17-Mar-2015 Dear Friend, We live in uncertain times and we are never sure of what is going to happen to the world and to ourselves because of the threat of terrorism that never gets wiped out. While most soldiers and their leaders are never certain of whether they would come back triumphant, alive or dead, from the battles they face, Jesus, as he prepared to face his ultimate battle, his passion and death at the hands of his enemies, was certain of His Father's love and the ultimate victory that the Father promised him. We too can be certain that the Father's love will never fail us! Have an affirming weekend! Fr. Jude Sunday Refl. 5th Sunday of Lent "God's love is eternal. His death renews His covenant!" 22-Mar-2015 Jer. 31: 31-34; Heb. 5: 7-9; John 12: 20-33;
Today's passage from Jeremiah provides comfort to the people in the midst of his gloomy predictions. The comforting part was the fact that Yahweh was going to make a New Covenant in the new and final age of salvation. This New Covenant would be God-centred and like the Old it would involve the people of God in the response shown to God's law. But the New Covenant would also be different from the Old in many ways. It would last forever and it would not be written on stone tablets or in books but on men's hearts, as God would intervene directly. Finally all this 'newness' would be made possible because God would create 'a new heart' for his people and give them 'a new spirit.' "Deep within them I will plant my Law, writing it on their hearts. Then I will be their God and they shall be my people." How I would love to know you!Once there was a salt doll who lived so far inland that she had never seen the sea. Consumed with a desire to see the sea she set out one day and walked hundreds of miles towards the ocean. At last she arrived and she stood by the seashore enraptured by the wonder of what she saw she cried out, "O Sea, how I would love to know you!" To her surprise and delight the sea responded to her, "To know me you must touch me." So the little salt doll walked towards the sea and as she advanced into the oncoming tide she saw to her horror that her toes began to disappear. Then as her feet began to disappear she cried out, "O Sea, what are you doing to me?" The sea replied, "If you desire to know me fully you must be prepared to give something of yourself." As the doll advanced further into the water her limbs and then her body began to disappear and as she became totally dissolved she cried out, "Now at last, I know the sea!"James a Feeban from 'Story Power' In the Gospel we see Jesus speaking of his forthcoming passion and death not with fear, but with hope and promise. We are told that a small group of Greeks came to John and expressed their desire to meet Jesus. "They wanted to see Jesus". Andrew knew that no one who desired to meet Jesus would be a bother and so they approached him. Jesus begins by stating that "Now the hour has come for the son of Man to be glorified." Earlier at Cana he had said to his mother: "My hour has not yet come." But now he openly stated "that the hour had come for the son of man to be glorified." Jesus' message here is that the way to glory for Jesus and for all of us, is death to self. Jesus challenges a worldly way of living. "Anyone who loves his life will lose it; anyone who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life." Spelling out his form of discipleship he points out that it is not enough to be Jesus' fans, admiring what he has done for us, we become his followers as we try to live like him and for him. Jesus interrupts his trend of thought with the confession of his own fear. It is human to feel fear in the face of great trials and suffering. We all know how we suffer at the thought of what is going to happen to us. Courage is not the denial of fear but rather knowing enough of what is to come and yet doing what you have to do. Once we begin to love we open ourselves to pain as well as to joy. When Jesus says; "Father, glorify your name!" what Jesus is saying is "Father use me as you will!" What God did for Jesus, he will do for everybody. In times of crisis God is glorifying us, and we should be ready to say, "Use me as you will!" For Jesus the hour of being lifted up on the cross was also the hour of being lifted up in glory. All who share in being lifted up on their crosses will also be lifted up in glory in Him. Facing one's fearOne of his biographers tells us that Dr. Martin Luther King knew many low moments. One night, for instance, his house was bombed. This literally plunged him into the deepest pit of despair -he hit rock bottom. In a state of utter exhaustion and desperate dejection he fell down on his knees and figuratively threw himself into the arms of God. This is how he prayed: "Lord I have taken a stand for what I believe is right. But now I'm afraid. The people are looking to me for leadership. If I stand before them without strength and courage, they too will falter. But I'm at the end of my powers. I have nothing left. I can't face it any longer." In other words, that was Martin Luther King's Gethesemane. But, like Jesus, he went on to add, "I experienced the presence of God in a way like I had never experienced before. And that was the only factor that enabled me to carry on regardless of the outcome." J. Valladares in "Your Words are Spirit and They are Life" Unless a grain diesSeveral years ago Catherine Marshall wrote an article called "When We Dare to Trust God". It told how she had been bed-bound for six months with a serious lung infection. No amount of medication or prayer helped. She was terribly depressed. One day someone gave her a pamphlet about a woman missionary who had contracted a strange disease. The missionary had been sick for eight years and couldn't understand why God let this tragedy happen to her. Daily she prayed for health to resume her work. But her prayers were unanswered. One day, in desperation, she cried out to God: "All right I give up. If you want me to be an invalid, that's your business." Within two weeks that missionary was fully recovered. Catherine Marshall was puzzled by that strange story. It didn't make sense. "Yet" she said, "I couldn't forget that story." Then one morning Catherine cried out to God: "God I'm tired of asking you for health. You decide if you want me sick or healthy." At that moment, Catherine said later, her health began to return. The story of that missionary woman and the story of Catherine Marshall illustrate what Jesus is talking about in today's gospel. "Unless a grain of wheat dies, it cannot bear fruit." Or to put it another way, unless we die to our own will, we cannot bear fruit for God.Mark Link in 'Sunday Homilies' Death to LifeIn the movie The Poseidon Adventure, a ship is turned upside down by a tidal wave. Under the leadership of a priest, played by Gene Hackman, a small group of passengers make an incredible struggle for survival. Several members of this group die during this adventure, including the priest himself. However, it was his heroism that inspired the passengers who did survive to persevere. His death became the source of their escape to life. Death leading to life is one of the themes of today's gospel. Jesus says: "Unless a grain of wheat falls and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat. But if it dies, it produces much fruit."Albert Cylwicki in 'His Word Resounds' Dying for anotherThe story of Maximilian Kolbe is well-known. He was a Franciscan priest in Poland, and he was in a concentration camp during the Second World War. Some prisoners had escaped and the authorities were determined that this should not happen again. For every prisoner that escaped they picked a prisoner in the group, and that prisoner was condemned to die. After one young man was picked up, someone who had a wife and young family back home, Maximilian stepped forward and offered to take his place. The soldiers were shocked at this, but they took him up on his offer, and the young man returned to the group. Maximilian died in a horrible fashion, as they were all locked in cages and left there to starve to death. All during that time he encouraged others, and inspired them with his prayers. He was canonized some years ago and the prisoner whose place Maximilian took, wept through the entire ceremony. I like to think that he understood what real love is, and that death would no longer have any fear for him.Jack McArdle in 'And that's the Gospel truth' The Grain of wheat must dieIn New Zealand there are more flightless birds than anywhere on earth. Among them are the kiwi and the penguin. Scientists tell us that these birds had wings but lost them. They had no use for them. They had no natural predators on those beautiful islands, and food was plentiful. Since there was no reason to fly they didn't. Through neglect they lost their wings. Compare them to the eaglet that somehow ended up in a chicken barnyard. The eaglet was raised with the chickens, pecking at corn, and strutting around the chicken coop. One day a mountain man, passing by, recognized the bird, now a fully grown eagle, and asked the farmer if he could work to rehabilitate it. The farmer said, "Go ahead, but it's useless. All that eagle knows is pecking corn like a chicken." The mountaineer began weeks of rigorous training with the eagle, forcing it to run after him so that it had to use its wings. Many times the eagle fell out of the limbs of trees onto its head. One day, finally, the mountaineer took the eagle to the top of a mountain and held it above his head on his wrist. Giving an upward thrust to his arm, he sent the eagle into the sky with a "Fly!" The eagle circled and wheeled upwards, straining, till it soon took off in a majestic sweep and looked directly into the sun. It was gone. It had regained its nature. It was an eagle once more.Gerard Fuller in 'Stories for All Seasons' The Gain in Grain'Hope for the Flowers' is a well-known parable written by Trina Paulus. It tells of two caterpillars, Stripe and Yellow, who are crawling in a caterpillar queue (rat-race) to reach the top. They see another caterpillar hanging upside down waiting to become a butterfly, who explains: "It looks like you will die, but, you will really live. Life is changed!" Convinced, Yellow surrenders and becomes a butterfly; Stripe continues crawling. Am I ready to surrender and fly rather than crawl? To yield hundred-fold harvests rather than survive selfishly?Francis Gonsalves in 'Sunday Seeds for Daily Deeds' May we be ready to surrender, knowing that we are safe in His love! 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.
