24-Feb-2013
Dear Friend, All of us make mistakes and experience misfortunes and we have excuses for our failure, we tend to blame situations, or events or others for our mistakes. But we can take responsibility and own our part and change. God desires us to change, to repent of our mistakes and begin again. He always gives us another chance. Many saints were sinners who let God change and transform their lives; we too can. Have a repentant weekend, and change what needs to be changed this Lent! Fr. Jude Sunday Reflections: Third Sunday of Lent: "The God of compassion and second chances!" 3-Mar-2013 Readings: Exodus 3: 1-8, 13-151 Cor.10: 1-6, 10-12Luke 13: 1-9 Moses had fled Egypt as a failure and was working as a shepherd with his father-in-law Jethro. As he grazed his flock near Horeb, he comes across a strange sight of a bush which is burning and as he draws near he encounters God who reveals himself and asks him to go on a mission to liberate his people from slavery in Egypt. God has strange and surprising ways of revealing himself to us. Moses was reluctant to go on God's mission; he felt inadequate and needed reassurances from God. God ignored his failure, he gave Moses a second chance. We too are the same, but if God sends us on a mission he also empowers us to act in His name. If we fail He gives us a second chance. Second Chancers History is full of individuals who had their first, second and many other chances before they succeeded. Henry Ford failed and went broke five times before he finally succeeded. Beethoven's teacher called him hopeless as a composer, but he succeeded. Having gone out of business, Colonel Sanders went over 1,000 places trying to sell his chicken recipe before he found a buyer. Seventy years later, at the age of 75, Colonel Sanders sold his Kentucky Fried Chicken company for 15 million dollars! Walt Disney was fired by a newspaper editor for lack of ideas. Disney also went bankrupt several times before he built Disneyland. Charles Darwin, father of the theory of evolution, was considered a very ordinary boy. Albert Einstein did not speak until he was four years old, and didn't read until he was seven. His teacher described him as "mentally slow, unsociable and adrift forever in his foolish dreams." The University of Bern turned down his Ph.D. dissertation as being irrelevant and fanciful. In today's gospel Jesus is asked about his opinion about an incident that involves the murder of pilgrims who had gone to Jerusalem to offer sacrifices in the temple. Apparently, Herod had them massacred and mixed their blood with that of the animals offered in sacrifice. The one who reported the incident wanted to know who was guilty and why had this tragedy taken place? What was the cause of it all? In popular religions all misfortunes were looked upon as divine punishment for sins. The temptation to reach such a conclusion would be even greater for the Jews who looked upon material prosperity and a long life as a sign of divine favour. Jesus rejects outright such an interpretation and goes beyond this narrow perspective. Jesus refers to the tower at Siloam which crumbled and fell and killed several people beneath it and asks: Who do you think was responsible for that? Jesus' reply to the question is that those who died were not more guilty than the rest. Mishaps and misfortunes do not indicate guilt! Yet, it is equally important that sin calls for repentance. Therefore all of us have to respond to God, repent and change our lives. All of us are called to be responsible and bring forth the fruit of repentance. Jesus goes on to narrate the parable of the fig tree that has been planted but is fruitless. The man who had planted it had been patient for three years coming regularly to see if it would bear fruit. As it refuses to bear fruit the man asks the worker in the vineyard to cut it down. It does not deserve to be there in the vineyard. But the man pleads and asks for one more year of waiting, one more chance, perhaps it will bear fruit. We are not told what happened because the story of the fruitless vine is our own story. We are responsible for our lives and for whether we bear fruit or not. God has been patient with us for a long time but we cannot test God's patience for ever. We have to be accountable and responsible to God and for God. Now is the acceptable time, time is running out; now is the moment of repentance and salvation. Adding your personal 'signature' Barbara was about to address 3000 employers of a large supermarket chain in Midwest U.S.A. Her aim was to regenerate the spirit of the workplace and so build customer loyalty. And so, basing herself on the wise words of Martin Luther King Jr. she urged one and all to add a personal 'signature' to their work, no matter how exalted or lowly it seemed. By way of example, she told her listeners of an airline pilot, who, after everything is in control, chooses a few passengers at random and writes them a 'Thank You' for their business. After sharing a few more such stories, Barbara asked her listeners to think of ways each and everyone could add their personal 'signature' to whatever they are required to do. Three weeks later Barbara received a call from a worker who was intellectually challenged with Down's Syndrome. He said that after hearing her inspiring talk, he went home and asked his father to teach him the use of the computer. He now types a 'Thought for the Day' and replicates multiple copies. The next day, as he packs a customer's groceries into brown bags, he smiles and hands over a 'Thought for the day' with a happy greeting: 'This is for you. Do have a good day.' One month later, Barbara received a call from the employer who said, "You are not going to believe this. But the line at Johnny's check-out was three times longer than any other line!' Soon other employees began to improve their own strategies to make a personal difference. Three months later, the manager called again and said, "Barbara, you and Johnny have transformed our store! We are having so much fun, and so are our customers!" -Is it any wonder that Jesus himself plainly and unequivocally emphasized the paramount importance of love as the most creative force in the world! When the security, development and satisfaction of the other become as important as my own security, development and satisfaction, then true love exists. James Valladares in 'Your Words O Lord, are Spirit and they are life.' Second Chance The Dallas Morning News carried a photo of some prisoners on a work-release programme. They were restoring a condemned house on the city's west side. Several days later one of the prisoners wrote to the editor, saying: "Thank you for the coverage. The last time my name and photograph were printed in a newspaper took place the day I was sentenced. So it was a real joy to see my picture in your paper doing something good. When I entered prison 18 months ago, I was a lot like the house we just remodelled. But God took charge of my life and has made me a new creation in Christ." Mark Link in 'Sunday Homilies' The boy who cried 'Wolf, Wolf!' Aesop has this lovely fable "Crying Wolf Too Often". There was a shepherd who was fond of playing practical jokes. He would drive his flock some distances from the village and then shout to the villagers for help, saying that the wolves had attacked his sheep. Two or three times the inhabitants came rushing out in alarm, and then went back with the shepherd laughing at them. Eventually, however, some wolves really came. They got between the shepherd and his flock and he called the neighbours to aid him. But they thought he was up to his usual trick and did not bother their heads about him. So he lost his sheep. Constant deception may bring ruin upon us one day. We must bear fruit, which is expected of us, or else destruction may befall us. John Rose in 'John's Sunday Homilies' One More Chance Just before Christmas in 1985, our country was shocked by an air crash in Newfoundland, Canada. That crash killed more than 200 American soldiers on their way home for the Christmas holidays. A few months later in 1986, we were stunned again by another national tragedy when the space shuttle Challenger exploded only 74 seconds after lift-off. Seven astronauts were killed in that catastrophe. Today's gospel gives us two other examples of disasters that occurred in Christ's lifetime. One of the incidents was the ruthless murder of some Galileans while they were in the middle of their Temple sacrifices. The victims were probably political agitators and this was Pilate's way of silencing them, the other incident was a construction accident which happened near the Temple during the building of a water aqueduct. Apparently it was a project hated by the Jews because Temple funds were stolen by Pilate to finance it. These two incidents are brought up because the Jews presumed that those who were killed were being punished by God for their sins. But Jesus denies this. Instead, he asserts that what really destroys life is our unwillingness to repent and change our lives. Jesus says, not once, but twice by way of emphasis: "Unless you repent, you will perish as they did." Albert Cylwicki in 'His Word Resounds' As long as we never give up, we have a chance that things are going to get better. What a relief that we worship the God of second chances! -"Doctor, Doctor, You've got to help me -I just can't stop my hands from shaking!" "Do you drink a lot?" "Not really -I spill most of it!" -Officer to driver going the wrong way up a one way street, "And where do you think you are going?" Driver: "I'm not sure, but I must be late as everyone else is coming back." May we realize that when we fail and mess up our lives, God says: "Second Chance! Try again!" 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.
