Thirty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time
Today's Scripture
This week one of the most awaited movies of the year was released. I have not seen it yet and maybe I will or maybe I won’t. The movie is called 2012. This movie is based on certain cultural and astronomical assumptions. First, the year 2012 represents the end of the 5,126 year calendar according to the ancient Mayan civilization. The ancient Egyptians also seem to have predicted that cataclysmic events will take place in the same year. Part of the 2012 mystique stems also from astronomy. On the winter solstice in 2012, the sun will be aligned with the center of the Milky Way for the first time in about 26,000 years. NASA predicts a solar storm will occur between 2011 and 2012 but sees this as a natural phenomenon. Some Christian doomsayers are now predicting the end of the world in 2012 just as they did at the turn of the millienium. They suggest that the events in the book of Revelation will come to pass. I even read messages from Mary, the Mother of Jesus asking Catholics to prepare themselves spiritually for the events of 2012. By the way, there are internet stores that are already selling products to survive the destruction.
Thirty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time
Today's Scripture
I have been waiting for the right opportunity to share this story. In the collection basket we received a rather small but heavy envelop. Cindy, our parish secretary, gave this to me later and said that I must see it. So here it is – an envelop with 13 cents stuck inside with a tape. The note reads, “Won $1.27 playing cards 1st time for a long time.” This card was sent in jest because I am so associated with the Blessing of Ten program. But it is the attitude of this lovely lady that I am most touched by. What if she made only a dollar and fourty cents! She finds a reason to express her gratitude... and humor. As they say, “Small is beautiful.”
Solemnity of All Saints
Today's Scripture
I am going to begin this homily by sharing my grandma, Sarah Antony’s story. She died recently at the age of 93. Grand ma had a hard life. She was a widow for 63 years. Grand pa died when she still had a suckling baby in her arms. She worked hard at the farm to provide for the needs of her children. When her oldest son was getting to the age where he could support the family, she lost him. He died from a reaction to a flu shot. She never really got over that. About five years before she died she buried her youngest daughter who died from cancer at the age of 59. For the last two years she had gotten extremely weak. The last two months were perhaps the hardest. She spent these two months in the hospital and gradually faded away. However, it was her and death and the events that followed that are incredible. Because she was in a Catholic hospital, my mother who stayed with her was able to attend mass each day at the hospital. Mom prayed hard that her death may be peaceful. One such morning, mom had just come back from mass and within moments, drawing three small breaths, grandma passed away ever so peacefully. My uncles were all present as well. For them, those few moments of peaceful death, as it were, made up for sixty-three years of pain. But it got even better. When I reached India for the funeral, it had been raining for days because of the monsoon except of course, from ten in the morning to about five in the afternoon the Wednesday of the funeral. Because there are no funeral homes in India, the family takes the body to the church in a coffin. Any rain would have made this impossible. But on that day, just for those hours we had clear blue skies with the sun shining brightly over us. It started raining again that evening and it hadn’t stopped till I left on Friday morning. The peaceful death and the clear skies communicated to us the presence of God. God’s presence at the moment of her death and her funeral made up for sixty three years of hardship and challenges.
Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Today's Scripture
Here is a testimony I received on the Ite Missa Est (Immaculate Conception Adult Faith Formation Ministry) website (www.itemissaest.org) recently. I am quoting word for word. “I would like to ask that we all pray for a young woman I met yesterday as I was going about my busy life. I stopped to get a haircut and was wearing my discipleship t-shirt from the retreat. She asked me what it meant and I explained to her that we as disciples of God strive to Act like Jesus, Speak like Jesus and Think like Jesus. She then when on to tell me she had just been diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of twenty three and had already been told that she would never have children. As I listened to her talk, memories of my own past came flooding and back and knew exactly how she felt. We talked for a long while and when she was done I asked her if there was some place quiet that we could go. We prayed together there in a room at the hair dressers. For the first time in my life I knew what it was like to Act, Think and Speak like Jesus. I am asking that you please keep this young woman in your prayers and let her know that not only I care but my community of brothers and sisters also care."
Twenty-ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time At the beginning of one of my homilies three years ago, I made light of the fact that I had brought some lottery tickets. My intentions were not selfish. In fact, I do not want any of the money for myself and you must believe me when I say that. Rather, I would like to pay off the parish debt, make our school financially secure, and try to make sure that children go to bed not worrying about food the next day. However, it is what happened after my confession that is really funny. People still send me lottery tickets along with my birthday and Christmas gifts. Some parishioners bought tickets in my name at the parish raffle. Others still buy the lottery for my cause and I even get a regular report about it. The news often is sad! Here I stand before you as poverty stricken as ever. I have this suspicion that had all that money been put in the “Blessing of Ten” box, we would be that much closer to paying off the debt. How tempting it is to hope that our problems would be solved like magic.
Today's Scripture
Twenty-eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Sunday Scripture
My homily this week is very uncharacteristic of me. I am going straight to three points to think about. This is not only because we have very thought provoking stories of Solomon and the rich young man, but also because I want to enter into some depth about what these readings are teaching us.
a) This rich young man in today’s gospel had a gift. His gift was that he was aware of his innermost longing. He did not live an unreflected life. There is another man in today’s first reading from the book of Wisdom who had that same gift. Solomon’s longing was not wealth, power, or the kingdom, but rather, he yearned for divine wisdom. My dear friends, there is no human heart that is not created without its natural longing for God. Every soul gasps for God. Some people become aware and feed their soul with God’s breath, with God’s love and life. Others ignore it or live unawares of their dying soul. After all if we are not trained to pay attention to the soul how can we become aware of our need for God? Some people cannot explain why there is the gnawing emptiness inside them. So they keep TV constantly on, their radio is always playing, they are on their phones even in the bathroom, if not shopping there are constantly checking out things they don’t need at the mall, their biggest obsession is that latest score or gossip. Fortunately, there are enough breweries try to quench their undying thirst. I do not want to condemn the man in gospel for later failing to follow Christ. He was far ahead of most people in today’s society. He was aware of his innermost longing.
Twenty-seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time
Today's Scripture
As I read the first reading for today’s liturgy, I breathed easy. I relaxed. I felt good. I have read this reading many times, but for the first time I came to a new realization - the realization that God wanted the first human person to be happy and contented. In fact, God went out of God’s way to find a suitable companion for Adam. I guess God wanted Adam to be contented. Isn’t this we seek most – to be happy and contented?
Twenty-sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Today's Scripture
It is very risky for me to preach about the readings for today’s liturgy. It is risky for two reasons. First, these readings challenge the way modern society is constructed. Society legitimately ignores the weakest among us. On the contrary, today’s readings seem to suggest that exclusion, self-righteousness, and putting limits on God’s generosity and love are contrary to God’s will. Second, issues such as life, immigration and health care is polarizing our society in serious ways. In this contemporary scenario, preaching against exclusion and preaching peace and love is risky. I am sure that there are people in this congregation who represent every shade of opinion. And yet the gospel must be proclaimed.
Twenty-fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Today's Mass Readings
Last Tuesday night I was torn between two television shows – The Jay Leno Show and Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern. Leno was hosting Michael Moore with his new movie, Capitalism: A Love Story and Andrew Zimmern was with a hunting tribe in the Kalahari desert, Botswana, Southern Africa. I kept changing channels to get the best of both shows, and the contrast moved me that night. On the one hand, Michael Moore was trying to expose one of the stark realities of America – that 5% of the American population controls 95 % of the wealth. I checked this information for accuracy. A University of Southern California study suggests that in the United States, wealth is highly concentrated in a relatively few hands. As of 2004, the top 1% of households (the upper class) owned 34.3% of all privately held wealth, and the next 19% (the managerial, professional, and small business stratum) had 50.3%, which means that just 20% of the people owned a remarkable 85%, leaving only 15% of the wealth for the bottom 80% (wage and salary workers). This reality is also true globally. In the Kalahari desert, on the other hand, was a dozen indigenous hunters and three television crew who for a whole day had gone without a single prey. Finally, they were able to trap was a Red Hornbill which altogether weighed 5 ounces. They cooked this bird over open fire, and sitting on the ground around the fire shared this 5 ounce bird among 15 people. Each one got only a tiny piece of meat. But they sat there contented, un-anxious, nibbling on the bones and making the most of what came their way. I have to tell you – I have never seen people so contented with so little. The contrast became even more intense when I suddenly became aware of myself. Here I was, watching two shows on a 42” digital screen, in a comfortable living room sitting on a leather chair.
Twenty-fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time
The Dec 6, 1999 issue of Time magazine carried as its cover story an article entitled, “Jesus of Nazareth: Then and Now.” The article written by the prolific novelist Reynolds Price, was an attempt to take another look at Jesus' life and compose a new Gospel based on the historical evidence and his own personal reading of the Bible. One of the observations that Price makes in the beginning is that a useful way of recalling the past two millennia is to list the people who acquired great power: Prophet Muhammad, Martin Luther, Karl Marx, Gandhi, Hitler, Roosevelt, Stalin and Mao Tse-Tung, Martin Luther King, Mother Teresa and many others. There's no question that each of these figures changed the lives of millions and evoked responses ranging from worship to hatred. “It would require much exotic calculation,” Mr. Price continues, “to deny that the single most powerful figure – not merely in these two millennia but in all human history – has been Jesus of Nazareth. Not only is the prevalent system of denoting the years based the date of his birth, but a serious argument can be made that no one else's life has proved remotely as powerful and enduring as that of Jesus.” Especially considering the fact that Jesus lived a short life, that he lived in a rural district of the Roman Empire, and that he died as a convicted criminal, this is an astonishing accomplishment.
Twenty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time
Today's Mass Readings
One of the complaints I have received about my celebration of the Mass is that I take too long. They say I am slow with my prayers and that I preach too long. There are those of you who can appreciate this and there are others who shop for the fourty-minute-mass in town. Someone said to me the other day: “You want your church to fill up - how about a mass with no singing and no preaching?” I am sorry but no matter how hard I try, I cannot serve a “fast-mass” like people serve “fast-food.” People wish salvation was a fourty-minute-affair, but then, salvation would taste like fast food. Salvation is a process, it is a comprehensive event.
Today's Mass Readings
Salman Rushdie, is a controversial Islamic author His most controversial book was The Satanic Verses. Radical Muslims leaders have passed the fatwa (death sentence) against him for blasphemy. At the beginning of the new millennium, Rushdie wrote a letter to the ‘sixth billionth person’ to be born into the world. One of the many advices he offers the baby, one of them has to do with religion. Rushdie highlights the follies of religion. He enumerates all the wars and divisions caused in the name of God. He also mentions the frightening image of God many people have. He concludes by saying that religion has done more harm than good. He persuades the baby to abandon any religious inclinations. Instead, Rushdie exhorts the baby to trust in its own humanity, its ability to think for itself, its own natural ability to grow and live in a world of freedom in a place of shared social life and conversation. He even quotes John Lennon’s famous song “Imagine there is no heaven, its easy of you try. No hell below is, above us only sky.”
Today's Mass Readings
If not once, I have said it ten times this week, “It is hard.” I am tired, I feel over worked, and I feel out of touch with friends; I have forgotten birthdays of people I would otherwise never forget and when I pray I am thinking of the day ahead. Between meetings, faith formation, baptisms, weddings, funerals, hospital visits and spiritual direction I feel that I am getting out of touch with myself. In one sense, I am happy that all this is happening because the parish is growing. The staff feels the same way I do. And how many of you feel the same way? With school reopening there is strong chance that your feelings are not very different - life is hard.
Today's Mass Readings
Last week, as part of the series of talks on the Eucharist, we reflected on the “Bread of Life discourse and the OT.” And I had suggested three themes that connected the bread of life discourse with the OT: The murmuring of the Jews in the Gospel of John is linked to the murmuring of the Israelites against Moses; The manna that Moses gave is contrasted with the Manna that Jesus gave; and the question and answer format during the Jewish Passover meal is the structure in which John formats the bread of life discourse.
Today we move forward to examine the history of the controversy of the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist. The controversy as old as the gospels themselves. The crowds quarrelled, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” (Jn 6:52) Jesus’ answer to that question stresses two things: First, “The bread that I will give is my flesh,” (Jn 6:51) and second, “My (his) flesh is real food and my (his) blood is real drink” (Jn 6: 55). And the controversy continues today. In a survey done, only 30% of the Catholics believed that the bread and wine they received at Eucharist was indeed the body and blood of Jesus. I bet you the 70% who do not believe do not read the scriptures and have certainly not read the John’s bread of life discourse.
Today's Mass Readings
(This homily is the first in a three part series called, "The Bread of Life Series.")
The passage that we have as the gospel reading for today’s Eucharist is part of a larger section called the “bread of life” discourse in the gospel of John. The discourse begins with John 6:25 and ends with 6:71. For the next three weeks the gospel reading will be taken from the bread of life discourse. I wish to make the sermons during the next three weeks a series on the Bread of Life discourse. Today we will deal with the “The OT and the bread of life.” Next Sunday we will deal with the “History of the controversy of the real presence of Christ in the bread and wine.” The third week we will deal with “The Eucharist and daily life.”
Today's Mass Readings
I just read this amazing article in the Economist entitled, Glad to be godless. The article tells the story about Don Sutterfield, a fervent Christian turned militant atheist. Gone are the days he would organize Vacation Bible Camps for children. He now organizes summer camp for secular atheists at universities. Sutterfield is brilliant in his approach. Campers are not told that there is no God; only that they should weigh the evidence. In this camp there is no indoctrination about atheism but since the “scientific research” does not lead to hard evidence, campers are reassured that it is alright to be irreligious. They are led to believe that it is possible to be moral without believing in the supernatural - it is possible to be good without God.
Today's Mass Readings
Week before last, I had the most self-revealing experience. The staff at Immaculate and I were driving back after lunch at the neighborhood tavern. When we reached the parking lot, I saw a woman walking toward the Church. Cigarette in one hand, a Taco Bell packet in another, funky hair, overweight, shabbily dressed and a handbag over her shoulder – this woman gave no impression of integrity. A number of thoughts crossed my mind – the most prominent was, “Goodness, gracious!” A minute later the rectory bell rang and for some reason, I opened the door. There stood the same woman. She asked for the priest and I said to myself, “I am not going to give any money.” Well, she did not need any money. She asked if I would pray with here because she was having some spiritual struggles. I took her in, heard her story, prayed with her, and she left in tears thanking me for taking the time to pray with her. Generally, I consider myself to be someone who is not prejudiced, not judgmental, and someone with immense compassion. But, that day I came to know how prejudiced, how judgmental and how unempathetic I was. Why couldn’t compassion have been my instinctive response?
Today's Mass Readings
To understand today’s readings we must understand the context within which Jeremiah prophesied. Jeremiah was called to be a prophet in the year 628 BC when Josiah was the King of Judah. Josiah began a process of reform that would rid the nation of idolatry, injustice and false religiosity. Jeremiah wholeheartedly supported Josiah’s reform. After Josiah, however, under King Zedekiah, the false prophet Hananiah began to counsel the King to revolt against the Babylonians. It was also at this time that the old idolatry and infidelity returned. On instruction from God Jeremiah opposed the King and the false prophet. As a result, Jeremiah was arrested, imprisoned, and publicly disgraced. Had Zedekiah listened to Jeremiah and stayed faithful to the covenant, perhaps, Judah would be spared. Tragically, the Babylonians pillaged Jerusalem, destroyed the temple, killed thousands of Israelites, took into exile all able bodied men, women, and children, and left behind to die, the aged and disabled.
Today's Mass Readings
I saw a movie at the Neon last week. It is called Whatever Works. It is a Woody Allen film and the central character is Boris Yelnikoff, an eccentric in his seventies who believes that life happens by chance. I mean, what are the chances that one would jump out of the window of a New York high rise and still survive? What are the chances that a pretty twenty-two year old runaway from Mississippi would land up at his door and finally end up marrying him? What are the chances that the mother of this girl would land up at the same apartment and make it big in New York even though it meant happily sleeping between two men? What are the chances that the girl’s father would land up at the same apartment in search of his daughter and wife and finally meet the man of his dreams to live happily ever after. The girl finally realizes that marrying a younger man would make her happier and what are the chances that a hopeless Boris would jump out of the window a second time, only to land on his future wife. The movie ends with all the characters happily sharing a drink. Boris’ lesson to the audience at the end of it all is simple. Life is a game of chance. Take any happiness you get along the way in whatever way it comes. “Whatever works.”
Today's Mass Readings
My homily this week is very similar to my homily last week. I decided to use the same ideas because last week’s readings and this week’s readings seem to be seamless. These stories seem to convey the same message even though they use opposing stories. In last week’s reading from Mark 5, we heard two stories of healing that were instigated by the faith of the people who were healed. The synagogue official’s faith saw Jesus raise his daughter to life and the woman with the hemorrhage was healed by merely touching Jesus’ clothes. At the end of the miracle Jesus commended her faith and said, "Daughter, your faith has saved you. Go in peace and be cured of your affliction." (Mk 5:34) The story before these two stories in the same chapter is the story of a demoniac who was possessed by Legion (a multitude of evil spirits). Even these demons acknowledged Jesus’ power and identity.