Sunday Homily, Catholic Prayers and Religous information by F.Chirackal

Jesus the Teacher with Power and Authority

2012-01-27T22:49:00.000-08:00

Jan 29th, 2012 Sunday Homily Fr.Francis Chirackal CMI, MSW

(Deut 18:15-20; I Cor. 7:32-35; Mk 1:21-28 )

For Readings
http://www.usccb.org/nab/012912.shtml
In the history of the human race, that there were a number of people who spoke with power and attracted a large audience and followers. There were many like Adolf Hitler, Hosni Mubarak, and Muammar Gaddafi who tried to assume great power or acted as having power and authority but ended with utter failure and shame. Today’s gospel speaks of a great teacher and divine healer who spoke and acted with real authority from the Heavenly Father in its real sense. So people said, “He speaks with authority”. Even after two thousand years, people still accept that authority and power and follow Him who left behind no earthly wealth, no palace or nothing of that category.

Today’s first reading tells us that a true prophet speaks with authority, because it is God who speaks through him. This passage is chosen for today's first reading as it refers to Jesus, the "preacher with authority," mentioned in today's gospel. In the second reading, St. Paul exercises his God-given authority as the "Apostle to the Gentiles", to teach the people, that marriage is a holy union instituted by God and that it is a life-long partnership.

In today’s gospel St. Mark, after a few introductory words, goes right to the beginning of Christ’s public ministry in Galilee. Here, St. Mark is making the point forcefully that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, speaking to us on His own authority, quoting no one else, not even saying “Thus says the Lord,” as all other prophets and teachers said in the past. Jesus spoke directly from His own authority.

He taught as no one else ever taught or ever will again. Why? Because He is the Son of God, source of true wisdom, knowledge and power. Even the devils themselves acknowledged Jesus as Son of God. Jesus came to heal both body and soul. Most of the scripture scholars agree that miracles were an important part of Jesus’ ministry. We simply cannot abandon them to please those who say miracles are impossible.

The precise explanation of how these healings were accomplished is another matter and perhaps one that is also beside the point. Jesus’ healing miracles were the signs that God’s healing love, is at work in the world. We hear of and also might have seen many miracles as a result of prayers. Many of us might have witnessed or experienced the miraculous healing of the sick. I have seen miracles. In the Archives of Internal Medicine, October 25, 1999 edition, a report of a true story, about research on efficacy of prayer, and the healing of patients is given supporting the power of prayer.

Along with preaching the Kingdom of God with signs and miracles, Jesus rebuked the evil spirits with authority and the unclean spirits left. The Jews of Capernaum, were ‘astonished’ at his teaching and ‘amazed’ at his power over the evil spirits. There was authority in Jesus’ teaching as He taught from the heart. He taught with absolute conviction in His message, because he knew that his message is in accordance with the mind of God the Father.

People found more authenticity in the content of the message of Jesus’ teaching. He went deeper to find out the spirit, the original intent of the law. Jesus’ teaching is always intended to bring about a positive change of heart in the people, not just to make the people feel good or bad. Today, what should amaze us really is the love that God showed towards mankind in becoming one of us. God gives us grace every day, He gives us forgiveness every day. The care and protection we experience and the hope which upholds us in our times of ups and downs in our lives, the comfort, consolation and peace we experience when we sit before Him and pray should make us feel amazed and grateful to God, every day of our lives.

Today, while amazed at God’s love for us, let us also be justly amazed at the shabby return that we make for His love and care for us. What is our attitude to the word of God that we hear? Do we allow it to challenge us and bring about a positive difference in our lives, or is it simply to satisfy some intellectual curiosity? Do we often thank God from our heart, for putting us in this beautiful world and giving us the opportunities and the means of attaining the eternal life of happiness, seeing Him face to face after this short earthly life. Let us thank God for giving us His sanctifying grace, blessings of joy, and His healing love and making our lives everyday more and more hope-filled and meaningful. Therefore let us practice a habit of thanking God knowingly several times a day. God doesn’t give anything in our lives without a purpose.

Therefore let us thank God for both sweet and bitter experiences. When there are sufferings, God stands close to us, offering more and more grace than we can realize. Therefore let us be more thankful. When we do, our lives will be more amazing and blessed. God bless you.

Jesus Calls to Repentance & Kingdom of God

2012-01-20T21:45:00.000-08:00

Jan 22nd , 2012 Sunday homily- Fr.Francis Chirackal CMI, MSW
Jon 3:1-5,10; 1 Cor 7:29-31; Jn 1:14-20
For Readings
http://www.usccb.org/nab/012212.shtml

This Sunday's readings speak about repentance. In the first reading we see after the initial resistance, Jonah sets out for Nineveh and proclaims the repentance of their sins. Listening to Jonah people turned away from their evil ways and consequently, God changed His mind. Through Jonah, the people were once more united in the righteous ways of the Lord God. St.Paul in his first letter admonishes the Corinthians to do what our Lord himself advised his followers- always to be ready for the judgment.

In today’s gospel we hear of four men who were invited by Jesus to follow him. Simon and Andrew were mere fishermen. When Jesus called them to be fishers of men, they were quick and generous in their response and “at once they left their nets and followed him”. We, like the listeners in Galilee, are invited to reform and believe. Here we have two examples of what the invitation requires. Simon and Andrew immediately abandoned their nets, and the sons of Zebedee not only abandoned their nets, they also abandoned their father. Neither our possessions nor our families must stand in the way of our following the path of Jesus.

Jesus began his public ministry with urgency: "This is the time of fulfillment. The Kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the Gospel." Jesus preached, Jesus healed, Jesus fed them miraculously, Jesus gave life. Even after being with Jesus during his preaching and miracles disciples kept quarrelling about who should be the first. They disowned and ditched Him badly when he was arrested. And yet Jesus stood by them. He forgave them, continued to consider them as His Apostles, appointed Simon, the emotionally unstable man as the head of His Church. They abandoned Him but He never abandoned them.

Here one thing we can notice. All of these apostles except one abandoned Jesus not of selfish motive but fear. That is the condition of human weakness. Only Judas abandoned Jesus with selfish motive. He abandoned for money. He never came back to Jesus, and became the biggest loser. Other disciples again became united in Christ and He strengthened them with the Holy Spirit. The fearful ones became the bravest ones when Christ stood by them. The scattered ones became the united ones. This is the fruit of repentance and returning to the Kingdom of God. It makes us re-united and stronger, capable of fighting enemies of any kind and strengthens us as disciples.

The relationship between Jesus and disciples gives a special message to today’s society. Our mind may search for changes and novelties in everything including in our personal, professional, social, family relationship and in our relationship with God. We see the relationships being broken for very simple reasons. If we blindly follow the culture of the time, we will be constantly on the lookout for change and novelty. We may be quick to drop one relationship and look for another at the slightest provocation. Friends part ways after a single harsh word or even a healthy confrontation. Couples may be ever ready to walk out of a marriage which is a divinely instituted sacrament. Some may consider it a badge of honor to say that one has moved up the ladder by moving from company to company just because the pay was a little higher each time. For some it may be fashionable to move from one faith to another or one church to another for a petty or no valid reason.

Desire for changes combined with selfish motives is always divisive. That is the work of evil powers. Divisive and misleading powers will be active in every society and at all times starting from Adam and Eve. But the Kingdom of God exists side by side. God’s Kingdom is always a unifying force and self-giving love. Repentance and forgiveness are essential parts of Kingdom of God. It is a continuous process. Jesus told us to forgive, love and stand by and strengthen the weaker ones with a real spirit of the Kingdom of God. Abandoning the other for selfish motive is self-destructive too. But God doesn’t want us to perish, but to be saved. When Judas abandoned Jesus, Jesus looked at Him and spoke to him but he didn’t respond to that. When Peter abandoned Jesus, Jesus looked at him and he immediately responded with repentance. He became re-united with Jesus. Many times our lives may not be different from this. Our human weakness is prone to abandon Jesus, but God will not leave us unless we run away without looking at him. Jesus tells us to repent and return. We have the example of Peter.

We Christians can indeed be the happiest people on earth, if we live according to the good news revealed to us through Christ. Christ preached the doctrine of ‘The Kingdom of God’ in Palestine. It is the doctrine for which He gave his human life and which he gave to his Apostles to hand down to all future generations. The same doctrine is preached by Christ’s Church to all men today. It is the good news of God’s mercy and love toward us weak, mortal creatures. Let us make this good news of The Kingdom of God the true living and leading spirit of our family and personal lives. God never changes, but we need to change whenever we find ourselves away from God. God waits for us stretching out His hand with His healing touch. Let us rejoice in our savior. God bless you.

Jesus the Lamb of God

2012-01-13T22:13:00.000-08:00

Jan 15th , '12 Sunday homily- Fr.Francis Chirackal CMI, MSW
1 Sam 3:3-10,19; 1 Cor 6:13-15,17-20; Jn 1:35-42

For Readings

http://www.usccb.org/nab/011512.shtml
In the city of Werden, Germany, there stands a Catholic Church with a lamb carved out of stone and placed on its roof. It was told that when the church was being built, a workman fell from a high scaffold. His co-workers rushed down, expecting to find him dead. But to their surprise and joy, he was alive and only slightly injured. How did he survive? A flock of sheep was passing beneath the tower at that time, and he landed on top of a lamb. The lamb broke his fall and was crushed to death, but the man was saved. To commemorate that miraculous escape, he carved a lamb on the tower at the exact height from which he fell on roof in gratitude. Today we come together at this Liturgy to remember and salute another Lamb. Each of us likewise owes Him much. In today’s gospel we find a lamb. Christ as the Lamb of God is a title familiar to us. John the Baptist introduced Jesus telling, ‘Lamb of God which takes away the sin of the world’.

During today's First Reading from the First Book of Samuel, we heard that the Lord God called Samuel. He answered God's calling by persevering in His living faith to the best of his ability.In the Second Reading from the First Letter to the Corinthians, St.Paul reminds us of our vocation to the mystical body of Christ. Through baptism we are called to holiness and that our bodies are meant to serve the Lord. They are not meant to be used for worldly desires and pleasures that do not glorify God.

Today’s gospel gives the account of the vocation of the first four Apostles who followed Jesus. Disciples of John the Baptist followed Jesus as He pointed to Jesus referring to Is.53:7-12. Isaiah describes the servant of Yahweh as an innocent Lamb who is slaughtered for the sins of all the erring sheep, taking their faults on himself. These servant poems were accepted as messianic, and the Baptist’s disciples understand that their prophet is pointing out the Messiah to them. So they left John and followed Jesus.

Once they came forward to follow Jesus, he wanted them to declare their purpose for following him. He opened the door for them to become his disciples. We can see clearly the divine wisdom governing Christ’s choice of Apostles! Jesus’ answer to John’s disciples reveals the basic and the important requirement to follow Jesus. It is nothing but, ‘Come and See’ experience. Experiencing Jesus from a distance will not bring comfort in our lives. But once we intentionally seek Jesus and experience his companionship, our heart will be filled with a new enlightenment and will tell us that ‘it is what we need’. The moment, a person encounters God in his/her personal life, they will find a great liberation and enlightenment as the Apostles felt. Blaming God for misfortunes or evils in the world is a sign of not having a personal experience of being with God.

Every day Jesus continues to be the sacrificial lamb for our sins repeating the same sacrifice of love and forgiveness in every Holy Mass. Every day He invites us to forgiveness and holiness. He makes our lives anew. Once we stay with Him, He fills us with His Spirit. Our lives will become a life of light, witnessing God as Emmanuel as the Apostles did. Our lives will become a life of gratitude to God who shed even the last drop of blood for our sins. For it is Jesus that we must follow in order to be saved. Jesus is the source of unlimited joy and peace. Let us make that joy and peace ours by staying with Jesus through our prayers, receiving the sacraments and a life of love and charity. God bless you

The Feast of the Epiphany

2012-01-06T13:41:00.000-08:00

Jan 8th , '12 Sunday homily- Fr.Francis Chirackal CMI, MSW
Is 60:1-6; Eph 3:2-3a, 5-6; Mt 2:1-12
For Readings
http://www.usccb.org/nab/010812.shtml

Today we celebrate the Feast of the Epiphany of the Lord, the King of kings. “Epiphany” means “manifestation” or “appearance.” On this feast we commemorate the revelation of the Messiah in connection with the visit of the Wise Men. The adoration of the magi with their gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh symbolizes Christ's rule over the whole world. The adoration of these gentile wise men fulfills the prophecies made long before that a savior would come who would be a light to the nations.

“Who has the true way to God?” It is a question being argued out among all major religions and among different fractions of the same religion. This is true with Muslims, Christians, Jews, Hindus as well. It has caused many divisions. Who, then, does have the true and authentic way to God? When we look at scriptures and history religion is not all about how we get to God. It’s the other way around. It’s all about God coming to us. In Genesis we find God coming into the Garden of Eden looking for Adam and Eve. In The Incarnation we find God coming to us again, offering Himself to us again. Here God offers and then we respond.What matters is how we respond?

The story of The Incarnation is an eye-opener. When Jesus came shepherds learned of the birth of Jesus through a direct revelation coming from heavenly angels. The Jewish scholars, reading from Sacred Scripture, told Herod that the Messiah was to be born in Bethlehem. That’s what scripture revealed to them. The magi found their way through nature’s phenomena, Simeon and the prophetess Anna found their way to God in worship. What we should notice is that people of differing religious persuasions came to know that the Son of God was born among us. The important thing is our response… how we act on what we know… that matters. God offers, and nothing happens unless and until we respond.

A gift, after all, is not a gift unless and until it is opened, unwrapped, and received. Here the real question is: “Who has the best response to God’s love?” That is something we cannot decide. That judgment belongs only to God. The Epiphany, as we know, celebrates the manifestation of our Lord to the whole world… the shining forth of the Light of the World… the manifestation of The Incarnation to the entire world beyond the Jewish world. The three kings symbolize the coming of God to the Gentiles… the entrance of God into all of the world in all of its history.

As we read in today’s Scriptures, the magi at Bethlehem were the first fruits of the thousands and millions of Gentiles who have since then seen the glory of God in the Babe of Bethlehem and who have figuratively come to Jerusalem from the West and from the East to form the new chosen people, the new Kingdom of God. St.Paul exhorts us to appreciate the privilege which is ours.

Years ago an artist painted a striking picture. It shows a single, solitary figure rowing a boat at night across an endless sea of water. Off in the distance is a single, solitary star, shining in the night sky. The impression you get as you look at the picture is this: “If that boatman ever loses that star, he’s lost.” What the painting says about the star, we, too, could say about Jesus: If we ever lose sight of the star, we are lost.”

The Star over Bethlehem is a light that recalls the light and the warmth of God’s love. The Epiphany tells us that God has decided to come to us where we are. What the Church wants us to do is to see the Light of the World, to see things in God’s Light as He presents Himself to us in our lives. As the gospel says, that Light has come into our world and the darkness will not overcome it. God continues to reveal Himself to us.

Every time we forgive someone who has treated us unjustly, a light shines in the darkness of our world–and points the way to Jesus. Every time we open the door of our hearts to the lonely or the homeless, a light shines in the darkness of our world–and points the way to Jesus.
Every time we reach out a hand to feed the hungry, a star lights up the darkness of our world–and points the way to Jesus. Every time we make others feel better, a star lights up the darkness of our world and points the way to Jesus.

The feast of Epiphany invites us to ask ourselves to what extent are we turning on lights in the darkness of our world–and lighting the way to Jesus. Let us pray asking Jesus for the grace to be shining stars in the darkness of our world, pointing the way to Jesus. Happy Epiphany!!

Mother of God

2011-12-30T16:09:00.001-08:00

Jan.1st , 2012 Sunday homily- Fr.Francis Chirackal CMI, MSW
Numbers 6:22-27 Galatians 4:4-7 Luke 2:16-21

For Readings
http://www.usccb.org/nab/010112.shtml
Today is a day of gratitude and new hopes. The year 2011 left for history leaving lots of God’s blessings to us and 2012 is standing before us with great joys and hopes. All of us are blessed by God to see the year 2012. Every New Year starts with the month of January. As we know the name "January" comes from the Roman god ‘Janus’, the god with two faces, one looking to the past and the other looking to the future.

This is indeed a time to look back at the year that has just ended and to look forward to the year ahead of us. How did I spend this one year of my life that has just passed? Did I use it to advance my goals and objectives in life? Did I use it to enhance the purpose of my existence? Could I have done better last year in the way I invested my time between the demands of work, family, friends and society, and the demands of my spiritual life? Through soul searching questions like these we find that a review of the past year naturally leads to setting goals and resolutions for the new year. Here Mary stands as a role model who glorified God through her whole life and became full of grace and Mother of God.

Today’s readings tell us the way God worked in history and our need to grow to the fullness of grace living our lives in this time and space as our holy Mother did. All God’s dealings with the Chosen People of the Old Testament were part of God’s plan of preparation for his greatest act of infinite blessing which was to come in the Incarnation. And the one human being who received the fullness of these promises and blessings was the Virgin Mary when she said , “Be it done unto me according to thy word”. She became the Mother of Jesus who was the Messiah and the Son of God. It was an honor and a dignity which no human imagination could have thought possible. But nothing is impossible to God.

The gospel today presents Mary to us as a model of true life in Christ that all of us always wish for ourselves. When we honor Mary we are in fact and in intention honoring and thanking God for the marvelous gifts and privileges he conferred on one of us. It is true that the holiness of Mary is attributed to the grace of God, but this should not make us forget that she needed to make an effort in order to cooperate with the grace of God. Mary was a woman who valued the word of God, who pondered the word of God in order to discern what God was saying to her at every stage in her life as the handmaid of God.

The Church teaches and all of us believe that Mary is Mother of God and Our Holy Mother. Was Jesus Mary’s only biological son? Many people have this doubt as they get confused with Mt 13:54, which mention the names of the brothers of Jesus. To understand this passage we need to read Mk 15:40 and the beginning of the Letter of St.Jude. These passages remove our doubts and help us to understand that Jesus was the only biological son of Mary and the names mentioned in Mt.13:54 are of Jesus’ cousins. We need have no fear of taking anything from the honor, glory and gratitude we owe to God, when we honor , as our Mother, the Virgin Mary whom He first honored by making her the Mother of His Son. Furthermore the last act of our Savior before dying on the Cross was to make His Mother our Mother, through our representative St.John, to whom He said: “Behold thy mother”.

Today we revere Mary as the Mother of God, and today we revere Mary as our Mother. Today we give special honor to the way God chose to come to us, to redeem us, and to love us not in overpowering awesomeness but in the simplicity of a child being held and nourished on Mary’s lap. It is He who comes to us in the simplicity of a mother’s love in order that we might love God as He wants us to love Him.

When we look upon a mother holding a baby in her lap and nurturing it we see something that we do not otherwise see. In all of its simplicity we see the beauty of unconditional love, love without all of the complications we humans might otherwise attach to it. The Presence of a mother makes the child feel safe and secure. Our attachment to our Holy Mother makes us feel always safe and secure. She protects us with a motherly care from all kinds of evils and dangers.
As we begin a New Year we should reflect on what it now means to be a new human person being always growing in God’s grace every day. Let us begin this year with our Holy Mother in a special way dedicating ourselves to the care of Holy Mother. Let us remain always in God’s grace and experience the joy of God’s presence in our everyday life. God bless you. Happy New Year!!!

God's Love in Human Form

2011-12-23T16:28:00.000-08:00

Dec.25th, '11 Christmas homily: Fr.Francis Chirackal CMI, MSW
Is 9:1-6; Ti 2:11-14; Lk 2:1-14, Lk 2:15-20; Jn 1:1-18
For Readings click
http://www.usccb.org/nab/122511.shtml

A few days ago 200 Salvation Army volunteers at CalExpo distributed around 2000 Christmas baskets to less fortunate ones to celebrate the Christmas joy. The Food bank and Family Services Center Sacramento, Mary’s House, Francis House and hundreds of such institutions were busy with collecting and distributing the gift baskets to thousands of needy people for the last few weeks. This is happening not at a few places, but most of the places in the world for last few days. Christian institutions, houses, streets and business places are shining with glittering lights and toys. All people speak of giving the Christmas gifts. The able and willing ones increase their joy by giving whatever they can to the less fortunate ones, while the others find joy seeing somebody remembering and considering them. It is a giving with love, giving with joy, giving with care. Why? We know the answer. Christmas is a celebration of the great giving. God the Father gave His only Son to the human race as a gift to save it from sin and to bring joy. This is a feast of Love. This is a celebration of Emmanuel. God became one among us and gave himself to each and every one of us.

Today’s first reading from the book of Isaiah heralds the message of this joy and hope foretold by the prophet. The Gospel narrates the great event in which God’s love took human form and nature and divided human history into two, namely B.C., and A.D. He took human nature to give all those who believe in him the power to become children of God. His arrival brought love, hope, joy and peace to all. Today we are celebrating that great love and joy after four weeks of special preparation. We need to embrace the meaning of Christmas. We lose so much if we limit ourselves to being outsiders looking at the decorations, shedding a tear at the romantic carols, and enjoying giving and expressing love through material gifts. There are many beautiful aspects to Christmas, particularly the times of warmth spent with our families, but Christmas is so much more than even these wonderful moments together. Christmas is about Jesus Christ. We possess Him. He has become one of us. And He possesses us. He has given us the ability to be united to Him.

An artist was painting a winter landscape. He painted the ground beneath a blanket of snow, with pine trees their limbs capped in white. Then, with a few deft strokes of his brush, night fell on the canvas and the entire scene was covered with semi-darkness. A grim log cabin was barely visible in the shadows. Finally, the artist dipped his brush in the yellow paint of his pallet, and carefully added to one of the cabin windows the warm glow of a lamp. As he finished the painting the gold rays of the lamp reflected happily on the fresh snow. The lonely light totally changed the tone of the picture, replacing the gloomy chilled night with a warm and secure homestead.

What happened on that canvas happened two thousand years ago on the world's canvas. A tiny baby came into a grim and dark world, shining light across the barren landscape – a light that still invites men to come into the warmth of God’s grace and find there peace, and hope, and love. This makes Christmas distinct from any other celebrations. Everyone gets something at Christmas, whether material or non-material as it comes with hope, peace and joy. This past week when I was visiting the homebound and aged ones I found many of them them busy with writing Christmas greetings to their loved ones even in their eighties and nineties. The moment they speak of Christmas, their faces become brightened with a special kind of joy and hope. They are trying to make the other feel they are loved and remembered. They are looking forward to see or hear from their loved ones. Christmas makes us to love and feel to be loved. This is God’s love. He comes to the life of each and every one of us and touches us with His most loving words calling us by name.

The Child in the manger had something to give to poor shepherds and wealthy Magi. Last day I was watching a video clip of a homeless man who was standing at the side of a road helping an old man to cross the road. God has made every one of us capable of giving something to others, irrespective of age, class or status. It may be a helping hand, loving gift, a consoling, comforting or encouraging word or gesture, compassionate look or uplifting smile. Thw Child in the manger is rich enough to make the world shine, to make our own lives brighter and joyful. A heart with love and God’s grace is rich enough to make the world around us or at least the world of one or a few better, enkindling it with new rays of joy, peace and hope.

The Lord, by accepting a share of our common humanity from his mother, has identified himself with all humanity, even the least of his brothers and sisters. The good news of Christmas will not be fully realized until the dignity of every human being is respected and made secure in terms of the right to live, religious and political freedom, social and economic justice. Mary, in the loving care of her child, becomes the icon of the care that God wants us to extend to every human being, even the most vulnerable. In truth, it is care extended to Christ himself.

May this Christmas enable us to be blessed with peace and joy and to become instruments of God’s blessings to many. Happy Christmas!!

4th Sunday of Advent

2011-12-15T21:31:00.000-08:00

December 18th, 2011 Sunday homily: Fr.Francis Chirackal CMI, MSW
2Sm 7:1-5,8b-12,14a, 16; Rom 16:25-27; Lk 1:26-38
For Readings
http://www.usccb.org/nab/121811.shtml

Well known preacher and writer Anthony De Mello in a story on Emmanuel presents a fish. A young river fish happened to reach the ocean. Seeing an older fish it asked, “Excuse me, you are older than I, so can you tell me where to find the thing they call the ocean?" "The ocean," said the older fish "is the thing you are in now." "Oh, this? But this is only salty water. What I’m seeking is the ocean," said the disappointed fish as he swam away to search elsewhere. Today’s gospel introduces God as Emmanuel, one living always with us and in us. Advent and Christmas should enable us to experience this God within and all around us.

Apart from messianic prophecy today’s first reading from the book of 2Samuel gives a message that god’s ways are not man’s ways. Sometimes God may say ‘no’ to even our noble plans with high spiritual ideals and intentions. David’s desire and plan to build a temple for God in Jerusalem was a noble one. But, God said ‘no’ to his plan. The sublime facts commemorated at Christmas are presented in the words of St.Paul in his letter to the Romans. In His infinite love and interest in his creatures, God the Father sent his beloved Son in human nature to live amongst us, to tell us of the Father’s love and plans for our happiness.

The gospel gives the beautiful picture of the most stupendous event that ever happened, or ever could happen on earth. At the moment Virgin Mary said, “Be it done to me according to thy word” God the Creator became a Creature. Son of God took on human nature in the womb of the Blessed Virgin. This tremendous event is remembered every day as we say the angelus. What is announced to Mary is the revelation of all that the prophets had spoken.

Mary is the virgin prophesied to bear a son of the house of David. And nearly every word the angel speaks to her echoes the long history of salvation recorded in the Bible. God’s love unfolds in this salvific history and incarnation. Christmas is the fulfillment of what was in God’s heart. Christmas is all about God’s coming to us in love so that He and we can live in each other’s presence. But that is not all. There is more – a whole lot more. Incarnation is but a starting point. It is the starting point of our human saga, both collective and personal, in which our hearts finally find rest in the Presence of God.

What a wonder that is! God joins himself into us so that He can live in our very own lives. It is God’s intention to dwell and make His home in us. He Himself has first come to us so that we can respond, and in our response have the wonder of God Himself dwelling and abiding within us. We are called with Mary to marvel at all that the Lord has done throughout the ages for our salvation. And we too, must respond to this annunciation with humble obedience, that our lives be lived according to His word.

Like Mary, the living presence of God the Son abides within us, not just for our own sakes, but so that we, like Mary, can give Him to the world around us. Each one of us can make an infinitely significant response to God’s offer of love. When we are told that we are loved, and we respond with a “yes”, our lives are changed. Something is placed within our hearts that never goes away. Let us ask God to reveal what he wants us to do as a response and do it.

Christmas is the story of God’s greatest gift given to meet our greatest need – to love and to be loved. It is a time of love. Let us prepare to celebrate this feast of Love in its real meaning.

Prepare and Rejoice

2011-12-08T14:20:00.000-08:00

Dec 11th ’11 Sunday homily: Fr.Francis Chirackal CMI, MSW
Is 61:1-2,10-11; 1 Thes 5:16-24; Jn 1:6-8,19-28
For Readings
http://www.usccb.org/nab/121111.shtml

Dr.Karl Menninger, begins his book ‘Whatever Became of Sin’ with a humorous but thought-provoking story. One sunny day in September 1972, a street preacher appeared on a busy corner in downtown Chicago. As people hurried by on their way to lunch, he would suddenly raise his right arm, point a finger at them and shout “Guilty”. Then he would stiffen up, pause a few seconds, and start over again raising his right arm, pointing a finger at them and then shouting “Guilty”. As Dr.Menninger says, the effect on the pedestrians was almost eerie. Might be, John the Baptist had a similar effect on people when he showed up on the banks of the Jordan. Some of them felt ridiculed, angry while some others felt restless and confused. Some people knew that they were guilty but refused to admit it while another group admitted that they are guilty and sought the way out.

On this Gaudete Sunday the prophet Isaiah rejoices heartily in the Lord, the psalmist rejoices in God, and Saint Paul encourages the Thessalonians to “rejoice always.” The first Reading from the book of Isaiah gives one of the prophesies regarding the nature, power and mission of Messianic King which was fulfilled in Christ. In the second Reading St.Paul exhorts his converts to thank God always for the gift of faith which they have received. He advises them to avoid evil and do what is good. In the gospel John the Baptist prepares the path for Jesus through preaching repentance and baptizing them with water at the banks of Jordan. John was the last of the great line of prophets and he was the greatest of them all.

Today’s gospel account has John answering questions from experts who are trying to find out just who he is and what he is all about. He knew who he was and what he was not. But he tells them simply that ‘he was a voice’. A voice represents something or speaks of something. John the Baptist became a voice for Incarnated Word. It was his privilege to point out to his audience the son of God in human nature, the “Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world”. And also to hear God’s voice from heaven proclaiming Christ to be his “beloved Son”. The words of the gospel are simple and direct. God sent John the Baptist into the world to tell everybody about the light that was coming, to enlighten their darkness, and to lead them into the fullness of light and life.

John the Baptist testified that he was the voice crying in the wilderness, telling all to prepare themselves for the coming of the Lord. Proclaiming a baptism of repentance by water, John testified that the year of the Lord's favor had now arrived. John the Baptist helped the people to understand the greatness of Jesus by comparing himself with Jesus. He testified that he was not worthy to untie the thong of His sandal the one who was coming after him. So great was the Divine Presence of the Lord, the King of kings, that John the Baptist felt unworthy to even untie the thong of His sandal. These words echo the spiritual attitude that we should embrace towards the greatness of the Lord Jesus. As the Lord God commands us today through these words, we are to prepare ourselves to commemorate with great joy the special year of the Lord's favor. To do so, we must repent of our sins so that we may once more become righteous in the eyes of the Lord at His coming. During these days we have to look at the check list of our Advent preparations. Sometimes it may require changes, additions and deletions. Our check list has to cover our attitudes, efforts, thought patterns, behaviors, conversations, and actions. Looking at the check list sometimes we may become, angry, restless, irritated or comfortable. Our check list should say who we are and what we are not. It should reveal our identity, our Catholic identity.

There are things that should identify who we are and what we are as Christians: 1 – We are known for attending Mass every Sunday, and perhaps even known to go to daily Masses from time to time. 2 – We are known to be moral persons, respected for having high standards of ethics, morality, and character. There should be plenty of evidence by which others could identify us as persons of principle and goodness in the way we conduct our affairs, our businesses, and in the way we treat others. People should be able to take us at our word, without needing legal contracts to enforce our agreements and commitments. 3 – We are known to be prayerful persons. 4 – We have an attitude, a habit of being that is kind, gentle, respectful, sensitive to others, compassionate, and caring toward others. We have a face that reveals the presence of the heart of Christ, a smile and a tone of voice that come only from being close to Christ.

Let us prepare a right path to light, the eternal light which came to this world to lead and enlighten us towards salvation. God bless you.

Repentance and Conversion

2011-12-02T12:13:00.000-08:00

Dec.4th , ‘11 Sunday homily: Fr.Francis Chirackal CMI, MSW
Isaiah 40:1-5,9-11; 2 Peter 3:8-14; Mark 1:1-8

For Readings

http://www.usccb.org/nab/120411.shtml

A soap manufacturer, and a pastor were walking together down a street in a large city. The soap manufacturer casually said, "The gospel you preach hasn't done much good, has it? Just observe. There is still a lot of wickedness in the world, and a lot of wicked people, too!" The pastor made no reply, until, they passed a little child with dirty linen, making mud pies in the gutter. Seizing the opportunity, the pastor said, "I see, that, soap hasn't done much good in the world either; for, there is much dirt still here, and many people with dirty linen are still around." The soap manufacturer said, "Oh, well, soap only works when it is applied." Then the pastor said, "Exactly! So it is with the gospel."

Each year, the second and the third Sundays in Advent, center on John the Baptist, reminding us that if we want to prepare ourselves properly for the coming of Jesus we need to listen to the message of John the Baptist. Last Sunday we considered the broad sweep of Advent and reminded ourselves that Advent begins with us looking at the end of the world. It is right that we should be concerned about the judgment of God on the Day of Judgment. But we should not be held in the grip of fear because God’s judgment is that we are worth saving. God’s judgment comes to us in His grace and mercy. His grace and mercy are given us in His Son, Jesus Christ. That theme continues this weekend.

The first Reading from the Book of Isaiah presents the consoling and comforting words of God through His prophet. God’s passionate love for human race, mercy and forgiveness are overflowing in these words. These words apply to Christians with infinitely greater force and meaning. These same words have their real fulfillment in Christ. Second Reading from the letter of St.Peter tells the Christians that because Christ seems to delay his second coming, this doesn’t mean that there will not be a second coming. What may seem a delay to the Christians is not a delay on God’s part, but His loving way of giving all a chance to repent and be ready to attain salvation. He reminds us that God is infinite and transcends time and space.

The gospel presents the prophet, John the Baptist, who invited the people to repentance and conversion to receive Jesus, the incarnated Word and baptized them to prepare the way for Jesus using the words from Isaiah. As we are preparing to receive Jesus, John the Baptist tries to make us aware that more is involved in preparing for the coming of Jesus than sending and spending. Many times, when we hear the word “repentance” we may think of some terrible sinner who needs a total makeover spiritually. In fact the word “repent” is meant for all of us, not just for bad people. It tells us if we haven’t been as good as we know God would like us to be, then we need to decide to make a change., a change of mind and heart. Or it could be we are not doing anything too bad, but we are not doing anything good either. It’s not enough to avoid evil, but we need to have to do good as the prophet says, ‘every tree that doesn’t bear good fruit will be cut down”. We need to be not just evil-avoiders, but good-doers. We all need what God can offer us in changing not only the world around us but in changing our very own lives, which is perhaps the most difficult of all of the challenges we face. But Jesus came to empower us with God’s Holy Spirit, an empowerment that should give comfort to us, a power God gives us to comfort those around us.

Most of the Jewish leaders rejected Jesus due to their stubborn pride, and exaggerated sense of their own dignity. We may find similar tendencies which blinds many of us today, who not only refuses to accept God and His good tidings, but seem impelled also to prevent others from accepting Him. Rejection of God may also find us making a mad rush for earthly possessions and pleasures, the casting-off of all reasonable restraints and restrictions, which are so necessary for human society to survive, the rejection of all things spiritual in man’s make-up and life-purpose also.

Then, how do we prepare for Jesus’ coming? Do we prepare for it the same way John prepared the people of his day for the first coming of Jesus? Do we prepare ourselves by producing more and more good fruits? This advent invites us to take a hard look at our lives and ask ourselves, “How do we stand before God right now?” A brief examination of conscience will give the answer. To what extent I am a Christian in my daily conduct in my home, and in my place of work and recreation? Christmas recalls to us His first appearance on earth. Let us use these days of preparation for Christmas to prepare ourselves for His second coming. God bless you.

Advent 1st Sunday- Be watchful and Alert

2011-11-23T07:54:00.001-08:00

Nov 27^th, 11 Sunday homily- Fr.Francis Chirackal CMI, MSW

Is 63:16b-17, 19b, 64:2-7; I Cor 1:3-9; Mk 13:33-37

For Readings click

http://www.usccb.org/nab/112711.shtml

President John F. Kennedy was very fond of a particular story which he often used to close his speeches during his 1960 presidential campaign. It is the story of Colonel Davenport, Speaker of the Connecticut House of Representatives back in the year 1789. One day, while the House was in session, the sky of Hartford suddenly grew dark and gloomy. Some of the Evangelical House representatives looked out the windows and thought this was a sign that the end of the world had come. Uproar ensued, with the representatives calling for immediate adjournment. But Davenport rose and said, "Gentlemen, the Day of Judgment is either approaching or it is not. If it is not, there is no cause for adjournment. If it is, I choose to be found doing my duty. Therefore, I wish that candles be brought." Candles were brought and the session continued.

Advent begins with us looking at the end of the world. All three readings in today’s Mass invite us to ask ourselves, “Are we so caught up with this life that we are forgetting it’s only a preparation for a life to come?” Thus Jesus tells us to watch and pray. The passage in today’s Gospel account is about the end of the world, telling us to be watchful and alert because we do not know when the Last Day will dawn.

In the first Reading from the Book of Isaiah, the prophet reminds the people of Judah of the dreadful fate their sins are preparing for them. Nevertheless, he had words of hope and promises of a glorious future, that is, the messianic age, for the remnant who will repent and remain faithful to God. St.Paul in the second Reading tells us that our Christian faith teaches us that we were created by God. Through the incarnation we were given the privilege of divine adoption, which means an eternal life with the Blessed Trinity in heaven. Christ has won this for us and has revealed it to us. Christ has promised us this eternal reward after this earthly life provided we keep His commandments and live our earthly lives as faithful followers of Christ.

With Advent the liturgical year begins in the Catholic Churches. During this time the faithful are admonished (1) to prepare themselves worthily to celebrate the anniversary of the Lord's coming into the world as the incarnate God of love, 2) thus to make their souls fitting abodes for the Redeemer coming in Holy Communion and through grace, and 3) thereby to make themselves ready for His final coming as judge, at death and at the end of the world.

Different signs, symbols and objects will help us to do our preparation for Christmas. The Advent wreath has become a part of this preparation reminding of the different elements related to Christmas. The symbolism of the Advent wreath is beautiful. The wreath is made of various evergreens, signifying continuous life. Even these evergreens have a traditional meaning which can be adapted to our faith: The laurel signifies victory over persecution and suffering; pine, holly, and yew, immortality; and cedar, strength and healing. Holly also has a special Christian symbolism: The prickly leaves remind us of the crown of thorns. The circle of the wreath, which has no beginning or end, symbolizes the eternity of God, the immortality of the soul, and the everlasting life found in Christ. All together, the wreath of evergreens depicts the immortality of our soul and the new, everlasting life promised to us through Christ, the eternal Word of the Father, who entered our world becoming true man and who was victorious over sin and death through His own passion, death, and resurrection. The four candles represent the four weeks of Advent. The light again signifies Christ, the Light of the world. Some modern day adaptations include a white candle placed in the middle of the wreath, which represents Christ and is lit on Christmas Eve.

Advent is a time to clearly see that we need a savior. We need God to come among us and set us back on the right path for living on this planet among each other, as He intended we should. And, of course, Christmas is the celebration of the fact that God has done just that. In Christmas He has given us His presence, His power, and His love. We need the Lover with a love that is more powerful than our own. We need a power that is greater than all of our powers massed and combined together. Jesus Christ comes to us with that love and power. Christ Jesus, in His birth, life, death and resurrection, is God’s total gift to us of His power.

Let us make all efforts to make this advent period and Christmas celebration really a divine experience and fruitful in our personal life through effective preparation keeping in our mind the greatest events of His Incarnation and His Second Coming. God bless you.

Be Wise and be Prepared

2011-11-04T20:29:00.000-07:00

November 6^th 2011 Sunday homily

Wis 6:12-16; I Thes 4:13-18; Mt 25:1-13

For readings click

http://www.usccb.org/nab/110611.shtml

Have you ever noticed a cat waiting to catch a mouse. Once the cat becomes sure of the mouse’s presence inside the hole, it will sit outside even for hours waiting for the mouse to come out and once the mouse steps out immediately it will pounce over it and catch it. If it gets distracted for a short period it may miss the mouse and the mouse may escape. If we try to distract the cat When it is waiting, it will become very restless. The whole time the cat will be very alert even for any sound or movement. In today’s gospel Jesus tells us to remain alert using our God-given wisdom and prudence to gain the kingdom of God.

The first Reading from the Book of Wisdom describes the means to attain wisdom. Divine wisdom is the true knowledge that is within reach of any person of ordinary intelligence who wishes to know the basic facts of life and death that concern him personally. In the second reading from 1Thessalonians, Paul reminds us of our life after death in Christ, i.e., we too shall rise again in glorified bodies, or rather as glorified persons, to live on forever in God’s kingdom in heaven. There will be no more tears, pain or worries but all desires will be completely fulfilled in the beatific vision of God.

The point of the parable of Ten Virgins is about being alert and ready not about weddings. You remember how to play musical chairs, right? You walk around the chairs, carefully situating how to sit down in each chair, just waiting for the music to stop, hoping that you can get to a chair before a slower person. Consider Jesus telling the parable of the kids playing musical chairs, and then turning to you and to me and asking, “Where are you going to be when the music stops?” During the month of November, we come to the end of the Liturgical year. We consider the end of our lives. We consider death. And we ask ourselves, “Where are we going to be when the music stops?”

Years ago the actor William Gargan discovered he had cancer. Ironically, at the time, he was playing the role of a cancer victim in the play ‘The Best Man’. Thirty-six hours after the cancer was discovered, Gargan was in surgery. Looking back over those thirty-six hours, he said he learned two important things about himself. First he learned that he was not afraid to die. He prepared for this moment while living. Second, he learned that Jesus was his friend. From his youth, he had made it a habit to talk to Jesus daily. He used the same memorized prayer. Now, in his moment of need, that prayer made him aware of the deep relationship that had helped him cultivate with Jesus.

The lesson we learn from the parable of Ten virgins is that we are to be constantly prepared for His coming with the oil of our good deeds. We are not to have the panicky last-minute anxiety of the foolish bridesmaids but the calm preparedness of the wise ones. The attitude is well exemplified in the life of St.Aloysius Gonsaga. On one occasion, he was asked what he would do if told on the playground that he was about to die. While others said they would go to confession or make an act of contrition, his reply was, “I will carry on playing for the love, honor and glory of God”.

That is the way our Lord tells us we should be in today’s gospel. The foolish virgins missed out because they weren’t prepared. God is always ready to welcome us back if we are willing to change our ways, but our Lord warns us in today’s parable we never know when time will run out for us. He has given us the way of faith, love and charity. Therefore let us be prepared while we have time to follow His ways so that we will not panic when our Master calls us and we will be asked to enter the wedding hall for the celebration keeping our lamp burning brighter and brighter. God bless you.

Be Active, Productive and Alert

November 13^th ’11 Sunday homily: Fr.Francis Chirackal CMI, MSW

Prv 31:10-13,19-20,30-31; 1Thes 5:1-6; Mt 25:14-30

http://www.usccb.org/nab/111311.shtml

We have heard of the motto of Pope John XXIII. He was known as a very simple and humble man. His motto was, “Now I begin”. Every day is an opportunity to begin the work of the Lord once again with the talents He gives. Suppose you get a sum of $500,000 today in a lottery, how many of you will put all that money in a plastic bag and hide it in the basement of your house and live as nothing is there? In today’s gospel parable we see such a man. A talent was a measurement of weight, usually in silver. One talent was a large sum of money worth about 6,000 denarii. At Jesus time, since one denarius was the usual payment for a day's labor, a talent was roughly the value of twenty years of work by an ordinary person. That means, in today’s situation one talent is worth roughly $500,000 in today’s US currency. This is the amount the third servant hid in the ground.

The First reading from the Book of Proverbs presents a hymn in praise of the ideal wife. This is somewhat unusual in the Old Testament where women played a rather minor role in public, civic or religious life. But here the author rightly saw to it that the part that a wise, prudent and industrious wife plays in a man’s life, and hence in the life of the nation, deserved to be stressed and admitted. While it is possible that it is “wisdom” that the author of Proverbs is personifying here in his praise of the ideal wife, the fact remains that what is said is eminently true of a faithful wife. St.Paul in his letter to 1 Thessalonians reminds them to be always prepared to receive the Lord by living their Christian faith.

The gospel parable brings consolation and encouragement to the followers of Christ who are sincere in their efforts. Eternal happiness is the divine reward for an earthly service faithfully rendered. Jesus used a large sum of money when describing the Kingdom of God as it is a very precious one. The master in the parable didn’t entrust talents to his servants without knowing their capabilities. He gave them such a large amount of money knowing their capabilities and according to their performance till that day. Here, the third servant was not a totally lazy man by nature. If so he would not be entrusted with such a huge amount of money. It shows that he was capable of increasing the talents if he tried.

What was the difference between these three servants? The first two servants served their master before and after they received the talents. They controlled the money. But once the amount was received, the third servant became the servant of the money. That money controlled him. He didn’t think of his master’s intentions or work. Once the money subdued him, he lost even the normal way of thinking as a servant of the master. The talents made him idle. Therefore he didn’t even deposit it in the bank. I have heard of a man who had a good amount of money. He kept his money in a box, locked it, kept the key always with him and everyday he used to count that same money several times. It was his pleasure. He was not ready to buy anything good even for himself, his wife or children. He was a slave of that money.

Look at the present needs of economy. What are our economists looking for? Risk-takers! Go out and spend, they tell us. Invest, buy and get the currency changing hands again, they insist. I hope you also notice that they are all asking us to have faith, to make faith-based decisions, to act, and act boldly, on faith. Well, Christ is giving us the same challenge. He’s telling us that faith isn’t something we can get and keep all to ourselves. Faith is the currency of the Divine Economy, the engine that drives God’s enterprise. And faith isn’t something we can hide, clutch, and hold only unto ourselves. It needs to be invested in the lives of others and thereby multiplied. Only then can it possibly bear fruit. Only then can our world get better.

God doesn’t want our talents to become our masters. We need to serve the real Master, the Creator who provided us with necessary talents to make this world more beautiful, comfortable and better for many including ourselves. There is no question of profit or loss, but sincere and prudent effort with our whole soul, heart and strength. Working for the Kingdom of God is not a gesture of generosity, but of responsibility for which we are accountable. The first two servants were praised and rewarded for their good work as they showed their loyalty to the master even in his absence.

The parable of the talents is considered to be an exhortation to us to use our God-given gifts in the service of God, and to take risks for the sake of the Kingdom of God. Failure to use our gifts, the parable suggests, will result in severe judgment. Therefore we need to look at our God-given talents and our sincere efforts. God gave us faith, His grace, knowledge and wisdom to grow and increase our talents. Do our talents act as a means for us to serve our God, fulfilling our God-given responsibilities or are we engaged with our own joys and comfort forgetting the Master who gave us this life? Let us be sincere, productive and alert. God bless you.

November 20^th'11 Sunday Homily

Christ the King: The Just Judge

Ez 34:11-12,15-17; 1Cor 15:20-26,28; Mt 25:31-46

http://www.usccb.org/nab/112011.shtml

Once upon a time there were two powerful kings who were appealing for followers to conquer the world. Seated on his throne in royal splendor, the one king said: “If you follow me, I will give you everything you desire–riches, power, prestige–everything you want to make you totally independent. You will not be in need of anyone, not even God. Just accept my ways of getting these things and all is yours.” The other king, walking among the people, said: “If you follow me you must live as I live–simply, struggling to bring the message of truth to others, accepting rejection, suffering–possibly even death for the sake of the kingdom. I promise you that I will always be with you. You will have a peaceful, joyful heart in the struggle and a glorious victory.” We know who conquered the whole world. The first group simply disappeared became part of history and ground, while the other King still lives and rules even after 2000 years from within and from above.

The rise and fall of kings and kingdoms are not new to mankind. Hundred of kings came, ruled and perished. Even a few weeks ago we heard of a dictator who controlled everything for last 42 years died without a bit of peace of mind. The liberated people killed him. But today we celebrate the feast of a king who liberated people with his death and resurrection. Julian the Apostate was one of the Roman emperors, who distinguished themselves by their fanatical zeal in persecuting the early Christians. In the days of his prosperity he is said to have pointed his dagger to heaven, defying Jesus whom he commonly called the Galilean. But when he was wounded in battle and saw that all was over with him, he gathered up his clotted blood and threw it into the air, exclaiming, “Thou hast conquered, O Galilean!”

Today we celebrate the Solemnity of Christ the King. Through this feast the church is saying that all of our celebrations can be summed up in one statement: “Jesus is our King,”. We serve him. The First reading from the Book of Ezekiel presents God who described the relationship between his people of Israel and himself under the image of a flock of sheep and its shepherd consoles and encourages them with kind and loving words. St.Paul in his letter to the Corinthians presents our resurrection, destruction of evil and eternal rule of God. In the gospel, speaking to his disciples, Jesus describes his second coming as that of a king arriving in all his majesty.

In contrast to secular kings He defined His role as King to humble service, and commanded His followers to be servants as well. In the New Testament we find that His kingdom is connected to His suffering and death. Even though Christ is coming at the end of the ages to judge the nations, His teachings spell out a kingdom of justice and judgment that are balanced with radical love, mercy, peace, and forgiveness. So when we celebrate Christ as King, we are not celebrating an oppressive ruler, but one willing to die for humanity and whose "loving-kindness endures forever." Christ is the king that gives us true freedom, freedom in Him. We must never forget that Christ radically redefined and transformed the concept of kingship.

Today, the last Sunday in the Church’s liturgical year, we are met with our shepherd King who is our final judge. He has loved us with great passion. With all the more passion He defends us from spiritual forces on high that seek to devour our souls. The greater the love, the greater the passion.

Christ would be the King of our soul but in order to let Him we must dethrone the false gods that seek to own us and manipulate us. But we must be the actor, we must take the initiative. Christ will not do it all for us but He will do everything with us. We need to dethrone all kinds of evil thoughts, evil habits, hatred, selfishness and all similar elements from our heart. Jesus tells us that with men dethroning the false gods is impossible. But with God, all things are possible, even moving the mountains, both external and internal, that seek to crush us.

Therefore let us submit ourselves fully to the rule of Christ. Let Him be the King of our hearts, families, communities and nation. Let us be passionate in following his rules and footsteps. What a blessing we have in Christ our King! What a blessing to be able, with Christ, to walk in the glorious freedom of the sons and daughters of God. God bless you.

Be Sincere and Truthful

2011-10-27T06:15:00.000-07:00

Oct.30th 2011 Sunday Homily: Fr.Francis Chirackal CMI, MSW
Mal 1;14b-2:2b, 8-10; 1Thes 2:7b-9,13; Mt 23:1-12

For Readings click on
http://www.usccb.org/nab/103011.shtml

Tomorrow will be the Halloween day. Originally it was celebrated as the eve of All Saints day wearing costumes of Saints. But now it has become just the opposite. Tomorrow, your doorbell will ring and little children will stand outside saying "Trick or Treat". Children love Halloween because they like to pretend. God has given them huge imaginations and with a little costume and a mask they can be anyone their mind tells them they are. Halloween is one of the few opportunities for their imaginations to soar. The only problem with Halloween is when it becomes a glorification of evil. If it would recover its original meaning and practice, it would be great. For most of us, Halloween is just an opportunity for the children to dress up, make believe, and have fun. Putting on a mask and pretending is perfectly acceptable for a child, particularly on Halloween. But, putting on a mask and pretending is not acceptable for a follower of Jesus Christ. God is not satisfied with people imagining that they are great followers of Christ. We are not called to appear to be a holy people. We are called to be holy people.

Today’s first reading from the Book of Malachi warns the religious leaders of their dishonest and purely external service which brought the true religion into disrepute. They didn’t teach the Law of God to their people for their own faith and belief were lukewarm, if not altogether lost. According to the Second reading, God revealed his purpose for our life through Jesus, who is the Word became flesh. Jesus taught us the eternal truths regarding our life and death. To be true Christians this knowledge should influence our everyday life.

In the gospel of today, Jesus Himself is critical of the scribes , Pharisees and the religious leaders of His time. He openly said that they were making the religion a sham. He tells us to lead a sincere and true life and to avoid all kinds of pretence. He says they wear all the holy costumes, headbands and tassels in front of their eyes containing inscriptions from scripture. The reason why they did that is because in scripture God says, “Keep my words always before your eyes.” So, when the pharisees moved their heads, they would see the words of scripture, thereby keeping God’s words before their eyes. According to Jesus, these Pharisees went trick or treating to all the important banquets so that everyone else could see them. That’s all they really wanted. They were just putting on a show. They knew how to hold their arms up in prayer. They pretended to be holy, but they were not holy.

As we can see in the gospel, the Scribes and the Pharisees were not committed to sharing the love of God. They applied self-love! What did self-love get them? It received criticism from Jesus who is the Word of God. For us Christians to be committed to sharing the love of God, we must do the opposite of what the scribes and the Pharisees were doing. We must be humble! We must serve others! We must not draw attention to our prayer lives in order to receive worldly praise.

Jesus continues His message by saying that the greatest is the one who is the servant. Those who exalt themselves will be humbled and those who are humble themselves will be exalted. To be true Christians we should be committed to serving the community, the needy and not to be served or ministered to by others. It is a well accepted and appreciated truth of all times that the man who thinks humbly of himself will be considered by God and respected by his fellow beings, while the proud man’s folly will be despised by God and fellow beings. True service comes only from a humble heart. The very act of serving presupposes considering others as respectful important and greater.

Jesus doesn’t want us to loose our salvation. With a life of pretence one looses earthly reputation at a certain stage and heaven for all time. Humble, sincere and honest faith living earns lasting appreciation from our fellow beings and grace for entering the eternal life of light and joy. Life of pretence comes from selfishness and self-centeredness while humility, honesty and the respect for others comes from other centeredness. Let us be always humbles, let us be honest, and worthy of God’s kingdom. God bless you.

Love

2011-10-20T15:08:00.000-07:00

Oct.23rd '11 Sunday Homily: Fr.Francis Chirackal CMI, MSW
Ex 22:20-26; 1Thes 1:5c-10; Mt 22:34-40
For Readings
http://www.usccb.org/nab/102311.shtml

All of us use vehicles. Vehicle have axles. Axles are an integral component of a wheeled vehicle. In a live-axle suspension system, the axles serve to transmit driving torque to the wheel, as well as to maintain the position of the wheels relative to each other and to the vehicle body. The axles in this system must also bear the weight of the vehicle plus any cargo. In today’s gospel a Pharisee asks Jesus which is the greatest commandment. Without hesitation Jesus replies that “love of God and love of neighbor”. This love may be compared to the axle of a vehicle. The nature of our love decides our worth in relation to the Kingdom of God.

In the first reading from the book of Exodus we see the law of fraternal charity, the obligation to love their neighbor, was imposed by God on the Israelites from their very beginning as a people. In the Second Reading, Paul reminded the Thessalonians of his living example among them for their sake so that they may grow in Christ. The examples of St. Paul and many other Christians shined in the love of Christ so others may know the way of Christ.

Today’s Gospel reading revolves around the question: “Which commandment of the Law is the greatest?” Another way to put this question is to ask, “What do I need to do to achieve salvation?” Jesus answered by saying, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind." Quoted from Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18, this is the first and most important Commandment. Placing God first in one's life means walking in faith and in the love of God. The second greatest Commandment is, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." The second Commandment means that if we have the love of God within us, it should shine towards others. Love is meant to be shared, not to be selfishly kept to oneself. When we look at Jesus’ answer, serving God takes a lot more than a simple action. “Love God with your whole mind, your whole heart, and your whole soul, and love your neighbor as yourself,” is more an attitude in life than a list of things to do.

First of all, we should take it for what it is – a mandate, a command. It is something we must choose to do with little regard to our feelings. Feelings are important but feelings are not decisive. Convictions, things we are convinced of, are decisive. Furthermore, as psychologists tell us, feelings can be shaped by the way we act. Perhaps this is another reason why Jesus commands us to act toward others in a loving way, regardless of how we feel about them. Love makes commitments and feelings follow along.

Here we need to remember the Last Judgment account depicted in St. Matthew’s Gospel. That Last Judgment account is all about deeds – feelings are not even mentioned. God does not say: “I was hungry, and you felt sorry for me. I was naked, and you felt embarrassment. I was sick and you have feelings of sympathy toward me.”

Having good feelings toward others is nice. But Christianity is something more than being nice or simply having nice feelings toward others. In the same way, we may hear people say that they have faith in their heart and they do not want any external expressions. But our faith and love of God can’t remain in our heart alone without any external expressions. Our words and behavior are the reflections of our hearts. Our Catholic faith and love of God will find expressions in our love for our neighbors. Today Jesus tells us to live our faith in its fullness and to love all of our neighbors in what we do to them, in what we do for them, and in how we act toward them. Let us follow what Jesus says and become worthy of the Heavenly Kingdom. God bless you.

Our Dual Citizenship

2011-10-14T15:56:00.000-07:00

Oct.16th, '11 Sunday homily- Fr.Francis Chirackal CMI, MSW
Is 45:1,4-6; I Thes 1:1-5b; Mt 22:15-21
For Readings
http://www.usccb.org/nab/101611.shtml

For the past few years we heard a lot about Tax payments. Debates and arguments are going on endlessly and it is an issue not only for America, but also for many other countries now. History speaks of many rulers who imposed unreasonable tax on subjects. More than 250 years ago England tried it on America, and Americans opposed it. Same thing was repeated in India and met with opposition. In today’s gospel Jesus was asked a question related to the tax payment of his time to trap him. Jesus gave them a very wise and prudent answer and reminded them of a life beyond earthly kingdoms. Here Jesus speaks of one’s dual citizenship: citizenship to a earthly kingdom and a heavenly kingdom, citizenship which ends with a physical death and the one which continues even after death. To answer the Herodians’ tricky question Jesus uses a coin of earthly kingdom which they themselves had with them and a heavenly obligation they had by their very existence.

In the First reading from the Book of Isaiah we heard that Yahweh is the God of history and of the whole universe. St.Paul in the Second reading praises his converts for their fidelity to God and to Christ his Son. He also speaks of the spiritual support he was giving to them to live their new faith.

Jesus in the gospel tells the Pharisees to fulfill their heavenly and earthly obligations. In this story we see a peculiar element. Usually, Pharisees and Herodians were not on good terms. Herodians supported Herod’s right to tax while Pharisees were opposing it. But here to trap Jesus these two groups came together. Here we need to remember that it is very hard to see two opposing groups coming together to do some good works, but may work together to do evils.
Belonging to God, we are created and called to be in His image. We are called to actively maintain our gifts by living our faith in Christ. We are called to give to God what belongs to God while giving due respect and honor to our earthly legal powers and laws as loyal citizens. God deserves our worship, praise, adoration and gratitude.

We need to appreciate what God has given us. It invites us to look at our own lives and find the things we have received from God and need to express our gratitude. It starts from our very life itself. It is God who selected our life which is a gift, not a chance or accidental one. God gave us His image, his divine grace, soul, talents, skills, abilities. protection, health and strength, healings, knowledge, awareness and nurtured us up to this level, leading us through different situations. He also allows limitations not to stray away and lose grace. Now, by the power of the Holy Spirit, we need to preserve our gifts and blessings and share it with others with all our souls, our minds, our spirits, our hearts and our strength. This is the way we give to God the things that are God’s.

Balancing of our lives is essential as we are living in this world. We can’t ignore this world, the country we live, and the culture we share. As Jesus said, no power comes to man unless God gives. When a situation of selecting one over the other comes we need to select God over earthly powers. Throughout the Christian history we see hundreds of people who faithfully selected heavenly kingdom over earthly power and became martyrs. We see the great example of Thomas More. He selected God’s law against the king’s law and sacrificed his own life for that. There may be pleasant or bitter experiences. But in the long run everything helps us for our salvation and salvation of many. In this balancing we choose our future, either to the kingdom of light or kingdom of darkness. God wants us to select light.

God has given us the law of love, faith and charity to become citizens of the kingdom of light. We have thousands of models who lived for the kingdom of light who practiced these virtues. We give to God the things that are God’s only when we combine these three elements in our personal life, family life and social life. One without the other is incomplete. Let us always choose the kingdom of light so that when we appear before the Lord God, we will proudly give Him back what He gave us. It is not a onetime selection but continuous process. But Jesus stands always before us offering His support with extended hands. God bless you.

The King Invites You

2011-10-06T17:01:00.000-07:00

Oct.09th, 2011 Sunday homily- Fr.Francis Chirackal CMI, MSW
Is.25:6-10a; Phil 4:12-14,19-20;Mt 22:1-14
For Readings
http://www.usccb.org/nab/100911.shtml
All of you may be having at least some experience of arranging dinners for friends and other invitees. Suppose your son is returning home after being out of the country for many years. He is scheduled to arrive sometime next week, but he is not sure it will be on Thursday or on Friday. You decided to express your great joy by arranging a welcome-home dinner and invited two of his closest friends to join. You invited them and explained the situation and asked them to hold both dates open as he may come on any of these two days. They agreed enthusiastically. Thursday morning you got the message that your son will arrive that evening, and you call his friends back and say, “The dinner will be Thursday night”. They shock you by saying, “Sorry, we have made other plans for that night”. What will be your feelings? In the gospel Jesus presents guests who were invited to a prince’s wedding banquet and have agreed to attend are giving excuses at the last moment when everything is ready causing humiliation and shame to the king. We feel sad for the king because the guests didn’t turn up. But the king found a way out.

The reading from the Book of Isaiah is a prophecy regarding the promised salvation that was to come, it having been fulfilled through the Blood of Jesus Christ. The Second Reading echoes how God provides for our needs. The Third Reading tells us that God calls everyone but only a few answers His calling.

In the gospel the central point is the kingdom of heaven is compared to the wedding feast and is open to all. From the Old Testament, we learn that the first guests who were invited to the Wedding Banquet were the Jewish people and their leaders, they being God's chosen people. Having rejected God's invitation, the Lord sent out His invitation to the Gentiles, the non-Jewish people. The second set of guests included people from all sorts of lives. The invitations were sent out to all, the good and the bad. These generous invitations echo the abounding love and mercy of God that reaches out towards all, forgiving the sins of those who will sincerely repent of their evil ways in order to embrace a life of righteousness. In god’s kingdom there is unending love, peace and joy. To enjoy it, we must respond to God’s invitation, the response which involves certain responsibilities on our part.

The last part of the parable which speaks about the wedding garment puzzles many as that generous king acts with such anger. But we need to understand that wedding garments were provided to guests by the king as they arrived. The king was a very generous person and the second set of invitees was not informed earlier. Seeing all other invitees with wedding garments shows that it was provided by the king not to compromise the decorum of the banquet. It was a prince’s wedding feast. All the subjects have the obligation to respect the king and prince. Here they only had to get and wear the banquet garment so that the hall will reflect joy and festivity in its fullness. Inappropriate behavior and appearance will disrupt others joy and the celebration. This was the man’s mistake. It was also a sign of disregard and disrespect towards the king. Here Jesus warns us of the unpleasant end that our disregard for God’s law will cause although god is infinitely merciful and generous.

We need to show regard by cooperating with God’s grace and growing in it. We need to make at least basic efforts to grow in grace by following God’s law of love and charity, by accepting God’s rule in our lives, worshiping God, and respecting our fellow beings. In a few moments, we shall continue with the celebration of the Holy Mass. The Holy Mass is the Great invisible Wedding Feast that is opened to all those who have been baptized and who live their faith in Christ. It is the foretaste of our communion with God, after life and gives us the strength to continue our faith journey. God bless you.

Respond properly to heavenly invitation

2011-09-30T13:56:00.000-07:00

October 2, 2011 Sunday homily- Fr.Francis Chirackal CMI, MSW
Is. 5:1-7; Phil. 4:6-9; Mt. 21:33-43
For Readings
http://www.usccb.org/nab/100211.shtml

We hear of people who drew excess salaries by manipulating worksheets, records and by misusing their power and positions. We hear of hundreds of scams and scandals as politicians, rulers and people who are in power grabbing public property or draining the treasury by cheating the management and public. We hear of country heads and leaders who were thrown out of the power and positions as they betrayed the trust shown to them by people and used their offices for domination, killings, extortion and siphoning of millions of dollars from public funds. There are hundreds of vineyards in and around Napa valley and Sacramento area. Its owners spend huge amounts of money and put a lot of effort to raise a vineyard and start a winery. Every vineyard and winery has workers. Suppose one day we hear news of a vineyard of which the laborers formed a union and took over the vineyard killing and scaring many of the owner’s family members. What will be our response? In today’s gospel Jesus uses a mirror parable, the parable of wicked tenants to enable people to look at themselves.

In the First reading from the Book of Isaiah we see that if God did so much for His chosen people of the Old Testament, how incomparably greater is the benevolence and love he has shown us Christians. St.Paul in the Second reading tells us to make our needs known to God through prayer and supplication with thanksgiving as our journey towards the heavenly kingdom is strenuous one.

In today’s gospel parable there are two leading thoughts: the infinite goodness, patience and mercy of God in his dealings with mankind, and ingratitude to which men can sink. This parable tells us to look at the track record of our tenancy in this world. God entrusted us many small and big responsibilities. Looking at our track record can we in all honesty say that we have cared for our god-given life and soul. Last month after I completed anointing a 90 year old woman, she said, ‘Father, in my life I was always faithful to God, and now I am ready to go”. She left for her eternal reward after a few days. It was an expression of a well lived and a well prepared life.

Fearing that Jesus would take away their positions of glories and honors, the chief priests and Pharisees plotted to kill Jesus in order to preserve their elevated places among the Jewish people. Looking at our track record of tenancy, we may find that there are lots of things we need to challenge ourselves about. It may be matters concerning our personal life, family life, professional life, social life or faith and moral life.

Today's Gospel ends with the words, "Therefore I tell you, the Kingdom of God will be... given to a people that produces the fruits of the Kingdom." [Mt. 21:43] The fruits of the Kingdom are the fruits of the Holy Spirit. They are "love, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against such things." [Gal. 5:22-23]Opposing the fruits of the Holy Spirit are "the works of the flesh... fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing and things like these... those who do such things will not inherit the Kingdom of God." [Gal. 5:19- 21]

In the parable we see the vineyard owner made three efforts to get the tenant farmers to change their ways. When he saw the more patience was futile, he passed judgment on the tenants. He held them accountable for their actions. It is the same way with God and us. Our heavenly Father is infinitely merciful and patient. But at a certain point God’s patience may give way to judgment. We too will be held accountable for our actions.

Therefore, let us all take a few moments to review our status before God, asking ourselves if we will inherit the Kingdom of God. If we fall short of manifesting the holy ways of God, let us renew our commitment to persevere in our living faith in Christ through a sincere repentance and the reception of the Sacraments. Let us find the real lasting joy and peace here on earth and life after. God bless you.

Obedience in Action

2011-09-23T16:47:00.000-07:00

September 25th, 2011 Sunday homily- Fr.Francis Chirackal CMI, MSW
Ez 18:25-28; Phil 2:1-11; Mt 21:28-32
For Readings
http://www.usccb.org/nab/092511.shtml

Thomas Merton had just graduated from high school, was travelling alone in Europe, and was living a rather fleshy existence. As he states, one night, in his hotel room, he was struck with an awareness of his sinfulness. The whole thing passed in a flash and he was overwhelmed with a sudden and profound insight into the misery and corruption of his soul. He was filled with horror at what he saw and his soul desired escape from all that with an intensity and an urgency unlike anything he had ever known before. He prayed first time in his life and it was the first step in his conversion. Next morning although he was not yet a Catholic he went to a church, knelt down, and prayed the Lord’s prayer slowly, with all the faith he had. It was his first successful step to conversion, conversion from a communist to a Trappist monk.

Today’s readings speak of awareness, change of heart and conversion. Prophet Ezekiel in the First Reading reminds us that each one of us is responsible to God for every one of his/her actions. The thought that the good and holy can turn from God and commit sin should make us vigilant and watchful over our actions. St.Paul in the second reading appeals to live in true Christian love and unity.

In the gospel Jesus is telling the Jewish leaders that the fact that they were God’s chosen people, and that they were proud of their observance of the law of Moses, is not a guarantee that they will possess the kingdom of God. As the parable says, the father had a problem with both of his sons. However, the son who said “no” to his father realized his mistake and changed his mind. It was a positive change. Second son said “yes” to father but acted differently. His life was a life of lies, pretence and wrong choices.

Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes said that the first part of the news paper he read was the sports section. He wanted to read about people doing something rather than politicians promising something. In the rules laid down by Jesus, the mouth can never be a substitute for performance. "My life," said Gandhi, "is my message." Christ wants each of us to be able to speak that statement. Christ, it is said, is not a psychiatrist. He is a cardiologist. He listens not to words but to hearts.
As we meet the Lord in the sacraments of Eucharist and Confession we find ourselves in the place of those two sons. We need to examine our lives and confess our sins. We need to promise that, because we love the Father, we will in the future avoid the near occasions that may lead us to, knowing the Lord's will and saying "yes" with our voices and saying no by our actions. These same sacraments were the instruments of the Lord which transformed Augustine from a man just like the tax collectors and prostitutes, into a holy man in whom many have and still do meet Jesus Christ.
God always gives us the chance to think better of our words and actions and attitudes; he always reaches out to us, and he always invites us to repent of our errors and to believe in him. Here we need to keep in mind that all of us are still journeying toward full conversion. We may be struggling to make the transition from being an ordinary Christian to being a good Christian, to move up from being a good Christian to being an excellent one, move up from being an excellent Christian to being an exemplary one. Commenting on the Christian’s endless journey toward full conversion, Soren Kierkegaard said, “There is no such thing as being a Christian; there is only becoming a Christian.” God is constantly there for us showing us the true path. Even in our most deeply sinful moments, even in our times of most profound doubt and rejection, He is there holding out his hand to us, inviting us to have faith and trust in him. He wants above all for us to accept his Gospel of love and to begin to live a new and better life; a life of integrity, faith and justice. God bless you.

Generosity of God

2011-09-16T14:42:00.000-07:00

Sept.18, 11 Sunday homily – Fr.Francis Chirackal CMI, MSW
Is 55:6-9; Phil 1:20c-24,27a; Mt 20:1-16a
For Readings
http://www.usccb.org/nab/091811.shtml

Imagine there are three houses on our street. We own the house on the corner and it is valued at $ 400,000. The other two houses next to us are valued at $300,000 and $200,000 respectively. Imagine one day our child asks us saying, “Would you sell our house if someone offered you $ 500,000 for it? We reply, “I would jump for joy and sell it on the spot.” Surprisingly, next day we are being offered $500,000 for our house by somebody. With great joy we sold it. A day after we learn that the other houses on our street are also sold for $500,000. What will be the reaction? Naturally it will be, “it’s not fair. I should have been offered more for my house”. Today’s gospel gives a parable of similar situation which reveals God’s compassion, care, justice and generosity which transcends man’s concept of fairness.

The First Reading from the Book of Isaiah speaks of the Divine calling of the Lord God. Let the wicked forsake their way. Let the unrighteous forsake their thoughts. Return to the Lord! Seek the Lord while He may be found. [Is. 55:6] St. Paul in the Second Reading, speaks of the righteousness of man. It is to live and die for Christ. It is living with Christ, in Christ and through Christ, until one's last breath.

From the Gospel we heard of God's righteousness and mercy. And, we were told how the righteousness of God may not appear to be fair to human mind at times. When we look at human history we see righteousness is always a victim of criticism and assault starting from Abel. One of the phrases we often hear from people is “it’s not fair”. In families, work places, educational institutions, business matters, political field we hear it frequently.

To appreciate Jesus’ original parable, we must keep in mind that the late-comers who went into the vineyard were not lazy ones. They were day laborers who needed a job to feed the family. The fact that they were still waiting at 5 pm shows how badly they needed work. The whole day they were worrying of the next day’s bread for their families. The moment they were called, they went to work even without asking of the wage. It was an unconditional response. With this parable Jesus tells us that we need to respond unconditionally to the heavenly Father and He is very generous and it’s never too late to find God if we wish to.

The act of the owner appears unfair if we look at his generosity with partial knowledge. If someone says that the workers who labored for 8 hrs were given the wage equal to those who worked for one hour, a generous act will appear like injustice. At the same time if one says that those who worked just for one hour were also given the wage equal to those who worked for eight hours, the same act becomes a generous one. Many times some people may have the tendency to judge and present others action in a different way or twisted way. We need to be always cautious of how we perceive and present others words and actions and how we present someone else’s words and actions. Envy, jealousy, gossip, and partial or twisted presentation of facts lead to misleading, dissatisfaction and sin. At the same time generosity, broad mind, heart of gratitude and appreciation lead to immense joy and satisfaction to all.

Every one of us comes to this world with a God-given mission. We will be called to fulfill that mission at different stages of our life. It is not the quantity that matters, but our attitude and the positive response we make on His call. God knows our need. He is generous enough to give us what we need to live a successful life in this world and to save enough for eternal life. That saving part may prompt us to grumble. It is a sign of worldly attitude that is present in us. Bigger the worldly mind, the more severe the grumbling while greater the heavenly mind greater the satisfaction and appreciation.

The Lord God is just and fair in all His dealings with His children. No one will ever go unrewarded for his works that are accredited to him. In the Book of Daniel, we read, "Those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the sky, and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever." [Dan. 12:4] The greater the works, the greater the reward. No one shall go unpaid for their works in Christ. Let us be the stars forever and ever. God bless you.

Unlimited Forgiveness

2011-09-09T17:31:00.000-07:00

Sept. 11th, 11 Sunday homily– Fr.Francis Chirackal CMI, MSW
Sir 27:30-28:9; Rom 14:7-9; Mt 18:21-35
For Readings
http://www.usccb.org/nab/091111.shtml

There are plenty of people who feel a lot of hurt and pain as they remember incidents in their past. We may not find a single person who never felt hurt in his/her life. We may also find many who did forgive everything and living in happiness. But many feel that they cannot forgive those incidents and especially the persons involved, whom they blame for their suffering. It may be a verbal or physical assault by the spouse, parents, siblings or children. It may be an injury, insult or injustice caused by a co-worker, boss, friend or stranger. They feel a desire to retaliate and inflict at least as much harm as they themselves had received, ‘an eye for an eye and tooth for a tooth’.

First reading from Sirach says that only a sinful man can be angry with a neighbor and retaliate because of some offence the neighbor has committed. God will hold his sins against him because, instead of forgiving his neighbor, he took vengeance on him. St.Paul in the Second reading reminds us that as baptized Christians, we belong to Christ and an eternal life is waiting for us. In the gospel Jesus had been teaching the disciples how necessary it was to be ever ready to forgive their fellowmen who injured them. Jesus tells Peter that there is no limit to the forgiveness we must be ready to give our neighbor.

According to Psychological studies, many human health problems have its root in feeling of hurt, inability to forgive and desire for vengeance. We read in the news papers innumerable incidents of destruction, pain, loss, cruelty and sufferings being caused due to un-forgiveness. Today we remember 9/11, the day on which thousands of people died and hurt physically while millions of people hurt mentally.

Today, we received a very clear message from our Lord through the readings of the Holy Bible. We were told to forgive others of all their trespasses against us. Here the seventy times seven doesn’t mean 490, but never-ending forgiveness, day after day, week after week, years after years, this being done without counting. Many times gospel values may not go with mathematical principles.

When we do not forgive someone, it is because we are passing judgment on that person. Jesus commanded us not to judge others so that we will not be judged. So how can we perfectly forgive someone without judging? Bible gives answer. God forgives those who trespass against Him without counting, without looking back, without ever mentioning the trespass again, as if it never happened. That is holy forgiveness. Jesus tells us to imitate it.

Jesus wants us to be holy. According to the scriptures, "Being unable to forgive is the greatest obstacle to holiness!" We need to imprint these life saving words on our minds and hearts with special emphasis. We need to remember them always. Our salvation depends on them! As John says, “No one is without sin! If anyone believes that he is without sin, he is deceiving himself and the truth is not in him.” [1 Jn. 1:8] We have thousands of great dead and living examples of forgiveness namely, John Paul II, Gladys Staines and many. If Jesus could forgive those who murdered Him [Lk. 23:33-4], He Who was sinless, He Who was pure of heart, He Who was God incarnated, why is it so difficult for others to forgive so the world can be a better place to live in? Only we as individuals can answer that question by looking deep into our hearts.

Most of us have been victims at one time or another in our lives. We may have been victims of mental abuse such as rudeness. We may have been victims of ongoing psychological abuse. We may have been victims of physical abuse, discipline that goes beyond the necessity of discipline.

God wants to heal all the souls that have been victimized! God knows how these souls are hurting. God wants these souls to forgive so that their psychological, mental and many of the physical suffering may come to an end. God wants to remove the scars that inflict the victims.

God will forgive the soul that forgives others. God will welcome the return of such a child into the Body of Christ to continue its sanctification. The Holy Spirit will once more dwell within the body of the repentant individual. God will bless the person with numerous graces, this being God's way of rejoicing in this great moment. God bless you.

Help to be Good

2011-09-01T15:39:00.000-07:00

Sept 4th, '11 Sunday homily-Fr.Francis Chirackal CMI, MSW
Ez 33:7-9; Rom 13:8-10; Mt 18:15-20
For Readings
http://www.usccb.org/nab/090411.shtml
In the history of salvation we see frequent conflict between Israelites and prophets. There were conflict between individuals, groups and communities starting from Adam and Eve. Quarrel needs only two people to start with. That is why even a couple, madly in love in the early days of marriage, often end up fighting like cats and dogs in later stages. Conflicts exist in villages, parishes, small Christian communities, larger societies and nations. There are conflicts among even priests and among bishops. Nobody is exempt. In many cases these quarrels lead to a lot of bad blood, greater tensions and a further escalation of the conflict. Stories of Egypt and Libya are still live in our minds. Many people generally just blame the other and shift the total responsibility for the conflict on to the other.

The solutions proposed in today’s readings require much more maturity. As we heard in the first Reading, prophet Ezekiel was commissioned by God to give brotherly correction to the whole nation. God told him that, “You, son of man, I have appointed watchman for the house of Israel; when you hear me say anything, you shall warn them for me”. St.Paul in his letter to Romans reminds us of our Christian obligation to love our neighbor. The gospel tells us that true Christian charity obliges a Christian not only to help his or her neighbors in their temporal and spiritual needs by alms and by prayer but also to correct an erring brother or sister with love in a proper way if their sins are public. Giving correction in love is what parents do, what teachers do to students, what friends do to friends.

As many people think one of the temptations in priesthood is to want to be popular and that can sometimes prevent some priests from speaking certain truths on behalf of God. Ezekiel was warned by God not to shy away from preaching the truth, If I tell the wicked man that he shall surely die, and you do not speak out to dissuade the wicked man from his way, he (the wicked man) shall die for his guilt, but I will hold you responsible for his death. In families some of the parents and couples may encounter similar situations. They want to give proper guidance to their children or family members, but find themselves mouth closed as it may hurt the feelings of the other.

Like in the human history, so in our times individual and community conflicts are inevitable. In fact they are part of life. Furthermore, conflicts can even be a source of great enrichment if we approach them constructively. For conflicts arise because we think differently, have different likes and dislikes, values and morals; come from different family background, cultural background, educational and vocational setups and belong to different age groups. Yet the good news is that these very differences can help us discover wonderful, new and enriching perspectives in the way we view problems and deal with them.

There is a perversion that may occur when we are afraid to carry out brotherly correction, gossip. Cardinal Schönborn, in his book My Jesus: Encountering Christ in the Gospel writes, “We talk with everyone we can about the faults of the other person, just not with that person himself. This “backbiting” is almost a national pastime for us. The person affected is often the last to find out that his faults are being discussed…Gossiping is unmerciful…”

When I look at my past I find number of occasions in which my parents, siblings, family friends, relatives, teachers, friends, elders, priests and my superiors helped me to understand my errors and correct my way of thinking, behavior pattern and functioning. Helping an erring brother or sister to return to the proper path will also help the correcting person to be more cautious and lead a good life.

As Christians, in many ways we are the keepers of our neighbors. We have an obligation not only to do what is right but also to help others do what is right. Some people may do mistakes due to ignorance, weakness or certain external or internal influence. They are good people and are ready to make a U turn if they get proper guidance on time. In the words of Edmund Burke, “All that is needed for evil to prosper is for good people to remain silent”. Let us try to be more loving, more charitable and more helpful to others by living our Christian identity and fulfilling our Christian obligations keeping God our midst and listening to Him. God bless you.

Christian Meaning of Suffering

2011-08-26T18:00:00.000-07:00

Aug 28th, ’11 Sunday homily- Fr.Francis Chirackal CMI, MSW
Jer. 20:7-9; Rom 12:1-2; Mt 16:21-27
For Readings
http://www.usccb.org/nab/082811.shtml
Tourists were visiting the famous Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico. While they were below ground in the giant cave, the lights went out. Among those trapped in the darkness were two children: an eight-year-old boy and his five-year-old sister. The situation was scary, especially for children. Suddenly the little girl began to cry. Then her eight-year-old brother
Consoled her saying, "Don't worry, Amy. There's a man up there who knows how to turn the lights on again." In today’s gospel we see a person who speaks to us and knows to convert his followers’ suffering into eternal joy.

In today’s First Reading we hear Jeremiah who hates what he has to say to his people, yet he is compelled by God to say it. St.Paul, in the Second Reading tells us to show the gratitude to God by living our lives as true Christians, that is, our daily lives must conform to the will of God.

In the gospel we see, in foretelling his sufferings and death, Christ intended to prepare his disciples for what he knew would be for them a severe crisis of faith. He uses that occasion to remind them and all others who would follow him of what their attitude to suffering should be.
People suffer in this world. There are two kinds of sufferings such as redemptive suffering and un-redemptive. Un-redemptive suffering is the wasted and often needless pain we cause to ourselves due to our wrong choices or selfish motives. The redemptive suffering is the pain we sometimes have to inevitably go through because of choices we make to live a life of honesty and integrity in accordance with God’s plan. In the lives of each of us there may be something painful, big or small, something that we wish to be different. Those are our crosses. The cross can be caused by somebody else, or we may bring a cross on ourselves due to our choices or sometimes the cross is neither the fault of others nor ourselves, but because of the accidents of life or simply because we are finite human beings.

We know that our crosses keep us close to God. When there is some pain in our lives, when we have to carry a cross, we depend more on God. It is part of God’s mysterious plan that we carry a cross because it keeps us close to God. Mother Teresa of Calcutta said that sufferings are the kisses of Jesus in our lives. Jesus said, “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it”.

Why do we suffer? Why does God allow suffering? Why does God allow good people to suffer? These are questions that surface with Jesus’ rebuking Peter in today’s Gospel because he objected to Jesus’ prediction of his sufferings, and Jesus saying that anyone who wants to be his follower must take up his cross. Why do we have to take up a cross to follow Jesus as he asked in the Gospel today?

Pope John Paul II in his apostolic letter ‘Salvifici Doloris’ on the ‘Christian Meaning of Human Suffering’, answers this question referring to Holy Scriptures. Example of ‘suffering servant’ and Job in the Old Testament and Jesus’ suffering explains the real meaning of Christian suffering. Job was a just man who lost his sons and daughters as well as all his possessions. His friends told him that he must have sinned. Even his wife told him to curse God. Job was a just and honest man and their explanation of his sufferings was incorrect, but that was the only way at that time they could explain the suffering. But Jesus taught us its redemptive meaning. We may not be able to understand it and accept it fully each time as even Peter, who was highly praised by Jesus, was called by same Jesus as a hindrance and ‘Satan’ when Peter rebuked Jesus on His foretelling of His suffering and death. Christian meaning of suffering is deeper and beyond ordinary understanding.

Jesus established Kingdom of God by suffering. Jesus still builds his Church. When we partake of the Eucharist, it is of his suffering, sacrifice and resurrection that we partake. To receive communion is to build up the Church. So, to receive communion, to receive Jesus the Eucharist within us, is to walk in Jesus' footsteps. It is to bear our crosses, in order to build up the Church through our resurrection in Christ.

Each person must bear his/her own cross. For each one's cross is determined by Jesus. It is the cross that Jesus chose for us. It is proportionate to our strength. It is not too heavy, for it is the Love of Jesus that chose it. At the same time it is heavy enough to lower us down to a sincere and true humility, true Christian love and service, to bring us glory in God.

Jesus will return. Let us keep it in our mind and heart. Today, he comes into us through the Eucharist. Let us prepare our heart to receive him worthily and continue our journey. God bless you.

Who do you say that I am?

2011-08-18T22:15:00.000-07:00

August 21st, 11 Sunday homily- Fr.Francis Chirackal CMI, MSW
Is 22:19-23; Rom 11:33-36; Mt 16:13-20
For Readings Click
http://www.usccb.org/nab/082111.shtml

British essayist Mr. Charles Lamb was once involved in a discussion of the question, who is the greatest literary genius of all time? Two names finally emerged: William Shakespeare and Jesus of Nazareth. Lamb put an end to the debate when he said, “I’ll tell you the difference between these two men. If Shakespeare walked into this room right now, we would all rise to greet him, but if Christ came in, we would all fall down and worship.” There is the essential difference between the Jesus from Nazareth and all other great people we can think of. Jesus Christ is God and all others, no matter what their deeds, are but God’s creation, strutting on the stage for a brief time and then exiting. Today’s gospel describes who Jesus really is, and the unique conditions for Christian discipleship.

The First Reading from the book of Isaiah explains how Shebna, the steward in the household of King was deposed because of his disloyalty to Yahweh and worldly ambitions. St.Paul in the Second Reading praises God for His infinite wisdom and mercy which is away beyond anything we can imagine. In the gospel Jesus gives authority to Peter to lead the new chosen people, the Church which included people of all races and nations.

Today’s gospel passage invites us to reflect on two points in a special way. First, the answer to the question Jesus asked his apostles: “Who do you say that I am?” How we answer this question will determine how each of us relates to him. Is he, for example, someone worth our time on Sunday or even during the week? Is he someone we can trust? Is he someone who loves us, forgives us, and gives only the best for us? Is he someone who has the authority to tell us how to live, what we should do, what we may not do? Is he someone we look forward to spending eternity with as He is God? We need to answer this question everyday individually.

Second point is the preeminent position of Peter among the apostles. Another occasion Jesus spoke of Peter’s primacy was after the resurrection when He told Peter to feed His lambs and his sheep. There are three images offered in today’s gospel concerning the role of Peter. He is the rock, he is the one who holds the keys and the one who binds and looses. Above the massive sanctuary of Saint Peter’s basilica in Rome, written in huge lettering of gold mosaic, stands the text of the promise made by Jesus to his foremost apostle: “Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church. I will give to you the keys of the kingdom of heaven.” These words are revered by Catholics, as giving the basis for the papacy, since we understand the bishop of Rome as successor to Peter, as a human support for the church’s living faith, and as holder of the power of the keys. The keys Jesus said he would give Peter symbolize this authority. This authority was passed on to his successors and the leadership position of Peter remains as part of the structure of Christ’s community of believers. We all believe and accept that the Holy Father is chief shepherd and head of the Church. His role is to be the visible representative of Christ.

Today each of us must make our own personal answer to Our Lord’s question: “Who do you say that I am?’ Peter’s credo is a solid basis from which to begin to answer this question. Notice the beautiful phrase: “Son of the Living God,” expressing more richly what “Christ” means. Peter’s worshipful faith comes to him as a gift from above, not from any mere human logic or ingenuity.

Our Church is founded on a Rock, a light-house to pilot us through troubled waters. Let us be grateful for it. Each one of us is called upon to be fully committed and involved and thus to form a vibrant Church always engaged with an active Christian life of faith, love and service. God bless you.

Praying with Love and Humility

2011-08-12T15:52:00.000-07:00

Aug 14th '11 Sunday homily – Fr.francis Chirackal CMI, MSW
Is 56:1,6-7; Rom 11:13-15, 29-32; Mt 15:21-28
For Readings click
http://www.usccb.org/nab/080711.shtml
Today’s readings present the all embracing salvific plan of God. In the First Reading we see the call of the gentiles to the service of the true God on the great day which is to come. The temple of that future messianic age will be a “house of prayer” for all peoples. St.Paul in the Second Reading expresses his hope that his fellow Jews will notice his success among the gentiles, which was due to God’s mercy, and that some of them will follow the good example of the pagan nations. Gospel shows how our Lord moved by the persevering faith of a gentile woman and answered her prayer by healed her daughter.

This gospel story is a beautiful vignette of faith in action, and in a way is quite puzzling. Jesus seems to ignore the woman, and then be offensive, before he yields to her persistent faith, and answers her prayer. The account of Jesus and the Canaanite woman is one of the rare encounters of Jesus with Gentiles. One of the unusual aspects of this event is that the woman was a Canaanite. And it was not the general practice for the Jewish people to mix with the Samaritans and the Canaanites. Most likely have heard of the great miracles that Jesus was performing towards the Jewish people, this Canaanite woman took it upon herself to personally locate Jesus and to beg His mercy on her.

The conversation that took place between Jesus and the Canaanite woman is an example of turning an insult into a commitment. One can almost imagine Jesus throwing his hands in the air, and giving up! The apostles requested Him to get rid of this woman. There was only one way to get rid of her, however, and that was to give her what she was looking for. Despite all that had gone before, one can easily imagine Jesus smiling, and with warmth in his voice, he told her to go on home, that her daughter was healed. Well, she had come at him like a JCB, went through everything in the way, and she came away with what she came to receive. Jesus praised her faith. By granting favor to the persistent woman, Jesus affirmed that He had been sent to institute "a house of prayer for all people."

Let’s look at this woman again. She was not aggressive or demanded anything as her right. She was powerless, the daughter she loves was dying, and she had nowhere else to turn. Like her the point of experiencing our powerlessness and helplessness is the point at which we can come face to face with Jesus. He is the only one who will continue to be there for us. The first Step in a Twelve Step Program is “We admitted we were powerless over alcohol, and that our lives had become unmanageable.” This clears the way for an appeal to a Higher Power.
The power this woman had came from her love, and from her humility. She didn’t see herself as deserving anything, and she was prepared to be grateful for the crumbs that fell from the master’s table. The combination of her love and humility insulated her from the slings and arrows of others. She was single minded in her quest, and she never took her mind off what she wanted. Surely this makes for a powerful prayer of intercession. It is obvious that this woman wants her daughter to be healed, and with her love and humility, there’s no way Jesus could continue to ignore her!

There are many instances in the gospel where people brought their sick to Jesus to have them healed. The centurion came for his servant, who was too ill to travel. Four men brought a paralyzed man, Jairus came for his daughter, and the woman in today’s gospel came for her daughter, as well. It is certainly a strong lesson about how our prayers of intercession can benefit others. I know many devoted men and women who pray for people who are in need even without being asked for. Praying for others can be real love in action. Jesus said, “Ask, and you will receive; seek, and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.” How often we fail to find a lost object on our first search. There must be an element of perseverance in our prayer. God bless you.

Focus on Jesus

2011-08-05T14:04:00.000-07:00

Aug 7,2011 Sunday homily: Fr.Francis Chirackal CMI, MSW
I Kgs 19: 9, 11-1; Ps 85; Rom 9: 1-5; Mt 14: 22-33
For Readings Click
http://www.usccb.org/nab/080711.shtml

A man said, “I thought when I got older I’d have fewer temptations. Instead, I have more”. A woman said, “I thought when the kids grew up, I ‘d have more patience. Instead, I have less’. A teenager said, “I used to find it easy to obey God’s law. Now I find it harder and harder”. Do any of these situations describe us? If we do, then today’s gospel reading may have an important message for us.

The First Reading presents the Prophet Elijah who came to Mount Sinai to see God and rested in a cave. Elijah realizes God’s presence in the gentle voice. God is the God of love and forgiveness not a God of revenge and roaring. God is to be found in “the tiny gentle breeze” in the kind, charitable understanding word spoken out of a true brotherly love. In the sinner God sees his child and still loves him. In the Second Reading we see in spite of all the sufferings and trouble the Jews had caused him ever since he began his mission, St. Paul still loves them as his brother-Jews, and he has sorrow of heart and anguish because they do not see the gift of God in Christ. In the gospel we see two miracles; Jesus walks on the water and calms a storm. The faith and trust of Peter in Christ is greater than that of the other apostles, but it is as yet not complete and unquestioning.

You may have heard the story of a boy who went to the sea to learn how to be a sailor. One day when the sea was stormy, he was told to climb to the top of the mast. The first half of the climb was easy. The boy kept his eyes fixed on the sky. But halfway to the top, he looked down at the stormy waters. He grew dizzy and was in danger of falling. An old sailor called out to him: “Look back to the sky, boy! Look back to the sky!” The boy followed the instruction and finished the climb safely.

At Peter’s request, Jesus invested him with the same powers that He Himself had and asked him to walk on the water. While he trusted in Jesus, all went well. But Peter was caught up in two minds. He heard the Lord’s empowering words but also gazed on the terror of the storm. Very soon his faith became weakened. He took his eyes off the Master. And like cricketers and baseball players who take their eyes off the ball, he was doomed to failure. He was about to sink and in his panic he calls out to the Master, “Lord, save me”. Jesus caught hold of him.

The boy’s mistake was the same one Peter made in today’s gospel. Both of them took their eyes off their goal and looked down at the stormy sea. Jesus sent his disciples to row across the lake, knowing that they would meet strong winds and storm and be in the danger. He did this because he wanted to strengthen their faith. He intended to come to them at the right moment. This he did and the result was as he had intended-their faith in him was strengthened and they declared He was the Messiah.

For us too, there is a necessary lesson in this incident. It is that we must continue to trust in God even when God seems to have deserted us. Most of the troubles and trials of our lives are caused by the injustice and lack of charity of our fellowmen. The reminder can be attributed to our own defects, sins and mental and physical weaknesses. But God foresees all these misfortunes and lets them take their course, because they can and should be the means of educating us in our knowledge of life’s true meaning and they should draw us closer to God.

Therefore, if we are going through troubled waters, let us keep our eyes focused on Jesus. Let us say with Peter, “Lord save me”. If we accept gospel’s invitation, we will experience what Peter did. We may not experience it instantly and miraculously. But if we keep calling, we will indeed experience it. God bless you.

5 Loaves of bread to over 5000 people

2011-07-29T13:53:00.000-07:00

July 31st, '11 Sunday homily- Fr.Francis Chirackal CMI, MSW
Is 55:1-3; Rom 8:35, 37-39; Mt 14:13-21
For Readings Click
http://www.usccb.org/nab/073111.shtml

Stories of poverty and hunger deaths are not new. Last week there was a cartoon in the Sacramento Bee. It presented a very poor and starving woman holding a skinny malnourished child that gives her starving husband a bowl with three grains of rice, telling him to eat all the grains of rice. Though it appeared a little exaggerated, it showed the real picture of millions of people around the world. People searching for food in thrash bins around the cities or people standing at circles holding cards saying ‘hungry’ are not rare scenes. The most recent estimate, released in October 2010 by FAO, says that 925 million people are undernourished, i.e.13.6 percent of the estimated world population. In 2008, the family poverty rate and the number of families in poverty in US were 10.3 percent. In round numbers there are 7 billion people in the world and almost 1 in 7 people are hungry. Whenever we see such statistics or scenes, we may feel sad or sorry, sometimes helpless. Food is the basic need of all. Today’s readings speak of God who comes to help man to meet this need. Our God is concerned for mankind and the wellbeing of everyone.

In the first Reading from the Book of Isaiah we see God who invites the Israelites to a banquet which he freely gives them. The rich and abundant food mentioned in this reading symbolized the blessings they would soon enjoy. Those who come to receive God’s blessings will be satisfied beyond their wildest dreams and those who come to him would receive these blessings free of charge. Verses of Second Reading from the Letter to The Romans are rhetorical questions, showing that there is no power in heaven or on earth that can take away or lessen God’s love for us as manifested in Christ, his incarnate Son. The Gospel presents the miraculous feeding of five thousand men by Jesus. When the women and children were added, the crowd probably numbered over 10,000. It was a foreshadowing of Eucharistic meal He was going to establish. People were hungry -spiritually and physically. Jesus responded to both of these needs.

The story tells that his disciples came to him and asked him to send the people back home because they didn't have enough food to feed them if they spent the night. Then Jesus gave the disciples a challenge. He said, they need not go away; you give them food to eat. The disciples were probably laughing to themselves. They told Jesus that ‘this is such a lonely place, where on earth can we find so much food, we only have five loaves of bread and two fish that also belonged to a boy, but what is that among so many’. Jesus brushed aside their objections. Instead, He told them to bring that food and He blessed the loaves and fish and the crowds ate to their hearts’ content. And for good measure there were twelve baskets full of the remaining scraps.

God has set up the world in such a way that the action of every individual is important. When Jesus says to His disciples and to us, “You give them something to eat”, He is inviting us to reach out to others in their need. He is challenging us to be like Him in taking the initiative and leadership in a caring concern for other. In whatever situation we are in, says Jesus, remember we are the one called to be sensitive to others and give them a helping hand.

This miracle was an act of kindness and loving thoughtfulness on the part of Jesus. He saw the people’s need. He worked a miracle to provide for this need. This act of Jesus assures of his timely help in our needs and reminds us of our responsibility to respond to the suffering and starving brethren around us. It is not the quantity or surplus but the giving attitude that makes the miracles possible even today. The miracle also helped to convince the people of Galilee that he was the expected Messiah. It prepared the way for the greatest miracle of all – the miracle of the Eucharist. It was a foreshadowing of that heavenly food which he was about to give as spiritual nourishment to the millions who would become his followers down through the centuries until the end of time. Today we are partaking in that heavenly food Jesus foretold and established at Last Supper. Today we are nourished with His body and blood. Today when we return from this altar we will be stronger, more hopeful and more joyful and we will be renewed in Spirit.

In different ways we experience the presence and power of God in our lives. It is essential for us to enjoy this life in its fullness and grow to heavenly life. Jesus sometimes tells us to do impossible things so that we will know the power of God. We may also feel surprised or perplexed as the disciples did and may start finding excuses. The disciples focused on the problem rather than on God. Once they focused on Jesus there were no more problems but cause of joy. When we are confronted with an unsolvable situation, we need to remember, "For nothing is impossible with God." We have a loving and caring God. God bless you.

Value of the Kingdom of God

2011-07-22T14:37:00.000-07:00

July 24th, '11 Sunday homily - Fr.Francis Chirackal CMI, MSW
1Kgs 3:5,7-12; Rom 8:28-30; Mt 13:44-52

For Readings click
http://www.usccb.org/nab/072411.shtml

Many of you are familiar with or known of famous Santa Clara Swim Club. There Moto is ‘we dream, we train, we achieve’. Some time ago a magazine ran a story about teenagers who belong to this club. Every morning they start their swimming practice at 5.30 and swim for two solid hours. After a shower and a quick bite to eat, they hurry off to school. After school they return to the pool to swim for two more hours. At 5.00 they hurry home, hit the school books, eat late supper, and fall into bed exhausted. Everyday repeats the same routine. When asked why she follows such a tough schedule, one girl said, “My only goal is to make the Olympic team. If going to parties hurts that, then why go? There is no such thing as too much work. The more miles I swim, the better. Sacrifice is the thing”. In today’s gospel Jesus speaks of sacrifices made to gain the best one. One thing the treasure seeker, pearl merchant, and Santa Clara swimmer, have in common is their total commitment and sacrifice to a dream. All these three were willing to sacrifice everything for a goal they have set for themselves.

First Reading from 1Kings says that King Solomon preferred to do good for his subjects. He asked for an understanding heart to judge God’s people and to distinguish right from wrong, not for personal wealth, long life, or victories over his enemies. He sacrificed everything to rule his subjects. God was pleased with his choice and gave him everything. St .Paul in the Second Reading tells us that God is doing his part to bring all who accept Christ to glory, that is, eternal happiness when we end our earthly life. God’s plan for the human race is for the happiness and perfection of men.

In the three parables that we read today, the first two describe the kingdom of heaven as worth more than all the treasures of this earth while the third teaches that, the mere calling of God ‘Lord, Lord’ will not merit heaven, but doing His will is necessary. It is still fresh news that last month a treasure, thought to be worth over 50 billion has been unearthed from secret underground chambers in a temple in the southern Indian state of Kerala. It includes precious stones, gold and silver. The riches are thought to have been languishing there for more than a century, interred by local kings over time. In a country like Palestine, frequently overrun by invaders it was not unusual for people to bury their gold and other precious possessions in tombs, caves or in the fields to save it. Jesus uses such an example to explain kingdom of God.

The lesson of these two parables is as true for us today, as it was for those Palestinians to whom Christ spoke. All Christians are called on to imitate these two wise men in order to gain eternal life. It doesn’t mean abandoning the earthly possessions, but makes it a means to gain the kingdom of God. Heaven is within the reach of all, who follow the ordinary vocations of life and partake of this world’s joys and pleasures within the framework of God’s commandments. Important thing is to never lose sight of the goal toward which we are moving. The treasure was in the field, the pearl was in the market. They made it their own using their resources and wisdom with a true discernment. The kingdom of God is something that we make the part of our lives. The man who found the treasure was lucky, but the treasure wasn’t legally and fully his until he sacrificed his possessions in order to buy the field. The man who wanted the pearl had to do the same. The kingdom of heaven doesn’t come automatically. At the time of the gold rush between 1848 and 1859, many who heard of gold in California left their native places leaving whatever they had, going through severe hardships and sacrifices, and reached California to make more wealth. We have to invest in it to really possess it. We need to invest our will, our time, our talents and sometimes our earthly possessions.

We need to discern between hidden value of eternal life and value of earthly possessions. Faith is the key element to explore the eternal life while our sacrifice and commitment pave the path to reach this goal. We need to recognize the value of the kingdom of God over earthly possessions and pleasures. Our choice in this life will be the norm of sorting out at the last moment to eternal life or death. Our faith, commitment and sacrifice for the sake of the kingdom of God accompany our eternal life. Let us long for and live for eternal life. God bless you.

Wheat and weeds- Good and evils

2011-07-15T16:24:00.000-07:00

July 17th, 2011 Sunday homily - Fr.Francis Chirackal CMI, MSW
Wis 12:13,16-19;Rom 8:26-27; Mt 13:24-43

For Readings click
http://www.usccb.org/nab/071711.shtml

Why does God allow evils to exist in this world? This is a question which disturbs human mind. A few years ago a popular bumper sticker read, “Stop the world, I want to get off”. The slogan was in protest to all the insanity going on in the world. Large and small scale insanities like nuclear stock piling and wars, terrorisms, cruelties against fellow human beings and the nature, immoralities and crimes, if continue the list grows longer and longer. Was it the same from the beginning? Bible says yes. Cain killed Abel and God punished him. He became frightened and felt sad. Then God gave him protection. Saul and David lived under the same roof, Judas and other disciples were together with Jesus. Mahabharat, the ancient epic of Hinduism says that Pandavas(known for good works) and Kauravas(known for evil doings) were taught together by the same teacher Dhrona. In today’s gospel Jesus says that the wheat and weeds are allowed to grow together. That is a succinct description of human history.

The First Reading from the book of wisdom, providing a background to today’s gospel says that God’s power is not directed toward evil people, but it shows itself in God’s patience, wanting people to repent and allowing them time to do so. St.Paul in the Second Reading tells us that the Holy Spirit is ever with us to help with patience, hope and prayer on our journey towards eternal destination. The gospel says that there will always be sinners and evil doers who will make righteous one’s life more difficult. It is tolerated by God for his own wise purposes.

Parable of wheat and weeds is Christ’s answer to the questions so frequently asked: “Why does God permit evil to triumph so often in this world, why are the wicked allowed to prosper?” Jesus well said that the triumph of the wicked is short-lived, the reward of the righteous one who suffers from others wickedness is everlasting. The very wickedness and injustices of evil-doers are one of the ways that God uses to perfect His elect.

The man who sowed wheat knew the enemy’s cheat. But he didn’t take any revenge or immediate action. He was tolerant till the last moment. As we see in his answer to the servants, he was more concerned of wheat’s safety. The parable says that the enemy sowed the weed during night. The enemy is working 24 hours to sow the evils.

The parable, by telling of God’s patience, is cautioning us to avoid unrealistic purism, angelism and rigid intolerance at home and in the community and provide maximum time for repentance and conversion. It reminds us not to be disappointed or agitated against God, but be grateful. Many times we may think or act like those zealous servants who wanted to uproot the weeds. In our zeal to serve God and society we may go on a crusade against those we perceive as evil, with the intention of cleaning up the church, the nation, or the world. Imagine the surprise and shock the servants must have felt when they went to the farm owner to report the presence of the weeds in the farm and asked for permission to go and pull them out. As far as the servants were concerned that was the right thing to do in order to maximise output, as any good farmer knows. Why then did the farm owner restrain them from pulling out the weeds?

No one who tries to grow a garden or cultivate a farm lets the weeds grow along with the vegetables or wheat. My father was a good farmer. He never allowed weeds to grow with paddy or vegetables in our farm. The man in the parable, who represents God, said, ‘let the wheat and weeds grow together and we will separate them at harvest time’. Because God does not always do things the way we think he should, many people often get angry with God or turn away altogether. There we forget who is the Master.

The master knew that the wheat would survive in spite of the presence of the weeds. The weeds might inconvenience the wheat temporarily but they would not choke them to death or take over the farm. He runs the universe in his eternal wisdom. Although we admit we all fail to be as holy as we know we should be, and we know God is patient and merciful, this is a time to be grateful for His way of dealing with us stems from his infinite love for us. He gives us his help to continue growing in holiness. God bless you.

Sower and the seeds

2011-07-08T16:34:00.000-07:00

July 10th, '11 Sunday homily - Fr.Francis Chirackal CMI, MSW
Is 55:10-11; Rom 8:18-23; Mt 13:1-23

For Readings click
http://www.usccb.org/nab/071011.shtml
Corn fields are common view as we travels through the south-west districts of Karnataka in India. Some of those corn fields look with full of life and greenery while many other look lifeless, dry, and thin. Most of those farm lands are dry due to lack of water sources, rocky and stony soil, and many of the farmers are marginal farmers having no resources to make the soil fertile by taping the ground-water resources available beneath their farming land with bore-wells. Those who have natural water source or tap the ground- water sources keep their land fertile one and find maximum income while the other ones end up with minimum profit or no profit though they work the whole year. Whenever I pass through those areas it reminds me of the parable of the sower and the seed. Though all of us are blessed with Holy Spirit, do we properly tap the Holy Spirit for His gifts to keep our soul always fertile for Word of God and find our lives joyful? In today’s gospel Jesus tells the people to take care of their souls, using a parable pointing to the farmers who were working around the Sea of Galilee.

Prophet Isaiah in the First Reading tells the Chosen People to listen to God and says that as the rain and snow produce their good effects by moistening the soil and thus help to grow the crops, the word God speak would produce its effect. It would not be in vain. St. Paul in the Second Reading tells that although we received baptism and Holy Spirit, we are still on the road and need to reach the end of the journey, the actual possession of the inheritance, which will be ours only after our resurrection. In the gospel we see Jesus teaches heavenly doctrine to the simple uneducated people in their language by means of parables picked up from their day to day life experience.

Understanding this parable in today’s situation is much easier. When we look at the parable, it is important to note that in only one case was the Word rejected outright. In the other three cases it was received with joy. Here the problem is not in receiving God’s word, but in treasuring and putting it into practice. We see many countries which received faith and millions of people who received baptism are gradually shifting their focus to worldly values and starting to live as people who never have heard of Jesus in their lives, or giving no attention to, or faith in God as foolishness. At the same time by creating adverse situations, evil forces are trying hard to uproot the Word of God from the hearts of the people. So Jesus warns us to keep our hearts fertile to Word of God and free from vices. Our lives become fertile soil to word of God when we receive it in all three levels, namely, mind, heart and soul. Once the Word becomes rooted in these three levels and we keep nourishing it with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, it will produce fruits in abundance.

Jesus reminds us that seeds and plants require adequate watering and a good environment in order to nourish. This applies even more to the “care of the soul”, the enhancing of the total quality of our lives and the growth of the kingdom of God within us. No serious farmer leaves the nurturing of seedlings to chance. He provides the right soil and water for it to produce abundant fruits. So with the ‘care of the soul’. In our fast-faced modern world, we need to spend time nurturing our minds, bodies and spirits, enhancing the total quality of our lives and building the Kingdom of God in our midst.

Seeds and seedlings require proper water to grow. Many times we hear of water pollution by harmful factory wastes or other dangerous chemicals. It corrupts the soil and cause harm to crops and to those who consume it. In some places water is available also from hot springs. We do not use it for watering our seedlings as we know its adverse effects though they look like normal water. Same way in today’s society, we see water and manure of worldliness and godlessness, which are harmful to the growth of Word of God in our hearts. It was there and it is there from the beginning of the human history. We need to be selective in choosing the right one. Many times over enthusiasm and ignorance may make us easy prey to evil forces and endanger the soul. We need to keep our life always fertile to word of God with proper practice of faith by receiving sacraments with due preparation and devotion, family prayers and personal prayers, and practice of true love and charity in our actual life. God bless you.

Jesus gives Rest and Energy

2011-07-01T22:11:00.000-07:00

July 3rd, 2011 Sunday homily- Fr.Francis Chirackal CMI, MSW
Zec 9:9-10; Rom 8:9,11-13; Mt 11:25-30

For Readings click
http://www.usccb.org/nab/070311.shtml
Do you like to have vacation? All people, children, adults, aged, students, working or retired like to have vacation whether they go for it or not. People irrespective of what they do or who they are, will get weary and desire for vacations and rest. Many times it will be hard to find out a place suitable and equally interesting to whole family or group. Our up-to- date knowledge of many places are limited. Sometimes we may consult our friends or people who know better, or may depend upon internet information. We may forget to consult our free vacation guide, our most trustworthy consultation agent, Jesus. May be that is the reason some people return after vacation more weary, tired and may be partially or mostly disappointed though vacation is meant for refreshing and rejuvenation. How many of us think of spending a few days for our spiritual renewal and rejuvenation by attending spiritual retreats as a part of annual programs when we plan vacations. We are in and through human and divine. There are many Catholic retreat centers around us. In today’s gospel Jesus invites us to refresh and rejuvenate and make life energetic and joyful when we find ourselves weary. I have seen families and individuals who return with great joy and new spirit after attending retreats as part of their annual programs. Jesus always invites us saying, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest”.

Prophet Zacharia in the First Reading invites the people to rejoice as and shout with joy as their king, who would sit on David’s throne and reign forever is coming to them. It was a great message of relief for them as it foretold the freedom from slavery and burdens. St.Paul in Second Reading tells us that if the Spirit of God dwells in us he will give us life. This is the new kind of life that comes about when as Saint Augustine explains: “the soul is king of the body and Christ is king of the soul.” Life in its fullness is always active, lively, joyful, peaceful, and leads to eternal life beyond our mortal bodies. Jesus in the gospel invites us to be with simple and humble hearts and always find rest, peace, joy and new spirit from Him. Jesus doesn’t want us to live with heavy burdened hearts. God created us to live with peace, love and joy. The angels at the time of Jesus’ birth sang the song of joy and peace to the people on earth. Jesus always preached love and forgiveness. In His post resurrection appearances Jesus always wished peace.

On July 1st, We celebrated the feast of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus. Heart is the symbolic representation of the whole person. Jesus’ heart is the shelter for all who are tired, sick, weary, rejected, dejected, depressed, weak, poor, repenting sinner, holy, strong, wealthy, healthy and everyone without excluding anybody. The only requirement is ‘be gentle, simple in heart and take His yoke of love and forgiveness’ which is very light.

Jesus invites us to freedom. It is a freedom from worries, freedom from burden, freedom from sin, and freedom from law. Every law and hardship is a burden depending upon the way we look at it. For Jesus, God’s law is a part of God’s love. To follow law is to experience love of God. In US we celebrate Independence Day on this Monday. We value freedom. Though there are many laws in US, we enjoy freedom, because, we know and consider that these laws are essential to safeguard our freedom. It is part of our freedom. Above all we consider God as the Lord of this country. So we say, ‘God Bless America’. Our dollar bills say, ‘In God We Trust’. Here, though there are differences, God’s law and nation’s law bend towards each other to give real freedom and joy to the people. As far as these two go together we experience and enjoy true freedom. Because we are in and through human and divine as we are with human body and God’s spirit dwells in us.

We can compare our life to a sailboat. It is important to keep the sail at the right angle to the wind. If we let the boat go free, it will be a disaster. In our lives we need to keep going in the right direction to find peace and happiness. God’s laws are meant to keep us going in right direction. God’s laws are not to limit our freedom as sometimes we may think, but to guide us to peace and happiness. When we ignore or violate His law we become slaves to our own predominantly earthly selves and loose our higher value.

Jesus tells us to take His yoke. Yoke always presupposes a partner as it unites two animals. Jesus’ yoke, His law of love, unites us to Him. It is an act of bearing-together, not alone. When we take His yoke, our burden becomes lighter as Jesus himself shares our burden. The only requirement is to submit ourselves to His all-embracing love and imitate His gentle and meek heart. Let us seek and find rest in Jesus. He is faithful in His words. God bless you.

The Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ

2011-06-24T14:34:00.000-07:00

June 26th, 2011 Sunday homily- Fr.Francis Chirackal CMI, MSW
Dt.8:2-3,14b-16a; 1Cor 10:16-17; Jn 6:51-58

For Readings click
http://www.usccb.org/nab/062611.shtml

A Basilian monk, wise in the ways of the world, but not in the ways of faith, was having a trying time with his belief in the real presence of Our Lord Jesus in the Eucharist. He prayed constantly for relief from his doubts. One morning in 700 AD in Lanciano, while he was having a strong attack of doubt, he began the Consecration of the Mass for the people of the town. What he beheld as he consecrated the bread and wine caused his hands to shake, indeed his whole body. The host had turned into Flesh. The wine had turned into Blood. He turned towards congregation and told them, “Come, brethren, and marvel at our God so close to us. Behold the Flesh and Blood of our most beloved Christ."
The people, having witnessed the miracle for themselves, began to wail, asking for forgiveness, crying for mercy and declaring themselves unworthy to witness such a miracle. All spread the story throughout the town and surrounding villages.

After the miracle, the Host was pinned down to a wooden board, so that when it dried, it would not curl up, as scabbed flesh does. But that's not all. The miracle is ongoing. The Host-turned-Flesh, and the Wine-turned-Blood, without the use of any form of preservative, is still present in the reliquary. How many tests have been made over the years, how many times Our Dear Lord Jesus allows Himself to be prodded and cut, examined under microscopes, and photographed. The most recent, an extensive scientific research done in 1970, used the most modern scientific tools available.

The results of the tests are as follows:
1.The flesh is real flesh. The blood is real blood. 2.The flesh consists of the muscular tissue of the heart (myocardium). 3. The flesh and blood belong to the human species. 4.The flesh and blood have the same blood type (AB). 5. In the blood, there were found proteins in the same normal proportions as are found in the scro-proteic make up of fresh, normal blood. 6. In the blood, there were also found these minerals: Chlorides, phosphorous, magnesium, potassium, sodium and calcium. 7. The preservation of the flesh and of the blood, which were left in their natural state for twelve centuries (without any chemical preservatives) and exposed to the action of atmospheric and biological agents, remains an extraordinary phenomenon.
Another unusual characteristic of the blood is that when liquified, it has retained the chemical properties of freshly shed blood. Today we celebrate the feast of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ.

On the occasion of Jubilee year 2000 Blessed Pope John Paul II said, “..in the Sacrament of the Eucharist the Savior, who took flesh in Mary’s womb twenty centuries ago, continues to offer himself to humanity as the source of divine life". Today’s celebration of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ gives us an opportunity to focus our attention on this basic mystery of our faith, the Eucharist, and to explore the meaning of the Eucharist in our worship and in our daily living. The God who became man through incarnation to redeem transforms wheat bread and wine into His body and blood in the Eucharist to nourish us every day.

The scripture readings today stress how God made a covenant with His People, first through Moses and then, finally and forever, through Christ, a covenant sealed and ratified by the shedding of His Blood. This covenant or bond of love between God and us is renewed and deepened through and in every Holy Mass. In the First Reading from Deuteronomy, Moses reminds the people of Israel not to forget God’s goodness to them in the past while liberating them from slavery to freedom, and exhorts them to follow the commandments and covenant when they live in Promised Land. St. Paul, in the second reading from 1Corinthians, tells us that there can be no divisions, no disunity among us who are united with Christ and in Christ by our participation in the one Body and Blood of Christ in the Eucharist. When early Christians ate the consecrated bread, without doubt they believed that they were eating the Body of Christ. In the gospel Jesus tells that His flesh and blood are the life-giving food for everyone.

In Eucharist, through the body and blood of Christ we become in communion with Christ. It is an occasion of profound love and unity. It is the most intimate interpersonal union between God and the human person. Here God becomes the part of human person to make our existence a glorified one. In the act of incarnation the Divine Person took the form of a human person to redeem mankind and returned to His original divine form through the Resurrection and Ascension, becoming glorified body, while the same divine person took the form of wheat bread and wine in Eucharist to continue to nourish human persons whom He redeemed.

God nourishes us by giving grace through sacraments. We all believe that the Eucharist is both a sacrament and a sacrifice. It is a sacrament because, it is an outward sign in and through which we meet Jesus who shares His life of grace with us. In this Sacrament of Eucharist, we do meet Jesus Himself who comes to us under signs of bread and wine to nourish and strengthen us with divine life and energy for our journey through life. With our physical eyes we see what looks like bread and wine. But with our eyes of faith we see, not bread and wine, but the Risen Living Jesus Christ. It is a sacrifice, the Eucharist is a re-living of Christ’s Death on Good Friday and of His Resurrection on Easter Sunday. The receiving of Holy Communion is an essential sequence to the offering of Christ in the sacrifice of the Mass.

The feast of Corpus Christi holds out to us an invitation and a challenge. It invites us to ask ourselves, what does Holy Communion mean to us? Do we really receive and appreciate the Eucharist as the real body of Christ, with due preparation, belief and conviction? We have seen and heard of hundreds of miracles that took place in the presence of the Holy Eucharist. There are many miracles in which the consecrated bread turned into real flesh, and not as dead flesh but flesh of human heart with life. How many times have we received great relief and consolation, physical, mental, and spiritual which we see beyond human capability, while praying before the Blessed Sacrament or after receiving Holy Communion?

Jesus loves to be with us. He is alive in our hand, on our tongue and in our heart, in our midst. Let us adore, thank and worship our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament. Let us pray for grace to feel Him. Happy Feast.

Holy Trinity

2011-06-17T16:20:00.000-07:00

June 19th 2011 SUNDAY homily: Fr.Francis Chirackal CMI, MSW
Ex 34:4b-6, 8-9; 2Cor 13:13:11-13; Jn 3:16-18

For readings click
http://www.usccb.org/nab/061911.shtml

Thanking professors at the end of each course is customary in colleges. When I was studying theology, as usual at the end of ‘Theology of Trinity’ course, one of my classmates stood up to thank our professor and started with a statement saying, “When our professor started the class at the beginning of the course he said that the ‘Trinity is a mystery’. At the end of the course we understood that Trinity is really a mystery”. Hearing it though the professor felt a little bit discomfort, our co-seminarian was referring to St. Augustine, to whom the angel in the form of a small child told that just like trying to empty the sea into a small hole is impossible, trying to comprehend the immensity of God with his small head - is even more impossible. The doctrine of the inner relationship of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, in such a way that each of them is fully and equally God, yet there are not three Gods but one, cannot be fully comprehended by the human mind. It is a mystery, the mystery with perfect love.

The concept of divine in a triple form appears in many cultures, religions, and mythologies. Many Greek goddesses were actually worshiped as triple goddesses, with a complex multitude of aspects. The Romans had triple goddesses as well. All pagan religions from the time of Babylon have adopted in one form or another, a trinity doctrine or a triad or trinity of gods. Many of the present world religions contain triple deities or concepts of trinity, namely Holy Trinity in Christianity, Trimurti in Hinduism, Three Jewels of Buddhism, Three Pure Ones of Taoism. It shows that God revealed Himself to the world in His Trinitarian form from age to age and place to place in different levels. With the incarnation of Jesus, Trinitarian God revealed Himself in more concrete and understandable way.

In the First Reading from Exodus 34:4-6,8-9 God reveals himself to Moses on Mount Sinai as a God who is faithful to his promises and rich in tenderness and compassion. A God in fatherly figure. In the Second Reading from 2Corinthians 13:11-13 Paul encourages the Corinthians to live in peace and love. The reading contains a Trinitarian blessing which is used in every Mass. John in the Gospel tells us how God has shown his love for us by sending his Son to save all of us.

Throughout the sacred scriptures we see the references to God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. Many tried to explain Trinity using different metaphors. Tertullian, one of the theologians of the early church, explained the Trinity in a metaphor. God the Father he described as "a deep root, the Son as the shoot that breaks forth into the world, and the Spirit as that which spreads beauty and fragrance." Some explained it as water in three forms, namely liquid, ice and stream while another explained it as flame with color, heat and light. But none of these explanations succeeded fully in doing it. But many who approached the Trinity with faith, humility, devotion and love experienced it without any limit and beyond any doubt. Because, Human intellect is limited and God is not a matter of human intellect but heart and the whole human life itself.

God revealed himself to humankind as a Holy Trinity. At the time of Baptism of Jesus we see the Holy Trinity was present in three forms. God the Father as voice, Holy Spirit as dove and God the Son as a human person. When we look at the sacred scriptures and human history, we find that God the Father is the Creator, Sustainer and Provider. God the Son is the Redeemer, Nourisher, Leader (Way, Truth, Life). And God the Spirit is the Sanctifier, Comforter, and Encourager. Jesus Himself told us that He came from the Father and He will send the Comforter and when He comes He will teach us.

The human mind is ever seeking to understand the mysteries of nature, of the human mind and even the mystery of God. All of these things still remain a mystery to human intelligence beyond certain point. Among these the mystery of God is beyond all human understanding and can only be appreciated in faith. For a believing Christian the Trinity is as near and real to us as our questions about life and its meaning. We never see life or its shape, but only feel and experience it. As we grow in our understanding of God’s loving plan for us, we get a richer awareness of God’s very nature. Gabriel Marcel, the French Catholic existentialist, once wrote, “Life is a mystery to be loved, not a problem to be solved.” We might paraphrase his words by claiming that “the Trinity is a mystery to be lived.”

The Trinity invites us to develop within ourselves the same love and inner harmony that characterizes the inner life of our triune God. Faith in Trinity strengthens us to love one another and remain united in love supporting and encouraging one another. As members of a loving community, we should be open to one another. As God makes us to share in His love, we should enable others to share in our love through a welcoming life of service as an expression of God’s love in us. God bless you.

Pentecost

2011-06-10T16:42:00.000-07:00

June 12th 2011 Pentecost homily: Fr.Francis Chirackal CMI, MSW
Acts 2:1-11; 1Cor 12:3b-7, 12-13; Jn 20:19-23
For Readings click
http://www.usccb.org/nab/061211.shtml
Today, we are celebrating Pentecost Sunday. The word ‘Pentecost’ is from Greek word "pentecostes" which means "fiftieth." This feast commemorates the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles and the official inauguration of the Church. It takes its name from the fact that it comes nearly fifty days after Easter.

Israelites were celebrating Pentecost on the first day after seven Sabbaths following Passover. It was known as the Feast of Weeks (Lev 23) and also the Feast of Harvest (Ex 23:16) for it was the feast where the first fruits of the Spring harvest were brought in. The faithful were to come to Jerusalem and present their offerings and partake of the feast on this day – which is why “there were devout men from every nation under heaven” on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:5). Pentecost has been observed in the Christian Church since the days of the apostles as they received the Holy Spirit on that day and started witnessing to Christ without fear. It was a point of huddle to hustle.

There is a charismatic woman I know, whose name is Philomena. She was a very shy and totally illiterate domestic servant, working in one of the convents in south India and she was seldom known to anybody other than her family and the nuns in the convent where she was working. Once she attended a charismatic retreat and felt the touch of the Holy Spirit in her. She opened the Bible just to see it. But when she opened it she noticed some difference in her and was able to read it though she had never studied to read and write. All at a sudden she started reading the Bible. The specialty of the gift was that she could read only the Bible, not any other books or writings. Within a short period, that illiterate and shy woman became an inspiring charismatic preacher and witness to the power of Holy Spirit in 1990s and onwards. On Pentecost day we see the Apostles who were hiding inside the closed doors due to the fear of Jews were filled with the Holy Spirit, felt the power, courage, gift of tongues and began to make bold proclamations. It is the gifts of the Holy Spirit. It is the same Holy Spirit who made that illiterate Philomena capable of reading Bible and proclaim. It is a living example of a work of the Holy Spirit.

Today's three readings make reference to the arrival of the Holy Spirit and the works. First Reading from the Acts 2:1-11 affirms the arrival of the Holy Spirit. Second Reading from 1Cor. 12:3b-7, 12- 13 speaks of baptism in the Holy Spirit as it says, "In one Spirit we were all baptized into one body." In the gospel Jesus sends His disciples to proclaim the Word of God. Tongues of fire along with speaking in diverse tongues were the sign of the empowerment of the Church. The tongues were also a reversal of the curse of the tower of Babel (Gen 10-11).

From the very day of Pentecost the Church has celebrated and administered holy Baptism. On several occasions Christ promised this outpouring of the Spirit, [Lk 12:12; Jn 3:5-8; 7:37-39] a promise which he fulfilled first on Easter Sunday and then more strikingly at Pentecost. Filled with the Holy Spirit the apostles began to proclaim "the mighty works of God," and Peter declared this outpouring of the Spirit to be the sign of the messianic age. Those who believed in the Apostolic preaching and were baptized received the gift of the Holy Spirit in their turn."
We all receive Holy Spirit during our baptism and confirmation. Council of Florence (1439) says that, confirmation gives us a special strength of the Holy Spirit to spread and defend the faith by word and action as true witnesses of Christ, to confess the name of Christ boldly, and never to be ashamed of the Cross. It is evident from its celebration that the effect of the sacrament of Confirmation is the full outpouring of the Holy Spirit as once granted to the Apostles on the day of Pentecost. From this fact, Confirmation brings an increase and deepening of baptismal grace.

The gift of the Holy Spirit is the gift of life, for those who are to be saved must be born of the Spirit (John 3:5). It is the life giving and life sustaing and fruit producing Spirit. Without the work of the Spirit, no Church minister can hope to see dead bones come to life (Ezek 37:1-14). We can plant and water, but only God can bring forth the harvest (1 Cor 3:6-7). And the same is true for each of us individually with regards to living out faithful lives to God. We received this new life by the work of the Spirit, not some work within ourselves, and we can only complete this work if the Spirit is at work in us (Gal 3:1-3). All faithful Christians are Spirit-filled Christians. We need to remain always Spirit filled.

When the Holy Spirit is poured out like water on the land of Israel, there is a transformation of the whole land, the whole society. Fruitfulness can be found everywhere – even to generations as Peter promised at Pentecost – Acts 2:39. The restoration of nature symbolizes cultural flourishing (Leithart). And this is what happened at Pentecost. By means of the preached Word and the promised Spirit, a new community of believers came into existence. The result of this work was four-fold. The congregation was devoted to the teaching of the apostles, to fellowship, to the Lord’s Supper, and to prayer. Those outside saw the transformation and were astonished. In the midst of the doomed city, the community held all things in common. The community overflowed in gladness together and God continued to add to their number. And like Pentecost, even today the Spirit is being poured out on all receiving lands, individually and collectively. To remain always overflowed in gladness together we need to be one in Spirit as a worshipping, loving and sharing individuals and communities. Let us pray to the Holy Spirit to come to us, remain in us, renew us and fill us with the gifts and fruits of the Spirit. Wish you a very happy Pentecost.

We are God’s own

2011-06-02T14:42:00.000-07:00

June 5th , 11 Sunday homily: Fr.Francis Chirackal CMI, MSW
ACTS 8:5-8, 14-17; 1 PT 4:13-16; JN 17:1-11a
For Readings click
http://www.usccb.org/nab/060511.shtml

An advertisement campaign for the humane society in one city that pictured a dog and cat seated side by side on a beautiful couch. The caption over their heads read, "A Couple of VIPs - Very Important Pets." And at the bottom, a second line read, "What makes them important is who owns them." If you and I are important, there is only one reason - who owns us. We are children of God, Jesus' brothers and sisters - and it is in his footsteps that we follow. We are one in faith and one in service - all children of God and followers of Christ. In His priestly prayer Jesus made it clear that there is a purpose for our lives. And that purpose is that we go forth in serving, bringing the message of God's love to light.

Today’s First Reading speaks of the importance of prayer with an example. After the ascension of Jesus, the Apostles and Holy Mother remained together in prayer waiting for the Holy Spirit in the upper room. In the Second Reading, Peter challenges us to view and accept sufferings as an opportunity to be more fully one with Jesus. Love, prayer and sacrifice go together. The gospel gives us the “High Priestly Prayer" of Jesus in which he prays for himself and for His disciples. Jesus prayed to Heavenly Father because He is Father’s own son. Jesus always kept communion and communication with Father. He prayed in larger community, He prayed in small circle and He prayed in private. A son or daughter with a feeling of belongingness feels the urge to communicate with parents and the family. Communication expresses and retains the relationship and support. It is a source of strength.

Throughout His public ministry we see a praying Jesus. Louis Evely in his book, ‘Teach us to Pray’, wrote: “Too many Christians regard God as pilots regard their parachute, namely, good if needed, but better if they can get along without it”. God is not the parachute but the fuel more than fuel in our life. Jesus prayed in different situations. We see in the Bible that Jesus prayed in the synagogue and taught there. It was a prayer in public as we pray in the church. Jesus prayed with his parents and disciples and taught them how to pray. It was like we pray every day in our families and in small prayer groups and special occasions. Jesus also prayed alone, in private on mountain or lonely places. It was like we pray in private. Every day I see people coming to the chapel here, sit alone before the Blessed Sacrament and pray. We also pray wherever we are when we are alone or get time. These are the three ways and situations we experience our relationship with God and feel that we belong to God.
We might wonder why did Jesus pray? He was God and close to the Father. We also might have heard people asking that, why should we pray every day and doesn’t God know our heart? This question might best be answered with another question: “why do we need to spend time with those who are important to us, with those whom we love? Is it not enough for the spouses to say each other or parents and children say, “I love you” once a week or once a year? Is it OK to say , "thank you” for everything once a week than thanking each time we receive some service or help? Through prayer we feel presence of god. Through prayer we express our love and gratitude to God. Through prayer we raise the desires of our heart to God.

Jesus prayed for Himself glorifying the Father and prayed for His followers. Jesus Christ came on earth and lived among us. He showed us Heavenly Father’s love and care, God’s compassion and forgiveness. God wanted to share His own kingdom of everlasting happiness with mankind. He therefore raised us to the status of adopted sons and daughters through the mystery of the incarnation. Christ wants us to feel and experience the same love and compassion till the end of the age. God wants us to earn heaven for ourselves aided by His grace. So before Ascension He prayed for us. He wanted us to be always united with God and others in love as children of god. Real oneness with God never disintegrates the people. One who really prays always tries to unite the people and keep them united- individuals, families and communities, as he or she remains united with God.

Today, with Christ as our exemplar and model, and as a living and ever-present example, we need to earn heaven following the path Jesus showed us. Sinners or sinless, we are still followers of Christ, and that prayer of Jesus for us asking His Father, “to give eternal life to all who are His” was not said in vain. Unless we deliberately desert Him, He will not desert us. We have a great caring Father and Brother in our heavenly home and thousands of supporting saints. We are God’s own. Let us be proud of it and be confident and remain always God’s own son or daughter through prayer and life. God bless you.

Obedience, the expression of Love of God

2011-05-27T10:19:00.000-07:00

May 29th , 2011 Sunday homily: Fr.Francis Chirackal CMI, MSW
Acts 8:5-8, 14-17; 1Pt 3:15-18; Jn 14:15-21
For Readings click
http://www.usccb.org/nab/052911.shtml

There is a story about a person who saw an angel walking down the street. The angel was carrying a torch in one hand and a bucket of water in the other. What are you going to do with that torch and that water? The person asked. The angel looked at the person and said, “With this torch, I am going to burn down the mansions of heaven; and with the bucket of water, I am going to put out the fires of hell. Then we’re going to see who really loves God.” The angel’s point was that many people obey God’s commandments out of fear of punishment in hell or hope of reward in heaven. They don’t obey them for the reason Jesus gives in today’s gospel. Jesus said, “If you love me you will obey my commandments.”

Today’s First reading tells how the Holy Spirit was present in the early Christian community and endorsed the works of disciples and apostles with miracles and gifts. Every promise of Jesus becomes fulfilled. Jesus told the apostles not to be troubled and He will be with them.
“Reverence the Lord Christ in your hearts,” Peter tells us in today’s Second Reading. If God is not sacred, there is nothing sacred anymore including human relationship. Neither husband for wife, nor wife for husband, neither parents for children, nor children for parents. Maybe that accounts for the growing break-down in families. Reverence for God, respect for persons and courtesy are all facets of the same virtue. Those who are courteous may not always be believers, but the discourteous persons can never be true followers of Jesus Christ.
Today’s gospel tells us to obey Jesus’ commandments as an expression of our love towards Jesus. Commandments are based on love and forgiveness. But different people we may look at commandments from different perspectives. We may look upon His commandments as a restriction to our freedom as He tells us to love our enemies. It is true that loving enemies and forgiving others restricts our freedom to avenge, though revenge causes damage to both. The ancient Chinese proverb says that, “when you pursue revenge, dig two graves: one for your enemy and one for yourself.” We can also look at them as guides to our growth. Love and forgiveness opens new avenues in our lives and makes our circle wider and wider. It heals many wounds and gives more health.

Again we can look at them as an invitation to love. This is what Jesus proposes in today’s gospel: “If you love me, you will obey my commandments”. Here obeying the commandments becomes an opportunity to express our love for Jesus. Every time we may not understand why we should forgive others and love our enemies, but we do it because Jesus wants us to. Here we are not loving our enemies or forgiving others for getting heaven, but we follow Jesus’ words and examples because He is our God who created us and redeemed us through suffering, death and resurrection. Here our joy, eternal life or heaven will be only an outcome, not a motive. Jesus’ love is our motive. A good son or daughter loves his or her parents not expecting their wealth, better future, happiness, and God’s blessings but because they gave him or her life, an existence in this world and nurtured them even with many sacrifices for their children. All other favors and God’s blessings are outcomes of their love and reverence towards parents. Same with our obedience to Jesus’ commandments.

In today’s gospel Jesus says that if we love Him, we will obey Him. He considered obedience as a real way of loving. His instructions are clear and uniquely simple. He gives us a criterion to keep us from thinking love is just a matter of having warm, fuzzy feelings toward Him. It’s not that feelings are bad. Having warm, loving feelings toward God or toward others is wonderful. But love has to go beyond just feelings. It is to do something. The test of true love for Jesus is to do His will, just as He has always done the will of the Father.
His commandments are of loving others as He loves us, of forgiving others, of not condemning, and of having compassion. He gives us a simple and clear program for living, and part of his promises is that this program will work. All we have to do is to trust him, and to obey him. As His last will, he leaves them His Word and His peace. He promises the Holy Spirit to strengthen them. He calls it the Spirit of Truth. He knew that they need His continuous help to be His apostles. Indeed, peace-external peace and internal peace, is vital for all of us. Peace means harmony and communion, love with God, and with our brothers and sisters. Strife among individuals and groups indicate that conflict has become the part of our lives.

S.Radhakrishnan, one of the Indian philosophers, and one of the former presidents of India said, that a truly religious person will be free from fear and hatred, as it implies the complete transformation of an individual’s nature. When God looks upon His creation, it is with eyes of love, that see everyone as equal in His sight, irrespective of belief, status, wealth, health, education and background.

We do experience the work of the Holy Spirit in our personal life and family when we pray, attend church and obey His commandments as an expression of our love, not out of fear of punishment or expecting mere worldly favors. We get favors as an outcome of our sincere love of God and obeying His commandments.
Let us pray to God, to enable us to obey God’s commandments out of love and to experience and establish peace, in our personal, family and community life.

Son of God’s passionate affection

2011-05-19T22:04:00.000-07:00

May 22nd, 2011 Sunday homily-Fr.Francis Chirackal CMI, MSW
Acts 6:1-7; 1Pt 2:4-9; Jn 14:1-12

For Readings click
http://www.usccb.org/nab/052211.shtml

How do Christians claim to be closer to the truth about God than other religions or groups? How can Christians claim to have more view of God than any other religious group? There are many major religions and several small religions and sects in this world. All claim that they have knowledge about God and it is the true faith. Without failure every religion must believe like that. It is the true spirit and will of God, because, there is truth in all religions who worship God. Then what is the specialty of Christianity? To get answer to this question we need to have basic knowledge of other religions. Look at the founders and origin of those religions.

All religions start with a god-experience, god-experience of one or many. Hinduism, one of the oldest living religions of the world has no founder or an origin. It evolved from the god-experience of hundreds of people in thousands of years. In Judaism Moses was only a spokesman of Yahweh, and still waits for savior, the promised messiah to come. Muhammed, founder of Islam was only a prophet. For Buddhism, Buddha was only an enlightened human person. Same with Jainism as Mahavira is considered as a spiritually enlightened holy man who lived in 6th century B.C. Many of the founders of modern religions or sects who claimed to be with divine power ceased to act with their death, while some of them left their claim even before their death as thy ended with mere human nature. No religion starts with a historical person who claimed to be God with proof other than Christianity. Jesus said, “I came from heaven, we, heavenly Father and I, are same”. One who sees me sees the Father. Jesus proved this claim with His resurrection after death. This is the specialty of Christianity.

In today’s First Reading we see a small group of apostles and disciples of Jesus increased to a sizeable number and spreading to all corners within a short period. Human weakness appears in the community and apostles found solutions to see all were taken care of. Remember Jerusalem was still governed politically by Romans who saw nothing but folly in followers of Christ. But Holy Spirit worked in the community. In the Second Reading St.Peter writes quoting Isaiah 28:16, where the prophet gives God’s promise that He will fulfill His promise to David, that He will bring salvation to Zion, Jerusalem. As Peter says, we are called to be saints. We have the means of becoming saints, for Christ has made us his brothers and heirs of heaven.

In today’s gospel, Jesus is aware of the deep anxiety of his own disciples, as they face the reality of His departure. It reveals the enormous affection Jesus had for his disciples, His great care and concern for them, and His guarantee that despite the separation he would always be with them. Here we see Jesus’ passionate affection for his companions - and for us. Jesus consoles them telling that His going is necessary for their future, the eternal happiness, but they will see him again when He will come to take them to himself. He gives a beautiful touching discourse regarding the intimate relationship between Heavenly Father and Himself. He is in the Father and the Father in Him. He reminds again that He is the way, and the truth, and the life.

It is natural that we may have doubts and questions regarding God and heaven just as Thomas and Philip had. But today Jesus stands before us with the answer. Many times our mind may not transcend beyond this materialistic world. When Jesus says, “In my Father’s house are many rooms”, we may look at heaven in terms of a beautiful mansion and God hiding somewhere in it. I know of a rich man who had a beautiful mansion. But for decades nobody had seen him in public outside his house. Though I was born and brought up in a village adjacent to the town he was living I had never seen him even in my twenties. But I knew about him through his sons and properties. When he died, a big crowd gathered at his house to see him at least when he was dead. But God, who is only love and compassion can’t hide like it. When we are afraid, troubled, when we are worried or anxious, when we are sick or weak he is right in front of us fondling our head with his tender hands, consoling us with His strengthening words, “Let not your hearts be troubled, Be not afraid”. Many times in our life we may long for consolation and strength from God. We may struggle and look around helplessly for a ray of hope. But our eyes and ears may not be open enough to see and hear Jesus.

Let us listen and believe Jesus, let us come out of our unnecessary worries and fears, as Jesus is with us let us rejoice in God, reach out to the needy and the weaker ones, let us be a part of saintly group in our real life. Words of Jesus gave courage, strength and joy to millions of believers from the beginning to date. God is faithful. Do We? God bless you.

Christ the Shepherd and the Gate

2011-05-13T13:43:00.000-07:00

May 15, 2011 Sunday homily: Fr.Francis Chirackal CMI, MSW
Acts2:14a, 36-41; 1Pt 2:20b-25; Jn 10;1-10
For Readings click
http://www.usccb.org/nab/051511.shtml

In his book 'Holy Land' John Kellman describes a field pen. It consists of a circular stone wall about four feet high with an opening in it. One day a Holy Land tourist saw a field pen near Hebron. He asked a shepherd sitting nearby, "Where is the gate for your pen?" The shepherd said, "I am the gate". The shepherd then told the tourist how he herded his flock into the pen each night. Then he lay down across the narrow entrance. No sheep could leave the pen, and no wild animal could enter it without stepping on his body.

Two things stand out in this beautiful story. The first thing is the oneness that developed between the shepherd and his sheep. The second thing that stands out is the deep dedication of the shepherd to his sheep. It extended even to risking his life for them. When Jesus says, "I am the good shepherd" it say's of his relationship and dedication to us is as close as the shepherd's to his sheep. Like a good shepherd, Jesus is always with us-365 days a year and 24 hours a day. Jesus has told us that He will be with us always, to the end of the age".

Many false shepherds tried to prevent the people from following Jesus, but they failed. They then killed the shepherd but in vain. He rose from the dead and his flock increased by the thousands and will keep on increasing until time ends. Because, He is the shepherd who laid His life and lays His life for us, His flock, every day and every moment to give us life. We surely are fortunate to belong to the sheepfold of Christ, His Church. We surely are blessed to have the Son of God as our Shepherd, who came among us in order to lead us to heaven. Do we fully appreciate our privileged position? Do we always live up to our heavenly vocation? Along with it, in particular we are called to different vocations according to god's choice and gifts given to us. Today Jesus needs people to represent him in visible form as good shepherds. Without priests, Jesus' sheep will become unprotected, starved and sick. Vocation to priesthood and religious life is not a merit but a gift, a gift should be protected by remaining always in god's grace and prayer.

Today is 48th Day of Prayer for Vocations. Our Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI in his message for today says that, "….It is no less challenging to follow Christ today. It means learning to keep our gaze fixed on Jesus, growing close to him, listening to his word and encountering him in the sacraments; it means, learning to conform our will to His. This requires a genuine school of formation for all those who would prepare themselves for the ministerial priesthood or the consecrated life under the guidance of the competent ecclesial authorities...every member of the Church, needs consciously to feel responsibility for promoting vocations. It is important to encourage and support those who show clear signs of a call to priestly life and religious consecration, and enable them to feel the warmth of the whole community as they respond "yes" to God and the Church…”.

By "vocations," it is meant priestly and religious vocations. This is not a denial of the importance of the Sacrament of Marriage and other vocations. Rather, it is a time that has been set aside by the Holy Catholic Church to emphasize: Firstly, the importance of the Sacrament of the Holy Orders. Without priests in all parts of the world, the faithful would be denied access to some of the Sacraments. They would be denied the Real Presence of the Lord Jesus in the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist until such time as a priest passes by and celebrates the Holy Mass for them. Also, the believers would be left without the Sacraments of Confession and anointing of the Sick, consequently being unable to maintain their souls in a state of righteousness until their last breath.Secondly, the Church seeks to emphasize the beauty of the religious life through the consecration of one's mind, heart, body and soul as a religious brother or sister. Day after day, these consecrated souls raise their voices heavenly, praying for the needs of the Church, for your needs, for my needs, for all those who otherwise might be forgotten.
Today, the Church calls us to reflect on the meaning of God's call and to pray for vocations. It reminds us that the entire Christian community shares the responsibility for fostering vocations. One may ask, "What exactly is the responsibility of the Christian community to foster vocations?" To answer that question, we must review the words of Saint Paul in the Letter to the Romans.
"Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. But how are they to call on one in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in one of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone to proclaim Him? How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!" [Rom. 10:13-5]
For the grace of God to work, Christians must share the responsibility of fostering vocations. How do we do that? First of all, prayer is necessary. The faith community must continuously pray for vocations. Prayers should not be limited to when there is a shortage of priest and religious vocations.
Secondly, there is the responsibility of the Christian family. To foster vocations, the family must foster the Christian life. The family must live its faith in Christ every day. It must pray together, this including the children. It must go to church together, this including the children. It must participate in the church events, this including the children. The Body of Christ must not be divided within the family. When it comes to Sunday obligations, it is not a matter of choice for the children; it is a matter of obligation towards God, towards the Church, towards the family and towards oneself. A good priest will come only from a good family. It is insufficient to claim to be Catholic. One must practice the Catholic faith. One must be a living Catholic, not a dead Catholic. One must let his or her light shine before others, so that they may see his or her good works and give glory to Heavenly Father.
One of the oldest paintings of Christ, in the Roman catacombs, represents Christ as carrying the injured straying sheep gently on his shoulders back to the sheepfold. This is an image of Christ which has always appealed to Christians. We have Christ as our shepherd. Today we need shepherds who represent Christ the Shepherd to the flock. Let us pray for grace to live our vocations faithfully, and to promote vocations to priestly and religious life through our prayer and real catholic family life. God bless you.

Emmaus Way Experience

2011-05-06T10:30:00.000-07:00

May 8, 2011 Sunday homily : Fr.Francis Chirackal CMI, MSW
Acts 2:14, 22-33; 1Peter 1:17-21; Lk 24:13-35
For Readings Click
http://www.usccb.org/nab/050811.shtml

There is a true story about a businessman who had £10,000 in cash and decided that the safest place to hide it would be in his office waste bin, because no one would think of looking in there. He was right. While he was away from his desk the cleaner came in and emptied the bin without giving it a second glance. Many times life is like that. We may think that we have got something precious and all of a sudden it's gone.
But here's another story. There was a pauper, who was living by scavenging the rubbish tips of the city and using or selling what he finds. One day he picked up a small plastic bin-liner from the top of the new pile of refuse which had just been dumped. He opened it up, and to his great surprise and joy, there inside it was £25,000! He ran home to his family, bought them all new clothes, had a celebration meal and put down a deposit on a house away from the slums. We see, sometimes life can do things like that. We may think that we have got nothing precious at all or lost what we had, and at a fine moment suddenly we find fortunes are at our side, and we are surprised by joy. In today’s gospel we see a story of two men who were suddenly surprised by joy.

First Reading narrates the picture of events took place on Pentecost day and gives the first evangelization sermon made by Peter, the leader of Apostles immediately after receiving Holy Spirit. Easter is the season of hope, encouragement and consolation for every true Christian. It recalls to our mind the fact of Christ’s victory over death. In the Second Reading we see Peter’s message to us that we are sons and daughters of God because of His infinite mercy sending Christ to us as our brother. In the Gospel we have a delightful and instructive account of an event that happened on the first Easter. Besides twelve Apostles, Jesus had seventy-two disciples as well as many other followers. Two of them, having given up all hope, were returning home depressed and sad. But as soon as they reached home they regains hope and goes back to rejoin the apostles with great joy.At the start of the story they were two men defeated. They thought they had something precious, and all of a sudden it was gone. We find two disciples who were going to Emmaus in a depressed and frustrated state. During their last three years period they might have never thought of a condition like this. They were dreaming of a glorious time. But all their dreams became smashed. But Jesus gathers them back from this smashed condition.

Jesus presents himself as the fulfillment of prophesies. He tells them that son of man had to suffer, die and had to rise after death. It was a win over death. By the end of the story they were two men exploding with warmth and wonder again, realizing that Jesus is really alive. They recognized him in the breaking of the bread. They were surprised by joy. That same day, late in the evening, they come right back to rejoin the company of apostles and believers that they had abandoned earlier in the day, full of joy and zeal. Is it not the same Jesus who wishes us with the words, “Peace be with you’? Is it not the same Jesus who gives us His Holy Spirit? Is it not the same Jesus who asks us to receive the Holy Spirit? Is it not the same Holy Spirit who strengthens us? Is it not the same Jesus who asks us to witness his sufferings, death and resurrection through our life?
In the intimacy of table fellowship, as Jesus breaks the bread and offers the blessing, they suddenly become aware of who he really is! Their "eyes were opened". But as soon as they recognize him, He "disappeared". They got up and returned at once to Jerusalem.
They went back to Jerusalem, retracing their steps of a few hours earlier. On the way to Emmaus they walked more slowly, dejected, then listening and learning. But now their steps are quickened. They cannot wait to find the Apostles and tell them the news.
Accounts such as the one recorded in today’s gospel help us to understand that faith in the resurrection is not confined to a past event; nor is it relegated solely to a future moment when we also be raised by God from death. Rather, the resurrection appearances represent the church’s understanding concerning the permanent presence of the risen Lord with us now. How and in what manner do we experience him among us? What are the implications of his presence? How must it influence our faith and our life style?
Our awareness of presence God in and around us is the unimaginable and never-failing source of hope and strength. There is no room for dejection, sadness or frustration. In Jesus there is real hope and strength. In makes us to get up and move, rejoice, praise and proclaim. Alleluia.

God's Love and Forgiveness

2011-04-28T12:38:00.000-07:00

May 1st, 11 Divine Mercy Sunday homily-Fr.Francis Chirackal CMI, MSW
Acts 2:42-47; I Peter 1:3-9; Jn 20:19-31
For Readings Click
http://www.usccb.org/nab/050111.shtml

Today is a wonderful day for us as Christians. On this Divine Mercy Sunday in Rome Pope Benedict XVI beatified his predecessor, Pope John Paul II. We can now address him as Blessed John Paul.

It is significant that the beatification takes place on this Divine Mercy Sunday. Since the early years of his priesthood, Blessed John Paul had a deep devotion to the Divine Mercy. On April 30th, 2000, on that same day he canonized St. Faustina, he officially established the Sunday after Easter as Divine Mercy Sunday. St. Faustina received revelations from Jesus that became the basis for the Divine Mercy devotion. After Pope John Paul canonized Sister Faustina, he said, "This is the happiest day of my life!"

Devotion to the Divine Mercy, of course, was not a novelty. Our Psalm today says, "His mercy endures forever." Today’s First Reading gives a picture of the fervent religious life of the first Christian community. Christ in His loving mercy comes on our altar under the form of bread, to be our spiritual nourishment and our strength on the hard road to heaven. If we feel unworthy of this great honor, remember He has given us also the sacrament of confession which will remove anything which is displeasing in us. St. Peter reminds us that we received a new birth because of God's "great mercy." And in today's Gospel the Risen Jesus gives mercy as his first gift: "Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them..."

Blessed John Paul saw something deeper - the Divine Mercy at work in human history. During the Mass of canonization of St. Faustina Pope John Paul II proclaimed: "It is important then that we accept the whole message that comes to us from the word of God on this Second Sunday of Easter, which from now on throughout the Church, will be called Divine Mercy Sunday." Today’s readings are always about mercy, trust and the forgiveness of sins.

Devotion to Divine Mercy goes back to our origins. Yahweh expressed His mercy to Adam and Eve promising a savior when they lost Paradise. That Mercy became incarnated in the person of Jesus. God’s mercy is experienced throughout the human history even today in our own lives. Many times I have seen people become so stress-free and joyful in confession when I tell them that God forgives all their past sins and God never looks at our past once we make a sincere repentance and confession. Is there anything more consoling in our life than to know that our sins are forgiven and we are worthy of God’s grace again?

By the words "the whole message," the Holy Father was referring to the strict connection between the "Easter Mystery of the Redemption" -- the suffering, death, burial, resurrection, and ascension of Christ, followed by the sending of the Holy Spirit -- and this Feast of Divine Mercy, on the Octave Day of Easter. This feast adds so much more meaning to the Easter celebrations. It was Jesus himself who asked for it to be celebrated on this particular Sunday following Easter. Christ pours out this mercy on humanity through the sending of the Spirit. Mercy is understood in its deepest and most tender aspect, in its ability to take upon itself the burden of any need, and in its most immense capacity for forgiveness.

Is it enough to celebrate this feast with great devotion and enthusiasm and wait for divine mercy? Our Lord said to Saint Faustina that, “I demand from you deeds of mercy, which are to arise out of love for Me." It is clear that Our Lord wants mercy to be shown to others expressed through our words and actions. Divine Mercy is the Easter gift that the Church receives from the risen Christ and offers to humanity.'' "The two rays of Divine Mercy image denote blood and water. The blood recalls the sacrifice on Cross and the mystery of the Eucharist. The water makes us think of Baptism and the Gift of the Holy Spirit." To be the people of Easter-life, resurrected life, we need to be the real agents of divine mercy in our living situations. We need to be always a forgiving and strengthening people.

This Sunday we also remember St.Joseph the worker, who enabled us to experience salvation, by cooperating with God’s plan by taking care of Jesus and Mary with his faithful hard work and sacrifice. Let us pray for all workers, who are contributing to keep this God-created world beautiful and growing, always to remain in and experience Divine Mercy. God bless you.

Jesus is Risen

2011-04-21T23:32:00.000-07:00

Apr 24th, ‘11 Easter Sunday homily-Fr.Francis Chirackal CMI, MSW
Acts 10:34a,37-43; Col 3:1-4; Jn 20:1-9
For Readings click
http://www.usccb.org/nab/042411.shtml

One day a man was drifting in a canoe on a lake, reading a book. There were a bunch of water beetles at play. Suddenly one of the beetles began to crawl up the sides of the canoe. When it got halfway up, it attached the talons of its legs to the wooden side of the canoe and died. He watched for a minute; then he returned to his book. A few hours later, he looked down at the dead beetle again. What he saw amazed him. The beetle had dried up, and its back was starting to crack open. As he watched, something began to emerge from the opening: first a moist head, then wings. It was a beautiful dragonfly. He sat there and looked at in awe. The dragonfly began to move its wings. It hovered gracefully over the water where the other beetles were at play. They didn’t realize that it was the same beetle they had played with a few hours earlier. The non attractive dead-like beetle was transformed into a beautiful, fast flying dragonfly. On Good Friday we saw an unattractive figure of Suffering Servant, whom many considered as a defeated and dead man. But on following Sunday he resurrected to life with new form, vigor, strength and beauty. Today we are celebrating His resurrection, which became the source of our hope and resurrection.

In the First Reading we see Peter stresses the truth of the resurrection by citing witnesses, including himself, who had not only seen the risen Jesus but had spoken to him and actually eaten with him. In spite of His previous references to His resurrection, they had completely forgotten it and were convinced that the tomb near Calvary was the end of all their hopes. But the very opposite was the case. Jesus’ tomb became the sign of new life and new hope. In the Second Reading, St. Paul reminds us that we are created for unending happiness in heaven and it is only when we get there that our desire and our quest for greater happiness will end. We must never let the “things of earth’, the pleasures, the power, the possessions which we can or could have in this life, block or impede us on our upward journey. In the gospel we see Christ was no mere man of kindly acts and words of wisdom, but was the promised Messiah, Son of God who was raised and glorified by the Father.

In our everyday life Easter enables us to experience the power of Jesus to change gloomy, despairing endings in our daily lives into a glorious new beginning. For disciples when sun went down on Good Friday, they, too, were buried in the tomb with Jesus. It was all over. But as the sun rose on Easter Sunday morning, Jesus was more radiant and more fully alive than they had ever seen Him before. And at that moment the power of Easter began to work in their lives. They were transformed from a band of despairing men into a brigade of daring missionaries. Their fear disappeared. They became united again.

Today Easter invites us to open our hearts to the risen Jesus and let Him do for us what he did for His disciples and the people to whom they preached. It is the good news that the risen Jesus is in our midst ready to work miracles for us. It is the good news that nothing can defeat us anymore- not discouragement, not pain, not misfortune, not even death.
Christ also empowers us to raise others from the “little deaths” that entomb them. God shows us repeatedly that we can put our complete trust in him. The Calvaries we climb in our everyday lives is nothing as we see our glorious Easter shines on the horizon. Whatever our circumstances, we know that He is caring for us at every moment. Christ’s resurrection gives us the assurance that we can triumph over all evil forces. Easter tells us that we can emerge from broken shells and painful struggles into a beautiful, joyful life if we let Jesus enter our lives. . It invites us to be Easter people. It invites us to be witnessing people.

To witness is to tell publicly what we believe and experience. Christ empowers us to raise others from the “little deaths” that entomb them in their everyday lives. After seeing Jesus Mary Magdalene ran to the disciples telling Jesus is risen. He is alive. The angels told the women that Jesus is alive. The message of Easter is that Jesus is risen and alive and at work in our lives and in the world.

Easter brings great gladness and joy. Let us enjoy that gladness in our lives and proclaim the Risen Christ, the source of our joy. Let us keep Easter hope and joy in our heart and in our family throughout the year. May the Risen Lord bless you. Christ is living.

Self-giving love of God

2011-04-20T22:45:00.000-07:00

Apr. 22nd ‘11 GOOD FRIDAY homily- Fr.Francis Chirackal CMI, MSW
Is 52:13-53:12; Heb 4:14-16, 5:7-9; Jn 18:1-19:42
For Readings click on
http://www.usccb.org/nab/042111.shtml

A few years ago a story in the news caught my attention. A young boy was killed in a freak shooting incident in Italy. His grieving family donated his organs to needy Italian children who may not have otherwise received transplants. This story offers concrete example of people who make others find life even at the midst of their own deep sorrows. On the other side many receive new life through the generosity of others in the midst of their sufferings. Today we commemorate the great historical event of self-giving love of God, who made His own Son to suffer and offer His life on Cross as ransom so that the human race will receive eternal life. In John’s Gospel, it is new life that Jesus brings and particularly in his account of the passion. It is new life that we are all called to bring to the people around us.

In today’s First Reading from Isaiah we see the description about the Suffering Servant who suffers everything in silence for human race and became exalted by God. St. Paul in the second Reading, speaks of Jesus as the high priest and source of eternal salvation to all who obey Him. In the Passion Narrative from St. John we find the detailed description of events that took place from Jesus’ agony in Gethsemane to the tomb. He showed us how we can offer our lives so that others may live more fully.

Last day a person told me that he is suffering from fear of death. It always bothers him and even a thought of death scares him. He was not even able to see the body of his cousin who died, thinking it may bring into his mind the thoughts of his own death. But this man has no any illness or known health problem. We see hundreds of people who speak of death with full of hope and welcoming attitude. Faith in God and Eternal Life make our lives always peaceful and full of hope. Jesus’ suffering and death gives meaning to our sufferings and death. It gives us courage and strength. Suffering with Christ becomes not destructive but redemptive and life giving.

Death opens us up to the power of the resurrection. Only through our death to the earthly body, we will be able to resurrect to the heavenly glory. With Jesus we must die many times to ourselves if we are to receive his Spirit. We all share in the priesthood of Jesus who learned to hear God in the awful truth of the human condition. We can take control of our lives only by turning them over to the will of the Father. Cross is a symbol of the new life we are to live in Jesus. Jesus lived and died so that we could be reconciled with God and with each other. Death became the source of life.

But Jesus through His self-accepted death out of His love for human race made our lives eternal, while death is only a passage to that new life. Jesus showed us to find meaning to our sufferings and death through His own passion and death. Some times ago a hospital chaplain wrote about a patient who demanded that the crucifix be taken down from the wall of his hospital room. The angry man complained that he did not want to be reminded of a man suffering and dying in pain. The cross that so upset the hospital patient is the same cross we venerate, kiss, and embrace calling it the “tree all beauteous” today. By His death Jesus taught us how to be patient in suffering, to sustain hope in the face of defeat and death. He taught us that goodness can overcome evil and sin, and that death does not have the last word. He has done everything possible to make eternal life available to us. But we have to do the job of incorporating Jesus’ saving work into our own lives.

The crucifixion is a sign of Jesus’ love. It points to how much Jesus loves us. The Passion Story reveals how deeply Jesus shared our experiences. We can look at Jesus in our any kind of sorrows like, estrangement from family and friends, unjust, unfair treatment, humiliation, violence, physical assault, false accusation and mental torture, lose of loved ones, insecurity, betrayal and cheating by the nearest ones etc. etc. Jesus entered glory by voluntarily accepting these sufferings for our salvation. Jesus asks us to voluntarily let the love of God burn so strongly in us that no evil, pain, suffering or death itself could harm us. May this Holy Week observance and Good Friday commemoration help us to live our Christian faith more deeply and effectively. God bless you.

Do This In Memory of Me

2011-04-20T14:05:00.000-07:00

Apr 21st , 11 Holy Thursday homily- Fr.Francis Chirackal CMI, MSW
Ex 12:1-8, 11-14; 1Cor 11:23-26; Jn 13:1-15
For Readings click:
http://www.usccb.org/nab/042111.shtml

Good teachers are always looking for proper materials to help put their point across to their students. Bulletin boards, posters, videos, games and the ever-present textbook are on every teacher's list. Also, every good teacher, and every good parent, is constantly watching for that teachable moment, the moment when a student is ready to hear, ready to be taught. Jesus, the greatest teacher, knew how to use the common elements of everyday life to convey the critical elements of his teaching. He also knew the teachable moment, that time when his followers were ready to hear his message.

“Why is this night different from all other nights?” was the question asked by the youngest at the Passover supper of Israelites. Answer to this question helped the youngest and everyone else to gain a sense of their identity as God’s chosen people. Tonight we are commemorating the Last Supper of Jesus, a night different from other nights, which gave us a special identity. We became a people specially loved, taught by God to love and serve with His own example, specially fed with God’s body and blood and redeemed by god’s own life.

In the First Reading from Exodus 12:1-8, 11-14 we see the Israelites shared a meal to give them strength to move from slavery to freedom. In the Second Reading from 1Corinthians 11:23-26 St.Paul gives an account of the Last Supper in which Jesus gave us His body and blood in the form of Bread and Wine, the Eucharist.

In the Gospel from John 13:1-15, Jesus washes the feet of the apostles, symbolizing the service He was about to do for us when He gives his life on a cross for the salvation of the world. It startled Peter and it probably startled the other disciples as well. It was a very dramatic homily which Jesus preached in washing the apostle’s feet. He wanted them to understand exactly what he was doing in serving this meal and that, if they would not let him serve them, they would not be able to participate in the new covenant, to make the journey to a new life. He is incarnating his teaching that the one who wished to be first must be willing to serve the rest. He is emphasizing that he did not come to be served, but rather to serve, and he cannot accomplish his mission unless we are willing to be served by him and we serve others in turn.

Understood in light of the washing of feet, the Eucharist is a place of restoration for people on the way. The life of a Christian in the world is a pilgrimage, a long, hard journey. Along the way we get tired and worn out and we are tempted to give up and turn back. But Jesus has provided us with the Eucharist as a place where we can go in to bathe our aching feet and to be refreshed in body and soul for the journey that is still ahead. When we give communion to a sick person we call it viaticum which means "provisions for a journey." The Eucharist is always a viaticum: in the Eucharist we derive strength to continue our upward journey toward God, especially at the moments of Gethsemane.

A deep change happens in our hearts when we become Christians. Our identity is an identity of love and service. We become service centered. In today’s Gospel we see God Himself is washing the feet of his apostles, the human beings, giving an example of service for us to follow. Here the first and most essential part is to let the Lord wash us. As Jesus said to Peter, "Unless I wash you, you have no share with me (John 13:8). First, the Lord washes us clean so that we belong to the Lord. Only then are we qualified and empowered to wash the feet of our sisters and brothers in the Lord. When this truth dawned on Peter, he overcame his reluctance and cried out, "Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!". For this to happen all that the Lord needs from us is simply for us to be there, to present ourselves to him and to let him wash us.

The other side of the coin, which is equally important, is that after our feet have been washed by the Lord, we must go and wash the feet of others. Every day we get opportunities to imitate our God through our service. To mention a few,- working long hours with pleasure so that our children may have an education and food on the table; giving of our precious time to visit someone in the hospital or someone who lives alone; making even the little unnoticed sacrifices to make another happy and so on.

We see this serving love in various areas and situations in our day to day lives. Spouses who love and honor each other in bad times as well as good, in sickness as well as in health; parents who attend to difficult or unruly children or adolescents; children who attend to elderly parents who are feeble or demented; employers who serve the best interests of employees and their families; acquaintances who set aside their own agenda to truly listen to the heart of another person; people who serve the hungry, the homeless, the lonely; people who are kind and fair to those who are incorrigibly unpleasant; people who are available to the needs of others.

Sacrament of Eucharist is always a source of strength, a symbol of love and service. May this commemoration and celebration of Last Supper strengthen us with more life and energy in our God oriented earthly life. May it enable us to live an ever growing ‘Love and Service centered’ humble life. God bless you.

Passion Sunday, Palm Sunday

2011-04-14T22:06:00.000-07:00

April 17th, ‘11 Sunday Homily – Fr.Francis Chirackal CMI, MSW

Is 50:4-7, Phil 2:6-11, Mt 26:14-27:54

For readings click:

http://www.usccb.org/nab/041711.shtml

The great French painter Henri Matisse died in 1954 at the age of 86. In the last years of his life, arthritis crippled and deformed his hands, making it painful for him to hold a paintbrush. Yet he continued to paint, placing a cloth between his fingers to keep the brush from slipping. One day someone asked him why he submitted his body to such suffering. Why did he continue to paint in the face of such great physical pain? Matisse replied, "The pain passes, but the beauty remains." In a similar way, the pain Jesus would submit to in his passion would pass, but the beauty of what he did would remain forever including in our own hearts.

In the First Reading we see the prophet Isaiah didn’t fear to serve God completely. The prophet suffers in carrying out his mission, but is sustained by the firm belief that God will not abandon him. He describes how the suffering servant accepts the role of suffering which the Father had designated for Him. In the Second Reading, St. Paul reminds us of Jesus’ humble obedience even to death on the cross. Because Jesus took on Himself our human condition and accepted suffering and death on the Cross, God raised him up and made him the Lord of heaven and earth.

In the Gospel, Matthew leads us along the way of the cross as Jesus was betrayed, arrested, tried and crucified by sinful men only because He was sinless and Son of God. This story of innocent Jesus’ execution and crucifixion midst two thieves moves the heart of any person with pity and sympathy. His human nature bore the full effects of the torments inflicted on him.

What do these sufferings mean? Jesus’ suffering was a sign of love, an invitation to love, and a revelation about love. It is a source of hope and strength. The suffering of Jesus speaks to us about his love in four ways. First as a sign of love it tells us in the most powerful way possible what Jesus told us during His public life. Second, the suffering of Jesus is an invitation to love. Jesus said, “Love one another, just as I love you”. Third, suffering of Jesus is a revelation about love. It tells us that love entails suffering. Jesus said, “If anyone wants to follow me, he must forget himself, carry his cross, and follow me”. Fourth, Jesus' suffering prior to His resurrection gave us the hope that our suffering with Jesus will not be a destructive one but redemptive and Jesus will glorify us at the end.

Jesus’ cross is the highpoint of his self-emptying love for us. We cannot have Easter without the cross. By attending to the passion narrative and applying its lessons to our own lives, we learn the cost of discipleship and we learn what it means to follow Jesus.

In every Eucharist we celebrate the Paschal Mystery, the redemptive suffering, dying, and rising of Jesus. Holy Week celebrates each aspect of this mystery in its own special ambiance. It is an once-a-year time of special grace and special period to find meaning to our day to day life experience, the sufferings and joy.

Human nature desires everything to be pain-free. But in reality it is impossible as suffering is the inseparable part of human life, whether it is in our personal, family, social or spiritual lives. Suffering doesn’t mean only physical pains, sickness or mental agony caused by the evil intentions of others. It may be the pain included in our effort to put the relationships and justice on track. For example, it’s painful to try to rekindle a relationship that has begun to cool, it may be painful to try to deal with someone who is demanding to the point of being unreasonable, it may be painful to live with or adjust with somebody who is repeatedly insincere or not faithful, it may be painful to forgive someone who made us to suffer lifelong or long time, it may be painful not to become yielded to the temptations of materialism and worldly attractions. But in any kind of these situations Jesus comes before us as a role model who suffered pain, torture and even humiliated death on the cross in an unimaginable way. His sufferings and death pointed towards the resurrection, becoming the greatest source of our hope and strength.

Let us enter into holy week singing Hosana to the Lord praying for grace to go through the pain and sufferings of our lives with the hope of enjoying eternal heavenly glory. The sufferings we go through with Jesus will pass but the fruit will remain forever. God bless you.

Jesus is our Resurrection and Life

2011-04-08T19:09:00.000-07:00

April 10th, 2011 Sunday homily- Fr.Francis Chirackal CMI, MSW Ezekiel 37:12-14, Romans 8:8-11, John 11:1-45.

For Readings click:

http://www.usccb.org/nab/041011.shtml

You might have heard the story about an oilman who started to drill a new well on his land. After drilling a deep hole, there was no oil to be found. The owner decided that it was a dead hole, and told the crew boss to cap the well. He would write it off as a complete loss. Meanwhile, the foreman called to the driller and asked how much "rope" was left on the rig(In oil field jargon, the drilling pipe is called a “rope.”). "About six to eight feet," replied the driller. "Then keep on drilling deeper," shouted the foreman. After drilling only two feet more, the well struck oil, and was one of the most productive wells in the entire oil field. This story gives a great lesson to our lives. Just as there was still room for hope, while there was still rope left, there is still room for hope while there is still life left to live. As Jesus tells to Martha, still there is room for miracles in our lives while there is still faith left in our heart.

In the first reading the prophet Ezekiel gives good news to the people regarding their return home. It is described in terms of resurrection and spiritual renewal. In the second reading, St. Paul describes the life of Christians as new life in Holy Spirit, as the same Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead lives in us. In the Gospel, Jesus reveals that he is the giver of life by raising Lazarus from the dead. By raising Lazarus form the dead, Jesus proves that He is the Lord of life and death and through faith we see the glory of God.

Today’s gospel story draws special attention. On hearing this story of the resurrection of Lazarus we may ask the question, why did Jesus allow his best and most faithful friends to suffer anguish for four days? He could have cured Lazarus of his illness the moment he heard of it just as he cured the son of Herod’s official. Yet he delayed and allowed Martha and Mary to suffer the death of their beloved brother. But the answer is found in Jesus’ expression itself, ‘the glory of God and salvation of man’. He wanted to give a convincing proof of His claim as Messiah, sent by God to give eternal life to mankind. He also wanted to give His enemies a great impulse and motive to carry out His crucifixion for the sins of mankind. He made His closest friends to suffer for a while, in order to cooperate with Him in His plan for the salvation of human race.

Many times in our lives we may struggle to find the reason behind the sorrows we undergo. Is there not here an answer to the questionings of divine providence, which we ourselves do or hear so often from otherwise devout followers of Christ? Drowned in our own personal sorrow and grief we cannot see that this very sorrow and grief is part of Christ’s plan for the salvation of man. And the fact that we or they are loyal, true friends of Christ is the very reason we or they are chosen to carry this particularly heavy cross. In His mercy He cannot put extra load on the unwilling shoulders of less faithful friends. We can well imagine the rejoicing that took place in Lazarus’ family after Mary and Martha had to spend four sorrowful days, while Jesus seemed to forget them when their beloved brother was dead.

Along with each of the main characters in today’s Gospel, we too are invited to examine our faith in Jesus, and challenged to renew and deepen our commitment to him. God came to give us eternal life; not just an extension of this life. In Jesus we encounter God’s life-giving presence inviting us to imitate friendship and life in the Spirit. The new life that Jesus gives is everlasting life. Jesus’ humanity inspires us and His divinity empowers us. Jesus gives us new life and hope.

We are promised new life through a personal relationship with Jesus. The raising of Lazarus symbolizes our faith in God’s power to give us new life in Jesus. Opening ourselves to God’s spirit will eliminate “dry” patches in our attitudes and actions. Our hope is that by dying daily to ourselves, we can be resurrected daily by Christ—eventually to share completely in his eternal life. Lent is a journey to conversion. This Eucharist is a sign, a sacrament, of God’s love calling us to deeper faith. God bless you.

Find Real, Full Sight

2011-04-01T10:11:00.000-07:00

April 3rd '11 Sunday homily–Fr.Francis Chirackal CMI, MSW

Sm 16:1b, 6-7, 10-13a; Eph 5:8-14; Jn 9:1-41 For Readings click; http://www.usccb.org/nab/040311.shtml

On one of the Oprah Winfrey Shows, psychotherapist and author Marianne Williamson, was the featured guest. Marianne pointed out that a miracle is not so much a change of circumstances as it is a change in our perception of those circumstances. In the audience was a woman who was complaining that her husband was unemployed and that she was forced to leave her young children in order to work two jobs to support the family. She said that she had prayed earnestly for a miracle but the circumstances had not changed and she was losing faith. When Marianne suggested that they pray together the woman experienced a different kind of miracle - a change in her perception. She began to see that these circumstances gave her husband a golden opportunity to be with their children and learn the art of fathering - something she had always hoped would happen.

In the First Reading God chose David, the least of Jesse’s sons, to be the king of Israel. In the Second Reading St. Paul tells us to adopt a lifestyle in keeping with our state of Christian life. He urges us to escape the darkness of sin and live as children of the light. In the gospel we see Jesus, the light of the world, not only gives sight to the physically blind, but light to the spiritually blind.

Our god-given physical limitations and weakness have a purpose. It has a role to fulfill through us. It is an occasion for many to see God and His wonderful love. God calls us to fulfill our role on particular times and places. Our proper response brings salvation to many, blessings to self and glory to God. This is what we see in Jesus’ reply to the disciples. Jesus said, "It is not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be made manifest in him”. God’s work of salvation is always active in this world and it is to lead man to heavenly kingdom making us involved in this process. We become involved when we make appropriate response by doing our role God wants us to play at given times. It is an occasion for many to see and experience god’s love and care. The more we get involved, the more we are revealed of God’s love and grow in our relationship with God.

The blind man had a role to play in his life to reveal God’s saving power to many and lead to salvation. Hundreds of people walked past the poor blind beggar that day and they saw only blindness. Jesus, however, helped those in his company to see God breaking into their lives. They saw a God of surprises, who used a person reduced to begging to open people's eyes to divine riches. To see well, good eyesight alone is not sufficient. There are many forms of blindness besides physical blindness. For examples, Selfishness blinds us to the needs of others, insensitivity blinds us to the hurt we're causing to others, snobbery blinds us to the equal dignity of others, pride blinds us to our own faults, prejudice blinds us to the truth, hurry blinds us to the beauty of the world around, materialism blinds us to spiritual values, superficiality blinds us to a person's true worth and causes us to judge by appearances. So it is not with the eyes only that we see but with all of our senses, our mind, heart, spirit.

Once Jesus entered and God’s name was glorified through his life, the blind man began to see things differently. Not only was he able to see physically, he also saw Jesus to be ‘The Messiah’. The Pharisees looked at the same events but persisted in their blindness because Jesus did not work in to their narrow confines of life. Their vision did not change.

Instead of just automatically giving him sight, Jesus asked the man to participate, to do something in the process. This is the way God deals with us. He does not want us to be passive invalids looking for a favor. He wants us to be active individuals participating in the process. Not God without man. Not man without God but God and Man working together.

Lent is a time for us to receive new vision in our lives. If we have been going through life with useless emotions of guilt and worry blinds us, then maybe it is time to get rid of them and find new vision. It is time to recognize value and purpose of our god-given limitations and set new goals. This week there will be ample opportunities for all of us to get rid of our blind spots and improve our vision. Let us start each day by asking Jesus to improve our vision as he did the blind man in today's gospel. God bless you.

Jesus and Samaritan woman

2011-03-24T22:28:00.000-07:00

March 27th 2011Sunday homily- Fr.Francis Chirackal CMI, MSW
Ex.17:3-7; Rom 5:1-2,5-8; Jn 4:5-42
For readings Click
http://www.usccb.org/nab/032711.shtml
You might have seen or heard of ‘resurrection plant’. I have seen only its picture. It is said that these plants are found in the desert regions of America and the Near East. It has an extraordinary ability to come to life again after appearing to be dead. Unlike most plants that have to wait for water to come to them, this plant uproots itself and moves over the land to search for water. In the presence of water, it will flourish with green, fernlike leaves. But when moisture is scarce, it pulls up its roots and withers into a dry, ball-like mass of apparently dead matter that the wind blows across the desert, even for years if no water is found. But once water is found the resurrection plant sinks into the wet ground and springs to life again. Many times we are also like this resurrection plant. In our life-journey, we are life-less until we find our new life in God. Once we get new life with the water that Christ gives, we grow and flourish in divine life and grace. Like the resurrection plant, we too experience resurrection.

Today’s First Reading from Exodus reminds us of a special kind of thirst, by which we depend on God to satisfy our need. God showed his care for his people by providing water for Israelites in the desert. In the Second Reading St. Paul encourages us to have greater hope and confidence in the mercy of God. Gospel story tells of Jesus’ touching encounter with the Samaritan woman, in which Jesus promises living water, the gift of the Spirit, for the salvation of the world.
We do all experience thirst. A thirst could be physical or spiritual or it may be both, as in the case of the Samaritan woman. Physically she was thirsty for water, and that brought her to the well of Jacob day after day. Jesus recognized in her the spiritual thirst for which she could find no satisfaction. When Jesus entered into her life, first she saw only his physical appearance. From this understanding she gradually grows into spiritual level and concludes that He is the one who has knowledge of God – a prophet. She opens up to him and finally experienced the satisfaction of all of her soul's desires. Isn't this the kind of experience we wish for ourselves and for all in this season of Lent?
There is a great tragedy in modern times. We are trying to satisfy our spiritual thirst with something other than God. The British writer Frank Sheed speaks about this modern tragedy in his book Theology and Sanity. He says the human heart has a spiritual thirst. But instead of helping people satisfy this spiritual thirst in a spiritual way, we give them material things. We try to distract them from what is troubling them, the same way we distract a crying baby by giving it candy and by making funny faces at it. Trying to satisfy a spiritual thirst with material things is like trying to satisfy a physical thirst with salt water. The more we drink, the thirstier we get. St. Augustine called it spiritual "restlessness." Frank Sheed called it an "absence of meaning." Charlie Brower described it as an inner "void." But it all comes down to the same thing.

In every human heart there's a thirst for God which no earthly water can quench. It is the same inner thirst that people have experienced since the beginning of time. This is what we read in Psalm 42 which says, ‘As a deer longs for a stream of cool water, so I .. thirst for you, the living God’. Again God says in Isaiah 55:1-3 ‘Come, everyone who is thirsty.. Come to me’. Prophet Jeremiah compared God to a ‘Spring of fresh water’. There is a restlessness in us no success can satisfy. This brings us to the "Good News" contained in today's gospel: God, and God alone, can satisfy that inner thirst in our hearts. Let us unfold ourselves for Christ-experience and draw life and energy from Jesus through prayer, penance and conversion. God bless you.

Transfiguration of Jesus

2011-03-17T22:48:00.000-07:00

March 20th, ’11 Sunday homily- Fr.Francis Chirackal CMI, MSW
Gen. 12:1-4; II Tim 1:8-10; Mt 17:1-9
For Readings:
http://www.usccb.org/nab/031311.shtml
Who has everlasting dominion, glory, and kingship, so much so that all peoples, nations, and languages serve Him? Who is it that shines brighter than the midday sun on the mountain top? Today’s Scripture readings say that Jesus is the answer to the above questions. These questions are not about some superficial knowledge of Scripture or about factual knowledge of the faith. Rather, they are questions about how we live our lives, how we think, what we desire, and how we act each and every moment.
The Lord tells Abram, in the Book of Genesis, to start a new life at the age of 75 and changes his name into Abraham. Second Reading reminds the special gift that will enable us to make the effort necessary to be faithful Christians. Gospel presents the transfiguration of Jesus, in which on Mount Tabor three disciples got a glimpse of the glory of Jesus.
The word transfiguration comes from the Latin word transfiguratio, which corresponds to the Greek word metamorphosis. The word metamorphosis indicates that what the disciples saw in Jesus on Mount Tabor was a divinity that shone from within Him. The first two readings present the faith we need and sufferings involved in our faith journey towards heavenly glory, while gospel presents the joy we experience when we are with Jesus here and here after. Here we are involved not on one but on two journeys. The first is the outward journey we make through involvement in the world around us and finding our role there. The second is the inward journey which is a search for oneself, and ultimately a search for God. It is a journey of faith. God calls us forward, out of where we are now, into a new vision, new values, a new way of living. We draw inspiration from the examples of those who have gone before us in faith. To have faith doesn’t mean to have all the answers. It is to have bearings. There will be times in each of our lives when we will have to go forward armed only with our faith. Tabor experience strengthened Jesus for the journey to Jerusalem. We too can experience rare moments of light and joy. We get glimpses of the promised land towards which we are travelling in faith. In His love for us, God allows us to taste on earth the joys of the world to come. These moments are given to us so that we can remember them when God seems far away and everything appears dark and empty. However, for the most part, like Abraham, we travel in the darkness of faith.

In this journey there are two potentialities within us which transform us- the potentiality for evil and the potentiality for good. Take the potential for evil. We are capable of such things as hatred, bitterness, cruelty, greed, envy, lust ... These will bring out the worst in us. They corrupt our heart. Corruption of heart coarsens the face and darkens the eyes. It disfigures us.
Take our potential for good. We are capable of such things as love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, mercy, compassion ... These do bring out the best in us. They purify the heart. Purity of heart softens the face and causes the eyes to shine. Goodness transfigures us. Basically, we are transfigured by what we love, what excites us, what moves us, what rouses our spirit. For example, at times all of us can feel down, a prey to feelings of failure and worthlessness. But then suddenly something nice happens to us - a friend calls, or we get a letter with some good news in it - and suddenly everything is changed. The truth, of course, is that nothing has changed. It's just that a spark of joy or hope or love has been kindled in our hearts, and we see ourselves in a new and better light. We are made in the image of God; we carry the splendor of divinity within us. However, sin tarnishes that image and so disfigures us. But virtue causes that image to shine and so transfigures us. In His love for us, God allows us to taste on earth the joys of the world to come. In between, like Abraham, we travel in the darkness of faith. May this Lenten season be a time for each one of us to experience such a "transfiguration." God bless you.

Jesus’ Temptations

2011-03-10T18:09:00.000-08:00

Mar 13th, '11 Sunday Homily: Fr.Francis Chirackal CMI, MSW
Gen.2:7-9,3:1-7; Rom.5:12-19; Mt. 4: 1-11
For Readings :

http://www.usccb.org/nab/031311.shtml

Famous Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes had the reputation of being absent minded. One day on a train ride out of Washington, Holmes was studying a pending case when the conductor asked for his ticket. The justice searched each pocket nervously, but to no avail. “Don’t be concerned, Mr. Justice Holmes,” the conductor said. “We know who you are. When you return to Washington, you can send us the ticket at your convenience.” Holmes lowered his eyes and shook his head sadly and said., “Thank you, my good man, but you don’t seem to understand the problem. It’s not a question of whether I’ll pay the fare. The problem is I need my ticket to know where I am going!"

In our life too due to the pressure of busy schedules, pre-occupations and internal and external pressures and temptations we may lose our life-orientation and live without remembering our goal of life or destination. Here the season of Lent comes reminding of our goal of life and telling us to take necessary turns, U turns and become more energized to reach our true destination, the heavenly kingdom. Here we need Lent.

The First Reading from the Book of Genesis says that man is created of two kinds of things- earthly body and heavenly breath, the soul. Since the body is of earthly elements, it always has the tendency to seek after earthly attractions, diverting the soul away from God. This is what we see in the fall of Eve and Adam. Soul, as it is of divine element wants to be united with God and always strives for it. In this struggle, person’s free will decides the choice it should make and it is a continuous process. If the individual becomes yielded to the earthly temptations, his/her mind becomes polluted, vision gets illusioned and disfigured with evils. The person who cooperates with God’s grace prefers the path of soul, and that same act sanctifies his/her body and makes it holy in line with soul. Lent is a period to evaluate the choices we made and the path we travelled, turns and U turns we need to make and the extra energy we need to reach our heavenly destination as our soul will never become peaceful until it reaches its Creator, the God. As St.Paul says, Jesus made this choice for us possible and easier by becoming an example and redeemer.

Jesus was fully God and fully man. Today’s gospel presents Jesus, who is overcoming worldly temptations, which every human person encounters, as Jesus was with His human body. It was in the plan of God. As the Fathers of the Church aptly remark, there was nothing unbecoming in the fact that Christ allowed the devil to tempt Him in His human nature. He had assumed that human nature in order to suffer in it, through Satan and his agents, and thus redeem and elevate all human nature. The Satan tempted Jesus using all possible human desires, namely improper desire for satisfying bodily needs, desire for power, fame and pride. Adapting to the person Satan tempted Jesus quoting Scriptural verses. While tempting, Satan claimed authority and power over the earth, which was a lie. But Jesus conquered all of those temptations as He was filled with the Holy Spirit. Jesus did hit back using the words from the same Scripture which Satan used. If we become filled with Holy Spirit, no evil powers can affect us. Indirectly Satan confessed Jesus’ real identity as Son of God. Here the Satan becomes the revealer of Jesus’ Divine identity.

All of these temptations are normal in our lives too with varied intensity, nature and color. We may encounter it in our personal lives, family lives, and socio-spiritual lives, which may partially or fully divert us and/or others away from God. Prayer and Word of God are the two most powerful weapons to overcome these temptations of the daily life. Let us be always aware of our destination and moving towards it without detracted or ceased. During this Lent let us make the way of God a habit. God bless you.

Return to the Lord

2011-03-08T22:47:00.001-08:00

Mar 9th, ‘11 Ash Wednesday homily- Fr.Francis Chirackal CMI, MSW
Jl 2:12-18; 2Cor 5:20-6:2; Mt 6:1-6, 16-18
For readings;
http://www.usccb.org/nab/030911.shtml
A concert pianist was told by an admirer how beautifully he handled a particular piece of music. The pianist responded, “The notes I play like all other pianists; the beauty is in the pause between the notes.” The season of Lent that we begin on Ash Wednesday is a time for pausing in the busy-ness of our everyday lives, to realize the beauty of our blessings in this world and the promised blessings of the next. Lent is the season for making our lives all that the Lord intends them to be.

We see several times God calls His people to repent and return to the Lord in the Old Testament. Importance was given not just to the collective observance, but to the change of heart individually. When we reflect on the words of St.Paul in his second letter to the Corinthians, lent is the ‘acceptable and days of salvation’ to become reconciled to God. As Jesus say’s in the gospel, most part of the Lenten observances must take place within our mind, heart and behavior. External acts should be its natural expressions while acts of love, compassion and charity will be its effects. Here our basic and ultimate goal is to come nearer to God and our neighbor, to grow in our faith, love and charity so that we will be worthy of heaven.

Lent is a time of preparation, a time for doing, a time for becoming. It is a time to prepare for Easter, it is a time for doing good with more intensity, it is a time for becoming worthy of Kingdom of God. In the past, it does seem that most Catholics tried to "give up something during Lent." Such practices were instilled in us as children. I remember, when I was in my elementary school I used to avoid meat and fish during lent, but was getting upset and angry if my mother didn’t prepare special egg curry for me every time they eat meat or fish. At the same time I used to tell my friends that I was observing lent abstaining from meat and fish. Now even its memory makes me to laugh at. When we give up something it must lead us closer to God and fellow beings. Otherwise, it loses meaning. Now, the world around is changed, priorities of needs are changed, concept of necessities and luxuries are changed, methods of living is changed, our relationships are changed. So we need to check whether we lost the essence. We need to bring changes, if necessary, in our spiritual and religious outlook, practice and relationships.

Lent is a season for us to look around and into ourselves. We need to scan our lives for viruses. We may not be able to remove certain viruses with old ordinary anti-viruses. We may need upgraded powerful anti-viruses. That is why Jesus said that only with prayer, fast and penance we will be able to get rid of certain evils. We need fast and penance with its all elements. This is the time for it.

Lent is a perfect time to get rid of evil thoughts and behaviors that we allowed to pile up within ourselves due to our weakness, negligence, strong external influences or intruded into our life-style. Whatever it maybe, all of us at one time or another have let spiritual garbage pile up in our lives. Let it go, get rid of it. During this holy season make it a point to spend some time with the Lord and do some serious soul searching. Do we pray every day? What kind of thoughts -faith in God or lack of faith; love or hatred; forgiveness or Revenge; selfless or selfish; comforting others or hurting dominate our mind?

Let us make an effort to be reconciled to God, to one another and to ourselves. We are all sinners, and the ashes that will be placed on our foreheads are a reminder of that. However, we have a powerful source of strength in the person of Jesus Christ. Look at Him and Him alone and He will show us the way to eternal life. God bless you.

Have Strong Foundation, Be the Hearers and Doers

2011-03-04T15:41:00.000-08:00

Mar 6th, 2011 Sunday homily - Fr.Francis Chirackal CMI, MSW

Deut 11:18,26-28,32; Rom 3:21-25,28; Matt 7:21-27
For Readings:
http://www.usccb.org/nab/030611.shtml

You may be remembering the news you read regarding a huge 13-story building which collapsed in Shanghai on June 27th, 2009. "It was just like an earthquake," one of the neighbors told China Daily. Inadequate foundation for that size building, the soil conditions, rain and improper construction methods were the causes of its collapse as they found. The investigation team's report said that workers dug an underground garage on one side of the building while on the other side earth was heaped up to 10 meters high, which was apparently an error in construction. Today’s scriptural message tells us to build our lives on strong foundation which will withstand any kind of wind, tremor or flood. Today’s scriptures present phrases like, a choice between blessing and a curse; obeying and disobeying; listening and not listening; acting on the Word of Jesus or not acting on it; building on rock or building on sand. Those phrases help us to unlock the central message in the readings of this Sunday. All three readings converge around the theme of listening and acting on the word of Jesus. That may be described as choosing to live a life of faithful obedience; a choice that brings blessings.

In the first reading Moses reminds the Israelites of all that Yahweh had done for them in Egypt and during their long journey to Moab. He warned them of the temptations they would encounter when they reach Promised Land. He told them that they must never forget Yahweh, the true God. If they bow down before other Gods and forget Yahweh they will perish. On the other hand if they obey God, they will be blessed. In the Second reading St.Paul stresses the infinite and merciful love of God for us. As St.Paul says, the Incarnate Son of God shared our humanity with us so that we could share His divinity with Him. He became one of the human family, so that we could become members, by adoption, of the divine family.

In today’s gospel we heard the words with which Jesus concludes His Sermon on the Mountain. Jesus gives a description of the true disciple who follows Him in truth and deed. Jesus uses very simple but powerful parable of building on strong foundation to convey His message to the people of all levels. In the words of Jesus, nominal Christians can not get into heaven. The only way to enter heaven is to practice His teachings. Practicing of His teachings will encounter with adverse conditions and experiences. But it will withstand all hardships as multi-storied buildings around the collapsed Shanghai building which remained unshaken in the same environment where the other one collapsed. The message Jesus wants to convey is that the word of God is intended to be the rock upon which we build our lives. If we do not build our lives on Word of God with the pillars of practicing faith, love of God and love of neighbors, the time will come when we too will be swept away by the storm and raging waters of life. A few years ago, a young man applied to teach religion in a Catholic school in India. When the principal asked him if he were a practicing catholic, he replied: ‘ No, I am a Hindu; but I know Catholic teachings well. I went catholic schools all my life. I’d gladly take a test to prove my competency’. The principal, with much effort, explained to the young man that the heart of Catholic faith lay not in knowing catholic teaching but in living a faith-filled Catholic life.

The first step in becoming a doer of the Word of God is to start praying. In a prayerful way we must take the Word into our heart, reflect on it and try to see how it applies to us and to our lives. For example, we ask ourselves how Jesus Himself would live out that Word if He were in our own life situation. In terms of family life or consecrated life, what does it mean to love one another as Jesus loved us? Prayerful reflection and asking God’s guidance will lead us to translate the Word into action. Based on resolutions and concrete steps derived during our prayerful reflection, we need to proceed towards concrete action. It needs to be time-bound. Unless we act within a few days, we probably won’t act on it at all, and may end up like the foolish man in the gospel, who hears the Word but doesn’t put it into practice. But our goal is to be the hearers and doers.

Different adverse force and influences may try to intrude our personal, family, social and spiritual life. As a community of Christians living in the 21st century, our lives may be moving at such a tremendous pace that we may find ourselves unable to cope with it. We may find that technological progress has put God on the sidelines causing gradual decline of personal, family and moral values. Materialism, secularism and self-justified moral values may cause our life to collapse at an unexpected time and unimaginable way. But Jesus gives us the most powerful and strongest preventive measure and solution, the mightiest anti-virus. Have faith, listen to the Word of God and practice it.

On this Wednesday we are entering our Lenten season. Lent is a period for rejuvenating and renewing our faith life. It is a period of preparation, purification and glorification. It is an experience of glorification in God by glorifying God. Let us be the earnest ‘hearers and doers of Word of God’ and find glory in god. God bless you.

God Cares Us Individually

2011-02-25T14:30:00.000-08:00

February 27th , 2011 Sunday Homily- Fr.Francis Chirackal CMI, MSW
Is 49:14-15; 1Cor 4:1-5; Mt 10:17-27
For Readings Click:
http://www.usccb.org/nab/022711.shtml
Would you please take out a dollar bill? Would you please check the words written at the top center of its back side? We see today’s scriptural message there which says, “IN GOD WE TRUST”. The whole human history and experience tell us that money can not save us but God can. This truth is proclaimed when it says, “IN GOD WE TRUST”.

In the first reading through prophet Isaiah God tells us that "I will not forget you". In human relationships there is no greater love than that of a mother for her baby. It has been proved beyond doubt down through the history. Then you may ask, what about abortion? You know it is an aberration. These words are a great inspiration and source of consolation and hope to all of us in our moments of great joy as well as deepest sadness. In the second reading Paul tells that the apostles of Christ’s are “stewards” of God’s mysteries, charged with preaching Divine revelation, and not their own doctrines. The first and indispensable quality demanded of a steward is trustworthiness, a conscientious devotion to his master’s interests. Today’s gospel deals with the things of this world and how we should be detached from them and live free of worries by trusting God.

Jesus tells us that we can not serve God and wealth at a time. They are different by nature and outcome. Principle and driving force behind serving God is faith, love and charity. It always thinks of giving out while the driving force behind serving wealth is self-gratification. It always thinks of what it can get from others and means are oppression and exploitation. We have recent stories of Egypt, Libya and many other. Serving God is other-oriented while serving wealth is self-oriented. Wealth in itself is not an evil. Wealth has a purpose i.e. to serve God and fellow beings through love and charity. So we cannot have a divided loyalty between God and wealth. God must have first place in our lives. Even a person can get so attached to the little he/she has and so anxious to increase it, that he/she can cut God out of his/her life and forget the One thing necessary. We know that a man can be drowned as easily in a tub of water as he could be in the deepest point in the Atlantic ocean. Therefore we should not let the things of this world possess us.

Jesus proceeds by saying, "Do not worry." Does this mean therefore that we can now just sit back and relax without working to achieve our goals? Are we to be merely passive and stop planning for the future? We may call it laziness or foolishness. Jesus says to look at the birds of the air. He didn’t say to look at the birds in the nest. Birds of the air are doing their role to find their food. The meaning of the words "Do not worry" as spoken here means not to be "overly concerned." Do not be "uneasy about what might happen." Avoid "anxious care." There are things which may distress us over which we do not have control. We are not the masters of our own lives, and death can come at any time. Sickness and life-threatening ailments may visit us uninvited. Natural disasters, war or recession, accident or loss of job may make our lives look miserable. In situations like these our trust in a loving and caring God is an anchor to us. We watched on TV that when people in Egypt were protesting against oppression and exploitation, they were also praying putting their trust in God. Jesus tells us that nothing will happen in our lives if it is not in God’s plan for us, unless we make a deliberate wrong choice with evil intentions using our free will. Still God loves us and extends His support. God teaches us through nature.

The Heavenly Father who takes care of the whole Nature takes care of us. We are the greater creation of God. Let us listen to the words of Jesus that we are more important than anything in the nature. God gives everything necessary for us including joys and hardships at proper times for our good. We are called to a distinct way of life, a spiritual way. We are called to trust God who knows what we need and to believe that God will give it to us. God bless you.

Love knows only to love

2011-02-17T14:23:00.000-08:00

Feb 20th, 2011 Sunday homily- Fr.Francis Chirackal CMI, MSW
Lv 19:1-2, 17-18; I Cor 3:16-23; Mt 5:38-48
For readings click:
http://www.usccb.org/nab/022011.shtml

On August 25th, 1993 twenty six year old Amy Biehl, an idealistic Stanford graduate, was pulled from her car and stabbed to death by a mob in Guguletu township near Cape Town. It happened three days before she was coming home to be reunited with her family in Newport Beach, California, after completing her 10 month course of study in Africa. She was helping to develop voter registration programs for South African blacks and women as that nation's first all-race elections approached in April, 1994. Her murder was a big tragedy and shock. In 1994 her parents started Amy Biehl Foundation to help children and youth in Africa through education, skill training and health programs to continue the legacy of their daughter. In 1995, Mr. and Mrs. Biehls, returned to the township where Amy was killed to meet and console some of the killers’ families. They consoled them as four young men were sentenced for eighteen years for Amy’s murder. Some of those young men expressed remorse and pleaded for amnesty. The Biehls supported their release. Amy’s father died shortly after that trip, but her mother Linda Biehl returned to South Africa again to forgive one of the four killers. This time she not only forgave him, but also gave him a bright future by giving him a job in Amy Biehl Foundation. Linda’s outstanding spirit of forgiveness and support shines as a living example of today’s gospel message.

Today's First Reading from the Book of Leviticus teaches us that the spirit of charity makes it impossible for the spirits of enmity, revenge, and grudge bearing to dwell within us. If they dwell in us, then they co-exist with the spirit of hatred towards others and we live in sin. The natural inclination of mere human nature is to ‘get one’s own back,’ to repay the offender in his own coin. But a person whose nature is holy by essence has to resist this inclination. Second Reading from the First Letter to the Corinthians reminds us of the division that dwelled in the Corinthian Church during the first century. St.Paul made a very powerful statement when he said, "If anyone destroys God's Temple, God will destroy that person. For, God's Temple is holy, and you are that Temple". Nowadays, there are many, who's actions are causing division in the Church and community based on nationalities, Languages, ethnicity, theological differences, liturgical practices, power etc. Destruction of life i.e. biological life, mental life and spiritual life, has become a common factor. Here St.Paul speaks to us with explicit expression. We belong to Christ, and so we need to behave like children of God with love, charity and respect.

Today's Gospel speaks of loving one's enemy versus retaliation. Jesus refers to Ex. 21:23-25; Lv. 24:17-20; and Dt. 19:21. Making reference to these passages, Jesus reformulated it with the spirit of love, forgiveness and charity. He modified it in tune with Lv.19:18 which says, "You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against any of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord." Jesus speaks against physical violence and retaliation, legal actions, forced labor and any act against love and charity. Hundreds and thousands of past and present days examples like Mr.and Mrs.Biehl’s show that Jesus’ words are practical even today and capable of producing miracles.

Without God’s grace, of course, such a task is impossible. But if we respond to the challenging commands of the Lord in today’s Gospel, we certainly are assured of God’s help to live them out. The disciples were taught to show the same example to friends and enemies that God shows in His distribution of sunshine and rain. Jesus tells us that in the process of doing good to others, resisting evil and confronting unjust structures we may find that we are forced to give up our own rights and sacrifice a comfortable existence, but it is the means of lasting peace and joy. Let us keep practicing this in our own personal and family lives and then extend to community at large. Let us live to have only friends and no enemies . Let us feel and experience the great love, forgiveness, peace and joy in our own lives and enable others to experience the same. God bless you.

Spirit behind the Law

2011-02-11T17:13:00.000-08:00

Feb 13th, 11 Sunday homily- Fr.Francis Chirackal CMI, MSW
Sir 15:15-20; 1Cor 2:6-10; Mt 5:17-37
For Readings Click:
http://www.usccb.org/nab/021311.shtml

James Mathew Barrie’s famous play Peter Pan has a delightful scene. Peter is in the children’s bedroom and children are jumping up and down with excitement. Peter has just flown across the room. Children tried to fly from the floor, bed and didn’t succeed. They ask him, how did he do it? Peter answers, “It is easy. Just think wonderful, beautiful thought. They will lift you off the ground and send you soaring into the air”. Today’s readings tell us to live our righteousness starting from right thoughts. It will lift us off the ground and send us soaring to heavenly life. Keep our hearts holy.

Prophet Sirach in the first reading states that each person has a free will. God does not force his commandments on us, neither is he responsible for the evil which exists in the world. He gives us free will. We must choose between life and death, between good and evil, and God will honor our freedom and choice. In other words everyone decides the way his/her soul shall go. That fundamental choice finds concrete expression in the multiple choices of daily life. Each day we make choices which are life-giving both for ourselves and others. St Paul, in the second reading says that the weakness and the foolishness of the Cross were the things that God chose for his Son. And it is the only way to arrive at all that God has prepared for those who love him.

Continuing the Sermon on the Mountain, in today’s gospel Jesus teaches to live spirit of the law. The scribes and Pharisees of Jesus’ time spent their lives being faithful to the letters of the Law while ignoring its spirit. They focused their attention on external elements which can be seen by others. But God sees from within in its totality. So Jesus asks us to observe the commandments with true sincerity of heart, love and charity. He wants us to be more perfect. For Jesus the whole moral value of observing any law comes from the interior disposition of the person who observes it.

Today’s Gospel presents redefining of commandments by Jesus. As human beings, for our orderly, joyful life and salvation commandments are a must. You might have read the book ‘Animal Farm’ by George Orwell. It presents a Utopian world of animals which wanted to be free and equal. At the end the condition of the animals becomes more miserable than it was at the beginning, as there were no rules, no laws, nobody in positions of authority and responsibility. The story gives the message that, without structures, without rules to guide behavior, without somebody taking responsibility to animate and lead the group, we also can descend into anarchy and self-destruction.

God with His Eternal Wisdom gave Law to the Israel through Moses. For Jesus, the Law is to serve the people, to guide and protect them. He tells us that all laws come from God and, therefore, for a law to be valid, it must be made for the common good. For Jesus love is the principle of Law. Whether his teaching has to do with anger, adultery, divorce, etc., what he is really speaking about has to do with love and forgiveness. If we speak about loving God and loving our neighbor, then there must not be any contradiction here. It would surely be a contradiction to be reciting lovely prayers to God, while I’m not speaking to my neighbor. Same way, swearing presupposes sin of lie. We see Original Sin in the context of lies. The Spirit of truth enables us to fly over the evils which we may come across in our daily lives and feel god’s presence around us. God has given every individual an in-built barometer that instinctively informs us when we’re right or wrong. The biggest lies we tell in life are the ones we tell ourselves. We will never be honest with others until we become honest with ourselves. True honesty is a sign of our true righteousness.

Upholding the righteousness which Jesus taught us, let us be always authentic, genuine, and truthful in our faith and life. God bless you.

Salt of the Earth and Light of the World

2011-02-04T12:18:00.001-08:00

Feb 6 th ‘11 Sunday homily-Fr.Francis Chirackal CMI, MSW
Is 58:7-10; 1Cor 2:1-5; Mt 5:13-16
For Readings click:
http://www.usccb.org/nab/020611.shtml
How many of you have watched Mother Angelica’s rosary on TV or other medias? What does she do by reciting the rosary on TV? What kind of experience we get as we pray with her? While praying rosary with Mother Angelica don’t we feel spiritually uplifted or gained some spirit for our life? On the other side since last two weeks we are watching on TV thousands of people protesting in Egypt as they are deprived of their freedom, dignity and wellbeing, and occasionally we see the picture or name of a man who caused it. There we see a selfish, power-greedy, oppressing and exploiting nature of man. What kind of feeling we get when we look at it? This is what Jesus tells in our today’s gospel. Be tasteful and up-keepers of peace and joy. It is not the power, position or wealth that adds flavor to the world around us but our uplifting spirit of prayer, faith, love and charity that makes us real salt and light.

In the first reading God commands through His Prophet Isaiah to practice love and charity, especially towards the poor and needy, as an essential part of our faith. He tells us that it is the only way to prove our loyalty to God and enable His light shine through us. It is the only way to expect favors from God. St.Paul through his letter to the Corinthians tells us that it is to God’s power alone that we owe our faith. It is not because of anyone’s earthly wisdom or rhetorical powers, but mere power of God.

In today’s gospel Jesus tells us that we are the salt of the earth, light of the world and should be like a city built on mountain. Jesus repeats the same message which He said centuries before through Prophet Isaiah. Jesus tells us to be the salt of the earth and light of the world and give flavor to the life of others making it more and more desirable, happier. He reminds of divine life in us which we need to keep always alive. He tells us to spend ourselves to keep the world around us more hopeful, joyful and brighter. He tells us to be the light. Because, there is darkness in the world. Therefore our life should enable others to see the light and understand what is good and evil and avoid falling into the trench or taking wrong direction.

Why should we be the salt of the earth? Jesus tells it in Mark 9:50. He says, “Keep salt in yourselves, and you will have peace with one another”. What is the cause of breakdowns in relationships? We know it is lack of peace. Here Jesus tells us to keep the salt He gives us and it will keep us in peace. It will keep us integrated in our personal life, family life and social life. There will be no breakdowns even if there are hard and tough times. I have seen many couples who reached the verge of divorce but overcome the situation and became stronger in family relationship and living joyful life only because of their faith in god and prayer life. That is the result of remaining the salt and light in our life as Jesus says.
When our lives become salt and light through our life of faith, love and charity practiced in our real life, it will be visible to others like a city on the mountain. St.John Vianney was in a small parish, but thousands of people went to him. When we are the salt of the earth and light to the world, many will come to us to make their lives enriched and enlightened, by receiving flavor and light from our lives. Our life will attract like a city on the mountain. Remember Mother Angelica.
Every true religion which believes in God has a system of life with faith, prayer and practical guidelines for success. It is the system for individual and collective growth, individual and collective peace. It is a path to go forward supporting each other without breakdown but ever growing towards the goal. As today’s readings say, there is no surprise when we hear of increasing breakdowns and failures while the binding force i.e. god’s grace is missing due to the absence of sacraments, prayers and cardinal virtues in personal, family and social lives. God’s grace is the strongest binding force for unity. When we keep that binding force away from our family and personal lives, we will be no more taste-givers or up-keepers and breakdowns are natural results. Because all binding forces of human relationship except god’s grace have limitations. It can’t take us beyond certain points. May be it is like a GPS in our vehicle which may take us to so many places we want to go. But it may go wrong as we read a few days before in the Sacramento Bee, with a heading ‘death by GPS in desert’. It can’t take us beyond certain points. But Jesus will never stop or take us to wrong direction. He can lead us through any situation and to any extent with peace keeping us in unity and tranquility.
Let us be the salt of the earth with taste and light of the world. God bless you.

Beatitudes

2011-01-28T17:46:00.000-08:00

Jan 30th, 11 Sunday homily-Fr.Francis Chirackal CMI, MSW
Zephaniah 2:3, 3:12-13; 1 Cor1:26-31, Mat 5:1-12.
For readings click
http://www.usccb.org/nab/013011.shtml

One day an old man was walking through a meadow, quietly observing the beauty around him. He carne upon a field of pumpkins growing on their tiny vines. Being somewhat tired, he sat under an old oak tree to contemplate the beauty around him and noticed that the ground was covered with acorns. He said to himself, "God must have made a mistake here! He put big pumpkins on tiny vines and small acorns on large branches." After a while he fell asleep. In the midst of his sleep an acorn fell out of the tree and landed on his nose, awakening him. He laughed as he said, "Maybe God was right. Small acorns are where they should be and big pumpkins are in the right place." In today’s gospel we see certain strange view which is different from usual ones. The materialistic world may consider the beatitudes as something absurd, while the Divine Person teaches it as the most sublime and highly valued ones and thousands draw inspiration, comfort and strength from it to make their lives really a blessed one.

Prophet Zephaniah describes an ideal people who are humble and righteous and finds refuge in god. The prophet holds out hope of salvation for those who seek God, and who practice integrity and humility. St.Paul through his first letter to Corinthians tells us that God the father has a special care for the poor, weak, lowly and people who are conscious of their limitations and rely on god. Gospel presents the values Jesus lived and preached. Jesus wants his followers be filled with the spirit of these values which He lived.
Sermon on the Mount categorizes the people who are really blessed. They are not always the ones whom the world calls fortunate. In the eyes of the world, fortunate ones are those who are up and coming or have made their mark in life. They are those who are healthy, wealthy, powerful, held in high esteem and treated well in the society and achieve their objectives even by hook or by crook even though other people are tramped upon in the process. But beatitudes start with a big surprise as it puts all worldly norms upside down. It says that each and every one of us can be blessed without any health, wealth or power and even amidst sufferings and hard times. This is what saints and holy people proved throughout the history.

We see two parts in each of the beatitudes. One part describes the present suffering reality and the other presents the future situation of blessedness with relief and hope. It indicates the presence of evils, pain, sufferings, sorrows, trouble makers, evildoers and persecutors in the communities. It says how to be blessed by using the hurting situation with faith in God. Here the door to blessedness is open to each and every one of us. It says that within every community there are people truly blessed by God. Among these are the ones who are poor in reality and in spirit.

Last week Supreme Court of India sentenced one Dara Singh to 14 years of imprisonment. Dara Singh was the leader of a Hindu radical group which brutally murdered Dr.Graham Staines , a Missionary in India and his two sons on January 23rd, 1999. A few days later the murder, Graham's widowed wife, Gladys, 49, offered a clear and public statement forgiving the killers. As a result, Graham Staines, a humble man, and his wife Gladys who were serving lepers and illiterates for 35 years, have been exalted in India as examples of true Christian spirit.

We always praise people with love, forgiveness, humility, compassion, selfless service and so on. We praise St.Damian, we praise Maximilian Kolbe, we praise Blessed Mother Teresa, we praise Mother Cabrini, we praise Mahathma Gandhi, we appreciate people with the qualities of beatitudes and help the poor and needy. Beatitudes are the paths which can be followed by any individual irrespective of religion, faith or sect. It invites us to be passive as well as active believers by becoming merciful, peacemakers and who always do what is right before God. God bless you.

Repentance and Kingdom of God

2011-01-21T16:06:00.000-08:00

Jan.23rd, 2011 Sunday Homily: Fr.Francis Chirackal CMI, MSW
Is.8:23-9:3; 1Cor.1:10-13,17; Mt.4:12-23
For Readings click:
http://www.usccb.org/nab/012311.shtml
A woman who was studying Bible went to her basement and made an interesting discovery. Some potatoes had sprouted in the darkest corner of the room. At first she couldn't figure out how they had received enough light to grow. Then she noticed that she had hung a copper kettle from a rafter near a cellar window. She kept it so brightly polished that it reflected the rays of the sun onto the potatoes. She exclaimed, "When I saw that reflection, I thought, I may not be a preacher or a teacher with the ability to expound upon Scripture, but at least I can be a copper kettle Christian, catching the rays of Christ and reflecting His light to someone in a dark corner." Today’s scripture lesson tells us that Christ has brought us into the light by calling us to repentance and Kingdom of God.

Prophet Isaiah in the First Reading predicts future liberation for an oppressed people. It describes the new era of liberty and joy, which future Messiah will usher in. Paganism got control over Galilee and thinly scattered land of Zebulun and Nephtali, two of the 12 tribes of Israelites, in the region found it difficult to retain their faith in true God and more difficult to practice it. The prophet assured a change as Messiah was arriving. In the second Reading Paul makes a passionate appeal to Corinthians for unity in the community. Paul urges them to be united in mind and purpose and be dedicated themselves to Christ.

In the Gospel we see fulfilling the prophecy of Isaiah Jesus declares the kingdom of heaven, a new era of Spirit, the Messianic period. Jesus invites all to repentance, a change of mind, healing and joy of discipleship. By inviting to repentance Jesus wanted us to fill us with his forgiving love. The faith and the knowledge of God’s love for us are His gift to us and for all men of good will. This is what the angels sang at the birth of Jesus. The gift of faith frees us from the slavery of ignorance and sin and lights the road to heaven for us, amidst the darkness and drudgery of life.

Repentance enables us to find re-orientation or new orientation of life, a disposition to follow Jesus. It means to rethink radically of one's life-orientation. When Jesus called Peter and Andrew, James and John they left their boats and their previous way of life to become fishers of men and women. They gave a new orientation to their life by admiring and following Jesus. We have to appreciate our call to be Christ’s disciples. Every one of us is called by God, both individually and collectively.

God gives every individual certain roles and necessary gifts to perform that role. No individual lives in this world without any gift. Before our birth God decides our role in this world and equips for that role with necessary gifts. So we see different people with different gifts in the Church and society at large. It may be gifts of singing, playing music, teaching, research, intuition, extra-sensory perception or healing gifts. We may see these gifts in the believers of any religion and even among atheists. These gifts are given irrespective of our faith, religion or spiritual state, but a mere gift of God at birth. Recognizing, nurturing and using it for the glory of God, good of others, and salvation of self is important. A gift used with faith becomes more salvific and complete. It is our responsibility to find out the gifts God has given us and to use it according to His plan. The role given to Peter was not just fishing for livelihood, but to lead thousands to the light of God’s path. When Jesus called, he immediately responded and gave a re-orientation to his life which resulted in recognizing and fulfilling God-given role.

Whether we are priest, religious, married or single, male or female, we are all called and in this call we become what God wants us to be playing our God-given role using the given gifts. Let us be thankful to God and rejoice always for the gifts god has given us and be ever dedicated to Christ and to grow in Word of God and discipleship and use our gifts for the good of others and glory of God. God bless you.

Jesus, the Lamb of God

2011-01-14T21:09:00.000-08:00

Jan.16th , 2011 Sunday Homily - Fr.Francis Chirackal CMI, MSW
Is.49:3,5-6; 1Cor.1:1-3; Jn.1:29-34

For Readings click:

http://www.usccb.org/nab/011611.shtml
Many of you might have heard of or visited the Marian Shrine at Knock, Ireland. The apparition story says that on the evening of 21 August 1879, people whose ages ranged from five years to seventy-five and included men, women, teenagers, children, witnessed what they claimed was an apparition of Our Lady, Saint Joseph, and Saint John the Evangelist at the south gable end of the local small parish church, the Church of Saint John the Baptist. Behind them and a little to the left of Saint John was a plain altar. On the altar was a cross and a lamb, a traditional image of Jesus, as reflected in the religious phrase The Lamb of God, with adoring angels.
In today’s gospel we find a Lamb of God. John the Baptist points out Jesus saying, “Behold, Lamb of God, which takes away the sin of the world”. Lamb figure in the Knock apparition represents the words of John the Baptist which we heard in the gospel.

The first reading from Isaiah talks about how the ‘Servant of God’ has chosen to bring Israel back to Him, and not just Israel, but all peoples. The ‘Servant’ says that God has appointed him as His servant who will bring all men to reverence and glorify God. We see this ‘Servant’ in Christ who sacrificed his life as a lamb to redeem the human race from sin. St. Paul in his first letter to Corinthians reminds the Christians of our call to holiness. Jesus, the Lamb of God, brought us to this holiness with His blood.

In the gospel we see Isaiah’s prophecy is fulfilled in Jesus as John the Baptist introduces Jesus as ‘lamb of god’. He points out Jesus to the people as the Messiah, the ‘servant of God’ of whom Isaiah spoke. The ‘pass-over lamb’ that we see in Exodus 12:7 had no part in taking away sin but saved the lives of Israel. The ‘Servant of God’ in Isaiah 53:7 is compared to a ‘lamb led to the slaughter’ and suffering for sins of his people, and in Rev.5:7; 17:14 we see the victorious apocalyptic lamb, who would destroy evil in the world. He is God’s chosen Servant who takes away the sins of the people and baptizes them with the Holy Spirit. John not only points out Jesus, but also lets his own disciples join Jesus. John told the people that he baptizes with water while the messiah will baptize with holy Spirit. It is through the work of the holy Spirit our sins are removed in the sacrament of baptism. Our bodies become the temples of the holy Spirit and the Spirit remains and makes us stronger and stronger as we grow and live with the Spirit.

Repentance alone is not enough in our lives, but a growing-life in Spirit is essential for our salvation. John was giving the baptism of repentance as a preparation. Our repentance is a preparation to become children of god, purified of our sins by ‘blood of Jesus, the Lamb of God.’ It is only the beginning. Preparation always presupposes something important is coming. Baptism with Spirit is a continuous process. We need to become renewed every day in Spirit. Jesus, the Spirit in its fullness, shed His blood and slaughtered for our sins. John the Baptist was filled with the holy Spirit when he was in the womb of his mother. He grew up keeping that Spirit grow in him. Fulfilling his entrusted role, it made him help Jesus to fulfill all righteousness and to point out Jesus and say, ‘He must increase and I must decrease’.

Today Jesus wants us to be always filled with His Spirit which He made available to us at the cost of His own blood, and help Him to continue His work today in our living situations with a life of love, faith, charity and sacrifice. Do we point out Jesus to others? Do we really make effort to make others grow and we ourselves grow in Spirit? God bless you.

Baptism of Jesus

2011-01-07T13:43:00.000-08:00

Jan.09th, '11 Sunday homily- Fr.Francis Chirackal CMI, MSW

Isaiah 42: 1-4, 6-7; Acts 10:34-38; Matthew 3: 13-17

For Readings Click:
http://www.usccb.org/nab/010911.shtml

Roy Lloyd, a Lutheran minister, once interviewed Mother Teresa. He said that one of his questions and her answer stands out in his mind as "a bright sun burning in my mind. " He asked her, "What's the biggest problem in the world today?" And she answered, without hesitation, "The biggest problem in the world today is that we draw the circle of our family too small. We need to draw it larger every day." With all that is evil and wrong in this world today it would be easy to answer that question with a hundred different events. That's what makes Mother Teresa's response so jilting. She is saying that the problem is not so much with the world as it is with us. We need to see more people as our neighbor than we are currently doing. We see Jesus doing this in His baptism. By receiving baptism from John, Jesus considered himself as one among us and included us in His family so that he can purify us, as we are baptized in the name of the Holy Trinity. His baptism was drawing of a larger circle which found its climax in His Crucifixion and Resurrection.

Prophet Isaiah in the First Reading gives a portrait of a true servant of God which was realized perfectly in Christ, and something to which all baptized ought to aspire. He became an humble servant bearing our sins and burdens. Second Reading from the Acts of the Apostles contains a reference to Jesus’ baptism, and is an example of the early Christian preaching to non-Jews. Gospel presents the event of Jesus’ baptism, in which His true identity was revealed.

John the Baptist preached repentance and asked people to receive the baptism of repentance. When Jesus came John didn’t ask Him to get baptized, but resisted to baptize. But Jesus, the giver of sanctifying grace and forgiveness, insisted John to baptize Him. For people the Holy Spirit sanctified them of their sins as they received the baptism of repentance, while Holy Spirit revealed Itself and their Trinitarian unity to the world at the Baptism of Jesus. When all those who received baptism became purified, Jesus’ baptism opened the door of heaven to all, especially to the repentant sinners, and Jesus was publicly commissioned to take over the mission of preaching the Good News to the world. It was a moment of transition, a transition from 18 years of secret life to His three years of public mission. Here Jesus was the receiver and part of the giver. With Jesus’ baptism the world became purified to receive God’s grace. For people baptism was a need, which was an act of receiving god’s sanctifying grace, a becoming included in god’s family, while for Jesus it was an act of giving, an act of self emptying, an act of drawing all in to His family. He took the sin of the world on Himself opening a doorway for all men and women to have a share in His Kingdom.

We may think of the relevance of Jesus’ baptism in our life. We all know that God doesn’t act without a reason and a need. Also God’s act won’t become a fruitless or futile one. God’s act is always a perfect goodness and result-ended. When Jesus felt a need for human race to be purified through baptism, human beings were and are really in need of receiving a baptism without exception, and it was god-intended and functional in divine-human relationship. This becomes more evident, when Jesus commissioned His disciples to preach the kingdom of God and Baptize all in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, the same three Divine Persons who were present during Jesus’ baptism.

Baptism is an act of receiving. It is a regaining of divine-human relationship the original human condition. Everyone who is in divine-human relationship is capable and obliged to lead others to enter in to that divine-human relationship. In baptism the Holy trinity comes to us and indwells. We become revealed of god’s presence in us. It is a sign of indwelling presence of Trinitarian God in us, as we are baptized in the Name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Jesus’ baptism was an occasion of outpouring of God’s grace to the world, an invitation and an example to live a life of divine –human relationship. When Jesus chose to receive baptism from John making Himself humble, bearer of Sin of the world and atoning for the humanity, the whole Trinity revealed Itself with joy proclaiming the divinity of Jesus, the Son of God. It is an invitation to us to be humble and to serve the other bearing their burden and lessening it with sacrificial love and service. Such a life is an occasion to the Holy Trinity to reveal Itself to the world through us in particular situations, and to become glorified through our life, and to lead us to the eternal glory at the end, fulfilling our mission. Therefore let us be always aware of our baptismal privileges and mission doing what is right and good every day of our lives. God bless you.