ARE WE A VIBRANT COMMUNITY?
June 18, 2017
by Fr. Bosco Padamattummal

In the year 1263 a priest from Prague was on route to Rome making a pilgrimage asking God for help to strengthen his faith since he was having doubts about his vocation. Along the way he stopped in Bolsena 70 miles north of Rome. While celebrating Mass there, as he raised the host during the consecration, the bread turned into flesh and began to bleed. The drops of blood fell onto the small white cloth on the altar, called the corporal. The following year, 1264, Pope Urban IV instituted the feast of the Body and Blood of Jesus, today’s feast, Corpus Christi. The Pope asked St. Thomas Aquinas, living at that time, to write hymns for the feast and he wrote two, better known to the older members of our congregation, the Tantum Ergo and O Salutaris. That blood-stained corporal may still be seen in the Basilica of Orvieto north of Rome.

The Eucharist is often spoken of as the very center of Christian living. There is a very real danger for Christian communities of collapsing or degenerating when deprived of the Eucharist for any length of time. No one can in effect remain a committed Catholic Christian without participation in the Eucharist. Every persecuted Church realizes this and struggles to keep the Eucharist alive in its communities. We have seen that in countless examples over the centuries.

Basically two things happen when we celebrate the Eucharist:
a. We remember and we give thanks. The word ‘Eucharist’ is derived from a Greek word for ‘thanks’. Above all, we remember with deep gratitude all that God has done for us in Jesus Christ, through His life, suffering, death and resurrection. We also remember and give thanks for all our own personal experiences of God’s love at work in our lives. And we remember and give thanks not only for what happened a long time ago but most especially for what is happening in our lives at this time.

b. We come together to celebrate our being a community and a fellowship in Christ. Although the Eucharist is at the center of our Christian life, it cannot survive in a vacuum. That is why I like to say that the Eucharist is, by and large, the measure of a Christian community. From the way a congregation celebrates its Eucharist one can know immediately whether this is a living or a dying or dead community. A dead or non-existent community cannot have a living Eucharist. Today is the feast of the Body and Blood of Christ. The Body we celebrate today is the Body of the Risen Jesus. All of us who are baptized are members, constituent parts of that Body. When we approach the altar to receive Communion, the priest or minister says, “The Body of Christ”. When we say our “Amen” of assent in faith, we need to be aware that the Body we are receiving is that Risen Body of Jesus, of which each one present is a part.

Dear brothers and sisters, a parish where Mass-going is basically the only activity of its members is going to be a dead parish and its Eucharistic celebration will also be disappearing soon. A vibrant Christian community centered on Eucharist will have different activities in their community. We have bible studies throughout the year, we plan to start the Alpha course for the whole parish community to know more about our faith, and in the coming Lent we will have the fish fry to bring lots of people together at St. Mary’s, our Ice Cream Social is also one of our social activities to bring people together. So let us not give up any good activities that we have in our parish community but let us add something new to make it a strong vibrant community.

May Jesus in the Eucharist always be the very center and heart of our church, the center and heart of our faith, the center and heart of our parish, and the center and heart of the lives of each of us. O Sacrament most holy, O Sacrament divine, All praise and all thanksgiving
Be every moment thine.

ARE YOU RESISTING GOD'S COMMANDS?
June 11, 2017
By Deacon Dennis Walters

Today’s short reading from Exodus tells how Moses asked God to show him His glory, and how God complied. God passed in front of Moses proclaiming His name (in Hebrew) “Adonai, Adonai, a merciful and gracious God, slow to anger and rich in kindness and fidelity.” Moses then asked God to come along with the Chosen People into the Promised Land, because “this is a stiff-necked people; yet pardon our wickedness and receive us as your own.”

    Three questions come to mind: Why did Moses ask to see the Lord’s glory? Why does God describe Himself as slow to anger and richness in kindness and fidelity? And why did Moses ask God to come along with them as they went forward?  The answers lie in the “back-story.”

    A few chapters earlier in Exodus, Moses had announced to the people the basic terms of a covenant between God and themselves. The terms of the covenant were that “if you will obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my own possession among all peoples.” In response, the whole people had promised three times, “All that the Lord has said, we will do, and we will be obedient.” The Israelites ratified their commitment by a blood sacrifice and a communal meal between their main leaders and God on Mount Sinai. With that settled, Moses went up to the mountain to commune with God and establish the behavioral laws that would make keeping that covenant possible.

    The problem was that Moses virtually disappeared. When he had been gone for about a month, the people began to panic. Where was Moses? Who was going to lead them? Even if God is invisible, they needed some visible reassurance of His presence, so they resorted to what they knew from Egypt: they compelled Moses’ brother Aaron to mold a golden calf; and then, as Scripture puts it, they “sat down to eat and drink” a communion meal “and rose up to play.” Probably, the word “play” means an orgy.

    Meanwhile, God had written the terms of the covenant on tablets of stone, symbolizing that the covenant was permanent. Then He warned Moses to go down and check on what was happening in the camp. When he arrived, Moses got so angry that he broke the tablets, signifying that the people had violated the covenant they had just made. He ground the golden calf into powder, put the powder into water and forced the people to drink it (a test of guilt), and slaughtered 3,000 of the most guilty.

    As the story goes, God had become angry too, and wanted to wipe the people out and raise up Moses’ family as His chosen people. Moses objected, reminding God that it would look bad if He destroyed the very people he had freed from slavery in Egypt. And so God relented — but at a price. He would not accompany them Himself into the Promised Land; He would send an angel to represent Him instead.

    It was at that point that Moses asked God to reveal Himself to him. “You want me to continue leading this people. So if I have found favor with you, show me Yourself.” God granted part of this request, proclaiming as He did, “Adonai, Adonai, a merciful and gracious God, slow to anger and rich in kindness and fidelity.” Unfortunately, the Lectionary leaves out the next part: “keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children’s children to the third and fourth generation.” God warned Moses that the crime of the golden calf would come back to haunt the Chosen People. That is why Moses, relying on God’s willingness to forgive, asked Him to change His mind and come with this “stiff-necked people” anyway. And God agreed.

    It’s important to emphasize here that God isn’t like us. He doesn’t get angry the way we do. Yes, He allows us to experience the consequences of our acts: the sins of the fathers really are visited on their children. Anyone whose family has experienced generations of alcoholism or drug abuse knows that. But God’s eagerness to forgive is far greater than any “desire” to punish. In the story, it’s Moses who avenges the golden calf episode; God, who could have wiped out the Israelites with a single thought, seems all too willing to let Himself be convinced to be lenient.

    Human nature doesn’t change. As a test of that, I’d invite you to take some time today to examine yourself and ask, ‘How am I being stiff-necked and obstinate with God? How have I challenged God, asking Him where He is, or resisting His commands? How have I gotten impatient with Him and taken matters into my own hands?’ And then, when you’ve asked questions like that, ask this: ‘How has God actually shown His mercy to me and my family? How has He been more lenient with me than I’ve been with myself? How has He supported me through the worst moments of my life? And if He’s done all that, how will He accompany me into the future?’

    This is the feast of the Holy Trinity. Today’s Gospel reminds us that God loved us enough to send His Son into our world to save us, and the Son sent His Holy Spirit to lead us to the Father. He continues in our company. “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God [the Father] and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.”

HOW DOES THE HOLY SPIRIT CHANGE US?
June 4, 2017
by Deacon Dennis Walters

Most children of a certain age are fascinated by the colors of things. Human beings typically see the world in a spectrum of three colors ranging from red through green to blue, and many of us can distinguish subtle gradations from one to another in, say, a rainbow. But there exists an “above” and a “below” in the color range that humans cannot see, from infrared to ultraviolet. We don’t see them because typically we don’t need to.

But what if we did? What if somehow our ability to see color could be expanded so that we could see realities beyond the normal spectral range? Saints who have seen visions of heaven report colors of greater intensities and hues than are visible on earth. To have our vision expanded like that in this life might improve our ability to perceive Reality as it is. But it would take a miracle.

Pentecost celebrates a time when a miracle like that happened, when the spiritual vision of those in the upper room drastically expanded. Scripture records the phenomena — the rushing wind, the tongues of fire that settled on each person, and so on — but more importantly it tells of an infilling of the Holy Spirit that suddenly increased what the disciples needed for themselves and the Gospel. 

Just as expanding the ability to perceive color means the eye has to change structurally, so the ability to receive the Holy Spirit means the soul has to change its structure. That isn’t something humans can accomplish by themselves; it’s something the Holy Spirit has to do, first by enlarging the human capacity for God and secondly by implanting certain capabilities that weren’t there before. In the disciples’ case, the change was sudden and dramatic; for most of us, it’s gradual and subtle, visible perhaps on hindsight.

What are some of the changes that the Holy Spirit brought about?

Perhaps most immediate was the change of capacity itself. The disciples in the upper room had prepared themselves in prayer for forty days to receive the power that Jesus had promised. That power (the Greek word gives us our word for dynamite) came in the form of an overpowering Presence. St. Peter called it an “outpouring,” rather like those images you see on TV of someone pouring a tank of Gatorade over the winning coach’s head. Except that nothing of that outpouring splashed away; they absorbed the Holy Spirit completely. 

And then there are those “implanted capabilities,” those charismatic gifts. A striking change was the disciples’ sudden ability to connect what was happening with what they had been taught. Peter provides the best example of that. He had spent three years as Jesus’ disciple, had heard all of His teaching but, as the Gospels emphasize, failed to understand what it meant. Now on Pentecost, in a flash of insight, everything made sense. “What you see and hear is what was spoken of by the prophet Joel. …This promise is for you and your children.” 

A related change was power to witness and, along with that, a complete disappearance of fear for themselves. The reaction was immediate, both excited and exciting as the disciples rushed out of their locked room and started telling everyone they met. Language was no obstacle. The expression “signs and wonders” occurs many times in the Old and New Testaments; it occurs three times in the account of the first Pentecost in Acts 2. The greatest, most wonderful sign was the conversion of those three thousand people that day.

Other changes affected the disciples’ personal lives: a new intimacy with God, deep trust that prayers are answered even before being raised, insights into God’s will, an instinct to form believers into communities, exercise of occasionally dramatic gifts to build faith in others. The point is, when the Holy Spirit acts, things change. People change. Worship changes. The kingdom of God comes alive here and now.

Peter told the crowds, “This promise is for you and your children.” In Baptism, you and I receive and grow into that promise; our capacity for God starts like an uninflated balloon, to be filled with the Holy Spirit’s breath as we grow. Our capacity increases as He breathes in us.

Luke tells the story of Pentecost in terms of external phenomena, but the real changes the Holy Spirit brings about happen within a person. We can observe how people’s outward behavior changes, but that only suggests the magnitude of the changes on the inside. When as an adult I first experienced the Holy Spirit, my mother saw the change in my face. She mistakenly thought it was because I’d met the girl I was going to marry. 

In my homilies I like to emphasize an experiential relationship with God. There are two sides to that. For us, it’s a relationship we must seek, just as the disciples did over forty days. For God, it’s a relationship that he must grant — and He wants to, for those who prepare themselves for it. We may not know the exact shape that that relationship will take — who knows in advance how married love will grow? The changes that occur within us give life its shape.

Indeed, they give life its color. As St. Paul told the Corinthians, the Holy Spirit removes the veil between us and God. “And we all, with unveiled faces, reflecting the glory of the Lord, are being changed into his likeness from one degree of glory to another, for this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit” (2 Cor. 3:18).

ARE YOU CARRYING THE GOSPEL?
May 28, 2017
by Fr Bosco Padamattummal


The parting words of loved ones usually make a lasting impression upon people. Many students remember the parting words of a favorite teacher before graduation. A few months ago I was watching on YouTube the parting words of a college professor to the students before he died of cancer. Above all most people remember the final words of a family member or friend before they die. Many people will impress these words in their minds as a way of remembering these special people. They also may be able to take these words to heart as words to live by.
 
In today’s Gospel the Lord Jesus offered His disciples some parting words before the Ascension. They were to proclaim that He died for the forgiveness of our sins, that He rose from the dead and that all are called to salvation through repentance and faith in Him. It is a message of hope to the people who are hurt; of life to the dead; of peace to the tormented. These parting words of Jesus tell the Apostles that they have a mission and that they will be empowered to accomplish it.
 
The remaining chapters of the Acts of the Apostles show that the Apostles were faithful to all that Jesus asked them to do beginning from Jerusalem, the geographic center of Sacred History. Their message was so powerful and their witness so effective that their critics accused them of “turning the world upside down,” Acts 17:6. Today, on this feast of Ascension I want to share a few facts from these verses that give us much needed insight from the Great Commission to the disciples. The mandate of the Great Commission is to “Go”. This is a word of action! We cannot “go” if we are sitting still. We cannot “go” if we stay where we are. We cannot “go” if we do not make a move. This verb “as you go” literally means, as we pass through this world we are to carry the Gospel message with us, sharing it with everyone we meet along the way. There are two ways we can do this.
 
1. It involves our Lifestyle – Mt 5:13-16. Like salt, our life should create a thirst
in people for the Lord. Our joy, our peace, our differences from the world should cause them to want to know why we are like we are. Our lives should be like a great spotlight which directs its rays toward Jesus. If He is the focus of our lives, men will see Him lived out through our lives day by day!
 
2. It involves our Lips – We are told to “teach”. That word has the idea of “making disciples or to instruct”. We are to live the right kind of life, but we are also told to share our faith. Mk 16:15 says this, “Go into the entire world, and preach the Gospel to every creature.” The word “preach” means “to herald”. Like a king’s herald, we are to pass through the highways and byways of life lifting our voices to declare the Gospel of grace! The word “preach” is present tense, active voice, it means that you are to be involved in carrying out this command and it means that it is something we are supposed to be doing all the time.
 
Dear brothers and sisters, in spite of the conditions around us; in spite of the difficulties and dangers; in spite of every excuse we offer, the Great Commission still stands! God still expects His people to take His message to the world so that they might hear the wonderful story of salvation. Christ has no one else except us to continue His mission. As Teresa of Avila would put it, “Christ has no body now on earth but yours, no hands but yours, no feet but yours. Yours are the eyes through which He is to look out to the world with compassion, yours are the feet with which He is to go about doing good and yours are the hands with which He is to bless us now.” So it is time to think, has the Great Commission become the Great Omission in your life and mine? The baton is in our hands to pass to the next generation successfully so that they may run the race well. Let us not fail the Lord and the generations to come. Amen.
 

WHO IS YOUR PARACLETE?
May 21, 2017
by Fr Bosco Padamattummal

Today’s gospel contains part of the long conversation Jesus had with his apostles after
the Last Supper. Jesus says to His Disciples, “Let not your heart be troubled...” Their hearts
troubled, because Jesus has just told them of His impending death, they had just learned that
one of them is going to betray Jesus; even Simon Peter has just been notified that he will deny
Jesus three times before the morning comes. So In this moments of trial and tribulations He
takes the time to encourage the hearts of His Disciples and assures his continued love and
support.

As Jesus gets ready to leave his disciples, he promises to send them the Paraclete. The
Paraclete that Jesus sent to his disciples means to them everything while he was with them.
Jesus was a Paraclete to the disciples, and he promised them “another” Paraclete: “I will ask
the Father, and he will give you another Paraclete” (John 14:16).

What is a Paraclete? Many words have been used to translate this word into English.
They include: Advocate, Comforter, Counsellor, Helper. The Greek Paracletos literally means
someone who is called to stand beside a client. In legal terms that would be like an attorney,
someone like a defense lawyer, someone who stands by you in court, gives you support, advice
and comfort in difficult situations where you need help. That is precisely the role of the Spirit in
our Christian life. He teaches, he guides, he supports, he consoles, he comforts as we try to be
faithful in our following of Christ’s Way.. But a Paraclete is much more than an attorney.
Probably the English word that we use today that most nearly captures the meaning of
Paraclete is the word “coach.” The Paraclete is our coach, always by our side, to instruct and
correct us when we make mistakes, to encourage and motivate us when we feel down, to
challenge and inspire us to be the best we could, to defend us and fight for our rights when the
judges are unfair to us. In short, the Paraclete means for us all that Jesus meant for the
disciples.

Why do we need a Paraclete? for the same reason that athletes and sports people need
coaches. No matter how good they are, sports people always need coaches. Even Tiger Woods has a coach. Left on our own, we are prone to mistakes and errors. Without God we can do
nothing. In the 5th century ad there was a British thinker called Pelagius who taught that
human beings have the natural ability to fulfill God’s commands if they so choose. The church
condemned his teaching as a heresy, insisting that human beings always need God’s grace in
order to please God. Pelagianism is the belief that we can fulfill our human destiny just by being
ourselves, and that we do not need the grace of God that comes through faith, prayer or the
sacraments. Many people today are Pelagians without even knowing it. Jesus tells us in today’s
gospel that we all stand in constant need of divine help. We all need the divine Helper, the Holy
Spirit who stands always by our side, the Paraclete

How then do we receive this all-important Spirit Helper? It is by striving to live according to the law of Christ which is love of God and love of our neighbor. “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Paraclete to be with you forever” (John 14:15-16).After the Ascension of Our Lord, the disciples “together with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus” (Acts 1:14) retired to the upper room to wait and pray for the promised Paraclete. We cannot do better than follow their example. Next Thursday is Ascension Thursday. Between Ascension and Pentecost the church invites all her children to a period of prayer and waiting for the gift of the Holy Spirit. Let us observe this period as a special period of prayer just as the disciples did because we need the Holy Spirit today as much as they needed it two thousand years ago. It is through His grace only we can be true witnesses of Jesus Christ and His teachings in this modern world. May the Holy Spirit inspire us.

WHERE DOES THE "WAY" LEAD?
May 14,2017
by Fr Bosco Padamattummal

The close identification of Jesus with God the Father is the theme of today’s Gospel passage. The context of the Gospel is Jesus’ long discourse with His disciples at the Last Supper. They are aware that Jesus is about to leave them.
A call to trust:“Do not let your hearts be troubled,” are the encouraging words He speaks to them. It is a single act of trust, to have faith in the one is to have equal faith in the other. And, towards the end of the passage, Jesus appeals to the evidence of all they have seen Him say and do. “You must believe Me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me; believe it on the evidence of this work, if for no other reason.”

The Way: “You know the way to the place where I am going,” they are told. Thomas, the man who likes to confront and the one with the very literal mind, protests: “Lord, we do not know where you are going, so how can we know the way?” He is clearly thinking in geographical terms. However, we can be grateful to Thomas for drawing out of Jesus one of the great sayings of John’s Gospel: “I AM the Way — I AM the Truth and Life. No one can come to the Father except through me.” The “places” which are being prepared are not to be understood in any literal or spatial sense. They are to be understood totally in terms of mutual relationships, the mutual relationships between Jesus, the Father and His followers. The “Way” of Jesus, through His forthcoming suffering and death, will end in the new and abundant life He wants for all His followers.

Where does the Way go?It is to become a special kind of person, a person whose whole being reflects the truth and life that Jesus reveals to us. It is to be a person who is totally identified with the vision and the values of Jesus. To be such a person is to be a person of truth and life.

Truth and Life: Truth is understood here not in a purely intellectual sense. Truth here is that complete integrity and harmony which Jesus Himself revealed not only in what He said but in the total manifestation of His life and person. Truth for Jesus was not just something He knew or accepted or believed in; truth for Jesus was what He was in His whole person: thoughts, feelings, actions, relationships. It was that total conformity between His inward self and His outward behavior. For us to live truth in that way is also to be fully alive, to be a “fully-functioning person”, responding totally to that abundance of life which Jesus came to give us.

Seeing God in Jesus: For, as Jesus continues, He is in the Father and the Father is in Him. For Jesus, as we know Him, is limited by His humanness. When He speaks, certainly it is God who speaks. When He heals, certainly God heals. When Jesus died on the Cross, God also died? Surely not. God cannot die. The death of Jesus in His humanity was a sublime witness of the love and compassion of the Ever Living God.
God’s many dwelling places: At the beginning of today’s Gospel, Jesus says that there are many “rooms”, many dwelling places in His Father’s house. We can understand this, of course, as “heaven” but God’s dwelling is also the Church, every Christian community is a dwelling place of God. And indeed each and every disciple, who believes in Christ, is a part of God’s Temple.
Lastly, Jesus has a word for us. “Whoever believes in Me [and in my identity with the Father] will perform the same works as I do Myself. He will perform even greater works, because I am going to the Father.” The Church and every member of every Christian community is called on to continue the mission of Jesus. That is evident from the Acts of the Apostles onwards. In His lifetime, He reached only a relatively small number of people. By His dying He set in motion a process by which His message, His Way of Truth and Life, could reach every corner of the world. The Gospel still needs to be preached with greater enthusiasm, with greater relevance, with greater integrity. As in Jesus’ day, the masses are calling out to be fed and we, the friends and companions of Jesus, have been called to continue to bring the Bread of Life to the world.

Television teems with ads that promise to enhance the quality of my life. All I need for personal fulfillment are a new Lincoln, a smarter iPhone with unlimited data, and a waterproof Apple Series 2 wristwatch that monitors my heart rate while I sleep on my new iComfort mattress. Not to mention the medical breakthroughs that palliate my aches and pains and guarantee (disclaimers aside) to improve my bodily dysfunctions and even offer me a chance to live longer. Such is TV marketing’s offer of life in abundance.

Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI reflects on Jesus’ offer of life in abundance in the first volume of Jesus of Nazareth. He begins by pointing to a theme in Scripture about shepherds, especially the Divine Shepherd who provides good pasture for His sheep. Jesus is that Divine Shepherd, who gives us what we need to live on, who has come to give His flock “life in abundance.”  Then Benedict asks:

“Everyone wants life in abundance. But what is it? What does life consist in? Where do we find it? When and how do we have ‘life in abundance’? When we live like the prodigal son, squandering the whole portion God has given us? When we live like the thief and the robber, taking everything for ourselves alone?”

Benedict quotes Psalm 23: “He makes me lie down in green pastures, He leads me beside still waters.” And the passage in Ezekiel, where God says, “I will feed them with good pasture, and upon the mountain country of Israel shall be their pasture” (Ezek. 34:14). But (Benedict asks again) what does all this mean? “We know what sheep live on, but what does man live on?”  Then he answers:

“Man lives on truth and on being loved: on being loved by the truth. He needs God, the God who draws close to him, interprets for him the meaning of life, and thus points him toward the path of life. Of course, man also needs bread, he needs food for the body, but ultimately what he needs most is the Word, Love, God Himself. Whoever gives him that,  gives him ‘life in abundance,’ and also releases the energies man needs to shape the earth intelligently and to find for himself and for others the goods that we can have only in common with others.”

    So what does that “abundant life” look like for those who have it?  Based on the experience of many people I know, it might look like this:

Abundant life means that you’re consciously aware of God as a person. You know Him in some intimate degree, you love Him, and you long for Him. He attracts you to Himself. You realize that He loves you in spite of your sins. In hindsight you can trace how that relationship has developed, how you’ve grown, and how you want to grow.

Abundant life means that you want to converse with God. True, sometimes prayer is a chore, sometimes even a battle, but it’s mainly you talking with God and Him talking with you.  Eucharistic prayer centers your personal prayer, including your rote devotions and spontaneous conversation. In time, prayer becomes a continual background of your work day.

Abundant life means the Bible is no longer a book you avoid because you can’t understand it. When you read it, it comes to life. Passages leap out at you with new meaning. There, God tells you about His loving concern for you, what He wants for you. As it feeds you on God’s word, Scripture even whets your appetite for more, including other kinds of spiritual reading.

Abundant life means your relationship with God is personal but not private. You want to be around others who have a similar relationship with God. You can swap stories about what God is doing in your lives, conversations at least as stimulating as sports, politics, and the stock market. By encouraging others in their Christian lives you build community. Friendships form based not only on mutual attraction but on mutual love of God.

Abundant life means that building a good character is paramount. You understand how sin weakens you, whereas virtue — good habits — strengthen you. You recognize how your conduct teaches others, especially your children, how they should behave. Holiness becomes a life goal, one you pray God to build in you. 

Abundant life means that your love of God begets love of neighbor. You want to build the Church, not only by offering to work within it, but also by drawing everyone you know into its orbit. Reaching out to others in acts of service and support becomes deeply satisfying, especially as you see God acting through you.

Abundant life is Jesus in you. He is the Shepherd who knows what His sheep need to live on. In John’s Gospel, Jesus calls Himself “the bread of life,” our food; “the way, the truth, and the life,” our path and the way things are; the “resurrection and the life,” re-creating us anew. That’s who Jesus is and that’s why he came, to give us Himself.

He is also the Gate. It’s only through Him that we come in and go out and find pasture, both nourishment and safety. To obtain the life in abundance that Jesus offers, we have to go through that Gate, Jesus Christ Himself. There is no other, not the economy, not politics, not medicine, and certainly not the stuff the world sells that grows obsolete, breaks down, and fails to satisfy. 

If you are at the Gate and feel left out, simply ask the Shepherd to let you in; and, if you need support, get someone to ask Him along with you. It’s a request He can’t refuse.

DO YOU RECOGNIZE JESUS?
April 30, 2017
by Fr Bosco Padamattummal

In Luke, the entire Resurrection appearances take place in the vicinity of Jerusalem. It begins with two disciples on the road leaving Jerusalem. They are on their way to a place called Emmaus, about 7 miles (11 km) from Jerusalem. The problem is, that at this moment, their minds are going in the wrong direction. So the Risen Jesus joins them as a fellow-traveler to guide them in the right direction. He asks what they are talking about. With unconscious irony they say, “You must be the only person staying in Jerusalem who does not know the things that have been happening there these last few days.” “What things?” He wants to hear their version of what happened. To them the death was the failure of Jesus’ mission. They refer to Him as a “prophet,” they could not see in Jesus the Messiah they had earlier acknowledged. “We were hoping that He would be the one to set Israel free.” For them, freedom meant liberation from the tyranny of foreign domination and perhaps the inauguration of the Kingdom of God as they understood it.

Jesus then gives them a lesson in reading the Scriptures and shows them that all that happened to Jesus, including His sufferings and death, far from being a tragedy was all foretold by the prophets especially by the Suffering Servant in Isaiah. As they reach their destination, Jesus makes as if to continue His journey. However, they extend their hospitality to the stranger. “It is nearly evening time and the day is almost over,” they say. So Jesus goes in to stay with them.

As they sat down to the meal, Jesus, the visitor unexpectedly acting as host, took the bread, said the blessing over it, broke it and gave it to them. And in that very act they recognized Him. It is the Eucharist where we recognize the presence of Jesus among us in the breaking of bread. In light of this experience, they turn around and go back along the road to Jerusalem from which they had been fleeing. There they discover their fellow disciples excited that the Lord is risen an has appeared to Simon. And they tell their marvelous story and how “they had recognized Him at the breaking of bread.”

Dear brothers and sisters we can see all the ingredients of the Christian life in this Gospel.  1. Running away from where Christ is to be found. Wedo it all the time.  2. Meeting Jesus in unexpected places, persons or situations. How many times does this happen and we do not recognize Him?  3. Finding the real meaning and identity of Jesus and His mission in having the Scriptures fully explained. Without the Scriptures we cannot claim to know Jesus. Yet how many Catholics go through life hardly ever opening a Bible?  4. Recognizing Jesus in the breaking of bread, in our celebration of the Eucharist. The breaking and sharing of the bread indicates the importance of the community dimension of that celebration  5. Scripture and Liturgy asks us to participate in the work of proclaiming the message of Christ and sharing our experience of it with others. 6. The importance of hospitality and kindness to the stranger is another beautiful lesson we learn. Jesus is present and to be found and loved in the very least of our brethren.

The scene of today’s Gospel is also a model of the Eucharist: those walking together in Jesus will meet Him and experience His presence.  First, in the Liturgy of the Word as the Scriptures are broken open and explained, and, second, in the Liturgy of the Eucharist, where what Jesus did for us through His suffering, death and resurrection is remembered with thanksgiving and the bread that is now His Body and the wine that is now His Blood, is shared among those who are the members of that Body to strengthen their union and their commitment to continuing the work of Jesus. Then we go out to proclaim the Good News to others.