I Sunday in Advent:[A]:Is 2:1-5; Rom 13: 11-14; Mt 24:37-44

I Sunday in Advent:[A]:Is 2:1-5; Rom 13: 11-14; Mt 24:37-44

Introduction: Today we begin our yearly pilgrimage through the events of our history of salvation starting with the preparation for the birthday celebration of Jesus and ending with  the reflection on his glorious “second coming” as judge at the end of the world. We are entering into the Advent season. Advent means coming. We are invited to mediate on Jesus’ first coming in history as a baby in Bethlehem, his daily coming into our lives in mystery through the sacraments, through the Bible and through the worshipping community and finally his Second Coming at the end of the world to reward the just and to punish the wicked. 

Scripture lessons: Today’s gospel speaks about the coming of the Lord at the end of the world and how to prepare for it. In our world today, there are two big mistakes people make with regard to the coming of the Lord. One is to prepare for it with paranoid anxiety. The other is to dismiss it with nonchalant abandon and do nothing about it. What does the gospel tell us about the end of the world and how to prepare for it?

The gospel uses two images to make the point that “you do not know on what day your Lord is coming” (Matthew 24:42b). One is the flood which overtook the unprepared people of Noah’s time. The other is the analogy of a thief in the night, who always comes unannounced. The Lord’s coming and the end of the world as we know it will occur suddenly and unexpectedly. It will come unannounced, springing a surprise on an unsuspecting world. Like a wise householder, therefore, we are urged to be watchful and ready.

Anecdote: Early Sunday morning, June 30, 1974, a hundred young people were dancing to the soul-rock music at Gulliver’s in Port Chester, on the border between New York and Connecticut. Suddenly the place was filled with flames and smoke. In a few minutes 24 were dead, burnt by fire, suffocated by smoke, and crushed in the exit passage by the escaping youngsters. According to the Mayor of Port Chester, the dancing crowd ignored the repeated and frantic warnings given by the band manager when he noticed the smoke. Today’s second reading tells us about the warnings given by St. Paul, and today’s Gospel gives the warning to be vigilant and prepared given by Jesus.

Joke:  A man in the hospital gasping and near death.  Priest was called to give him last rite. During the prayers the patient asked for a slip of paper and pen and wrote something and handed over to the priest.  Priest, for it was during prayer, got it and put it in the coat-pocket.  That man died immediately after the prayers. Next day at the funeral service, the priest during his homily, thought of saying something about the dead, took the slip and read what he has written as something he has said at the last breath. It says, “Father! You are on my oxygen tube.”

Practical Application:  1) Be alert and watchful.  Every morning when we get up, let us pray, “Lord, show me someone today with whom I may share your love, mercy and forgiveness.”  Mother Teresa of Calcutta once said, "Whatever you do in your family, for your children, for your husband, for your wife, you do for Jesus."  Every night when we go to bed, let us ask ourselves, “Where have I found Christ today?”  The answer will be God’s Advent gift to us that day. By being alert and watchful, we’ll be getting an extra gift:  Christ himself.  There is a saying about being saved which goes back to St. Thomas Aquinas: "Without God, I can't.  Without me, he won't."  

2) We need to be wakeful and watchful: We are so future-oriented that we frequently forget the present entirely.  We spend too much time trying to protect ourselves against future misfortunes.  We save for a rainy day, to get married, to buy a home, to send the children to college, to retire in comfort and to protect ourselves against future misfortunes with varieties of insurance.  But we need to be more spiritually wakeful to prepare for our eternal life.  Let us make this Advent season the time of such preparation. 

First Sunday of Advent-Introduction

Message:   Let us rejoice in the Lord’s peace; let us live honorably as we await his return.

Saints and Events in this week:  3-Third-Tuesday-Saint Francis Xavier, priest; 4-Fourth-Wednesday-Saint John Damascene, priest, doctor of the Church; 6-Friday-Saint Nicholas, bishop; 7-Saturday-Saint Ambrose, bishop, doctor of the Church.

XXXIV SUNDAY IN OT:[C]: II Sam 5:1-3; Col 1:12-20; Lk 23:35-43

XXXIV SUNDAY IN OT:[C]: II Sam 5:1-3; Col 1:12-20; Lk 23:35-43

Introduction: Today, the last Sunday of ordinary time the Church in a special way invites us to celebrate Jesus Christ our anointed king who overcame suffering and death, and so brought us out of darkness into his kingdom of light.

Scriptural lessons: The gospel text of today (Lk 23:35-43) tells us that the placard that was affixed to the cross to point out to the crime of Jesus, read: “This is the King of the Jews.” All the four gospels are agreed on this interesting detail (Mt 27:37; Mk 15:18; Lk 23:38; Jn 19:14).  In short, Jesus was being killed in the Roman way because of treason: he was accused of calling himself “King of the Jews”.  But this was only a false accusation. Nowhere in the gospels do we find a text where Jesus made an explicit declaration like: “I am the King of the Jews.”  All the gospels tell us that this question featured very strongly in the trials of Jesus.  So how did he get entangled with this title, and to the point of getting crucified on account of that? 

Exegesis: After his arrest, Jesus has been accused before Pilate, the Roman governor, of being opposed to Caesar and of claiming to be the Messiah of God, a king. Now, having been condemned to death under Roman law, Jesus is being crucified along with two criminals. The rulers and the soldiers taunt Jesus and call out that if he is the Messiah and king of the Jews, he should be able to save himself. One of the criminals also reviles Jesus saying, "Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us." The other criminal, however, recognizing his own crimes and the goodness of Jesus, says, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom." Jesus responds, "Amen, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise."

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

History: It was Pope Pius XI who brought the Feast of Christ the King into the liturgy in 1925, to bring Christ, his rule and Christian values back into lives of Christians, into society and into politics. The Feast was also a reminder to the totalitarian governments of Mussolini, Hitler and Stalin that Jesus Christ is the only Sovereign King.  Although Emperors and Kings now exist mostly in history books, we still honor Christ as the King of the Universe by enthroning Him in our hearts and allowing Him to take control of our lives. This feast challenges us to see Christ the King in everyone, especially those whom our society considers the least important, and to treat each person with human considerations as Jesus did.

Joke: After tucking their three-year-old child Sammy in for bed one night, his parents heard sobbing coming from his room.

Rushing back in, they found him crying hysterically. He managed to tell them that he had swallowed a penny and he was sure he was going to die. No amount of talking was helping.

His father, in an attempt to calm him down, palmed a penny from his pocket and pretended to pull it from Sammy's ear. Sammy was delighted.

In a flash, he snatched it from his father's hand, swallowed, and then cheerfully demanded, "Do it again, Dad!"

Life messages: 1) We need to surrender our lives to Christ’s rule: Since Christ, our king, lives in our hearts with His Holy Spirit and His Heavenly Father, and fills our souls with His grace, we need to learn to live in His Holy Presence and do God's will by sharing His forgiving love with others around us. Being aware of His presence in the Bible, in the Sacraments and in the worshipping community we need to listen and talk to Him.

2) Be servers: Since Christ was a serving King we are invited to be His loyal citizens by rendering humble service to others and by sharing Christ’s mercy and forgiveness with others.

3) We need to use our authority to support the rule of Jesus.  This feast is an invitation to all those who have power or authority in the public or the private realms to use it for Jesus by bearing witness to him by the way we live. Parents are expected to use   their God-given authority to train their children in Christian ideals and in the ways of committed Christian living.

Thirty Fourth Sunday in OT:Christ the King: Introduction

Message: In Hebron, David is hailed as king by all the tribes of Israel.  Jesus is anointed king on the wood of his cross, a sign of paradox, of defeat yet final victory.  Through his cross we have passed from darkness into the kingdom of light.

Saints and Events in this week: 25-Twenty fifth-Monday-Saint Catherine of Alexandria, virgin, martyr; 28-Twenty Eighth-Thursday-Thanksgiving Day; 30-Thirtieth-Saturday-St.Andrew, Apostle;

XXXIII Sunday in OT:[C]:Mal 3:19-20a; IIThes3:7-12;Lk21: 5-19

XXXIII Sunday in OT:[C]:Mal 3:19-20a; IIThes3:7-12;Lk21: 5-19

Introduction:  A mother says to her ten years old son, "If you study hard all year and you get passing grades, next summer, I will buy you a new bicycle." In order words, if her son does not study hard all year and he does not get passing grades, he will not receive a new bicycle next summer.  A man goes to a store and tells the manager, "If you can get me the carpet that I want, I will buy it from you." In other words, if the store manager cannot get the carpet, the man will not buy it from him.

Have you noticed that by reversing what is being said, we often get a better understanding of what was said? For example, Jesus said, "By your endurance you will gain your souls." [Lk. 21:19] If we reverse these words, we get, "If you do not endure, you will lose your souls." Notice how reversing the sentence highlights two important things: first, the need to endure; secondly, the salvation of the soul. The first is absolutely necessary in order to obtain the second.

Why is it absolutely necessary to endure in order to be saved? Today's readings answer that question by teaching us the importance of endurance. During the First Reading, we heard of the necessity to endure in righteousness. In the Second Reading, we heard of the necessity to endure in our imitation of the saints. And in the Gospel Reading, we heard of the necessity to endure in our living faith. To summarize all of this, we must persevere in our living faith through righteousness and the imitation of the saints.

Scriptural Lessons:  Today’s Gospel passage clarifies that the date of the end of the world is uncertain.  Signs and portents will precede the end, and the Christians will be called upon to testify before kings and governors. The Good News is that those who persevere in faithfulness to the Lord will save their souls and enter God's eternal kingdom. Christ’s Second Coming is something to celebrate because he is going to present all creation to his heavenly Father. Since Luke's community had experienced much persecution, today’s Gospel gives them the message:  don't give up because God is always with us.   Jesus' promise of the protective power of a providing God was meant to encourage His disciples to persevere in Faith and its practice.  Jesus also includes the signs of the destruction of Jerusalem and the end of the world, to prepare His disciples and to remind them to rely upon Him for Salvation, not their own power.

Anecdote: Josh is the resident humanist in the neighborhood. He does not go to church anymore. He goes about telling his friends that since God lives in everyone’s soul, it is not necessary for anyone to go to church to find God. His parish priest learns of this and decides to pay Josh a visit. The priest shows up in Josh’s house one cold winter evening and finds Josh warning himself by the fireside. Josh invites the priest to join him at the fireside, which he does. The priest does not talk about church attendance, although Josh suspects that is why he came. They talk about the weather. Meanwhile, the priest uses the fire-tongs to remove a burning piece of wood from the fire and places it all by itself beside the fireplace. Both men watch as the flames flicker and go out and in a short time white ash covers the once blazing piece of wood. Josh gets the message. He turns to the priest and says, “Father, I will be in church next Sunday.” Like that piece of wood we need fellowship with our brothers and sisters in the faith in order to maintain the fire of our own faith. We need the church.

Explanation:  Josh is an example of people who go to one extreme. There are people also who go the other extreme, people who see the presence of God only in churches and church services. We read about people like that in today’s gospel. We are not told exactly who they but some of them were probably disciples of Jesus. They were fascinated with the splendor of the Jerusalem Temple built by Herod the Great in over 46 years and lavishly adorned with gold and silver offerings of the people

Joke: After finishing his homily on the Judgment Day, the preacher started the prayer of mercy. "Oh Lord," he began. "One of these days we are going to wake up, and it's going to be DARK everywhere! Deliver us, O Lord." "Lord, have mercy on us!" responded the congregation. The preacher continued: "Then we are going to pick up the telephone and call Washington, and they are going to say, 'It's DARK over here too!'" "Lord, have mercy on us!" responded the congregation.” Then we’re going to pick up the phone and call London, and they are going to say, 'It's DARK over here!' "Lord, have mercy on us!" responded the congregation. “Again we're going to pick up the phone and call Moscow, and they are going to say, 'It's DARK over here too!" "Lord, have mercy on us!" responded the congregation.” "Then we're going to pick up the phone…. At this juncture, the church treasurer, who had also been caught up in the fervor of the preacher’s prayer, cried out uncontrollably: "Lord, Lord! What a PHONE BILL!"….ha..ha..ha.. (after a pause)  And people responded, “Lord, have mercy on us.”

Practical Applications: 1) We need to be prepared daily for death and judgment. The ideal way to accept Jesus’ apocalyptic message is always to be ready to face our death.  We must also take time to rest and to pray in order to keep our hearts alive to God’s presence with us and within us. 

2) We need to attain permanence in a passing world by exemplary lives. Our homes, our churches and even our own lives are temporary. All our structures are provisional. Our influence has no more claims to permanence than our buildings. Hence, our task is not to build monuments of any kind, but to be faithful to Christ. We are to persevere in our Faith, despite worldly temptations, attacks on religion and moral values by the atheistic or agnostic media, threats of social isolation, and direct or indirect persecution because of our religious beliefs. Let us conclude this Church year by praying for the grace to endure patiently any trials that are essential to our affirmation of Jesus our Savior. 

Introduction: Thirty Third Sunday in Ordinary Time

Message: Jesus teaches that his disciples will be persecuted as a necessary prelude to the parousia.  Through their perseverance, they will emerge victorious when the Lord comes again.  As we await the Day, let us conscientiously fulfill our Christian obligations.

Saints and Events in this Week: 21-Twenty First-Thursday-The presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary; 22-Twenty Two-Friday-Saint Cecilia, virgin, martyr; 23-Twenty third-Saturday-Saint Clement I, Pope, martyr; Saint Columban, abbot; Blessed Miguel Pro, priest, martyr(USA); 

XXXII Sunday in OT:[C]: II Mc 7: 1-2,9-14;IIThes 2:16--3:5;Lk 20:27-38

XXXII Sunday in OT:[C]: II Mc 7: 1-2,9-14;IIThes 2:16--3:5;Lk 20:27-38

Introduction: The main theme of today’s readings is the reality of life after death and of the relationship between our lives on earth and the life of glory or punishment that will follow. The first reading describes a Jewish family, consisting of a mother and her seven sons, who refused a Syrian command to eat pork, forbidden as “unclean” by Jewish Law.  Because of their Faith in, and obedience to, God, they endure suffering and accept martyrdom.  During their torture, three of the brothers speak, and each of them finds strength in the belief that he will eventually be raised and rewarded by God.  The second reading encourages the Thessalonians who were waiting for the Parousia or the second coming of Christ, to trust in the fidelity of God who would strengthen their hearts in every good work and word.  In today’s Gospel, the confrontation on the resurrection of the dead, Jesus ingeniously escapes from a doctrinal trap set for him and explains the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead, supported by the Pharisees and denied by the Sadducees.  Jesus speaks of God as the God of the living; he also explains that heavenly life with God in glory is totally different from earthly life, and that there is no marriage in heaven in the earthly sense.

Exegesis: In actuality, this is a very Jewish way of seeing things as we find out from our readings today.  The Sadducees who question Jesus in the Gospel believe only in the continuation of their race and family through procreation.  That is why all through the Old Testament we have rules and regulations ensuring that a man has a son to carry on his name… why it was such a disgrace not to be given a child, or for a woman to be barren. Without a child, there is no immortality for the Jews.

The Sadducees we read about today were very wealthy Jews, nearly all were priests of the governing class, and they accepted ONLY the written law of the Old Testament.  They only believed in the written Law of Moses, they didn’t put much faith into the prophetic books, they didn’t accept the Book of Maccabees (from which our first reading came today) and they did not believe in the resurrection of the dead, in angels or even in spirits. Added to that, the Jews believed that the BODY was the person. When the body died and decayed, there was no more person.

So, they pose to Jesus a question which was purposely meant to be outrageous and silly in order to ridicule a belief in the resurrection, a concept that had become more popular in the last number of years before Jesus, and which books like Maccabees promoted. To do this, they dig up a law from Deuteronomy which says that if a man dies childless, his wife must marry the man’s brother, and that the child resulting from that marriage should bear the name of the original dead brother. Again, it was important for one’s name to be carried on. The Sadducees really exaggerate this law, however, and tell of a woman who had to marry seven brothers, and still didn’t have a child. To make fun of the idea of resurrection, they then ask: OK, who is going to be the husband of this lady in an afterlife. And then they chuckled, thinking that they had really outwitted Jesus.

Jesus answer, however, has become the clearest affirmation by Jesus in all of Scripture that there is life after death, that we do rise from the dead. And so we can try to understand how Jesus reaches this strong conviction.  So we profess our belief through our creed, “…I believe in…. the resurrection of the body, and life everlasting”.  Life is indeed stronger than death.  This is our eternal consolation and hope.

Anecdote: John loved noodles so much that on Monday mornings his mother usually prepares it for him to take to school for his lunch. However, one Monday, it happened that none was available in the house because his mother forgot to buy some during her weekend shopping. John went to school refusing to take along with him any other type of food. So, his mother made him a promise that she would prepare noodles for him before he comes back from school. During lunch at school, some of John’s colleagues who noticed that he did not come with any food persuaded him to eat with them but he refused by telling them that: “Mummy has promised to prepare my noodles before I get home, and I know she will not disappoint me.” Even though he was greatly famished, he endured it until school was over around 4.00pm. The hope he had in the promise of his mother sustained him till he returned home. Of course, his mother kept to her promise. This is what hope does. It is a silent and constant prayer! Hope leads to better active life.

Joke: An old man and woman hate each other, but remain married for years. During their shouting fights, the old man constantly warns his wife, "If I die first, I will dig my way up and out of the grave to come back and haunt you for the rest of your life!"   One day, the man abruptly dies. After the burial, the wife goes straight to the local bar and begins to party. Her friends ask if she isn't worried about her husband digging himself out of the grave.                                                                                               The wife smiles, "Let the old bugger dig. I had him buried upside down!"

Life messages: 1)We need to live as people of the Resurrection.  We are to live joyful and peaceful lives, constantly experiencing the real Presence of the Risen Lord. 

2) The hope of our resurrection and eternal life with God gives us lasting peace and celestial joy amid the boredom and tension of our day-to-day lives. The awareness will help us to control our thoughts, desires, words and behavior.

3) If our God is the God of the living, our worship of this living God also has to be alive. Our participation in prayers and songs during the Holy Mass should be active and our behavior in Church reverent, as we offer our lives and all our activities to our living God on the altar with repentant and grateful hearts.

Thirty Second Sunday in OT: Introduction

Message: In response to an attempt to ridicule his teaching about life after death, Jesus again proclaims a resurrection from the dead, that life is indeed stronger than death itself.  This is our eternal consolation and hope.  Then will our joy be truly fulfilled.

Saints and Events in this week:   Eleventh-11-Monday-Saint Martin of Tours, bishop; Twelfth-12-Tuesday-Saint Josaphat, bishop, martyr;  Thirteenth-13-Wednesday-Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini, virgin(USA); Fifteenth-15-Friday-Saint Albert the Great, bishop, doctor; Sixteenth-16-Saturday-Saint Margaret of Scotland; Saint Gertrude, virgin.