I Sunday in Lent :[2015]: Gn 9:8-15; 1 Pt 3:18-22; Mk 1:12-15

I Sunday in Lent:[2015]: Gn 9:8-15; 1 Pt 3:18-22; Mk 1:12-15

After the stark, matter-of-fact statement that Jesus was tempted by Satan, Mark tells us that after John's arrest, Jesus begins his mission: "The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel.” (Mark 1: 15) Matthew and Luke in their narratives of the temptations include Jesus' triumph over Satan in a dramatic verbal exchange between them. Mark does not present the temptations in this way because his entire gospel is narratives of the trials that Jesus undergoes itself are temptations. Satan tempts him to doubt that he is God's beloved Son, and likewise tempts him to betray his mission on behalf of God's kingdom. Satan will use every means to tempt Jesus in order to save his own kingdom that has dominance in the world. Jesus is tempted by his own disciples. "Get behind me, Satan. You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do,” Jesus said to Peter (Mark 8: 33).

He is tested frequently by enemies from among his own people and by the Romans. His own relatives say that he is out of his mind (Mark 3: 21). The most severe temptation comes when he appears to have failed in his mission; he is misunderstood, betrayed, and abandoned by his disciples; he is arrested, undergoes the humiliation and torture associated with a criminal's public execution; and finally he apparently has the experience of being forsaken by God while dying on a cross. Yet, his dying prayer in this dark night of the soul is also a cry of unconquered hope and trust (Mark 15: 34, Psalm 22).

The Letter to the Hebrews reveals the good news that the triumph of Jesus over the most severe temptations imaginable can be a source of hope and trust in the trials that we undergo. "For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has similarly been tested in every way, yet without sin” (Mark 4: 15). "Because he himself was tested through what he suffered, he is able to help those who are being tested” (Mark 2: 18). No one with the consciousness of freedom escapes the testing that reveals where the heart's true treasure lies.

Only the incidentals of the testing differ for each of us. The heroes of faith down to the present day triumph over their trials because they share the single-minded, childlike faith of Jesus. Jesus in his human consciousness and freedom loved God with all his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his strength (Deuteronomy 6: 5). A person with a divided heart, on the other hand, easily fails in a test of faith, and particularly in a trial of suffering constantly asks God, Why? Further, the double-minded person demands some evidence of God's presence and care.

Joke : Two blonds who heard their pastor reading the verses: “ And He walks with me, And talks with me, And tells me I am his own..”   When they got into heaven and arrived at the Golden Gates, she, one of the blond was asked one question: "What is God's name?"      She replied, "Andy." 

"Andy? Why Andy?", she was asked.     She replied, "Oh, you know, I have heard my pastor reading, 'Andy walks with me, Andy talks with me, Andy tells me I am his own.'

Then the second blond, looking at the facial expression of wrong answer from St. Peter, she answered:   I think God's name is Harold. "Our father who art in heaven, Harold be thy name"

Practical Applications: The Practical application of Mark's gospel is that we must pray as Jesus prayed if we hope to love God as he did with an undivided heart when our time of trial is upon us. Like Jesus before his great trial in the garden of Gethsemane, we may pray that if possible the hour of trial might pass by us. Nevertheless, with the power of his Spirit we must also pray: "Abba, Father, all things are possible to you. Take this cup away from me, but not what I will but what you will” (Mark 14: 36).

Jesus then said to Peter, "Simon, are you asleep” (Mark 14: 37)? Shortly after Jesus was arrested, Peter, standing among the crowd, was tested by the high priest's maid. Unprepared by prayer and fearful for his life, with a curse Peter denied that he even knew Jesus. At the Eucharist for the first Sunday of Lent a good prayer would be to ask the Spirit to heal the illusions, desires, and the doubts that divide our hearts. Only with this grace can we say the Lord's prayer with all our heart, and with all our soul, and with all our strength. And with Christ's Spirit we can live without fear because we trust that God's will for us can only be love.

Introduction: First Sunday in Lent

Message: Mindful of his covenant, the Lord promises never to destroy creation again by floodwaters.  The waters of baptism bring salvation and forgiveness through the death of Christ.  After fasting forty days and being put to the test, Jesus begins his public ministry.

Saints and Events in this Week:  23 – Twenty Third – Monday – Saint Polycarp, Bishop, Martyr;

I Sunday in Lent:[2012]: Gn 9:8-15; 1 Pt 3:18-22; Mk 1:12-15

I Sunday in Lent :[2012]: Gn 9:8-15; 1 Pt 3:18-22; Mk 1:12-15

A mother camel and her baby are talking one day and the baby camel asks, “Mom why have we got these huge three-toed feet?” The mother replies, “To enable us trek across the soft sand of the desert without sinking.” “And why have we got these long, heavy eyelashes?” “To keep the sand out of our eyes on the trips through the desert ”replies the mother camel. “And Mom, why have we got these big humps on our backs?” The mother, now a little impatient with the boy replies, “They are there to help us store fat for our long treks across the desert, so we can go without water for long periods.” “OK, I get it!” says the baby camel, “We have huge feet to stop us sinking, long eyelashes to keep the sand from our eyes and humps to store water. Then, Mom, why the heck are we here in the Toronto zoo?” Modern life sometimes makes one feel like a camel in a zoo. And like camels in a zoo we need sometimes to go into the desert in order to discover who we truly are. Lent invites us to enter into this kind of desert experience.

The desert was the birthplace of the people of God of the first covenant. The Hebrew people who escaped from Egypt as scattered tribes arrived the Promised Land as one nation under God. It was in the desert that they become a people of God by covenant. In the course of their history when their love and faithfulness to God grew cold, the prophets would suggest their return to the desert to rediscover their identity, their vocation and their mission as a way of reawakening their faith and strengthening their covenant relationship with God. The great prophets Elijah and John the Baptist were people of the desert: they lived in the desert, ate desert food and adopted a simple desert lifestyle. The desert is the university where God teaches His people.

In today’s gospel we read that after Jesus was baptized “the Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. He was in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels waited on him” (Mark 1:12-13). Where else but the desert could you have such a meaningful encounter of the Holy Spirit as well as Satan, of the wild beasts as well as the holy angels? The desert was the school where Jesus came to distinguish between the voice of God which he should follow and the voice of Satan which is temptation. How many voices do we hear from the moment we get up in the morning till the moment we go to sleep at night? The countless voices in the daily paper, the soliciting voices on the radio and the television, the voices of those who live and work with us, not forgetting our own unceasing inner voices. In the desert we leave most of these voices behind to focus on distinguishing between the guiding voice of God and the tempting voice of Satan.

Joke : Two dirty hippies were walking down the street and stopped at a red light. A Catholic priest with his arm in a cast was waiting to cross. "Hey, man," asked one, "what happened?"

"I fell in the bathtub and broke my arm," replied the padre.

One hippie turned to the other and asked, "What's a bathtub?"

"How do I know?" replied the other, "I'm not a Catholic."

In the desert we come to know ourselves, our strengths and weaknesses, and our divine calling. In the desert Jesus encountered beasts and angels. There are wild beasts and angels in everyone of us. Sometimes, owing to our superficial self knowledge, we fail to recognize the wild beasts in us and give in to vainglory, or we fail to recognize the angel in us and give in to self-hatred. But in the silence and recollection of the desert we come to terms with ourselves as we really are, we are reconciled with the beasts and the angels in our lives and then we begin to experience peace again for the first time. Lent is the time for the desert experience. We cannot all afford to buy a camel and head off for the desert. But we can all create a desert space in our overcrowded lives. We can set aside a place and time to be alone daily with God, a time to distance ourselves from the many noises and voices that bombard our lives every day, a time to hear God’s word, a time to rediscover who we are before God, a time to say yes to God and no to Satan as Jesus did. Welcome to Lent! Welcome to the desert!

Introduction

This Sunday is First Sunday of Lent

Message : Mindful of his covenant, the Lord promises never to destroy creation again by floodwaters.  The waters of baptism bring salvation and forgiveness through the death of Christ.  After fasting forty days and being put to the test, Jesus begins his public ministry.

Saints in this week:

3^rd Saturday : Saint Katharine Drexel, virgin, USA

Katharine Drexel, 3 March 1955 at age ninety-seven; Philadelphia heiress and foundress of the Missionary Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament; established some forty-nine foundations, including Xavier University in New Orleans; canonized 1 October 2000 by Pope John Paul II

VI Sunday in OT-[2015]-Levi 13:1-2,45-46;1Cori 10:23-11:1;Mk 1:40-45

VI Sunday in OT-[2015]-Levi 13:1-2,45-46;1Cori 10:23-11:1;Mk 1:40-45

Introduction:    All three readings today contain the Christian teaching on the need for social acceptance even when people are different from us.  They also tell us that it is purity or holiness of soul coming from God that cleanses our lives.

Exegesis:    The gospel text of today describes the encounter between Jesus and a person with ‘leprosy’.  Though there are still some societies where people with leprosy are stigmatized, generally we have a better understanding of the disease today: that it is caused by a bacteria; the development of the disease is associated with malnutrition; it is curable; and once treated it is not contagious.  During the time of Jesus – as it may be the case in some societies up to our own times – any condition that involved discharging out of body fluids was anomalous, mysterious and unhygienic.  Hence, many taboos were developed around these conditions.  The Book of Leviticus makes a clear distinction between just a scab on the skin and a condition that forms ulcers (Lev 13:2-30).  The ulcerous condition creates secretions and hence the individual with these conditions has to be isolated not only for hygienic reasons but because they are ritualistically impure! Therefore, what is referred to as ‘leprosy,’ in the gospel text of today and in the first reading, was not just a physical condition, but had its social and spiritual implications.  Therefore, the cure of the man with leprosy by Jesus was also not just a physical healing, but it involved the re-establishment of the social and spiritual status of the man. 

Intra-personal Wellbeing: The gospel text of today begins with these words, “A leper came to Jesus and pleaded on his knees…” (Mk 1:40).  By coming to Jesus, the man with ‘the virulent skin-disease’, has broken the Law.  In the Lukan story of the ten men with a skin-disease, “they stood some way off” (Lk 17:12). As we heard in the first reading of today, “the man must live apart; he must live outside the camp” (Lev 13:46).  Jesus not only allows the man to come nearby, but also stretches out his hand and touches the man (Mk 1:41). By touching the man with the skin-condition, Jesus has broken the Law.  The Book of Leviticus further prescribes that anyone who touches anything made unclean by a dead body, or who has a seminal discharge… remains unclean until evening… (Lev 22:4).  Yet, Jesus feels the need to touch him physically so as to offer the man his dignity as a human person. The man now enjoys intra-personal wellbeing – his personal dignity is re-established.

Human touch is one of the first ways of communication that we ever learnt as babies.  A touch could mean reassurance, care, and encouragement.  Jesus is not sparing in the use of touch as a way of communicating.  There is an abundance of instances, particularly in the Gospel of Mark, where Jesus reaches out and touches people, or allows people to touch him (Mk 1:31, 1:41; 3:10, 5:27-34;5:41; 6:56; 7:33; 8:22-23; 10:13-16). His compassionate touch offers people their dignity!

Having cured the man, Jesus now orders him to go and show himself to the priest as prescribed by the Law (Lev 14).  In this case, by showing himself to the priests the man will be allowed to go back to his family and people.  Thus his social wellbeing will be re-established. The man now enjoys interpersonal wellbeings.

Supra-Personal / Inner personal Wellbeing: In the Book of Numbers, when Aaron and Miriam had criticised their brother Moses over his marriage with a Cushite woman,  Yahweh’s anger was kindled, and Miriam was struck with a virulent-skin disease (Num 12:1-10). So, skin-disease, in fact, sickness as such, was seen as a punishment from God for human sin. Jesus categorically denies this causal connection between sin and sickness, as we see, for instance, in the story of the blind man in John 9.  And here in Mark, Jesus asks the man to make the offering for his healing to assure him that he is not cursed by God.  The man’s relationship with God is re-established.  Jesus’ healing of the man mediates spiritual wellbeing or supra-personal wellbeing.

Having had a deep encounter with Jesus, having experienced this three-fold healing, and having been made whole again, how could the man be silent about it?  He had to break the order of Jesus. “He started talking about it freely and telling the story everywhere…” (Mk 1:45).

Practical Applications: 1) Let us learn to respect the dignity of human being. People with limitations, deformities, differences, less beautiful, less fortunate, less educated, less abilities, are all human beings. Gods creations. It seems imperative that a kind act to anyone has to respect their social and cultural context. Otherwise, it runs the risk of alienating them even further. 

Introduction : Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time:

Message:    Jesus manifests the powerful, healing love of God by curing the leper who was forced to live under severe restrictions by Jewish legislation.  He turned to Jesus in his need and was filled with joy.  We are called to imitate the healing and compassionate Jesus.

Saints and Events in this week:  16 – Sixteenth – Monday – Presidents day; 17 – Seventeenth – Tuesday – The Seven Holy Founders of the Servite Order.  18 – Eighteenth – Wednesday – Ash Wednesday; Day of fasting and abstinence; 21 – Twenty First – Saturday – Saint Peter Damian, Bishop, Doctor of the Church;

VI Sunday in OT-[2012]-Levi 13:1-2,45-46;1Cori 10:23-11:1;Mk 1:40-45

VI Sunday in OT-[2012]-Levi 13:1-2,45-46;1Cori 10:23-11:1;Mk 1:40-45

Martin was a young soldier in the Roman army. Elegantly dressed, he was mounted on his horse one day when he was accosted by a leper begging for alms. The sight and the stench of rotting flesh was so repulsive to the sensitivities of young Martin that his first instincts were to ride off on his horse. But something inside him made his walk up to the beggar. Since all he had was his military coat, he cut it in two and gave half to the leper while he wrapped himself with the other half. It was a very cold winter day. That night in his dream he saw Christ clothed in a half coat saying to the angels around his throne, “Martin has clothed me with his garment.” This event was the turning point in the life of him who was to become St. Martin of Tours.

The natural revulsion of Martin before leprosy is nothing compared with the ancient Hebrew attitude to leprosy. To the Hebrews leprosy was not only a most dreaded natural disease; it was also popularly seen as divine chastisement. The story of Miriam, sister of Moses, who was struck with leprosy as a result of her misconduct (Numbers 12) as well as that of Job who was afflicted with a leprosy-like skin disease reinforced their view of leprosy as divine punishment for sin. In the first reading (Leviticus 13) the dreadful practice of ostracizing lepers is reported as God’s will: “The Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying ....”

But the gospel paints a different picture. Was leprosy indeed divine chastisement? Was the dehumanizing treatment meted out to lepers as described in Leviticus God’s will? If indeed these things were God’s will, then there is no way Jesus, God’s Anointed, would want to heal a leper. If, on the other hand, leprosy is an unfortunate disease like any other, then there is a possibility that Jesus who had earlier healed many sick people would also heal a leper. The leper in the gospel decides to find out the truth once and for all. Ignoring the law that requires him to keep away from people, he gets close to Jesus and kneels before him. Instead of shouting “Unclean! Unclean!”he says to him, “If it is your will you can make me clean” (Mark 1:40). Jesus’ reply, “It is my will. Be made clean!”(verse 41) did two things. First, it restored the leprosy patient to health. Secondly it proved to him and to all that leprosy was not a divine chastisement after all but a disease like any other disease that prevents people from being fully alive as God wants all people to be.

Joke1): A young boy was spending a weekend with his grandmother after a particularly difficult week in kindergarten.  On Saturday morning, his grandmother took him to the park to play in the beautiful, newly fallen snow. 

“Doesn’t it look like an artist painted this scenery?”

Grandma asked. “Do you think god painted this just for you?”

“Yes, God did it”, the boy answered, “and He did it left-handed.”

Confused, Grandma asked, “What makes you think that?”

“Well”, said the boy, “we learned at Sunday school last week that Jesus sits on God’s right hand!”

Joke 2):  The Bible tells us that we should love our neighbors and our enemies….  Probably because they are usually the same people.

According to ancient Hebrew belief, physical contact with lepers rendered a person unclean. Holy people in particular were expected to keep a safe distance from lepers. Against this background the gesture of Jesus who stretches out his hand and physically touches the leper becomes unthinkable. Has he no fear of being defiled? What is going on here? Jesus is challenging and redefining the traditional views of holiness and unholiness. Jesus is challenging traditional superstitions and prejudices that certain people are impure by the conditions of their health, social status or birth. An Indian friend told me that in his part of the country people of a higher caste would not sit together in church with those of a lower caste, the so-called untouchables. By reaching out and touching the leper and thereby making him pure again, Jesus is teaching us, his followers, to reach out and embrace the dehumanized and the outcasts among us. A deed of solidarity with the dehumanized does not dehumanize the doer, rather it restores full humanity to the dehumanized.

Pope John Paul II has declared February 11, feast of Our Lady of Lourdes, as the World Day of the Sick. Leprosy, thank God, has become a curable disease. Yet the tendency to see some diseases as divine punishment and to ostracize those who suffer from them is still with us. Is this not how many of us still see people with HIV-AIDS? Have you not heard tele-evangelists who teach that AIDS is divine punishment for sin? Jesus challenges us today to abandon such dehumanizing beliefs and reach out in solidarity with these modern-day lepers among us, just as he himself did in his own days.

Practical Applications: 1)Trust in the mercy of a forgiving God who assures us that our sins are forgiven and that we are clean.  We are forgiven and made spiritually clean from the spiritual leprosy of sins when we repent of our sins, because God is a God of love who waits patiently for us. 

2) We need to tear down the walls that separate us from others and build bridges of loving relationship. Jesus calls every one of us to demolish the walls that separate us from each other and to welcome the outcasts and the untouchables of society.   Let us re-examine the barriers we have created and approach God with a heart that is ready to welcome the outcasts in our society. 

Introduction : VI Sunday in Ordinary Time

Today’s Message : Jesus manifests the powerful, healing love of God by curing the leper who was forced to live under severe restrictions by Jewish legislation.  He turned to Jesus in his need and was filled with joy.  We are called to imitate the healing and compassionate Jesus.

Saints in this Week: 14^th Tuesday : Saint Cyril, monk, and Methodius bishop

Cyril, 869, and Methodius, 885; brothers known as the “Apostles to the Slaves”; prepared Slavic liturgical texts; served as the “spiritual bridge between Eastern and Western traditions”(Pope John Paul II); patrons of the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzogovina, and of all Europe.

17 the Friday : The Seven Holy Founders of the Servite Order

The Order of Friar Servants of Mary (Servites), founded by seven Florentine cloth merchants in 1223, today number about 850 religious; they popularized devotion to Our Lady of Sorrows.

V Sunday in OT – Job 7:1-4, 6-7; 1Cori 9:16-19, 22-23; Mk 1:29-39

V Sunday in OT-[2015]– Job 7:1-4, 6-7; 1Cori 9:16-19, 22-23; Mk 1:29-39

Introduction: Today’s readings challenge us to avoid Job’s pessimistic and cynical view of life as a chain of pain and sufferings and to accept it with hope and optimism as a precious gift from God, using it to do good for others and spending our time, talents and lives for others as Jesus did and as St. Paul did.

Exegesis:  Pointing out the spontaneous response of Peter’s mother-in-law after she had been healed by Jesus, today’s Gospel passage teaches us  that true discipleship means getting involved in giving selfless service to others.  During the Sabbath day, Jesus took part in the synagogue worship, taught with authority, exorcised a demon, healed Simon’s mother-in-law and, after sundown, “cured many who were sick with various diseases, and drove out many demons.” Thus, Jesus spent himself and most of his time ministering to the needs of others, giving healing, forgiveness and a new beginning to many. Yet, Jesus rose early the next morning and went off "to a deserted place" to pray, in order to assess his work before God his Father and to recharge his spiritual energy.

Joke:  During the last Sunday service that the visiting pastor was to spend at the church he had served for some months, his hat was passed around for goodwill, farewell offering. When it returned to the pastor, it was empty. The pastor didn’t flinch. He raised the hat to heaven. "I thank you, Lord, that I got my hat back from this congregation."

Practical applications: 1) We need to be instruments for Jesus’ healing work.  Bringing healing and wholeness is Jesus’ ministry even today.  We all need healing of our minds, our memories and our broken relationships.  But Jesus now uses counselors, doctors, friends or even strangers in his healing ministry.    Let us ask for the ordinary healing we need in our own lives.  When we are healed, let us not forget to thank Jesus for his goodness, mercy, and compassion by turning to serve others.  Our own healing process is completed only when we are ready to help others in their needs and to focus on things outside ourselves.  Let us also be instruments for Jesus’ healing by visiting the sick and praying for their healing.  But let us remember that we need the Lord’s strength not only to make ourselves and others well, but to make us and others whole.  

2) We have learned about seven corporal works of mercy. Such as 1) feed the hungry. 2) give drink to the thirsty. 3) clothe the naked. 4) harbour the harbourless / the Homeless. 5) visit the sick. 6) visit the imprisoned. 7) bury the dead. In short it is Giving what you have and Giving your presence.

Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time:  Introduction

Message: Job’s cry of hopelessness stands in marked contrast to the hope of those who put their trust in Jesus, who “heals” the broken hearted and binds up their wounds”, such are the blessings of the good news.

Saints and Events in this week:  10 – Tuesday – Saint Scholastica, Virgin; 11 – Wednesday – Our Lady of Lourdes; 14 – Saturday – Saints Cyril, Monk, and Methodius, Bishop;

V Sunday in OT –[2012]- Job 7:1-4, 6-7; 1Cori 9:16-19, 22-23; Mk 1:29-39

V Sunday in OT – Job 7:1-4, 6-7; 1Cori 9:16-19, 22-23; Mk 1:29-39

While the gospel presents Jesus enthusiastically preparing for his second day’s preaching and healing ministry, the first reading details Job’s attitude in striking contrast to Jesus’.   The first reading is Job's lament.  The Book of Job is a long book in the bible.  It has 42 chapters.  The first two chapters of this book and the last ten verses of chapter 42 are the story framework most of us are acquainted with when we think about Job.  This is where we hear about Job being a just man who is beset by all sorts of horrible suffering.  He says, "The Lord gives and the Lord takes away, blessed be the name of the Lord."  At the end of the book, God rewards Job for his faithfulness to him.  But this is just the framework.  There are a little over 39 chapters in between which are the heart and meat of the book.  In these chapters Jobs friends come and end up accusing him.  Job himself questions God.  Job is suffering and he calls out to God to explain himself.   This is not the Job who says, "The Lord has given, the Lord has taken away, blessed be the name of the Lord."  This is the Job who says, "My pain is more than I can bear.  I can't sleep at night.  I shall not see happiness again."  Job questions God, his goodness, why he has allowed pain to exist.  God finally appears to Job in chapter 38 and asks him: If you know so much as to question me, then where were you when I created the world.  How is it that the heavens work, the sun and the moon?  Were you there helping me when I created the whale? And so forth. Job realizes that he has spoken foolishly and submits to God's wisdom. Job surrenders himself, his suffering, his work and everything he had and had lost to the greater wisdom of God (Job 42:1-6). 

Job's lament is the cry we all feel within ourselves when we become seriously ill, or, perhaps, even more, when someone we love, a spouse, a child or a parent become ill or even die.  Perhaps our hurt is not physical.  Perhaps it is emotional.  A marriage breaks up; a child runs away, a friend is publicly discredited.  When we feel pain, regardless of its source, we want to join Job and say, "I shall never see happiness again."

It is to prove this lament wrong that Jesus comes as the Divine Healer.  In the Gospel for today he heals Simon's mother-in-law of a fever.  He heals people with all sorts of illnesses including possession which refers both to diabolic possession and psychological or psychiatric illnesses.  Jesus heals so many people that he has to find a solitary place in the desert for a few moments of union with his Father.  But even then, Simon Peter and the others find him and make him go back to work.

Joke 1: There is the funny story about a woman listening to her pastor preaches a Sunday morning sermon about Simon Peter's wife's mother, ill with a fever. Since it was a boring sermon the woman left the Church after the Mass, feeling somewhat unfulfilled. Consequently, she decided to go to Church again that day, out in the country where she had grown up. When she arrived, she discovered to her dismay that her pastor had been invited to be the substitute priest and again, during the Mass he preached on the gospel of the day about Peter's mother-in-law being ill with a fever. Believing that there was still time to redeem the day, the woman decided to go to the hospital chapel in the evening. As you may have guessed, her pastor was assigned to say the evening Mass there and he preached the same sermon on Peter's wife's mother and her fever. Next morning, the woman was on a bus riding downtown and, wonders of wonders; her pastor boarded that bus and sat down beside her. An ambulance raced by with sirens roaring. In order to make conversation, the pastor said, "Well, I wonder who it is?" "It must certainly be Peter's mother-in-law," she replied. "She was sick all day yesterday."

Jesus heals.  He heals the pain not just of the people of the past, but the pain of the people of today.  Some receive physical healing immediately.  Others receive healing in stages.  Some receive a clear miracle.  Others who have dedicated their lives to continuing the healing ministry of the Lord, have developed their own skills and intelligent to be vehicles of the Lord's healing.  The union with the Divine Healer is the reason why our doctors, and our nurses, and all care givers deserve our respect.  It is in this context that w can best understand the Sacrament of Healing, the Sacrament of the Sick.  

JOKE: 2) Humor has great role in our healing ministry: “Laugh and the world laughs with you.”  “Laughter is music of the spheres, language of the gods.”  And it's fine medicine.  Laughter exercises the face, shoulders, diaphragm, and abdomen.  The breathing deepens, the heart rate rises, and the blood is more oxygenated.  Endorphins are released, pain thresholds are raised, and some studies suggest that even immune systems are boosted.  Norman Cousins, in Anatomy of an Illness as Perceived by the Patient, tried laughter therapy, and found that ten minutes of hearty laughter could give him two hours of pain-free sleep. When you laugh, others laugh too.  Laughter is a contagious, highly effective, totally organic medicine.  It has no side effects, and no one is allergic to it.  Did you have your dose of laughter today?  Jesus may have burst into hearty laughter when he watched Zacchaeus climb down from the sycamore tree. Perhaps he also had at least a mischievous smile when Peter started sinking in his attempt to walk on water.  Then why don’t we too have a hearty laugh in the worshipping community in the real presence of our Lord?

All who call out to the Lord are healed.  Some are healed physically.  Some are healed emotionally, able to accept their condition in life.  All receive spiritual healing as they unite their pain to the Cross of Christ.  In this context we understand the meaning of Holy Eucharist.

We, who carry Christ within us, carry within us the one who heals.  If we believe in him, if we trust in him, then we refuse to join Job's cry of despair.  We recognize that Christ is present when we need him the most, healing our internal and our external turmoil.

Life messages: 1) We need to be instruments for Jesus’ healing.  Bringing healing and wholeness is Jesus’ ministry even today.  We all need healing of our minds, our memories and our broken relationships.  2) We need to live for others as Jesus did: Jesus was a man for others, sharing what he had with others.  In his life there was time for prayer, time for healing and time for reconciliation.  Let us take up this challenge by sharing love, mercy, compassion and forgiveness with others.  Instead of considering life as dull and boring, let us live our lives as Jesus did, full of dynamism and zeal for the glory of God.  

Introduction : Today is V Sunday in Ordinary Time                                    Message : Job’s cry of hopelessness stands in marked contrast to the hope of those who put their trust in Jesus, who “heals the broken hearted and binds up their wounds”. Such are the blessings of the good news.

Saints in this week:   6th Monday : Saint Paul Miki and companions, martyrs :   Paul Miki, Jesuit scholastic, and his twenty-five companions, including two other Jesuits, six Franciscans, fifteen tertiaries, and two laymen, were crucified by order  of the ruler Hideyoshi 5 Feb. 1597 at Nagasaki; among them the Mexican, Felipe de Jesus, first martyr from the Americas to be beatified; protomartyrs of the Far East (canonized in 1862 by Pope Pius IX).

8th Wednesday : Saint Jerome Emiliani; Saint Josephine Bakhita, Virgin:      Jerome Emiliani, 1537 of the plague; Venetian soldier whose conversion led to the founding (1534) of the Clerks Regular of Somascha, today numbering about 475 members; dedicated to the poor and the education of youth; patron of orphans and abandoned children.                                                                                     Josephine was born around 1869 in Sudan and raised in the Islamic faith.  She was kidnapped around the age of seven buy slave traders who gave her the name, “Bakhita,” meaning “lucky one”.  She was sold to a number of owners until she was purchased at about the age of twelve but e Italian Consul Callisto Legnani.  He brought her to Italy and, while serving as a nanny, was sent to live with the Canossian Sisters in Venice.  There she was formally introduced to the faith, baptized Ciuseppina, and eventually granted her freedom.  In 1896 she joined the Conossian Daughters of Charity, and for twenty-five years served her sisters as cook, seamstress, and portress at their houses in Venice, Verona, and Schio.  She was especially beloved by her students for her sweet nature and musical voice.  After a long and painful illness she died in 1947.  Pope John Paul II canonized his first Sudanese saint 1 October 2000 as a witness to evangelical reconciliation and a model of freedom.

10 th Friday : Saint Scholastica, Virgin :      Scholastica, c.543 at Monte Cassino; twin sister of St. Benedict; “She could do more because she loved more” (Gregory the Great, The Dialogues); eventually interred in the same grave with her brother; invoked against storms; patroness of Benedictine nunneries.

11 th Saturday : Our Lady of Lourdes:  According to St. Bernadette, the visionary at Lourdes in 1858, the Virgin Mary proclaimed herself “The Immaculate Conception”; patroness of Portugal and the Philippines. [Pope John Paul II designated 11 February as World Day of the Sick, “a special time of prayer and sharing, of offering one’s suffering for the good of the Church and of reminding us to see in our sick brother and sister the face of Christ who, by suffering, dying, and rising, achieved the salvation of humankind”. (Letter Instituting the World Day of the Sick, 13 May 1992, 3)]    

IV Sunday in OT:[B]:2015- Deut 18:15-20; 1Cori 7:32-35; Mk 1:21-28

IV Sunday in OT:[B]:2015- Deut 18:15-20; 1Cori 7:32-35; Mk 1:21-28

Gospel passage for today shows that Jesus new teaching is with authority. Jesus being son of man teaching is the reason for authority. And it is a new teaching. It can be representing New Testament teaching.  There are two things to concentrate on. 1) New teaching corresponds with practical life of comforting others and 2) New teaching of introducing merciful God, forgiving God expressed in love of enemy.

Jesus begins his public life with many acts of power done out of compassion for the needs of others. Immediately before, Mark has told us of the baptism of Jesus, with the Spirit descending upon him and the voice from heaven saying to him, "You are my beloved Son? (Mark 1: 11) Jesus is then tempted by Satan not to trust that affirmation. After the arrest of John the Baptist, Jesus goes to Galilee where he proclaims that the kingdom of God is at hand. He calls disciples to follow him, and together they go to the synagogue at Capernaum (today's gospel passage).

More of the implications of this passage may reveal themselves if we remember the narrative context into which Mark places it. After this cure of the demoniac, Jesus cures Simon's mother-in-law and many others afflicted either by illness or by evil spirits.  Curing the sick is considered, for Mark, as a new teaching with authority. Jesus’ authority was questioned in Luke chapter 20:1. Why is it new teaching? May be the teaching is accompanied with the practical life of convulsing the evil spirits, may be Jesus’ new teaching changes from of old to express revenge with love of enemy. Evil spirits are considering Jesus as enemy, but for Jesus evil spirits are not enemies but means of showing his mercy.

The cure of the demoniac represents the beginning of the messianic age when the power of Satan's kingdom will at last be destroyed ("Have you come to destroy us?”). Jesus enters a world in which Satan reigns, teaches with the authority of God, and with compassion casts out evil spirits that hold people in bondage and fear. Christ's mission, begun here, will not be completed until the end, "when he hands over the kingdom to his God and Father, when he has destroyed every sovereignty and every authority and power? The last enemy to be destroyed is death? (1 Corinthians 15: 24, 26). The destruction here is for personal revival of the self.

A couple of weeks ago one of my friend Pastor, Dr. Jose Maniparambil pointed out something in video posting in YouTube videos about this new teaching of Jesus which I found very interesting and I had never heard before. He was giving commentary on Luke 4:18-21. Jesus is quoting from Isaiah 61, and he stops mid sentence. Look at what Isaiah says in chapter 61: “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor, and the day of vengeance of our God;….. “

The phrase “and the day of vengeance of our God” is excluded from Jesus’ reading of the scripture.

My thoughts went immediately to verses like John 3:17: “For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.”

Joke:   The preacher's Sunday sermon was Forgive Your Enemies. Toward the end of the service, He asked his congregation, "how many of you have forgiven their enemies"?    About half held up their hands. He then repeated his question. As it was past lunchtime, this time about 80 percent held up their hands. He then repeated his question again. All responded, except one small elderly lady.  "Mrs. Jones?" inquired the preacher, Are you not willing to forgive your enemies?    "I don't have any." she replied. smiling sweetly.     "Mrs. Jones, That is very unusual. How old are you?" "Ninety-three," she replied.  "Oh Mrs. Jones, what a blessing and a lesson to us all you are. Would you please come down in front of this congregation and tell us all how a person can live ninety-three years and not have an enemy in the world."  The little sweetheart of a lady tottered down the aisle, faced the congregation, and said "I outlived the old hags."     

Practical Applications: Do you think there is any significance to the fact that Jesus stopped mid-sentence? Were they waiting with baited breath for Jesus to read the next phrase and then astonished when he didn’t? Is the coming of Christ all about God’s favor, and not at all about God’s vengeance? If so, does that impact how we preach and how we teach? Are Hellfire and Brimstone sermons out of line? Is condemnation and vengeance Good News?

Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time: Introduction

Message: Jesus came as one who spoke in the name of the Lord, teaching with authority.  Let us listen to his voice and adhere to him above anything else.

Saints and Events in this Week: 2 – Second – Monday – The Presentation of the Lord – 3 – Third – Tuesday – Saint Blaise, Bishop, Martyr; Saint Ansgar, Bishop; Note: In memory of Saint Blaise, Blessing of Throats will be there immediately after mass this Tuesday. 5 – Fifth – Thursday – Saint Agatha, Virgin, Martyr; 6 – Sixth – Friday – Saint Paul Miki, Martyr, and companions, martyrs;