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Well it is the season of Advent once again, and we are getting ready to celebrate Christmas. When God came down from the heights of His throne, made Himself as nothing, took on the nature of a servant, was made in human likeness, and experienced the pain and suffering of a sinful world, so that we may be redeemed.
God reached out to us that night through the birth of His Son in human form. He did not wait for us to approach Him. Likewise, we should not wait for others to come to us but should reach out to them with the Gospel. I remember a comic I read as a child; the story was about how this is the season of love and tenderness to one another. Of course, all of us know that every day is a day for spreading love and good cheer, regardless of the season. The point is: Do we, especially the youth, carry this thesis beyond generalized terms - love, caring etc., and move into specific terminology - being a witness to the Lord every day, no matter where we are? Or do we limit ourselves to a couple of hours in our respective prayer groups, every week? Chances are, we may not even be aware of it. We attend a couple of Praise & Worship sessions and feel complacent, and that is where the devil steps in. There is nothing as tragic as a youngster whose potential goes waste because s/he feels s/he is spiritually fulfilled and needs to do nothing more.
And this is the time the Church needs its youth, the torchbearers of tomorrow, the most. The Church is open to evangelisation like never before and if we do not grab this chance we will have only ourselves to blame. I can hear the protests coming... "But we do evangelise! We hold outreach meetings, retreats and the like! What more can we do?"
I am all for outreach meetings, but whatever happened to one-to-one evangelisation? where, you spend personal time with someone and lead him to the Lord. There is no specific time and place for this, unlike outreach meetings. It can happen anywhere, anytime, any season. This vision - to make disciples of all nations - seems to be missing in many youngsters in the Renewal today. The key word is disciples. To make a disciple, you need to spend time with him or her. I guess it is about time we rolled up our sleeves and got down to more fruitful service to the Lord!
And for this, we need to be active in our respective parishes. An unfortunate fallout of the Renewal movement is the emergence of a group of people who are touched by the Lord but are inactive in their parishes. The Renewal seems to have provided an alternate forum for them. We should never, ever forget that the Renewal complements the visible structure of the Church and will never supplant it. We should take care to see that it doesn't appear that our commitment to the Lord begins and ends with our prayer groups. It is in our parish that we should witness the Lord. This, let us remember, is the very purpose of the Renewal, to renew the Church.
This Christmas season, allow me the liberty of urging you, one and all, to make a renewed commitment to serve the Lord in our respective parishes, in our personal capacity, and not only as part of an occasional outreach programme. This way, we indeed help fulfil the vision of the Renewal.
Joseph George
Let us learn to rejoice and discover God's love in ordinary everyday happenings...
1983...
I push "Sweet Alice" and her bags and baskets on to a very crowded bus en route to my home in Saint Paul's Bay. It is Tuesday on a radiant morning in March and the old bus,as usual, is packed to capacity with friendly, garrulous Maltese people and pale-faced sober English tourists. Fortunately, there is one free seat for Alice, who, despite her 86 winters, is full of the joys of spring, a genius at spreading love, and eager to chat up anybody and everybody in the three languages she speaks.
An orphan, she has been in a local convent since she was two years old. She has no living relatives and we are her adopted family outside the convent walls. She has been instrumental in teaching us a lot about loving, about giving and about being all things to all men. She always manages to say the right thing at the right time and she has made people's spirits rise visibly, with the promise of her words.
Seated on the bus beneath a garish picture of Pope John Paul II and with his back to the driver, sits a brown-eyed, genial Dutch tourist. When he catches my eye he immediately jumps to his feet and offers me his seat. I discover his name is Hans. Very soon I am engaged in animated conversation with his companions, who are all from Holland. They are professional people who have given up two weeks of their annual month's vacation, in order to travel abroad and spread the Gospel in both word and song. There are twelve in all.
They are beautiful singers and musicians, as I subsequently discover, and will spend all their evenings entertaining the patients in St.Luke's hospital and similar institutions. They will also sing in other parts of the island and indeed, for anybody who happens to call on them. They have no hesitation in sacrificing the time spent on enjoying the sun, sea, wild flowers and places of historical interest which abound in Malta, in order to give their time to the Lord. Nothing is any trouble. One is thrilled at their enthusiasm and dedication and acutely aware of one's own lack of courage and the fact that one is guilty of the violence of apathy.
Now you will scarcely believe what I am going to tell you, but I can assure you it is perfectly true. These people are actually on their way to Saint Paul's Bay to visit our home. They have been given our address by a friend in Holland and produce a note to verify this statement. The cries of disbelief, joy and laughter which follow this amazing coincidence are infectious and soon the whole bus is buzzing with merriment too!
Alice is warmly shaken by the hand by one and all. Surely Jesus had such a bus in mind when he uttered these immortal words: By this all men know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another (Jn 13:35). W.B.Yeats put it in another lovely way when he wrote: "For the good are always the merry, save by an evil chance."
The brown-eyed Hans, at the request of Alice, produces a photograph of his three tiny daughters. They are at home in Holland with mum.
"And have you any boys?", she asks.
"Yes, I have two", he replies,"but they are both in heaven."
These boys were each deformed at birth and only survived a few months. A tear steals down Alice's cheek and she murmurs "How very sad" "No,no,no", he quickly assures her, "because GOD NEVER MAKES A MISTAKE."
These were the words of his dear wife when each child was born and again when each child died. He was so influenced by her display of unshakable faith that he became a re-born Christian !
Thank you, dear Hans and all your wonderful companions and thank you "Sweet Alice" too. It was great meeting you. May I also become such a Christian because of an experience on that grand bus on a spring morning .
Hans died suddenly playing football in 1991. He was just 40 years old. "Sweet Alice" died,, very happily, in 1990.
How can infants be baptised seeing that faith is necessary for the reception of baptism?
We must understand that while baptism indeed presupposes faith, faith itself is not merely of an individual, but also a social response. We talk about "the faithful", a group which shares a common faith.
There are four incidents in the synoptic gospels which underline the social dimension of faith. A paralytic is let down through the roof to Jesus by four friends: Jesus, seeing the faith of the four, heals the sick man. We are not told that the paralytic had faith: it was the faith of the four friends which was the determining factor. They had faith, but it was he who was forgiven, and then cured (Mark 2:1-12).
The same is true of the centurion and his servant. The centurion displays a faith that amazes even Jesus, but it is the servant who benefits from this faith. The text tells us nothing about the servant's faith (Matt 8: 5-13).
"O woman, great is your faith!" says Jesus to the gentile woman who persists, in spite of all discouragement, in praying Jesus to cure her daughter who is possessed. The daughter, whose faith is not mentioned, is cured through her mother's faith (Matt 15:21-28).
A fourth example is the father of the epileptic boy.. Jesus tells the father that all things are possible to him who believesThe father exclaims, "I believe, help my unbelief." The son is then cured by Jesus. We don't see any reference the son's faith here (Mark 9:14-29).
Similarly, we, as a community, claim salvation for infants, who are unable to fend for themselves, just like the people mentioned above, in the name of Jesus, by reason of our faith.We do not baptise every infant we see. We baptise only those infants who, because of the surroundings in which they are destined to grow to maturity, will be in a position to personalise and make their own, that gift of faith which was claimed on their behalf, by the Christian community at the time of their baptism.
"Questions People Often Ask" Fr. Sean B.Kelleher
This issue's viewpoint is from Valerian D'Souza, Bishop of Pune.
After Mass people usually come to me for a blessing. A teenager approached me and I blessed her, but I could not help asking her a question, as she was wearing very short jeans, "Have you come from the sports field or are you going there?"
Should I have been more discreet? For me the Liturgy is worship. As Cardinal Henry Newman wrote, the Mass " is the greatest action that can be on earth." We come before the all-holy, almighty, all-glorious Father. In the Mass Jesus is present. We call Him the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. But do we respect him as King of Kings and Lord of Lords?
Respect and reverence are shown by word, posture and dress. Any non-Catholic seeing us enter the Church should pick up immediately, by our genuflection or deep bow, that we are before someone holy.
The Church has no dress code for worshippers outside the sanctuary, leaving it to their good sense and taste. That does not mean anything goes. The three kings paid homage to baby Jesus by wearing expensive robes and offering valuable gifts. The shepherds came in ordinary garments of the poor, but were full of awe and reverence. We should ask ourselves when we go for Mass "Would the way I dresss and behave be acceptable to Jesus?"
A Buddhist monk was participating in a meeting of different religions. He was curious to know what function the Catholics were attending in the mornings. It was explained to him what the Mass was and who Jesus was. "Can I attend the Mass?" he enquired.
"Surely, but you cannot receive Holy Communion".
Full of eagerness he was present for the Mass the next morning . When it ended, this was his observation. "If you Catholics believe that Jesus is truly God and that He is present during the Mass, you don't show it by the way you go to Holy Communion and by your posture after receiving Him."
What would that monk say if he came to our Masses? A non-Christian army officer once shared with me what he admired in the Christians of North East India. "Father it is so wonderful to see your Christians on Sunday mornings. They are so well dressed and they are celebrating a feast." Yes, we must dress as if we are going to a feast, the banquet of love.
We preach to the world a message on what the Father and Jesus mean to us by the respect and reverence we show them especially in the liturgy. Mission Sunday reminds us that our lives must proclaim the glory of God so that Christ can offer us up to the Father as a pleasing gift to Him.
US$ 1m No Match For TV!
A survey has found that one in four Americans would not give up television even if they were paid US$1Million. The poll, commissioned by TV Guide magazine, found that 25% of Americans would not give up the box even for US$1M while 46% of them said they would have to be paid atleast that much. Almost 2/3 of those surveyed said they often watch TV during dinner. Among those aged 18-24 the figure was 76%. (Communications info, Philippines)
Let us not straightaway judge these people, because we will be judging ourselves. On the other hand, let us look at television as an effective medium for Evangelisation. On the World Communications day the Pope, John Paul II urged use of the Modern means of Communications to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ. He also said "it is my hope that those engaged professionally in the production of audio or video programmes will reflect on the need for the Christian message to find expression, explicitly or implicitly, in the new culture created by modern communications".
Shall we then, take efforts to promote Christian media in our homes, neighbourhood, parish and communities. If you are interested in this ministry, please write to us and we'll get back to you.
US$ 1m No Match For TV!
One of the most beautiful images of Advent comes from the prophet Isaiah:"They shall beat their swords into plowshares.. nor shall they train for war again...let us walk in the light of the Lord"(2:4-5) If we think this refers also to the wars and conflicts within ourselves, it we who set ourselves up for inner battles.It is we who train ourselves to fight ourselves. It is we who forget to walk daily in God's light. Advent gives us a special opportunity to shift our focus away from the inner wars, to forge 'plowshares' of peaceful work in our days. How? Try this.
First Step
Set aside some time before Advent begins. Focus your attention on the Lord. Relax your body. Calm your mind. Ask the Lord:'What can I do to be more open toyou during this Adevnt season?' How can I waitfor you instead of allowing panic to set in?
Then open your heart and listen. wait and listen in silence.Whatever arises from your heart, accept as God's guidance.
Be ready to act on what you receive. If the Lord gives us direction, and we donot follow it, it will be harder for us to hear the Lord's word the next time. Openness to guidance comes from a sincere desire and readiness to act on what we receive, even it is hard to do. If your itention to hear and obey is sincere, you will receive guidance.
Suggestion: Add half an hour to your personal prayer during Advent. 'Oh, no! you say. I don't have any more time'. That's exactly the problem. Like Martha, you are worried about many things. That half an hour will do wonders:
* You will find you have more energy because your heart is peaceful.
* Things get done in less time because the Lord is allowed to help out.
* Family relations are better because you are not living in a rush and under strain.
* Organizing things is easier because God's guidance helps determine your priorities.
* But most importantly, you will have God's peace in your heart. Advent becomes a celebration of waiting for the Lord, of rejoicing while preparing for the Lord to come more deeply into your heart. Love will not be buried in the rush of activities. Advent will become what it is meant to be; a season of peaceful, joyful anticipation of the great gift soon to be received.
Second Step
We celebrate that gift on Christmas Day. It is the Lord himself, born once again into our awareness and into our lives. Christmas Day however? Is only the beginning of the Christmas season. By waiting peacefully through Advent, we have made space within ourselves for this great gift. Now, in the Christmas Season, we can begin to live it out in our everyday experience.
If we look back reflectively on Advent and Christmas Day, we will find God's particular gifts to us. We may have been unaware of them at the time, but now they will become apparent. What will we do with them?
First, we will rejoice over them. They are our personal "good news of great joy" announced forus by the Christmas angels. We will give hearty thanks to God for each gift, whatever it is, big or small.
Second, we will examine each gift to discover what suggestion may be in it - what are we to do with this gift ? By acting on God's gifts we are led to inner enrichment. That action may be realised within ourselves, shared with others, or expressed in our behaviour. What gifts (love, joy, peace etc) have been given to us that demand fuller expression in the Christmas season ? How can we express them ?
Third, we will search deep in our hearts to discover ways in which the Lord is closer to us than before. How has our awareness deepened so that we are more conscious of the Lord's presence in our hearts and in our daily experiences ? When we know where to look, we will experience him more, because the Lord honours our celebration of his birth by offering himself to us anew. If we have accepted him on Christmas Day, let us stay alert to discover the new ways in which the Lord is available to us throughout the season.
By taking these three steps, we assure ourselves that Christmas will not disappear along with the decorations. The Lord's renewed presence will be with us at a new level of personal awareness, and not just through the Christmas season. The new beginning of our relationship with God will extend beyond the season and will serve as a strengthened foundation for the more 'ordinary' times to come.
Of course, no time spent with the Lord is ordinary. Once we have accepted the Lord's gift of himself at a new depth within ourselves during the Christmas season, we can celebrate every single day in God. We move on in our lives, not just falling back into our regular routine but rejoicing in the new beginning that we have experienced with the Lord.
If we enter Advent and Christmas fully aware that our intent is a new beginning with God, what joyful seasons they will be! What a fullness of loving and being loved will be ours!
So ask yourself: What do you want your Advent season to be ? What do you want your Christmas season to be ? The Lord will honour your decision, and you will receive what you ask - if you do your part by letting the Lord act in you. The choice is yours.
I am awake to love and life
and to the joy it brings
Socially I don't wish for strife
But for divinely eventful things
There exist pleasant words enough
To clear the soul of evil intent
And when people act rude and rough
I seem naturally weary and spent!
But all I yearn is a rainbow
in my soft blue deep sunny sky.
A gentle realistic faith filled glow
That lights and lightens by and by
My tender conscience with time win
When I have confessed I feel no sin.
John Nazareth
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