OT XXX: Sir 35:12-14, 16-18; 2 Tm 4:6-8, 16-18; Lk 18:9-14

The famous actor Gregory Peck was once standing in line with a friend, waiting for a table in a crowded Los Angeles restaurant. They had been waiting for some time, the diners seemed to be taking their time eating, and new tables weren’t opening up very fast. They weren’t even that close to the front of the line. Peck’s friend became impatient, and he said to Gregory Peck, “Why don’t you tell them who you are?” Gregory Peck responded with great wisdom. “No,” he said, “if you have to tell them who you are, then you aren’t.” — That’s a lesson that the Pharisee in our Gospel reading apparently had never learned. He thought he had to tell God who he was. He told God that he was not a sinner like the publican standing behind in the temple and therefore God owed him. He thinks he earned the reward and not a gift from God. This attitude is the worst in God’s sight, because no one can really work hard-enough to earn heaven or be in God’s good book. Everything that we get is purely a favor. And it is an unmerited favor. Anyone goes to heaven only by Christ’s sacrificial death on the cross which he did for the sins of the world, and not weighing on anyone’s good works.

G. Savonarola was one of the great preachers of the fifteenth century. He preached in the great cathedral of Florence, Italy, which contained a magnificent marble statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary. When Savonarola started preaching at this great cathedral, he noticed one day an elderly woman praying before this statue of Mary. He then noticed that it was her habit to come every day and pray before the statue. Savonarola remarked one day to an elderly priest who had been serving in the cathedral for many years, “Look how devoted and earnest this woman is. Every day she comes and offers prayers to the blessed Mother of Jesus. What a marvelous act of Faith.” But the elderly priest replied, “Do not be deceived by what you see. Many years ago, when the sculptor needed a model to pose for this statue of the blessed Mother, he hired a beautiful young woman to sit for him. This devout worshiper you see here every day is that young woman. She is worshiping who she used to be.”

A number of people are like that woman. They go to church service to worship themselves. And when they don’t get entertained or not been able to satisfy their ego they feel that their attendance of the service was useless. They feel they got nothing from attending the church and get bored and feel that they had no spiritual upliftment or encounter with the Lord and go home just the same way the Pharisee went back from the temple, unjustified, ungratified. The tax collector actually made a connection with God, but the Pharisee only made a connection with himself.

Before the great spiritual leader Mahatma Gandhi led India in its struggle for independence, he practiced law in South Africa. He became keenly aware of the injustice there, and he managed to persuade the Indian community to offer passive resistance to the government’s policy of discrimination. One incident which impressed itself on his mind was when he was obliged to step into the gutter so that a group of white passers-by would not be contaminated. Reflecting on the experience afterwards he wrote: “It has always been a mystery to me how men feel themselves honored by the humiliation of their fellow beings.” Prophet Muhammad told his followers, when you walk down the street and you see non-Muslims coming up against you, push them down into the gutter because they are not equal to you and Allah does not like them.

Many people have to humiliate other people to make themselves feel better. Their real worth is dependent on other people’s low worth, their demerits. If there is anyone around them superior to themselves in any aspect then they feel inferior and worthless. Only when another person is humiliated they feel better about themselves.

The Pharisee in the parable doesn’t recognize how much he needs God. He won’t receive salvation as a gift, but seems to think that he’s earned it.  The Publican is different. He recognizes that he’s a sinner, and he asks God for forgiveness. He doesn’t even think he’s worthy to raise his eyes to heaven. Instead he prays, “Oh God, be merciful to me, a sinner.”

Through the centuries, the tax collector's simple prayer, "O God, be merciful to me, a sinner," has been taken up as a complete summary of Christian spirituality.

There are even cases of monks who made this prayer the only words that they spoke, and reached heights of sanctity by means of it. This prayer makes a connection with God because it recognizes two things. First, it acknowledges God's greatest quality in relation to fallen mankind, His mercy. 

Second, the tax collector's prayer recognizes his need for that mercy. He accuses himself of being a sinner, someone who has selfishly abused God's gifts. The Pharisee's prayer shows no knowledge either of God's mercy or of his need for God; rather, it is an exercise in narcissism, in self-admiration. 

God wants to connect with us, but he can only do so if we let him, and we can't let him if we don't think we need him. The publican’s prayer clearly expresses his need for God. Why are we here in this Church today? Do we need him or do I think He needs me, therefore, I come to Church on Sunday. If only we trust in the great mercy of God can we really be filled by God and his gifts. Like the publican let’s also tell from the heart, Be merciful to me, a sinner, O Lord.

 

 

OT XXIX [C] Ex 17:8-13, II Tm 3:14–4:2, Lk 18:1-8

 

The first reading today is about Moses commanding Joshua to attack the Amalekites and while Moses prayed with raised hands the Israelites were winning; when his hands were going down they were losing. Persevering prayer is one of the key themes of all the readings today. But I would like to focus on something different. Why would God ask Moses to attack Amalekites, and later them and some other countries, to exterminate totally?

God commands us to love and forgive one another, even our enemies. And one of the Ten Commandments tells us not to kill (Ex 20:13). So, is what God commanded against the Canaanites and Amalekites a contradiction?

In 1 Samuel 15:2-3, God commanded Saul and the Israelites, “This is what the LORD Almighty says: 'I will punish the Amalekites for what they did to Israel when they waylaid them as they came up from Egypt. The Amalekites were a source of constant woe to Israel. Shortly after the Israelites left Egypt, the Amalekites attacked the weary people, slaughtering the weak and elderly (Deut 25:18). The Amalekites and Canaanites, among other nations, practiced child burning, torture as public entertainment, and sexual immorality as sports.
Therefore, God said, go, attack the Amalekites and totally destroy everything that belongs to them. Do not spare them (Deut 2:34; 3:6; 20:16-18). Why would God have the Israelites exterminate an entire group of people, women and children included?

We do not fully understand why God would command such a thing, but we trust God that He is just – and we recognize that we are incapable of fully understanding a sovereign, infinite, and eternal God. As we look at difficult issues such as this one, we must remember what God says, “My ways are higher than your ways and My thoughts are higher than your thoughts..”( Is 55:9; Rom 11:33-36). We have to be willing to trust God and have faith in Him even when we do not understand His ways.

Unlike us, God knows the future. God knew what the results would be if Israel did not completely eradicate the Amalekites. If Israel did not carry out God’s orders, the Amalekites would come back to trouble the Israelites in the future. King Saul was commanded to exterminate the Amalekites. He claimed to have killed everyone except the Amalekite king Agag (1 Sam 15:20). He brought some animals to sacrifice to God, as if doing a big favor to God. God told him, I desire obedience to sacrifice. Israel was then later plagued with continuous Amalekite raids (Ex 17; 1 Sam 15:2; Num 14:45) as a result of Saul’s not obeying God. Just a couple of decades later, there were enough Amalekites to take David and his men’s families captive (1 Sam 30:1-2). After David and his men attacked the Amalekites and rescued their families, 400 Amalekites escaped. If Saul had fulfilled what God had commanded him, this never would have occurred. Several hundred years later, a descendant of Agag, Haman, tried to have the entire Jewish people exterminated (book of Esther). So, Saul’s incomplete obedience almost resulted in Israel’s destruction. God knew this would occur, so He ordered the extermination of the Amalekites ahead of time.

 It’s helpful to keep in mind that nations like the Canaanites and Amalekites engaged in human sacrifice, even offering their children to devil gods. (Deut 12:31). God did not order the extermination of these people to be cruel, but to prevent even greater evil from occurring in the future.

Often infected cattle or poultry are destroyed for the purpose of stopping an epidemic and saving vastly more livestock. Likewise, left unchecked, these nations would have plagued the world with such depravity that they simply were not redeemable. Not many people have issues with God destroying the whole world with flood because the whole world was corrupt except Noah and his family. We have problem when God using instruments like king Saul or Joshua.

Not only did God use Israel’s might to punish evil nations like these, He used the Babylonian, Assyrian, and Egyptian kings to punish Israel. When the Assyrian city of Ninevah was willing to repent hearing Jonah’s preaching he abstained from punishing them. God will often use human forces to mete out His discipline. Sometimes a more wicked nation is used as instrument to punish a less wicked nation.

The Amalekites are viewed as an existential threat, not simply to Israel, but to the covenant promises of God; that he will bless the whole world through his chosen people as promised to Abraham.  The Amalekites are not simply a threatening people with their determination to wipe out Israel, but they are a threat to the salvation plan of God for all other nations.  As descendants of Esau they had despised the covenant themselves and now were determined that none others could have access to what they had rejected.  

 

The promise to Abraham wouldn’t be fulfilled until the “fourth generation” because “the iniquity of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure” (Gen. 15:16). God knew that the people of the land of Canaan would continue in their sin, but he was not yet going to exercise judgment on them because their sin had not reached the level to which He was ready to administer judgment. There is a lot of mystery here, but I think we must understand that God never commanded the Israelites to attack any peoples whom he had not considered it morally right to judge because of the pure evil of their actions. We have to trust God in this.

The Canaanite Conquest was unique. This was a Yahweh War. These were not just enemies of Israel, but enemies of God. God was the “commander-in-chief,” and he decided how the people and the spoils of war were to be dealt with because it was his own war accomplished through human agents (in this case, Saul and his army). These wars were limited and are in no way meant to be a model for the people of God after they settled in the Promised Land or for God’s New Testament people.

Probably the most difficult part of these commands from God is that God ordered the death of children and infants as well. Why would God order the death of innocent children?

These children would have likely grown up as adherents to the evil religions and practices of their parents and these children would naturally have grown up resentful of the Israelites and later sought to avenge the “unjust” treatment of their parents.

Many skeptics use it as a weapon to discourage belief. They say, “I wouldn’t do anything like that, so God shouldn’t either.” But the framework of the Bible is that God is indeed sovereign, just, and competent, which is exactly why writers left the story in. God wasn’t hiding, and He’s hoping people come to Him for the answer.

Paul is advising Timothy in the second reading “All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for refutation, for correction, and for training in righteousness, so that one who belongs to God may be competent, equipped for every good work. Therefore, scripture even when we do not fully understand, keep seeking to know it. As God inspired the writers of the scripture will continue inspiring us too.

 

 

OT XXVIII [C]: II Kgs 5:14-17; II Tm 2:8-13; Lk 17:11-19

In ancient Israel, nothing was more pitiable than a leper. They were prohibited from entering any town, since the disease was so contagious. They had to continuously shout “Unclean!” so people knew a leper was approaching and could clear the area. They couldn’t come within 50 yards of a healthy person. Theirs was a life of total isolation: no friendship, no sense of belonging, no affection. And in today’s gospel we meet 10 of them. They stood off at a distance and shouted to Jesus, “Jesus, master, have pity on us!” And Jesus heard them.

He told them to go and show themselves to the priests. In Jewish law a priest had to declare someone free from leprosy before that person could re-enter society. And on their way to the priest, the 10 were healed.  But only one of them realized that he’d been healed, and returned to thank Jesus and glorify God. Isn’t that amazing? Leprosy is a painful disease, and if you were healed you would notice. The other 9 simply took the healing for granted, and didn’t realize the incredible gift they’d just received.

G.K. Chesterton once said: “When it comes to life the critical thing is whether you take things for granted or take them with gratitude.”

Gratitude opens our hearts to God and to others. Gratitude makes us more fully human. Gratitude sets our minds on eternity. Gratitude is the secret to true flourishing both as individuals and as a society.  This is the great lesson from today’s gospel. Receive the gifts of God with gratitude.

Although we receive so much from Him, we often take everything as our due, without recognizing and appreciating that everything we have or receive is His free gift. We are often thankful only when we compare ourselves with less fortunate people. In times of need, we pray with desperate intensity, but as time passes, we forget God.

The virtue of gratitude helps us experience the interior joy that comes from knowing we are loved by God, without limits or conditions. It is such an important virtue, that God put it at the very center of Christian worship: the celebration of the Eucharist. This is why we don't just to stay home and say some prayers, or to go to the mountains and enjoy the view. Those are good things to do. But what happens here, in this community and on this altar, goes much, much deeper.

Fr. Roger Landry beautifully explains the connection between the Holy Mass and Jesus’ thanksgiving. At every Mass we’re called to grow in this spirit of thanksgiving, because the Eucharist is Jesus’ own prayer of Thanksgiving to the Father. The Greek word from which we derive the word “Eucharist” means “thanksgiving.” During the Mass, the priest says, “Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.” Everyone responds, “It is right and just.” And then the priest replies with a saying of great theological depth: “It is truly right and just, our duty and our salvation, always and everywhere to give you thanks, Lord, Holy Father, almighty and eternal God.” 

He gave thanks because it would be through his passion, death, and Resurrection, that Jesus would institute the means by which we would be able to enter into his own relationship with the Father. The Mass is the school in which we participate in Jesus’ own thanksgiving, the thanksgiving the Church makes continuously from the rising of the sun to its setting.

Gratitude makes us more like God, and opens our hearts to a deeper relationship with him. We must be grateful to God for everything, even suffering, for that is a means of sanctification and love for God Incarnate Who suffered for us and all mankind.

This week, let's warm someone else's heart by saying thank you. We owe a debt of gratitude to so many people:

our parents, first of all; our teachers and coaches, and all those people who dedicated themselves to us in our years of education; our first boss, who was patient with us and gave us a second chance; the relative or neighbor who inspired us with their good example; the soldiers who have fought to protect our freedom; the police, firefighters, and statesmen who dedicate themselves to keeping our communities safe and prosperous.....

 

Jesus has reminded us today that gratitude is a Christian virtue, that his followers should spread the aroma of gratitude in this thankless world, for our own good, and for the good of those around us. Today, when he comes to us in Holy Communion, let's promise him that this week we'll follow his directions and will be grateful like the Samaritan who returned to thank him or like Naaman the Syrian; and follow the example of the Virgin Mary who demonstrated her gratefulness to God through her obedience and Faith.

 

 

 OT XXVII [C] Hb 1:2-3; 2:2-4; II Tm 1:6-8, 13-14; Lk 17:5-10

All three readings for today speak about “Faith” and how it works in our lives. They give us three dimensions of Faith. The theological virtue of Faith enables us to believe something to be true and therefore worthy of trust simply because it has been revealed to us by God.

Sometimes our faith never gets beyond the mustard-seed stage because we have the wrong idea of what it really is. Faith involves believing in Christ and his goodness. But it's a kind of belief that also requires action. It is one thing to know something notionally, another to be able to take that knowledge to heart, to dwell upon its significance, so allowing it to calm fears, nurture hope, and strengthen resolve in courage to face such difficulties and sufferings as still lie ahead. 

The word "faith" is derived from the Latin word "fides" [FEE-days]. This is the same word at the root of the Latin motto used by the United States Marines [mr-eenz]: "Semper Fidelis" - always faithful. Faith always implies being faithful - it implies a commitment to another person, a trusting commitment. And that means sticking by that person's side. For us, that person is Christ.  Faith in Christ means following Christ.

Picture a man on a sinking ship.  He may believe in a life-preserver. He may remember cases of people being saved because they were wearing a life-preserver when their ship went down. He may be a physicist, and understand the laws of hydro-dynamics that make the life-preserver work. He may understand perfectly how the Velcro straps function and where to attach them. But if this man doesn't actually put on the life-preserver and strap himself in - his faith is absolutely useless. If we want to move mountains and to experience God's power doing wonders in our lives, we have to put what we believe into practice, more and more, day after day - "Semper Fidelis".

The Responsorial Psalm we heard today gives us one surefire way to activate the power of faith: "If today you hear his voice, harden not your heart." Faith is practical. If we believe in God's wisdom, love, and power, we will obey him. We will follow where he leads.  And he is always leading us somewhere - always making his voice heard. The most common way he does so is through our conscience. Our conscience is like an inner radio station that is always tuned to God's voice. But it's not the only station out there, and, unfortunately, it's not always the loudest. Sometimes we turn up the station of peer pressure and fashion really loud, or the station dedicated to self-indulgence, irresponsible pleasure, and other soothing but deadening sounds. That's why the Psalmist tells us: "If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts."

Christ wants us to experience the power of faith in our lives. One way to nourish our faith is through reading and studying the Bible. It is easy for us to take the Bible for granted. We have been listening to readings from the Bible every Sunday since we could walk. And yet, this familiarity can actually backfire - it can make us treat this treasure like a trophy: letting it gather dust in the closet. There is no other book in the world like the Bible.

It was written by about 40 different authors though out   15 hundred years, and yet, it tells one consistent story: the story of God's saving love for mankind. Every part of the story, every one of the 72 books in the Bible, although it was written by a human author, was composed under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. In other words, the Bible is the Word of God like no other book: when we read it with that in mind, reflecting on it, studying it - it feeds our faith.

Each one of us should have a favorite book, chapter, and verse in the Bible. Each one of us should know the Bible story as a whole. We should constantly be digging into it. Sister Lynn is going to start soon a bible study on the Gospel of Mark after Thursday evening Masses; Consider  joining it. The Bible is one of God's greatest gifts to us.  It is an inexhaustible fountain of supernatural wisdom.  Ignorance of Bible is ignorance of Christ. Without knowing Christ, we cannot believe in him or trust him with our lives.

Sometimes we don't experience the full power of faith in our lives because we have the wrong idea of what faith really is - we think a mature faith makes for smooth sailing in life, when in fact, it doesn't.

Doubleday book publishers put out a book of letters written by Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta to her spiritual directors. The public and the media were shocked by these letters. Everyone thought that Mother Teresa was the happiest person in the world, that her faith was so strong that nothing bothered her. And that is exactly the wrong idea of what faith is. Mother Teresa is a saint. Her faith was mature, strong, and contagious - it moved mountains, and it's still moving mountains. But it didn't make her crosses disappear. Her faith was so strong that she fulfilled her promise never to deny God anything that he asked - but it didn't take suffering out of her life. For fifty years she struggled with an interior darkness and the feeling of being abandoned by God.

There is a movie being released this week If you can get a ticket it is worth going.

Faith is increased by serving others like Mother Theresa, not by being served. Realizing that faith does not grow by itself, just like a seed that is sown does not grow on its own without water and sun light, let’s employ everything that is in our power to make it grow. May the Lord who rewards strong faith help us to make our faith grow to withstand all the challenges in our life.

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

We often hear people say that they will get to heaven because they haven't committed any really, really heinous crimes. "I'm a good guy," they say, "I haven’t murdered anyone or sold weapons to terrorists." This attitude is not a Christian one. We do not go to heaven because we do not do any grave sins. We go to heaven because Christ wants us there and we live according to his commands pleasing him doing good and avoiding evil.

As Jesus teaches us in this story of Lazarus and the rich man, salvation and eternal life are not just about avoiding so-called "big" sins. That's a negative, passive approach to life. But Christ is not passive. Christ is active. He came to earth to save us. He took the initiative. He came to seek out the lost sheep. He came to light the fire of faith in a dark world. Being a Christian means following in those footsteps. It means much more than simply avoiding gruesome crimes.

Being a Christian means living like Christ, living for his Kingdom, living for others. It is interesting that when Jesus was asked which were the most important commandments, he didn't choose the negative ones, the "thou shalt not" ones. Instead he listed two active, positive, creative commandments: love God with all your heart, and love your neighbor as yourself.

The rich man in this parable had no particularly damaging "sins of commission" on his résumé. He was a pretty good guy. And yet, he failed to enter into eternal life. Why? Because of his "sins of omission". Day after day, he closed his heart to a neighbor who was in dire need of help. He spent his life becoming an expert in self-centeredness.

There is a story told by a rabbi. One day a certain old, rich man of a miserable disposition visited a rabbi. The Rabbi led him to a window. “Look out there into the street. What do you see?” asked the rabbi. “I see men, women, and children,” answered the rich man. Again the rabbi led him to a mirror. He asked, “Now what do you see?” The man replied, “Now I can only see myself,”.

Then the rabbi said, “Look, in the window there is glass, and in the mirror there is glass. But the glass of the mirror is covered with a little silver, and no sooner is the silver added than you cease to see others, and you see only yourself.”

That is the problem with most of us. When we begin to love money and wealth and life’s luxuries, we become insensitive to the needs of others. The moment we stop seeing the misery of the one next to us we become self-centered.

In 1993, Steven Spielberg came out with a movie called Schindler's List. It's a true story of a rather mediocre Catholic businessman, Oskar Schindler, who lived in Poland during World War II. When the war started, he saw it as an opportunity to make money. He made friends with some of the German officials and worked out a deal with them to use Jewish prisoners as free labor for his munitions factory. Since he didn't have to pay his workers, he was able to rake in a handsome profit. But little by little his eyes opened to the horrors of the Nazi regime. His heart changed, and he started using his factories and his connections with German officers to save his Jewish workers from the Holocaust. He used the money he had made during the early part of the war to "buy" more and more Jewish workers, just so he could save their lives.

By the end of the war he was as broke as he had been at the beginning, but he had managed to save hundreds of Jews from being massacred.

In the last scene of the movie, when the Germans are fleeing as allied troops approach the town where the factory is located, we see Schindler surrounded by the workers whom he had saved, and they are thanking him. But then Schindler starts to cry. He looks around at the faces of the people he saved, and he tells them, "I could have done so much more." He holds up his gold watch, and says, "This could have bought someone's freedom." He cries out that if he had started sooner he could have saved twice as many. Every face he sees makes him think of another face that he could have saved if he had been less self-centered. He is completely distraught. Schindler had experienced firsthand the destructive power of the sin of omission.

A Sunday-school teacher asked the class, "can any of you tell me what are sins of omission?"

"Yes, sir," said the small boy. "They are the sins we ought to have done and haven't."

We know sin of omission is not that, it is the omission or failure to do the good we are obliged to do. In the confiteor in the beginning of the Mass, we said, in what I have done and in what I have failed to do, through my fault… Sin of omission is as grave of a sin as sin of commission. But we seldom focus on them.

One way to avoid falling into the sin of omission is simply to purposely keep our eyes open for opportunities to serve those around us. Even making the commitment to perform at least one voluntary, selfless, Christ-like act of service every day can help keep the passive, sin-of-omission mentality at bay. Imagine if the rich man in the parable had been granted another chance, would he have changed, and been able to change his own brother from Hell? We do not know for sure, but Jesus said, they have the scriptures as warners for them. There is no greater warning than God’s own warning in the Scripture. How are we taking those warnings? Let’s pray today that the Lord may grant us the clear eyes and wisdom to look at and understand God’s clear warnings to us and not fail to look at the Lazaruses in our community.

 

 

Sunday-V-Ordinary Time :C- Is. 6:1-2a, 3-8; 1 Cor. 15:1-11; Lk. 5:1-11

 

One of the few creatures on earth that can out-jump Michael Jordon is the Impala. This is an African deer with a supercharged spring. It has a vertical leap of over 10 feet and can broad-jump over 30 feet. You would think that the zoos of the world would find it impossible to keep such an animal enclosed. Not so! It’s rather easy. The experts discovered something about the Impala. It will not jump unless it can see where it is going to land. Therefore, a solid wall even 6 feet tall is a sufficient enclosure. — Lots of Christians have the Impala problem. They won’t take a leap of Faith unless they have all the answers in advance about where the leap will take them. But God is looking for some bold believers who, even in the face of the unknown, will leap when the Spirit says leap, will fly when the Spirit says fly, will launch out when the Spirit says launch out —  all to the glory of the Lord. Why must we be willing to launch out into the deep with the Lord? Because, our Lord was willing to launch out into the deep for us. Today’s Scripture passages present Isaiah, Paul, and Peter who dared to make a leap of Faith.

In a vision, Isaiah was given to see the glory of God dwelling in the Temple of Jerusalem. Isaiah saw how an angel took a live coal from the fire on the altar, and touched his lips with it. Isaiah understood that by so doing, God was cleansing him of his sins, so as to render him fit to be his messenger. Strengthened by this act of God’s goodness, Isaiah readily offered himself for the work, God was calling him to, saying, “Here I am, send me.”

Acts of the Apostles tells the story of Paul’s call. After his dramatic conversion, Paul dedicated his life for the one who called him. And he exclaimed: for me to live is Christ and death is gain.

The Gospel reading narrates the call of Peter. After a fruitless night’s labor Peter obeys Jesus’ command to lower the net for the catch and he was overwhelmed by the great catch of fish. Jesus changes his name from Simon to Peter and gives him a new mission, to catch men.

The responses of Isaiah, Paul and Peter were surprising. The prophet Isaiah viewed himself as a great sinner among sinners, and unworthy of being in the Divine Presence of Yahweh.  Paul, still full of guilt for having persecuted the Christians, viewed himself as being unfit of being called an apostle.  And Peter begged Jesus to get away from him because he was a sinful man.

God responded to their feeling of sinfulness by cleansing them of their sins, and by reassuring them of His help at all times. Once reassured by God they went through their task humbly and courageously, enduring innumerable trials, always convinced that God would make up for their weakness.

Today, God is calling us to do His work, regardless of whatever setbacks we may have, to accomplish His intended mission, here in this parish or out in other places. Follow the voice of Jesus’ calling and answer, “Here am I, oh Lord, use me in your service today.”

Each of us has a unique mission in the Church. God has a different call for each of us. Because each of us is unique, each of us has a mission which no one else can fulfill. God will use all of us, and particularly what is unique in us, to bring this mission to fulfillment. Our response must be like that of Isaiah: “Here I am, Lord…send me.” — “I’ll do it. I’ll play my part. I’ll speak to that neighbor, that coworker, that friend, that relative.

It is not true that Christ’s invitation to become “fishers of men” is addressed only to the apostles and their successors (the bishops together with the priests and religious). Every Christian is commissioned to a ministry of love and justice by virtue of his/her Baptism. One of the documents of Vatican II, Lumen Gentium (Dogmatic Constitution on the Church ), in paragraph no. 31 describes all of us very clearly as, “the faithful who by Baptism are incorporated into Christ’s Body and are placed in the people of God and in their own way share the priestly, prophetic, and kingly office of Christ and, to the best of their ability, carry on the mission of the whole Christian people in the Church and in the world.” In addition to this, Vatican II’s Apostolicam Actuositatem (The Apostolate of the Laity), no. 3 says, “Incorporated into Christ’s Body through Baptism and strengthened by the power of the Holy Spirit through Confirmation, the laity are assigned to the apostolate by the Lord Himself.” It is even stated that where lay involvement is lacking, “the apostolate of the pastors will frequently be unable to obtain its full effect; where lay responsibility is absent, the Church is incomplete,” (Apostolicam Actousitatem nos. 10, 21, PCP II).

Today let’s recognize our Christian spirituality as one for discipleship, which means making a positive response to God’s call to take his presence to others by reaching out to serve our brothers and sisters.

 

EASTER VI:  Acts 10:25-26, 34-35, 44-48; I Jn 4:7-10; Jn 15: 9-17

In 1941, the German Army began to round up Jewish people in Lithuania. Thousands of Jews were murdered. But one German soldier objected to their murder. He was Sergeant Anton Schmid. Through his assistance, the lives of at least 250 Jews were spared. He managed to hide them, find food, and supply them with forged papers. Schmid himself was arrested in early 1942 for saving these lives. He was tried and executed in 1942. It took Germany almost sixty years to honour the memory of this man, Schmid. Said Germany's Defence Minister in 2000, saluting him, "Too many bowed to the threats and temptations of the dictator Hitler, and too few found the strength to resist. But Sergeant Anton Schmid did resist."

This is the central theme of today's Gospel. "No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends." The hero Schmid went beyond what even Jesus encouraged. He laid down his life for strangers. 

 We are chosen to be the ambassadors of God's love. But, we live in a world that encourages everything but love. Children are taught to compete with one another. Parents encourage them to defeat their friends by getting at least one mark more, by submitting one project extra, and so on. In our frantic attempt to gain popularity as the first, we ignore the sublime values of love and sacrifice.

Jesus laid down his life and taught: "No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends." This sacrificial love was imitated by many great men, like Schmid, Maximilian Colbe, and the noble martyrs.

Jesus gives the assurance that "Love will always bear fruit." At times it may appear to us that to do good to certain people is waste of time; people are often ungrateful, and on occasions those to whom we have done good turn against us. But, we should not get discouraged; because we do not know when, how and where love will bear fruit. It is the assurance of Jesus that "Love will bear fruit." The love that Jesus bestowed on his disciples bore fruit; they travelled to the ends of the then known world announcing the love of God, and doing good to the people. It bore fruit in the life of Schmid. It bore fruit in the life of Mother Theresa. It bears fruit in our lives.

May God help us in our attempt to show his love to our brothers in small little ways.

Today we have the relic of St. Joseph here. The Church believes the power of intercession of St.Joseph in the lives of a Christian. It is reasonable to think that if Jesus grew up with St. Joseph and he called him father and if Joseph provided Jesus with everything he needed as a boy, then, if St.Joseph asks him for something, surely we can reasonably imagine that Jesus would hear the prayers of St.Joseph than anybody else except Mary.

Several saints like St. Teresa of Ávila to St. Gertrude to St. Faustina were blessed by St.Joseph’s appearances and intercession.  

In the 16th century, St. Teresa of Ávila said he appeared to her when she was having trouble establishing a particular convent. She wrote in her autobiography, “Once, when I was in a difficulty and could not think what to do, or how I was going to pay some workmen, Saint Joseph, my true father and lord, appeared to me and gave me to understand that money would not be lacking and I must make all the necessary arrangements.

 

When the Loretto Chapel was completed in 1878, there was no way to access the choir loft twenty-two feet above. Carpenters were called in to address the problem, but they all concluded access to the loft would have to be via ladder as a staircase would interfere with the interior space of the small Chapel.

Legend says that to find a solution to the seating problem, the Sisters of the Chapel made a novena to St. Joseph, the patron saint of carpenters. On the ninth and final day of prayer, a man appeared at the Chapel with a donkey and a toolbox looking for work. Months later, the elegant circular staircase was completed, and the carpenter disappeared without pay or thanks.

After searching for the man (an ad even ran in the local newspaper) and finding no trace of him, some concluded that he was St. Joseph himself, having come in answer to the sisters' prayers.

Engineers still marvel at this carpenters accomplishment. The staircase has two 360 degree turns and no visible means of support. It is said that the staircase was built without nails—only wooden pegs. Questions also surround the number of stair risers relative to the height of the choir loft and about the types of wood (Not found anywhere around in the state)  and other materials used in the stairway's construction.

Over the years many have flocked to the Loretto Chapel to see the Miraculous Staircase. I myself have been there to see that about 10 years ago. The staircase has been the subject of many articles, TV specials, and movies including "Unsolved Mysteries" and the full-length movie titled the staircase. I watched on youtube.

 

Just as St.Joseph took care of the Holy Family many years ago, St. Joseph will continue to take care of the temporal and spiritual needs of his children here on earth; he will continue to intercede for us before our Lord.

In 2005 Pope Benedict XVI said, “To St. Joseph’s intercession I entrust the hopes of the Church and of the world. May he, together with the Virgin Mary, his spouse, always guide my way and yours, so that we are able to be joyful instruments of peace and of salvation.” 

At the close of the Mass we will say the litany to St. Joseph.