07-Aug-2018 Dear Friend, All of us have times when we need a ‘pick-me-up’. Moments of depression, disappointment and frustration are part and parcel of our daily existence. At times our body breaks down because of sickness or the strain of tension and we go to the doctors to get anything that will pep us up. But there are times when our minds and souls are so troubled with repeated failures or what seem like a chain of misfortunes that we can’t take it anymore. We don’t want to live! Who or what can help us in these moments? How is a believer to respond? May His Word lift our drooping spirits! Have an energizing weekend! -Fr. Jude Sunday Refl. 19th Sunday “Strengthened by food God provides we walked to the mount of God” 12-Aug-20181 Kings 19: 4-8; Eph. 4: 30 - 5: 2; John 6: 41-51; In the first reading we meet Elijah when he is in the pit of despair. He flees to the desert but there a terrible depression overtakes him. He asks God to take his life. But instead of doing so God sends an angel to give him food and water. Strengthened by these, the prophet arises and makes his way to the mountain of God. We should be aware that God did not solve Elijah’s problem but gave him nourishment so that he could cope with whatever difficulties he faced in his mission. We often want God to solve our problems but he prefers to provide us with the nourishment that will help us to cope with life’s problems. Am I using the nourishment God is providing right now?
This was all included with the tickets!There was once a family that had fallen on hard times when the family business failed and they lost everything. The neighbors were very sympathetic, and the children were embarrassed because they had to move to a mobile home, and sell their house and business premises. Some of the neighbors came to the parents to offer their help, and to find out how best they might be able to help. The father told them that the one thing he wanted more than anything in the world was to be able to take his wife and kids and move off to America where nobody would know them, and try and start again. The neighbors worked on the fund-raising, and after a certain length of time they had sufficient money for tickets by boat from Cobh to New York. The family had never been away from home before, so they had no idea how to prepare for such a voyage. They bought bread and cheese and packed a few boxes with sandwiches. They gathered together in a single cabin in the boat with no desire to mix with others, in case of finding themselves embarrassed or out of their depths. On the first, second, third, fourth and fifth days they ate sandwiches. From then on the sandwiches began to go bad. The cheese and the bread had blue-mould on them, and they began to smell. By now they were all in a bad way. They were sick, hungry and deeply discouraged. With a day or two to go before arriving in New York, one little lad begged his dad for a few pennies, so he could go up on the deck and buy a few sweets. The dad gave him the pennies and off he went. He didn’t return and after about half an hour, the father was forced to go up on deck to look for him. When he came up on the deck, he was totally amazed by what he saw. There were long tables surrounded by people and they were all eating a beautiful dinner. There in the midst of them was his son, with a plate of turkey, ham, potatoes, and vegetables in front of him, together with a large beaker of Coke. The father came up behind him and whispered, "Why did you do this? You know rightly, we cannot afford this." The young lad’s eyes lit up as he replied: "Dad, we could have had this every day. This was all included with the tickets!"-When we enter heaven and look around… Jesus could say "I never mentioned sandwiches once in the whole gospel. I often spoke of being invited to the feast…"Jack McArdle in ‘And that’s the Gospel Truth’ The context of the gospel is the miracle of the multiplication of the loaves and the fishes with which Jesus fed the multitude. We know that the crowds kept searching for him and following him. But Jesus had confronted the crowd about their real reason for following him; they wanted more bread not more of him! When Jesus spoke of himself as the ‘bread of life’ in last Sunday’s gospel and this Sunday’s as well, he meant it in the sense of food that sustains faith –his teachings. Only at the end of today’s section of the gospel does he refer to this bread of life as the Eucharist. Jesus not only claimed that without his teachings they could not live, but without Him they could not live. He claimed to be the source of life itself. But the people began to complain just as the Israelites complained in the desert. How could this Jesus be the source of life? After all they knew his history, they knew his village and where he came from; he was ordinary just like them. How could he claim divine origin? But Jesus reminded them that knowing him was a gift and not an acquisition. "No one can come to me unless drawn by the Father who sent me. Whoever believes has eternal life." "Shortly after Columbus discovered America, rumors spread that the New world contained a fountain of youth. A sixteenth century Spanish explorer Ponce de Leon fitted a ship and sailed to America to search for this legendary fountain but never found it. In the movie ‘Cocoon’ there is a group of senior citizens. These old people experienced a return to their youth when they bathed in a swimming pool used by aliens from another planet. Their exciting experience prompted them to accept an invitation from the aliens to go back with them to their planet. The senior citizens were told that once they reached the alien planet, they would live forever."Mark Link in ‘Sunday Homilies’ Giving up or going on!One day a partially deaf boy came home from school with a note from his teacher. He handed it to his mother. She opened it and slowly read it. The note suggested that her son was too dull to learn. He was holding back the whole class. It would be better for everybody if he would withdraw from school. When the boy’s mother finished reading the note, she felt awful. She also felt challenged. “My son, Tom, is not too dull to learn,” she said to herself. “I’ll teach him myself.” When Tom died many years later, the entire nation honored him in a remarkable way. At exactly 9:59 pm Eastern Standard Time, every home in the United States turned off its lights for one minute, as a tribute to the man who had invented those lights. Thomas Edison invented not only the electric light but also the movie projector and the record player. When he died, the boy who was ‘too dull to learn’ had over a thousand patents to his credit, thanks to his mother who never gave up!Mark Link, in ‘Journey’ Don’t take gifts…"I will go with two small suitcases," said an emotional President A P J Abdul Kalam as he prepared to leave Rashtrapati Bhawan with a desire to see India as a developed nation by 2020. In possibly his last public function as the head of the state, Kalam had an advice for the countrymen -- "Don't take gifts that come with a purpose, and build families with character and good value system. On the 25th I will leave Rashtrapati Bhawan after having spent five glorious years there. What I have got are two small suitcases. I will go with two small suitcases," he said. The President went on to add that besides the two suitcases, he had a big reserve of books that he would be taking with him. "I will take the books with me. They are my own books," said Kalam. The 75-year-old Scientist-President, who turned philosophical and nostalgic in turns, recalled how his father had taught him not to accept any gifts. "Yesterday, a well-known person gave me a gift of two pens. I had to return them with unhappiness," he said, also quoting from the ancient Hindu code of law 'Manusmriti' that by accepting gifts the divine light in the person gets extinguished. "I am sharing this thought with all of you since no one should get carried away by any gift which comes with a purpose and through which one loses his personality greatly," he said…Times of India One day at a timeGod provides a mysterious food called manna for the Israelites during their time in the desert. However, they were told not to stockpile the manna, but to gather only what they needed for one day. Jesus told his disciples not to worry about tomorrow. He said, when you pray to your heavenly Father, you are to say, “Give us this day our daily bread.” No matter how difficult life may be, for those who trust in God, and who live one day at a time, the manna falls every day.Anonymous Don’t doubt God’s WordThe night fell heavy in the heights of the mountains and the man could not see anything. All was black. Zero visibility, and the moon and the stars were covered by the clouds. As he was climbing only a few feet away from the top of the mountain, he slipped and fell in to the air, falling at great speed. He could only see black spots as he went down, and the terrible sensation of being sucked by gravity. He kept falling and in the moments of great fear, it came to his mind all the good and bad episodes of his life. He was thinking now about how close death was getting, when all of a sudden he felt the rope tied to his waist pull him very hard. His body was hanging in the air. Only the rope was holding him and in that moment of stillness he had no other choice but to scream: "Help me God". All of a sudden a deep voice coming from the sky answered, "What do you want me to do?" "Save me God". "Do you really think I can save you?" "Of course I believe You can." "Then cut the rope tied to your waist." There was a moment of silence and the man decided to hold on to the rope with all his strength. The rescue team tells that the next day a climber was found dead and frozen, his body hanging from a rope, his hands holding tight to it, only one foot away from the ground. Lesson from the Story: And We? How attached are we to our rope? Will we let go??? Don't ever doubt about the Words of God. We should never say that He has forgotten us or abandoned us.Anonymous Every human being yearns for a full life, for a life that will not end. Jesus was offering the people the possibility of life that would last, he was offering them himself as the means to obtain this fullness of life but the people would not accept him. They wanted proof. "Show us right now that you have miraculous powers. Provide us with what we want right now.” They just wanted bread! Today Jesus is offering us a fuller life. The blessings that he is offering are not something that we have to wait for until we reach heaven. He is bread to be eaten now, not preserved in a freezer for the future. Jesus is all we need for a full life. If we have Jesus now there is no reason for us to be discouraged or to pray for death as Elijah did. Jesus invites us to get up and eat and continue on our journey. Have we tried Jesus? He never fails! May we be nourished daily by His Word that sustains us! 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. | | | | Net For Life | | |
