​There is a 1992 movie ‘Leap of faith.’ It is the fictional story of Jonas Nightengale travelling US as a Christian faith healer. However his mission is not about healing but about getting money from vulnerable people. When he and his team get stranded in a small country town suffering from a severe drought he decides to utilize the opportunity to milk money the folks. During one of the meetings to his surprise a disable boy does get healed. The movie, which is kind of forgotten these days, has left us however a song. It is called ‘Are you ready for a miracle.’ It refrain goes like this:
Are you ready for a miracle?
As ready as I can be
Are you ready for a miracle?
The spirit will set you free
Are you ready, ready, ready, ready?
I’m ready; I am ready for a miracle.
My Dear Sisters and Brothers! Some centuries prior to the Birth of Christ the prophet Micah delivered God’s message that the inconspicuous town of Bethlehem, where once the great king David was born, would see a miracle, would see again a royal birth: ‘Out of you will be born for me the one who is to rule over Israel, his origin goes back to the distant past, to the days of old.’ It was indeed a mysterious prophesy. How could a new born baby be older than the king who died a few centuries earlier?
Are you ready for a miracle? Are you ready for God stepping into the course of human history? That’s what happened on the day when Joseph and his wife Mary came to Bethlehem for the census. Tomorrow night we will fall to our knees at the words of the Profession of Faith: ‘For us and for our salvation he came down from heaven and by the Holy Spirit he was incarnate of the Virgin Mary and became man.’ Before we say these words we will also say something Micah and his contemporaries couldn’t fully comprehend. Filled with the faith we will profess: ‘I believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Only Begotten Son of God, born of the Father before all ages.’ The Son of God already existed when King David ruled. He existed when Abraham was travelling to the Holy Land. He existed when Adam and Eve were called to life. He existed when the universe was created. In fact ‘through him all things were made.’ His footprints are all over the world. They have been there from the time of creation. If people missed them in the Old Testament it was because they didn’t know to whom those footprints belonged.
In the Letter to the Hebrews we mediate today on Jesus’ words addressed to his Heavenly Father: ‘You who wanted no sacrifice or oblation, prepared a body for me.’ The Son of God who existed as Spirit two thousand years ago was given flesh like ours at the moment we call the Annunciation. In the Gospel for this last Sunday of Advent we are given one of the first moments after Jesus was conceived in the Virgin Mary. Where do we find Mary carrying the most precious treasure in the whole Universe? Is she in the magnificent Jerusalem Temple which was built as God’s dwelling on earth? It would be a fitting place for the precious Baby. Is she in the most sacred room of the Temple where only the High Priest was allowed to enter and only once a year? It would be the best place, not only the most sacred place but also the most secure place. She and her Divine Child would be safe there, very safe. No, she is not there. She who is now the new tabernacle of God’s presence on Earth is found in ‘the hill country of Judah.’ Did she go there because it was the safest place for her and her Child? No, it wasn’t the reason. She, who while conversing with the Archangel Gabriel described herself as ‘a lowly handmaid of the Lord’ proved that it wasn’t just words. Upon hearing that her aged cousin Elizabeth was pregnant Mary went to the elderly expectant mother, not to check it out, not to verify whether it was possible for Elizabeth to be pregnant, but to serve the old woman in her time of need. Mary was ready for a miracle. She was ready for God stepping into the course of the human history.
My Dear Fellow believers! Our time of waiting for Christmas is nearly over. Tomorrow we, the disciples of Jesus Christ, will gather in magnificent cathedrals and obscure mission chapels to celebrate his Birth. Before we do that I ask you: Are you ready for a miracle? Are you ready to make room for Christ in your life? Ask Our Blessed Mother to intercede for you. Pray often the words first prayed by Elisabeth: ‘Blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb, JESUS.’

​How often after Church do you ask yourself the question which occurred like a refrain in today's Gospel: 'What must we do?'? Let us pay attention to the plural form of this question. It is not a question of a single person but a question of people identifying themselves with others. Today the Word of God comes to us like it came to the crowds who went to the wilderness to hear John the Baptist. Not just to me or you but to us as a Church, as the Body of Christ. It is the same Word of God calling us to conversion - metanoia. It is the same Word calling us to change first our thinking in order to have our actions changed.
As we could see in the Gospel for this Sunday the people who heard the Word of God announced by the Baptist were cut to the heart. The Word of God aroused in them a desire to do what would be pleasing to God. 'What must we do?' was an articulation of the growing desire to live according to God's ways. The conversion which was happening in them began creating of them a community of believers.
Sin always divides people. Sin is never private, even if apart of God and me no one knows my sin. It still brings a deep division to communities. Last week I spoke of the great abyss the first people fixed between them and God when they went against God, when they believed Satan's word rather than the Word of God. However the Book of Genesis reveals that it wasn't the only gulf they had created. There was a gulf between them as well. They started blaming each other. The loving and trusting relationship they enjoyed with God was the origin of the loving and trusting relationship with each other. When they compromised their relationship with God it shattered their relationship with each other.
When the Word of God comes to us it brings about conversion but it also brings about unity and reconciliation. First between the sinner and God.
Secondly between sinners. It is not solidarity in sinning but solidarity in a humble common perception of our sinful condition and in appreciation and celebration of our identity as sons and daughters of God which puts our sinfulness in the perspective which is the merciful love of God.  It assures us that God, as our Father, is committed and determined to raise us up from sin and death like he did with Jesus Christ when our Blessed Lord took upon himself our sins with all their deadly consequences. God raised him up.
My Dear Sisters and Brothers! The Third Sunday of Advent is called the Sunday of Joy. What would you identify today as a reason for you to be joyful? What would be behind your 'crying out with joy and gladness' ? ... Let me put it this way? Does your rejoicing come from things that happen to you or from good things that happen to others? Look at the prophet of this Sunday of Joy, St John the Baptist, who didn’t get thrilled because he had attracted so many people. His joy was triggered because, as he said: ‘someone is coming, someone who is powerful that I am, and I am not fit to undo the strap of his sandals.’ One of the disciples of the Baptist, St John the Apostle, who prompted by the testimony of his first mentor followed Jesus Christ, wrote what he heard from the Prophet from the Jordan: ‘The bride is for the bridegroom; and yet the bridegroom’s friend is glad when he hears the bridegroom’s voice. This same joy I feel now it is complete. He must grow greater, I must grow smaller.’
John preached repentance because he had been repented. His ego didn’t search for appreciation and validation. To be joyful he didn’t look into the mirror but he looked at the people who came to him. His teaching invited people to do the same. The urging he gave to the tax collectors and soldiers was about getting those people out of their self-absorbed, and thus destructive, pursuit of their needs. The Baptist, whose life was a gift to others, was inviting those who approaching him to do the same.
‘What must we do?’ we may ask today. We are not tax collectors. We are not soldiers. It is true we may not be these people but still there are people around us to whom God wants to give us as a permanent Christmas gift. Have faith and courage my fellow believers to be a gift to others and then you will be filled with joy of the Holy Spirit, who is happy to be the gift of the Father to the Son and the gift of the Son to the Father. He is also their gift to us. He is happy to be a gift that inspires our gratitude for the Father and the Son. He is a selfless person. That a secret of joy and happiness.

​When you drive through our Aussie Outback you are immersed in the vastness of this beautiful but also harsh land. I remember driving from Sydney to Adelaide via Broken Hill. At some stage the landscape became just flat. A different kind of wilderness you face when you go to the Holy Land. When St Luke in the Gospel for this Second Sunday of Advent recalled the words of Prophet Isaiah about wilderness it wasn’t a vast and flat Australian Outback. Similarity of the both environments will be their harshness but what the travelers come across in Israel is not a flat terrain. It is rather a place carved by gorges. They can be very deep which means that there is no way one can take a straight path. The people of the Bible had to travel winding roads.
            My Dear Sisters and Brothers! The landscape of the wilderness in Israel has been created by seasonal streams appearing and disappearing over millennia. However both Isaiah and St Luke, inspired by the Spirit of God, saw the similarity of our human existence and the landscape of the Judean Desert. Our life has been carved into hills and valleys too. It is not good news, even if it may look exciting. I would like to use two Scriptural images to reflect on it. Both of them come from the beginning of the Bible, from the Book of Genesis.
            The first image is from the chapter 3 which tells us about the Fall and its consequences. When our first parents disobeyed God’s commandment, when they sinned, they ‘hid themselves from God among the trees of the garden.’ By their sin they had created a bottomless canyon which had separated them from God. Before they were told to leave the Garden of Eden they had already drifted from the intimate relationship with God they enjoyed from the moment to creation. They had fixed an abyss between them and God. Over the history of humankind men and women by their own sins, by their own disobedience to God, have continued carving the many abysses which separate us from God. It is the sense of guilt and despair which looks bottomless.
            The second image is from Genesis too. It comes from the chapter 11 where we find the story of the tower of Babel. The sinful people had grown in their self-absorption and selfishness. They wanted to build for themselves ‘a town and a tower with its top reaching heaven.’ Although we don’t see Satan as clearly as he was in the story of the Fall the people’s aspirations in the story of the tower of Babel echoed his temptations: ‘You will be like gods.’ People fell for it again. We have been falling for it again and again over millennia when our selfishness inspires us to create the hills of pride and independence from God, when we attempt to substitute our own products and achievements for God.
            In this rugged human existence, our existence, a voice cries: ‘Prepare the way for the Lord. Every valley will be filled in, every mountain and hill be laid low.’  Some may ask what would be the new altitude of this new spiritual landscape of new humankind. The altitude altitude is defined by what the first people enjoyed before the Fall. The inspired author wrote that they hid when ‘they heard the sound of God walking in the garden in the cool of the day.’ God was coming to them as their creator, father and friend. However the first parents’ attitude towards God had changed. They had lost their sense of being dearly loved children of God.
The voice of the Baptist announces to us Good News that God who by his word created everything has sent us the Word, his only begotten Son Jesus Christ. By accepting in faith and trust his Gospel we will undergo this conversion – metanoia. It is the change of thinking which is promised to us.
That bottomless gulf of guilt and despair which we experience when we sin, when we fail God, other people and ourselves is now filled in to the level where we hear the most uplifting voice from heaven: ‘You are my beloved daughter. You are my beloved son.’ This is the level for a happy life for us, the level where we live as children of God. And to this level the hills of our pride and selfishness will be brought down too. We don’t need to make ourselves like gods. It will not fulfill our aspirations. What will fulfill them is our belief that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, has come down to us so that we could live as sons and daughters of God. Such life is a straight path. Such life is seeing the salvation of God.

​When in 1849 Pope Pius IX sent a letter to all bishops asking them about the devotion and expectation regarding the Immaculate Conception St Eugene de Mazenod was one of the first to write back. He wrote as Bishop of Marseilles but he wrote also as the Founder of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate. He sent back to the Pope the Book of Oblate Constitutions and Rules as prove that the belief in the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary had been treasured in the Church. He also pointed out that the title of the Missionary Oblates of Marry Immaculate given to the community of his missionaries in 1826 by Pope Leo XII was a very testimony that the People of God loved and venerated Mary in her Immaculate Conception even before the Dogma was pronounced in 1854. This is what St Eugene wrote to the Pope: ‘Happy, yes, happy is the day when God through the Spirit of his Divine Son inspired the heart of his Vicar on earth to bestow this crowning honor upon the Virgin Mary! Happy and holy is the day when, amidst the bitter anxieties of his heart and the painful trials to the Holy Church, the sovereign pastor and doctor of the sheep and the lambs has raised his thought to Mary Immaculate of the unblemished Lamb and directed his eyes towards the shining star set by God in the sky like the rainbow of the covenant and the pledge of victory! Let it come, let it come, this hour so deeply desired when the entire universe will be able to assert with certainty that the most Holy Mother of God has crushed the head of the venomous serpent and hold as revealed that the Blessed Virgin Mary, through a wonderful and unique privilege due to the superabundant grace of her Son has truly been preserved from all trace of original sin!’
            Reading Eugene’s words we can hear an echo of the Easter Exultet:
‘Exult, let them exult, the hosts of heaven,
exult, let Angel ministers of God exult,
let the trumpet of salvation
sound aloud our mighty King's triumph!
Be glad, let earth be glad, as glory floods her,
ablaze with light from her eternal King,
let all corners of the earth be glad,
knowing an end to gloom and darkness.’
My Dear Sisters and Brothers! Would you agree with me that the dawn is a beautiful moment of the day? When the rays of the sun begin to dispel the darkness of the night you can appreciate light as there is still some darkness in some places. However what gives you a happy mood is that you know that no one can stop the sun; no one can prevent its light to penetrate the world. Jesus’ Resurrection has shed light into people’s lives. The first to receive it, the first to be penetrated by it, the first to be fully filled with it was Mary.
            This Saturday as we honour Mary in the mystery of her Immaculate Conception we hear God in what Gabriel said to Mary. Angels always speak God’s mind. What do we hear then? ‘Hail Mary, full of grace the Lord is with you.’ We need to be grateful for this message which made Mary pause and contemplate it but which also makes us pause and contemplate it. We are given a Divine insight into what has been happening in us and in the world we inhabit. In the midst of people striving to live by God’s word Mary appears as the person whose whole life is about receiving God’s grace and putting it into practice. We know from our experience that it is not easy to live Godly life but in Mary we find hope that choosing God in our ups and downs is worth living and believing.
            Not far from Nazareth, where Mary lived and where the scene from today’s Gospel took place, there was a city of Sephorris being built for the Romans and for the wealthy Jews. Today only ruins tell the story of big dreams of its architects, builders and residents. Some years ago in one of the houses a mosaic was found. It is called Mona Lisa of Galilee as it portrays a beautiful woman. It is a must see for the visitors these days. However for us Christians no one can compete with the beauty of the Virgin Mary. What we find so attractive in her beauty is that it is catching. It not only inspires us but it gives us hope to grow in God’s grace in the midst of the people God has placed us and in the midst of the situations we need to deal with every day. The People of God has learnt to turn their sight to Mary when they fall into sin, when they hear voices in their head saying that nothing will be changed. The dawn is upon us. Mary is filled with the life giving light. She has been the first one to benefit from Jesus' redemption. Thus she is ‘All fair.’ She is the Immaculate Conception,

            What does come to your mind when you hear about Advent? Is it Christmas, Advent wreath, the purple color, etc? What about these: ‘signs in the sun and the moon and the stars,’ ‘nations in agony,’ ‘clamour of the ocean and its waves,’ ‘people dying of fear as they await what menaces the world’? How does it make you feel? Does it trigger fear in you?
            My Dear Sisters and Brothers! Fear is well known to us. There are situations when fear is a blessing.
How many of you would go for a ride with a driver who doesn’t have any fear? In our daily life we need a dose of fear. It protects us from destruction. It protects us from engaging in situations which can cause us harm. However fear also reveals that someone or something is precious to us. It appears when, because of our actions, we are close to losing the person or the thing which are precious to us.
At the same time you wouldn’t go far with a driver who is totally fearful, would you? The Holy Bible tells us 365 times ‘Do not be afraid.’ It is a gift for every single day of the year so that we weren’t controlled by fear. However the Holy Bible (in the Book of the Proverbs) tells us once and for good: ‘The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom.’ The wisdom here is not the intelligence but the godly way of living. Such wisdom inspired the author of today’s Psalm to pray: ‘Lord, make me know your ways. Lord, teach me your paths. Make me walk in your truth, and teach me for you are God my Saviour.’
            Let me recall a page from a book written by C. S. Lewis: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe which is the first book of the Chronicles of Narnia. C. S. Lewis wrote the books to bring the message of the Gospel to the people who may not be the most excited about reading the Bible. The Lion called Aslan represents Jesus Christ as we read in the Book of the Apocalypse: ‘There is no need to cry: the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has triumphed.’ The Tribe of Judah was one of the Twelve Tribes of Israel and the tribe of kings. That’s why their symbol was a lion. Jesus Christ came from the tribe of Judah too. We Christians worship him as King of Universe.
So when the children in the book The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, found themselves in the world of Narnia inhabited by strange creatures and the animals which can talk they are told they will meet Aslan. One of the children, the little Lucy says: ‘Is he quite – safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion.’ That you will dearie, and no mistake,’ said Mrs. Beaver, ‘if there is anyone who can appear before Aslan without their knees knocking, they are either braver than most or else just silly.’ ‘Then he isn’t safe?’ said Lucy. ‘Safe?’ said Mr. Beaver ‘don’t you hear what Mrs. Beaver tells you? Who said anything about safe? Of course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King, I tell you.’
            Maybe people turn away from Christian faith because we Christians present Jesus Christ as a cute puppy following us wherever we want to go rather than the powerful Lion of the Tribe of Judah whose every step is inspired by doing the will of his Father in heaven.
            My Dear fellow Christians! Is Jesus safe for us to approach him? Well, he will show you the truth of yourself. Are you ready for that? You will be like Adam and Eve after they sinned. You will see the naked truth of yourself. But Jesus is good. He will call you to repentance and new life. He will offer to shepherd you. What do you choose?
When you choose to follow Jesus, even if the whole world collapses Jesus’ words are: ‘Stand erect, hold your heads high, because your liberation is near at hand.’
My Dear Sisters and Brothers! We begin Advent and a new Christian year this Sunday by receiving the message of God that the world which is our home will not last forever. All that is affected by sin will eventually be wiped away. However our rescue is ‘the Son of Man who will come in a cloud with power and great glory.’ Hold fast onto him today as you Lord and Saviour, the powerful Lion of Judah. Let him shepherd you along the way to eternal life.

​            This Sunday the incumbent State Government have got a reason to party as their party won the yesterday’s State election. They have been given a mandate to govern Victoria over the next four years. The celebratory atmosphere which dominated in their headquarters last night was the outcome of the support given them by the people of Victoria. The people who voted for them believed that the Labor would be the best option for our State. The Gospel for this Sunday hardly resembles the victorious mood we could see among the Labor supporters yesterday. Jesus is brought before Pilate. Was it an ancient summit of the Roman Empire and the heavenly Kingdom? It could have been. The powerful Roman Empire which ruled the whole known world, including the Holy Land, had a chance to converse with the King of the Universe, with Jesus Christ. However Jesus hadn’t gathered enough supporters to frighten Pilate. On the contrary Jesus’ opponents were more successful to convince the crowds to demand Jesus’ death. The Gospel reading we have just heard is part of that deliberation Pilate was undertaking in regards to Our Blessed Lord. Although he was convinced that Jesus was innocent the voice of the majority was more important than his conscience, his personal convictions or his integrity. Those who wanted Jesus dead had a reason to party. They won. At least they thought so. As we contemplate this event which happened in the Pilate’s palace we need to ask ourselves again: ‘Who won there? Did the Jewish leaders win? Or did Jesus Christ win?
            My Dear Sisters and Brothers! We, the disciples of Jesus, have been in a celebratory mood, not only today as we observe the Solemnity of Jesus Christ, Universal King, but every day for two thousand years. St John in the Book of the Apocalypse called Jesus ‘the faithful witness.’ Jesus was indeed faithful to the truth. That’s what gives us a reason for celebrating. When Pilate asked the Lord: ‘Are you a king?’ Jesus answered: ‘Yes, I am a king. I was born for this, I came into the world for this: to bear witness to the truth.’ Jesus is the Truth who bears witness to the love God has for his children, that God is a loving Father who gives life and freedom.  Jesus is the Truth who bears witness to the happiness people can have when they receive this love and being transformed by it they are capable of loving others according to the measure of God’s love.
Reading the account of that time Jesus was in the Roman headquarters in Jerusalem we notice that the Governor keeps moving in and out of the building where Jesus is kept. When he speaks to Jesus he sees the Lord’s innocence and integrity, he is inspired to search for a way of freeing Jesus but when he goes out to face the Jewish leaders and the crowd he sees that the numbers are on the side of the condemnation. Eventually he gives in to the numbers. However it is not the way of Jesus.  Jesus is for the truth not for the numbers. One of the Church Fathers, Saint Augustin explained it in this way: ‘Right is right even if no one is doing it; wrong is wrong even if everyone is doing it.’
            As I said before those who wanted Jesus’ death had a reason to party. They had achieved it. What they didn’t realize was that the true winner was the One who was crowned with thorns and raised on the cross. Jesus was like the seed sown in the ground. He died not to be annihilated but to be resurrected. His Resurrection is fulfils the hope the Prophet Daniel expressed when he said: ‘I saw, coming on the clouds of heaven, one like a son of man. On him was conferred sovereignty, glory and kingship.’ Because Jesus was ‘the true witness,’ in his life, in his ministry and in his passion; he is ‘the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last.’ As Christians we constantly return to Jesus. From him we draw an inspiration and to him we look for hope. Even if this approach is ridiculed in our society we hold fast to it by bearing witness to the Truth and hoping that those who govern us witnessing our profound religious obedience to the Lord Jesus will have their hour of truth like Pilate did. We also pray for those who govern us, as St Paul has urged us to do, so that, unlike Pilate, they could embrace the sovereignty of Jesus and express it in the laws they make.

            When I was preparing to be a missionary priest I was also studying Theology. Among the subjects there were some on the Scriptures. One of them was on the prophets. Our lecture explained to us that there are two groups of prophets in the Bible, so called the Major Prophets and the Minor Prophets. I was very happy to learn that my Baptismal patron, Prophet Daniel, was among the Major Prophets. Of course it doesn’t mean that the Minor Prophets are less important but simply that their writings are not so lengthy like Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel or Daniel. However my reverence for the Prophet Daniel is based not only become he is a major prophet of the Old Testament but because he spoke of the resurrection a long time before Jesus Christ was born.
            In the First Reading for this Mass, taken from the Prophet Daniel, we heard: ‘Of those who lie sleeping in the dust of the earth many will awake, some to everlasting life, some to shame and everlasting disgrace.’ For his listeners it was a difficult message. They didn’t expect that. Even today this mystery is rejected. Last year a survey was conducted in the UK which showed that half of the Brits don’t believe in the Resurrection. Some even said that it wasn’t important to believe in the Resurrection in order to be a Christian. However St Paul in the Letter to the Corinthians explains: ‘If there is no resurrection of the dead, Christ himself cannot have been raised, and if Christ has not been raised then our preaching is useless and your believing is useless.’
Last year a movie ‘The case for Christ’ was released. It was based on the book written by Lee Strobel, a once Chicago journalist, in which he wrote an account of his journey from being a sceptic and atheist to embracing Jesus Christ as his Lord and Saviour.            The whole movie is about Lee doing his best to prove to his wife who became a Christian that she was mad. As a journalist he did his own investigation to prove that Jesus’ Resurrection was not true but after gathering all the data, after interviewing all sort of experts, Lee looks at the blackboard with his notes and says: ‘God you win.’
Lee’s acknowledgment of the truth of the Resurrection echoes our Gospel where we heard: ‘They will see the Son of Man coming in the clouds with great power and glory; then too he will send the angels to gather his chosen from the four winds, from the ends of the world to the ends of heaven.’ By the way it is the second reason I love the Book of my patron saint: Prophet Daniel. The prophet used the expression: ‘the Son of Man’ which Jesus Christ applied to himself. The Prophet spoke of the final days of the Universe. He was proclaiming the resurrection of the dead and the coming of the mysterious figure of the Son of Man. For sure he saw this figure returning to the earth full of glory and power. It was the person who was given the authority over the entire Universe but the Prophet couldn’t miss that this mysterious figure was well and truly human. We are not yet there, I mean in the times of which Prophet Daniel wrote but we know who and what make prophesy of Daniel real.
Firstly it is Jesus Christ, God who is truly divine and human. Jesus didn’t take off his humanity, like a cloak, when he ascended to heaven. He is in heaven with his humanity. He is still the Son of Man ‘who will come to judge the living and the dead.’
Secondly it is Jesus’ Resurrection which Lee Strobel tried to discredit but despite his best efforts he admitted that Resurrection is real. Those who say that there is no Resurrection are spreading fake news. Don’t listen to them. Listen to the Good News. Jesus died and rose from the dead for us and our salvation.
When Lee Strobel began his investigation into Jesus’ Resurrection he asked a priest: ‘How can you build your life on this belief in the Resurrection. It like is building on sand.’ The priest answered: ‘We have built our Christian life on that for two thousand years and we are still standing.’
My Dear Fellow believers. Believe that the Lord died and rose from the dead. Build your life and faith on that and it will not collapse. This is the Good News.

​As we receive the Gospel of Mark today we can realise that our society is different to that of pictured in the Gospel. At the time of Christ people in long robes made an impression on their fellow men and women. Their long and ostentatious prayers done in public won them people’s admiration. If I went to the Flinders Street Station dressed like for Mass I might get a few curious tourists asking to have a selfie with me but I doubt I would generate any admiration from passers-by. I believe it is a blessing. The Lord has allowed it to happen so that, as his followers, we could resemble the poor widow from the Gospel rather than the scribers. There can be among us a lot of religious display and little of living the faith.
            My Dear Sisters and Brothers! The poor widow didn’t have anything to impress superficially religious people who flocked to the Jerusalem Temple. Her clothing was not shining. She didn’t have a support of her husband. He was dead and she was insignificant. The money she dropped into the treasury didn’t make noise to attract people attention. However in the immense crowd of the people who were in Jerusalem ready to celebrate the most important Jewish festival, the Passover, she stood out. She stood out in the sight of Jesus Christ. What did Jesus see in her offering? Our Blessed Lord saw not just money but life. Jesus said that she gave: ‘all her life.’ She had two coins. She could have kept one and give one, but she gave both coins. Because she gave both coins her gift was not about the money but about her life given to God.
How much she must have trusted God. How much those who were giving big sums ‘out of their abundance’ could have learnt about religion from that poor woman. Unfortunately they were too preoccupied with fulfilling religious obligations to please God so that they could continue making more profit that they missed an opportunity to go deeper in their faith. Let us not repeat their mistake. Let us learn true religion from the poor widow, the wisdom figure in today’s Gospel.
            When I was meditating on this Gospel I paid attention to the timing of the event. It happened during the week we call the Holy Week. It occurred to me that the great prophet John the Baptist was dead by then. The prophet who was called to point out to Jesus Christ was not there anymore. However this poor widow from this Sunday’s Gospel took on the duty of John the Baptist. By her action she pointed out to the action Jesus Christ was to do in a couple of days. What was the action? He was going to make of his own life a gift for God’s glory and for our salvation. In the Gospel of John Jesus said: ‘I lay down my life. No one takes it from me; I lay it down of my free will.’ That poor widow was a prophet of Jesus’ final hours. Jesus gave his life for us. He did it to the last drop of his blood. He didn’t give something of his life, like his teaching, his wisdom or his miraculous powers. He gave all his life. When he was led through the streets of Jerusalem to the hill of Golgotha, when he was crucified on Golgotha the world didn’t stop, like the world didn’t stop when the poor widow gave to small coins. The world went on when she was making her offering. The world went on when the Son of God was making his offering on the cross.
            My dear Fellow believers! Pay attention to the person of Jesus the poor widow is pointing out to. But don’t go sentimental. Don’t go tearful. Instead imitate Jesus. The poor widow did. She gave her all life like Jesus did. She might have heard Jesus say: ‘However wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the Gospel will save it.’ Don’t look however for some big treasuries your treasury is your parish community, your treasury is your family, your treasury is your work or retirement, your treasury is your school or kindergarten, your treasury are your friends and people in need you meet. So look at Jesus offering his whole life for us and for our salvation. Meditate on the action of the poor widow and give your whole life to those treasuries I have just mentioned because in heaven you will be asked how much of your life you have spent not how much you have accumulated. Those who have spent it all for God and other people will enter the Kingdom. They will be like Jesus Christ who gave it all.

​Last year I was talking to a man whose wife died when they were still young. In the time leading up to her funeral, and after the funeral, people were approaching him to express their condolences. If someone was saying: “I am sorry you have lost your wife” his response was: “She is not lost. I know perfectly well where she is. She is where Jesus Christ is.”
I couldn’t help thinking that the man was an evangelist in mourning for his wife. His faith is Jesus Christ not only sustained him during that difficult time but it also led him to get across the Good News of Jesus Christ to the people whom he met around that time. Some people thought he went mad after the death of the woman he loved so much, however there were people who were deeply touched by his witness.
My Dear Sisters and Brothers! This first Sunday of November brings us together to pray for those who have died over the last year. As Christians we believe that our deceased are well and truly alive. They have not evaporated into nothingness. We hold onto what St Paul wrote in the Letter to the Romans: ‘When we were baptized we went into the tomb with Jesus and joined him in death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the Father’s glory, we too might live a new life.’
During an interview in 2010 Lemmy, an English musician and songwriter, said:  ‘In your twenties, you think you are immortal. In your thirties, you hope you are immortal. In your forties, you just pray it doesn’t hurt too much, and by the time you reach my age, you become convinced that, well, it could be just around the corner. Do I think about death a lot? It is difficult not to when you’re 65, son.’ Although Lemmy was an agnostic in his honest reflection on life and death he shared the insight of St Paul from the First Letter to the Corinthians: ‘Our time is growing short’ and few sentences later ‘the world as we know it is passing away.’ However the difference was in the way they addressed it. Lemmy escaped into drugs and alcohol. St Paul found his strength in Jesus Christ. Today’s readings, both from the Book of Deuteronomy and the Gospel of Mark, confront us with the most important commandment: ‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: You must love your neighbor as yourself.’ Did you notice that the scribe from the Gospel asked Jesus for the first off all commandments? Jesus however gave him the first and the second, loving God and loving the neighbor. Why did our Blessed Lord do that? Because our love of the neighbor flows from our love of God but our love of God is real when we love our neighbor. Separating the first commandment from the second or the second from the first makes our religion and life dysfunctional.
This Sunday as we remember those people in our life who have died our presence and prayers for them are a sign of our love for them. We are here not only to share our memories of them but to pray for them because as followers of Christ we believe that with death ‘life is changed not ended.’ Gabriel Marcel, a French thinker and writer, who was a son of an agnostic and who was an agnostic himself until his conversion to the Catholic Church at the age of forty wrote: ‘To tell someone, with fullness of heart: ‘I love you,’ is virtually the same as saying: ‘You shall never die.’
The God who created the whole Universe, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God who led the people of Israel out of Egypt, the God who spoke through the prophets, the God whose only Begotten Son Jesus Christ was born of the Virgin Mary, who was crucified, died, was buried and was raised to life, this God has invited first his Chosen People Israel and then the Church founded by Jesus Christ and thus all people to love him ‘with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength.’ In this loving relationship we hear God say to us: ‘I love you. You shall not die. Your death will be your Resurrection. Look at my Son Jesus Christ. He is the Firstborn among the many brothers and sisters. He is the first of the many who will follow him in his death and Resurrection.’
Today we pray for the dead because we realize that our loved ones were not perfect as we are not perfect. If being in the presence of ‘the Holy, Holly, Holy Lord,’ they still acknowledge the traces of their sins stopping them from being united in the eternal happiness with God Father, Son and Holy Spirit, our loving and faith filled prayers offered in the name of Jesus can contribute to their desire to be with God forever and ever. Amen.

In 2012 the movie ‘The Vow’ was released. It was inspired by the life of a married couple Krickitt and Kim Carpenter. Two months after their wedding they had a car crash. When Krickitt woke up from her coma she couldn’t recognise her husband. The last two years were erased from her memory. She has never regained the memories of her falling in love, dating and marrying her husband. The movie, which was quite emotional, presented their life after the car crash, their struggles to rebuild their married life.
However the movie left out the most crucial part of the story. Krickitt’s husband Kim gave an insight to that when he said: ‘Both of us know we would not have made it through this ordeal without the Lord being in the centre of it all.’
My Dear Sisters and Brothers! Isn’t the insight into the life and healing of the blind man Bartimaeus? He wouldn’t have made it through without Jesus coming into his own misery. When Bartimaeus said to Jesus: ‘Rabbuni, let me see again’ he had revealed that there was time when his eyesight was fine. Unfortunately he had lost it. We don’t know whether it was because of an illness or an accident but he had become blind. However the blindness taught Bartimaeus how to beg, but not only people for money but also God for healing. Despite the limitations the blindness imposed upon him Bartimaeus had developed his hearing. Some people say that when one of the senses is lost the other senses become stronger. In Bartimaeus we see this and more. From today’s Gospel we learn that Bartimaeus did not miss people saying that Jesus was passing by. The blind beggar’s determination to approach Jesus must have been inspired by what he had heard about Jesus Christ before. He not only heard what people were saying about Jesus but he also reflected on it, treasured those testimonies he heard. So when he was crying: ‘Son of David, Jesus, have pity on me’ his cry was not only loud but it was predominantly faith filled. ‘Son of David, Jesus, have pity on me’ was Bartimaeus’ profession of faith in Jesus. That’s what Jesus heard in the beggar’s crying. The beggar’s faith filled cry was able to overcome the noise of the people who surrounded Jesus.
Pay attention how he asks Jesus: ‘Rabbuni, let me see again.’ Rabbuni is not just another title given Jesus. In order to appreciate today’s Gospel I would like to fast-forward the events and to arrive at a certain tomb on Easter Sunday. It was Jesus’ tomb. It was empty tomb. St John tells us that Mary Magdala was there crying. When the Risen Lord Jesus appeared to her, when she recognised him, she said: ‘Rabbuni, my beloved teacher.’ Over the previous three days when Jesus was taken away Mary was in agony. Her life was miserable because there was no Jesus in her life. She was longing for the Lord Jesus with her whole being.
My Dear fellow believers! We can understand Mary Magdalen as she spent some time with Jesus. She had come to know and love him. Bartimaeus hadn’t met Jesus before. He only heard of Jesus but as St Paul reminds us in the Letter to the Romans: ‘Faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ.’ It was enough and plenty for Bartimaeus. What he heard of Jesus he treasured and pondered in his heart. It permeated his heart. It was the seed of faith which grew within him.
Can we be surprised that when Bartimaeus was healed and when he heard from Jesus: ‘Go, your faith has saved you’ he went after Jesus, he followed Jesus. Could he find anything more worthy of seeing that the Son of God taking the final walk to Jerusalem to accomplish the Redemption by his Death and Resurrection? ‘Blessed are your eyes, for they see what the prophets and the righteous wanted to see.’
My Dear Sisters and Brothers! Let me recall the words of the Saint John Paull II from his inaugural Mass on October 22, 1978: ‘Do not be afraid to welcome Christ and accept his power. Do not be afraid. To his saving power open wide the doors for Christ.’
The woman who lost a portion of her memory said: ‘a Scripture I really hold unto is: ‘I can do all things through him who strengthens me.’ I believed I was called according to God’s purpose, and I followed with my whole heart.’
Her husband added: ‘It is amazing we live in a world that there is such a big deal made about a man and woman who simply did what we said we were going to do. It is strange to think of our marriage being portrayed as a remarkable love story, when, for us, we just did what we said we would do – we kept our vows.’
            They kept them because they kept their faith in Jesus. Jesus was their Rabbuni. Is Jesus your Rabbuni?