March 2009

Many times we as humans have doubts and questions like Nicodemus. We even doubt God’s goodness. Especially if something happened to us or to our family. During those times we ask: God, why are you so cruel, don’t you care about your creation? Don’t you love us? If you would love us, you would never allow this to happen to me.

In today’s Gospel we can see that “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him may not die, but may have eternal life.” So we have evidence that God really loves us. The question is: Do we truly love God? Do we recognize the light which came to the world? Or do we prefer darkness rather than light?

When I taught students in High School I heard many questions: Why do I have to do everything in this or that way? Why do I have to follow the Church teaching? Why does the Church not lighten up and ease some of her regulations?

Because of our free will we need guidance in choosing the light, in choosing the right, in choosing to obey the Commandments of God, the Church’s teachings, Jesus’ way. We need in accepting the right kind of light to triumph over the darkness.

Jesus came into the world to be the light of the world. Light tells the truth, about our age, what we are doing, who we are with, who is missing, what the story is. Light shows all the seams in our lives, where achievement meets failure, and promise meets pain. We may not want to see so clearly; but the presence of Jesus in our midst demands we do.

Because of God’s Love, we received from Jesus a wonderful gift; the gift of reconciliation. If I truly love Jesus, if I truly love the Light, than I would do everything possible to be with Jesus, to be in his light. And we achieve that light during our reconciliation with God.

God already knows what we did; good or bad things. But He wants us to come to him and tell Him all of that. And when He forgives us, we find a clean soul. We live in the Light again.

As we will raise the new Paschal candle in our Church (which symbolizes the resurrection of Jesus from death to new eternal life; from the dark into the Light) on Holy Saturday, in just a few weeks, we will be challenged to keep that light held high into the future.

The challenge is to walk to a future filled with eternal promise, with eternal light, with eternal life. Our opportunity starts today. The choice is ours.

“Remember to keep holy the Sabbath day. Six days you may labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord, your God”

Some students were discussing Sunday Mass in their religion class. One boy told how at one Sunday Mass, the adults of his parish had to fill out a questionnaire. When his father came to the question “Why do you go to Mass?” he wrote: “To be a good example to my kids.” The boy said, “I didn’t think that is a very good answer”.

My Dear Sisters and Brothers

Why we come to Mass each Sunday? Let’s take a look at tree major reasons why many Catholics come to Mass Sunday after Sunday.

The first reason is that lot of Catholics come to church for one thing: Not to fulfill an obligation, not to ask God for anything, not to complain to God. They come for only one thing: to give praise and glory to God.

The second reason why we come to Mass week after week is because Jesus is there. Jesus said: “Where two or three come together in my name, I am there”. Jesus is in the Liturgy of the Word. “Whoever listens to you listens to me.” He is in the Liturgy of the Eucharist. At the Last Supper, after sharing his Body and Blood with his disciples, he said, “Do this in memory of me!” And so the second way Jesus is present is in the community of believers, in the reading and explaining of Scripture, in the breaking of the bread: the Eucharist.

A third reason why we Catholics return Sunday after Sunday to celebrate Mass together is because down deep in our hearts, we feel a thirst for God. In the words of the psalmist: As a deer longs for a stream of cool water, so I long for you, O God. I thirst for you. Like Jesus in today’s Gospel, a zeal for “our Father’s house” and the mystery of God’s love keep us coming back Sunday after Sunday.

And so by way of review, there are three main reasons why we Catholics go to “our Father’s house” each Sunday:

First, to give praise and glory to God. Second, to meet Jesus in the community of believers, the readings of Scripture, and the sacrificial meal of the Lord’s Supper. Third, because there is in us a spiritual hunger and thirst that only God can fill.

In today’s Gospel we heard Peter, James and John experienced something of extraordinary: Transfiguration of Jesus – Change in His appearance.

So many times we want to change our appearance. We would go through so many inconveniences to discipline ourselves to go to gym few times a week to work out; some of us would get up from bad very early in the morning to go for a walk, or for jogging before work. And we would discipline ourselves because we want to stay healthy, because we want to change our appearance.

In today’s Gospel we can see Peter, usually the wise guy, hardly know what to say. And if we would read Chapter 8 we would see that only six day earlier Peter declared Jesus as the Messiah, The Son of the leaving God. And during that time Jesus instituted the sacrament of reconciliation.

Jesus said to him in reply, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah. For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father. And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”

Jesus knew that we need spiritual change, spiritual transfiguration.

During this time of Lent, time of preparation for Jesus’ suffering, death and resurrection, we can discipline ourselves, in order to change appearance of our soul. We can do various things to achieve that change of our soul. We can keep our promises which we started at the beginning of this Lent. We can pray together as family, as friends.

My brothers and sisters, as we heard in our second reading: “if God is for us, who can be against us?”, however first we have discipline ourselves to transfigure our soul, so on our part we can be with God. Because if we will be in state of grace, if we will do everything possible to be with God, I assure you God for sure will be with you.

So let’s make every effort to be with God more than one hour per week. “If God is for us, who can be against us.”

Last Wednesday we began the season of Lent which is our preparation for the Easter, for Jesus’ resurrection.

It is a season of forty days, in imitation of Jesus spending forty days in the desert. Jesus fasted in the desert, and overcame the devil’s temptations. In the Gospel for Ash Wednesday Jesus is telling us about prayer, fasting and almsgiving. These three things are very important in our lives during Lenten time: prayer, fasting and almsgiving. During Lent, in imitation of Jesus in the desert, let us pray more, fast, and help the poor. We have a lot of people around us who need help. Sometimes we have to look carefully. Many people need food, money, very often only a good word from us. Please remember during Lent the words of Jesus, “Whatever you did to one of the least of these you did to me”. This is our work for Lent.

Fasting is another task the church encourages us to undertake during Lent.

The Bible tells us that fasting from food is not what is important; it is what the fasting symbolizes that really matters. The Bible tells us that fasting from food must go together with fasting from violence and fasting from oppressing people. In other words, when we fast from food it is no use unless we also have a loving and forgiving attitude towards others.

Let’s take the example of Jesus in the desert seriously and make an effort to forgive those who have hurt us. Let us go out into the desert during Lent this year, and say no to the evil temptations to continue committing sin and instead trust in God like Jesus. Let us say like Jesus, ‘Man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of God’.

Prayer is another activity we should reevaluate during Lent. A life without prayer is a life without the joy of God’s presence. If we do not pray we are not proper Christians. Martha was busy serving when Jesus came but Mary spent time with him and Jesus said, “Martha, Martha, you worry and fret about so many things and yet few are needed, indeed only one. It is Mary who has chosen the better part”. Lent is not only about helping others, about doing something, it is also very much about the type of person we are. To be better people we need to pray more because all goodness comes from God. God is a loving Father who desires that we allow Him to be close to us. So let us pray more this Lent and experience more of the joy of God in our lives

The word Lent is an old English word which means springtime. May this Lent really be a new springtime in our lives. Through prayer, fasting and help to the others, may we like Jesus in the desert for forty days overcome temptation and thus be well prepared to celebrate Easter.