10-Mar-2015 Dear Friend, We are almost halfway in Lent and right in the middle of it the Church celebrates a Sunday of rejoicing! Isn't it strange to rejoice during Lent, when we are called to repentance and when we prepare to re-live the mysteries of Jesus' passion, death and resurrection? Firstly, the call to rejoice is taken from the words of the entrance song of the mass of today "Rejoice Jerusalem" and secondly the ultimate reason for rejoicing is the undeniable fact that God definitely and unconditionally loves us. He alone is our salvation and will see us through whatever is happening today! Have a reassuring weekend! -Fr. Jude Sunday Refl. 4th Sunday of Lent "God loved us so much He gave His only Son to save us" 15-Mar-2015 Chro. 36: 14-16, 19-23; Eph. 2: 4-10; John 3: 14-21;
In the first reading of today we are told of the many misfortunes that God allowed to come upon Israel because of their sins, the greatest being the destruction of the temple and their banishment into exile. However Chronicles points out that this was not because God wanted to take revenge on his people. The author points out that during their misfortunes God did not abandon them but rather took care of them and moved persons and events in such a way that they would, after their exile, be able to come back to their land, rebuild their temple and once again prosper as His people. God did not keep a record of their wrongs but was ever ready to forgive. People may give up on us but God never abandons his people. Take what you like bestJoachim and Rebecca were married for ten years but there was no sign of a child to gladden Joachim's heart and perpetuate his name. So he decided to divorce his wife and went to old Rabbi Ben Shamir to make the necessary arrangements. "Joachim son," said the Rabbi, "we had a party to celebrate your marriage, so before we do anything about the divorce we are going to have another party to mark your parting," and unknown to Joachim, he winked knowingly at Rebecca. The party came and acting on the advice of the Rabbi, Rebecca plied her husband with the best vintage wine. As she topped off the cup Joachim spoke to her, "Little wife, take what you like best from this place and take it with you to your father's house." Then he fell asleep. Rebecca put him to bed and then with the connivance of the Rabbi and the sturdy shoulders of some of the guests they brought the bed with Joachim in it to her father's house. When he awoke the following morning and recognized the surroundings he called Rebecca. "Little wife, what am I doing here?" to which she coyly replied: "I only did what you told me to, husband dear. I took what I liked best to my father's house - and that was you!" Joachim took her in his arms and forgot about the divorce. A few weeks later she told him she was pregnant.James A Feeban from 'Story Power' In the gospel we have Jesus' encounter with Nicodemus, who appears three times in the Gospel of John, each time at night. His caution in coming at night implies heavy opposition to Jesus in Jerusalem. This is the only time on record when Nicodemus meets Jesus and they speak. In today's reading, God orders Moses to make a bronze serpent, mount it on a pole, enabling all who looked at it to be cured of the bites of poisonous snakes as they trekked through the desert. Jesus used this story as a parable of himself. He told Nicodemus that for the salvation of the world, he himself would be lifted up. He meant it in a twofold sense: lifted up on the cross and lifted up into the glory of the resurrection. Jesus told Nicodemus and us through him, that if we look at Jesus and believe, we will experience healing pardon and new life. Jesus summed it all up by saying, "God sent his son into the world not to condemn the world but so that through him the world might be saved." This is the sum and substance of the good news that Jesus came to bring us: Salvation is ours in and through Jesus Christ. The only requirement is faith. If we believe then God's power comes alive in us, if we do not believe then we condemn ourselves and God's spirit lies impotent in us. Some people condemn themselves by turning away from the light. A life that makes a differenceSeveral years ago a bomb was detonated outside the huge oak doors of a Greek Catholic church in Jerusalem. The heavy doors were blown inward so that they careened up to the front of the sanctuary and destroyed the chancel area. Windows were blown out, pews were destroyed, and the balcony collapsed. Dr. Ken Bailey, a Presbyterian missionary scholar and friend of the priest of the Greek Church, stopped by to assess the damage. It took little time to determine that the priest was in shock and unable to make necessary decisions. So Dr. Bailey took it upon himself to ask seminary administrators at the school where he taught to close classes, and he invited students to join him in helping the priest. They cleaned the church and boarded the windows to prevent looting. The next day, Bailey again called on his friend. The maid confided in him that the priest did not cry at the bomb's destruction. However, she added, "He did cry when you and your friends helped clean up the mess it made." Dr. Bailey has since remarked, "I did not teach any theology that afternoon -- or did I?" If theology is about love in action, he held one of his best classes that day. The truth is...faith is never so beautiful as when it has its working clothes on.Steve Goodier Coming to the lightIn the Lithuanian city of Kovno there lived a Jewish professor. Though he had been an agnostic all his life the professor began to be more and more troubled by the sad, neglected condition of the Jewish graveyard in the city. Since the holocaust of the Jews by the Nazis and the harassment of them by the Soviets, no one had taken care of their graves. So out of his goodness of heart, the professor himself decided to do so. Whether or not he was aware that tending the graves is a mitzvah, that is a traditional good deed, we do not know. In any case the good man acquired a spade, a sickle, a pair of shears, and began his job of making the graveyard worthy of those buried in it. At first he was on his own, but as the weeks went by other Jews joined him in the work. Most of these were once observant Jews who had become agnostics like the professor. Eventually there were two hundred of them, all doing the true thing. As they worked a beautiful thing happened. Their Jewish faith came alight in them. Practically all of them became observant Jews once more.Flor McCarthy in 'New Sunday and Holy Day Liturgies' Judgement on ourselvesA visitor was once being shown around an art gallery. The gallery contained some beautiful paintings which were universally acknowledged to be masterpieces. At the end of the tour the visitor said, "I don't think much of these old pictures." To which the guide replied, "My good man, these pictures are no longer on trial. But those who look at them are." The man's reaction was not a judgement on the pictures but on his own pitiful appreciation of art. In the same way those who prefer darkness to light have condemned themselves.Flor McCarthy in 'New Sunday and Holy Day Liturgies' Attitude towards the lightThe Simon Community run night-shelters for down-and-outs. Each night volunteers bring soup and sandwiches to those who, for one reason or another, do not want to come to the shelters. They go looking for them in derelict buildings and such places. The most important aid they take with them is a torch, because often there is no light where the down-and-outs live. Most of the down-and-outs receive the volunteers as friends. But some refuse to have anything to do with them. The volunteers can tell at once which group they are dealing with by their reaction to the light. Some welcome the light. Others fear it. You could say that the light judges them, in the sense that it shows up the darkness in their lives - the darkness of alcoholism, misery, hopelessness, crime. But it doesn't come to judge them. It comes as a friend, to brighten up their lives, to comfort them. That's how it was with the coming of Christ's light. Christ did not come to judge people but to save them. He came bearing a light -of truth, goodness, and salvation from sin. Some welcomed his light, others rejected it because it shows the evil in their lives.Flor McCarthy in 'New Sunday and Holyday Liturgies' LifelinesA number of years ago, these two verses, John 3:16 and John 3:17, took on extra-special meaning for many Bible readers. You may recall the episode. It involved our astronaut programme. Space engineers were designing space suits for the command module pilot and the lunar module pilot. A part of the design of each space suit was an umbilical cord, consisting of a long flexible tubing. The purpose of the umbilical cord was to supply oxygen to the astronauts when they "walked" in space or passed from one module to another. The suit receptacle into which the command pilot's cord fit was called J 3:16. Designer Frank Denton said he named the two suit receptacles after the two gospel passages: John 3:16 and John 3:17. Just as J 3:16 and J 3:17 supply the astronauts with what they need to survive in their journey from one module to another, so John 3:16 and John 3:17 supply us with what we need to survive in our journey from earth to heaven.Mark Link in 'Sunday Homilies' God so loved the world that he gave...Once a certain saint asked God to show her the difference between heaven and hell. So God asked an angel to take her first to hell. There she saw men and women seated around a large table with all kinds of delicious food. But none of them were eating. They were all sad and yawning. The saint asked one of them, "Why are you not eating?" And he showed her his hand. A long fork about 4 feet long was strapped to their hands such that every time they tried to eat they only threw the food on the ground. "What a pity" said the saint. Then the angel took her to heaven. There the saint was surprised to find an almost identical setting as in hell: men and women sitting around a large table with all sorts of delicious food, and with four-foot forks strapped to their arms. But unlike hell the people in heaven were happy and laughing. "What!" said the saint to one of them, "How come you are happy in this condition?" "You see," said the man in heaven, "Here we feed one another." Can we say this of our families, our neighbourhood, our church, our world?" If we can say that, then we are not far from the kingdom of heaven.John Pichappilly in 'The Table of the Word' May we experience and believe that by God's love alone are we kept alive! Fr. Jude [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.
