Repent and Sin No More

We're in the Season of Advent and the message is: "Repent and sin no more."

Each year at this time, a popular preacher of the twenties and thirties trotted out his favorite "Advent joke":A house painter was widely suspected of cheating his customers by diluting his paint. In spite of hisreputation, he managed to get a job painting a Church steeple. True to form, he began painting thesteeple with watered down paint. But, as he was just about finished with the job, a sudden heavyrainstorm washed away his work. And he heard a voice from above saying, "REPAINT AND THINNO MORE!"

Having tortured his congregation with that groaner, that same old preacher would then trot out his favorite Advent story: A woman boarded a train for the first time in her life. She walked up and down the aisle several times, trying to decide which of the many empty seats to occupy. After finally selecting one, she fussed over her baggage until she was satisfied that it was placed exactly right in the rack overhead. She began fumbling with the window to be sure that exactly the right amount of air would flow in. She pulled the window shade up and down until she was satisfied that the light was exactly right. She tinkered with the linen cloth on the head-rest until it was positioned exactly in the middle of the seat. Finally, after taking off her hat and agonizing over the exact spot to place it so that it wouldn't get crushed, the conductor announced that the train was pulling into her destination. And as she got off the train, she said to herself, "If I had know the trip was so short, I wouldn't have spent the whole time fussing over such trivial details."

A simple story, but a good one for today because it neatly sums up the Advent Message. "Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand," says John the Baptist in today's Gospel. John was telling his followers to turn their lives around, to stop fussing over trivial things, to start paying strict attention to the most important thing in life: Pay attention now! The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. The Messiah has come. The Savior is in our midst. Pay attention now! He has come to baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. He has come to change your way of living. He has come to introduce you to a whole new way of life. He has come to show you the way toward becoming the uniquely beautiful person God made you to be.

At the dinner table, a father asked his junior high school son, "How was school today?" "It was awful," the son replied. "The computer broke down and we all had to think."

The Advent Message is directing us to turn off the computers, turn off the television, tune out the trivia, and program some serious quiet-time in which to think about what changes we need to make in our lifestyle in order to focus on what is really important.

"Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand." More easily said than done, it seems. We compare the ideal with the reality and we see a gap: We envision one thing, and we do another. We want the good, and we do the bad. We speak of love, and we go on hating. Where there is light, we put darkness. Where there is joy, we sow sorrow. How disastrous the building of the earthly city!

Having said that, we must admit that what God proposes to us is the simplest thing we can imagine:

While waiting for the Kingdom, build the Kingdom; While waiting for justice and peace, practice justice and peace; You want a paradise of love? -- make your earthly home a paradise. You want to be forgiven? -- Forgive!

Down through the Ages, men and women have dropped reverently to their knees when confronted with the awesome Christmas reality. They lived in awe and wonder at the beauty of the Mystery: the power and the glory of our God who became one of us to tell us how much He loves us. And their lives never were the same again. The beauty and the wonder of this vision kept them in a 24-hour-a-day state of awe and wonder. In other words, God was at the center of their lives. We call them "saints"!

We must "Be constantly on the watch!", Jesus tells us. It will profit us nothing to taste everything else life can offer if we miss our God-given glimpse of that vision. There is a place in our lives for TV, job, money, sex, leisure, food, fashions and all the rest. But that place is not at the center of our lives. We'll miss our glimpse of what life is really all about if we allow these things to crowd God out of the center.

We cannot serve two masters. We cannot be in awe of money and things and at the same time be able to experience the wonder of God's infinite love for us. Jesus has made it possible for you to know yourself and to know all others in a new way. Jesus has made it possible for you to know how extravagantly beautiful and important you are, and all your brothers and sisters too. Get in touch with this Reality. A whole new way of life is now open to you who are in touch with Jesus, the Messiah, the Pearl of Great Price, the Treasure you have been groping and longing and searching for. Get in touch with this Reality and see all the usual things in a miraculous new light -- in their true light. Get in touch with this Reality and discover that every child of God is extravagantly beautiful and extravagantly important. Get in touch with this Reality and behold the truth of Christ's assurance that not even a sparrow falls to the ground without the knowledge of the Father in heaven. Get in touch with this Reality and discover, perhaps, that... You had slept and dreamed that life was duty, But waked to find that life was beauty!

"The reason I came into the world is to testify to the Truth," Jesus said. We are in this world to testify to the Truth. On the question of what is wrong with Modern Society, our testimony is needed. On the great political and social questions of the times our testimony is needed. On questions of family relationships and work relationships, our testimony is needed. Jesus spoke to us decisively on all these matters when He said: "This is My command, that you love one another as I have loved you!"

Make that one-hundred-and-eighty-degree turn! Love one another with a Godlike love --relentlessly...faithfully... magnanimously...forgivingly! Think about it now! There's no time to lose! Now is the time to repent -- the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.

Christ the King

Henry Van Dyke wrote a fictional account of a "fourth" Wise Man's journey to Bethlehem to visit the newborn King. Actually, the Gospel doesn't tell us how many Wise Men (or Magi) followed the "Star of Bethlehem," but according to popular tradition, there were three: Caspar, Melchior and Baltassar.
But there also is a tradition of the "Fourth Wise Man" whose name was Artaban...
As Artaban prepared to follow the star, he carefully wrapped three valuable gifts for the newborn King: a glittering sapphire, a magnificent ruby and a pearl of great price.
On his way to the place where he was to meet the other Magi and begin the journey, Artaban
encountered a sick traveler who was alone and in need of help. If he stopped to assist the sick person, Artaban would surely miss the rendezvous with his friends. Nevertheless, he stayed. Consequently, he was late for the departure of the caravan. Now he had to make the journey alone, and he needed supplies and transportation. So he sold the sapphire in order to purchase camels and the supplies he needed to cross the desert. He was saddened to realize that the newborn King would not receive the precious gem.
After a long and tedious journey following the star, Artaban finally reached Bethlehem -- only to
discover that soldiers were everywhere, due to Herod's command to slay all the male children in the village. Artaban, therefore, used the magnificent ruby to bribe the captain of the soldiers and save some of the innocent children. Children were spared, mothers rejoiced, but the magnificent ruby would not be presented to the newborn King.
Artaban remained undaunted. He resolved never to give up his search. He searched in vain until, thirtythree years later, he found his way into Jerusalem on the very day that several crucifixions were to take place on a hill called Calvary. Deep within his soul, he somehow knew that the King of Kings he had been searching for all his life was on that hill. And so he hastened to Calvary intent on using his pearl of great price to bribe Jesus' executioners. On his way, he encountered a young woman who was being dragged to the slave market. She pleaded for help. Whereupon, he gave his last jewel -- the pearl of great price -- for her ransom.
Finally, he reached the place where the crucifixions were to take place, and quickly realized there was nothing he could do to help his King of Kings. He was brokenhearted. Then something remarkable happened. Jesus looked down from the Cross and said to him: "Don't be brokenhearted Artaban.
You've been helping Me all your life. When I was hungry, you gave Me food. When I was thirsty, you gave Me drink. When I was naked, you clothed Me. When I was a stranger, you took Me in."
Some say that Artaban should not be called the "Fourth Wise Man" because He didn't find the newborn Jesus in the Bethlehem stable with the other three. Others say he was the wisest of the Wise Men. On that hill called Calvary, some people stood and watched passively, perhaps uncaringly. Others jeered. The chief priests and scribes dropped to their knees and mocked Jesus, saying, "All hail, king of the Jews!" They spat at Him, saying "He saved others but He cannot save Himself...Let's see Him come down from the Cross! Then we will believe Him!" One of the two criminals hanging next to Jesus reacted angrily, cynically: "If Jesus is the Savior He claims to be, why is He bleeding and dying, hanging between two criminals? Why doesn't He save all three of us from this terrible death? Why? Why? Why?" The second criminal's reaction, however, was one of great faith. "Remember me when You enter Your reign," He asks Jesus.
The Apostle John reacted obediently. From the Cross, Jesus said to His mother, "Woman, there is your son." Then He turned to John and said, "There is your mother." "From that hour onward," Scripture tells us, John took the mother Mary "into his care."
To this day, the Gospel Story has been evoking the same mixed reactions to Jesus' life and ministry. Some of us react with fear and apprehension. Some with obedience. Some with indifference. Some with cowardice. Some with cynicism. Some with scorn. Some have decided that since it seems not to matter what one believes, it might be easier not to believe at all. This modern "cop-out" is largely responsible for the powerful wave of emptiness and aimlessness which seems to overwhelm so many of today's people.
Many of us react to Jesus like the criminal at Calvary who wanted to know "Why?" If Jesus is the Savior He claims to be then why doesn't He save us from war and cancer and heart attacks and auto accidents and poverty and injustice and loneliness? Why doesn't He do something about this mess we are in on planet earth? How can He be aware of it all and fail to act?
A child drowns while the lifeguard is elsewhere and some people will react with pious words about it being "God's Will." Others will want nothing to do with a God who plans such tortures. The truth is that we mere humans haven't the capacity to resolve such problems on our own. We are the creatures of God. Only God is God. Only God is Creator. Only God has all the answers. And the one solid answer He has given us is that He already has done something! He has given us His Son, who lived a human life and died a painfully human death in order to show us that God understands our needs, hears our prayers, will never abandon us. He has given us His Son in order to reveal the Resurrection Power of His Love.
When we come together like this, we each come with our own pressure-points and our own particular set of problems. That is the wonder of human life: each of us is unique. Each of us has a unique set of these conditions. Not even two people in the same family bear the same set of conditions. Some of us, for example, are feeling pressure at the point of identity. We hear so much these days about the "identity crisis" so many people are going through: the need to find out who we are, and to be who we
are. This isn't just the problem of young people. It is the problem of people of all ages. Deep in the life of each one of us the cry goes up: "I've got to be Me!" It seems that the more we learn, the more we need to know about who we are, and the more we need to be who we are.
A little girl was given her birth certificate to take to her new school. "Be sure not to lose it," her mother said. Well, she lost it, and when someone saw her crying and asked her what was wrong, she answered, "I've just lost my excuse for being born." That is what we are talking about here. Some of us haven't found our excuse for being born, or we've lost it temporarily, and that is a real pressure point in our lives. Not very much in life can make sense until we find out who we are and begin to grow into that
person. Wherever you are, whatever your pressure points, however you are hurting, God comes to you in and through Christ the King to tell you that He loves you -- His unique creative masterpiece -- totally and eternally.
There is an old Hassidic tale about an elderly rabbi who was highly respected for his piety. One day, a devoted young disciple came to him and, in a burst of enthusiasm, cried out, "My master, I love you." Whereupon, the wise old teacher looked into the eyes of his fervent disciple and tenderly asked, "Do you know what hurts me, my son?" A puzzled look came over the young man's face. "Master, forgive me, but I do not understand your question. I am trying to express my deep feelings about you and you respond by asking me a confusing and irrelevant question." To which the rabbi replied, "My question is neither confusing nor irrelevant, for if you don't know what hurts me, how can you truly love me?"
We came to this house of worship presumably to position ourselves under the Rule of Christ Our King, and to express our love for Him. And, if we're really listening during our worship experience, we will hear him ask: "Do you know what hurts Me?" And if we're still tuned in, we will hear Him say: "Your disobedience to My command to 'Love one another' -- that is what hurts Me."

33rd sunday c end times

In the popular film, "Four Weddings and a Funeral," the humor which is present in the first three
weddings disappears when death comes to one of the characters -- a man who loved life. At the funeral
service, W.H. Auden's sad poem entitled "Funeral Blues" is read. And the scene is filled with an
overwhelming sense of heartbreak. Here are some of the words from "Funeral Blues":
He was my North, my South, my East and West, My working week and my Sunday rest, My noon, my
midnight, my talk, my song; I thought love would last forever, I was wrong.
Overwhelmingly sad though those lines may be, they too are wrong. By the Resurrection Power of
God, love does last forever. And isn't that what we come together to celebrate over-and-over again?
Isn't that the Good News we've just heard in today's Gospel Lesson, which Jesus describes as a
"wisdom" no one can "resist or contradict." (Lk. 21:14,15).
In today's Lesson, Jesus gives us the bad news and the Good News. The bad news is that, in this life of
ours, some of our worst fears may come to pass. There may be wars and revolutions and earthquakes
and famines and plagues and persecutions and betrayals and hatreds, to name a few. The Good News
is that, because God is still God, nothing can happen that does not have redemptive value. Because
God is still God, somehow, beyond our ability to comprehend, we shall never suffer in vain. Because
God is still God, He transforms sorrow into joy, death into life, heartbreak into ecstasy. Jesus puts it
metaphorically saying, "not a hair of your head will be lost" (Lk. 21:19). Follow Jesus, and you have
nothing to lose. Follow Jesus, and you have everything to gain. Follow Jesus, who transforms mere
existence into new life.
New life? It sounds good, but what is it really? To be perfectly honest with you, I can't logically
explain it, but as Jesus often did in His parables, I can offer you a few examples ...
A certain computer salesman went to a big, important sales meeting. Being a thoroughly meticulous
man, he calculated both the meeting and travelling time to the point where he could assure his wife that
he would be home in plenty of time for dinner. But it so happened that the meeting lasted longer than
he had anticipated, and he found himself racing through the train station,ticket in hand, trying not to
miss the commuter he had planned on taking. As he barrelled through the terminal, immediately in
front of him was another man rushing to make the same train. He saw the man accidentally knock over
a table holding a basket of fresh, shiny fruit. Without stopping, both men reached the train and
climbed aboard with a sigh of relief. But the man coming from the sales meeting had second thoughts.
Getting in touch with his feelings, he focused on the boy whose fruit stand had been overturned by the
man who had been running in front of him. Then he jumped back onto the platform and ran back to the
overturned fruit stand. where he discovered that it belonged to a lad who was blind. The salesman
quickly righted the upturned stand and, as he gathered up the fruit, he noticed that some of it had been
bruised. He reached into his wallet and said to the boy, "Here is ten dollars for the damaged fruit. I
hope this didn't ruin your day." And as he started to walk away, the blind boy called after him, "Are
you Jesus?"
A certain preacher tells the story of a visit he once made to a nursing home for the elderly. There, as he
often did, he played his guitar and sang for the residents, then greeted each one personally. As he
circulated through the residents, one of them took his hand and asked him to return on a certain date.
"Why that particular date," the clergyman asked. "It will be my 100th birthday," the woman answered.
"How have you come to live so long?" he asked. The woman explained: "I once had a wonderful
husband, but he is gone. I once had beautiful children, but they are gone. That was what I had then.
This is what I have now." And she opened her arms and gestured to all her companions in the room.
On an afternoon in May, a certain woman on her way home from work boarded a bus. In her words,
"The day had started off rotten. I overslept and was late for work. Everything that happened at the
office filled me with stress and anxiety. By the time I reached the bus stop on my homeward journey I
was ready for a triple dose of "Mylanta" and a six-pack of "Tums." The bus was late, of course, and
jam-packed. As I stood in the aisle, the lurching bus made my stomach queasier and my spirits
gloomier. Then I heard a deep voice from up front: "Beautiful day isn't it?" I couldn't see the man, but
I heard him comment as we rode by: on the lovely spring greenery, on the beautiful Church windows,
on the children romping in the park, on the stately old firehouse, on the lush cemetery lawns, and more.
Soon, all the passengers were gazing out the windows. And I caught myself smiling for the first time
all day. When we reached my stop, I got a glimpse of our self-appointed 'guide.' He was a plump,
bearded man, wearing dark glasses and carrying a white cane. Incredible! He was blind! I stepped off
the bus and, suddenly, all my built-up tensions drained away. God had sent a blind man to help me see
that when all seems dark and dreary, it is still a beautiful world, His beautiful world. Humming a tune,
I raced up the steps to my apartment. I couldn't wait to greet my husband with: It's a beautiful world,
isn't it!"
In the Gospels we find, over-and-over again, the Good News of the kind of full life God wants us to
live because He loves us so much. Through Jesus Christ, He is offering us the full life that, deep down
inside, we want -- for ourselves, for those we love, for the world. This full life in Christ is a gift, and it
is a real possibility for each of us. At this very point in your life, you can begin to grow into the full,
creative, unique, beautiful person God created you to be. And it all depends on your acceptance of the
gift on God's terms. You have heard about the gift of new life, but if you are unwilling to position
yourself to receive it, by paying the cost, you will miss it.
Some of us are physically or emotionally ill or inwardly distraught and discouraged and depressed, and
have awful feelings of fragmentation and incompleteness. And, in many cases, it is simply because we
are not willing to pay the cost of receiving the gift of new life God wants to give us. The cost? The
Gospel writers make it perfectly clear that until you come to terms, at a deep inward level, with the
experience of repentance -- CHANGE -- there is no way God can give you the life that you so much
want.
"God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved by
Him," we read in John's Gospel (Jn. 3:17). God sent His Son into the world to make you an
instrument of His love. At rock bottom, what your life is all about, really, is to make your way to the
head of the class in the "Divinely Created School of Learning How To Love" in which we all live
together. And, in the pursuit of that goal, the constant, ongoing, ever-present need to change is
required of every one of us.
Somebody is needed to do the Savior's work of healing and reconciling and peacemaking. Somebody
is needed to help make life more acceptable, more beautiful, more rewarding, more enriching.
Somebody human is needed to do a Divine job. And that somebody is you!
"Your endurance will win you your lives," Jesus promises us , one and all, in today's Gospel Lesson
(Lk. 21:19). And that is because love does last forever!

tomorrow belongs to God 32nd sunday C

In religion classes, among the first lessons taught to children are the Ten Commandments. Some
teachers require that they be memorized. Others prefer to stress the underlying principles of the
commandments. One teacher, who combined both approaches, would relate an incident to illustrate one
of the commandments and then ask the children which commandment applied. The dialogue went
something like this:
Teacher: John's parents went shopping at 9 a.m. Before leaving the house, they told John to get out of
bed and wash the breakfast dishes before they returned. The parents returned at noon. John was still in
bed and the dirty breakfast dishes were still on the table.
Student: HONOR YOUR FATHER AND MOTHER.
Teacher: Helen was with her mother in a supermarket. While mother was busy unloading her basket
at the checkout counter, Helen took a candy bar from the shelf and slipped it into her pocket.
Student: YOU SHALL NOT STEAL.
The young students did very well on the simple illustrations. But they could be stumped by more
complex examples. For instance:
Teacher: George sometimes had a nasty temper. One day he got into an argument with his sister.
When it seemed that George was losing the argument, he grabbed his sister's pet kitten and tried to pull
its tail off. The children were puzzled. There was a long pause. Then a student raised his hand
triumphantly and blurted out: WHAT GOD HAS JOINED TOGETHER, LET NO MAN PUT
ASUNDER!
The Ten Commandments form the centerpiece of the Law of Moses -- God's first great gift of
revelation. In today's Gospel, Jesus encounters some men who were experts on the Ten
Commandments. These men were known as Sadducees -- members of an ultra-conservative religious
party who accepted as authoritative only those things written down in the Law of Moses (the first five
books of the Old Testament). Because of this religious outlook, they rejected many of the things Jesus
was teaching. For example, they rejected the notion of bodily resurrection. Their view of afterlife was
pessimistic, joyless. The abode of the departed was called "Sheol." It was a nether-world, deeply
imbedded in the earth, where the soul lived a shadowy sort of life. A grim picture of Sheol is found in
the book of Ecclesiastes: "Whatever work you propose to do, do it while you live, for there is neither
achievement, nor planning, nor knowledge, nor wisdom in Sheol where you are going" (Eccl. 9:10).
"Sheol" is described as "a land of darkness, with death's shadow over all." However, during the two
centuries immediately preceding Jesus' birth, an expanded awareness of the hereafter-state had begun
to emerge in the Old testament people's consciousness. This included a notion of bodily resurrection,
more or less in harmony with Jesus' teaching on the "last things." But this was anathema to the
Sadducees. The purity of the old doctrine was at stake. What better way to neutralize this doctrinal
contamination, they reasoned, than to make Jesus look foolish before His followers? Thus, in today's
Lesson, we find the Sadducees challenging Jesus' vision of afterlife. They present Jesus with the
hypothetical case of a woman who had been widowed seven times. After her seventh husband was
gone, the woman herself died. Given this situation, Jesus is asked the following question: "At the
resurrection, whose wife will she be? Remember, seven married her" (Luke 20:33).
Jesus rejects the Sadducees' effort to read the conditions of time-and-space into the unknown eternal.
He rejects their effort to place earthly limitations on eternal life. Tomorrow belongs to God. We can
but glimpse eternity, within the limits of our finite understanding. Beyond that we may look toward the
eternal future only through eyes of faith in the Resurrection Power of God ...
A Resurrection faith in God's plan of salvation that admits of only two eternally enduring relationships:
the Fatherhood of God and the universal brotherhood of man in union with the Lord Jesus.
A Resurrection faith in Jesus' prescription for our sweetest foretaste of the Father's eternal love,
namely, our own acts of loving service to one another.
A Resurrection faith in Jesus' teaching that our works of peace and brotherhood signify our willingness
to serve God, to trust God, and to love God.
A little boy asked his dad for permission to go outside and "have a game of 'catch' with God." Dad was
puzzled. "How do you play 'catch' with God?" he asked. "Easy," answered the little boy, "I just throw
my ball up in the air and God throws it back!"
If we want to experience wholeness of life, we need to acknowledge that tomorrow belongs to God.
We need to trust in God's tomorrow with the childlike attitude of the little boy who trusted in God to
send his ball back. The ball will come back. The sun will come up tomorrow. God will keep His
promise to us that our life is going someplace; that life is worthwhile; that the pieces of life's puzzle
will fit, ultimately ... all in God's time, God's tomorrow.
"God is not the God of the dead but of the living. All are alive for Him," Jesus said (Lk. 20:38). God,
the God of the living, wants us to point our life toward tomorrow by living today (unlike the Sadducees
in today's Gospel Lesson who preferred to live in the past).
If you somehow have been turned off to the infinite possibilities of God's Resurrection Power, if you
have been losing faith in your ability to do what needs to be done in order to achieve your full human
potential, you are spiritually dead. That is to say, you are blocking the God of the Living out of your
life.
God's Love does find a way. Nothing we have done in life prevents God from giving us a new
tomorrow. No mistake, no wrong decision, no wrongful act of any kind can defeat God's Will to
forgive us, to bind up our wounds, to show us the way to new life in a new tomorrow -- sometimes in
the most surprising, most wondrous ways.
Especially in times of turmoil and tension, we need to put our childlike trust in God's power to move us
confidently into a new tomorrow.
A gigantic retrospective showing of the late Pablo Picasso's works was held at the Museum of Modern
Art in New York City. More than 900 of Picasso's works were displayed chronologically, beginning
when he was a very young boy. Most of the earlier works were traditional landscapes and still-lifes.
Then, as the artist advanced in age, brilliant colors began to emerge, and the still-lifes were no longer
very still. Finally, of course, the works turned into the kind of bold, zesty experiments for which
Picasso is best-known today. One art critic who saw the show recalled that once, when Picasso was
eighty-five, he was asked the reason why his earlier works were so solemn and his later works so
exuberant and exciting. "How do you explain it?" asked the interviewer. "Easily," Picasso answered,
his eyes sparkling. "It takes a long time to become young!"
To become young! For some it takes a long time. For others it takes an even longer time. But Jesus
promises eternal salvation to those who become young enough in spirit to trust God like a little child
trusts a good, loving parent.
Believe in tomorrow because tomorrow belongs to God! Place your eternal life in God's good hands!

31st sunday c. today salvation has come to this house

Luke 19:9

"Now is the favorable time; this is the day of salvation," the Apostle Paul wrote to the members of the Church in Corinth (2 Cor. 6:2). Now! Today! In the midst of our daily ups and downs, in the midst of our joys and sorrows, in the midst of our earthly pilgrimage, God wants to bring us alive to His saving Presence. God wants us to make the Good News of Jesus Christ the basis of our everyday, now experience. God wants us to trust in His promise that, for each of us, this is the day of salvation.

"This is the day of salvation!" What do we mean by that? We can delve deeply into the theology of salvation. We can discuss salvation in abstract terms. We can debate over various ideas of salvation. But eventually we will realize that it takes more than a head-trip to put real Christian meaning behind the word "salvation." Understanding salvation is more than an intellectual exercise. Understanding salvation is a matter of the heart. Understanding salvation is a matter of experiencing it.

We finite creatures do not have the capacity to grasp God's plan for our salvation in its fullness, but we are given a glimpse -- an exciting glimpse that brings God's promise of eternal happiness down to earth. Our gracious God has given us a clue to the mystery of salvation. He brings it into our everyday life, not as a concept but as an experience. God has implanted deep within us the Grace (the source of power) to experience the mystery of salvation. God wants us to be alive to it. God wants us to allow it to surface in our life.

A famous lawyer was reflecting on the major events in his long years of practice. After describing several happy and rewarding episodes, he was asked to recall the most memorable event of his professional career. He was quiet for a moment, then replied, "Over the years, the one single event that has influenced my life more than any other is a terribly sad interview I had with a prospective client." He recalled the incident in these words:

One day, soon after I began practice, a handsome and fashionably dressed woman came into my office. She was in her mid-twenties and had been married for five years. She told me that she had been having trouble with her husband. I supposed that my visitor had come in search of a legal solution to her problem. "Do you have any evidence on which you might base an action for divorce?" I asked. "Oh no sir," she replied, "I don't want a divorce." Then I told her the grounds on which she might seek a legal separation. "But I don't want a separation," she protested. Being now somewhat puzzled, I told her that I might bring an action in the domestic relations court to compel her husband to contribute a weekly sum to her support. "But I don't want him to contribute to my support," the woman said tearfully. "I can make more money than he can." I had reached the point of exasperation. "Well, madam," I said, "You don't want a divorce and you don't want a separation and you don't want your husband to contribute to your support. How then can I advise you when I have no idea what you want?" The tears began to run down the woman's cheeks. She faltered, then stammered woefully, "I want ... him ... to ... I want him to love me!"

There are persons in this world who need your love, persons who want you to love them now! This is the day of your salvation! This is the day for you to rearrange your priorities in the light of the Gospel Message. This is the day for you to begin to be the beautiful, caring, loving, person God wants you to be. This is the day for you to enter into the experience of eternal life with God. Eternal life is to "know you, the only true God," Jesus prayed to the Father (Jn. 17:3). "My dear people," the Apostle John wrote, "Let us love one another since love comes from God and everyone who loves is begotten by God and knows God. Anyone who fails to love can never have known God, because God is Love ..." (1 Jn. 4:7-8).

One Halloween night, a neighborhood practical joker decided to frighten the young "trick-or-treaters" who rang his doorbell. He put on a floor-length black cape, a black hat fitted with devil's horns, and a hideous mask that seemed to combine the most gruesome features of "Dracula," "Frankenstein," and the "Wolf Man." Then he waited. Finally, his doorbell rang. He turned off all the lights and, shining a flashlight on his mask, he opened the door and pierced the night air with an eerie scream. Then he looked down and saw standing before him a tiny, golden-haired, five-year-old, dressed as a dainty fairy. The little tyke stared wide-eyed for a moment. Then she raised her eyes up along the massive black cape, looked straight into the hideous mask, smiled and said, "Is your mommy home?"

Very often, in our relationships with one another, whether we see devils or angels often depends on where we're coming from: our fundamental attitude and approach to life. Have we taken to heart the religious knowledge we have stored up in our head? Have we consciously chosen to make the Good News of Jesus Christ the basis for our everyday, now experience? Have we begun to reflect the Love of God in the experience of our everyday, now relationships?

Today's Gospel story is about an encounter Jesus had with a man who had made a fundamental change in his attitude and approach to life. This man, Zacchaeus, was a tax-collector who had grown wealthy in his profession. We may assume from what we know about the social and political conditions of the time that he had acquired at least some of his fortune through unethical business practices -- even gangsterism. (That's what tax-collectors were like in those days.) However, Zacchaeus had repented: reformed his life; changed his ways. And when this Jesus (whom everyone was talking about and who claimed to speak for God) came to town, Zacchaeus was determined to get close to Him. Large numbers of people had turned out to greet Jesus as he entered the City of Jericho. Because Zacchaeus was a very short man, the crowd blocked his view. He couldn't even see Jesus. "He first ran out in front," Luke tells us, but that didn't work. Then he "climbed a sycamore tree which was along Jesus' route," and that did work. Jesus saw the excited man, perching in the tree, and said to him, "Zacchaeus, come down. Hurry, because I must stay at your house today" (Lk. 19:6). Hearing this, the crowd became resentful toward Jesus. They knew Zacchaeus was a tax-collector. "He has gone to stay at a sinner's house," they complained. For this reason, Zacchaeus was most anxious for Jesus to realize that he had reformed his life and that he was sincerely trying to do God's Will. He told Jesus that he had been going far beyond the requirements of religious law in his effort to right the wrongs he had done to others. He had hurt people in the past and now he was walking that extra mile in order to be reconciled to them. And he is excited about this. That is why he scurried around the fringes of the crowd trying to get a glimpse of Jesus. That is why he scrambled up the sycamore tree. That is why he quickly came down from his perch when Jesus spoke to him. Something wonderful and exciting had happened to his life and he just had to share this good news with Jesus and the others.

And that is the whole point of our New Testament Gospel of salvation. When God's Grace touches you at the very center of your being (as it did, obviously, to Zacchaeus), the Source of power and vitality to give life real meaning and purpose wells up inside you and moves you into a whole new style of life. And you want to shout it from the housetops: "This is the day of salvation!"
Your salvation is at hand! Come alive, therefore, to the cries of "I want you to love me!" Come alive, therefore, to every opportunity for rescuing another person from the terror and the horror of loneliness and despair! Come alive, therefore, to the experience of joy that comes when your actions reflect God's Love in a healing, saving way. Come alive, therefore, to the experience of your own salvation.

30th sunday C the man who humbles will be exalted

Someone has suggested that "God created people because God loves stories."1 I think the following story is likely to meet with God's approval:

Two men called on a pious, old monk to seek his advice. "We acknowledge our sinful ways," they told him, "and we want to clear our consciences. Can you advise us on how to do this and get rid of our guilt?" The old monk agreed to help. "But first," he said, "you will have to tell me about your sins."

The first man said, "I have committed a terrible sin, a grievous sin, a great big sin." The second man said, "Oh, I have committed a number of small sins, none of them grievous or terribly significant."

The holy man pondered the matter for a while, then said, "Each of you must bring me a stone, representing each one of his wrong-doings." The two men then set out to carry out the monk's instructions.

After a while, the first man staggered back, carrying with him a huge boulder. It was so heavy he could hardly lift it. With a loud grunt he dropped it before the old man.

Then the second man returned carrying a bag of small pebbles, which he promptly laid at the monk's feet.

"Very good work," said the monk. "Now, each of you take your stones and put them back where you found them." The first man staggered back to the place from which he had brought the huge boulder. But the second man was unable to remember where he had found each of his little pebbles. So he returned to the wise old man and told him that he couldn't carry out his instruction. To which the monk replied, "You must realize, my son, that sins are like those stones. If a man commits a big sin, it lies heavily on his conscience. But if he truly repents, the burden is lifted. He is forgiven and the load is taken away. But if a man is constantly doing small things that are sinful, he is less likely to repent and more likely to remain a sinner, out of habit. Understand, therefore, that it is just as important to break the habit of committing little sins as it is to avoid committing a big sin."

Today's Gospel is a parable in which Jesus tells the story of two men -- a pharisee and a tax-collector -- who go into the Temple to pray. Says the pharisee (a religious type), "I thank You, God, that I am not like this tax collector here. I fast twice a week; I pay tithes on all I get" (Lk. 18:11). He doesn't even acknowledge committing a little tiny sin. The tax-collector (a gangster-type) beats his breast and says, "God be merciful to me, a sinner" (Lk. 18:13). After telling the story, Jesus says, "This man I tell you (the tax-collector) went home at rights with God; the other did not. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the man who humbles himself will be exalted" (Lk. 18:14).

To be "at rights" with God, we must be willing to repent, which means to humbly acknowledge that something in our life needs changing. It means a turning away from rebellion against God. It means a turning away from self-centeredness. But this cannot occur unless we are willing to acknowledge, in all humility, that we actually do certain things, live in a certain way that causes estrangement from God and from other persons.

In John's Gospel it is written, "God sent His Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but so that through Him, the world might be saved" (Jn. 3:17). Jesus is not asking us to admit the need for change in our lives in order to condemn us. He is asking us to freely admit that there is room for the kind of improvement that can build up, that can enrich, that can enhance, that can fulfill our lives as never before. You don't need to keep turning yourself over the coals, hating yourself for the rest of your life. God loves you so much and His forgiveness is so full that it is as if the past had never been. It is a new page in the book of life that God wants you to open up. It is a new start, a new possibility. So while you humbly begin by acknowledging your wrong-doing, you end up by accepting the forgiveness. And the union with God now is deeper than it has ever been. And the healing is real. And, again in Jesus' words, "You are at rights with God."

A wise old woman happened to be a piano teacher who had taught many students over the years. Invariably, when she prepared her pupils for recitals, she would encourage them to practice the endings over-and-over again. And, invariably, the students would grumble because of the constant repetition of the last few measures of the music. When the complaints came, the teacher would answer, "You can make a mistake in the beginning or in the middle or in some other place along the way. But all will be forgotten when you manage to make the ending glorious."

A pastor was talking to one of the wealthiest persons in his parish. The subject of successful living came up. "I'm a success, the wealthy one boasted, because I'm a self-made man." To which the pastor replied, "Congratulations! You've relieved the Lord of a great responsibility."

The Good News of the Gospel is that the Lord is totally accessible to you when it comes to the question of successful living. He offers you guidance, He offers to light your way to a glorious ending -- and He doesn't want any relief from this responsibility.

At this very moment, the light of Christ's Spirit is shining at the center of your being. Drop your defenses! Relinquish all excuses! Cast off every trace of self-centeredness, egoism and pride! Let the light shine through! Let it permeate your life! Let the new life and the healing come into every part of your being! You'll begin to see! You'll begin to come alive!

This is the Gift of Light that God gives to each of us in Christ. This is the Gift of Love that God gives to each one of us in Christ.

This light within us is given to us not to "hide under a bushel," as Jesus put it. The whole world needs the love that is in us, the forgiveness that is in us -- beginning with our own families and then extending ever outward.

Forgiving, which begins with self-forgiveness, can become a constant, ongoing process -- a way of living. It means letting go of past resentments and bitterness, and moving on. Of course, it_s not always easy, but it's worth every difficulty. And there is nothing mushy or softheaded about loving and forgiving. As Doctor Jonas Salk puts it:

The end result of forgiving is to release the power in the nucleus of the individual -- a power much greater in its positive effects than atomic power in its negative. The point is this:

If we can be courageous one more time than we are fearful, Trusting one more time than we are anxious, Cooperative one more time than we are competitive, Forgiving one more time than we are vindictive, Loving one more time than we are hateful, we will have moved closer to the next big breakthrough in our human growth, and closer to the next big breakthrough toward our full human potential.

Open the window of your heart and see what the Apostle John saw when he declared,

Look! There is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. The real light which gives light to every man.

Humbly acknowledge your absolute need for the Light of the World that comes in and through Jesus Christ! And let it shine! Let it shine!

God Searches for our Voice in Prayer

29th sunday c luke 18:1-8

"Will not God then secure the rights of His chosen ones who call out to Him day and night? Will He be slow to answer them?" (Lk.18:7).

A couple was fighting, after the argument the wife gave her husband a silent treatment. Three days had passed but still the wife would not speak with her husband. When she entered their room, she saw him ransacking their cabinet. Annoyed with what she saw, she asked him, "What are you looking for?" The husband looked at her, gave her a sweet smile and said, "Finally, I found it! I am searching for your voice."

When we pray we lift our voices not only to praise and thank God but ask for our needs. Sometimes when we don't get what we pray for we ask why God is so insensitive to our pleas. We begin to give Him silent treatment. We stop praying. But God searches for our voices in prayer.

Through the parable of the persistent widow, Jesus tells us that we must persevere in our prayer even if no answer seems to be provided. In ancient Israel, a widow was a symbol of all who were poor and defenseless. In the parable a widow used to come to a judge who neither fear God nor respect any human being. She asked him to render a just decision for her against her adversary. For a long time the judge was unwilling but eventually he thought, "While it is true that I neither fear God nor respect any human being, because this widow keeps on bothering me I shall deliver a just decision for her lest she finally came and strike me."

The widow did not lose hope that she will get justice and so she kept on coming back to plead with the unjust judge. Her persistence gradually wore him down and eventually gave her what she wanted to stop her from pestering him. Jesus points out that if this unjust judge gave the woman her way because of her persistence, how much more will our Heavenly Father give to those who call upon Him. Nonetheless, from our experience we don't seem to get all that we asked for. How could we reconcile this incongruence?

I think it is important to bear in mind that our relationship with God is not like that of a child who expects his parents to give everything that he wants. This is not helpful in bringing out the best in us. If God does not grant what we want it doesn't mean to say He doesn't love us. Loving is not tantamount to giving. God is a judicious giver meaning He judges first whether what we ask for would be beneficial to us or not. God allows us to pray for what we want so that we may know what is good for us. Sometimes though, we do not know that what we ask for would hurt rather than help. Since God sees time in whole, He knows what is good for us in the long run. Thus, instead of giving God a silent treatment, Jesus tells us never to be discouraged in our prayer because it is necessary to maintain a loving and trusting relationship with Him.

How can our faith remain strong in the face of delays in our requests, occasional trials and test, adversities and difficult situations in our life, and serious trouble if we cease from praying? God searches for our voices in prayer. We must be persistent because God listens to us. Even though many times we cannot comprehend His ways we just have to trust Him because He only wants the best for us.

Gratitude (Pasasalamat)

28th Sunday C (Lk.17:11-19)

Attitude of Gratitude

Jesus said in reply, "Ten were cleansed, were they not? Where are the other nine? Has none but this foreigner returned to give thanks to God?"(Lk.17:17-18).

There were two beggars who sought alms in the streets of a big city. Along their route they used to go past the palace of the king who always saw to it that they got bread. One of the beggars thanked the king for his generosity, but other thanked God for having given the king the power and the means with which to help his subjects. This irked the king and he told the beggar, "Why is it that when I am generous to you, you thank someone else for it?" The beggar answered, "If God were not generous to you, you would have nothing to give me." The king decided to teach him a lesson. He ordered his cook to bake two loaves of bread and hide some jewels in one of them, and to make sure that the beggar who used to thank him gets this special loaf. In this way the beggar who only thanks God would regret why he did not thank him. But when the man who used to thank him got the bread with jewels, he noticed that it was heavier than normal. This implied that it had been poorly baked so he swapped it with his companion and they went on separate ways. When the beggar who always thanked God began to eat his bread, he found the gems inside it and thanked God that now he would no longer have to beg for alms. After some time the king noticed the beggar who used to thank him still remain poor and kept coming back to the palace. He asked him, "What did you do with the special loaf of bread handed out to you sometime ago? The beggar said, "When I felt it was heavy, I thought it was poorly baked so exchanged it with the bread of my fellow beggar." Then the king understood why the other beggar had thanked God and not him.

Do we acknowledge God as the source of all that we are and all that we have? Do we express our gratitude to Him for His goodness to us? Gratitude is the homage our hearts pay as we recognize and appreciate the kindness, courtesy, love, and compassion shown to us. This kind of attitude is what the Samaritan leper would like to teach us. As Jesus was entering the village, ten lepers met Him and raising their voices said, "Jesus Master! Have pity on us!" When He saw them, He said, "Go show yourselves to the priests." As they were going they were cleansed. One of them, a Samaritan, realizing he had been healed, returned, glorifying God in a loud voice; and he fell at the feet of Jesus and thanked him. The Samaritan was grateful because he recognized and appreciated the mercy shown to him.

The attitude of gratitude is only possible to those people who know how to recognize and appreciate the kindness they received. Like the Samaritan leper, we should recognize and appreciate the mercy God has shown us. Secondly, let us express our gratitude to God with the same amount of intensity that we have when we pray desperately for our needs. Oftentimes we are good when we ask for something but once our prayers are answered we forget to thank God. Lastly, as we remember the love, the many acts of kindness that we received, and the goodness that surrounds us, we too must be inspired to show the same act of love, kindness, and compassion.

One time I anointed an elderly woman, since she has no kids, her niece takes care of her. I told the niece, "How nice of you to be taking care of her!" She said to me, "When I was young, she took care of me, now I am glad to make a return by taking care of her." Let us make ourselves worthy of God's grace by making His love present wherever we are. Let us thank the Lord and forget not His benefits.

Rich Man, Poor Man

26th Sunday C

An elderly miser who had vast real estate holdings suddenly became extremely ill. His temperature quickly soared to 105, and his frightened wife sent for the nearest doctor. After examining the patient, the doctor said to the man's wife, "Madam, I'm sorry I must tell you that your husband is terminally ill. He cannot possibly survive. All I can suggest to you is prayer." Hearing this, the old skinflint summoned up his last remaining ounce of strength and whispered, "Go out and find some needy person and give him a gift of money. Then go to Church and pray that my life be spared." The wife immediately went to the poorest section of town and gave one hundred dollars to a panhandler who looked like he'd really hit bottom. Then she went to the nearest Church and fervently prayed for her husband's recovery. Whereupon, the patient's condition rapidly improved and, as if by a miracle, within days he was completely well again. But when his wife told him that she had given one hundred dollars to a poor beggar, he was outraged. "Why did you do such a thing?" he bellowed. "But you yourself told me to give the money," she reminded him. To which he replied, "With my temperature over 105, couldn't you see that I was delirious?"

Today's Gospel includes a story Jesus told about a rich man and a beggar. They live in two
different worlds. The rich man "feasts sumptuously every day"; the beggar, named Lazarus, literally eats like a stray dog. The rich man covers his body with the finest garments; poor Lazarus' body is covered with sores. Then they both die and, as it was in life, there is a great gulf between them in afterlife, but with this important difference: now the rich man is in Hades where he suffers greatly and the poor beggar is completely fulfilled "in the bosom of Abraham." The rich man realizes that it's all over for him. All his money is of no use to him now. The eternal fix he's in is irreversible. And it's the result of his own doing while on earth.

But his five brothers are still alive and he seeks to warn them of the consequences of their kind of lifestyle. He wants to tell them to change their selfish ways; to have compassion for the downtrodden and the needy, lest they too should end up in Hades, this place of torment. And so he begs Abraham for permission to send that message to his five brothers. But Abraham denies permission, saying, "If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead" (Lk. 16:31).

We are capable of getting bogged down in that same rut. Consequently, this message is coming to us now, from Someone who has risen from the dead. Even so, even the Risen Christ can't get through to us when we don't want to listen. Even the Risen Christ can't get through to us when we think we've "got it made" once-and-for-all. Even the Risen Christ can't get through to us when we put on that "I'll do it my way" attitude and approach to life.

A few years ago, the Christmas Catalog of a California publishing house featured a "made-to-order" children's gift item: a "Me-Book." All the "Me-Books" contained the same full-page color illustrations and a bit of the prose was the same also. Other than that, each book was highly personalized. The idea was that the buyer would send the publisher personal information about the child to whom the book was to be given: name, age, birthday, address, names of brothers, sisters, parents, grandparents, friends, pets, etc. Thus, when the data was keyed into the publisher's computer, out came a book in which the child receiving the gift was the main character.

A boy named Patrick was given one of these books for Christmas by his grandmother. The boy's father said later, You can hardly imagine Patrick's surprise and delight when he pulled the gift out from under the Christmas tree, unwrapped it, and began to read: "Once upon a time, in a little town called Hendersonville, there lived a little boy named Patrick Benson. Now Patrick wasn't just an ordinary little boy. This is a story about one of his adventures. It's the story of the day Patrick met a giraffe..."

Over seventy times Patrick and his street and his friends and family were named. And when he got better acquainted with the giraffe, Patrick discovered that they had the same birthday. Does Patrick like that book? It's his favorite, because to him it's a "Me-Book." And isn't that like us all? We like stories about ourselves.

Suppose someone gives you a Bible this coming Christmas. And suppose, when you pull the gift out from under the Christmas tree and unwrap it and begin to read it, you are surprised and delighted to identify it as a "Me-Book":

You hear Jesus telling the Pharisees they're so closed-minded that even if someone should rise from the dead to warn them they'd better change their ways, they would resist. And, deep within yourself, you hear a voice saying, "That's me!"

You hear the Apostle Peter's denial when a woman identifies him as a close friend of Jesus. And, deep within yourself, you hear a voice saying, "That's me!"

You hear words spoken by the King in Jesus' Parable of the Last Judgment: "Depart from Me...into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels, for I was hungry and you gave me no food; I was thirsty and you gave me no drink; I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me." And, deep within your soul, you hear a voice saying "That's me!"

On the other hand...

You hear the Apostle Paul referring to the faithful as "fools for the sake of Christ." And, deep within your soul, you hear a voice saying, "That should be me!"

You read in the Gospel of Luke that the Apostle Peter, having three times denied being Jesus' friend, "went out and wept bitterly." And, deep within your soul, you hear a voice saying, "That should be me."

You hear the suffering Jesus speak from the Cross: "Father forgive them." And, deep within your soul, you hear a voice saying, "That should be me!"

You hear words spoken by the King in Jesus' Parable of the Last Judgment, "O come, blessed of My Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world, for I was hungry and you gave Me food, I was thirsty and you gave Me drink, I was naked and you clothed Me, I was sick and you visited Me, I was in prison and you came to Me." And, deep within your soul, you hear a voice saying, "That should be me!"

In today's Gospel, the rich man who dies and goes to Hades, agonizes over the possibility that his five living brothers will suffer the same fate. "But if someone goes to them from the dead," he says, "they will repent." Then he hears the voice of Abraham saying, "If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead."

We need to say "Yes!" to Jesus' call to repentance. We need to understand that repentance is what it takes to heal the broken relationship between ourselves and God, caused by our sinfulness. We need to be honest with ourselves about what we have been and where we have been, what we should become and where we should be going. May God Bless you all!

25th sunday A. you can not serve both God and mammon

Stand Up And Be Counted
The folly of placing false hopes in false gods

"No servant can serve two masters ... You cannot serve God and mammon"

A preacher was becoming terribly distracted by a man who came to Church every Sunday and proceeded to sleep through the entire sermon. One Sunday he decided to do something about it. As he began to preach, the man, true to form, fell fast asleep. Whereupon the preacher said quietly, "Everyone who wants to go to heaven, stand up." The entire congregation immediately stood up, except the sleeping man. When they sat down, the preacher shouted at the top of his voice, "Everyone who wants to go to hell, stand up!" This startled the dozing man. Still half asleep, he jumped up, looked around to see what was going on, then said to the preacher, "I don't know what we're voting on but it looks like you and I are the only ones in favor of it."

In today's Gospel, Jesus is telling us we've got to stand up and be counted. "No servant can serve two masters," Jesus is saying. "The Kingdom of Heaven is here. Everyone who wants to enter the Kingdom in the service of God, stand up! ... Everyone who wants to enter a living hell in the service of mammon, stand up!" That means, if you want to enter the Kingdom of your life's fulfillment, if you want to experience genuine peace and joy in your life, God comes first. Period! Whenever you do anything, whenever you acquire anything, whenever you achieve anything outside the context of God's Grace, you are saying in effect, "God I hate you and I despise Your Rule. I have other resources to draw upon, other masters to serve." But inevitably, you will come to the end of your resources and you will find yourself unable to cope, unable to deal with your fears and anxieties, unable to affirm your own worthwhileness, unable to sustain an abiding hope in your ultimate fulfillment as a human person. Thank God we can gather together on a day such as this and listen to Jesus warn us once again about the folly of placing false hopes in false gods.

If we choose to follow the Lord who is God, we will have life, because this is the God who has created us and whose Resurrection Power is working in our midst, and whose Grace is with us. The Lord who is God gives us life. He gives us fulfillment. He gives us the strength to love, if we trust Him and only Him. But if we trust in the Baals of our modern world, if we trust in idols to bring us to fulfillment, we will not only be frustrated but ultimately destroyed.

We hear this and we say, "How quaint! Idols! Nobody worships idols anymore. We don't make figures out of metal or stone and fall down and worship them. Talk of idols has no relevance for this 'Now' generation." Don't be deceived. Our God is, ultimately, whatever concerns us most in life. We may not carve idols out of metal or stone, but we all have them. If the Lord is God, then follow Him -- with your marriage and your family. But if your marriage and your family is god, then follow them, to your own destruction. If your country is god, then follow it, to your own destruction. If your money is god, then follow it, to your own destruction. If alcohol or other drugs are your gods, then follow them to your own destruction. If work is your god, then follow it, to your own destruction. If sex is your god, then follow it to your own destruction.

What we are saying is that marriage, family, other relationships, and all our human activities are not ends in themselves, but means to an end which is God. They represent the opportunities we are offered in life to give honor and Glory to God. And whenever we take them out of this context, whenever we make them ends in themselves, we are in a state of idolatry. God is the Source of life. Our idols can do nothing for us.

There is a powerful, old Jewish story about an idol-maker. He did not himself believe in idols but he made a tidy profit selling them to others. When his son became old enough to realize what was going on, he began trying to talk his father out of his business. It was hypocrisy, but the father insisted it was his way to make a living and continued selling the idols. Until one day, he came into his shop and found that all his idols had been smashed on the floor. It was a scene of total destruction, except for one large idol up on the top shelf. The father stood aghast at what he saw, then turned to his son and said, angrily, "Who did this?" The son calmly pointed to the top shelf and said, "That idol did it." Still raging, the father said, "Don't be ridiculous. Idols can't do anything." And the boy replied, "Father, father, let your ears hear the words your lips have just spoken; idols can't do anything."

We receive our lessons in life from Jesus in many different forms. Jesus speaks to us in parables. Jesus speaks to us in prayer. Jesus speaks to us in symbolic language, using sharp, vivid images to stir our souls. Jesus speaks to us in His miracles. And there are times when Jesus speaks to us head-on, in straightforward, simple declarative sentences. "You cannot serve God and mammon." No need for interpretation. No need for Biblical scholarship. "You cannot serve God and money," or anything else you may wish to make the number one priority in your life. "I am the Lord your God ... You shall have no other gods before me" (Deut. 5:6,7). God is the sovereign Lord of history. He is the God of all that is and all that will be. False gods or the one true God? You cannot straddle the issue. You've got to stand up and be counted. If any of our modern Baals are your god, then follow them to your own destruction. If the Lord of Life is God, then follow Him to your eternal fulfillment.

18th Sunday year C. Rich Fool..... Better to be Fool for Christ

An elderly man confided to a friend that he was planning to live to be one hundred. The friend replied, "I too would like to be one hundred. But how do you plan it?" "It's quite simple," the other man said, "all you need to do is live until you're ninety-nine, and from then on be very careful."

Well, as we all know, it's not that simple. Some of us may have started being careful years ago, but we're still vulnerable at any age. Every second of our lives we're vulnerable. Most of us won't reach ninety-nine, much less one hundred. And yet we carry on as though we're going to live forever.

In today's Gospel Lesson, Jesus tells a parable about a man who carried on in this manner, a man who planned ahead as though he were going to live forever. A wealthy man, he looked forward to a financially secure, worry-free future while ignoring his human situation of vulnerability: his mortality.

He says to himself, in effect, "I've got it made. I'm rich. I've got more than I'll ever need. From now on the living is easy -- eat, drink and be merry. I'll just live it up!"

A little girl in Bible Class had listened to the story of the prodigal son who squandered his father's estate on "riotous living." "Do you know what 'riotous living' means?" the teacher asked. "I think so," the little girl answered, "it means spending all your money on bubble gum."

In Jesus' parable, after announcing his plans for years of riotous living, the wealthy man hears the voice of God address him as "Fool!" God says to him, "Fool! This night your soul is required of you; and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?" In other words, "You're not going to live to be one hundred or even ninety-nine. You're not even going to make it through the night. And you can't take it with you either. Because all of your planning was for the 'here," and none for the 'hereafter,' you have been living the life of a fool."

A pastor was visiting a ninety-nine year old woman, the oldest person in the parish. He said to her, "At your age, you should start thinking of the hereafter." She replied, "Oh, I do that all day long, wherever I go. I go into the kitchen or the living room or the bedroom or the basement and I say to myself, 'Now let me think. What am I here after?"

The New Testament writers want us to understand that the questions, "What about the hereafter?" and "What am I 'here after'?" are not unrelated. In Matthew's Gospel, Jesus says to His disciples, "For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his life?" (Mt. 16:24-26). Jesus is asking the vital "here and now" question. He is asking us to be serious about our here-and-now priorities. He
is asking us to ask ourselves, "What are we 'here after'?"

But, praise God, in searching for the answer to that question, we are not left on our own. "I am the way, the truth and the life...follow Me," Jesus says to us. "If you want to discover the truth about your here and now life, I'll show you the way ... follow Me! ... I am the way."

Jesus left no doubt about His answer to the question, "What am I here after?":

..."My food is to do the Will of Him who sent Me, and to accomplish His Work," He said (Jn. 4:33).

..."I have come not to be served but to serve," He said (Mt. 20;28).

..."I do as the Father has commanded Me, so that the world may know that I love the Father," He said (Jn. 14:31).

..."I am the Good Shepherd ... and I lay down My life for the sheep," He said (Jn. 10:14,15).

And when He said, "love one another as I have loved you," Jesus left not a doubt about our correct answer to the question, "What are we here after?":

...to do the Father's Will -- that's what we're "here after"!

...to express our love for God in and through our love for one another -- that's what we're "here after"!

...to follow Jesus in a lifetime ministry of loving service -- that's what we're "here after"!

"Follow Me!"

When we accept Jesus' invitation, when we embrace His formula for life in the here and now, something remarkable takes place. We simultaneously receive an answer to the question, "What about the hereafter?"

When we follow Jesus in the here and now, we experience a glimpse of the hereafter -- the only glimpse that God in His Wisdom, has chosen to give to us.

When we follow Jesus in the here and now, we enter into the experience of eternal life which, in Jesus' own words, is to know God, to be in union with God, to share in God's own life -- for God is Love.

When we follow Jesus in the here and now, the joy, and the harmony, and the peace of mind and heart and soul, and the ecstasy we experience in our expressions of unconditional love for one another provide us with little hints, little glimpses, little clues in our search for answers to the questions about life in the hereafter.

A British short-story writer has written a modern-day version of the parable in today's Gospel Lesson:

A mysterious figure visits a prominent English lawyer on New Year's Eve and grants him the choice of one wish for the New Year. "I wish for a complete set of the 'London Times' for the coming year," said the man. And immediately his wish was granted. there before him was a neat stack of three hundred sixty-five future newspapers. He quickly understood the power that he now possessed, and he began planning how to use it. He would know horse race results before the races were run and every bet he made would be a guaranteed money maker. He also began making plans on how he would profit from his foreknowledge of stock market prices. Whereupon, he took the 'London Times' for the second of January from the stack and as he was turning to the Financial Section, the headline on the Obituaries caught his eye: "Prominent Lawyer Dies Suddenly On New Year's Day." Then he read the name of the deceased. It was his own.

In today's Gospel Lesson, God uses the word "fool" to address the self-centered, short-sighted, wealthy man who planned a long life of ease with no thought of his human condition of mortality. In planning and living out your own individual answer to the question, "What am I 'here after?" don't be a fool! Rather, acknowledge your human condition of mortality and rejoice in the promise of your ultimate fulfillment -- in the hereafter!

May God Bless you All!

5th sunday C in ordinary time. Love of God and love of neighbor

Scripture: Luke 10:29.

Two men were jogging one morning on the beach. They stopped abruptly when they spotted an exotic, ancient lamp half-buried in the sand. One of the men picked up the object and began rubbing off the sand. Whereupon, a Genie suddenly appeared before him. "Sir, because you rubbed this mystical lamp, I can grant you and your companion one wish each," said the Genie. To which the first man replied, "I wish to be the smartest man in the world." "Your wish is hereby granted," said the Genie.

Then, to the second man, he said, "Now you may make a wish. What is your wish?" "I wish to besmarter than the smartest man in the world," he replied. Whereupon, to his surprise, the Genie made him into a woman.

"Life is full of surprises," so goes the old cliché. Moreover, the Gospels say it over-and-over again: Jesus' life and teachings are full of surprises. He came to a generation of people who were anticipating a powerful "Military-Hero" Messiah. But soon He told them that the Messiah would be branded a common criminal and suffer torture and execution. What a surprise!

He came to a generation of people steeped in a philosophy of vengeance: an eye-for-an-eye, a tooth-for-a-tooth, a life-for-a-life. And He told them to "turn the other cheek; to go the second mile; to love their enemies -- pray for them, forgive them. What a surprise!

He told them that those people who loved money would have about as much chance of experiencing God's Presence in their lives as a camel has of getting through the eye of a needle. What a surprise!

He told them that those people whose top priority was trying to be Number One would come in last. What a surprise!

Jesus' life and teachings are full of surprises like these, and probably none greater than the one He springs on us in today's Gospel.

An expert in the Religious Law approaches Jesus and asks, "Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?" Jesus replies with a question of His own. "What is written in the Law?" He asks. "you shall love God with all your heart and soul and strength and mind ... and your neighbor as yourself," the lawyer replies. "You have answered right; do this and you will live," Jesus answers. (Do this and you will inherit eternal life! Do this and you will experience the real Presence of God in your life!) But the lawyer, seeking to embarrass Jesus, says to Him, "And who is my neighbor?" Whereupon, Jesus gives His answer in the form of the "Parable of the Good Samaritan"...

On the road running from Jericho to Jerusalem, a traveler is mugged by robbers. They beat him, strip him and leave him laying on the road half-dead. A Jewish priest passes by, sees the man in distress, but keeps on going. A Levite (a priest's assistant) passes by, sees the man in distress, but keeps on going. Then a Samaritan comes along. (Samaritans were regarded by the Jews as heretics and semipagans -- outcasts, enemies). The Samaritan has compassion. He gives the man in distress first aid, then takes him to an inn and provides money for his continued care.

After telling this story, Jesus asks the lawyer, "Which of these three, do you think, proved neighbor to the man who fell among robbers?" (Lk. 10: 3, 6). The lawyer answers, "The one who showed mercy on him," that is to say, "the Samaritan whom we regard as an outcast and our enemy." To which Jesus replies, "go and do likewise" (Lk. 10:37).

In so doing, Jesus demonstrates to His interrogator that the question, "Who is my neighbor?" is the wrong question. The proper question is "To whom must I be a neighbor?" Answer: To the person in need, regardless of class or status or social standing, or race, or religion; to any person in need, even one whom I have categorized as enemy. What a surprise!

Although this one of Jesus' best-known teachings, nevertheless when it confronts us in a real-life situation, it not only takes us by surprise, it shocks us.

Am I really expected to lend a helping hand to that hateful, spiteful, vengeful person who can't get along with anyone? Unbelievable!

Am I really expected to treat all other persons in a way that demonstrates my unshaking belief in the Gospel Truth that God loves each and every one of them as much as He loves me? Unbelievable!

And yet ... and yet ... Jesus is saying to us now, "You'd better believe it if you want to realize your full human potential. You'd better believe it if you want to experience wholeness of life. You'd better believe it if you want peace of mind and heart and soul. You'd better believe it if you want to get the best earthly taste of the promised ultimate joy of eternal life with God."

The former pastor of the Riverside Church in New York City was fond of telling the story of an elderly woman parishioner who had acquired an immense dislike for him. Worse yet, she spent a good deal of her time conveying these intense feelings to others in the parish. The pastor knew this, and he dreaded the day when his parish calls inevitably would lead to her door...

Finally that day came, and he paced back and forth in front of her building, trying to work up the courage to go in. Hoping she would not be home so that he could just leave his card, he climbed the stairs and knocked on her door. No answer. Again he knocked, no answer. He knocked a third time and heard a faint sound inside, but no one came to the door.

Then he knelt down and looked through the keyhole to see if anything was wrong. "Maybe the poor woman has had a seizure of some kind and needs help," he said to himself. But, as he stared through the keyhole, to his surprise he saw an eye staring back. And then he heard the woman say, with a chuckle, "This is the first time we have seen eye-to-eye." "Yes!" he replied, "and we had to get down on our knees to do it."

Two thousand years ago, even among Jesus' close followers, there were those who did not see eye-to-eye with some of His teachings. And to this day there are those of us (Jesus' followers) who still refuse to accept and to obey certain of His teachings. We acknowledge Jesus Christ as Son of God and our Lord and Savior, yet we think we know better. We think we're smarter than Christ. It's the original sin all over again. We think we can outsmart God.

Vengeance should not reside in your heart! Racism should not be an acceptable part of your life. "Too busy to get involved" should not be an acceptable rationale for avoiding your Christian responsibility.

Jesus' definition of neighbor should not be rejected as a vital, guiding principle of your life!

We're talking here about the root causes of much of the alienation, and the anxiety, and the fear, and the violence that are so prevalent, and even out of control, in today's society. And if this still comes as a shock, Jesus is telling us now, loud and clear, "You'd better believe it!"

Reconciliation ... compassion ... caring ... sharing -- these are the ways to a better world, according to Jesus; these are the ways to peace of mind and heart and soul, according to Jesus. And, you'd better see eye-to-eye with Jesus' teaching, you'd better believe it, if you are among those who are genuinely concerned about the kind of world you'll be handing over to your children and your grandchildren.

pentecost sunday C

Famous Last Words
"Thank God I have done my duty."

"As the Father sent Me, so am I sending you"
John 20:21

It was early morning and the local diner was buzzing with the usual breakfast crowd. Suddenly, there was a commotion outside and a man at the door shouted, "Run for your lives. Big Jake is coming!" As everyone scattered, an enormous man burst through the door, threw tables and chairs aside, strode up to the counter and demanded a gallon of coffee. The frightened proprietor quickly produced a gallon jug filled to the brim with coffee, which the enormous man consumed in one huge gulp. Trembling with fear, the proprietor stammered, "Can I g-get you another?" "No sir," said the enormous one, "I've got to go. Haven't you heard? Big Mike is coming!"1

In today's Gospel, it is the evening of the first Easter Sunday. The terrified Apostles are hiding behind closed doors. They fear for their lives. Jesus has been crucified. They worry that they'll be next; that Jesus' enemies are coming. But their fear-and-trembling is misguided, because Jesus is coming!

"The doors were closed in the room where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews," the Apostle John tells us. "Jesus came and stood among them. He said to them: 'peace be with you... as the Father sent Me, so am I sending you ...receive the Holy Spirit." And "the disciples were filled with joy!" (Jn. 20:19-22).

On this Day of Pentecost, Jesus comes to us. He is in our midst now, saying to each of us, "Peace be with you...as the Father sent Me, so am I sending you...receive the Holy Spirit." And, hopefully, we who struggle from day-to-day with our fears and anxieties, are filled with joy.

Jesus comes to us and reveals the Good News of the Resurrection Power of God. He comes to us as our Risen Lord. He has risen in order to bring us peace of soul, to bring us to fulfillment, to make our lives whole and complete -- everlastingly whole and complete.

Week-after-week, in a variety of ways, we hear this Good News, but are we experiencing this Word of God at any deep level of our being? Or are we routinely allowing our everyday fears and anxieties to prevail, thereby robbing us of the ability to rejoice in the reality that a Gracious God is with us in Jesus Christ?

What happened to the New Testament Christians was that when Jesus came into their midst they experienced God's Presence in a new and intense way -- so overwhelming, so fulfilling, so healing, they couldn't contain it within themselves. They had to get the Good News out to the whole world.

What they realized in their innermost being was that the Spirit of a Loving God was present in His Son, and His Son was actually present in their midst, as the perfect Model of what human life is all about:

I'd rather have example than precept any day,
I'm glad my Saviour walks with me, not merely points the
way.

The eye's a better pupil and more willing than the ear;
Fine counsel is confusing, but example's always clear.

The greatest of all teachers was my Lord Who
lived His creed,
For to see good put in action is what all His people need.

I may not fully understand the doctrines I've received,
But there's no misunderstanding how He loved
and how He lived.2

Many have looked at Jesus, but how many have seen Him? Many have seen His shadow, His people, His story. But only a handful have seen Jesus. Only a few have looked through the fog of religiosity and found him. Only a few have dared to stand eye-to-eye and heart-to-heart with Jesus and say, "I believe that you are the Son of God . . . You are the cause of my joy . . . I rejoice in Your Presence in my life."

The Apostle John tells us that Jesus' last words to His disciples included this instruction:

As the Father sent Me, so I am sending you.

As the Father sent Jesus, so He is sending us now.

"Thank God I have done my duty," were the last words of the famous British naval officer, Horatio Alger. Would that they be the last words of us all!

In one of the "Peanuts" cartoon strips, Charlie Brown holds up his hands and says to his friend, Lucy: "These are hands which may someday accomplish great things . . . These are hands which may someday do marvelous works." To which Lucy replies, "They've got jelly on them."

In the interest of your eternal happiness, do not talk about your Christian duty with jelly on your hands. God's formula for happiness is not meant to stick somewhere between your knowing it and doing it. If your neighbor -- or your Church -- is in need of material support, don't let your money keep sticking to your fingers. If a person is in need of your forgiveness, don't let your compassion keep sticking to your self-righteousness. If a brother or a sister needs relief from loneliness, don't let your understanding keep sticking to your indifference.

Our world is full of misery and fear and ignorance. Our plain Christian duty is to do all we can to make the little corner of our influence less miserable and fearful and ignorant than it was before we came into it. Our duty to live for our own happiness and our duty to live for the happiness of others are inseparable. God wills the happiness of all. Our happiness is doing God's Will.

I'd rather have example than precept any day; Thank God my Savior walks with me, not merely points the way.

Follow Jesus' example, and let these be your last words, at the end of each day: "Thank God I have done my duty!"

good friday homily

He Cannot Be Bought
The Good Friday Cross.

"It is finished"
John 19:30

The story is told of a man who dreamed that he saw Our Lord tied to a whipping post while a soldier scourged Him unmercifully. He saw the whip in the soldier's hand, its thick cords studded with pieces of lead which cut into the flesh with each blow. As the cruel whip came down on Jesus' back, the horrified dreamer shuddered to see the bloody welts appear. Finally the man could stand it no longer. As the soldier raised his arm and prepared to strike again, the dreamer rushed forward intending to grab the soldier from behind and restrain him. Whereupon, the soldier turned around, and the dreamer recognized himself.

A Good Friday legend tells of an episode in Jesus' childhood:

When Jesus was a boy at Nazareth he met a man named Fidus, who confided this desire: "I am looking for Joseph, the carpenter. From him I want to learn the art of his craft." "I can lead you to him," answered Jesus, "for he is My foster father." As Fidus watched and learned from Joseph, Jesus told him of a great King who would one day be raised upon a throne so high that all the world would see. Fidus exclaimed: "Would that I might build the throne of the great King." "Fidus," said Jesus, "you will be the one to build the throne of the great King, the throne from which He shall rule the nations. I promise you."

Years passed, Fidus went home to Jaffa and practiced his trade with honor. He happened to return to Jerusalem on a day when the city was in an uproar. He could hear cries of: "Crucify Him! He makes himself a King." As he passed the gate of Pilate's palace, a Roman soldier who knew the skill of Fidus greeted him: "You are especially welcome, Fidus. Three are to be crucified today, and only two crosses are prepared." Fidus was assigned the task. He put all his skill into its making, and viewed the finished product with pride. Later he followed the crowd outside the town and up a hill. He heard a voice, a voice he could never forget. Looking closely he saw a figure, a figure he could never forget. Yes, it was the boy from Nazareth, now a man, but writhing in agony on the "throne" Fidus had made. His eyes opened, and he knew what he had done.

I want to suggest that there are two appropriate forms of our response to this King of ours, whose throne is shaped in the form of a cross. The first is for us to admit our responsibility for not only what happened on Good Friday, but what is happening in today's world. The Gospel insist that unless you take this first step, you'll never go any further along the way. Yet, this is exactly where many of us turn off very fast. We have a built-in defense mechanism which begins to blame others for the state we're in. We blame our parents: "They didn't bring us up right." If we happen to be parents, then we blame our children: "Kids these days won't learn to accept responsibility. It's okay to be in love with life and want to reform the world, but you've got to be realistic." Political parties blame each other. Nations blame each other. One group of people blames another group of people. There are always "those others"to blame it on: "It's their fault!"

Some of you may have read about "Gumperson's Law." "Gumperson's Law" explains why everything that can go wrong somehow does. One of the kids always comes down with the mumps the day before you're leaving for vacation. When you're in the city and late for an appointment, every parking place is on the other side of the street going the other way. "Gumperson's Law" explains why your last match can never get the campfire lighted, but that same match can start a forest fire. It explains the forgotten casserole, still in the oven, when the holiday dinner is over.

Now that we've heard about it, we can start blaming "Gumperson's Law" for our ills and the world's ills if we want to. But the New Testament writers say "No!" They are telling us to "repent" instead -- especially on Good Friday. They are telling us to look at ourselves honestly. They are telling us to be honest about the way we've been hurting ourselves, the way we've been hurting other people, the way we've been hurting the world. Only then, they tell us, can we begin to make an appropriate response to God's Love as we stand at the foot of the Cross.

Each year at this time, Judas' betrayal of Jesus for thirty pieces of silver reminds us that the "sellout" is not a new phenomenon. Promises broken, loyalties betrayed, principles abandoned -- these are not the inventions of our Age. What is new, however, is contemporary Society's easy acceptance of the "sellout" spirit.

Oscar Wilde once wrote that, in modern society, "People know the price of everything but the value of nothing." Someone else has characterized our time as the "Age of the Sellout," in which "Everything is for sale. Every person has his or her price. Honesty and integrity are traded off, like chattels, for money and power." Although this assessment may be an overstatement, nevertheless it contains more than a grain of truth -- enough truth, in fact, that it should be a matter for our deep concern. Whether it is the "Age of the Sellout" or the "Age of the Fallout" or the "Age of the Blowout," it is our Age. This is the time into which we, as a Christian People, have been called to give light. This is our one-and-only opportunity to be the "salt of the earth."

St. Paul writes, "It is not I who live, but Christ who lives in me." Let Christ live in you. You may find yourself walking the Way of the Cross more often than the way of Resurrection Glory, but even in the darkest valley you will not be forsaken. Jesus has promised that He will be with you always. He will not abandon you. He will lead you into your eternal fulfillment. You can rely on that absolutely. Jesus is loyal. Jesus keeps his promises. Jesus will never sell us out. We can sell Our Lord; but He cannot be bought.

Once Jesus is on the Cross, Almighty God has done everything He can to prove His love for us, short of taking our freedom away. This He will not do! He honors the gift that He has given us, and when our freedom leads us into sin and despair, He keeps on loving us.

God doesn't withdraw and say, "All right people down there, get your affairs straightened out, and then I'll love you." He doesn't say, "Achieve world peace, rebuild your damaged earth, establish brotherhood, and then I will love you." The sheer wonder of His love we see on the Cross is that God identifies with us in our broken humanity. Right where you are hurting most today, right where you feel fear and anxiety, right where your hopes are burning, right where you need to be confirmed in those hopes, right where you need to be strengthened for action, right at the heart of your real humanity, that's where the Love of God is.

Consider that the "brotherhood" Jesus preached was best understood by those who allowed Him to touch their lives of sin and misery -- to "mourn" with them: the gangsters and the prostitutes; the blind and the crippled; the lonely and the downtrodden. God, in His own time, will bring the New Kingdom to fulfillment and the evils of sin and suffering will be no more. Until that day of final victory and total rejoicing, there will be misery and suffering for all to bear. The Cross is our guarantee that we shall never have to endure the burden alone. Jesus cares! Jesus mourns -- not for us, but with us.

The Good Friday Cross is our ultimate sign of the incredible Good News of God's Love for us. The Good Friday Cross is our ultimate sign of God's fidelity. The Good Friday Cross is our final assurance that God will not abandon us, ever. Through Jesus' death on the Good Friday Cross, God gives us the strength to be at peace when, at last we say, as He did, "It is finished!" (Jn. 19:30). Out of death comes new life. First an ending, then a new beginning. First Good Friday, then Easter morning. First, "It is finished," then blessed, eternal fulfillment, in the hands of a Gracious God!

5th sunday of lent C version 2

There was a certain bishop who loved to play golf. He carried his golf bag in the trunk of his car,
always ready to get out on the course should the opportunity arise. One year, when Spring rolled
around, he announced that he would make the supreme sacrifice: no golf during Lent. He did well for
two weeks, resisting every temptation to open that car trunk. But one bright sunny morning as he rode
past a beautiful golf course he wavered. "I'll just hit a few practice swings," he said to himself. But
when he got out on the turf, he was lost. He played the entire 18 holes. Unfortunately for him,
however, a heavenly angel was watching. The angel reported to St. Peter, "Look down there, the
bishop is playing golf. He's breaking his Lenten promise. He must be punished! Shall I strike him dead
with a lightening bolt?" St. Peter replied, "No. That's being too easy on him. I'll punish him more
severely." The bishop was then on the last tee. It was a difficult hole to play, 450 yards long. The
bishop swung and hit an amazing drive. The ball hit the green and rolled into the cup: a hole in one.
"Look at that," the angel cried, "a 450-yard hole in one. Do you call that punishment?" To which St.
Peter replied, "For a golfer that is the greatest punishment possible. The bishop has just hit the most
spectacular shot in golf history, and he can't tell anyone about it."
In today's Gospel, a group of scribes and Pharisees are determined to mete out the strongest
possible punishment under the law -- death by stoning -- to a woman who has been caught committing
adultery. Actually, they want to use the incident to entrap Jesus. "Teacher," they say to Him, "this
woman has been caught in the act of adultery. In the law, Moses ordered such women to be stoned.
What do You say about the case?" (Jn. 8:4-5). They perceive that Jesus would call for mercy, in which
case they would accuse Him of flaunting the law. Jesus replies, "Let the man among you who has no
sin be the first to cast a stone at her" (Jn. 8:7). Hearing this, "the audience drifted away, one by one,
beginning with the elders," John tells us (Jn. 8:9).
There are several Gospel episodes in which Jesus' adversaries try to create a situation in which they can
use His words and deeds against Him. There also are Gospel episodes in which Jesus' friends use His
words and deeds against Him. In the third chapter of Mark, Jesus has begun to attract a large following.
"He had healed so many," Mark tells us, "that all who had diseases pressed in upon Him" (Mk. 3:10).
Because of the crush, Jesus tells His disciples to have a boat ready for Him so that He might withdraw
in safety. Away from the crowds now, He goes about enlisting twelve men into His ministry. He tells
them to drop everything in order to involve themselves completely in His service. "Then," Mark says
simply, "He went home" (Mk. 3:19). There the crowds catch up with Him. Seeing all the commotion,
His friends begin to spread the word: "He is beside Himself" (Mk. 3:21). In other words, "He is a mad
man. He's crazy." On another occasion, Jesus comes to Nazareth, "the town where He was brought up"
(Lk. 4:16). As was His custom on the sabbath day, He entered the synagogue to read the Scripture and
to preach. He opened the book and found the place where it was written,
The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach Good News to the poor. He
has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty
those who are oppressed ... (Lk. 4:18).
Jesus "closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant ... and He began to say to them, 'Today this
Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.' And all spoke well of Him and wondered at the gracious
words that proceeded out of His mouth" (Lk. 4:21-22). Then Jesus began to apply the lesson to His
friends and neighbors sitting before Him and, suddenly, His words no longer sounded gracious to them.
They became hostile because He was telling them that God's Love extended to all peoples -- even their
enemies. Suddenly, Jesus was a prophet without honor in His own home town. The towns-people were
"filled with wrath." "They rose up and led Him to the brow of the hill on which their city was built, that
they might throw Him down headlong" (Lk. 4:28). In other words, they tried to lynch Him. John's
Gospel tells us that after Jesus had preached the parable of the Good Shepherd, many of His own
people decided that He was possessed by a devil. "He is out of His mind," they said, "Why pay any
attention to Him anymore?"
Mohandas Gandhi dedicated his adult life to the cause of peace and brotherhood. He traveled the length
and breadth of India, living among the poor, proclaiming release to the captives and liberty to the
oppressed. He labored incessantly to convince his people that it was the truth, not violence, that would
make them free. He struggled valiantly to stop the bloody confrontations between his people and the
British military power. He struggled valiantly to stop the bloody religious conflict between the Hindu
majority (of which he himself was a member) and the Moslem minority. He struggled valiantly to heal
and to reconcile through non-violence. He did not submit passively to injustice. Day in and day out, he
denounced it. But always he confronted the unjust in love. Not the sword, but love was his weapon.
In the motion picture "Gandhi," there is a moving scene at Ghandi's bedside where he lays nearly dead
from fasting. He had undertaken the fast in part as a protest against the civil war between the Hindus
and the Moslems, which was growing in intensity. He had said that he would fast until it killed him
unless the fighting stopped. Reports begin to drift in that the violence is subsiding. His closest friends
encourage him to stop the fast, but Gandhi refuses. He says he would end the fast only when he is
convinced that all the violence is ended. As the scene unfolds, one of the Hindu fighters rushes into
Gandhi's room. He throws a piece of bread on the bed. His voice is filled with anguish as he cries out,
"Eat! Eat! I am going to hell." Gandhi replies softly, "Only God decides who is going to hell." The
distraught man says, "I killed a child. I smashed his head against a wall." "Why?" Gandhi asks gently.
Sobbing, the man answers, "They killed my son. My boy. The Moslems killed my son." To which,
Gandhi replies, "I know a way out of hell. Find a child, a child whose mother and father have been
killed. A little boy. And raise him as your own. Only be sure that he is a Moslem and that you raise
him as one."
The avenging Hindu was not "going to hell" as he told Gandhi. He already was in hell. Whenever we
refuse to let God be God, we create our own living hell. Whenever we try to exercise God's
prerogatives, we close ourselves off from the abundant life Jesus offers us. Whenever we pronounce
judgment on another in an ultimate, vengeful, unforgiving way, we have been conquered by evil.
If we get serious about following Jesus, what will people think? Will they think of us as they thought
of Jesus? Will they think we've gone bananas? Jesus has told us to be prepared for that response when
we take up our cross daily and follow Him. And Paul wrote, "We are fools for Christ ... When reviled,
we bless; when persecuted, we endure; when slandered, we try to conciliate" (1 Cor. 4:10, 12-13).
Forgive? Endure? Conciliate? "Don't be a fool!" people will say.
"Don't be a fool, Gandhi!" Immediately after Gandhi has given the avenging Hindu his way out of hell,
the scene shifts. Gandhi has left his bed of fasting and is once more out among the people. And as the
crowd presses in upon him, he is killed by an assassin's bullet.
"Don't be a fool, Jesus!" Live up to our expectations. You've got charisma. We can strike down our
enemies with You as our leader." But Jesus makes it clear that the Father has a better idea. And in the
closing scene of His life, Jesus shows us the way out of our living hell: "Father, forgive them" (Lk.
23:34). Our calling is to partake in the madness of a compassionate, reconciling, forgiving heart. Jesus
has given the world the way out of its living hell. Follow Him!
God Bless you all!