​            Try to imagine this: You are shopping. As you are pushing your trolley along someone taps you on the shoulder and says: ‘Leave it and follow me.’ What would be your reaction? ... If we are here today, participating in this Holy Eucharist, it is partially because some two millennia ago, when a stranger approached Peter and Andrew, James and John, and said to them: ‘Follow me’ they did it. Why didn’t they laugh at him? Why didn’t they call security to remove this stranger from their personal space?
            My Dear Sisters and Brothers! I believe that you get why, because on this glorious summer day, in this spectacular seaside town filled with a holiday buzz, you have chosen to come to worship Jesus with your fellow believers. Today you have chosen Jesus like those fishermen did that day in Galilee. That’s why I believe that I can take you on a trip to the place where Jesus’s way and our way merge. Are you ready to take off? By the way did you know that the early name in the Scriptures for what is known today as Christianity was the Way? Jesus’ way and our way. One way.
            The Gospel of Matthew for today is dynamic. Jesus keeps moving. The previous passage showed him in the desert tempted by the devil. Today we see him passing through his town of childhood and young adulthood – Nazareth and coming to a lakeside town of Capernaum. There he begins preaching his message: ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is close at hand.’ If you are about to scratch your head wandering what it may mean hold on because Jesus will show what repentance is all about.
As he is walking by the beautiful lake of Galilee he says to Peter and Andrew, James and John: ‘Follow me.’ Repentance preached by Jesus is first and foremost about turning to him. That’s when his way and our way merge. This is the moment and the place when the ancient prophecy of Isaiah about breaking the heavy yoke is fulfilled. The yoke can be understood as a burden but it also means being paired like a mentor and his trainee, like a rabbi and his disciple. It results in accepting and embracing the worldview of the mentor or the rabbi. It means looking at the world one sees and the world one senses the way their mentor and rabbi does.
In the fullness of time God sent his Son, Jesus Christ, who said: ‘Take my yoke upon you and learn from me.’ Which means: Come and see my worldview. See the world the way I see it. Embracing Jesus’ worldview frees us from our self-focus and from the fear of death.
            St Francis of Assisi once heard this voice in his heart: ‘Think that it is bitter what you find sweet. Think that it is sweet what you find bitter.’ As he was pondering what it meant he came across a leper, before Francis would take a detour to avoid lepers. He couldn’t even look at them. This time he went up to the leper and kissed him. His worldview had been changed. His worldview was now that of Jesus Christ. Jesus’ way and Francis’ had merged.
            My Dear Fellow believers! What did those four disciples hear that day by the Lake of Galilee that they left what they were doing, what they were accustomed to, and followed Jesus? They heard the Word of God. Jesus didn’t cast a spell on them. Jesus didn’t hypnotize them. They followed Christ which meant committing themselves every day to following him. Their new yoke didn’t make them slaves, addicts, frightened or isolated. They saw the world the way Jesus did. What a view it is!
            Have you ever heard this: ‘You remind me of someone.’? My prayer for you, and for myself too, is that we may hear this: You remind me of Jesus Christ. You walk like him. You talk like him. You think like him. You act like him. You love what he loves. You disapprove what he disapproves.
            To finish I would like to quote a sentence from a song of an American music band called the RainMakers. They were popular in the late 1980s and early 1990s.  This is the song: ‘You remind me of someone I don’t know.’ As we celebrate the Australia Day this song captures the situation of this beautiful sunburnt country, the country where many don’t know Jesus Christ.  However they can come to know and love him, and subsequently to follow him, through our own paring up with Jesus. If we let them see the world the way we see it, the way Jesus sees it.

​Over the last few days we have been given reports about the rain which has brought a much needed respite to the bushfire and drought ravaged regions of our country. Isn’t amazing that in this high-tech society of ours such a simple and primeval thing like rain can still bring so much excitement and joy? We, who claim to be so advanced and progressive, in face of the bushfires have realized that even the best and the most modern accessories were inadequate to handle the extend of the cataclysm. All the efforts which were employed aimed at slowing the expansion of the fires while waiting for rain. Praised be the Lord for the rain.
            My Dear Sisters and Brothers! John the Baptist, who put all his efforts to call his fellow country men and women to repentance and the subsequent baptism, breathed a similar sigh of relief when he saw ‘Jesus coming towards him.’ The Baptist knew that his preaching and baptizing couldn’t solve people’s sinfulness. He was holding the front line because with hope he was waiting for the ‘Chosen One of God’ to come to ‘take away the sin of the world.’ Praised be the Lord for coming there and then.
St John the Apostle, who was first a disciple of the Baptist, didn’t describe Jesus’ baptism in his Gospel.  Instead he wrote down the testimony of his first mentor, John the Baptist, who witnessed that event: ‘I saw the Spirit coming down from heaven like a dove and resting on him… Yes, I have seen and I am the witness that he is the Chosen One of God.’
John the Baptist was not only a messenger or a reporter. What he had heard and seen changed his perception of Jesus. He was a relative of Jesus but in his testimony he reveals: ‘I did not know him myself.’ He says this not once but twice. How come that he didn’t know Jesus? He did not know that Jesus, his relative, whom he knew well as a family member, was the Chosen One of God, the Messiah, God himself. For this discovery one needs to have a revelation from above. On our own we can come to appreciate God as Almighty, Creator, powerful, all wise, etc. but to treasure God as God-Man who chooses to appear in the dirty water of the Jordan, in the midst of sinners, we need to have a revelation. It can come directly from God. It was the case of John the Baptist. I can come from the witness of the Church. It is our case. However whether it comes directly from God or through the witness of the Church it doesn’t make it easier to accept it. John the Baptist still struggled to agree to baptize Jesus in the same way and in the same dirty water he used for sinners. We also may struggle to accept that Jesus is God when he refuses to use his powers to fix up our messy world straight away.
My Dear Fellow Strugglers in faith! Even if at times, seeing what is happening around us, we may be astounded, we always hear at Mass the words of the Prophet from the Jordan: ‘Behold the Lamb of God, behold him who takes away the sins of the world.’ As Jesus appeared in the murky Jordan as he appears in the murky world of ours. Behold, which is an invitation to contemplation and wonder, doesn’t freeze us though but it moves us.
Firstly it moves us to say: ‘Lord I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof, but only say a word and my soul will be healed.’ Have you ever thought what someone who has never been to church could think at the moment? How strange, these people talk to a white disc! You may have grown used to this but remember that if you do talk to this white disc, if you call it your Lord, it has been revealed to you by the Church, by your participation in the life of the Church. The Church who for two millennia loved and worshipped Jesus in the Bread and Wine, has infused this faith in you and me. Praised be the Lord for revealing himself to us through the witness of the Church.
Secondly it moves us to make our way to the altar. There we encounter our Lord and Saviour, the Lamb of God, who comes to us ‘to take the sins of the world.’ How does he do that? By giving himself to us? ‘The Body of Christ. Amen. The Blood of Christ. Amen.’
Without rain the fires would continue ravaging the eastern states. Without the Body and Blood of Christ evil would ravage our souls and the world. By believing and receiving Jesus we, his Church, his Body on earth, allow Jesus to transform the landscape of the earth. It doesn’t mean that we are better than the other people. We are the people who hope for better by placing our faith in Jesus ‘the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.’
Today and every day, like those farmers and firefighters, we also breathe a sigh of relief because faced with messiness of our lives and the messiness of the world we still believe that we are not on our own. Jesus has come into this messiness of ours.
Praised be the Lord for coming to us here and now.

​What did happen in the Gospel for this Sunday? Jesus Christ was baptized by John the Baptist in the Jordan. That’s how this Sunday is called: the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord. That’s what most of the pieces of art capture. Jesus stands in the river and John pours the water on him, or immerses him in the water. Although some of those pieces are truly beautiful they fall short at presenting the mystery of this event. I believe that this great event of the Baptism of Jesus needs to be proclaimed orally rather that presented visually if we want to preserve its richness and dynamism.
            This year I would like us to focus on just one aspect which is usually overlooked in the art and subsequently in our Christian imagination. I believe that it impoverishes our faith as much as it impoverishes the appreciation of what happened when John baptized Jesus.
            Most of the presentations of the Baptism of Jesus have our Lord and the Baptist alone. It looks like a prearranged appointment to have a family baptism. Jesus and John were cousins after all. However let us remember that Jesus didn’t come to a cozy chapel where he could have a private baptism. Instead he came to the place where everyone could come and in fact where people did come to be baptized by John.
Although it was a river it served as both a baptismal font and a confessional for those who had been moved by John’s preaching on repentance. People went down to the Jordan River; they confessed their sins and John baptized them there. If you have ever been to the Holy Land you may remember that the water of the Jordan is murky. It is not the crystal clear water we get from our taps. However the eyes of faith allow us to see that the water at that time was even murkier, dirtier because it carried all the sins which the people were confessing there in hope of obtaining forgiveness.
How shocked John must have been when he saw his pure and innocent cousin, Jesus, queuing up among the sinners and descending into the dirty water of the Jordan, the water which was also ‘polluted’ by the sins of those who were baptized there. We read in the Scriptures that Jesus ‘bore our sins in his body on the cross.’ When he went down into the dirty waters of the Jordan, he, as God and Saviour, in a mysterious but effective way, absorbed the sins of those who were baptized before him, but also the sins of all people who in the generations to come would be baptized. My sins were there and your sins were there too. It was right and just for Jesus to have gone down to the Jordan to collect our sins. Before he took up the cross, before he began his way of the cross, from that moment of his baptism he was burdened by our sins. Should we be surprised then that after all those things we remember today were completed Jesus went to the desert to be tempted by devil? My dear fellow sinners, isn’t it what marks our life? This deceiving lure of sin? Jesus was not carrying our sins in a tight jar. He was carrying them in his own body. That’s why he knows the power of temptations and the desolation which comes after.
            After this Mass I invite you to come to the baptismal font in this church. Immerse your whole hand in the water, make the sign of the cross and say loudly: ‘Thank you my Saviour.’ In this way remind yourself that whatever may inflict you, doesn’t matter how crushing and humiliating it may be is something you don’t bear alone. Jesus took it upon himself when he was baptized in that dirty water of the Jordan.
What did happen in the Gospel for this Sunday? Our Lord took upon himself what we would like to get rid of but are unable to.
            Thank you my Saviour.

​Have you ever wondered why the Wise Men first arrived at the King Herod’s palace? Now think about this situation: You are invited to a party for a baby to be the future king of England. Which place would you go to? It would be the Buckingham Palace in London, wouldn’t be? You wouldn’t be searching through the surrounding hamlets.
            My Dear Sisters and Brothers! The Wise Men used reason to process the information they already had. Reason allowed them to discover the star and to recognize it as a pointer to divine. The Wise Men didn’t see any angels, but by using their scientific knowledge they figured it out. That knowledge got them very close to Jesus. Bethlehem is only 10 kilometers from Jerusalem. However their great knowledge failed to get them to the manger. Their reason was fine but they needed faith. ‘Where is the infant king of the Jews? they asked.’ That was not only the correct question to ask but it was also the correct attitude to have because as we are reminded in the Scriptures ‘faith comes from hearing and hearing through the word of Christ.’ What did the Wise Men hear then? They heard the Word of God, a passage from the Bible, from the Book of the Prophet Micah to be precise: ‘And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah you are by no means least among the leaders of Judah, for out of you will come a leader who will shepherd my people Israel.’
If reason moved them first out of their home in search for God, faith moved them out of the splendor of the Herod’s royal palace to continue their search. That final leg of their journey, those last 10 kilometers, was a huge leap of faith for them. In fact it was their conversion, metanoia. Their mind was challenged and changed to accept that God and King could be found in a manger.
In 1998 Saint John Paul II wrote a letter to the whole Church. The title of that letter was Fides and ratio, Faith and reason, from the opening words of that letter. Let me read the whole sentence: ‘Faith and reason are like two wings on which the human spirit rises to the contemplation of truth.’ What is the other name for the truth? It is the name of the One who said of himself: ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life.’ It is Jesus.
Have you seen a bird with a clipped wing? It is a sorry image. There is this space for the bird to fly high but the bird can only look up with longing and sadness.
The Wise Men, during the first and long leg of their journey, which took them to the Herod’s royal palace, were like birds with a clipped wing. Those final 10 kilometers from Jerusalem to Bethlehem they were flying like sparrows, so fast. They were flying on both wings of faith and reason. When they ‘fell to their knees’ at the manger, as St Matthew tells us on this Day of Epiphany, they were like eagles rising to the highest heights for the human spirit. Their knees were buried in the dirt of the stable but their spirit was flying high.
My Dear Fellow believers! In our society which separates faith from reason, and very often even amputates faith, we are called to bear witness that both faith and reason come from the same source: God. In our society where so many people are like birds with clipped wings we are called to show that both ‘Faith and reason are like two wings on which the human spirit rises to the contemplation of truth.’
What could we say about the recent bushfires if our wing of faith was clipped? God doesn’t exist. What could we say if our wing of reason was clipped? It is God’s punishment. However while greatly disturbed and horrified at the extend of the bushfires we also profess the presence of the God who knows what suffering is and by his presence offers his grace to transform us anew into a better community closer to each other and closer to him who transformed the Wise Men into Compassioned Believers who ‘returned to their own country by a different way’ because they didn’t want to endanger the Infant King and God to the brutality of Herod.

​       A couple of weeks ago I was looking for some Christian Christmas cards. As I was scanning the cards on display my attention was drawn to a card with the Three Wise Men. They were standing in front of a kangaroo. One of the Wise Men was saying: ‘Definitely we’ve got lost.’
          My Dear Sisters and Brothers, are you here because you have got lost? If not, why are you here? Do you believe that, here and now, among your fellow believers you will find Jesus Christ who was once born in Bethlehem? I do. I do believe that this celebration is not like watching a movie we have already seen ten, twenty or fifty times. I do believe that on this sacred day of the Lord’s Nativity we are sacramentally drawn into this mystery of Christmas, that we are immersed in it. I believe that because the One whose birth has brought us here is God himself.
         In many Nativity Sets found in our churches, homes, shopping centres etc. we find the Baby Jesus who is little but with his outstretched arms he looks like someone who wants to embrace the world rather than a baby wanting to be picked up. This unusual presentation of a baby is an artisan expression of our Christian faith that this Baby is the Redeeming God, our Saviour, entering as a human our little world. That’s why we, his followers, are people of hope rather than optimists. Rabbi Jonathan Sacks , who for some years served as the Chief Rabbi of the United Kingdom, said: ‘Optimism is the belief that the world is changing for the better. Hope is the belief that together we can make the world better.’ Today we profess that it does make sense because God in Jesus Christ is part of that ‘together’.

​ There is another representation of the Infant Jesus which is known as the Infant of Prague. The Infant is robed in the royal regalia. Of course Jesus never wore them but our fellow believers robed him like a king so that they could always remember and treasure that he is the King of kings, the Lord of lords, the Prince of Peace, the Hope of all nations.
         These unusual presentations of the Baby Jesus are in fact deep expressions of faith in him, our God and Saviour. They are for us who at times may struggle to hold fast to this belief that God has entered our world and our history, that his is Emmanuel, God-is-with-us.

​    There are also some other presentations of the Baby Jesus. They draw our attention and thus our faith to his humanity. Like a statue of the Baby Jesus playing with his foot. It is very human, isn’t it? But it also reveals the divine mind of God. It also reveals God’s sense of humour which makes us kneel in awe and gratitude. In the Book of Genesis we find a passage about the sin of the first parents. What led them to sin was because they wanted to be like God. ‘When the fullness of time came’ God wanted to become man. What a divine sense of humour!

​What a mystery! God subjected himself to limitations and restrictions. That’s what the first parents wanted to avoid. That’s what we strive to avoid too. When we are children we want to free ourselves from our parents as they are perceived as those who limit and restrict us. At some stage of our life we start thinking that we are completely free and without limits. However this period ends rather quickly. We discover that we don’t have skills to learn five languages. We discover that our character maybe good for quick parties but it is a challenge for relationships. We discover that our health is not as robust as we thought it was. It may be frustrating. But it can also become liberating when learn from the limitless God who embraced human limitations that those limits are like the banks of a river. They keep water running beautifully. Our limits, the limits of our humanity, filled with the life-giving grace of Christ, keep our life running beautifully and thanks to God-Man such life aims at eternity.
           My Dear Fellow Christians! We are here not because we have got lost. We are here because from Jesus Christ we can draw our sustenance. Which image of the Baby Jesus speaks to you today? Take this image with you home. Treasure it because it resonates with something you are dealing with right now. The answer to that can be found in the image of Christ you are attracted to right now.
         I have spoken about God’s good sense of humour. In this turbulent world of ours the last laugh belongs to God like the first word belonged to him too. It puts a smile on our face. It is a smile of joy because the Lord has come.

          There is a fifteenth century manuscript called: The Very Rich Hours of the Duke of Berry. The Duke was the man who commissioned this piece of art. The manuscript is a book with various prayers aimed at sanctifying different hours of the day and the night. Why is it called The Very Rich Hours? It is because most of the 206 leaves of the parchment are stunning miniatures. However they are not only stunning, they are also powerful in the messages they convey.
This Sunday I would like to talk about the miniature presenting the Crucifixion of Jesus. It is the scene we are all familiar with. However the manuscript The Very Rich Hours of the Duke of Berry, which contains many images in vivid colours, shows the Crucifixion as if through a dark veil. Thus it refers to the Biblical account of the darkness which covered the earth when Jesus was dying of the cross. I also believe that it is a way to express a sense of loneliness and abandonment which were not only Jesus’s experience when he said in his native Aramaic language: ‘Eli, Eli, lema sabachtani?’ Which means ‘My God, why have you forsaken me?’ This sense of darkness is our experience too. Think about the people who were betrayed by those whom they loved and trusted. Isn’t it darkness? Think about the people facing life threatening illnesses. Isn’t it darkness?
My Dear Sisters and Brothers! In our Second Reading we also heard a testimony of St. Paul about darkness. The Apostle Paul wrote this Letter, which was his last letter, just before his martyrdom in Rome. Listen to a couple of sentences from today’s reading: ‘The first time I had to present my defence, there was not a single witness to support me. Every one of them deserted me.’ This Letter which we have been reading in our churches last few Sundays is like Paul’s last testament. However it is not a litany of complaints or resentments. On the contrary Paul bears witness to what he already written in the Letter to the Galatians: ‘I have been crucified with Christ, and I live now not with my own life but with the life of Christ who lives in me.’ Having Christ living in us is not only about the power to perform miracles etc. It is about the power to relive in our own body Jesus’ way of the Cross, his Crucifixion so that the glory of the Resurrection can be ours too.
This faith St Paul expressed from the misery of his imprisonment: ‘The Lord stood by me and gave me power, so that the whole message might be proclaimed for all the pagans to hear, and so I was rescued from the lion’s mouth.’
There was not prison release for Paul on the horizon so what kind of rescue the Apostle wrote about? It was the rescue of a lamb, which was sent to the wolves or lions, and despite ill-treatment the lamb remained a lamb. It didn’t become a wolf or a lion. Thinking about all the persecution he received from his enemies and the abandonment he experienced from his companions St Paul revealed that all those misfortunes didn’t change him for worse. What he wrote to the Galatians sometime earlier was still valid:  ‘The life I now live in this body I live in faith: faith in the Son of God who loved me and who sacrificed himself for my sake.’ That’s why from the midst of the darkness of his personal situation St Paul wrote to Timothy: ‘I have fought the good fight to the end; I have run the race to the finish; I have kept faith; all there is to come now is the crown of righteousness reserved for me, and not only to me but to all those who have longed for Jesus’ Appearing.’
The parchment with the scene of the Crucifixion from the manuscript The Very Rich Hours of the Duke of Berry shows darkness but the darkness covers the earth only. Above that earthly situation the author presented God the Father and a glimpse of heaven in the most vivid colours. In fact that colourful reality of heaven appears like a sunrise.
My Dear fellow sunrise awaiters. If you find yourself in a situation of darkness I announce to you the News of Great Joy: the Glory of God is already appearing for you. The New Day is coming. If your senses tell you something different cling to your faith to sense the New Day of our life with God.
‘To him be glory for ever and ever. Amen.’

​            A hopeless situation from as social point of view was presented in the Gospel, a widow who kept going to a judge asking for his intervention. As a widow she didn’t have a husband who would take her side. If she had to go to a judge she didn’t have a son who would protect her either. What a hopeless situation. However she didn’t give up. Even after so many rejections she kept coming to the unjust judge. Was she optimistic? Did she have a positive attitude? It is hard to be optimistic and positive in a situation like hers, isn’t it?
            Let us turn to our First Reading from the Book of Exodus, the second Book of the Holy Bible. The image of Moses holding a staff in his outstretched arms is often recalled as an image of prayer. Indeed it is a beautiful image. It is even more beautiful if we put it in the context of the events which preceded it.
The passage which the Sacred Liturgy gives us this Sunday brings us to the happenings which followed the Exodus from Egypt. When the Israelites camped at the beaches of the Red Sea they realised that they were pursued by the Pharaoh army. They cried and blamed Moses for exposing them to such a danger. What happened next? At God’s commandment Moses raised his staff and parted the waters of the Sea. When they were saved from Egyptians they began crying and blaming Moses for exposing them to starvation in the desert. What happened next? There was manna and quails. When they were saved from starvation they began crying and blaming Moses for exposing them to dehydration in the desert. What happened next? At God’s commandment Moses raised his staff over a rock and after hitting it with the staff he brought out water. So many disappointments Moses went through dealing with his people who didn’t embrace his faith in God.
As we listen to that passage from the Exodus we can imagine what was going on in Moses’s head. Looking at his stubborn and faithless compatriots, while holding his staff in his tired arms, he could so easily give up. It was a hopeless situation. These people were not advancing in faith. Why did he keep stretching his staff over the people engaged in a battle? Was he optimistic? Did he have a positive attitude? It is hard to be optimistic and positive in a situation like his, isn’t it?
            My Dear Sisters and Brothers! From outside the both situations presented to us this Sunday appear hopeless. However the perseverance of Moses and the widow reveal a divine gift which was determining their actions. That divine gift is called hope.
A descendent of the people on whom Moses didn’t give up, Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, put it this way: ‘Optimism is the belief that the world is changing for better; hope is belief that together, we can make the world better. Optimism is a passive virtue, hope is an active one. It takes no courage to be an optimist, but it does need courage to hope.’ Drawing from today’s readings we can say how true these words are. Both Moses and the widow were active in the hoping. Both Moses and the widow had courage despite having gone through many disappointments.
            Let me highlight the big word: together in what the Rabbi Jonathan said. This big word takes us to God. It is God’s involvement in the history of the world and in our own personal history that we dare to say: ‘hope is belief that together, we can make the world better.’ God and we makes together. Rabbi Jonathan drew his belief about hope from the saving events treasured in the Old Testament. For us Christians it is Jesus Christ from whom we draw our belief about hope.
            In one of our Eucharistic prayers we speak to God the Father in this way: ‘Fulfilling your will and gaining for you a holy people, Jesus stretched out his hands as he endured his Passion so as to break the bonds of death and manifest the Resurrection.’ The Crucified Messiah and our hope belong together. Those outstretched arms of Jesus Christ raise up our hope.
            I would like to finish with another insight of Rabbi Jonathan which for us, the followers of Jesus Christ becomes truly powerful: ‘There are no logical grounds for hope. There are no logical grounds that tomorrow will be better than today. But God doesn’t give up, and for that reason, neither do we.’
Look, my Dear fellow hopers, at Jesus on the cross. He is the new Moses through whom God assures us that he is with us. Thus ‘The lord be with you,’ becomes a powerful message we can take home. In the Lord Jesus we believe. In the Lord Jesus we hope. That’s why there are no hopeless situations for us who believe in Jesus, but there are situations which become an opportunity for us to manifest our hope for living and believing.

            A month ago we heard at Mass the parable of the father and his two sons, which is often called the parable of the prodigal son. I’ve always wondered why the younger son who left home has been called prodigal. Is it because we are so fixated on finances that the younger son’s wasteful actions get our attention? What about the father from the parable? Don’t you think that he is prodigal? He gave a portion of his property to the boy who obviously didn’t deserve it. The boy was selfish and unappreciative. Still his father gave him the inheritance. Even when the boy lost everything, upon his return his father kept on giving. What a prodigal attitude. However, deep down, we hope and pray that this is the attitude of our heavenly Father, don’t we? We hope and pray that our Heavenly Father will always be prodigal; that he will keep on giving us is love which takes the form of forgiveness.
            My Dear Sisters and Brothers! The parable which we heard a few weeks ago we can meditate again through the lenses of the Gospel for today. Jesus Christ, the Only Begotten Son of God lived what he knew of his Heavenly Father. If his Father is prodigal in loving Jesus is prodigal in loving too.
Ten lepers approached him shouting: ‘Jesus! Master! Take pity on us.” That’s what Jesus did. He didn’t calculate the rate of return for his act of mercy but prodigally he took pity on them all. He cleansed them all. He got poor return, only 10%. However it is not about a good return it is about investment. Without God’s investment there would be no return. The first Pope, St Peter wrote once: ‘The Lord is being patient with you all, wanting nobody to be lost and everybody to be brought to change his ways.’ This is the prodigal attitude of our Heavenly Father which is called the Gospel, the Good News.
            The Gospel for this Sunday is truly Good News as it shows us the work of God in a human being. The 10% who returned to Jesus, that one man, ‘thanked Jesus.’ Simple words in English but when St Luke wrote it he used the word eucharist. The man who returned to Jesus became the Eucharist as his new life was defined by thankfulness. He was ready to tell everybody what Jesus did for him. He became a missionary. He was not spreading some propaganda but he was evangelising.
            Can you remember what the ten lepers were doing when they came to Jesus? ‘They called to Jesus.’ When we need something we are professional at making our voice heard. Now, look at what the one leper is doing when he finds himself cleansed. ‘He turned back praising God at the top of his voice.’ What a missionary! The new life he received from Jesus became a means of reaching out to others. He didn’t do any course to preach but by believing in Jesus and being ready to witness to that faith he was ready to be commissioned. Our Blessed Lord said to him: ‘Stand up and go on your way. Your faith has saved you.’ Powerful words, which can be our commission too.
Jesus Christ, who is the Prodigal Son from today’s Gospel, didn’t stop on giving. The journey on which we find him this Sunday was to take him to Jerusalem where he was to give himself, to the last drop of his precious blood, for our salvation. He gave himself for us and for our salvation. Like Father like Son. The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.
My dear fellow Christians. You are at the Eucharist now. Become the Eucharist. Thank him for having saved you by his Cross and Resurrection. Praise him at the top of your voice. Make your thankfulness for God’s salvation heard. When you are asked about your faith remember that it is your opportunity not just to explain your faith but to praise the Lord before the people. You will be a missionary then, so ‘Stand up and go on your way. Your faith has saved you.

          Last Thursday, on the memorial of St Francis of Assisi, we glorified God for the life and mission of the Saint who chose Jesus over the wealth of his family. The saint who has inspired our Pope Francis had an encounter with Jesus Christ which not only changed his life but also has impacted generations of Christians. One day Francis went to a falling apart church near Assisi. There he prayed in front of a crucifix. As he was looking at the crucified Lord he heard a voice coming from the crucifix: 'Francis, go and repair my house which, as you see, is falling into ruin.' First Francis thought that Jesus wanted him to fix the walls of the collapsing church. He started working on the building. However in the midst of that manual work he was enlightened by the Spirit of the Risen Jesus that the mission he was entrusted with was to be directed to renewing the whole Catholic Church.
            The Lord Jesus called Francis to rebuild the Church when Francis was nobody in his society. He had already given up the prestige and wealth of his family. He didn’t have resources even to fix the little church he found damaged. How could he embark on renewing the whole Catholic Church?
            My Dear Sisters and Brothers!
            St Francis didn’t have any resources indeed; however he had faith of which the Lord Jesus spoke in the Gospel.
            Firstly it was faith of an apostle, someone who has been sent by Jesus on a mission. St Luke in the Good News for this Sunday tells us that the request for an increase of faith came from the Apostles, the ones who are sent. They are not only disciples, they are not only followers of Jesus, they are now given a mission, they are to participate in the mission of the Son of God. However the more they witness Jesus the more they find themselves lacking many things to be part of Jesus’ mission. In the midst of that they discover that what is needed for mission is faith.
            Secondly it is faith which makes apostles resemble Jesus. Apostles are the people who after doing everything don’t except anything for what they have done. Instead they say: ‘We are merely servants: we have done no more than our duty.’ To our modern understanding of justice and fairness it sounds unjust and unfair. That’s why we, who are called to be apostles in this place and at this time, need to make our own the prayer of the first Apostles of Jesus Christ: ‘Lord, increase our faith’ because it is easier to uproot a mulberry tree with its big root system and plant it in the sea then to move us out of our obsession with gratification for what we do. We need to ask Jesus Christ: ‘Lord, increase our faith’ so that what Jesus said at the Last Supper can be our way of living our Christian faith: ‘I didn’t come to be served but to serve and to give my life as a ransom for many.’
            My Dear fellow apostles! The Bishop of Rome, the successor of St Peter the Apostle, has invited us to live this month of October 2019 as an extraordinary missionary month. It is a prophetic call for all of us to rediscover our call to be missionaries here and now, to rediscover that the Lord Jesus sends us to carry out his mission in our own time and in our own place. It can overwhelm us. We may feel inadequate. Let us then call upon the Lord: ‘Increase our faith’ so that we may accept as our own Jesus’ way of living and doing mission: ‘I didn’t come to be served but to serve and to give my life as a ransom for many.’
            St Francis of Assisi, pray for us.

​            Cardinal Francis George OMI, who was Archbishop of Chicago in US, at a function organised to acknowledge the benefactors supporting various works the diocese said: ‘The poor need you to get out of their poverty. You need the poor to stay out of hell.’
            My Dear Sisters and Brothers! What a spot on commentary on today’s Gospel. The Gospel passage which is not limited to the audience made of millionaires. It is the Word of God for all of us. We may not have resources to eradicate social injustices in our countries but we do have a new heart and a new spirit in us to see misery of others in our communities and to reach out to them.
Prophet Ezekiel passed on this message from God: ‘I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you: I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.’ As Christians we treasure this message which is fulfilled in the awesome moment of our Baptism, sustained and nurtured in our active participating in the Holy Eucharist and through the Sacrament of Confirmation driving us out of our complacency so that we may live out Jesus’ words: ‘Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did to me.’ Jesus also went on to say: ‘Whatever you neglected to do to one of the least of theses brothers and sisters of mine, you neglected to do it to me.’
            The rich man from today’s parable was not condemned for some atrocious crimes he did. He condemned himself to hell by turning his wealth into his god. This worship of wealth and prosperity isolated him from others. St Luke wrote that the parties of the rich man were dazzling to the extent that they blinded him to see anything around him. The rich man from today’s Gospel condemned himself to hell by neglecting to do good.
            My Dear fellow believers! I grew up in a country where a socialist movement was promising to eradicate situations like the one Jesus spoke of in the Gospel. However it was a way to gain political power over the country in the name of implementing social changes. Ultimately it wasn’t about the poor and the disadvantage but about having control over the nation.
            Last year Pope Francis canonised Oscar Romero, Archbishop of San Salvador, who was shot dead in 1980 when he celebrated Mass. Guiding his local Church in difficult times, when the Church faced various difficulties, he made this observation: ‘Not any and every priest has been persecuted, not any and every institution has been attacked. That part of the Church has been attacked and persecuted that put itself on the side of the people and went to the people’s defence. Here again we find the same key to understanding the persecution of the Church: the poor.’
            Before his blood was mingled with the blood of Christ on the altar after he was shot Bishop Oscar Roero immersed himself in the life and misery of the poor. He went out to find the poor. In his last homily, just minutes before he was martyred he preached: ‘Those who surrender to the service of the poor through love of Christ will live like grain of wheat that dies. The harvest comes because of the grain that dies.’ He died literally because he refused to turn a blind eye to the misery of the poor. For most of us it means dying to our comfort, self-justification etc.
            Dear fellow Christians! On Tuesday we begin the month of October. Our Holy Father Pope Francis has announced that October 2019 will be Extraordinary Missionary Month in the Catholic Church. I invite you to visit http://www.october2019.va/en.html to cultivate in you a missionary heart and spirit. However this missionary month is not about some religious propaganda. It is rather about the movement which the rich man from today’s Gospel failed to make: to reach out to those in need. It is not only about the poor who my come to us. It is about the poor whom our Catholic heart inspires us to look for. Saint Oscar Romero once said: ‘The most profound social revolution is the serious, interior reform of a Christian.’ If the poor find in us the care, compassion and tenderness of Jesus Christ we are truly missionaries of the Risen Lord.