16th sunday-c

16th Sunday in C 

Last week I visited a wonderful woman whose husband passed away recently and said, “I took all the changes, coins he left in the basement to the bank and it came around 1,900 dollars”. Then, I got excited and came home and counted all the change that I had and then called her and said, “Do you want to know how much change I had? There were three dollars and 35 cents”. Then I texted her saying, “That also included my Canadian tire money”. 

Dear friends in Christ Jesus, 

Our Lord Jesus Christ the giver of life, wants us to live our life with happiness and joy. And that’s why, He healed so many people and multiplied bread and fish and fed thousands and thousands of people and is performing millions and millions of miracles today. Great things happen in the name of Christ and those who put their trust in Him will not go astray but have life that will never end. 

In today’s gospel, we see how our Lord Jesus Christ along with His disciples, goes to place to place to preach the kingdom of God. The mission of Christ is bringing the Good News of Salvation to all namely divine unconditional love and forgiveness. We see how Christ our Lord built a deeper connection with every living being. And that is why we say that Christianity is not a religion, it is a relationship. 

As He came to Bethany, He was welcomed by Martha and Mary, the sisters of Lazarus whom Christ called out from the tomb saying, “Lazarus, come out and he did come out to life” Christ our Lord is still calling us to come out to life and thus to experience divine love and forgiveness. 

Then we see how Martha was so excited and wanted to prepare a special meal for the Lord and His disciples and thus she became so anxious and distracted and worried. Christ the compassionate one feels the feeling of others.  

So, He looks at Martha and says, “Martha...Martha, you are worried and are distracted”.  Christ in a gentle way points out her anxiety saying, “she has to focus on one thing and get rid of her self-accumulated distractions and anxiousness”.  He asks her to turn herself inwardly and see what is necessary for her to make things right. 

There is a beautiful story about a man riding an elephant through a village. While passing by, the elephant would poke his trunk into everything and cause so much damage. Then one day, what he did was, he gave a stick to the elephant to hold in his trunk. Thus, he was able to ride through the village.  

Sometimes, we are all like Martha or like the elephant, so distracted with so many things. But the most important thing is knowing ourselves in the presence of God and thus to relax and enjoy more of life. 

Jesus says, “Martha...Martha, you are worried and distracted with so many things. You need of only one thing. Mary has chosen a better part and that will not be taken away from her”. 

Yes, by saying, Christ invites Martha to focus on one thing and by saying that Mary has chosen the better part, Christ our Lord indicates that Mary is focusing on one thing only. 

Sometimes it is easy to think that Mary is better than Martha. It is not all about who is better than who. It’s all about how we dedicate and focus on what we are doing. 

We all have two types or kinds of personalities in us. We become anxious and worried about so many things like Martha or sometimes we are well focused and calm at the feet of Christ like Mary. But as we grow and mature, we have to become like Mary and experience more of life, happiness and joy and yes, we have to choose to be better. Amen. 

15th Sunday-C

15th Sunday- C 

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

Once a man as he was driving, noticed a woman in a pouring rain trying to change a flat tire. So, he thought to himself, “I should be a good Samaritan’ and right away went over and helped her. After an hour of hard work in the pouring rain, he said, “Everything is good, and your tires are changed, and you are good to go”. And she said, “Sh..sh..sh..talk low”. He asked, “Why?” And she said, “My husband is taking a nap in the back seat”. 

Once a teacher said to the children, “We are all descended from Adam and Eve”. And one little boy said, “But my dad said that we came from Apes”. The teacher looked at him and said, “Oh James, I understand how you feel and that is probably true for your family”. 

Friends in Christ Jesus, 

Our Lord Jesus Christ is our Good Samaritan who looks after us in our challenges and difficulties. As we are in trouble, others may go away from us, but Christ is always with us. He fills us with kindness and love and leads us to paradise. 

Today’s gospel was often interpreted as that the man who was going down is Adam. Jerusalem is paradise, and Jericho is the world. The robbers are powers against love and kindness. The priest is the law, the Levite is the prophets, and the Samaritan is Christ Himself. 

In order to recognize the presence of the Good Samaritan in our lives, all we have to do is love Him with all our heart, mind, body and soul and love our neighbor as ourselves. 

Today’s Good Samaritan parable gives three philosophies that inspire us to know what is going on around us. 

1. The philosophy of thieves who robbed the traveler: It’s “What is yours is mine and I will take it by force”. For example, the terrorists and others, for their own sake and advantage, they take from others by force. The growing poverty around us.  Someone is constantly taking others by force and saying, what is yours is mine and I will take it by force. So, Catholic Church’s social teaching is all about solidarity and subsidiarity and thus helping those who are in need. 

2. The philosophy of the Jewish priests and Levites: It’s “What is mine is mine and I will not part of the other’s challenges”. And because of their utter selfishness, the priest and the Levite did not pay any attention to the wounded traveler. It was all about them...the Me... myself, and I philosophy. What is mine is mine and I will not part of any other’s challenges.  

Once a group of students who prepared to become ministers and pastors, were given the assignment of preaching on Good Samaritan parable. They were asked to go from one building to another to preach and in between, they put a sick man to find out how the students were going to react. The sad thing was everyone was so, so into their preparation and impress others by their preaching and not even a single one of them helped the sick man. What is mine is mine and I will not be part of anyone’s challenge philosophy.  

3. The philosophy of Samaritan: It’s “What is mine is yours as well too and I will share with you”. Kindness is the only language that the deaf can hear and the blind can read. We need more kindness and compassion today. 

14th sunday-c

14th Sunday-C 

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

Once a man announced saying, “If anyone swims across my swimming pool which is filled with sharks and alligators, I will give you anything you want, even half of my property”. Then a man just jumped in the water and began to swim as fast as he could, avoiding all those man-eating sharks and alligators and reached the other side safe. Everyone began to clap hands for him. The rich man came to him and said, ‘You are the bravest man I have ever seen and now ask for anything and I will give it to you”. The man looked at him and said, “Before I ask for anything, I want to know who pushed me in the water”.  

Dear friends in Christ Jesus,  

Jesus is the Lord and God and He planted us in His field. He looks after us with love and care and He let us grow and multiply. He is our source and He is our life. It’s only because of Him, we find happiness and joy and it’s only because of Him, we grow and multiply as hundred and thousand-fold. When we are with Him, we become the light that shines before others. 

In today’s gospel, Christ our Lord says that the harvest is plentiful, and the laborers are few and therefore, let us pray to the Lord of the harvest to send more laborers into His harvest.  

1. There was a time, people didn’t have not access to the Holy Bible and today we are so blessed to have the bible at home and other places. 

2.  There was a time, people did not have churches at their hometown, and they had to walk kilometers to find a church and today we are so blessed to have churches closer by. 

3. There was a time, people were afraid and were criticized to be Catholic and so on and today we can be so proud to be catholic and practice our faith. 

Church is growing in many parts of the world and people are more and more realizing their spiritual nature and want to know the divine power in their lives. We see how the harvest is so plentiful and it's still growing. It’s because Christ is the sower and He is the source and life.  

Harvest is plentiful and the laborers are few and therefore, we are asked to pray for the Lord of the harvest, to send more laborers into His harvest. 

The question is who are the laborers today? 

Are the priests, religious? 

Or the people who practice their faith? 

Or everyone who believes in Christ? 

Yes, the Laborer is anyone who believes in Christ. 

Once as a man was retiring from his job, his boss said, “you know what you are a great constructor and all the houses you built are so strong and amazing. People love your skills and the proper material you used to build houses. Now I am sorry to see you going and please...please before you go, build me one more house. The man wasn’t happy at all. But, anyhow, he accepted to build one. He didn’t spend good amount of time or good material or putting his skills. He built it with cheap material and then gave the key to the boss saying, “Here is the key and just let me go”. The boss thanked him and gave the key back to the man and said, “you know what I want to give this house to you as an appreciation of all your hard work. The house is yours”. 

We are all given so many talents, skills and strength to bring the good news to others and especially to our family members. Are we using all our skills and potential to make the kingdom of God alive? If we are, then let’s thank Him. If not, let us ask Him to give more strength to promote the kingdom of God. At the end, yes, at the end, the house will be ours. What we sow and that’s all we have to reap. So, let us build His house using all our skills, potentials and strength. Amen.