tomorrow's Gospel: poverty of spirit

Luke 4:16-30
16 And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up; and he went to the synagogue, as his custom was, on the Sabbath day. And he stood up to read; 17 and there was given to him the book of the prophet Isaiah.

He opened the book and found the place where it was written, 18 "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, 19 to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord."

20 And he closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant, and sat down; and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. 21 And he began to say to them, "Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing."

22 And all spoke well of him, and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth; and they said, "Is not this Joseph's son?" 23 And he said to them, "Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, `Physician, heal yourself; what we have heard you did at Caper'na-um, do here also in your own country.'

" 24 And he said, "Truly, I say to you, no prophet is acceptable in his own country. 25 But in truth, I tell you, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Eli'jah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, when there came a great famine over all the land; 26 and Eli'jah was sent to none of them but only to Zar'ephath, in the land of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow.

27 And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Eli'sha; and none of them was cleansed, but only Na'aman the Syrian." 28 When they heard this, all in the synagogue were filled with wrath.

29 And they rose up and put him out of the city, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their city was built, that they might throw him down headlong. 30 But passing through the midst of them he went away.

Reflection

How would you react if Jesus spoke this message from the pulpit of your church? It was customary for Jesus to go weekly to the synagogue to worship and on occasion to read the scriptures and comment on them to the people. His hometown folks listened with rapt attention on this occasion because they had heard about the miracles he had performed in other towns.

What sign would he do in his hometown? Jesus startled them with a seeming rebuke that no prophet or servant of God can receive honor among his own people. He then angered them when he complimented the gentiles who seemed to have shown more faith in God than the "chosen ones" of Israel.

They regarded gentiles as "fuel for the fires of hell." Jesus' praise for "outsiders" caused them offence because they were blind-sighted to God's mercy and plan of redemption for all nations.

The word "gospel" literally means "good news". Isaiah had prophesied that the Messiah would come in the power of the Holy Spirit to bring freedom to those oppressed by sin and evil (see Isaiah 61:1-2).

Jesus came to set people free from the worst tyranny possible – the tyranny of slavery to sin and the fear of death, and the destruction of both body and soul. God's power alone can save us from emptiness and poverty of spirit, from confusion and error, and from the fear of death and hopelessness.

The gospel of salvation is "good news" for us today.

Do you know the joy and freedom of the gospel?

tomorrow's Gospel: His mercy is on those who fear Him

photo owned by guervos of Flickr

Luke 1:39-56
39 In those days Mary arose and went with haste into the hill country, to a city of Judah, 40 and she entered the house of Zechari'ah and greeted Elizabeth.

41 And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the babe leaped in her womb; and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit 42 and she exclaimed with a loud cry, "Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! 43 And why is this granted me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?

44 For behold, when the voice of your greeting came to my ears, the babe in my womb leaped for joy. 45 And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfilment of what was spoken to her from the Lord." 46 And Mary said, "My soul magnifies the Lord, 47 and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, 48 for he has regarded the low estate of his handmaiden.

For behold, henceforth all generations will call me blessed; 49 for he who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name. 50 And his mercy is on those who fear him from generation to generation.

51 He has shown strength with his arm, he has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts, 52 he has put down the mighty from their thrones, and exalted those of low degree; 53 he has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent empty away.

54 He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy, 55 as he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his posterity for ever." 56 And Mary remained with her about three months, and returned to her home.

Reflection

How strong is your hope in the promises of God? Mary is a model of faith and hope for us. And she is among "the first-fruits" of "all those who belong to Jesus" and who share in his triumph (1 Corinthians15:20-24).

There is a venerable tradition dating back to the early church which marks Mary's "falling asleep" (Feast of Dormition in many Eastern churches) and her heavenly birthday when she was received into heaven.

Her reception into heaven is seen as a sign to all believing Christians of the promise Jesus made that we too would be received into paradise. At the last supper Jesus told his disciples that he would prepare a place for them in his Father's house.

"And when I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also" (John 14:3).

What enabled Mary to grow in faith and to persevere in hope in the face of obstacles and trials? The Gospel of Luke reveals the presence and power of the Holy Spirit in Mary's life. When Elizabeth and Mary greeted one another they were filled with the Holy Spirit and with a joyful anticipation of the fulfilment of God's promise to give a Savior.

John the Baptist, even before the birth of the Messiah, pointed to his coming and leapt for joy in the womb of his mother as the Holy Spirit revealed to him the presence of the King to be born. The Holy Spirit is God's gift to us to enable us to know and experience the indwelling presence of God and the power of his kingdom.

The Holy Spirit is the way in which God reigns within each of us. Mary accepted her mission with uncompromising faith and obedience. She acted with unwavering trust and faith because she believed that God would fulfill the word he had spoken.

Her great hymn of praise echoes the song of Hannah (see 1 Samuel 2:1-10) and proclaims the favor of the Lord: God exalts the lowly and he fills the hungry. The Holy Spirit is ever ready to renew your faith and hope in God's promises and to make you strong in love for God and your neighbor.

Do you live in the joy and confidence of God's indwelling presence with you through his Holy Spirit?

the birth of John the Baptist

Today we celebrate the solemnity of the Birth of St. John the Baptist. Only three times in the Church’s year do we celebrate birthdays. December 25th is the most obvious birthday we commemorate.

Daily Mass goers know that on September 8 we mark the birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary, but we mark it rather quietly in comparison to the solemnity with which we celebrate her Immaculate Conception nine months earlier.

Today, June 24th, we celebrate the birth of the famous son of Zechariah and Elizabeth. The Archangel Gabriel had said to Zechariah about the son his elderly and presumably barren wife would conceive, “Many will rejoice at his birth!” (Lk 1:14) and today we join that in that jubilation.

Jesus would later say, “Among those born of women no one is greater than John” (Luke 7:28), and the Church’s liturgical calendar puts that truth into prayer: after Jesus, no one born of woman has a greater celebration associated with his worldly visible debut than John the Baptist.

It’s important to ask why the Church has always considered this feast so important. I think the fundamental answer is because the Church first considers the life of John the Baptist so important and second considers the events of conception, gestation and birth highly significant aspects of his life.

John’s vocation to give witness to the Lord, to go before him to prepare his way, began not when he appeared at the Jordan in camel’s hair, but in the womb. Before he was conceived, the Archangel Gabriel told his father, “Even before his birth, he will be filled with the Holy Spirit” (Lk 1:15).

We saw an effect of this at the Visitation, when John leaped in the womb of his mother pointing out the presence of the prenatal Lamb of God within Mary (Lk 1:44). What God said to Jeremiah in last night’s first reading, “Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you. and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations” and to Isaiah in today’s, “The Lord, who formed me in the womb to be his servant, to bring Jacob back to him,” could just as easily be said about John.

He was formed in the womb and consecrated to be a prophet to the nations in order to bring God’s people back to Him, and he was already carrying out that consecrated mission from his earliest days.

These truths about a consecrated mission from the womb, however, apply not just to Jeremiah, Isaiah and John the Baptist.

The truth is that the Lord knows every one of us that intimately before he forms us in the womb. We can all exclaim with the words of today’s Psalm, “Truly you have formed by inmost being; you knit me in my mother’s womb!” None of us is a number, a census statistic, to God.

Just like John the Baptist had a vocation and a mission from before he was born, each of us is formed by God with a divine destiny and given a vocation and mission in this world to achieve that destiny and help others achieve their own.

While there will be specific differences between your and my mission and John’s, there are several characteristics in common.
•Like John’s, our mission is given by God as part of God’s plan for us from the beginning.
•Like John, the Lord fills us with the Holy Spirit at our baptism to help us accomplish this mission.
•Like John, we are called to recognize who God is, that he is so great and holy that none of us is worthy to loosen the straps of his sandals (Mk 1:7; Lk 3:16; Acts 13:25). This recognition makes the Lord’s desire to stoop down and wash our feet even more mind-blowing (Jn 13:5).
•Like John, we need to recognize that we’re not the Messiah, that we’re not God. That means that we, like John, recognize that we don’t call the shots — God does — and we trust in His will.
•Like John, we need to make straight the paths for God to rule in our life. For John, that meant going out into the desert to pray, fasting on locusts and wild honey, dressing in a way that symbolized his interior repentance and reparation. For us, it means going away from our distractions to pray, living a penitential and reparative life and adorning ourselves with sacrificial love.
•Like John, after we’re living a converted life, we are called to summon others to conversion. John did it at the Jordan River. We’re called to do it at the Acushnet River, and in our homes, in our schools, in our workplaces. We have the mission to help prepare the way for Christ to come into the lives of those around us.
•Like John, we’re called on to decrease so that Christ may increase in others lives. In the lives of parents, especially those whose children are being called to the priesthood or religious life, there is a great need for this humility so that the Lord’s influence in the lives of those we love may grow.
•Like John, we’re called to point others to the Lamb of God. John did it when he saw Jesus at the Jordan. We’re called to do it by pointing people to Jesus in the Eucharist.
No matter what our state of life, or age, or sex, each of us is called to imitate John the Baptist in these areas.
As we read in today’s Gospel, at John’s birth everybody wondered aloud, “What will this child become?” That is the question people have at the birth of every child.

It was asked at our birth by our parents and many others. The parents present here this morning, in one form or another, have asked it hundreds of times about their own children. Zechariah and Elizabeth would never have dreamed in their little village of Ain Karim that, here in New Bedford, more than 2000 years later, we would be remembering their son’s birthday.

Even with all the miraculous occurrences surrounding his conception, little could they have foreseen the role he would play in salvation history — his life, his martyrdom, his being the precursor of the Son of God in birth, in preaching and even in death.

Similarly, few parents who bring their child to be baptized have any idea of God’s incredible plans for their children. And God has even greater plans for children being baptized than he did for John the Baptist! After Jesus said in the Gospel that John is the greatest born of woman, he added, “but the least in the kingdom of God is greater than he” (Lk 7:28).

Each of us is consecrated by God in the womb of the Church (the baptismal font) to be not just his forerunner, but his son or daughter, and to live forever with him in his eternal kingdom of God. We may or may not become famous in this world, but God intends us all to be quite famous in the next. That’s his desired answer to the question parents in every generation ask about their children, “What will this child become?”

That’s God’s desire. That’s our calling and our mission. God will give us all the help he knows we need to achieve that destiny — which also includes Crosses! — but whether we achieve it or not depends on us. All of us have known young people who were enormously gifted academically, athletically or musically, but who wasted their talents and amount to very little in any of those areas.

The same thing happens with the spiritual talents and gifts God gives us. Some of us develop them fully; some of us waste them. Even though John was filled with the Holy Spirit from before he was born, he still lived a life of great self-denial so that he would never deny God. He responded to his mission with fidelity and allowed God’s work to continue in him.

That’s what we are called to do with respect to our lives and to the lives of our children. What we become in response to our divine destiny is dependent on our choices, on whether we develop or waste the tremendous gifts and calling God gives each of us. Today’s celebration is meant to remind us that each of us is capable of the fidelity we see in John the Baptist if only we respond to God’s graces as he did!

The celebration of a birthday is a time for all of us to reflect on the meaning of life. This celebration of John the Baptist’s birth brings us to reflect not just on the meaning of his life, but the meaning of our own.

When Elizabeth said, “His name is John” and Zechariah wrote it on the tablet, they probably didn’t realize that one day that name would have a prefix. Little did our parents realize when they brought us to be baptized that God’s plan is for us one day to have that same prefix.

The same goes for every child parents bring to the font. All of us are meant to have our name preceded by the most glorious prefix possible: “saint.” But to be given that honor and induction into the eternal hall of fame, we must live up to the title, a word that means “holy.” We become holy on the day of our baptism and are called to live in that holiness in each of our choices, by living in constant communion with God and God’s will..

Today, John the Baptist on his birthday gives us a present, the gift of his intercession for us that we may be faithful to the mission God has given each of us from the womb, remain in holy communion with God, and collaborate with him to bring or help others maintain their holy communion with God.

And just like he did 2000 years ago, he points out to us the path to holiness by pointing us to Jesus in the Eucharist, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.

As we prepare to receive Jesus now, we thank Him for the gift of our life and the gift of those we know and love. We ask Him for the help so that we, like John, might allow Him to increase in our lives and bring us to the eternal destiny for which we were born.

who is poor...

Fortunate are you who are poor, the Kingdom of God is yours! This beatitude is the basis of all the others, because who is poor will be able to get the Kingdom of God as a gift. Who is poor will realize he must be hungry and thirsty: not of material things, but of the Word of God; not of power, but of love and justice. Who is poor will be able to cry over the world's sufferings. Who is poor, will know that God is all his wealth...

look and see...

Today's Gospel says (Lk 24:35-48, The disciples told what had happened on the road and how Jesus made himself known when he broke bread with them.

As they went on talking about this, Jesus himself stood in their midst. And he said to them, «Peace to you». In their panic and fright they thought they were seeing a ghost, but he said to them, «Why are you upset and why do such ideas cross your mind?

Look at my hands and feet and see that it is I myself. Touch me and see for yourselves that a ghost has no flesh and bones as I have». As he said this, He showed his hands and feet. In their joy they didn't dare believe and were still astonished. So He said to them, «Have you anything to eat?», and they gave him a piece of broiled fish. He took it and ate it before them.

Then Jesus said to them, «Remember the words I spoke to you when I was still with you: ‘Everything written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms had to be fulfilled’».

Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures. And He went on, «You see what was written: the Messiah had to suffer and on the third day rise from the dead. Then repentance and forgiveness in his name would be proclaimed to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem. Now you shall be witnesses to this».

Today, the Gospel still refers us to the Resurrection of the Lord, when the two disciples of Emmaus are going to Jerusalem and, once there, while explaining how the Lord made himself known to them, the Resurrected Jesus appears in their midst.

But his presence is disconcerting. On the one hand, it provokes a great fright on them, to the point that they thought they were seeing a ghost but, on the other hand, his body pierced by the nails and the spear, is an eloquent testimony that he was the very Jesus, the Crucified one. His statements were very remarkable when he said in Lk 24:39, "Look at my hands and feet and see that it is I myself. Touch me and see for yourselves that a ghost has no flesh and bones as I have."

From today's Gospel passage, we can say that understanding the word of God is not something we can manage privately, or within a gathering of friends or acquaintances. The Lord revealed the meaning of the Scriptures to the Church gathered in that Paschal community presided over by Peter and the other Apostles, who had been appointed by the Master so that «repentance and forgiveness in his name would be proclaimed to all the nations. We need the Church to be able to fully understand the mystery of the Resurrection of our Lord.

Therefore, to be witnesses to the real Christ, it is indeed urgent that we can make ouselves as His disciples and learn how to recognize his Passion scarred Body in each one of us and in the Church....

Peace be with you...

Today, Christ resurrected meets again his disciples with his desire of peace: «Peace to you» (Lk 24:36). This is how HE says to them to disappear the fears and forebodings the Apostles that had accumulated during their days of passion and loneliness.

Let's take note of today's Gospel (Luke 24:35-48). It says: The two disciples told what had happened on the road and how Jesus made himself known when He broke bread with them. As they went on talking about this, Jesus himself stood in their midst.

And He said to them, «Peace to you». In their panic and fright they thought they were seeing a ghost, but He said to them, «Why are you upset and why do such ideas cross your mind? Look at my hands and feet and see that it is I myself.

Touch me and see for yourselves that a ghost has no flesh and bones as I have». As He said this, He showed his hands and feet. In their joy they didn't dare believe and were still astonished. So He said to them, «Have you anything to eat?», and they gave him a piece of broiled fish. He took it and ate it before them.

Then Jesus said to them, «Remember the words I spoke to you when I was still with you: Everything written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms had to be fulfilled». Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures.

And He went on, «You see what was written: the Messiah had to suffer and on the third day rise from the dead. Then repentance and forgiveness in his name would be proclaimed to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem. Now you shall be witnesses to this».

Well, in the Gospel reading, Jesus proves to His disciples that He is not a ghost but totally real.

It is the resurrection of Christ which gives meaning to all our mishaps and sufferings, which helps us to recover our peace of mind and calm us down in the darkness of our life.

All other small lights we may find in our life become meaningful under this Light.

«Everything written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms had to be fulfilled...»: and again «He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures» (Lk 24:44-45), as He had already done with the disciples at Emmaus.

The Lord wants us to understand the meaning of the Scriptures for our life; He wants our poor heart to become a flaming heart, like His: with the explanation of the Scriptures and the chunk of bread, the Holy Eucharist.

In other words: our Christian task is to see His story to become a story of salvation as He wants us to understand and live with it amidst the troubled world.

Blessings to us all in this season of Easter...

the road to Emmaus

(Lk 24:13-35): Two disciples of Jesus were going to Emmaus, a village seven miles from Jerusalem, and they talked about what had happened. While they were talking and wondering, Jesus came up and walked with them, but their eyes were held and they did not recognize him.

He asked, «What is this you are talking about?». The two stood still, looking sad. Then one named Cleophas answered, «Why, it seems you are the only traveller in Jerusalem who doesn't know what has happened there these past few days». And he asked, «What is it?». They replied, «It is about Jesus of Nazareth. He was a prophet, you know, mighty in word and deed before God and the people.

But the chief priests and our rulers sentenced him to death. They handed him over to be crucified. We had hoped that he would redeem Israel. It is now the third day since all this took place. It is true that some women of our group have disturbed us.

When they went to the tomb at dawn, they did not find his body; they came to tell us that they had seen a vision of angels who told them that Jesus was alive. Some friends of our group went to the tomb and found everything just as the women had said, but they did not see him». He said to them, «How dull you are, how slow of understanding!

You fail to believe the message of the prophets. Is it not written that the Christ should suffer all this and then enter his glory?». Then starting with Moses and going through the prophets, He explained to them everything in the Scriptures concerning himself.

As they drew near the village they were heading for, Jesus made as if to go farther. But they prevailed upon him, «Stay with us, for night comes quickly. The day is now almost over». So he went in to stay with them. When they were at table, he took the bread, said a blessing, broke it and gave each a piece.

Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him; but He vanished out of their sight. And they said to each other, «Were not our hearts filled with ardent yearning when He was talking to us on the road and explaining the Scriptures?».

They immediately set out and returned to Jerusalem. There they found the Eleven and their companions gathered together.

They were greeted by these words: «Yes, it is true, the Lord is risen! He has appeared to Simon!». Then the two told what had happened on the road and how Jesus made himself known when he broke bread with them.

Today, the Gospel is inviting us to say the liturgy of these days of the Octave of Easter. Let us rejoice in knowing that today and forever Jesus resurrected stands among us.

He walks with us on the journey. But we must let him open our eyes of faith for us to realize He is present in our lives. He wants us to enjoy His company complying with what He said to us: «And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age» (Mt 28:20).

Let us walk in the hope we have knowing that the Lord will help us find a meaning in everything that we do in our lives. We have to do just like what the disciples did at Emmaus— we have to endure difficulties, setbacks, dejection.

In front of the different troubling events around us, we should know how to listen to His Word which will bring us to interpret them in the light of the plan of God's salvation.

Even though, at times, wrongly, we may think He is not listening to us, but He never forgets us; He always talks to us though we may, however, be lacking the good disposition necessary to listen, to meditate and to contemplate on what the Lord wants to say.

In a very troubled environment where we live, we often find people carrying, in the ignorance of God, a meaningless life.

Thus, it is our Christian task that we should understand and take the responsibility to become useful instruments for our Lord Jesus Christ to be able, through us, to come close and walk along with those around us.

Let us join hands and lead other people to an understanding that they are sons of God. Let us make them understand the fact that Jesus has loved them so much that He has not only died and resurrected for them, but He has decided to stay with them for good through the Holy Eucharist.

Bless us all in this season of Easter!

Do not fear, God gives His ultimate Gift to humankind

Today's Gospel says, (Lk 1:26-38): In the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a town of Galilee called Nazareth. He was sent to a young virgin who was betrothed to a man named Joseph, of the family of David; and the virgin's name was Mary. The angel came to her and said, «Rejoice, full of grace, the Lord is with you». Mary was troubled at these words, wondering what this greeting could mean. But the angel said, «Do not fear, Mary, for God has looked kindly on you. You shall conceive and bear a son and you shall call him Jesus. He will be great and shall rightly be called Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the kingdom of David, his ancestor; he will rule over the people of Jacob for­­ever and his reign shall have no end».

Then Mary said to the angel, «How can this be if I am a virgin?». And the angel said to her, «The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore, the holy child to be born shall be called Son of God. Even your relative Elizabeth is expecting a son in her old age, although she was unable to have a child, and she is now in her sixth month. With God nothing is impossible». Then Mary said, «I am the handmaid of the Lord, let it be done to me as you have said». And the angel left her.

Today, we are celebrating the feast of the Annunciation of our Lord. With the angel Gabriel's announcement and Mary's acceptance of the explicit divine will of incarnating in her womb, God assumes the human condition and nature.

—«in everything equal to us, except for sin»— to exalt and elevate us as his sons and have us, thus, as partakers of his divine nature. The mystery of faith is so great that Mary, with this announcement, remains appalled.

Gabriel tells her: «Do not fear, Mary» (Lk 1:30): the Most High has looked kindly upon you and has chosen you to be the Mother of the Savior of the world. The divine initiatives break the weak human reasoning.

«Do not fear, Mary!». Words we shall often read in the Gospels; the same Lord will repeat them to the Apostles when they closely feel the supernatural force and when they show their fear or fright before the extraordinary works of God.

We may ask ourselves for the reasons of this fear. Is it an unreasonable fear, an irrational fright? No! For those who see themselves small and “poor” before God, that clearly feel their weakness, their feebleness before the greatness of the Divine and experiment their nothingness before the magnificence of the Omnipotent, it is a logic fear.

Pope saint Leo wonders: «Who will not see his own feebleness in the same Christ?». Mary, the humble town maid, considers herself such a little thing... but in Christ she feels strong and her fear disappears!

Thus, we can clearly understand that God «chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong» (1Cor 1:27).

The Lord looks at Mary, sees the smallness of His servant and works the history's greatest marvel on her: the Encarnation of the eternal Verb as Head of a renewed Humanity.

Let us meditate and ponder over the fact that if Mary had not said yes, then the taking on of human form of the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity would not be fulfilled.

Now, does mean that because Mary said yes we are saved? Does that mean that it is Mary who saves us? No. What does it mean?

It simply means that salvation is not only God’s gift to us, it is also our response to God’s invitation.

In the same sense that even if Mary dreamed, in all her sleeping and waking hours to be the mother of God, but if God had not willed it, she would not be the mother of God.

In the same way, if God wanted to take human form, and then the human form refused to cooperate, then God cannot take human form.

So, salvation is actually God’s initiative, God’s gift to us, and then our response to God’s initiative. If God does not offer, there will be no salvation. If man does not accept, there will be no salvation.

That is why in Theology we say, God’s gift to us is also our task. When God gives us something, He also challenges us to maximize that blessing.

The plan to make the second person of the Holy Trinity, a person, a human being like all of us, was offered to us.

Mary was free to say no or to say yes. Because she said yes, salvation became possible for us.

It is the same thing with all of us. Continually, we are being offered to become mothers of Jesus. Continually, we are being offered the opportunity to give birth to Jesus.

Each time we talk, each time we plan, each time we act, we are being offered to become instruments of the Lord being born into the world.

But that offer has to be accepted. We have to cooperate with the offer being given to us. Then the beautiful story of salvation begins.

We will thank God today for His offer of salvation. At the same time, we will acknowledge our failure, our fear, our shame to accept that offer.

Some of us are lazy.

Some of us are afraid.

Some of us are fearful about making a leap into the dark.

We will ask Mary today to ask the Father to bless us with the same generosity that she showed to God so that the salvation that happened when the angel Gabriel announced to her that she would be the mother of God, that same salvation can happen to us.

Annunciation happened more than thousands of years ago. But annunciation continues to happen to this very moment.

The Lord continues to offer.

I hope and pray that your answer will be as strong as the yes of Mary.

Bless us all!

Today's Gospel (Lk 17:7-10): "We have only done our duty..."

"Jesus said to his disciple, «Who among you would say to your servant coming in from the fields after plowing or tending sheep: ‘Come at once and sit down at table?’...."

Meditations: Today, the Gospel message is not placed on the master's attitude, but on the servant's. Jesus, with the example of a parable, invites his apostles to consider the stance of service: the servant should fulfill his duties without expecting any reward: «Do you thank this servant for doing what you commanded?» (Lk 17:9)...

Sunday 32nd Week (C) in Ordinary Time ..."He is God of the living and not of the dead, and for him all are alive"

Today's Gospel (Lk 20:27-38):
Some Sadducees arrived. These people claim that there is no resurrection and they asked Jesus this question, «Master, in the Scripture Moses told us: ‘If anyone dies leaving a wife but no children, his brother must take the wife, and the child to be born will be regarded as the child of the deceased man’.

Now, there were seven brothers; the first married a wife, but he died without children; and the second and the third took the wife; in fact all seven died leaving no children. Last of all the woman died. On the day of the resurrection, to which of them will the woman be wife? For the seven had her as wife».

And Jesus replied, «Taking husband or wife is proper to people of this world, but for those who are considered worthy of the world to come and of resurrection from the dead, there is no more marriage. Besides, they cannot die for they are like the angels. They too are sons and daughters of God because they are born of the resurrection.

Yes, the dead will be raised, and even Moses implied it in the passage about the burning bush, where he calls the Lord the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. For he is God of the living and not of the dead, and for him all are alive».


Meditations:
Today, Jesus makes it clear his claim about resurrection and eternal life. Sadducees doubted, or even worse, they ridiculed the belief in eternal life after death, which was defended —instead— by the Pharisees and we also defend it.

The question the Sadducees asked to Jesus «On the day of the resurrection, to which of them will the woman be wife? For the seven had her as wife?» (Lk 20:33) let us catch sight of a possessive sort of juridical mindset, demanding proprietary rights over a person.

Furthermore, the trap set up for Jesus raises an equivocal still existing today: imagining eternal life as an extension, after death, of the earthen existence. Heaven would, thus, consist of the transposition of the beautiful things we now enjoy. But, «it is only too evident that —on the basis of man's experience and knowledge in the temporality— it is difficult to build a fully adequate image of the “future world”» (John Paul II).

To believe in eternal life is one thing, but to imagine what it will be like is another thing altogether different. When a mystery is not surrounded by respect and discretion, it risks being trivialized by curiosity and, finally, ridiculed.

Jesus' answer has two parts. In the first one, He tries to make clear that the marriage institution has no reason to be in the other life: «those who are considered worthy of the world to come and of resurrection from the dead, there is no more marriage» (Lk 20:35). What does persists and reaches its maximum fullness is whatever we have sowed in this world as far as authentic love, friendship, fraternity, justice and truth... are concerned.

The second part of the answer leaves two certitudes with us: «For he is God of the living and not of the dead» (Lk 20:38). To trust in this God means to realize we are meant to be alive. And being alive consists of being with Him in a continuous manner, forever.

Furthermore, «and for him all are alive» (Lk 20:38): God is the source of life. The believer, submerged in God through the Baptism, has been able to escape forever from the clutches of death.

Join me in my prayer as I say:
Lord , You gave me the Good News to console me when I am in trouble, to replace my confusion with peace. Your Word brings light to my darkness.

But Lord, I know that the Gospel is there, to trouble me when my life has become too comfortable.

The Gospel can also serve to give me discomfort when life has become too easy, to shake me out of my smugness; to prick my pleasurable liefstyle.

My well equipped life; my access to money; my nice and branded stylish clothes; my beautiful house; my access to popular vices; these can sometimes make me forget that not all people are blessed as I am.

Lord, let me share not only from my abundance but from my substance.

Let me share not only from the tip of my wallet but from the back of my wallet. Lord, I want to share not only my extra but also what is essential to me.

Lord, help me to learn how to share. Help me to become a blessing for other people. Help me to defend the innocent, the lost, the children, the weak and the oppressed. Lord, my liffe is too comfortable. My life is too easy. There is always food on the table.

Lord, I want to be ready... I want to be willing to take up Your Cross, to offer some sacrifice....to follow You....Amen.

..."There will be more rejoicing in heaven over one repentant sinner".

Today's Gospel (Lk 15:1-10) says...

Tax collectors and sinners were seeking the company of Jesus, all of them eager to hear what He had to say. But the Pharisees and the scribes frowned at this, muttering. «This man welcomes sinners and eats with them».

So Jesus told them this parable: «Who among you, having a hundred sheep and losing one of them, will not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and seek out the lost one till he finds it? And finding it, will he not joyfully carry it home on his shoulders? Then he will call his friends and neighbors together and say: ‘Celebrate with me for I have found my lost sheep’. I tell you, just so, there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one repentant sinner than over ninety-nine upright who do not need to repent... I tell you, in the same way there is rejoicing among the angels of God over one repentant sinner».

Meditations:

What can I say about this powerful message but to really be enlightened of its essence in our daily life as sinners in this sinful world we live in. You see, even in monasteries and convents where goodness and holiness dwell, the pangs of evil still penetrate and overpower God's servants and triumph over their weaknesses.
For in the Scripture today, it says that the evangelist of God's mercy imparts two parables of Jesus that lighten up his Divine behavior towards those sinners returning to the right path. With the human image of joy, he reveals God's goodness finding pleasure in the homecoming of those who moved away from sin.

It is like coming back to the Father's home (as more distinctly will say at Lk 15:11-32). «For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved» , and He did it while welcoming those that, full of confidence, «were seeking the company of Jesus , to hear what He had to say» , as He healed their soul as the doctor heals the body of the ailing.

While the Pharisees believed they were so righteous and felt they needed no doctor, it is actually for them —the evangelist says— that Jesus proposes the parables we read today.

If we feel spiritually sick, Jesus will tend to us and will be happy that we have gone to him. But if, on the contrary, we would think, as those proud Pharisees did, that we need not to plead forgiveness, the divine Doctor will not heal us.

Each time we recite the Lord's Prayer, we must feel like sinners, as we say «and forgive us our sins...». And we sure must be grateful to him for doing it! As grateful we must also be, for having placed, so mercifully, at our disposal, the Sacrament of Reconciliation.

St. Augustine tells us that Jesus Christ, God and Man, gives us an example of utmost humility by removing the “tumor” of our arrogance, «for, though great is the misery of a haughty man, greater is still the mercy of the humble God».

Let us further add that the lesson Jesus gives to the Pharisees is also an example for all of us; we cannot throw sinners away from us. The lord wants us to love them as He has loved us and we must rejoice to bring back home the lost sheep or to recover the lost coin.

Have a blessed Thursday to all of you....

when good prayers are not answered

We believe that Gospel texts are always true and that the Scripture is always telling the truth. It is because we believe that God never lies and always fulfills His promises.

The Lord tells us that all prayers are answered. In the Scripture, it is said that: "Knock and it will be opened, seek and you will find". There is certainty in that statement.

But we know from life's experience that not all prayers are answered. This puts me in a dilemma because I strongly believe that the Scripture is always true and correct.

So that our faith experience does not get shattered, we then have to excuse God, shrug our shoulders and silenty tell ourselves: "maybe what I am asking for is not good for me or that I will not profit from what I am asking for."

Whether we approve it or not, some prayers are not answered, or better still, are not answered the way we liked it and the way we asked for it.

This certainly places us in a dilemma because in the Scripture, God promises that all prayers will be answered and then somehow we experience that even good prayers like when we pray for peace, but yet there is still war in Iraq; when we pray for spiritual healing but then crimes still abound in every corner of the world; when we pray for physical healing yet our family members and friends still die from their ailments; and when we pray for abundance but then famine still engulfs people from the third world countries, and other basic prayers don't seem to get answers from God.

It is a big mystery indeed; a big mystery that even me could not fathom. Well, let me just share with you what I actually do when such occasion happens, when my prayers don't get answers from God.

When I pray like crazy for the approval of my greencard application which I submitted three years ago yet as of this writing, there is not a word from the INS whether it's approved or denied,... and when I make acts of sacrifice and practically cry and kneel down before God and asked Him to give me the grace and blessing and grant my petition for a friend from Albuquerque, who was figthing for his life when he met a serious car accident while driving his way home from Arizona but nothing happens and he still died,.... I only look at the Cross and ask the Almighty Father, "Why did You allow Your Son to suffer this way?"

It is a big mystery that the Father allowed His only Begotten Son to suffer and die on the Cross. It is a big mystery that the father allowed the deaths of the victims of Glorietta blast in Makati Philippines just recently, the death of soldiers from war in Iraq, the death of children from extreme hunger and famine in the African continent, the destruction of so many houses ad properties in the California fires and many others.

It is a big mystery why some of our good prayers are not answered by God the way we expect them to be answered.(Luke 11:9)

For as long as the world still exists, there will always be mysteries in life. There will always be good prayers that won't get answers from God just like the mystery of His Son who's nailed and died on the Cross.

But if you can understand and accept why the Father allowed His Son Jesus to die on the Cross, then perhaps you will be able to understand and accept why some good prayers are not answered by God.

Be calm and have a happy Saturday!

Halloween treats...

Today. I drove Sr Kateri out to town early in the freezing cold on a pitch black darkness of the wee hours of the morning for her 8 o'clock Ct scan at St Vincent hospital in Sta Fe, an hour and a half drive from the monastery.

Sr Kateri needed to go to St Vincent Hospital for her medical ct scan. Nothing serious about her. It's only part of her regular monthly follow-up check-up.

From the hospital, we proceeded to Studio X- the community gift shop's web designer and had some time with its owner-manager Nancy for some important discussions with our plan to re-design the whole gift shop web. We ended the discussions and brainstorming just past twelve and so we went to a nearest restaurant for our late lunch. We went back to the monastery after lunch and i had to drive her in going back from Bode's store in Abiquiu and back to the monastery.



After taking a break from posting meditations here, and after going through the difficult days that passed by, I am back again to my bring you some food for thoughts that you may bring and pack as the day unfolds and finally ends with you; that is, posting the day's Gospel and my reflections .... so my friends, here we go.

Today, the Gospel message from Luke 13: 22 - 30 is giving us a proof of the wisdom and brilliance of Jesus Christ.

He is asked the question, " are there many who will be saved?"

If Jesus answered there would be few who would be saved, then many of us would certainly get disappointed and discouraged. We would say, "I am not good enough. No matter effort I would exert, I will still be damned anyway, so I may just as well enjoy and endure my damnation."

ON the contrary, If Jesus said that many will be saved, then most probably, many of us will be presumptuously proud.

We would then say, "I am not that very bad. I think I am gonna be included in that number. I am not that wicked and so, I don't have to be scared because I will certainly and surely be included."

But the Lord did not say, "yes, there are many." nor "no, there are'nt many."

Rather, Jesus simply said, "do your best and I will take care of the rest."

That is what I am trying to say to you that the Lord is full of wisdom and brilliance. He delivers us from presumptuous pride and as well as from discouragement and despair from our repeated mistakes and flaws we commit in our lives.

Then after the Lord has delivered us from both, He leads us into self-responsibility.

And that's where we usually and constantly fall short. Without self- responsibility, we never feel accountable to ourselves simply because we are not that ready to take the responsibility for ourselves: for what we do with our present condition; for what we say to ourselves in our daily encounters with life.

We feel and think: "everybody is at fault except me. The whole situation is bad not because of me, but because of all of you."

Now, the Lord is asking us to once and for all, take the responsibility and be accountable for ourselves. Let's do our best and He will take care of the rest. God will never spoon feed us. God will not give us salvation on a silver spoon and platter. We must do our share. He is counting on us and with His loving mercy and grace, we will make it work so that one day, when we woke up one morning, we can say: I have succeeded and reached my goal!

Happy Wednesday to all of you...and have a great Halloween night.

Don't give up...

Today, Jesus reminds us that we should pray continually and not lose heart (Luke 18:1-8).

While I was taking a monastic walk at the monastery's grounds this morning after the celebration of the Holy Eucharist, I could not help but to notice the dry leaves that were scattered by the freezing wind on the ground. The fresh leaves from the lush branches of green trees were gone! All that were left was nothing but a dead-like shape of trees standing on the ground.

The fresh green branches that went away can very well symbolize our great hopes and dreams. Of course, we all have the right and are entitled to dream dreams and create visions of our future, and the future of our loved ones. And this dream gives us the strength to sustain a spiritual energy in us to hope and look forward. This strength gives us hope that drives us to carry on no matter what the cost.

But the fresh lush leaves of branches dried up, turned brittle and changed their color. From fresh green color of hope, they turned yellow and soon enough, turned earth brown and fell on the ground.

How quickly do we see our hopes and dreams dry up! How quickly our hopes and dreams fall! When we feel that our hopes and dreams have been shattered by the cruelties of life, then it is high time to remember that it is God, not us, who make hopes and dreams come true!

Many of us haven't yet even began to take steps to realize and materialize our dreams and we aready suffer from the paralysis of hurt and brokenness. We succumb to self-pity; at other times withdrawn.

Although we cannot reverse the turning of fresh green leaves to dry brown, we must not forget that for those who give their complete trust and confidence in God, even the most impossible dream can come true. Everything is possible for those who have faith and trust in God.

We must keep on hoping and trusting God no matter how unfair and cruel life may seem to be. We must keep on hoping no matter how useless and helpless we may feel ourselves to be.
God has not given up on us. We should not give up on ourselves.

Favors granted or not granted, petitions heard or not heard, the person in Jesus Christ will always be there. So that, if your faith rests on the person of Jesus, then even if you are faced with a difficult life, a crisis or a problem, even if your prayers seem to remain unanswered, you will still sustain a faith that is constant, consistent and persevering.

With or without Jesus working on your prayers and petitions, you believe in Jesus Christ. Because your faith is not based on Jesus who does things for you, but your faith is in His being Jesus , your Redeemer and the Way to eternal life.

Before I end, let me pray with you my prayer when my life comes to a point when it seems to be at a standstill....

..."Lord, I get discouraged because I confess the same sins over and over again. I grew weary of praying for my dreams over and over again that seemed not to be answered.
At times, i feel embarrassed because my sins are repeated a million times over. I tremble in shame, Lord. I am disgusted with myself for I have slackened from the disciplines of life.
I may be discouraged Lord, but You will never be discouraged
with me. I may be a disappoinntment to others but You are never disappointed of me because You see much hopes and dreams in me, a wicked sinner.
Lord, I will not give up. I will not give up on trying. I will try to be good if not better. I will try to reform, but I give no assurance that I will not fall again or ever.
But Lord, when I fall, bring me back to You. When I forget, remind me of your endless love. When I am lost, show me the way.
Lord, I wil not give up because I know You will never give up on me. Lord, do not grow tired of forgiving me. Lord do not grow tired of me. Lord, do not give up on me."...amen.

Happy Sunday to all of you.

Lk 11:5-13: ...Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and it will be opened to you.

-------------------->>photo owned by katsushiro of Flickr

...Jesus said to his disciples, "Suppose one of you has a friend and goes to his house in the middle of the night and says: ‘Friend, lend me three loaves, for a friend of mine who is traveling has just arrived and I have nothing to offer him’. Maybe your friend will answer from inside: ‘Don't bother me now; the door is locked and my children and I are in bed, so I can't get up and give you anything’. But I tell you, even though he will not get up and attend to you because you are a friend, yet he will get up because you are a bother to him, and he will give you all you need. "

"And so I say to you, Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and it will be opened to you. For the one who asks receives, and the one who searches finds, and to him who knocks the door will be opened. If your child asks for a fish, will you give a snake instead? And if your child asks for an egg, will you give a scorpion? Even you evil people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more then will the Father in heaven give holy spirit to those who ask him!"...


Pondering on the Gospel, i shall strongly say, that it is a catechesis on prayer Jesus is giving us. He solemnly asserts that the Father always listens to him as He listens to us.

But at times, we seem to see that reality indicates that it is not always like this, that it does not actually “works” in such this way.

Life is fleeting, and as we watch the years pass by ever faster and faster, we can grow impatient and can even fall victim to despair.

Most of us may think and ask ourselves, "Why is life so hard? I try to pray so hard, do good and do the right things, but why is it that my prayers are still unanswered?" "What kind of friend is God? After all this time, what reason do I have for believing such phrase: "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and it will be opened to you"?....

And sometimes in great despair, we blurt out in our minds:"It is vain to serve God; and what do we profit by keeping his command?"

Surely these statements may be very disturbing. They may even shake the faith of the Brethren who have been faithful to God and to His Precepts and Commands.

But if we analyze things deeply, we may say that this is because we must pray with an attitude adequate to an effective prayer! The first premise is dedication and perseverance. We must pray never ever feeling disheartened, even if we think our prayer is being ignored, or is not given heed to, right away.

This is the attitude of that inappropriate man calling on his friend's home, in the middle of the night, to request a favor. With his doggedness he will get the loaves he needs.

God is the friend who listens from within to whom is persistent enough. We must believe that He will end up by giving us what we are asking, because in addition to being a friend, He is also our Father. In our own vernacular language: 'Ang magulang ay hindi nakakatiis para sa anak! Ang magulang ay hindi pwedeng matiis na nakikita nyang ang anak nya ay naghihirap.' So, we never should give up on our father. We never should give up praying to God! We should never give up on God!

The second concept Jesus teaches us is confidence and filial love. God's paternity goes far beyond man's paternity, which is limited and imperfect: "Even you evil people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more then will the Father in Heaven?"…

The third one Jesus is trying to tell us in today's Gospel is that: more than anything else in this world, we have to call for the Holy Spirit and not only for material things. Jesus encourages us to invoke the Holy Spirit, assuring us we shall receive It: ..."much more then will Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!" (Lk 11:13). This petition is always listened to. It is very much like asking the grace of the prayer, as the Holy Spirit is its source and its origin.

Lastly, let me summarize the essence of today's Gospel , that we must pray faithfully and devotedly, because one grace God has not granted us once, He may grant to us some other time. And on our hands, we must humbly place our whole mind in God, and God will place his grace upon us, as He pleases......In His time. In God's time!

Happy Thursday to you all....

Lk 11:1-4: "Lord, teach us to pray..".

--------------->>photo owned by House of Hope of Flickr

One day Jesus was praying in a certain place and when He had finished, one of his disciples said to him, "Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples". And Jesus said to them, "When you pray, say this: Father, hallowed be your name, may your kingdom come, give us each day the kind of bread we need, and forgive us our sins, for we also for-give all who do us wrong, and do not bring us to the test".

...meditating on today's Gospel, I can summarize it in a single phrase: ....the best concept and attitude for Christian prayer is that of a child in front of his father.

It is very striking that we can see that the prayer, according to Jesus, is something like a “father-son” relationship. That is, a family matter based on a relation of closeness and love. The image of God as a father speaks to us of a relationship based on affection and intimacy, not on power and authority.

To pray as Christians means to position ourselves in a situation whereby we see God as our father and we speak to Him as his sons. To pray is to talk with God.

But about what?.

About Him. About ourselves and Our Joys, love and reparation, sorrows, successes and failures, noble ambitions, daily worries, and our weaknesses! And acts of thanksgiving and petitions as well...

When sons speak with their parents they try to transmit, through their words and body language, what they feel in their heart.

We become better praying men and women when our relation with God is more intimate, as that of a father with his son.
Jesus himself left with us his own example.

Lk 10:38-42:...Martha, Martha, you worry and are troubled about many things, whereas only one thing is needed...

...As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, He entered a village and a woman called Martha welcomed him to her house. She had a sister named Mary who sat down at the Lord's feet to listen to his words. Martha, meanwhile, was busy with all the serving and finally she said, «Lord, don't you care that my sister has left me to do all the serving?». But the Lord answered, «Martha, Martha, you worry and are troubled about many things, whereas only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen the better part, and it will not be taken away from her»...


Meditating on the Gospel, I must say:
Today, as every day, we can learn very much from the Gospel. Jesus, invited to Martha's home in Bethany, gives us a lesson of humanity: ...
He, who loved people, lets people love HIM, for both things are equally important. It would be a serious mistake, with harmful consequences for sanctity, to refuse God's and others' affection , and on another hand, it is dreadful to be anxious or be uncomfortable and much worse, to be jealous of, with someone's affection to God and to His creatures.

Martha or Mary? But..., why opposing those who loved each other so much and loved God too? Jesus loved Martha and Mary, and their brother Lazarus, and He loves each one of us, too.

On the path of sainthood not any two souls are exactly alike. We all try to love God, but within our own style and personality, without imitating anyone. Our models are Christ and the Mother of God. Do you resent how others treat God? Do you also resent how others treat and show their love to others? Try to learn from this personal piety.

Jesus had observed Martha for quite awhile and had looked into her soul. What HE saw was a woman who was not at peace. She was a good soul who had fallen into the trap of letting the ordinary tasks of daily life overwhelm and rule her days, instead of just the opposite.

That very thing can happen to any one of us, if we forget that we're not walking through our days alone, if we forget that the Lord walks with us.

If we attend to the Lord's presence and trust HIM, He'll give us the courage and strength we need; and He'll help us to keep our vision clear and to know what really matters and what does not. He'll help us to be unmindful, and not to be anxious and uncomfortable of how others love God and His Brethren.

Walking consciously and faithfully with the Lord is the "one thing that is required." Everything else will follow, most especially a calm and a peaceful heart.

Happy Tuesday to us all!....

(Lk 10:25-37): living on the surface?

-------------------------->>image owned by Simon_K of Flickr...

...A teacher of the Law came and began putting Jesus to the test. And he said, "Master, what shall I do to receive eternal life?". Jesus replied, "What is written in the Scripture? How do you understand it?". The man answered, "It is written: You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength and with all your mind. And you shall love your neighbor as yourself". Jesus replied, "What a good answer! Do this and you shall live".

The man wanted to keep up appearances, so he replied, "Who is my neighbor?". Jesus then said, "There was a man going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him, beat him and went off leaving him half-dead. It happened that a priest was going along that road and saw the man, but passed by on the other side. Likewise a Levite saw the man and passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, too, was going that way, and when he came upon the man, he was moved with compassion. He went over to him and treated his wounds with oil and wine and wrapped them with bandages. Then he put him on his own mount and brought him to an inn where he took care of him. The next day he had to set off, but he gave two silver coins to the innkeeper and told him: "Take care of him and whatever you spend on him, I will repay when I come back". Jesus then asked, "Which of these three, do you think, made himself neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?". The teacher of the Law answered, "The one who had mercy on him". And Jesus said, "Go then and do the same"...

Pondering on today's Gospel....
Today, a Teacher of the Law asks Jesus the kind of question we may have asked ourselves more than once, in our life: "Master, what shall I do to receive eternal life?" (Lk 10:25). He wanted to put Jesus to the test. The Master, though, wisely answers what is written in the Scriptures, that is, to love the Lord your God and your neighbour as yourself (Lk 10:27). The key is to love. If we seek the eternal life, we know that "faith and hope will go away, but love will remain forever" (1Cor 13:13).
Any life project, any spirituality, which has no love in its center furthers us away from the actual meaning of our existence.

Most Catholic adults and, indeed, most of their children know the story of the Good Samaritan, which is today's gospel. And most of us would have a ready answer to the question, "According to Jesus, who is my neighbor?" Our answer would be simple and clear: "Everybody," and our answer would be right. But that doesn't close the matter. There's a further question: Is our right answer surface knowledge or dynamic knowledge? Is it strictly correct information, or does it actually affect and determine the way we live?

Jesus' proposal is clear: "Go then and do the same". It is not a theoretical conclusion of the debate but an invitation to live the reality of love, which is not only a vaporous feeling but a behaviour that defeats social denominations and stems from a person's heart. St. John of the Cross reminds us "at the twilight of your life you will only be examined of love".

That's the crucial question for us all, and it can be phrased in another way: How Christian are we, in fact? Does Jesus' teaching determine our priorities, our lifestyle, the way we do business, the way we treat one another, our willingness to forgive, our readiness to help?

So how Christian are you really?

Contemplating on Lk 6 35-42 ...Know yourself:

photo above is owned by katenottle of Flickr...

The theme of the gospel Lk 6: 35-42 is, very clear: hypocrisy, sincerity and truthfulness.
The Greek philosopher, Socrates, said that to be able to discover happiness in life you must know yourself.

We will try to know ourselves deeply, and in knowing ourselves deeply, hopefully rise up from the hypocrisies we harbor in our hearts.
How do we know ourselves? There are some of us who say that we can know ourselves by what we do. in fact, some people may be correct in saying that. You know yourself in terms of what you do. We are identified by our work.

Unfortunately, that is not always a good way to know ourselves. When we do nothing, does it mean that we are nothing already?

Sick people who are bedridden cannot do anything. Are they nothing? They are certainly still somebody. So, we do not judge ourselves simply by what we do.

Some say that you can be known by what you say. That is not always the case. There are times that we are careful with our words because we don’t like to hurt or make enemies. We are very careful with our words because we don’t want to lose our friends.

We do not judge ourselves in terms of what we do, neither in terms of what we say, but in terms of what we think because no one censors the way we think. We think according to our pleasure.
We do things according to what we think is right. We do not always do what we think of.
We always think, and that is the way to judge ourselves so we can really know who we are. Knowing your thoughts, knowing your mind, knowing what you think could be seen as the ways by which we react to situations.

It is very easy to be tolerant. It is very easy to be good. It is very easy to be good and behave inside the church. It is very easy to smile inside the church because everybody seems to be good here.

I will cite to you examples to prove what kind of person you are even though you are inside the church.
When a person goes to communion, he quietly falls in line because he is prepared and very much disposed for it. When he see someone who does not fall in line, an urge to hit this undisciplined person can overcome him. This thought can cross our minds.

We cannot judge a person in an ideal situation but rather in terms of his reaction during times of crisis. Only at the point of crisis, at the point where the situation is not so ideal, will we know our true selves, by the manner we react.

It is very easy to know ourselves if only we will have time to look at our reactions to crisis. We will perhaps fail if we will judge ourselves better by what we think.

Today, I tell you to check your thoughts. If you will check your thoughts, you will be able to know yourself more deeply. If you know yourself more deeply, God will be able to enter into your heart.

But, I am warning you, this examination of thought might be a painful process. This checking of thought might cause trouble and make you afraid.

It can make you realize that you are not the perfect person that you project to be. That you are not the holy person, the good person that you want to be, that people think about you. It might be painful, but I assure you, it is worth it because this kind of pain is the pain that leads to growth.

Child bearing is painful. A mother bears a child although she knows the pain that accompanies childbirth. She endures the pain and discomfort of childbearing because it brings about new life and self fulfillment. This is the kind of pain that I am inviting you to face and carry. The pain of realizing ourselves, the pain of realizing that we are hypocrites in varying degrees.

Let us ask God to make us sincere, to make us honest, to make us truthful.

Pope Paul VI once said, “what the world needs now are not teachers, what the world needs now are not speakers, what the world needs now are witnesses who speak and act the way they think. If speakers and teachers are credible, are important, its is first of all because they have become witnesses.

Let us ask the Lord to make is truthful, honest and sincere

********************

Today's Gospel (Lk 16:19-31): "Now he is in comfort and you are in agony"...

Jesus said to the Pharisees, Once there was a rich man who dressed in purple and fine linen and feasted every day. At his gate lay Lazarus, a poor man covered with sores, who longed to eat just the scraps falling from the rich man's table. Even dogs used to come and lick his sores.

It happened that the poor man died and angels carried him to take his place with Abraham.

The rich man also died and was buried. From hell where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham afar off, and with him Lazarus at rest. He called out: ‘Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus with the tip of his finger dipped in water to cool my tongue, for I suffer so much in this fire’. Abraham replied: ‘My son, remember that in your lifetime you were well-off while the lot of Lazarus was misfortune. Now he is in comfort and you are in agony. But that is not all. Between your place and ours a great chasm has been fixed, so that no one can cross over from here to you or from your side to us’.

The rich man implored once more: ‘Then I beg you, Father Abraham, to send Lazarus to my father's house where my five brothers live. Let him warn them so that they may not end up in this place of torment’. Abraham replied: ‘They have Moses and the prophets. Let them listen to them’. But the rich man said: ‘No, Father Abraham. But if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent’. Abraham said: ‘If they will not listen to Moses and the prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the grave'.

Meditating on today's Gospel it says...
Today, Jesus confronts us with the social iniquity direct consequence of the growing inequality between rich and poor. As if belonging to one of these awful scenes we are used to watch on TV, the Lazarus' yarn hits us, and achieves the sensationalist effect to prompt our emotions: «Even dogs used to come and lick his sores» (Lk 16:21). The difference is obvious: the rich man was dressing in purple and fine linen clothes, while the sores covering him were the poor man's only dress.

But the situation is balanced when both die. And, it is now when the difference is reversed: one takes his place with Abraham; while the other, is simple inhumed. If we had never heard this story before and we would like to apply the values of our present society, we might reason out that who reached into Heaven was the rich man and the poor one, logically, buried in the sepulchre.

Abraham, the Father of the Faith, pronounces the sentence spelling the final outcome: «My son, remember that in your lifetime you were well off while the lot of Lazarus was misfortune. Now he is in comfort and you are in agony» (Lk 16:25). God's justice changes the situation altogether. God does not allow the poor man to remain forever in anguish, hunger and misery.

This message has moved millions of rich men's hearts and have converted large crowds through history; but, what kind of message will be needed in our over-developed, hyper-communicated, globalized world to make us realize all the social injustices which we are directly responsible of, or, if nothing else, which we tolerate as accomplices?
Whoever heard Jesus' message desired to rest by Abraham's side, but how many, amongst us here, will have enough by being buried when dead, without wanting to receive the consolation of our Father in Heaven? The true wealth is getting to see God, and what we need, as St. Augustine asserted, is: 'Walk with the man and you will reach God". That the Lazarus of everyday help us find God.