The Cure of Demoniac (Lk 4:31-37)

In this gospel we see the dichotomy - the unclean spirit and the Most Holy One. In the beginning of the passage there is a man with “unclean spirit”. At the middle we read “Jesus, the Most Holy One”.

What is an unclean spirit and what does it do?

- It makes people sick (eg, the example of sick in the gospel)

- It instigate people to do bad things (such as murder, kidnapping, rape etc)

- It makes the people to think negatively (envy, jealous)

- It is sometimes so attractive in its appearance so pleasure seeking though the poison is hidden it in. (for example – the kidnaper thinks that kidnapping makes rich instantly without much effort instead of hard work)

What does The Most Holy One Do?

- He makes the people liberate and enjoy freedom.

- He enables us think rightly and gives us clear vision.

- He makes us act justly and mercifully.

- It inspires us to do good things.

- It is does not teach us easy ways but the way of the cross to have permanent happiness.

Which side are we, on the side of Unclean Spirit or The Most Holy One? We are with the Most Holy One. The next question would be how much effort we are taking to overcome the attractiveness of the unclean spirit. We often fall in to the same sin again and again because of our lack of spiritual strength. The source of spiritual power is at our hand, such as Word of God, our daily spiritual exercises and the sacraments. Do we make use of them to fight against Unclean Spirits?

The Message of the Kingdom (Lk 4:16-30)

We pray every day for the coming of the kingdom of God. “Thy kingdom come” is a part of the Lord’s Prayer. Is there anything that we can do for bringing the Kingdom of God on the Earth, especially where we live? The answer is given in today’s gospel.

The signs of the Kingdom of God are; glad tidings to the poor, liberty to captives, recovery of sight to the blind, and freedom to the oppressed. The glad news to the poor is that I am there to help them. If I am ready to do this work by helping the poor and the needy I become a part of building the Kingdom. If I try to liberate the captives, who are in the bondages of ignorance, their emotions, any kind of physiological or psychological problems we do our part in the Kingdom building. When we open the sight of others, who are affected by lack of clarity about their lives eternal truths we become one among the Kingdom builders.

For all these works the prerequisite is “the spirit of God should be upon me”. This spirit liberates me first from the bondages, ignorance and lack of clear vision to be an agent of the Kingdom of God. Let us pray, Spirit of God make me a channel of the Kingdom.

22nd Sunday of Ordinary Time - Instructions to Invited Guests and Hosts

Instructions to Invited Guests and Hosts (Lk 14 1-14)

Introduction

- Jesus is so practical and simple in His teachings. One of His most practical teachings is the instructions to the gusts and hosts. I do not want to make it complicated through my explanation of the text in the homily. (as the Jesus’ blame to the Pharisees and Scribes that they made the Law of Moses for the common people to understand through their explanations)

- All the teachings of Jesus have two kinds of effects such as window effect and the mirror effect. Window effect is that through we see the eternal truth, which points to something else. In mirror effect we see ourselves His teachings. For example in his gospel we can identity ourselves as guests or hosts. Jesus gives conduct for both.

Reflection

- Once I visited the home for the abandoned aged people “aakashaparavakal” near to Palakkad, kerala. The director told that a new culture is developing among the neighbors of that place, a culture of sharing. He pointed out that whenever there is a celebration in their neighbor’s house such as birthday or marriage, they bring the food to this center of “aakashapraravakal” and feed them. The director added that it is a way they accumulate wealth in heaven. It is an implication of today’s gospel to the hosts - “when you hold a banquet, invite the poor … for you will be repaid at the resurrection”.

- The advice to the gusts is “humility”. The best example is Jesus himself. He was humble

o In the way he sees himself

§ (Phil 2:6-8) – “though He was equal to God….emptied himself, took the likeness of a servant…. obedient unto death, even death on the cross”.

§ At the time of arrest of Jesus, though He was the most powerful He did not react nor did anything to save himself. He humbled himself to be as a powerless human being.

§ He humbled himself to be a human being, to be a servant, and to be a piece of bread.

§ Mat 11:29-30 - “Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

§ The story of the martial arts master who did not attach back those who misbehaved to him. The greatness is though he knew how to conquer his opponents he kept silence. Late the opponents accepted him as their master.

o In relation with others

§ Jesus was always with poor and served him though he was the King of kings.

§ He was even ready to wash the feet of the disciples as a servant.

o In relation with Heavenly Father

§ Obedient servant of God

§ Let thy will be done – the prayer in Gethsemane

§ Everything is of the Heavenly Father.

- Jesus expects us to be humble to oneself, in relation with others, and in relation with God.

Conclusion

- “A great person is one who makes others great”.

- Thankfulness is a sign of humility. Let us thank God for all the blessings that we have received.

- St Augustine once said, “If you ask me what are the ways to God I would say – the first is humility, the second is humility and the third is humility”.

- Be a good gust and a good host in our life.

Denunciation of the Scribes and Pharisees (Mt 23:27-32)

Yesterday we saw the conversation between Jesus and Nathanael. Jesus qualified Nathanael as true Israelite without any duplicity. Today’s gospel speaks of the character just the opposite of that, full of duplicity and truthlessness, the character of Scribes of Pharisees. Jesus calls them whitewashed tombs.

The key word of this gospel would be “pretention”, act like holy or good. But the pretention is never the real. A person can pretend for short time but one day it will be exposed and the others would understand him/her. It is one of the causes of marriage break down in the present time. During the time of “boy friend-girl friend relationship” it is easy to pretend to be a good person. But after marriages when living together the whole time with the partner the pretention fails and the real nature comes out. It causes lot of problems thereafter.

Is there any way out from this situation of pretention? Yes, the answer would be conversion. If we are ready to pass through the experience of conversion there is no need of anymore pretentions. Let us ask the blessings of God for having a conversion experience in our lives.

The Call of Nathanael (Jn 1:45-51)

Jesus qualifies Nathanael with two words – a true Israelite and a person with our any duplicity. Jesus mentions the important qualities that the disciple should have to follow Him. As the result of this truthfulness and authenticity Nathanael realized Jesus as “Son of God”. Clear vision is the result of truthfulness and non-duplicity.

We live in the world of duplicates. For every original one there is a duplicate especially in the field of business. In the cell phone market or regarding the computer software we seldom see the original. The piracy is the rule of the game. But Jesus appreciates the value of authenticity and truthfulness. In modern business studies they call it “walks the talk”.

Putting the mask is so common to show in front of others that I am somebody else. I do not know how far we can remove all our masks, but one thing is sure that we can grow to authenticity by adopting the kingdom values in our lives. It will reduce the burden of masks in us and give us more freedom to be what we are.

Denunciation of the Scribes and Pharisees (Mt 23:13-22)

The gospel passage for yesterday’s reflection was the narrow gate. Jesus advised us to go through the narrow gate that is show by Jesus. Today Jesus blames those who create the narrow path for the believers. It is an attack towards the religious leaders such as Pharisees and the Scribes.

The problem with those Pharisees and Scribes was, they were making the life of others difficult by over-explaining the Laws of Moses so that the ordinary people suffered very much from the minute explanation of the law. It was felt as a big yoke on the shoulders of the ordinary people. But at the same time the Pharisees and Scribes found excuses to evade the law.

There are two kinds of narrow paths. The first is the way of Jesus and another is manmade narrow path. The first one is the way to salvation and the second is of unnecessarily making us suffer. For example if a person suffers for taking care of the poor and needy or a sick person, that is a way to salvation. But if a person suffers for his own benefits or as the result of his past actions (such as smoking) or because of his greed or perfectionism or any other personality traits, that is unnecessary sufferings which do not have a sacrificial value.

The acid test for our suffering would be whether is it for the good of the society especially the poor and needy or for my own benefits and selfish desires, and does it come from my own mistakes or from the cause of my mission of the kingdom of God. Let us avoid unwanted suffering and take up the cross of salvation.

21st Sunday of Ordinary time - Enter through the Narrow Gate (Lk 13:22-30)

Enter through the Narrow Gate (Lk 13:22-30)

Introduction

- We usually broaden the roads in the cities to reduce traffic jam.

- We build new houses to have more space to be comfortable.

- We study to broaden our intellect and vision.

- But Christ says - travel through the narrow gate. What does it mean?

Explanation

- Look at the gospel passage about the temptation of Jesus Christ before His public ministry. There we see saten shows Jesus the “broad way” to fulfill the mission – by converting the stones into bread to satisfy the hunger of the people, by jumping from the top to get acceptance in the community, and by adoring saten to be powerful. But Jesus never accepted that. He selected the narrow way, the way of suffering and death, for our salvation.

- In another instance Jesus scolds Peter, “Saten, go away from me because your ways are not of Gods.” Peter was preventing Jesus in His way of cross and inviting to embrace the broad way. But Jesus rejected it and clearly stated that the narrow way is the way to salvation.

- The advice of a parent to the son on the first day of his college, “Son, you are going to spend around 4 years in this campus. You have two ways in front of you, the way of relaxing and making always merry, and the way of hard work. If you select the first way of relaxation and laziness you may enjoy the 4 years but regret thereafter. But if you select the second way you may miss some of your enjoyment in these 4 years but will enjoy the life thereafter. You have to make a choice between broad way and narrow way”.

- Every moment we have two options to choose. For example, while participating in the holy mass we have two choices. The broad way would be sit, relax, dream and plan for the future. The narrow way would be attend actively by saying the prayers, singing the hymns and meditating over the mysteries of the Eucharist. The way of Jesus is the narrow way.

Conclusion

- We love people who travel through the narrow way. For example, mother Theresa who took the narrow way of suffering for the poor became our model. The present president Noynoy who seems to be fighting against corruption is our dear President.

- Let us reflect on which path we prefer to go through. Ask God’s grace and courage to travel through the narrow path, the way of salvation.

The Greatest Commandment (Mt 22: 34-40)

The question of the greatest commandment is asked by a Pharisee, the doctor of the law. For them there were 613 commands in Torah in which 248 were positive (you shall do) and 365 were negative (you shall not do). The commandments are again classified into light and heavy. The Ten Commandments was considered as heavy that should not be broken. This is the context of the question.

Jesus answers with the Shemah-prayer (Dt 6:5), the basic principle of the whole Torah, love of God and love of neighbor, the vertical and horizontal dimensions of our relationship. This is the core of all the commandments. In other words all the commands are the expansion of these two commandments.

We love God because He is the creator and the most powerful. In the first reading from the book of Ezekiel (Ez 37:1-14) God shows the prophet the valley of bones and how powerful is the Word of God that gave live to all the lifeless bones. He is the maker of everything. He loves and protects us and so it is our duty as creatures to love God with all our heart, soul and mind.

We have to love our neighbor because we see the presence of God in them. Again, in the first reading from book of Ezekiel the bodies of human being were lifeless. They got life when the spirit of God entered into them. The Breath of God is the life giving principle. Therefore God is living in each and every individual. So it is our duty to love and respect them because they are the living temples of the Holy Spirit.

Let us love God the Supreme and respect the presence of God in our brothers and sisters.

We have given up everything (Mt 19: 23-30)

Jesus’ promise comes as an answer to the question to Peter, “those who have given up in my name will receive a hundred times more, and will inherit eternal life”. He is faithful in His promises always, unlike us who break our promises for the sake of convenience.

I remember the story of a Muslim convert. He was a born and brought up in a fundamental Muslim family. At his youth he was married from the same community. But soon after the birth of his child he was diagnosed with blood cancer. He spent almost all his money for the treatment but no improvement was shown in his body. The doctors told him that there is no more medication possible. At that time a catholic friend advised him to go for a catholic retreat in a famous retreat center and he attended the retreat in secret. On the last day of the retreat he was touched by Love of Jesus. He was cured fully. He decided to dedicate his life for Christ and got baptized after 6 months. When he embraced Christ he was rejected by his parents. The Muslim society was even threatened him to kill him. Therefore he was in underground for 4 months after his baptism. But later people began to accept him as he is, but still no access to his father or mother or his siblings.

In an interview he once told, “For the sake of Jesus I left everything, the father, mother, siblings and the society. Now all the families of the parish consider me as a member in their family. I have so many fathers, mothers and siblings. I have a big community to support me”. And he added, “Christ is faithful in His Promises”.

Have we left anything for the sake of Christ to enjoy His Promise? It is hard to leave something for Christ, like in the case of the rich man who went back disappointed. Let us experience the promise of Christ by leaving our “attachments” to the worldly possessions to enjoy the Love of Christ.

The Rich Young Man (Mt 19:16-22)

The theme of today’s reflection is if you want to be perfect. The young man was much better than any other lived at his time. But still he lacked something. How to understand it better?

I remember the famous saying in one of the languages of India that human is created half animal and half divine. It is a scale to measure our position based on our behaviour. Most of us live in almost the center. There is a chance to fall to the animal state as well as a chance to elevate to the Divine state. Our free will and capacity to decide determine our position on this scale.

In this scale of inhuman – human – divine the rich young man stood at the center, a human. The inhuman here means those who follow the way of the animal, who break the laws and commit murder, adultery, oppress others, unjust and so on. The rich young man, by obeying the commandments of God could attain the level of human in the scale of behavior.

Jesus calls him for a higher level – the level of Perfection / divine. It can be attained only by total focus on Jesus, by liberating oneself from all the bondages of the earth. For the young man the bondage was his wealth and he could not liberate himself from that bondage to become perfect.

We are called to be perfect since we are the followers of Christ. How far we keep this detachment spirit to the material world and its pleasures?

20th Sunday of Ordinary Time - The Assumption of Mary

The Assumption of Mary (Lk 1: 39-56)

Introduction

- Once a teacher asked in the class “what do you mean by the assumption of Mary?” A student answered “we assume that Mary went to heaven with body and soul.”

- It is not a mere “assume” but a fact that was declared by the church. The declaration was made by Pope Pius XII on November 1^st 1950. The declaration was “We pronounce, declare and define it to be Divine Revealed Dogma that the Immaculate Mother of God, the ever Virgin Mary having completed her course of her earthly life was assumed body and soul in to Heavenly Glory”.

- It was not something that was invented on that year but the belief of many centuries. There is evidence that from the 5^th century onwards some of the orthodox churches celebrated Mary’s assumption.

- Let us be proud about our Mother Mamma Mary and ask her intercession

- On this feast day let us reflect two important qualities of our Mother

1. Mary was Active and Courageous Woman

§ We often think Mary as passive and silent women. But Mary was not so.

§ She was an active and courageous women as we see in the Gospel

· Asking Angel questions – who are you? What is the sign? If I see an angel when I am alone I would died of heart attack. The disciples had a similar experience when they were in a boat and Jesus was coming to them by the sea. They (around 12 of them) cried out that they are seeing a ghost. But Mary courageously faced the Angel.

· Saying yes to the angel by fully understanding the risk of bearing a child without a husband in that Jewish society. (which can cause her stone to death)

· Going to meet Elizabeth though she was pregnant and the way was not smooth and there could have attack from the robbers.

· Standing at the foot of the Cross on Calvary, looking at her son dying on the cross.

§ From where Mary got this courage?

· The purity of heart gave her courage.

· When we sin we lose the purity of heart.

· For example the first parents, Adam and eve were walking with God at the beginning but lost the courage when they sinned. They were afraid to appear in front of God.

2. She was woman with clear decision

§ Clarity of thought and decision is the key to success as per the management studies.

§ Her clear decision was “a total yes” to the will of God.

§ As the song “I have decided to follow Jesus, no turning back, no turning back”. But we turn back when we encounter the difficulties of life and go astray from Him.

§ But Mary never turned back from her decision and always said “yes” to God’s Will.

Let us reflect;

- How courageous are we? The courage comes from the purity of heart. If we have an impure heart, wash it through the sacrament of reconciliation.

- How clear are we in our decision to follow Jesus and say “yes” to the Divine Will? Whatever be the circumstances let us be clear in our decision “Let Thy will be done”.

Blessing of the Children (Mt 19:13-15)

The previous day the gospel passage was about the hardness of heart in the discussion of the divorce and the Law of Moses on divorce. Jesus blamed the Pharisees because of their hardness of heart. Today Jesus brings forth a model to follow against the hardness of heart, a model of child.

The child has the quality of receptivity and a sense of wonder in everything. They are receptive to new things, ideas and everything. Sometime the elders make use of this receptivity to cheat them, which is not good. They look everything with wonder.

Once I went for a movie with a friend who is a documentary film producer. We both watched the film and while we were returning we were sharing out thoughts about the film with each other. I said to him that the film was marvelous. But he began to critically analyze the film by saying that the selection of the shot was not so good, the camera angle was incorrect, the story line could be improved little bit and so on. I understood that he was too critical and so could not enjoy the movie as I enjoyed it. It is not the fault of his but could not help it since he is also a professional in the field of movie. I told him ‘to enjoy the movie you should less critical for at least the time of movie”.

In the matter of faith, to appreciate the wonders of the God in the creation we should have the receptivity of the children, a sense of “wonder” at everything that we experience in and around us. Each creation is a wonder of God, each moment is a wonder of the Divine, and each incident in my life is a wonder of His Providence. It does not mean that we should not be critical but must accept that we may not be able to grasp everything about god with our human brain.

Let us grow in the simple faith in God that would enable us to see the hand of God in everything.

Marriage and Divorce (Mt 19: 3-12)

I read in the News Paper recently about a proposal for a bill regarding the marriage bond. It suggests that the marriage contract must be valid only for 10 years. After that if the couple wants to continue it they have to keep on renewing the contract for another 10 years. Though it looks funny it projects the post modern concept of marriage and family relations.

In today’s reflection Jesus emphasizes on the irrevocable nature of the marriage. Marriage is forever. He also explains why there is a law of divorce constituted by Moses. It is because of the hardness of the heart. Hardness of heart is the purposeful closing of our heart towards the word of God. Since it is purposeful it is hard to correct, such as the doctors can heal a blind person but not the one who pretends to be blind.

The marriage is forever and that is the will of God. At the early days of marriage the love is blind that the couple finds it very joyful to live for each other. But as the time passes the love become more reasonable. Here each of the partners tries to measure what she/he is receiving in return of the love. He/she begins to compare the partner with other couples and starts blaming, unable to accept the partner as she/he is with the limitations. This situation eventually leads into diverse.

Let us pray to God to remove our hardness of heart and to be open to the Word of God.

A Brother who Sins (Mt 18: 15-20)

1. Our mentality towards Sinner:- We use in our conversation “I hate you” or “I hate him/her”. Is there anything wrong in this usage? I would say yes. Jesus came to the world to love sinners and to hate sins. When I say “I hate you” I indirectly hate the essence of you that is the image of God. Therefore I say indirectly that I hate God. Therefore instead of saying “I hate you”, let us hate the evilness, or the mistakes, or some kind of special behaviors in you.

2. Our mentality to our friends:- We may have so many friends and we spend lot of time with them. What is the most difficult part of the friendship? It is to correct your friend when he/she is wrong. A true friend is the one who has the boldness to say to you that you are wrong when you go away from the ways of God. But how to say that is important. Jesus tells us to respect the dignity of the person when we do the correction. Let us be good friends to each other.

3. Our mentality to one self: - We often use the word “I am sorry”. What should be our mentality towards our own mistakes? Accepting our weakness and forgiving ourselves would be the right approach that Jesus would ask us to do. Accepting our weakness makes us depend on God (like the prodigal son depended on his Father), and forgiving ourselves will liberate us from the bondages of the past life.

Let us be good friends to others and to one self by hating the sins and not the sinner.

Payment of the Temple Tax (Mt 17:22-27)

Tax payment is the duty of every citizen. It is an acknowledgement that we accept the state’s sovereign power of the State and in return we get the security and other benefits offered by the State.

At the time of Jesus the Jews were under Roman Empire. They had to pay tax to the Romans. They had 4 kinds of taxes; such as Land Tax, Poll Tax, Tax on Personal Property (export and import customs at seaports and city gates), and House Tax (those who lived in Jerusalem). Apart from these taxes they had temple tax named as didrachma.

We are the people of dual citizenship (relate to Green Card Holder in US context). We are citizens of our mother land as well as the citizens of the kingdom of God. We pay tax to our mother land. Is there any obligation like tax towards “Kingdom of God”? We know that the King of Kings does not want any of our taxes and it is impossible to pay the tax to God directly. But we are called to have treasures in the Kingdom of God by helping God. How?

Remember the scene of Last Judgment in the Bible. “When you did these things to your brothers and sisters, you did it to me”. Let us do our obligation to the kingdom of God (by helping the needy) as we do the obligation to our mother land.

19th Sunday in Ordinary Time

The Return of the Master (LK 12: 32-48)

Intro:

· End of the world is an interesting theme for artists, film producers, future tellers etc. The movies on end of the days such as 2010 have made lot of money. End of the world is therefore a big business in this consumerist world. The Businessman sells everything..

· When will be the end of the world? Nobody knows the time but everybody will agree on the “end of the world”.

· When is the end of the world for me? I don’t know. But I am sure that in 100 years the world would end for me. Say good bye to the world and to our dear and near ones.

· Jesus tells about the return of the master not to frighten us or to make us panic but with a different intention, to make us aware of the future realities that we have to face. He reveals these things so that we would be better prepared to face the reality.

Therefore what is the message of today's readings? Three things – Awareness, Responsible and Self examination.

1. Awareness

o Awareness about life

§ The most certain thing after our birth about ourselves, it is our death

§ The most uncertain thing about ourselves is the time of our death

§ Therefore be aware of the passing nature of life.

o Awareness about the things that we use

§ Story – once a rich man and a spiritual master were travelling. The rich man showed a big house and told, “This is my house”. The master asked him. Before your birth whose was that house? “It was my father’s”. After your death whose it will be? “probably my children’s”. the master asked him to repeat the first sentence. He repeated by adding a world – “At present it is my house”.

§ We are not the permanent owners or users of any of the things that we have.

§ Therefore the right mentality would be “the …… that I use”, instead of “my …..”

o Awareness about our duty towards

§ Talents and

§ People entrusted to our care

· We must be accountable in front of God the provider of blessings.

· The more you receive the more you will be accountable for.

2. Responsibility

o To return to God the blessings that we have received after increasing it. Eg; the parable of talents

o To make other grow in their life and be happy about that.

o Be compassionate and merciful

3. Call to self examination

o Admit our failure

o Ask God’s forgiveness

o Make resolutions and corrections

The Healing of a Boy with Demon (Mt 17: 14-20)

There is a difference between Faith in theory and Faith in practice. Faith in theory would be the declaration of what we believe. It is our Credo. It is easy to do in the present context of religious freedom (on every Sunday we do it). But faith in practice is what today’s gospel passage deals with. Jesus calls the practicing faith of the disciples as “Little Faith”. It is the lack of deeper conviction that I am with Jesus the most powerful.

Before a week of one of the Board Exams a student came to me with a problem. “I am unable to sleep for a few days because of the thought about exam. I do not know how the exam will be”. He was worried very much about the exam that he could not even sleep. This fear comes not out of lack of preparation but more of an anxiety over the unpredictable nature of questions. My advice was, “you have done whatever is possible for you in preparation for the exam. Give to God the rest. Even if you have not utilized the maximum of yours, believe in the power of God, who is living within us”.

It is an advice that is the practical side of our faith. If we are ready to give God to do his role in our life, we would become peaceful. Allow God to do His part in our lives and be sure that he will not miss it. God assures that He will be with us till the end of times and He is faithful in his covenant. Let God be our God.

The Transfiguration (Lk 9: 28-36)

Going together for a vacation as a family is an experience that all of us desire for. Once I gave this advice to a father of house, to go for a vacation with the family members. But he told me, “We meet every day in our house and speak. What difference it makes whether we meet in our house or in a tourist place?” For him there is no difference but those who enjoy the vacation in a tourist spot knows the value of it.

Though Jesus and the disciples were praying together Jesus called His closest disciples to a mountain. It was a special moment to understand and experience Jesus the Son of God (as in the tours where the family experiences the warmth of relation more intensively than in their house). After experiencing the Divine the disciples wanted to spend more time on the mountain. But Jesus told them to decent the mountain to the realities of life. For Jesus the realities were – his passion and death.

We need the moments to experience in depth Jesus, the tabor experience. It can be our moments of meditation, personal prayers, a retreat or a pilgrimage. It strengthens us to face the realities of our day to day life.

Peter’s Confession about Jesus (Mt 16: 13-23)

What is the distance between the Rock (corner stone of the church) and Satan (the enemy of the church)?

When Peter said the famous declaration about Jesus, You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God; he was praised by Jesus and given the name the name Rock (the corner stone of the church). After a while when he said the words, “no such things shall ever happen to you”, he was called Satan.

He got the appreciation because of his conviction about the aim of life i.e., the Glorious Jesus Christ. He was rebuked because he was wrong in grasping the way to reach that glorification. Therefore the distance between the Rock and Satan was the grasp of the aim and the way.

No success is possible without difficulty. To win an exam is glorious, but the way through which it is possible is hard work. To win a match is glorious, but the way to that glorious moment is strict practice. To be a good mother or father or child is glorious, but the way to that is self sacrifice – sacrificing one’s own comfort, time and energy for the family. To be a saint is glorious, but the cost of that is passion and death according to the will of God.

May God guide us to grasp properly the aim as well as the way.

The Canaanite Woman’s Faith (Mt 15: 21-28)

It is the story of “amazing faith”. Last day we reflected on the faith of Peter and walking over the sea. Peter was brave enough at first to walk over the water ignoring the sea and the wind because he was fully focused on Jesus. Once he lost his focus from Jesus he became fearful about the surrounding realities which threatened him. Then he began to sink. But once again he could focus on Jesus and Jesus saved him from the danger.

In the incident of Canaanite woman, we see a faith that is so focused and determined. No power could take away her focus from Jesus. The powers that could have affected her negatively were the crowd, the silence of Jesus (But he did not say a word in answer to her), the seemingly negative response of Jesus (I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel), and the rejection (it is not right to take the food of the children and throw it to the dogs). But none of these blocks could take away her focus from Jesus. The result was the amazing Healing, a faith that amazed Jesus.

Ask and it shall be given, knock and it shall be open, seek and you shall find, is the promise of Jesus. She asked and it was given to her in spite of her position in the society (Canaanite). Let this be a model for us to come to Jesus, and let no hindrance take away our focus from Him.

The Feeding of the Five Thousand (Mt 14: 13-21)

Sharing of the sorrow with others lessens it. Sharing of the joy with others doubles it. It’s an old wisdom. Therefore we need good friends to share our sorrows and joyful moments. What about sharing something with Jesus?

When we share something with Jesus it is multiplied into 5000 times. That is what we see in this gospel incident. When the 5 loves and 2 fish were given to Jesus it became so huge that could cater the need of five thousand plus people. That is the divine power. To enjoy this divine power what we need to do?

First – bring to Jesus the blessings that we have received (material, mental or spiritual).

Second – Readiness to give to Jesus for His use the things that we have.

When we give our sorrows and sufferings to Jesus he is there to remove it completely (where as in the case friend ship it is just lessoned). When we give our happiness and the good things to Jesus He develops it for so many people to get benefit out of that (in the case of sharing with friends it is just doubled).

Let us bring to Jesus whatever we have and what we are. Let He use it for His Glory.