2nd Sunday in Advent

SECOND SUNDAY IN ADVENT- JOHN THE BAPTIST SUNDAY 

One day a man spotted a beautiful lamp and as he picked it up and rubbed it, there came out a genie looking at him and said, "Ask me for anything and I will grant you..." The man thought for a while and said, "I need a spectacular job and a job that no man ever succeeded at..." What did you say? No man ever succeeded at? The man said, "yes. I need a job that no man ever succeeded at" you know what happened. Genie made him a house wife. 

Today the Holy Catholic Church celebrates the second Sunday in Advent. And this Sunday is also called 'John the Baptist' Sunday. John the Baptist the fore runner of our Lord Jesus Christ came to prepare the way of the Lord. His message was, "The Lord is coming. Let's prepare His way". 

Today's gospel passage contains three messages namely Calling, Healing and Living out the Message. 

1. CALLING: Once a prisoner who lived in a solitary confinement for years and who never saw or spoke to anyone, saw a tiny ant coming into his cell. The man was so happy to see that tiny ant and he put it in the palm of his hand and was amazed at its beauty and fed that ant with one or two grains. He was transformed by seeing an ant.  Then one day he realized that it had taken him ten years of solitary confinement to know the beauty of that little creature. The same kind of experience happened to El Greco the Spanish painter. One day as he was sitting in his dark room, his friends called him out saying, "The Sun is shining and come out to the light". He said, "No I will not because it would disturb the light that is shining within me'.   Those who intensely search for the Lord will always find Him. Every baptized person is given the gift to find Christ through the means of prayers and others spiritual exercises. When we look for Him, He will manifest Himself to us. Once we experience the Lord, the like John the Baptist, we too will begin to call others to the light namely to Christ the Lord. 

2. HEALING: Once while three monks were going to a village to preach the Good News, came to a river bank and realized that they had to cross the river to go to the village and then they saw a beautiful woman also standing on the bank wanting to cross the river. So, one of the monks, out of charity and love carried the woman on his shoulders and thus all crossed the river. When the monks came back to their monastery, the other two monks went to all other monks and said what happened. Then the others came to him and said, "we monks are not allowed to touch a woman and you carried her on your shoulders". They criticized him and it went on and on for many days. Then one day, the monk called the other two monks and looked at them and said, "you know what, I carried that woman and let her go many days ago and why are you still carrying her in your hearts and minds?' Healing comes when we leave certain things behind. When we hold on to unholy things of ours and others, we distant ourselves from Christ but instead when we leave our old ways of hatred, revenge and jealousy, we become new in Christ Jesus. 

3. LIVING THE GOSPEL MESSAGE: Once a pious Catholic had a neighbor who never went to church or did anything spiritual in life. Every Sunday when Joe went to Chruch, the other man went fishing. Every time the man saw Joe, he always said to Joe, "Joe, I am going fishing and are you going to join me?' Joe used to say, "I am going to Church". Then one day, the neighbor looked at Joe and said, "Joe, how come every time I go fishing I invite you and you never invite me to Church". That day Joe experienced something new in him.  Living out the gospel message means helping others to know the love and kindness of God in Christ. Today so many people do not come to church and so many do not experience the love, kindness and forgiveness of Christ our Lord. It's not because they are bad or they unholy, it's because they don't feel welcomed. We do not extend Christ love to them. Let us become John the Baptist and call them to the Lord. Amen. 

           

First Advent- B

FIRST ADVENT IN YEAR B 

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

Once while a priest was preaching his powerful First Advent homily, he noticed that a man was sound asleep, the louder the he preached, the sounder the man slept. And at one point, the priest stopped preaching and looked at his wife and said, "would you please wake him up". The wife said, "Father, wake him up yourself, you put him to sleep". 

Today's gospel invites us to 'Keep awake' because the Lord Christ is coming in an unexpected hour. We have to keep awake to welcome Him. 

Once while man was sleeping, he had a terrible, terrible dream in which he was being chased by a lion and as he was running, there came running in front of him, a tiger and then he realized that he was being surrounded by so many ferocious animals. So, what should he do to escape from those ferocious animals? All he should do is just wake up from his sleep.  

Yes, waking up means getting ready. We are called to wake up to welcome the Lord our God who is coming in an unexpected time. 

There is a revealing story of a monk who lived in a desert. He was so tormented by temptations that he could not bear them any longer. So, he decided to abandon his ascetic and monk life and go somewhere else. Then, as he was putting on his sandals to get out from there, he saw another monk was also putting on his sandals. " Who are you?" He asked the stranger. "I am yourself" was the reply. "I am going to go with you wherever you go. Then the self said, "Just learn to deal with yourself". Therefore, keep awake and you will find Christ in everything. 

 Christ who is always with us is coming back in an unexpected time. So, we have to keep awake.   

Christ the Lord is coming and on the day, the faithful and unfaithful; good and bad; righteous and sinners will see Him face to face. Yes, everyone will see Him on the last day. As He promised, He would come again in an unexpected time and until then we should continue to practice our faith. 

Once during a battle between Christians and Muslims, a Christian soldier was giving water to a wounded Muslim soldiers as they lay suffering without water under the hot sun. And he was brought before the king and accused of being a traitor. The king heard the charges and looked at the soldier for an explanation. Then the soldier looked at the king and said, "When I was walking through the battle fields, I saw no Muslim and no Christian, only the face of Christ in every suffering person". The king then calmly said, " Continue what you are doing".  

Dear friends, the Lord is coming. He is coming in an unexpected time. Let us continue to do our good works among the people. The season of Advent invites us to keep awake and welcome the Lord who is going to come in an unexpected time. So let us keep awake by putting our faith into practice. 

Let us always remember, "If we want to shine like the Son of man, First we should burn like the Sun". Amen 

34- Christ the king

CHRIST THE KING 

Once two evil brothers went to the same church. And one day, one of them died. The other brother came to the priest and said, "Father, I would like to donate million dollars to the church if you promise that you would say that my brother was a saint in your funeral homily". The priest accepted and cashed the check. And on the day of funeral, the priest looked at them all and said, "This man was a horrible person. He abused his wife and children and he mistreated and abused his neighbor", the he paused and looked at them all and said, "But comparing to his living brother, he was a saint". 

Once a man lost his bible and within three days, a sheep carried it in its mouth to him. When the man saw his bible, he praised and glorified God saying, "It’s a miracle, it’s a miracle". But the sheep looked at him and said, "It's not a miracle, I brought it to you because your name is written inside the cover". -it's a sheep joke. 

What about a goat joke? Once an older priest went to his parishioners for dinner and a little boy invited him. The priest then asked him, "What do we have for dinner?' The boy said, "Goat".  "Are you sure that we are having goat?" The boy then said, "As we were driving back from the church, my parents said that we are having the old goat for dinner". 

Today the Holy Catholic Church celebrates the feast of 'Christ the King'. This celebration invites us to know that Christ the one who died on the Cross for us all is the king of kings and the Lord of all and anyone who puts his trust in Him will not perish but will have life that will never end.  Christ the king is coming to judge the universe. As we all know that judgment is also a form of revenge. So, Christ's judgement is not to punish us but to separate us from the darkness and thus to take us with Him. 

Once a grandpa looked so sad and the grandson said, "Grandpa, why do you look sad?" The grandpa said, "It's because there are two wolves fighting in me?" The boy who was so curious said, "which one is going to win, grandpa?'  

For that, the grandpa said, "The one I feed the most". Yes, dear friends. The one we feed the most is going to win. There are two natures living in us too, a sheep and a goat. As we listen to Christ our Lord and see His divine presence in our neighbor and others, then the last judgement day will be the day of our celebration. 

Once there lived a famous king and He did everything according to the will of God and people loved him so much and everyone wanted to live in his kingdom. Then one day, a man was brought before him for justice and judgement. The man was accused of stealing, destroying people's property and murdering many. The king listened to all the accusations and then looked at the man and said, "Do you wish to say anything?' The accused didn't say a word but was just looking at the king. The king then said, "The 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 judged to be executed. Then the extra ordinary thing happened. The king got up from his throne and took off his outer cloak and said, "As your king, I served you all justice but now as the father of this man, I will take his place and die".  

This is the summary of Christianity. Christ the king died for us all. The king of universe is coming not to judge us but to separate us from darkness and give us life that will never end. 

Anything we do to the least of our brothers and sisters, we do directly to Christ the king. On the day of His coming, we will be given life that will never end. 

One day a rabbi looked at his disciples and said, "How do you know that the night is gone and the day is here?' The disciples all exited and came up with different answers. One said, "As we see an animal in distance and know to distinguish whether it’s a sheep or a goat, then we can say the night is gone and the day is here". Then another disciple said, "when you see a tree in distance and distinguish whether it's a fig tree or a preach tree, then you can say that the night is gone and the day is here". Thus, everybody came up with different answers but the rabbi who was not satisfied with their answers said, "you know that the night is gone and the day is here when you see your own brother or sister's face in any suffering human". 

So, let us help those in need and prepare ourselves to enter into the kingdom of God. Amen. 

33 sunday- A

33rd Sunday- Year A 

Good evening/morning everyone. One day a Catholic Church was burned down and the priest didn't have a place to say Mass and the local bar owner said, "Father, if you don't mind, you can use my bar to say Mass on Sundays since it's closed on Sundays anyhow. The priest is kind of hesitant and said, "If heard that you have a parrot up there that uses bad language". The owner said, "No way, my parrot is catholic". So, the priest agreed and thus as he went to the bar the next Sunday to say Mass the parrot looked at him and said, "Wow. We have a new bartender". When the altar servers went in. The parrot looked at them and said, "here comes our new waiters." When the parishioners came in. The parrot kind of excited and said, " The same old customers".  

Today's gospel invites us to meditate upon the second coming of Christ our Lord. Christ our Lord as He promised is going to come to take us all up to heaven with us. And those who especially multiplied the talents and gifts that were showered upon us will enter into the kingdom of heaven prepared by the Father.  

The Emperor Alexander the great had three death wishes. He wanted his coffin being carried by physicians and doctors in order to show the world that no one stop death not even physicians. He wanted gold, silver and precious stones being thrown before his coffin till the graveyard to let everyone know that nothing is precious but only what we do for others. He finally wanted his hands dangling from the coffin to show the world that he came into the world empty handed and is going back empty handed. Nothing is permanent. 

Yes, life becomes meaningless without Christ. Everything comes from God and ends in God and God alone. Christ has given us many gifts that should be used for the welfare of others. 

Christ is coming as He promised not to judge us but to reward and honor us. As we multiply the gifts and talents and make this world a better place to live and love, His coming will be a joyful one. 

One day a boy was called to the principal's office. The principal looked at him and said, "Son, you are in big trouble because you cheated on your written test". "No, I didn't". "Yes, you copied off your friend, John". The boy said, "No, John cheated off me". Then the principal looked at him and said, "For example, for the question, what did Mr. Santa do under the tree?" Your friend John wrote, "I don't know and you wrote, "Neither I do". 

Hidden talents and gifts should be discovered and be used properly. Instead of saying, "I don't have any gift, we should know how to use what we have already. 

There is a beautiful story about Martha Berry who had a vision of helping the poor children. She wanted to build a school for them and she did not have any money only a vision. Then she got an appointment with Mr. Ford and told him about her vision. Then he reached out his pocket and took a dime and gave it to her. She was not insulted or felt ridiculed instead she used the dime to buy seeds and sowed them in her garden. After three or four harvests, she got enough money to buy an old building and thus she made her vision came true and then she went to Mr. Ford and told him what she did with the dime. The man was so impressed and donated her more than million dollars for her school. 

We are all given many talents and gifts that can be used to make this world a better place to live and love. So, let us use them effectively. Amen.