23-Feb-2014 Dear friend,
You may have noticed that insecure people like to control a lot. Only those who feel safe and non-threatened live in freedom and are ready to let others free. When we trust others we do not need to control nor do we need to worry and be anxious. Yet, we have become worriers, anxious about so many things. In the desire to be secure we tend to believe that wealth gives security. However, the more we have, the less secure we become! Our faith tells us God is in charge of our life. Have a 'care-free' weekend, surrendering to Him! Fr. Jude Sunday Reflections: Eighth Sunday - "Why worry about food and clothes? Trust Your Father who knows your needs!" 2-Mar- 2014 Isaiah 49: 14-15; 1Corinthians 4: 1-5; Matthew 6:24-34; In the first reading the prophet Isaiah asks: "Can a mother forget the baby at her breast? And have no compassion for the child she has borne?" The Lord assures us, though a mother may forget, I will never forget you! God cares for us more than a mother for her child. We are his beloved sons and daughters. We are the apple of his eye. He cannot forget us: "I have carved you on the palm of my hand." Fashioned into his image and likeness, God carries us in the palm of His hands. All he asks is that we trust in Him. Cure for Sorrow There is an old Chinese tale about the woman whose only son died. In her grief, she went to the holy man and said, 'What prayers, what magical incantations do you have to bring my son back to life?' Instead of sending her away or reasoning with her, he said to her, "Fetch me a mustard seed from a home that has never known sorrow. We will use it to drive the sorrow out of your life." The woman went off at once in search of that magical mustard seed. She came first to a splendid mansion, knocked at the door, and said, "I am looking for a home that has never known sorrow. Is this such a place? It is very important to me." They told her, "You've certainly come to the wrong place," and began to describe all the tragic things that had recently befallen them. The woman said to herself, "Who is better able to help these poor, unfortunate people than I, who have had misfortune of my own?" She stayed to comfort them, then, went on in search of a home that had never known sorrow. But wherever she turned, in hovels and in palaces, she found one tale after another of misfortune. Ultimately, she became so involved in ministering to other people's grief that she forgot about her quest for the magical mustard seed, never realizing that it had, in fact, driven the sorrow out of her life. Brian Cavanaugh in 'The Sower's Seeds' In today's gospel we are continuing with the Sermon on the Mount. Though we might not believe that it is possible, yet the risk of worshipping a false God is a threat in every Christian life. The Lord points out very clearly and forcefully: "you cannot serve God and wealth. Jesus demands an exclusive option for God. Yes, we can affirm that we serve God but there is also the danger of serving wealth. Serving mammon amounts to converting it into an alternative for God, specifically because we can continue to profess we adore God, when in practice we have given our lives over to money and what derives from it. Matthew emphasizes this perspective in the beautiful passage of trusting in God's providence based on the metaphor of the birds of the air and the lilies of the field. In plain words, trusting God who loves us like a loving mother means placing our lives in the hands of God's care and being free to serve him and his people. Jesus insists: 'Do not worry, do not strive needlessly. Your Father knows what you need." This leads us to the central statement: "Strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness." Welcoming the gift of the kingdom demands that we practice righteousness. The grace of the kingdom has to produce our solidarity with others, especially with the poor and the needy. Thus, to be a faith-person demands that we make a radical choice: God or wealth. If we are constantly worried and anxious we are insulting God, we don't believe He can and is taking care of us! Thank you for tomorrow! Benjamin Reaves tells about a little fellow whose mother had died. His father was trying to be both Mum and Dad under difficult circumstances. The father had scheduled a picnic for the two of them. The little fellow had never been on a picnic. He was excited - so excited that he couldn't sleep. Soon there was a patter of little feet down the hall to where the father was sleeping. He shook his Dad who would have responded gruffly except he saw the expression on his little son's face. "What's the matter, son?" he asked. The fellow said, "Oh, Daddy, tomorrow's going to be so wonderful. I just can't sleep I'm so excited." The father laughed and said, "It won't be wonderful if we don't get some sleep. Now you go back to your bedroom and try to sleep." A little while later the ritual was repeated. The father was already sleeping soundly, when the boy placed an excited hand on his shoulder. "What do you want now?" asked the father. "Daddy, said the boy, "I just want to thank you for tomorrow." - Do we trust our father in heaven to take care of us 'for tomorrow'? Do we thank God in advance for doing so? Gerard Miller in 'Stories for all Seasons' Are you Anxious? John was my classmate in high school, but a week before the finals he dropped out. He could not handle anxiety. During class tests he would break out in cold sweat and his mind would go blank. He was in school for the first two years but later he stopped going to lectures; he was afraid he would not be able to remember the important points that would come for the test. By the end of the second year, he felt uncomfortable even to enter the school library. Soon he stopped going to the student's coffee bar, for he was afraid he would meet there some of his teachers or cleverer students. And then the amazing thing happened: He became almost too anxious to leave his own room. Anxiety has been called 'the official emotion of our age'. If some are worried about the end of the world, others are worried about the end of the month! Blessed is the person who is too busy to worry in the daytime and too sleepy to worry at night. Vima Dasan in 'His Word Lives' Let him worry about that! Two business executives meet for lunch. Gene asks Ed: "How's your health?" Ed said, "I feel great! My ulcers are gone. I feel great!" Gene says, "How did that happen? Ed says, Well, you know my doctor told me my ulcers were caused from worrying. So, I hired myself a professional worrier. Whenever something worrisome comes up, I turn it over to him, and he does all my worrying for me!" Gene says, "Wow, I'd like to hire someone like that! How much does he charge?" Ed says, "One hundred thousand dollars!" Gene asked, "How in the world can you afford $100,000? Ed says, "I don't know. I let him worry about that!" John Pichappilly in 'The Table of the Word' Worry is as useless as sawing sawdust Sir William Osler, was the Regius Professor of Medicine at Oxford- the highest honour that could be bestowed upon any medical man in the British Empire. The King of England also knighted him. He organized the world famous John Hopkins School of Medicine. As a medical student, he was worried about passing the final examination; he was worried about his life- what to do, where to go and how to make a living? His life profoundly changed and he led a life free from worry because of the twenty-one words of Thomas Carlyle. These are those words: "Our main business is not to see what lies dimly at a distance, but to do what lies clearly at hand." Once, when he was addressing a group of university students, he said that a man like himself who was a professor at four universities, and who had written a popular book, was supposed to have a 'special quality of brains'; He declared that it was not true. His friends who knew him well would agree with him that he was a man of 'mediocre intelligence'. What made him great in life is his principle: 'Living in day-tight compartment.' He said to the students, "Shut the past the dead yesterdays, shut off the future - the unborn tomorrows. The load of tomorrow, added to that of yesterday, carried today, makes the strongest falter. Shut off the future as tightly as the past. The future is Today. There is no tomorrow. The day of man's salvation is now! Mental distress, nervous worries dog the steps of a man who is anxious about the future." John Rose in 'John's Sunday Homilies' He's got the whole world in His hands! May we place all our worries in His hands! Fr. Jude Botelho botelhoj...@gmail.com PS. The stories, incidents and anecdotes used in the reflections have been collected over the years from books as well as from sources over the net and from e-mails received. Every effort is made to acknowledge authors whenever possible. If you send in stories or illustrations I would be grateful if you could quote the source as well so that they can be acknowledged if used in these reflections. These reflections are also available on my Web site www.NetForLife.net Thank you.
