GEN 2: 7-9, 3: 1-7; ROM 5: 12-19;Gospel: MT 4: 1-11
William Willimon in his book “What’s Right With the Church” tells about leading a Sunday School class that was studying the temptation of Jesus in the wilderness. After careful study and explanation of each of the three temptations, Dr. Willimon asked, "How are we tempted today?" A young salesman was the first to speak. "Temptation is when your boss calls you in, as mine did yesterday, and says, 'I'm going to give you a real opportunity. I'm going to give you a bigger sales territory. We believe that you are going places, young man.' ‘But I don't want a bigger sales territory,’ the young salesman told his boss. ‘I'm already away from home four nights a week. It wouldn't be fair to my wife and daughter.’ ‘Look,’ his boss replied, ‘we're asking you to do this for your wife and daughter. Don't you want to be a good father? It takes money to support a family these days. Sure, your little girl doesn't take much money now, but think of the future. Think of her future. I'm only asking you to do this for them, the boss said.” The young man told the class: “Now that’s temptation.”
Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to find out what he was made of. The first temptation was “to turn stones into loaves of bread.” Lent is a time to look at such temptations, sin and the consequences. Lent was originally established for new Christians, those who experienced a call. They were to spend forty days and forty nights preparing for their baptism. If at the end they still wanted to follow Jesus, then on Easter Eve they would be baptized as the sun was rising in the east, signaling the new day, the new era, inaugurated because of the Resurrection.
But later the Church used the forty days as a time of renewal for those who were already Christians, because at a certain point everyone in the empire became a Christian, everyone was baptized as infants. So the time of Lent was used as a time of renewal and recommitment to the Christian life, examining our lives in light of the one we are supposed to follow.
Since the Church begins the season with a reflection on the origins of sin among us, the main themes in today’s readings are temptation, sin, guilt and forgiveness. We are told of the temptations offered to our Lord, submission to which would have destroyed his mission. Today’s readings give us the notion that testing comes to us by an agency apart from and in opposition to God. But the truth is that, while testing comes from the outside, temptation comes from within ourselves. However, the good news is that, though we are tempted and often succumb, God’s grace provides the way of salvation for us. Testing is to strengthen us in faith, while temptation is to weaken our faith. Testing comes from God and temptation comes from evil source.
Like Adam and Eve in the first reading today, we are all tempted to put ourselves in God's place. Consequently we resent every limit on our freedom, and we don't want to be held responsible for the consequences of our choices. Temptation is a very real part of life: temptation to stray from the values we hold dear, temptation to take short cuts, to avoid struggle, to find the easy way through.
God helps us in our temptations so that we may not fall away from our faith. Jesus told Peter that he prayed for him and others that he may not fall away. In the garden of Gathsemene Jesus told his disciples to pray with him so that they may not fall into temptation.
A teen-age boy told his parents he was going to run away from home. "Listen," he said, "I'm leaving home. There is nothing you can do to stop me. I want excitement, adventure, beautiful women, money, and fun. I'll never find it here, so I'm leaving. Just don't try to stop me!" As he headed for the door, his father leaped up and ran toward him. "Dad," the boy said firmly, "you heard what I said. Don't try to stop me. I'm going!" "Who's trying to stop you?" answered the father, "I'm going with you!" In our weak moments of temptation Jesus is going with us, because he knows we cannot fight it ourselves.
Every one of us is tempted to seek sinful pleasures, easy wealth and a position of authority, power and glory, and to use any means, even unjust or sinful ones to gain these things. Jesus serves as a model for us in conquering temptations by strengthening himself through prayer, penance and the active use of the ‘Word of God’. Temptations make us more powerful warriors of God by strengthening our minds and hearts. By constantly struggling against temptations we become stronger. Each time one is tempted to do evil but does good, one becomes stronger. Further, we are never tempted beyond our power. In his first letter, St. John assures us: “Greater is the one who is in us, than the one who is in the world (1 John 4: 4). We may be strengthened by St. Paul's words in 1 Corinthians 10:13: "No testing has overtaken you, that is not common to everyone. God is faithful, and [God] will not let you be tested beyond your strength, but with the testing [God] will also provide the way out so that you may be able to endure it."
We are all affected by the culture around us, just like fish are affected by the water quality of the lake where they live. And the culture around us has become drunk with science and technology - so much so that it has completely forgotten this basic truth, that man cannot live on bread alone.
With our genius for science and technology we seem to be on the road to being able to turn stones into bread . The popular culture is trying to make religion into a totally private thing - like a hobby. If society can perfect itself through scientific progress, why do we need God? We need God because society can NOT perfect itself - we do not live on bread alone. We need God because every new invention can either be used for good purposes or bad purposes, and without God's grace we will neither be able to identify the good ones, nor will we be strong enough to choose them. We need God because he is the source of truth, and our souls yearn for truth as much as our bodies yearn for bread.
Hence, during this Lent, let us confront our evil tendencies by prayer , by penance and by meditative reading of the Bible. Let’s use this season of Lent to rediscover who we are before God and say yes to God and no to Satan as Jesus did.
Friday, March 11, 2011
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
ASH WEDNESDAY.2011
Every car or truck carries in the glove compartment a maintenance schedule. Having your oil changed, your tires rotated and balanced, and the rest of the engine checked keeps ones vehicle in excellent shape.
Lent provides us an opportunity to open our personal maintenance schedule and take a close look at ourselves as we journey towards eternal life. It is the time to look back and make up for what we failed in our life.
A stranger rolled a flat tire into a service station for repair. The station manager dropped everything and cheerfully began. When he finished, the stranger asked, What do I owe you? The manager
said, “There is no cost! I’m just glad I could help you.” The stranger paused and said, “Do you mind telling me why you’ve done this for someone you’ll probably never see again?” The manager
said, “Well, yesterday, I woke up with a toothache and I treated a lot of good people in a shameful way. Today, I’m trying make up for the evil I did yesterday.
This season of lent reminds us to focus on overhauling of our spiritual life. Aside from what the Church law requires of us, fast and abstinence, we should come up with a personal program for spiritual growth. This is our personal maintenance program. The self-control that we exercise in giving up a legitimate pleasure strengthens our will and curbs the inclinations of our passions.
We should also do some kind of positive act that we would not normally do on a regular basis. A serious Lent will purify our soul and allow us to experience a deeper interior freedom. Fast from criticism, and feast on praise. Fast from resentment, and feast on contentment . . . Fast from fear, and feast on faith.
Today we accept the ashes on our forehead as a sign of our mortality and yet we are also reminded of the cross placed there at our Baptism. Our life here is only temporary. It calls us to strive for a deep truthful interiority for our life which is also essential to a Christian life.
As a newly-elected Pope walks to the altar to celebrate his first Mass as the head of the Catholic Church, a server—not a cardinal or a bishop, just a simple acolyte — stops him and burns a piece of cloth mounted on a reed. As the flames consume the piece of cloth, the server proclaims, "Pater sancte, sic transit gloria mundi!" (The Holy Father, thus passes the glory of the world!)
Three times, the Pope is stopped. Three times, a piece of cloth is burned before him. Three times, he is reminded about the fate of all things in this world. By the third time, the Pope's face must be covered in soot and ashes—just like our foreheads on Ash Wednesday. Maybe, as the sign of the cross, is, with ashes, traced on our foreheads, this is what we should think about: "Sic transit Gloria mundi!"
Nothing on this earth lasts. The hippest clothes will soon go out of fashion. That electronic gadget we are saving up for, will soon become obsolete. Cars break down, buildings are demolished. Stop a while. What fad have we been trying to pursue recently? Try to remember how much effort we have poured into this new fancy of ours. Then tell ourselves, "It will soon just be dust and ashes."
Today, as we are reminded of this, we should ask ourselves, "So what truly lasts? What endures? What, in the end is the only thing worth investing all our life to gain?"
Lent provides us an opportunity to open our personal maintenance schedule and take a close look at ourselves as we journey towards eternal life. It is the time to look back and make up for what we failed in our life.
A stranger rolled a flat tire into a service station for repair. The station manager dropped everything and cheerfully began. When he finished, the stranger asked, What do I owe you? The manager
said, “There is no cost! I’m just glad I could help you.” The stranger paused and said, “Do you mind telling me why you’ve done this for someone you’ll probably never see again?” The manager
said, “Well, yesterday, I woke up with a toothache and I treated a lot of good people in a shameful way. Today, I’m trying make up for the evil I did yesterday.
This season of lent reminds us to focus on overhauling of our spiritual life. Aside from what the Church law requires of us, fast and abstinence, we should come up with a personal program for spiritual growth. This is our personal maintenance program. The self-control that we exercise in giving up a legitimate pleasure strengthens our will and curbs the inclinations of our passions.
We should also do some kind of positive act that we would not normally do on a regular basis. A serious Lent will purify our soul and allow us to experience a deeper interior freedom. Fast from criticism, and feast on praise. Fast from resentment, and feast on contentment . . . Fast from fear, and feast on faith.
Today we accept the ashes on our forehead as a sign of our mortality and yet we are also reminded of the cross placed there at our Baptism. Our life here is only temporary. It calls us to strive for a deep truthful interiority for our life which is also essential to a Christian life.
As a newly-elected Pope walks to the altar to celebrate his first Mass as the head of the Catholic Church, a server—not a cardinal or a bishop, just a simple acolyte — stops him and burns a piece of cloth mounted on a reed. As the flames consume the piece of cloth, the server proclaims, "Pater sancte, sic transit gloria mundi!" (The Holy Father, thus passes the glory of the world!)
Three times, the Pope is stopped. Three times, a piece of cloth is burned before him. Three times, he is reminded about the fate of all things in this world. By the third time, the Pope's face must be covered in soot and ashes—just like our foreheads on Ash Wednesday. Maybe, as the sign of the cross, is, with ashes, traced on our foreheads, this is what we should think about: "Sic transit Gloria mundi!"
Nothing on this earth lasts. The hippest clothes will soon go out of fashion. That electronic gadget we are saving up for, will soon become obsolete. Cars break down, buildings are demolished. Stop a while. What fad have we been trying to pursue recently? Try to remember how much effort we have poured into this new fancy of ours. Then tell ourselves, "It will soon just be dust and ashes."
Today, as we are reminded of this, we should ask ourselves, "So what truly lasts? What endures? What, in the end is the only thing worth investing all our life to gain?"
Saturday, March 5, 2011
IXth - Sunday in Ordinary time
IX SUNDAY DEUT 11: 18-26;ROM 3:21-25;: MT 7:21-27
Ever heard of counterfeit $100 bills? sure, a lot. Ever heard of counterfeit toilet paper? No. Why not? Because it is not worth it. The existence of counterfeits indicates how precious a thing is: the more precious it is, the more counterfeit you get. Spirituality is a very precious commodity. The proof is in the amount of counterfeit spiritualities in circulation. Counterfeit spirituality did not begin with us.
Acts 19 reports a curious incident that happened when Paul was preaching in Ephesus. Paul was performing so many miracles in Ephesus that the other religious ministers in the city became envious of him. They were losing their members to Paul. So some of them decided to observe and copy what Paul was doing. Paul was doing mighty works and casting out demons by invoking the name of Jesus. They thought they had discovered his secret formula, and they took off to go and implement it in their own ministry. Seven sons of a Jewish high priest called Sceva, who were professional exorcists tried to use the name of Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, “I adjure you by the Jesus whom Paul proclaims.” But the evil spirit said to them in reply, “Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are you?” Then the man with the evil spirit jumped on them, overpowered them and handled them so badly that they fled out of the house naked and bruised all over. The moral of the story: Who you are comes before what you do or say.
This is what Jesus is trying to teach his followers in today’s gospel story. He gives thumbs down to some people who say words of faith. “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven” (Matt 7:21). He even gives thumbs down to some people who do works of faith. “On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many deeds of power in your name?’ Then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; go away from me, you evildoers’” (vv 22-23). By saying “I never knew you,” Jesus indicates that the fundamental and most important thing is him knowing us and we knowing him. In other words, the relationship between Jesus and us is more important than the performance we put up in terms of words and deeds. We have to be Christians, people who know Christ, before we can act or speak Christian. We must have a direct, personal relationship with Christ. This is what gives meaning and potency to the words of faith we speak and the works of faith we perform. Otherwise we are no better than the seven sons of Sceva.
The seven sons of Sceva represent all those who try to profess the Christian creed outwardly and perform Christian works and projects but without being Christian on the inside. The seven sons of Sceva did not surrender their lives to Christ; all they wanted was to profit from the amazing grace that is available to Paul, the servant of Christ. They did not love Jesus; they loved something that Jesus gives. It was self-interest through and through. Paul professed Christ because he wanted to know him, love him and serve him.
Professing the faith by word of mouth is good. Involvement in concrete works of faith is great. But for these to have any meaning for eternal salvation, we must, first and foremost, cultivate a direct and personal relationship with our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. We can make all sorts of grandiose plans, we can even see our plans benefiting other people as these plans are laid and carried out. But if our plans remain OUR plans, set in OUR terms, and without consulting God, at some stage, cracks in their foundation will begin to show.
Take the case of a talented architect who wanted to show off his skills in architectural design. He goes to his drawing board and drafts what he regards as his masterpiece design. He never bothers to consult other experts like a soils or a seismic engineer perhaps, to see if his design can be executed on the ground he had chosen as planned. Had he done so, he would have discovered that his design must adapt to the actual soil conditions, and not the soil conditions adapting to his design. He will have to adjust or alter his plans and submit to the limits and boundaries imposed by nature.
Something similar can be said about following God's will. Human plans
must be exercised within God's will, for it is God's will that must be its solid foundation. Otherwise, human will and freedom would just sway unsteadily when left unguided, and exposed to the many forces in the world. And so, the parable of Jesus makes real sense: the wise man, the one who follows the will of God, builds his house upon the rock; the foolish man, the one who follows his own will, builds his house upon the sand. The rains fell, the floods came, and the house upon the sand is gone. But the house upon the rock remains.
Some times we pledge to be obeying God’s will and in practice behave as if we know better than God. An elderly Scottish woman was making her way through the countryside. Each time she came to a crossroads she would toss a stick into the air. Whichever way the stick came down was the direction she went. At one intersection, however, an old man saw her toss her stick into the air not once, not twice, but three times before resuming her journey. The old man was curious. "Why are you throwing your stick like that?" he asked. She squinted and replied, "I'm letting God direct my journey by using this stick." "Then why did you throw it three times?" asked the curious old man. "Because," she said, "the first two times He was pointing me in the wrong direction." We may laugh at this. But some times we go by our human wisdom than relying on Divine wisdom.
Our faith is primarily for living in, not for looking at or talking about. It must be lived in deed and truth” (1Jn 3:18).In his encyclical Spe Salvi, Pope Benedict XVI, recalls that “the Christian message is not only “informative” but “performative”. That means: the Gospel is not merely a communication of things that can be known; it is one that makes things happen and is life changing. Christianity is not an ideology, or a simple ethics program; it is, above all, a personal commitment with Somebody.
Let’s build our spiritual edifice on the living stone of Jesus by doing the will of the heavenly father in heaven.’ May the Lord be praised now and for ever.
Ever heard of counterfeit $100 bills? sure, a lot. Ever heard of counterfeit toilet paper? No. Why not? Because it is not worth it. The existence of counterfeits indicates how precious a thing is: the more precious it is, the more counterfeit you get. Spirituality is a very precious commodity. The proof is in the amount of counterfeit spiritualities in circulation. Counterfeit spirituality did not begin with us.
Acts 19 reports a curious incident that happened when Paul was preaching in Ephesus. Paul was performing so many miracles in Ephesus that the other religious ministers in the city became envious of him. They were losing their members to Paul. So some of them decided to observe and copy what Paul was doing. Paul was doing mighty works and casting out demons by invoking the name of Jesus. They thought they had discovered his secret formula, and they took off to go and implement it in their own ministry. Seven sons of a Jewish high priest called Sceva, who were professional exorcists tried to use the name of Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, “I adjure you by the Jesus whom Paul proclaims.” But the evil spirit said to them in reply, “Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are you?” Then the man with the evil spirit jumped on them, overpowered them and handled them so badly that they fled out of the house naked and bruised all over. The moral of the story: Who you are comes before what you do or say.
This is what Jesus is trying to teach his followers in today’s gospel story. He gives thumbs down to some people who say words of faith. “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven” (Matt 7:21). He even gives thumbs down to some people who do works of faith. “On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many deeds of power in your name?’ Then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; go away from me, you evildoers’” (vv 22-23). By saying “I never knew you,” Jesus indicates that the fundamental and most important thing is him knowing us and we knowing him. In other words, the relationship between Jesus and us is more important than the performance we put up in terms of words and deeds. We have to be Christians, people who know Christ, before we can act or speak Christian. We must have a direct, personal relationship with Christ. This is what gives meaning and potency to the words of faith we speak and the works of faith we perform. Otherwise we are no better than the seven sons of Sceva.
The seven sons of Sceva represent all those who try to profess the Christian creed outwardly and perform Christian works and projects but without being Christian on the inside. The seven sons of Sceva did not surrender their lives to Christ; all they wanted was to profit from the amazing grace that is available to Paul, the servant of Christ. They did not love Jesus; they loved something that Jesus gives. It was self-interest through and through. Paul professed Christ because he wanted to know him, love him and serve him.
Professing the faith by word of mouth is good. Involvement in concrete works of faith is great. But for these to have any meaning for eternal salvation, we must, first and foremost, cultivate a direct and personal relationship with our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. We can make all sorts of grandiose plans, we can even see our plans benefiting other people as these plans are laid and carried out. But if our plans remain OUR plans, set in OUR terms, and without consulting God, at some stage, cracks in their foundation will begin to show.
Take the case of a talented architect who wanted to show off his skills in architectural design. He goes to his drawing board and drafts what he regards as his masterpiece design. He never bothers to consult other experts like a soils or a seismic engineer perhaps, to see if his design can be executed on the ground he had chosen as planned. Had he done so, he would have discovered that his design must adapt to the actual soil conditions, and not the soil conditions adapting to his design. He will have to adjust or alter his plans and submit to the limits and boundaries imposed by nature.
Something similar can be said about following God's will. Human plans
must be exercised within God's will, for it is God's will that must be its solid foundation. Otherwise, human will and freedom would just sway unsteadily when left unguided, and exposed to the many forces in the world. And so, the parable of Jesus makes real sense: the wise man, the one who follows the will of God, builds his house upon the rock; the foolish man, the one who follows his own will, builds his house upon the sand. The rains fell, the floods came, and the house upon the sand is gone. But the house upon the rock remains.
Some times we pledge to be obeying God’s will and in practice behave as if we know better than God. An elderly Scottish woman was making her way through the countryside. Each time she came to a crossroads she would toss a stick into the air. Whichever way the stick came down was the direction she went. At one intersection, however, an old man saw her toss her stick into the air not once, not twice, but three times before resuming her journey. The old man was curious. "Why are you throwing your stick like that?" he asked. She squinted and replied, "I'm letting God direct my journey by using this stick." "Then why did you throw it three times?" asked the curious old man. "Because," she said, "the first two times He was pointing me in the wrong direction." We may laugh at this. But some times we go by our human wisdom than relying on Divine wisdom.
Our faith is primarily for living in, not for looking at or talking about. It must be lived in deed and truth” (1Jn 3:18).In his encyclical Spe Salvi, Pope Benedict XVI, recalls that “the Christian message is not only “informative” but “performative”. That means: the Gospel is not merely a communication of things that can be known; it is one that makes things happen and is life changing. Christianity is not an ideology, or a simple ethics program; it is, above all, a personal commitment with Somebody.
Let’s build our spiritual edifice on the living stone of Jesus by doing the will of the heavenly father in heaven.’ May the Lord be praised now and for ever.
Friday, February 25, 2011
VIII-Sunday in Ordinary Time. Cycle -A.
VIII SUNDAY HOMILY-: ISA 49: 14-15, 1 COR 4:1-5;Gospel: MT 6: 24-34
Kais Rayes writes that he and his wife found their whole life turned upside down when their first child was born. Every night, the baby seemed to be fussy, and many nights, it seemed that their baby cried far more than he slept. Says Rayes, "My wife would wake me up, saying, 'Get up, honey! Go see why the baby is crying!'" As a result, Rayes found himself suffering from severe sleep deprivation.
While complaining to his coworkers about his problem one day, one of his colleagues suggested a book on infant massage. Rayes immediately went in search of the book and that night, he tried the technique, gently rubbing his baby's back, arms, head, and legs until the baby was completely relaxed and obviously had fallen into a deep sleep. Quietly tiptoeing from the darkened room so as not to disturb the rhythmic breathing of the baby, he made his way directly to his own bed in hopes of enjoying a well deserved full night of sleep.
No such luck. In the middle of the night, his wife awoke him in a panic. "Get up, honey!" she said as she jostled him awake. "Go see why the baby is not crying!" Some people are just worriers. Even when things go well they worry, they fret, they fume. They worry that something bad will happen. They see the dark side of any cloud, even one with a silver lining. They are worriers. They fume, they fret, they stay stressed out.
Today’s readings give us an invitation to avoid unnecessary worries by putting our trust in the love and providence of a merciful God, and then living each day’s life as it comes, doing His will and realizing His presence within us and others.
Today’s first reading, from the prophet Isaiah, begins with the Lord God’s rhetorical question “Can a mother forget her infant?” and His solemn pledge, “Even should she forget, I will never forget you!” This is one of the most touching expressions of God’s love in the Bible. Through the prophet, God assures Israel of His unfailing love when the people of Israel cry out in despair, believing that they have been forgotten by God. The Prophet Hosea also speaks about a loving God Who holds Israel to his cheek and teaches Ephraim to walk (Hosea 11: 3-4). Isaiah reminds Israel that even the best of human love is only a shadow of God’s eternal, life-giving love for his people. When we know we are loved by an all caring God we don’t have to worry at all. We can enjoy life like butterfly and sleep like a baby.
Do you bring along a sandwich in your coat pocket when you are invited to dinner at a friend's house? Of course not!
Can you imagine inviting twenty people to a party, but only buying enough food to serve ten? Never!
Would you send your child out into a snowstorm in a swimsuit? No way!
As rude and self-centered and uncaring as we all can be, we still abide by some basics of good behavior. So why do we think God won't? Trust that he is a loving Father. We worry when in our minds we try to bite off more than we can chew.
The late Bishop Ernest Fitzgerald used to tell about a man he knew years ago. This man’s life was hard yet he was the most serene and deeply contented man Bishop Fitzgerald had ever known. So he asked the old man one day if he had ever had any troubles and if he had ever spent sleepless nights. "Sure, I've had my troubles," he said, "but no sleepless nights. When I go to bed I say, 'Lord, you have to sit up all night anyway. There's no point in both of us losing sleep. You look after things tonight and when tomorrow comes, I'll do the best I can to help you.'"
Doctors today are quite candid in admitting that more than half the patients in hospitals are there as much because of the accumulated effects of mental problems as anything else. Thomas Borkovec, a professor of Psychology at Penn State University made his study and has determined that 15 percent of us are "chronic worriers". He claims that the single most frequent source of worry is other people's opinions of our lives. "If this happens, what will they think? What will people say? Will I be laughed at? Will I be excluded?"
A small boy mistakenly killed his grandparent’s favorite duck with a slingshot. Fearing their response, he tried to find the most unthinkable hiding place to bury it. He thought he had found the perfect place; however, his sneaky little sister saw his every move. She now had power over him. He was forced to do all of her chores so that she would not tell what he had done. Every time he was just about to tell her to go jump in the lake, she would look at him and say, "Remember the bird...remember the bird." Finally, one day he could no longer take such cruel and unusual punishment from his demonic little sister, and he confessed the whole story to his grandparents. It was their response that surprised him. They said that they had found the dead bird days ago and surmised what had happened. They said to him, "We love you, we forgive you, and were just waiting to see how long you would allow your little sister to control your life with the information she had on you." The power of worrying is often just like that. We allow it to enslave us when all the time there was another power that could have freed us from its crippling grip.
Jesus exhorts us to do our daily tasks serenely and not to worry uselessly about what happened yesterday or what may happen tomorrow.
"There are two days in the week upon which and about which we should never worry. One of these days is Yesterday. Yesterday has passed forever beyond our recall, with its cares and frets and pains and aches, all its faults, its mistakes and blunders. It was ours; now it is God's.
"The other day that we do not worry about is Tomorrow. Tomorrow, with all its possible adversities, its burdens, its perils, its large promise and performance, its failures and mistakes, is as far beyond our mastery as its dead sister, yesterday. Tomorrow is God's day; it will be mine.
Poor people worry that they don't have any money, and rich people worry that they don't have enough money. Sick people worry about their premature death, and healthy people worry about getting sick. Everyone it seems, worries about something all the time. The tragedy of most of our lives is that we worry so much about tomorrow that we never claim the resources God has for our living today. Hence, Jesus gives us some reasons why we should not worry. 1) Worry is a pagan or an irreligious attitude of those who don’t believe in a loving and providing God. 2) In nature, other creatures, like birds, work hard for their daily food, but they don’t worry about tomorrows. 3) Worry is useless because we cannot increase even an inch of height by days of worrying. 4) Worry is injurious to the health because it causes physical and mental problems and illnesses. 4) Worry robs us of faith and confidence in God’s help, and it saps our energy for doing good. 5) Worry takes all the joy from life and wears out our mind and body. Doctors agree that emotional stress can bring actual changes in the organs, glands, and tissues of the body. It’s not so much "what I’m eating" as "what’s eating me" that’s getting me down.
One day the German mystic Johann Tauler met a beggar. "God give you a good day, my friend," he said. The beggar answered, "I thank God I never had a bad one." Then Tauler said, "God give you a happy life, my friend." "I thank God," said the beggar, "I am never unhappy." Tauler then said in amazement, "What do you mean?" "Well," said the beggar, "when it is fine, I thank God. When it rains, I thank God. When I have plenty I thank God. When I am hungry I thank God. And since God's will is my will, and whatever pleases him pleases me, why should I say I am unhappy when I am not?" Tauler looked at the man in astonishment, "Who are you?" he asked. "I am a king," said the beggar. "Where, then, is your kingdom?" asked Tauler. The beggar replied quietly, "In my heart."
How to overcome worry: This brings us to the all-important question of how to overcome worry. We overcome worry by living in the present moment, focusing on what we need to do today, knowing that we can figure out how to cross tomorrow's bridge when we get there. Jesus, similarly, teaches us to focus on the present and not on the future, "Do not worry about tomorrow; tomorrow will take care of itself. Sufficient for a day is its own evil" (Matthew 6:34).
Is Jesus teaching us to live a life without plans or not to make provisions for the rainy day? No. He is rather teaching us the basic truth of faith, "Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labour in vain. Unless the Lord guards the city, the guard keeps watch in vain" (Psalm 127:1). Hence our plans for our life, security and welfare in the future must start with our total submission to God. If God cares and provides for lower creatures like the grass of the field and the birds of the air, how much more will He care for us who are made in His own image and likeness, if we let him?
It is said that Pope John XXIII, everyday before going to sleep look up the crucifix in his room and tell Lord, I am going to sleep. Take care of your Church. And when visiting a group of seminarians in Rome and knowing that he was dying from cancer, said to them: "My dear students. Every day is a good day-- a good day for living and a good day for dying!"
Jesus, therefore, teaches us to replace our many mundane concerns with one over-riding concern: "Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given you besides" (Matthew 6:33). God who gave us life knows that life needs to be sustained. God who gave us bodies knows that the body needs to be clothed and fed. The best way to assure that the gifts will keep coming is to develop a good relationship with the giver. This is the only sure prescription to overcome worry in our lives.
Kais Rayes writes that he and his wife found their whole life turned upside down when their first child was born. Every night, the baby seemed to be fussy, and many nights, it seemed that their baby cried far more than he slept. Says Rayes, "My wife would wake me up, saying, 'Get up, honey! Go see why the baby is crying!'" As a result, Rayes found himself suffering from severe sleep deprivation.
While complaining to his coworkers about his problem one day, one of his colleagues suggested a book on infant massage. Rayes immediately went in search of the book and that night, he tried the technique, gently rubbing his baby's back, arms, head, and legs until the baby was completely relaxed and obviously had fallen into a deep sleep. Quietly tiptoeing from the darkened room so as not to disturb the rhythmic breathing of the baby, he made his way directly to his own bed in hopes of enjoying a well deserved full night of sleep.
No such luck. In the middle of the night, his wife awoke him in a panic. "Get up, honey!" she said as she jostled him awake. "Go see why the baby is not crying!" Some people are just worriers. Even when things go well they worry, they fret, they fume. They worry that something bad will happen. They see the dark side of any cloud, even one with a silver lining. They are worriers. They fume, they fret, they stay stressed out.
Today’s readings give us an invitation to avoid unnecessary worries by putting our trust in the love and providence of a merciful God, and then living each day’s life as it comes, doing His will and realizing His presence within us and others.
Today’s first reading, from the prophet Isaiah, begins with the Lord God’s rhetorical question “Can a mother forget her infant?” and His solemn pledge, “Even should she forget, I will never forget you!” This is one of the most touching expressions of God’s love in the Bible. Through the prophet, God assures Israel of His unfailing love when the people of Israel cry out in despair, believing that they have been forgotten by God. The Prophet Hosea also speaks about a loving God Who holds Israel to his cheek and teaches Ephraim to walk (Hosea 11: 3-4). Isaiah reminds Israel that even the best of human love is only a shadow of God’s eternal, life-giving love for his people. When we know we are loved by an all caring God we don’t have to worry at all. We can enjoy life like butterfly and sleep like a baby.
Do you bring along a sandwich in your coat pocket when you are invited to dinner at a friend's house? Of course not!
Can you imagine inviting twenty people to a party, but only buying enough food to serve ten? Never!
Would you send your child out into a snowstorm in a swimsuit? No way!
As rude and self-centered and uncaring as we all can be, we still abide by some basics of good behavior. So why do we think God won't? Trust that he is a loving Father. We worry when in our minds we try to bite off more than we can chew.
The late Bishop Ernest Fitzgerald used to tell about a man he knew years ago. This man’s life was hard yet he was the most serene and deeply contented man Bishop Fitzgerald had ever known. So he asked the old man one day if he had ever had any troubles and if he had ever spent sleepless nights. "Sure, I've had my troubles," he said, "but no sleepless nights. When I go to bed I say, 'Lord, you have to sit up all night anyway. There's no point in both of us losing sleep. You look after things tonight and when tomorrow comes, I'll do the best I can to help you.'"
Doctors today are quite candid in admitting that more than half the patients in hospitals are there as much because of the accumulated effects of mental problems as anything else. Thomas Borkovec, a professor of Psychology at Penn State University made his study and has determined that 15 percent of us are "chronic worriers". He claims that the single most frequent source of worry is other people's opinions of our lives. "If this happens, what will they think? What will people say? Will I be laughed at? Will I be excluded?"
A small boy mistakenly killed his grandparent’s favorite duck with a slingshot. Fearing their response, he tried to find the most unthinkable hiding place to bury it. He thought he had found the perfect place; however, his sneaky little sister saw his every move. She now had power over him. He was forced to do all of her chores so that she would not tell what he had done. Every time he was just about to tell her to go jump in the lake, she would look at him and say, "Remember the bird...remember the bird." Finally, one day he could no longer take such cruel and unusual punishment from his demonic little sister, and he confessed the whole story to his grandparents. It was their response that surprised him. They said that they had found the dead bird days ago and surmised what had happened. They said to him, "We love you, we forgive you, and were just waiting to see how long you would allow your little sister to control your life with the information she had on you." The power of worrying is often just like that. We allow it to enslave us when all the time there was another power that could have freed us from its crippling grip.
Jesus exhorts us to do our daily tasks serenely and not to worry uselessly about what happened yesterday or what may happen tomorrow.
"There are two days in the week upon which and about which we should never worry. One of these days is Yesterday. Yesterday has passed forever beyond our recall, with its cares and frets and pains and aches, all its faults, its mistakes and blunders. It was ours; now it is God's.
"The other day that we do not worry about is Tomorrow. Tomorrow, with all its possible adversities, its burdens, its perils, its large promise and performance, its failures and mistakes, is as far beyond our mastery as its dead sister, yesterday. Tomorrow is God's day; it will be mine.
Poor people worry that they don't have any money, and rich people worry that they don't have enough money. Sick people worry about their premature death, and healthy people worry about getting sick. Everyone it seems, worries about something all the time. The tragedy of most of our lives is that we worry so much about tomorrow that we never claim the resources God has for our living today. Hence, Jesus gives us some reasons why we should not worry. 1) Worry is a pagan or an irreligious attitude of those who don’t believe in a loving and providing God. 2) In nature, other creatures, like birds, work hard for their daily food, but they don’t worry about tomorrows. 3) Worry is useless because we cannot increase even an inch of height by days of worrying. 4) Worry is injurious to the health because it causes physical and mental problems and illnesses. 4) Worry robs us of faith and confidence in God’s help, and it saps our energy for doing good. 5) Worry takes all the joy from life and wears out our mind and body. Doctors agree that emotional stress can bring actual changes in the organs, glands, and tissues of the body. It’s not so much "what I’m eating" as "what’s eating me" that’s getting me down.
One day the German mystic Johann Tauler met a beggar. "God give you a good day, my friend," he said. The beggar answered, "I thank God I never had a bad one." Then Tauler said, "God give you a happy life, my friend." "I thank God," said the beggar, "I am never unhappy." Tauler then said in amazement, "What do you mean?" "Well," said the beggar, "when it is fine, I thank God. When it rains, I thank God. When I have plenty I thank God. When I am hungry I thank God. And since God's will is my will, and whatever pleases him pleases me, why should I say I am unhappy when I am not?" Tauler looked at the man in astonishment, "Who are you?" he asked. "I am a king," said the beggar. "Where, then, is your kingdom?" asked Tauler. The beggar replied quietly, "In my heart."
How to overcome worry: This brings us to the all-important question of how to overcome worry. We overcome worry by living in the present moment, focusing on what we need to do today, knowing that we can figure out how to cross tomorrow's bridge when we get there. Jesus, similarly, teaches us to focus on the present and not on the future, "Do not worry about tomorrow; tomorrow will take care of itself. Sufficient for a day is its own evil" (Matthew 6:34).
Is Jesus teaching us to live a life without plans or not to make provisions for the rainy day? No. He is rather teaching us the basic truth of faith, "Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labour in vain. Unless the Lord guards the city, the guard keeps watch in vain" (Psalm 127:1). Hence our plans for our life, security and welfare in the future must start with our total submission to God. If God cares and provides for lower creatures like the grass of the field and the birds of the air, how much more will He care for us who are made in His own image and likeness, if we let him?
It is said that Pope John XXIII, everyday before going to sleep look up the crucifix in his room and tell Lord, I am going to sleep. Take care of your Church. And when visiting a group of seminarians in Rome and knowing that he was dying from cancer, said to them: "My dear students. Every day is a good day-- a good day for living and a good day for dying!"
Jesus, therefore, teaches us to replace our many mundane concerns with one over-riding concern: "Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given you besides" (Matthew 6:33). God who gave us life knows that life needs to be sustained. God who gave us bodies knows that the body needs to be clothed and fed. The best way to assure that the gifts will keep coming is to develop a good relationship with the giver. This is the only sure prescription to overcome worry in our lives.
Saturday, February 12, 2011
VIth Sunday in Ordinary Time.
VI-Sunday- Anger Management.
There was a little boy with a bad temper. His father gave him a bag of nails and told him that every time he lost his temper, to hammer a nail in the back fence. The first day the boy had driven 37 nails into the fence. Then it gradually dwindled down. He discovered it was easier to hold his temper than to drive those nails into the fence.
Finally the day came when the boy didn't lose his temper at all. He told his father about it and the father suggested that the boy now pull out one nail for each day that he was able to hold his temper. The days passed and the young boy was finally able to tell his father that all the nails were gone. The father took his son by the hand and led him to the fence. He said, "You have done well, my son, but look at the holes in the fence. The fence will never be the same. When you say things in anger, they leave a scar just like this one. It won't matter how many times you say I'm sorry, the wound is still there. A verbal wound is as bad as a physical one.
Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, given in chapters five through seven of Matthew's Gospel, could be called "Lifestyle in the Kingdom of God." Verse 22: says: "But I say to you that if you are angry with a brother or sister, you will be liable to judgment; and if you insult a brother or sister, you will be liable to the council; and if you say, 'You fool,' you will be liable to the hell of fire.
St. Paul advises us “Be angry (righteous anger) but do not sin.” (Eph 4: 26). Anger when it lasts is not the sign of righteous anger. Because anger can lead to bitterness, bitterness to grudge and grudge to revenge. So anger leads to murder. When we keep anger in our mind, we are inviting physical illnesses like hypertension and mental illnesses like depression. Learn to relax and keep silence when we are angry, wait before acting on our anger, give it time to detoxify and cool off, pray for God’s strength for self-control, and give the Holy Spirit time to help us to see the event through Jesus’ eyes instead of through anger’s eyes.
Two sisters spent the day fighting. That evening they prepared for bed, still mad at each other. As usual, they knelt by the side of their beds for their prayers. "Dear God," the 8-year-old began, "Bless Daddy and Mommy, bless our cat and dog." Then she stopped. Her mother gently prodded, "Didn’t you forget somebody?" She glared across the bed at her 6-year-old sister and added, "And, oh yes, God, bless my ex-sister." Yes, anger sever our relationships.
Author Kent Crockett tells about Sam and Jacqueline Pritchard, a British couple, who started receiving mysterious phone calls to their home in the middle of the night. The person on the other end never said anything. After a long pause, he would hang up.
The Pritchards changed their phone number to stop the harassing night calls. The stalker changed his tactic. He started sending them obscene and threatening anonymous letters in the mail. Then the problems escalated. The couple discovered their house had been daubed with paint, and their tires were slashed. The Pritchards became prisoners in their own home and spent a small fortune on a security system. They had no idea what they had done to deserve such cruel treatment.
After four months of unexplained terrorism, they finally met the perpetrator. Mr. Pritchard caught James McGhee, a 53-year-old man, while he was damaging their car. As they looked at each other, Pritchard asked McGhee, "Why are you doing this to us?"
McGhee responded, "Oh, no I've got the wrong man!"
McGhee thought he was terrorizing a different man named Pritchard, who had been spreading rumors about him. He found the Pritchards in the telephone directory and assumed that this was the person responsible for slandering him. He got the wrong Pritchard.
What an absurd turn of events; but anger has a tendency to do funny things to us. It blinds us to reality. It blinds us to consequences. It blinds us to the irrational harm that may come from our rage. For your own best interest, if you are angry with someone, let it go. Act quickly before you cause yourself and them any harm.
Jesus is not claiming here that all anger is sin. The Hebrew word for anger occurs 455 times in the Old Testament; 375 of these refer to the anger of God. The Lord does get angry. Nahum the prophet asked, "Who can stand before his indignation? What can endure the heat of his anger?" (Na. 1:03)
Jesus got angry at times. In Mark, chapter 3, we have an example. One Sabbath Day in the synagogue Jesus met a man with a withered hand. Some of the Pharisees were standing around ready to pounce on Jesus if he healed the man, because healing was considered to be work, and that was prohibited on the Sabbath. The Bible says, "Jesus looked around at them with anger." It burned Jesus to see religious people care more about their rules than the well-being of a human being. Jesus became angry when people got hurt or God's house was desecrated. Jesus' anger was never selfish. That is why Jesus tells today that he came to fulfill the law, not just observe the law. The Scribes were observing the law, but Jesus was fulfilling the law.
We ought to get angry about certain things. It ought to anger us that young women are being victimized by businesses that exploit sex in our community. It ought to anger us that our newspapers make money by advertising such businesses. It ought to anger us that over 1 million abortions are performed every year in America. It ought to anger us that in some schools it is easier to pass out condoms than it is to have a graduation prayer. We call this kind of anger righteous indignation. It is godly anger, anger that motivates us to overcome injustice and extend mercy.
That's not the kind of anger Jesus condemns in the Sermon on the Mount. He is attacking a much more common variety that lurks in all our hearts. This is selfish anger. This kind of anger, says James, "worketh not the righteousness of God." Paul was referring to this emotion when he wrote, "Put off all anger, wrath, and malice." (Colossians 3:5)...
Anger is not in itself a sin, even though it leads to many sins. St Thomas Aquinas has a simple argument for that: Our Lord was angry, and he was without sin. He says that while it is true that we can sin through anger, we can also sin through a lack of anger. Anger is always accompanied by hope'. Anger is the emotion that seeks to change things. That is why anger ends in one of two ways. Either the angry person succeeds in changing the object of their anger, or accepts that it can't be changed. Hope is the emotion which believes that it is possible for some good to come out of some evil. Without hope, we could not be angry because we could not have any expectation that our anger could do anything to change things. Jesus’ anger was for the sake of the kingdom. In short, he was angry because he loved us. Most Parents’ anger towards their children could be righteous if they wish their good and if they are able to hug them in the next few minutes.
Jesus warns us against anger, ie. unrighteous anger, and reminds us to find a better way to resolve our conflicts. It is impossible to avoid confrontations and conflict, but we should never let anger poison our relationships or lead to damage that is impossible to undo.
There was a little boy with a bad temper. His father gave him a bag of nails and told him that every time he lost his temper, to hammer a nail in the back fence. The first day the boy had driven 37 nails into the fence. Then it gradually dwindled down. He discovered it was easier to hold his temper than to drive those nails into the fence.
Finally the day came when the boy didn't lose his temper at all. He told his father about it and the father suggested that the boy now pull out one nail for each day that he was able to hold his temper. The days passed and the young boy was finally able to tell his father that all the nails were gone. The father took his son by the hand and led him to the fence. He said, "You have done well, my son, but look at the holes in the fence. The fence will never be the same. When you say things in anger, they leave a scar just like this one. It won't matter how many times you say I'm sorry, the wound is still there. A verbal wound is as bad as a physical one.
Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, given in chapters five through seven of Matthew's Gospel, could be called "Lifestyle in the Kingdom of God." Verse 22: says: "But I say to you that if you are angry with a brother or sister, you will be liable to judgment; and if you insult a brother or sister, you will be liable to the council; and if you say, 'You fool,' you will be liable to the hell of fire.
St. Paul advises us “Be angry (righteous anger) but do not sin.” (Eph 4: 26). Anger when it lasts is not the sign of righteous anger. Because anger can lead to bitterness, bitterness to grudge and grudge to revenge. So anger leads to murder. When we keep anger in our mind, we are inviting physical illnesses like hypertension and mental illnesses like depression. Learn to relax and keep silence when we are angry, wait before acting on our anger, give it time to detoxify and cool off, pray for God’s strength for self-control, and give the Holy Spirit time to help us to see the event through Jesus’ eyes instead of through anger’s eyes.
Two sisters spent the day fighting. That evening they prepared for bed, still mad at each other. As usual, they knelt by the side of their beds for their prayers. "Dear God," the 8-year-old began, "Bless Daddy and Mommy, bless our cat and dog." Then she stopped. Her mother gently prodded, "Didn’t you forget somebody?" She glared across the bed at her 6-year-old sister and added, "And, oh yes, God, bless my ex-sister." Yes, anger sever our relationships.
Author Kent Crockett tells about Sam and Jacqueline Pritchard, a British couple, who started receiving mysterious phone calls to their home in the middle of the night. The person on the other end never said anything. After a long pause, he would hang up.
The Pritchards changed their phone number to stop the harassing night calls. The stalker changed his tactic. He started sending them obscene and threatening anonymous letters in the mail. Then the problems escalated. The couple discovered their house had been daubed with paint, and their tires were slashed. The Pritchards became prisoners in their own home and spent a small fortune on a security system. They had no idea what they had done to deserve such cruel treatment.
After four months of unexplained terrorism, they finally met the perpetrator. Mr. Pritchard caught James McGhee, a 53-year-old man, while he was damaging their car. As they looked at each other, Pritchard asked McGhee, "Why are you doing this to us?"
McGhee responded, "Oh, no I've got the wrong man!"
McGhee thought he was terrorizing a different man named Pritchard, who had been spreading rumors about him. He found the Pritchards in the telephone directory and assumed that this was the person responsible for slandering him. He got the wrong Pritchard.
What an absurd turn of events; but anger has a tendency to do funny things to us. It blinds us to reality. It blinds us to consequences. It blinds us to the irrational harm that may come from our rage. For your own best interest, if you are angry with someone, let it go. Act quickly before you cause yourself and them any harm.
Jesus is not claiming here that all anger is sin. The Hebrew word for anger occurs 455 times in the Old Testament; 375 of these refer to the anger of God. The Lord does get angry. Nahum the prophet asked, "Who can stand before his indignation? What can endure the heat of his anger?" (Na. 1:03)
Jesus got angry at times. In Mark, chapter 3, we have an example. One Sabbath Day in the synagogue Jesus met a man with a withered hand. Some of the Pharisees were standing around ready to pounce on Jesus if he healed the man, because healing was considered to be work, and that was prohibited on the Sabbath. The Bible says, "Jesus looked around at them with anger." It burned Jesus to see religious people care more about their rules than the well-being of a human being. Jesus became angry when people got hurt or God's house was desecrated. Jesus' anger was never selfish. That is why Jesus tells today that he came to fulfill the law, not just observe the law. The Scribes were observing the law, but Jesus was fulfilling the law.
We ought to get angry about certain things. It ought to anger us that young women are being victimized by businesses that exploit sex in our community. It ought to anger us that our newspapers make money by advertising such businesses. It ought to anger us that over 1 million abortions are performed every year in America. It ought to anger us that in some schools it is easier to pass out condoms than it is to have a graduation prayer. We call this kind of anger righteous indignation. It is godly anger, anger that motivates us to overcome injustice and extend mercy.
That's not the kind of anger Jesus condemns in the Sermon on the Mount. He is attacking a much more common variety that lurks in all our hearts. This is selfish anger. This kind of anger, says James, "worketh not the righteousness of God." Paul was referring to this emotion when he wrote, "Put off all anger, wrath, and malice." (Colossians 3:5)...
Anger is not in itself a sin, even though it leads to many sins. St Thomas Aquinas has a simple argument for that: Our Lord was angry, and he was without sin. He says that while it is true that we can sin through anger, we can also sin through a lack of anger. Anger is always accompanied by hope'. Anger is the emotion that seeks to change things. That is why anger ends in one of two ways. Either the angry person succeeds in changing the object of their anger, or accepts that it can't be changed. Hope is the emotion which believes that it is possible for some good to come out of some evil. Without hope, we could not be angry because we could not have any expectation that our anger could do anything to change things. Jesus’ anger was for the sake of the kingdom. In short, he was angry because he loved us. Most Parents’ anger towards their children could be righteous if they wish their good and if they are able to hug them in the next few minutes.
Jesus warns us against anger, ie. unrighteous anger, and reminds us to find a better way to resolve our conflicts. It is impossible to avoid confrontations and conflict, but we should never let anger poison our relationships or lead to damage that is impossible to undo.
Friday, January 28, 2011
IV SUNDAY HOMILY
ZEPH 2:3, 3:12-13;I COR 1:26-31;Gosple: MT 5:1-12
“Happiness is that which all men seek.” says the great philosopher Aristotle. Aristotle also observes that everything people do twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, is what they believe will bring them happiness in one form or another. But the problem is that what people think will bring them happiness does not in fact always bring them true and lasting happiness. Think of the drunkard who believes that happiness is found in the beer bottle. One bottle too much and he is driving home, runs a red light, hits a car and wakes up the following morning in a hospital with plaster and stitches all over his body. Then it begins to dawn on him that the happiness promised by alcohol may be too short-lived. Or take the man who frequents the casino to deal excitement. By the end of the month he finds that his account is in the red and that he can no longer pay his house rent. Creditors go after him until he loses his house and his car. Then it dawns on him that the happiness promised by the casino is fake. So Aristotle says that the ethical person is the person who knows and does what can truly bring them not just excitement or pleasure but true and lasting happiness.
Another word for true and lasting happiness is “blessedness” or “beatitude.” In today’s gospel, Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount shows that he really wants his followers to have true and lasting happiness, the happiness that the world and everything in it cannot give. This state of blessedness is what Jesus calls being in the “kingdom of heaven”. The eight beatitudes we have in today’s gospel constitute a road map for anyone who seeks to attain this happiness of the kingdom. The Beatitudes are as fundamental for Christ's teaching as the Ten Commandments were for Moses' teaching. The Sermon on the Mount is the heart of the Gospel, and the Beatitudes are the heart of the Sermon on the Mount.
Why does Jesus deem it necessary to establish these guideposts to the kingdom right from the very first teaching that he gives to the disciples? It is because of the importance of this teaching. Everybody seeks happiness. But often we look for it in the wrong places. Ask people around you what makes people happy and compare the answers you get with the answers Jesus gives. The world has its own idea of happiness. If a committee were set up to draw up the beatitudes, we would most probably end up with a list very different from that which Jesus gives us today.
Where Jesus says “Blessed are the poor in spirit” they would say “Blessed are the rich.” Where Jesus says “Blessed are those who mourn” they would say “Blessed are those having fun.” Where Jesus says “Blessed are the meek” they would say “Blessed are the smart.” Where Jesus says, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness” they would say “Blessed are those who wine and dine.” Where Jesus says, “Blessed are the merciful” they would say “Blessed are the powerful.” Where Jesus says, “Blessed are the pure in heart” they would say “Blessed are the slim in body.” Where Jesus says, “Blessed are the peacemakers” they would say “Blessed are the news makers.” And where Jesus says, “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake” they would say “Blessed are those who can afford the best lawyers.”
We see that the values prescribed by Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount are in fact counter-cultural. We cannot accept these teachings of Jesus and at the same time accept all the values of the society in which we live. Of course, Jesus does not demand that we abandon the world. But he does demand that we put God first in our lives because only God can guarantee the true happiness and peace that our hearts long for. Nothing in the world can give this peace, and nothing in the world can take it away.
The poor in spirit and those who suffer persecution gracefully realize that they are not the center of the universe - God is. The clean of heart realizes that other people don't exist just for the sake of his pleasure. The peace maker is concerned about the needs and problems of others. The merciful is concerned about the suffering of others. The mournful is concerned about the damage his sin does to the Church, the world, and other people. The meek cares more about getting things done than getting credit for doing things. Those who hunger for righteousness realize that their life has a higher purpose, that it's part of a bigger story. Underlying all the Beatitudes is this fundamental attitude that puts God and others ahead of self. It looks out at the world instead of staring in, fixated on self. This is humility,
the bedrock of basic human maturity. God loves this humility, because it opens the soul to receive his gifts. When we make the Beatitudes as a sort of checklist for us, we could see the areas we need to improve in.
William Barclay says this verse means, "Blessed is the man who has realized his own utter helplessness, and who has put his whole trust in God. If a man has realized his own utter helplessness, and has put his whole trust in God. And he will become completely detached from things, for he will know that things have not got in them happiness or security; and he will become completely attached to God, for he will know that God alone can bring him help, and hope, and strength.
The man who is poor in spirit is the man who has realized that things mean nothing, and that God means everything."
These beatitudes tell us that we find happiness in finding God. “Seek the Lord,” begins the first reading at today’s Mass. “Finding God” is not like finding a lost object. God is not lost. We are lost. So to find God is to find oneself. Or more correctly, it is to be found by God. The greatest seekers after God have known this. St Augustine (5th century) gave it one of its most famous expressions. “Late have I loved you, O beauty, so ancient and so new, late have I loved you! And behold, you were within me and I was outside, and there I sought for you, and in my deformity I fell upon those lovely things of your creation. You were with me but I was not with you….”
The Eight Beatitudes do not describe eight different people such that we need to ask which of the eight suits us personally. No, they are eight different snapshots taken from different angles of the same godly person. The question for us today, therefore, is this: “Do we live our lives following the values of the world as a way of attaining happiness or do we live by the teachings of Jesus. If you live by the teachings of Jesus, then rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven.
“Happiness is that which all men seek.” says the great philosopher Aristotle. Aristotle also observes that everything people do twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, is what they believe will bring them happiness in one form or another. But the problem is that what people think will bring them happiness does not in fact always bring them true and lasting happiness. Think of the drunkard who believes that happiness is found in the beer bottle. One bottle too much and he is driving home, runs a red light, hits a car and wakes up the following morning in a hospital with plaster and stitches all over his body. Then it begins to dawn on him that the happiness promised by alcohol may be too short-lived. Or take the man who frequents the casino to deal excitement. By the end of the month he finds that his account is in the red and that he can no longer pay his house rent. Creditors go after him until he loses his house and his car. Then it dawns on him that the happiness promised by the casino is fake. So Aristotle says that the ethical person is the person who knows and does what can truly bring them not just excitement or pleasure but true and lasting happiness.
Another word for true and lasting happiness is “blessedness” or “beatitude.” In today’s gospel, Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount shows that he really wants his followers to have true and lasting happiness, the happiness that the world and everything in it cannot give. This state of blessedness is what Jesus calls being in the “kingdom of heaven”. The eight beatitudes we have in today’s gospel constitute a road map for anyone who seeks to attain this happiness of the kingdom. The Beatitudes are as fundamental for Christ's teaching as the Ten Commandments were for Moses' teaching. The Sermon on the Mount is the heart of the Gospel, and the Beatitudes are the heart of the Sermon on the Mount.
Why does Jesus deem it necessary to establish these guideposts to the kingdom right from the very first teaching that he gives to the disciples? It is because of the importance of this teaching. Everybody seeks happiness. But often we look for it in the wrong places. Ask people around you what makes people happy and compare the answers you get with the answers Jesus gives. The world has its own idea of happiness. If a committee were set up to draw up the beatitudes, we would most probably end up with a list very different from that which Jesus gives us today.
Where Jesus says “Blessed are the poor in spirit” they would say “Blessed are the rich.” Where Jesus says “Blessed are those who mourn” they would say “Blessed are those having fun.” Where Jesus says “Blessed are the meek” they would say “Blessed are the smart.” Where Jesus says, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness” they would say “Blessed are those who wine and dine.” Where Jesus says, “Blessed are the merciful” they would say “Blessed are the powerful.” Where Jesus says, “Blessed are the pure in heart” they would say “Blessed are the slim in body.” Where Jesus says, “Blessed are the peacemakers” they would say “Blessed are the news makers.” And where Jesus says, “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake” they would say “Blessed are those who can afford the best lawyers.”
We see that the values prescribed by Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount are in fact counter-cultural. We cannot accept these teachings of Jesus and at the same time accept all the values of the society in which we live. Of course, Jesus does not demand that we abandon the world. But he does demand that we put God first in our lives because only God can guarantee the true happiness and peace that our hearts long for. Nothing in the world can give this peace, and nothing in the world can take it away.
The poor in spirit and those who suffer persecution gracefully realize that they are not the center of the universe - God is. The clean of heart realizes that other people don't exist just for the sake of his pleasure. The peace maker is concerned about the needs and problems of others. The merciful is concerned about the suffering of others. The mournful is concerned about the damage his sin does to the Church, the world, and other people. The meek cares more about getting things done than getting credit for doing things. Those who hunger for righteousness realize that their life has a higher purpose, that it's part of a bigger story. Underlying all the Beatitudes is this fundamental attitude that puts God and others ahead of self. It looks out at the world instead of staring in, fixated on self. This is humility,
the bedrock of basic human maturity. God loves this humility, because it opens the soul to receive his gifts. When we make the Beatitudes as a sort of checklist for us, we could see the areas we need to improve in.
William Barclay says this verse means, "Blessed is the man who has realized his own utter helplessness, and who has put his whole trust in God. If a man has realized his own utter helplessness, and has put his whole trust in God. And he will become completely detached from things, for he will know that things have not got in them happiness or security; and he will become completely attached to God, for he will know that God alone can bring him help, and hope, and strength.
The man who is poor in spirit is the man who has realized that things mean nothing, and that God means everything."
These beatitudes tell us that we find happiness in finding God. “Seek the Lord,” begins the first reading at today’s Mass. “Finding God” is not like finding a lost object. God is not lost. We are lost. So to find God is to find oneself. Or more correctly, it is to be found by God. The greatest seekers after God have known this. St Augustine (5th century) gave it one of its most famous expressions. “Late have I loved you, O beauty, so ancient and so new, late have I loved you! And behold, you were within me and I was outside, and there I sought for you, and in my deformity I fell upon those lovely things of your creation. You were with me but I was not with you….”
The Eight Beatitudes do not describe eight different people such that we need to ask which of the eight suits us personally. No, they are eight different snapshots taken from different angles of the same godly person. The question for us today, therefore, is this: “Do we live our lives following the values of the world as a way of attaining happiness or do we live by the teachings of Jesus. If you live by the teachings of Jesus, then rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven.
Saturday, January 1, 2011
FEAST OF EPIPHANY
Mathew 2:1-12 (Visit of the Magi)
We continue the celebration of Christmas with the celebration of the Solemnity of the Epiphany. This is one of the most important celebrations of the Church year. The Feast of the Epiphany is the oldest in the Liturgical Calendar after Easter and Pentecost and Epiphany was celebrated long before even Christmas itself came to be regarded as a feast. Greek Orthodox churches place a greater emphasis on the Epiphany than on the Nativity.
The word Epiphany literally means manifestation and refers to the appearance or making known of Christ. Of course, in the beginning the feast was about the several manifestations of Christ: his first coming into the world, his being made known to the Shepherds, his manifestation to the Wise Men from the East, and it included even the Father announcing who he was at his Baptism by John, as well as the demonstration of his power in his First Miracle at the Marriage Feast of Cana. But as the Feast of Christmas and the other feasts gradually came to be separated over time, the Epiphany centred on the manifestation of Christ to the Magi —in other words to the Gentiles.
The three wise men - kings! traditionally known as Caspar, Melchior, and Balthasar, offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh! What courage and perseverance those strangers showed, to brave the dangers of travel, skepticism, and political intrigue. But they found what they were looking for. That star gave trustworthy guidance and now triumphantly shone as guard over the lowly dwelling wherein rested the child who possessed all meaning. They fell to their knees in homage, for their learning had made them humble, and their wisdom led them to recognize the Divine in the fragile flesh of a child.
In the story of the Magi, Matthew wants us to recognize in Jesus the new Solomon, whose reputation for wisdom was legendary. He too received a visitor from the East, the Queen of Sheba, who was said to have been “breathless” as she marveled at his wisdom and wealth (1 Kings 10:1-13).
This Epiphany story is, therefore, a celebration of the wisdom represented by Jesus--in his person and in his message. It is an unpretentious wisdom, because it is embodied in a tiny child, but it is in fact the only wisdom that will ultimately survive.
Jesus offers a radically different kind of wisdom, which declares that all forms of power must be in the service of love and that true success should be measured in terms of who has been liberated by unselfish love from the bondage of fear, guilt, low self-esteem and the like. Our real power is our freedom, and it is very tempting to use that freedom to dominate and control others.
True wisdom consists in letting God guide us. The magi let God lead them. And their journey was not merely a journey by land but it was also a journey of faith. And God revealed himself to them in the person of the Child Jesus.
In one way or another the same thing has happened to each one of us. God leads us on a journey of faith and he reveals himself to us in the person of Jesus Christ. But this doesn’t just happen once. It happens again and again in our lives. There are a whole series of Epiphanies awaiting us if we only co-operate with God and let him lead us.
Some times what we started off as certainty and firmness of faith can with the vicissitudes of life easily fade away into disinterest and laxity. The magi also lost the star when they entered the palace. What we need then is re-conversion, what we need to do is to look for that star once more.
Hidden under one form or another there is always a star glittering out there in the darkness. If we constantly look for that star and follow where God leads us again and again we will encounter Christ in all sorts of different disguises until one day we meet him face to face and the door is ultimately opened for us to live with him forever.
Why did Herod try to destroy Jesus while the Magi, the wise kings worshipped him? The difference can be summed up in one word: humility. Herod lacked humility; the Magi had it. We don't know what happened to the Magi, but we do know where Herod's lack of humility landed him.
He spent his life trying to keep everything under his control. He became a very suspicious man: he ended up murdering his own wife and three of his sons, because he thought they were plotting against him. In fact, his whole life was a series of violent, horrible crimes. His tyrannical fear of losing control eventually made him universally hated, even by his closest collaborators. As he lay dying, he ordered a thousand of his best servants and ministers to be led into a stadium and slaughtered, because he wanted to be sure there was mourning and sadness in his kingdom upon his death.
Joseph Stalin, the equally bloody tyrant of early Soviet Russia, followed a similar path. He climbed the ladder of success by lying, double-crossing, and murdering. And once he had reached the top, he systematically eliminated all potential rivals. But soon he began to think everyone was a potential rival. He sent his best friends to concentration camps in Siberia. He became so suspicious of plots against him that he slept in a different corner of his house every night. He too died a fearful, miserable, half-crazed man.
These are extreme cases. But they show us the truth: you and I are not God. God is God. We are not meant to control everything; we are meant to humbly follow Christ, to trust him, to kneel before him, like the Magi, and say with our lives, "Thy will be done, not mine; thy Kingdom come; not mine." Only then will our lives become as fulfilling as we know they should be.
The Wise Men offer gifts to Jesus because they recognize that the humble wisdom of Jesus eclipses all forms of merely human wisdom.
We are called to live in such a way that our Christianity shines through every aspect of our lives. We come before the Lord to worship Him in Word and Eucharist. We serve the Lord’s presence in others, and reach out to those who have needs by working in the various ministries of our parish .
Our Christianity was not given to us to be kept hidden. Our faith is a gift we are entrusted with for others. Actually, there is no such thing as a secret Christian. Christ was manifested to all people. There is no secret involved. We should be showoffs for the Lord. The feast of Epiphany is God's work of Gospel globalization revealing his Son to all peoples of all nations and races. God needs modern "stars" that will bring our sisters and brothers to Christ, Savior of all peoples and nations. By the good example of our lives let’s be the "magi" for our world today.
We continue the celebration of Christmas with the celebration of the Solemnity of the Epiphany. This is one of the most important celebrations of the Church year. The Feast of the Epiphany is the oldest in the Liturgical Calendar after Easter and Pentecost and Epiphany was celebrated long before even Christmas itself came to be regarded as a feast. Greek Orthodox churches place a greater emphasis on the Epiphany than on the Nativity.
The word Epiphany literally means manifestation and refers to the appearance or making known of Christ. Of course, in the beginning the feast was about the several manifestations of Christ: his first coming into the world, his being made known to the Shepherds, his manifestation to the Wise Men from the East, and it included even the Father announcing who he was at his Baptism by John, as well as the demonstration of his power in his First Miracle at the Marriage Feast of Cana. But as the Feast of Christmas and the other feasts gradually came to be separated over time, the Epiphany centred on the manifestation of Christ to the Magi —in other words to the Gentiles.
The three wise men - kings! traditionally known as Caspar, Melchior, and Balthasar, offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh! What courage and perseverance those strangers showed, to brave the dangers of travel, skepticism, and political intrigue. But they found what they were looking for. That star gave trustworthy guidance and now triumphantly shone as guard over the lowly dwelling wherein rested the child who possessed all meaning. They fell to their knees in homage, for their learning had made them humble, and their wisdom led them to recognize the Divine in the fragile flesh of a child.
In the story of the Magi, Matthew wants us to recognize in Jesus the new Solomon, whose reputation for wisdom was legendary. He too received a visitor from the East, the Queen of Sheba, who was said to have been “breathless” as she marveled at his wisdom and wealth (1 Kings 10:1-13).
This Epiphany story is, therefore, a celebration of the wisdom represented by Jesus--in his person and in his message. It is an unpretentious wisdom, because it is embodied in a tiny child, but it is in fact the only wisdom that will ultimately survive.
Jesus offers a radically different kind of wisdom, which declares that all forms of power must be in the service of love and that true success should be measured in terms of who has been liberated by unselfish love from the bondage of fear, guilt, low self-esteem and the like. Our real power is our freedom, and it is very tempting to use that freedom to dominate and control others.
True wisdom consists in letting God guide us. The magi let God lead them. And their journey was not merely a journey by land but it was also a journey of faith. And God revealed himself to them in the person of the Child Jesus.
In one way or another the same thing has happened to each one of us. God leads us on a journey of faith and he reveals himself to us in the person of Jesus Christ. But this doesn’t just happen once. It happens again and again in our lives. There are a whole series of Epiphanies awaiting us if we only co-operate with God and let him lead us.
Some times what we started off as certainty and firmness of faith can with the vicissitudes of life easily fade away into disinterest and laxity. The magi also lost the star when they entered the palace. What we need then is re-conversion, what we need to do is to look for that star once more.
Hidden under one form or another there is always a star glittering out there in the darkness. If we constantly look for that star and follow where God leads us again and again we will encounter Christ in all sorts of different disguises until one day we meet him face to face and the door is ultimately opened for us to live with him forever.
Why did Herod try to destroy Jesus while the Magi, the wise kings worshipped him? The difference can be summed up in one word: humility. Herod lacked humility; the Magi had it. We don't know what happened to the Magi, but we do know where Herod's lack of humility landed him.
He spent his life trying to keep everything under his control. He became a very suspicious man: he ended up murdering his own wife and three of his sons, because he thought they were plotting against him. In fact, his whole life was a series of violent, horrible crimes. His tyrannical fear of losing control eventually made him universally hated, even by his closest collaborators. As he lay dying, he ordered a thousand of his best servants and ministers to be led into a stadium and slaughtered, because he wanted to be sure there was mourning and sadness in his kingdom upon his death.
Joseph Stalin, the equally bloody tyrant of early Soviet Russia, followed a similar path. He climbed the ladder of success by lying, double-crossing, and murdering. And once he had reached the top, he systematically eliminated all potential rivals. But soon he began to think everyone was a potential rival. He sent his best friends to concentration camps in Siberia. He became so suspicious of plots against him that he slept in a different corner of his house every night. He too died a fearful, miserable, half-crazed man.
These are extreme cases. But they show us the truth: you and I are not God. God is God. We are not meant to control everything; we are meant to humbly follow Christ, to trust him, to kneel before him, like the Magi, and say with our lives, "Thy will be done, not mine; thy Kingdom come; not mine." Only then will our lives become as fulfilling as we know they should be.
The Wise Men offer gifts to Jesus because they recognize that the humble wisdom of Jesus eclipses all forms of merely human wisdom.
We are called to live in such a way that our Christianity shines through every aspect of our lives. We come before the Lord to worship Him in Word and Eucharist. We serve the Lord’s presence in others, and reach out to those who have needs by working in the various ministries of our parish .
Our Christianity was not given to us to be kept hidden. Our faith is a gift we are entrusted with for others. Actually, there is no such thing as a secret Christian. Christ was manifested to all people. There is no secret involved. We should be showoffs for the Lord. The feast of Epiphany is God's work of Gospel globalization revealing his Son to all peoples of all nations and races. God needs modern "stars" that will bring our sisters and brothers to Christ, Savior of all peoples and nations. By the good example of our lives let’s be the "magi" for our world today.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
