Keys to the kingdom of God( year A-21)

21st Sunday- A 

Once a rich man announced to a crowd saying, "If any one swims across my swimming pool which is filled with sharks and alligators, I will give you anything you want." By then a man just jumped in the pool and was swimming as fast as he could, avoiding the sharks and alligators and reached the other side safely. The rich man looked at him and said, "you did well...my son, you did well" Now ask me anything you want and I will give it to you. I promise I will give you". The man said, "More than anything, I want to know who pushed me into the water."  Once the famous writer Charles lamb said, "If Shakespeare were to come into the room, we would rise to do him honor and if Christ were to enter this room, we would kneel and bow before Him in worship. It's because He is God and Savior. 

St. Paul to the Galatians says when the fullness of time had come, God sent His Only Son our Lord Jesus Christ, born of a woman, born under the law, in order to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as children. The historical profession of faith says that Jesus Christ was born at in Bethlehem at the time of king Herod the great and the emperor Augustus and was crucified under Pontius Pilate during the reign of the emperor Tiberius. He called every day and ordinary people to be His apostles and performed miracles and wonders in the name of God. He said, "The Father and I, are one. No one can go to the Father except through me".  

As Christ came to the non-Jewish region of Caesarea Phillippi asked His disciples about what people thought about Him and then He looked at them and said, "what do you say that I am?" Then the great Simon Peter who comes forward in the name of all other disciples and says, "You are the Messiah, The only Son of God..."  

Then Christ our Lord said to Simon, "O... Simon, son of Johnna, for flesh and blood cannot reveal this to you but by my Father in heaven. Mortal people cannot perceive and understand divine things unless it is given by the divine.   

Our very coming to Church and church's Sacraments help us to enter deeply into the divine mystery and to know that Christ is the Messiah and the Only Son of God. The problem with the world today is the fools are certain of their conviction but spiritual and wise people are full of doubts. 

We should every day join the apostles and say, "Jesus, you are the Son of God, the living Savior. You heal my sickness and restore to health. Because of you, I live, move and have my being. Thank you, Jesus, for making me your instruments". Yes, we should be certain of what we profess and believe. 

As Simon Peter proclaimed the Christ was the living Messiah, Christ our Lord gave the keys to the kingdom of God. Key means responsibility. It is a special call to suffering and facing challenges. It is a special call to accept humiliation and criticism in the name of Christ and His kingdom. 

It's a special call to preach and teach the kingdom of God. One day a spiritual Master went to a small village to preach the Good News and in the beginning, the whole town came to him to listen. But eventually one by one everybody went away from him. Then one day, he was alone standing and preaching. And a passerby looked at him and said, "Before you had people to preach and now there is no one and why are you still preaching?" The preacher said, " Before I preached thinking that people would change and now I preach so that they would not change me" As we are sharing the kingdom of God and His message, your own family members and friends will reject you but please remember, they do not reject the message but you who are better than they are. Rejection itself is a victory and let us spread the Good News. 

We know that we are not given the keys to the kingdom of God but today we are the keys to the kingdom of God. And it's our responsibility to love and forgive others and it's our duty to help others to know God and enter into the kingdom of God because we are blessed and are privileged people to come to Church and celebrate Christ. Amen.

21st sunday- A

21st Sunday-year A 

Once an older man was walking in the street holding hands with a beautiful woman and laughing and joking. The very next week as he went to see his family doctor, he said, "Thank you for your advice. "The doctor said, "What did I say?" You said, "Get a hot mama and be cheerful". The doctor said, "No... all I said was, "you had heart murmur and be careful". 

Once two pigeons were sitting on a pinnacle of a beautiful catholic church and then the little baby pigeon said to his mother, "Mom, what is going on down there and why are people arguing and fighting?" The mother said, "Son, they all believe in Christ but they are Anglicans, Baptists, Pentecostal and so on. They are all divided in the name of Christ and they are fighting to know who is better". Mom, I don't understand these people. Son, we are better than people who fight in the name of Christ and that is why we are up in the sky flying and they are down below fighting. 

Today's readings talk about the universal nature of the kingdom of God. Every living creature belongs to the kingdom of God. Though people are away from God and though people belong to different religions, they all still belong to one God in Christ Jesus. We have one God and one Savior and we have one spirit and one baptism. We are one in Christ Jesus.  

Through the prophet Isaiah, God says that His house will be called a house of prayer for all peoples. In the sight of God, everyone is important and precious and He loves us all without any partiality. 

St. Paul is called the apostle of the gentiles. He says although God sent His son to the chosen people first and since they did not accept Him, then God turned to the gentiles who received mercy through Christ our Lord. 

In the gospel, a Canaanite woman received healing and compassion.  

Once Gandhi who loved the bible and the teaching of the Christ so much wanted to become a Christian and went to church one day and saw how people treated each other and thus he left the church and never went back saying, "I love your Christ but not your Christians" 

Jesus did many amazing things among gentiles who were considered cursed people. For example, the woman whom he met at the well... He changed everything in her life and she became a missionary of the good news.  

What about the Centurian a non- Jew, who came to Christ and said, "Lord, my servant is paralyzed and suffering, please help him" Amazed at his faith, Christ Himself said, "Shall I come to your house?" The Centurian who was filled with faith and hope bowed before the king of the universe Christ our Lord and said, "Lord, I am not worthy to receive you under my roof but only say the word my servant be healed." 

I have witnessed many non-Christians such as Muslims and Hindus going to Catholic shrines and churches and receiving healing and miracles. 

Christ the Lord the Savior and Good Shepherd is for all and our church is too small to hold Him. And on the other hand, we are so blessed to know Him more and thus receive more blessings and healings. 

Today's Gospel, the Canaanite woman a non-Jew by trusting Him completely receives healing for her child. Yes, as we have faith, we too will experience and witness more miracles and wonders in our lives. 

Conclusion: 

Let us not only experience the miracles and wonders, but we should take the loving message of Christ our Lord to everywhere and thus one day, every one will come to know that Christ is the Lord and God. Amen.

sunday 19th - A

Sunday 19th - A Once a priest announced in the church about his transfer, moving to another parish and people began to cry. Seeing them all crying, he said, "Since you all love me so much, I changed my mind and I am going to stay here". Do you know what happened? People cried even more... 

Last week I called one of my friends' family and said to that little boy who answered, "May I talk to the boss of the family". He called saying, "Mom...Fr. Peter is on the phone". Then I said to the boy, "who is the second boss?" And he said, "it is me..." What about your dad? Do you know what he said, "I can easily tame my dad". 

Once a mother superior was dying and all other nuns were standing around her and saying the rosary and at one point, they were giving her some milk to drink but she refused. So, one of the nuns put some vodka in it and gave to her. This time, the mother superior drank it all. Then they all looked at her and said, "Mother, you are a woman of faith. Your faith inspired us so much and before you die, please give us your wisdom. Please say something to inspire us. The superior looked at them all and said, "Do not sell that cow..." 

Faith moves mountains. Sometimes the only available transportation for you is a leap of faith. They say that doubt your doubt before doubt your faith. Faith is like a wi-fi. You can't see but it will connect you when you need. Faith does not make things easy but makes them possible. 

Once a man's house was on fire and he ran up to the roof for safety. Then all his friends came standing in the street below holding a stretched-out blanket for him shouting, "Jump...we will catch you. Please jump and we will catch you". He said, "No, I won't jump and I don't trust you. If I jump, you will pull the blanket away to make fool of me. They said, "No, will not. This is serious, please jump. You know what he said. He said, put the blanket on the floor and move away and then I will jump". 

What is faith then? Faith is complete trust in someone or something. To St. Thomas who doubted the Resurrection, Christ said, "Blessed are those who haven't seen and yet have come to believe". When we talk about faith, the very first person who comes to 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 followed God Almighty without any doubt or hesitation. As he was asked to sacrifice his only son Isaac, Abraham didn't hesitate at all. Because of his stronger faith, God blessed him highly.  

Faith is believing in God who sent His Only Son Christ our Lord among us. Faith is hearing from Christ, "It's I. Do not be afraid". Every time we face troubles and problems and every time we go through hardship and challenges, we hear the encouraging words of Christ saying, "Its I do not be afraid". Once a god-fearing farmer who forgot his prayer book with him 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 know everything put the letters together and make a prayer'. That night God called His angels and said, "Today of all prayers I heard, this is the best prayer because his faith is great'. 

In today's gospel, we see how Simon Peter begins to walk on water. It's because of his faith, he goes towards Christ our Lord. And as he begins to be afraid and losing faith, and thus he cries out to the Lord saying, "Lord, save me..." There we see the Lord is immediately stretching out His saving hands and protects him from peril and danger. That is our Lord, as we call upon Him, there he will come to rescue us. He is our Savior and Messiah. Because of little, many of our family members are drowning in doubt and go away from the Lord, let us stretch out our hands and help them. Let us stretch out our hands and show them the way and let us stretch out our hands and bring them to the Lord who is our God and mighty Savior. Amen. 

Transfiguration of the Lord

Transfiguration of the Lord 

  Good morning everyone, I am so happy to welcome you all for today’s Holy Mass. Dear friends, every time we come to Church, we get closer to God Almighty through prayer and every time we come to Church, because of our sincere prayer, our appearance will begin to change and we will become more spiritual and will begin to reflect Christ in our every day activities. Every time we come to Church, we hear God saying, “you are my beloved child and with you I am so happy” Once a mother saw his son being bad and asked him to pray to God so that god could change him. After his prayer the mother looked at him and said, ‘did you pray to God to make you good’ the boy said, ‘no, I prayed for you so that God can give you enough strength to put up with me. Once a man said, "When I play, I play harder. When I work, I work harder and when I pray, I fall a sleep".  The German mystic Meister Echhart once said that you should bother less of what you have to do and think more about what you are to Being. If your being is good, then your doing will shine brightly. Once a rich man was building a tavern a small town and a group of believers from a local church were worried and thus they planned an all- night prayer meeting to ask god to intervene. Then a shocking thing happened. Lighting struck the building and destroyed it completely. The rich man sued the church saying, “because of their prayer, my building was struck by lighting” and the Christian said, ‘No, not because of our prayers”. Then the judge finally looked at them both and said, “No matter how this case is going to come out, one thing is sure and clear. The owner of the building believes in prayer and the church people don’t”  Once some people looked at Mother Theresa and said, “Mother, when you pray what do you say to God?” Mother said, ‘I don’t say anything. I just listen”. Then they asked, ‘what does God say to you as you listen?” She again looked at them and smiled and said, “He doesn’t talk either”. He listens. Prayer means communion, being with God. It is being one with God. It is having a holy experience.  Prayer helps to identify good from evil. It helps us to say, “no” to sin and Satan. For example, last weekend gospel, as Jesus was finishing His forty days and forty nights of prayer and fasting, He was tempted by Satan. We saw how He said No, to Satan and yes to the love of God. It is because of His prayer, everything happened. As we deeply enter into prayer life, we will know how to say no to temptations and evil and says to the love of God. And in today’s gospel, Jesus goes to a mountain with His three disciples and while He was praying to His father God, another important change happened in Him and around Him. His appearance began to change. He becomes full of light and because of that change, His clothes became dazzling white. There the disciples witnessed How Moses and Elijah came to Christ and they were talking to Him. Then they hear a voice from heaven saying to them, ‘this is my beloved Son with whom I am so happy, listen to Him and him alone”. We often hear how the Muslims pray five times a day, the Hindus pray three times a day and the Budhist praying as often as they can and what about Christians, followers of Christ....Our whole life is a prayer. As St. Paul says, "When we do everything for the glory of God, then our whole life becomes a prayer". Even today so many spiritual leaders, mystics and holy people as they entered deeply in prayer, begin to experience altered state of conciousness. It is one of the qualities of prayer. A person who spends time in prayer knows how to separate good from evil and he begins to experience the oneness of body and soul and thus his appearance will change, his surrounding will change. People who are with him will know that he is a man of prayer and though they do not spend time in prayer or doing diving things, they too experience god in their daily lives. Conclusion: Dear friends, as we celebrate the season of lent, we are called to get closer to god, and we are called to know that we belong to God. Yes, the Lenten observances of prayer, fasting and works of charity help us to do so. So let us pray without ceasing for us and for others. Amen.