3-Mar-2015 Dear Friend, Whenever peopleare commanded to do something, even if they want to do it, they revolt. Whenparents say to their child: “Do what I tell you!” the reaction often is, “Iwill not!” When youth are forced to observe rules and regulations of theircollege, often they rebel and do just the opposite, just for the heck of it!When laws are enforced in society, there will always be some who challenge thelaw and there is a breakdown of law and order. We want to do our thing! But Godhas given us commandments for our own good. Do we care to observe them, livingaccording to them or do we deliberately go against them? Let’s spend thisweekend pondering on God’s law as a means of loving Him! -Fr. Jude Sunday Refl. 3rdSunday of Lent “Fidelity to the Covenant implies obligations for us.”8-Mar-2015 Exo: 20: 1-17; 1 Cor. 1: 22-25; John 2: 13-25; The first readingfrom Genesis speaks of the Ten Commandments and spells out the implications ofthese commandments. God did not give the commandments for his benefit but forthe sake of the people. When the people observed the commandments they were thegainers, when they disobeyed they themselves were the losers. Someone hascalled the Ten Commandments ten guidelines to happiness; unfortunately somehave interpreted the commandments as restrictions to man’s freedom. The firstcommandment forbids the worship of false gods, yet all of us at some time oranother have created gods to suit us and often these false gods hold sway overour lives. Keeping the law for the sake of the law results in bondage, whileobserving the law out of love for God and respect for neighbour results in truefreedom. The TenCommandments IndicatorOn 3rd February1959 10,000 meters above the Atlantic, Captain Lynch took a last look at theflight panel of the Boeing 707. The co-pilot was studying a map. Captain Lynchdecided to stretch his legs, thinking that the worst was over. Shortly afterleaving Paris they had run into a 120 kph headwind. But by now they had climbedabove the storm. The captain made his way down the aisle. Just then the Captainfelt the right wing tip and he was thrown against the seats on the right handside. At the same moment all the lights in the plane went out. Next he foundhimself lying on the floor. But then he realised it was the ceiling he was on.The Boeing was on its back. He began to make his way back to the cockpit. Hedecided to try to hold the plane at 2,000 meters. The co-pilot had been knockedunconscious. He came to again and he and the captain managed to bring theBoeing to the horizontal. A few more seconds and the plane would have crashed.The whole incident lasted four minutes. What caused it? While the co-pilot wasstudying the map he did not notice the blue light on the indicator panelwarning that the automatic pilot had stopped working. God has given us anindicator panel to guide us through life. That indicator panel is theCommandments. The Commandments are a gift from God to help us enjoy life by notgetting lost along the way.Author Unknown The first part oftoday’s Gospel centres around the temple practices which had gradually becomeoppressive and corrupt. The motive for these practices should have been serviceof God and neighbour but instead the motive was profit. All the procedures werelegal but were against the spirit of the law and done in the name of religion.That is why when Jesus entered the temple he was upset and angry because God’shouse was being desecrated. Jesus’ action was amazing and unprecedentedconsidering that the temple had pride of place and by his action Jesus wastaking on the whole religious institution and challenging their power andauthority. Whereas the first part centres on the temple the second part focuseson Jesus himself as God’s temple. He was referring to his bodily resurrection,but neither the temple authorities nor his own disciples understand the deeperimplications. The last part of the gospel of today speaks of Jesus’ interactionwith the people. Many of them were impressed by his challenging action in thetemple. They did not understand his action but they somehow believed that Godwas with Jesus, but they failed to understand that God was within Jesus, thatJesus himself was God and that true worship was worship within one’s heart. Theheart of all worship would be loving obedience to God and his commandments andtherefore the true temple where one worshiped God was within one’s heart. Righteous AngerA man lived onthe outskirts of a village. About thirty feet from his house, a large lime treegrew. The tree was something of a village landmark. However, it was gettingold. It was clearly only a matter of time before it came crashing down. Everytime there was a storm, the man feared for his house and his life. One day,unable to bear the strain any longer, he cut the tree down. He felt sure thatthe villagers would understand. But he was wrong. ‘Shame on you for cuttingdown such a splendid tree,’ said one. ‘You’ve deprived the village of part ofits heritage,’ said another. It’samazing how worked up people get when their own interests are threatened,however marginally. But how few get worked up when it’s their neighbour’sinterests that are threatened. Jesus didn’t get angry on his own account. His angerresulted from his love of God and of his neighbour. His action in the templehas been seen as a protest against the commercialization of religion and thedesecration of the temple. But it went deeper than that.Flor McCarthy in‘New Sunday and Holy day Liturgies’ Living the LawSeveral yearsago, a preacher from out-of-state accepted a call to a church in Boston, Texas.Some weeks after he arrived, he had occasion to ride the bus from his house tothe downtown area. When he sat down, he discovered that the bus driver hadmistakenly given him a quarter too much in change. As he considered what to do,he thought to himself, “You’d better give the quarter back. It would be wrongto keep it.” Then he thought, “Oh, forget it, it’s only a quarter. Who wouldworry about this little amount? Anyway the bus company gets too much fare; theywill never miss it. Accept it as a ‘gift from God’ and keep quiet.” When hisstop came, he paused momentarily at the door, and then handed the quarter tothe driver and said, “Here, you gave me too much change.” The driver with asmile, replied, “Aren’t you the new preacher in town?” “Yes,” he replied. “WellI have been thinking a lot lately about going somewhere to worship. I justwanted to see what you would do if I gave you too much change. I’ll see you atChurch next Sunday.” When the preacher stepped off the bus, he literallygrabbed the nearest light pole, held on and said, “Oh God I almost sold yourSon for a quarter.” Our lives are the only Bible some people will ever read! Assomeone has said, “We need Christians to make Christians.”J. Valladares in‘Your Words are Spirit and they are Life’ Cleansing theTempleBilly Martintells the story of himself and Mickey Mantle in his autobiography, Number 1.Billy says he and Mickey were doing a little hunting down in Texas. Mickey hada friend who would let him hunt on his ranch. When they got there, Mickey toldBilly to wait in the car while he went in and cleared things with his friend.Permission was quickly granted for them to hunt, but the owner asked Mickey todo him a favour. He had a pet mule in the barn who was going blind and hedidn’t have the heart to put him out of his misery. He asked Mickey to shootthe mule for him. Mickey agreed. On the way back to the car a plan formed inMickey’s mind. Reaching the car, he pretended to be angry. He scowled andslammed the door shut. Billy wanted to know what was wrong. Mickey replied thatthe owner wouldn’t let them hunt there after all. “I’m so mad at that guy thatI’m going out to the barn to shoot one of his mules,” Mantle said. He drovelike a madman to the barn. Martin protested: “We can’t do that!” But Mickey wasadamant. “Just watch me,” he shouted. When they got to the barn, Mantle jumpedout of the car with his rifle, ran into the barn and shot the mule and killedit. When he got back to the car he saw that Martin had also taken his gun andsmoke was curling from his barrel too. “What are you doing Martin?” Mantleyelled. Martin answered, “We’ll show that son-of-a gun. I killed two of hiscows.” Are we ever concerned about whether or not our anger is based on God’swill?Gerard Fuller in‘Stories for All Seasons’ WorthwhileObjectivesIn a littlecountry community, a farmer had a dog who spent part of his time sitting by theside of a large highway waiting for big red trucks. Whenever the dog saw atruck come round the corner, he would get ready, and as it passed him, he wouldtake off after it down the road. One day the farmer’s neighbour said, “Sam doyou think that hound of yours is ever going to catch a truck?” “Well Bill” Samreplied, “that isn’t what worries me. What does worry me is, what he would doif he caught one!” Many of us run wildly after things we could not use if wecaught them. We are passionate about the wrong things in life.Frank Mihalic in‘Tonic for the Heart’ Knowing the LawOne of PresidentReagan’s favourite stories involves a farmer and a lawyer whose cars collided.The farmer took a look at the lawyer, then reached in the back of his car andtook out a bottle of whiskey. “Here, you look pretty shook up,” “Take a nip ofthis; it’ll steady your nerves.” After taking five or six gulps, the lawyersuggested the farmer have a drink himself. “Not me,” declared the farmer. “I’mwaiting for the traffic police.”Christopher Notes May our zeal befor doing the Father’s will in all things, no matter what the cost! Fr. Jude Botelho [email protected] 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.
[Goanet] [JudeSundayReflections] Third Sunday of Lent
Jude Botelho [email protected] [JudeSundayReflections] Tue, 03 Mar 2015 13:54:08 -0800
