19-Jun-2018 Dear Friend, The Church today recalls the birthday of John the Baptist, one of the greatest prophets, who had the privilege of preparing the way for the coming of Jesus in the world. We all like birthday celebrations, especially those of near and dear ones! The fact that Christ praised John so highly encouraged a special veneration. John’s preceding Jesus was clearly fixed in Christian tradition so much so that all three gospels tell the story of John’s birth before they begin their Jesus story. Has John’s message influenced our Jesus encounter? -Fr. Jude Sun Refl. Twelfth Sun: “Behold I come to prepare the way! He must increase!” 24-Jun-2018Isaiah 49: 1-6; Acts 13: 22-26; Luke 1: 57-66, 80; The prophet Isaiah was well aware of the specialness of his calling and vocation. “The Lord called me before I was born; while I was in my mother’s womb he named me. In the shadow of his hand he hid me.” He said to me, “You are my servant, Israel, in whom I will be gloried.” “I will give you as the light of the nations, that my salvation will reach the ends of the earth.”
“He will be called John”In our culture, sometimes a name is not much more than the whim of our parents. But in many cultures, and in the Bible certainly, people were given names, which embodied their parents hope for their children. Names often served as prophecies about what a new life would mean for the whole nation. Because naming was such a crucial business, a person could be renamed if his or her life took a crucial turn. Names gave identity and belonging, as in our present use of first and last names. The idea that God gives someone a name in the womb, then, is a way of saying that God brings a life into being intentionally and with a purpose. When Elizabeth and Zachariah had a son, they named him John, as the angel had prompted them to. John means “God has shown favor” and the truth of the statement was revealed in the ministry of John. –Consider the meaning of your name, or perhaps the name under which you were confirmed. Has the meaning of your name been revealed in your life?John Pichappilly in ‘Ignite Your Spirit’ Today’s gospel records the birth of John the Baptist told in great detail as it was a wondrous event. Neighbors and relatives rejoice at his birth and his father Zachariah’s speech is returned at his birth. The gospel says that they were going to call the child Zachariah after his father, but his mother said in reply, “No, He will be called John.” Elizabeth was a wise old woman. She knew that the baby that had come into being in her body at so late an age was given to her for a special purpose. Her husband had not been struck speechless all these months by accident. Nor had her young cousin Mary, visited her for no reason. God was doing something new here, in all this, something really rare. So she would not allow the relatives to name the baby after the father. He was not going to take his place in going to be like his father. This child was God’s child and God had some novel purpose for him that had yet to be revealed. Elizabeth refused to fetter the boy with the burden of his father’s identity, when he was destined to be something the world had not yet seen. Wise parents know that God gives them a child with a purpose. Wise parents know to bring them up as God’s children. Gathering as a believing community today reminds us that God is with us and that our lives have a purpose. The new can be goodA film producer, notorious for his habit of belittling any suggestion from his co-workers was taken ill. No sooner had he left the set, an actor hung a sign which read: In case of fire, do not call the Fire Department. Just call our producer. He’ll put a wet blanket on it. No one can be expected to accept every new idea or suggestion which is offered him. Each of us should use his judgement each time some novel notion or solution to a problem is presented. But there is such a thing as developing the bad habit of resisting the new because it is new. If we are to change the world at all, we must recognize that the very idea of change implies something new. The fact that a method is old does not mean it is good; because it is new it is not necessarily bad. We ought to adapt changeless truths to our changing times.J. Maurus in ‘Today is Ours’ The Home we needOften the value of a thing is best seen in its absence. This is certainly true in the case of a family. Take the case of Johnny. There is something broken in Johnny –something in his mind or heart. He grew up in a large urban area. He was only seven when his father left. His mother did the best she could, but it wasn’t good enough. When at nine Johnny was sent to his granny’s place to make room at home he felt rejected. He was in trouble from the age of ten –fighting, shoplifting, and so on. At fourteen he was into housebreaking. Next it was into joy riding in stolen cars. Soon he was well known in the juvenile court. He was sent to a reform school for six months, but when he came out he went back to his old ways. Then he was sent to a lock-up center. Here he had a team of professionals looking after him, all experts in fixing up broken kids. There was a doctor, a nurse, a psychiatrist, a welfare officer, a housefather and mother, and so on. It cost the state a staggering 70,000 pounds annually to keep him there. Will all those experts succeed in fixing Johnny? It’s possible but far from certain. And just think of it. All those experts could be got rid off in the morning. Their work could be done, and done far more efficiently, by two people: a man and a woman. Not the Six Million Dollar Man and the Bionic Woman either; just two very ordinary people –two parents. If Johnny had two parents who loved him and cared for him in the first place, he would never have got broken, and he would never have needed all those experts. The family is vital for our well being as individuals and for the well being of society as a whole. No family is perfect, but no better place for raising children has been devised.Flor McCarthy in ‘New Sunday & Holy Day Liturgies’ Building God’s KingdomI remember an elderly priest saying, “To serve is hard work and often humbling – but being a servant of Christ is Joy.” We have to remember, we are not sampling mortar. We are building a Cathedral. We do not give time and money grudgingly; we are building the Body of Christ. We have been entrusted with a stewardship. It is good to have money and the things money can buy, but it is good to check up once in a while and make sure you haven’t lost the things money can’t buy. Opals are often dull and lusterless when first picked up. After a few moments in the hand they become bright and glowing with soft colors that make them so beautiful and appealing. They have been called ‘sympathetic jewels’ because of this response to the hand that holds them. The explanation for the change we are told is that opals are composed of sensor crystals. They need the warmth of the human touch for them to sparkle. Money as well, can be dull and without life or color. But suddenly it glows into warmth, quickened into new beauty and new vitality because it is shared with God’s ministry to others. God’s touch releases the brilliance, the glow, the luster, when we put our money and other resources in the hands of God.John Pichappilly in ‘The Table of the Word’ You are graced by God’s presence!The greatness of John the Baptist consisted in two very important facts. First, he was chosen by God to be the predecessor or forerunner of Jesus Christ. Second, his birth and the circumstances are nothing short of the most miraculous. His parents, Elizabeth and Zachariah, were well beyond child-bearing age. Nonetheless, Elizabeth did conceive and bore a son, so that all wondered what will this child grow to be. The ways of God are mysterious, but always marvellous. All of us are blessed when we are born into this world. We are further blessed by the way we are brought up by wonderful parents who not only give us life but help us to discover the fullness of life through faith. What we will become will be the unfolding of God’s present to us! Rejoice, the best is yet to come!James V. ‘Your Words O Lord are Spirit, and They Are Life’ May we rejoice in the wonder of our being as His life increases in us! 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. | | | | Net For Life | | |
