Saturday, November 21, 2015

CHRIST THE KING (Dn 7:13-14; Rv 1:5-8; Jn 18:33b-37)

In the 1920s, a totalitarian regime gained control of Mexico and tried to suppress the Church. To resist the regime, many Christians took up the cry, "Viva Cristo Rey!” (“Long live Christ the King!”) They called themselves "Cristeros." The most famous Cristero was a young Jesuit priest named Padre Miguel Pro. Using various disguises, Padre Pro ministered to the people of Mexico City. Finally the government arrested him and sentenced him to public execution on November 23, 1927. The president of Mexico (Plutarco Calles) thought that Padre Pro would beg for mercy, so he invited the press to the execution. Padre Pro did not plead for his life, but instead knelt holding a crucifix. When he finished his prayer, he kissed the crucifix and stood up. Holding the crucifix in his right hand, he extended his arms and shouted, "Viva Cristo Rey!" (“Long live Christ the King!”) At that moment the soldiers fired. The journalists took pictures.

The Church’s liturgical year concludes with this feast of Christ the King, instituted by Pope Pius XI in 1925, 2 years before Fr.Migual Pro was martyred. This feast was established and proclaimed by the Pope to reassert the sovereignty of Christ and the Church over all forms of government and to remind Christians of the fidelity and loyalty they owed to Christ, who by his Incarnation and sacrificial death on the cross had made them both adopted children of God and future citizens and heirs of the Kingdom of Heaven. Christ is our spiritual King and Ruler who rules by truth and love.

In thousands of human hearts all over the world, Jesus still reigns as King. The Cross is his throne and the Sermon on the Mount, his rule of law.  His citizens need obey only one major law: “Love God with all your being, and love others as I have loved you.” His love is selfless, compassionate, forgiving, and unconditional.

Jesus admits that he is a king but declares that his Kingdom is not of this world. Neither his present nor his future reign operates according to the world’s criteria of power and dominance. Jesus’ Kingdom, the reign of God, is based on the beatitudes, and he rules through service rather than through domination.  His authority is rooted in truth, not in physical force. Jesus also claims that he has come to bear witness to the truth about a larger and eternal Kingdom.
In the first part of the trial conducted by Pilate he questions Jesus about his kingship. Jesus boldly affirms to Pilate that He is that Son of Man who will come on the clouds of heaven as a king. In effect, Jesus is saying, "Don't worry, Pilate. I'm not here to take your job, or to dethrone Caesar, for my kingdom is not political but spiritual. It's not on your maps!" When Jesus affirms that His whole purpose is to testify to the truth, Pilate cynically asks, "What is truth?"
In Verse  37 Pilate declares, "You are a king, then!" In some ways, this is another wrong question. Jesus turns it around: "You are saying that I am a king." With that statement Jesus is again putting Pilate on trial: "You have said it, but is it what you believe?"

Here is a story that illustrates what is going on in this dialogue between Jesus and Pilate:
An Amish man was once asked by an enthusiastic young evangelist whether he had been saved, and whether he had accepted Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior?
The gentleman replied, "Why do you ask me such a thing? I could tell you anything. Here are the names of my banker, my grocer, and my farm hands. Ask them if I've been saved." Jesus could tell Pilate anything. What is important is what Pilate believes.

Do we believe Jesus to be the King by our actions more than our words?

As we celebrate the Kingship of Christ today, let us remember the truth that he is not our King if we do not listen to him, love him, serve him, and follow him.  We belong to his Kingdom only when we try to walk with him, when we try to live our lives fully in the spirit of the Gospel and when that Gospel spirit penetrates every facet of our living.  We become Christ the King’s subjects when we sincerely respond to his loving invitation: "Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart" (Matthew 11:29). By cultivating in our lives the gentle and humble mind of Christ, we show others that Jesus Christ is in indeed our King and that he is in charge of our lives.

In every moral decision we face, there’s a choice between Christ the King and Barabbas, and the one who seeks to live in Christ's Kingdom is the one who says, “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.”  On this great Feast of Christ the King, let us resolve to give him the central place in our lives and promise to obey his commandment of love by sharing what we have with all his needy children.


Friday, November 13, 2015

OT XXXIII [B]  Dn 12:1-3; Heb 10:11-14, 18; Mk 13:24-32

At the age of 20, Art Berg was a very happy man. Everything was going right. He was a gifted athlete and had started his own tennis court construction company. And he was engaged to a beautiful woman. Leaving California one Christmas eve, he was headed to Utah with a friend. He was going to meet his fiancée and complete their wedding plans.
During the long drive, he fell asleep while at the wheel. His car hit an abutment and rolled down a hill. He was ejected from the car and found himself laying on the desert with a broken neck. He was paralyzed from the chest down. He completely lost the use of his legs and arms. The doctors concluded that he could never play sports again and would be dependent on others the rest of his life. One even suggested he forget getting married.

Art Berg was really afraid. It was the darkest moment in his life. The "end times" were upon him. In the midst of his peril his mother came and whispered a few words in his ear. "Art, while the difficult takes time, the impossible takes a little longer." In other words, "don’t panic!" Suddenly, Art’s darkness was filled with a light of hope. That was eleven years ago. Today Art Berg is president of his own company, a professional speaker and author. He has gained back some of the use of his arms and legs and can now drive. He travels across the country sharing his message, "that the impossible just takes a little longer." Art married his fiancée and they have two children. He has even returned to the world of sports, swimming and scuba diving. In l993 Art was the first quadriplegic to race 32 miles in a marathon, all because he didn’t panic.

Today’s first and third readings are about the future. ‘Apocalyptic’ is the word used to describe the kind of writing we see in today’s gospel reading.  Biblical apocalypse was written in times of persecution, to encourage the persecuted by telling them that their sufferings were foreseen by God, and that they would prevail in the end.  Courage, not fear, was being promoted. 

The readings give us the assurance that our God will be with us all the days of our lives and that we will have the ongoing presence of the Holy Spirit in our midst guiding, protecting and strengthening us in spite of our necessary human uncertainty concerning the end-time when “Christ will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead.”  Next Sunday is the Thirty-fourth and last Sunday in our liturgical year when we celebrate the Feast of Christ the King, and the following Sunday marks the beginning of the Advent season with a new Liturgical Cycle.  Each year at this time, the Church asks us to mediate on the “last things” – Death, Judgment, Heaven and Hell -- as they apply to us.
The Gospel of Mark was written in the year 69 AD, just one year before the destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem, at a time when the Romans were suppressing Jewish protests and persecuting Christians.  Many Christians began wondering why Jesus did not return as he had promised.  Some even wondered whether he had really been the promised Messiah.  Hence, Mark tried to strengthen their faith by quoting Jesus’ predictions of the coming persecution of the faithful (13:9-13), the destruction of Jerusalem (13:2, 7-9, 14-20), the rise of the Anti-Christ (13:5-6, 21-23), the end of the world, and Christ’s Second Coming (13:24-26).  Mark also offered hope to a persecuted community by reminding the people of Jesus’ promise that wars, natural disasters and betrayal by family members would be overcome when the Son of Man returned to gather in his loved ones.

What can we take from this apocalyptic language?  One aspect of it we can relate to fairly readily in our day: transience.  Everything is passing, everything that is living will die.  In an age of immense and rapid change we cannot fail to see that everything is passing.  In some part of our minds we would like to hold this reality away from us because it is too painful to think about.  But the Scriptures tell us to think about these things.  It is a pagan thing to deny death and transience, for if there is no death there is no resurrection. 

Every moment my personal world, with its dream of permanence, is coming to an end.  Every moment, because my world is coming to an end, I see that I cannot find security in the past but must throw myself on God's mercy, every moment.

Jesus tells us that our personal “end-time” is a prelude to eternal happiness.  However, we are all so taken in by our secular culture’s fascination and glamour that we are sometimes embarrassed or saddened by the signs of our own approaching end.  We foolishly consider growing old as an evil thing, rather than as a warning from a loving God to prepare to meet Him and to give an account of our lives.  Our aches and pains and frequent “doctor’s appointments” in our senior years should remind us of God’s warning that we are growing unfit to live in this world, and that we have to get ready for another world of eternal happiness. 


The end of the world should never be thought of as depressing, disheartening or frightening because we are in the hands of a good and loving God.  Christ’s second coming gives us the message that God is journeying with us in the trials and difficulties of life and that His word is ever-present as a light of hope.  He speaks to us through the Bible.  We have the Eucharist as a sign that God is with us, in our midst.  Holy Communion is our point of direct, personal contact with God.  That is why the holy Mass is special: the more fully and frequently we participate in the Mass, the more deeply the Lord can come to us, and the more completely He can remain with us. Let no one frighten us with disturbing descriptions of the end of the world because “the end” is all about the birth of everyone and everything into eternity.

Saturday, November 7, 2015

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.