20-Nov-2016 Dear Friend, Once again we begin a new year and prepare ourselves for the coming of the Lord. In life we spend a lot of time waiting. Children wait for their father to come home after many months of working abroad, young people wait for their friends to come back from trips, brothers and sisters wait for their siblings, patients wait for a remedy for their terminal sickness, students wait for exam results, the unemployed wait for a job. All wait and their waiting tests the quality of their hope. Waiting is part of life and there is no life without it. Advent puts this waiting in sharp focus. Do we wait for God? Have an exciting time expecting great things this advent! –Fr. Jude Sun Ref.1st Sun. of Advent: ‘Awaiting His coming! Waiting for fulfillment’ 27-Nov-2016Isaiah. 2:1-5; Rom. 13: 11-14; Matt. 24: 37-44;
Today’s first reading from Isaiah gives us a glimpse of the difficulty people face when their waiting for God seems to be in vain. They see Jerusalem in ruins but no sign of God to support them. In their desperation all they can do is to remember what God had actually done for them. When the people remember God as their Redeemer, they bring the past into the present and that sacred memory acts like a light in the midst of darkness. What the people of Israel remember is that God will live up to his ancient name- the Faithful One. Because they hope they are ready to wait and their waiting is not a passive waiting in vain. Man’s Search for Meaning“In his book ‘Man’s Search for Meaning’, Jewish psychiatrist Viktor Frankl tells the story of how he survived the atrocities of the concentration camp at Auschwitz. Frankl says one of the worst sufferings at Auschwitz was waiting: waiting for the war to end; waiting for an uncertain date of release and waiting for death to end the agony. This waiting caused some prisoners to lose sight of future goals, to let go of their grip on present realities and give up the struggle. This same waiting made others like Frankl accept it as a challenge, as a test to their inner strength and a chance to discover deeper dimensions of freedom.”Albert Cylwicki in ‘The Word Resounds’ The gospel today has a short parable about the householder who has servants to whom he assigns particular tasks before he sets of on a journey. He singles out the doorkeeper with a special warning. “Be on your guard then, because you do not know when the master of the house is coming. What I say to you, then, I say to all: Watch!” If we were to focus our gaze on the door keeper alone we would realize that perhaps the greatest danger facing him is not so much that he may fall asleep on the job as that he may grow so accustomed to it, that it will become just a job and nothing more. We can become Christians by habit and routine and we can keep up the external ritual and routine but we don’t encounter God anymore but only our own emptiness. The major emphasis in all the readings of today is on waiting for divine intervention. We know Jesus has come into the world and we also know that he will come again at the end of time. Each of us is the doorkeeper, whom God has put in charge of our own lives as well the lives of our brothers and sisters, our community, our church, our society. Advent calls us to stand ready and prepared for his coming. We stay alert by living the values of the Redeemer in our own time and place. Jesus comes into our world not only in the Eucharist but each time we embody his values in our lives. But we can only welcome Jesus into our life if we are alert and attentive to Him. “The spiritual life is first of all a matter of being awake” said Thomas Merton. Have we lost the edge?There was this strong woodcutter who asked for a job with a timber merchant, and got it. The wages the timber merchant paid ware really good and so were the working conditions. For that reason, the woodcutter was determined to do his best. His boss gave him an axe and showed him the area where he was supposed to work. The first day the woodcutter brought 18 trees. “Congratulations!” the boss said. “Go on that way!” Very motivated by the words of the boss, the woodcutter tried even harder the next day but could bring 15 trees. The third day he tried even harder but could only bring 10 trees. Day after day he was bringing less and less trees. “I must be losing my strength,” the woodcutter thought. He went to the boss and apologized, saying he could not understand what was going on. “When was the last time you sharpened your axe?” the boss asked. “Sharpen?” I had no time to sharpen my axe. I have been very busy trying to cut trees...” We may have been very busy with so many things; we may have neglected our spiritual life. Like the axe that needs sharpening, we also need to sharpen our spirit.John Pichappilly in ‘The Table of the Word’ Ready and prepared....One of the wisest, noblest and gentlest men who ever lived was Socrates. He lived in Athens in the fifth century B.C. He was unjustly put to death by the Athenian judges. When Socrates was in the prison waiting for his death, his friend Crito came to visit him. Crito tried to persuade Socrates to escape from the prison. He said, “Socrates, I have enough silver to bribe the prison guards to help you to escape from here.” But Socrates declined it. Then Crito asked him to delay the drinking of the poison. He said, “Socrates the sun is still in the mountains and hasn’t yet set. I know other people drink it late. They dine and get drunk and keep company with those they happen to desire. So don’t hurry.” Even this suggestion Socrates declined. He said to Crito, “You know Crito; I wouldn’t do what others have done. I don’t gain anything by clinging on to life a little longer.” Socrates called the jail attendant who came with the cup filled with hemlock poison. Then Socrates asked him, “Sir, you have knowledge of this. What is necessary to do?” The attendant said, “Nothing except drink it and walk around until your legs become heavy, and then lie down and thus it will do it for itself.” Socrates took the cup, raised it and said a prayer and emptied its contents. For some time, he walked around; when his legs became heavy, he lay down and pulled a blanket over his head. A few second later, Socrates uncovered his head and said to Crito, “We owe a cock to Mr. Asclepius; please pay it and don’t neglect it.” Then he covered himself with the blanket and closed his eyes in death. - As in life, so in death Socrates was a virtuous man. He wanted to be always at-right with justice and with God. He was a man who was perpetually watchful about his righteousness; he was a man who was perpetually prepared to meet his God.John Rose in John’s Sunday Homilies’ Awake! Arise!The headlines “Veerappan Shot Dead!! Was received with relief from many quarters in India some years ago. A saga of killings and kidnappings ended when India’s bloodiest bandit and self-styled Robin Hood was literally napping. Veerappan’s ambulance was ambushed when he was sick and sleeping. That night, after many months of intense police plotting, an armed ambulance unsuspectingly slid into the lion’s lair –Special Task Force gunmen were fully awake and fittingly armed. Their wakefulness, watchfulness and wiliness were richly rewarded.Francis Gonsalves in “Sunday Seeds for daily Deeds' A Time for WatchingA teacher introduced a sentence to his students and asked them what they thought of it. The sentence was “Wait for the light.” Some thought it was beautiful, others thought it was a spiritual maxim to live by. Finally, he told them where he had read it: on the corner of an intersection that flashed the warning: “Wait for the light.” -Do we habitually make important decisions without first praying to Jesus for light? Gerard Fuller in ‘Stories for All Seasons” “I became awake!”A story comes to us from Eastern mysticism:A monk asked, “Abbot, what has God’s wisdom taught you? Did you become divine?”“Not at all."“Did you become a saint?”“No, as you can clearly see.”“What then, O Abbot?”“I became awake!”James Gilhooley in ‘Pastoral Life’ May we constantly wait for the Lord in life so we are ready for Him always! 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.
