15-Mar-2009 Dear Friend,
As we go through life we are conditioned by situations and circumstances to react to stimuli that constantly come our way. If we were to question people about why they acted in a particular way they would say something to this effect: “I acted in this manner because so and so said this to me or did that!” or “I did this because I had no other option but to react as I did!” In other words’ we are mostly reactors in life, controlled by others. We seldom choose our response to situations, events and people. Faith challenges us to respond from within. It invites us to be responsible, to be capable to respond in faith and love, to respond through God! Have a silent weekend responding to the God within! Fr. Jude Sunday Reflections: 4th Sunday of Lent ‘Speaking in His name, Building His temple!’ 22-Mar-2009 2 Chronicles 36: 14-16, 19-33; Ephesians 2: 4-10; John 3: 14-21; In today’s first reading the writer of the Chronicles offers his explanation of the Exile as a divine punishment, a punishment of the priests and the people for not listening to the prophets and their teaching. Because they did not listen and obey God’s word, their temple was destroyed and Jerusalem itself lay in ruins. The exile that lasted seventy years was like a Sabbath for the land of Judah, during which it lay desolate. But in spite of their lack of hearing and abandoning God’s word, Yahweh does not give up on his people. He is the faithful one and He uses a pagan leader, Cyrus the King of Persia to rebuild the destroyed temple and bring the straying people back to their God. In our times too we often stray away but God uses sometimes unexpected strangers to bring us back to Himself. God Sends Us a Saviour John Voigt and Jane Fonda play the lead roles in the movie Coming Home, which is about an American soldier crippled for life because of the Vietnam War. The film focuses on the psychological as well as the physical ordeals of this paraplegic – how he struggles with the help of a woman to accept his handicap, reconstruct his dreams, and create a future for himself. This Vietnam War vet’s situation is very similar to that of the Jews in death and deportation. However, just when it seemed as if it were all over for them, God inspired Cyrus the pagan king of Persia not only to release them from exile, but also to help them rebuild their Temple. God often sends people to help us through a crisis: parents and children frequently intervene to assist each other; a true friend often comes through when no one else will; sometimes it is the pastor, a teacher or a parishioner who bails us out. Regardless of who it is that God sends to help us in times of trouble, there is one person he always sends to be at our side – his own Son Jesus. Albert Cylwicki in ‘His Word Resounds’ In his letter to the Ephesians, grace abundant and beyond price is the preoccupation of Paul. From the start Paul speaks with enthusiasm of God’s gift to man through Jesus Christ, and he elaborates on the gifts we have received through Jesus Christ. “The Father has blessed us with every spiritual blessing. He has destined us to be his sons, to unite all things in Him on heaven and earth. Today’s section affirms that grace and blessings are given to us even though we are unworthy. We can never earn God’s grace freely bestowed upon us. Unworthy though we are, we are still God’s work of art, created in Jesus Christ. God So Loved the World…. A 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 his 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 judgment on the pictures but on his own pitiful appreciation of art. In the same way those who prefer darkness to light have condemned themselves. Evil people hate the light because it reveals themselves to themselves. They hate goodness because it reveals their badness; they hate industry because it reveals their laziness. They will destroy the light, the goodness, the love, in order to avoid the pain of self-discovery. It’s terrible to reject the light, to reject God’s offer of love, but how sweet to walk in the light of his love. Our part in the process of redemption is to accept the gift in all humility, and try to respond in kind. We are able to love God because God loved us first. Flor McCarthy in ‘New Sunday and Holyday Liturgies’ Today’s gospel narrates Jesus’ encounter with Nicodemus, one of the disciples who came to see him secretly whom Jesus questioned and explained his message at length. The first part of the discourse enunciates the necessity for rebirth as an essential prerequisite for entry into the kingdom of God. “Unless a man is reborn he cannot enter the kingdom of heaven.” We have to be converted; we have to change our life if we want to be part of God’s kingdom. This conversion implies belief that God can help us to change and God can give us the power to change if we ask him and rely on his grace and spirit. The second part, from which our passage is taken, explains that this rebirth can only come as a result of the ‘lifting up ‘ of the Son of man, that is, his death and resurrection. In this saying referring to the serpent that Moses lifted up in the desert, we have an interesting interpretation of the cross. In the past Moses had been asked by Yahweh to put the serpent on a standard and lift it up so that all those who had been bitten by the serpents in the desert could see it and be healed. Now the very sight of Jesus lifted on the cross has power to bring men and women to faith and repentance. The sight of Jesus on the cross was not meant to be a spectacle of pain and death but rather a reminder of power of divine love, crucified on the cross. “God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son. We are reminded not of a God who punished and seeks atonement for sins but of a God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us. God does not condemn us because of our sins but invites us to contemplate his son on the cross who forgives and promises us redemption. “God did not send his son to condemn the world, but so that through him the world might be saved”. We condemn ourselves by refusing to believe in God’s mercy and goodness and by preferring the darkness of sin to the light that he offers us. If we sin we hate the light and refuse to see things as they are. In accepting Jesus on the cross we are healed, our eyes are open to the light and our hearts are touched by His grace and blessing. We know that we have seen the light and accepted the light when we live in love and every action of ours shares and enhances the light of faith that we have received through his mercy and kindness. Attitude Towards the Light The coming of light ought to be good news for those living in darkness. However, this is not always the case. The 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. Its advent means the arrival of friends. 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 – the light of truth, goodness, and salvation from sin. Some welcomed his light. But others rejected it because it showed up the evil in their lives. Flor McCarthy in ‘New Sunday and Holyday Liturgies’ “In the second part of his conversation with Jesus, the Pharisee Nicodemus no longer plays an active part; yet St. John really addresses reflective words to him and to his like. Coming at night to meet Jesus, he finds light. But he would have to tear himself from the dark and open up fully to this light by putting the truth into action. Being made up, like all of us, of shadow and light, he hesitates before opening himself up to God’s gift, before making the leap of faith which could save him. It should be enough for us to see the Son of Man raised up on the cross to discover what he came to reveal: God’s love for the world, of which the cross is the most brilliant sign. Even more than Abraham on the point of sacrificing Isaac, God followed his love right through to the end by giving us his only Son. What an insight this gives into the mystery of God! So often we are prepared to see in the cross no more than a historical reality, when the real happening was between Jesus and the Father. For those who believe, whatever is visible about God is contained in the passion of Christ. In it Jesus gives himself and the Father gives his Son; Jesus submits to suffering and death while his Father submits to watching him die. Desertion and yet communion; separated from one another in the deepest possible way they find union in the most sublime intimacy. After Auschwitz is it possible to believe in God? Why such hatred, such blood, such tears? Why so many question marks and never a reply? There is no answer or, more correctly, the crucified God is the answer in person. To receive him in faith, even if only as a question mark, is already to leave the darkness and move towards the light. ” -Glenstal Bible Missal Coming Out Into the Light In 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 Jews by the Nazis and the harassment of them by the Soviets, no one had taken care of their graves. So, out of the goodness of his heart, the professor himself decided to do so. Whether or not he was aware that tending 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 and a shears, and began the 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 but had become agnostics like the professor. Eventually there were some 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. Any one who does wrong, hates the light and avoids it. But those who do good, love the light and come out into it. How many of our deeds are done in the light? How many of them could bare the scrutiny of the light? Albert Cylwicki in ‘His Word Resounds’ Lifelines A number if 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 13:16. The suit receptacle into which the lunar pilot’s cord fit was called J 13:17. 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’ May we open ourselves to the crucified Jesus that we might be enlightened by Him! 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. Add more friends to your messenger and enjoy! Go to http://messenger.yahoo.com/invite/
