Tag Archives: Apostles

May 28 2011

Reflection for 6th Sunday of Easter 2011

Every time I heard a story of a person who was  put to prison for a crime, but then, have been proven to be  innocent, I feel sad. I wonder why does it take 20 or 30 years for the truth of the crime to come out. I wonder why does this happen, when a person is wrongly accused, is made to suffer in prison for a crime he/she never committed. I wonder why the people who put him/ her in trial could not see the truth when they were still in the process? Today’s gospel somehow offers me an answer to these questions. “The Spirit of Truth” has been blocked by the false witnesses, by the false allegations. The Spirit of Truth, is always there, but it is not welcomed.

Thus, Jesus would tell us today, he is going but,  he would not leave us orphans. In a way, he would not leave us to suffer, to mourn, to be afraid,  even to be falsely accused of anything, because he would send us his precious gift- The Holy Spirit, the one who would lead us to the truth. This Spirit would enable us to go on doing the right, the true and the useful, to  accept our fate, to live joyfully,  correct us, guide us, help us, and the one who would encourage us to even say, “It is better to suffer for doing right than for doing wrong.” So today Jesus invites us to welcome this Spirit that he is going to send us…as our advocate…as our strength in carrying out our mission to the world,  as the Apostles did. If the Spirit of Jesus is in us, then we can proudly claim that we love him, and we can show this love by doing what he asks us to do, to love God and to love our neighbours, as ourselves, and then to love one another.

This sixth Sunday of Easter doesn’t just prepare us for the Ascension of Jesus; it calls us to ponder how much we need the descent of the Holy Spirit of truth to be the counsellor of each of us in this very confused and misguided world. What good is freedom, if we don’t know the truth? A person lost in the desert may be free, but if he has no idea where to find food and drink, he is not free to save his life.

So, in the light of the Holy Spirit, we reflect that we are not really free until truth unlocks our chains of ignorance, false ideas, and false values. Only God’s own truth does that. We take hold of his truth by believing his word. Then light is shed on the path we should freely take, and that is our true good. If we take it, it leads us to the true life given by the one God.

So let’s pray that God would open our hearts to welcome the Spirit of truth, so as to live out our lives in loving God and one another. Let’s continue to celebrate the resurrection of the Son of God, receive his risen body in the Eucharist, and walk his way to everlasting life. 

 

May 21 2011

REFLECTION for 5th Sunday of Easter 2011

JESUS the BEST of all best friends

All of us have at some stage in our lives found a friend who has become our best friend. We hang out together. We do things together. We enjoy each other’s company. We criticise each other. We correct each other. We just love more or less the same thing. We pursue more or less the same interests. And we both hope and wish the friendship does not end ever. Only because, we are best of friends.

But here’s the rub of life. Friends, no matter how strong and firm had to experience some break-ups and hiccups. For instance, my best friend and I had to part ways because he’s got married, moved to live in another place, and I had to enter the seminary. I felt so sad, as he was too, because that would mean for us not going to hang out together again, not enjoying each other’s company again, not doing more or less the same thing together, and just everything would never be same again for both of us. He moved on with his married life and I went on to join the seminary. It didn’t mean however, that our friendship was over. It only meant that our communication would be limited if not completely cut. And true indeed, since he married and I entered the seminary, we never had any communication for the reason that I don’t have his contact details, I don’t know whom to ask about him. And I could sense that this same reason would have hindered him to have any communication with me. It’s really unfortunate. I tried searching him in Facebook, but I couldn’t find him. I googled him, thinking that his name and address might appear in some ways, but nothing. Google and facebook are not the answer to everything because, not everyone has access to them.

Our Gospel today implies friendship. The disciples have formed a special friendship with Jesus, in a more real and intimate way. For them Jesus is their best friend. But here, according to St John, Jesus is still  delivering his message of “farewell” to his close disciples. This declaration saddened and troubled the friends of Jesus. But Jesus assured them, “Do not let your hearts be troubled… I am now going to prepare a place for you…[and] I shall return to take you with me; so that where I am you may be too.”

Here, Jesus showed us the ideal of friendship. A friend is someone who does not just look for his own self-interests but that of his friends. “I am going…but this is for you my friend”, seems to be Jesus saying this to us his friends.

But Jesus would not leave us clueless, wandering,  groping in the dark or leaving on our own until he comes again. He establishes a way of communicating with him, all the time. He said, ‘trust in him and his words’, ‘see him’ as the way; ‘believe in him as the truth; and ‘come to him as the life’ that sustains the friendship. But Jesus also knew that we couldn’t ‘tap’ all these means of communication if there is no direct connection to him. Therefore, he left us this great gift, THE means of communication which no technology on earth, no matter how advanced and complicated, can surpass or even equal- the Holy Spirit. This is his great gift that continues our communication with him our Lord and God, enlivens us  here and now as friends of Jesus, and sustains as we wait in joyful hope for his Second Coming  when he would take us all with him to his Father’s house.

As friends of Jesus, we are also called to be a friend to everyone around us. So we have in our First Reading today, the Apostles, who would not want to  neglect their Ministry or prayer and of Spreading the Word of Jesus- their way of communicating with him-  appointed the first 7 deacons or servants who would help in  taking care of the poor widows of the Greek converts.  In this way, Jesus is to be understood not only as friend to specific group or type of people but to everyone. And this is also a model of our human friendship.

And so, as we continue celebrating the season of Easter, let’s reflect on the way Jesus-the-best-of-our best friends, present to us how to be a friend of God and to everyone around us. Let’s continue the communication. Let’s lay our troubled hearts before him, our best friend, who never lets us down and who never stop communicating with us, even to the extent of laying down his life for us his friends.

Apr 30 2011

Homily for Second Sunday of Easter 2011

When the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton was announced few months ago, I heard people talking about it. I read in the news that it’s  going to be a fairy tale wedding. I was a bit cynical of that speculation. I thought,there could not be a fairy tale wedding because it’s going to be a real event, a real exchanging of vows between two real people. I always thought that a ‘fairy tale wedding’ would always be about fictional characters, in the fictional kingdom, written by an imaginative minds of some creative people in the world, to be read in the nursery schools or to be read to the kids before bedtime.However, when I saw the Live TV coverage of the event last night, I can only make one conclusion, it was indeed a “fairy tale” event, happening in a real place, with  real people. I watched and I believed.

Thomas, in our gospel today, could not also take it as real, the report of the women, the report of the other apostles that Jesus is actually risen and alive and had shown himself to them. He doubted about the truth of the claim saying, “Unless  I see the holes that the nails made in his hands and can put my finger into the holes they made, and unless I can put my hand into his side, I refuse to believe.” By this he is labelled the “doubter”. The following week, the apostles again gathered  behind closed doors. Thomas is one of them. Then Jesus appeared. For Thomas, this is too good to be true. Jesus invited him to touch his wounded hands and side. And then he was convinced and believed.

We might criticise Thomas for this disbelief, but he  just  shows us, one of our real human characteristics, to doubt until proven true or false. That’s why it’s no coincidence we have in our  legal system the term “innocent until proven guilty” or “guilty until proven innocent” in some cases.  In our world today, we tend to doubt about many things, because of the things that the world offers to us. We doubt, which is which. We have all these TV Ads persuading us to get this thing or buy that, because this or that is the right thing to do and right thing to buy. This and all that just add more doubt  for us. Unfortunately, this attitude of doubting also applies to our relationship with other people and even with God.

Like Thomas we doubt of the claim of others. “Are they telling me the truth?”, referring to others. Or “Are you for real?” referring to Jesus.

Our Readings today invite us not to stay in doubt, not to live in doubt, nor to stop doubting but to go beyond it. But how can we go beyond it? There are four ways, that we can get from our reflection on the readings today.

First, from the Act of the Apostles, as our first reading. We are told that the whole community of disciples of Jesus remained faithful to the teaching of the Apostles. Therefore, we, being Christians, being a members of the Church, we are also called to be faithful to the teaching of Jesus, as being carried out and preserved by the Church.

Second in our Responsorial Psalm. It offers us to accept that we couldn’t do this on our own, but to rely on God’s help, for he is our strength our saviour, for he’s done marvellous works.

Third in our Second Reading.  Peter tells us to remain faithful to God and his promises, to nourish our faith all the more. He says to us now, “Through your faith, God’s power will guard you until the salvation which has been prepared is revealed at the end of time.”

Fourth in our gospel. Jesus invites us look at him, to touch his wounded hands and side, and to accept his message of peace. How can we touch his wounded side and hands today? By looking at him in the person of our brothers and sisters around us, by helping the vulnerable, by taking the initiative to be like Jesus to others, to  work with him, to work like him.

How can we take his message of peace when the world today is suffering from violence? Jesus says to us now, this is not our real home. Be at peace, because we are just pilgrims here. Our real home is in heaven where peace is the rule and the norm. He is risen to prepare a room for us there. SO let’s be at peace…but let’s continue to hope and  pray that we’ll get  to our real home in heaven.

Today we celebrate the Divine Mercy Sunday, this is another way to cast away our doubt of God’s continuing  help and love for us despite of our sinfulness, unworthiness, limitations, and even our “unlovableness”.

Today we also witness the beatification of the late John Paul the Great, a step away from his canonization. Let’s invoke him to help us accept the message of Jesus in our lives as well as to live out the message of Easter, that Jesus is alive, and he lives among us now in the person of the people around us, in the Eucharist, in the liturgical assembly, in the Sacraments, and in many ways. Let’s not doubt his presence, for he is real. Yes, his resurrection might just be a fairy tale for us…But let’s look at him, feel his presence, and we’ll come to believe he is really here and now.