A report has been released lately about an emergency landing of a plane. As you can imagine it was a disturbing situation to those on board, however what was even more disturbing was that during the evacuation some passengers were carrying their luggage in spite of being instructed to leave them behind. They put their own safety and the safety of other people at risk. How dizzy they were!
My Sisters and Brothers!
Here in Australia we proud ourselves for being laidback but dizziness in our life of faith is nothing to be proud of.
The Gospel today proclaims this basic truth that “God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son.” What are we supposed to do with this gift given us by God, with the gift of his only Son – Our Blessed Lord Jesus Christ?
Let me remind you of a commercial, you have probably seen of TV recently. A young woman is enjoying her cereal meal at a restaurant. It is so good that that she nearly licks off the bowl. Another woman sitting next to her calls the waitress over and says: “Can I have what she is having please?”
God the Father has given us his Only Begotten Son so that being close to Jesus by listening to his Gospel, by receiving Sacraments, by acts of charity and penance, by living as members of the Christ Body – the Church, we can want, we can desire, we can long for what Jesus is enjoying: being a child of God. There are lots of beautiful and fascinating things in the world that we can become dizzy when it comes to things of heaven, like those on plane were dizzy when they put the value of their lives at the same level with the value of their belongings. As life is more important than hand luggage as our relationship with Our Heavenly Father is more important than anything we can find on this planet.
A few days ago Pope Francis spoke of some Christians from the time of persecutions. They were captured but before their persecutors told them to reject Jesus Christ they were taken to a luxury place with magnificent food and even better entertainment. After some time of such “a fantastic life” they were told to deny Jesus. Surpassingly or not surprisingly their persecutors discovered that it was a better way to weaken the faith of those Christians, better than putting them in a dungeon. They got attached to the comfortable life so much that they found it difficult to choose Christ over their luxury, even if it was their imprisonment.
The same Pope Francis during his recent visit to Sri Lanka canonized Joseph Vaz. When he was dying he said to those gathered around him: “Hardly will you be able to do at the time of death what you have not done during your life”.
This Sunday is called Sunday of Joy, and what a greater joy could we wind then having eternal life in Our Lord Jesus Christ.
My Sisters and Brothers!
Here in Australia we proud ourselves for being laidback but dizziness in our life of faith is nothing to be proud of.
The Gospel today proclaims this basic truth that “God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son.” What are we supposed to do with this gift given us by God, with the gift of his only Son – Our Blessed Lord Jesus Christ?
Let me remind you of a commercial, you have probably seen of TV recently. A young woman is enjoying her cereal meal at a restaurant. It is so good that that she nearly licks off the bowl. Another woman sitting next to her calls the waitress over and says: “Can I have what she is having please?”
God the Father has given us his Only Begotten Son so that being close to Jesus by listening to his Gospel, by receiving Sacraments, by acts of charity and penance, by living as members of the Christ Body – the Church, we can want, we can desire, we can long for what Jesus is enjoying: being a child of God. There are lots of beautiful and fascinating things in the world that we can become dizzy when it comes to things of heaven, like those on plane were dizzy when they put the value of their lives at the same level with the value of their belongings. As life is more important than hand luggage as our relationship with Our Heavenly Father is more important than anything we can find on this planet.
A few days ago Pope Francis spoke of some Christians from the time of persecutions. They were captured but before their persecutors told them to reject Jesus Christ they were taken to a luxury place with magnificent food and even better entertainment. After some time of such “a fantastic life” they were told to deny Jesus. Surpassingly or not surprisingly their persecutors discovered that it was a better way to weaken the faith of those Christians, better than putting them in a dungeon. They got attached to the comfortable life so much that they found it difficult to choose Christ over their luxury, even if it was their imprisonment.
The same Pope Francis during his recent visit to Sri Lanka canonized Joseph Vaz. When he was dying he said to those gathered around him: “Hardly will you be able to do at the time of death what you have not done during your life”.
This Sunday is called Sunday of Joy, and what a greater joy could we wind then having eternal life in Our Lord Jesus Christ.
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