25-Aug-2014 Dear Friend,
Today's reading forces us to reflect on what it means to be a Christian. Sometimes we may feel exactly like the prophet Jeremiah. He complained: "Lord you are making a fool of me!" Yet, he cannot give up being true to himself, true to what he believes: "I have to say what I believe is true, in my home, in my office, with my neighbours and friends." To follow the Lord is never easy, we need to be touched by His love to respond to His calling. Have a discerning and affirming weekend! -Fr. Jude Sunday Ref: Twenty-second Sunday - "If anyone would come after me, let him take his cross!" 31-Aug-2014 Readings: Jer. 20: 7-9; Rom.12: 1-2; Mt. 16: 21-27; In the first reading we hear Jeremiah grumbling and complaining to God about the impossible mission he has been given. "Lord you have seduced me! Daily I am a laughing stock! The word of the Lord has meant for me insult, derision, all day long." Jeremiah was called to be a prophet as a very young man, probably even as a teenager. The people had to be reminded of their evil ways and the need to repent or else they would face destruction. Jeremiah's reward for his message was to be accused of treason. He was tired of being God's prophet, yet he felt strongly the call to be a prophet. "There seems a fire burning in my heart and the effort to restrain it wearies me." In Jeremiah, as in all who are called, there is faith and doubt existing together. Why can't God make life simpler and easier for his faithful ones? Why do injustices prevail? Eugene Orowitz was a skinny, 100-pound sophomore at Collingswood High at Collingswood, N.J. One afternoon the gym coach held classes in the middle of the track field to show the kids how to throw a javelin. After instructions he let the kids try their hand at it. The longest throw was 30 yards. "You want to throw it too, Orowitz?" the coach asked Eugene. The other kids laughed at Eugene. Someone shouted "Careful! You'll stab yourself!" Eugene pictured himself as a young warrior about to battle the enemy; he raised the javelin and threw it over 50 yards till it crashed into the empty bleachers, its tip broken. The coach ignoring his feat, looked at the broken head and said, "What the heck Orowitz, you broke the thing. It's no good to the school any longer." That summer Eugene began throwing the javelin in a vacant lot. By the end of the year he threw the javelin 211 feet, farther than any high schooler in the nation. He was given an athletic scholarship at the University of Southern California and he began dreaming of the Olympics. Then one day he didn't warm up properly, and tore the ligaments of his shoulder. That put an end to javelin throwing, his scholarship, and his dreams. Eugene dropped out of college and took a job in a warehouse. -The tragic story of Eugene Orowitz raises a vexing question. Why does God let misfortune wreck the lives of so many good people? Mark Link in 'Sunday Homilies' In today's Gospel Jesus continues his instructions to his followers on the demands of discipleship. Peter had just acknowledged Jesus as the Messiah and the Son of the living God. Jesus now speaks plainly of what this would entail. He told them that he was destined to go to Jerusalem and there suffer grievously at the hands of the elders and chief priests and scribes, to be put to death and to be raised up on the third day. The Messiah that Peter was thinking about was a glorious victorious Messiah, who would come in splendour and power to set Israel free. Jesus foretold of a Messiah who would be a suffering servant, humble and meek, stripped of all power, obedient unto death. Peter just could not accept a suffering Messiah, so he takes Jesus aside and tries to reason with him. The cross is too frightening a prospect, can't there be a compromise, a little watering down to make it acceptable? In response to Peter's response, Jesus reacts strongly to Peter's advice. "Get behind me, Satan! You are an obstacle in my path, because the way you think is not God's way but man's." Peter was making two mistakes. First of all he did not listen to the full destiny of Jesus. The mention of being raised on the third day passed over his head unheard. His second mistake was to dictate what God's will should be, something most of us do all the time. This mistake could have serious consequences and so Jesus puts Peter in his place. Peter, who was earlier called the rock, is now called a stumbling stone, Satan. Jesus attacked Peter violently to teach him this hard and blunt way to seek new directions of thinking and of living. Peter had faith but not yet that faith which gives the unconditional answer: 'I am ready,' to God's demanding word. Following Jesus has to be voluntary and once Jesus is accepted one has to be ready for self-denial, saying 'no' to self and 'yes' to God. Jesus challenged people to live rather than merely exist. One must die to self in order to live unto God. "I won't do it! That's my final answer." In a prison for political prisoners near Moscow, during the Stalin era, Ivan, a prisoner and expert in physics and optics, sat facing the prison governor and army general. Ivan knew at once they wanted something from him. "Would you like a remission?" they asked him. "What do I have to do? What's the project?" he asked. "We want you to perfect a camera that works in the dark, and another miniature one that can be fitted to the jamb of the door, and which works when the door is opened." Ivan was perhaps the only person in the whole of Russia who could produce a blue print for these devices. After seventeen years in prison the idea of going home appealed to him. Here surely was the answer to his wife Natasha's prayer. All he had to do was invent a device that would put a few unsuspecting fools behind bars in his place, and he would be free. "Could I not go on working on television sets as I am at present?" he asked. "You mean you refuse?" asked the general. Ivan thought: Who would ever thank him? Were those people out there worth saving? Natasha was his life-long companion. She had waited for him for seventeen years. "I couldn't do it," he said at last. "But you're just the man for the job," said the general. "We'll give you time to make up your mind." "I won't do it. Putting people in prison because of the way they think is not my line. That's my final answer." Ivan knew what his 'no' meant. A few days later he was on the train to Siberia to work in copper mines where starvation rations, and probably death awaited him. No fate on earth could be worse. Yet he was at peace with himself. Jesus talked of losing life, but he also talked of gaining life. This death to self is, in fact, the entrance to a higher life. It is death for the sake of life. Flor McCarthy in 'New Sunday Holy days and Liturgies' Film -The Devil's Advocate When a talented small town Southern lawyer Kevin Lomax, discovers his client is guilty, he goes to the restroom to compose himself. He returns to the courtroom, humiliates the prosecution's young witness and emerges victorious. Soon after, he is offered an opportunity to join a prestigious firm in New York. His wife is uncertain about the move and his very religious mother is against it, but he joins and strange things happen in New York. Kevin's wife is lonely and hallucinates, Kevin's confidence in his work begins to falter, he is attracted to a female lawyer and his relation with his wife suffers. He gets a wealthy but guilty businessman acquitted of murder charges. Kevin's wife claims that she has been assaulted by John Milton the company's head. When Kevin confronts Milton he discovers that Milton is the devil incarnate who offers Kevin the world and the opportunity to sire an Antichrist. Milton reveals that Kevin is actually his son, and Kevin put a gun to his head and pulls the trigger. Suddenly, Kevin is back in the restroom where he had gone to plan the next move for his guilty client. He decides to do the right and noble thing - to discontinue defending the client, knowing that he will be disbarred. But as he leaves the courtroom, a journalist asks Kevin for an interview that will make him a celebrity. The Devil's Advocate deals explicitly with sin and the screenplay raises themes of God, the devil, salvation, damnation and freewill. The film is about choices people have to make to live an upright life with all its challenges, or to live an easy life that leads to doom. Jesus, in today's gospel, reminds us that we have to make a choice for him or for the Satan. The way of the devil is attractive and comfortable. The way of the Messiah is the way of the Cross, hard, challenging but in the end fulfilling. Peter Malone in 'Lights Camera..Faith!' It wasn't easy... To play the role of a leader, a prophet is never easy and entails readiness to face hardship and suffering. Nelson Mandela spent twenty-seven years in prison or ten thousand days approximately. Before that he was on the run for a couple of years. Of the years he was on the run, he wrote later in the Long Walk to Freedom: "It wasn't easy for me to separate myself from my wife and children, to say good-bye to the good old days when, at the end of a strenuous day at the office, I could look forward to joining my family at the dinner table, and instead take up the life of a man hunted continuously by the police, living separated from those who are closest to me, facing continually the hazards of detention and arrest. This was a life infinitely more difficult than serving a prison sentence." Flor McCarthy in 'New Sunday and Holy Day Homilies' Losing to gain In the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles, 16 year old Mary Lou Retton became the first American girl to win a gold medal in gymnastics. To accomplish this extraordinary feat, she had to make many sacrifices during her two year period of intense training prior to the Olympics. While other teenagers were enjoying themselves with a full schedule of dating and dancing, Mary Lou Retton could only participate on a very limited basis. To improve her skills she had to practice long hours in the gym; to nourish her body properly she had to follow a strict diet, and to increase her confidence she had to compete frequently in meets. But what Mary Lou Retton gave up in terms of good times and junk food was little compared to what she gained in self-satisfaction and public acclaim when she won her Olympic gold medal. What she lost in the usual social life of a teenager she found in the special setting of becoming a champion gymnast -acceptance, camaraderie and respect. Mary Lou Retton's Olympic experience illustrates Christ's paradox in today's scriptures. May we find strength in our faith and love of God to be faithful no matter what the cost!!! Fr. Jude Botelho botelhoj...@gmail.com PS. The stories, incidents and anecdotes used in the reflections have been collected over the years from books as well as from sources over the net and from e-mails received. Every effort is made to acknowledge authors whenever possible. If you send in stories or illustrations I would be grateful if you could quote the source as well so that they can be acknowledged if used in these reflections. These reflections are also available on my Web site www.NetForLife.net Thank you.
