We are getting very close to once again celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ the Savior of the world. We got everything almost ready. The crib is up in the Church. ..Continue in full article

When a woman conceives a child, her whole life changes. When she goes to see a doctor, he urges her to stay healthy. She must maintain a proper diet and avoid smoking and drinking if she’s used to. All of this is not only for herself but also for the sake of her baby. ... continued in full article....

The gospel tells us today that a certain time the Baptist had doubts about Jesus being the true Messiah. He had placed his hopes on the wrong signs. ..... continue to read in full article

We begin today the season of Advent. Advent also leads us to the great event that God became flesh and shared our human story. It points to our present life when Christ comes to give meaning to our endeavors as we encounter him... {Click title to read full reflection}

The first reading tells us how David, after defeating all his enemies, was anointed king over all of Israel. His kingdom great and powerful, became the image and symbol of the kingdom of peace and justice that God would... (Click on title to read full reflection)

A certain religious sect, the members of which seem to like to knock on our doors, has predicted the end of the world five times-all within the twentieth century. Scientists assure us that one day, billions of years from now, the world would end because the sun, a source of energy, will exhaust its fuel. The Church teaches that the world, and indeed the universe will end, but not in the way or at the time that either this religious sect or some scientists believe. (Click title to read full reflection)

Not just some, but ''everyone is alive'', says Jesus in the gospel of today. These words of the Master give the theme joining the three readings of this Sunday together. When we speak of resurrection, we must however be careful: we might understand it wrongly, we might take it to mean like the Pharisees and the Sadducees at the time of Jesus, i.e. an improvement of the life in this world. The story of the woman with seven husbands as well as all other misunderstandings between believers and unbelievers come from this wrong idea. The first reading is revealing the first solemn statement of the Bible on life beyond death. This truth, so central to our faith, will be fully revealed by Jesus. The faith in the resurrection modifies our whole way of looking at human existence. It must be nourished by prayer and this is what Paul recommends in the second reading. As Christians, we believe that prayers and sufferings for the faithful departed are very important and valuable, but are to be understood correctly, that is, in accordance with our belief in eternal life and in the communion of saints. That, the sufferings for the faithful departed are founded on the certainty that the resurrection of Christ has removed all barriers separating the living from the dead. They are now forming one family all together, even though not all of them are in the same state or condition. We the living, are like children in the womb of the mother awaiting our birth time; our departed brothers instead have already entered into the new life. We are united by a deep and strong bond. When here on earth we gather for the Eucharistic banquet, we know that we are in communion with our brothers and sisters in heaven. We are sure that our remembrance and prayer make them happy and increase our love as well as theirs, buoy up our wish and hope of being one day with Christ and with them. Through prayer we tell those who have gone before us into the house of the Father, that we are happy that they are with God, though we feel the sorrow of their disappearance. Did they have defects? Did they make mistakes? Yes, but we have now forgotten all these things, they have been burnt up, purified by the “fire” of the love of God. Amen.

All that God has created is good. The first reading says that God loves all his creatures, otherwise he would not have made them. How can man then hate something or somebody? (Click Title to read full reflection.)

It’s my thought that the gospel of today will not be easily understood unless we keep in mind what the first reading teaches us of the justice of God. God is just, says Ben Sira, not because he grants each person what that person deserves, but because he saves the poor and listens to the cry of the miserable and defenseless. The gospel is telling us that God has this same attitude: he is moved by the publican who only presents his miseries and sins. Also, the second reading could be seen in this light. Paul is saying that one day he will receive from God the ‘’crown’’ that he, the just judge, will give to all those who have spent their lives for the sake of the Gospel. He is expecting it as a gift, not as a prize due to him. Most of times people are inclined to form groups, to split up into classes scorning each other. These groups may be based on culture or education, on wealth, on age, on sympathies. We notice how the beautiful like to stay with the beautiful, the rich like to be with the rich, republicans with republicans, democrats with democrats and the like. But do you know what is the worst separation? The one dividing people into upright and sinners, into those who have merits and those who have no merit. The Pharisee is trying to enlist God into the group of the upright, wants him to be a Pharisee, a ‘’separated’’ one. But God does not accept this. If he must take side, he prefers to be on the side of the sinner! And he finishes his parable with this phrase, ‘’Everyone who raises himself will be humbled, but anyone who humbles himself will be raised up.’’ Seems to tell us that God finds his amusement in irritating those who behave better than others. It is not so. ‘’Everyone who raises himself’’ is not addressed to the proud ones but to those who put their trust in their merits. Such a person, if he doesn’t want to be empty-handed in front of God, must accept to become like a little child, like a poor person and a debtor. Once he has this attitude he can be filled up with gifts by the Lord, as it happened to Mary, the poor and humble servant in whom the Almighty has done great things.

It is pretty easy to break a single thread, but putting thousands of threads together forms a strong cord which withstands attempts to cut it in two. Prayer is like that. When we pray together, especially during the celebration of the liturgy, our prayer possesses strength. God is pleased with that kind of prayer. When we pray together, God the Father readily sees within us the person on his Son, the Head of the body which is his Church. Today’s first reading symbolizes liturgical prayer. Moses needed strength to continue praying during a battle with the Amalekites. As long as Moses kept his hands raised in prayer, the Israelites had the better of the struggle, but when he let his hands rest, the Amalekites seized the ascendancy. Then Moses’ brother Aaron and his friend Hur helped him to keep his hands raised in prayer and the Israelites won the battle. On this regard, priest and people must pray together. The priest does not pray for himself alone. He is a leader, the presider, who prays for the sake of the people. And as Catholics, as people of the Church, we have responsibilities toward one another. Aaron and Hur did not abandon Moses when he grew tired. They did not think that Moses ought to pray alone or that they had to be attentive to their own individual prayers. God is pleased with prayer which is strong because we are all praying not as isolated individuals, but together as Catholics, as people of the Church, united by the Spirit as the one body of Christ.

We heard from Prophet Habakkuk in today’s liturgy. Habakkuk, a Jewish prophet, lived six centuries before Christ. It was a time which in its own way was really as bad as our own. In Judah there was widespread political crisis, corruption of morals, social injustice, contempt for the poor and so on. The situation was getting impossible and the people went to the prophet Habakkuk in despair telling him: ‘’consult the Lord for us. We want to know what we should do, because we cannot continue like this.’’ That same night Habakkuk prayed to God for his people with expectant faith and God’s response to the prophet is, ‘’nothing will happen for a while, there will not be any immediate change, but the people should not get discouraged for God will intervene at the proper time. We do find ourselves often in the same situation as the one of Israel: Political and moral issues and so on. Like Habakkuk, we wonder ‘why all this?, and for how long will it take...? The reply of God is always the same: ‘’keep on believing, do not abandon the way of justice! Maybe you now cannot understand the reasons for my tolerance, but be faithful all the same; one day you will see my intervention of salvation!’’ For, persistent Faith can make miracles!

This Sunday Jesus tells a powerful story about the rich man who ignored the poor man, Lazarus, at his doorstep. The story helps us to see ourselves of how we should be alert to see and care for all those who are in grave need, we may do well to recognize that all of us are Lazarus. To be more precise, we have been in his predicament in a spiritual if not a physical way. Without our redemption by Christ we were even worse off than Lazarus. We had no external sores but within we suffered the effects of sin. We lacked proper nourishment, not of mere scraps, but of the holy body and blood of the Lord. We were outside the gate of the Church, and without Christ we would never have been able to cross the threshold of his house here on earth in order one day to enter his eternal home in heaven. God took pity on us, and so all that God has done for us should be the motive for our being generous to those in need, kind to those who are without comfort, and loving toward everyone as God is toward us. Our holy mass of thanksgiving should move us always and everywhere to treat everyone with the kind of generous love which God has shown to us in the person of his Son, our Priest and Redeemer.

In looking at our Gospel selection in this Sunday’s Gospel it can seem as if Jesus is suggesting that someone who is stealing or misusing resources should be complimented for begin good at being a thief. There are several ways we can respond to this scripture but first think of the effort this person puts into responding once he is told that his easy life will be ending. Look at how hard he works to provide himself with a solution that will allow him to be assured of a place to continue his ability to survive. The response of Jesus is not telling us that working this hard at cheating an employer is a wonderful thing to do, but rather what we are to notice is the effort and resourcefulness that the creative person comes up with. What we are to most notice is that this person is more creative with money issues than what usually happens in our spiritual lives. If we are this creative in the small difficulties with money then shouldn’t we be more creative and resourceful when it comes to our spiritual lives because our spiritual lives are so much more important than what happens with our money.

When parents love their children, they are willing to do anything for them. It seems to happen, however, that children seldom realize how deep their parents’ love is for them. Both sons in Jesus’ parable today failed to understand their father’s love. Neither comprehended that his devotion to them precisely as his sons could never change, no matter what. The father could not even imagine altering his relationship with his sons. For stance, when the younger son (known as the prodigal son) realized his folly, he prepared a little speech to give to his father. In it he would recognize that he was no longer worthy to be called a son, the he would become a hired hand. When he arrived back home and attempted to give his speech, the father would have none of it. He threw his arms around the young man, kissed him, and called for a celebration. He rejoiced that his son is back and well received as the part of the family. The older son we somewhat sympathize with. After all, he had not left home but had continued to work dutifully for his father. He refused to join the party for his younger brother, and the reason he gave for his refusal revealed that he too had failed to understand his relationship with his father. He thought of himself as “slaving” for his father with an expectation of a reward. He was not serving his father out of love. The father responded, “You are with me always and everything I have is yours.” Even when the older son refused to come into the house for the celebration, the father went out to him and pleaded with him. Even more remarkable is God our Father. To begin to understand and appreciate our God, we must remember who we are. We are children of God, his beloved sons and daughters. God will never change his loving relationship with us, even if we abandon him. No matter how foolish we may be in life, no matter how far we may wander from God, our Father reaches out to us by his grace.

It's obvious that Jesus did not want to deceive anybody about the difficulty of being his disciple. In the gospel he is setting down three very hard conditions and demands. If one wants to be his disciple, one must break away from (“hate”) one's family, goods and one's own life. These demands are unacceptable by one who wants to be led by human arguments. They can be understood and accepted only by one who has been granted the ''wisdom from above'', as we read in the first reading. The letter to Philemon is a beautiful example of the practice of love, forgiveness and detachment from material goods. Some people reply to these difficulties by saying that in the language of Jesus the verb ''to hate'' means also ''to love less'' or ''to have less importance''. This is true, but I don't think this is the right solution. Why? In the first place because love can never be constrained within predefined limits. The greater the love the better, and God takes as addressed to him all love shown to people. There is no danger of loving too much, therefore, of exaggerating. Moreover, it makes no sense to reduce the severe words of our Master to a matter of quantity: ''to love more, to love less.'' Jesus can certainly not be speaking of ''hatred'', but of ''clear cuts'' whenever necessary to remain faithful to the gospel. So here ''to hate'' means certainly to break even the dearest bonds if they are a hindrance to love.

A simple but impressive ceremony occurs during the Good Friday liturgy. After the people have gathered, the priest and ministers prostrate themselves in silence before the altar. It is an awesome expression of humility before the Lord. The priest and ministers lying or kneeling before the altar look like dead men. But then they stand to show that they have been raised from the death of sin to newness of life in Christ. This ancient ritual is now expressed in a less dramatic way during the penitential rite of the Mass. Before God and each other we acknowledge our sinfulness and our need for God's mercy. In a sense we prostrate before the Lord. It is our way of fulfilling the instruction of Jesus, “When you are invited to a wedding party, go and sit in the lowest place.” Jesus’ instruction is in accord with the wisdom we hear from the Book of Sirach: “Conduct your affairs with humility. Humble yourself the more, the greater you are, and will find favor with God.'' And find favor with God we have. Through his son's offering of himself on the cross, the Father has raised us up to new life. When we have humbled ourselves during the penitential rite - after we have spiritually prostrated ourselves or taken the lowest place - Christ says to us, “Come up higher,” Then we can take our place with the dignity Christ has conferred upon us. We can participate fully in the sacrifice which is the great wedding banquet of the Lamb of God and so happy indeed are we, lowly though we are in ourselves, that through the Eucharist we will be led to a high place in heaven where we will enjoy the great wedding banquet of the Lamb of God.

Is it hard to get into heaven? Jesus seems to say it is when he warns, “Try to come in through the narrow door.” His warning is somewhat confusing since he also says that “People will come from the east and the west, from the north and the south, and will take their place at the feast in the Kingdom of God.” The prophecy from Isaiah today says much the same thing. In other words, there will be a lot of people for the kingdom. How are all of them going to make it through the narrow door? I think of what happens on a freeway (or expressway) when there is a bad accident. The police close off three lanes; only a single lane is open which is like the narrow door. All the traffic slows down and at times comes to a complete stop because of the bottleneck. As I think of the narrow door Jesus referred to, I see people all bunched up like cars on the freeway, moving very slowly, trying to squeeze through the one open lane. Drivers are upset. They are fussing and fuming and making obscene gestures at each other. Cars and tempers are overheating. The bottleneck is a pain in the neck. Sin is like the accident on the freeway which causes all the trouble! This is not an inviting scene, this image of what it means to get to heaven. But when I think more clearly about the image of the narrow door, I realize that actually only one person has to get through the door. That person is Jesus. And through the door to heaven he has passed in the paschal Mystery of his death and resurrection. We do not have to force our way through the narrow door. All we need do is make sure we are united with Jesus. Many bodies do not have to get through the door, only one, and that is the body of Christ, the mystical body of Christ, the Church. And yet with it all, the indispensable requirement is that we be faith people, that we remain united with Christ in his mystical body, the Church. That is the way to make sure that we will make it past all the fuss and bother of this world into the eternal kingdom of heaven.

These days “tension’’ is a word which is in the active vocabulary of most people. We recognize tension at work, tension within a marriage, tension about making ends meet. Tension occurs when forces move in opposite directions. A simple example is a rubber band: pull the ends away from each other and you produce tension. If the tension continues to increase, the rubber band will snap. Jesus warned that his doctrine would bring about tensions which would end in divisions, even within families. In the family of the Church there is tension, especially in many places regarding the liturgy. We ought to be living like a happy family, in unity and peace, but forces are pulling in opposite direction, one wishing to move forward with the restoration of life and the other wanting to go back to earlier forces of evil and division. And so, the question which follows upon Jesus’ opening words, he himself answers. The disciples and we who follow Jesus today would likely want to answer “yes” and believe that Jesus has definitively come only to bring peace. But Jesus’ response appears to say that he has come to bring the opposite of peace—division, even in family relationships. This idea of Jesus brings division is surprising since peace is such an important theme in Luke’s gospel account. But consider the context. Jesus and the disciples are journeying toward Jerusalem, which helps us understand that the peace Jesus brings comes with a cost. It is upon the Cross of hope and forgiveness that the refining of the word and relationships among people take place.

The Lord has assured us of His salvation and that His word will be fulfilled. The first reading shows the people of Israel looking back at their history and discovering how God has always been faithful. This fact gives them courage and hope for the future. The gospel invites us to be constantly vigilant, to be found always ready for the Lord who comes to bring liberation. He may come whenever we least expect Him. The second reading speaks of Abraham and Sarah, models of faith in God. They heeded the voice of God, and always responded readily; they believed his salvation even when all appearances suggested the exact contrary. They were ever vigilant. We too, like the Hebrews, addresses of the letter of St. Paul, are at times tempted to get discouraged. We are all anxiously awaiting for the fulfillment of the promises of liberation and peace proclaimed by Jesus, but they never seem to take place. Feuds, betrayals, unfaithfulness, corruption continue unabated on the earth, in our countries, in our nations and villages, even in our Christian communities. This is the time that our faith is being tested! This is when we must continue to believe like Abraham and Sarah, happy to see now and then some sign of the full salvation that will certainly come one day. And so as Jesus urges to his disciples he also gives us the same assurance as he did to them. He says to us in the gospel, ‘’Do not live in fear, little flock.’’ And yet fear is part of our life. The only thing we have to fear then, is not fear itself, but a lack of faith!

What does the term “rich” remind us of? A happy person, with a beautiful house, a new car, many servants, who can get what he or she likes, go where he or she pleases. The gospel of today is instead showing us the rich quite differently. Jesus is telling us that whoever hoards goods for himself or herself is a “fool”, a poor person who has got everything wrong in life. The first reading prepares this theme by giving us the reflections of the wise Qoheleth on the accumulation of riches that we must then leave to others. The second reading speaks of the new clothes that the Christians is wearing. The new behavior that characterizes him or her as disciple of Christ includes also a radically different relation with riches. And so to make it more clearly, Jesus tells us a parable about a rich man who is really concerned about saving lots of material wealth—as security against hard times. Jesus wants people to understand that in God’s eyes, true security is found in spiritual, not material wealth. For if we give most of our attention to material things we don’t see the needs of people around us, and therefore, don’t try to help them. This gospel then tells us to avoid greed in all its forms. And so the assurance of all we have in life is when we use our given wealth been that of spiritual or physical with our brothers and sisters in need.