Easter Sunday

Acts 10:34a, 37-43
Ps. 118
Col. 3: 1-4
Jn 20:1-9

God Will Raise You Up

Beloved in Christ, Easter literally means “the feast of fresh flowers”. Today we gather in joy to celebrate our new life in Christ and we pray that we will develop fresh love for Christ, for his church, for our family and friends, for our country, and for all those God has placed in our lives. Yesterday, one of my friends shared a joke with me and I thought I would share that with you. The joke is about Joseph of Arimathea. Do you remember who this man was in the Bible? He was a very rich man and had a lot of influence in the society at the time of Jesus. He was also a secret disciple of Jesus, the one who went to ask Pilate to allow him to take the body of Jesus from the cross so that he could bury Jesus. Now here comes the joke. It is said that one of his friends asked Joseph of Arimathea: “Why did you give your most expensive tomb to Jesus? It was too expensive to be given out as a gift, you know!” and Joseph responded: “Oh don’t worry about it, I knew he only needed it for the weekend and I would have it back J” And the friend asked: “How did you know?” and Joseph said: “Because Jesus said it, and everything he that man says I know is true”! Beloved, even though this is a joke, there is some truth in it. Our first reading and the gospel today tell us that Yes, Jesus needed the tomb for only that weekend. He is risen, He is alive, Alleluia, Alleluia! (Please give me Amen for thatJ). He is risen indeed!

 Beloved, another thing that is true in that joke is that everything Jesus says is true. Jesus said he would be betrayed by the high priest and the people, he would suffer and be put to death, but on the third day he would rise again. As Peter explains in the first reading, all this happened exactly the way Jesus predicted them. When Jesus says something, it comes true. When he promises something, he does it. The joy of following Jesus lies in the fact that he is faithful!

Beloved, Jesus did not only say that he would rise again, but also that he will raise you up (Jn 6:44). Yes, his resurrection is a sure sign that he will raise us up and that the grave will not be the final destination of our lives. If we believe in Jesus, he will raise us up again. This is what St Augustine meant when he said, we are Easter people and Alleluia is our song. As the responsorial psalm tells us, because of what God has done today, we have reason to rejoice and be glad.

St. Peter tells us in the first reading that Jesus promised to raise us up not only from the grave at the end of our lives, but also, even now, as we live he promises to raise us up from our sin. “all the prophets bear witness, that everyone who believes in him will receive forgiveness of sins through his name” (Acts 10:43). That is why St. Paul encourages us in the second reading to “seek what is above” and do all we can to overcome sin because sin can prevent us from experiencing the joy and the power of the resurrection. We have to hold each other’s hand in our struggle to overcome sin and help each other strive to live a new and fresh life in Christ.

Beloved, Jesus also promises to raise us up above all the problems that overshadow us in life. In John 16:33 he tells us that in this world we shall have problems but that we should take courage and not give up because he has overcome the world and he will help us overcome the problems in our lives. Jesus is risen but life was still dark for Mary Magdalene that Sunday morning when she went to the tomb. She did not feel the joy of the resurrection that morning when she went to the tomb because she was still focusing on the problems of her life, the death of her friend and savior. Perhaps, like Mary Magdalene on the day of the resurrection, you are also overshadowed by the problems of your life. Jesus promises to raise you up above your problems at school, family problems, broken relationships, broken dreams, financial problems, sickness, depression, struggle with drug addiction, and all that overshadows you and takes your joy away. Do not be afraid! Because He lives, we can face tomorrow. He will raise you up! Because Jesus lives, life is worth living.

5^th Sunday of Lent-Year C

Isaiah 43:16-21

Psalm 126

Phil 3.8-14

John 8:1-11

God Is Not A Memory; He Is A Presence!!!

Beloved in Christ, in Christian theology, we believe that God speaks through words and events of Jesus’ life as recorded in the Scriptures and traditions of the church. We also believe that God speaks through human experience, the events of our daily lives, as disciples of Christ. When we gather at Mass and any sacramental celebration, we celebrate not just the memory of what God has done, but most importantly the presence of God in our lives here and now. If we don't take care we can celebrate God and actually treat him as a memory rather than a presence. We can reduce our rituals into remembering what Christ did 2019 years ago and not see how God is living these realities in our own daily lives. As we get closer to the celebration of the passion of the Lord, the readings remind us God is not a memory; He is a presence! And that our celebrations should not focus only on what God has done in the past, but also on how we allow him to live these mysteries in our own lives today.

Our first reading today reminds us that God is not a memory; He is a presence. The people of Israel were in exile in Babylon and life was extremely difficult for them. They had lost everything in their lives, become slaves, prayed for almost seventy years, and the situation seems to get worse. They had given up all hope in the future and all they were doing was taking consolation in the memory of the past, the “good old days” when God delivered their ancestors from Egypt, divided the sea for them, and brought them back to their own land. They focused so much on the past that they were missing what God was doing in the moment.  As they focused on the past, God reminded them that He is not God only of the past; he is also God of the present and the future. Beloved, it was only when the people listened and paid attention to their present situation that they came to realize that God was providing a solution to their problem through the pagan king, Cyrus. It was only when they started seeking God in their present situation that they came to realize that Cyrus was not an enemy but a friend God was giving them to set them free and help them return to their own land.

In the gospel, Jesus reminds us that, as his disciples, it is our calling to do all we can to overcome suffering and all forms of injustice in life. However, as we fight to restore the world into the paradise that God created it to be, we should look for the presence of God in every suffering. In that way, we will experience God not as a memory but as a presence! It is easy to say God died for me 2000 years ago than to say Christ is suffering with me right now. When we seek Christ in suffering, we receive strength to overcome and bring new life even into the most hopeless situation. Jesus teaches the woman in our gospel today that she should not settle for any unjust treatment that society brings her. She should fight to overcome that. However, the only way she can succeed in this fight is to keep her eye fixed on Christ and know that Christ is suffering with her. If we don’t look for God in suffering we will miss the real solution to our problem. I am sure the woman had heard of God as a God who cares and saves; but it was only when she decided to remain with Christ at a point where she could have just left, like her accusers had done, that she felt the presence of the God even in her suffering.

St. Paul in the second reading reminds us that life can really be tough; life can be a difficult race at times. There are ups and downs, success and failures. Things do not always go as we pray and hope for. St. Paul says in good and bad times he keeps his eyes on Christ because only Christ has the power to make things new, to bring good out of evil. Beloved in Christ, Do you take time to look for God good and bad times? If you do, you will come to realize that God will make a way even when there seems to be no way!

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3^rd Sunday of Lent-Year C

To Live Without God is a Disaster

Beloved in Christ, Our Lord Jesus uses different images that people can identify with to reveal spiritual truths about the kingdom of God. He uses images, such as good shepherd, the gate, bread of life, sheepfold, and mustard seed to teach us about God and his relationship with human beings and other created things.  In our gospel today, Jesus uses the image of disaster to communicate divine truth. He makes reference to two disasters that his audience at the time was very much disturbed by.

One was the massacre of many Galileans by Pontius Pilate as they were worshipping and offering sacrifices; and the other was 18 people who died because a tower in Siloam, a city south of Jerusalem, fall on them. As the people were talking about these natural disasters, Jesus tells them, yes, these are disasters that should not happen because they destroy human life; however, the greatest disaster that can happen to human beings is for them to live without God. Living without God is the greatest disaster that can happen to a human being. Just as we will do all within our power to guard ourselves, our family, friends, and communities against any type of disaster in our world, we should help each other avoid this greatest disaster of living without God so that no human soul perishes.

The first reading tells us that God’s mission is to save his children from any form of disaster and oppression. He is always working to save his children because he hears our cry, he sees our tears, and he feels our pain, and he will do whatever it takes to save his people, but he needs our cooperation to save us and use us to save others. The reading talks about how God needed Moses’ cooperation first to save Moses and then use Moses to save the Israelites from slavery in Egypt. There are many images in that story that draw attention in a powerful way: 1). God’s name: I AM tells us that our God is the Emanuel, Always with us and will never abandon us. 2). The burning bush: God uses the burning bush to tell us that when God enters into our lives, he does not come to destroy our joy but to make it complete. 3) God asking Moses to take off his sandals. The sandals are meant to protect Moses from harm and danger and bring him comfort. So God asking Moses to remove his sandals was telling Moses to make himself vulnerable to God, to depend on God for protection and comfort.

Beloved, God’s presence will always surprise us. It may demand some purification from us, and even call on us to take some risk in entrusting our lives into God’s hands. However, all these are not to destroy us; rather, they are meant to make our lives better. Moses cooperated with God and helped to save a nation. Jesus cooperated with his Father and saved the world. Moses and Jesus both had to first offer their lives to God in order to become life giving to others. That is what St. Paul means by saying the Israelites were baptized into Moses and we are baptized into Christ. God wants your life; he wants my life so that we can help others find their way back to God. Indeed, millions in our world today are still living without any recourse to God. Are you ready to give your life to end this disaster? May God give us the grace and courage to say “Yes” I am.

Second Sunday of Lent (Year C) 

Gn 15:5-12, 17-18

 Ps 27

 Phil 3:17—4:1

 Lk 9:28b-36

Sacrifices Open Us Up To Receive God’s Promises

Beloved in Christ, this past week, I received two wonderful stories from two families that I have been praying with for over seven years now.  Both families needed a child, and we have been praying for 7 years for this intention. At a point in time, they decided to stop holding on to the idea that they need to have their own biological child. After years of praying, they decided to adopt. For two years, each family has been working on the adoption papers. Guess what? The very day that one family brought their child home, they found out that they were pregnant! The other family also found out a month later that they were pregnant.  Beloved, see what God can do? These families wanted a child each, but God knew that they needed two children and not one. God wanted them to offer their plans up as a sacrifice to him; and the moment they did, God fulfilled his plans for their lives.

Beloved what God did for these two families, he has done before in history. Our first reading today talks about Abraham, a man who was homeless and childless. He received a promise from God that he was going to possess a country filled with milk and honey, that he would become a father of nations, and his descendants would be as many as the stars in heaven. Two things that Abraham needed most in life were a child and a place to call home. That is why what God promised him was good news. However, this news would not make sense from the human point of view because Abraham and his wife were too old to bear a child, and the land that God promised him was occupied by the Canaanites who had a strong tribal army to fight anyone who tried to take their land.

Abraham believed in God, but also struggled with the fact that, humanly speaking, this promise seemed impossible. When Abraham asked God for a sign, God asked him to offer a sacrifice, an invitation for Abraham to let go of his fears and his human assessment of how he thought the rest of his life was going to be. God was telling Abraham; let it all go; offer all that to me; let me take care of the future and how I will fulfill my promise. As you let go off the question that creates fear and doubt, you open yourself up for the faith God needs from you for his promises to come true.

            It takes sacrifice, my brothers and sister, to receive God’s promises for our lives. Blessings must always be received with open arms! The gospel tells us that in order to save us, Jesus had to offer his will to the Father. He knew that offering one’s life to the Father is the only means to transcend sin and evil symbolized by the Cross. He used his transfiguration to teach the disciples that when we offer our lives to God, the cross will not have the final say. Beyond the cross, there will be the resurrection. Moses and Elijah offered their lives to God and did not lose their lives but led a nation back to God.

Beloved, what are you struggling with? What is your heart desire? What are you praying for? Work? Marriage life? Struggle at school? Finances? Children? Struggling with drug addiction? What sacrifice is God asking you to make for his promises to come true in your life? St. Paul, in the second reading, tells us to stand firm in the Lord because God is faithful. Let us not be afraid to offer our plans, fears, anxieties, and questions about the future to God and “wait for the LORD with courage and be stouthearted” (Ps. 27) because God is faithful!!!

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First Sunday of Lent-Year C

Temptations are Opportunities to Prove Our Love for God

Beloved, yesterday I had dinner with one family and something very cute happened. One of my friends in that family is a five-year old; and as we were chatting she said, “oh Fr. I want to say thank you”, to which I responded oh you are welcome but for what?  She said, “oh some weeks ago, you gave one homily that was “veeery deepJ”. All at the dinner could not stop laughingJ. I asked what I said in that homily and she said: “I don’t remember but I know is that it was veeery deep and you touched my heart”J Beloved, I did not know whether to take that as a compliment or as a sign that I need to work more on my homiliesJ I know “veeery deep” for a five year old eehhhhJ But what stayed with me in that conversation is the phrase  “you touched my heart”! I really pray that today’s homily will be veeery deepJ

Beloved in Christ, God is looking for only one thing from us: Our Hearts! Every opportunity God gives us is meant to help us fall deeper in love with him and those he has placed in our lives. The season of Lent is one of such opportunities. We pray, we fast, and we give alms in order to fall deeper in love with Christ and become more devoted to him and those he has placed in our lives so that our very lives will become an offering pleasing to God and a means of salvation for others. There is great joy in being faithful; and we all experience that type of joy from time to time when we keep our promises. As gold tested in fire, when we are able to stand temptations we become better Christians and we grow in our faith and love for God. We do not understand all about temptations; but when we look at the life of Christ, we get some understanding into why God allows us to face temptations in life.

Our readings today invite us to reflect on temptations in our lives and how we can overcome them. There is a seemingly strange opening of the gospel reading in which Luke tells us “Jesus was led by the Holy Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil”. This does not mean that God caused the temptation. God does not cause temptation because temptation is an invitation to evil and cannot come from God. Only goodness can come from God. Do you remember last Sunday’s reading? A good tree cannot bear bad fruit. God cannot tempt us, but he permits us to be tempted so that we can prove our love for him in action and share in the joy of being faithful. “Led by the Holy Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil” means the Holy Spirit accompanied Jesus even when he was tempted by the devil and the Spirit helped Jesus to overcome. Beloved, Inasmuch as we desire to please God, you and I know that this is not easy to be faithful. There are storms in life and times that we find ourselves in the “desert” and face all kinds of temptations. However, there is good news! Our readings today assure us that we can overcome temptations.

1. When tempted, remember you are not alone and call on God for help! Our responsorial psalm tells us to call on God when we are in trouble. Our second reading tells us: “all those who call on the Name of the Lord, shall be saved and they will never be put to shame”. 

2. Always think of God’s blessings when you face temptations. A grateful heart is a strong weapon against temptations. Moses tells the people to recall the history of what God had done for them and their ancestors. How God delivered them from slavery in Egypt, from all their enemies, and established them as a nation on a land flowing with milk and honey so that they can remain faithful and offer sacrifices pleasing to God. In the gospel, when Jesus faced temptations he recalled what his Father had done and said to his people as recorded in Scripture. Remembering with a grateful heart how His Father had fed the people with Manna in the desert, Jesus was able to tell the devil that man does not live on bread alone. He believed that as his Father fed his ancestors in the desert, he would take care of him so he was not going to disobey God because of his needs. Again, remembering that his Father gave his ancestors a land free of charge and blessed them with property, Jesus refused to bow down to the devil in exchange of any riches, power, or honor in the world. No human need, even when it threatens survival should make us turn our back on God’s law. Indeed, remembering what God has done for our ancestors, our families, and in our personal lives will help us develop the strength to obey God even in times of temptation. Looking at what God has done for us should make us believe that He will take care of us in every need and in every situation. What is separating you from the love of God? What is making you disobey God? Is that thing worth more than your life? If God has given you life, is there anything He cannot do for you?

As we live this first week of Lent, I invite you to take some time, as a family, as friends, and as a church community, to reflect on the blessings that God has showered on you so that developing grateful heart we may have the strength to overcome temptations and offer our lives to God. Let’s us cherish that Old ragged Cross so that we can exchange it someday for a crown.

7^th Sunday-Year C

Transformation Through Forgiveness

Beloved in Christ, we thank God for another opportunity to listen to his words, dine with him, worship him, and be transformed by him. Our readings today remind us that life is a journey of transformation. St. Paul in the second reading tells us that we are born human and sinful but through the grace given us in Jesus Christ we are transformed through life experiences to become more like Christ. The gospel tells us that God uses forgiveness as a tool to transform us from our fallen human state into a spiritual one, when we become more like God. Jesus invites us to become agents of God’s transformation by embracing his forgiveness and forgiving those who hurt us, hate us, or even persecute us: “love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you…. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.”

In our first reading today, we have one of the greatest acts of forgiveness recorded in the Bible. It is the story about a man called Saul, who was the first King of Israel and David who became the second king of Israel. To really appreciate the beauty and the power of forgiveness in that story you need to read Chapters 16-24 of I Samuel. David was the son-in-law of Saul. He was also Saul’s army commander when Israel had to fight the Philistines. David was also a spiritual healer for Saul because, when Saul was tormented by an evil spirit, it was David who would play music that helped Saul to get better. So why did Saul want to kill David? It was due to jealousy. Saul was jealous that people were praising David for being successful at war and he felt threatened that David might take the throne from him. So he wanted David dead. This story is like a family feud gone crazy. Saul’s hatred for David was so great that he would kill anybody who helped David to escape. He tried killing his own son, Jonathan because he was a friend of David and defended David. He killed 85 priests and destroyed a whole city including women and children because he was told David was hiding in that city. David knew that Saul would stop at nothing to kill him. Yet in our first reading today, when David had the chance to kill Saul, he refused to do so and forgave him.

Beloved, would you forgive a person like that? It is easy to feel that you have enough proof and a justified reason to kill a person who wants you dead. But look at what David did. He spared his enemy’s life because even though Saul was his enemy, Saul was also anointed by God and made in God’s image and likeness. So David was thinking if I destroy him, I am destroying the image of God. What I have to do is to help restore the image of God in him. And that is exactly what David achieved by forgiving Saul. He called out Saul, spoke directly to him, pointed out the sins that Saul had committed, and prayed for him. When Saul realized that David had all the chance and the power to kill him but he did not, Saul repented: “He lifted up his voice and wept” (I Sam. 24: 16-17). This act of forgiveness transformed Saul and restored the image and likeness of God in him.

Beloved, is there anybody you need to forgive in your life? Do you need to forgive your husband, wife, children, siblings, parents, friends, or priest? This week in Rome, Pope Francis has been meeting with all the Presidents of Bishop Conferences in the world to find a solution to the sex abuse scandal in our church. The Holy Father has called on every Catholic to be part of finding a solution to this problem. You may be wondering how you can help solve this problem. The first step is to do as David did. Forgive us, your priests and bishops for betraying your trust, for hurting you in anyway, especially through this horrific sin of sexual abuse and scandals. Forgive us, pray for us, and help us by speaking up, pointing out our weaknesses in a loving way and challenging us as we continue our life pilgrimage of transformation. We need you. We cannot live our priesthood without you. We cannot become holy priests without your help and friendship. We are all pilgrims on a journey; we are all travellers on the road. We are here to help each other walk the mile and bear the load. So, help me be your servant and pray that I may have the grace to let you be my servant too.

6^TH Sunday -Year C

Jer. 17: 5-8

Psalm 1

I Cor. 15: 12, 16-20

LK 6: 17, 20-26

True Happiness Comes from Total Dependence on God

Beloved in Christ, we thank God for another opportunity to listen to his Word, dine with him, and worship him. Our Scriptural readings today tell us that God created us to be happy. God desires nothing, but our total happiness. That is why he created everything we will need in life before he created human beings. God wants us to lack nothing but rather to be blessed and enjoy God’s favor and all the good things in our lives. It is therefore not surprising that every human being desires happiness. However, it is not enough to desire happiness; we must know the path in life that leads to true happiness and the paths that do not. This is super important because if we don’t get it right, true happiness can easily elude us, and we will be living a life that God does not intends for us.

In our first reading, the prophet Jeremiah tells us that it is only those who depend totally on God who will find true happiness in life. St Paul in our second reading tells us that without Christ, life is vain. Without Christ, our hearts will forever be empty. The readings remind me of a conversation I had with an elderly priest few years ago. I had the privilege of visiting this elderly priest who was dying of cancer. I had known him for a long time, and one thing that always struck me about him was the joy he had. He was one of the happiest people I have ever met. Even on his dying bed, he did not lose his joy. He had this joy that was very contagious and I wanted that. So I asked him what made him so happy, why he was so joyful, and his response surprised me at first. He said: “Richmond, if you really want to be happy as a priest, do not allow your priesthood to possess you, let God possess you”. I did not understand what he meant then, but I do now. I have come to realize that when I try to live the priesthood with my own wisdom and strengths, things go wrong, I mess up and I am not happy. But when I try to depend on God and allow him to take control of my mind and my heart, things just get better and I receive some joy and strength to go on no matter what.

Beloved, human as we are, at times we allow the gifts that God has blessed us with to become an obstacle that draws us away from God, the giver of the gift. But in the gospel, Jesus tells us that we can enjoy the blessings of life and be pleasing to God at the same time if we do not forget our need of God because of the gifts he has given us. That is what Jesus means when he talks about the need for us to be poor. Jesus is not telling us not to laugh or work hard to enjoy the blessings that come with hard work. He is not telling us to embrace the kind of poverty we have in our world today, which is the deprivation of the basic necessities of life. No, God does not want any of his children to be deprived of the basic necessities of life. God wants us to do all we can to eradicate that kind of poverty from our world. Jesus is not telling us not to work or make money and acquire property. When Jesus calls on us to be poor, he is talking about detachment and advising us to avoid any approach to life that seeks to enjoy the good things of this life but forgets our need of God. Such an approach just leaves the human heart emptier and deprives us of the happiness that God wants for us. True happiness comes when we are able to enjoy the blessings of life in a way that draws us closer to the God, the giver of all the gifts that we have. It is being able to tell God, thank you for the gift of my husband, I love him so much, but I need more of you. Thank you for the gift of my wife, I love her so much, but I need more of you. Thank you for the gift of my children and grandchildren, I love them so much, but I need more of you. Thank you for the gift of my parents and grandparents, I love them so much, but I need more of you. Thank you for the gift of my friends, I love them so much, but I need more of you. Thank you for the gift of money, property, my job, position etc. I love these so much, but I need more of you. Beloved, it is those who are poor that have the capacity to live the rest of the beatitude. They have the capacity to be sorry for their sins, mourn for offending God, and take measures to reconcile with God. They have the capacity to hunger and thirst for justice and fight for justice for all. They are those who will stand for and live their faith no matter what comes their way because they are not ashamed to show the world that they depend on God.

Beloved in Christ, as we meditate on the readings today, we need to ask ourselves: Are the gifts that I have drawing me closer to God or away from him? I am falling more deeply in love with Jesus because of the gifts he has blessed me with or am I becoming less dependent on him because of the gifts I have. May God lead us by the light of truth to seek and to find the narrow way. May God be our truth, our way, our life, and lead us in the paths of his command!

3^rd Sunday-Year C

Neh. 8:2-4a, 5-6, 8-10

Psalm 19: 8-15

I Cor. 12: 12-30

Luke 1:1-4; 4:14-21

Life Comes from Renewing Our Covenant with God

Beloved in Christ, we thank God for another opportunity to listen to his Word, dine with him, and worship him. In our first reading today, the people of Israel who had come back from exile were looking for a new beginning as seen in the rebuilding of the temple. They were looking for a new and better life. Their spiritual leader, Ezra, and a political leader, Nehemiah, told them that decorating the temple alone will not bring the better life they were looking for. These leaders told the people that it is through a renewal of their covenant with God that they can find new strength, new joy, a better life, and hope for the future. How did they renew that covenant? By spending time to read Holy Scripture because in reading the Scripture, we gain new understanding of God’s will as well as the zeal and passion to live it and find new life in God. This is what our responsorial psalm confirms when it says God’s Words are spirit and life. In our gospel, Jesus is looking for a better life for his people and looks to the Hebrew Scriptures for answers. He goes into the synagogue, reads a Scriptural passage from Isaiah, reflects on it, and comes to the realization that his Father has anointed him to bring the Good News to the poor, set prisoners free, and bring forgiveness of sins. This scriptural passage increases his zeal and passion to fulfill the Father’s plan for his life and nothing would stop him until he died on the Cross to save us.

Is our world looking for a better life today? Are you looking for a better life or do you know anyone looking for a better life? Where do we find that? It is unfortunate that in our world today sharing the Word of God with people is considered disrespecting them or violating their rights. But our Scriptural readings today remind us that sharing the Word of God is not disrespecting them but brining them life.

The readings today remind me of a phone call I recently received from one of my very good friends. She called and said, “Okay, I have done some crazy thing!” So I asked what is it and she went on with a question: “So you know there are some good stuff in the Bible right? You know it can bring people peace, right? I laughed and told her “ I have been a priest for 15 years, come on, tell me something I don’t know. I was very surprised at what she was saying because she is not a Christian and I don’t expect her to be reading the Bible. In fact, ten years ago, I bought her a Bible as a birthday gift but she became very angry when she opened the gift so I apologized to her and told her to give it back if she did not want it. She did not give it back, but she was so angry with me about this gift that for the past ten years we never talked about it and I always wondered what had happened to the Bible. In her phone call, she said her uncle was dying so she decided to visit him and some “strange voice” told her to take her Bible along. I couldn’t control my joy when I heard her mention the Bible so I interrupted her right way and said “wait, wait, wait, did you just say that you still have that Bible? She told me she has kept the Bible and has been reading it from time to time and it has changed her perspectives on life. So she decided to listen to this “strange voice” that was asking her to bring her Bible as she was going to visit her dying uncle. When she got there, she decided to read the bible to her uncle and bring him hope that God will save him. To her surprise, her uncle started crying and told all present that he became a Christian when he was a student in England in the 1960s and had promised God to bring the faith to his country but decided to hide his faith when he returned because of the persecution of Christians. As he was dying, he was very sorry he had disappointed God and was asking God to forgive him before he dies so he understood her niece, who is not a Christian, brining a Bible to come and pray for him as God answering his prayers. He passed away peacefully with a smile on his face right after sharing this faith story with his family.

Beloved, this confirms what St. Paul is saying in our second reading today that we need one another to help us renew our covenant with God and find a better life. We should not be ashamed or afraid to share the Word of God with people no matter how awkward, weird, scary, or crazy it might look. You can never tell how God is going to use the Word you share to bring life to somebody. It will make your own life and the life of others better. May God deepen our love for the Scriptures and give us the courage to live it and share it with others.

34^th Sunday-Year B

Solemnity of Christ the King

Daniel 7:13-14

Ps. 93

Revelation 1:5-8

 John 18: 33-37

Surrendering to the Love of Christ

Beloved, today we celebrate the Solemnity of Christ the King and by this celebration we bring our Liturgical Year to an end. Next week, we shall begin the Season of Advent. The Feast of Christ the King was established, as a universal feast, by Pope Pius XI in 1925. This was a time when the whole world was suffering because of the impact of the First World War, Communism, and the rise of the Nazis in Germany. It was at this time that the Church established this feast to remind the whole world that true PEACE, SECURITY, JUSTICE, and THE JOY OF LIFE come only when we accept Jesus as our King and allow Him to reign in our hearts.

Our first reading from Daniel is a prophecy that was meant to bring hope to the People of Israel when they were suffering in exile in Babylon and were crying for a savior.  In this prophecy God told them that the solution to all their problems lies in accepting the “Son of Man”, as their King. What is shocking about this prophecy is that the kingship of the Son of Man will be radically different from what the Israelites were expecting because the “Son of Man” will be a king not only for Israel but also for all peoples and nations. This means he will unite Israel and her enemies and indeed all the nations of the world as one people with one King. That is not what the people of God wanted at that time. They wanted a king who would make Israel superior to other nations not a king who would make other nations equal to Israel. So, you see, their understanding of the solution to their problems was different from what God saw as the solution.

This is the same Son of Man we celebrate today as our King. Our second reading from the Book of Revelation tells us Jesus is the King who loved us so much that he washed away our sin with His blood and made all of us, people from all nations one kingdom for God. Today, we celebrate that same King who is the solution to all our problems; but the King whose approach to solving our problems is radically different from what we see as the best approach, or what the world teaches us as the best approach.  In our Gospel, Jesus makes this point very clear to Pilate:  My Kingdom does not come from this world; I am not a King the way you will expect me to be. I am the King of Truth, I do things according to the Will of My Father; and I am a King for those who love the Truth.  

Beloved, because Jesus’s Kingship is so different and his approach to solving the problems of our lives is so different form our own approach, we often find it very difficult to agree with Him and surrender our lives totally to Him.  So as I celebrate this feast the question I ask myself is: “Is Jesus really the King of my life? As I reflect on this question, I see that there are areas in my life where Jesus is the King; but there are other areas where I am the King. These are the areas where I struggle to do His will; and they are also the areas where I struggle with sin. I do not know about you; maybe you are not like me; you’ve got it all figured out. But I struggle when my approach to solving a problem is different from what Jesus tells me to do.

But Beloved, if you are like me, do not lose hope. We can start all over again. All is not lost because we serve a King who is merciful, a King who knows our weaknesses, a King who is always ready to give us a new start. Advent is a new beginning. Indeed, we can rise again! Let us renew our allegiance to Christ and resolve to surrender all aspects of our lives to Him. If we do, we will have life; and have it to the full.