Epiphany: Homily by Fr Mathew

  

Epiphany of the Lord

 Is 60:1-6 ,Eph 3:2-3a, 5-6, Mt 2:1-12

Mark Twain used to tell a joke that he put a dog and a cat in a cage together as an experiment, to see if they could get along. They did. So he put in a bird, pig and goat. They, too, got along fine after a few adjustments. Then he put in a Baptist, a Presbyterian, and a Catholic, and hell broke loose. Mark Twain did not even bother putting together a Christian, a Muslim, and a Hindu. That was unthinkable in his days

In today’s world, we live in a global village. We humans are like animals who live in the same cage who profess different faiths and belong to different races and nationalities. However, our interaction with each other is very minimal. We are on a journey together as the prophet Isaiah speaks in the first reading and interestingly our destination is the same.

Nevertheless, sometimes I think we are like passengers on a plain. I have made long trips in my life. I was on a journey with a group of people in Europe for two weeks. I remember none of them by name now. I don’t remember who it was next to me when I made long trips to India. We ate together and sat together for many hours, but didn't care for each other as to remember who they were.

Isn't that what is happening in this world now? Do we get along with each other? Do you remember a scene from Eugene Ionesco’s play, “The Bald Soprano.”? Two people who do not know each other are sitting in a room. Their conversation reveals a series of striking coincidences. Both were born in Manchester. EACH has a two year daughter named Alice. They are now living in London and are actually dwelling in the same street. They live in the same apartment building and share the very same flat.  It transpires that they are husband and wife and they do not know each other.

We erect barriers among ourselves. We create our own idol gods who limits God’s generosity among ourselves. We refuse to get in touch with our own common humanity.

Epiphany brings those walls that we created among us down. It tells us that God is accessible to everyone regardless of your background. It declares the commonalty of the human race. After all, God created us in his image. God dwells in us.  As Paul says in the second reading, we are co-heirs, members of the same body and co-partners in the promise in Christ Jesus through the Gospel. Epiphany calls is to a new vision of the world that sees beyond the walls and borders we have created and to walk by the light which has dawned for all of humankind, a light by which we are able to recognize all men and women as our brothers and sisters under the loving providence of God, the Father of all.

In this world, in which there is a lot of hatred and war, we can become like guiding stars to those who are searching and looking for truth.

Christmas Homily by Fr Mathew December 24 &25, 2014

The Meaning of Christmas

On Christmas morning a woman told her husband, "I just dreamed that you gave me a beautiful diamond necklace. What do you think it means

You’ll know tonight, said the husband.

That evening just before opening presents, the husband came home with a small package and gave it to his wife.

Delighted, she opened it only to find a book entitled "The Meaning of Dreams."

What is the meaning of Christmas?

Most of the time, we do not respond to one another as human beings but as categories. I put you into some hard and past category and respond not to you but my mental construct about you.

And you may do the same to me.  When I am introduced to a stranger, he asks me, “what is it that you do.? And whatever I reply becomes the basis for 90 percent of all the thoughts or feelings that he will ever entertain toward me!

If I say, I am a priest he will be careful not say off color jokes in my presence, apologize for having missed church last Sunday and be sure that I am not invited to his next cocktail party.  If I were to say that I were retired, he would want to know, “retired from what?” so that he would be able pigeon-hole who I was and what I was like as a  person. If he could not comfortably work me into a pre-established category, he would always feel unsettled in my presence.

The Chinese have a saying which they use to explain prejudice and hatred toward others: “Call a dog a bad name and shoot it.” Once you have categorized someone, you are no more responsible to treat him as a human being.

We characterize our enemies as insects, animals or monsters and then feel justified to exploit them or take their lives.  When someone disagrees with us, we declare that person “sick,” “crazy” or stupid.  I label that person first.  From that point I feel justified to react to the label and pay no attention to the reality of the person.

The incarnation of Jesus challenges such assumptions that we hold against each other. Christ challenges every assumption as to who is good and who is evil.  Jesus mingled with all kinds of people: he enjoyed the company of the most despised people in the society. That does not mean that he spurned such conventionally upright individuals like Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimethea.

This is the challenge of incarnation. You and I are beloved children of God. We are God’s children; our human dignity comes from the fact that God created you and me in His image. We have a divine element in each and every one of us.  Our original human condition was tarnished by the sin of our first parents. By incarnation, God restored our human dignity.  God made his dwelling among us. He has established his tabernacle in each and every one of us.

Our tendency to categorize people is a great obstacle to see the worth of human life. Our inclination to pigeon-hole people is a real threat to cherish the divine in those people we meet.

The great mystery of divine incarnation is upheld and celebrated in everyday life by people of India by in the tradition of greeting one another by saying, “Namaste.” The person greets the other with folded hands and says, “Namaste” WHICH MEANS I revere you, I respect you because I see the same God who dwells in me dwells in you, too.

This is the great lesson we have to learn from the mystery of incarnation: When I respond to you and you respond to me without prejudice and preconception, we are both changed. When I am able to see someone as real human person with flesh and blood and not just categories in which I place you , I will find who I am and my real worth.  Then the incarnation will become a reality in my life.

To Paraphrase Meister Eckhart, if the Christ is born in Bethlehem a million times, and trudges the dusty roads of Palestine, preaching a million years, but is not born in your heart and life- and in my heart and life-then what difference does his Gospel make? But if you and I are crucified with the Christ and yet we live because he lives in us, then the good news is true: God is for us. God is with us. God is in us. We are thankful.

Homily by Fr Mathew 3rd Sunday of Advent Year B

Gaudete Sunday

Is 61:1-2a, 10-11,       I Thess 5:16-24,     Jn 1:6-8, 19-28

When does life begin? A priest, a rabbi and an Episcopal minister discussed this  at a Rotary luncheon.

“We believe that life begins at conception, “said the priest.

I would argue that life begins at birth,” added the rabbi.

The Episcopalian said nothing until he was pressed by others. “Well,” he said “,for me life begins when the children go to college, my mother-in-law moves to Florida, and the dog dies.”

Like the Episcopal clergyman, we are always waiting to lo live. Some people think that they cannot start a real life and s joyful life until something happens. Do not wait to live. It starts now, this very moment.

This is Gaudete Sunday. It means we Christians should be joyful. Paul says Rejoice always in the Lord. God is good. God loves us. God sent Jesus into our world so that we could be his brothers and sisters, children of God. Jesus overcame our greatest worry - death - and we shall live forever.

This does not mean there will be no gloom in our life. Of course, there will be ups and down, sadness and sufferings in our life. However, deep down, at the deepest level, we feel a serenity and peace emanating from a power superior to us and holding us up. I heard somewhere, "Happiness is no laughing matter." That's true. Happiness isn't all laughter. It is a steady, down-deep sense of peace and joy.

So let us "Rejoice always" as Paul says in today’s second reading. However, this does not rule out some angry and gloom moments in our life. Can you come up with 10 angry moments that really upset your life? I came up with a list of ten and I want to share with you to know whether your list will be like mine.

  You know what I came up with? I call them “favourite angers." These are things that we know will make us angry.

1) The first one I have written down is "lousy drivers." You can get all worked up just driving across town. That gets us started. Let's hear what "favorite angers" you can come up with.

2) Taxes. We believe in paying taxes. However, some of us can get worked up about taxes and Government

3) Politics and politicians. Our politicians are like taxes.

4) The way people park and take up two spaces

5)  Gasoline prices. We get upset when the gas prices go up when someone sneezes in the middle east and during the holidays.

6) Football coaches (Especially if they coach the Lions

7) Children who are disrespectful. (We can all get talking about that ... youngsters who get away with things we would have gotten clobbered for.)

8) Rap music. (That's one I hadn't thought of, but you're right.)

9) Tele-marketers. (We could all get going on that one.)

10)  Rudeness. (You notice it in lots of places. People are rude to store clerks. Or, they talk very loud on their mobile phone right in the midst of other people.)

-- The media. (Everyone will chime in on that one.)

  These are some of the things that really make us angry. They are called angry moments. We are ten days away from Christmas. This is Gaudete Sunday.  Paul says, let us rejoice always.

You've heard of the list of the seven deadly sins. I think it was Saint Teresa of Avila who said gloom is the eighth deadly sin. It's a contradiction for a Christian to be gloomy.

  

What can we do about that? I have a suggestion. The very first line of today's Gospel set me thinking. The opening words are: "A man named John was sent from God."

  Do you know what? Those same words can be used of each of us. Try putting your name in there: "A man named _”Matthew”_ was sent from God." "A woman named __Jenifer___ was sent from God."

It's true. God knew us even before we were born. God created us in his image and likeness.  God acts through us to move creation gradually toward its destiny.I want to ask you to do one thing this week. Just sit down and write down some of the gifts you have.  

What I want you to do later today, or sometime this week, is to list the gifts you have. They may not  be very sensational.  They may seem very small, but God gave them to you. Others may not even notice some gifts, but God gave them to you.  "A man/woman named ______ was sent from God." 

Be specific, not vague about your gifts. And make sure you come up with more than two or three, because our God is a God of largesse. When we think about ourselves this way, and see ourselves placed in the world to use our gifts to help shape creation, then we have a sense of purpose, a deep down peace, happiness. It beats feeding on one another's "favorite angers." Instead of thinking about all the problems and evils in the world, we think about the gifts God gave us to help overcome the kinds of things that cause our "favourite angers."

    

So think about your gifts. And take Paul's words to heart: "Rejoice always. In all circumstances give thanks, for this is the will of God for you."

Homily by Fr Mathew 1st Sunday of Advent

First Sunday of Advent – B

What Time It Is?
First Sunday of Advent, Year B 

Is. 63:16b-17; 1Cor 1:3-9; Mk 13:33-37 

On the 19^th of November, Fr John Peter and I were on a trip to Peru with the Gate 1 Travel company.We flew out from Miami and arrived in Lima at about 9. 30 pm.  At the airport in Lima, as we were coming out of the airport to meet our tour guide along with a few others on the same trip, there showed up a short man with a banner of the Gate one travel and greeted us. Then he said,  “You know Peru is 90%  Catholic. Throughout your stay in Peru, I want to tell you that  Jesus is going to be with you, walk with you, eat with you, talk to you and all you have to do is to follow Jesus. Jesus works for the Gate 1 travel company” Who would have thought that! And then he said, “Follow me; my name is Jesus Cardenas…”

This week we start the Advent season This is the First Sunday of Advent. The word “Advent” means ‘coming.’ Jesus is coming. Many of us are thinking of Christmas which is Jesus’ First coming. But none of the readings today mentions Jesus’ first coming.

Today’s gospel talks about some of the implications of Jesus’ Parousia (second coming).  One of them is waiting. Are we eagerly waiting for Jesus' second coming? During my trip to Peru, after spending a couple of days in Lima, we flew out from there to Cusco city. After eating our lunch, we went to visit a site where Incas ruled for many centuries before the Spanish invasion. We can still see some of the remains of Incas' civilization. As soon as we reached there, all of a sudden I got dizzy and  experienced shortness of breath. When I took a few steps which implied climbing, I found myself gasping for breath.

 I was so amazed that this happened to me because back home I was able to run and climb the hill adjacent to the Social Hall of the church. The next day I talked to the tour guide about my discomfort I had felt and expressed doubt about my ability to continue the trip. He tried to calm me down by saying that it was quite normal and what I was experiencing was because of the altitude. Cusco city is situated at 11000 feet above the sea level. It is said that we human beings can breathe normally in places which are at 7500 feet or below from the sea level. In places like Cusco, the level of oxygen was very low and that is why I was feeling the shortness of breath. We spent another six more days in places with an altitude of 13500 feet.  Even though I enjoyed the tour and I don’t regret about my decision,  to tell you the truth I was eagerly waiting for the day  to return to Lima where I could breathe normally.

This reminds me of the psalm 42 which says, “As the deer craves for the water brooks, so gasps my soul for You, O God.” Are we eagerly waiting for Jesus’ return? This can happen to us any moment at any time.

Therefore, we should be always on alert. We should be prepared. When this happens, how you would like to be found by Jesus? The answer to the question depends on our  response to the question “what time it is?"

In English language the word TIME has only limited meaning. On the other hand, the Greek language is very descriptive and expressive regarding the TIME as it has two words, Chronos and Kairos which explain the different dimensions of the Time. 

From “Chronos” originates the word Chronology in our English language. Our life is chronological. In a day we have 24 hours: we allocate different activities to different segments of the Time.  On a certain date we were born. We drink, eat, work, and watch TV and go to sports activates. These are all Chronos. In Chronos, I cannot remember what really happened on October 14, 1985 at 3.00 pm.

Kairos, on the other hand is, is God’s time. We know some of the events in our life are memorable and special. You remember the day you held your first child in ecstasy and committed yourself to raising your child in God’s way. You can still vividly remember the moment you decided to get married to your future husband or wife in a long term relationship.  You will never forget the day you reconciled to your enemy. You helped someone at a dire need and still those moments will never fade away. These events are Kairos or God’s time.

Our life is a mixture of chromos and Kairos. Chronos runs most of our life. However, if our life is full of CHRONOS-just eating, drinking, watching football, carousing and gossiping, it has no value in terms of our eternity.  We are like servants whose Master is away and he can return in any time. When he comes, let us be found as people who live by KAIROS.

In the first reading, Isiah warns that our actions are like rags.  That is why Paul talks about spiritual gifts in today’s second reading. Paul is asking us to use those gifts in an impeccable way. We can use them either to build the church or tear other people down. Make use of those gifts in a memorable way.  Convert them into God’s time (KAIROS) like a potter converts clay into beautiful vessels.

Christ is coming. We don’t know the time and the moment of his coming. How do we want to be found when he comes? We don’t want to be found like those people who eat, drink, watch football, criticize other people around us as if we are the only one who is perfect. As Christians, our task is make this life special for us and others.

In a nutshell, the message of Advent is this: “ be alert! Stay awake! Watch! For Christ is coming! Therefore let us know  the difference between clock time and God’s time and act up on it so that we will be found worthy and ready when he comes.

Homily by Fr Mathew 33rd Sunday

33^rd Sunday Year A 2014 Homily

Nov 14,2014

Mt 25: 14-30 The Parable of Talents

A doctor, a lawyer, a young boy and a priest were out for a Sunday afternoon flight on a small private plane. All of a sudden, the plane developed engine trouble. In spite of the best effort of the pilot, the plane started to go down.

Realizing the situation very dangerous, the pilot grabbed a parachute and yelled to the passengers that they had better jump, and then he bailed out.

Unfortunately there were only three parachutes. The doctor grabbed one of them and said,  “I am a doctor. I save lives. So I must live.” Then he jumped.

The lawyer then said, “I am a lawyer. We are the smartest people in the world. So I deserve to live.  Then he grabbed a parachute and jumped.

The priest looked at the little boy and said, “my son, I have lived a long full life. You are so young and you deserve to live. Take the last parachute and live in peace.

The little boy handed the parachute back to the priest and said, “Not to worry, father, the smartest man in the world just took off with my back pack.

How smart are we in our spiritual life? In other words, how smart are we in in terms of our eternity?

The parable throws light on the very nature of God. God is a risk taker. God risked his only son on a cross. The risky nature of God is revealed in the parable of the sower.  He scatters the seed all over the place indiscriminately by the way side, in the bushes and on the rock. God is not calculative in his actions. God also is very generous. He invests heavily in his three servants. He trusts them. He loves them.

The parable also  throws light on our attitude toward God. Those three servants are us. Two of the servants are proactive. They know they are supposed to take risk like their master.

This parable reminds us that the greatest gift that God has ever given to us is our human life. We human beings are the peak of living organisms.  It is the greatest gift that we have ever received from God. God wants us to cherish that life to the fullest. God wants us to use that life to uplift other people.

What this life is for? This life is to be expended to have more life. The parable of the seed expounds this principle in a vivid way! A grain of wheat is very tiny. If it chooses to remain in a shelf, it is good for nothing. It remains just as a tiny seed. On the other hand, if it falls on the ground, it loses its identity, and sprouts up and produces hundreds of grain of wheat.

Look around to see the greatest things that  happened in the world because of the life  expended by Jesus on a cross.  

We know how the world has dramatically changed  over the last couple of centuries because of the lives expended by Mother Theresa, Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, and Bishop Romero.The world has never been the same. Our life well cherished and expended produces much fruit.

On the other hand,  we see the opposite in the third steward who refused to take the risk. How would you characterize the steward? I would say he is very sour, angry, afraid, toxic, blaming, grouchy,bitter,complaining, grumpy and negative. Poor man! he is very miserable. He blames everybody, even God.

He digs a big hole and buries his life in it. We love such people as God loves them, but we don’t want to be around them because they are very toxic.

Jesus told this parable in the context of his second coming. We do not know when the world is going to end. There are so many self proclaimed false prophets who claim it would happen tomorrow. Nobdy knows when the world is coming to an end.  However, we know for sure that the world will come to an end to every one of us when the physical death happens to us.

Who do you want to be identified with, when you meet Jesus? Will you find yourself  like those two servants who cherished and expended their lives for the good of others or like the third servant who is grouchy, bitter, toxic and miserable?

Life Night: Protestant Reformation & Counter Reformation

The Protestant Reformation

and Counter Reformation of the Catholic Church

            The Protestant Reformation was the schism within Western Christianity initiated by Martin Luther, John Calvin, and other early Protestant Reformers. Although there had been significant attempts to reform the Roman Catholic Church before Luther, he is typically cited as the man who set the religious world aflame in 1517 with his Ninety-Five Theses. Luther started by criticizing the selling of indulgences, insisting that the pope had no authority over purgatory and that the Catholic doctrine of the merits of the saints had no foundation in the gospel. The attacks widened to cover many of the doctrines and devotional Catholic practices.

            The Reformation movement within Germany diversified almost immediately, and other reform impulses arose independently of Luther. The largest groupings were the Lutherans and Calvinists (or Reformed). The National Church of England (Anglicans/Episcopalians) was made independent under King Henry VIII in the early 1530s. There were also reformation movements throughout continental Europe known as the Radical Reformation which gave rise to the Anabaptist, Moravian, and other pietistic movements.

            The Roman Catholic Church responded with a Counter-Reformation initiated by the Council of Trent. Much hard work in battling Protestantism was done by many saints who worked tirelessly to reform from the inside and repair relations on the outside:

• St. Ignatius of Loyola - Society of Jesus 1537, Jesuits took up the cause through Catholic renewal and by defending the Church against those who worked against her.
• St. Charles Borromeo - Trent called for reform in the Papacy, Cardinals, Bishops, and all clergy. It also made many important decrees on things such as Sacraments, absenteeism, Purgatory, Saints, relics, and salvation- all upholding what the Church has always believed and denying what the Protestant Reformation was saying.
• In 1529 Thomas More worked to keep England part of the Roman Catholic Church but was beheaded in the Tower of London on July 6, 1534. King Henry VIII divorced Catherine, was remarried to Ann Boleyn, and broke from the Catholic Church denying the authority of the Pope and declaring himself as head of the Church of England.
• St. Francis de Sales - A pivotal figure in the history of the Catholic Counter Reformation because of his tireless devotion and unwavering faith to Christ and the Church. He is well known for his writings and his gentle, yet impassioned, way of encouraging souls to strive for holiness.
• St. Teresa of Avila did not necessarily actively engage in checking the spread of Protestantism, but she reformed her own Carmelite order. In effect, she took to heart the abuses and corruptions pointed out by the Protestant Reformers, and began to set them aright.

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protestant_Reformation 

http://www.catecheticsonline.com/Saints/ignatius.php

http://ascentofcarmel.blogspot.com/2013/07/top-10-saints-of-counter-reformation.html

Homily by Fr Mathew Nov. 9,2014

The dedication of the Lateran Basilica in Rome

(November 9,2014)

Three friends were hunting together: One was a lawyer, one a doctor, and the other a preacher. As they were walking, they came up on a big deer. The three of them shot simultaneously. Immediately the deer dropped to the ground and all three rushed to the spot to find that the deer was dead. To their surprise, it had only one bullet hole. So all of them claimed that it was his bullet that killed the deer. As they were arguing about whose deer it was, a game officer came along that way. He asked them what they were arguing about. As the doctor described to him what was going on, the officer suggested that he would take a look at the deer and tell them who had shot it. In five seconds he came back and said with much confidence, "Folks, I can tell you this. The preacher shot the deer!" They all wondered how he knew that in five seconds. The officer said, "Easy. The bullet went in one ear and out the other."

 How often we listen to the Gospel message on one ear and let it go through the other! I hope this will not happen today as we celebrate the dedication of the Lateran Basilica in Rome.

Many of you wonder why we celebrate a building in Rome. It is the cathedral of the Bishop of Rome. The Pope lives very close to the St Peter’s Basilica.  However, the St. Peter’s Basilica, which is a magnificent Church, is not his cathedral.

The Lateran Basilica is the mother church of all the churches in the world.  Through Our parish Church, we’re united to our Mother church in Rome which reminds us that we are one body united in Christ by our one faith. In the words of Pope Francis, “today’s feast is an invitation to reflect on the communion of the Church around world.”

The second Vatican council says, as we heard in the second reading, we’re the Church and we are its living stones and Jesus Christ is the corner stone.  The church building is  nothing but a place where the body of Christ gathers. However, Fr Robert Barron in his homily suggests that “the building matters” because we are a sacramental church. We use external signs to experience what is transcendent. So Our Church building is Sacramental. In the words of Pope Francis, “The Church Herself is a sign and an anticipation of this new humanity, when it lives and spreads the Gospel with Her witness, a message of hope and reconciliation for all mankind.”

Today we celebrate the 25^th anniversary of the collapse of  the Berlin wall. The wall represented the ideological divisions in the word. The wall stood there for many years as a sign of wounds and brokenness inflicted on the very heart of humanity by war, violence and exploitation. By bearing witness to our faith and living that faith, we are called upon to bring about reconciliation and unity in this world. As a church our mission is to bring down all the walls that divide us.

So the church is an inevitable sign in a divided world. However, many people think the Church and religion are unnecessary.  According to a recent pew report, one in five Americans says that they are spiritual but not religious. I have heard people say that “I am a good person; I pray at home. I’m spiritual, but I don’t have to belong to an organized religion to tell me what to do ln my life.” 

I can understand institutional disenchantment. Institutions can get corrupted. It can become redundant. 

But institutions are also the only mechanism human beings know to perpetuate values and actions. If books were enough, why have universities? If guns enough, why have a military? If self-governance enough, let’s get rid of Washington and the government in Lansing.

The point is that if you want to do something lasting in this world, we need something concrete. We cannot operate in vacuum. Do you have a vision? Then Get a blueprint.

If we were simply spiritual and didn't care about religion, many of the largest world renowned charities like Salvation Army, Catholic Charities, and Food for the poor would not have existed.

One of the things I studied about alcoholism in my psychology class was that we cannot treat this addiction with pills or psychotherapy.

The Only proven successful method so far known to us is AA program. People who belong to this group get together every week and confess to each other their fragility and failures. Only with the support of the like-minded people (from where they derive our spiritual strength) they know they can overcome  their demons and addiction. This is very true of our spiritual life, too. We are wounded animals. We will not be able to deal with our wounds and brokenness and grow in spirituality unless we have the support of a community which we call Church.

As Aristotle says, we’re a social animal. Our life, whether it is spiritual or physical, becomes stagnant when we cut off from the community or the Church. When we travel together supporting each other, our pilgrimage to our final destiny becomes more easy and tangible.