XXXII-B: 1 Kings 17:10-16; Heb 9:24-28; Mk 12:38-44

Some time ago, a father punished his 3-year-old daughter for wasting a roll of gold wrapping paper. Money was tight, and he became infuriated when the child tried to decorate a box to put under the tree.

Nevertheless, the little girl brought the gift to her father the next morning and said, "This is for you, Daddy." He was embarrassed by his earlier overreaction, but his anger flared again when he found that the box was empty.

He yelled at her, "Don't you know that when you give someone a present, there's supposed to be something inside of it?"

The little girl looked up at him with tears in her eyes and said, "Oh, Daddy, it's not empty. I blew kisses into the box. All for you, Daddy."

The father was crushed. He put his arms around his little girl, and he begged her forgiveness. He kept the gold box by his bed for years. Whenever he was discouraged, he would take out an imaginary kiss and remember the love of the child who had put it there.

Mark tells us that Jesus was in the Temple watching people. The poor widow who came to make her gift to the Temple treasury did not know she was being watched. This widow does nothing for show, her generosity is spontaneous. Her kind of generosity is only possible after a lifetime of giving, after decades of small deeds of charity, small acts of fidelity, of obedience and self-renunciation. 

She gives all, and she has nothing left. The widow has staked her life on this gift. These rich people do not know the end of their money. Their gift is not once and for all. They can repeat their giving. There is plenty more where that came from. They are the kind of people who know the price of everything and the value of nothing. There is a contrast between the noisy rich and the quiet and discreet widow. Like that child who had nothing but the kisses in the box, so this widow had nothing but two coins and she put all that quietly in the treasury.

We require total surrender to do such a giving. The tragedy of our lives is that often we hold some part of us. There are many barriers that block our total surrender to God: fear, pride, selfishness and confusion.

It is not the amount of gift, but what matters is the sacrifice behind it. Few people will show willingness to give up their comforts for giving contribution for a good cause. For us charity is to take out what is not necessary immediately. But the church teaches us today that charity should carry   a tint of sacrifice with it. The woman of the first reading had to make sacrifice to feed Elijah. The poor woman in the Gospel had to give up everything that she had saved for the day's expense.  So their offerings became precious in the sight of God.

Secondly, real giving is reckless, and symbolic of love. The woman could have given one coin and kept the other for herself. She could have kept both for herself. But she decided to give everything she had, and she did so.

In a few minutes you will be asked to make your annual commitment pledge. What is the criterion we apply to make the contribution? Though the widow’s attitude is ideal, I wouldn’t encourage you to do that. How about the Pharisees approach, give in a way not hurt me at all. Only from the surplus? Well, Jesus did not commend that either. May be a middle way? I think we need to see the needs of the parish first. We need $7250.00 every week to meet the budget.

When we feel we are losing by giving to the Church we wouldn’t feel like giving. Someone said No one ever become poor by giving.

A priest once asked one of his parishioners to serve as financial chairperson of his parish. The man, manager of a grain elevator, agreed on two conditions: no report would be due for a year, and no one would ask any questions during the year. At the end of the year he made his report. He had paid off the church debt of $200,000. He had redecorated the church. He had sent money to missions. He had $5,000 in the bank. Needless to say, everyone wanted to know how. The man quietly explained, "You people bring your grain to my elevator. As you did business with me, I simply withheld 10 percent and gave it to the church. You never missed it."

When we give if we ever think that we are going to go less by that, our willingness will diminish and we would withhold form giving. The bible says, God blesses the generous giver. If we believe that God will return it to us some other way, our giving will have more generosity.

The jar of flour did not go empty, nor the jug of oil run dry ( 1 Kings 17) for the widow who supplied bread for Elijah. Let her attitude of obedience and self sacrifice inspire us to examine ourselves; and practice our charity with an element of love and sacrifice.

XXXII-B: 1 Kings 17:10-16; Heb 9:24-28; Mk 12:38-44

Some time ago, a father punished his 3-year-old daughter for wasting a roll of gold wrapping paper. Money was tight, and he became infuriated when the child tried to decorate a box to put under the tree.

Nevertheless, the little girl brought the gift to her father the next morning and said, "This is for you, Daddy." He was embarrassed by his earlier overreaction, but his anger flared again when he found that the box was empty.

He yelled at her, "Don't you know that when you give someone a present, there's supposed to be something inside of it?"

The little girl looked up at him with tears in her eyes and said, "Oh, Daddy, it's not empty. I blew kisses into the box. All for you, Daddy."

The father was crushed. He put his arms around his little girl, and he begged her forgiveness. He kept the gold box by his bed for years. Whenever he was discouraged, he would take out an imaginary kiss and remember the love of the child who had put it there.

Mark tells us that Jesus was in the Temple watching people. The poor widow who came to make her gift to the Temple treasury did not know she was being watched. This widow does nothing for show, her generosity is spontaneous. Her kind of generosity is only possible after a lifetime of giving, after decades of small deeds of charity, small acts of fidelity, of obedience and self-renunciation. 

She gives all, and she has nothing left. The widow has staked her life on this gift. These rich people do not know the end of their money. Their gift is not once and for all. They can repeat their giving. There is plenty more where that came from. They are the kind of people who know the price of everything and the value of nothing. There is a contrast between the noisy rich and the quiet and discreet widow. Like that child who had nothing but the kisses in the box, so this widow had nothing but two coins and she put all that quietly in the treasury.

We require total surrender to do such a giving. The tragedy of our lives is that often we hold some part of us. There are many barriers that block our total surrender to God: fear, pride, selfishness and confusion.

It is not the amount of gift, but what matters is the sacrifice behind it. Few people will show willingness to give up their comforts for giving contribution for a good cause. For us charity is to take out what is not necessary immediately. But the church teaches us today that charity should carry   a tint of sacrifice with it. The woman of the first reading had to make sacrifice to feed Elijah. The poor woman in the Gospel had to give up everything that she had saved for the day's expense.  So their offerings became precious in the sight of God.

Secondly, real giving is reckless, and symbolic of love. The woman could have given one coin and kept the other for herself. She could have kept both for herself. But she decided to give everything she had, and she did so.

In a few minutes you will be asked to make your annual commitment pledge. What is the criterion we apply to make the contribution? Though the widow’s attitude is ideal, I wouldn’t encourage you to do that. How about the Pharisees approach, give in a way not hurt me at all. Only from the surplus? Well, Jesus did not commend that either. May be a middle way? I think we need to see the needs of the parish first. We need $7250.00 every week to meet the budget.

When we feel we are losing by giving to the Church we wouldn’t feel like giving. Someone said No one ever become poor by giving.

A priest once asked one of his parishioners to serve as financial chairperson of his parish. The man, manager of a grain elevator, agreed on two conditions: no report would be due for a year, and no one would ask any questions during the year. At the end of the year he made his report. He had paid off the church debt of $200,000. He had redecorated the church. He had sent money to missions. He had $5,000 in the bank. Needless to say, everyone wanted to know how. The man quietly explained, "You people bring your grain to my elevator. As you did business with me, I simply withheld 10 percent and gave it to the church. You never missed it."

When we give if we ever think that we are going to go less by that, our willingness will diminish and we would withhold form giving. The bible says, God blesses the generous giver. If we believe that God will return it to us some other way, our giving will have more generosity.

The jar of flour did not go empty, nor the jug of oil run dry ( 1 Kings 17) for the widow who supplied bread for Elijah. Let her attitude of obedience and self sacrifice inspire us to examine ourselves; and practice our charity with an element of love and sacrifice.

All Saints’ Day-2015

Sister Mary Rose McGeady, in her book, Does God Still Love Me?, tells a wonderful story about a colony of mice who made their home at the bottom of a large upright piano. These mice lived in a world of constant music. Music filled all the dark spaces of their existence with lovely melodies and harmonies.

At first, the mice were impressed by the music. They drew comfort and wonder from the thought that Someone made the music--Someone though invisible to them, yet close to them. They loved to tell stories about the Great Unseen Piano Player whom they could not see.

Then one day an adventuresome mouse climbed up part of the way in the piano and returned with an elaborate explanation about how the music was made. Wires were the secret--tightly stretched wires of various lengths that vibrated and trembled from time to time. A second mouse ventured forth and came back telling of hammers--many hammers dancing and leaping on the wires.

The mice decided they must revise their old opinions. The theory they developed was complicated, but complete with evidence. In the end, the mice concluded that they lived in a purely mechanical and mathematical world--a world simply of wires and hammers. The story of the Unseen Piano Player was relegated to mere myth . . . But the Unseen Player continued to play nonetheless.

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. Seeing God and possessing the kingdom of God are main goals of human existence.

The Sermon on the Mount is a summary of all Christian teaching, but the Beatitudes are a summary of the Sermon on the Mount.  The Ten Commandments are basic rules of morality, but the Beatitudes are a measure of how far beyond this the Gospel calls us.   The morality of the Ten Commandments is a morality that can be measured: it is possible to say exactly where you are with them, ticking the ones you broke and the degree of the breach.  Christians may come to believe that they have no sin just because they haven't been in breach of the Commandments.  But the morality of the Beatitudes is harder to quantify: how poor in spirit are you?  How meek, gentle, merciful…?  You can never say “I’ve reached it!”  You can never be self-righteous.  And you can never even begin to think that you are better than another – because you can't compare.

In celebrating ‘all saints’ today we both acknowledge the many unnamed saints in heaven and also recognize that in baptism we ourselves have been set apart, established as sanctuaries of God’s presence. God invites each of us to grow in this holiness.

What is it then that makes a saint? The Beatitudes may appear to be a sort of practical guide to this holiness. Holiness is a mature friendship with Jesus Christ, a friendship so deep and strong that it allows us to experience the joy of eternal life even while still fighting the painful battles of our earthly exile. It is the truly amazing ability to experience deep joy even in the middle of terrible sorrow. This is what Jesus means when he says that those who are poor, in mourning, and persecuted are blessed. Even in modern times this joy amid suffering has constantly characterized mature Christians.

The sacrifices and struggles we go through here on earth to be faithful to Christ and the Church are worth it. All Saints' Day reminds us of something that can get lost in the other saints' days. The most famous saints often led such extraordinary lives that it's hard for us to emulate them. It's easy to honor them, recognizing all that they did for Christ, and all that Christ did for them.

But honoring the saints is not enough. We also need to emulate them. And this is where All Saints' Day comes in. Today we honor all of saintly men and women who have not been canonized by the Church, who are not famous saints, but who have nevertheless followed Christ heroically and taken their place in heaven. These are the saints that lived ordinary lives on the outside, and extraordinary lives on the inside. And God didn't overlook them. And there is no shortage of them. They make up a "great multitude, which no one could count," as St John puts it in the First Reading.

Today's Solemnity assures us that if we live each day as Christ would have us, striving to do God's will with all our strength and to love our neighbor as ourselves, then our lives, which look so ordinary on the outside, will be truly extraordinary on the inside. And we will be blessed in the eyes of God even though in the sight of the world our life may be a failure. As we commemorate and celebrate the lives of all the saints, let’s recognize our call to sainthood and strive to be holy by living the beatitudes accepting the challenges of our daily lives.

O.T. XXX [B] Jer 31:7-9; Heb 5: 1-6; Mk10:46-52

According to a Jewish legend there was once a blind man who was married but had no children.  Although his life was hard, he never complained. One day as the blind man was sitting by a river, the prophet Elijah came to him from heaven and said, “Even though your life has been hard, you never complained, and so God will grant you one wish.” The poor man frowned. “Only one   wish!" he said. “I’m blind, I’m poor, and I’m childless. How will one wish satisfy all my problems? But give me twenty-four hours and I’ll think up a wish.” He went home and told his wife what had happened. She smiled at him and said, “Eat well and sleep soundly, for I know what you should wish.” He came back the next morning and said to Elijah as he appeared again, “I wish to be able to see my children eat from gold plates.” The wish was granted and the man and his wife lived happily for the rest of their days. Today’s Gospel presents another blind man whose wish was to regain his sight. Jesus restored sight to his eyes and to his spirit, and Bartimaeus immediately began to follow Jesus as a sighted, witnessing disciple, not only physically healed, but spiritually as well.

The Gospel explains how Jesus showed the mercy and compassion of his Heavenly Father by healing Bartimaeus, a blind man. Just as the blind and the lame were God’s concern in the first reading, Jesus was concerned with the blind beggar, Bartimaeus of Jericho. The story of Bartimaeus is the last healing miracle recorded in the Gospel of Mark. The story is presented dramatically. While the majority of those who received healing in the New Testament are not mentioned by name, in this case, the beggar’s name is given as Bartimaeus, which means son of Timaeus.  When the people told Bartimaeus the news of Jesus’ passage through the city, he began to shout his remarkable prayer of Faith: "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me." Jesus was surrounded by a large crowd. Amid the noise and dust, people were jostling for attention, and beggars cried out for alms. In spite of this tumult, Jesus heard one voice crying out through the noise of the crowd. Who would have expected a Messianic greeting from a blind beggar? In spite of the crowd's objections, Jesus stopped and, recognizing Bartimaeus’ Faith, called the blind man over.

By addressing Jesus as Son of David, the beggar publicly identified Jesus as the Messiah. At Jesus’ summons, Bartimaeus threw aside his long cloak, his only possession, which protected him from heat and cold.  In throwing away his cloak, he gave up everything he had depended on, putting his complete trust in God. Jesus then asked, “What do you want me to do for you?" Bartimaeus replied promptly: “Master, I want to see.”Jesus rewarded his faith by restoring both his physical and his spiritual sight. Having received physical and spiritual sight, Bartimaeus followed Jesus joyfully along the road.  The gift of sight led Bartimaeus to faith, and faith came to full expression in committed discipleship. He wanted to stay close to his Savior, to thank, praise, and serve Him. I imagine there were more blind beggars on the road other than just Bartimaeus. But they didn’t know what they wanted. Most of them wanted alms and not healing.

Thousands of years ago a young Chinese emperor called upon his family's most trusted advisor. "Oh, learned counselor," said the emperor, "you have advised my father and grandfather. What is the single most important advice you can give me to rule my country?" And Confucius replied, "The first thing you must do is to define the problem."

Many unhappy people cannot put their finger on what is really causing their distress. Many unfulfilled people cannot even tell you what it would take to satisfy them. Many of us have no clear idea or conception what our real needs, our real desires, and our real priorities are. And because we have never defined the problem or clarified our goals, we spend a lifetime anxiously wandering with very little to ask from the Lord.

Like Bartimaeus, we must seek Jesus with trust in his goodness and mercy. Sometimes our fears, anger and habitual sins prevent us from approaching God in prayer. At times, we even become angry with God when He seems slow in answering our prayers.  In these desperate moments, let us approach Jesus in prayer with trusting Faith as Bartimaeus did and listen carefully to the voice of Jesus asking us: "What do you want me to do for you?” Let us tell Him all our heart’s intentions and needs.   

OT XXV [B] Wis 2:12, 17-20; Jas 3:16--4:3; Mk 9:30-37
 

There was a story a number of years ago that was carried in the newspapers and in Time magazine. Mary Frances "Frankie" Housley was the lone stewardess on National Airlines flight 83 which crashed after landing at Philadelphia Airport in January, 1951. Frankie Housley had made 10 trips into that burning plane... to help passengers get out. As soon as she had finished getting all of the passengers to safety Housley also started to jump from the plane. But just before she made her escape, a passenger on the ground screamed, “My baby, my baby!” Flight attendant Mary Housley turned back into the plane to find the baby, and that was the last time anyone saw her alive. She died in the attempt to save the baby, and rescue workers found her charred body holding the four-month-old baby in her arms. The story of her courage made national headlines, including an item in Time magazine. One passenger called her a "real heroine." A congressman labeled her the bravest American in history. 

Today’s Gospel challenges Christians to serve others with Frankie’s dedication and sacrificial commitment.

The readings invite us to become great in the sight of God by doing God’s will, as Jesus did,  surrendering our lives in humble service of others.

The second reading is in tune with the dispute among the apostles about who is the greatest. James warns us that selfish ambitions destroy peace and cause conflicts and war. He advises us to choose the path of righteousness and humble service which leads to lasting peace. Jesus also teaches his apostles that child-like humility and loving, selfless service make one great in the eyes of God.

St Augustine wrote: “Observe a tree, how it first reaches downwards so that it may then shoot upwards. It sinks its roots deep into the ground so that its top may reach towards the skies.  Is it not from humility that it endeavors to grow? But without humility it will not reach higher.   You want to grow up into the air without roots.  That is not growth, but collapse.”

It is the ego, the false self, that looks for promotion; the real self, the self that comes every moment from the hand of God, doesn't need it or look for it. 

When Jesus and his apostles sit down to relax in Capernaum after a day of walking the hot, dusty roads of Galilee, he knows exactly what they have been talking about - success, glory, greatness.

But the apostles are too embarrassed to admit it; they suspect that their interest in worldly success is a too self-centered to be praiseworthy. But our Lord's response is surprising. He doesn't tell them that they shouldn’t desire to excel, to achieve, to do great things. He doesn't condemn that very normal impulse - because he knows that achieving things, making a difference in the world, is a basic need felt by every human heart. This is one of the purposes of our lives: being a sign of God's goodness by making a positive difference in the world. So Jesus doesn't scold them for wanting to do something great. Instead, he tells them what true greatness really is.

Greatness in Christ's Kingdom is equated with humility, an attitude of the heart that puts the good of others ahead of one's own preferences: it's self-giving, not self-getting. He doesn't say to his apostles, "Don't strive to achieve great things," but he does point out where true, lasting, fulfilling greatness lies - in loving one's neighbor as Christ has loved them. Jesus is the Servant-Lord; we, his faithful disciples, are called to follow in those demanding footsteps.

When Jesus said the paradox of the first becoming the last: he was standing conventional wisdom on its head. The truly great person is a diakonos -- a deacon; a servant; a person who spends his/her day taking loving care of other people.

Mother Teresa puts it like this: “Be the living expression of God's kindness through humble service. Show kindness in your face, kindness in your eyes, kindness in your smile and kindness in your warm greeting.”

The two conditions of true greatness are humility and loving service. Turning to Jesus who emptied himself taking the form of a servant, sacrificed his life for redemption of humanity, let’s ask for the grace to learn humility and humble service from him and lay down our life in the service of our brothers and sisters.

OT XXIV [B]Is 50:5-9a; Jas 2:14-18; Mk 8:27-35

Every photographer knows the importance of having the camera lens in focus before triggering the shutter. You can set the right shutter speed. You can open the lens to its proper setting. But if that lens is not in focus, the picture will be worthless.

Anyone who's trying to sell something these days knows the importance of having an accurate focus on the market for which a product is intended. Whether you're trying to sell soap or soft drinks, it's necessary to know exactly which people will most likely purchase your product. On what age group or sector of the public do you focus your advertising?

So Jesus realized that if people were going to follow him, and if his followers were going to be truly effective Christians in the world, they needed to know exactly who he was. They also needed to know precisely what was involved in being a Christian. If his disciples did not know who he really was, then his entire ministry, suffering and death would be useless.

That's probably one reason why he asked this simple, but all-important question in the gospel reading. "Tell me," he says, "who do people say I am?"

When the people identified Jesus with Elijah and Jeremiah they were paying him a great compliment and setting him in a high place. Then came the most important question, "Who do you say I am?" With this question Jesus reminds us that our knowledge of Jesus must never be at second hand. Christianity never consists in knowing about Jesus; it always consists in knowing Jesus. Jesus demands a personal verdict from every Christian.

"Who do you say I am?" When this question was addressed to Peter, his answer was, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." His answer was correct. Jesus complimented him for his right answer. But then the way he reacted to Jesus’ next statement that the Son of man should suffer and die, shows that Peter really didn’t know the exact implications of his answer. It is something like you ask your kid to solve a math problem from his Math book. And after some time he comes up with the right answer. And you ask him how did he get this answer? And you find out that he didn’t know because  he cheated the answer from the back of the text book. Father revealed him the answer. But Peter had to find out the way to get there himself, by gradually living with Jesus and observing him personally.

For the last 20 centuries this question has been repeatedly addressed to a number of Christians; and their lives depended on the answer they found for this question. During the first three centuries, the Church boasts about eleven million martyrs who fertilized the tree of faith with their blood. They found the right answer looking at the life of Jesus and those others martyred before them.  

The four Gospels are filled with demands straight from the mouth of Jesus Christ. These demands are Jesus' way of showing us who he is and what he expects of us. Jesus never sugarcoats his call to discipleship; to be his faithful friend will involve sharing in his cross, there is no way around it. But crosses, when borne together with Christ, always lead to resurrections.

How many advertisements do we think most of us see or listen to every day? Probably at least 14,15. And what is the message behind almost all of those advertisements? In some form or another, each one of them is telling us that we can have more happiness if we have less inconvenience, which this particular product or service can provide for us. And most of the propaganda mega churches will never tell you that there is a cross in Christianity. They gulp down the most important message of the Gospel: the cross. In other words, our consumer culture is convinced that lasting joy comes with diminishing crosses.

But God has showed us that true lasting joy, Christian joy, includes the cross. If we follow him on the path of self-denial, "losing" our self-centered lives in order to be faithful to him and his Kingdom, we will "find" true life, life in communion with God.

As we continue with this holy Mass, in which Jesus will unite our crosses to his, let's thank him for giving meaning to our sufferings, and promise to help spread that meaning to others.

OT XXIII [B]  Is 35: 4-7a; Jas 2: 1-5;   Mk 7: 31-37

Telemachus was a monk who lived in Asia Minor about the year AD 400. During his life the gladiatorial games were very popular. The gladiators were usually slaves or political prisoners who were condemned to fight each other unto death for the amusement of the crowd. People were fascinated by the sight of spurting blood.

Telemachus was very much disturbed that the Christian Emperor Honorius sponsored these games and that so many people who called themselves Christians went to see them. What could be further from the Spirit of Christ than the horrible cruelty of the gladiatorial games? The church was opposed to the games and spoke out against them, but most people would not listen because they were deaf to God's unbounded message of love.

Telemachus realized that talking about this evil was not enough. It was time to do something. But what could he accomplish - one lone monk against the whole Roman Empire? He was unknown. He had no power. And the games had been entrenched in Roman life for centuries. Nothing that he could possibly do would ever make a difference.

For a long time Telemachus agonized about the problem. Finally he could not live with himself any longer. For the integrity of his own soul he decided to obey Christ's Spirit within him, regardless of the consequences. He set out for Rome.

When Telemachus entered the city, the people he met had gone mad with excitement. "To the Coliseum! The games are about to begin!"

Telemachus followed the crowd. Soon he was seated among all the other people. Far away in a special place he saw the emperor.

The gladiators came out into the center of the arena. Everybody was tense. Everybody was quiet. Now the two strong young men drew their swords. The fight was on! One of them would probably die in a few minutes. Who would it be?

But just at that moment, Telemachus rose from his seat and ran into the arena. He held high the cross of Christ and threw himself between the two combatants.

"In the name of our Master," he cried, "Stop fighting!" The two men hesitated. Nothing like this had ever happened before. They did not quite know what to do.

But the spectators were furious. Telemachus had robbed them of their anticipated entertainment! They yelled wildly and stampeded toward the center of the arena. They became a mob. With sticks and stones they beat Telemachus to death.

Far down there in the arena lay the little battered body of the monk. Suddenly the mob grew quiet. A feeling of revulsion at what they had done swept over them. Their once deaf ears sensed a stirring. Emperor Honorius rose and left the coliseum. The people followed him. Abruptly the games were over.

Honorius sensed the mood of the crowd. His ears too were opened. He issued an edict forbidding all future gladiatorial games. Honorius' ears had been opened to the violence and dehumanization of the games. As a result he was able to speak.

So it was that in about the year A.D. 404, because one individual, filled with the love of Christ, dared to say no, all gladiatorial games ceased.

In today's Gospel, which describes the miraculous healing of a deaf mute, we are invited to open our ears and eyes, loosen our tongues and pray for the courage of our Christian convictions to become the voice of the voiceless.

 We need to allow Jesus to heal our spiritual deafness and muteness. We may find it hard to speak to God in prayer and harder still to hear Him speaking to us through the Bible and through the Church. This may be because many of us are satisfied with what we have learned in catechism class and we don’t want to hear more about our Faith through further study of the Bible or the teachings of the Church. It is not infrequent to meet Catholics who are highly qualified in their secular professions but are basically illiterate in their Faith.

Hence, let us imitate the dumb man in the Gospel by seeking out Jesus, following him away from the crowd and spending more of our time in coming to know  him intimately as we study Holy Scripture and to experience him directly in our lives in personal prayer. Our growing awareness of the healing presence of Jesus in our lives will open our ears and loosen our tongues, and will bring transformation in the world like Telemachus did.