For your easy reference, the following is a list of weeks and years with their corresponding date:
11 Dec 2016 – 3rd Sunday of Advent Year A
12 Dec 2016 – Monday of the 3rd Week of Advent
13 Dec 2016 – Tuesday of the 3rd Week of Advent
14 Dec 2016 – Wednesday of the 3rd Week of Advent
15 Dec 2016 – Thursday of the 3rd Week of Advent
16 Dec 2016 – Friday of the 3rd Week of Advent
There are some people who think that only a certain exclusive group of persons are eligible to be with God in heaven. There people begin a tirade of scary sounding threats and condemnations towards others, saying that unless one joins their group or follow certain ways, one would be condemned to fire and brimstone in hell. More often than not, such persons have got a hidden agenda and one should be careful not to fall for their gimmicks.
In today’s reading, we are comforted in knowing: “Foreigners who have attached themselves to the Lord to serve him and to love his name and be his servants – all who observe the sabbath, not profaning it, and cling to my covenant – these I will bring to my holy mountain. I will make them joyful in my house of prayer. Their holocausts and their sacrifices will be accepted on my altar, for my house will be called a house of prayer for all the peoples. It is the Lord who speaks, who gathers the outcasts of Israel: there are others will gather besides those already gathered.” This means that being with God is not restricted only to certain groups or if one follows certain ways. May we stop bickering among ourselves and concentrate in serving Him, loving His name and being His servants, knowing that He would care and provide for us.
God has a plan for us, and He invites us to participate in His plan. His plan is that all of us are to be with Him, and to further strengthen His plan, God even sent Jesus to the world to die on the cross for us and to save us from our sins. But it is interesting and tragic to note that there are people in this world who do not want to be a part of God’s plan. Would you want to be part of God’s plan, or would you prefer to stay out of it and do your own thing?
In today’s Gospel, we come across some people who chose to stick to God’s plan, while others chose to reject it. The Gospel tells us: “All the people who heard him, and the tax collectors too, acknowledged God’s plan by accepting baptism from John; but by refusing baptism from him the Pharisees and the lawyers had thwarted what God had in mind for them.” God did not abandon the Pharisees and the lawyers, and invited them to play according to His plan, but they chose to do things their own way, thinking adamantly that their way was a better way compared to God’s plan. It is ironic that the tax collectors, who many hated or disliked, were among the ones who recognised that God’s plan was the way to go, whereas the Pharisees and lawyers who were supposed to be good people turned out to be going against God’s plan.
Today, may we truly recognise God’s plan and seize the opportunity to follow it. God does not force us to be a part of His plan, but we know from history that God’s ways are far better than human ways. It is a question of whether we trust in Him and are humble and willing to let Him be our help, providence and guide.
We sometimes forget who we are. We think that a particular property belongs to us, since we had paid for it. We think that the money we have in the bank belongs to us, since we may have worked hard to accumulate the money, or through other investment or other means. We think that our family members belong to us, since we had conceived, given birth and cared for them from young till now. But do we really own all these things, to be used and disposed as we see fit? Can we bring these things with us when we die?
In today’s reading, we are reminded: “Apart from me, all is nothing. I am the Lord, unrivalled, I form the light and create the dark. I make good fortune and create calamity, it is I, the Lord, who do all this.” Everything that we have is actually not ours, not our sole property. We are merely stewards, entrusted which such things and persons, since we will need to leave them behind some day. May we learn not to be possessive or proud of such things and persons, and learn to be detached from them, so that we can learn to be attached to God and let Him be our help, providence and guide.
For your easy reference, the following is a list of weeks and years with their corresponding date:
10 Apr 2016 – 3rd Sunday of Easter Year C
11 Apr 2016 – Monday of the 3rd Week of Easter
12 Apr 2016 – Tuesday of the 3rd Week of Easter
13 Apr 2016 – Wednesday of the 3rd Week of Easter
14 Apr 2016 – Thursday of the 3rd Week of Easter
15 Apr 2016 – Friday of the 3rd Week of Easter
Have you ever wondered why some of you are not happy, or having feelings of anger and impatience, or feelings of resentment in your life? We could come up with so many possibilities of why some of us are feeling this way, but one reason which seems to crop up among many of us is that we want and need to be in control. We struggle to be in control even from our earliest years. As babies, we cry or bawl away, so that our parents would feed us or hold us to comfort us. As toddlers and as a child, some of us may have thrown tantrums, screamed, refused to do what we are told, or even being nice or behaving well, with the hope that we would get something in return. Even as adults, we try to get our way and be in control through our words and actions. Some of us even become control freaks, and try to control everything, including our spouse, our children, those who work for us, and many others, expecting them to conform to our ways and our demands.
But the truth is, we are not, never and shall never be in control, since God is ultimately in control. In today’s Gospel, Peter thought he was in control when he tried to go back to his old job fishing, but even in that, he fared badly, as he was not in control and failed to catch any fish. It was only when Jesus helped that he was able to catch so many fish. Also, the Gospel tells us that Jesus said to Peter: “when you were young you put on your own belt and walked where you liked; but when you grow old you will stretch out your hands, and somebody else will put a belt round you and take you where you would rather not go.” This shows that Peter was not in control of his destiny, and control actually lies with God. Moreover in the first reading, Peter and the apostles reminded the High Priest and the Sanhedrin that God is in control when they said, “Obedience to God comes before obedience to men.” The High Priest and the Sanhedrin could only warn the apostles not to speak in the name of Jesus and released them, but they had no control over the apostles, since the apostles were under God’s control and doing His will.
This is why we should not allow ourselves to become egoistic or proud of our abilities, achievements and talent. The fact is that we are not in control, since we need the grace and strength of God to be able to do all that we do. This is what discipleship is all about: by being at God’s service, by listening to Jesus and be always ready to do God’s will, not ours. We are called to follow Him, to place our lives into His hands and let Him take control of our lives. May we be humble and willing to let go of the need to be in control of our lives and of others, and let God be in control, knowing that He will help and guide us to all we can be, for His glory.
For your easy reference, the following is a list of weeks and years with their corresponding date:
28 Feb 2016 – 3rd Sunday of Lent Year C
29 Feb 2016 – Monday of the 3rd Week of Lent
1 Mar 2016 – Tuesday of the 3rd Week of Lent
2 Mar 2016 – Wednesday of the 3rd Week of Lent
3 Mar 2016 – Thursday of the 3rd Week of Lent
4 Mar 2016 – Friday of the 3rd Week of Lent
What does it mean to forgive? To forgive means we are making a conscious, deliberate decision to release feelings of resentment or vengeance toward a person or group who has harmed you, regardless of whether they actually deserve your forgiveness. Forgiveness is the intentional and voluntary process by which a victim undergoes a change in feelings and attitude regarding an offence, lets go of negative emotions such as vengefulness, with an increased ability to wish the offender well. If we receive forgiveness from God, we must give it to others who hurt us.
This is where the unforgiving servant in today’s Gospel did not get the point. He thought that he had been given a lucky break when his master felt so sorry for him that he let him go and cancelled the debt. Instead of following his master’s example of generosity, charity and benevolence towards his fellow servant, he became arrogant and nasty, refusing to forgive the other servant who owed him way much less than what he owed his master, and even had the cheek to throw his fellow servant into prison till he should pay his debt. This caused his master to become furious and as the Gospel tells us: “”You wicked servant,” he said “I cancelled all that debt of yours when you appealed to me. Were you not bound, then, to have pity on your fellow servant just as I had pity on you?” And in his anger the master handed him over to the torturers till he should pay all his debt.”
What about us? Are we still like that wicked and unforgiving servant, expecting God and others to forgive us, but refusing to forgive others? As the Gospel also reminds and cautions us, we will be responsible and liable to repay our debts if we refuse to forgive others: “And that is how my heavenly Father will deal with you unless you each forgive your brother from your heart.”
Does anyone know what God looks like? Some of you may begin to think: this padre is asking a silly question: Of course no one has seen God and know what He looks like, since we would see God only when we are dead. But this does not stop people from having all kinds of perception of what God may look like and what He may be like. Some may see God as a really old person, since He has been around for a really long time. Some may see God as a fierce-looking and vengeful person, ever ready to judge us and punish us for the slightest mistake or error. But all these images seem to give us the impression that God is impersonal and distant from us, as if He has got nothing to do with us. But is this what God is really like?
In today’s readings, we see quite a different picture of God. God is present here among us. He does not reveal himself only in spectacular and miraculous events, but in the daily events of our lives, sometimes, very ordinary events. In the first reading, God appeared to Moses and appointed him as His messenger to lead the Israelites out of Egypt. Moses never expected to encounter God in the middle of the burning bush, since bush fires were natural and frequent in such a place where Moses was living and working at, but God chose to appear in the ordinary. In the same way, we never expect to encounter God in the ordinary events of our lives, but God is present everywhere and in whatever circumstance we are in. Moreover, God is compassionate, merciful and ever patient. In today’s Gospel, Jesus tells us of the man who planted a fig tree. Even though the tree was not bearing fruit after all the hard work that had been put into it, the man patiently decided to wait and give the tree another chance. Our God is like that: He patiently waits for our repentance and looks on us sinners with compassion. God even sent Hs only Son to die for us so that we may be saved from our sins and so that we may have life.
Let us therefore be grateful and thankful that we have God who wants to maintain a relationship with us and guide and help us in our lives. We do not need to seek Him at high places or spectacular events, since He is with us everywhere. This means that we need to be willing to grow spiritually in His love, so that we would one day be with Him for all eternity.
It is interesting to observe how some families arrange their family altars at their homes. They would usually have a statue of Mother Mary or Jesus at a prominent place on the family altar, some rosary beads, and quite often a bible placed prominently on a stand, opened to a particular chapter and verse which may be the favourite of the family members. But the bible is not meant only to be a decorative item on the family altar, or to be kept in the study. The bible is meant to be read, and its words are meant to nurture us spiritually.
When we go for Mass, we are not only going for nourishment from the Eucharist during the Liturgy of the Eucharist, we are also receiving nourishment from God’s Word during the Liturgy of the Word. The question is: Do you really pay attention to the readings or are you just waiting to receive Holy Communion? If we have not paid attention to the readings during the Liturgy of the Word or taken the trouble to read and study the bible, we may have left out an important aspect of the Mass, that is the Liturgy of the Word. The Liturgy of the Word is no less important than the Liturgy of the Eucharist, as both are equally important. Jesus is present in the Blessed Sacrament as well as in the word proclaimed during the first half of the Mass.
In today’s Gospel, we are reminded that Jesus is the Word of God who has come “to bring good news to the poor, to proclaim liberty to captives and to the blind new sight, to set the downtrodden free, to proclaim the Lord’s year of favour.” If we have not paid attention to the readings every Sunday, we may have lost out on these promises. If we are not making effort to hear God’s word, we may be hearing only ‘bad news’ which society and our experiences choke us each day. The Good News is that in spite of all the evil that we see, hear and experience around us, God’s salvation is far greater; and that Jesus, the Word of God, has conquered evil and death. Those who fail to listen to God’s word continue to be imprisoned by fear and uncertainty; but Jesus promised us that He has come to proclaim liberty to the captives, and He can free us if we listen to Him. Those who fail to listen to God’s word will continue to be blind to our own mistakes and our sinfulness; but Jesus has come to set us free and give us back our sight if we cling on to His words. We are free and are able to see, if we listen to God’s word and act upon it.
So what does this mean to us? It means that we should make more effort to pay attention to the Word of God. The Word of God must have a central and prominent place within the community and also be the basis of our lives. It is not enough to merely recite prayers and attend Mass. We must read and study the bible, and listen attentively to the Word of God at Mass, so that the Word of God can become our daily guide and find fulfillment in our lives. May we find spiritual nourishment from Jesus through His Word and through the Eucharist, and share His Good News to all around us.
