Easter VI [C] (May 26) Homily Jn 14:23-29 (One-page summary) L/22 

Introduction: Today’s readings show us the effects of the abiding presence of God in His Church and of His indwelling in each one of us. Scripture lessons: The first reading, taken from the Acts of the Apostles, tells us how the Holy Spirit, indwelling in the Church, helped the apostles to solve a major doctrinal problem about the Gentiles becoming Christians, which shook the very foundation of the early Church. The Responsorial Psalm (Ps 67) prays that all the nations on the earth may recognize their God and praise Him.  The second reading, taken from the Book of Revelation, describes the Church as the Heavenly Jerusalem which replaces the holy presence of God in the Holy of Holies in the Temple in Jerusalem. This New Jerusalem is a city united in love, with the victorious Jesus residing in it and in each of its members. The Gospel passage reminds us that the Holy Spirit, abiding within us, is our Teacher, our Advocate, and the Source of our peace and joy.  The passage offers a vision of hope as well.  Jesus promises his followers that the Holy Spirit will come and instruct them in everything they need to know.

Life messages: 1) Let us be aware of the abiding presence of God within us: We live in the New Covenant of Jesus, daily facing uncertainty, conflict, and temptations.  It is the abiding presence of God within us that enables us to face the future with undying hope and true Christian courage.  The Holy Spirit Whom the risen Lord asked His Father to send upon His Church prompts us to turn to His Holy Scriptures for support and encouragement, enables us to learn the Divine truths, and grants us His peace at all times.  However, to be able to receive these gifts, it is necessary for us to spend a little time each day in personal prayer, talking to God and listening to Him.  We must deepen our relationship with Jesus, learn to get in touch with him, and sincerely love him.  When we listen to the Holy Spirit, we will   know His plan for our life and His solutions to whatever problems we face.  We will be able to love our fellow human beings, and there will be a core of peace within us.  The Holy Spirit teaches us through the Scriptures and preaching during the Holy Mass. Jesus loves us and comes to us in Communion.   When the Mass is ended, we go forth in the peace of Christ -- all this under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. 

2) We need to have the conviction that we are not alone:  One of the great social and ethical problems of our time is isolation.   Today approximately 25% of all adults live alone.   Spouses, parents, and children often live as virtual strangers to one another.   This is unfortunate because we never need to be alone.   Jesus can always be present to us.   He shares his joy with us and replaces the burden of our guilt with the freedom of forgiveness.  He takes our grief and turns it into joy.  We need only allow Jesus into our lives to be rid of this loneliness.   Oneness with Jesus is the greatest gift we can give our children, our friends, or those who see no purpose in life.   We can help to bring people into unity with Jesus, a unity that will change their lives.  As we celebrate this Eucharistic meal, our Mass, let us celebrate in a special way the price Jesus paid for our redemption.  May this Eucharistic celebration empower us to lead a true Life of the Spirit!

 Easter VI [C] (May 26): Acts 15:1-2, 22-29; Rv 21:10-14, 22-23; Jn 14:23-21

Homily Starter Anecdotes: #1) “Temples of the Holy Spirit”: Francis of Assisi was an ardent advocate of the doctrine of the indwelling of God in man. It enabled him to love everyone equally whatever his status in life. One day he met a fellow who had no love for God. As they walked along, they met a man who was blind and paralyzed. St. Francis asked the sightless cripple: “Tell me if I were to restore your eyesight and the use of your limbs, would you love me?” “Ah,” replied the beggar, “I would not only love you, but I would be your slave for the rest of my life.” “See,” said Francis to the man who maintained that he could not love God, “this man would love me if I gave him his sight and his health. Why don’t you love God who created you with eyesight and strong limbs?” -- That is what Jesus tells us in today’s Gospel. If we love Jesus because of the countless blessings he has given us, and so keep his word as the center of our life,  he will start dwelling within us in the company of his Father and the Holy Spirit, making us the temples of the Triune God. (Msgr. Arthur Tonne). (https://frtonyshomilies.com/)     

# 2: Helen Keller’s indwelling God? The story is told that after Helen Keller’s teacher, Annie Sullivan, had given her the names of physical objects in sign language, Miss Sullivan attempted to explain God and tapped out the symbols for the name "God." Much to Miss Sullivan’s surprise, Helen spelled back, "Thank you for telling me God’s name, Teacher, for He has touched me many times before." -- How could Helen Keller have known about God? Although she was blind and deaf, Helen Keller knew God, for God had shown Himself to her. That is the “revelation” of an indwelling God about whom today’s Scripture readings speak.  (https://frtonyshomilies.com/)      

 #3: “The most unpromising boy in my class” A  schoolmaster in France was discouraged with one of his students. He wrote in his roll book concerning this student: "He is the smallest, the meekest, the most unpromising boy in my class." Half a century later, an election was held in France to select the greatest Frenchman. By popular vote, that meekest, smallest, most unpromising boy was chosen. His name? Louis Pasteur, the founder of modern medicine. When he was seventy-three, a national holiday was declared in his honor. He was too weak to attend the ceremony in Paris, so he sent a message to be read by his son. The message read: "The future belongs not to the conquerors but to the saviors of the world" [Edward Chinn, Wonder of Words (Lima, Ohio: C.S.S. Publishing Co., Inc., 1987), p. 18.] -- Louis Pasteur was driven by a great purpose. Your name and my name may never be household words as is Pasteur's, but we, too, can be driven by a great purpose. Christ can give us that purpose. But there is one thing more Christ gives us. He gives us the presence of the Holy Spirit as promised in today’s Gospel. A healthy sense of identity and a driving purpose are not enough in themselves. One thing more is needed. It is the in-dwelling Spirit of the living God. (https://frtonyshomilies.com/)     

Introduction: Today’s readings show us the effects of the abiding presence of God in His Church and of His indwelling in each one of us. The first reading, taken from the Acts of the Apostles, tells us how the Holy Spirit, dwelling in the Church, helped the apostles to solve a major doctrinal problem, which shook the very foundation of the early Church. The Responsorial Psalm (Ps 67) prays that all the nations on the earth, not just Israel, may recognize their God and praise Him. The second reading, taken from the Book of Revelation describes the Church as the Heavenly Jerusalem, a city united in love, with the victorious Jesus residing in it and in each of its members, replacing the holy presence of God in the Holy of Holies of the Temple in Jerusalem. The Gospel passage reminds us that the Holy Spirit abiding within us is our teacher and the Source of all peace.  The passage offers a vision of hope.  Jesus promises his followers that the Holy Spirit will come and instruct them in everything they need to know.

 The first reading: Acts 15:1-2, 22-29, explained:  The first major controversy in the infant Church was about "what one must  do to be saved."  For the first 15 to 20 years of the Christian era, all Jesus’ followers were Jewish.  During that period, any Gentiles who wanted to become Jesus’ disciples were expected first to become Jews. They had to attend Sabbath synagogue services and keep the 613 Torah laws.  This situation began to change when a few “liberal” Christian communities like the newly founded Church of the Gentiles in Antioch, began to admit Gentiles into their number without demanding that they first be converted to Judaism.  Some of the Judeo-Christians from Judea and Jerusalem argued that the new Gentile converts must observe the Mosaic Law of circumcision, dietary regulations, purification rituals, etc.  The issue couldn't be settled on a local level, although Paul and Barnabas tried that at first.  Hence, they had to go to Jerusalem to consult the apostles.  The apostles convened the first Cburch Council at Jerusalem and, with the clear leading of the Holy Spirit, decided that the Gentiles need not become Jews first, to be saved as Christians.  The decision was momentous for two reasons.  First, it marked a significant break of Christianity with Judaism. Second, it put the burden of salvation on God rather than on man.  In other words, it is God’s love and His gift to us of Faith in Jesus that save us when we receive it and live it out. Our prayers, sacrifices or keeping of the Law, are only expressions of our gratitude to God, which foster our Faith.  We see Saint Paul wrestling with this question, first in Galatians, then, in a more polished way, in Romans. (The New Covenant was sealed not with the blood of circumcision, but with the blood of Jesus Christ (CCC #610, 613). This and other dogmas are examples of the exercise of authority given to the Church Magisterium by Christ. Belief in  -- acceptance of -- such dogmas is obligatory since they are truths contained in divine Revelation or have a necessary connection with them (CCC #88).

(A question on dissension answered: The early Church seems to be embroiled in dissension less than one decade after the Resurrection of Jesus. Can the Holy Spirit really be at work in those circumstances? Perhaps the question could be rephrased this way: “Is there a place for both controversy and peace in our Church?” There are a lot of ways to nuance the meanings of “dissension” and “debate,” but the underlying thrust is the same: disagreement over a matter of importance, at least to the parties engaged in debate. The year is only about 49 or 50 AD when this occurred, which shows that lively arguments were arising whenever “changes” occurred that would alter or even threaten to modify “established” rituals and practices. The answer is a resounding “YES.” The Church grew and still grows in understanding its Faith through lively discussions and debates among qualified theologians. Those discussions have been going on ever since the vision of St. Peter (Acts 10) which led to the baptism of the first Gentiles (Cornelius’ household), around 43 AD. It is important to recognize the wording of the Apostles’ decision regarding the waiver of the former discipline of circumcision: “For it has seemed good to the Holy Spirit AND  to us to lay upon you no greater burden than…necessary things…” (Acts 15:28). Clearly, the dietary laws, variations in certain rituals, and similar disciplines were deemed eligible for change as circumstances warranted. Every suggested change creates healthy discussions and is preceded by healthy discussions. Closure is then brought to the discussion at some point in time, when the Apostles (or their successors, the united Bishops) reach a decision. Cultural conditioning plays a large part in some decisions (e.g., Paul insisting that women had to wear hats in church), as it does today; these are also identified as matters of “discipline.” ( Fr. Robert F. McNamara).

The Catechism on healthy debates: Perhaps it is better to leave the debates in the hands of the theologians, who are schooled in the ways of theological research (CCC #94), and who know the difference between debate and dissension. At some point in time, the Magisterium — the official and recognized teaching office of the Catholic church — reaches a decision on a subject, and to that decision we owe the obedience of Faith (CCC#144, 85, 88) or assent of Faith (optimally), or as a minimum the religious respect of intellect and will; and the Christian faithful are called upon “to take care to avoid whatever is not in harmony with that teaching” (Canon Law #752).

The second reading, Revelation 21:10-14, 22-23, explained: The Book of Revelation was written to bolster the Faith of the persecuted Christians of all ages. Everything John described via symbols, signs, numbers, etc. has already happened except, of course for the second advent of Jesus in glory. John’s vision of a new Jerusalem should be understood as a description of the Church, rooted initially in time and space, but growing and evolving toward an eschatological future. It describes the Church as the Heavenly Jerusalem, a city united in love, with the victorious Jesus residing in it. While the earthly Temple was often thought of as a reflection of the Heavenly Temple, there will be no Temple in the New Jerusalem because the Almighty and the Lamb will be the Temple.  They will provide all the light that is necessary, so there will be no need for the sun or the moon. Ancient Jerusalem had long been for the Jews a token of God's presence with them.  God had aided them in capturing and holding it, in making it their capital, in building the Temple there, and in returning to it after their exile in Babylon. Within the holiest chamber of the Jerusalem Temple, they kept the stone tablets of the Law, given by God, in an enthroned chest known as the Ark of the Covenant.  God dwelt in a particular way in the space above the ark. This is, in the end, a metaphor for the Church, which is called to reveal to the human race God's presence among us.  

Gospel exegesis: John (Chapter 14) continues to recount Jesus’ farewell discourse after the Last Supper.  Today's Gospel passage explains the doctrine of the indwelling of the Holy Trinity in the human soul, and the role of the Holy Spirit in our lives. 

1) The abiding presence of God in the human soul: The promise of God's abiding presence must have been of great comfort to John's community who knew that the Temple in Jerusalem -- the symbol of God's presence with His people -- had been destroyed by the Roman army.  In today's Gospel passage, Jesus tells us that the one thing in life which we can always trust is God’s presence. God inhabits our hearts so deeply and intimately that we become the visible dwelling place of God.  His living and life-affirming Presence is always with us, yet '"hidden" in the very things we so often take for granted.  Thus, we are invited to look for and encounter -- "God-with-us," yet "hidden" -- in the person sitting next to us, in the words we speak, and in the songs we sing at worship. 

2) Condition for the indwelling of the Holy Trinity: Jesus teaches us the condition for this indwelling of the Holy Trinity, namely, we have to show our love of God by keeping his word.  And this keeping of his word will be facilitated by the Holy Spirit, God's Holy Breath. 

3) The role of the Holy Spirit is twofold: a) to "teach" the disciples and b) to “remind" them of what Jesus has already taught them” (v. 26). “At work since creation, having previously ‘spoken through the prophets,’ the Spirit will now be with and in the disciples, to teach them and guide them ‘into all the truth’” (CCC  #243).  Jesus affirms that even though He will no longer be visibly with them, he will continue to be present among them through the Holy Spirit.  The Spirit of Truth will continue teaching them and helping them to understand and to build on what Jesus has already taught them.  The Advocate will bring no new revelation because God has already revealed Himself in Jesus.  But the Advocate will deepen their understanding of the revelation given by Jesus.

4) Jesus gives his followers four gifts:  First, he gives them his love, which will enable them to keep his word. Next, he gives them the Holy Spirit, who will teach them everything they need to know. The Holy Spirit is the abiding love of God available to us, enabling us to accept the friendship of Jesus, while imitating Him, the Master.  Third, he gives them His peace to strengthen them against fear in the face of trouble. Here "peace" is not just the absence of conflict, but also the far wider concept of shalom, the total well-being of the person and community.  The promise of the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, will bring a peace that will quell their fears of the unfolding darkness ahead. “In Johannine language, peace, truth, light, life and joy are figurative terms reflecting different facets of the great gift that Jesus has brought from God to the world. 'Peace is my gift to you,' is another way of saying, 'I give them eternal life' (Jn 10:28) (Raymond E. Brown). The Holy Spirit is available as Comforter and Guide to those who believe in Jesus and follow in his way. The One God -- the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit – is pure Love. This Love, the Triune God, comes and lives in us, takes up residence in us and lives in our body. When God’s love lives in us, and we live in Him, there is much more peace in our families, our Churches, our offices.  Fourth, Jesus rewards them with the assurance of his second coming. 

Life messages: 1) Let us be aware of the abiding presence of God within us: We live in the New Covenant of Jesus, daily facing uncertainty, conflict, and temptations.  It is the abiding presence of God within us that enables us to face the future with undying hope and true Christian courage.  The Holy Spirit, sent upon the Church by the Father at the request of the risen Lord, prompts us to turn to His Holy Scriptures for support and encouragement, enables us to learn the Divine truths, and grants us His peace at all times.  However, to be able to receive these gifts, it is necessary for us to spend a little time each day in personal prayer, talking to God and listening to Him.  We must deepen our relationship with Jesus, learn to get in touch with him, and sincerely love him.  When we listen to the Holy Spirit, we will   know His plan for our life and His solutions for whatever problems we face.  We will be able to love our fellow human beings, and there will be a core of peace within us.  The Holy Spirit teaches us through the Scriptures and preaching during the Holy Mass as well as in our prayer and our private reading of Scripture. Jesus loves us and comes to us in Communion.   When the Mass is ended, we go forth in the peace of Christ -- all this under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

2) We are not alone:  One of the great social and ethical problems of our time is isolation.   Today approximately 25% of all adults live alone.   Spouses, parents, and children often live as virtual strangers to one another.   This is unfortunate because we never need to be alone.   Jesus can always be present to us.   He shares with us his joy and replaces the burden of our guilt with the freedom of forgiveness.  He takes our grief and turns it into joy.  We need only allow Jesus into our lives to be rid of this loneliness.   Oneness with Jesus is the greatest gift we can give our children, our friends, or those who see no purpose in life.   We can help to bring people to unity with Jesus, a unity that will change their lives. As we celebrate this Eucharistic meal, our Mass, let us celebrate in a special way the price Jesus paid for our redemption.   May this Eucharistic celebration empower us to lead a true Life in the Spirit.

JOKE OF THE WEEK

1) Here is an Irish lyric: "Paddy Murphy went to Mass, never missed a Sunday. But Paddy Murphy went to hell, for what he did on Monday." 

2) Don’t lose your mental peace: The Sunday school children had all been photographed with pastor sitting in their center. The pastor was trying to persuade the children to buy a copy of the group photo. "Just think how nice it will be to look at it when you are all grown up and say, 'There's Jennifer; she's a lawyer,' or 'That's Michael; he's a doctor.' A small voice at the back of the room rang out, "And there's our Pastor; he's dead." 

3)  Peace and Relaxation: Did you know that.....If you can start the day without caffeine, if you can get going without pep pills, if you can always be cheerful, ignoring aches and pains, if you can resist complaining and boring people with your troubles, if you can eat the same food every day and be grateful for it, if you can understand when your loved ones are too busy to give you any time, if you can take criticism without resentment, if you can ignore a friend's limited education and never correct him, if you can resist treating a rich friend better than a poor friend, if you can conquer tension without medical help, if you can relax without liquor, if you can sleep without the aid of drugs, ...Then you are probably the family dog! 

USEFUL WEBSITES OF THE WEEK

1) Fr. Don’ collection of video homilies & blogs: https://sundayprep.org

2) Video Sunday-Scripture study by Fr. Geoffrey Plant:

 https://www.youtube.com/user/GeoffreyPlant2066

3) Dr. Brant Pitre’s commentary on Cycle C Sunday Scripture for Bible Class: https://catholicproductions.com/blogs/mass-readings-explained-year-c)      

20 Additional anecdotes 1) The ‘Butterfly Effect’     “Today’s real borders are not between nations, but between powerful and powerless, free and fettered, privileged and humiliated. Today no walls can separate humanitarian or human rights crises in one part of the world from national security crises in another. Scientists tell us that the world is so small and interdependent that a butterfly flapping its wings in the Amazon forest can generate a storm on the other side of the earth. The principle is known as the ‘Butterfly Effect.’” (Kofi Annan –“Excerpts from Nobel Prize acceptance speech”). -- Today we realize more than ever, that the world of human activity also has its own ‘Butterfly Effect’ for better or for worse. The classical example is the history-making growth of Christianity in the first century by the Spirit-transformed lives of the apostles and early Christians. (https://frtonyshomilies.com/)     

2) Two loves in our lives: Jimmy Carter, in his book, Sources of Strength, tells about interviewing Eloy Cruz, an admirable Cuban pastor, who had tremendous rapport with poor immigrants from Puerto Rico. “What is the secret to your success?” asked Carter. -- Pastor Cruz replied, “Señor Jimmy, we need to have only two loves for our lives, love for God and love for the person who happens to be in front of us at any time.” (https://frtonyshomilies.com/)     

3) "You were walking with Mary Susanna Brown, a child of God": Retired Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, (the eldest son of Boston physician, poet, and polymath, Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes), was walking down a street one day. A little girl joined him. When the girl started to turn back home, the famed jurist said, "When your mother asks you where you've been, tell her you've been walking with Oliver Wendell Holmes,” to which the little girl replied confidently, "And when your folks ask you where you've been, tell them you were walking with Mary Susanna Brown, a child of God." -- There's a little girl with a healthy sense of who she is! Psychologists tell us that a healthy sense of identity is one of the most valuable gifts we can give our children. We are God’s children and our God is an indwelling God. First, however, we need that gift ourselves. And if we did not receive it from our parents, we will need to look to God. (https://frtonyshomilies.com/)     

4) Head and tail fight of bulldog ants: The philosopher Schopenhauer once compared us to a Bulldog Ant. If we cut a Bulldog Ant in half, the front and rear segments will enter into a savage fight. The head will seize the tail with its teeth, while the tail will sting the head with fury. The fight might last for hours. -- That is the way some of us are on the inside. There is part of us that wants to move ahead and a part that wants to stand absolutely still. There is a part of us that wants success and recognition. There is another part that wants to sit on the river bank and while away the hours. There is a part of us that wants to serve Christ. There is another part that says, "No, I've enough to do right now. Let someone else take their turn." There is a fierce battle going on within many of us. Few of us know what it is to live lives of contentment and peace. -- Jesus said to his disciples, "I am leaving you with a gift -- peace of mind and heart! And the peace I give isn't fragile like the peace the world gives. So don't be troubled or afraid"(Jn 14:27) What a promise! What a gift! Peace of mind and heart. He can give it to us. (https://frtonyshomilies.com/)     

5) Love as Jesus loved: Jesus said, "I love you just as the Father loves me; remain in my love." (John 13:9). During World War II, a prisoner escaped from a labor detail in Auschwitz, a Nazi concentration camp in Poland. The camp commander announced that if he were not found in 24 hours, 10 of the 600 men in Block 14 would be picked at random to starve to death. Next morning the prisoners were lined up and stood all day in the burning heat of the sun. At 6 pm, 10 were selected at random. One was the father of a family. As they were being marched off, a Franciscan priest among the prisoners, St. Maximilian Kolbe, offered to take his place. The Nazi officer in charge was stunned, but he regained his composure and said, "Accepted."  -- The priest's heroic act of love for a fellow prisoner is a faint reflection of Jesus' love for us,  and of the Father's love for Jesus. Can I recall a time when I went out of my way and offered to help someone in need? The greatest love a person can have for his friends is to give his life for them. (Jn 15:13). (https://frtonyshomilies.com/)     

6) "Were we shot down?" A commercial airline pilot on one occasion made a particularly bad landing. The wheels of the big jet hit the runway with a jarring thud. Afterward, the airline had a policy, which required that the pilot stand at the door while the passengers exited. He was to give each of them a smile and say, "Thanks for flying with us today." In light of his bad landing, he had a hard time looking the passengers in the eye, thinking that someone would have a smart comment, but no one seemed annoyed. Finally everyone had gotten off except for one little old lady walking with a cane. She approached the pilot and asked, "Sonny, mind if I ask you a question?" "Why, no, Ma'am, what is it?" said the pilot bravely. "Did we land," she asked, "or were we shot down?"  --- Maybe you've had days like that, days when it felt like you were shot down. Even worse, maybe things are going quite well for you, really. Your friends and your family tell you how fortunate you are. But you don't feel fortunate. In fact, your life is somewhat tortured by a nagging fear that you cannot even define. It is at those moments that God wants us to turn to Him. He is our Peace, always. (https://frtonyshomilies.com/)     

7) "Mommy, are you there?": I recall the story of a little girl who, when trains were popular transportation, was taking her first train ride with her parents. As night descended, the mother took the girl, who was clearly quite anxious, and placed her on the upper bunk of the sleeper. She told her little one that up there she would be nearer to God and that God would watch over her. As silence enveloped the young lady she became afraid and called softly, "Mommy, are you there?" "Yes dear," came the response. A little later, in a louder voice, the child called, "Daddy, are you there, too?" "Yes dear," was the reply. After this had been repeated several times one of the passengers sharing their sleeper car finally lost his patience and shouted loudly, "Yes, we're all here, your father, your mother, your brother, and all your aunts and cousins; now settle down and go to sleep!" There was a moment of silence and then, in hushed tones a little voice asked, "Mommy, was that God?" -- Jesus, in offering peace, does not say, "I'm here, the Holy Spirit's here and God is here, now be at peace!" The peace that Jesus offers cannot be had simply by desiring it. The peace of God is a gift; it can only be received as a by-product of Faith. That's why the world is largely a stranger to it. (https://frtonyshomilies.com/)     

8) Brendan Behan, an Irish playwright, virtually drank himself to death. His biographer attributes it to an unrelenting sense of guilt. Behan went to England on a mission for the I.R.A. One day he planted a bomb set to go off during rush hour. It exploded as a young woman with her baby was passing by. Both died in the blast! Brendan Behan was overwhelmed with guilt for killing that innocent woman and her baby. And as time went on he increasingly tried to drown his memories and silence his conscience in a bottle, without success! -- Guilt is a terrible thing. Wouldn't it be wonderful if we had a guide in life a guide Who will help us avoid those things that we know are wrong, those things that fill us with regret? Christ has promised us such a guide. That guide is the Holy Spirit. (https://frtonyshomilies.com/)     

9) Loving grandpa and the naughty grandchild: Grandpa walked into the family room and found his little grandson, Jeffy, standing up in his playpen, crying. He looked so pitiful, standing there in his little baseball T-shirt and diaper. His face was red and tear-stained from crying. When Jeffy saw his grandpa, his face lit up in a way that smote the old man’s heart. He immediately reached up his chubby little hands in supplication. “Take me out, Papa, out!” What grandpa could resist such a plea? Not this one! He walked over to the playpen and reached down to lift his little buddy out of captivity and distress. Just then, however, Law and Order stepped into the room. Jeffy’s mother walked out of the kitchen with a dishtowel in her hand and spoke sternly. “No, Jeffy! You are being punished. You have to stay in bed! Leave him right there, Dad.” Oh, fine. Now what’s a grandpa to do? His grandson’s tears and reaching little hands tugged mightily at his heart – but he didn’t want to interfere with a mother’s discipline either. What could he do? Love found a way. Since Grandpa couldn’t take Jeffy out of the playpen, he climbed in with him. “If you’re in the playpen, Buddy, I’m in the playpen. What’s your sentence? How long are you in for?” --  And finding a big, jolly grandpa suddenly filling his little prison cell, the little boy found comfort even in his captivity. Today’s readings explain God’s indwelling in the Church and in the believers in terms of God’s love for His children. (https://frtonyshomilies.com/)     

10) The Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoyevsky regarded by many as one of the greatest literary geniuses of all time. His books are classics. The Brothers Karamazov is regarded by many as the greatest novel ever written. His stories all have a similar theme, that our redemption is to be found through suffering, not simply physical suffering, but in the anguish of our selfhood. We become fully human, Dostoyevsky believed, by being tested and being strengthened through it [Pulpit Resource, Vol. 9, No. 2 (Logos Art Productions, Inver Grove, Minnesota) pp. 14-15.] -- The peace which Jesus gave to the disciples involved very little contentment. They had to endure persecutions, misunderstanding, and hardships of every kind. (https://frtonyshomilies.com/)     

11) “But Papa, I love him; he loves me.” In the Broadway play and movie of the same name, Fiddler on the Roof, the chief protagonist is Tevye, a poor Russian Jew struggling to make a life for himself and his family. Economically and politically strapped by the harsh conditions of life prior to and during the Russian Revolution (ca. 1917), Tevye the milkman can hold onto little else except his traditions. However, even these began to crumble when his eldest daughter refuses to acquiesce to an arranged marriage and opts for love in poverty rather than wealth without love. Further shaken by the marriage of his second daughter to a Russian who favors the revolution, Tevye seems unable to bear anything more. But the final blow comes when his youngest daughter chooses to marry Christian. When Tevye argues with his daughters in favor of the centuries’ old traditions of their people, they counter him on every point with the simple explanation, “But Papa, I love him; he loves me.” --  Love proved to be a force powerful enough to overcome separatism and the distrust of others and their ways on the grounds that they did not share the same roots, background and beliefs. In Tevye's family, love began to establish new traditions, though not easily or rapidly. The family which was the early Church also struggled with the tasks of surrendering old ways (as described in the first reading) and of learning and establishing new ones as it grew and developed. Based on love and founded in peace, the Church’s new traditions were inspired, supported and guided by none other than the Holy Spirit. (https://frtonyshomilies.com/)    

12) Conversion: Joshua, a young Jew, fell in love with Mary, a devout Catholic. When Joshua proposed to Mary, she sought counsel from her parents, each of whom advised her differently. “Convert him to Catholicism!” commanded Mary’s dad, but her mum said, “Love him tenderly and God’s Spirit will work wonders!” Mary’s dad wouldn’t give in and ordered her to work hard at converting Joshua to Catholicism. Mary obeyed and Joshua was duly converted. Weeks later Joshua called off the marriage. “What’s up?” asked Mary’s dad. Mary sobbed: “Joshua wants to be a priest!” (Francis Gonsalves in Sunday Seeds for daily Deeds). (https://frtonyshomilies.com/)    

13) The little mediator, Wee Willie Winkie: John Ford's superb family action-adventure film, Wee Willie Winkie (1937), is loosely based on Rudyard Kipling's popular story from his Tales of British India.   The setting of this movie is 19th century British-occupied India. Little Priscilla Williams and her widowed mother travel to India to live with their relative, Colonel Williams. The colonel ruled his British Army base in India with an iron fist making of it an oppressive place.  Priscilla is a very curious, precocious child, who gains the nickname of "Private Wee Willie Winkie.”  The little girl quickly charms everyone around her, including a tough Scots Sergeant. After a series of adventures, she wins the hearts of everyone by challenging the prejudicial assumptions of both friends and enemies.  Her innocent, yet challenging questions are instrumental in helping Colonel Williams and Islamic freedom fighter, Khoda Khan, to see the senselessness of violence.  This leads them to a negotiated peace. -- Today’s Gospel assures us that it is the abiding presence of God the Father with God the Incarnte Risen Son in the Holy Spirit within us,  which gives us lasting peace. (https://frtonyshomilies.com/)     

14)  A New Advocate:      When the heartbroken Nathaniel Hawthorne went home to tell his wife that he had been a failure and had been fired from his job in a customhouse, she surprised him with an exclamation of joy. “Now,” she said triumphantly, “you can write your book!” “Yes,” replied Nathaniel, “and what shall we live on while I am writing it?” To his amazement, she opened a drawer and pulled out a substantial sum of money. “Where on earth did you get that?” he exclaimed. “I have always known you were a man of genius,” she told him. “I knew that someday you would write a masterpiece. So every week out of the housekeeping money you gave me I saved a little. So here is enough to last us a whole year!” From her confidence and encouragement came one of the greatest novels of United States literature, The Scarlet Letter. –- As a farewell, gift Jesus spoke of the gift of the Holy Spirit, the Advocate he would give us. On the Divine level, deeper experiences of God do not make Christians immune to human problems and pain, but Jesus showed that his peace can be present even in the midst of insults, persecution, and approaching death. (Harold Buetow in God Still Speaks: Listen!) (https://frtonyshomilies.com/)     

15) "Padre, padrecito," he exclaimed, "I knew you would come."  It happened that a missionary priest was visiting his extensive parish, high in the Andes Mountains. The best way to reach certain parts of the parish was on horseback. Once, toward sunset, the priest got disoriented and could not find the way back to his base camp. Rather than risk exposure at such an altitude, he decided to give his horse free rein and hope to find shelter. After a couple of hours of wandering, he saw a welcome sight. In the distance a lamp burned in a hut. This was unusual because the native people went to bed shortly after dark in order to get up at an early hour. When the priest got near the hut, a man ran out, "Padre, padrecito," he exclaimed, "I knew you would come." Surprised, the priest asked how he knew that. The man said, "My mother has been praying all day that a priest would come. She is dying." The priest went inside, heard the woman's confession, then gave her Holy Anointing and Holy Communion. The woman softly spoke these final words, "Taita Dios heard me." -- Taita Dios is not easy to translate. Dios of course means God, but Taita is hard to translate. It is an intimate, affectionate way of addressing one's father. Taita is like "daddy," except that a grown-up man could say it with no embarrassment. Taita Dios, my dear Father, has heard me. In today's Gospel, Jesus tells us that if someone keeps Jesus' word, "the Father will love him." He then describes an intimacy impossible for us to imagine. He tells us that he and the Father will dwell within us - by the power of the Holy Spirit. (Phil Bloom). (https://frtonyshomilies.com/)     

16) "I would obey the commandments of God." When Jimmy Carter was running for President of the United States, one of the more vivid moments in the campaign passed by almost unnoticed. One Sunday morning, candidate Carter had been worshipping at the Baptist Church in Plains, Georgia. When the service was over, he exited the church into the swarm of press encamped on the church's front lawn. Cameras whirring, video lights glaring, microphones thrust forward, the media mavens moved in for interviews, pushing themselves to think of clever questions to ask a presidential candidate on the way out of a Southern Baptist Church. Suddenly, a reporter, probably in a stroke of luck, shouted out a question that genuinely mattered: "Mr. Carter, suppose when you are President, you get into a situation where the laws of the United States are in conflict with what you understand to be the will of God. Which will you follow, the laws of the state or the commandments of God?" Carter stopped, looked up, and blinked into the bright Georgia sun, obviously turning the question over in his mind. Then, perhaps still "in the Spirit on the Lord's Day," perhaps with the Spirit gently whispering the lyrics of the Gospel into his ears, he turned toward the reporter and replied, "I would obey the commandments of God." Alert aides, alarmed by this candor, unnerved by their candidate's near-treasonous remark, hurriedly whisked him away from the press and into a waiting car. -- Carter the politician should have avoided the question, or hewed closely to the law of the land, but Carter the Christian had the Holy Spirit of Jesus Christ whispering in his ear, "Do you love me? The world cannot see or know me, but do you love me? Do you keep my commandments?" The reason we need the Holy Spirit murmuring the Gospel in our ears, of course, is that we are notoriously forgetful. (https://frtonyshomilies.com/)     

17) The true peace Christ brings us, according to St. Francis Assisi: The Little Flowers of St. Francis, composed at the end of the 14th century by a Tuscan, is  based on Actus beati Francisci et sociorum eius in divided into 53 short chapters. Here is a gripping story told in the book.  “Walking one day in the bitter cold with Brother Leo, St Francis began to teach him about perfect joy and perfect peace. He called to Brother Leo, who was walking on before him, and said to him: 'If we monks were great holy men who edified all those around us, this would not be perfect joy.' A little further St. Francis called to Brother Leo again: 'O Brother Leo, if we monks were to make the lame to walk, if we should make straight the crooked, chase away demons, give sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, speech to the dumb, and, what is even a far greater work, if we should raise the dead after four days, write that this would not be perfect joy.' ….After some two miles of this Brother Leo finally spoke up and said: 'Father Francis, I pray thee teach me wherein is perfect joy.' Francis then teaches him this: 'If, when we shall arrive at St Mary of the Angels, all drenched with rain and trembling with cold, all covered with mud and exhausted from hunger; if, when we knock at the convent-gate, the porter should come angrily and ask us who we are; if, after we have told him, "We are two of the brethren," he should answer angrily, "What ye say is not the truth; ye are but two impostors going about to deceive the world, and take away the alms of the poor; begone, I say"; if then he refuse to open to us, and leave us outside, exposed to the snow and rain, suffering from cold and hunger till nightfall - then, if we accept such injustice, such cruelty and such contempt with patience, without being ruffled and without murmuring, believing with humility and charity that the porter really knows us, and that it is God who maketh him to speak thus against us, write down, O Brother Leo, that this is perfect joy. And if we knock again, and the porter come out in anger to drive us away with oaths and blows, as if we were vile impostors, saying, "Begone, miserable robbers! To the hospital, for here you shall neither eat nor sleep!" - and if we accept all this with patience, with joy, and with charity, O Brother Leo, write that this indeed is perfect joy. And if, urged by cold and hunger, we knock again, calling to the porter and entreating him with many tears to open to us and give us shelter, for the love of God, and if he come out more angry than before, exclaiming, "These are but importunate rascals, I will deal with them as they deserve'; and taking a knotted stick, he seize us by the hood, throwing us on the ground, rolling us in the snow, and shall beat and wound us with the knots in the stick - if we bear all these injuries with patience and joy, thinking of the sufferings of our Blessed Lord, which we would share out of love for him, write, O Brother Leo, that here, finally, is perfect joy.’  -- I believe that what St Francis was saying to Brother Leo was that the Peace of Christ comes through our acts of obedience especially obedience in times of suffering. We will do well if we remember that true peace is the assurance that one day our Brother Jesus will return to take us back, back to our Father's house. “So, do not let your hearts be troubled neither let them be afraid.” (Jn 14:1) Amen. (https://frtonyshomilies.com/)     

18) Peanut in our pocket:  There is a story told  about a young lady named Sally. Sally was growing up, becoming a woman, preparing to go off to college. Her mother had struggled to provide for her education, an especially difficult task since her father had died several years earlier. Her mother had made every effort within her power to raise Sally right. Now Sally would be on her own, an exciting and frightening time. Sally had strong reservations about leaving her mother alone to mind the farm and do the chores. She was also nervous about having to find her own way without her mother's guidance. As she prepared to meet the bus, bags packed and ready, her mother took her arm and said to her, "You're gonna see things an' do things you ain't never heard of, and you won't know which way to turn sometimes. You 'member how you used to tug on my apron string when you wanted something, and I'd see to what you was after? You 'member how when you was too close to the road, and I'd holler to you to tell you to get away from there'?" her mother gently reminded her. "Well, I'm gonna be there with you in your heart, but it'll be up to you to listen to what I told you. I can't kiss your hurts when you fall down an' skin your knee or quiet you when the big storms come rollin' through. But, I'll be close as a peanut in your pocket when you need me. If you're afraid, I'll stand with you. And if you are hurting, you can feel me close, and if you do wrong, I'll whisper the truth to ya, so you won't do it no more." The tears came to both their eyes. Her mother opened the dresser drawer and took out a neatly folded handkerchief and placed it in the pocket of Sally's dress. Upon leaving, Sally felt completely alone. As she fought back the tears, she reached into her dress pocket to take out the handkerchief her mother had placed there. Then she noticed a knot in one corner just like her mother used to tie her milk money in her handkerchief. Upon untying the knot, she found a single peanut. She knew that her dear mother would always be with her in her heart (3. Parables submitted by Ron Alberston). -- The Good News is that God wants to dwell in our lives. God wants to take up residence in our hearts. God wants to be with us always, as close as a peanut in our pocket. (https://frtonyshomilies.com/)     

19) "Watch Jimmie in chapel:" In his book, The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat, Oliver Sacks tells the story of Jimmie, a former sailor, now a patient in a nursing home, whose severe neurological disorder had left him with a profound and permanent amnesia. He simply had no memory of anything from 1945 on. Having no ability to retrieve the past and no ability to construct a meaningful present, Jimmie lacked the continuity that makes for a sense of the self. He was, wrote Sacks, a person who "wore a look of infinite sadness and resignation." However, when Sacks asked the Sisters who ran the nursing home whether Jimmie had lost his soul, the Sisters were outraged by the question. "Watch Jimmie in chapel," they said, "and judge for yourself." So Sacks did watch Jimmie in chapel, and there he observed an astounding transformation. He saw an intensity and steadiness in Jimmie that he had not observed before. As he received the Sacrament, there was "perfect alignment of his spirit with the spirit of the Mass." There in worship, Jimmie was no longer at the mercy of a faulty and fallible memory. "He was wholly held, absorbed ...." He whose mind was broken was given in worship, "a continuity and unity so seamless it could not permit any break." . (Oliver Sacks, The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat, is reported in Craig Dykstra, "Memory and Truth," Theology Today, XLIV/2, p. 162).  -- Jimmie in his own way is like all of us. In the final analysis, none of us is able to construct a self. We must all be given a story and a continuity not of our own making. Where we have no faithful memory, God remembers, and by the grace of God, the Spirit whispers the lyrics of the saving Gospel in our ears. (https://frtonyshomilies.com/)       

20) The City Sparkled Like a Diamond: We pray for the dead, “May perpetual light shine upon them”. Have you ever wondered what sort of light perpetual light would be? Soft and white, perhaps, like the light of a frosted bulb? Piercing, like the headlight of a motorcycle? Scary electric blue, like a flash of lightning? Too dazzling even to look at, like the glare of the summer sun? It might resemble any of these. But somehow, I believe that the light in heaven will be more gracious. -- Today’s second reading suggests what I mean. St. John had a preview of the “new Jerusalem” to be sent down by God. He says, “The city had the radiance of a precious jewel that sparkled like a diamond.” In other words it shone with a glittering, amiable, transparent light. John used similar descriptions elsewhere in the Book of Revelations: “The city was of pure gold, crystal clear” and “The streets of the city were of pure gold, transparent as glass. The floor around (God’s) throne was like a sea of glass that was crystal clear.”  Centuries before St. John’s days, the prophet Ezekiel had described the sky above God, whom he too saw in a vision, as shining “like glittering crystal.“ From 1915 to 1917 the three children of Fatima, Portugal – Lucia, Francisco and Jacinta – had several visions of Our Lady and of angels. They, too, described the light in these visions as something you could see through. Lucia has recorded that the angel they saw in 1916 “was a young man, about 14 or 15 years old, whiter than snow, transparent as crystal when the sun shines through it.” And when Our Lady appeared to them on May 13, 1917, Lucy said “she was more brilliant than the sun, and radiated with a light more clear and intense than a crystal glass filled with sparkling water when the rays of the burning sun shine through it.” I think I would like that sort of light. (Father Robert F. McNamara). (https://frtonyshomilies.com/)       L/22

“Scriptural Homilies” Cycle C (No. 33) by Fr. Tony: akadavil@gmail.com

Visit my website by clicking on http://frtonyshomilies.com/ for missed or previous Cycle C homilies, 141                   Year of Faith “Adult Faith Formation Lessons” (useful for RCIA classes too) & 197 “Question of the Week.” Contact me only at akadavil@gmail.com. Visit also https://www.catholicsermons.com/homilies/sunday_homilies  under Fr. Tony’s homilies and  under Resources in the CBCI website:  https://www.cbci.in  for other website versions.  (Vatican Radio website: http://www.vaticannews.va/en/church.html uploaded my Cycle A, B and C homilies in from 2018-2020)  Fr. Anthony Kadavil, Chaplain, Sacred Heart Residence of the Little Sisters of the Poor, 1655 McGill Ave, Mobile, AL 36604 .

Good Friday (April 15, 2022)

 Seven Words from the Cross
Biblical anecdote: Hagar at Beer-Sheba versus Mary at Calvary: "Let me not watch to see the child die," (Gn 21:16) lamented Hagar, after putting down her child Ishmael, son of Abraham, under a shrub, and then going and sitting down opposite him, about a bowshot away. Hagar was the slave and maidservant of Sarah, who voluntarily sent Hagar  to Abraham’s bed as a substitute for herself for she had proved barren. But later, when Hagar gave birth to Ishmael, Sarah became jealous of her and her son; Sarah insisted that Hagar and her son should be cast out. Early the next morning Abraham got some bread and a skin of water and gave them to Hagar. Then, placing the child on her back, he sent her away. "As she roamed aimlessly in the wilderness of Beer-Sheba, the water in the skin was used up," (Gn  21:14-15), and Ishmael was about to die of dehydration in the scorching heat of the sun. It was then that, Hagar, his broken-hearted mother, prayed to God, lamenting that she could not watch her son dying of thirst in the hot desert. Genesis tells us how God intervened and saved Hagar and her son. Centuries later on Calvary we see another mother - Mary - remaining at the foot of the cross of her son Jesus, determined to keep watch with him as he died for the sins of mankind and to hear his last sermon of seven words from the cross. We, too, are invited today to hear what she heard and to see how her son died as our Savior. Let us repeat what Peter said on the mountain of Jesus’ Transfiguration: "Lord, it is good that we are here." 

Introduction: There were three crosses on Golgotha.  On the right and on the left were two robbers being crucified for rebellion and murder. On the central cross, Jesus died for our sins. On one side of Jesus hung a criminal who taunted Jesus in disbelief; he died in sin. On the other side of Jesus, however, hung a criminal who believed in Jesus. He scolded the mocker and begged, “Jesus, remember me when You come into Your Kingdom.” He died to sin and, Jesus promised this thief would be with him in Paradise that very day. On the central cross (with its mocking title, “Jesus the Nazarene king of the Jews,” in three languages) hung a sinless Sufferer!  He was dying for the sins of the world.  Hanging on that cross, Jesus spoke seven times during the closing moments of his earthly life.  It has been an age-old practice in the Church to reflect on these last words of Jesus from the cross as an integral part of  the Good Friday observances so that we may repent of our sins and resolve to renew our lives and thus participate fully in the joy of Jesus' Resurrection. 

1. The word of Forgiveness: “Then said Jesus, ‘Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do’" (Lk 23:34). While the crucified convicts would shriek and curse and spit at the spectators, Jesus, innocent of any crime against God or humanity, betrayed, arrested, scourged, and condemned, did not. Now, from the cross, Jesus' thoughts reached above his pain and rejection. Instead of being consumed by his own pain and misery, Jesus asked forgiveness for those responsible for the evil done to him - and by extension, for all who ignorantly go the way of sin and death. Jesus prayed for those who condemned him, mocked him, and nailed him to the Cross - and for those who from all the nations and down through the years would crucify him by their sins.
Jesus is practicing what He preached - unconditional, forgiving love.  One day Jesus preached on the mountain, "Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them that spitefully use you and persecute you" (Mt 5:44).  Jesus reminded Peter that there should not be any limit to forgiveness.  He sadly addressed Judas, leading the soldiers to arrest him, as friend.  It is this model which the first Martyr Stephen followed (Acts 7:60).  Archbishop Oscar Romero, the outspoken champion of the oppressed, said the same first word of Jesus from the cross, as he was shot dead at the altar.  St. Cyprian gave gold coins as his farewell gift to his executioner, and St. Thomas More hugged and kissed his executioner.  It was Christ's unconditional forgiveness, with the darkness at noon and the earthquake, which prompted the centurion in charge of Jesus' crucifixion to proclaim, "Truly he was the Son of God." 

Anecdote: June 22, 1996 in Ann Arbor, Michigan, there was a rally of the Ku Klux Klan at the City Hall. It was quite legal. There were also 300 anti-Klan people assembled to protest the rally. One white male Klansman stood out, perhaps because he was proudly displaying Confederate flags on his vest and T-shirt. Suddenly, without warning, a swarm of angry anti-Klan demonstrators rushed him, pushed him to the ground, beat him with their signs and kicked him. Appalled, an 18-year-old African-American girl named Keisha Thomas, threw herself over the fallen man, shielding him with her own body from the kicks and punches. Keisha, when asked why she, a black teenager, would risk injury to protect a man who was a white supremacist said, "He's still somebody's child. I don't want people to remember my name, but I'd like them to remember I did the right thing." A black teen laying down her life for a racist - an enemy. I think Keisha understood Good Friday, understood Jesus' words "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do."

Life lesson--unconditional forgiveness: If someone hurts our feelings can we forgive that person, pray for God's blessings on him or her and continue to treat him or her as our friend?  Here is a Chinese proverb: "One who hates another digs two graves: one for himself and the other for the one he hates."  St. Paul admonishes, "Be ye therefore kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another" (Eph 4:32).  He advises the Romans: "If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals upon his head. Do not be conquered by evil but conquer evil with good" (12:20-21).

2. The word of Assurance: “Then [the criminal who had scolded his fellow criminal for mocking Jesus] said, ‘Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.’ He replied to him, ‘Amen, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise.’ (Lk 23:42-43).  On either side of Jesus, on their crosses were two thieves.  These two were really guilty men who deserved death.  When sunlight falls on wax it melts, but the same heat hardens clay.  The waxy heart of the thief on the right (traditionally called Dismas), literally melted with repentance at the sight of Jesus crucified, prompting him to address Jesus humbly and devoutly, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom."  Jesus said, "Today you shall be with me in Paradise." Dismas did not have to confess all his sins to Jesus - Jesus forgave and forgot them all… and at once!  But the hard-hearted, unrepentant sinner on the left remained that way in spite of Jesus' presence and exemplary, heroic death right before his eyes.   

Judas committed the same folly as the thief on the left, hardening his heart with unbridled love for money, in spite of his three years of close association with Jesus and active participation in his healing and preaching ministry.  The same thing happened to Cardinal Woolsey of England who sided with the emperor Henry VIII in creating a heretical Christian denomination and died in despair, while Henry's Vice Chancellor, Sir Thomas More bravely courted martyrdom for his Faith and died a martyr’s death.

Life lesson: We are here to remember how Jesus died on the cross to save each human soul, paying his life as ransom.  Will we follow the example of the repentant thief who, seeing the death of Jesus, was converted  --  or will we go out of the Church today unmoved, our hearts hardened,   returning to the world of our sins and infidelity like the unrepentant sinner who died in his sins in the presence of the Lord of mercy and forgiveness? 

3. The word of Comfort:  “When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple there whom he loved, he said to his mother, ‘Woman, behold your son.’  Then he said to the disciple, ‘Behold, your mother.’ And from that hour the disciple took her into his home” (Jn 19:26-27). Jesus' disciples had deserted him; his friends had forsaken him; his nation had rejected him; and his enemies cried out for his blood.  But his faithful mother stood there sorrowing at the foot of the Cross.  Who can grasp the grief of Mary watching her son suffer - the grief of a mother watching her son die as a criminal on a cross?  And who can grasp the grief of the son - the son who must see his mother's heart pierced by a sword as prophesied by Simeon, when Jesus as a baby was presented in the Temple?  Jesus announces from the cross that he is going to give us the most valuable and the last gift: "Here is your mother." Here is the one I love, for you to love, and for her to love you - the one who taught me, the one who fed me, the one who wiped away my tears, the one who hugged me, the one who will be with you and pray for you.  

"Woman": That's how Jesus called her mother. Jesus is calling his mother by the most glorious word at that moment, "woman,” reminding us that his mother is the "woman" of Gn 3:15, the one who  will crush the head of the serpent, Satan, with the Blood of Christ which Jesus poured out for us to the last drop. He had nothing else left but his Mother, and he gave her to us, too. His own Mother was to be our spiritual Mother in his Church, his Mystical Body, of which he is the head, and the Christians the members. And, as in any other body, the Mother of the Head is also the Mother of the members of the Body, the Mother of each one of us (Col.1:18, Eph.4:5-6). Mary is the Mother of Sorrows, because at the foot of the Cross she suffered in spirit all Jesus suffered in the flesh and, so doing, gave birth to us in Christ. She is indeed our Mother.   

Life lesson: This is Jesus' loving death-bed gift to each of us who believe in him: Jesus’ own mother as our mother, -- the mother of Christians, mother of the Church -- to honor, love, and respect and imitate.  She is the supreme model of trusting Faith in God, the model of perfect obedience to the will of God, and the model of perfect surrender of one's life to God. "Behold, your mother!" Pope St. John Paul II said, in addressing World Youth Day (n. 3; ORE, 19 March 2003, p. 6), "Jesus addresses these words to each of you, dear friends. He also asks you to take Mary as your mother 'into your home', to welcome her 'as one of yours', because 'she will discharge her ministry as a mother and train you and mould you until Christ is fully formed in you.'" May Mary make it so that we respond generously to the Lord's call, and persevere with joy and fidelity in the Christian mission!  The words which the Finger of God engraved on two tables of stone at Mount Sinai were never repealed.  The Bible still says, "Honor your father and your mother."  Those of us, whose parents are still living, need to follow the example of Jesus on the Cross.  Women, behold your children; children, behold your mothers.

4. The word of Desolation: “From noon onward, darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon.  And at about three o'clock Jesus cried out in a loud voice, ‘Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?’ which means, ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’”  (Mt  27:45-46).  This fourth and central Word of Jesus on the Cross is another prayer, from the Psalms. All during his ministry Jesus had known what it meant to be forsaken.  Early, the members of his own family forsook him.  Nazareth, his home-town, had forsaken him.  The nation he came to save rejected him.  But in every such instance he could always steal away to the tender healing fellowship of his Heavenly Father and find his purpose and strength in His presence.  But now, even God seems to have turned away from him, permitting him to experience the ultimate intensity of rejection and loneliness in human life. Hence, Jesus quoted the first portion of Psalm 22:1, a prophecy of the Messiah's suffering and exaltation.

Life lesson: Every one of us experiences despair and rejection at certain periods of our life. When our dear ones die or fall terminally ill, when the only support of the family is accidentally removed, when the spouses are divorced, when the country faces serious threats to its safety, we ask the question, "Where is God?" Shortly before he died, Voltaire (Francois-Marie Arouet), the French atheist and writer, is reported to have said the following words to his physician, "I am abandoned by God and man! I will give you half of what I am worth if you will give me six more months of life." 

Anecdote: Rose Kennedy's children nine children were a joy to her. In her 1974 autobiography, Times to Remember (as quoted in her obituary), she declares, “I looked upon child-rearing not only as a work of love and a duty but as a profession … What greater aspiration and challenge are there for a mother than the hope of raising a great son or daughter?”  Rose, a life-long devout Catholic lost her first son in 1944 in World War II flying a mission from England; her daughter Kathleen, widowed in the same war, in 1948 in a plane crash; her second son, President  John Fitzgerald Kennedy, to assassination in 1963; and her third son, Robert Francis (“Bobby”), then running for the Democratic Presidential candidacy,  to assassination). Of her family’s response to all these griefs, she wrote (in the context of Jack’s death), “We in the family reacted to our common grief in our own ways. But we could all be reasonably steady because of the faith, hope, and love we shared. And because we knew quite well what Jack would want from us.  He would want courage, he would want as many smiles as we could manage, and he would want his death to be an affirmation of life” (382). Rose persevered in her Faith and trust in God, declaring at the end of the autobiography,  “If God were to take away all His blessings, health, physical fitness, wealth, intelligence, and leave me but one gift, I would ask for Faith—for with Faith in Him, in His goodness, mercy, love for me, and belief in everlasting life, I believe I could suffer the loss of my other gifts and still be happy—trustful, leaving all to His inscrutable providence.  When I start my day with a prayer of consecration to Him, with complete trust and confidence, I am perfectly relaxed and happy regardless of what accident of fate befalls me because I know it is part of His divine plan and He will take care of me and my dear ones” (444).   Jesus invites us to have this kind of trusting Faith -- the trusting Faith of the Old Testament Job -  in our moments of despair and helplessness. (https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/column/rose-mother-of-john-f-kennedy-2741) & video:  https://youtu.be/FDnHiiWt1SY)

Life lesson: Jesus' word of desolation teaches us that there is no despair so deep, no evil so overwhelming, no place so far removed from joy, light, and love, or even from the very heart of God which God Incarnate has not experienced before us, and where God cannot meet us and bring us home.  In the hardest moments, when we have been stretched out and are in great pain, we always know that He is there, by our side, feeling everything that we are feeling, and that He will not fail us, forsake us, or abandon us.  Jesus is atoning for the sins of despair by experiencing rejection from all quarters.  Let us never lose hope of the mercy of a loving and forgiving God in spite of the number and gravity of our sins.  Jesus is also teaching us the truth of the horrible reality of Hell, of the eternal and sad fate of forsaking of God.

5. The word of Suffering: "After this, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, said, ‘I thirst’" (Jn 19:28).  "Zhena" - "I thirst," the fifth word of Jesus from the cross, is the shortest of the seven, reminding us of Psalm 22:15: "My throat is as dry as dust, and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth." While Jesus was dying on the Cross, he had developed an agonizing thirst.  Death by Crucifixion is one of the most painful modes of torture ever devised by man.  The draining away of blood from the body brings on intensive thirst.   The physical agony of thirst is terrible beyond the power of words to describe. The whole body cries out for water - water to moisten a parched mouth, water to free a swollen tongue, water to open a rasping throat that cannot gasp enough air, water to keep life alive just a few moments longer.  The psalmist prayed (Psalm 63:2): "O God, you are my God -- for you I long!  For you my body yearns; for you my soul thirsts, like a land parched, lifeless, and without water."

Jesus expressed this thirst for souls in his encounter with the Samaritan woman at the well, offering her the water of everlasting life. Jesus thirsts for souls. He is dying to save our souls from sin and from Satan, souls who will live performing the glorious duty of doing the will of God, souls who will burn with the fire of the love of God, souls who will love their neighbor, because whatever they do to their neighbor they are doing it to Christ (Mt 25:31-46). The chapels of the houses of Mother Teresa of Calcutta have the word, "I thirst" at the side of every Tabernacle. Jesus was thirsty for souls who love, who live this life saved by Christ doing good, feeding the hungry, helping the sick and the needy, and visiting those in prison.  All the great missionaries from St. Paul to Pope St. John Paul II have been keenly aware of this great Christian mission.  St. Francis Xavier's prayer was, "give me souls and take away everything else from me."

Life lesson: Jesus' thirst was more for souls who really thirst for God.  All Christians are to be missionaries who satiate this thirst of Christ by preaching him, mainly through their exemplary and transparent Christian lives, and drawing others to love and believe in Him. When Jesus says, "I thirst," he is not only identifying with the needs of humanity, he is experiencing them. When we thirst, Christ thirsts. When the poor thirst for clean water to drink, Christ thirsts. When children thirst for parents who will love them and not abuse them, Christ thirsts. When those who are marginalized by society because of gender, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, or political views thirst for belonging, Christ thirsts.

6. The word of Triumph: "When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, ‘It is finished’" (Jn 19:30).  The Savior was about to die. It was for this cause that Jesus had come into the world and, now that His mission was accomplished, He declared definitively, "It is finished!" meaning that the work of salvation entrusted to him as the Messiah of God   is now "accomplished, fulfilled, achieved." Jesus lived only half the normal span of human life in his century.  During that time, he was criticized and despised and rejected.  He was captured in the Garden of Gethsemane, led to the Judgment Hall, and condemned to die.  Now his suffering has ended. The ordeal is  finished, and nothing remaines but the blessed peace of the absence of all sensation.  Furthermore, all that was prophesied and prefigured in the Old Testament concerning His death has been fulfilled.  And finally, the work of redemption planned by God the Father from all eternity has been completed.  But Jesus' declaration is more than just welcoming the ending of pain, and it is more than joy at the deliverance death brings.  He does not merely say, "It is over;" he says, "It is accomplished, fulfilled, achieved."  Scholars got more insight into the meaning of this expression a few years ago after some archaeologists dug up in the Holy Land a tax collector's office that was almost intact, with all the tax records and everything. There were two stacks of tax records and one of them had the word, tetelestai, on the top. In other words, "paid in full." These people don't owe anything anymore. So, when Jesus said, "It is finished," what is finished? It is the debt we owe God by our sins. It has been paid in full! This is a declaration of victory.  It echoes the statements of completion in Genesis (2:1) and Revelation (16:17). The words "It is finished" are also a declaration of victory in the sense that Jesus has completed, accomplished, what God had sent him to do in this world. This victory is  like that of the athlete who enters a marathon race with the single-minded intention of both reaching the finishing line and coming in first. It is like that of the student who is finally reaching the goal after years of study, namely, graduation and a degree. It is like that of the author or artist, who after years of research and struggle finally completes his masterpiece, his most significant and enduring work. It is like that of the person who has  undergone major surgery and has recuperated completely. For John the words of Jesus, "It is finished," are the epitome of Christ's life and ministry; the words are spoken by the King of kings on his throne, which is the cross. Jesus has won the victory over sin, evil, and death by willingly, and lovingly, allowing himself to submit to these powers. In so doing, he has defeated them.  

Life lesson: Can I die saying joyfully and gratefully the sixth and seventh words of Christ in all sincerity?  It is possible if I live my Christian life doing the will of God in all sincerity and commitment. If a Christian is in the kitchen doing the will of God, said, St. Teresa of Calcutta (Mother Teresa), her actions are as important to God as when the Pope is preaching to millions. 

7. The word of Committal: "Jesus cried out in a loud voice, 'Father, into your hands I commend my spirit'; and when he had said this he breathed his last"(Lk 23:46).  Jesus was always submitting himself to God, and when he died, he died just as he had lived.  Jesus entrusted his spirit -- his life -- and all that had given it meaning  to God his Father in Faith.  Even at the point of his own abandonment, when the good seemed so very far away, he proclaimed his Faith in God which the darkness could not overcome: "Father, into your hands, I commend my spirit."

Life lesson: We, too, are told "Commit your way to the Lord; trust in Him and He will act” (Ps 37:5). Let us live in such a way as to hear the welcome words of God our Father, "This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased."  The Christian should be able (like Stephen in Acts 7), to cry with his last breath, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." When we see someone hurting, how often have we listened,  and invited the sufferer to prayer? How often have we failed to invite someone to Mass, a prayer service, or Bible study, because of the possibility of rejection? Just as Christ taught us to pray, he also offered this small prayer for strength, "Into your hands, Father, I commend my Spirit." 

 
Concluding anecdotes #1) "HE DIED FOR ME."  It was February 1941, Auschwitz, Poland. Maximilian Kolbe was a Franciscan priest put in the infamous death camp for helping Jews escape Nazi terrorism.
Months went by and in desperation, one of his fellow prisoners escaped from the camp.  The camp rule was enforced. Ten people would be rounded up randomly and herded into a cell where they would die of starvation and a final exposure to lethal gas, as a lesson against future escape attempts. Names were called. A Polish Jew, Frandishek Gasovnachek, was called. He cried, "Please spare me, I have a wife and children!" Kolbe stepped forward and said, "I will take his place." Kolbe was marched into the starvation cell with nine others where he managed to live until August 14, 1941. This story was chronicled on NBC news special several years ago. Gasovnachek, by this time 82, was shown telling this story while tears streamed down his cheeks. A mobile camera followed him around his little white house to a marble monument carefully tended with flowers. The inscription read: IN MEMORY OF MAXIMILIAN KOLBE HE DIED IN MY PLACE. Every day Gasovnachek lived since 1941, he lived with the knowledge, "I live because someone died for me." Every year on August 14 he travels to Auschwitz in memory of Kolbe. "Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends" (John 15:13).

# 2) The gladiator: Rome was celebrating its temporary victory over Alaric the Goth in its usual manner, by watching gladiators fight to the death in the arena, when suddenly there was an interruption.  A rudely-robed figure boldly leaped down into the arena.  Telemachus was one of the hermits who devoted themselves to a holy life of prayer and self-denial and kept themselves apart from the wicked life of Rome.  Although few of the Roman citizens followed their example, most of them had great respect for these hermits, and the few who recognized Telemachus knew that he had come from the wilds of Asia Minor on a pilgrimage to visit churches and to celebrate Christmas in Rome.  Without any hesitation, Telemachus advanced upon the two gladiators who were engaged in their life-and-death struggle.  Laying a hand on one of them, he sternly reproved him for shedding innocent blood, and then, turning toward the thousands of angry faces around him, called to them: "Do not repay God's mercy in turning away the swords of your enemies by murdering each other!"
Angry shouts drowned out his voice.  "This is no place for preaching!  On with the combat!"  Pushing Telemachus aside, the two gladiators prepared to continue their combat, but Telemachus stepped between them.  Enraged at the interference of an outsider with their chosen vocation, the gladiators turned on Telemachus and stabbed him to death.  The crowd fell silent, shocked by the death of this holy man.  But his death had not been in vain, for from that day on, no more gladiators ever went into combat in the Roman Colosseum (Source: John Foxe, Foxe's Christian Martyrs of the World, pp. 26-27).

# 3: How can I ask God "Why Me?" Arthur Ashe, the legendary Wimbledon player was dying of AIDS which he contracted from infected blood he received during a heart surgery in 1983. From the world over, he received letters from his fans.  One of them asked, "Why does God have to select you for such a bad disease?"
To this Arthur Ashe replied: “The world over--50,000,000 children start playing tennis, 5,000,000 learn to play tennis, 500,000 learn professional tennis, 50,000 come to the circuit, 5000 reach the grand slam, 50 reach the Wimbledon, 4 to semi-finals, 2 to finals. When I was the one holding the cup, I never asked God, "Why me?" And today in pain, I should not be asking GOD "Why me?" (http://boardofwisdom.com/togo/Quotes/ShowQuote?msgid=181446#.VWobr0oo4dU)  L/22

“Scriptural Homilies” Cycle C (No.26) by Fr. Tony: akadavil@gmail.com

Visit my website by clicking on http://frtonyshomilies.com/ for missed or previous Cycle A homilies, 141 Year of Faith “Adult Faith Formation Lessons” (useful for RCIA classes too) & 197 “Question of the Week.” Contact me only at akadavil@gmail.com. Visit also https://www.catholicsermons.com/homilies/sunday_homilies  under Fr. Tony’s homilies and  under Resources in the CBCI website:  https://www.cbci.in  for other website versions.  (Vatican Radio website: http://www.vaticannews.va/en/church.html uploaded my Cycle A, B and C homilies in from 2018-2020)  Fr. Anthony Kadavil, Chaplain, Sacred Heart Residence of the Little Sisters of the Poor, 1655 McGill Ave, Mobile, AL 36604 .

Lent V [C] (April 3) Sunday (Eight-minute homily in one page) L/22

Introduction: Reminding us of God’s readiness to forgive sin, give the sinner a second chance, bind up broken lives, and restore people to His friendship, today’s readings challenge us to show the same mercy to the sinners around us and to live as forgiven people, actively seeking reconciliation with God and one another. The central theme of all three readings is a merciful God’s steadfast love.  The readings remind us that we should not be self-righteous and condemn the lives of others when God is calling them tenderly to conversion. 

Scripture lessons summarized: Explaining how a merciful God forgives the sins of His chosen people and leads them back from the Babylonian exile, the first reading reminds us that we too are forgiven, and we are saved from our own sinfulness. In the second reading, Paul presents himself as a forgiven sinner who has been completely transformed by his Faith in Christ Jesus. His life is an example of the Gospel exhortation, “Sin no more.” Paul loves Christ so much he wants to share in His sufferings and even in His death so that he may share Christ’s Resurrection. The sinful woman’s story of sin committed, and sin forgiven in today’s Gospel, shows the inexhaustible mercy and compassion Jesus offers to repentant sinners. In addition, by making sinlessness the condition for throwing the first stone, Jesus forces the accusers to assess their own souls and to leave. Thus, He grants justice to the accusers and mercy to the sinful woman. In our own lives, we bear witness to the Justice of God by confessing our sinfulness and resolving to avoid sin, and we bear witness to God’s Mercy by accepting the forgiveness of our sins and promising to forgive those who have offended us. 

Life messages: # 1: We need to become forgiving people, ready for reconciliation: Jesus has shown inexhaustible mercy and compassion to sinners by dying for our sins. But we are often self-righteous, like the Pharisees, and ready to spread scandal about others with a bit of spicy gossip. We are judgmental about the unmarried mother, the alcoholic, the drug addict, or the shoplifter, ignoring Jesus’ command: “Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.”  Let us learn to acknowledge our sins, ask God’s forgiveness every day and extend the same forgiveness to our erring brothers and sisters. We need to learn to hate the sin but love the sinners, showing them Jesus’ compassion and working with the Holy Spirit to make our own lives exemplary so that we can help lead them to Jesus’ ways. 

2) We have no right to judge others: We have no right to judge others because we often commit the very faults we condemn, we are often partial and prejudiced in our judgments, and we do not know the circumstances which have led someone to sin. Hence, let us leave the judgment to our merciful God Who does read people’s hearts. We should show mercy and compassion to those who sin because we ourselves are sinners in need of God’s forgiveness. The apostle Paul reminds us: “But if we judged ourselves, we would not come under judgment.” (1 Cor 11:31). 

Lent V [C] (April 3) Is 43:16-21; Phil 3:8-14; Jn 8:1-11  

Homily starter anecdotes # 1: Divine mercy on Chuck Colson: Probably, Chuck Colson (Charles Chuck Wendell Colson, 1931-2012) got inspiration from John Profumo to make a similar change of direction during the seven months  he served in the Federal Prison, Maxwell, Alabama, for acting as President Nixon's "hatchet man” in the Watergate Scandal. After his prison term, Colson became an Evangelical Christian leader who founded Prison Fellowship and Breakpoint. He was the founder and chairman of The Chuck Colson Center for Christian Worldview, which is "a research, study, and networking center for growing in a Christian worldview.” While Colson lived, the Center’s work included Colson's daily radio commentary,  Break Point, which was heard in its original format on more than 1,400 outlets across the United States. Colson was a principal signer of the 1994 Evangelicals and Catholics Together ecumenical document. He was joined by leading Evangelical Protestants and Roman Catholic leaders in the United States. -- Today’s Gospel describes how Jesus restored a sinful woman by lavishing on her his Divine mercy and forgiveness. She may have become Christ’s follower bearing witness to his mercy till her death. (http://frtonyshomilies.com/)

2) Second chance: Dr. A.J. Cronin was a great Christian physician in England. One night he assigned a young nurse to a little boy who had been brought to the hospital suffering from diphtheria and given only a slight chance to live. A tube was inserted into the boy's throat to help him breathe. It was the nurse's job periodically to clean out the tube. As the nurse sat beside the boy's bed, she accidentally dozed off. She awakened to find that the tube had become blocked. Instead of following instructions, she was immobilized by panic. Hysterically she called the doctor from his home. By the time he got to the boy, he was dead. Dr. Cronin was angry beyond expression. That night Dr. Cronin went to his office and wrote his recommendation to the board demanding the immediate expulsion of the nurse. He called her in and read it, his voice trembling with anger. She stood there in pitiful silence, a tall, thin, gawky Welsh girl. She nearly fainted with shame and remorse. "Well," asked Dr. Cronin in a harsh voice, "have you nothing to say for yourself?" There was more silence. Then she uttered this pitiful plea, "...please give me another chance." Dr. Cronin sent her away. But he could not sleep that night. He kept hearing some words from the dark distance: "Forgive us our trespasses." The next morning Dr. Cronin went to his desk and tore up the report. In the years that followed he watched as this slim, nervous girl became the head of a large hospital and one of the more honored nurses in England. -- Thank God for a second chance, and a third chance, and fourth chance! Do you need to encounter God's forgiveness? He died on a cross to make it available. (http://frtonyshomilies.com/) 

# 3: How to Clean Practically Anything -- except sin! Consumers Report put out a little book entitled, How to Clean Practically Anything. The book tells you what solvent to use for nearly every kind of stain. Here are a few. Glycerin will remove the stain from a ball point pen. Boiling water will remove berry stains. Vinegar will remove crayon stains. To remove a rust stain from your cotton work clothes, moisten the spot with some full-strength vinegar and then rub in a bit of salt. Ammonia will remove blood stains. Alcohol will remove grass stains. Hydrogen peroxide is good for magic marker stains. Mix a teaspoon of 3% hydrogen peroxide with a little cream of tartar or a dab of non-gel toothpaste. Rub the paste on the stain with a soft cloth. Rinse. The stain, whatever it was, should be gone. Try a little meat tenderizer to remove protein-based stains like milk, chocolate, and blood from clothes. Use bleach on mildew stains. Lemon juice works well on rust stains. -- But you know what? The book lists absolutely nothing for the stain of sin. And the reason it doesn't is because there is only One Person Who can do that. Only Jesus Christ, the Incarnation of Divine Mercy, as described in today’s Gospel, can forgive us our sins when we repent, confess our sins, and ask God’s pardon and forgiveness. (http://frtonyshomilies.com/)

# 4: Mother Teresa on the Sacrament of Divine Mercy: While Mother Teresa is certainly famous for the charity with which she poured herself out in love for Christ in the distressing disguise of lepers, AIDS victims, the dying, and the untouchables, she was likewise a great “Missionary of Mercy” in calling everyone to receive Jesus’ forgiving love in the Sacrament of Confession, a Sacrament she received at least once a week. She would counsel others, “One thing is necessary for us: Confession. Confession is nothing but humility in action. We call it Penance, but really it is a Sacrament of Love, a Sacrament of forgiveness. It is a place where I allow Jesus to take away from me everything that divides, that destroys. Confession is a beautiful act of great love. Only in confession can we go in as sinners with sin and come out as sinners without sin. … There’s no need for us to despair, no need for us to commit suicide, no need for us to be discouraged, if we have understood the tenderness of God’s love.” -- She said elsewhere, very simply, “Confession is Jesus and I, and nobody else.” And then she told us, “Remember this for life.” (http://frtonyshomilies.com/)

Introduction: Today’s readings remind us, first, of the horror and the just consequences of sin; second, of the incredible gift of God’s mercy; and third, of what we need to do to receive that mercy. Reminding us of God’s readiness to forgive sin and to restore people to His friendship, today’s readings challenge us to show the same mercy to the sinners around us and to live as forgiven people, actively seeking reconciliation. Mercy and pardon are the hallmarks of the Christian. The central theme of all three readings is a merciful God’s steadfast love. Both the verses of the Responsorial Psalm (Ps 126) and the reading from Paul invite us to respond to such Divine graciousness with joy and gratitude.  The readings also encourage us to reflect seriously on the ultimate example of God’s compassionate love for us. They remind us that we cannot self-righteously condemn the lives of others when God is calling them tenderly to conversion. Repentance is not something we do. Rather, repentance is allowing the forgiving power of God to touch our lives and lead us along new paths. Explaining how a merciful God forgives the sins of His chosen people and leads them back from the Babylonian exile, the first reading reminds us that we too are forgiven, and that we are saved from our own sinfulness. In the Responsorial Psalm (Ps 126), the Psalmist reminds us of the joy God’s Mercy brings us when we ask for and receive His pardon. In the second reading, Paul presents himself as a forgiven sinner who has been completely transformed by his Faith in Christ Jesus. His life is an example of obedience to the Gospel exhortation, “Sin no more.” Paul loves Christ so much that he wants to share in his sufferings and even in his death so that Paul                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 may share in Christ’s Resurrection. The sinful woman’s story of sin committed, and sin forgiven in today’s Gospel also shows the inexhaustible mercy and compassion Jesus grants to sinners. It invites us to recognize and experience in our own  lives both God’s Justice and His Mercy. We bear witness to the Justice of God by confessing our sinfulness and determining to avoid sin, and we bear witness to God’s Mercy by accepting the forgiveness of our sins and by determining to forgive those who have offended us.

First reading: Is 43:16-21, explained: Today’s Old Testament passage comes from the part of the Book of Isaiah that celebrates the permission from Cyrus the Great (538 BC), for Israel to return to Jerusalem from its exile in Babylon. After blaming the people, through His prophet Isaiah, for the unfaithfulness that had led to their exile, the Lord God assures the Babylonian exiles that He is going to end their prophesied 70 years' exile in Babylon. By having Isaiah remind them of how God had liberated their ancestors from their slavery in Egypt eight centuries earlier, (miraculously destroying the army of the Pharaoh and providing their food and water in the desert), the Lord God assures the exiles that He has forgiven their sins. Through His prophet, the Lord exhorts His people to look to the past and to remember the wondrous acts He has wrought for them through all the stages of their development as a people.  He tells them He will provide for their return journey from Babylon to Jerusalem, giving them food, water, and protection from wild animals in the desert. The reading gives us the message that we, too, are forgiven, and we are, with His grace, walking His Way of Salvation away from our own sinfulness and toward Heaven.  Today we hear the Lord God, through His Prophet Isaiah both reminding the exiled Jews of how God saved them in their Exodus from Egypt, and promising a new Exodus that will make the original pale by contrast. Paul tells us (in the second reading) that new Exodus is the death and resurrection of Jesus. We  can be part of that new Exodus by following Christ in his suffering. We are already united with Christ but we are not finished; we must still run the race; we are called to deeper conversion, to more complete identification with him. It is like the woman caught in adultery. She was forgiven and given life, but she was commanded “Go, and sin more.” Like us she embarked on a life-long commitment to Christ.

Second reading: Phil 3: 8-14, explained: Saint Paul had tried all his life to earn God's favor by carefully keeping the Law of Moses and by zealously doing what he thought God wanted. Paul enjoyed Roman citizenship and, in addition to his knowledge of the Greek language, culture, and philosophies, he had also been schooled in his Jewish heritage under Gamaliel, an eminent rabbi (Acts 22:3). His conversion to Christ made him re-evaluate all that "as loss" and "rubbish." Thus, Paul expresses his deep regret and repentance for having persecuted Jesus in His Church and for his own futile attempts at “earning righteousness” by strict observance of the Mosaic Law before his conversion. Now he understands that the only real way to righteousness is to accept it as an undeserved gift of God's grace. Faith here means belief that Jesus Christ has won this righteousness for us. Faith also means making the honest admission that we, by ourselves, cannot keep any law well enough to earn righteousness, with the confidence that God is good enough to give it to us anyway. Paul does not renounce the moral law, but he sees the righteousness that comes through Faith in Christ as the righteousness from God.  As a result, he loves Christ so much he wants to share in his sufferings, even in his death, so that Paul may share in Christ’s Resurrection. Just as, in the first reading, Judah is invited by a forgiving God to forget its past sins and their dreadful consequences, Paul acknowledges that the merciful Lord has unconditionally pardoned his sins against Christians. Paul regards himself as having “been taken possession of by Christ Jesus,” and as constantly striving to be ever more conformed to the pattern set by Christ. 

Gospel exegesis: Text omitted by ancient manuscripts: This powerful narrative of Jesus and the accused woman is not found in the earliest and best manuscripts of John, but appears in other important manuscripts after Lk 21:38. Almost all scholars today recognize that this text was not originally part of John’s Gospel—but it was obviously such an important story from the life of Jesus that the early Christians wanted to ensure it was not lost, even if they weren’t entirely sure of where to place it. It seems to have much more in common with Luke’s Gospel, and it is very possible that it is a fragment from one of Luke’s sources.  This account is undeniably rich in theological and moral significance, and in psychological and human drama.  Still, early Church authors, such as Papias (ca. A.D. 120) and the author of the Syriac “Teaching of the Twelve Apostles” (3rd cent.), knew of such an incident, and Jerome included it in his translation. For these reasons the story is judged canonical by Catholics. It might have been omitted in some early rigorist traditions because the early Church, in its struggle to maintain strict penitential discipline, perhaps could not deal with the ease with which Jesus forgave the woman. In this episode Jesus seemed too “soft” on sin. Perhaps for this reason, the story was temporarily set aside by the early Church and was only later granted canonical approbation.

 The context and the trap: The incident happened in Jerusalem, in the precincts of the Temple where Jesus had been teaching. [“The scribes and the Pharisees” is often a stock phrase in the Gospels for “those Jews who disagreed with Jesus and opposed him.”] The scribes were a group of people with special training in Scripture and in the interpretation of Jewish law. They were also called lawyers or theologians and most of them were Pharisees. [The Pharisees were members of a lay movement that sought to extend God’s reign into every aspect of a person’s day.] The scribes and Pharisees brought forward a woman caught in the act of adultery. It was a pitiful, heart-wrenching scenario, calculated to cause her ultimate shame. The Mosaic penalty for such an offense was death by stoning, although there is no evidence that this ever took place, certainly not in Roman times. Besides, Moses commanded that both partners in adultery should be stoned, not only the woman. (Lv 20:10; Dt 22:22). Stoning was mostly done in cases of blasphemy; such was the case with Stephen, whom we read about in the book of Acts. The Jewish civil and criminal code considered three grave sins as punishable by death, namely idolatry, murder, and adultery. Deuteronomy prescribes death by strangulation for a married woman caught in adultery. If the guilty woman is betrothed, she has to be stoned. In both cases they have violated God’s sixth commandment and have destroyed the fidelity and unity of marriage. "It is a terrible thing for a sinner to fall into the hands of his fellow sinners.” (F. B. Meyer). His opponents wanted to use the occasion to embarrass Jesus, because he had the reputation of proclaiming God’s mercy toward sinners. If he insisted on following the Law exactly, his reputation as a prophet of God’s mercy would be open to question. Besides, if Jesus consented to her death by strangulation or stoning, he would be violating the Roman law, which forbade killing by private citizens. If he took the side of the adulterous woman, he was open to the charge of ignoring God’s Law and God’s Justice as given by Moses. This was the ingenious trap they had set for Jesus.

Jesus’ fair verdict: Initially, Jesus showed his lack of interest in the case by simply writing on the ground. But he was the only one in the group who could rightly judge the woman. The woman waited to hear Jesus' verdict. She knew that she was guilty. She had passed the judgment on herself, and she accepted Jesus' right to do the same. Perfectly understanding the secret intentions of her self-righteous accusers and the helplessness of the repentant sinner, Jesus gave his verdict: “Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” Jesus confronts their self-righteousness with a demand that they first examine their own consciences before they accuse another. Thus, he turned the accusers’ attention back on themselves and made them realize that they, too, were sinners. St. Augustine puts Jesus’ stand as follows: “Let this woman be punished, but not by sinners; let the law be applied, but not by its transgressors.” Thus, Jesus ingeniously escaped from the trap by leaving the judgment to the consciences of the accusers. This reduced the accusers to silence, prompting them to leave in shame. According to Jewish custom, in the absence of eyewitnesses, the eldest should have begun the stoning, and since stoning was work, it was forbidden on a Sabbath day according to Mosaic law,  and stoning one to death was a violation of Roman law.  So,  the accusers melted away, beginning with the elders, who, like the elders in the story of Susannah (Dn 13), had probably brought the charge.  Since the elders left scene first followed by youngsters the case against the woman was dismissed.  By appealing to the Justice of God and the injustice of humans, Jesus upheld God’s mercy. The moral of the story is not that sin is of no importance, or that God does not punish sin, but that God extends mercy to repentant sinners in order that they may turn from their sins.

Jesus keeps scribbling in the sand: The response of Jesus was a symbolic action. According to the Gospel writer: “Jesus bent down and began to write on the ground with his finger” (Jn 8:6).This parabolic act is probably an allusion to Jer 17:3: “Those who turn away from thee shall be written in the earth, for they have forsaken the Lord, the fountain of living water.” If so, Jesus’ writing on the ground is an indirect reminder of the “guilt” of those who were condemning the adulterous woman. Jesus is saying that he will not permit the Law to be manipulated by the Pharisees to condemn those they label as sinners, when the hypocritical condemners themselves are also sinners. Thus, just as the scribbling of Jesus that was written on the ground or in the sand will disappear with the wind and rain and be forgotten, so will the sins that God has forgiven disappear and be forgotten.

Judgment with a stern warning: Since Jesus knew that her sin was a violation of the sixth commandment, “You shall not commit adultery,” he gave the woman the strong warning, “Go, and from now on, do not sin anymore.” Jesus did not shrink from calling her deed a sin, inappropriate and offensive to the Justice of God. He forgave the sinner, but he upheld the Justice of God by not excusing or explaining away the sin. Without minimizing her sinfulness, Jesus showed the sinner the respect she deserved as a human being, treating her with compassion. Clearly, he valued repentance and conversion more than simple reprisal. Not only did Jesus not condemn the woman, he also gave her hope for the future. Jesus is thus portrayed as a living expression of the Divine Mercy, a wise and kind judge, more concerned with forgiveness and rehabilitation than with punishment and death. St. Augustine captures this scene with his apt remark: relicti sunt duo miseria et misericordia (“There are but two left: misery and mercy”). Her story of sin committed, and sin forgiven is an example of the inexhaustible mercy and compassion shown by Jesus to sinners. When we repent and express sorrow for our sins Jesus will say “Neither will I condemn you. Go and sin no more.” Jesus’ answer is somewhat ambiguous, and it is perhaps because it was considered “soft” on sexual immorality that some Christian communities might have hesitated to incorporate this particular story into their New Testaments. But Jesus does tell her “not to sin again,” which certainly implies that her behavior was, in fact, sinful; He does not excuse the fact of the sin, or deny its wrongness, but He chooses not to dwell on it, knowing that the entire experience has been more than traumatic enough.

Story of Divine mercy: God imposed the death penalty in the Old Testament for all types of serious sins: for idolatry, murder, blasphemy, using the Lord’s name in vain, profaning the Sabbath, cursing or striking father and mother, kidnapping, and several sexual sins (see Ex 19, 21, 22, 31, 35 and Lv 20). The Church still teaches that there is still a “death penalty,” an eternal death penalty, associated with such grave sins. That is why we call this type of sin “mortal,” or “deadly.” When we commit such an act with full knowledge and deliberate consent, we die spiritually, we commit spiritual suicide, and we cause definitive self-separation from God. When we understand why the death penalty is just for such sins, we will appreciate in its depth God’s merciful love on the Cross. Besides, God Himself revealed, especially through the Prophets Jeremiah, Isaiah, Hosea, and Ezekiel that every sin is an act of adultery because it is being unfaithful to the spousal covenant of love we have entered into with God (see Jer 3:20, Is 1:21, Is 57:8, Hos 2:2-5, Hos 3:1-5, Hos 9:1, Ez 16:30). Hence, the story of the woman caught in adultery helps us recognize and receive the immensity of God’s mercy. That is why Pope Francis in his first Sunday homily as Pope declared: “God never tires of forgiving us…. It’s we who tire of asking for forgiveness.” Then he prayed, “May we never tire of asking for what God never tires to give!” According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, home is the first Christian school where one learns love and repeated forgiveness (CCC #1657), based on the loving mercy of God. The gates of forgiveness should always be open to anyone who turns away from sin. There is no sin, however serious, that the Church cannot forgive (CCC #982).

Life messages: # 1: We need to become forgiving people, ready for reconciliation: Jesus has shown inexhaustible mercy and compassion to sinners by dying for our sins. But we are often self-righteous, like the Pharisees, and ready to spread scandal about others with a bit of spicy gossip. We are judgmental about the unmarried mother, the alcoholic, the drug addict, or the shoplifter, ignoring Jesus’ command: “Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.”  Let us learn to acknowledge our sins, ask God’s forgiveness every day and extend the same forgiveness to our erring brothers and sisters. We need to learn to hate the sin but love the sinners, showing them Jesus’ compassion and working with the Holy Spirit to make our own lives exemplary so that we can help lead them to Jesus’ ways.

2) We have no right to judge others: We have no right to judge others because we often commit the very faults we condemn, we are often partial and prejudiced in our judgment and we do not know the circumstances which have led someone to sin. Hence, let us leave the judgment to our just and merciful God who reads people’s hearts. We should show mercy and compassion to those who sin because we ourselves are sinners in need of God’s forgiveness. The apostle Paul reminds us: “But if we judged ourselves, we would not come under judgment.” (1 Cor 11:31).

JOKES OF THE WEEK:

1) Pastor and Farmer: “Do you smoke, drink or curse?” The pastor asked the old farmer. It was a hesitant, “Well, every once in a while.” “You know, John, I don’t smoke, drink, or cuss…” “Yessuh, pastor, but you don’t farm either...!”

2) Gary Dearing told a story about his Air Force Colonel, who served as inspector general of his command, and paid particular attention to how personnel wore their uniforms. “On one occasion the Colonel spotted a junior airman with a violation. ‘Airman,’ he bellowed, ‘What do you do when a shirt pocket is unbuttoned?’ The startled airman replied, ‘Button it, sir!’ The Colonel looked him in the eye and said, ‘Well?’ At that, the airman nervously reached over and buttoned the Colonel's shirt pocket.”

Websites of the Week

1)  Fr. Don’ collection of video homilies & blogs: https://sundayprep.org

2) Video Sunday-Scripture study by Fr. Geoffrey Plant:

 https://www.youtube.com/user/GeoffreyPlant2066

3) Dr. Brant Pitre’s commentary on Cycle B Sunday Scripture: https://catholicproductions.com/blogs/mass-readings-explained-year-c 

4) Website for young adults: http://bustedhalo.com/ 

5) Collection of Catholic Q & A; http://www.catholicqanda.com/ 

6. Bible on your desktop: http://www.usccb.org/bible/books-of-the-bible/index.cfm 

7. Catholic answers: http://www.catholic.com/ 

8. Text week homilies: http://www.textweek.com/mkjnacts/jn8.htm 

23 additional anecdotes:

1) Ann Landers: Some time ago a lady wrote to the famous advice columnist Ann Landers and asked this question, "Do all men cheat on their wives? I have been suspicious of my husband for some time. I even hired a private detective to trail him, but he couldn't come up with a thing. I went to a lawyer. He told me to grow up and accept the fact that all husbands fool around. Do they?" Ann Landers very wisely replied, "No. There are plenty of married men who never cheat, and your husband could be one of them. The only thing you can be fairly sure of is that your lawyer cheats on his wife." -- Cheating on one's wife or husband is called adultery in the Bible. It is prohibited by the Sixth Commandment. (http://frtonyshomilies.com/)

2) The Scarlet Letter: In 1850 Nathaniel Hawthorne published The Scarlet Letter. Its setting was a Puritan community in Boston in early New England. Hawthorne’s novel tells the story of Hester Prynne who was forced to wear the scarlet letter “A” for “adultery” because she had given birth to an illegitimate child and refused to name the father. The child’s father was none other than the community’s minister, Arthur Dimmesdale. Hester bore the letter, the public scorn and the humiliation alone, while the minister had merely to bear the pangs of conscience. After many years, the minister finally confessed his secret sin to the people and later died in peace. Hester continued to wear her letter, and went on to live like a saint bringing happiness to her disturbed illegitimate daughter and helping others in their troubles. The townsfolk said the letter stood, not for Adultery as it had done but now for Able, and a sign of honor. -- The Scarlet Letter has some similarities with today’s Gospel story of the woman caught in adultery. (http://frtonyshomilies.com/)

3)  John Profumo – a sinner restored: The story of John Profumo (91) (1915-2006) is that of a man who made one terrible mistake but sought his own redemption in a way which has no precedent in public life either before or since. No one in public life ever did more to atone for his sins; no one behaved with more silent dignity as his name was repeatedly dragged through the mud. Profumo's transgression came when the Tories had been in power for 11 years. He was then a promising Secretary of State for War, married to the actress Valerie Hobson, one of Britain's leading actresses of stage and screen in the 1940s and 1950s. But he had a secret relationship with Christine Keeler, a call-girl who had been - separately - seeing the Russian naval attaché and spy, Yevgeny Ivanov.  This was at the height of the Cold War. When this matter was brought to light, Profumo made the matter worse by lying to the House of Commons. Later, he had a change of heart, went to the Prime Minister, confessed his guilt, and resigned on June 5, 1963 from the Cabinet in shame. Filled with remorse, Profumo never sought to justify himself or seek public sympathy. Instead, for the next four decades he devoted himself to Toynbee Hall, a charitable settlement at Spitalfields in the East End of London. He began by washing dishes, helping with the playgroup and collecting rents. Later he served with the charity's council, eventually becoming its chairman and then president. From his tiny office at Toynbee Hall, Profumo kept up a ceaseless flow of letters to anyone who might be able to speak, give money or do anything to assist the charity in its work of helping the poor and down-and-outs in the East End. Largely through his efforts, Toynbee Hall became a national institution. Profumo's dedication and dignity won him enormous admiration from people in all walks of life. Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher called him "one of our national heroes." When he was sixty years old, at the 1975 Honors Party honoring distinguished citizens, Elizabeth II, the Queen of England, named John Profumo, the sinner, among the distinguished citizens of her realm. Thus he was fully restored. ("http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1512656/John-Profumo.html). -- Today’s Gospel describes how Jesus restored a sinful woman by lavishing on her his Divine mercy and forgiveness. She may have become Christ’s follower bearing witness to his mercy till her death.  (http://frtonyshomilies.com/)

4) Jesus and the Fallen Woman: The woman caught in adultery described in today’s Gospel has inspired a wide variety of Christian art. The most striking is Jesus and the Fallen Woman,” by Lucas Cranach, the Younger (c. 1570), now exhibited, as is Rembrandt’s Return of the Prodigal Son” in The Hermitage at St. Petersburg. At the front center of the painting are Jesus and the woman. Cranach captures that moment when Jesus turns toward the accusers and challenges those without sin to cast a stone. His expression is stern but troubled, and his right hand reaches out toward the woman. Most remarkable, the woman is not bowed to the ground in front of Jesus as in much art work, but is standing at his left. She is very young, with eyes closed, looking forlorn and resigned to her fate. Her head is inclined toward Jesus’ shoulder, and her hand rests on his arm. Most striking, as one follows the lines of the painting, is that her right hand is entwined with the left hand of Jesus in a gesture of exquisite tenderness. The hands of mercy are joined to the hands of a suffering person facing execution. -- Jesus and the young woman in Cranach’s painting can be our guides through Lent and Paschaltide. With heads inclined toward Christ and hands intertwined with his, we can go forward as forgiven sinners, yet called to be companions of Jesus. (http://frtonyshomilies.com/)

5) Love and marriage are a cycle. Some time back Ann Landers received a beautiful letter from a wife in Ohio. She wrote, "My husband is a laborer. He leaves home at 7:00 AM and puts in long, hard days at work. If he can get overtime, he grabs it. When he comes home at night, he paints the house, fixes whatever is broken, and helps with the kids. At the end of the week he hands me his paycheck and apologizes because it isn't more. He never complains when I give him ground meat in eleven different shapes. At night when he puts his arms around me and pulls me close, I feel that whatever I've done for him was not enough. Love and marriage are a cycle. The more you do for a man, the more he loves you. The more he loves you, the more he tries to do for you. And so it goes, round and round. It's so simple. Why don't more people figure it out?" -- One thing is sure...that lady in Ohio won't have adultery problems; nor will anyone with a marriage of that quality. Their lifestyle follows the command of St. Paul: "Honor Christ by being servants of each other." (Ephesians 5:21) . (http://frtonyshomilies.com/)

6) "Where was the Garden of Eden?" Dr. Carlyle Marney was asked a question by one of his freshman students one day. The student asked, "Where was Eden?" Dr. Marney put down his pen, turned to the college freshman, and replied, "I can tell you exactly, in Tennessee." "What?" gasped the student. "Knoxville, Tennessee, 215 South Elm Street," Marney insisted. "It was there on Elm Street, when I was a boy, that I stole a quarter out of Mama's purse and ran to the store and bought a bag of peanut clusters and ate it as fast as I could. Afterward, I was so ashamed that I came back home to 215 Elm Street and hid in the closet. Mom found me and asked, 'Why are you hiding? What have you done?'" ["Geography Lesson," Herald of Holiness, February 1996, p. 2]. -- I personally don't think anybody needs help locating their own Eden, do you? That's the place where we first knowingly betrayed and disobeyed God. Our Eden is that situation or that place where we first discovered that we suffer from the same disease as Adam and Eve and every other human being in existence. We suffer from the debilitating symptoms of sin. Now, pick up a stone. Hold the stone in your hand and think about your Eden. Hold the stone in your hand and wrap that thought, that memory, that time of Eden in your life around the stone. Those moments stick with us and weigh us down and drag us down and slow us down and bring us down. -- But here's the Good News. We don't have to be weighed down by the weight of sin, God wants to lift us up. The God Jesus revealed to us is a God who patiently waits for His wayward children to come back home. (http://frtonyshomilies.com/)

7) Guilty: Dr. Karl Menninger, well-known psychiatrist, wrote a book a few years ago entitled, Whatever Became of Sin? In it, he reported how a stern, plainly dressed man appeared on a busy corner of Chicago’s Loop. As people passed by, he would from time-to-time solemnly lift his arm and point to a passerby and say just one word; “Guilty!” Then without changing expression, he would drop his arm. After a few seconds, he would raise his arm again, and with an accusing finger pointing at another person, he would utter that one-word indictment: “Guilty!” The effect of this on the people on was extraordinary. Some stared, started to laugh, then stopped, hesitated, looked around with furtive glances, and hurried on with quickened step. One passerby turned to a companion and exclaimed, “But how did he know?” -- We do not have to have an eccentric street preacher pointing an accusing finger to remind us of our guilt. We have more authentic inside information. We call it conscience or God’s voice within us. (http://frtonyshomilies.com/)

8) "Turn it over." John R. Aurelio, in his book Colors: Stories of the Kingdom (Amazon.com), gives us a beautiful portrayal of this side of God. He writes: On the sixth day, God created Father Adam and Mother Eve. On the seventh day, as God was resting, they asked Him if He would give them something special to commemorate their birthday. So, God reached into His treasure chest and took out a sacred coin. Written on it was the word "LOVE." On the eighth day, Father Adam and Mother Eve sinned. As they left the Garden of Eden, they asked God for an assurance that He would not abandon them. "You have the coin," He told them. "But, the coin says LOVE," they answered. "We have lost love. However will we find it again?" "Turn it over," God said. On the other side of the coin was written the word "FORGIVENESS." -- There is great truth in that. There is no love without forgiveness and there is no forgiveness without love. They are the two sides of the same coin. And the Good News is that God loves you no matter what you've done or what you've thought of doing. God loves you. That's the bottom line: God loves you. And God wants each of us to turn over the coin. (http://frtonyshomilies.com/) 

9) "Christ said, 'I don't remember.'” In his book, A Forgiving God in an Unforgiving World, Ron Lee Davis tells the true story of a priest in the Philippines, a much-loved man of God who carried the burden of a secret sin he had committed many years ago. He had repented but still had no peace about it. In his parish was a woman who deeply loved God and who claimed to have visions in which she spoke with Christ. The priest, however, was skeptical about that. To test her he said, "The next time you speak with Christ, ask him what sin I committed while I was in the high school." The woman agreed. A few days later the priest asked, "Well, did Christ visit you in your dreams?" "Yes, he did," she replied. "And did you ask him what sin I --  She smiled and answered, "Christ said, 'I don't remember.' (http://frtonyshomilies.com/)

10) “Who will cast the first stone?” There is a down-home story about a small-town veterinarian who had invented an instrument with which, he boasted, even a child could administer a capsule to a horse, no matter how unruly or reluctant the horse might be. One summer the vet went to county fair to demonstrate his new invention. They couldn’t find anyone who would permit his horse to be a part of the experiment, but they did find a mule, and soon a crowd had gathered to watch. Undaunted, the veterinarian inserted a long glass tube into the mouth of the mule, inserted a capsule in the other end, took a deep breath and put his mouth to the free end of the tube. But the mule blew first! -- Now that story reminds us that when we tell others what is good for them, we better be prepared to swallow the same ourselves! So, the theme of our homily today is “Who will cast the first stone?” (http://frtonyshomilies.com/)

11)“Every Jew must die before he will commit idolatry, murder or adultery.” According Jewish law, adultery was among the most serious crimes. The Rabbi said, “Every Jew must die before he will commit idolatry, murder or adultery.” So, adultery was one of the three gravest sins. The law was quite clear on the matter. Though there were certain differences in the way the death penalty was to be carried out, yet there was no question — death was the penalty for adultery. The woman knew this. -- Can you get even a faint hint of the despair, the anguish, the ravaging shame, and hopelessness that gripped this wretch of a creature, this “soiled plaything of men” as they came dragging her into the presence of Jesus. And where was the man who was her partner in sin? In the Mishnah which was the code of Jewish law, it was stated that the penalty for adultery was strangulation for both man and woman. Even the method of strangulation is laid down. “The man is to be enclosed in dung up to his knees, and a soft towel set within a rough towel to be placed around his neck (in order that no mark may be made, for the punishment is God’s punishment.) Then one man draws in one direction and another in the other direction, until he be dead.” (Barclay, The Daily Bible Study, The Gospel of John, Vol. 2, p. 2). (http://frtonyshomilies.com/)

12) "There it is. That's it, my life." In the movie, With Honors, Joe Pesci plays Simon Wilder a homeless man slowly dying from asbestos poisoning. Brendan Fraser portrays Montgomery 'Monty' Kessler, a student at Harvard who has reluctantly befriended Simon. In one of their conversations Simon pulls out a leather pouch and says, "There it is. That's it, my life." He dumps a bunch of stones out in his hand, picks up one and says, "I got this one on a beach in Bali. Best night's sleep I ever had." Monty asks, "You remember one night of sleep?" Simon says, "Last good one I had." Monty then asks, "What's that shiny white one?" "A woman. The one. The one true love. Yep, each stone tells a story that I want to remember. All I do is put them in my hand and rub them and abracadabra, I'm back there." They walk on and Monty asks, "Tell me about the woman." Simon says, "I can't. I'm not holding the stone." -- You know, there are a lot of stones and rocks in the Bible. There's Peter the Rock who sank like a rock when tried to walk on water. There are the stones, which Jesus said would break into song on Palm Sunday if the people didn't sing. There's the stone that sealed the tomb, which was rolled away so we could see inside and see that no mere grave could hold the Son of God. There are the stones used to build the Temple. And then there are the stones you're holding in your hand, the ones related to the passage for the day. You might call these stones, the First Stones. Let's look at the passage for today. (http://frtonyshomilies.com/)

13) Our spirituality and our sexuality are vitally connected. Fidelity in marriage and celibacy in singleness are expressions of our spirituality. Our spirituality and our sexuality are vitally connected. There is a mystery here; something more than meets the eye. Scott Peck says the sexual and spiritual parts of our personalities lie so close together that it is hardly possible to arouse one without the other. C.K. Chesterton put it this way, "Every man who knocks on the door of a brothel is looking for God." Lewis Smedes put it this way, "Nobody can go to bed with someone and leave his soul parked outside." Back when I used to do a lot of marriage counseling, David Mace was my hero. David tells about a client who said, "My husband and I always have prayer before we make love." "I was curious," says David, "so I asked her what they said." "Well," she replies, "we relax in each other’s arms and my husband says, 'For what we are about to receive, may the Lord make us truly thankful.'"  --May their numbers increase! The vital connection between our spirituality and our sexuality is an essential link that the Church needs to help people to understand. (http://frtonyshomilies.com/) 

14) The Legend of Bagger Vance:  There's a great scene in the movie The Legend of Bagger Vance which illustrates that point. If you remember the story from a few weeks ago, Bagger Vance is about a mythical golf match in the 1930's between golf legends Bobby Jones, Walter Hagen and a hometown ace Rannulph Junuh. As a teenager, Junuh had Tiger Woods' kind of skill and was destined to become something huge. But after a tour of duty during World War I, he came back changed and haunted. He tried to exorcise his demons through a reclusive life of alcohol and gambling. His former girlfriend persuaded him to join the match between two greats, even though he kept saying he had lost his swing. While Junuh was hitting practice balls one night, a transient caddy by the name of Bagger Vance entered his life, offered to help get him ready for the match and in the process helped him rediscover his passion both for life and for the game. In this scene Junuh had found his swing and things were going great for a while until he sliced one into the woods. As he entered the woods to find his ball, he was drawn back into the battle which had scarred his life so deeply, the battle of which he had been the only survivor. It all came crashing in on him and, as he reached to pick up his ball and call it quits, Bagger broke the spell and asked if he'd like a different club. Junuh said, "I can't do this. You don't understand." Bagger says, "What I'm talking about is a game. A game that can't be won, only played. Ain't a soul on this earth ain't got a burden to carry that he don't understand. You ain't alone in that. But you been carryin' this one long enough. Time to go on. Lay it down." Junuh says, "I don't know how." Bagger says, "You've got a choice. You can stop. Or you can start. Walkin' right back to where you always been. And then stand there. Still. Real still. And remember." Junuh says, "It's too long ago." Bagger says, "Oh, no sir. It was just a moment ago. Time for you to come on out the shadows, Junuh. Time for you to choose. You ain't alone. I'm right here with ya. I've been here all along. Now play the game. Your game. The one that only you was meant to play. The one that was given to you when you come into this world. Strike that ball, Junuh. Don't hold back. Give it everything. Now's the time. Let yourself remember. Remember your swing." -- Of course, it's the movies and Junuh does. He makes a fantastic, unbelievable shot and in so doing steps out of the darkness of the shadows of his past and into the light of a New Life, as the person God created him to be.  -- That is exactly what Jesus told this woman caught in sin, this woman used as a pawn to trap him. "It's time for you to come on out of the shadows. It's time for you to choose. You're not alone. I'm right here with you. I have been here all along." That's what Jesus tells each of us. "It's time to come out of the shadows and into My light. I'm right here with you and I have been all along. It's time to walk in the light of life." What does that mean, to walk in the light? Well, I think it means you have to let go of the past. You have to let go of the shadows and darkness. That's the only way we can step into the light. Unfortunately, a lot of us don't let go of the shadows. Sometimes the light seems too bright. We're afraid to step into the light because we're not ready to see ourselves as we really are. We're afraid of what we'll see and what God might see. (http://frtonyshomilies.com/) 

15) “The Selfish Giant.” Oscar Wilde’s story “The Selfish Giant” has a great message. Every afternoon, the children used to go and play in the Giant's garden. It was a large lovely garden, with soft green grass. Here and there over the grass stood beautiful flowers like stars, and there were twelve peach-trees that in the spring-time broke out into delicate blossoms of pink and pearl, and in the autumn bore rich fruit. The birds sat on the trees and sang so sweetly that the children used to stop their games in order to listen to them. "How happy we are here!" they cried to each other. One day the Giant came back. He had been to visit his friend the Cornish Ogre, and had stayed with him for seven years. When he arrived he saw the children playing in the garden. "My own garden is my own garden," said the Giant; "and I will allow nobody to play in it but myself." So he built a high wall all round it, and put up a notice-board. TRESPASSERS WILL BEPROSECUTED. The poor children had now nowhere to play. Then the Spring came, and all over the country there were little blossoms and little birds. Only in the garden of the Selfish Giant it was still winter. The birds did not care to sing in it as there were no children, and the trees forgot to blossom. "I cannot understand why the Spring is so late in coming," said the Selfish Giant, as he sat at the window and looked out at his cold white garden; "I hope there will be a change in the weather." But the Spring never came, nor the Summer. One morning, he saw a most wonderful sight. Through a little hole in the wall the children had crept in, and they were sitting in the branches of the trees. In every tree that he could see there was a little child. And the trees were so glad to have the children back again that they had covered themselves with blossoms. And the Giant's heart melted as he looked out. "How selfish I have been!" he said. He took a great axe and knocked down the wall. -- Oscar Wilde’s story gives the picture of a man who has understood what he has done was wrong, and corrected himself by knocking down the walls that he has built. Today’s Gospel presents before us the picture of a woman who stood at the feet of Jesus with the realization that she had done wrong and she was ready to change her ways. Jesus’ reply to her was amazing, “Go, and don’t sin anymore.” (Fr. Bobby). (http://frtonyshomilies.com/) 

16) Doodles before stones: Writer Anne Lamott’s life is a story of resurrection — from a train wreck of booze and drugs and destructive relationships to creating, as a single mom, a loving home for her son Sam and establishing her own solid, grounded relationship with God.  With humor and insight, she has written about her finding God in the joys and messes of the everyday.  In her book, Plan B: Further Thoughts on Faith, Lamott reflects on today’s Gospel: “In John 8, when the woman is about to be stoned by the Pharisees for adultery, we see Jesus doodling in the sand.  The Pharisees, the officially good people, are acting well within the law when they condemn the woman to death.  A huge crowd of people willing to kill her joins them.  The Greatest Hits moment here comes when Jesus challenges the crowd: ‘Let him who is without sin cast the first stone.’  But the more interesting stuff happens before, when he leaves the gathering storm, goes off by himself, and starts doodling. Jesus refused to interact with the people on their level of hatred and madness.  He draws in the sand for a time.  The Gospel doesn’t say [what’s he’s drawing].  But when he finally faces the mob and responds, all the people who were going to kill the woman have disappeared.” --  You have to wonder:  Where was the man with whom she committed adultery?  Some people suggest he was in the crowd, waiting to join in with the others and kill her.  We don’t know.  But I can guess how the condemned woman must have felt — surprised.  She was supposed to die, and her life was spared.  Hope always catches us by surprise.” (Fr. Kayala). (http://frtonyshomilies.com/) 

17) “He doesn’t deserve mercy! " The story is told of a young French soldier who deserted Napoleon’s army, but who within a matter of hours was caught by his own troops. To discourage soldiers from abandoning their posts the penalty for desertion was death. The young soldier’s mother heard what had happened and went to plead with Napoleon to spare the life of her son. Napoleon heard her plea but pointed out that because of the serious nature of the crime her son had committed he clearly did not deserve mercy. “I know he doesn’t deserve mercy” the mother answered. “It wouldn’t be mercy if he deserved it.” -- That’s the point about mercy: nobody deserves it. It is given freely! (Quoted by Fr. Jude Botelho & Fr. Lakra). (http://frtonyshomilies.com/) 

18) Circus of judgment in the Church: I recently read a book about the circus when it traveled to small towns by train. The author described in detail the unofficial hierarchy of the traveling circus. From the ring master through various performers down to the roadies who set up the tents, everyone knew their place in the food chain. Even the freak show performers or side show acts created a system of evaluating their peers. As I read the book I couldn't help thinking that you don't have to join the circus to experience the cutting edge of judgment; just go to Church! We judge people by the color of their skin, the brand names of their clothes, type of car, their accent, athletic prowess, education musical ability, religious background, and the list goes on and on. Are you a tither? Do you have a daily quiet time? Do you watch R rated movies? Do you attend a Christian school or the pagan public schools? Have you ever looked at pornography? Are you Republican or Democrat? Are you Spirit-filled? Do you speak in tongues? Are you divorced? Are you one of the good-looking people, or did you get hit with the ugly stick a few times? When you face situations where the labels we place on certain people instead of the love Christ determines an outcome, how do you respond? -- I am not ignoring sin, nor does this story suggest that we ignore sin and its damaging effects upon people's lives, but the Scripture does teach that using other people as a stepping stone is offensive to a holy God. The most offensive sin described in this story is not the adultery; it is the malice, arrogance, and ignorance of the Pharisees to use the sin of another person for personal gain while ignoring the sin that resides in their own heart. The voice of the critic seeks to condemn you by exploiting and exposing all your failures. In contrast, the voice of Christ confronts our sin with love and provides a better way to live. (Rev. Steve Andrews). (http://frtonyshomilies.com/) 

19) A terrifying moment: On March 22, 1824 an incident took place in Madison County, Indiana, which came to be known as the Fall Creek Massacre. Six white men murdered nine Seneca and Miami Indians and wounded another. Among the nine dead were three women and four children. The six men were apprehended and tried and some were executed. One of the men named John Bridge Jr. was sentenced to death by hanging for his part in the massacre. He was to be executed on June 3, 1825. His father, John Bridge Sr. and another man named Andrew Sawyer, who was John Bridge Jr.’s uncle, were also to be executed that day.      John Bridge, Jr., along with a large crowd, witnessed the hangings of his father and uncle as the crowd waited expectantly for a pardon from the governor. With no sign of a pardon, a sermon was preached as the crowd waited expectantly. Finally, John Bridge, Jr. was led to the gallows and the rope was lowered over his head. But as the men waited for a signal, a cheer arose from the back of the crowd.     A stranger rode forward and looked the condemned man in the face. "Sir, do you know in whose presence you stand?" Bridge shook his head. "There are but two powers known to the law that can save you from hanging by the neck until you are dead, dead, dead; one is the great God of the Universe, the other is J. Brown Ray, Governor of the State of Indiana; the latter stands before you…" Handing over the written pardon, the governor announced, "you are pardoned."      In an instant, what had looked like a hopeless situation became a door of hope. John Bridge Jr. went back home, settled down, opened a dry goods store and died peacefully, fifty-one years later! --    I told that story to ask this question: Can you imagine the fear that must have gripped the heart of that young man as he watched his father and his uncle die, knowing that he was next. Can you imagine the terror as he was led onto the gallows and that noose was placed around his neck? It must have been a moment of terror like few have ever experienced! (The Sermon Notebook). But, I know one person who experienced that feeling. This poor sinful woman whose story is related in this text -- she knew that kind of fear. As she is led trembling into the presence of Jesus, she knows in her heart that she is about to die a horrible death by stoning. (http://frtonyshomilies.com/) 

20-) During this Lent.

Give up complaining.....focus on gratitude.

Give up pessimism...become an optimist.

Give up harsh judgments...think kind thoughts.

Give up worry......trust Divine Providence.

Give up discouragement.....be full of hope.

Give up bitterness......turn to forgiveness.

Give up hatred.....return good for evil.

Give up negativism.....be positive.

Give up anger......be more patient.

Give up pettiness.....become more mature.

Give up gloom.....enjoy the beauty that is all around you.

Give up jealousy....pray for trust.

Give up gossiping.....control your tongue. 

Give up sin.....turn to virtue.

Give up giving up....hang in there !!!!! (http://frtonyshomilies.com/) 

21) Formed in the pattern of His death: A good saint to think about in Lent is St. Gemma Galgani. Within just a few years this modern Italian laywoman (1878-1903) achieved a remarkable likeness to the suffering Christ. Gemma was a mystic – one of those rare souls called to so high a level of communication with God that we ordinary Christians simply cannot comprehend it all. Her vocation was to suffer with Christ. To the physical trials of spinal tuberculous were added many supernatural trials. For instance, over several years she bore the stigmata of Christ’s passion: not only the marks of His nails but of His scourging and His crown of thorns. She even experienced His bloody sweating. Constant meditation upon Jesus’ death won for her a sense of His constant presence; and while in these ecstasies she had many conversations with Him in a low, sweet voice. Now, the Church does not canonize people just because they are mysteriously marked with the wounds of the Passion. On these phenomena she passes no official judgment. When Pope Pius XI declared Gemma Galgani a saint in 1933, it was because of her gentle patience, her heroic virtue during years of pain. Still, God does occasionally give to the world, it seems, a certain holy people who resemble Christ even more in being given the marks of His agony and crucifixion. Some think St. Paul may have been the first to receive this heavenly “branding”. At all events, Paul says (in today’s second reading): “I wish…to know how to share in His sufferings by being formed into the pattern of His death.” -- Why so? Because it is only by uniting ourselves with Christ in His death that we can deserve to be united with Him in His resurrection. The whole paradox of Lent is “dying in order to live.” In that sense we can say that St. Gemma Galgani was Lent personified. (Father Robert F. McNamara). (http://frtonyshomilies.com/) 

22) The accused: The movie, “The Accused”, for which Jodie Foster won an Academy Award for her performance as Sarah Tobias, a rape victim, is based on actual events that took place in Massachusetts, U.S.A. Sarah Tobias, a working-class waitress who lived with a man outside of marriage, sought to unwind in a bar after a fight with him. Three young men raped her while the patrons of the bar looked on and did nothing to help her.  Kathryn Murphy, the assistant district attorney appointed to prosecute the case against the men, seemed at first committed to winning the case against them. But, when faced with the fact that Sarah would not make a sympathetic case because of her behavior the night of the assault when she drank, smoked pot, and dressed and acted provocatively, Kathryn let the rapists plea to a lesser charge. Sarah felt betrayed because she was not given a chance to tell her story in court. She was deeply pained and humiliated. Though not impeccable in her behavior, she was truly a victim of sexual violence. She practically became “the accused.” -- Sarah Tobias is like the woman presented in today’s Gospel reading, a woman in need of justice and mercy, a woman in need of redemption. (Lectio Divina). (http://frtonyshomilies.com/)

23) The balm of forgiveness made her a “new creation”. There is a story in an inspirational magazine about a lady who had terribly wronged her best friend, a classmate in college. She had a crush on a handsome football player who eventually became her best friend’s husband. One summer the couple invited her to their beach house for a week’s vacation. Her secret feelings for the blond and good-looking athlete never changed and were not attenuated by the passing of years. One afternoon, her friend went downtown for an errand and she was left alone with the secret love of her life in that cozy beach house. The “inevitable” happened. Without willing or planning it, she spent an adulterous moment with her best friend’s husband. When it was all over, she was overwhelmed with remorse and unbearable guilt. She terminated her vacation prematurely and avoided further contact with the couple. When her friend’s husband died, she felt an irresistible urge to attend the funeral. Her friend had a heart-to-heart talk with her. She revealed that she knew what happened. Since she continued to love her husband and to treasure the friendship with her erring friend, she had forgiven each of them from the heart. --The forgiven adulterous woman felt renewed and became whole again. The refreshing balm of forgiveness made her a “new creation”. Actualized and offered to us in Christ Jesus, the grace of merciful forgiveness with its healing, renewing and recreating quality springs forth like living water from the loving heart of God. (Lectio Divina). (http://frtonyshomilies.com/) L/22

“Scriptural Homilies” Cycle C (No. 23) by Fr. Tony: akadavil@gmail.com

Visit my website by clicking on http://frtonyshomilies.com/ for missed or previous Cycle C homilies, 141 Year of Faith “Adult Faith Formation Lessons” (useful for RCIA classes too) & 197 “Question of the Week.” Contact me only at akadavil@gmail.com. Visit also https://www.catholicsermons.com/homilies/sunday_homilies  under Fr. Tony’s homilies and  under Resources in the CBCI website:  https://www.cbci.in  for other website versions.  (Vatican Radio website: http://www.vaticannews.va/en/church.html uploaded my Cycle A, B and C homilies in from 2018-2020)  Fr. Anthony Kadavil, Chaplain, Sacred Heart Residence of the Little Sisters of the Poor, 1655 McGill Ave, Mobile, AL 36604 .

O. T.  VIII [C] (Feb 27) Homily (8-minute homily in one-page) (L/22) 

Central theme: Jesus draws our attention to practical points of Christian living and challenges us to use our words as he used his in his preaching and healing ministry -- to heal, to restore, and to bring back life, joy, and hope. Today’s readings also instruct us to share our Christian life, love, and spiritual health by our words, and to avoid gossiping about and passing rash, thoughtless, pain-inflicting judgments on others, thus damaging their good reputation and causing them irreparable harm. 

Scripture lessons: The first reading, taken from the Book of Sirach, teaches that what is inside us is revealed through our conversation – as the grain and husks are separated in a farmer’s sieve, as the quality of the shaped clay is revealed in the potter’s fire, and as the size and quality of a tree’s fruit reveal the care it has received from the planter. Sirach’s teaching serves as an excellent preview for today’s Gospel, which reminds us, when we’re feeling judgmental, to think before we speak because what comes out of our mouth reveals our heart. The Responsorial Psalm (Ps 92) advises us to spend our time praising and thanking God for all His blessings. In the second reading St. Paul advises the Corinthian Christians “to be firm, steadfast, always fully devoted to the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain,” instead of wasting time on useless and sinful conversations, which bring punishment instead of the victory of resurrection and eternal reward. In today’s Gospel passage, taken from the Sermon on the Plain given in Luke’s Gospel, Jesus condemns our careless, malicious and rash judgments about the behavior, feelings, motives, or actions of others by using the funny examples of one blind man leading another blind man and one man with a log stuck in his eye, trying to remove a tiny speck from another’s eye.  

Life messages: We should avoid judging others because 1) No one except God is good enough to judge others because only God sees the whole truth, and only He can read the human heart. Hence, only He has the ability, right, and authority to judge us. 2) We do not see all the facts or circumstances or the power of the temptation which has led a person to do something evil. 3) We are often prejudiced in our judgment of others, and total fairness cannot be expected from us, especially when we are judging those near or dear to us.  4) We have no right to judge because we have the same faults as the one, we are judging and often in a greater degree (remember Jesus’ funny example of a man with a log in his eye trying to remove the dust particle from another’s eye?) St. Philip Neri commented, watching the misbehavior of a drunkard: “There goes Philip but for the grace of God.” Abraham Lincoln said that the only one who has the right to criticize is the one who has the heart to help. 5) Hence, we should leave all judgment to God, practice mercy and forgiveness, and pray for God’s grace to get rid of all forms of hypocrisy in our lives. Let us remember the warning of saints: “When you point one finger of accusation at another, three of your fingers point at you."   

OT VIII [C]: (Sir 27:4-7; Ps 92:2-3; 13-16; I Cor 15:54-58; Lk 6:39-45)  

Homily starter anecdotes: # 1: Rash judgment on buying “Luxury items” with food stamps: A grocery store check-out clerk once wrote to advice-columnist Ann Landers to complain that she had seen people buy "luxury" food items—like birthday cakes and bags of shrimp—with their food stamps. The writer went on to say that she thought all those people on welfare who treated themselves to such non-necessities were "lazy and wasteful." A few weeks later Lander’s column was devoted entirely to people who had responded to the grocery clerk. One woman wrote: “I didn’t buy a cake, but I did buy a big bag of shrimp with food stamps. So what? My husband had been working at a plant for fifteen years when it shut down. The shrimp casserole I made was for our wedding anniversary dinner and lasted three days. Perhaps the grocery clerk who criticized that woman would have a different view of life after walking a mile in my shoes.” Another woman wrote: “I’m the woman who bought the $17 cake and paid for it with food stamps. I thought the check-out woman in the store would burn a hole through me with her eyes. What she didn’t know is the cake was for my little girl’s birthday. It will be her last. She has bone cancer and will probably be gone within six to eight months.”  -- Today, Jesus advises us to leave the judgment to God and to show mercy and compassion. (Rev. Richardson). http://frtonyshomilies.com/ 

# 2:  Valuables in safe custody: In his little book, Illustrations of Bible Truth, H.A. Ironside points out the folly of judging others. He relates an incident in the life of Bishop Potter. "He was sailing for Europe on one of the great transatlantic ocean liners. When he went on board, he found that another passenger was to share the cabin with him. After going to see the accommodations, he came up to the purser’s desk and inquired if he could leave his gold watch and other valuables in the ship’s safe. He explained that ordinarily he never availed himself of that privilege, but he had been to his cabin and had met the man who was to occupy the other berth. Judging from his appearance, he was afraid that he might not be a very trustworthy person. The purser accepted the responsibility for the valuables and remarked, ’It’s all right, Bishop, I’ll be very glad to take care of them for you. The other man has been up here and left his valuables for the same reason!’" (Daily Bread). -- This is what happens when we make rash judgments. http://frtonyshomilies.com/ 

# 3:  Don't judge a book by its cover: Schoolteacher Dodie Gadient decided to travel across America and see the sights she had taught her students about, for the last 13 yrs. Traveling alone in a truck with a camper in tow, she launched out. One afternoon as she was rounding a curve on I-5 near Sacramento in rush-hour traffic, the water pump blew on her truck. She was tired, exasperated, scared, and alone. In spite of the traffic jam she caused, no one seemed interested in helping. Leaning up against the trailer she prayed, “Please Lord send me an angel, preferably one with mechanical experience!” Within 4 minutes a huge Harley drove up ridden by an enormous man sporting long black hair, a beard and tattooed arms. With an incredible air of confidence, he jumped off and without even glancing at Dodie went to work on the truck. Within another few minutes, he flagged down a larger truck, attached a tow chain to the frame of the disabled Chevy and whisked the whole 56-ft rig off the freeway onto a side street where he calmly continued to work on the water pump. The intimidated, schoolteacher was too dumbfounded to talk. Especially when she read the paralyzing words on the back of his leather jacket: Hell's Angels. As he finished the task, she finally got up the courage to say, “Thank you.” Noticing her amazement at the whole ordeal, he looked her straight in the eye and said, “Don't judge a book by its cover!” -- With that he smiled, closed the hood of the truck and straddled his Harley. With a wave he was gone as fast as he had appeared. (Rev. Jeffrey Stewart). http://frtonyshomilies.com/ 

# 4:  That person is me: C.S. Lewis wrote, “There is someone I love, even though I don’t approve of what he does. There is someone I accept, though some of his thoughts and actions revolt me. There is someone I forgive, though he hurts the people I love the most. That person is me.” http://frtonyshomilies.com/

Introduction: Jesus draws our attention to practical points of Christian living and challenges us to use words as he used them in his preaching and healing ministry, to heal, restore and bring back life, joy, and hope. Today’s readings also instruct us to share our Christian life, love, and spiritual health by our words, and to avoid gossiping about and passing rash, thoughtless and pain-inflicting judgments on others, damaging their good reputation and causing irreparable harm. 

Scripture lessons summarized: The first reading from the Book of Sirach teaches that what is inside us is revealed through our conversation -- as the grain and husks are separated in a farmer’s sieve, as the quality of the newly formed clay pot is revealed in the potter’s fire, and as the size and quality of a tree’s fruit reveal the care it has received from the planter. Sirach’s teaching serves as an excellent preview for today’s Gospel. It reminds us, when we’re feeling judgmental, to think before we speak because what comes out of our mouth reveals our heart. 

The Responsorial Psalm (Ps 92) reminds us  “It is good to give thanks to the Lord, to sing praise to Your Name, Most High, to proclaim Your Kindness at dawn and Your Faithfulness throughout the night!”(Vv 2-3). In the second reading St. Paul advises the Corinthian Christians “to be firm, steadfast, always fully devoted to the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain,” instead of wasting time on useless and sinful conversations which bring punishment instead of the victory of resurrection and eternal reward. In today’s Gospel passage, taken from the Sermon on the Plain given in Luke’s Gospel, Jesus condemns our careless, malicious and rash judgments about the behavior, feelings, motives or actions of others by using the funny examples of one blind man leading another blind man and one man with a log stuck in his eye trying to remove a tiny speck from another’s eye. 

The first reading (Sir 27:4-7) explained: In the Greek version of the Bible, the first title of this book was “The Wisdom of Ben Sirach.” It was the book most used in the liturgy.  In fact, in the early Church it was a kind of official catechism used in the catechumenate, and hence its Greek name in the Septuagint is Ecclesiasticus.  According to the prologue and other passages in the book, the inspired author was a learned scribe, a humble and zealous man, who lived in Jerusalem. From an early age he had meditated deeply on Sacred Scripture.  This book played an important part in shaping the Faith of the Jewish people. It equipped them to cope with the imminent menace of Greek culture, which ran completely counter to the monotheism of the people of the Old Covenant. Since the book was written in Greek, not in Hebrew, the Jewish scholars who finalized the canon of the Hebrew Bible after Jesus’ Resurrection did not include it in the canon of the Hebrew Bible. But since it was included in the Septuagint, the Catholic Church retains it as an inspired book of the Bible. Sirach advises us not to praise any man before he speaks, for it is then those men are tested. Speech is the principal criterion for evaluating a person’s character. The sacred author first uses an agricultural image to explain his point. When a sieve is shaken, the grains fall to the basket beneath the sieve and the husks remain in the sieve showing their ugly emptiness. The same thing happens when a man speaks: his faults, his pride, and his ignorance are exposed. The second image used is the potter’s furnace. If the clay isn’t completely dry, the piece explodes in the kiln (furnace). In the same way, conversation is the test of a man. The fruit of a tree shows the care it has had; As an example, sycamore fruit had to be punctured to grow fat and juicy; this was the job of the “dresser of sycamores.” In the same way, a man’s speech discloses the bent of his mind. Praise no man before he speaks, for it is then that men are tested. 

The second reading (I Cor 15:54-58) explained: When Paul called the Corinthian Christians to affirm their Faith in the power of Jesus over death by his Resurrection, he challenged them to affirm their freedom from death, from sin, and from the Law, and to exercise that freedom “by being fully engaged in the work of the Lord,” (v. 58), instead of divesting themselves of the body and all that it entails. Thus, the faithful will transform their corruptible physical bodies into incorruptible spiritual bodies in their resurrection, and experience immortality. Paul denies the teaching of the Corinthian philosophers that the attainment of the “ideal” existence or salvation from this world can be accomplished in individuals by their own efforts to live “properly.” Paul teaches that the transformation to immortality has been made possible for all only because of Jesus Christ. His death on the cross and his rising alone have accomplished the victory over death. Hence, Paul concludes: “Therefore, my beloved brothers, be firm, steadfast, always fully devoted to the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.” The hard work of the Christian life is not in vain, because the Christian is “in the Lord” who has already won the victory. 

The Gospel exegesis: Luke may have collected together sayings of Jesus which were spoken on different occasions, thus giving us a kind of compendium of rules for life and living. We may be able to trace four pieces of advice from today’s Gospel passage. 

1) Advice for students & teachers of Scripture: The Christian disciples are called upon to be both guides and teachers. Since a teacher cannot lead his students beyond what he himself has been taught, he must learn from the best teacher and then continue to learn Scripture from all available sources, the best being the Holy Spirit Who inspired Holy Scripture. Then, the learner must apply what he has learned to his own life before trying to teach others. Our goal in the Christian life must be to become like our Teacher, Jesus, in our thoughts, words, and actions.

2) We should not be blind guides: In order to lead a blind person, one must be sighted; in order to teach, one must be knowledgeable; otherwise, the blind person and the student will be lost. The sight and the knowledge specified here are the insights that come through Faith and the Holy Spirit, and the knowledge that comes from a Faith-filled relationship with the Lord. The point of this image of the blind leading the blind is that we must be careful when choosing whom to follow, lest we stumble into a pit alongside our blind guide. A corollary is that we have no business trying to guide others unless we ourselves can see clearly. This is an important message in a day when so many self-appointed gurus vie for control of our spiritual affairs, our financial affairs, our medical affairs, our romantic affairs, our family affairs. Some are blind, but others see our vulnerabilities—see where they can take advantage of us. When choosing a guide—particularly a spiritual guide—it pays to be very, very careful. Therefore it is most important to go in for regular “eye exams.” Every day, Christians should go to God, our spiritual Eye Doctor, to ask Him to check our vision. As we get into the Word, as we pray, He corrects our sight, and He shows us what to watch out for. It is vitally important that we have this regular “eye exam,” because we are not alone in the car. There are people who trust us to lead them to safety. It may be our children, or our spouse. It may be a friend. It may be people in the Church or community who are following where we lead. If we lead them off a cliff because of poor vision, God will hold us accountable. Listen to the words of Paul in Romans 2:19-23. “ If you are confident that you are a guide for the blind and a light for those in darkness, that you are a trainer of the foolish and teacher of the simple,  because in the law you have the formulation of knowledge and truth, then you who teach another, are you failing to teach yourself? You who preach against stealing, do you steal? You who forbid adultery, do you commit adultery? You who detest idols, do you rob temples? You who boast of the law, do you dishonor God by breaking the law?”

3) We have no right to criticize and judge others: The first reason Jesus gives us is that we have no right to criticize unless we ourselves are free of faults. That simply means that we have no right to criticize at all, because "there is so much bad in the best of us and so much good in the worst of us that it ill becomes any of us to find fault with the rest of us." Jesus clarifies his point by presenting the humorous simile of a man with a log stuck in his own eye trying to extract a speck of dust from someone else's eye. The task of fraternal correction (removing specks, etc.), should not be attempted, then,  without prior self-examination, though the disciple need not be completely without imperfections before the process can begin.

What did Jesus mean when he said not to judge others? Jimmy Akins: 1) Not a cover for immoral behavior in general. It’s clear that Jesus did not intend his words to be used as a cover for immoral behavior. 2) Not even a cover for sexual misbehavior [Mt 5:27-28]. 3) Not a prohibition on admonishing others. Jesus also did not intend his words to be used to stop others from admonishing others when they are committing sinful behavior [Mt 28:19-20]. 4) Not an endorsement of moral relativism. Taking Jesus’ teaching out of context, one might try to use it as a pretext for moral relativism—the idea that all moral judgments regarding the conduct of others are to be suspended and each person is to be allowed to define what is morally good for himself. Then what did Jesus actually say? In both Matthew and Luke, the statements that follow the prohibition on judging indicate that it is an elaboration of the Golden Rule—the idea that we should treat others the way that we, ourselves, want to be treated. 6) When Jesus says, “Judge not, lest ye be judged,” he means: “Don’t judge or God will judge you.” What Jesus means is that God will judge us. He’s made that perfectly clear in the Bible, and in the teaching of Jesus in particular. There will be a Last Judgment at the end of the world, as well as a particular judgment at the end of our earthly lives. So, it isn’t a question of escaping God’s judgment. It’s a question of how we will be judged. The right approach is to ask: Given that you will be judged for what you have done, what kind of judgment do you want? If we are in our right minds, we want a judgment done with mercy, compassion, and forgiveness. And that’s the way Jesus wants us to treat others: He wants us to be merciful, compassionate, and forgiving to them. In this context, what he means by “judging” is the opposite of doing those things—being unmerciful, uncompassionate, and unforgiving. In addition to “not judging” involving being merciful, compassionate, and forgiving to others, it can include other things, such as: Giving others the benefit of the doubt. Leaving the ultimate judgment of others to God instead of simply concluding that someone is (or should be) damned. (http://www.ncregister.com/blog/jimmy-akin/what-did-jesus-mean-when-he-said-not-to-judge-others-10-things-to-know). 

4) We must be good at heart to be good at our deeds: In order to distinguish the good tree from the bad tree we need to look at the fruit the tree produces (deeds) and not at its foliage (words). "The treasure of the heart is the same as the root of the tree," St Bede explains. "A person who has a treasure of patience and of perfect charity in his heart yields excellent fruit; he loves his neighbor and has all the other qualities Jesus teaches; he loves his enemies, does good to him who hates him, blesses him who curses him, prays for him who calumniates him, does not react against him who attacks him or robs him; he gives to those who ask, does not claim what they have stolen from him, wishes not to judge and does not condemn, corrects patiently and affectionately those who err. But the person who has in his heart the treasure of evil does exactly the opposite: he hates his friends, speaks evil of him who loves him and does all the other things condemned by the Lord" (In Lucae Evangelium Expositio, II, 6). In verse 46, Jesus asks us to act in a way consistent with being Christians and not to make any separation between the Faith we profess and the way we live: "What matters is not whether or not we wear a religious habit; it is whether we try to practice the virtues and surrender our will to God and order our lives as His Majesty ordains, and not want to do our will but His" (St. Teresa of Avila, Interior Castle, II, 6).

Life messages: 1) We need to avoid hypocrisy: Let us acknowledge the hypocrisy we all live every day. It is the word Jesus used. We tell people how concerned we are about our kidneys and hearts when we don’t give a second thought to the gaping, rotting wounds of sin covering us from head to toe. It is even worse when someone else falls into sin. Ignoring the glaring faults of our own, we point the finger of accusation, and whisper about them, and say, “How could they?” instead of asking “How could we?” We must look to our own sin first. This is the truth of Lk 6:39-42. As a disciple of Jesus Christ, I must be honest with myself. If I have trouble seeing my sin, and my failures, I have to go to Jesus and ask Him to point them out to me through prayer and through His Word. And He will. I must be ready for some painful “I” surgery. But I am sure to come out with better vision, and better eyesight, because I looked to myself first.

2) We should stop judging others harshly and unreasonably because a) No one except God is good enough to judge others because only God sees the whole truth, and only He can read the human heart; hence, only He has the right and authority to judge us. b) We are often prejudiced in our judgment of others, and total fairness cannot be expected from us. c) We do not see all the facts, the circumstances or the power of the temptation, which have led a person to do something evil. d) We have no right to judge others because we have the same faults and often to a more serious degree than the person we are judging (remember Jesus’ funny example of a man with a log stuck in his eye trying to remove the dust particle from another’s eye?) St. Philip Neri commented, watching the misbehavior of a drunkard: “There goes Philip but for the grace of God.” 

3) Hence, we should leave all judgment to God and practice mercy and forgiveness, remembering the advice of saints: “When you point one finger of accusation at another, three of your fingers point at you." Let us pay attention to the Jewish rabbi’s advice: “He who judges others favorably will be judged favorably by God.  

Jokes of the week

Source: (https://www.pinterest.com/pin/223280094010936796) 

1) Judgmental husband: There’s the story of the conscientious wife who tried very hard to please her ultra-critical husband but failed regularly. He always seemed the most cantankerous at breakfast. If the eggs were scrambled, he wanted them poached; if the eggs were poached, he wanted them scrambled. One morning, with what she thought was a stroke of genius, the wife poached one egg and scrambled the other and placed the plate before him. Anxiously she awaited what surely this time would be his unqualified approval. He peered down at the plate and snorted, “Can’t you do anything right, woman? You’ve scrambled the wrong one!”

2)“Go thou and do likewise!” After a minister preached a sermon on spiritual gifts, he was greeted at the door by a lady who said, “Pastor, I believe I have the gift of criticism.” He looked at her and asked, “Remember the person in Jesus’ parable who had the one talent? Do you recall what he did with it?” “Yes,” replied the lady, “he went out and buried it.” With a smile, the pastor suggested, “Go thou, and do likewise!”

3) Judge Not

I was shocked, confused, bewildered
As I entered Heaven's door,
Not by the beauty of it all,
Nor the lights or its decor.

But it was the folks in Heaven
Who made me sputter and gasp--
The thieves, the liars, the sinners,
The alcoholics and the trash.

There stood the kid from seventh grade..
Who swiped my lunch money twice.
Next to him was my old neighbor
Who never said anything nice.

Herb, who I always thought
Was rotting away in hell,
Was sitting pretty on cloud nine,
Looking incredibly well.

I nudged Jesus, 'What's the deal?
I would love to hear Your take.
How'd all these sinners get up here?
God must've made a mistake.

'And why's everyone so quiet,
So somber - give me a clue.'
'Hush, child,' He said, 'they're all in shock.
No one thought they'd be seeing you.'

                                             Bind leading the blind

Websites of the week

1) Fr. Don’ collection of video homilies & blogs: https://sundayprep.org

2) Video Sunday-Scripture study by Fr. Geoffrey Plant:

 https://www.youtube.com/user/GeoffreyPlant2066

3) Dr. Brant Pitre’s commentary on Cycle C Sunday Scripture for Bible Class: https://catholicproductions.com/blogs/mass-readings-explained-year-c  

4)Movie & DVD reviews: http://www.catholicnews.com/movies.cfm 

5)Catholic perspectives: http://sansecondodasti.org/!SanSec_htm/Catholic%20Perspectives/catholic_perspectives.htm 

6)Catholic calendar: http://www.cathcal.org/index.php 

7)http://thecatholicguy.tv/lent2016/ 

8)Healing in marriages: http://www.maritalhealing.com/ 

15 Additional anecdotes:("Stories have power. They delight, enchant, touch, teach, recall, inspire, motivate, challenge. They help us understand. They imprint a picture on our minds. Consequently, stories often pack more punch than sermons. Want to make a point or raise an issue? Tell a story. Jesus did it. He called his stories ‘parables.'"(Janet Litherland, Storytelling from the Bible). In fact Mark 4:34 says, "he [Jesus] did not speak to them without a parable..."Visit the article: Picturing the Kingdom of God by Fr. Brian Cavanaugh, TOR: http://www.appleseeds.org/picture.htm)

1) Mom with one eye: My mom only had one eye. I hated her… She was such an embarrassment. She cooked for students and teachers to support the family. There was this one day during elementary school where my mom came to say hello to me. I was so embarrassed. How could she do this to me? I ignored her, threw her a hateful look and ran out. The next day at school one of my classmates said, “EEEE, your mom only has one eye!” I wanted to bury myself. I also wanted my mom to just disappear. I confronted her that day and said, “If you’re only gonna make me a laughing stock, why don’t you just die?” My mom did not respond… I didn’t even stop to think for a second about what I had said, because I was full of anger. I was oblivious to her feelings. I wanted out of that house and have nothing to do with her. So, I studied real hard, got a chance to go abroad to study. Then, I got married. I bought a house of my own. I had kids of my own. I was happy with my life, my kids and the comforts. Then one day, my Mother came to visit me. She hadn’t seen me in years, and she didn’t even meet her grandchildren. When she stood by the door, my children laughed at her, and I yelled at her for coming over uninvited. I screamed at her, “How dare you come to my house and scare my children! GET OUT OF HERE! NOW!!!” And to this, my mother quietly answered, “Oh, I’m so sorry. I may have gotten the wrong address.” – and she disappeared out of sight. One day, a letter regarding a school reunion came to my house. So, I lied to my wife that I was going on a business trip. After the reunion, I went to the old shack just out of curiosity. My neighbors said that she died. I did not shed a single tear. They handed me a letter that she had wanted me to have. “My dearest son, I think of you all the time. I’m sorry that I came to your house and scared your children. I was so glad when I heard you were coming for the reunion. But I may not be able to even get out of bed to see you. I’m sorry that I was a constant embarrassment to you when you were growing up. You see……..when you were very little, you got into an accident, and lost your eye. As a mother, I couldn’t stand watching you having to grow up with one eye. So, I gave you mine. I was so proud of my son who was seeing a whole new world for me, in my place, with that eye. With all my love to you, Your Mother.” (https://mygoodtimestories.com/2013/09/16/the-mother-with-one-eye/) http://frtonyshomilies.com/ 

2) Things are never quite as they appear -- sometimes!!  A woman was flying from Seattle to San Francisco. Unexpectedly, the plane was diverted to Sacramento along the way. The flight attendant explained that there would be a delay, and if the passengers wanted to get off the aircraft the plane would re-board in 50 minutes…Everybody got off the plane except one lady who was blind…A man had noticed her as he walked by and could tell the lady was blind because her guide dog lay quietly underneath the seats in front of her throughout the entire flight… He could also tell she had flown this very flight before because the pilot approached her, and calling her by name, said, “Kathy, we are in Sacramento for almost an hour, would you like to get off and stretch your legs?” The blind lady said, “No thanks, but maybe Buddy would like to stretch his legs.” All the people in the gate area came to a complete stand still when they looked up and saw the pilot walk off the plane with a guide dog for the blind! Even worse, the pilot was wearing sunglasses! People scattered. They not only tried to change planes, but they were trying to change airlines! (https://mygoodtimestories.com/2014/02/16/things-are-not-always-as-they-appear/) http://frtonyshomilies.com/ 

3) A brick hit his Jaguar XKE: (Chicken Soup for the Soul - 5th Portion. The story was written by Josh Ridker) A little while ago, a young and very successful executive named Josh was traveling down a Chicago neighborhood street. He was going a bit too fast in his sleek, black, 12-cylinder Jaguar XKE, which was only two months old. He was watching for kids darting out from between parked cars and slowed down when he thought he saw something. As his car passed, no child darted out, but a brick sailed out and – WHUMP! – it smashed Into the Jag’s shiny black side door! SCREECH..!!!! Brakes slammed! Gears ground into reverse, and tires madly spun the Jaguar back to the spot from where the brick had been thrown. Josh jumped out of the car, grabbed the kid and pushed him up against a parked car. He shouted at the kid, “What was that all about, and who are you? Just what the heck are you doing?!” Building up a head of steam, he went on. “That’s my new Jag, that brick you threw is gonna cost you a lot of money. Why did you throw it?”

“Please, mister, please. . . I’m sorry! I didn’t know what else to do!” pleaded the youngster. “I threw the brick because no one else would stop!” Tears were dripping down the boy’s chin as he pointed around the parked car. “It’s my brother, mister,” he said. “He rolled off the curb and fell out of his wheelchair and I can’t lift him up.” Sobbing, the boy asked the executive, “Would you please help me get him back into his wheelchair? He’s hurt and he’s too heavy for me.” Moved beyond words, the young executive tried desperately to swallow the rapidly swelling lump in his throat. Straining, he lifted the young man back into the wheelchair and took out his handkerchief and wiped the scrapes and cuts, checking to see that everything was going to be OK. He then watched the younger brother push him down the sidewalk toward their home. It was a long walk back to the sleek, black, shining, 12-cylinder Jaguar XKE --a long and slow walk. Josh never did fix the side door of his Jaguar. He kept the dent to remind him not to go through life so fast that someone has to throw a brick at him to get his attention. -- Some bricks are softer than others. Feel for the bricks of life coming at to you. For all the negative things we have to say to ourselves, God has positive answers.  https://mygoodtimestories.com/2014/03/07/a-chicago-story-the-brick/ http://frtonyshomilies.com/  

4) “My sins run out behind me, and I do not see them: A member of a monastic order once committed a fault. A council was called to determine the punishment, but when the monks assembled it was noticed that Father Joseph was not among them. The superior sent someone to say to him, “Come, for everyone is waiting for you. So, Father Joseph got up and went. He took a leaking jug, filled it with water, and carried it with him. When the others saw this they asked, “What is this, father?” The old man said to them, “My sins run out behind me, and I do not see them, and today I am coming to judge the error of another?” Source: unknown http://frtonyshomilies.com/ 

5) The Elephant Man (https://youtu.be/oRPARnyPiOI?list=PLEA7F76BFCF2A5BB7) 

Under the name of John Merrick, the movie The Elephant Man tells the true story of Joseph Carey Merrick, born in 1862 in Leicester, England. Within the first few years of his life it became apparent that Joseph suffered from deformities on his face and body. These deformities grew to be significantly noticeable, and tumors on his mouth affected his speech. His mother loved him dearly but died when he was ten. After leaving home, Merrick was unable to make a living and at 17 he entered Leicester Union workhouse. After four years in the workhouse, Merrick contacted a showman who agreed to exhibit him as the "Elephant Man" in carnivals. People would pay money to line up and observe him like some animal in a zoo. While on display in a penny gaff shop in London, Merrick met a surgeon named Frederick Treves who invited Merrick to the London hospital to be examined. Soon after, Merrick's exhibition was shut down by the police and Merrick travelled to Belgium under a new manager. After being robbed and abandoned, he found his way back to London and into the care of Treves. Merrick was allowed to live in rooms at the London Hospital where he became a celebrity in London's high society. Dr. Treves discovered that Merrick was in fact highly intelligent and sought to nurture his growth. Yet Merrick’s greatest hurdle was still to come. All his life Merrick had known only fear and rejection from women. So, Dr. Treves asked an attractive widow he knew if she could come into Merrick’s room, smile at him and shake his hand. When she did Merrick broke down into a ball of tears, later telling Treves that she was the first woman in his life apart from his mother to have showed him kindness. That was a breakthrough moment for Merrick. In the coming years more and more people, women included, would meet him and show him kindness. He began meeting Countesses and Duchesses. He even had many visits and letters from the Princess of Wales, forming a friendship with her. Throughout this time, Dr. Treves reports, Merrick changed dramatically. Merrick stayed at his London hospital room until his death in 1890. -- Merrick’s story shows us the power of love and acceptance. Rejected all his life, treated as a “thing”, it was the loving welcome of others that liberated him to become all he could be.  His life was made tragic not by his deformities but by the response people made to them. (Source: Reported at www.elephant-house.fsnet.co.uk & Wikipedia). http://frtonyshomilies.com/ 

6) The rejection and acceptance of a sinner: It was one of the most extraordinary birthday parties ever held. No,  it wasn’t in a plush ballroom of a grand hotel. No, there weren’t famous celebrities, nor anyone rich or powerful present. It was held at 3 AM in a small seedy cafe in Honolulu, the guest of honour was a prostitute, the fellow guests were prostitutes, and the man who threw it was a Christian minister! The idea came to Christian minister Tony Campolo very early one morning as he sat in the cafe. He was drinking coffee at the counter, when a group of prostitutes walked in and took up the stools around him. One of the girls, Agnes, lamented the fact that not only was it her birthday tomorrow but that she’d never had a birthday party. Tony thought it would be a great idea to surprise Agnes with a birthday party. Learning from the cafe owner, a guy named Harry, that the girls came in every morning around 3:30 AM. Tony agreed with him to set the place up for a party. Word somehow got out on the street, so that by 3:15 the next morning the place was packed with prostitutes, the cafe owner and his wife, and Tony. When Agnes walked in, she saw streamers, balloons, Harry holding a birthday cake, and everyone screaming out “Happy Birthday!” Agnes was overwhelmed. The tears poured down her face as the crowd sang Happy Birthday. When Harry called on her to cut the cake she paused. She’d never had a birthday cake and wondered if she could take it home to show her mother. When Agnes left there was a stunned silence. -- Tony did what a Christian minister should. He led Harry, Harry’s wife and a roomful of prostitutes in a prayer for Agnes. It was a birthday party rarely seen in Honolulu – thrown by a Christian minister for a 39-year-old prostitute who had never had anyone go out of their way to do something like this and who expected nothing in return. Indeed, so surprising was this turn of events that the cafe owner found it hard to believe there were Churches that would do this sort of thing, but if there were then that’s the sort of Church he’d be prepared to join. Would Jesus call us blind hypocrites? http://frtonyshomilies.com/ 

7)  A worthless creature: In the seventeenth century France a humanist scholar by the name of Muretus was an ailing fugitive. When he presented himself to the medical doctors he was dressed in the rags of a pauper. The doctors discussed his case in Latin, thinking he would not be able to understand them. “Faciamus experimentum in anima vili” one said, which means “Let us try an experiment with this worthless creature”. Imagine their shock when this pauper replied, also in Latin, “Vilem animam appellas pro qua Christus non dedignatus est mori?”, “Will you call worthless, one for whom Christ did not disdain to die?” Source: Reported in Charles Birch, Regaining Compassion (University of NSW Press, 1993). http://frtonyshomilies.com/ 

8) You can’t please everyone: Aesop’s Fable, “The Man, the Boy and the Donkey,” illustrates this truth!  A Man and his son were once going with their Donkey to market. As they were walking along by its side a countryman passed them and said: "You fools, what is a Donkey for but to ride upon?" So the Man put the Boy on the Donkey and they went on their way. But soon they passed a group of men, one of whom said: "See that lazy youngster, he lets his father walk while he rides." So the Man ordered his Boy to get off, and got on himself. But they hadn't gone far when they passed two women, one of whom said to the other: "Shame on that lazy lout to let his poor little son trudge along." Well, the Man didn't know what to do, but at last he took his Boy up before him on the Donkey. By this time, they had come to the town, and the passers-by began to jeer and point at them. The Man stopped and asked what they were scoffing at. The men said: "Aren't you ashamed of yourself for overloading that poor donkey of yours and your hulking son? "The Man and Boy got off and tried to think what to do. They thought and they thought, till at last they cut down a pole, tied the donkey's feet to it, and raised the pole and the donkey to their shoulders. They went along amid the laughter of all who met them till they came to Market Bridge, when the Donkey, getting one of his feet loose, kicked out and caused the Boy to drop his end of the pole. In the struggle the Donkey fell over the bridge, and his fore-feet being tied together he was drowned. --- "That will teach you," said an old man who had followed them: "Please all, and you will please none." [www.taleswithmorals.com] http://frtonyshomilies.com/ 

9) No entry was ever made:  People who are willing to complain about others in their absence are reluctant to do so to their faces. A preacher, capitalizing on this fact, devised an effective way of handling such critics. He kept a special book labeled, “Complaints of Members Against One Another.” When one of them would tell him about some fault of a fellow parishioner, he would say, “Well, here’s my complaint book. I’ll write down what you say, and you can sign you name to it. When I see that person, I’ll take up the matter with him.” That open ledger, and the critic’s awareness of his own faults, always had a restraining effect. Immediately the complainer would exclaim, “Oh, no, I couldn’t sign anything like that!” In 40 years, that book was opened a thousand times, but no entry was ever made. http://frtonyshomilies.com/ 

10) The American blame game: We are a people who like to make excuses for failures. Nothing is ever really our fault. Think about it! From Creation, we have blamed others for our own decisions -- Adam blamed Eve for enticing him to eat the forbidden fruit and Eve blamed the serpent. And we are still playing the blame-game. We are dysfunctional because of what our parents and grandparents did or did not do to/for us. The prisoner blames his parents for his illegal activity. Divorced couples blame each other for the demise of marriages. Our children’s yearning for material goods is blamed on television. We blame school violence on the lack of prayer in school. Sex and Drug use among our youth is blamed on the Internet, television, and Hollywood. Sinful behavior is now being referred to as compulsive behavior and is blamed on chemical imbalances. Whenever we do something wrong, we are apt to point the finger elsewhere. Fingers are being pointed at the increasing Hispanic population as the cause of higher rates of unemployment. Declining neighborhood property values are being blamed on the increasing number of minorities. The Democrats and the Republicans blame each other for increase in taxes and for increasing the country’s deficit. We are a people who like to point the fingers at others for the problems we have to deal with. (Rev. A. LaMar Torrence). http://frtonyshomilies.com/ 

11) Prejudiced isolation:  David Suzuki is one of the world’s best-known campaigners for the environment. He is now a respected and highly regarded citizen of his homeland Canada. Many people are unaware however of the painful memories Suzuki has from childhood. On December 7, 1941 the Japanese air force bombed Pearl Harbor and so Japan entered the Second World War. People of Japanese descent were immediately suspect in Canada. Within nine days of the bombing they were required to register with the authorities as “enemy aliens”. Their property was confiscated, their bank accounts were frozen and they were told they would have to leave their homes. David Suzuki was five years old at the time, and his parents were second generation Canadians…of Japanese descent. By the time David turned 6 he, his mother and his sisters had been sent to an internment camp in British Columbia. His father was sent to work on a road gang, rejoining his family in the camp a year later. The conditions were filthy and cramped. Toward the end of the war the internees were given a choice. The Canadian government would pay for them to move to Japan, or they could remain in Canada, on condition that they lived east of the Rocky Mountains. Japanese-Canadians were no longer welcome in the Suzuki’s hometown of Vancouver. David’s family chose to remain in Canada, destitute and in poverty. The entire episode left a terrible legacy in David Suzuki’s life. Proud to be Canadian he began to despise his Japanese descent and his Asian appearance. For years as a teenager he saved money for an operation to enlarge his eyes and dye his hair. He refused to walk down the street with his parents because he felt ashamed of them. His father drummed into him that to do well with white people he would have to be twice as good as they were. Even today Suzuki struggles with the past. He says “The terrible burden I’ve had all my life is that I seem to be constantly trying to reaffirm to Canadians that I’m a worthwhile human being. It’s really ridiculous to be 64 years old and still feel that you’ve got to prove to them that you’re not somebody who should be locked up.” (Source: Information reported in the Sydney Morning Herald Good Weekend Magazine, April 8, 2000). http://frtonyshomilies.com/ v

12) “Don’t judge others. Show God’s love to all you meet, because you don’t know their story.” With this, came the realization of how often I do unknowingly judge the people I encounter every day. I say “unknowingly,” because I don’t usually take the time to learn who people really are, or what they’re going through. Instead, I slap a label on them based on the little I can see on the outside. Let me explain. If she’s quiet, that mean she’s rude. If they cut in front of me in traffic, they’re a jerk. If she’s always smiling and laughing, she’s shallow, and has a perfect life. If he refuses to make eye contact, he’s hiding something. If she wears low-cut shirts, short shorts, and dark makeup, she’s wild and no good. But what if I knew their stories? Could hear their thoughts? Looked inside when they went home and let their guard down? Instead, what if it was…She’s quiet because it’s the anniversary of her dad’s death and she’s trying not to burst into tears. They cut in front of me because they just heard their family member was in a car accident and they’re rushing to the emergency room. She’s always smiling and laughing, but in reality, it’s just a cover-up for the pain she goes through every day in her bad marriage. He refuses to make eye contact because he suffers daily from PTSD and he’s afraid of letting me see the “real him.” She wears low-cut shirts, short shorts and dark makeup, because she’s deeply insecure, has been wounded again and again, and no longer believes she’s worth anything more than the amount of skin she shows. --- What if I knew all that? How would I act? How would we all act? Would we be more gracious, kind, and loving? Less judgmental and harsh? I love this quote by Mother Teresa. She says, “If you judge people, you have no time to love them.” (By Sara Barratt). http://frtonyshomilies.com/ 

13) Crab and the ocean: Once upon a time there was a crab. It was walking on the shore of ocean, leaving its beautiful footprint behind. The crab adored its footprints. Suddenly as the crab was admiring its footprints, the waves of the ocean washed the footprints away. The crab turned towards the ocean wave and said, “Hey!! I thought you were my best friend. Why did you do that?? Why did you wash my footprints away?” The ocean said, “A fisherman was chasing you, my dear friend, looking at your footprints, so I washed them away so that fisherman could not chase you.” -- It's a general human tendency. We all judge each other in different situations and draw conclusions about the person. Even in our relationship we judge the people by the actions or behavior. But it is important not to craw conclusions about any person and react without understanding the other person's intentions. (Divya Nimbalkar). http://frtonyshomilies.com/ 

14) Follow VFR-Visual Flight Rules:  In 1999 John F. Kennedy, Jr., his wife, Carolyn, and her sister, Lauren, had a wedding to attend in Hyannis Point, Massachusetts. Since John had his pilot’s license, they decided to fly there. Now John had 310 hours of flying experience, but not a lot over water at night. I suppose he must have believed he could handle it, though, and they set out for Hyannis Point. But the plane never made it to its destination and unfortunately all were killed. The National Transportation Safety Board investigation found no evidence of mechanical malfunction in airframe, systems, avionics, or engine, and determined that the probable cause was "the pilot’s failure to maintain control of the airplane during a descent over water at night, which was a result of spatial disorientation. Factors in the accident were haze, and the dark night." According to the National Transportation Safety Board, three simple letters resulted in the tragic death of such an influential young man, VFR-Visual Flight Rules. In essence, John Kennedy was flying that evening only by what he saw visually. For all he knew, it was a picture-perfect flight. But he made one very fatal mistake; he failed to fly by IFR-Instrument Flight Rules. If he had used his instruments and relied on them to guide his flight, he probably would have known that he was headed straight down into the ocean. The instrument panel is what identifies the truth. Pilots cannot depend on their feelings, eyesight, or the opinion of others. Those instrument gauges are the only reliable source for determining the airplane’s true position. That is why pilots who only fly by visual contact don’t like flying at night or in bad weather. -- Though most of us aren’t pilots, and therefore don’t need to know about airplane instruments, most of us here are claiming to be disciples or followers of Jesus. We claim and think our lives are headed in the right direction, but are they really? How would we know? What identifies true disciples who are going in the right direction? Can we depend on our feelings, ideas or the opinions of others to guide us to the right answers and in the right direction? No! Just as a plane has instruments to indicate its true position there are also the spiritual indicators or gauges that indicate our true position as true followers or false followers of Jesus. What indicators identify true disciples? The answer to that question is found in Luke 6:43-45. (Rev. Davi Elvery). http://frtonyshomilies.com/ 

15) Refrain from making rash judgments. An engineer, a psychologist, and a theologian were hunting in the wilds of northern Canada. They came across an isolated cabin, far removed from any town. Because friendly hospitality is a virtue practiced by those in the wilderness, the hunters knocked on the door to ask permission to rest. No one answered their knocks, but, discovering the cabin was unlocked, they entered. It was a simple place--two rooms with a minimum of furniture and household equipment. Nothing was surprising about the cabin except the stove. It was large, pot-bellied, and made of cast iron. What was unusual was its location: it was suspended in mid-air by wires attached to the ceiling beams. "Fascinating," said the psychologist. "It is obvious that this lonely trapper, isolated from humanity, has elevated his stove so he can curl up under it and vicariously experience a return to the womb." "Nonsense!" replied the engineer. "The man is practicing the laws of thermodynamics. By elevating his stove, he has discovered a way to distribute heat more evenly throughout the cabin." "With all due respect," interrupted the theologian, "I’m sure that hanging his stove from the ceiling has religious meaning. Fire lifted up has been a religious symbol for centuries." The three debated the point for several minutes without resolving the issue. When the trapper finally returned, they immediately asked him why he had hung his heavy potbellied stove by wires from the ceiling. His answer was succinct: "Had plenty of wire, not much stove pipe!" -- A Christian who lives graciously, understands that things are not always as they seem, so he seeks to refrain from making rash judgments. (Dave Mcfadden). http://frtonyshomilies.com/ 

16) “I got up early this morning and cleaned our windows.”  A young couple (Jane and Joe Shmuckatellie) moved into a new neighborhood. The next morning while they are eating breakfast, the young woman (Jane) saw her neighbor hanging her wash to dry. “That laundry is not very clean,” she said. “She doesn’t know how to wash correctly. Perhaps she needs better laundry soap.” Her husband looked on, but remained silent. Every time her neighbor hung her wash to dry, the young woman (Jane) repeated her observations about the dirty laundry. About one month later, the woman was surprised to see a nice clean wash on the line and said to her husband (Joe): “Look, she has learned how to wash correctly. I wonder who taught her this?” The husband (Joe) said, “I got up early this morning and cleaned our windows.” (Quoted by Fr Michael Grant George Cadotte). http://frtonyshomilies.com/

17) His name is H. G. Wells: In the late 1800s a boy was working in a London store. He had to rise at five o’clock each morning, sweep the store, and then work fourteen hours. He stood it for two years and then told his mother that he would kill himself if he had to continue. Following his talk with his mother, the boy wrote a pathetic letter to a teacher he had in his earlier years. He explained how he was heart broken and no longer wanted to live. The teacher praised him as a person and assured him that he was greatly gifted. To make a long story short, that letter of encouragement changed boy’s entire life. He went  on to become one of England’s most successful writers, authoring nearly eighty books. His name is H. G. Wells. -- And so today’s Gospel invites us to take look at our general attitude. Are we persons who are adding to the joy in our world by affirming and encouraging other people? Or are we persons who are adding to the sorrow in our world by constantly nagging and criticizing others. If we are this second kind of person, we need to take to heart the words of Jesus in today’s Gospel and realize that by our negative attitude we are destroying not only ourselves but also those around us. ( Fr. Mark Link S. J.) http://frtonyshomilies.com/

“Scriptural Homilies” Cycle C (No. 17) by Fr. Tony: akadavil@gmail.com

Visit my website by clicking on http://frtonyshomilies.com/ for missed or previous Cycle C homilies, 141 Year of Faith “Adult Faith Formation Lessons” (useful for RCIA classes too) & 197 “Question of the Week.” Contact me only at akadavil@gmail.com. Visit also https://www.catholicsermons.com/homilies/sunday_homilies  under Fr. Tony’s homilies and  under Resources in the CBCI website:  https://www.cbci.in  for other website versions.  (Vatican Radio website: http://www.vaticannews.va/en/church.html uploaded my Cycle A, B and C homilies in from 2018-2020)  Fr. Anthony Kadavil, Chaplain, Sacred Heart Residence of the Little Sisters of the Poor, 1655 McGill Ave, Mobile, AL 36604 .

Bind leading the blind

OT VII [C] (Feb 20) Sunday (Eight-minute homily in one page)L/22

Central theme: Today’s Scripture readings challenge us to make three types of correct choices in life. First, we are advised to choose the love in the “golden rule” instead of selfishness and insensitivity to the feelings and needs of others. Second, we need to choose unconditional, agape love instead of jealousy and hatred in our relationships with others. Third, we must choose graceful forgiveness instead of harboring revenge and planning retaliation. 

Scripture lessons:  The first reading shows us how David made the right choice, respecting God’s anointed king by forgiving his offenses, while Saul continued to make the wrong choices, perpetuating his own misery in seeking his revenge. In the Responsorial Psalm, Ps 103, the Psalmist reminds us of the mercy of God and His compassion which we should practice in our choices.  In the second reading, St. Paul tells us how the “First Adam” made a wrong choice of disobedience, bringing death into the world, whereas Jesus, the “Second Adam,” made the right choice of fulfilling his Father’s saving plan for mankind by accepting acute suffering and heinous death. Today’s Gospel (Luke 6:27-38) gives us Jesus' revolutionary moral teaching about correct choices in our human relationships, based on the necessity of our following the “Golden Rule” and our obligation to behave like the children of a loving, forgiving, merciful, and compassionate Heavenly Father. Our relationships in our communities become truly Christian when we follow the Golden Rule, “Do to others as you would have them do to you.” Jesus amplifies the golden rule by giving additional commands for us to follow as God’s children, by explaining Christian love:  "Love your enemies...Do good to those who hate you; bless those who curse you and pray for those who maltreat you."   Jesus orders us to love our enemies and to be merciful and compassionate to everyone as God our Father is loving, merciful, and compassionate. He concludes by instructing us to stop judging others and start forgiving all who offend us. 

Life Messages: 1) We need to practice the Golden Rule: The Golden Rule asks us to do to others what we would like them do to us. If we obey, loving others and expressing that love by loving words and deeds, we will start receiving the same love from others in higher intensity. Further, if we want others to forgive our offenses, our words of criticism, and our thoughtless judgments against them, then we should start forgiving their offenses against us and start appreciating their good qualities while encouraging them and supporting them in their needs. 

 2)  We need to pray for the strength to forgive. At every Mass we pray the “Our Father”, asking God to forgive us as we forgive others. Our challenge is to overcome our natural inclination to hate family members, co-workers, neighbors and all who offend us. To meet that challenge, we need to ask God for the strength to forgive each other. We must forgive, because only forgiveness truly heals us. If we remember how God has forgiven us, it will help us forgive others. Let us start forgiving right now by curbing the sharp tongue of criticism, suppressing the revenge instinct and bearing patiently the irritating behavior of a neighbor.

VII SUNDAY: (I Sm 26 2:7-9, 12-13, 22-23; I Cor 15:45-49; Lk 6:27-38)

Homily starter anecdote: # 1: Adopt an orphaned Muslim child in your Hindu family. In his autobiography, The Story of My Experiments with Truth, Mahatma Gandhi mentions the “Sermon on the Mount” as one of the main religious works that inspired him to search for ways of bringing about political freedom for India by non-violent resistance to oppression. He writes: “I came to see that the Sermon on the Mount was the whole of Christianity for one who wanted to live a Christian life. It is that sermon that has endeared Jesus to me."  In 1947, when British India was divided into Hindu India and Muslim Pakistan, Mahatma Gandhi went on a hunger strike to end the communal violence which had erupted between Hindu and Moslem fanatics in the Indo-Pakistani Border States. During this time, a Hindu fanatic came to him and confessed, "I will surely go to hell and no one can save me."  Gandhi asked the man why he thought he was doomed to hell. The man replied that he was a Hindu, and that Muslims had killed his child during a riot. In revenge, he had slaughtered a Muslim child and his parents, but felt very guilty afterwards. Gandhi said, "I know one way to save you from going to hell. “Find a Muslim child who has lost his parents, take him home, bring him up and educate him so that he grows up as a Muslim in your Hindu family. Then you won't go to hell."   When Mohandas Gandhi was gunned down in 1948, his last gesture was to press his palms together and raise his folded hands to his lips in the Hindu sign of forgiveness. Martin Luther King was a great admirer of Gandhi. When a gang of racial fanatics set fire to King’s house, an Afro-American mob gathered, ready to take revenge.  But he told them, "When you live by the rule ‘an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth,' you end up with a nation of blind and toothless people."  Then he led the gathering in prayer for the white brothers who had burned his house. That is what the "Amazing Grace" of forgiveness, the central theme of today’s readings, is all about. (http://frtonyshomilies.com/)

# 2: Meeting the President to seek pardon for the worst enemy: During the Revolutionary War, Peter Miller was the pastor of a little Baptist Church in Pennsylvania. He was also the abbot of the community of mystics at the Ephrata Cloisters whose monks helped the fighting American soldiers with food. The Reverend Peter Miller was a friend of General George Washington and was respected for his many outstanding services to the newly born republic. He also helped the President to translate the Declaration of Independence into several foreign languages so that the Imperial Courts of Europe would be aware of the intentions of the new American government. Michael Wildman, the public prosecutor lived near the Church, constantly criticizing and abusing Pastor Miller and his congregation. When Wildman was caught for spying for the British army, President George Washington sentenced him to be hanged for treason. No sooner was the sentence announced than Rev. Peter Miller set out on foot to appeal to General George Washington for his enemy’s life. The president thought that Mr. Wildman was Rev. Miller’s friend and stated that he could not save Miller’s friend because of the gravity of his guilt. Miller said, “Mr. President, Mr. Wildman is not my friend; he is my worst enemy.” “What!” exclaimed Washington, “You have walked sixty miles to save the life of your enemy? That puts the matter in a different light. Pardon is granted.” Pardon in hand, Miller hurried to the place of execution, fifteen miles away. He arrived just as the traitor was being led to the scaffold. Seeing the pastor Miller coming close to the executing officer, the condemned Wildman shouted, “Here is the old Peter Miller. He came to get his revenge by seeing me hanged.” -- Miller calmly stepped forward and gave him the pardon, signed by General Washington.  Rev. Miller lived by the command Jesus gave us as described in today’s Gospel passage: “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.” (Adapted from Msgr. Arthur Tonne &  http://rosicrucian.50webs.com/various/palo-day-washington-cried.htm). 

# 3: Two presidents and a truck driver: When President Gerald Ford granted former President Richard Nixon “a free, full and absolute pardon” for his participation and perjury in the “Watergate” scandal, many considered Ford’s decision to be an act of weakness. In 1977, when President Jimmy Carter offered amnesty to those who, during the Vietnamese War, had avoided being conscripted, he was criticized for not enforcing the law. Both men, one a Republican, the other a Democrat, “took the heat”, as it were, because neither was motivated by partisan politics or the pressure of public opinion. Each had chosen to go beyond the limits of strict justice in order to exercise a mercy that was dictated, not by law, but by a conscience formed on Gospel principles. During the race riots in Los Angeles, in the aftermath of the Rodney King incident, a truck driver named Reginald Denny was pulled from his vehicle and severely beaten with a brick. When the case went to trial in 1993, Denny stunned the courtroom with his offer of forgiveness to those who had almost killed him. Later Denny said that only by forgiving the perpetrators of the crime against him had he been able to put the event behind him and move on. (http://frtonyshomilies.com/)

Introduction: The readings today are linked together by one main theme:  the power of Christian love, when exercised in unconditional forgiveness. The readings also instruct us about our right and wrong choices. The right choices lead us to God, and the wrong ones break our relationship with Him and with one another. The first reading shows us how David made the right choice, respecting God’s anointed king by forgiving his offenses, while Saul continued to make the wrong choices, perpetuating his own misery seeking his revenge. In the Responsorial Psalm, Ps 103, the Psalmist reminds us of the mercy of God and His compassion for us “as a Father has compassion on His children.”  In the second reading, St. Paul tells us how the “First Adam” made a wrong choice of disobedience, bringing death into the world, whereas Jesus, the “Second Adam,” made the correct choice of fulfilling his Father’s saving plan. Today’s Gospel (Luke 6:27-38), gives us Jesus' revolutionary moral teaching about correct choices in our human relationships, placing special emphasis on the Golden Rule, “Do to others as you would have them do to you.” This Golden Rule, is amplified by a string of particular commands:  "Love your enemies...Do good to those who hate you; bless those who curse you and pray for those who maltreat you."  For Jesus, love is a fundamental attitude that seeks another’s good.  Jesus orders us to love our enemies and to be merciful as God our Father is merciful. Jesus challenges us to do for others what God does for us. “Be compassionate, as your Father is compassionate." He concludes by instructing us to stop judging and start forgiving. 

The first reading (1 Sm 26: 2: 7-9, 12-13, 22-23) explained: This reading from the Hebrew Scriptures, gives us a vivid example of self-control, forgiveness, and mercy.   The ancient Israelites were governed first by Moses, then by a long line of judges. Since they noticed the progress made by their Gentile neighbors who had kings, the Israelites finally prevailed on their last Judge, Samuel to ask God for a king for them. (1 Samuel: 8). The king was Saul. In Saul's army, the youth David won a famous victory over Goliath, and thereby gained the admiration of the people and the envy of King Saul. Saul and his "three thousand picked men" went in search of David to kill him. Yet, David and Abishai were able to steal into Saul's camp and stand over the sleeping king. But David turned down Abishai's offer to "nail Saul to the ground with one thrust of the spear.” ”Do not harm him," David commanded. Then taking Saul's spear and water jug, he went to an opposite hill and yelled across to Abner, Saul's lieutenant:  "Here is the king's spear.... Today, though Yahweh delivered him into my grasp, I would not harm Yahweh's anointed." David’s sense of justice, spirit of forgiveness, and respect for Divine authority helped him to go beyond the retaliation which others expected him to show. David is an image of Christ and an example to us. If he can forgive his mortal enemy, so can, and so should, we.

The second reading (I Cor. 15:45-49) explained:  Here we have Saint Paul's doctrine of the resurrection of Jesus, contrasting Christ, "the last Adam," with Adam, the "first Adam."   He reminds the Corinthian community that everyone shares in the sinful nature of the "first Adam." But he encourages his followers to remember that by Baptism they also share in the spiritual nature of Jesus -- the "last Adam."   Hence, we Christians are expected to go beyond our earthly, natural desire to seek revenge and retaliation. Instead, when we are injured, we are to offer the Christian response of forgiveness and mercy, whether our culture accepts or rejects it. If, through the power of the Holy Spirit, we do so, we share in the life of the risen Christ, both here and now, and after our death.

Gospel exegesis: The Gospel passage contains four commands of Jesus: love, forgive, do good, and pray. They specify the kind of love that the Christian follower is expected to show toward an enemy. The ‘enemy’ is one who injures hates or rejects the Christian. 1) Love your enemies: This command proposes a course of action that is contrary to human nature. Jesus invites those who follow him to repudiate their natural inclinations and instead follow his example and the example of the heavenly Father. He recommends, not merely a warm affection (philia), such as one might have for one’s family, or a passionate devotion (eros), such as one might expect between spouses, but a gracious, active interest (agape), in the welfare of precisely those persons who are antagonistic to us. Agape is the love that cares deeply for others simply because they are created in God’s image, and wishes them well because that is what God wishes. Jesus not only commanded us to love our enemies, he also gave us the most vivid and awesome example of this type of love in action.   While hanging on the cross, he prayed, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”

2) Offer your other cheek to the one who strikes you.   This injunction and that in v. 30, cut through the old principle of retaliation (Ex 21:24; Lev 24:20; Dt 19:21-30). Jesus is not saying that we should permit the destruction of the innocent and   defenseless or allow ourselves to be abused or killed! The Catechism is very clear on this point: “Self-defense is morally legitimate, as long as it’s proportional to the attack. Let us remember that the commandment is ‘Love your neighbor AS YOU LOVE YOURSELF’...Love toward oneself remains a fundamental principle of morality. Therefore it is legitimate to insist on respect for one’s own right to life” (CCC #2264). What are the challenges Jesus gives us in this command to "turn the other cheek”?   First, he challenges us to forgive others totally and completely, which means letting go of any and every grudge. He also challenges us not to seek vengeance.  In addition, he wants us to be patient with the shortcomings of others and to love everyone, even our enemies. (CCC #2264). So the bottom line is this: It’s morally wrong not to defend the innocent, when we have a responsibility to do so; it’s morally legitimate to defend ourselves from an unjust aggressor; but it can be virtuous to endure unjust sufferings and even martyrdom for the sake of Jesus Christ and his Gospel.

3) “Forgive and you will be forgiven. Bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you” This message might have sounded very strange to the Jews, who were familiar with a God who was merciful to his own people and vengeful against their enemies, as pictured in Psalms 18, 72 and 92. But Jesus repeats his teaching on forgiveness, both in the prayer he taught his disciples “forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us,” (Mt 68:12; Lk 11:4), and in his final commandment to his apostles, “Just as I have loved you, you should also love one another” (Jn 15:12). Another good reason for us to forgive our enemies is, “(so that everyone will know that we are disciples of the Most High” (Jn 13:34-35). That is, Christian forgiveness can be a form of evangelization. Jesus does not advise his followers to overlook evils, wars, economic disparity, and exploitation of the vulnerable. Instead, we are called to forgive, to be merciful and not to retaliate.  But we cannot achieve this level of love and forgiveness by ourselves. We need the power of God working through us by the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit. 

4) The Golden Rule: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” Christian ethics consists not in merely refraining from evil, but in actively doing good, not only to those who are friends, but to those who hate us or do evil against us.  In other words, Jesus expects us to rise above our human instincts and imitate the goodness and generosity of God.  The observance of the golden rule makes us like God whose love and mercy embrace saints and sinners alike. At the same time the Golden Rule does not require that we allow others to take advantage of us.  

Life Messages: 1) Invitation to grace-filled behavior: What makes Christianity distinct from any other religion is the quality known as grace, i.e., God’s own life working in us, so that we are able to treat others, not as they deserve but with love, kindness and mercy. God is good to the unjust as well as to the just.  Hence our love for others, even those who are ungrateful and selfish towards us, must be marked by the same kindness and mercy which God has shown to us.  When we pray for those who do us wrong, we break the power of hate in ourselves and in others and release the power of love.  How can we possibly love those who cause us harm?  God gives the necessary power and grace to those who believe and accept the gift of the Holy Spirit.  His love conquers our hurts, fears, prejudices and grief.  Only the cross of Jesus Christ can free us from the tyranny of malice, hatred, revenge, and resentment, and give us the courage to return good for evil.  

2) Accept the challenges of day-to-day life. Jesus challenges our willingness to endure unjust suffering for his sake and the sake of his Gospel. For example, we must often endure the suffering that comes when a co-worker calls us "a religious fanatic" because we believe in the Ten Commandments; the pain that comes when family members refuse to associate with us because we take our Faith seriously and refuse to compromise our beliefs; the suffering that comes to a practicing Christian youth who is ostracized by his friends because he won’t do drugs or engage in promiscuous sexual activity. These are examples of the "little martyrdoms" that Jesus challenges us to embrace every day in his name! (CCC # 2264) 

3) Pray for the strength to forgive. At every Mass we pray the “Our Father,” asking God to forgive us as we forgive others. Our challenge is to overcome our natural inclination to hate. To meet that challenge we need to ask God for the strength to forgive each other. Each of us needs to ask: Do I have anyone in my life I call an enemy?  Is there anyone who actually hates me? Are there people who would really curse me?  Is there anyone in my life who mistreats me-–a boss, a teacher, a parent, a co-worker, a family member, a former spouse?   These things hurt us, and they are often difficult to forgive.  However, we must forgive, because only forgiveness truly heals us. If we remember how God has forgiven us, it will help us forgive others.   For those who have hurt us, Jesus tells us our response should be love: “Forgive and you will be forgiven.” Let us start forgiving right now by curbing the sharp tongue of criticism, suppressing the revenge instinct, and patiently bearing the irritating behavior of a neighbor. 

4) Let us try to live our lives in accordance with “the Golden Rule."  Let us examine our conscience. Is generosity central to our lives, or do we often choose selfishness instead? Are we willing to trust in God’s providence, or do we place our Faith in ourselves? Do we really accept and embrace our responsibility for one another and for the world we live in, or do we see all things in terms of our own wants and needs? Do we allow emotions such as hatred and jealousy guide our spiritual lives, or do we try to be more like our Lord?

Joke of the week #1: "Forgive Your Enemies" The preacher's Sunday sermon was, "Forgive Your Enemies." He asked, “How many have forgiven their enemies?" About half held up their hands. He then repeated the question.  This time about eighty percent held up their hands. He then repeated his question a third time. The entire congregation held up their hands except one elderly lady. "Mrs. Jones," the preacher asked, "aren't you willing to forgive your enemies?" "I don't have any" she replied.  "That is very unusual”, the preacher said. "How old are you?" "Ninety-three.” "Mrs. Jones, please come to the front and tell the congregation how a person cannot have an enemy in the world." The little sweetheart of a lady tottered down the aisle and said: "It's easy; I just outlived all those rascals!"

# 2: The preacher and the doctor:  There’s a story told of a husband and wife both of whom were doctors - one a Doctor of Theology and the other a Doctor of Medicine. When their doorbell was rung and the maid answered, the inquirer would often ask for "the doctor". The maid’s interesting reply was: "Do you want the one who preaches or the one who practices?"   

#: Irish prayer: There is an old Irish prayer that goes like this, “May God bless those who love us. And those who do not love us, may He turn their hearts. And if He does not turn their hearts, may He turn their ankles so we may know them by their limping.”

VIDEO-WEBSITES OF THE WEEK

(The easiest method  to visit these websites is to copy and paste the web address or URL on the Address bar of any Internet website like Google or MSN and press the Enter button of your Keyboard). 

1) Fr. Don’ collection of video homilies & blogs: https://sundayprep.org

2) Video Sunday-Scripture study by Fr. Geoffrey Plant:

 https://www.youtube.com/user/GeoffreyPlant2066

3) Dr. Brant Pitre’s commentary on Cycle C Sunday Scripture for Bible Class: https://catholicproductions.com/blogs/mass-readings-explained-year-c  

Selected Catholic apologetic websites (https://www.reasonablecatholic.com/recommended-links/recommended-websites/)

1)http://www.abcsoffaith.com/html/home.html;  2) http://www.aboutcatholics.com/, 3) http://www.americancatholictruthsociety.com/   4)http://www.columbia.edu/cu/augustine/a/, 5) http://www.biblechristiansociety.com/  6) http://www.catholic.com/      7)http://www.phatmass.com/directory/ 8)  http://www.catholicfaithandreason.org 

9)http://www.TheDefender.org/     10) http://www.ourcatholicfaith.org/ 11)www.catholicscomehome.org  12) www.jimmyakin.com 

23) Additional anecdotes 1) Forgive and forget: When Mahatma Gandhi was gunned down in 1948, his last gesture was one of forgiveness for his assassin; with his palms pressed together he raised his hands to his lips in the Hindu sign of forgiveness. Pope John Paul II was similarly generous. After recovering from his gunshot wounds, he visited his assailant in jail and assured him of his forgiveness. Father Lawrence Jenco, upon his release as a hostage in Beirut, said that only when he was able to forgive his kidnappers, was he able to enjoy his freedom. Only by forgiving those who had starved, degraded and brutalized him was he able to move from brokenness to wholeness before God. During the race riots in Los Angeles, in the aftermath of the Rodney King debacle, a truck driver named Reginald Denny was pulled from his vehicle and severely beaten with a brick. When the case went to trial in 1993, Denny stunned the courtroom with his offer of forgiveness to those who had almost killed him. Later Denny said that only by forgiving the perpetrators of the crime against him was he able to put the event behind him and move on. The late Joseph Cardinal Bernardin (died November 14, 1996), who once said that the believer’s relationship with Christ must influence all his/her other relationships (Christ Lives in Me, St. Anthony Messenger Press, Cincinnati: 1970), extended his experience of that relationship to a young man who had accused him of sexual molestation. Even before the man recanted his accusations as false, Cardinal Bernardin had extended to him the gift of forgiveness. When Christian missionaries to Alaska first began to minister among the Inuit people, they were surprised to discover the Inuit term for forgiveness. A formidable assemblage of 24 letters, the compound word issumagijoujungnainermik is a beautiful expression which means not-being-able-to-think-about-it-any more. Implied in this term is the notion that the one who forgives will also forget. -- What a freeing thought! Forgiveness is a noble gift, and when it is authentically offered and genuinely received, it never ceases to stir a certain amazement in the human heart. (Sanchez Files). (http://frtonyshomilies.com/) 

2) Forgiveness did what Justice could not do: Do you remember the movie, “Dead Man Walking” (1995)? It was based on the book of the same name published in 1993, depicting the counseling experiences of Sister Helen Prejean, a Sister of St. Joseph, who worked in prison ministry in Louisiana and was a long-time campaigner against the death penalty in the United States.  The story is about her relationship with a criminal named Robert Willie and with one of his victims, Debbie Morris.  Willie and a friend of his were convicted of going on an eight-day crime spree in which they kidnapped three eighteen-year-olds.  They molested and murdered one girl, sexually assaulted another, and beat up a third.   Debbie's boyfriend was tortured, shot and paralyzed.  Debbie Morris survived and   Willie was executed.  Because of those traumatic events, Debbie Morris was in agony for years and could not forgive Robert Willie for his crimes.  For eighteen years after the incident, her life was filled with anxiety.  She didn’t have an hour in which she was free of torment.  She was filled with anger and hatred for everything and everybody.  She hated her mother for letting her go out that night; she hated God for letting this happen to her; and needless to say, she hated Robert Willie.   Sister Helen counseled her, and finally, after eighteen years, Debbie Morris found the strength to forgive Robert Willie.  Debbie is now married, has two children, and is doing very well. She wrote in an article entitled “Forgiving the Dead Man Walking”: “By forgiving Robert Willie, I in no way absolve him of the responsibility for what he did.  But the refusal to forgive him meant that I held on to my pain, my shame, and my self-pity.   Justice didn’t do a thing to heal me.  Forgiveness did.”  --   When we hear today’s Gospel we are tempted to ask: “Is Jesus serious about his teaching on forgiveness?   Does Jesus expect us to subject ourselves to physical abuse and actually enjoy it? Is he saying that to defend oneself against physical attack is a sin?  What does he mean when he tells us to "turn the other cheek?"   Debbie Morris would answer, “Justice didn’t heal me.  But forgiveness did.” Jesus is completely serious when he tells us to love our enemies and forgive them, showing them that God’s justice lies in His mercy. That’s what he tells us in today’s Gospel. (http://frtonyshomilies.com/)

3) The Marines could blast him to “kingdom come.” A little girl came home from Sunday School and asked her father if she could send a note to Osama Bin Laden. “Why him?” asked her startled father. “Because,” said the little girl, “if Mr. Bin Laden got a nice note from a little American girl, maybe he’d think that we’re not all bad and he might start liking us a little. And then maybe he’d write a note back and come out of his cave and talk to people about our differences.” “Suzie,” said the proud father, “that’s a wonderful idea. “ ”Yes,” said Suzie, “and once he’s out of the cave, the Marines could blast him to kingdom come.” --  I hope Suzie didn’t get that idea at Sunday School. (http://frtonyshomilies.com/)

4) The Jews eating a five-cornered cake to remember Hitler?: One day long ago, when things were looking darkest for the free world, a man named Adolph Hitler was addressing a large audience in Germany. On the front row sat a man of pronounced Semitic appearance. Following his address, Hitler came down from the platform, walked up to this man and said: “While I was speaking you were laughing. What were you laughing about?” The man replied, “I was not laughing, I was thinking. “” What were you thinking about?” asked Hitler. “I was thinking about my people, the Jews, and that you are not the first man who didn’t like us. A long time ago there was another man who didn’t like us. His name was Pharaoh and he put heavy burdens on us down there in Egypt. But for years we Jews have had a feast called Passover and at that feast we have a little three-cornered cake and we eat that cake in memory of Pharaoh. “Years later there was another man who didn’t like us. His name was Haman and he did his best to get rid of all the Jews throughout the realm of King Ahasuerus. But for years we Jews have had another feast called the feast of Purim and at that feast we have a little four-cornered cake and we eat that cake in memory of Haman. “And while you were up there speaking, sir, I was sitting here thinking and wondering what kind of a cake we were going to eat to remember you by. “ (John A. Redhead, Jr., The Past Speaks to the Future--50 Years of the Protestant Hour (Nashville: Abingdon, 1995).) -- How shall we treat our enemies? This Jewish gentleman was on the right track. (http://frtonyshomilies.com/)

5) “Today God has delivered your enemy into your hands.” There was once a shepherd boy who became a legendary soldier. But, after a brief time of service, he made a very powerful enemy. The shepherd boy was named David. The powerful enemy was a King of Israel, named Saul. You remember the story. The crowds chanted, “Saul has killed his thousands; David has killed his ten thousands.” (I Samuel 18:7) And Saul was consumed with envy and hatred. He chased David all over the wilderness, seeking to take his life. On one occasion, in the Desert of Ziph, Saul took three thousand soldiers with him for the express purpose of hunting David down and killing him. It was on this mission that, one night while Saul was sleeping, David slipped into his tent under the cover of dark. There lay David’s enemy asleep with his spear stuck in the ground near his head. A soldier who had accompanied David on this clandestine mission said to him, “Today God has delivered your enemy into your hands. Now let me pin him to the ground with one thrust of my spear . . .” But David would have none of it. In his eyes, Saul was God’s anointed. So David took the spear and water jug near Saul’s head, and they left. Then David crossed over to the other side and stood on top of the hill some distance away; there was a wide space between them. “Here is the king’s spear,” David shouted. “Let one of your young men come over and get it. The Lord rewards every man for his righteousness and faithfulness. The Lord delivered you into my hands today, but I would not lay a hand on the Lord’s anointed.” Interesting insight into David’s character: David was not always merciful to his enemies, but at least on this occasion, David’s Faith in God was more important than either his desire for vengeance or his concern for his own safety, so he spared Saul’s life. --How shall we treat our enemy? (http://frtonyshomilies.com/)

6) Fatwa against Salman Rushdie and Barbie dolls: You may remember when writer Salman Rushdie first gained the public eye because he had a bounty on his head. Why? For writing words critical of the Prophet, even though he is a Moslem himself. It was a harsh reminder that you can be killed in some parts of the world just for asking questions or expressing doubts. Of course, there was a time when that was true in the Christian world, too, but we conveniently forget that. It was amusing to read that Islamic fundamentalists in Kuwait recently issued a fatwa against Barbie dolls. “This she-devil has polished nails and wears skirts above the knee,” says Kuwait’s College of Islamic Sharia. “The fatwa against Barbie commences immediately.” That seems a little extreme. It’s not the first time, of course, the Gulf has banned Western products. Last year Saudi Arabia and Iran barred satellite dishes--for the sinful images they import. Thirty years ago Saudi Arabia’s senior religious authority declared the earth was flat and outlawed globes. (Newsweek, April 24, 1995, p. 6.)  -- It is very difficult for us to relate to such a religion. And yet, relate to it we must. For, if we do not, if we hate people simply because of their religion, we become exactly like the people who hate us so much. If we return evil for evil, what separates us from sinners? asks Jesus. (http://frtonyshomilies.com/)

7) “Juda Ben Hur, you have become a Massala.” Some of you will remember an epic Hollywood motion picture titled Ben Hur, starring Charlton Heston. You may remember it for the exciting chariot race at the end. At the time Ben Hur was the most expensive Hollywood movie ever made. In the movie, based on a Lew Wallace book, an old friend named Massala has become Juda Ben Hur’s enemy. Because of Massala’s evil doing, Ben Hur is captured and forced into service down in the galley of a slave ship. Meanwhile, his mother and sister are sent off to prison. Ben Hur loses contact with them and later is told that they are dead. Juda Ben Hur, returns to Israel intent on one thing--revenge. Because of Massala, he has lost everything. And now he lives for one thing, to avenge himself upon Massala. This passion consumes Ben Hur to such an extent that his sweetheart, Esther, looking into his tortured eyes exclaims, “Juda Ben Hur, you have become a Massala.” -- That’s what hatred does to us. It is impossible to have the Spirit of Christ within us and at the same time to have a spirit of hatred for any other human being. (http://frtonyshomilies.com/)

8) “We must realize that we are all family.” TV news reporter Peter Arnett was visiting the West Bank in Israel when a bomb exploded in the middle of town. He was surrounded by anguished screams and clouds of smoke. A man holding an injured girl ran up to Peter and asked for a ride to a hospital. As they sped through the streets, the man nursed the bloody girl in the backseat. The doctors did everything to save the girl’s life, but to no avail. Peter turned to comfort the man on the loss of his child, but the man interrupted him. She wasn’t his child, he said. She was a Palestinian. He was Israeli. He found her lying in the street and decided to help. -- “Mister,” he said through his tears, “there must come a time when we realize that we are all family.” (Tony Campolo, Let Me Tell You a Story (Nashville: Word Publishing, 2000), pp. 120-121.) (http://frtonyshomilies.com/)

9) The Bishop’s silver candlesticks: One of the most successful musicals of the past forty years has been Andrew Lloyd Webber's Les Miserables, based on the novel of the same name by Victor Hugo. The main character of Les Miserables is Jean Valjean. Orphaned as a boy, Valjean reaches his teens only to take on the responsibility of caring for his widowed sister and her seven children. All his work couldn't pull his sister and her family out of poverty, and so one day a desperate Valjean steals a loaf of bread from a baker's shop, to keep the children from starving. He is soon arrested and thrown in jail, where his young heart becomes hardened with anger and hatred. After spending half his life in prison, Valjean is released to a world that doesn't want him. His criminal past causes him to be rejected and ostracized everywhere he goes. Finally, he stumbles on the house of a kindly Bishop. The Bishop treats Valjean with kindness, feeding him and allowing him to spend the night at his house. That night, Valjean is restless, still battling the anger and bitterness in his heart. He leaves the house that night, stealing all the bishop's fine silver utensils. The next day, soldiers come to the bishop's house with Valjean in tow. They have found the silver, and are ready to throw him in jail. But the bishop greets Valjean with gladness and insists that he freely gave him the silver. The soldiers release their trembling prisoner and leave. Valjean, in disbelief, accepts the gift of the silver from the bishop. He cannot understand why this man would tell a lie to save someone like himself. ---- His answer comes when the kindly bishop announces, "Jean Valjean, my brother, you no longer belong to the evil, but to good. I have bought your soul for you. I withdrew it from black thoughts and the spirit of hate, and gave it to God." And Jean Valjean leaves the bishop's house a changed man changed by a man who treated him with favor. (http://frtonyshomilies.com/)

10) "I have no choice but to love and forgive the man who murdered my mother." A few years ago the small town of Palm Bay, Florida, experienced a deep community trauma. A crazed alcoholic filled his pockets with high-powered ammunition. Then, taking a semiautomatic rifle, he walked into a crowded shopping center and started killing people at random. By the time he was finally chased into a grocery store (where he held a young woman hostage for several hours before the police persuaded him to give up), he had killed six people and wounded a dozen more some seriously. Emotions ran high. One of the ladies killed was a sixty-eight-year-old saint who worked in a Church nursery. People were confused. What role did justice play in this kind of situation? Forgiveness? Each person had to arrive at his own conclusion. -- But Sandy Thompson, the daughter of the slain woman, made a deliberate decision not to hate. "If I hate him," she told her pastor, "I am also a murderer." She said, "Jesus said, ‘Do not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment. But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment.' (Mt 5:21-22). He also said: “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you: ‘Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.' (Mt 5:43-44) Therefore," said Sandy Thompson, "I have no choice but to love and forgive the man who murdered my mother.” [Jamie Buckingham, Parables (Milton Keynes, England: Word Publishing, 1991), p. 39.]  (http://frtonyshomilies.com/)

11) “We are not advocating violence. We must love our enemies.” On January 30, 1956, Martin Luther King, Jr. came home from a meeting to find his home had been bombed while his wife and children were inside. Crowds full of anger swarmed in the front yard. After a while, Dr. King came out to address the crowd. -- This is what he said: “We are not advocating violence. We must love our enemies. What we are doing is just, and God will be with us.” (http://frtonyshomilies.com/)

12) “We shall pray for who have perhaps already raised their hands to kill us.” Dietrich Bonhoeffer—World War II—fighting Hitler, decided to leave the safety of this country and to go back to Germany and lead a Church in the resistance movement against the Nazi regime. It cost him his life. But Dietrich Bonhoeffer writes in that great book The Cost of Discipleship, “We are approaching an age of widespread persecution. Our adversaries seek to root out the Christian Church because they cannot live side by side with us. So what shall we do? We shall pray. It will be a prayer of earnest love for those who stand around and gaze at us with eyes aflame with hatred, and who have perhaps already raised their hands to kill us.” --  What will we do? We can pray. Why not? Why not a better way of life? (http://frtonyshomilies.com/)

13) “Blood never loses its color." On Dec. 24, 1994, a young Albanian man by the name of Isaj was murdered. The police didn't investigate the crime, even though they knew who the killer was: Isaj's close friend, Rasim. Why didn't the police arrest Rasim? Because it was a revenge killing, and revenge killings are part of the basic moral code in Albania. The basic moral code of Albania comes from the Kanun, a centuries-old book of folk laws. The Kanun calls for brutal revenge if a man has been injured or his honor has been insulted. Forgiveness and reconciliation are not options. If a man refuses to kill another man in a blood feud, then he loses all honor in Albanian society. A quote from the Kanun reads, "Blood never loses its color." --  Revenge is natural; love is Christ-like. (http://frtonyshomilies.com/)

14) "Fratres Pontifices," the bridge-building brothers. In A.D. 1191, Pope Clement III approved a new guild. Its members included nobles, clergy, and artisans. The work of the guild consisted of clearing dangerous roads for pilgrims and building bridges over rivers and chasms. Members of the guild wore clothing that carried a picture of two things: a cross and a bridge. The guild was called "Fratres Pontifices," the bridge-building brothers. -- And that is who we who follow Jesus are called to be. An Episcopal priest, Dr. Joseph Fort Newton, once commented: "People are lonely because they build walls instead of bridges." [Edward Chinn, Wonder of Words (Lima, Ohio: C.S.S. Publishing Co., Inc., 1987), p. 22.[ (http://frtonyshomilies.com/)

15) “But, I have many bridges to build." Once upon a time two brothers who lived on adjoining farms fell into conflict. It was the first serious rift in 40 years in farming side by side, sharing machinery, and trading labor and goods as needed, without a hitch. Then the long collaboration fell apart. It began with a small misunderstanding that grew into a major difference, and finally exploded into an exchange of bitter words followed by weeks of silence. One morning there was a knock on John's door. He opened it to find a man with a carpenter's toolbox. "I'm looking for a few days work," he said. "Perhaps you would have a few small jobs here and there. Could I help you?" "Yes," said the older brother. "I do have a job for you. Look across the creek at that farm. That's my neighbor, in fact, it's my younger brother. Last week there was a meadow between us and he took his bulldozer to the river levee and now it is a creek between us. Well, he may have done this to spite me, but I'll go him one better. See that pile of lumber curing by the barn? I want you to build me a fence--an 8-foot fence so I won't need to see his place anymore. Cool him down anyhow." The carpenter said, "I think I understand the situation. Show me the nails and the post hole digger and I'll be able to do a job that pleases you." The older brother had to go to town for supplies, so he helped the carpenter get the materials ready and then he was off for the day. The carpenter worked hard all that day measuring, sawing, nailing. About sunset when the farmer returned, the carpenter had just finished his job. The farmer's eyes opened wide, and his jaw dropped. There was no fence there at all. It was a bridge, a bridge stretching from one side of the creek to the other. A fine piece of work--handrails and all--and the neighbor, his younger brother, was coming across, his hand outstretched. "You are quite a fellow to build this bridge after all I've said and done." The two brothers stood at each end of the bridge and then they met in the middle, took each other's hands. They turned to see the carpenter hoist his toolbox on his shoulder, "No wait, stay a few days. I've a lot of other projects for you," said the older brother.  -- "I'd love to stay on," the carpenter said, "but, I have many bridges to build." (Source: www.swanlake.twoffice.com via http://www.witandwisdom.org ) -- Christ, of course, is the ultimate bridge builder. (http://frtonyshomilies.com/)

16) In The Godfather II, Michael Corleone preaches the following principle: "Keep your friends close and your enemies closer yet."-- Powerful information is wrapped up in criticism. You will always learn more from your enemies than from your friends. Enemies can provide a largely untapped source of truth; they give us tips, either about us or (if the critique is off-base), about those who criticize us. Either way we receive valuable information. Proverbs 23:12 can be translated as: "Don't refuse to accept criticism; get all the help you can." (http://frtonyshomilies.com/)

17) In search of mother’s murderer: A number of years ago, The New York Times Magazine told the story of Nicholas Gage and his mother Eleni. Eleni was a Greek peasant who smuggled her son out of the village before he could be "re-educated" by the Communist party. As a result, she was tortured and murdered on August 28, 1948. Thirty-two years later, her son quit his job as a reporter for the New York Times. He devoted his time and money to finding his mother's killer. He sifted through government cover-ups and false leads. Eventually he found the person who ordered Eleni's death. His name was Katis. In a moving account, he tells of going up the path to a seaside cottage, where he sees Katis, fast asleep. He stood and looked at the man who had killed his mother. But as he pondered his revenge, Gage remembered how his mother did not spend the last moments cursing her tormentors; rather, she faced death with courage because she had done her duty to those she loved. "I could have killed Katis," he confessed. "It would have given me relief from the pain that had filled me for so many years. But as much as I want that satisfaction, I have learned that I can't do it. My mother's love, the primary impulse of her life, still binds us together, often surrounding me like a tangible presence. Summoning the hate to kill my enemy would have severed that bridge connecting us. It would have destroyed the part of me that is most like my mother." (New York Times Magazine 3 April 1983: 20.) -- Gage prowled all over Greece, looking to treat somebody else as he felt his mother had been treated. He spent his money trying to give the enemy a taste of his own medicine. Instead he was interrupted by love, a mother's love that made sacrifices for him, a love that was not withheld even in the face of certain death, a love like the love of Christ on the cross. (http://frtonyshomilies.com/)

18) "Remember Mr. Denny had brain damage ..." Do you remember Reginald Denny who was beaten senseless, almost to death, in Los Angeles? The attack on Reginald Denny was an incident in the 1993 Los Angeles riots in which Reginald Denny, a white construction truck driver, was beaten nearly to death by a group of black assailants who came to be known as the "L.A. Four". We remember the trial, the riots, and the controversy. -- But do you remember the fact that in the courtroom he was with the families of those who had beaten him? He had gathered together with them in their homes and had gotten to know them because he realized the only hope for the world was for us to forgive our aggressors. Outside the courtroom, after Denny pronounced forgiveness on those who harmed him, one newspaper man simply said, "Remember Mr. Denny had brain damage ..." So, we call someone brain-damaged who simply follows the command to love our enemies! (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attack_on_Reginald_Denny). (http://frtonyshomilies.com/) 

19) "I threw the brick because no one else would stop!"  A number of years back, a young and very successful executive was travelling down a suburban street in his brand-new black jaguar. Suddenly a brick was thrown from the sidewalk, thumping into the side of the car. Brakes slammed! Gears ground into reverse, and tires madly spun the Jaguar back to the spot from where the brick had been thrown. The driver jumped out, grabbed the kid who had thrown the brick and pushed him up against a parked car. "What was that all about?!" he screamed. "That’s my new Jag, that brick you threw is gonna cost you a lot of money!" "Please, mister, please .... I’m sorry! I didn’t know what else to do!" pleaded the youngster. "I threw the brick because no one else would stop!" Tears were dripping down the boy’s chin as he pointed around the parked car. "It’s my brother, mister," he said. "He rolled off the curb and fell out of his wheelchair and I can’t lift him up." Sobbing, the boy asked the executive, "Would you please help me get him back into his wheelchair? He’s hurt and he’s too heavy for me." The mood was transformed in a moment as the young executive realized what had occurred. He lifted the young man into the wheelchair and took out his handkerchief and wiped the scrapes and cuts. He then watched as the younger brother pushed him down the sidewalk toward their home --Unfortunately, that story is all too common. Without knowing all the facts, we all make judgments about people all the time. And what is really unfortunate, is that judgments like that are all too common in the Church. The Christian churches have a bad reputation as a bunch of judgmental hypocrites, don’t we?  (Rev. Don Jaques). (http://frtonyshomilies.com/)

20) “He just ran over three motorcycles on his way out of the parking lot." Late one summer evening a weary truck driver pulled his rig into an all-night service station to get some food. The waitress had just served him when three tough looking, leather jacketed motorcyclists - of the Hell’s Angels type - decided to give him a hard time. Not only did they verbally abuse him, one grabbed the hamburger off his plate, another took a handful of his chips, and the third picked up his coffee and began to drink it. How would you respond? Well, this trucker did not respond as one might expect. Instead, he calmly rose, picked up his bill and walked to the front of the restaurant, paid his bill and went out the door. The waitress followed him to put the money in the cash register and stood watching out the door as the big truck drove away into the night. When she returned, one of the bikers said to her, "Well, he’s not much of a man, is he?" She replied, "I don’t know about that, but he sure ain’t much of a truck driver. He just ran over three motorcycles on his way out of the parking lot." -- We laugh at that because that is what we’d like to do to those who make life difficult for us. When someone does something to us, our first instinct is to get back at them! Our first instinct is to make them pay and to hurt as much as they hurt us. But that is not what Jesus would have us do. In Luke 6, Jesus gives us a different response to have. What would Jesus have us do to our enemies? He tells us we are to LOVE THEM. (Rev. David Elvery). (http://frtonyshomilies.com/)

21) Arab girl with Jewish kidney: On February 4 in the year 2007, the ABC re-broadcast a program documenting the moving story of Marsha Gladstone, a Jewish woman from Scotland. When a bus in Tel Aviv was shattered in a suicide bombing, Marsha’s 19-year-old son Yoni Jesner was critically injured. Yoni never regained consciousness, and before he died, the family agreed to make some of his organs available for transplant. The decision to donate helped them to find some meaning in this senseless tragedy. The subsequent revelation that one of Yoni’s kidneys had saved the life of Yasmin Rumeilah, a seven-year-old Palestinian girl, came as quite a shock to the family. It had simply never occurred to this Jewish family that a child of the “enemy’ would become the beneficiary of Yoni’s gift. -- A year after Yoni’s death and at considerable personal cost, Marsha visited Yasmin and her family in their home in the West Bank. The Jewish mother who had lost her son embraced the Palestinian mother whose child lives with gratitude in her heart for the young Jewish man who gave her another chance at life and whom she now refers to as her “˜brother’. There was an extraordinary moment of womb-compassion in the embrace of these two women, one Jewish and the other Muslim. The hatred and misunderstanding of the generations seemed to dissolve in their encounter. (http://frtonyshomilies.com/).

22) About “dreaming the impossible dream”? That phrase comes from the Joe Darion song in 1965, immortalized by the 1965 stage play about “Don Quixote” and by the 1966 recording by Frank Sinatra. It speaks of an “unbeatable foe,” and suffering “unbearable sorrow,” as well as righting the “unrightable wrong.” The advice that Jesus gives in today’s Gospel is a lot like that. Nevertheless, the only option he offers is that of loving everyone, including our enemies and those who hurt us.

Jesus was aware that only love can stop the cycle of hatred. He knew that only if the “dream” became a reality it would come to fruition. We hear that repeated many times today by civic leaders. For example, Eleanor Roosevelt is quoted as saying “The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.” President Woodrow Wilson didn’t live to see his “impossible dream” fulfilled of American leadership in a League of Nations; nevertheless, the United Nations was the result of his early vision. Jesus died on the cross for our salvation. He did not see his dream of everyone loving everyone else become a reality. One of my friends, Fr. Jerry Fuller (†) made this comment: “Jesus’ words are what we call `counter-cultural’ in that they go against the philosophy of the world. For instance, in America 70% of the people believe in capital punishment. But Jesus tells us to forgive. A majority look down on welfare people, saying `Let them pull themselves up by their bootstraps like I did.’ If an enemy attacks our family or country, we immediately seek revenge, we certainly don’t turn the other cheek. So where is Jesus coming from? Has he just landed from Mars?” He goes on to say that only when we have Jesus’ words etched in our heart, and live them daily, will we be able to respond as Jesus did. -- That is our challenge today, to put on the mind of Jesus, and trust in Him and love like Him! (Father Robert F. McNamara) .

23) “My son, one who slanders a virtuous person is like one who spits at the sky.” But the question that most of us are asking is this: How about if he abuses our love for him or if he does not accept it? What shall we do? You, what are you going to do? Are you going to let him do what he wants? If he abused our love for him, he is like the man who, after he listened to Buddha who talked against returning evil for evil or in our Gospel, ‘a tooth for a tooth’, decided to see if Buddha practiced what he preached. The man shouted all kinds of abuses and slanderous words at the great teacher and called him a stupid fool. Buddha listened patiently. When the man ran out of things to say, Buddha said: “My son, if one declines to accept a gift from another, to whom does the gift go?” “Any fools know that,” the man replied scornfully . “The gift goes back to the giver.” “My son,” said the Buddha, “You have given me much verbal abuse. I decline to accept your gift.” The man was dumbfounded. -- Buddha continued, ”My son, one who slanders a virtuous person is like one who spits at the sky. The spittle does not soil the sky. It only comes back to soil the face of the one who spits. Or it is like one who flings dust into the wind. The dust does not reach its target. It only blows back into the face of the man who throws it.”( Quoted by Fr. Bennett)

“Scriptural Homilies” Cycle C (No. 16) by Fr. Tony: akadavil@gmail.com

Visit my website by clicking on http://frtonyshomilies.com/ for missed or previous Cycle C homilies, 141 Year of Faith “Adult Faith Formation Lessons” (useful for RCIA classes too) & 197 “Question of the Week.” Contact me only at akadavil@gmail.com. Visit also https://www.catholicsermons.com/homilies/sunday_homilies  under Fr. Tony’s homilies and  under Resources in the CBCI website:  https://www.cbci.in  for other website versions.  (Vatican Radio website: http://www.vaticannews.va/en/church.html uploaded my Cycle A, B and C homilies in from 2018-2020)  Fr. Anthony Kadavil, Chaplain, Sacred Heart Residence of the Little Sisters of the Poor, 1655 McGill Ave, Mobile, AL 36604 .