The Power of Prayer

16^TH SUNDAY ORDINARY TIME – B

Mark 6:30-34

Podcast: Australian Catholic Radio Online:
http://cradio.org.au/talks-and-resources/homilies/fr-vladimir-echalas-solt/16th-sunday-ordinary-time/ 

      After the first mission of the Twelve they reported to Jesus all they had done and taught.  The first thing that Jesus told them was to go to a lonely place all by themselves and take rest.  While crossing to the other side of the lake for the much needed rest, the people must have heard where they were going and went there before the Twelve.  When they reached the shore, Jesus saw them, took pity on them because they were like sheep without a shepherd.

      Psalm 63 expresses the longing of our soul to be with God:  “O God, you are my God, for you I long; for you my soul is thirsting.  My body pines for you like a dry, weary land without water.  So I gaze on you in the sanctuary to see your strength and your glory.”

After a day’s work, don’t we look forward to being at home with our family for a deserved day’s rest?   Towards the end of the week, the weekend rest with our loved ones; once a year, we take off for the much awaited holiday; and most of all the retirement after working for a number of years.  We long for rest just like any other mechanical machines to re-charge and invigorate with new energy and zest otherwise we experience burn out. This is true to the whole of creation when it rests after sunset to rise again the following morning refreshed.

      When the batteries of our laptops, cameras and mobiles are spent, we can’t use them unless we re-charge them or else they are good for nothing even if they are that expensive. In the same way when the battery of our life runs out, we can only re-charge it with prayer. 

Our soul being organic and alive also needs re-charging!  And so how do re-charge spiritually?  What else but through prayer.  But how much do we value our prayer life?  In this social networking age, the day will not be complete without spending some time in facebook, twitter and emails because we want to stay connected with friends.  Some even feel naked if they do not have their mobile phones with them.  And if our gadgets do not have the signal, we panic because we are cut off from the world; do we panic or feel naked when we are not connected with God?  Prayer connects us to God and we  do not need expensive gadgets to do that.  It does not cost us to pray.  We just have to commit our time to be with God the way we want to spend our time with our loved ones.

      In response to this Gospel let us commit a specific time to be with God everyday.  At least three minutes for a start; choose a corner in your house where nobody can disturb you; shut the TV and computer off;  no phone calls!  Just being with God and  simply bask in His presence.   Read a passage from the Bible; evaluate God’s movement in your life during the day; or just being quiet.   

A man without a prayer life is like a traveller who does not know where he is going…

MISSION IMPOSSIBLE

15^TH SUNDAY ORDINARY TIME – B

Mark 6:7-13

PODCAST: Australian Catholic Radio Online:
http://cradio.org.au/talks-and-resources/homilies/fr-vladimir-echalas-solt/15th-sunday-ordinary-time/ 

      MISSION IMPOSSIBLE:  This is not about the movie by Tom Cruise.  Imagine yourself entering a monastery abandoned in the middle of the woods; a huge seminary now turned into a hotel; a magnificent gothic cathedral now converted into a museum; a church closed down after one hundred years; a convent with few nuns left who are all in their seventies….  Disheartening, isn’t it?  Why is this phenomenon happening?   Where are those men and women who once revolutionized the world by their life of witness to the faith?

      A paradigm shift in the way we view life has turned the world upside down when the spiritual becomes passé and even Jurassic.  The spirit of consumerism and materialism in a way paralyzed a great chunk of our psyche, not knowing we have already been consumed by it.  We are not advocating poverty that cripples hence canonizing the material inadequacy of the poor but rather the neglect of the spiritual aspect in giving too much emphasis on the material.  Because of this, the call to the mission even becomes a “mission impossible.”  

      How will a young man or woman who is brought up in such a materialistic atmosphere react about the gospel this Sunday: being sent out in a mission with such very hard instructions “no bread, no money, no extra clothes, etc”?  Maybe he/she would say, “I heard it, thanks, but sorry I am not a fool.”   The mandate does not appeal right away to the imagination.  Why on the first place would anyone venture into those hardships?  If I am a poor man, why would I continue to live such a poor life when I can pursue a career and live a better life?  If I am talented, why would I waste away the opportunity to conquer the world or to shun away from possibilities that would bring me fortune and fame?  

      The missionary life brings an upside down materialistic world back to the realm of the spirit.   Whilst we never deny the material, we believe in something eternal.  That is why a man or a woman who follows Jesus in the mission maybe foolish in the eyes of the world nevertheless he/she becomes a radical witness of  the Kingdom of God.   He/she turns away from the selfish concerns of life to something more noble, that is by giving away his/her life in the service of God.  When a person does this, he/she lives in the divine providence knowing that God will take care of all his/her needs.  

      The mission is not just about the difficulties but more about the joy of bringing the Good News to the world.    This reward is worth more than money could buy.

 When Jesus sent out the Twelve in pairs, the mission is both ecclesial and personal.  Being aware of the woundedness of the world in many aspects, but most especially spiritual, together with their proclamation of the Word were the works of healing.  Every missionary is sent out to heal the world, being a wounded healer himself/herself.    

It may sound crazy, but this is not something new.  In the course of history, countless men and women have lived the life which most of the time has never been without difficulties.  It is certainly a very hard life, but nevertheless very rewarding, being consoled that God is the one in charge and He will surely provide.  I say this being a missionary priest all my life!

JESUS THE ORDINARY

14^TH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME – B

Mark 6:1-6

      Homer used to be a patient in a mental institution.   Everybody knew him in the ward.  One day, he got well and pursued medicine with the thought of going back to the same mental institution to help those who were with him in the ward.  After he became a doctor, he went back excited to see his friends and announce to them that there is hope and he was there to help them.  When he entered the ward, all the patients were laughing at him and said to one another “Poor Homer, unlike us, he is mentally ill and he is a hopeless case….”

     All His life, Jesus was met with rejection: from the moment he was born until he died on the cross and all those times in between, He was rejected.  Whilst many people were drawn to his very charismatic personality because of His wisdom and miracles, His superstar-status earned Him the hatred and jealousy of those who despised him which eventually cost His very life. 

      The people of Nazareth could have heard the wonders Jesus performed in the surrounding areas and we would expect that He, being a Nazarean, would receive a hero’s welcome upon His homecoming.  This is very common for a town or a city to give a tribute to a local who has given them honour by excelling in a particular field.  They do this by offering a plaque of appreciation or maybe a motorcade around the place for people to acknowledge.  But instead of excitement and acceptance, the Nazareans took offense of Him and rejected Him.  The reason?  Not because of anything bad that Jesus did but because they were scandalized by Him going beyond His being ordinary.   They knew Him too well, at least they thought. And what about Nazareth? When Jesus was introduced to Nathanael as coming from Nazareth, he asked “Can anything good come from Nazareth?”   The inscription on the cross made by Pilate “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews” was meant to ridicule the Jews that their king came from Nazareth.  So the people of Nazareth must have thought “If we are doomed in our being ordinary, so you must.”  They made no exception, not even to Jesus as the saying goes “familiarity breeds contempt.”  Because of this, Jesus did not perform any miracle in Nazareth, which is very sad.     

  Are you scandalized by what is happening to the Catholic Church today with all its faults and imperfections?  Do you take offense because some of its authorities and leaders, bishops and priests, who are supposed to be role models of good living are the ones causing the scandals and scums? Of course we are discouraged and devastated and we want justice served to the aggrieved.  But if you are looking for a community of saints then you might as well be discouraged because you won’t find one, not even in the Catholic Church.  But if you are open to a community of saints and sinners both the faithful and its leaders, then welcome to the reality of the Church. 

      The people of Nazareth thought they were too ordinary and so why would Jesus who was one them should rise above their ranks?  For them, He was just too human to be divine.  Being members of the Church which is human and divine, are we willing to accept and support one another, sinners and saints together, thus bringing each one of us towards our goal: to be with God!

FULLNESS OF LIFE

 13^TH SUNDAY ORDINARY TIME – B

Mark 5:21-43

PODCAST: Australian Catholic Radio Online:
http://cradio.org.au/talks-and-resources/homilies/fr-vladimir-echalas-solt/13th-sunday-ordinary-time/ 

      How does our faith make a difference in the most difficult moments of our life?  Where does faith bring us when we are at the end of our strength, when our feet bring us at the end of the road facing an abyss?

      In the gospel this Sunday, we have two miracles interwoven with each other by faith.  Jairus’ twelve year old daughter was dead and the woman was suffering with hemorrhage for twelve years.  Jesus, being the Master of life, showed His power and mercy in response to the faith of Jairus and the woman.  It was not just about physical resuscitation nor cure, it was about encountering the Divine that led to salvation.

      Jairus asked Jesus to “lay your hands on her that she may be saved and may live.”   On the other hand the woman believed that “if I can just touch his clothes, I shall be saved.”  Jairus and the woman without them knowing it, were looking for salvation though from different levels and perspectives.    Both of them were looking for a physical cure.   Yet Jesus was offering more than they were asking for: salvation through the cure.   Jesus brought them to an encounter which would elicit their faith response.   This encounter brought Jairus and the woman in a dialogue with the Author of life.  Without this dialogue, the two miracles would only be physical healing devoid of the extraordinary dimension of true salvation.  It was in this dialogue that Jesus brought Jairus and the woman in a crescendo of faith from something primitive, magical and superstitious to something organic and transcendental.  Because of faith, Jesus brought Jairus’ daughter and the woman back into the fullness of life.

      When we reflect miracle stories like Jairus’ daughter and the woman in the gospel today, it is not just reading dead texts that appeal to the imagination.  It is different from reading a short story or a novel, fiction or true, spectacular they may be.   The miracles in the Gospel bid us to enter into the depth of the story and we become part of it, not just as readers or listeners, but active participants as we re-live it and suddenly it becomes alive.  If this is true, then how do we see ourselves in the story this Sunday?

      Are you at the end of your rope? Gasping your last breath? Nearly giving up?  Or just a mere spectator to life as it unfolds in the drama of your family and friends or people around you?  Do we  need to experience the end of life’s road before we finally realize that we are not in control but God?  Do we really need a tragedy in life before we start believing that God is real?

      Or is it in the ordinariness of life when we practice our faith that we encounter God in each other.  It is in the celebration of life when we could say that through our pain, God is also in pain; through our laughter, we hear the laughter of God! 

St. Irenaeus says “The glory of God is man fully alive!”

GOD'S BELOVED

 BIRTH OF JOHN THE BAPTIST

Luke 1:57-66.80

“God is  gracious!”  This is the meaning of the name John. Zechariah and Elizabeth were blessed by God with a son as a fulfillment of a promise. 

The nativity of John the Baptist was not just about the birth of the greatest prophet but rather a new way of looking at the Old Testament.  Zechariah and Elizabeth were iconic representations of the Old Testament.  Being old and barren, like the Old Testament, they were not able to communicate life anymore.  They also represented a period of waiting, long and tedious yet full of hope.   In the graciousness of God He fulfilled the promise of old, ended the long waiting and brought the barrenness to fruition.  John the Baptist symbolized the transformation of the Old Testament into something new and inaugurated the new spring time in human history.  He would soon become the voice announcing that the Messiah has indeed come.

Literally the birth of John the Baptist is a miracle which in a sense represents the birth of all of us.  The prophet Isaiah reminds us in the first reading:  “God called me when I was in the womb, before my birth he had pronounced my name…”  This is the dignity of the human person from the moment of conception… A child of God with a destiny to fulfill hence just like all of us has the right to live!   Who are we to say that it is just a lump of meat?   Abortion is the most atrocious crime we can ever commit against a precious baby who can not even defend himself/herself.   It is one of the most sensitive issues that confronts our society today; so sensitive that we do not even hear it preached against in pulpits because of political reasons. The statistics of babies being killed around the world each day is escalating to a degree that humanity has become numbed and indifferent. Our present generation will have to pay for the crime against the babies who could have been our own.  If John the Baptist represents the fulfillment of a promise, we can also say that the baby in the mother’s womb is God’s fulfillment of His promise to humanity.  Each baby is God’s gift to the world, thanks to our mothers who make this possible.  As Rabindranath Tagore says: “Every child comes with a message that God is not yet discouraged of man.”  So every child has the potential to be great.

      And what about the aged? Aren’t they as precious as a new born child?  After the celebration of their life’s fruitfulness, they pass on their dreams to us  so that they continue to live and dream in and through us. Whenever I see new places, I believe my father sees them, too.  If ever I am good today it is because I reflect the goodness of my mother.     Every time I do something beautiful for the world, I give the credits to my parents.  This is why we give honor to Zechariah and Elizabeth because they gave the world John the Baptist.

      From the moment of his conception in the womb to his last breath and all those times in between, the life of man is pure grace!  We can only be grateful to God!  In the eyes of God each one of us is His beloved!