Respect Life Sunday

Today we gather on Respect Life Sunday to reflect upon one of the most urgent and foundational themes of our Catholic faith: the profound and unshakable dignity of human life. Every human person, created in the image and likeness of God, bears a dignity that is inherent, inviolable, and sacred. This dignity does not depend on what someone can accomplish, how attractive they are, how much wealth they possess, their age, their health, or their usefulness to society. It flows simply from the reality that they are beloved children of God, wonderfully made, and loved into existence by the Creator Himself.

The Foundations of Life’s Dignity

The very first pages of the Bible proclaim this truth: “God created man in his image; in the divine image he created him; male and female he created them” (Genesis 1:27). These words form the bedrock of all Catholic teaching on life. To be human is to bear the mark of God’s own image. From conception until natural death, therefore, human life is a sacred gift, entrusted to us to protect, to cherish, and to nurture.

Yet, we live in an age when this truth is often forgotten or even rejected. Human life can be treated as something disposable. The unborn child is threatened by abortion, the elderly or seriously ill are pressured toward assisted suicide, the stranger or immigrant can be dismissed through prejudice, and too many communities are scarred by violence, neglect, or war. In many corners of our world, human life is reduced to a commodity—something to be manipulated for convenience, profit, or social utility.

Pope St. John Paul II, in his encyclical Evangelium Vitae, (Gospel of Life) described it as an ongoing struggle between a “culture of life” and a “culture of death.” The culture of death sees life as expendable and embraces violence as a solution. It isolates and discards rather than welcomes. But the culture of life, the way of the Gospel, looks at each person as a gift.

Respecting Life at Every Stage

To be pro-life is not just about opposing abortion, though that remains central and urgent. It is about weaving the Gospel of life into every stage and every circumstance of human existence. It means accompanying the mother who feels overwhelmed, supporting families who struggle, and creating a society where children can thrive free of fear. It means refusing to abandon the elderly, the sick, or those living with disabilities, and instead, offering them love, companionship, and dignity.

Respect for life also challenges us to work for peace in a world fractured by war and hatred, to reject racism and prejudice in all their forms, and to reach out to those who seem most difficult to love—even the enemy, the incarcerated, or the one who has wronged us. To be a people of life requires courage to look beyond appearances and differences, to see in each soul the face of Christ.

Mother Teresa, who spent her life tending the poorest of the poor, is a prophet of the Gospel of life. She once said, “If you want to change the world, go home and love your family.” Respect for life begins right where we are—not first in arguments or public debates, but in the daily love we extend in our homes and relationships. It is in small acts of kindness, in patient care for the vulnerable, in standing beside the voiceless, that we make the Gospel of life visible.

And, as contemporary voices like Charlie Kirk remind us, “Every life has value, and every voice deserves to be heard.” These words echo the core Christian conviction: no one is expendable, no one is beyond the Redeemer’s love. Life is not a problem to be solved, but a mystery to be embraced and cherished.

A Story of Love: A nurse once cared for a premature infant abandoned at birth. The baby weighed less than two pounds and her survival seemed impossible. Yet the nurse wrapped her gently, held her close, sang to her, prayed for her, and refused to leave her side. Hours passed into days, and against all odds, the child survived.

Years later, that little girl grew into a strong young woman. She studied, worked hard, and became a nurse herself. Her life and vocation were born from an act of love that refused to measure worth, that did not calculate whether care was “useful,” but that simply recognized and celebrated the dignity of life.

This story is a parable for us all. To respect life is to choose love over indifference, tenderness over calculation, compassion over convenience. It is to trust that when we love as Christ loves, God multiplies that love into miracles beyond imagining.

As we gather at this altar, we remember the source of that love: Jesus Christ Himself, who gave His Body and Blood so that we might have life—life abundant and eternal. The Eucharist is the food of life. To receive it is to receive not only Christ but also the commission to carry His life-giving love into the world.

To be a people of life is not easy. It requires courage to defend the unborn in the face of opposition. It takes perseverance to love the elderly when society pushes them aside. It demands sacrifice to embrace the inconvenient, the stranger, and the enemy. But this is the way of the cross, and it is also the way of joy, for it leads to resurrection and lasting hope.

On this Respect Life Sunday, let us recommit ourselves to building the culture of life. Let our families become schools of love. Let our parishes be sanctuaries of compassion where no one is forgotten. Let our voices be clear and courageous in proclaiming that every life, without exception, is a precious gift from God.

Strengthened by the Eucharist, may we go forth into the world as ambassadors of life, bearers of hope, and witnesses of the God who created us not for death, but for life everlasting.

Amen.

 OT XXVI [C]: Am 6:1a, 4-7; 1Tm 6:11-16; Lk 16:19-31

The parable that Jesus speaks in today’s gospel reading is a very uncompromising parable, and a somewhat unsettling one for that reason. He told this story to challenge the great gulf that existed in his day between the extremely wealthy and the destitute. This was one of the gulfs that Jesus was passionate about eliminating. The story focuses on two individuals who are physically close but, in reality, inhabit different worlds which never meet, between which stands a great gulf. The parable doesn’t say that Lazarus was a good man because he was poor or that the rich man was a bad man because he was rich. Nothing is said about the moral status of either. However, the parable clearly criticizes the rich man for doing nothing when he could have done something that would have made a huge difference to the situation of the miserable man at his gate. The poor man had a modest longing - to eat the scraps that fell from the rich man’s table. The rich man could have satisfied that modest longing without any loss to himself. A little was being asked for, but nothing was done. If the rich man had done the little that the poor man longed for him to do, the great gulf between them would have narrowed ever so slightly. Instead, he allowed the gulf to stand, and in the next life that gulf between them remained - only now it was the rich man whose modest longing for a drop of cold water could not be satisfied.

We can sometimes feel helpless before the enormity of the gulfs that exist between individuals, communities and nations. We feel there is nothing we can possibly do to bridge those gulfs. Yet, the parable in today’s gospel suggests that there is always something we can do to bridge gulfs between people, even if what we do is on a very small scale. If the rich man had satisfied the modest longing of Lazarus, it would not have fundamentally changed the great inequalities between the very rich and the very poor in the society of Jesus. However, it would have been a step in the right direction. One human being’s life would have changed for the better. Certainly, in Jesus’ eyes, that would have been no small thing. There is always something each of us can do to bring the kingdom of God nearer for someone, a gulf we can cross to engage with someone in a way that enhances that person’s well-being. The parable strongly suggests that the individual is all-important. The small acts of kindness for any one person are of great value in God’s eyes. On one occasion, Jesus said to his disciples, ‘whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because you bear the name of Christ will by no means lose the reward’. A cup of water is nothing, at one level, and, yet, Jesus seems to be saying that the giving of it has eternal significance. The small act of kindness done for one person can bring heaven nearer for that person and for us. The parable suggests that the doing of a little, when it is within our power to do it, is infinitely better than doing nothing.

The story is about the rich man’s failure to notice. He must have seen Lazarus almost every day at his gate, but he saw him without noticing him. The gospel suggests that the rich man failed to notice not because he was too busy or in too much of a hurry, but because he was too self-absorbed; he was the servant of his wealth; he was so immersed in his own lifestyle that he had lost the ability to notice the likes of Lazarus at his gate. The gospel reading also suggests that his lifestyle so absorbed him that he had ceased to notice God or God’s call. If he had been attentive to God, he would have recognized that God was calling out to him through the wretched man who sat at his gate. The rich man had five brothers who were somewhat like himself. They, too, were self-absorbed, immersed in their own comfortable world; they too failed to notice what God was saying to them through Moses and the prophets; they too were not hearing God’s call to them through the sufferings of fellow human beings. 

When someone who appears to be in much greater need than I am crosses my path, I may be the really needy one, and that person may be my path to salvation. It is in noticing that person and responding that I become the person the Lord is calling me to be.

 The main theme of this Sunday’s readings is the warning that the selfish and extravagant use of God’s blessings, like wealth, with no share going to the poor and the needy, is a serious sin deserving eternal punishment. According to Pope Benedict XVI, today’s parable reminds us that while we are in this world, we should listen to the Lord who speaks through the Sacred Scriptures and live according to his will, for after death it will be too late to repent. Wealth without active mercy for the poor is great wickedness. We are all rich enough to share our blessings with others. God has blessed each one of us with wealth, health, special talents, social power, political influence or a combination of many blessings. May the good Lord inspire us to share with others what we have been given, in various ways, instead of using everything exclusively for selfish gains.

 OT XXV [C]: Am 8:4-7; I Tm 2:1-8; Lk 16:1-13 

Different people will react to a crisis situation in different ways. Some people tend to go to pieces in a crisis. They feel overwhelmed by the crisis and sink down under it. Then there are others who are at their best in a crisis. They stay calm in the midst of the crisis and get clarity as to the best course of action to take. They keep a cool head and find a way through the crisis for themselves and others.

The parable that we have just heard is probably one of the strangest parables that Jesus spoke. The main character in the story, a rich man’s steward, seems to be a bit of a rascal, but he has some good instincts. When he went about the business of reducing what the tenants owed his master, it was because he wanted to be welcomed into people’s homes when he was dismissed from his job. In his own perverse way, he was trying to make friends. When the chips were down and he was about to lose his good salary, he realized that what mattered most in life was not money but human relationships. Yes, he was trying to buy friends, but he had enough insight into himself to realize that he would need all the friends he could get.

 

       The tenants must have been delighted when their debts were reduced, but, in a way, they were now in debt to the steward and they would have to give him some hospitality after he was fired, at least until he found his feet again. There isn’t a great deal to admire about this steward. Yet, his rich employer had a grudging admiration for his steward’s energy, his ingenuity, his resourcefulness, his decisiveness. ‘The master praised the dishonest steward for his astuteness’, according to the last line of the parable.

 

       Jesus is saying that we need something of the steward’s astuteness, his decisiveness, his ingenuity, in our efforts to allow the light of Christ to shine through our lives. It took a serious crisis to bring home to the steward that people were more important than material possessions. I think we all know that other people are more important than possessions. It doesn’t take a crisis to bring that home to us. If we were asked what is most important to us in life, we would surely name people before material possessions, the people we love and who love us. Perhaps the steward didn’t have such loving relationships in his life and it took this crisis to bring this truth home to him.

 

We can all get our priorities wrong from time to time. We can give too much importance to what doesn’t really matter and not enough importance to what does matter. Sometimes it takes a crisis in our lives to help us to see everything more clearly. A health crisis can often bring home to us what really matters in life, how people are so much more important than work or possessions. Saint Ignatius of Loyola was the founder of the Jesuits. It was while he was recovering from a serious leg wound that he came to realize that, in the words of the gospel reading, he had been serving Mammon rather than God. While recovering, he allowed God to find him, to touch him deeply. He began to see everything with new eyes, with God’s eyes, and he went on to give his life to the service of the Lord.

 

In this parable Jesus implies that the qualities that the steward displayed in a crisis will also be very necessary in the service of God’s kingdom – in particular, his sense of urgency, his decisiveness, his cleverness, his imagination. If God’s kingdom is to come, the followers of Jesus will need all of these qualities. We cannot wait for God to do everything; decisive action from us is needed if God’s will is to be done among us, if the future God intends for our world is to come about.

 

 As disciples of Jesus, we are both children of this world and children of light. We live in the midst of the secular world and we can learn from how the secular world operates. Yet we are called to live in the secular world as those who have been enlightened by the gospel of Christ. We are called to allow the light of the gospel to shape the way that we live in the world. We are to bring the values of God’s kingdom to bear on that world where we live and work. We seek to promote God’s vision for our world.

 

In the end, the lesson of the Shrewd Manager is not about dishonesty but about urgency and foresight. Just as he acted decisively when he knew his time was short, so must we. Our life is brief, and our opportunity to use what we have for God’s Kingdom is fleeting. 

In 1997, Princess Diana of Wales—one of the most photographed, admired, and influential women of her time—died suddenly in a car accident at just 36 years old. She had wealth, fame, and the admiration of millions across the globe. Only hours before, she had been enjoying dinner and laughter, unaware that her life would be cut short that very night. The shocking news reminded the world that no amount of privilege or power can shield us from mortality. Her funeral drew millions into grief but also served as a stark reminder that life is fragile and fleeting.

Her story echoes the words of the Psalmist: “Man is like a breath; his days are like a passing shadow” (Psalm 144:4). No matter how high we rise or how much we possess, life remains temporary. Death does not ask whether we are rich or poor, young or old, powerful or powerless—it comes to all. What matters, therefore, is not the length of our days nor the abundance of our possessions, but how faithfully we live, love, and prepare for the eternal life to come.

May we, then, be as shrewd as this steward was—though not in dishonesty but in holy wisdom—using every resource entrusted to us for God’s glory, so that when our days are done, we may be welcomed joyfully into eternal dwellings by the One who said: “Well done, good and faithful servant. Come enter into my joy”

 

 

 OT XXIV [C] (The Exaltation of the Holy Cross) (Nm 21:4b-9; Phil 2: 6-11; Jn 3: 13-17)

The Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross is one of twelve “Master feasts” celebrated in the Church to honor Jesus Christ, our Lord and Master. This feast is celebrated to memorialize the first installation of the remnants of the true cross of Jesus in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher on Mount Calvary.

Early in the fourth century, Saint Helena, mother of the Roman Emperor Constantine, went to Jerusalem in search of the holy places of Christ’s life. In AD 326, she razed the second-century Temple of Aphrodite, which tradition held was built over the Savior’s tomb. During the excavation, workers found three crosses. Legend has it that the one on which Jesus died was identified when its touch healed a dying woman.

The Emperor built the Church of the Holy Sepulcher on Calvary, it was consecrated on September 14, AD 335, and the remains of the cross were installed in it by Archbishop Maccharios of Jerusalem. After three centuries, the Persians invaded Jerusalem, plundered it of all valuables and took with them the relic of the Holy Cross. In AD 630, Emperor Heraclius II defeated the Persians, recaptured the casket containing the holy relic, and reinstalled it in the rebuilt Church, which was destroyed by Muslims in 1009. The crusaders rebuilt it as the present Church of the Holy Sepulcher in 1149. The largest fragment of the holy cross is now kept in Santa Croce Church in Rome. We have a small piece of it as relic her, as our church is named Holy Cross Church and we will have a veneration right after the Mass.

 

Today’s feast of the exaltation or triumph of the Holy Cross is not like Good Friday. The words ‘triumph’ and ‘cross’ don’t normally belong together. ‘Triumph’ suggests celebration, achievement, recognition. ‘Cross’ indicates suffering, humiliation, defeat. How could anyone who ended up crucified ever be said to have triumphed. It is hard to think of a greater paradox than the phrase ‘the triumph of the cross’. Far from being a triumph, death by crucifixion was considered to be the most degrading and terrifying form of execution. It was a way for the Roman authorities to show its triumph over all those who dared to threaten Roman order and peace.

Yet, as Christians, we have no difficulty in looking upon the cross of Jesus as a triumph. Rome did not have the last word when it came to Jesus, because God raised Jesus from the dead and he made him the cornerstone of a new community, which went on to include a future Roman Emperor, Constantine. It was firstly the triumph of love over hatred, the triumph of God’s love over human sin. All authentic love is life-giving and God’s love is supremely life-giving. In the light of the resurrection, the crucifixion of Jesus was understood as the triumph of God’s goodness over the powers of evil, the triumph of light over the power of darkness, the triumph of love over hatred and sin.

The cross was invented by the Persians and then adopted by the Romans as one of the cruelest and most frightening instruments of torture and execution to instill fear among subjects. Constantine used it as a talisman of power in the civil war with his brother. Some people treat the cross as a trinket. For them the cross is merely a piece of jewelry. Other people treat the cross in a superstitious manner. They give a cross powers that belong to God. These people have seen too many cheap horror movies and act as though a cross can defeat evil spirits. It is not the object that conquers evil, it is the power of Christ whose presence the object reminds us that conquers evil.

The deeper meaning of the Cross is presented in today's second reading from the Letter of Paul to the Philippians. Jesus emptied himself completely, not just becoming a human being but accepting the worst public death of the society he was in to demonstrate the extent of the love of God for us. He died making a willing statement of love, filling the world with the love he had for his Father and his Father has for him. As today’s gospel reminds us, “for God sent his Son into the world not to condemn the world, but so that through him the world might be saved”. The Cross possesses the power to forgive sins, the power to heal consciences and human hearts.

When we celebrate this feast, particularly of our parish feast, let’s meditate on the significance of the Cross in our life.  

1) We should honor and venerate the cross and carry it on our person to remind ourselves of the love God has for us and the price Jesus paid for our salvation.

2) The cross will give us strength in our sufferings and remind us of our hope of eternal glory with the risen Lord. With St. Paul, we express our belief that the “message of the cross is foolishness only to those who are perishing” (1Cor 1:18-24), and that we should “glory in the cross of Our Lord” (Gal 6:14).

3) We should bless ourselves with the sign of the cross to remind ourselves that we belong to Christ Jesus, to honor the Most Holy Trinity, and to ask the Triune God to bless us, save us and protect us from all danger and evil.

4) The crucifix should remind us that we are forgiven sinners and, hence, we are expected to forgive those who offend us and to ask for forgiveness whenever we offend others or hurt their feelings.

Today we are invited to look upon the cross as the 'explosion of God’s life-giving love for us all' and then to allow ourselves to be drawn into that love so that we can reflect it to others through our lives.

 

 OT XXIII: Wis 9:13-18b; Phlm 9-10, 12-17; Lk 14:25–33  

Many of us may have had the experience of starting into something and not being able to see it through. This can happen for many reasons. If a project turns out to be more expensive than was planned for, and people don’t really have the money to finish it. Or if a task we began took much longer than we had expected, and found it hard to sustain the interest to keep at it to the end. Or we can begin a project with enthusiasm, but our health takes a turn for the worse and, as a result, we just do not have the energy to complete it.

The two parables that Jesus speaks in today’s gospel reading have to do with people starting a project and not being able to finish it. In the case of both the builder and the king in those parables, the basic problem was a failure to think through what they were entering into. The builder did not calculate his costs correctly, and the king underestimated the strength of his enemy. Jesus speaks those two parables in the context of highlighting the demanding nature of being his disciple. At this point in Luke’s gospel, Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem, where crucifixion and death await him, so he does not mince his words about what following him really means. Hence, the two parables call on people to think it through carefully before committing themselves to becoming his disciples. Jesus is saying that this is not a decision you can make casually; you need to be aware of what you are letting yourself in for.

 

 Indeed, it could be said that many of us never really had to think through becoming a follower of the Lord; we were born into it, as it were. We were certainly baptized into it at an early age; it came natural to us, to some extent. It was a gift that came our way from our parents and we have been grateful for that gift ever since.

 

Being a Christian, being a Catholic, always requires a certain amount of thinking things through and figuring out what is to be done. For example, various options will come our way in life; some of them will be compatible with the Lord’s way, others may not be. We will often find ourselves asking, ‘Can I do this and be faithful to the gospel?’ At other times, some demand may be made of us and our natural instinct might be to shirk it. Rather than going with our natural instinct, thinking it through may bring home to us that the Lord’s call is present in this demand.

This is the situation that we find unfolding in the second reading. Paul writes a short letter to Philemon from his prison cell. Philemon was a reasonably wealthy person whom Paul had baptised. He had a house large enough to provide a space for the local church to gather, and, so was a leader of his church. As a person of wealth, he had slaves. One of them, Onesimus, ran away and made his way to Paul. While he was in prison Paul brought him to faith in the Lord. Paul refers to himself as Onesimus’ spiritual father. Paul sends Onesimus back to Philemon with this letter. Slaves had no rights and Philemon could have had Onesimus put to death for running away. However, Paul called on Philemon to receive Onesimus back, not as a slave, but as a brother in the Lord. Having both been baptized into Christ by Paul, they were now spiritual brothers with one heavenly Father. Paul was asking Philemon to do something very difficult. To receive his runaway slave back as a brother, as an equal, meant that Philemon would be going against what his social peers would have expected of him, and probably members of his blood family as well. Yet, Paul was saying to him, ‘If you are to be faithful to your baptismal calling, you have to do what I am asking, even if it is going to cost you a lot, in terms of your standing in society and in your family’.

 

Philemon’s dilemma can be that of any one of us. We find ourselves having to work out for ourselves, ‘What is the right thing for me to do in this situation?’ Our decision will depend on how much we have given ourselves over to Christ.

Jesus says ‘If anyone comes to me without hating his father, mother, wife, children, brothers, sisters, yes and his own life too, he cannot be my disciple’. In the language that Jesus spoke if you wanted to say that you preferred one thing to another, you said you loved the one and hated the other. Jesus is really saying that we are to prefer him to everyone else, to love him with a greater love than we love even our own family members. Soren Kierkegaard said that there are a lot of parade-ground Christians who wear the uniforms of Christianity, but few who are willing to do battle for Christ and his kingdom. When it comes to doing battle for the Lord, too many church members are just sitting on the sidelines instead of “standing on the promises of God.” Jesus does not want a large number of “half-way” disciples who are willing to do a “little bit” of prayer, a “little bit” of commitment, a “little bit” of dedication, a “little bit” of love. Jesus wants disciples who are truly committed to prayer, to discipleship and to being ruled by him as their king. 

 

Jesus’ challenge of true Christian discipleship can be accepted only if we practice the spirit of detachment and renunciation in our daily lives.  Real discipleship demands true commitment to the duties entrusted to us by life, circumstances, the community, or directly by God Himself, and by loving acts of selfless, humble, sacrificial love offered to all God’s children around us.  Let us remember that all this is possible only if we rely on the power of prayer and the guidance of the Holy Spirit. 

 OT 22 [C]  Sir 3:17-18, 20, 28-29; Heb 12:18-19, 22-24a; Lk 14:1, 7-14

Humility features prominently in today’s first reading. It is a virtue that is not spoken about much today. It tends to get a negative press when it is spoken about. The term humility comes from the Latin word ‘humus’, meaning earth or ground. Humility, in that sense, is about keeping our feet on the ground; it is the virtue of being honest and real. To be humble is to recognize our own truth and the truth of others.

 

Humble people acknowledge that whatever abilities they possess have been given to them by God. Thanksgiving to God rather than self-congratulations is the response of the humble person to the ways that they have been graced and gifted. Mary, the mother of Jesus, exemplifies the virtue of humility in the opening words of her Magnificat prayer, ‘My soul glorifies the Lord, my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour, for the Almighty has worked marvels for me. Holy is his name’. Mary knew that she was greatly favoured, but she also acknowledged that this was due to God alone and not to herself. Mary did not attempt to be less than she was. All generations will call me blessed she said. She recognized the truth of her own life and she proclaimed it publicly. She did not pretend to be more than she was either.

Humility is first of all, clarity and honesty about ourselves, the gifts and talents we have, and the gifts we don’t have, our limitations. Humility is also about the truth of our relationship with God. We recognize that the gifts, the abilities, the strengths we have are ultimately gifts from God for the service of others. This is what St Paul had to say about himself ‘By the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace towards me has not been in vain’.

 

There are forms of pride that are good… and there are certainly forms of pride that are bad. Balancing pride and humility is a problem for most of us. It all depends upon what we’re being proud about.

We should have enough pride to render good quality to our workmanship. We should do things well and be properly proud of that quality of the product of our craftsmanship. If we have musical or artistic talents we should openly share them with others and not have a false humility that causes us to withhold what we can create for others. Hiding our light under a bushel does not give honor and glory to God, to our heavenly Father who gave us our talents so that we might brighten and build up the lives of those around us. So, there are forms of pride that are healthy and beneficial not only to ourselves but to others as well.

Then there are forms of pride that are bad. They cut us off from others and isolate us. There is a kind of pride that comes from the delusion that tells us we’re totally self-sufficient. Satan tempted Adam and Eve by telling them that if they ate of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil they would be like God, that they could decide for themselves what was good and what was evil. In other words they could make their own reality.

We are deluded if we think we can handle everything and that we don’t need anyone else’s help. We disguise it by saying, “my problems are my problems – they’re no one else’s business. I can take care of my own problems.”
For instance, some people proclaim that they’re not alcoholic. For them an alcoholic is a drunken bum, living in filth in the gutter, drinking booze from a bottle wrapped in a paper bag. In their deluded pride alcoholics say, “Thank God I’m not one of them!”

The truth is that judges are alcoholics, doctors are alcoholics, airline pilots are alcoholics… and, yes, even some priests are alcoholics. Pride keeps many from admitting that fact. Pride prevents them from acquiring the necessary help to bring it under control. Pride keeps people in a world of denial. They think that while they may perhaps have a problem it’s only a minor problem. The truth is that many others suffer from their problem. “I may drink too much once in a while”, alcoholics claim, “but it’s not hurting anyone.’ All the while their spouse and their children are suffering as the alcoholic rages on in the way he or she treats all who have to live with an alcoholic or work with that drinker.

Then there are horrible problem marriages. Pride rears its ugly head again, and say: “Well, I don’t need any counseling help. Counselors don’t know what they’re talking about. I can take care of my own problems – I don’t need anyone else’s help.”

In this parable Jesus isn’t merely talking about nice table manners. He’s talking about the way you and I live our lives. He’s talking about the way we treat our selves, others, and God.

Pride is the root cause of all sin. Pride, we must always remember, caused Lucifer’s downfall. Perhaps that’s why Jesus spent so much time pointing it out to us and calling us to humbly deal with it under God’s power, under God’s terms.   

There is nothing to lose by being humble. The book of Proverbs tells us, “Humility and the fear of the Lord bring wealth, honor, and life” (Prov 22:4). On the contrary, pride results in defeat and shame. Any spiritual life not anchored on humility definitely will be an empty one. This is because such a Christian will only work for himself and without regard for others.

        Finally, the church teaches us that: “Humility is the foundation of prayer.” (CCC 2559). Only a humble heart can come and prostrate before God in prayer. Humble persons are always ready to ask for guidance from God and others. Also, they listen and learn from others. It takes humility to say please, and also to ask for forgiveness. So, let us humbly implore the Lord: “O Jesus! Meek and humble of heart, make my heart like yours. From the desire to be honored and esteemed deliver me!”

 

 OT XXI [C] Is 66:18-21, Heb 12:5-7, 11-13; Lk 13:22-30

In Bethlehem, there is a wonderful Basilica called the Basilica of the Nativity. It is the oldest church in use in the Holy Land, dating from the 6th century. Most of the churches in the Holy Land were destroyed by the Muslims in the year 636, but this one was spared. The entrance into this ancient Basilica is not very imposing. It is a very small and low door, which only admits one at a time. Over the centuries, the entrance got gradually smaller to prevent people from taking away large amounts of booty. Nowadays, the door is called the door of humility and all but children have to lower their heads to get through it. Just as a small, narrow door leads into the wonderful Basilica of the Nativity, so in the gospel reading the narrow door Jesus speaks about leads into a great feast at which people from east and west, from north and south have gathered.

Jesus’ refusal to answer the question, ‘Will there be only a few saved?’ directly suggests that it is a wrong question. It is not for us to speculate as to who is in and who is out. Strive to enter through the narrow door. Jesus’ reference to a ‘narrow door’ is clearly an image. He is not talking about an actual narrow door that can be found somewhere. To enter by a narrow door requires a certain amount of concentration, whereas we can sail through a wide door or gate without even noticing it. The word ‘strive’ suggests struggle and exertion. To get through a narrow door, you need to be focused and attentive. You need a clear vision of where you are going and a certain commitment to get there.

This narrow door is, in a sense, Jesus himself. On one occasion, in the gospel of John, Jesus spoke of himself as the gate or the door. ‘I am the gate’, he says, ‘whoever enters through me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture… I came that they may have life and have it to the full’. Taking Jesus as our gate, our door, entering through him, requires a certain effort and focus on our part. Walking in his way, living by his values, does not happen automatically for us. There are plenty of other doors and ways that compete for our attention; there are other sets of values that try to engage us. We have to consciously choose the Lord’s door before other doors that open up for us that are easier to get through and make fewer demands on us. Much of the culture in which we live today pulls us in very different directions from the direction that the gospel calls us to take. The world in which we live is not always supportive of the values of the gospel. There can be a lot of pressure on people, some of it subtle, to act in ways that are contrary to the message of Jesus. Choosing the narrow door, choosing the Lord, involves coming to know him with our heart and mind, growing in our relationship with him, so that he becomes a significant presence in our lives.

In the gospel reading, some of Jesus’ contemporaries declared, ‘We once ate and drank in your company; you taught in our streets’. However, Jesus suggests that that kind of superficial relationship with him is not enough. We are to take the Lord to heart, just as he has taken us to heart. The key question is not whether we know about Jesus, but whether He knows us. Salvation is a living relationship. In John 10:14, Jesus says, “I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me.” On the last day, the difference between those inside and those outside will not be whether we have heard His teaching, but whether He can say, “I know you.”

The evangelical Christians are so obsessed with the notion of salvation by Faith that they totally ignore an entire body of Jesus’ teachings that call for commitment and sacrifice. They believe that merely by receiving baptism, one goes to heaven whether one lives a true Christian life or not. This gospel passage clearly refutes that theory. Enter through the narrow gate. It is true that when you receive baptism, you are saved and are offered heaven. But you can also lose it by renouncing it by yourself, rejecting the offer of God. You can reject your faith and become a Muslim, the follower of the worst religion in the world. But when you come back, you don’t need to be rebaptized because God did not revoke his promise of giving you heaven. God will still keep his promise; we are the ones denying it for ourselves, not God. God will not drag anyone to heaven against one’s choice.

 

Our going through that narrow door is not all down to our own efforts and striving. Our efforts are contained within the Lord’s effort on our behalf. Jesus said of himself: ‘When I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all people to myself’. The Lord is always drawing us through that narrow door that leads to life. He is not standing on the far side of the door looking at our efforts in some kind of detached way. Rather, he is continually engaged and involved with us. In the first reading, the Lord, speaking through the prophet Isaiah, states: ‘I am going to gather the nations of every language’. The door may be narrow, but the Lord is going to pull through that door large numbers from every language and culture. In the gospel reading, Jesus speaks of people from east and west, from north and south who take their place at the feast on the far side of the narrow door in the kingdom of God. There is an implicit answer here to the question that was put to Jesus in the gospel reading, ‘Will only a few be saved?’ The answer to that question is ‘no’. People from the four corners of the earth will get through that door, and some of those who get through may surprise us, ‘those now last will be first’.

Let’s pray today for the grace to live out our baptismal promises and prepare ourselves to enter through the narrow gate by prayer, supplication and constant renunciation of our sinful desires and by following Jesus who said: “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me” ( Lk 9:23).  

 OT XX [C] Jer 38:4-6, 8-10; Heb 12:1-4; Lk 12: 49-53

This Sunday’s Gospel reading contains some of the most provocative words ever spoken by Jesus: "Do you think that I have come to establish peace on the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division. And to think that the person who pronounced these words was the same whose birth was greeted by the words: "Peace on earth to men of good will," and that during his life he proclaimed: "Blessed are the peacemakers." The same person, when he was arrested, commanded Peter to "Put your sword back into its sheath!" (Mat 26:52). How do we explain this contradiction?

It is very simple. It is a matter of seeing which peace and unity Jesus came to bring and which is the peace and unity he came to take away. He came to bring the peace and unity of the good, that which leads to eternal life, and he came to take away the false peace and unity, which serves only to lull the conscience to sleep and leads to ruin.

Jesus himself distinguishes the two types of peace. He says to the apostles: "Peace I leave you, my peace I give to you; not as the world gives peace do I give peace to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid" (Jn 14:27). After having destroyed with his death the false peace and solidarity of the human race in evil and sin, he inaugurates the new peace and unity that is the fruit of the Holy Spirit. This is the peace that he offers to the disciples on Easter night, saying "Peace be with you!"

Jesus says that this "division" can also work its way into the family: between father and son, mother and daughter, brother and sister, daughter-in-law and mother-in-law. And, unfortunately, we know that this is sometimes painfully true. The person who has found the Lord and seriously wants to follow him often finds himself in the difficult situation of having to choose: Either make those at home happy and neglect God and religious practice or follow the latter and put himself in conflict with his own, who give him trouble for every little thing he does for God and piety.

This saying of Jesus on “division” reflects what actually happened within families in the early church. Those who became disciples of Jesus often found themselves at odds with family members who refused to take that step. Jesus did not come with the explicit intention of dividing people or families. He came to proclaim the kingdom of God, the values that God holds dear and wants us to live by. The consequences of proclaiming those values by his word and deed were that communities and families ended up divided. Peace or unity at any price was not what Jesus was about. The Jesus who lived and worked two thousand years ago is the same risen Lord who lives and works among us today, and the world today sometimes can be as resistant to the gospel as it was when Jesus first proclaimed it. We can expect that if we try to live by the values of the gospel today, we will find ourselves at odds with people who have a different set of values. There can be enormous peer pressure, especially on young people, to take a very different path to the one that Jesus calls us to take. The refusal to swim with the tide, to do what everyone is doing, can bring on ridicule and hostility from others, leaving people quite isolated. Like Jeremiah in the first reading we can find ourselves thrown into a muddy well. Jesus himself in today’s gospel reading speaks about the great distress he continues to experience until his mission is completed. We can expect to share in his distress if we identify with his way of life.

 

We are here at this Sunday Eucharist because something of the fire that Jesus lit is burning within our own hearts. The fire of the Spirit of God’s love has been lit in our lives. We often pray that lovely prayer, ‘Come Holy Spirit, fill my heart, and kindle in me the fire of your love’. Perhaps we sometimes pray that prayer out of an awareness that the fire of the Spirit has died back within us and needs to be reignited. On one occasion, Paul calls on his co-worker, Timothy to ‘fan into a living flame the gift of God that is within you’, the gift of the Holy Spirit. We all need that gift to be rekindled from time to time. The Lord wants us to be alight with the fire of the Spirit, a fire that can renew the face of the earth by burning away all that is hostile to human well-being and flourishing. It has been said that true disciples of Jesus have revolution in their hearts, in the sense that they have a burning desire to work with others for a better world. As we work to allow that fire to burn more brightly, it is important that we do not lose sight of Jesus, in the words of today’s second reading. As risen Lord, he is full of the Spirit and he stands ready to pour the gift of his Spirit anew into our hearts if we ask for it.

 

Hence, the central theme of today’s readings is that we should courageously live out our religious convictions and principles in our lives, as Jeremiah, Paul, and Jesus did, even if doing so should result in our martyrdom and turn society upside down.   If no one is ever offended by the quality of our commitment to Christ, that commitment may not be authentic, and if our individual and communal living of the Good News casts no fire and causes no division, then perhaps we are practicing “inoffensive Christianity.”

Let’s pray that the light we received at Baptism and reignited at confirmation be kept aflame brightly to burn off all the impurities in our life and help us to set the fire of God’s love everywhere.

 

 

 FEAST OF THE ASSUMPTION

Rev. 11: 19, 12: 1-6, 10,: I Cor. 15: 20-27, : Luke 1: 39-56

The Feast of the Assumption is one of the most important feasts of our Lady. Catholics believe that when her earthly life was finished, Mary was taken up, body and soul, into heavenly glory, where the Lord exalted her as Queen of Heaven. (ccc, # 966). This is the feast of Mary’s total liberation from death and decay, the consequences of original sin. Assumption- was a reward for Mary’s sacrificial cooperation in the divine plan of salvation. Her death was a transformation from this life to the next. She is the model Christian who heard the Word of God and lived it. She carried the life of God within her, celebrated the life of her Son on earth and is united to His life for all eternity.

When Pope Pius XII made the proclamation of the assumption on November 1, 1950, he put into words a belief held by the faithful since the first century. Way back in AD 325, the Council of Nicea spoke of the Assumption of Mary. Writing in AD 457, the Bishop of Jerusalem said that when Mary’s tomb was opened, it was "found empty. The apostles judged that her body had been taken into heaven.

According to a legend, when Blessed Virgin Mary died, Apostle Thomas was not around, and when he was informed of Mary’s death on his arrival back from India, he refused to believe it and demanded the grave to be opened and on opening found it to be empty, and only some flowers were found in its place. Tombs in early Israel were not hole in the ground, but caves and holes dug out in rock.

There is no mention of Mary’s assumption into heaven in the gospels. Yet, there is a line in the gospel reading for her feast that could be understood as alluding to it. In her prayer, she declares, ‘The Almighty has done great things for me’. In the context of Luke’s gospel, the ‘great things’ refers to God’s choice of her to become the mother of God’s Son. On this feast, we can include her Assumption into heaven as among the ‘great things’ God has done for her. Yet, the focus of Mary’s prayer is not on herself. It is rather on God and what God has done, not just for herself, but for all who turn to God in their need.

 Some non-Catholics accuse Catholics of worshipping Mary. We Catholics don’t worship or adore Mary because we worship only God, and Mary is not God. We venerate her, honour her, and love her as Jesus’ mother and our Heavenly Mother. If Jesus honored Mary, his mother, we also need to honor her. Honoring his mother pleases Jesus.

Mary herself gives the reason for her honor in her “Magnificat” recorded in Luke (1:48-49): 48: “For he has looked upon his handmaid’s lowliness; behold, from now on will all ages call me blessed. 49:The Mighty One has done great things for me, and Holy is his Name.”

God has honoured Mary in four ways, and we honour her because God honoured her:

a)    He chose her as the mother of His Son, Jesus Christ, the Messiah.

b)    In preparation for this role, God made her “Full
of grace” by her Immaculate Conception.

c)     He anointed her twice with His Holy Spirit: at the Annunciation and at Pentecost, making her the most

Spirit-filled among all women.

d)    God allowed her to participate actively in Christ’s suffering and death, suffering in soul all Jesus suffered in body.

Mary is our role model for all virtues, particularly love, fidelity, humility, obedience, and surrender to the will of
God and patience.

 

 Since Mary’s Assumption was a reward for her saintly life, this feast reminds us that we, too, must be pure and holy in body and soul, since our bodies will be glorified on the day of our resurrection. St. Paul tells us that our bodies are the temples of God because the Holy Spirit dwells within us. He also reminds us that our bodies are members of the Body of Christ.

We celebrate today by singing with Mary her great hymn of praise, the “Magnificat” (Lk 1:39-56). Apart from God’s favour Mary was but a lowly servant living in a “nowhere” town in the hill country of Galilee.  She was at the bottom of the social ladder.  Yet when God touched her womb, she became a queen, the mother of the King of kings.  To this day, she is honored millions of times a day as her “Hail Mary” is recited by humble Catholics throughout the world.  If you check it out, you will be amazed at the number of singing artists, both religious and secular, who have recorded her “Ave Maria.”  Truly all generations have and will always call her blessed.

It is always an inspiring thought in our moments of temptation and despair to remember that we have a powerful heavenly Mother, constantly interceding for us before her son, Jesus, in heaven. The feast of Mary’s assumption challenges us to imitate her self-sacrificing love, her indestructible faith and her perfect obedience.

Our prayers to Mary are the prayers of children asking their mother for help. We pray to Mary because she is our mother. When we were little and we fell down and scraped our knees, we called out to our mommies. When we got older, we stopped calling out to our moms in times of minor difficulties, but when major traumas hit, when a girl loses a baby, when a young man learns that he has cancer, it is usually Mom who is still the first person called upon for help. Jesus gave Mary to us to be our Mother from the cross telling, this is your mother. We recognise that it is Jesus’ life and power that saves us, but we also recognise that Mary was given to us at the foot of the cross as our mother.

If we have Mary with us, our prayers have a better chance of being answered soon, as it happened at the wedding at Cana. Let’s approach Jesus through Mary, because she gave Jesus to the world. I think after the Eucharist, Mary is the best gift that Jesus left for us. To Quote Pope Benedict XVI, “On this feast day, let us thank the Lord for the gift of the Mother, and let us pray to Mary to help us find the right path every day”.

 

 OT XIX [C] Wis 18:6-9; Heb 11:1-2, 8-19; Lk 12:32-48 

 

 The readings today focus on two major themes, faith and readiness. Faith is about putting our trust and belief into something, even if we cannot see the results now or in the near future. Faith enables us to keep going forward according to our vision and values, even when the goal seems quite out of sight and at times when the prize seems so unlikely to be achieved.

 

The story of Abraham is extraordinary because even without seeing the promise fulfilled, Abraham never stopped believing in God's promise to him. Abraham trusted in the promise, expected its fulfilment, and lived it as a deep truth even though he would not see the promise completely fulfilled in his lifetime. Abraham is a wonderful model of faith.

After speaking about faith, Jesus also tells us about readiness or preparedness in this parable of the master of a household going on a journey to a wedding banquet. The servants of the household faithfully carry out their duties while he is away. All the time, they are alert to the moment when he returns from the wedding feast and knocks on the door. He will need at least one of the servants to let him in. The servants have no way of knowing when he will return. They didn’t have cell phones like we have now to call ahead and alert. It could be at any time of the day or night. Someone has to be constantly on the watch to let him in when he knocks on the door. Their vigilance is rewarded by the master on his return. In an extraordinary role reversal, he becomes their servant. He sits them down at the table, puts on an apron and serves them a meal. An ordinary master would not do it for his servants for being loyal to this way. 

In telling this parable, Jesus was speaking about himself and his relationship with his disciples, with us. The master in the apron who serves his servants is Jesus himself. According to the gospel of John, this is what Jesus did at the last supper. The disciples were seated at the table, but Jesus got up from the table. Rather than putting an apron around himself, he put a towel around himself and washed the feet of his disciples. Even though he was their Lord and Master, he performed a very menial task that was normally the task of servants. He gave himself in love for his disciples. In the words of Saint Paul, he emptied himself, taking the form of a servant. This very menial service pointed ahead to an even greater act of self-emptying the following day, when, from the cross, he emptied himself of life itself in loving service of all humanity. The Last Supper was also the first Eucharist. At every Eucharist, the risen Lord empties himself out of love for us. He serves us by giving himself to us under the very humble elements of bread and wine. It is the Lord in an apron that we celebrate every time we gather for Mass.

The Lord who comes to us in the Eucharist comes to us throughout the course of our daily lives. Just as the wealthy man knocked on the door of the gospel reading, every day the Lord knocks on the door of our lives, waiting to be admitted. The expression ‘the knock on the door’, often has a sinister connotation. In certain periods of history and in certain parts of the world, the knock on the door spoke of danger and often death. However, the Lord knocks on the door of our lives as one who wants to serve us so that we may have life to the full. In the last book of the Bible, the book of Revelation, the risen Lord says to the church, ‘Listen, I am standing at the door, knocking; if you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to you and eat with you, and you with me’. Whenever we respond to the Lord’s knocking on the door of our lives, he will say to us the same thing that he said to Zacchaeus, ‘Today, salvation has come to this house’

       His primary desire is to serve us rather than have us serve him. Yes, he wants us to serve him by sharing in his work of bringing God’s hospitable love to others. That is what Jesus means when he says to his disciples in the gospel reading that ‘you are to be dressed for action, and have your lamps lit’. The Lord has lit a light in our lives, the light of faith and the light of hope, and he wants us to let that light shine before others, so that they can begin to experience something of the kingdom of heaven for which we all long. The Lord needs and values our service; he needs labourers in his harvest. Yet, what the Lord wants most of all is to allow ourselves to be served by him. Are we willing to allow the Lord to serve us? Or are we keeping him out of the door of our hearts, pretending not to hear his knock? Or we cannot really hear the knock because there is a lot of commotion going on in our hearts?

 

 OT XVIII [C] Eccl 1:2; 2:21-23; Col 3:1-5, 9-11; Lk 12:13-21

 

The making of a will is one of the important acts of adulthood. We can be rather reluctant to sit down and make our will. To do so is to acknowledge in a very concrete way that we are mortal, that one day we will leave our possessions to others. The author of the book of Qoheleth saw this as part of the meaninglessness of life – ‘a person who has laboured, must leave what is his own to someone who has not toiled for it at all’. Yet, there can be great meaning in the act of leaving what is our own to those who have not laboured for it. In making our will, we are deciding how our earthly possessions at the time of death will be divided and distributed. The decisions we make in regard to our will speak volumes about who and what we really value in life. We leave our possessions to the people and the causes that are most significant to us. Our will is a statement of our loves and passions, our values and interests.

When a will is not made or when it is unclear, trouble very often ensues, as family members attempt to interpret what the deceased person really intended. Non-family members can easily get drawn into the family quarrel. In the gospel reading today, someone tries to draw Jesus into a family dispute about inheritance. A man comes up to Jesus and says, ‘Master, tell my brother to give me a share of our inheritance’. Wisely, Jesus does not get involved in this family dispute. Instead, he seizes on this man’s request to warn against the dangers of greed. Within the Christian tradition, greed is listed as one of the seven deadly sins. It appears second on the list of seven: Pride, covetousness, lust, anger, gluttony, envy and sloth. Greed is the desire to acquire more than we need or is good for us. When we give in to greed, we invariably do damage not only to ourselves but to others as well.

In the gospel reading, Jesus tells a story about a greedy man whose heart is not open because it is full of anxiety about the safe storage of all he possesses. His hands and his heart are full. He forgot the truth that God was the real owner of all his possessions and blessings, and he was only God’s steward or manager. Instead, he was focused on himself and was selfish to the core. He liberally used the “aggressively possessive” pronouns “I” (six times) and “my” (five times). He was possessed by his possessions, instead of possessing them. In the process, he evicted God from his heart and never thought to thank God for having blessed him with a rich harvest. He was not thankful to God for His blessings; instead, he considered them as solely the fruit of his own labor. He also failed in his stewardship duties – the returning to God of His portion in paying his tithe. He did not recognize his possessions as on loan from God, given to him to share with others.  He was starving to death spiritually in the midst of God’s abundance.  

The rich man was called a fool because he did not consider sharing his wealth. In other words, he left other people out of his possessions. St. Gregory the Great taught that when we care for the needs of the poor, we are giving them what is theirs, not ours. We are not just performing works of mercy; we are paying a debt of justice.

Henry Ford once asked an associate about his life goals. The man replied that his goal was to make a million dollars. A few days later, Ford gave the man a pair of glasses made out of two silver dollar coins. He told the man to put them on and asked what he could see. “Nothing,” the man said. “The dollars are in the way.” — Ford told him that he wanted to teach him a lesson: If his only goal was dollars, he would miss a host of greater opportunities. He should invest himself in serving others, not simply in making money. That’s a great secret of life that far too few people discover. Money is important. No question about that. But money is only a means by which we reach higher goals – loving service to others, loving obedience to God. 

There is a saying that "If you want to know what a man is, find out where he invests his money." It is a metaphorical way of saying that a person's values and priorities can be revealed by observing how they allocate their resources, particularly their financial investments. It implies that a person's investment choices reflect their goals, risk tolerance, and what they deem important. Some people keep buying new cars every year, because there is a new model in the market, or their neighbour has a better model than the one they have. It is not that they really need a new one.

The gospel reading invites us to ask ourselves, ‘What are we doing with the resources that have come our way?’ ‘Are we using them to invest in others or to invest in ourselves?’ Our resources include not just our possessions, but our time, our health, our gifts and abilities. In various ways, each one of us has been richly endowed by the Lord; it is in placing those resources at the service of others that we become rich in the sight of God and, thereby, secure our lives.

Let me conclude with the beautiful prayer from the book of Proverbs: “Lord, give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread. Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you and say, ‘Who is the Lord?’ Or I may become poor and steal, and so dishonour the name of my God.” (Prv 30:8-9).

 

 

 

 OT XVII [C] Gn 18:20-32, Col  2:12-14, Lk 11:1-13 

 

We are all probably aware of the influence for good or ill we can have on other people and other people can have on us. Some people can bring out the best in us, and others can bring out the worst in us. We all need the good living of others to help us to live well, and others need our good living if they are to live well.

During his public ministry, Jesus’ disciples were deeply influenced by the way he lived, his vision for human life, and his relationship with God. They wanted to follow him, to become like him. They noticed, for example, how Jesus prayed to God. He seemed to have a very intimate relationship with God. They wanted a share of that relationship. They wanted to pray to God as he did. So, they requested him, ‘Lord, teach us to pray’.

In teaching the Lord’s prayer, Jesus was not only teaching them a prayer, but also the approach they should have in their prayers. Jesus first invites us to address God in the same intimate way as he did, as ‘Abba, Father’ and he empowers us to do so by sending us the Holy Spirit. As Paul writes to the Galatians, ‘God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying “Abba, Father!”’ (Gal 4:6).

Jesus then teaches us that our primary focus in prayer is to be on God rather than on ourselves. After praying to have God’s name glorified and for the coming of God’s kingdom to be established on earth, we pray for our own needs and those of others. We should be persevering just like Abraham was in his prayer to intercede for the good people in the towns of Sodom and Gomorrah, or like the man who went to his neighbour’s house at night to ask bread to feed his visiting guest.

I am sure we have all had the experience of asking God for something important in prayer and not getting the response we had hoped for. We end up with the feeling that the Lord isn’t listening to us. We might ask that a loved one recover from a serious illness, but it doesn’t happen. At that point, we might find ourselves praying the prayer that Jesus prayed from the cross, ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’

Saint Paul, in one of his letters, tells us that he had prayed for something but was not answered in the way he hoped for. He had what he calls a ‘thorn in the flesh’. He never fully explains what this ‘thorn in the flesh’ is, but it was clearly something that caused him a lot of distress, and he wanted to be rid of it.

Though his ‘thorn in the flesh’ didn’t leave him, his prayer did not go completely unanswered. He heard the Lord say to him in prayer, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness’

Prayers that don’t seem to be answered are often being answered in ways that we very often don’t see at the time. If we keep asking, keep seeking, keep knocking, the Lord will respond to our prayers in ways that will surprise us. What we ask the Lord to change may not change, but we will be changed for the better. Sometimes, the Lord answers our prayers not by changing the situation outside ourselves but by changing ourselves, changing our hearts and minds. We might receive the grace of acceptance, the gift of a deep peace; we might be helped to see the situation in a way we never saw it before. Very often, God will give us even more than we ask for. At the end of today’s gospel reading, Jesus says, ‘how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him’. Jesus is saying that if we come before God in our need, asking him for help, he will share the life of the Spirit with us.

A certain lady who spent her time working for the Lord – visiting the sick and the bedridden, helping the elderly and the handicapped – was diagnosed with a knee problem needing surgery. The surgery, unfortunately, was not a success, and so left her in constant pain and unable to walk. It seemed that the Lord had ignored the prayers of this woman and her friends for a successful surgery. This was a woman who considered herself a personal friend of Jesus. She was utterly disappointed, and her cheerful disposition turned into sadness and gloom. One day, she pulled herself together and shared with her confessor what was going on in her soul. The confessor suggested that she go into prayer and ask her friend Jesus why he has treated her this way. And she did. The following day, the priest met her and saw peace written all over her face in spite of her pain. “Do you know what he said to me?” she began, “As I was looking at the crucified Jesus and telling him about my bad knee, he said to me, ‘Mine is worse.’” She was given the gift of the Holy Spirit.

 

The prayer of intercession that we have after the creed has a strong foundation in the prayer of Abraham in today’s first reading. He was praying not for his family, but for the people he did not even know. In the prayer Our Father, too, we do not pray Give me this day my daily bread, but Give US this day our daily bread. We pray these petitions not as individuals but as a community. The vision of Jesus in this prayer extends beyond the community of believers. As a community of faith, we pray this prayer in the world, as part of the world, on behalf of the world. So, when we pray, ‘give us this day our daily bread’, we are asking God to satisfy the physical hungers and spiritual hungers of all humanity. Just for your information, it is only the Christians who pray for non-Christians and for the rest of humanity. The Muslims even call upon Allah to curse the Jews and Christians in their daily prayers. In our petitions, we usually include prayers for the whole world and our nation, besides praying for the universal and local churches. In our Good Friday prayer, we have special petitions for Jews, Muslims, Hindus and people of all other religions. This should open our minds to see that we have the true God who is the creator of all the world and redeemed the whole world and is concerned not just with Christians but with the whole of humanity, which is His creation. In this prayer Lord’s prayer, Jesus urges us to see that we stand not as I, as an individual, but we as a community placed on a lampstand giving light to the rest of humanity, giving out rays of truth, love and peace. Today, when we pray the Our Father prayer, let’s have these thoughts in our minds.