3^rd SUNDAY HOMILY (B)

Jonah 3: 1-5, 10 1 Corinthians 7: 29-31 Mark 1: 14-20

There was a young boy who wanted to go down to the lake and fish. His mother asked him to take his little sister with him. He said, “Mom, don’t make me, take her with me. The last time she came with me, I didn’t catch a single fish.” The mother said, “I’ll talk to her and I promise this time she won’t make any noise.” The boy said, “Mom, it wasn’t the noise. She ate all my bait!”

Dear friends! In today’s gospel we see the would-be apostles, Simon and Andrew, called to make a radical decision about the rest of their lives. They are fishermen. They are busy with their trade, casting nets, but we do not hear that they caught any fish. Probably on this particular day they too, were going through a state of depression and near-despair. It is in this state of mind that they hear the word of God addressed to them by Jesus: “Come after me and I will make you fishers of men” (Mark 1:17). They leave their nets at once and follow Jesus.

There comes a time, in the life of every child of God, when God invites us to follow Him more closely and to participate in His mission. God’s call to follow and serve Him often takes us to places, we would never have dreamt of going. Jonah’s call in the first reading took him to Nineveh. For the Jew of the 1st century BC, Nineveh represented the seat of godlessness, immorality and corruption. Materialism expressing itself in all forms of immorality, corruption and crime was the order of the day in Nineveh.

For pious Jews like Jonah, Nineveh was the godforsaken city, the highway to prediction, where evil reigned without any hope of change. For them Nineveh was a hopeless case, people by lost souls without the slightest hope of regaining God’s favor. No wonder Jonah objected to being sent there. As far as he was concerned the mission to Nineveh was nothing but an exercise in futility. The big surprise in the story is that as soon as the “godforsaken” people of Nineveh heard the word of God, they receive it with eagerness, repent with sincerity, and regain God’s mercy and forgiveness.

Even today God seeks men and women to send on the mission to Nineveh. Where is our Nineveh today? Our Nineveh today can be found in wherever God is rejected. It can be in our own families, in our neighborhood, in our little town or in our own hearts of selfishness.

This Sunday is January 22nd, the sad anniversary of the day when the U.S. Supreme Court in 1973 offered up our generation’s version of the Dred Scott ruling, deciding that a certain class of human beings do not have any constitutional rights, especially the right to life. As a result of this perversion of justice, over 50 million innocent babies have been snuffed out in the name of choice, privacy, convenience, economic opportunity, family planning, or any of the other modern monikers used to mask its true name: Evil.

Today’s young people know that one-third of their siblings and classmates and friends are missing-in-action; they were not allowed to be born and enjoy life. These young people know the most dangerous place in America is inside a womb—a 33 percent death rate. They instinctively know they are the lucky survivors and they find such a brutal and tragic situation quite unacceptable. Nineveh in our country can be found in every abortion clinic and in the minds parents planning to abort the child. God calls you and me as he called Jonah, Peter, James, John to proclaim his message of hope, love, and forgiveness and peace to all, wherever God is rejected. God calls us today to put an end to the culture of death and proclaim the Gospel of message of life.

Jesus cries out to us and tells us that a better world is within our reach; it’s within our grasp. “The reign of God is at hand,” He tells us. A better world begins when we begin to change our own personal life. “Reform your lives,” He tells us, “and believe in the Good News.” And so, if we want to change the world, are we willing first of all to change our own selves? How can I have the energy to change the huge systems surround us unless I at least have the energy to change myself/my family?

2^nd SUNDAY HOMILY (A)

1 Sam.3:3-10, 19.  1 Cor 6:13-15, 17-20.  Jn.1:35-42    

Dear friends, today all the readings are speaking about God’s Call and Our response. We can call it vocation Sunday.It invites us to help people to discover God in their lives. In the first reading God calls Samuel to be His Prophet, and in the Gospel Jesus calls his first disciples. Samuel after hearing God’s call goes to Eli saying: “Here I am, you called me.” Eli exhorts him to listen to God’s Voice and turn towards Him. In the Gospel John the Baptist, after fulfilling his mission, points out to the one greater than him as Jesus passed by; “Behold the Lamb of God.”

In the first chapter of the book Samuel, we are told the story of Samuel’s birth. A devout Israelite, Elkanah by name, had two wives; the first, Hannah, was barren while the second had several children.

Though dearly loved by her husband, Hannah had no peace. While on a pilgrimage to the sanctuary of Shiloh where the Ark of the Covenant was kept at the time, she made a solemn promise to Yahweh: if Yahweh would give her a son, she would dedicate him to the Lord putting him at the service of the sanctuary.

God listened to Hannah’s prayer; she conceived and gave birth to a son whom she called Samuel, a name that means “the one I asked from Yahweh.” Samuel must have been three to four years old when Hannah took him to the sanctuary and presented him to Eli the priest in fulfillment of her promise: Eli the priest took care of the child as if he were his own.

Samuel was still a boy, perhaps no older than twelve, when Yahweh spoke to him for the first time as we have heard in today’s first reading. Two points deserve particular attention in this passage: Samuel’s obedience to Eli the priest and to the Lord.

Samuel’s readiness to grasp well and to carry out God’s instructions by responding: “Speak, Lord, your servant is listening.”

Samuel became the leader of the people of Israel, a faithful prophet who conveyed God’s message to the people and their leaders.

All of us receive calls from the Lord.    Sometimes, like the disciples in the Gospel, we recognize the Lord and follow. If we don’t respond like Samuel in today’s first reading, we might miss our opportunity to do His will. Maybe the Lord wants us to lead someone who is estranged from Him closer to Him with our kindness.  Maybe the Lord is calling us to enter into the path of life where we can best serve Him.  God’s calls have an impact on our lives as well as on the lives of people we might not even know.  

This Sunday is the perfect time to discuss the call of God that we receive in our lives, our vocation. Usually, when we hear the concept of vocation we think of those who are called to become priests or to enter religious life as sisters or brothers.  These are certainly vocations from God, but they are not the only call that God gives.  

Many of you are married or are hoping to be married someday.  How do you view marriage?  Marriage is a vocation, a call from God to greatness by embracing a life of sacrificial love.  But marriage takes two people.  If you are married, you need to pray to God that you will be a good Catholic wife or husband, concerned with giving love.  Husbands and wives also need to pray for each other         

What is your calling?  What is my calling?  The general answer to those questions is simple: we are called to serve God.

Many times we ignore our call and consequently we fail to relish Jesus’ company. We forget that Jesus has called us ‘by our name’ and consequently we fail to encounter him and receive his graces. Every Sunday we come together to meet Jesus; we obey his call. What is the result of our encounter with him? Do we learn more about him and decide to spend our time with him? Do we really find joy in meeting him? Or do we simply come together and go away empty-handed? Jesus calls us today, he invites us to follow him and encounter him in the Word and the Sacrament.

God calls man through man to reveal His will. God wants us to be His instruments to lead man to God and to make His Kingdom tangible; the Kingdom of Peace Love and Justice.

We pray today for the grace and courage to be attune to God’s call in our lives.  We pray for the courage to have an orientation to the Lord throughout our lives, so that when He calls we will respond, like Samuel: “Speak Lord, your servant is listening.”

FEAST OF EPIPHANY

Is.60:1-6.  Eph.3:2-3.5-6.  Mt.2:1-12.

The feast of Epiphany is actually an older feast than Christmas. Epiphany means, manifestation or disclosure. For us it means that God appeared or was made known in Christ. God manifests himself in Christ-that is the message of today.

The gospel recounts the first manifestation of Jesus to the non-Jews: the Magi here symbolize the Gentiles. They came to adore the king and pay him homage. Falling on their knees they did him homage. They were privileged to have the vision of God’s manifestation and were overjoyed to see the child, the new born king.

The gifts of gold, frankincence and myrrh which they offered were symbolic of the kingship, divinity and humanity of Christ. The Jews were indeed God’s chosen people to whom it was said: I will be their God and they shall be my people. But in Magi, God revealed that not just the Jews but all the people are dear to God. There is no more division into Jews and Gentiles. We are all chosen people, for Jesus came to call each one of us to enter into His Kingdom.

St.Paul: In Christ Jesus the Gentiles are now co-heirs with Jews, members of the same body and sharers of the promise. (Gal.3:60).

We celebrate today the feast of Epiphany shortly after Christmas because at Christmas Christ came into the world and at Epiphany; his coming is announced to the entire world.

What we celebrate today is not merely a commemoration of what happened, a historical remembrance but a reality: The manifestation of God to experience now and all through this New Year.

We are also called upon like the Magi to open our eyes to see the signs of the time and obey the call of God. It must be their heroic faith that led the Magi to face all the difficulties, insecurities and dangers and seek out the king of the universe.

Faith dares and fears not. The three Magi were not disappointed when they saw things very different from what they expected. Still they continued their search and found amidst poverty and simplicity the king of the world. They offered themselves to God in faith, hope and charity. “The heart has its own reasons which the intellect does not understand”.-Pascal.

All through the century the faith of the Christians has been tested. But they have stood up to the trails and have been able to experience God-vision. Like the Magi we too should have the courage to persist in our search for God.

We Christians have a mandate to reach out with Christ’s saving mission to all people. But our mission would not be effective if we ourselves have not found Christ for ourselves. If we have found him as the Magi did, then we would daily offer Christ our gift of gold to his royalty, namely our loyalty and fidelity to him, our gift of frankincense to his divinity, namely our prayer and worship, and our gift of myrrh to his humanity namely our human suffering and sorrows.

We cannot go to Bethlehem or Jerusalem or Rome in search of Jesus: we also do not see any sign of a star for guidance. Rather, we have to look closely at our brothers and sisters to recognize Jesus in them. God’s manifestation today takes place in various ways. 

In his creation, in his word, and in our fellow human beings. But do we really recognize Jesus? We can find him only when we look with earnestness and sincerity. Our life must be a continuous search for God. Thus the Epiphany is not a past event, it takes place now and here.

When we come together for prayer and celebration of the Eucharist, he heals and strengthens us.

The epiphany takes place not only in our life but also in our own person and our community.

Therefore Epiphany offers us both a welcome and a challenge. It welcomes us to renew our faith and continue our search for fullness of Christ. It also challenges us to continue the manifestation of Christ to the world. It challenges us to share the light of Christ we have received with others who are still in darkness.

It challenges us to offer Christ to those who are still searching for meaning in their lives because we know that the Lord is the joy of every heart and is the answer to its eager longing. It challenges us to become channels of God’s grace because grace that cannot be seen is no grace at all.

All those who diligently search for Jesus, will find him.

God’s love never ends. He manifested it in Jesus who brought salvation to all men. We have to continue his salvific work by making known Christ to all by our words and good deeds.

MOTHER MOTHER OF GOD

Nu 6:22-27,  Gal4:4-7, Lk 2:16-21

It is most fitting that after the feast of the birth of Christ we celebrate the feast of the Mother of God on the first day of the year. God gave us a new beginning by sending His son to us. And we begin the New Year with marry the Mother of Jesus and our Mother.

In the council of Ephesus 431, the church officially proclaimed Mary the Mother of God. And Vatican II declared that Mary’s motherhood embraces the whole of humanity.

Mary did not know all that God wanted of her, but she humbly said yes to God and co-operated generously with God’s salvific plan. Her response was in terms of faith and obedience. God chose her to be the mother of Jesus and to be our mother.

When the name Jesus was given to him, it was meant to reveal that Jesus came to save us and bless us. “So shall they invoke my name upon the Israelites, and I will bless them” was God’s own promise. (Num.6:27).

The name of Jesus has the power to save us from selfishness, envy, hostility and animosity. It can deliver us from discouragement, depression and despair. The name of Jesus has the power also to bless us with special gifts and graces.

Mary’s unfailing faith and trust in God should inspire us all, throughout the New Year. We Christians truly hope that this year will be a bright new year because we strongly believe that Jesus will continue to be with us, saving us and blessing us.

As we expect Jesus to continue to save us and bless us in the New Year, he expects us to make some good New Year resolutions.

Dad’s resolution: On new year day, in one particular family everyone was speaking about new resolutions and ten year old child asked his father: "Well, Dad, what’s your New Year’s resolution?" .And the father very proudly  said: "To make your mother as happy as I can all year,". Then the child asked his mother, "What’s your resolution, Mom?" and the mother replied,” To see that your dad keeps his New Year’s resolution."

Some of us may not like resolutions because we think we can never keep them.  But it does not matter if we fail to keep our resolutions. What is more important is that they be well thought out and that we begin to carry them out at least once. God does not expect us to keep all our good resolutions without failing.

However, he hopes that we will search regularly for new experiences of his presence with us in our determined effort to keep them.

It was a woman who made possible for God to be born as man and remain with us as the risen savior. “When the appointed time came, God sent his son, born of a woman. (Gal.4:4).

That woman is Mary, the Mother of God. Yes, we honor Mary today because it was she who first participated in the dramatic ending of the old and the beginning of the new, when  she brought forth Jesus and presented him to the Shepherds.(Lk.2:16),Magi and to the whole world. Hence we celebrate the feast of the Mother of God as the crowning of the Christmas season and we begin the New Year by honoring her.

Mary is not only the Mother of God, she has been given to us as our Mother as well, so we can hold her hand and continue our journey in faith. Mother Mary is the new Eve.

Eve, the mother of the human race brought death by her disobedience, both for herself and to the whole human race, but Mary, the new Eve, brought forth life by her obedience.

Cardinal Newman who brought forth the contrast between Mary and Eve said. As Eve lost privileges by sin, so Mary earned privileges by the fruits of grace, As Eve was disobedient and unbelieving, so Mary was obedient & believing. As Eve was a cause of ruin to all, Mary was a cause of salvation to all.

As Eve made room for Adam’s fall, So Mary made room for our Lord’s reparation of it, As Eve co-operated in effecting a great evil, Mary co-operated in effecting a much greater good.

This New Eve-Mother Mary is the Mother of all the Christians. Hanging upon the cross, Jesus pointed out to St.John the beloved disciple said to Mary His Mother,” Woman here is your son.

Then He said to St.John,” Here is your Mother. (Jn.19:26). St.John stood at the cross, not only as the beloved disciple of Jesus, but also as the symbol and representative of the believers in Jesus.

At Jesus birth Mary became His Mother and at his death, she became Mother of all his disciples. In giving St.John as a son to Mary at the cross, Jesus entrusted all the believers to Mother Mary. All believers who are the brothers and sisters of ST.John are also the sons and daughters of Mother Mary.

We need Mary as our Mother to support us on our journey through the New Year. We need her faith when we don’t see a way, her hope when we run into a dead end and her love when others desert us.

May Mary’s memory never leave us and may her image always inspire us. She is the mother of all the Christians. Mary, Mother of God and our Mother pray for us.  Amen.

CHRISTMAS 2011.

Is.9:1-6. Titus.2:11-14. Lk.2:1-14

We gather in prayer on Christmas day to celebrate the center event of God’s creation.  This is the Christ event.  All creation leads to Jesus Christ.  All creation takes its meaning from Jesus Christ. The Christ event begins with the Nativity of the Lord, Christmas. We have gathered to celebrate Jesus Christ. He enters into our world to draw us into His Presence.

What do we mean by Christmas?

Someone sent me a little story of Christmas on the E-mail.   

Long ago, there ruled in Persia a wise and good king who loved his people. He wanted to know how they lived, and he wanted particularly to know about their hardships. Often dressed in the clothes of a worker or a beggar, he visited the homes of the poor. No one whom he visited even thought he might be their ruler.  

Once he visited a very poor man who lived in a cellar. He ate the coarse food the poor man ate, and he spoke cheerful, kind words to him. Then he left. Later when he visited the poor man again, he disclosed his identity saying, "I am your king!" Then the king thought the man would surely ask for some gift or favor, but he did not. Instead, he said, "You left your palace and your glory to visit me in this dark, dreary place. You ate the course food I ate. You brought gladness to my heart! To others you have given your rich gifts. To me you have given yourself!"  

This is the true meaning of Christmas.  The second person of the Blessed Trinity becomes incarnate. Jesus is true God and true man.  He is one person with two natures, a divine nature and a human nature. 

Christmas not only celebrates that Christ was born into the world 2000 years ago, at Christmas we celebrate that Christ has been born in us. This is the cause of Joy: Christ is born in us today.  The meaning of Christmas is found in the meaning of Christ’s life. Christ came to call us to a Father’s love. We do not celebrate how much we love God; we celebrate how much God loves us. Christmas is not about the past it is about the present

We hear in the first reading, the words of prophet Isaiah: The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. They lived in a land of shadows but now light is shining on them. (Is.9.2).

Prophet Isaiah calls him-Wonder-counselor: one who will lead his people wisely to salvation, who will pass judgment on people even more wisely than Solomon did. 

Mighty-God: one so powerful that no power on earth will ever be able to resist.

Eternal-father: a loving father from always, one who loved his children even before they knew, and with a love so powerful that no ingratitude of the children will ever destroy.

Prince of peace: a bearer of many gifts but bringing mankind the gift it needs most, one that contains all other gifts: PEACE.

Today we celebrate the birthday of Christ the child. God our Father invites us to this feast. And we commemorate this great event today. The word made flesh. He lived among us.

Today is born to you a Savior, announced the angles to the shepherds. God, who manifested Himself in various times, assumed now the form of man and appeared in the person of Jesus. Paul says: He is the image of the unseen God and the first born of all creation. (Col.1:1-5).  

Christmas is a day of exuberant joy. The savior is born to the world. The prophet Isaiah’s vision is: Your savior comes has become a fact. The shepherds were overwhelmed by the Good news, their joy had no limits, they glorified and praised God. The shepherds as the first Christian evangelists proclaimed this Good News of the birth of Jesus to all.

Yes Christmas without Christ is empty, Christian life without Christ is meaningless.

The greatest desire of every human heart is to have the vision of God. “God so loved the world so much that he sent his only begotten son.” That is God’s greatest gift to us human beings. We have a God who does not live somewhere far removed from us but he lives among us and with us. He fills our hearts with peace, hope and love.

What are the fruits of Christmas?

Christmas instills hope in us. God loves us so much in order that we may love one another. We are invited to share his love. Through concrete actions we must create hope in people who are lonely, sick and frustrated.

Christmas brings us peace. Peace to men of good will was the message of the angels. When we greet each other: Peace be with you, during the holy mass, let us mean it sincerely and share peace and good will in word and deed.

Christmas imparts love. If God loves us, we too must love. Let us walk in the light of Christ, that is the love and be reborn in Christ and make Christmas a reality in our everyday existence.

Whether there are angels calling shepherds or a star appearing to Kings, or reports of people in dire need a continent away or in the house next door, or in our own homes, we are called to step away from our comforts and step into the Presence of the Lord.  Christ identifies with those who are suffering.  “I was hungry or thirsty, a stranger, or naked, sick or imprisoned.”  We are called to him. We are called to holiness.    

St. Francis of Assisi understood the message of the manger clearer than most.  The world had little compassion for a young girl in labor.  She was offered a spot in a stable, with the animals.  There was no image of royalty about the scene, other than the royalty at its center. The King of Kings was born into poverty to draw us away from the riches of the world and into His Presence. St. Francis saw this birth as a call to holiness, a call away from the world’s riches and a call to the wealth of the Lord.  It was St. Francis who constructed the first nativity scene.  

And so we greet one another today by saying “Merry Christmas.”  Be merry; celebrate the birth of the Lord.  Be joyful, not just because a baby was born 2,000 years ago, but because God has entered into our world to draw us into His Presence. 

We have come here today to celebrate Christmas-take love from the manger and share it with the people at home, with the people in our offices and with the people in the world.        

Merry Christmas, Be Joyful, for we have been chosen by the Son of God to be holy. To one and all a “Merry Christmas”. Amen.

4^th.Sunday Advent ( B) 

2 Sam 7:1-5, 8-11, 16; Rom 16:25-27; Lk 1:26-38

On this last Sunday before Christmas and the Mass readings speak about the preparations that God made for his Son to be born among us and as one of us. We wait for his coming into the world and into our lives. In the first reading today, God scolds David for trying to build Him a house of gold, when for years, and God says He has been perfectly satisfied to live in a tent.

This tent called the Ark of the Covenant had poles attached so that it could be easily carried from place to place. When the Israelites went into battle, the Ark of the Covenant was carried by Levites, Israelites of the House of Levi who were studying to become priests, much like seminarians in the Catholic Church.

In later times, the Ark of the Covenant rested in the Holy of Holies in the Temple that David's son, Solomon, built. But that was later. In today's readings, God says, "Not yet!" Through the prophet, Nathan, God tells the King that He'll let Solomon build a Temple. As we know, there were actually two temples after that - one called the Temple of Zerubbabel and then the Temple in Jesus' time that was being built by Herod. But the point in this first reading is that God is going to do something truly awesome. He is going to send His Son Jesus, and Jesus will choose for His Temple, a human person who is full of grace, obedience, and love. Mary will be God's Temple.

How can this fulfill God's promise to David that He will place His Son, Jesus, someday on David's throne? Through the fact that Mary herself is a descendant of the House of David.

God thinks of everything. God will come into the world through His Son, Jesus. He will be born in a stable, die on a cross and only then find His permanent throne in that heaven from which He came!

The details are beautifully told in today's Gospel. God sends His Angel, Gabriel, to ask Mary if it will be all right with her. After a discreet inquiry as to how all of this will come about, she simply says, "Yes." Mary, queen that she is, returns a regal, simple, incredible one-word answer, "Yes." Then she adds on another sentence, "Let it be done to me according to your Word." May your will be done, God. She doesn't worry any more about the "how," because the angel has assured her that nothing is impossible with God, and as a matter of fact, God will be on location the whole time.

The meaning of Christmas is summed up in His name, Emmanuel - that is, God is with us - to destroy our fears and make us ambassadors of the Light. Advent has been all about waiting. And now we know what the waiting was all about - to live our lives, consoled in the midst of our frustration with war and corruption, as well as with our own personal failures.

For God is with us, making sense of all the suffering, all the misery, helping us believe that we are in a much larger plan - waiting for Love to be born for the last time when all those prophecies we heard read to us in the last few weeks are brought to fulfillment. It's a question of that mysterious presence in our hearts that calls forth from us faith and hope and love.

If we can only say a simple, unqualified "yes" as Mary did life could be so simple and God would be so pleased with us.
That's why it's so important that all of us confess our sinfulness before Christmas, and be absolved of anything that could keep Jesus out of our hearts. Advent ends this week and Christmas is just around the corner, when Jesus will be born again in hearts that are prepared to receive Him. Will our hearts be ready? 

3^rd Sunday Advent ( B)

Is 61: 1-2a, 10-11     1Thes 5: 16-24   Jn 1: 6-8, 19-28

As we started our Advent journey, we were told to be watchful and to prepare the way of the Lord in our lives.  Today, we  celebrate the 3^rd Sunday in Advent, Guadete Sunday, from the Latin word for “rejoice.”  The 3^rd candle on our Advent wreath that we light today is pink, representing the joy of this day.  In his first letter to the Thessalonians, Paul advises us to “rejoice always” to “pray without ceasing.”  In fact, the one thing all the readings today have in common is that they bear joyful witness to what God has done for us as his people & what he’ll continue to do for us.  How is God calling us to implement a sense of joy in our daily lives of faith in order to prepare for the coming of the Lord? Holy Scripture reminds us that the past, present and future coming of Jesus is the reason for our rejoicing.

When you come down to it, Advent is not about staying the way we’ve been in the past; it’s not about staying the way we are now.  Jesus came to make changes.  Jesus, the Son of God made incarnate, born as a baby in Bethlehem, is all about God coming into our world, changing our lives, and changing the very way we approach life.

Today's Gospel presents a conversation between the Jewish leaders & John the Baptist.  From what we know about John, we can imagine why these leaders are asking him so many questions.  Just who in the world are you, John the Baptist?  Who are you, coming out of the wilderness into our lives, eating wild honey & locusts? Who are you, criticizing Herod, our king, not worried about retribution or punishment?  Who is John the Baptist, this wild, crazy figure that so captures our imagination, bridging the Hebrew Scriptures with the New Testament, the culmination of what has been & the foreshadowing of what is to come?

John the Baptist comes to us today as a joyful witness.  He came not to bring his own personal message, but to give witness and to testify, to give testimony to the light of Christ.  John the Baptist stands up, gives testimony, and speaks the truth.  He refuses to make himself the center of attention.  Rather, he rejoices in his role as a witness to Jesus, the light of the world, a light that brings life to all.

John's role as a joyful witness to Jesus makes him a great Advent figure: he prepares the way for Jesus and provides an example for us as modern Catholics.   We are called to stand up and to say what we believe to be the truth about Jesus and about our faith.  we joyfully bear witness to what we believe about Jesus as the Word of God, the Son of God who became flesh & who dwelt among us. As witnesses of faith, we can and should “rejoice always,” as Paul advises us to do. 

The Jewish leaders craved stability & familiarity in their lives and in the world around them.  They loved their religious practices centered around traditional Temple worship, so they didn’t want Jesus or John the Baptist to change things.  Perhaps they were more deeply invested in the traditions themselves than in the way they truly experienced God in their religious practices, than the way that God was calling them to something new & radical. With Jesus’ entrance into the world, they were being called to baptism in the Holy Spirit, to repentance for the forgiveness of sins, to follow a Messiah that had come to die for our salvation.  That is why John the Baptist was so threatening to them, why his message perhaps threatens us today.

Keeping the status quo in our lives, resisting change & conversion: this is not what God is about.  I think it is a part of our human nature to resist changes.  However, John the Baptist calls us to make straight the way of the Lord, announcing that the Lord is near, entreating us to wake up, to cleanse away our sins, to prepare ourselves for the One who will liberate us from our fear of change.  In his call for the Church of Thessalonica to rejoice always, Paul challenges us as to be open to change: to listen to where the Spirit is calling us, to heed the call of the prophets, to test what is brought before us, retaining the good, & refraining from the bad. 

I think it is important for us to remember that during Advent, we have the Sacrament of Reconciliation to help us seek forgiveness for our sins from God, to look at ways we can change our lives. By receiving forgiveness in this sacrament, by mending our broken relationships with God and with others, we may be able to feel a new source of energy in our faith & a sense of healing that will prompt us to rejoice in our faith, to make straight the path for the Lord in our lives. Make use of the penance services and prepare to receive the Lord Joyfully. 

As we continue our Advent preparations for the coming of Jesus into the world, let us remember to rejoice and be glad that Lord is going to come. Amen.

2^nd Sunday Advent ( B).   

Is.40.1-5,9-11.  2Pet.3.8-14.   Mk. 1:1-8

The people of God, the Israelites have been abandoned by Yahweh. In their worst nightmare, they never thought their lives could get so bad.  Although they were the Chosen People, they still pushed God aside, even out of their lives.  They thought they had less need for God then ever before.  It was almost as though they forgot about Him. They worshiped the pagan gods of other nations.  They diluted Yahweh’s faith and profaned the Holy Land.  

Due to their unfaithfulness to Yahweh, the Northern Kingdom, Israel, was defeated and taken into captivity by the Assyrians.  Then the Babylonians conquered the Southern Kingdom, Judah.  The people were led off into slavery. The Temple and the Holy City were destroyed.   

Having their identity stolen from them made the people to convert themselves and become more devout followers of Yahweh, even though they were in Babylon, far from the land He had given them. They had no power except their faith in the All Powerful One.  And they realized that they had more power than they could ever need.  God witnessed their conversion.  He heard their prayers.And He sent His prophet to preach consolation for Israel. And Prophet Isaiah proclaims, “Here is your God; he comes with power; he comes like a shepherd feeding his flock” (Is 40:10-11).

And again, some 2000 years ago John the Baptist’s voice was heard in the desert. Many regarded him as a strange man, clothed in camel’s hair fastened with a leather belt, eating grasshoppers and wild honey. Would not we categorize him as ‘abnormal?’

What did he convey?  John the Baptist announced the advent of Christ, someone who is ‘greater than he’.  He proclaimed that Jesus comes to save all men, liberate them from sin and death.

John the Baptist preached that Jesus would baptize them with the Holy Spirit to make them heirs of God’s Kingdom. On our part we have to repent for our sins and reform ourselves. Demanded is a new life, a conversion of heart.

Conversion, repentance - many identify this with joylessness, hardship and austerity. But it is a new life-style: A new way of thinking, it is a change from one way to another, from perdition to salvation. Conversion opens the way to freedom, to a life in fullness. We have to take to the way John preached, freeing ourselves from all worldly bondages in order to hear ‘the voice in the desert’ and follow it and find Jesus in our life.

It happened in the ocean: a little fish said to an older fish, “Excuse me, you are older than I, so can you tell me where to find the thing they call the ocean?”“The ocean is the ‘thing’ you are in now,” replied the older one. “Oh, this? But this is water. What I am seeking is the ocean,” said the disappointed fish, as he swam away to search elsewhere.

 How many of us are looking elsewhere for a better life, when we are actually living in the ocean ofGod’s presence, which is bliss itself!

In order to experience God who is with us, we need to go for a “Desert Experience” like St John the Baptist, who was a voice in the desert heralding the Lord’s coming (Mk 1:3). I do not mean that we must go into a physical desert, but to any place where we can be alone with God and pray: a corner in the back-yard, a nook in the basement or a park bench.

 But to pray one requires: First thing is simplicity. In order to pray, we have to get rid of this excessive baggage of this modern world, because it blocks our way to Christ and to seeing things as they are. The second thing is silence. We need to be still, to be healed of our disturbed spirits. We need a place of quiet in order to hear God speak. The third thing is solitude. We cannot allow ourselves to be driven all the time by an instinct to perform, to produce and to do many things. Sometimes we have to stand alone in solitude to discover who we are and who our God is.

The content of John’s preaching, the coming of the Messiah, is already a reality. He is here with us. Have we recognized him? Yes, he is here, but he may not yet be in our lives. He ‘Knocks at the door’ but we have not yet let him in.

 Advent recalls that Jesus is to come again and be reborn in us. We have to be baptized by the ‘stronger and greater One’, so that we may bear witness to him and mould our lives according to his spirit.

The scripture readings of today speak about the need to prepare the way for the coming of the Lord. If we have strayed from the basics, then the readings invite us to correct this situation. If we have placed success ahead of our personal relationship with God, then today’s readings invite us to change this. Advent is a time when we take inventory of our lives and make whatever changes in them that seems to be necessary.

The advent message of this Sunday compels us to orient our life to Christ. The Lord is coming and we have to receive him. We have to remove all obstacles and make the way straight to receive him into our hearts.

This Sunday we are having tithing Sunday in our parish. Msgr. Fr.Muller is preaching about tithing. We need to prepare our parish to receive the Lord.  Give God what is right not left over. As we prepare our self, we also prepare the parish to receive the Lord. May God bless all the generous hearts. Amen.

1^st Sunday Advent (B)

Is.63.16-17; 64.1,3-8.  I Cor 1:3-9; Mk 13:33-37

Today it the first Sunday of the Advent. We are also having new liturgy. We need to be alert about these changes. Before that Here is a small test for you. You are sleeping. You are dreaming. A big lion is chasing you. You try to run away and you see a tiger coming in front of you. You turn sideways, but every side you turn to, you find a ferocious animal coming after you. How can you escape? The answer is: Wake up. By waking up one enters a whole new world of reality, different from that of the dream world.

Today we enter the season of Advent: a time of special preparation for the coming of the Lord. Every Advent calls us to "be alert, be ready, the Lord is coming soon." This year we have added reason to be awake, because this is the beginning day decreed for changes in The Roman Missal for the English language. We need to be alert for every response to the Mass prayers, beginning today. No longer can we rely on memory. Most of us have prepared for these revisions for the past several months - why the changes, what they are, and how they should help us to pray better. This year, both priest-celebrant and the whole assembly will have to stay alert at Mass

Advent means waiting or coming and we wait for the coming of someone we love. During this season we focus on waiting for the Lord, waiting for the coming of Jesus. We have the three fold waiting. We know that Jesus has already come in history and we remember that during the week before Christmas our waiting changes to waiting for our celebration of the birth of Jesus. We also wait for his final coming at the end times when he will take all to himself. Waiting is something very important in the life of the human person. Anytime we wait we do so because we expect something to happen or someone to come. During Advent we look forward to Jesus who will come in a total gesture of love: God becomes man. Today’s readings assure us that the Lord is coming. But an individual has to be alert and must be on watch. Prophet Isaiah makes a prayer of yearning asking God to come and save us from sin. Paul in the second reading stresses on the fidelity asking people to remain faithful to Jesus to the end. The Gospel of Mark invites all to a spiritual vigilance. He tells us all to be ever alert so that the coming of the Son does not find us unprepared for no one knows the day or hour of his coming.

The message of today’s scripture is that we should live in the living presence of Jesus every day waiting for his Second Coming. Every morning when we get up, let us pray, “Lord, show me someone today with whom I may share your love, mercy and forgiveness.” Mother Teresa of Calcutta once said, "Whatever you do in your family, for your children, for your husband, for your wife, you do for Jesus." Every night when we go to bed, let us ask ourselves, “Where have I found Christ today?” The answer will be God’s Advent gift to us that day. By being alert and watchful, we will receive an extra gift: Christ himself. Let us remember the saying of St. Thomas Aquinas: "Without God, I can't. Without me, He won't." 

Being wakeful and watchful: We are so future-oriented that we often forget the present entirely. We spend too much time trying to protect ourselves against future misfortunes. We save for a rainy day, to get married, to buy a home, to send the children to college, to retire in comfort and to protect ourselves against future misfortunes. yes, it is very important. Nobody will deny. But we need to be more spiritually wakeful and prepare for our eternal life because we can die any day, and that is the end of the world for us.

THANKS GIVING DAY

Sirach 50:22-24, 1 Corinthians 1:3-9   Luke 17:11-19 

Today we celebrate a beautiful national holiday: Thanksgiving. This holiday is one of the things that is unique about this country. As far as I know, this is the first nation to set aside a day simply to give thanks to God. Throughout the world and in the United States, there are holidays to celebrate independence, victory in war, the arrival of spring and saints' days (like St. Patrick). All of those celebrations involve gratitude for specific things, but today is a holiday which is about gratitude itself. 

This is a beautiful holiday for us as Christians because gratitude - or thanksgiving - is the heart of salvation. In the Gospel Jesus heals ten lepers; only one returns to give thanks. Jesus says to the grateful leper, "Stand up and go; your faith has saved you."

Thanksgiving is at the heart of salvation. On this Thanksgiving Day, I would like to take a closer look at that process of salvation. From our Scripture readings we can see that salvation has two parts. The first part, we can say, is gold; the second part is silver.

The golden part is obviously the most precious so I will begin with it. The golden part of our salvation is God's action, his initiative, what we sometimes call "grace." The Old Testament reading describes God's initiative on a natural level. Sirach invites us to "bless the God of all, who has done wondrous things on earth." Then he mentions that precious gift, the gift which makes all other gifts possible, the gift of life. God, he say, "fosters people's growth from their mother's womb, and fashions them according to his will!" God created the universe and our own planet. The entire history of the universe and of life on our planet focuses on the formation a child in his mother's womb. The formation of a human being is the most marvelous part of the natural world. Bless God for that. Thank him. 

We see God's initiative not only in the birth of a child, but a process which we call re-birth. Here is where we find the real gold. Today's Gospel beautiful shows that process of rebirth. Our birth is beautiful, but unfortunately we are born into a world disfigured by sin - the sin of human beings before us and our own personal sin. Sin is like leprosy - a disease which begins on the extremities, but soon attacks the vital organs. Jesus wants to cure us our leprosy, give us a new birth in him. I am sure you will agree with me that such a rebirth can only be compared to something as precious as pure gold. 

God's initiative in bringing us into the world and calling us to a new birth is pure gold. That is the first and most important part of our salvation.

There is a second part, the silver part. Even though it is not as precious as the first part, it is still necessary. The silver part of our salvation is our personal response. We have to respond with gratitude. 

Now, you might say, "If someone was cured of a terrible disease like leprosy, who wouldn't be grateful?" Well, we have the answer: about 90%. Nine out of ten did not return to thank Jesus. Now, gratitude seems obvious and easy, but it is not. It not only involves going out of our way, but it requires humility. Most of all, gratitude establishes a relationship with the giver. 

In the ancient world they measured wealth in gold, but for ordinary currency they more used silver. Gratitude is the currency of our relationship with God - and with our parents, and with our family members and with our co-workers and friends. Gold is a the pure gift from God. But our reception of that gift is like silver. It is the currency of our lives, the daily means of exchange. 

On today's observance of Thanksgiving, we recognize that gratitude is salvation. It is the joyful acceptance of God's gift of birth - and rebirth in Christ. Like the grateful leper in today's Gospel may we hear those beautiful words, "Stand up and go; your faith has saved you."