Key Message:
Let us go out of our way to help the weak!!
Homily:
“Book of remembrances”:
The Israelites have seen the Lord parting the sea into two and making way for them. They have witnessed ten big miracles which made the Pharaoh tremble. But within a few days they forgot all their blessings and asked “Lord, are you there with me?” Like the Israelites, are we quarrelling with the Lord at the slightest inconvenience? Let us write our own ‘Book of Remembrances’ remembering our blessed experiences with God. When we study our book, we will recall the faithfulness and the love of our Almighty Father.
“Give me a drink.”:
Our Lord Jesus shows us a new path on how to go out of our way to love others. Jesus tells His disciples ‘Let us go through Samaria…’ It was not a practice for Jews to go through Samaria. Even if going through Samaria was an easier route those days, Jews used to travel additional miles just to avoid passing through Samaria. But our Lord Jesus longed to help those who cannot come out and ask for help. He knew if He did not voluntarily go there, no one could save them.
Some people can’t even ask for help. They do not have anyone to guide them. Our Lord Jesus is asking us to be their help. We are all anointed by Jesus to go out of our way and help the people in need. When our Lord Jesus ascended to Heaven, He did not say, “Preach the good news to those who come to you”. But He said “Go to the whole world and preach the good news…”
The same way God came to us leaving His Heavenly abode, because we are not sufficient enough to save us from our sins or to live our life without His help.
This is a big ministry waiting for all of us. Needy people aren’t considered as ‘needed’. Who are the needy people for whom we should go forward and take care? Someone cannot transition to Mother Teresa but we all can individually do something for others. I know an elderly father, whose only income was his pension. He used to spend part of his income to support eight poor families. There was not much he could save, but he was happily giving. Sometimes, I used to wonder why he was not saving for himself for his own medical needs. But through the years I observed that whenever he was sick, he always had someone to take care of him. He was never in want. Jesus repays!!
We can go out of our way in helping the people in our workplace too. I met a manager who had 20+ years of experience in the IT field. He said that more than all his accolades from the organisations, when people thank him for lifting them, he felt satisfied. Like – ‘Just because of you I got my confidence in public speaking’… ‘Only because of you I was able to overcome my fear’ and so on. He was saying that when he was making a little bit extra effort, initially he used to wonder why he is doing it, but now he feels fulfilled.
We are fine to help the needy but then we abandon those who are called as sinners in the society. But our Lord Jesus went in search of them. Consider this lady from Samaria. She came to the well at noon to fetch water at the hottest part of the day, when other women would not come out to fetch water. Why? Because the rest of the women did not want to be with her. She would have been rejected and abandoned by all the other people.
But our Lord Jesus went in search of her. He did not condemn her or ask her why she is living a sinful life. He did not even remember that she was not a Jew, or that she was a sinner. He started the conversation by asking for water, ended the conversation by giving them the life-giving water from Him. He revealed that it was ‘God asking water from her’. He was happy at the conversion of the Samaritan woman and the city of Samaria.
The Apostle Paul says in the second reading, that Christ died for us while we were still sinners. So God is aware that we are sinners, He wants us only to continue in our pursuit to become saints. So let us not fret that we have done wrong things in the past. But let us move forward with the consciousness that our Lord Jesus has paid for our sins and live our life beautifully by giving hope to others.
“The hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”
Jesus is also teaching us how to pray. It is much more than spending an hour in saying our prayers and singing songs. It is worshipping our God from our heart. It fills our thoughts and it is expressed in our words. It is our personal spiritual intimacy with our God. Jesus says that God is seeking those who worship Him in spirit and truth. Are we worshipping out of obligation or in spirit and in truth? While we worship, let us gather all our thoughts and focus only on our loving Jesus.
“You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know”:
Our Lord Jesus also explains the difference between Christianity and other religions here. He says that we know the true God whom we worship. But others do not know the true God, so they do not know whom they worship.
“My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to complete his work”:
Jesus is hungry to do the will of our Almighty Father that His physical hunger does not bother Him. He is happy in reaching out and preaching the good news to the Samaritans rather than seeing the food His disciples got for Him. We are not able to focus on any spiritual food when we are physically hungry but for our Lord Jesus it was vice versa. Let us try to crave more for spiritual foods – doing the will of our Father than our own will. Example – if we have planned to go for a movie with our friends and at the same time if we receive a phone call to spend some time with a sick person, let us choose the one God wants us to choose.
“We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ”
Paul says in the second reading that we have peace with God. We think that we are at peace only when we do pious stuff and lose our peace when we do other things. But it is not so. Peace with our God is bought by our Lord Jesus Christ. Our sins may be great, but the peace given by our Lord Jesus is even greater. After the resurrection when our Lord Jesus came into the locked rooms where the Apostles were, He immediately said “Peace be with you”. That did not mean that the Apostles were not sinners. St. Peter denied our Lord Jesus thrice, St. Thomas refused to believe that Jesus was resurrected. But still the peace of Jesus stayed with them.
Jesus came in search of sinners. Let us not condemn but have concern for them.
Thanks for such an inspiring write up in connecting with bible passages to the modern world. Please continue to write. Possible to combine all passages in a small book?
God bless you and your family.
Key Message:
Let us go out of our way to help the weak!!
Homily:
“Book of remembrances”:
The Israelites have seen the Lord parting the sea into two and making way for them. They have witnessed ten big miracles which made the Pharaoh tremble. But within a few days they forgot all their blessings and asked “Lord, are you there with me?” Like the Israelites, are we quarrelling with the Lord at the slightest inconvenience? Let us write our own ‘Book of Remembrances’ remembering our blessed experiences with God. When we study our book, we will recall the faithfulness and the love of our Almighty Father.
“Give me a drink.”:
Our Lord Jesus shows us a new path on how to go out of our way to love others. Jesus tells His disciples ‘Let us go through Samaria…’ It was not a practice for Jews to go through Samaria. Even if going through Samaria was an easier route those days, Jews used to travel additional miles just to avoid passing through Samaria. But our Lord Jesus longed to help those who cannot come out and ask for help. He knew if He did not voluntarily go there, no one could save them.
Some people can’t even ask for help. They do not have anyone to guide them. Our Lord Jesus is asking us to be their help. We are all anointed by Jesus to go out of our way and help the people in need. When our Lord Jesus ascended to Heaven, He did not say, “Preach the good news to those who come to you”. But He said “Go to the whole world and preach the good news…”
The same way God came to us leaving His Heavenly abode, because we are not sufficient enough to save us from our sins or to live our life without His help.
This is a big ministry waiting for all of us. Needy people aren’t considered as ‘needed’. Who are the needy people for whom we should go forward and take care? Someone cannot transition to Mother Teresa but we all can individually do something for others. I know an elderly father, whose only income was his pension. He used to spend part of his income to support eight poor families. There was not much he could save, but he was happily giving. Sometimes, I used to wonder why he was not saving for himself for his own medical needs. But through the years I observed that whenever he was sick, he always had someone to take care of him. He was never in want. Jesus repays!!
We can go out of our way in helping the people in our workplace too. I met a manager who had 20+ years of experience in the IT field. He said that more than all his accolades from the organisations, when people thank him for lifting them, he felt satisfied. Like – ‘Just because of you I got my confidence in public speaking’… ‘Only because of you I was able to overcome my fear’ and so on. He was saying that when he was making a little bit extra effort, initially he used to wonder why he is doing it, but now he feels fulfilled.
We are fine to help the needy but then we abandon those who are called as sinners in the society. But our Lord Jesus went in search of them. Consider this lady from Samaria. She came to the well at noon to fetch water at the hottest part of the day, when other women would not come out to fetch water. Why? Because the rest of the women did not want to be with her. She would have been rejected and abandoned by all the other people.
But our Lord Jesus went in search of her. He did not condemn her or ask her why she is living a sinful life. He did not even remember that she was not a Jew, or that she was a sinner. He started the conversation by asking for water, ended the conversation by giving them the life-giving water from Him. He revealed that it was ‘God asking water from her’. He was happy at the conversion of the Samaritan woman and the city of Samaria.
The Apostle Paul says in the second reading, that Christ died for us while we were still sinners. So God is aware that we are sinners, He wants us only to continue in our pursuit to become saints. So let us not fret that we have done wrong things in the past. But let us move forward with the consciousness that our Lord Jesus has paid for our sins and live our life beautifully by giving hope to others.
“The hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”
Jesus is also teaching us how to pray. It is much more than spending an hour in saying our prayers and singing songs. It is worshipping our God from our heart. It fills our thoughts and it is expressed in our words. It is our personal spiritual intimacy with our God. Jesus says that God is seeking those who worship Him in spirit and truth. Are we worshipping out of obligation or in spirit and in truth? While we worship, let us gather all our thoughts and focus only on our loving Jesus.
“You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know”:
Our Lord Jesus also explains the difference between Christianity and other religions here. He says that we know the true God whom we worship. But others do not know the true God, so they do not know whom they worship.
“My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to complete his work”:
Jesus is hungry to do the will of our Almighty Father that His physical hunger does not bother Him. He is happy in reaching out and preaching the good news to the Samaritans rather than seeing the food His disciples got for Him. We are not able to focus on any spiritual food when we are physically hungry but for our Lord Jesus it was vice versa. Let us try to crave more for spiritual foods – doing the will of our Father than our own will. Example – if we have planned to go for a movie with our friends and at the same time if we receive a phone call to spend some time with a sick person, let us choose the one God wants us to choose.
“We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ”
Paul says in the second reading that we have peace with God. We think that we are at peace only when we do pious stuff and lose our peace when we do other things. But it is not so. Peace with our God is bought by our Lord Jesus Christ. Our sins may be great, but the peace given by our Lord Jesus is even greater. After the resurrection when our Lord Jesus came into the locked rooms where the Apostles were, He immediately said “Peace be with you”. That did not mean that the Apostles were not sinners. St. Peter denied our Lord Jesus thrice, St. Thomas refused to believe that Jesus was resurrected. But still the peace of Jesus stayed with them.
Jesus came in search of sinners. Let us not condemn but have concern for them.
Thank you
Thanks for such an inspiring write up in connecting with bible passages to the modern world. Please continue to write. Possible to combine all passages in a small book?
God bless you and your family.