HAPPY THANKSGIVING

THANKSGIVING SUNDAY 

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

The first reading says that God created Adam from the dust of the ground and that is why we call Adam the first dirtbag. 

Once an older man from Toronto called his son in Calgary and said, “Son, I am so sorry to ruin your day, but I have to tell you the truth. Your mom and I are getting divorce and my forty-five years of our life is over. The son wasn’t happy and said, “Dad, what are you talking about, don’t do anything stupid until I get back to you. Then the son called his sister in Halifax and the she called her dad and said, “Please dad, don’t do anything until we come home. We will talk to you both. Please don’t move out. Then the old man hangs up the phone and looks at his wife and says, “Honey, our children are coming home for thanksgiving and now what we tell them for Christmas?” 

Once an older woman was driving a little fast and when she saw a female police officer following her, she was speeding and as she was pulled over, the officer looked at her and said, “You know what, I am in a good mood and I won’t give you a ticket if you give me a good reason, a reason that never heard. So, the older woman looks at the female officer and says, “you know what many years ago, my husband ran away with a police officer and I thought you are bringing him back”.  

As we are going to celebrate ‘Thanksgiving’, let us thank God Almighty for everything. Let us thank Him for our family members, relatives, friends, parishioners and others. As we thank Him for everything in our lives, we will always be given more joy, happiness and satisfaction.  

We hear from today’s Scriptures that God created Adam the first man from the dust of the ground. God made all animals and every living creature from the dust of the ground and the only difference between man and all other animals is that God, out of His graciousness and love, out of his compassion and kindness, breathed the breath of life into his nostrils. Yes, God gave man the spirit and soul that left Him that deep longing to find the Creator. So, it’s our duty to thank God for creating man and woman and giving us the breath of life and to thank Him for leaving that deep longing in us to search Him day and night.  

The beautiful thing is that God created man on the sixth day and on the seventh day, God rested. For God, it was seventh day but for man, it was a first day. And that is why, on the very first day, before doing anything and before going anywhere, we are called to begin the day with God. Sunday the first day of the week is called holy day.  

After creating Adam and Eve, God gave the first commandment saying, “Be fruitful and multiply” and for this reason, man leaves his father and mother and be join to his wife. Thus, the two shall become one flesh. They are no longer two but one flesh. Therefor what God has joined together, let no one separate. Yes, no law should separate them like civil laws, church laws, in laws and out laws and no law should separate them.  

As a man and woman come before the Lord and say to each other that they will be for each other in good times and bad and sickness and health, they promise to live for each other. Today the sad thing is, as we see many men and women together, we question saying, “are they living together or dying together. God created people to live and prosper.  

Today we face with so many challenges and especially when it comes with marriage, relationship and communication. People struggle a lot to connect with their own husbands and wives and that is why we say, even before finding your ‘soulmate’, find your soul.  

It’s not only putting Christ at the center of married life but keeping Him forever.  

Christ the only Son of God will never say ‘No’ to us. As we go to Him with who we are, He fulfills all our needs. So, as we are going to celebrate ‘Thanksgiving’, let us develop the attitude of gratitude and thank God for creating us in His own image and likeness and let us thank Him for our family and friends and let us thank Him for this beautiful country of Canada. God bless. 

  

26th sunday-B

26th Sunday in B 

Good evening/morning everyone and welcome to church today. 

I have one announcement to make, if any catholic thinks that he or she has a clear, clear conscience, please remember, it is the sign of a bad memory. 

Once after Mass at a prison as I was shaking hands with the prisoners and saying, ‘Good bye” to them, one of them said, “Keep out of trouble”. And I said, ‘I am but you didn’t”. Then he said, “Do you think you are a funny priest?” 

Once a man went to confession and said, “Forgive me, father, for I have sinned. During world war, I hid a refugee family in my attic”. The priest said, “Well, that is not a sin and you did a good thing”. But the man said, “I charged him $20.00 a week”. That is not good, but you saved a family though”. The man said, “Oh thank you so much Father, now I feel so relieved”. And I have one more question, “What is that, my son?” the man then said, “should I tell them the war is over” 

Then school children came to confession and every one of them was saying the same sin to the priest. One after another, they were saying, “Oh father, I threw peanut in the water”. The priest said, “that is a good thing. You are feeding the fish. God bless you and go in peace”. Then finally a little boy came to confession and even before he said anything, the priest said, ‘I know what you did. You threw peanut in the water and that is a good thing. God bless you. The boy then said, “No, father, I didn’t, and I am peanut”. 

Dear friends in Christ Jesus,  

Christ is the beginning of all.  Not one thing or two things but everything comes from Christ and Christ alone. Because the world exists only because of Him. Though one man, Adam, death came into the world and life came through Christ. Everything belongs to Christ and those who are not against Him are always for Him. 

God made the covenant of marriage with Adam and Eve. God made the covenant of family with Noah and covenant of tribe with Abraham. God made the covenant of nation with Moses and covenant of kingdom with David and through our Lord Jesus Christ, God established the covenant of universal kingdom. And everyone belongs to that kingdom. Though people don’t know Christ or away from Christ; though they accept Christ or don’t practice their faith, everyone belongs to Christ and His kingdom. Those who are not against Him are always for Him. 

Once a Christian, a follower of Christ, was brought before judge saying, “This man is a traitor because he gave water to a Muslim during war”. So, he was condemned to death. On the way to his execution, the man said to the king, “your majesty, at the battle field as people were suffering and dying, I never see a Muslim, a Jew or a Christian but only the face of Christ in every suffering human person”. The king then looked at him and said, “Go and give water to the suffering and dying”.  

There is a beautiful resurrection story, it’s about the two disciples on the way to Emmaus. After encountering Christ, they would say to each other, ‘Were not our hearts burning within us and were not enlightened while He opened the Scripture for us and so on and then they would get up at the same hour and went to Jerusalem and proclaimed the Good News to all. 

When the love of God fills our hearts, we cannot resist, and we cannot sit still, we have to go out and proclaim the Good News. Whether He belongs to a Christian group or not, they will go out and do great things in the name of Christ.  

Our hearts and our church are not that big to hold all the love and all the kindness of Christ and our rituals and our customs are not big enough to proclaim all the love and all the forgiveness of Christ and there will always people who do not belong to us will go and proclaim and do great things in the name of Christ. Yes, those who are not against us are for us. Let them continue their good works and let Christ’s light shine upon everyone.  Amen. 

25th Sunday-B

25th Sunday-B 

Good morning everyone, I am so happy to welcome you all for today’s Holy Mass. About two weeks ago, a group of Chinese Catholic came to Mass and as I was talking to them, at one point, I said, “Do you speak Mandarin?” They said, “Yes, we speak Mandarin”. Then, I said, “I am from India and I speak, Orange”. They said, “Please, don’t give up your day job”. 

Once a woman went to confession and said, “Father, forgive me for I have sinned. I have committed the sin of vanity. Yes, every time, I look at myself in the mirror, I think I am the most beautiful woman in the world. I feel and experience my gorgeousness. Please forgive me the sin of vanity”. The priest said, “O Monica, in your case, it’s not a sin at all. It’s just a big mistake”.  

Then Monica came to the priest and said, “Oh Father, my husband won two million dollars and I don’t know how to tell him since he has a heart condition”. The priest said, “That’s nothing bring him here and I will help him. When the man came, the priest looked at him and said, “Bob, if you win a million dollars what will you do? The man said, ‘I would visit my friends in Australia and buy a big house and help my children”. That is fine and tell me if you win two million dollars, what will you do? The man got so excited and said, “I will donate one million dollars to the church”. Imagine what happened, the priest took a heart attack and died. 

Once reporters approached Winston Churchill and said, “Are you proud to see a big crowd every time you give a political talk, the hall is almost overflowing? Then Churchill said, “Whenever I feel that way, I always remember that if instead of making a political speech, I was being hanged, the crowd would be twice as big” 

Dear friends in Christ, they say that a great man is always willing to be little. In my case, I am already little” Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it’s thinking of yourself less”. 

It’s only because of Christ, we find meaning in our life and it’s only because of Him, we are filled with happiness and joy and it’s only because of Him, we have life to the fullest and that Christ our Lord emptied Himself to become like you and me. Yes, He humbled and emptied Himself and made Himself nothing to be a servant to save us.  

Christ after washing the feet of His own disciples at the last supper said, “You call me Lord and teacher and you are right-for that’s what I am. So, if I the Lord and master have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have set you an example and that you also should do as I have done to you”.  

That is our Lord Jesus Christ, He accepted humiliation and suffering for you. He didn’t need to become a human and He didn’t need to be born among the poor and be rejected by His own creatures and He didn’t need to accept crucifixion and death on a cross. But Christ humbled Himself and died a horrible death on a cross only for you.  

At the age of twelve as He was at the temple in Jerusalem preaching and teaching the love of God, His parents came to Him and said, “Son, why did you do all this to us”. There Christ humbled Himself and went down with them and He was, the Holy Bible says, obedient to them and thus grew in wisdom and knowledge before God and others. Christ humbled Himself to give us life. 

When He appeared first time in His home town Nazareth, His own people rejected Him saying, “We know who you are, and we know your parents and relatives and thus they took offense at Him. They criticized and tried to kill Him. Christ the wounded healer forgave their inability and criticism and moved on from there. 

When His friend Lazarus died, with a snap of his fingers, He might have brought him back to life but even before raising him to life, Christ the Son of God the Alpha and Omega cried for him. He humbled Himself like one of His creatures. 

Before Pilate, Christ the king of the universe was standing like a criminal and accepted the verdict. But the unfortunate thing is Pilate asked Christ, “What is truth?” but before Christ answering him, he walked away from Christ.  

Even while He was hanging on the cross, Christ was so humble and amazing, and forgave the sins of those who judged Him and that is our Lord Jesus Christ. 

Today Christ after announcing His Messianic mission saw how His own disciples fighting among us for power and position and said, “if you want to be exalted, you should humble yourself. if you want to be first and then you should be last of all and servant of all”. 

Conclusion: Following Christ is going against the current. The world will teach children to be adult and Christ teaches us to be like children to enter kingdom of god. The world teaches us to accumulate things here, but Christ teaches us to accumulate wealth in heaven and the world will teach us to hate our enemies, but Christ teaches us to love our enemies and pray for them. Yes, Christ invites us to humble ourselves to experience exaltation not only in this life but the life to come. Amen.