MOTHER OF GOD- NEW YEAR-2014.

A few weeks ago, when Pope Francis was selected as “Person of the Year,” a young woman of feminist leanings joked, “We should have a WOMAN as head of the church ABOVE the Pope,”.  Another woman who heard her immediately tossed back, “We have one- Mary.  Mary, Mother of God, is above the Pope in the Church!”   She is not God, but above any human being as the message of the angel indicated “Blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb too. She herself proclaimed: All generations will call me blessed.

Today we celebrate the New year, but as Catholics today we think and celebrate Mary as the Mother of God.  Mary’s Motherhood is the heart and reason for all our attention to and claims on Mary through the centuries.

Jesus once asked his disciples “Who do you say I am?” (Mt 16:15).  It is a question that never goes away, and every believer faces it again and again.  We can be quite clear in our mind about the Church’s answer to the question, but every believer has to experience the force of the question addressed to him or herself.  “Who do you say I am?”  In a sense it cannot be fully answered with words but only with one’s life.  It could have the right formulation but it has little significance if my life contradicts it or ignores it. 

Through the centuries every possible answer has been given.  Followers of Nestorius, the 5th-century archbishop of Constantinople said that Christ was two persons – the man Jesus and the divine Son of God.  This view was rejected at the Council of Ephesus (431 AD), which insisted that Jesus was one person with two natures, divine and human.  The most emphatic way they could say this was to affirm that Mary was not just the mother of the man Jesus, but that she was the mother of God.  This was to say that Christ was one person, not two.  If there were two persons in Jesus, Mary could not be the mother of Son of God. She could only be the mother of human Jesus, not of the Christ. Note that it is more a statement about Christ than about Mary – or rather, equally so.

In today's Second Reading, St Paul reminds us that through God's grace we have all become brothers and sisters of Christ and, therefore, children of God.

This is what happened at baptism. At that moment we were born again, supernaturally; God infused his divine DNA into our souls. The spiritual life consists of the gradual spread and development of that DNA, until each one of us becomes a mature, wise, and fruitful follower of Jesus Christ.

Today's Solemnity reminds us that if we have become Christ's spiritual brothers and sisters, we have also become spiritual children of Mary. She was his mother in the flesh, and she is our mother in grace. Representing all disciples of Jesus in John the apostle Jesus said: this is your mother.

In today's Gospel she teaches us one of the most important virtues of all: wisdom. St Luke tells us how Mary responded to the wonderful things that God was doing in and around her: "Mary kept all these things, reflecting on them in her heart."

God did not tell Mary His entire plan. She had to walk in the dim light of faith, one step at a time, trusting in God, witnessing his action, and seconding it whenever she could. This capacity and habit of reflecting in our heart of God's action in our lives is both a sign and a source of wisdom. And we can never become mature, courageous, and joyful  followers of Christ unless we develop it.

Our culture has a custom of making new year resolutions. Why not make the resolution to spend this year learning from our spiritual mother how to let God put wisdom into our lives, by "keeping all these things and reflecting on them in our hearts" through praying Rosary every day. Rosary is a very powerful weapon to fight Satanic influences in our families if prayed together as a family.

As we make new priorities for life, let’s make sure that Jesus and Mary find a place in our plans and decision makings. When  wrestling with all the uncertainties of life, struggles, challenges that seem to keep coming our way, remember we can fight them all with the help of Mary and her Son.

In closing let me draw our attention to one of the important areas we should be paying attention to this new year. It is about redeeming our time.

What portion of our time does God have in my everyday life ? How much television are we watching? How much time to sports are we devoting? What are we doing with our time? If we don’t find time for God, he will not find time for us to. Let’s not always be pleasure seekers but seekers of Holiness, which gives us joy and peace.  Let’s start every day of our New year on our knees, one who kneels before God can stand up to anything in life. Wish you all a happy new year.

NEW YEAR -2012

NEW YEAR-2012.

Numbers 6: 22-27,Galatians 4:4-7;Gospel:Luke 2: 16-21

It is fortunate that New Year's Day falls on a Sunday. This brings us all together into the house of God. This, of course, is where we ought to begin a New Year. On a new year’s day a young man started out with a prayer: Dear Lord! So far this year I've done well. I haven't gossiped, I haven't lost my temper, I haven't been greedy, grumpy, nasty, selfish, or overindulgent. I'm very thankful for that. But in a few minutes, Lord, I'm going to get out of bed, and from then on I'm probably going to need a lot more help. Amen. Though we feel to laugh on this, it tells us that we really need God’s help to keep us going in good track.
New year comes around with a lot of expectations, but behind them there may be some remorse too. The name "January" comes from the Roman god Janus, the god with two faces, one looking to the past and the other looking to the future. This is indeed a time to look back at the year that has just ended and to look forward to the new year ahead of us. How did I spend this one year of my life that has just passed? Did I use it to advance my goals and objectives in life? Did I use it to enhance the purpose of my existence? Could I have done better last year in the way I invested my time between the demands of work, family, friends and society, and the demands of my spiritual life? What things did I achieve last year and what did I fail to achieve? How can I consolidate the achievements of last year while reversing the failures and losses in this new year? Through soul searching questions like these we find that a review of the past year naturally leads to setting goals and resolutions for the new year. We do need to review our lives from year to year because, as Socrates says, the unexamined life is not worth living.
Today's newspapers are full of individual and collective new year resolutions. Most of those, however, are not resolutions at all but only wishes. What is the difference between a resolution and a wish? A wish identifies a goal one wants to reach, a resolution specifies the steps one will take to reach it.
A boy asked his father, "Dad, if three frogs were sitting on a limb that hangs over a pool, and one frog decided to jump off into the pool, how many frogs would be left on the limb?" The dad replied, "Two."

"No," the son replied. “Here is the question again: There are three frogs and one decided to jump, how many are left?"

The dad said, "Oh, I get the point! If one decided to jump, the others would too. So there are none left."

The boy said, "No dad, the answer is three. The frog only DECIDED to jump."

Does that sound like our last year’s resolutions? Great inspiration and great resolutions, but oftentimes we only decide, and months later we are still on the same limb of do-nothing. Because, mostly they were wishes, not resolutions, involving the steps to achieve them.
Our lives are shaped much more by our attitude than by our circumstances. Everybody has struggles. My struggles are just more apparent than yours. That’s why I think my troubles are greater than yours.
The good news is what lies ahead is no surprise to God. In fact, He has already been where we are going. That reason alone empowers us to face every tomorrow with hope, knowing whatever touches us passes through His hands, with His permission.
Whatever the situation in which we find ourselves - a hardship, a disappointment, a decision to make - God has a solution, an answer that is right for us. We tell God about it in prayer but we also listen to what God has to tell us about it. Prayer is a conversation with God but sometimes all we do is pick up the phone, read out the list of our problems to God and drop the phone without listening to hear what God has to say to us. Let us today resolve to listen more to the voice of God, to treasure God's word and ponder it in our hearts. Then shall we be able to realize our new year resolution of a new life in union with God. Let us see this year as another chance given to us to get it right, to grow in familiarity with God our loving Father, and to grow in our awareness of ourselves as God’s beloved children.
Today’s Feast of "Mary, the Mother of God" is a very appropriate way to begin a new year. What better way to ring in the New Year than to celebrate the woman whose complete devotion to God played such a central role in our salvation? A Human woman is the mother of God, and God is the son of a human mother.
The gospel today presents Mary to us as a model of that new life in Christ that all of us wish for ourselves in the new year. There we see that Mary was prepared to do something to realize this goal. What did she do? We read that the shepherds, when they went to adore the Child Jesus in the manger, told all that the angels had said to them. "But Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart" (Luke 2:19). Again after the boy Jesus was found in the Temple, we are told that "His mother treasured all these things in her heart" (Luke 2:51). Mary was a woman who valued the word of God, who treasured it and made time to meditate and ponder it. It is true that the holiness of Mary is attributed to the grace of God, but this should not make us forget that she needed to make an effort in order to cooperate with the grace of God. She pondered the word of God in order to discern what God was saying to her at every stage in her life as the handmaid of God.
St Luke tells us that "Mary kept all these things, reflecting on them in her heart." God did not tell Mary his entire plan. We know much more than she did about how everything was going to work out. She had to walk in the dim light of faith, one step at a time, trusting in God, witnessing his action, and seconding it whenever she could. But she paid attention. She pondered in her heart all of God's gifts to her, all of his words and deeds. Today in Holy Communion we will receive the Body of Christ, which was formed in the womb of Mary. When we do, let's ask our spiritual Mother, the Mother of God and of all Christians, to teach us how to take care of the precious faith we have received and renewed during these days, just as she took care of the baby Jesus.

CHRISTMAS-2011

CHRISTMAS.

After explaining childbirth the biology teacher asked her 4thgraders to write an essay on "childbirth" in their families. Susan went home and asked her mother how she was born. Her mother, who was busy at the time, said, “A big white swan brought you darling, and left you on our doorstep.” Continuing her research she asked grandma how her parents got her. Being in the middle of something, her grandma similarly deflected the question by saying, “A fairy brought me and my mother found me in our garden in an open box”. Then the girl went and asked her great-grandmother how her parents got her as a baby. “My mother picked me from a box found in the gooseberry bush”, said the surprised great-grandma. With this information the girl wrote her essay. When the teacher asked her later to read it in front of the class, she stood up and began, "I really wonder why there was not even a single natural birth in our family for four generations... Today we celebrate the birth of Jesus. It’s a non-normal birth never before seen or experienced because it is the birth of God as man – Jesus Christ, Son of God and Son of Man, as our Savior.

Larry King on CNN was once asked by some one on Christmas Day and told if Jesus were to come now and you are given a chance to ask him one question, just one question, what would that question be ? He said: He would ask: Are you born of a Virgin?. That is the proof that he was God. Is there any thing that God could not perform by human beings? God could give power to human beings and make them do things, even great things. Samson in the O.T. was a great man, man of power. He could kill several lions in just one stroke.

When we make things for our use, we make them useful for our particular purpose, special use. If we make a spade that is meant to make holes in the ground. If we make a ship that is meant to travel in water and so it would be fitted to be able to travel in water. So is with anything we make for our need. If God created every human being in this world through the union of a man and a woman, and make just one man exempt from that order of creation, it is for a purpose. Otherwise he would be irrational God, creating things with no purpose. Why do you think Jesus was to be born of a virgin and not from the cooperation of a man in this process?
If God wanted to come to the earth and save man, he could have come down on Good Friday and do the work of salvation in three days and get back to heaven on the third day. Why did he come down to the earth as a weak human being ? First of all to save human beings from our sins. Sin became part of human nature. It is not something outside of us that we can get rid of it of ourselves. Man could not forgive his sins himself, because it is in himself. He had to be forgiven by God, because it is primarily a sin against God, a separation from God. So someone who is in human nature and at the same time is above human nature and is able to free the sins from the human nature has to be involved in this process. That is why God became man and at the same time he remained God too. Perfectly man and perfectly God. That is why he was born of a virgin. If he was born of a virgin he is surely God. Because no one ever was born that way.

No incarnations in other religions ever claimed that right. The Quran clearly mentions, and even more vehemently defends than the Bible does, that Jesus was born of a virgin. It also admits that no one was ever born that way. If the Quran admits so, that is the clear proof that Quran admits Jesus’ divinity, even though, it tells that Jesus is not God in other places. Why would God let someone be born in a unique way, without a human father and he is just a prophet like any body else ? Are you saying God does things without meaning and purpose ? If you have a Muslim friend and ask him this question and see what he answers.

It is popular nowadays to say that all religions are basically the same. You may have heard the example of people who say that God is like a mountain, and the different religions are the different paths up the mountain. But to say that all religions are the same is neither respectful nor tolerant - it is either arrogant or ignorant. Religions do have some things in common, but they also have substantial differences.

Theologian Karl Barth stood before students and faculty at Princeton in 1963 during his Princeton Lectures. A student asked: "Sir, don't you think that God has revealed himself in other religions and not only Christianity?" Barth stunned many who were present when he thundered, "No, God has not revealed himself in any religion, including Christianity. He has revealed himself in his Son." Christianity is not a religion like all other religions of the world. The Church reveals the truth the Holy Spirit reveals to her. It is a complete manifestation of God for the humanity for the sake of building a living relationship with him.

No other religion can beat Christianity on two grounds both of which tell of Jesus’ divinity. First, is his Virgin birth. Even in the Hindu scriptures mentions are made about a man being born of a virgin bringing salvation for the humanity that prophesy has not been fulfilled in Hinduism yet, but only in Christianity. Secondly his resurrection of which the disciples were witnesses and for which they all died martyrs death. If it were a lie, none of the Apostles would not have given up their lives to defend that lie. You never hear people laying down life to defend lies, but only truth. No other religion can stand against this solid truths of Christianity.

Only we Christians have the privilege of saying, "The Word became flesh, and lived among us." God-with-us is a divine promise first to Israel, and through them to all of us, of God's unilateral faithfulness to humanity and God's eternal initiative toward all that is created. To put it even more plainly, Yahweh says I am going to be with you whether you know it or not, ask for it or not, or enjoy it or not. God is GIVEN once, and for all, and forever, to the human species and to the whole created world! That is the meaning of Incarnation, the meaning of Emmanuel, and the first and final meaning of Christmas. The other day I heard some one preaching on the word Emmanuel. Em-man-u-el- Man who knows you well. Though it is far fetched explanation, it sounds good to me.

The message of Christmas is that we are just travelers through this earthly life, and that God has come to travel with us, and that if we stay by his side, we are guaranteed to arrive safely at our final destination: the everlasting life of heaven, in the Father's house. That's why we can be joyful even in the midst of our tears and difficulties; because we know that our Redeemer lives and weeps at our side, and will never abandon us.

Our preparing for Christ’s rebirth in our daily lives is to cultivate the spirit of sacrifice and humility. It was by sacrifice that the shepherds of Bethlehem and the Magi were able to find the Savior. They were humble enough to see God in the Child in the manger. We too can experience Jesus by sharing Him with others, just as God shared His Son with us. Let us remember that the angels wished peace on earth only to those able to receive that peace, those who possessed the good will and largeness of heart to receive and then to share Jesus our Savior with others in love, kindness, mercy, forgiveness and humble service.

Let’s all the blessings of the Manger Born Baby be yours at this Christmas and through out the New year.

why God became man.

“Once upon a time there was a man who looked upon Christmas as a lot of humbug. He wasn’t a Scrooge. He was a kind and decent person, generous to his family, upright in all his dealings with other men. But he didn’t believe all that stuff about Incarnation which churches proclaim at Christmas. And he was too honest to pretend that he did. “I am truly sorry to distress you,” he told his wife, who was a faithful churchgoer. “But I simply cannot understand this claim that God becomes man. It doesn’t make any sense to me.”
On Christmas Eve his wife and children went to church for the midnight service. He declined to accompany them. “I’d feel like a hypocrite,” he explained. “I’d rather stay at home. But I’ll wait up for you.”
Shortly after his family drove away in the car, snow began to fall. He went to the window and watched the flurries getting heavier and heavier. “If we must have Christmas,” he thought, “it’s nice to have a white one.” He went back to his chair by the fireside and began to read his newspaper. A few minutes later he was startled by a thudding sound. It was quickly followed by another, then another.
He thought that someone must be throwing snowballs at his living room window. When he went to the front door to investigate, he found a flock of birds huddled miserably in the storm. They had been caught in the storm and in a desperate search for shelter had tried to fly through his window. “I can’t let these poor creatures lie there and freeze,” he thought. “But how can I help them?” Then he remembered the barn where the children’s pony was stabled. It would provide a warm shelter.
He put on his coat and galoshes and tramped through the deepening snow to the barn. He opened the door wide and turned on a light. But the birds didn’t come in. “Food will lure them in,” he thought. So he hurried back to the house for bread crumbs, which he sprinkled on the snow to make a trail into the barn. To his dismay, the birds ignored the bread crumbs and continued to flop around helplessly in the snow. He tried shooing them into the barn by walking around and waving his arms. They scattered in every direction - except into the warm lighted barn.
“They find me a strange and terrifying creature,” he said to himself, “and I can’t seem to think of any way to let them know they can trust me. If only I could be a bird myself for a few minutes, perhaps I could lead them to safety. . . .”
Just at that moment the church bells began to ring. He stood silent for a while, listening to the bells pealing the glad tidings of Christmas. Then he sank to his knees in the snow. “Now I do understand,” he whispered. “Now I see why You had to do it.” ”
Think of the many ways God has reached out to us to communicate with us since the beginning. The climax of God communicating with us in the Old Testament was when God formed the covenant with Moses on Mt. Sinai. God joined himself to us in a covenant and we were joined to God in a covenant. But we still sinned so God raised up prophets to call us back but only a small number of people paid heed to the prophets. Through one of the prophets, Hosea, God said that Israel has been like an unfaithful wife committing adultery by going after false gods. All through the centuries of the Old Testament God pursued us like a lover but we had broken the covenant and God had to make a new unbreakable covenant with us. For this new covenant, God would become flesh and bones like us, and shed his blood in the person of Jesus to convince us once and for all to accept his invitation to be his people. Jesus was the climax of God reaching out to us. As we heard in our Gospel today,
The Word was made flesh,
he lived among us,
and we saw his glory...
“Now I see why You had to do it” wrote Louis Cassels in A Christmas Parable. And indeed God had to do it, had to become one of us to make us understand because despite God’s best efforts throughout all the Old Testament we still didn’t get the message. Sometimes you have to, as we say, rub their noses in it to make them understand. Christmas is, in a sense, God rubbing our noses in it to make us understand. Christmas is God saying, “Maybe this will grab your attention.” The Letter to the Hebrews expresses it beautifully,
“At various moments in the past and by many means, God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets; but in our time, the final days, he has spoken to us in the person of his Son.” (Heb 1:1-2)
God has spoken to us, the Word has become flesh. Let us allow God’s word to sink into our hearts. I will conclude with the prayer at the end of our second reading today:
“May the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, give you a spirit of wisdom and perception of what is revealed, to bring you to full knowledge of him. May he enlighten the eyes of your mind so that you can see what hope his call holds for you, what rich glories he has promised the saints will inherit.”

WEDDING HOMILY

Ladies and gentlemen,
We are witnessing a great moment in the lives of Emily and Anthony . So far they had been part of two different families but a few moments from now they will be forming a new family of their own. They are going to promise to God and each other and those here present that no matter how frail , ill or weak they would get in their life, they would always be there for each other. So far they were brought up in different families with different backgrounds. Like two creeks join together and become one river they become one. So far they have had different river banks and different waves and ripples and rapids in their lives, but now on they merge together and have only one flow and rapids , one rhythm of waves and share one shore in their life. They unite their minds and hearts together to live together as one.

Marriage is formed when the couples exchange promises to give themselves mutually and freely to each other in a definitive way. I stress the words mutually, freely and definitive way. They are indispensible element of marriage. Free consent to permanent union and the openness to having children are integral part of this sacrament. If these elements are absent, it cannot become a valid marriage. If they say no to any of these essential elements I cannot declare them to be married on behalf of the church.

Remember that there are not two but three parties in this marriage. The couples and God. God joins them. That is why marriage is called indissoluble. Actually they decided to marry not just today, but may be months ago. But that decision did not get an indissoluble nature as it was not confirmed with God’s will. They could give up their decision, even to this point. But now once they are uniting their decision to give each other permanently, permanently, in the will of God – God’s will which is immutable, their marriage becomes indissoluble. Our mind or our decisions change, but not God’s. God has only one decision and he doesn’t keep changing his decisions and plans.

Emily and Anthony, As God unites you today, for happiness and permanence of your marriage you need to pray together every day to God for the success of your marriage. I believe 100 percent success for marriages of those couples who pray every night kneeling together at the edge of their bed and ask God for success of their married life.

Marriage is a sacrament of love and commitment. Jesus said “ No man has greater love than this than laying down one’s life for others. There is no greater bond in this world , in human relationship than the marital bond. Book of Genesis says and man will leave his father and mother and be united with his wife. Our bonds with our parents and our children are not intended for permanency. Those bonds become weak in our life, and they leave us at some point in life. But the bond of husband and wife is meant to last till death. The wedding vows take a life time to live out.

After living with his wife for two years a business man husband could not adjust with his wife and so he send his wife home with a note “ your product is not satisfactory. So it is returned”. The girl’s father was also a business man and he sends her back with a note “ Warranty expired , manufacturer is not responsible for it”.

Marriage involves a life time commitment. This commitment involves fidelity. You promise each other “ I promise to be true to you…. This involves you promise to avoid any mister or mistress in your life. This mister or mistress can be -work, a hobby, the children, even volunteer activities that can cut into romance time and the attention a couple needs to devote to each other. You need to spend Time Together. Life becomes busy: Bills need to be paid; the home must be maintained; children require attention. But all of life's demands should not be at the expense of spending quality time together.

You promise unconditional love: Love is a decision and not just a feeling. Love involves putting your partner’s needs before your own. You say in your promise- in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health. To love unconditionally is a promise for the future. It has more to do with your decision to love than merely the feeling of love. Can you love him/her when his/her body has lost its vigor and beauty ? Can you love him/her through annoying habits and when he/she hurt you ? Not knowing what changes the future will bring, can you love each other when you become old, ugly, fat or senile ? That’s a lot to say a blind yes to.

You make a covenant with each other. You say: I will love you and honor you… A covenant is a promise that goes deeper than a contract. Contracts are legal documents that spell out rights and duties. Contracts can be broken if one party doesn’t hold up their end. A covenant on the other hand, goes beyond a 50/50 agreement. Sometimes one spouse will need to bend 75% while the other only gives 25%. It is not always fair, but it’s a promise that doesn’t count the cost. The first step in a successful marriage is for both husband and wife to put all their effort into the relationship—each giving 100%!

The three most important things to keep a marriage healthy are commitment, commitment and commitment. With divorce rate hovering around 50%, it may seem that commitment is out of style. It is not that human nature has changed much. But the culture we live in has changed. No longer is there a strong cultural support for a lifelong marriage. We live in a throw away society; if something breaks, our first impulse is to get a new one rather than fix the old. This cultural change contributes to making commitment harder than it used to be. So it is a challenge. It is a call to live in the grace of Jesus. Jesus said: You can do nothing with out me. So it is a life fully trusting the Lord. You may be called to adapt to many factors that are beyond your control. It takes a long time to create a good relationship. A good marriage teaches us that failure is human and forgiveness comes in love.

Sometimes we tend to forget how important togetherness is. We take one another for
granted and bicker about little things. Life is precious, so is your marriage

Communication is one of the most important keys to success. Before marriage, couples often find themselves talking a lot—but this soon diminishes after the wedding day. Communication must continue throughout the marriage. The couple must continue to learn from one another, taking time to share their thoughts and feelings.

Most marriages fail because of a lack of or wrong communication. Seemingly the only type of dialog in many marriages is arguing and fighting. This is not communication! Nothing productive ever comes from this, and it should be avoided at all costs. If the discussion escalates, both must make a point to apologize immediately.

A man and his wife were having some problems at home and were giving each other the silent treatment.

The next week the man realized that he would need his wife to wake him at 5.00 am for an early flight to Sydney. Not wanting to be the first to break the silence, he finally wrote on a piece of paper, "Please wake me at 5:00 am".

The next morning the man woke up, only to discover it was 9:00 am, and that he had missed his flight. Furious, he was about to go and see why his wife hadn't woken him when he noticed a piece of paper by the bed..it said... "It is 5:00 am, wake up!"

To such marriages it is said – after marriage husband and wife become 2 sides of a coin, they just can’t face each other, but still they live together.

"When you fall, in any way, Don't see the place where you fell, Instead see the place from where you slipped. Life is about correcting mistakes."

I don’t want to take you any further from here. I think they had enough to know how important a step they are going to take now. Let’s pray that the Lord may grant them the grace to build their home on rocky foundation with the solid rocks of gospel values and not on shaky foundation of present day unhealthy cultural trends. Wish you both a happy married life.

BEATITUDES OF MARRIAGE

Blessed are the husband and wife who continue to be affectionate,
considerate, and loving after the wedding bells have ceased ringing.

Blessed are the husband and wife who are as polite and courteous to
one another as they are to their friends.

Blessed are they who love their mates more than any other person in
the world, and who joyfully fulfill their marriage vow of a lifetime
of fidelity and mutual helpfulness to one another.

Blessed are they who attain parenthood, for children are a heritage of
the Lord.

Blessed are they who remember to thank God for their food before they
partake of it, and who set apart some time each day for the reading of
the Bible and for prayer.

Blessed are those mates who never speak loudly to one another, and who
make their home a place "where seldom is heard a discouraging word."

Blessed are the husband and wife who faithfully attend the worship
service of the church, and who work together in the church for the
advancement of Christ's kingdom.

Blessed are the husband and wife who can work out the problems of
adjustment without interference from relatives.

Blessed is the couple which has complete understanding about financial
matters, and have worked out a perfect partnership, with all money
under the control of both.

Blessed are the husband and wife who humbly dedicate their lives and
their homes to Christ, and who practice the teachings of Christ in the
home by being unselfish, loyal and loving.

FUNERAL HOMILY

FUNERAL HOMILY- HERBERT A.HASSE
2.Mac.12:43-46; Rom.8:31-39; Mathew 11:25-30
Come to me all you labour and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Every one in this world labors .. for what ? We all labour for love. To love and be loved. I dress up well so that people may appreciate me and I get loved, noticed. Everyone in this world strive for this. All our life is engaged for this. And only at death we get rest from this constant labor. Only Jesus can free us from this because he is Love. We don’t have to work hard to earn his love. He says take my yoke upon you. My yoke is easy. To get being loved by Jesus is easy. It is easy to please the Lord. Just obey him. You can never please anybody perfectly in this world. Even if you give all you have, others’ love for us is not guaranteed and it would wane at some point in time. But not the Lord’s. So Jesus calls us – come to me. The Lord called Herbert to him and provides him rest. And Herb is happy about it. But we miss him. Why do we miss him ? Because he was loved by us. We don’t miss anybody who has been wicked or evil to us. So the feeling of being missed is a good feeling in one sense.
When we look at a ship standing at the seashore looks large and big. As the ship goes further out in the sea, the size of it grows less and less in our sight. And finally when it goes quite far into the sea it might look very small and we know it is very vulnerable, means it has the danger of being sunk. Our life is something like this. When the ship is close the shore it is our young age. But when it goes further out it is like being in old age. Just like the ship goes further and further and goes out of sight – we grow old and finally we know at a point in time we will die/disappear from the sight. The ship’s going out of sight doesn’t mean it is no more. The ship exists in the same way it was before but at a different location.
Human life is like this. Herb’s death is not the end of him. He continues to live. The Preface of the Mass states "Lord, for your faithful people, life is changed, not ended". We can be close to Herb by praying for him and he will be close to us by praying for us. The church is in three states really, the saints in heaven, the souls in purgatory being purified before entering heaven, and we, the living here on earth. We believe that we are all united, we the living, the souls in purgatory and the saints in heaven, all united around Jesus’ cross and resurrection. This is the communion of saints that we profess our faith in the Apostles creed.
I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Holy Catholic Church, the communion of Saints, the forgiveness of sins and the resurrection of the body and life ever lasting.
Even though you don’t find any reference to purgatory in the Bible, the church believes that it gives a testimony of God’s love. Bible says nothing unclean enters heaven. And the bible says at another place that every one, even the just, commits sins at least 7 times a day. So if everyone commits sin how can anyone enter heaven. There should be a state where we can get the impurities cleaned – and so the church believes that it is the state of purgatory. This belief of the church is based on the Old testament belief which we heard in the first reading from 2 Maccabees. They offered sacrifice for their dead ones. We have gathered here not so much to talk about Herb, but to pray for him. We believe that our prayer here can help Herb where he is now.
Paul says that Jesus stands at God’s right hand and pleads for us. Yes there is a judgment and our sins are the evidence against us but Jesus is representing our cause. We can imagine Jesus saying something like this to the Father, “Father, this is Herbert. I died for him. Yes, like every human he did sin, but I am pleading for him now. I am asking you to disregard those sins because I died for him. Instead of looking on his sins I am asking you Father to look on me, your Son, dying on the cross for Herb and for everyone. I have paid the price that had to be paid for his sins.” We could have no better lawyer to represent us before God our Father than his Son Jesus who died for us. The second reading gives a list of things that will not come between us and the love of God and it says neither life nor death will come between us and the love of God.
In the program card it is written “ Herbert born on …. And born to eternal life on… death is our birthday. In the early church the day on which one died was regarded as one’s birthday, because on that day one is born into eternal life with God. This lingers on in our church because we celebrate a saint’s feast day not on the day of his/her birth but on the day he/she died. Our life here is short and it is represented by a dash. Born in 1919 – 2009. So our life is a short one in comparison to the eternal life.
When we consider that we are chosen by God and precious to God, then death is a going home to our loving Father. John in his first letter writes, “In love there can be no fear, but fear is driven out by perfect love.” (1 John 4:18) When we know that death is our loving Father calling us, who has chosen us from all eternity, therefore there is no room for fear, fear is driven out. (Imagine your tensions and anxiety when you are told to move to another Nursing home /independent living. If you love the life here, if you are loved by everyone here, you wouldn’t want to move to another place. Even if the management of the other Nursing home tells you that it will be very good. A child in the womb is so comfortable there and once is born it misses the pleasant condition it enjoyed there. That is why a child cries as soon as it is born. This is the feeling all the dying people have at the time of death. Denying the life after death is like a child in the womb there is no life outside its mother’s womb.
For those of us living we do not know how much time is remaining for us here on earth. There is a gap between this life and the next. A caterpillar could never tell how beautiful it would become as a butterfly with beautiful wings. The unborn baby could never understand what a gap there is between life in the womb and life in the world. So are we . We don’t know how much time is there for us remaining to be born to eternal life.
In the parable of the rich man and Lazarus we hear Abraham telling the rich man that no one can go from heaven to hell and hell to heaven , nor any one is permitted to go back to warn the living. This condition of the soul can be illustrated by a simile. Imagine a pond. At the bottom of the pond little grubs were crawling around. They wonder what happens to their members who climb up the stem of the lily and never come back. “I wonder what its like up there.” They agree among themselves that the next one who is called to the surface will come back. The next little grub that finds itself drawn to the surface by nature crawls up the stem and out on the surface on the lily leaf. It was really bright up there. It had been so dark and murky down below. They won’t believe this. Suddenly something begins to happen. The grub begins to open out. The grub spreads out two huge beautiful colored wings and becomes a beautiful dragonfly. It never imagines that this could have happened. It thought it would remain a grub forever. It flew back and forth across the pond. It could see the other grubs in the pond below but they couldn’t see it. It realized there was no way it could get back and that they could not recognize such a beautiful creature as ever having been one of them.
Our human condition is also something like this grub and dragonfly. Though they both were one, but two different stages of the one and the same being. We see a lot of other similar examples in this world. Like how a seed becomes a plant. One has to die to be the other. This same phenomenon happens in our life too. Herb doesn’t need to know all these things now, because he already knows. But we do need to know because we need to prepare ourselves and get ourselves ready for this transformation that is due in our life. Though this memorial is for Herb, it is primarily for us who had seen him and shared our life with him. He wants us to remember that the stage he is in now we also will be one day. The memory of Herb is fond for us. His kind nature, his simplicity, cheerfulness, and his soft spoken nature, everything speaks to us that he had been a happy man, ready for his encounter with the Lord at this ripe age. Our tribute to him is well paid and his memory is well made when we pray for him at the Eucharist. Lets pray that his gentle soul be received into God’s eternal peace.

Saturday,14th November.

Saturday, LUKE 18:1-8

Scripture and life have taught us that God listens to perseverant people, to those who wholeheartedly and persistently pray, to those whose actions are aligned with and in support of their prayers. Jesus sets this parable before us as a model of how we are to pursue the life of prayer. St Augustine says that The Lord taught us not to pray with much speaking, as if we were more likely to be heard by the more words we used. He said, ‘The Father knows what you need before you ask him.’ It may seem strange, then, that though he cautions us against much speaking, and the Father knows what we need before we ask for it, Jesus still urges us to pray: “to pray always and not lose heart.”
Augustine was quite clear that the unjust judge in the story was not an image of God. “By no means does that unjust judge furnish an allegorical representation of God.” Jesus is not comparing them, but contrasting them. If an unjust judge can respond to persistent requests, how much more will the good God? “The Lord wishes us to infer how much care God bestows on those who beseech him, for God is both just and good.”
It is for our own sakes that we have to be persistent, and not because God is reluctant to give us what we need. It is ourselves we have to convince. Much of the time we hardly know what we want, let alone what we need. By concentrating our prayer we are making ourselves ready to receive what God is going to give – or to be without what God is going to withhold. We are co-operating with God's work in us.
Furthermore, Jesus tells us that God will be quick in His replies. Nonetheless, most of us are deficient in our prayer life. Few of us follow a solid and demanding prayer schedule. Perhaps we pray now and then. Or we pray when we feel a particular need for extra help, but especially when we are in trouble, in fear, in danger, or when we are worried and anxious. Sometimes we even use prayers to give God marching orders — along the lines of "my will be done" rather than "your will be done", the original version taught by Jesus. When God does not seem to comply with our wishes; that becomes the moment to test our purity of intention.

Unlike the persistent widow, we have all had responses other than what we expected from God. How we accept them reveals a lot about how much we want God's will and how much we are attached to our own will. We might think that the injunction to "pray always" is exaggerated, along the lines of "be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect." But Jesus is the Truth, and he is not given to cheap words and slogans.
When Jesus says something, he means it: Be perfect, pray always. These
are more than suggestions. Ask the Lord for the grace to be constant in our prayer.