26th Sunday-B
Good morning every one, I am so happy to welcome you all for today’s Holy Mass. Dear friends, every time we come to Church, we celebrate the love of God, we celebrate the kindness and the forgiveness of Christ our Lord and every time we come to Church, we are given a special blessing to love and forgive others.
Once two evil brothers went to the same church and though every one knew about their wickedness, they acted as though they were perfect followers of Christ and one day, one of the brothers died and the other man came to the priest and said, ‘I am donating 100 thousand dollars to the church and you have to say that my brother was a saint in your funeral homily and the priest accepted and cashed the check and the next day at the funeral, the priest said, “this man was an evil man and he abused his wife and children and did so many bad things to many people but compared to his living brother, he was a saint”.
The understanding of the apostles of Jesus was so different from any other people because He was with them and He called them in a special way. As He was performing Miracles, they did help Him in different way. After preaching the Good News, Jesus in private explained the deepest meaning of it to His apostles. He encouraged them to ask questions and doubts. He knew their weakens and strength; their failures and victories.
When the apostles came to Christ and said, “Jesus, we left everything behind for you and what will we get in return? And Christ our Lord promised them saying, “Any one who leaves behind his family, his property for my sake and the sake of the gospels, will receive eternal life. He will receive hundred fold of everything.
As the apostles proclaimed saying, “Jesus, you are the Master, the Only Son of God…” Jesus said that they were all given divine gift from God Almighty.
The apostles by obeying Christ cast out demons, healed the sick and did so many wonderful things and Jesus looked at them and said, “you are all blessed and you will do greater things in my name”.
So the disciples felt important and special. And that is why when they saw someone in the name of Christ was chasing out demons and was doing great things. They could not control their human weakness or anger and came to Christ and said, “Jesus, the person who was not called by you, the person who was not special and important is driving out demons in you name and he is doing miracles in you name”.
Christ our Lord looked at them with compassion and kind and said, “Let them do. Those who are not against us are for us”.
And Christ our Lord continues saying, “anyone who does anything in His name, he will be blessed and be given eternal reward. Nothing will go unnoticed or nothing can be ignored. Every one will receive blessings according to their act.
What is my reward? What am I going to get by practicing my faith or doing something good in the name of Christ? Dear friends, any one who gives to the poor, receives from God. Sometimes we do not recognized the blessings of Christ or other times we ignore His presence in our lives but Christ who promises saying, ‘even if a person gives a glass of water in His name will receive the reward. Yes, Christ will never abandon His followers; they all will be looked after. Though sometimes it may look that we are left alone or abandoned, the blessings and presence of God continue in our lives because he chooses us.
In the second part of the gospel, Jesus brings a new vision into our reality saying, we should encourage others to do great things in His name, we should never stop any one from doing good in His divine name. Even our hand or eye or foot causes us to go away from the love of God or doing good things in His name, we should remove them. The Christ who healed people with withered hands, people who were blind or physically or mentally sick says we should have courage to remove from us what stop us from loving Christ. Yes, Jesus loves us so much and He does not want us from going away from Him. He wants us to be with Him and He says that we should remove what hinder us from going to Him. Yes, Jesus completes us. He fills us with love and kindness and anything that separates us from the love of Christ does not come from Him. Jesus is our ultimate reality and we should prepare ourselves to go to Him.
Conclusion:
So dear friends, as followers, disciples and apostles of Christ, let us preach the Good News and help others to do so and if we see anyone promoting the love and kindness of God, let us encourage the person to continue his mission. Let us adore Christ who lives in us. Amen.
Saturday, September 29, 2012
Saturday, September 15, 2012
24-Sunday
24th Sunday in ordinary time.
Dear friends in Christ, I am happy to welcome you all for today’s Holy Mass, every time we come to Church, we join the apostles and all the holy men and women and profess our faith saying, “Jesus, you are the Christ, you are the Only Son of God, the beginning and the end. Everything comes from you and ends in you”, every time we come to church we celebrate our discipleship in Christ our Lord and dear friends, every time we come to Church, the messianic secret is being told again and again to deepen our faith in God through Christ our Lord.
1. In today’s gospel, Jesus is with His disciples in the region of Caesarea Philippi, a non-Jewish region like last weekend gospel and He then asks His disciples what people think about Him. It is not because He wants to be identified or be known by all. Today, we face so many challenges because of identity issues or problems. Some people do anything to be recognized by others. There are many physical and emotional development stages and when a person did not have a proper physical and emotional growth according to their age, and then they will have identity crisis. So in order to get others attention, they will do anything they can. And our Lord Jesus Christ in today’s gospel asks His disciples what people think about Him. It is not because He has identity crisis. It is because He is almost at the middle of His public Mission and after doing all His miracles, wonders, healing and preaching to all, He wants to know the mind of the people. And the disciples said, “ People think that you are Elijah one of the Old Testament prophet who preached about the love of God to all and invited people to come back to God almighty. He healed the sick and raised people to life. Others thought that He was John the Baptist, whose birth was different from other human beings and who lived in a desert meditation upon the mysteries of God and he invited people to come back to God and others thought that Jesus was one of the prophets. Who is a prophet? A prophet is the one who foretells the coming events mainly spiritual and divine events. Since people saw all the miracles of Christ, they thought that he was chosen by God in a special way to bring the Good News; even today the Jews and Muslim consider Christ as a holy prophet of God.
2. Then Jesus our Lord asks the same question to His disciples saying, ‘who do you think that I am?’ because He wants to prepare His disciples to the coming events. Jesus who is God who became human to save humanity and He came to fulfill the divine will. The one who descended from heaven has to ascend to heaven. No one can live here permanently because from where we come to there we have to return and Jesus has to fulfill His mission and has to go back to His Father. And that is why He asked His disciples and Simon Peter who in the name of all the apostles came forward and said, ‘You are the Christ”. The anointed one, the living God, the alpha and Omega. You and the Only Son of God. Dear friends, when we recognize Christ from our personal experience, then our approach towards the world, people and His creatures will be so different. We may join the apostles and we may join the Holy men and women and we may join others and say, “Jesus, you are the Christ and the Only Son of God” but that can not be our personal experience and we should have personal experience of the Holy divine to experience His love and kindness. Unless we have at least some personal experience, we cannot find God in anything we do.
3. When the apostles recognized the divinity in Christ and when they identified His holiness, Jesus revealed the Messianic Secret to them. The Bible says that not every one who is called is chosen but only a few. And the chosen apostles were given the blessings to know the secret. The Messianic Secret is that the Son of man should under go great suffering and be handed over to the elders, the chief priest, and temple Pharisees and the Scribes and they will kill Him but on the third day, Jesus will come back to life”. When He revealed the messianic secret, the apostles were so shocked because it was unacceptable for them. Jesus is the Messiah, the Only Son of God and how come he be killed. And that is why Simon Peter and all other apostles tried to say, “No” to the Messianic Secret and Jesus said, ‘you are approaching things with human mind but divine plan is different.
4. Conclusion: Dear friends, God’s plan is different from human. People struggle to accept so many things in their lives because they judge them according to their own human standard but when we pray to God and in His presence we begin to think, we will understand things in a different way. Let us try our best to understand that God’s way is not our way. His way is full of love and compassion and His way is full of forgiveness and kindness and let us experience divine love and kindness in what we do. Amen.
Dear friends in Christ, I am happy to welcome you all for today’s Holy Mass, every time we come to Church, we join the apostles and all the holy men and women and profess our faith saying, “Jesus, you are the Christ, you are the Only Son of God, the beginning and the end. Everything comes from you and ends in you”, every time we come to church we celebrate our discipleship in Christ our Lord and dear friends, every time we come to Church, the messianic secret is being told again and again to deepen our faith in God through Christ our Lord.
1. In today’s gospel, Jesus is with His disciples in the region of Caesarea Philippi, a non-Jewish region like last weekend gospel and He then asks His disciples what people think about Him. It is not because He wants to be identified or be known by all. Today, we face so many challenges because of identity issues or problems. Some people do anything to be recognized by others. There are many physical and emotional development stages and when a person did not have a proper physical and emotional growth according to their age, and then they will have identity crisis. So in order to get others attention, they will do anything they can. And our Lord Jesus Christ in today’s gospel asks His disciples what people think about Him. It is not because He has identity crisis. It is because He is almost at the middle of His public Mission and after doing all His miracles, wonders, healing and preaching to all, He wants to know the mind of the people. And the disciples said, “ People think that you are Elijah one of the Old Testament prophet who preached about the love of God to all and invited people to come back to God almighty. He healed the sick and raised people to life. Others thought that He was John the Baptist, whose birth was different from other human beings and who lived in a desert meditation upon the mysteries of God and he invited people to come back to God and others thought that Jesus was one of the prophets. Who is a prophet? A prophet is the one who foretells the coming events mainly spiritual and divine events. Since people saw all the miracles of Christ, they thought that he was chosen by God in a special way to bring the Good News; even today the Jews and Muslim consider Christ as a holy prophet of God.
2. Then Jesus our Lord asks the same question to His disciples saying, ‘who do you think that I am?’ because He wants to prepare His disciples to the coming events. Jesus who is God who became human to save humanity and He came to fulfill the divine will. The one who descended from heaven has to ascend to heaven. No one can live here permanently because from where we come to there we have to return and Jesus has to fulfill His mission and has to go back to His Father. And that is why He asked His disciples and Simon Peter who in the name of all the apostles came forward and said, ‘You are the Christ”. The anointed one, the living God, the alpha and Omega. You and the Only Son of God. Dear friends, when we recognize Christ from our personal experience, then our approach towards the world, people and His creatures will be so different. We may join the apostles and we may join the Holy men and women and we may join others and say, “Jesus, you are the Christ and the Only Son of God” but that can not be our personal experience and we should have personal experience of the Holy divine to experience His love and kindness. Unless we have at least some personal experience, we cannot find God in anything we do.
3. When the apostles recognized the divinity in Christ and when they identified His holiness, Jesus revealed the Messianic Secret to them. The Bible says that not every one who is called is chosen but only a few. And the chosen apostles were given the blessings to know the secret. The Messianic Secret is that the Son of man should under go great suffering and be handed over to the elders, the chief priest, and temple Pharisees and the Scribes and they will kill Him but on the third day, Jesus will come back to life”. When He revealed the messianic secret, the apostles were so shocked because it was unacceptable for them. Jesus is the Messiah, the Only Son of God and how come he be killed. And that is why Simon Peter and all other apostles tried to say, “No” to the Messianic Secret and Jesus said, ‘you are approaching things with human mind but divine plan is different.
4. Conclusion: Dear friends, God’s plan is different from human. People struggle to accept so many things in their lives because they judge them according to their own human standard but when we pray to God and in His presence we begin to think, we will understand things in a different way. Let us try our best to understand that God’s way is not our way. His way is full of love and compassion and His way is full of forgiveness and kindness and let us experience divine love and kindness in what we do. Amen.
Saturday, September 8, 2012
22-sunday-B
22nd Sunday-B
Good morning/evening every one, I am so happy to welcome you all for today’s Holy Mass. Dear friends, every time we come to Church, we celebrate God who sent His Son to us and We celebrate Christ who taught us saying, “There is nothing outside a person that by going in can defile them, but the things that come out of a person are what defile them”. And every time we come to church, we promise God in Christ to keep His loving commands and thus to find Him everywhere.
ats are valued highly in some cultures, they are almost considered divine. And one day a cat died and went to heaven, an angel of the Lord welcome the cat and said, “ Is there anything that I can do for you?” The cat said, ‘though people loved me so much, I never slept well because of the hard floor, please do something”. The angel gave the cat a beautiful soft and smooth pillow. Some days later, a group of mice came to heaven and the same angel welcomed them all and said, “what can I do to make you comfortable?’ the mice said, ‘when we lived on earth, everybody chased us around and our feet are sore and painful and please do something?’ the angel gave them all skateboards with tiny little wheel” and thus they were running around in heaven. Then one day, when the angel saw the cat asked, “how are you enjoying heaven?’ the cat said, ‘everything is fabulous and I am sleeping well and by the way, the meals on wheels are so delicious”.
Dear friends in today’s gospel, we meet the Disciples of Christ who had broken the tradition and are eating with defiled hands and the Pharisees and the scribes who are so made and complaining against them to Christ our Lord and then we meet with Christ who says, “evils things come from within and they defile a person”.
1. We meet the Disciples of Christ:
Our Lord called them in a special way to follow Him. Jesus the Son of God taught them many things about the traditions, cultures and customs and the bible says that Christ Himself closely followed the traditions and customs. For example, when He went to His hometown with His disciples, as His custom, He went to the synagogue and did many things according to the traditions of the time. But Christ our Lord says that we are not for the Sabbath but all the traditions and customs should help us to get closer to God not taking us away from His love and kindness.
Once a very famous spiritual master had a beautiful cat and every time we performed or did any spiritual ceremonies or prayers, the cat always used to come around him and jump up and down or run around. It was a big distraction for him so every time he did prayers or any ceremony, he asked his disciples to tie the cat to a pole. It went on for many years and one day the spiritual master passed away and his disciples who continued the ceremony and others spiritual rituals did the same, they tied the cat to a pole and continued everything and then one day the cat died. The disciples were all confused and shocked. They didn’t know what to do so they bought a brand new cat and tied it to the pole and continued their every day ceremony and then people who came to see them, they all bought cats and tied them around their houses before their daily prayers and rituals. They were told that if any one did not have a cat tied before their daily ceremony, they commit a mortal sin. The ritual of tying a cat became so important than their actual prayers and other spiritual practices.
Dear friends when some of the disciples did not wash their hands before eating, the Pharisees and the scribes condemned them saying, they go against divine will and they are sinners and outcasts. Instead of promoting the love of God, they focused on the punishment.
2. We meet with Pharisees and the scribes
In the time of Christ, those Pharisees and the scribes were considered holy and important, because they taught people about God and His divine law. They were self- righteous people. They kept divine law and did everything according to their call. Once we see how our Lord Jesus Christ observed the actions of a self-righteous Pharisee. What he did was, he went to a synagogue and he did not even enter into the synagogue. All he did was just stood outside so that every one could see him and then top of his voice he prayed to god saying, “O Almighty father, King of the universe, thank you for creating me. I thank you day and night by keeping all the commandments. I pray five times a day, fast twice a week and go to the synagogue every day and I give even ten percent of all my income. Thank you for making me wonderful and holy. What he did was so good and wonderful but what Jesus was saying that time was, the man will go to the Father and will have endless life because of his proud heart.
And those Pharisees and the scribes were the ones who told Jesus about His disciples, those were the ones who criticized Christ for His disciples’ defiled hands.
2. We finally meet Christ our Lord
Jesus the human-divine, the master of all, He who knows all and who continues to love every one with their limitations says, “ It is not what goes in defile a person but it is what is coming out from the heart of a person. The evil intentions that destroy a person.
Good morning/evening every one, I am so happy to welcome you all for today’s Holy Mass. Dear friends, every time we come to Church, we celebrate God who sent His Son to us and We celebrate Christ who taught us saying, “There is nothing outside a person that by going in can defile them, but the things that come out of a person are what defile them”. And every time we come to church, we promise God in Christ to keep His loving commands and thus to find Him everywhere.
ats are valued highly in some cultures, they are almost considered divine. And one day a cat died and went to heaven, an angel of the Lord welcome the cat and said, “ Is there anything that I can do for you?” The cat said, ‘though people loved me so much, I never slept well because of the hard floor, please do something”. The angel gave the cat a beautiful soft and smooth pillow. Some days later, a group of mice came to heaven and the same angel welcomed them all and said, “what can I do to make you comfortable?’ the mice said, ‘when we lived on earth, everybody chased us around and our feet are sore and painful and please do something?’ the angel gave them all skateboards with tiny little wheel” and thus they were running around in heaven. Then one day, when the angel saw the cat asked, “how are you enjoying heaven?’ the cat said, ‘everything is fabulous and I am sleeping well and by the way, the meals on wheels are so delicious”.
Dear friends in today’s gospel, we meet the Disciples of Christ who had broken the tradition and are eating with defiled hands and the Pharisees and the scribes who are so made and complaining against them to Christ our Lord and then we meet with Christ who says, “evils things come from within and they defile a person”.
1. We meet the Disciples of Christ:
Our Lord called them in a special way to follow Him. Jesus the Son of God taught them many things about the traditions, cultures and customs and the bible says that Christ Himself closely followed the traditions and customs. For example, when He went to His hometown with His disciples, as His custom, He went to the synagogue and did many things according to the traditions of the time. But Christ our Lord says that we are not for the Sabbath but all the traditions and customs should help us to get closer to God not taking us away from His love and kindness.
Once a very famous spiritual master had a beautiful cat and every time we performed or did any spiritual ceremonies or prayers, the cat always used to come around him and jump up and down or run around. It was a big distraction for him so every time he did prayers or any ceremony, he asked his disciples to tie the cat to a pole. It went on for many years and one day the spiritual master passed away and his disciples who continued the ceremony and others spiritual rituals did the same, they tied the cat to a pole and continued everything and then one day the cat died. The disciples were all confused and shocked. They didn’t know what to do so they bought a brand new cat and tied it to the pole and continued their every day ceremony and then people who came to see them, they all bought cats and tied them around their houses before their daily prayers and rituals. They were told that if any one did not have a cat tied before their daily ceremony, they commit a mortal sin. The ritual of tying a cat became so important than their actual prayers and other spiritual practices.
Dear friends when some of the disciples did not wash their hands before eating, the Pharisees and the scribes condemned them saying, they go against divine will and they are sinners and outcasts. Instead of promoting the love of God, they focused on the punishment.
2. We meet with Pharisees and the scribes
In the time of Christ, those Pharisees and the scribes were considered holy and important, because they taught people about God and His divine law. They were self- righteous people. They kept divine law and did everything according to their call. Once we see how our Lord Jesus Christ observed the actions of a self-righteous Pharisee. What he did was, he went to a synagogue and he did not even enter into the synagogue. All he did was just stood outside so that every one could see him and then top of his voice he prayed to god saying, “O Almighty father, King of the universe, thank you for creating me. I thank you day and night by keeping all the commandments. I pray five times a day, fast twice a week and go to the synagogue every day and I give even ten percent of all my income. Thank you for making me wonderful and holy. What he did was so good and wonderful but what Jesus was saying that time was, the man will go to the Father and will have endless life because of his proud heart.
And those Pharisees and the scribes were the ones who told Jesus about His disciples, those were the ones who criticized Christ for His disciples’ defiled hands.
2. We finally meet Christ our Lord
Jesus the human-divine, the master of all, He who knows all and who continues to love every one with their limitations says, “ It is not what goes in defile a person but it is what is coming out from the heart of a person. The evil intentions that destroy a person.
EPhPhatha-23 sunday
23 Sunday in ordinary time
Good morning/evening every one, I am so happy to see you all and our special welcome to all our parishioners, cottagers, visitors and everyone here today. Dear friends, every time we come to Church, we hear Jesus saying to us, ‘Ephphatha’ means be opened to the divine words and we experience the healing power of Christ our Lord and every time we come to Church, we acclaim, “Christ has done everything well; even He makes the deaf hear and the mute speak”.
Once a man who thought that his wife was going deaf stood behind her and called, ‘honey, what are you doing?” there was no answer. So he got close to her and called again, ‘honey, can you hear me?’ there was no answer. Then he decided that his wife was hard hearing so he got very close to her and at the top of his voice said, ‘honey, you are getting deaf”. Then his wife calmly looked at him and said, ‘for the third time, I can hear you well’.
Once a man looked at his friend who was hard of hearing and said, ‘what did your wife say when you got home late last night?’ she was yelling and screaming at me. Then what did you do? Then man said, ‘I just turned out the light’.
In today’s gospel, our Lord Jesus Christ is found in the region of Despoils. He went to a non-Jewish region to teach His disciples and all that every land, every human and everything belong to Him. God is the author of everything and everything lives, moves and has its being because of Him alone. Today there are so many people fighting over lands, properties; communities and countries not knowing that nothing belongs to anyone. We are here to find god and share His love with one another.
We often hear people saying, ‘I have seen a beautiful bear crossing the road. I have seen a deer running around and we all get excited to see an animal or a rare bird or a tree but no one ever tells that he has seen a human-being full of love and forgiveness. Once a philosopher in broad daylight, with a lighted candle went to a market place and searched for something and when people asked him what he was looking for. He said, “I am looking for man”. When Pilate saw Christ, he said, ‘Ecce Homo’, behold the Man. Yes, Christ is the man, the divine man from whom we can learn love and kindness; compassion and forgiveness.
When He came with His disciples to a non-Jewish territory, people brought to Him a man who was deaf and mute. Jesus did not heal him immediately by saying, ‘your faith has saved you, go in peace’ or you are healed and celebrate instead He took him aside in private because He knew the minds of the people. He wanted to heal him according to their mind-set.
For example, when Christian missionary came to India to preach the Good News of Christ, they knew that India was mainly female gods worshipping country. So they brought Christian faith through Blessed Virgin Mary. Christianity rooted in every country according to its culture, custom and tradition.
Jesus put His fingers into his ears to show that He is God. Yes, the Bible says that God wrote the Ten Commandments using His fingers and His finger saved the people from the slavery and sin. His finger brought life on earth.
Jesus is the life giver and anyone who goes to Him will have an abundant life.
In today’s gospel, we see how our Lord Christ takes the deaf man aside away from the crowed and by touching his ears and mouth heals him. Jesus took him aside because He understood the situation of the deaf man. He needs lone time to recover and to understand the surroundings.
Then Christ our Lord uses the word “Ephphatha” it is an Aramaic word which means be opened. We see in the gospels how the Aramaic words are used to indicate the love of Christ and the intensity of the situation. Jesus said to the little child who died, ‘Talita cum” which means little child get up, and He said on the cross, “ Elai, elai lama sabactani”. Every time Jesus used some particular word, we see how He looks up in the sky and talks to His father. He thus let us know that His father and Him are the same and anyone who comes to Him for healing will receive what he needs.
And dear friends today our catholic community needs Ephphatha experience, yes, we have to open ourselves with the help of Christ to what is going on around us. and we have to open ourselves to the love and kindness of God and we have to open ourselves to people around us.
Conclusion: let us be with God almighty and celebrate life. amen.
Good morning/evening every one, I am so happy to see you all and our special welcome to all our parishioners, cottagers, visitors and everyone here today. Dear friends, every time we come to Church, we hear Jesus saying to us, ‘Ephphatha’ means be opened to the divine words and we experience the healing power of Christ our Lord and every time we come to Church, we acclaim, “Christ has done everything well; even He makes the deaf hear and the mute speak”.
Once a man who thought that his wife was going deaf stood behind her and called, ‘honey, what are you doing?” there was no answer. So he got close to her and called again, ‘honey, can you hear me?’ there was no answer. Then he decided that his wife was hard hearing so he got very close to her and at the top of his voice said, ‘honey, you are getting deaf”. Then his wife calmly looked at him and said, ‘for the third time, I can hear you well’.
Once a man looked at his friend who was hard of hearing and said, ‘what did your wife say when you got home late last night?’ she was yelling and screaming at me. Then what did you do? Then man said, ‘I just turned out the light’.
In today’s gospel, our Lord Jesus Christ is found in the region of Despoils. He went to a non-Jewish region to teach His disciples and all that every land, every human and everything belong to Him. God is the author of everything and everything lives, moves and has its being because of Him alone. Today there are so many people fighting over lands, properties; communities and countries not knowing that nothing belongs to anyone. We are here to find god and share His love with one another.
We often hear people saying, ‘I have seen a beautiful bear crossing the road. I have seen a deer running around and we all get excited to see an animal or a rare bird or a tree but no one ever tells that he has seen a human-being full of love and forgiveness. Once a philosopher in broad daylight, with a lighted candle went to a market place and searched for something and when people asked him what he was looking for. He said, “I am looking for man”. When Pilate saw Christ, he said, ‘Ecce Homo’, behold the Man. Yes, Christ is the man, the divine man from whom we can learn love and kindness; compassion and forgiveness.
When He came with His disciples to a non-Jewish territory, people brought to Him a man who was deaf and mute. Jesus did not heal him immediately by saying, ‘your faith has saved you, go in peace’ or you are healed and celebrate instead He took him aside in private because He knew the minds of the people. He wanted to heal him according to their mind-set.
For example, when Christian missionary came to India to preach the Good News of Christ, they knew that India was mainly female gods worshipping country. So they brought Christian faith through Blessed Virgin Mary. Christianity rooted in every country according to its culture, custom and tradition.
Jesus put His fingers into his ears to show that He is God. Yes, the Bible says that God wrote the Ten Commandments using His fingers and His finger saved the people from the slavery and sin. His finger brought life on earth.
Jesus is the life giver and anyone who goes to Him will have an abundant life.
In today’s gospel, we see how our Lord Christ takes the deaf man aside away from the crowed and by touching his ears and mouth heals him. Jesus took him aside because He understood the situation of the deaf man. He needs lone time to recover and to understand the surroundings.
Then Christ our Lord uses the word “Ephphatha” it is an Aramaic word which means be opened. We see in the gospels how the Aramaic words are used to indicate the love of Christ and the intensity of the situation. Jesus said to the little child who died, ‘Talita cum” which means little child get up, and He said on the cross, “ Elai, elai lama sabactani”. Every time Jesus used some particular word, we see how He looks up in the sky and talks to His father. He thus let us know that His father and Him are the same and anyone who comes to Him for healing will receive what he needs.
And dear friends today our catholic community needs Ephphatha experience, yes, we have to open ourselves with the help of Christ to what is going on around us. and we have to open ourselves to the love and kindness of God and we have to open ourselves to people around us.
Conclusion: let us be with God almighty and celebrate life. amen.
Saturday, August 25, 2012
21-Sunday
21-Sunday in ordinary time
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, cottagers, visitors and every one here today. Dear friends, every time we come to church, we celebrate the divine word of God, we celebrate Christ’s miracles and wonders and every time we come to Church, we join the apostles and say to Christ, “To whom shall we go, you have the words of eternal life”.
Dear friends in Christ, These past four weeks, we have been hearing the powerful divine words of Christ our Lord and how He multiplied the bread and fish and thus He fed more than five thousand people. Then Christ our Lord saw in them a great longing to be physically and spiritually satisfied. They saw the suffering and pain of people to get every day meal and the wanting of their physical health. He noticed in people a deep cry to find God in everything they were doing and saying and that is why Christ our Lord called the people to Himself and said, “If you want to have endless life… you need to listen to the divine words of God and understand, you have to experience the presence of God in the world and you have to keep all the commandments of God and see the miracles and wonders happening in His name and I know by doing one thing, you could receive everything. The words, miracles, wonders, loving God and others, yes, everything will complete in doing one thing that is eating the flesh of the Son of Man. And the people who heard Him saying were confused and were shocked. And in today’s gospel, Christ our Lord continues saying,
He again insists them the importance of the spiritual celebration of eating His flesh. Yes, He is saying that even to have life, one should eat His flesh. Let us put endless life behind and think about the very life we have. In order to have life, one should eat His flesh and thus he may come to know that he is not alone but the Creator is with him always. Everything that we see and enjoy and everything that moves and has life is given by God almighty. How can a person live without light? If a person really wants to deepen himself into the divine reality, he has to open himself to the inner light that is Christ our Lord. No truth means no life and we are all constantly looking for truth and unless we go to Christ, we can never experience truth because Jesus is the truth. The very life comes from Christ alone. When people who were so obsessed with perishable things heard that He is the living bread that came down from heaven, they went away from Him criticizing. They laughed and ridiculed Him because they were struck in the mundane reality.
I am from above and He descended from heaven and as I ascend and then you will understand.
Then our Lord Jesus Christ who called the apostles in a special way to follow Him looked at them and asked, “ Do you also wish to go away from me?” It is a very powerful negative question that kindles their very core of their faith. They were all shocked to hear a negative question from Christ. Jesus always asked them questions such as what do people say that I am and what do you say that I am and this is the first time, He asked them a negative question saying, “Do you also wish to go away from me?”
And Simon Peter who in the name of all the apostles came forward and said, “Jesus My Lord and God where can we go?” You have the words of eternal life. Those apostles were all in their forties and fifties and they all had different worldly experiences. They knew so many things. Because of their age and experience, they said, where can we go, there is nothing in the world outside of you, as St. Augustine said, “Unless my soul rest in God, I will never rest”. Jesus, where can we go? You are everywhere because everything belongs to you. You are the beginning and end. You are the creator, protector and sanctifier and where can we go? All good things come from you alone. You are the healer and good shepherd and where can we go. And above all else, you can the words of eternal life. We do not live on bread alone but every divine word that comes from your mouth because you are the bread of life. Jesus, give us this food every day.
Conclusion
Saturday, August 18, 2012
The body of Christ( the flesh and blood) 20th sunday
Dear friends in Christ, I am so happy to welcome you all for today’s Holy Mass and our special welcome to all our parishioners, cottagers, visitors and everyone here today. Dear friends, every time we come to church we celebrate Christ who gives His the living bread, who gives His body as the source of life and every time we come to church, we eat His body and become like Him our Lord and God.
Past three weeks, we have been hearing the teaching of Christ our Lord who invites us to eat His body and drink His blood and thus to have life that would never end. Many people who saw Him speaking about the life giving bread and they criticized and put Him down. But they were keep coming to Him because He multiplied the five fish and the two fish and thus more than five thousand people ate and were satisfied but as He began to talk about the divine manna namely His own body, they began to murmur and complain against Him.
Today I would like to focus more on the two kinds of faith namely emotional faith and intellectual faith.
Emotional faith
As our Lord Jesus Christ saw the crowd who listened to His divine words being tired and helpless, He had compassion for them and He multiplied the five loaves and the two fish and people who ate were all satisfied and then they began to praise and glorify Him saying, “He is the prophet who is to come into the world. Let us make Him king. Because of the food and physical satisfaction, they began to act emotionally. Their faith was not stronger since it was based on their emotions. When some amazing things happen to people in the name of God, they began to praise and glorify God for a while until they are being challenged intellectually. Once missionaries who went to preach the good news to distant counties, in order to attract poor people they gave them rice and people who got rice from the missionaries, immediately began to follow Christ. As the missionaries began to stop giving rice and start talking about faith and Christ, they went away from them criticizing and even people treated the missionaries bad. The gospels talk about so many incidents of emotional faith. For example, when a man saw Jesus doing amazing things coming to Him and said, “Jesus, I keep all the commandments and I should I do more to enter into the kingdom of god? And Christ said, “go and sell all your possessions and give to the poor and come and follow me”. The man was not happy because he was rich and He went away from Him. Today there are people who would like to die for Jesus and they will do anything for the kingdom of god until something happens to them. When they face certain challenges in their lives, they will immediately blame on God and go away from Him. A person’s faith that is based on his emotions will not take him to the kingdom of god, it is like a seed that falls on the path, and it will soon disappear.
These days we are seeing in the gospel, so many people coming to Jesus not because of His amazing teachings but because of His miracle the multiplication of the loaves and fish. When Jesus asked them to deepen their faith in Him they began to criticize and put Him down.
Intellectual faith
Our Catholic Church invites us to have strong intellectual faith. It is so important to understand the four different types of body of Christ to deepen our faith in Him. they are physical body, resurrected body, mystical body and the sacramental body. The physical body of Christ was the visible one. Jesus was born at Bethlehem like you and me and lived among people doing every day chores for thirty plus three years and those years, people saw him as a person with body and soul. He was just human. The physical body of Christ was conditioned with so many things.
The resurrected body: Jesus after His resurrection appeared to His disciples with his resurrected body and asked them to believe in His name. For example, the two disciples on the way to Emmaus had the experience with the resurrected body. Then comes the mystical body namely the Church. The Catholic Church called the Mother Church of all churches is the mystical church. Because Christ is the one who founded and he is the one who leads the Church to His father. And that is why the Church is stronger than ever and it doing wonderful for two thousand years. And then the sacramental body, every time we come to Church and celebrate Mass, the mere bread and wine become the body and blood of Christ our Lord.
Unless we have a clear idea of these concepts of the body of Christ, it is not easy to deepen our faith in Christ our Lord.
Saturday, August 11, 2012
The bread of life
The Living Bread
Dear friends in Christ, I am so happy to welcome you all for today’s Holy Mass. My special welcome to all our parishioners, cottagers, visitors and every one here today, dear friends, every time we come to church, we celebrate our special calling to follow Christ our Lord, we celebrate our special meal that is the bread of life and every time we come to Church we become life giving source for our brothers and sisters in need.
Once a church received a new priest and while he was preaching the first time, he drank a whole pitcher of water. And after Mass a man asked his wife about the new priest and she said, “I like him very much and He is the first windmill that I ever saw that was run by water.
And one day the new priest noticed a man walking out during his homily and after Mass, the man’s wife came to the Father and said, “Father, please forgive me, I was so embarrassed to see my husband walking out during your homily and by the way Father, my husband walks in sleep ever since he was a child”.
In today’s gospel, Jesus continues to tell people, “ I am the bread of life that came down from heaven”. The very words I am are often used by our Lord Jesus Christ to indicate His divine centric human. He says I am the good shepherd, I am the light of world, I am the gate of the sheep and I am the beginning and end and every time He uses the words I am, they indicate His divine centric humanity. Yes, when Moses approached the burning bush and asked the voice, “ who are you Lord?” The voice responded saying, “I am who I am” Go and tell my people I am has sent you to them. Every time Christ uses the words I am, they indicate His divinity and God and Christ are the same.
That is why, when we use the words I am saying I am catholic, I am a follower of Christ or I am a disciple of Christ, it carries certain divine centric strength with them. Yes, every time we say I am catholic, we promise to Christ that we will put our faith into practice, we will act as Christ did loving God with who we are and loving our neighbor as ourselves.
Then Christ says I am the bread of life. The food that we eat helps to maintain our health and it strengths us physically but what about our spiritual side. There is a constant struggle between body and soul in every one of us. The tension between body and soul is continuously pulling us into two different directions, what about the loneliness we feel in us. Though we are found in a big crowed, we feel lonely and many of us are so comfortable sitting in front of the TV than coming out and be with others. All these emotional and psychological challenges can be met with only the bread of life. Any one who has Jesus with Him is not alone. This spiritual food helps us to find Christ in others and us. We then find Christ in everything we do and say.
And in today’s gospel, Jesus our Lord says that I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Who can come down from heaven? Holy men and women, saints and angels can come down from heaven. They come down from heaven to help living beings. Those who come down are pure, holy, blameless, imperishable and beyond time and space and when Christ our Lord said that He came down from heaven, people began to criticize Him saying, we know your Father Joseph, your mother Mary and all your relatives, friends and family members and how can this carpenter from Nazareth acting more than a baker from Galilee saying, He came down from heaven. They began to complain, murmur and talk against Him as the people of Israel in the wilderness did. Yes, they went against Moses saying, “ Why did you want to liberate us?” we were suffering in the hand of Pharaoh but still we had enough food. Then Moses prayed to God and God gave them Manna from heaven. Because they were chosen people and God loved them without limit and likewise when people began to murmur, Jesus said, “ you can not come to me unless my Father blesses you, my father chooses you in a special way. The Old Testament says, God knows us even before we were born and called us by our names.
And Christ our Lord says that whoever comes to me, I will feed you with bread of life and as you eat the bread of life, you will have life everlasting. Yes, we will never die. Dear friends, as we enjoy life and have no death, we are here to spread the good news of everlasting life to all. Today so many people easily give up because of hopelessness and not finding any meaning for their lives. They need to hear Christ the living bread. And we should ever remember that if we do not have the bread of life, we are toast. Amen.
Dear friends in Christ, I am so happy to welcome you all for today’s Holy Mass. My special welcome to all our parishioners, cottagers, visitors and every one here today, dear friends, every time we come to church, we celebrate our special calling to follow Christ our Lord, we celebrate our special meal that is the bread of life and every time we come to Church we become life giving source for our brothers and sisters in need.
Once a church received a new priest and while he was preaching the first time, he drank a whole pitcher of water. And after Mass a man asked his wife about the new priest and she said, “I like him very much and He is the first windmill that I ever saw that was run by water.
And one day the new priest noticed a man walking out during his homily and after Mass, the man’s wife came to the Father and said, “Father, please forgive me, I was so embarrassed to see my husband walking out during your homily and by the way Father, my husband walks in sleep ever since he was a child”.
That is why, when we use the words I am saying I am catholic, I am a follower of Christ or I am a disciple of Christ, it carries certain divine centric strength with them. Yes, every time we say I am catholic, we promise to Christ that we will put our faith into practice, we will act as Christ did loving God with who we are and loving our neighbor as ourselves.
Then Christ says I am the bread of life. The food that we eat helps to maintain our health and it strengths us physically but what about our spiritual side. There is a constant struggle between body and soul in every one of us. The tension between body and soul is continuously pulling us into two different directions, what about the loneliness we feel in us. Though we are found in a big crowed, we feel lonely and many of us are so comfortable sitting in front of the TV than coming out and be with others. All these emotional and psychological challenges can be met with only the bread of life. Any one who has Jesus with Him is not alone. This spiritual food helps us to find Christ in others and us. We then find Christ in everything we do and say.
And Christ our Lord says that whoever comes to me, I will feed you with bread of life and as you eat the bread of life, you will have life everlasting. Yes, we will never die. Dear friends, as we enjoy life and have no death, we are here to spread the good news of everlasting life to all. Today so many people easily give up because of hopelessness and not finding any meaning for their lives. They need to hear Christ the living bread. And we should ever remember that if we do not have the bread of life, we are toast. Amen.
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