SOLEMNITY OF THE SACRED HEART OF JESUS

The heart in Hebrew thought is at the centre of one’s being. It defines who one is. The feast of the Sacred Heart thus points precisely to this – the very essence of God. But what is this essence all about?

Friday of the 12th week in Ordinary Time is the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Hosea characterizes the love of God for us thus: “I led them with cords of human kindness, with ties of love. To them I was like one who lifts a little child to the cheek, and I bent down to feed them.” (Hosea 11: 4). Was he writing about the Heart of Jesus?

Do you know personally the love and mercy of Jesus? Have you experienced His forgiveness, healing, peace, answered prayers etc? What is the Sacred Heart of Jesus and why do we celebrate this feast? Here is what the Church says :

“Jesus knew and loved us each and all during his life, his agony and his Passion, and gave himself up for each one of us: “The Son of God. . . loved me and gave himself for me.” He has loved us all with a human heart. For this reason, the Sacred Heart of Jesus, pierced by our sins and for our salvation, “is quite rightly considered the chief sign and symbol of that. . . love with which the divine Redeemer continually loves the eternal Father and all human beings” without exception.” (CCC 478).

“Deep calls to deep.” When you experience deep love, respond with deep love. Honor the Sacred Heart of Jesus with reverence and love.

Today’s Responsorial Psalm ties all these aspects together beautifully – “The Lord is my Shepherd. There is nothing I shall want”.

The heart of the matter is truly a matter of the heart.

24th June 2019

Nativity of John the Baptist

St. John the Baptist is the only saint whose birth is celebrated as a feast by the Church. The reason for this singular honour can be gauged by his role as the ‘precursor’ – the one who prepared the way for Jesus. As St. Paul points out, ‘John heralded Jesus’ coming by proclaiming a baptism of repentance’. Being ‘called from birth’ and being given a name in his ‘mother’s womb’, John went on to be a ‘sharp-edged sword’ and the ‘polished arrow’ that Isaiah prophesied he would be.

The references to John the Baptist in the Gospels, paint him as a powerful preacher whose call to repentance met with great success.

As we celebrate his birth, let us also recommit our lives to God, who calls each of us to a special ministry. And while recognising this, in all humility, like John, let us prepare others to experience the coming of the Messiah in their lives.

THE SOLEMNITY OF THE CORPUS CHRISTI ( THE BODY AND BLOOD OF JESUS CHRIST)

St. Augustine said, “The New Testament is hidden in the Old whilst the Old Testament is revealed in the New.” The first reading tells us about an obscure figure named Melchizedek, ‘King of Salem’ and ‘Priest of God Most High’, who offers bread and wine to celebrate the victory of Abram and his men over their enemies. St. Paul explains to us, in the second reading, how Jesus transforms these offerings of bread and wine into His body and blood – a sacrifice through which we bless God and, in turn, receive His blessing. The Psalm highlights the connection between the two readings. Jesus is a ‘Priest forever like Melchizedek of old’.

The miracle of the multiplication of bread and the feeding of the crowds is a significant event that is recorded in all the four gospels.

That event in all the four gospels has the similar settings. Jesus was teaching the crowds and healing the sick. They were in a lonely place and it was getting late.

The disciples wanted to send the crowds away so that they can find food for themselves as there was not much food around.

There were just five loaves of bread and two fish, which was just enough for Jesus and His disciples but certainly not enough for that crowd of five thousand.

And yet Jesus tells His disciples, “Give them something to eat yourselves.” The disciples tried to protest politely, but behind Jesus’ back, they were probably saying something else.

And here again, Jesus shows that God does not think as man thinks, and with God nothing is impossible.

What is significant and also the lesson that Jesus wanted His disciples to learn is this: Jesus took the five loaves and the two fish, raised His eyes to heaven, said the blessing over them, broke it and handed them to His disciples to distribute among the crowd.

And we must catch it there – Jesus said the blessing over the loaves and the fish. In other words, Jesus asked God to pour out His love on the loaves and fish, so that as the food is eaten, God’s love is also experienced.

The miracle is not the loaves and fish multiplying by themselves. It is the blessing of love that multiplied the loaves and fish, because whenever love is given, love is multiplied. And that’s the miracle.

Today the Church celebrates the feast of Corpus Christi, the feast of the Body and Blood of Christ. The Body and Blood of Christ, or simply called the Eucharist, is the greatest and deepest mystery of the Church, and at the same time it is also the most difficult to comprehend and understand and to believe.

But that is because it is the mystery of God’s love for us which is certainly beyond our comprehension and understanding.

What happened at the miracle of the multiplication of the loaves and fish happens at every Mass. The bread and wine are blessed and consecrated and it becomes the Body and Blood of Christ.

Yes, this happens at every Mass. And as it is said, a situation will keep repeating itself until we learn the lesson from it.

And for those who believe, no explanation is necessary. But for those who do not believe, then no explanation is possible.

In five days’ time, the Church will be celebrating the feast of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus. So the feast of Corpus Christi prepares us to encounter the Heart of Christ.

Because the Body of Christ that we receive at Holy Communion is nothing less than the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the most profound blessing of God.

And that’s why in receiving the Body of Christ, which is the Heart of Christ, we must make that act of faith – we must say “Amen.”

In doing so, we are also asking Jesus to make our hearts like His, so that our love may be multiplied to feed the hunger of the world.

16th June 2019

Most Holy Trinity

“The Trinity is a mystery of faith in the strict sense, one of the “mysteries that are hidden in God, which can never be known unless they are revealed by God”. To be sure, God has left traces of his Trinitarian being in his work of creation and in his Revelation throughout the Old Testament. But his inmost Being as Holy Trinity is a mystery that is inaccessible to reason alone or even to Israel’s faith before the Incarnation of God’s Son and the sending of the Holy Spirit.” (CCC 237).

The concept of the Holy Trinity has always been a mystery, with scholars trying to explain:

1. how three persons can be one God;

2. how each of them is distinct and yet not separate;

3. how even though the Son proceeds from the Father, and the Spirit from the Father and the Son, the three always existed from the very beginning;

4. how even though they are each attributed different functions – creator, redeemer, sanctifier – the three function as one!

But rather than analyse the ‘how’ of this doctrine, it’s more important to understand the ‘why’. Why does our God exist as a Trinity?

The very term Trinity tells us that God does not exist in solitary individualism but in a community of love – the Father, Son and Spirit. Therefore, the life of a Christian is not meant to be one of withdrawal from the world to attain salvation for ‘self’. We are made in the image and likeness of God and just as God exists only in a Trinitarian relationship, so we too can be fully God’s children only in a loving relationship with all of creation.

Remember, the way we understand our God will determine the kind of people we will be.

10th June 2019

Mary – Mother of the Church

New Feast of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church.

“The disciples devoted themselves with one accord to prayer with Mary, the mother of Jesus.” (Cf Acts 1: 14).

Today is Monday of the 10th week in Ordinary Time. Today the Church celebrates the Memorial of Mary, Mother of the Church, a brand new feast “instituted by Pope Francis on February 11, 2018 — the 160th anniversary of the apparition of Mary at Lourdes.”

While the Holy Father, Pope Francis declared in 2018 that ‘Mary, Mother of the Church’ would henceforth be celebrated as a feast, Mary has always been revered as mother and her maternal love shines forth in various parts of the Gospel. At the annunciation, Mary became the mother of the Son of God; and at the foot of the Cross, she became the Mother of the Church, which Christ entrusted to her through his beloved disciple. Also, when we speak of Pentecost (the birth of the Church), it is quite natural to picture Mary along with the disciples.

The devotion to Mary as mother of the followers of Christ goes way back to the time of the Early Christians. According to St Augustine, Mary is the mother of the members of Christ, because she cooperated in the rebirth of the faithful into the Church. St Leo the Great says that Mary is at once Mother of Christ and mother of the members of his Mystical Body, which is the Church.

Be with us Mary, our mother, and lead us to Jesus

9th June 2019

Pentecost

Pentecost Sunday 2019. The Birthday 🎂 of the Church. Happy Birthday our dear Mother and Teacher!

“The mission of Christ and the Holy Spirit is brought to completion in the Church, which is the Body of Christ and the Temple of the Holy Spirit. This joint mission henceforth brings Christ’s faithful to share in his communion with the Father in the Holy Spirit. The Spirit prepares men and goes out to them with his grace, in order to draw them to Christ. (CCC 737).

Today, we celebrate the descent of the Holy Spirit upon a new creation, the Church.

For Jews, Pentecost existed as a harvest festival. For the Christian community, it is the celebration of God’s planting of the Holy Spirit to bring about a harvest.

After the crucifixion, the disciples’ lives were in personal and collective disorder, but Jesus does not chastise their weak faith. He returns to them, offering His peace and breathing on them so that they receive the Spirit. He calls them to action.

From the Acts of the Apostles we learn that with the coming of the Holy Spirit, there was to be no more sitting around. There was an interior fire kindled which had to be spread. People from various distant regions, who had come to celebrate the harvest, were invited to listen and then return home with that same fire and that same Spirit.

Will Pentecost today be like the first Christian Pentecost? Many people, even Christians, think Pentecost was in the past and is not for the present. Others believe new Pentecosts happen today but only rarely. However, the Church has always taught that we celebrate the events of salvation history not merely to think of the past but to experience and fulfill these events in the present. Jesus promised that if we believed in Him, we would do greater works than He did (Jn 14:12). Therefore, expect a new Pentecost today — greater than ever before.

Pentecost reassures but also has serious implications. It says to each of us who have received the Spirit at Baptism and Confirmation: “Profess, proclaim and witness your Faith!”

HAPPY PENTECOST SUNDAY🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

HAPPY ENDINGS

“Follow Me.” —John 21:22

As we near the end of the Easter season and prepare for a new Pentecost, the last word from the Acts of the Apostles is that we, like Paul, are to preach and teach about Jesus and His kingdom “with full assurance, and without any hindrance” (Acts 28:31). The last word from John’s Gospel is that we, like Peter, are to follow Jesus and refuse to be distracted with other matters (Jn 21:22). In other words, let’s bolt from the upper room of Pentecost and follow Jesus into the streets, homes, and neighborhoods, where we will acknowledge publicly and fearlessly Jesus as our Savior, Lord, Life, and God (see Mt 10:32).

At the end of our lives, many of the things which have concerned us throughout our lives will obviously not matter. However, our relationship with Jesus, our discipleship, and our evangelization will make all the difference in the world and beyond the world. The old saying is often true: “All’s well that ends well.” If we end this Easter season with a new Pentecost, all will end very well. If we end life on earth with the name of Jesus on our lips and on the lips of those with whom we have shared the Gospel, all is well forever. Today, as we end the Pentecost novena, prepare for the greatest endings of all. Come, Holy Spirit!

KEEP CHANGING

REFLECT for a moment on the condition of your heart. How real is your love for God? Is your heart one of stone or of flesh? Allow Jesus, the great searcher of hearts, to search you within. What matters most to God is not our religiosity but whether our hearts are alive and responding in love to God and to others, beginning with those closest to us. I find myself asking the Holy Spirit to keep changing my heart. After all, conversion is a journey that continues throughout our lives.

THE PROBLEM OF TRUTH AND LOVE

  “A dispute arose between Pharisees and Sadducees which divided the whole assembly.” —Acts 23:7  

We must be men and women of the truth, for God is the Truth (Jn 14:6) and the Holy Spirit guides us to all truth (Jn 16:13). The Church is “the pillar and bulwark of truth” (1 Tm 3:15), and God’s “word is truth” (Jn 17:17). Thus, Jesus’ disciples are “consecrated in truth” (Jn 17:19).

Men and women of truth must stand up for the truth and “even to the death fight for truth” (Sir 4:28). However, we must do this in love (see Eph 4:15), for without love, we gain nothing even in living and dying for the truth (see 1 Cor 13:3). Those who fight for the truth without having love are zealots. Those who think they are loving without being men and women of the truth are self-deceived and destructive to themselves and others.

Only the Holy “Spirit of truth” (Jn 16:13), Who is also the Spirit of love (see Gal 5:22), can give us the wisdom to insist on the truth in a loving way and to insist on love being based on truth. How can we maintain the common good and protect innocent people from being victimized? How can we stop Planned Parenthood and so many other pro-death organizations from killing many more millions of babies? How can we do this in love and without violence, even psychological violence? We need the wisdom and power of the Holy Spirit of truth and love. Come, Holy Spirit!

Euthanasia is a false solution to the drama of suffering, a solution unworthy of man. Indeed, the true response cannot be to put someone to death, however “kindly”, but rather to witness to the love that helps people to face their pain and agony in a human way. We can be certain that no tear, neither of those who are suffering nor of those who are close to them, is lost before God

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Benedict XVI, Angelus-Regina Cæli of Pope Benedict XVI, 1st February 2009 (Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2013).