Advent I [C] Jer 33:14-16; 1Thes 3:12 – 4:2; Lk 21:25-28, 34-36

Several years ago a bus driver in Oklahoma reached an unusual record.  In 23 years he had driven a bus over 900,000 miles without a single accident.  When asked how he had done it, he gave this simple answer: “Watch the road.”  In today’s Gospel Jesus gives the same advice in several ways: “Be vigilant at all times,” “Stand erect,” “Raise your heads,” “Beware that your hearts do not become drowsy.”  This is not only a good spiritual advice for the Advent season but also a safe rule for daily life.  A good football player or basketball player should always concentrate his attention on the ball and the players.  A good student must be alert, awake and attentive, watching the teacher and listening to his or her words.  A good Catholic in the Church must be physically and mentally alert, watching the altar and actively participating in the prayers and songs.  Like the Roman god Janus, who had two faces, one looking at the past year and the other looking into future, Christians during the Advent season are to look at the past event of the first coming of Jesus into the world and expectantly look forward to his second coming in glory.

 Advent is a time of waiting and hoping, of renewing our trust in God’s merciful love and care, and of reflecting on the several comings (advents), of Christ into our lives.  Besides his first coming at his birth, we are asked to reflect on Christ’s coming as the risen Lord at Easter, in the Sacraments (especially the Eucharist), in our everyday lives, at the moment of death, and at the end of human history (the second coming). The word Advent comes from the Latin ‘advenio‘, which literally means “come to.” During this Advent season we should consider “coming to” Christ by “abounding in love… for all,” instead of waiting for Christ to come to us

 The Church reminds us that we are accountable for our lives before Christ the Judge.  Today’s readings invite us to assess our lives during Advent and to make the necessary alterations in the light of the approaching Christmas celebration. Advent is the time for an improvement of our lives and for deepening the sincerity of our religious commitment. 

While Advent is set aside to commemorate Jesus’ coming in the flesh as well as his final coming in glory, it is also a time for us to open ourselves to the Lord’s coming into our lives and our world today. 

We need to prepare ourselves for Christ’s second coming by allowing him to be reborn daily in our lives.  This season is intended to fill us with great expectations of the coming of the Messiah just as parents expectantly wait for the birth of their child and make preparations for receiving the child into their family. 

Advent is the time for us to make this preparation by repenting for our sins, by renewing our lives through prayer and penance and by sharing our blessings with others.  Advent also provides an opportunity for us to check for what needs to be put right in our lives, to see how we have failed, and to assess the ways in which we can do better.  Let us remember the words of Alexander Pope: ‘What does it profit me if Jesus is reborn in thousands of cribs all over the world and not reborn in my heart?”  Jesus must be reborn in our hearts and lives, during this season of Advent and every day of our lives, in our love, kindness, mercy and forgiveness. 

“Advent is the perfect time to clear and prepare the Way.  By reflection and prayer, by reading and meditation, we can make our hearts a place where a blessing of peace would abide and where the birth of the Prince of Peace might take place.  Daily we can make an Advent examination.  Are there any feelings of discrimination toward [people because of] race, sex, or religion?  Is there a lingering resentment, an un-forgiven injury living in our hearts?  Do we look down upon others of lesser social standing or educational achievement?  Are we generous with the gifts that have been given to us, seeing ourselves as their stewards and not their owners?  Are we reverent of others, of their ideas and needs, and of creation?  These and other questions become Advent lights by which we may search the deep, dark corners of our hearts.  May this Advent season be a time for bringing hope, transformation, and fulfillment into the Advent of our lives.”

THANKSGIVING-2018

 “Be thankful for what you have; you’ll end up having more. If you concentrate on what you don’t have, you will never, ever have enough.”

Dalai Lama said: When you practice gratefulness, there is a sense of respect towards others.

Thanksgiving day comes, by statute, once a year; to the honest man it comes as frequently as the heart of gratitude will allow. (Edward Sandford Martin).

In 1 Thes.5:18 Paul says: Give thanks to God in all circumstances. To find God in ordinary situations is not easy for human beings, especially when one is going through tough times. People generally think that God is not with them when difficulties hit them. Only when people see light at the end of the tunnel they realize there was God with them when they were walking through the dark tunnel. So we need to thank God in every circumstance. Think of the Pilgrims that first Thanksgiving. Half their number dead, men without a country, but still there was thanksgiving to God. Their gratitude was not for something but in something. It was that same sense of gratitude that led Abraham Lincoln to formally establish the first Thanksgiving Day in the midst of national civil war, when the butcher’s list of casualties seemed to have no end and the very nation struggled for survival.

Perhaps in our own life, right now we are in the midst of intense hardship. We are experiencing our own personal Great Depression. Why should we be thankful this day? Our forefathers were not so much thankful for something as they were thankful in something. In bounty or in want, they were thankful. In feast or in famine they were thankful. In joy or in misery they were thankful. There is a big difference between being thankful for things and being thankful in all things.

During a harvest festival in India, an old widow arrived at her church with an extraordinarily large offering of rice - far more than the poor woman could be expected to afford. The itinerant pastor of the church did not know the widow well. But he did know that she was very poor and so he asked her if she were making the offering in gratitude for some unusual blessing. "Yes," replied the woman. "My son was sick and I promised a large gift to God if he got well." "And your son has recovered?" asked the pastor. The widow paused. "No," she said. "He died last week. But I know that he is in God's care; for that I am especially thankful."

A thankful heart is not only the greatest virtue, but the parent of all the other virtues. Cicero.

Along with being thankful to God it is also important to be thankful to many others we take for granted every day; our parents who brought us up and educated us and took God’s place when we were young, siblings who supported us encouraged us and loved us, our neighbors who had influenced us in many ways, our teachers, and the list goes on. So, a day like this would remind us of our responsibilities towards them.

Someone suggested why we should be thankful:

1.We must learn to be thankful or we become bitter.
2. We must learn to be thankful or we will become discouraged.
3. We must learn to be thankful or we will grow arrogant and self-satisfied.

We know a lot of people in our life who after losing one of their loved ones don’t show respect for God or come to Church, thinking God did that on purpose to punish them for something….and they remain bitter. I wish they read the book of Job and take some inspiration from there.

This is a day we count our blessings. For many of us, our focus will be on our material blessings. Our warm house, the comfortable car, the stylish clothes, a table bountifully spread. And yet, in the long run of things, these are the least important of all our blessings. The first thing to be thankful for is our faith we are given to believe in a loving God, whom we can trust in any challenging situation. Jesus warned the people who followed him for material things. He said: “Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. These mundane blessings are generally trivial and transitory.

Be thankful for what you enjoy and the rest of the world can only dream: life, liberty, and a chance to pursue happiness. Let’s develop an attitude of gratitude in all circumstances which will help us to develop a positive outlook on life and bring joy to dwell in our hearts.

OT. XXXII (B) I Kgs 17:10-16; Heb 9:24-28; Mk 12:38-44

Dr. Karl Menninger, the famous psychiatrist, once gave a lecture on mental health and afterward answered questions from the audience. “What would you advise a person do to,” asked one man, “if that person felt a nervous breakdown coming on?” Most people expected the doctor to reply, “Consult a psychiatrist.” To their astonishment, he replied, “Lock up your house, go across the highway, find someone in need and do something to help that person.” The Gospel message for this Sunday is about giving. Christ praises the poor widow who drops only two small coins in the coffer of the Temple, unlike the others who “put in their surplus money’” (v. 43). The poor widow received the praise of Jesus because she put her last money, though she was poor. As Jesus said: “she gave all she had to live on.” The message of Jesus is very clear: Every person is capable of sharing no matter how poor or needy he is.

As Jesus points out, it is not the amount that is contributed that counts before God but the totality of personal trust and self-giving that the amount represents. For some it was just what they had left over after making good allowance for their comfortable lifestyle. For the widow, it was absolutely everything: keeping nothing for herself, she could rely now only on the providence of God to whom she had surrendered all.

St. Teresa of Calcutta (Mother Teresa) of Calcutta said, “If you give what you don’t need, it isn’t giving.” She used to tell a story of how one day she was walking down the street when a beggar came up to her and said, “Mother Teresa everybody is giving to you, I also want to give to you. Today for the whole day I got only fifteen rupees (thirty cents). I want to give it to you.” Mother Teresa thought for a moment: “If I take the thirty cents, he will have nothing to eat tonight, and if I don’t take it I will hurt his feelings. So I put out my hands and took the money. I have never seen such joy on anybody’s face as I saw on the face of that beggar at the thought that he too could give to Mother Teresa.” She said that gift meant more to her than winning the Nobel Prize. Mother Teresa went on: “It was a big sacrifice for that poor man, who had sat in the sun the whole day long and received only thirty cents. Thirty cents is such a small amount and I can get nothing with it, but as he gave it up and I took it, it became like thousands because it was given with so much love. God looks not at the greatness of the work, but at the love with which it is performed.”

Gifts from ordinary people support many projects and causes in the Catholic Church, just as they kept the Jerusalem temple going in Jesus’ day. It is a strange, but at the same time common truth, that generosity is more widespread among those who have little to spare than among those who have lots of money and property. This story of the Widow’s Mite invites us to examine the quality of giving in our lives — not just to Church collections, but to whatever worthy cause attracts our attention and our sympathy. More than once, Jesus spoke about this subject. Not only should the gift be made with a generous heart, but so far as possible in an anonymous, non-fussy way, so that “the left hand does not know what the right hand is doing.” The thing should be done because it is right, with the intention of pleasing God rather than winning credit or praise from others. And the more it costs us in personal terms — giving up some of our time, or our comfort, for something worthwhile — the more it is part of the one great sacrifice of Christ, who gave himself totally for us.

Saint Paul coined the phrase “God loves a cheerful giver” (2 Cor 9:6-7.) And there can be no doubt that the cheerful gift is more acceptable even among people on an everyday level. And it has been well said that, from the perspective of our death-bed, we will be happier to think of what we have freely given away during our life-time than of what we have simply stored away for the rainy day.

We often judge people by what they possess.  We give weight to their position in society, to their educational qualifications, or to their celebrity status.  But Jesus measures us in a totally different way – on the basis of our inner motives and intentions hidden behind our actions.  He evaluates us on the basis of the sacrifices we make for others and on the degree of our surrender to God’s holy will.  The offering God wants from us is not our material possessions, but our hearts and lives.  What is hardest to give is ourselves in love and concern, because that gift costs us more than reaching for our purses.

Walking along a street in Russia during a famine, the great writer Leo Tolstoy met a beggar. Tolstoy searched in his pockets to look for something he could give. But there was none. He had earlier given away all his money. In his pity, he reached out, took the beggar in his arms, embraced him, kissed him on his hollow checks and said: “Don’t be angry with me, my brother, I have nothing to give.” The beggar’s face lit up. Tears flowed from his eyes, as he said: “But you embraced me and kissed me. You called me brother – you have given me yourself – that is a great gift.”

On this day let’s pray the short prayer St. Ignatius of Loyola composed seeking to get a heart-felt generosity:

Dear Lord, teach me to be generous;

Teach me to serve you as you deserve;

To give and not to count the cost;

To fight and not to heed the wounds;

To toil, and not to seek for rest;

To labor, and not to ask for any reward -

except that of knowing that I am doing your holy will. Amen.

O.T 31 [B]: Dt 6:2-6; Heb 7:23-28; Mk 12: 28b-34

The central message of today's readings is the most fundamental principle of all religions. It is to love God in loving others and to love others in loving God.

When Jesus quoted the statement, "You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your might and with all your strength," every devout Jew would agree with him. Loving God with our whole heart is the key to everything in life; because our relationship with God affects everything and everyone in our life.  St. Augustine wrote: "Love God – and do what you like."

The second most important commandment is "You should love your neighbour as yourself." Hillel was a famous Jewish religious leader. Once he was asked by someone to instruct him in the whole law while he stood on one leg. Hillel's answer was, "What you hate for yourself, do not do to your neighbour. This is the whole law, the rest is commentary.

Love your neighbor as you love yourself: The command to love our neighbor as we love ourselves is a very demanding one. It was very hard for the Jews of Jesus’ time because only a fellow-Jew, obeying the Mosaic Law, was considered their neighbor. That is why, immediately after defining this important commandment, Jesus tells them the parable of the Good Samaritan, as reported in Luke’s Gospel. He wanted to teach His listeners that everyone in need is their neighbor.

If I am going to love my neighbor as I love myself, it will cost me as well! I may have to seek forgiveness when I think I have done no wrong. I may have to sacrifice something I think I need to meet a brother’s need. I may have to give up time to help someone. I may have to spend time in prayer for people, go to them, and reach out to them in the name of the   Lord.

Paul says in Romans: God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.(Rom. 5:8). While we were loathsome He loved us. Augustine said to God: By loving the unlovable, You made me lovable.

G. K. Chesterton once said that the really great lesson of the story of “Beauty and the Beast” is that a thing must be loved before it is loveable. A person must be loved before that person can be loveable. Some of the most unlovely people got that way because they thought that nobody loved them. The fact of the matter is that unless and until we feel ourselves loved, we cannot love. That’s not only a principle of theology but of psychology and sociology as well. Just as abused children grow up to abuse their children, loved children grow up to love their children. Loved persons are able to love. Unloved persons are not. Christianity says something startling. It says that God loves and accepts us “just as we are.” Therefore we can love and accept ourselves and in so doing, love and accept others.

Loving somebody who is attractive and wise and rich is no big credit. We naturally fall in love with such people. But to love someone without any of these, is hard and then we are following the command of the Lord.

A rabbi was asked, "Which act of charity is higher--giving out of obligation or giving from the heart?"

All in the class were inclined to respond that giving from the heart had something more in it, but they knew the rabbi was going to say just the opposite, because in spiritual teaching nothing is logical. They were not disappointed.

"Giving from the heart is a wonderful thing," the rabbi said, "It is a very high act and should never be demeaned. But there is something much more important that happens when somebody gives charity out of obligation.

When somebody gives from the heart, there is a clear sense of oneself doing something; in other words, heartfelt charity always involves ego gratification.

"However, when we give out of obligation, when we give at a moment that every part of us is yelling NO! because of one reason or another--perhaps the beneficiary is disgusting, or it is too much money, or any of thousands of reasons we use to avoid giving charity--then we are confronting our own egos, and giving nonetheless. Why? Because we are supposed to. And what this means is that it is not us doing the giving, rather we are vehicles through which God gives... Therefore loving out of obligation because it is a command of Jesus receives more merit than when we love somebody out of innate loving urge.

We should ask ourselves these questions on a daily basis: Is my love for God all that it should be? Do I pray to Him as I should? Am I in His Word as I should be? Are there people or things that have crept in and taken over first place in my life? Is Jesus somewhere down the line after some person, some thing, or even myself? What about my love for others? Is it all it could be? How loving am I to the members of my family, to my neighbors, to the members of my parish community? The answer to all these questions will help us to measure the degree of our love of God.

During this Eucharistic celebration, let us ask the Lord that we might truly love him, with all of our heart. May the Most Blessed Virgin Mary, who sacrificed herself fully, for love of God, by offering up her Son dying on the Cross, grant us her help and her protection throughout our life! 

ALL SOULS’ DAY: Wis 3:1-9; Rom 5:5-11; Jn 6:37-40

As a part of our annual celebration of the Christian doctrine of the Communion of Saints, yesterday we celebrated All Saints Day, the Church Triumphant; today is All Souls Day, the Church Suffering.

We are quick to put people in heaven, probably a little too quick. We are not doing them a favor. Many of us, even the best of us, will not go straight to heaven but will have to spend some time in purgatory, to be cleansed of our attachments and desires toward sinfulness as well as for any sins for which we have not done sufficient penance. We tend to underestimate purgatory as well, maybe because people there are assured of getting into heaven. While it is true that people in purgatory probably experience a joy beyond anything we will experience in this life, they also experience more intense suffering than anything we have experienced in this life. The suffering of purgatory is similar to the suffering of hell, and we know we don’t want to experience that.  

From time immemorial, people of all religions have believed in the immortality of the soul, and have prayed for the dead. Evidence suggests that the belief dates back to the first century of the Church. “Remember us who have gone before you, in your prayers,” is a petition often found inscribed on the walls of the Roman catacombs (L.G. 50).

St. Augustine remarked that he used to pray for his deceased mother, remembering her request: “When I die, bury me anywhere you like, but remember to pray for me at the altar” (St. Augustine of Hippo, Confessions, Book 11, Chapter 13, Sections 35-37). St. Cyril of Jerusalem (d. 386), in one of his many catechetical discourses, explained how at Mass both the living and dead are remembered, and how the Eucharistic Sacrifice of our Lord is of benefit to sinners, living and dead. St. Ambrose (d. 397) preached, “We have loved them during life; let us not abandon them in death, until we have conducted them by our prayers into the house of the Lord.” St. John Chrysostom (d. 407) stated, “Let us help and commemorate them. If Job’s sons were purified by their father’s sacrifice, why would we doubt that our offerings for the dead bring them some consolation? Let us not hesitate to help those who have died and to offer our prayers for them.”

According to Revelation 21:27, “Nothing unclean shall enter Heaven” (cfr.  also Is 35:8 and Wis 7:25). Holy Scripture teaches that even “the just sin seven times a day” (Prv. 24:16).  Since it would be contrary to the mercy of God to punish such souls in Hell, they are seen as entering a place or state of purification, Purgatory, which combines God’s justice with His mercy.

II Maccabees, 12:46 is the main Biblical text incorporating the Jewish belief in the necessity of prayer and sacrifice for the dead. This passage (II Maccabees 12: 39-46), describes how Judas, the military commander, discovered that those of his men who had died in a particular battle had been wearing forbidden pagan amulets. His men at once “begged that the sin committed might be fully blotted out” (2 Mc 12: 42). Judas then “took up a collection from all his men, totaling about four pounds of silver and sent it to Jerusalem to provide for a sin offering” (2 Mc 12: 43).

These verses so clearly illustrate the existence of Purgatory that, at the time of the Reformation, Protestants had to cut the books of the Maccabees out of their Bibles in order to avoid accepting the doctrine. Not only can we show that prayer for the souls of the departed was practiced by the Jews of the time of the Maccabees, but it has even been retained by Orthodox Jews today, who recite a prayer known as the Mourner’s Kaddish for eleven months after the death of a loved one so that the loved one may be purified.

Jesus’ statement that certain sins “will not be forgiven either in this world or in the world to come,” at least suggests a purging of the soul after death. Therefore our prayers will definitely benefit them. .”

 “The souls of the just are in the hand of God, and no torment shall touch them,” says today’s first reading. Purgatory is an invention of our God of great mercy, who never wants to give up on us

Let us take a moment to remember friends, family members and acquaintances who are no longer with us. Let us we thank God for bringing them into our life. On this day, when we pray that all of our departed loved ones experience the fullness of joy in God’s presence, and let’s realize that our prayers and sacrifices represent the key to release them.