4^th Sunday of Easter-B

Acts 4:8-12

Psalm 118

I Jn. 3:1-2

John 10:11-18

 

One Flock with One Shepherd

 

Beloved in Christ, our gospel today contains one of the sayings of Jesus that has occupied me for most of my adult life. I think about that statement a lot as a Catholic priest. Jesus says, "I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold; they too I must lead so that there will be one flock and one shepherd (John 10:16)."

What does Jesus mean by that? So, besides Catholics, Jesus has other flock? Really? Who are they? Jesus describes them: Even though they do not belong to this fold, they hear his voice as we do. 

Jesus' description brings a lot of faces to my mind. I think of a couple I know who are one of my adopted families. They call me son, and I call them Mom and Dad. Mom is Christian, and Dad is Hindi. They have been married for over 30 years. They practice their faith separately, but for the past 5 years, they have been praying the rosary together as husband and wife. I also think about a friend I had lunch with two months ago, who is Muslim and told me she admires Christians, has read the Bible, and follows what Jesus teaches, but she is Muslim because she was born into a Muslim family. How many of us are Catholics because we were born into a Catholic family? Another face that comes to mind is that of Stephen, a young man who is a friend of Sam Black. Stephen is Muslim, and he freely decided to visit our parish, he joined us for Mass on Palm Sunday and told me after the Mass that God spoke to him during the Mass; even though he is Muslim, he heard God's voice during the Mass. "I know them, they know me, they hear my voice"! I believe this is what St. John, in our second reading means when he writes that we are all children of God, and God is not ashamed to call us his children. 

Beloved, I have a question for you. In our first reading today, why do you think the high priest and the elders of the people were so angry with Peter and John for doing a good thing, curing a man who was crippled? The high priest and the elders thought that they had the privilege of God's revelation, and they did not believe that God could reveal any truth to people like Peter and John. The high priest and the elders limited God to only what they knew or believed about God. So, what lesson can we learn from that reading? 

• God can reveal his truth to anyone that God chooses. 
• We cannot limit how God reveals himself! Rather, we need to embrace God’s truth wherever it is found. 

In my religious studies class some years back, I read that one reason why the Prophet Mohammed started a new community of believers was because the Christians in his area at that time did not want anything to do with him and his family. How I wish those Christians had welcomed the Prophet Mohammed and his family and genuinely engaged him in dialogue rather than avoiding them.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church# 843 teaches that there is some goodness and truth in all religions. I want to read that paragraph to you: "The Catholic Church recognizes in other religions that search …, for the God who is unknown yet near since he gives life and breath and all things and wants all men to be saved. Thus, the Church considers all goodness and truth found in these religions as "a preparation for the Gospel and given by him who enlightens all men that they may at length have life."

Beloved, we need to be open to dialogue with our brothers and sisters in other Christian denominations and people of different religions so that we can learn about how God has revealed himself to them and share how God has revealed himself to us so that together we can work towards a fuller knowledge and understanding of who God is and what he expects of us, so that there will be one flock and one Shepherd, Jesus. 

 

 

11^th Sunday-Year B

Ez. 17: 22-24

Psalm 92

2 Cor. 5: 6-10

Mk. 4:26-34

 

Be a Seed Planted in Christ

 

Beloved in Christ, last week Monday, After the Noon Mass, one of our Parishioners, Bernie, approached me and congratulated me for taking very good care of some tomatoes plants she had given me two weeks ago to plant in our parish garden. And I with the tomatoes seed. When she praised me, my face fell because I had forgotten to plant the tomatoes and they had died. So, knowing I could not lie to her, I told her I was sorry, but I forgot to plant what she had given me, and the plants had died. She laughed and said, "Oh Father, that's okay, don't worry! Just look for new tomatoes plants and plant them." I had messed up, but Bernie gave me a new chance. Beloved, I remembered this encounter because our readings today talk about how God has invited us out of love to help build his Kingdom of peace, love, and justice on earth. Still, how we always mess up, and God always gives us a chance to make things new. 

 

The first reading talks about how God can bring life out of the most rotten and hopeless situation when we place those situations in his hands. The reading is an allegory, a song that was written by the prophet Ezekiel to tell a story of how God works among his people to restore their lives. Any allegory has hidden meaning that can be confusing if you don't know the story that it is referring to, so let's delve a little bit into the story in the background of our first reading today. The story behind this reading was the Israelites coming under constant attacks from Egypt and Babylon. The trees described in the first reading are the people of Israel who were captured and taken as slaves to Babylon. Ezekiel, who was a priest in the Temple, was captured. He lost the Temple, so he lost his job. He lost his nation, national pride, and prestige and became a slave in a foreign country (Babylon). Yet, in the midst of all these evil and problems in his life and that of his country, the prophet says Israel is not just a failed harvest but still contains a seed and that if only the people would understand their lives as a seed and place that seed in the hand of God, He would bring something great and more beautiful our of that seed. 

 

Beloved, we can identify with the situation in our first reading. When you look at our world today, it seems like everything is falling apart. The world might seem like a failed harvest. The conflict, economic crisis around the world, the evil of human trafficking, abortions, broken families and dreams, nations turning away from God, political powers are persecuting the Church in many places, etc. Not only does our world seem to be falling apart, but our Church also is in crisis because we, the priest, have betrayed the Church with our infidelity and sexual sins. Many of the faithful have also failed to live their baptismal calling in the family and places where they work. When you look at all this, as well as the challenges of your personal life, you may be tempted to see the world as a failed harvest. But the prophet Ezekiel tells us that our world, Church, and life are not just a failed harvest. There is still some good seed in the world, Church, and in us that God can still use to build something beautiful.

 

That is the seed Jesus is talking about in the gospel. Jesus invites us to look at our lives at every given moment as seeds that can still bring out something beautiful even when it does not seem like it. But he reminds us that it is only when we plant that seed (our lives) in Him, the rich soil of God. If we can return the world to Christ, if we can return the Church to Christ, if we can return our lives to Christ, God will surprise us and make something more beautiful even out of our broken world, broken Church, and broken lives. 

 

St/ Paul reminds us in the second reading that if we walk by faith in Christ and do not depend solely on our human wisdom, the best is yet to come.  Beloved, despite all the evil and problems in our world, the problems in the Church, and problems in our personal lives today, there is still some good seed in us. Only if we will replant that seed in Christ. This rich soil yields fruits. God will turn things around and make our world more beautiful, our Church more beautiful, and our personal lives more beautiful. May the Lord lead us by the light of his truth to seek and find the narrow way that leads to life in Christ. 

 

 

 

 

 

6^th Sunday of Easter-Year B

Acts 10:25-26, 34-35, 44-48

Ps 98

1 Jn 4:7-10

Jn 15:9-17

 

Can Anyone Withhold the Water for Baptizing these People?

Beloved, today's readings remind me of a story that one of my friends in Germany recently shared with me. A priest and a pastor of a protestant church in Germany planned to hold a prayer service for Christian unity. To make their service ecumenical, they decided that they would select prayers that members of both churches would know and then, in the end, distribute Communion that each of them had already consecrated. Their plan was that at the time of Communion, they would give the congregation specific instructions that the Catholics should receive from their priest and the protestants from their pastor. Well, their plan did not work out the way they had hoped. The people were just so happy worshipping together that they did not really care whom they were going to for Communion. They thought it was the same Communion, so some Protestants went to the priest, and some Catholics went to the protestant pastor. Imagine how the priest and the pastor felt when they found out that people did not really follow the plan. I have a question for you: Do you think those Catholics who went to the Protestant pastor received grace from God at that service? Did the Protestants who received Communion from the priest receive grace from God? 

 

Beloved in Christ, in our second reading, St. John summarizes the whole of Scripture in three words: God is love. In the gospel, our Lord Jesus tells us that we should love people the way He has loved us. That is pretty difficult because he loves us even when we are unlovable. So can we really love him? Is it even possible? 

 

The first reading tells us that we can love the way Jesus loves only if we allow the Holy Spirit to interrupt and shape our thinking. In the reading, St. Peter raises a question that the church must answer for our generation. That question is, "Can anyone withhold the water for baptizing these people who have received the Holy Spirit as we have? Why is Peter asking this question? 

 

It is important to understand the background of this reading so we can appreciate Peter's question. This event occurred when Peter was in the house of Cornelius and saw that the Holy Spirit had descended upon the pagans. Prior to this, he had a vision in which God asked him to kill and eat some animals that, according to Jewish law, were considered profane and unclean. Peter resisted at first, but then God told him not to call unclean anything that God has made clean. After this vision, God sent Peter to bring the good news to a non-Jewish man called Cornelius, who lived in a pagan territory called Caesarea. Peter had difficulties with this because the Jews considered the pagans unclean and unfit to be called children of God. But the Holy Spirit challenged Peter to change his thinking and embrace the pagans. 

 

           Beloved, this reading challenges us to allow the Holy Spirit to interrupt and shape our thinking because Christianity is more than a set of doctrines. It is a calling into a radical friendship with God and all that God has made. The task of Christianity today is not just to call out people but to walk with them towards Christ. Do we know people who are living contrary to the gospel? What are we doing to help them come to Christ? Should people's color, sexual misfit, lack of catechizes, sinful habits, or anything you can think of preventing them access to the grace of Christ? Should anything in their lives make the church withhold the water for baptizing these people?

 

 

5^th Sunday of Easter-Year B

Acts 9:26-31

Ps 22:26-27, 28, 30, 31-32

1 Jn 3:18-24

Jn 15:1-8

 

God: The Vine Dresser

One of my most favorite passages in the Bible is Jeremiah 29:11, when God tells us, “ I know the plans I have for you, …plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope.” I can tell you that inasmuch as I love this passage, there have been many moments in my life that I have asked: “God, is this also part of your plan? What good can come out of this pain? 

 

In our gospel today, Jesus talks about how God brings the best out of us and makes us bear more fruit and become more of a blessing to family, friends, church, community, and the world. Jesus describes the process as pruning and God the Father as a vinedresser. Physical pruning involves cutting off part of a tree in order to make it more healthy and beautiful. In the spiritual sense, this might be likened to any suffering that God allows us to go through. Today’s gospel teaches us that sufferings can be God’s tool for spiritual pruning. That even though God does not cause the suffering, He can allow it if it is important for our pruning. 

 

We see this in the life of Jesus when he became man. The Father pruned him. Jesus suffered not because of any sin he had committed but because the Father wanted Him to bear much fruit: To save the world through sacrificial love. No wonder Jesus calls his Father: the vinedresser. Remember in the Garden of Gethsemane, that difficult conversation between Jesus and his Father when Jesus cried out, “ Father if it is your will let this cup pass me by, take this cup away if it is your will”. Did the Father prune Jesus? Yes, he allowed Jesus to go through the agony of the Cross because Jesus was going to bear much more fruit that way. 

 

In the first reading, we heard about one of the most important figures in Christianity, St. Paul. He wrote about 40 percent of the entire New Testament. When you look at his life, you can come to one conclusion that suffering can be a tool that God uses to prune us to bear more fruit. In today’s reading, Paul is going through great suffering for the sake of the gospel. The Christian community in Jerusalem does not trust Paul because of his past. They know him to be a murderer and persecutor of Christians. The Hellenist want to kill him because he is preaching the gospel. The result of this confusion is the Church in Jerusalem asking Paul not to do what he desired most, preaching the Word of God but sending Paul into a kind of silent retreat for about 10 years in Tarsus. However, all these very painful experiences and sufferings drew Paul closer to Christ and the Church and gave him all the deep insights into God. That is what he wrote down in the New Testament. The suffering that Paul went through were tools that God used to make him bear fruits that will last for all generations. 

 

Beloved, Spiritual pruning is not something that only Jesus and Paul went through. All the early prophets in the Old Testament, all the early Christians, and indeed all people who want to live and bear fruit in the Name of God went through and will go through some sort of pruning. St. John, in the second reading, tells us the way to respond to spiritual pruning in order to bear much fruit is to respond to suffering from a loving heart. What are the most challenging situations you are going through right now? What brings tears into your eyes? Could God be using that as a tool to prune you? May God give us the strength to respond to any pruning he takes us through with a loving heart and hope in him. When we go through suffering, let’s remember God’s words to us “Do not be afraid! I am with you! I have called you each by Name! You are Mine!

 

 

4^th Sunday of Easter-B

Acts 4:8-12

Psalm 118

I Jn. 3:1-2

John 10:11-18

 

Open the Door to the Church

Beloved in Christ, I don’t remember many of the things I learned in high school, but one thing that stuck with me was something we read in my religious studies class. We were studying the similarities and differences between Christianity and other religions. In that class, we read that one reason why the Prophet Mohammed started a new community of believers was that the Christians in his area at that time did not want anything to do with him and his family. How I wish that those Christians had treated the Prophet Mohammed and his family differently. 

 

In our first reading, St. Peter challenges the chief priest, the Sadducees, the Pharisees, and the leaders of God’s people to develop a deeper understanding of what it means to be an instrument of God’s salvation for others. The people of Israel were always aware of how other nations looked down on them because they often had a small army, were often defeated and were enslaved by other nations. But they also knew that when other nations looked down on them, God placed value on them, made a covenant with them, and made them an instrument of salvation for the world. That is why they would often praise God in the psalms like the one we sang today in our responsorial psalm (118): “The stone rejected by the builders has become the cornerstone.” This for them was salvation: that they were rejected by other nations, but God placed value on them and treated them as people with dignity. That explains why they saw themselves as a people sent to bring salvation to others. However, on many occasions, like the time of Jesus, the chief priest and the leaders of God’s people had forgotten what it means to be instruments of God’s love for others. Peter is telling them, if you really want to bring God’s salvation to people, there is only one way to do it: The say Jesus did it. There is no other way. 

 

How did Jesus succeed in bringing God’s salvation to us? Our gospel reading today tells us that Jesus saves people by relating to them the way a good shepherd does by placing value on them, getting to know them, and loving them no matter what their condition in life. In the gospel, Jesus tells us that he is the Good Shepherd because he places value on even the lost sheep like you and me and lays down his life to save us. He also tells us that he has other sheep who are currently not in the sheepfold (the Church) and that our job is not to reject them but to find a way to bring them to the sheepfold. Our calling as disciples of Christ is to make sure every human being comes to know that they are valued by God, and that all are known and loved by God, no matter how different or sinful their lives might be. Beloved, people will be convinced that God values them, knows them, and loves them only if we can prove that we ourselves value, know, and love them. 

 

Unfortunately, we, like the chief priests and elders in our first reading, at times fail to reach out to those who are rejected by society, those who look different than us and think differently than us. As I reflect on these readings, I ask myself what value do I place on strangers, on people who are different than me? What value do I place on people of different religions, worldviews, and lifestyles? I would like to challenge you to ask yourself the same questions: What value do you place on strangers, on people who are different than you? What value do you place on people of different religions, worldviews, and lifestyles?

 

Let’s pray in this Mass that God will open our eyes to see His face in those people we reject or look down on so that all meet us will come to believe that they are important to God, that they are known and loved by God. May Christ be our light, and may he shine in his Church.

 

 

3^rd Sunday of Easter_Year B

 

You are beloved sons and daughters of God

Beloved in Christ, besides Jesus, who is the most favorite child of God? You! Each Christian should be able to answer, I AM the most favorite child of God. This is the truth that Jesus came to reveal to the world that each of us is the most favorite child of God. Ignorance of this is what makes our hearts restless and makes us chase after other things we think will bring us peace and make us happy. 

 

The second reading tells us who Jesus is. The reading says Jesus is the solution to sin and every problem in the world and that only if we place our total trust in him will we find peace and joy in life.

Beloved in Christ, recently I read about two widows who formed a non-profit organization called Beyond the 11th. These were two women who lost their husbands in that unfortunate and evil attack on 9/11 and were looking for hope and meaning in life. Their search for hope and meaning led them to the realization that in order to find hope, joy, and peace in life we need to transcend hatred and ignorance. This belief led them to form this non-profit to reach out to widows in Afghanistan to help them find hope, joy, and peace in life again. On the website of their foundation, they have a quote that says beyond hatred and ignorance lies hope. Our readings today tell us that the problems of the world today are due to ignorance of who Jesus is and who we are.

 

In the first reading, St. Peter tells us that the problem of the world is ignorance. That all the wrong choices we make in life are due to ignorance. Not ignorance of good and evil, but rather ignorance of who God is and ignorance of who we are. In the reading, St. Peter was addressing people who had gathered in the Temple and were surprised that a man who was crippled and a burger for many years had been restored to life in the name of Jesus! Seeing that such goodness can come from the invocation of Jesus’ name, the people were feeling guilty because they participated in the crucifixion of Jesus. As they struggle with their quilt, Peter tells them that all their sins come from ignorance of who God is and ignorance of who they are. He then calls on the people to come out of their ignorance by opening up to the truth about who Jesus is.

 

The second reading explains who Jesus is. The reading says Jesus is the solution to sin and every problem in the world and that only if we place our total trust in him will we find peace and joy in life.

In the gospel, Jesus tells the disciples that were are so afraid in life and get so worried and terrified because they are confused as to who Jesus is, and he takes time to teach them who he is and helps them to overcome their ignorance of him and then they found peace and joy! And then reveal their own identity to them “You are witnesses of these things”. What are the things that Jesus is referring to? The love of God revealed in all the ups and downs, the joys and pains of those who place their trust in God. You are beloved sons and daughters of God. You have experienced that love of God. Each of you has experienced the same love that the Father has for me.

 

Beloved, coming to this knowledge is what leads to gratitude and a loving heart. It is only a grateful heart that can be joyful, and it is only a joyful heart that can love. It is this ignorance that leads us to make choices that deprive us of hope, joy, and, therefore, peace in life. You may answer “not me, “ and you may be right because you feel like that, but theologically, you are wrong because, besides Jesus, you are the most favorite child of God! . No matter what you want for yourself, God wants something better than that for you. We make wrong choices because we think we need to save ourselves else our situation will not change. That is false and ignorant. Jesus is the source of our joy, safety, and peace!

 

 

 

 

2^nd Sunday of Easter-Year B

(Divine Mercy Sunday)

Acts 4:32-35

1 Jn 5:1-6

Jn 20:19-31

 

God Wants to Have Mercy Through YOU

 

Beloved in Christ, two years I was traveling back from China, and I happened to sit by a woman on the flight, and we had a 12-hour conversation about how difficult it is to live our Christian calling in our world today. 

 

Beloved in Christ, how do you respond when your loved ones betray you? How do you respond when you feel abandoned by people who promised to be there for you? How do you respond when you have been unjustly treated? Today, we celebrate the Divine Mercy of God, and our Scriptural readings remind us that God did not only call us to show us his mercy but also to make us ambassadors of his mercy. 

 

Our first reading tells us that one of the signs that made people believe that Jesus has truly risen was that they saw a practical transformation in the lives of the disciples of Jesus. They became more loving and more caring towards their families, friends, and community. They become more united and more forgiving.

St. Paul, in our second reading, tells us that the world will believe that we are disciples of Jesus if we obey Jesus’ commandment to love the way he has loved us. The goal of Christian discipleship is to walk with people who have doubts in God’s love and mercy in a way that transforms their heart and help them profess faith in Christ and want to live like him. 

 

In the gospel, Jesus appears to the disciples whom he had spent every minute of his life loving and making better, disciples who had promised to be there for him but betrayed denied and abandoned him when he needed them most. Unlike the way the world teaches us to respond to people who treat us like that, Jesus’ first words to the disciples were, “ Peace be with you!” Jesus forgives the disciples and commissions them to become ambassadors of his mercy: “As the Father has sent me, so do I send you” Just as I brought the Father’s mercy to you, you now should bring that mercy to the world. 

 

How did Jesus forgive his disciples? He showed them his wounds, which is a reminder of their sin, and then showed them his love. He did not hide their sin. To love people is not to overlook their sin but to point it out and tell them I love you despite your sin and weakness. I love you despite what you did and said. As we see in Jesus’s encounter with Thomas, only ONE sign transforms people from doubt to faith in God: Merciful love. That is the sign people are looking for. Can we show them the wounds they have caused us by the wrong choices they have made and still make them feel loved? If we do, we can help transform our world with God’s love.

 

God called us not only to have mercy on us but also to have mercy through us. I pray that God will not only have mercy on us today but that we will allow Him to have mercy through us! May God help us open our hearts to God and become agents of His mercy so that hatred and blindness will be no more. Amen!

 

 

 

 

 

Easter Vigil Mass: Holy Saturday

Gn 1:1—2:2

Ex 14:15—15:1

Rom 6:3-11

Mark 16:1-7

 

Jesus is Alive! He is not Done! Things will get Better!

 

Alleluia! Alleluia!!, Alleluia!!!

 

Beloved in Christ, What a Happy Night! I wish you A Happy Easter! Our Lord Jesus has Risen, Alleluia! On Good Friday, I gave a homily that convicted me. It was about living the passion of Christ by reaching out to somebody you find difficult to love. I was very convicted by that homily and decided to call one person whom I found very difficult to forgive. I finally prayed for the grace to do so, and this afternoon I called the person. We had a wonderful conversation, and I was able to tell him that I forgave him. He was very pleased and told me things that I had done that also hurt him, and he forgave me too. God made our relationship new, so I can testify that Jesus has really risen. He is alive in our relationship again. He has made it new. 

 

Beloved, tonight we celebrate the God who died and rose to make things better for humanity. The gospels tell us that one of the signs that Jesus left in the tomb as evidence of his Resurrection is the burial cloth and the cloth that had covered his head, nicely folded in a separate place in the tomb. Some biblical scholars have interpreted this within the context of a meal in Jewish culture at the time of Jesus. Normally at royal banquets, there was a way of using your napkin to indicate whether or not you were done with the food. If a guest left the table and folded the napkin nicely, that meant he/she was not done, and leaving it behind was his way of telling his disciples, “I am not done; I have not abandoned you; I will return to you.” 

 

Beloved, our first reading from the Book of Genesis, tells us that God created the world because he wanted to bring order out of disorder, light out of the darkness. He created the world because he wanted to make things better for human beings, and nothing could stop God from doing that. From the very dawn of creation, God reveals himself as the God who makes things better. Even when we sinned and destroyed our relationship with him, God set in motion the history of salvation and the victory we celebrate tonight.

 

St. Paul tells us each of us experienced the Resurrection of Christ in our baptism. We died and rose with Christ so that we could live in the newness of life. St Paul says if we live our baptismal promises, we will continue to experience the Resurrection of Christ every day of our lives because Jesus has the power to set us free from anything, including sin. Alleluia to That! Beloved, that is good news! (If I were preaching in some Evangelical or Pentecostal church, I would have received “Amen” for that). Beloved, because of the Resurrection of Jesus, we will not die in sin. We can become saints. Even if we taking baby steps, we will get better. 

 

Beloved, when life gets tough, and you find yourself in pain and distress, Don’t lose hope. If you find yourself in some sinful habit and you are struggling to overcome that, don’t give up. Remember that God is not done and that because Jesus has Risen, there is hope. Things will get better. If you are at your breaking point right now, I want to tell you that God is not done. He has strength for those who are despairing, healing for those who dwell in shame, so do not be afraid He has Risen, and he is with you. 

 

 

 

5th Sunday of Lent-Year B

Jer 31:31-34

Psalm 51

Heb 5:7-9

Jn 12:20-33

 

How Much Does Your Covenant with Jesus Mean to You?

 

Beloved in Christ, my sister has a very good friend who is a pilot. Last year, he gave my sister a surprise of a lifetime. My sister was flying from New York to Ghana, about a 10-hour flight, and her friend happened to be the pilot that day. Guess what happened? One first-class seat was empty because a passenger did not show up. So this friend asked my sister, who was sitting in the economy seat, to be upgraded to the first-class seat. My sister was so happy and couldn't stop talking about how awesome it is to fly first class. In fact, she talked so much about it that she was almost annoying. I was almost jealous of the way she talked about this experience, and I said, "Good for you! I have never flown first class. Maybe I have to find some pilot to become my friend. My sister looked at me and said something that set me thinking. She responded, "You don't have to be jealous. You have Jesus as your friend." Her response surprised me and set me thinking. I asked myself many questions: Yes, I believe Jesus is my friend but am I that excited about my relationship with Jesus and all the blessings he has bestowed on me? 

 

In our first reading today, the people of Israel were morning the loss of their relationship with God. They had broken the Covenant they made with God on Mt. Sinai and abandoned the 10 Commandments that guided that relationship. It is the breaking of that Covenant that had brought them into exile. However, the God who always hears the cry of his children and wants the best for them promised that He would make a New Covenant with them. The second reading tells us that promise was fulfilled in the Suffering, Death, and Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. The gospel tells us that the New Covenant is not only meant for the People of Israel but also for you and me and, indeed, every human being who accepts God's invitation into a new relationship. In our baptism, God fulfilled that promise to each one of us in a very personal way. He made us not only his adopted children but also his friends. That friendship love is what Jesus renews each day here on the altar when the priest repeats the word of Jesus. "This is the chalice of my blood, the blood of the New Covenant"!  

 

Unfortunately, like the people of Israel, many times, we fail to appreciate the blessings God has given us, and we think that our lives will be better if we behave like others and we break our Covenant with God. Many times I choose things over my Covenant with Jesus. I choose people over my Covenant with Jesus. I choose my desires, ambitions, and goals in life over my Covenant with Jesus? Do you also do that at times? 

 

If you are like me and have chosen other things over your relationship with Jesus in the past, it is never too late. There is good news! The good news is that we can come back to say I am sorry, and he will forgive us. This weak on Tuesday and Wednesday, almost every parish here in our deanery will be celebrating the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Please check the bulletin for specific days and times and use this opportunity to come back to Jesus to say I am sorry and begin a new relationship with him. 

 

Beloved, there is nothing in life that can satisfy the human heart. Only Jesus satisfies! Let us cherish the Old Raged Cross, cling to it, and exchange it someday for a crown. 

 

 

4th Sunday of Lent-Year B

2 Chr 36:14-16, 19-2

Ps 137:1-2, 3, 4-5, 6

Eph 2:4-10

Jn 3:14-21  .

 

Give God the Benefit of the Doubt

Beloved in Christ, we all go through situations in our lives that make us cry out: “God, is everything going to be alright? Why me, Why this? Why this time? Why my family? We this struggle with sin, and at times, the harder we try, the more we fail. Perhaps, you have tried many Lenten practices like prayers, reading of scripture, fasting, and almsgiving, but still, you struggle with sin. This could be very discouraging, and you might want to give up. We do not only struggle with sin. We also have disasters that befall our families. We have illnesses and the death of loved ones. In the face of all this, we might wonder if life will ever get better. But our readings today answer that question. Yes, life will get better. 

 

Our first reading from the book of Chronicles talks about how the people of Israel had to suffer in exile for 70 years; and that even after 70 years, God still had a plan and delivered his people. What is striking about that story is how God did it. It was totally different from the way the people thought he was going to do it. They thought God was going to call one of them to lead them to fight and defeat the Babylonians. In that way, the people would have had to shed their own blood to get their freedom. But no, God had a better plan. To their surprise, God chose a pagan king, Cyrus of Persia, who defeated the Babylonians, set the people free without any of them shedding their blood, and gave them all that they needed to rebuild their temple and their lives back in Jerusalem. Beloved, you see what God can do? Indeed, God’s ways are not our ways; His delays are not denials. He is a faithful God, and he works in ways that might be contrary to what we expect, but he will always make things better for us. 

 

In the gospel, St. John tells us that God did not send his Son to destroy the world but to save it. God is working every day to save the world. St. Paul tells us in the second reading that God’s grace saw him through all the ups and downs in his life and that if we don’t give up but hold on to our faith in Christ, God’s grace will see us through life. It will not be easy, but we will always come out of those difficult situations victorious. 

 

That is the faith we celebrate in the Eucharist. If you pay attention during the mass, you will see that after the kiss of peace, the priest breaks the bread, which has become the body of Christ, into two and puts it back together and lifts it up as he calls on the congregation to behold the lamb of God. The breaking of the bread symbolizes the death of Christ and the fact that on many occasions, things get broken in our own lives. The bringing of the two pieces of the broken bread back together symbolizes the Resurrection and reminds us that no matter how broken things get, God can restore our lives if we put our trust in him.

 

My Brothers and Sisters in Christ, I don’t know what you are going through right now in your life, but I know one thing: God’s grace will see you through this phase of your life. It is human to have doubts but let’s give God the benefit of the doubt. He will make a way even where there seems to be no way! Give God the benefit of the doubt!