Friday, February 4, 2022 - Homily - St. John de Britto

Will you like John de Britto dare to stand up for the truth?

Friday, February 4, 2022 - St. John de Britto SJ - Are you like John de Britto ready to face the consequences of standing up for the truth?

To read the texts click on the texts: 1 Cor 9:19-27; Jn 12:20-32

John de Britto was a native of Lisbon, Portugal. He was born on March 1, 1647, and was martyred in India on February 11, 1693 when he was forty-six years of age.

He was dedicated at birth to St. Francis Xavier, and was a noble friend of King Pedro. He entered the Society of Jesus at the age of fifteen. In his effort to promote conversions among the native Indian people as a missionary to Goa, he wandered through Malabar and other regions and even adopted the customs and dress of the Brahmin caste which gave him access to the noble classes. His dress was yellow cotton; he abstained from every kind of animal food and from wine in an effort to be one with the people he wished to serve. In 1683, John de Britto had to leave India but returned in 1691. He advised Teriadeven, a Maravese to dismiss the many wives he had and keep only one. However, one of Teriadeven’s wives was the niece of the king. Due to this, John de Britto began to be persecuted. On February 11, 1693, he was taken to the capital Ramnad and from there led to Oriyur a small village in Tamil Nadu, where he was tortured and put to death by beheading.

He had wrought many conversions during his life, established many stations, and was famous for his miracles before and after his death. He was beatified by Pius IX, 21, August, 1853.

Pope Pius XII canonized him in 1947.

The Gospel text for the feast of John de Britto is from the what may be seen as a turning point in the Gospel of John. This is because with the coming of the Greeks to Jesus, the Evangelist indicates that the unbelieving world is coming to Jesus. Since Jesus has come not for a select few but for the whole world, this indicates that now the Mission of Jesus will be completed through his glorification on the Cross and his resurrection.

The disciples must realize that following and obeying Jesus, as servants obey their masters, will lead to persecution. What has happened with Jesus will be repeated in the disciples’ lives. While the authority of the one sent is the same as the sender, it is also true that the response to the one sent will be the same as the response to the sender. Those who do not accept the word of truth, spoken by God in Jesus, will indulge in persecution. Those who accept the word will respond by living out that word in their lives.  Rejection of the disciples means rejection of Jesus because it is Jesus who sends them.  Rejection of Jesus means rejection of God who sent him.

In a world in which the resonating message is to “have more”, it is not always easy to speak and live Jesus’ message to “be more”. Those who do this are labelled as crazy and out of touch with reality. John de Britto was not afraid to do this and was ready to face the consequences. He was ready because he was part of the vine to live and die as Jesus did. He stood up for the truth right to the very end.

Thursday, February 3, 2022

 

How often have you given up when the results of your action were not as you expected? Will you keep on keeping on today?

How would you define Mission? Will you engage wherever you are today?

Thursday, February 3, 2022 - How often have you given up when the results of your action were not as you expected? Will you keep on keeping on today? How would you define Mission? Will you engage wherever you are today?

 To read the texts click on the texts:1Kings 2:1-4,10-12; Mk 6:7-13

The text of today contains what may be termed as the “Mission Discourse” according to Mark. Jesus sends his disciples out on mission, and instructs them about the content of mission and provides a strategy for mission. The content combines word and action, proclamation and deed. The Kingdom is not merely a spiritual enterprise, but connected intimately with the whole of life. The strategy that Jesus gives may be summarised in one word, which is “detachment”. Jesus instructs them to be detached from material things and even from the outcome of mission. The job of the one who is sent is to engage in mission and not bother about the results. The results will be taken care of by God.

The Church has two patrons of Mission St. Francis Xavier and St. Theresa of the Child Jesus, whose lives were quite different from each other. While St. Francis Xavier was active moving from place to place with the hope of baptising as many as he could, St. Theresa of the Child Jesus spent her religious life as a Cloistered Carmelite and never went from place to place but remained where she was and still did mission. By placing these two different individuals and lives before us, the Church is pointing out to us that Mission is one: namely working to make the kingdom that Jesus inaugurated a reality. This may be done through various ministries or apostolate. While one kind of ministry may be prayer, another kind can be preaching. 

Sunday, March 6, 2022 - First Sunday of Lent - Responding to temptations like Jesus did

To read the texts click on the texts: Dt 26:4-10; Rom 10:8-13; Lk 4:1-13

Lent is a forty day period of fast and abstinence before Easter. It begins on Ash Wednesday and ends on Holy Saturday. Sundays are not counted as part of these forty days because on Sundays, we commemorate the Resurrection of the Lord.

While “Lent” means the spring season, it also translates the Latin term, “quadragesima” which means “forty days” or literally the “fortieth day”. The forty day period is symbolic of the forty days that Jesus spent in the desert, a period mentioned in all the synoptic gospels. “By the solemn forty days of Lent, the Church unites herself each year to the mystery of Jesus in the desert.” (CCC 540).

By choosing the story of the temptation of Jesus as the Gospel for the first Sunday in Lent, the Church gives us an orientation of how each of us must approach Lent and life itself. The three temptations of Jesus have been seen as corresponding to the temptations of Israel. The temptations involved bread, testing the Lord, and idolatry. Matthew followed this order in his narrative of the temptation scene. However, Luke changed the order of the temptations. Luke placed the testing of the Lord at the end of the temptations because, for Luke, testing the Lord on the pinnacle of the Jerusalem Temple is the climax. The Temple is the place where Luke begins his Gospel and the Temple is the place where Luke’s Gospel will end.

In Luke, unlike in Matthew and Mark, the temptations come after the period of forty days and thus, highlight the fact that Jesus would have been vulnerable. He would have been weakened by hunger. This is why the first temptation arises out of Jesus’ physical need. It is not like, in Matthew, a temptation to turn “stones” into bread. In this temptation, Jesus is challenged to turn “this stone into a loaf of bread”. While this may be understood as a temptation to perform a popular or magical sign, it seems better to understand it as a temptation t use his power for his own benefit. It is a temptation to be selfish and to satisfy one’s own needs. It is also a temptation to concern oneself with the material alone as is evident in the response of Jesus. There is much more that sustains the human than mere physical satisfaction.

The second temptation, to acquire power, authority, and dominion by worshipping Satan, is really a temptation to take the easy way rather than the right way. It is a temptation to compromise. Jesus’ response is that there is only one way to gain authority, power, and dominion and that is by worshipping God, not things or persons.

In the third and final temptation, the devil quotes scripture since Jesus has used scripture to overcome the previous two temptations. This temptation is to put God to the test. Jesus’ response, with words taken from the Book of Deuteronomy, is clear and unambiguous. God is to be worshipped and obeyed and not put to the test. The final verse in Luke, which states that the Devil left him till an opportune time, is Luke’s way of saying that Jesus continued to be tempted throughout his life. This is evident in the numerous requests that continued to be made of him for signs and wonders. It is evident even more, in the Garden of Gethsemane, when he was sorely tempted to opt for a way other than the way of the Cross. Jesus, like he did in the desert, overcame all temptations. The uniqueness of Jesus is not merely that he was without sin, but that, even after being tempted, he continued to remain sinless. Thus, the temptation must be interpreted as the constant struggle or conflict between God’s reign and the reign of Satan.

This struggle continues today, even after the death and resurrection of Jesus. We continue to be lured by numerous temptations. One of these is the temptation to be successful at all costs, even if it means belittling others or riding roughshod over them. Other temptations are to have more, rather than to be more, or to choose the easy way rather than the right way, or to sit on the fence rather than to take a stand, or to take the broad road rather than the road of pain and sacrifice, or even to focus so much on the external that the internal is forgotten.

How are we to overcome these temptations? What must our response be in the face of such temptations? We do not need to look far, or go to manuals on ethics, or even listen to the counsel of the wise. We have an outstanding and practical example of how to overcome temptations in Jesus and in the response. In a word, the temptations are not so much about the temptations themselves, or even about Satan and his attempts to entice, allure, and beguile us. The temptations are about Jesus. They are about his fidelity and constancy to the mission. They are about his focus and his commitment. They are about his pointed dedication to God. We are offered today an example to follow and imitate. To be sure, the story of the temptations does not give us ready made answers to all the allurements and enticements we face everyday but, they do point us to the response of Jesus, which at all times remained a response in which God’s will, rather than his own, took primacy.

As we begin the grace filled season of Lent, we are invited and challenged by Jesus’ response to Satan. We are invited and challenged to make Jesus’ response our own.

Wednesday, February 2, 2022 - Homily

 Jesus came to challenge our way of looking at the world.

Wednesday, February 2, 2022 - The Presentation of the Lord - How will you show that the presence of Jesus has changed your life for the better? What three actions will you perform to show that the coming of Jesus has made a difference to your life?

To read the texts click on the texts: Mal 3:1-4; Heb 2:14-18; Lk 2:22-40

Until 1969, the ancient feast of the presentation of Our Lord, which is of Oriental origin, was known in the West as the feast of the Purification of Our Lady, and closed the Christmas season, forty days after the Lord's birth.  However, today the focus is more on the Lord than his mother and hence the feast is named The Presentation of The Lord.

The Gospel text chosen for the feast of today consists of the presentation of Jesus in the Temple, the purification of Mary and the Song of Simeon.

According to Jewish law a woman became ceremonially unclean on the birth of a child. During this time, she was not permitted to enter the Temple or touch any holy object. On the eighth day the child was circumcised, after which the mother was unclean an additional thirty-three days—sixty-six if the child was female. At the conclusion of this period, the mother offered a sacrifice, either a lamb or, if she was poor, two doves or two young pigeons. That Luke does not mention a lamb but refers to two turtledoves or pigeons may indicate that Jesus was born to the poor of Israel.  In addition, the first son was to be presented to the Lord as a reminder of the Exodus, and then, bought back with an offering. Luke does not mention that Jesus was redeemed either because he was not aware of this requirement or because he wanted to convey that Jesus was constantly devoted or dedicated to the Lord. In this part Luke emphasizes that the law of the Lord was fulfilled in all respects at the birth of Jesus.

Simeon is introduced immediately after the presentation of Jesus and the purification of Mary. He too like Zechariah and Elizabeth is described as “righteous”. He is also “devout”. He looked forward to the restoration of the people and the fulfillment of God’s redemptive work. The Spirit, who had revealed to him that he would not see death until he saw the anointed one of God, is the same Spirit who rests on him and gives him utterance to speak.

His hymn of praise of God is known as the “Nunc Dimittis” (“Now Dismiss”). It is only loosely related to the occasion of the birth of Jesus. It declares the praise of God for faithfulness and the redemption of the people. Though some interpret “now you are dismissing your servant in peace” to mean that Simeon was now prepared to die, it can also mean that he recognizes that he is being released from his mission to watch for the coming of the Messiah because he has now seen the coming of the one who will bring salvation.  His blessing relates the birth of Jesus to the fulfillment of the promise of salvation and looks ahead to the inclusion of all peoples in the experience of the blessings of God. Even as the parents of Jesus wonder at what is being said by Simeon, he blesses them and then addresses Mary, the mother of Jesus. He speaks about the coming rejection of Jesus. Not everyone will want to see the light, not everyone will want to receive the salvation by God for all peoples. Not everyone will recognize God coming in Jesus. Jesus will be rejected and treated as someone to be opposed. Even his mother will have to share in his sufferings.

Jesus came not to make us comfortable but to wake us up from our sleep and this is what Simeon had prophesied. He came to challenge our way of looking at the world. This challenge is not easy to accept because it means that many of our preconceived ideas and notions will have to be given up and we will have to start anew. It is easier and more comfortable to live the selfish and self-centered lives that we are used to rather than be concerned about others. It is easier to be caught up in our own small worlds, rather than get out of our wells and see that life is much more than simply having more.

Tuesday, February 1, 2022 - Homily

 The Gospel text of today is calling us to persevering faith. Will you have such faith today?

Novenas and Feast of the Infant Jesus - Important Notice

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Tuesday, February 1, 2022 - How easily do you give up when this do not go your way? Will you persevere today?

To read the texts click on the texts:2Sam 18:9-10,14,24-25,30 – 19:3; Mk 5:21-43

In the text of today, Mark has used what is known as the sandwich construction. This means that he has introduced the incident about Jairus’ daughter being ill (5,21-24), interrupted it with the cure of the woman with the flow of blood (5,25-34) and continued again and completed the incident of the curing of Jairus’ daughter (5,35-43). The reason for this sandwich construction seems to be to heighten the suspense. Since Jairus’ daughter is at the “point of death”, Jesus must not tarry but hurry if she is to be saved. Yet, Jesus tarries, confident in the knowledge that he can indeed raise even the dead.

In these miracles, both of those who are healed are female, and the number twelve appears in both. The woman has been ill for twelve years and the girl is twelve years old. In both, the cure is the result of faith. These incidents indicate that Jesus has power over both life and death. He is indeed Lord of heaven and earth.

We may tend to give up and lose heart especially when our prayers remain unanswered for a period of time. We may sometimes accept defeat and stop praying. We may lose faith. These miracles call us to continue to hope even if there are times in our lives when our prayers do not seem to be answered. If we persevere and have faith like the woman and Jairus, we too can obtain from the Lord what seems impossible.