual guru known as Buddha who said, "Desire is the cause for all suffering". Buddha was just an enlightened man but on the other hand, today we celebrate Christ who is fully human and fully divine. Christ the Alpha and Omega. Everything was created through Him, in Him and for Him alone. He is the king of kings and the Lord of all. He is the eternal king. He is the cosmic king. 

Once there was a king who was so famous for his judgement. He was filled with wisdom and knowledge. He feared God and according to the will of God, he did everything for his people. Every one loved to live in his kingdom and then one day, a man was brought before the king for justice.  The man was accused of stealing  and destroying people's property and murdering them. The king listened to all the accusations and then he asked what the man wanted to say. The accused did not say a word but just looked at the king. Then the king granted justice saying, "This man was found guilty and I order him to be executed". There was a deep silence because that was the first time a man was ever executed in the kingdom. Then the unexpected and extraordinary thing happened. The king got up from his golden throne and took off his king's robe and garment, looked at people and said, "As your just king, I granted you all justice but now as the father of this man, I will take his place".  

The king said, "I will take his place and die". This story is called the summery of Christianity. Christ the king of kings and the Lord of all accepted to die for humanity. He gave His life to save us all. 

When Pilate asked Christ, "Are you the king of Jews?' Christ the Lord said, "you say that I am and for this, I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice".  

1. Christ the king said, "I am your servant and I came to serve you and not to be served". And thus the universal king washed the feet of His disciples and asks us to serve one another. The real authority of a person is not in holding on to power but to use his authority to serve one another. 

2. Christ the king said, "I am the Good Shepherd and I lead my sheep to life everlasting. He calls us all by names and feed us with unconditional love and forgiveness.  

3. Christ the king said to the repentant thief, "This day you will be with me in paradise". Yes, His kingdom is heaven and today we are called to prepare ourselves to enter into that one day to be with Him forever.  

Conclusion: As the conclusion, I would say that two years after my grandpa passed away, I decided to join the seminary to become a priest and when I went to the seminary, there I saw a huge statue of Christ the king standing with outstretched arms underneath the same words that made my grandpa became catholic. And I said to myself, "Thank you grandpa". Amen.

Sunday 33-year C

We are called to become holy sleeper agent. 

Good evening/morning every one. I am so happy to welcome you all for today's Holy Mass. 

Is there anyone new here who comes to this beautiful church first time. 

Have you ever heard about sleeper agent or sleeper cell? A sleeper agent is the one who remains dormant in a community until activated, by a prearranged signal, to perform acts of terrorism or sabotage. 

These days we hear more about act of terrorism and killing. There are so many sleeper agents are living among us but we do not know them. They can be dormant for years and years and all of a certain, one day as they get their signal, they become human bomb. Then people would begin to say, "O know that man. He used to buy pizza from this store and I used to see him walking with his children to school and so on. 

What about Holy Sleeper Agent? 

They are called not to cause destruction but to defense humanity, doing great things in the name of the Lord.  

We often hear about end-time, punishment and judgment. The Lord who was taken up to heaven, will be coming back. He is a promise-keeper and He will never fail of what he has promised us.  

There will be so many signs before His coming. Before His glorious coming, nations will go against nations, people will go against people. There will be natural calamities and disasters.  

As people of faith and Holy sleeper agent...how are we going to prepare ourselves? 

The seven pillars of Catholic spirituality help us to get ready. 

There are so many people coming to church saying, "Wow... look at this beautiful church and the way its decorated and they miss the message and the teaching of the Church. There comes prayer. This is a house of prayer and as we pray and contemplate the love of God and use all the church's sacraments, then we are getting ready to become the holy sleeper agents of the Lord. 

Today there are so many false teachers and prophets around and in the name of new age, they lead us away from moral and social truth.  If we want to know that truth, all we have to do is just attend the Mass. When we go to Mass, there in the Holy Eucharist happens so many amazing miracles and healing. Our eyes will be opened and we will see the truth.  

What should we do when nation go against nation and kingdom against kingdom? 

What should we do when so many natural calamites and distractions happen? 

One thing that we should know is that the end is not going to come. Christ says that we do not need to be afraid of anything. Instead we have to prepare ourselves spiritually to meet the challenges. The Holy Bible will become our  instrument to know more about his teachings and prepare ourselves to welcome the Lord. 

The seventh pillar of Catholic spirituality is the Holy Rosary. As we pray the daily rosary, we will not be afraid of death and we will surely know what to say  and defend ourselves. 

Conclusion: 

When we are with the Lord, not even a hair of our head will perish. We will be given strength to face everything.  Though our own family members and friends begin to go against us, we will gain our souls by our endurance. Holy sleeper agent means constantly preparing ourselves and one day, we will be activated by the Lord to be His witnesses and until then let us prepare and be ready for that day. Amen.

32 Sunday-c

Life after death. 

One of my friends said, " Be happy. When life closes a laptop, it opens an I phone". 

Once a woman accompanied her husband to a doctor's office. After his check-up, the doctor called the wife into his office alone and said, "If you do not do the following, your husband will surely die". Each morning, fix him a healthy breakfast and be nice to him. For lunch, make him a nutritious meal and be nice to him.  For dinner, make him nice meal and be nice to him. Do not give him hard time. Don't discuss your problem with him.On the way home, the husband asked his wife what the doctor said to her, "she looked at him and said, "He said that you are going to die". 

For us Catholics, every month is special. Last month, we celebrated Rosary month and this month, the month of November is dedicated to the poor souls in purgatory. These celebrations remind us of the love of God. God might have created so many other people and He might have done so many other things but He chose to create you and me. It's because we are special and precious and it's because we are unique and important. If our life is so precious then, our death has a meaning too. We will not disappear without any trace. There is surely life after death. 

The holy Bible clearly indicates and talks about 'life after life'. That is why a believer acts differently in a given situation than a non-believer. And that is why we do everything for the glory of God and acts as children of light. Everything that we do here will be counted in the kingdom of God. We are called to live for ever and ever.  

Today more than one billion people are believing in Christ and many more are coming back to the fold.  We believe in Christ who says, "Those who follow me will not see darkness but have light of life". We will one day be like our Master. Yes, we will be given eternal life where we see Him face to face. In after life, we are like angels, will go beyond space and time. We being the children of the resurrection will have unending happiness and joy.  

In His time, Christ our Lord dealt with two strong religious groups namely Pharisees and Sadducees. Pharisee means 'separated one'. They separated themselves from every day and ordinary people. They were highly opinionated and authoritative one. The other group is called Sadducees. The Sadducees thought of themselves as conservatives. It is because they accepted only the written law of Moses as authoritative and thus they denied many of the doctrines such as after life, resurrection, reward and punishments.  

That is why when we talk about Sadducees, we say Sad to see. Sad to see that they rejected resurrection and sad to see that they did not believe in after life and sad to see that they did not have any hope. 

And that is why they were asking so many nonsensical question to Christ our Lord. 

Today  we are sad to see so many people live like Sadducees without any hope to tomorrow. We are sad to see our own family members and friends are not preparing themselves to eternal bliss and joy and we are sad to see them going away from His love and kindness but we believe in Christ who says that only those who are struck in this limited time and space, they are limited in their relationship and love but those who believe in Him go beyond everything. Yes, we are the children of the Resurrection and we are the children of light. 

Conclusion: Our God is not the god of the dead but of the living. Living person is the glory of God. We are not here because we were born, live and just disappear one day but we are here for His glory and honor. Let everything we do reflect His love and let everything we say promote His compassion and thus one day let us join Christ to be with Him for ever. Amen.