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19th Sunday in the Year - Homily

8/10/2015

            We all know that in order to survive such extreme heat we need to drink plenty of water. However on TV and other media we are being reminded to drink water. Why are we reminded to do that? Because it is important for our survival.

            My Sisters and Brothers!

            The sixth chapter of the Gospel of St John which has been proclaimed in our Churches for a few weeks now reminds us of consuming Jesus’ Body and Blood so that we could have eternal life. The eternal life Jesus speaks of is not limited to the life after death but it is the life where God reigns. It is the life where God reigns in our thoughts, decisions, plans, actions etc, as St Paul wrote in our second reading from the Letter to the Ephesians: “Try, then, to imitate God as children of his that he loves and follow Christ loving as he loved you, giving himself up in our place as a fragrant offering and a sacrifice to God.” However Jesus is realistic and he knows that our society doesn’t help us to believe, to be faithful to God, like those hot days don’t help us to do our daily duties either. That’s why Jesus has given us bread from heaven, his Body and Blood.

            Let’s go back to our First Reading about Elijah: “O Lord – he said – I have had enough. Take my life; I am no better than my ancestors.” What can we learn about Elijah from these words? He is disappointed and discouraged. He has lost interest in life. Isn’t our experience similar? In order to collect ourselves and return to our daily responsibilities we are given, through the hands of our priests, Jesus’ Body and Blood like the angel gave bread and water to Elijah. When we receive this gift of Jesus’ Body and Blood with faith and trust then even if the heat of our problems and difficulties doesn’t ease like the scourging heat affecting us right now doesn’t want to go away, we still find strength to keep going.

            My Friends! 27 years ago in Sri Lanka an Oblate priest was concluding Mass. He had distributed Holy Communion and he had purified the chalice and paten when two shots were fired. Those smashed Fr Michael’s head. The chalice and paten were filled up again, this time with blood of the priest who didn’t have time to bless his congregation.

            What triggered the murder? Fr Michael after returning from Paris after obtaining two PhDs requested to be sent to some poor rural area. He preached the Good News but he also taught people to read and write. He explained them that farming methods promoted by big companies were leaving the fields barren. Of course those in power weren’t pleased with Fr Michael’s activity. He was threatened and bullied but he persevered in doing good. Where did his strength come from? From what became his last activity, the Most Holy Eucharist. He celebrated Mass and he adored the Eucharistic Jesus regularly. From Eucharist and adoration he drew strength to be good and merciful, forgiving and loving.

            Hopefully soon this heat will ease and TV people will stop telling us to drink water, but the evil in this world is not going to be burnt up because of the heat. In order to face it we will need the heavenly nourishment of Jesus’ Body and Blood, the best nutrition we can find on this planet as it sustains us for life eternal.

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18th Sunday in Ordinary Time - Homily

8/3/2015

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            After joining the Oblates I was sent to the Novitiate of my Religious Congregation located in the fascinating place of the Holy Cross Shrine in Poland. The place where a piece of the True Cross has been treasured for a thousand years has also played a significant part in the Polish history. For example, King Jagiello, before he went to fight the famous Grunwald Battle, spent some time at the foot of the mountain and every day dressed in the penitential robe, he walked up to the top of the mountain to pray before the relict for the blessing upon his Kingdom. The place can easily keep a visitor busy for a couple of days. However very soon after beginning by religious formation in the monastery adjacent to the Shrine I discovered that for the tourists and pilgrims coming there the most fascinating thing in the ancient shrine was a massive door at the end of the corridor marked by a plaque “CLOISTER.” It means that what is beyond the door is the part of the monastery reserved only for the Oblates. Many times I “caught” people sneaking a quick look through a tiny window in the door.

            My Dear Sisters and Brothers!

            This Sunday as you are honoring the patron saint of your parish: Saint Cajetan, I believe it is an opportunity to meditate on the mystery of the Consecrated Life. Your Saint was a religious himself. He was even the Founder of a religious congregation called Theatines. This year we also live the Year of the Consecrated Life dedicated to the mystery of the call Jesus offers to some of us to follow him by taking the vows of chastity, poverty and obedience.

When I was in High School not far from your place, every day with my classmates we passed the Catholic University which is just across the road from my old school. One day as we were observing a long line of nuns, brothers and priests walking for their lectures, wearing so many various habits and soutanes, a friend of mine made this question: “Do we need so many orders? Couldn’t we have just one for men and one for women?”

            St Paul in our second reading today wrote: “Your mind must be renewed by a spiritual revolution so that you can put on the new self that has been created in God’s way, in goodness and holiness of the truth.” Religious life, which richness is so clearly expressed by variety of the religious habits, reminds us simply about the richness of the mystery of our Lord Jesus Christ.

            St John, who wrote the Gospel passage we proclaimed a few minutes ago, at the end of the Gospel wrote that “There are also many other things which Jesus did; were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.”

            That’s why the Holy Spirit has been inspiring over the two millennia of the Church history certain man and woman, the founders of the religious congregations, who were so captivated by a particular mystery of Jesus that they allowed the Holy Spirit to write in their life another page of the Gospel. Every religious congregation contributes to the Church and the world not only what they do through their ministry but they allow the people of the world to see another aspect of the great mystery of our Redeemer, Jesus Christ.

            What can we read about Jesus as we meditate on the life of you Patron, Saint Cajetan and his order of Teatines? St Cajetan lived in the time when the Western Reformation was creating a division among Christians. At the same time he saw the weakness of his contemporary Church. However our Saint didn’t want to run away from the corrupted situation. He came to believe that Jesus never gives up on people. That’s what St Cajetan wanted to tell his contemporaries, not only by his sermons but mainly by the example of his own life and the lives of his Teatines.

            In your parish church you have this beautiful painting of St Cajetan who receives the Baby Jesus from the Blessed Virgin Mary. St Cajetan didn’t withdraw himself to some noiseless and remote place to enjoy this closeness with Jesus but he spent his life in the most challenging circumstances of the city of Nepal in Italy as he learnt from Jesus that those people were dearly loved by him. The same love of Jesus he wanted them to experience from him and his Teatines.

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Double Birthday

8/2/2015

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St Eugene de Mazenod, born on August 1, 1782.

St Alphonsus Liguori, died August 1, 1787.

On August 1, 1782 a baby boy was born to an aristocratic family living in Aix in the Southern France. The following day the baby was baptized as Charles Joseph Eugene de Mazenod. The noble family name of de Mazenod was believed to set the little man on the path to a bright career. Little did they know how unusual the path was to be taken by him. The magnificent mansion in the main and most prominent street of the city of Aix hich saw his birth was soon to be lost to the de Mazenod Family as the turmoil of the French Revolution was to turn upside down the ancient country of France with its Catholic identity and the de Mazenods were to share the drastic changes of the XIX century France. When Eugene was baptized on August 2 he officially became a French citizen, as a Catholic baptismal certificate served as the proof of the French citizenship then. Eugene was born to the country where only Catholics could be citizens. However soon it was to be changed for good. His life was going to take him on a challenging journey leading him to making his own personal commitment to Christ and his Holy Church. Eugene, who as a child still in France and later a teenager sharing the life of exile with his family, was surrounded by nostalgic sentiments of the “beautiful old days” when all French were Catholics, as a young adult didn’t get caught into dreaming about those old days to be reestablished. On the contrary he allowed the Holy Spirit to guide him and to choose what today is called as New Evangelization.

First he discovered that being a Catholic doesn’t simply come from living in a Catholic country but it is the outcome of one’s personal, transforming encounter with the Saviour. The French Revolution had drastically changed the society’s religious milieu. It didn’t support the Catholic way of life any more but it rather demanded on one’s part a strong commitment to Jesus and his Church.

Secondly, St Eugene was to discover that what his country needed wasn’t a new royal edict making all citizens Catholics again. Those strayed French needed a fresh, new chance to discover Jesus as God who loved them and wanted their love. That’s why when some 30 years later he began serving as a priest he was deeply inspired by a contemporary Catholic thinker who died on the day when he celebrated his fifth birthday (August 1, 1787). The thinker was Alphonsus Liguori.

Sensitive to the promptings of the Holy Spirit St Eugene recognized that the moral theology of Liguori which highlighted God’s mercy toward sinners was a perfect means to reach out to those who were already deeply wounded in the spiritual and personal life in the aftermath of the Revolution. The acceptance of the moral directives of Alphonsus Liguori ostracized the future Founder of the Oblates. He was accused of being too easy giving absolution. However Our Founder guided by the supernatural sense of faith never abandoned Moral Theology of Liguori.

The spiritual closeness of the two saints who never met on earth was sealed in 1816 when first on January 25 Eugene and his companions established the community of Missionaries which eventually evolved into Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate and then on September 15 Alphonsus Liguori was beatified by Pope Pius VII. St Eugene saw in the Church’s recognition of Liguori some further affirmation of merciful approach to sinners.

Finally I would like to recall Pope John Paul II who described Alphonsus as "a close friend of the people ... a missionary who went in search of the most abandoned souls ... a founder who wanted a group which would make a radical option in favor of the lowly ... a Bishop whose house was open to all ... a writer who focused on what would be of benefit to people." If I didn’t know that it was about Alhponsus Liguori I could think that it was a perfect description of the man who was born in Aix on August 1, 1782 – Charles Joseph Eugene de Mazenod.

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19th Sunday in the Year - Homily

18th Sunday in Ordinary Time - Homily

Double Birthday

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