11-Dec-2017 Dear Friend, Our common everyday experience tells us that for everything of value there is need of preparation so that it turns out well and beneficial for us. If we are going for an interview we prepare ourselves and rehearse our responses. For exams we prepare well in advance if we want good grades. In sports there are months and months of daily training, exercises, diet and tough routines. If we are to prepare a delicious meal for special guests we don’t leave things to turn out well by chance! Are we prepared for God’s coming? Have an exciting week in joyful anticipation of His coming! –Fr. Jude Sunday Refl. 3rd Sun. of Advent “Joyful witnesses of God’s coming in us!” 17-Dec-2017Isaiah 61: 1-2, 10-11; 1 Thes. 5: 16-24; John. 1: 6-8; 19-28; Today’s readings sound the note of joy. But we could ask what is there to be happy about. After all there are so many things that depress us and make us sad. Yet we are asked to rejoice, to be a Christian we have to have joy in our lives. Isaiah will point out that we should rejoice in the Lord! Isaiah believes he has been chosen to bring good news to the poor, to heal the brokenhearted, to bring liberty to captives, freedom to those in prison, to proclaim the joyful news that God will do all these things for us. He is coming, He will not delay, He is faithful to his promises. He will come! Whatever your situation, He will come!
Rejoice, the Spirit can and does change us!A couple enjoyed a happy married life for a year and a half and as usual began to go through hard times. Their family deserted them as theirs was a love marriage. The first child died after three months, and the man’s job was at stake. However, the news of the second child delighted them for some time and they could bear all hardships. Soon, at the time of delivery the doctor declared that the baby was dead in the womb of the mother and that the mother could not conceive any longer. This was a big jolt to the man who was on the periphery of his spiritual life unlike his wife who was firmly rooted and grounded in her commitment to the Lord and the Church. The man went into drinking. His company sent him abroad so that he might improve his behavior but all in vain. He came back home in a worse condition. However, his wife’s prayer-life moved him and he agreed to go for a retreat where he experienced the power of the Holy Spirit in such a mighty way that he decided to give his life totally to the Lord. Today he is a known retreat preacher along with his wife.Robert D’Souza in ‘Liturgy and Life’ In the Gospel we have John pointing out to the people that he is not the messiah, he is not the prophet, he is not Elijah but the voice of one crying out in the wilderness. He reminds them that there is one person in their midst who is greater than he is, but they do not recognize Him. John is merely a witness, pointing out to the one who is coming so that they might not miss him. He is the light, He is their hope, He is the promised one! If we do not see him, accept him, believe in Him, then the source of our joy is lost. We have missed the one who can bring meaning into our lives! We did not know He was in our midst. He came unto his own and his own did not recognize Him. God comes in strange ways! You do not recognize him‘Valesa – a Nightmare’ is a docu-drama which was written in Poland under a pseudonym and then smuggled out of the country. It tells the story of political prisoners like Lech Walesa. Near the end of the play a prisoner priest, who usually offers a solitary Mass, is joined by the rest of the prisoners at considerable risk to celebrate the Eucharist. At this moment, the play reaches a climax with the deafening scream of crows - a Polish symbol for the Communist military regime under General Jaruzelski. The cawing of the crows suddenly gives way to the soft chirping of spring birds and the comforting notes of a piano concerto - a symbol of the optimism of the Polish people that one day their quest for religious and political freedom will be realized. ‘Valesa – a Nightmare’ shows how Christ can come into our lives even in the worst of circumstances. The Lord came to Lech Walesa in a Communist prison through Walesa’s faith and prayers, through his Polish culture and pride, through his fellow political prisoners and through the sacrament of the Eucharist.Albert Cylwicki in ‘His Word Resounds’ UnrecognizedFor sixty years a painting hung in the dining room of a Jesuit house on Dublin Street. People passed it day in and day out without paying any attention to it. It had been bought in Edinburgh for about 8 pounds in the early 1920s by Marie Lea-Wilson who gave it to the Jesuits. Then one day somebody looked at it and thought it might be worth something. They had it examined by an Italian art expert. After a long and painstaking examination, he identified it as the long lost painting by Caravaggio, The Taking of Christ. It is reckoned to be worth about 20 million pounds. But in reality it is beyond price. It isn’t only paintings that go unrecognized. People go unrecognized too. Many people spend their lives in obscurity. They live in small communities and hidden places. Jesus shared the same fate as millions of little people. For most of his life he went unrecognized. He lived for thirty years in Nazareth, where he was poor and labored as a village carpenter. This led St. John to sadly say “He was in the world that had its beginnings through him, and the world did not know him.” Even when he finally came into the public arena, not everyone believed in him. Even John the Baptist did not recognize him at first. But having recognized him, John took it upon himself to point him out to the people. He said, “There stands among you –unknown to you – the one who is coming after me.” Jesus (the Messiah) was that close to them, but like Caravaggio’s painting he was unrecognized.Flor McCarthy in ‘New Sunday and Holy Day Liturgies’ Witnessing to the LightA few years ago a priest made a visit to China. While there, he met an elderly couple who were both doctors. They had studied together in medical school, fallen in love and married. She was a Catholic, he was not. She wanted to convince him to join the Church but he did not wish to be baptized. A short time later she had a child. During one of China’s political movements, her husband with several other intellectuals, was arrested and sent to a labor camp. The separation was very difficult for the wife, who had to work long hours at the hospital during the day and care for her son at night. In addition to her loneliness, she was under pressure from the government to divorce her husband and renounce her religion, so that she could gain political advantages. But she refused. Every night after she returned home, she and her son knelt down to pray and ask strength from God to endure the difficulties. At the end of the 1970s, she heard that her husband and other intellectuals were to be allowed to come home. When the day came, she and her son went to the railway station. They were the only family members on the platform to welcome the men. Unable to endure the long separation, all the other women had divorced and remarried. Deeply moved, her husband took instructions and was later baptized.Flor McCarthy in ‘Sunday & Holy Day Liturgies' Prepare the way for Him!A religious sociologist, Dr. Dean Hoge, has written a book entitled ‘Converts, Dropouts and Returnees’. Very briefly, he narrates his experiences with individuals, who either left the Catholic Church or had been reconverted, and what led them to take that important decision. And he found that “the happiest Catholics were the dropout Catholics” –persons who had left the Catholic Church for a time, but returned. Even more, he found that the best recruiters of dropout Catholics are the dropouts themselves. More specifically, Dr. Dean Hoge found that two-thirds of the thousands of Catholics who return to the faith each year do so because a neighbor, a friend or a relative invited them to return. This is where each and every one of us can play a vital role in the return of many. And we could begin just by inviting them to attend a service this Christmas. We have been anointed for this very specific outreach; so let the Holy Spirit speak through you in preparing the way for the Lord.James Valladares in ‘Your words, O Lord, Are Spirit, and They are Life’ Are we ready?A guru once revealed the route by which he was led to God-realization. “First,” he said, “God took me to the Land of Action and after many years to the Land of Sorrows.” He continued. “I was taken to the Land of Love where I was emptied of everything; next God took me to the Land of Silence, where I pondered the mysteries of life.” The impatient disciple asked, “What was the final stage?” The guru replied, God finally said that I’d see God’s innermost Self, and God led me to the Land of Joy.” Jesus brings joy because he binds the broken hearts and breaks captives’ chains. His joy will be ours if we too, in the power of the Spirit, help him free the brokenhearted and captives. But this, demands breaking our own chains first. Are we ready?Francis Gonsalves in ‘Sunday Seeds for Daily Deeds’ May we be joyful witnesses of God’s love in the world today! 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.
