06-Jul-2014 Dear Friend,
Each and everyone of us looks forward to the weekly break and to a longer rest after a long stint of study or work. Holidays and breaks are something we anticipate especially when we are physically and mentally fatigued. However, we sometimes have the experience that we come back more tired rather than rested after a packed holiday! When we take a break do we also take a break from religion? Is God very much part of our break? Can we find rest and relaxation in the Lord? Have a restful relaxing weekend with Jesus! -Fr. Jude Sunday Ref: Fifteenth Sunday - 'Preparing the soil to receive God's word!' 13-Jul-2014 Readings: Isa. 55: 10-11; Rom.8: 18-33; Mt. 13: 1-23; The first reading from the Book of Isaiah reminds us that God cares for the earth by sending rain to make it fruitful. He cares for us by sending His saving word, which is intended to bear fruit in our lives. Isaiah reminds us that God's word is powerful and productive. God said: Let there be light and light was made! His word is as powerful today as it ever was! But the power of His words can be lost if we do not listen, if we do not pay attention to them, if we do not believe, if we do not love! A Chicago novelist, John Powers, wrote a book called 'The Unoriginal Sinner and the Ice Cream God.' It's about a boy named Tim Conroy. Tim is in the process of growing up, and it's proving to be a tough job. One day Tim confided to a friend: "I came from a family of practicing Catholics. But do you know something? The more I practice the worse it gets." All of us feel like Tim, at times. Maybe we aren't getting worse, but we aren't improving much either. Think of it this way. By the time we are 25, we have heard God's word read and explained about a thousand times. After all these times, why haven't we improved more than we have? The answer to this question may lie in the parable Jesus tells us in today's gospel. Maybe the problem is not in receiving God's word. The problem is in treasuring it and putting it into practice. Mark Link in 'Sunday Homilies' The Gospel reminds us that the Sower sowed seed four times, three of which did not meet with success but the fourth one more than made up, it gave abundant fruit. God does not tire of sowing the seed, and He keeps sowing it in different ways. God does not give up on us! His word comes to us through peoples, situations and events that speak to us in our hearts. The most important word is the word of love!" I have loved you with an everlasting love." Some of us who are parents and teachers have perhaps seen the seeds we have sown bearing fruit in the lives of children committed to our care. In our own lives too we know that some seed was sown by our parents, friends and significant persons that have borne fruit. Let's keep on planting ... and let's hang on...... The seed will bear fruit! Today, words are cheap and often empty. We say so many things that we do not mean. Words have lost their power and so we don't believe people's words. We often doubt and question what we hear. We even doubt and question God's word! Jesus the Incarnate Word spoke with power and authority: "Be thou healed and the blind and the lame were healed!" Jesus said to Lazarus lying in the grave: "Come forth!" And Lazarus came back to life! His word is as powerful today as it ever was! I can have the best possible Radio or Television set but if it is not tuned in all the lovely music and interesting channels are lost or distorted. Am I tuned in on God? Words become more powerful when we know and love the person who utters them. We know the difference between reading a letter of a stranger and reading a letter of a friend, receiving a telephone call from an unknown person and getting a call from a dear friend. Know the Author? Met the Author? A young student picked up a costly book and started reading it. After reading a couple of pages she was bored and flung it on the shelf. Months later her mother saw her avidly reading the book for hours and days. "What happened? How come the book is so interesting now?" she asked. "Mum, I met the author!" her daughter replied. The more we believe in His Word the more we will experience its power. "The word that goes from my mouth does not return to me empty." Christo-therapy I am reminded of a priest who wrote a book on what he called "Christo-therapy" In that book he shared his own experience. He had lived an ordinary life and nothing special had happened to him. After some years in the ministry he was feeling depressed and fell sick. This depression carried on for some time and began to worry him. He went from doctor to doctor but to no avail. No remedy would cure him. Someone told him of an old Hindu doctor who lived in the vicinity of his parish, who they claimed was very good. The priest decided to try him and went to his clinic. The doctor examined him and listened to the story of his prolonged depression. Finally he said: "Father, I find nothing physically wrong with you. I feel awkward to say this. You are a priest. Don't you believe God's word can heal you?" Embarrassed, the priest left the clinic and went home. From that night he started reading the word of God wanting to be fully open and believing in its power. Slowly the depression disappeared and that priest experienced healing and wholeness as he read the Word of God with faith. Anon. The Power of His Word There is the story of the fussy vegetarian, a young woman, committed to being a vegetarian, but she was never satisfied with any of the fruit or vegetables she bought. Then one day, driving down the streets, she drove past a new store with a long line of people waiting to get in. She looked, and the sign outside the store said, "God's Fruit and Vegetable Stand." "Finally," she said, "I can get some decent fruit and vegetable." So she stood in the line and waited. Hours went by before she walked into the store. She was enveloped in light, but she didn't see any apples or oranges or tomatoes or cabbage, or anything to buy. She walked to the light and there was a counter. And behind the counter there stood God. She could tell it was God because of the light, and because he had an apron on with a big G on it. Anyway she placed her order, "I would like some perfect broccoli, and some perfect carrots, some perfect tomatoes and a perfect melon. Also, if you have a perfect cucumber that would really be a miracle." "Sorry," God said, "I only sell seeds here." Actually, that is what God does. He is giving us seeds to sow. John Pichappilly in 'The Table of the Word' God Speaking! God speaks to us in varied ways. He can use people, events and things and even our misery to deliver His message. After fire destroyed his mansion, basketball star Kareem Abdul Jabbar told reporters: "My whole perspective has changed. I think it is more important for me to spend time with my son Amir and appreciate other things besides basketball." Kareem was fortunate. He heard what many others never heard: God's word speaking to him through events. He saw what many others have never seen: that life contains more important things than fame and money. Can you recall a time when God seemed to speak to you? What did God seem to say to you? -God often visits us, but most of the time we are not at home. John Pichappilly in 'The Table of the Word' The World as God's parable Some years ago an Italian film was nominated for an Academy Award. Il Postino (The Postman) tells the fictional story of a friendship between the Chilean poet Pablo Neruda and the endearing character who daily brought his mail during the poet's exile in Italy. In their daily conversations, poet and postman share a great deal. One day, when the postman asks for the poet's help in expressing love for a young lady, they speak of metaphors: how the world around us is like human experiences, and how images from nature reflect human life and emotions. When it rains, we may say the sky is weeping. The ebb and flow of ocean waves can stand for the currents of joy and sorrow present in our lives. The Bible is full of such metaphors and figures of speech. The sacred writers used every form of poetic speech to help illustrate the manner in which human lives connect with the life of God. To a group of Israelites who were back in the Promised Land after their exile and discouraged at the hard labour required to rebuild their society, Isaiah spoke a word of comfort from God. It was as if God urged the Israelites to look at nature. Snow and rain come down from heaven and bring forth abundance from the ground. Such God says, is the case with the word I speak to you. If you let it take root in you, it will bring forth a rich harvest. To see God in nature and in their lives, people need faith -a faith that helps see beyond the bread and wine offered at Mass. Terrence Prendergast in 'Living God's Word' Welcome Home Recently, I happened to meet Sam at a shopping center. Sam, an eighty-four year old man, was sitting at a coffee table on his own. We exchanged greetings and he invited me to sit down. He seemed anxious to talk and soon was telling me his story. He lived alone, but never really alone, he said, as God was always with him. It hadn't always been that way. He had lived a fairly wayward life, much like St. Augustine. But he felt God's hand reaching out, beckoning him. So a few years ago he decided to become a member of a Presbyterian church where he now serves as a deacon and hospitality minister. This has changed his life. He now has a reason to get up every morning. His life is very full, happy, and content. Our amazing God is always on the lookout to welcome us home. Sam had the courage to step out of himself into the field of God's prodigal love, and it made all the difference. Edith Prendergast in 'Grace Abounds' May we treasure and nourish the seed God sows in us every day of our life! 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.
