Christmas Wishes - Dec 25, 2010

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Sunday Homily - 33rd Sunday - C

33rd Sunday of the Year – C
Malachi 4:1-2 2 Thes 3:7-12 Luke 21:5-19

My Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

I heard a story once that reminded me of today’s readings – especially our first reading. A man was living in the Canadian prairie with his daughter, and one of the great problems about living on the prairie was the fear of prairie fires which rage through and destroy everything in its path. Well, their fears became real when a huge prairie fire broke out, and the father realized that there was nowhere that they could run because they were surrounded by fire. So the father started his own fire with his frightened daughter, and watched as the area burned, and then he took his daughter into the centre of the area that had been burned already. He knew that the approaching fire would not touch this area because there was nothing left to be burned. He spoke gently to his very frightened daughter and told her not to be frightened, that the flames could not get to them because everything combustible had already been burned.

If we look at the first reading today, it is a lot like this story.

“See, the day is coming, burning like an oven when all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble; the day that comes shall burn them up.” Malachi sees what the father had seen and warns the Jewish people about the impending fire. But then Malachi, like the father, tells the Hebrews that they have nothing to fear: “For you who revere my name, the sun of righteousness shall rise, with healing in its wings.” By their faithfulness to the Lord God, the Hebrews would be protected from the fire.
We, too, as followers of Jesus, are burning our field, protecting ourselves from the larger disaster which is to come. We will have nothing to fear.

Unfortunately, these readings today have, of course, inspired fear for many people as well. Protestant churches have tended to preach about the Second Coming and the end of the world far more than it has been stressed in Catholic churches, but even so, each year as we approach the end of the church year, our readings always reflect the end of time, the second coming of Christ, and always with the imagery of fire and destruction.

What we need to know about Luke’s Gospel, however, is that when Luke wrote, all of the predictions of Jesus had already come true. When Luke was writing his Gospel, he portrayed Jesus most often as a prophet, and this section is one of the times when Jesus is most strongly seen in his prophetic guise. A prophet is someone who has been given sight by God to see things in the future, and the only way we can know if one is a true prophet is to wait for the prophecy to come true. Luke wrote this Gospel after the destruction of the Temple, and so the words he puts in Jesus’ mouth, which may or may not have come from Jesus’ mouth originally, are there to show that Jesus is a true prophet since the things he prophesied have come true.

We have tended to look at these words and apply them to our own time, and I think that is probably easy to do in any time period. In our own recent times we have had incredible physical disasters – earthquakes, tsunami’s, cities lost to water, the September 11th attack. When we read the prophecy of the end of time, it is easy to fill in the blanks and see what is happening in our own time as the approach of the end of things. The same thing was true in the 1930’s with the stock market crash, the World Wars, and so on. I suspect that each age has its disasters aplenty which can be applied to Jesus’ prophecies. But for Luke, these had already happened. Even more, Christians were being put to death for their faith. Families were broken apart by the beliefs of the Christians. Christians were hated by many. All this was true in Luke’s time, and all this is true in our own time.

But these readings are not here to inspire fear. Like the father who calmed his daughter by saying the fire couldn’t touch her in the burned area, Jesus tells his disciples: “Not a hair of your head will perish. By your endurance you will gain your souls.” This is a positive message; this is a message to inspire Christians to stay steadfast; this is a message that brings peace to people! What a shame that it has been turned around, and by using guilt, has made people fearful of the end of time coming – fearful that they will be judged by Christ in the Second Coming, and will be burnt in the everlasting fire.

We must always remember when we hear these words, when we hear people frightening us with the hell and damnation, when we interpret signs that the end may be near, that Jesus ends his prophecy with an incredibly optimistic vision of our salvation because we have been true to him.

So, what is the message for us today? You notice there are two important contrasting images in the Gospel today, one at the beginning - the Temple, and the other, at the end - the hair on your head.

This is an interesting contrast. One will be completely destroyed, the other, not a single one will be lost. Ultimately God doesn’t care too much for buildings and ‘things’; God is more into people, his children. God is not too much concerned with the preservation and restoration of Church buildings; he is more concerned with us – the living Church, built of living stones. He wants his people to be living truly. He wants us to live the Catholic faith truly. He wants us to live the gospel virtues and His teachings truly. Only then we can be called as living people.

St. Paul in the second reading today exhorts all the people who are living in idleness, mere busybodies, and not doing any work to do their work quietly and to earn their own living. He clearly says that living here on earth is temporary one; whereas living in the Kingdom of God is the permanent one. So, we need to work in this world to earn the living in God’s Kingdom. Let us not forget St. Paul’s words, “Anyone unwilling to work should not eat”; which means, “Anyone unwilling to work in this world to earn the everlasting life in God’s Kingdom will never, ever receive everlasting life”.

Yes, there will be an end of time. Everything passes away. I suspect that most of us will have passed away before that end of the world ever comes, anyway. But Jesus came to bring us peace, take away our worries, let us experience the kingdom here and now, not to make us panicky or frightened. We need, however, not to live in idleness, as Paul suggests to us today, but to go about our own work quietly, earn our own living and trust in Jesus. If we do this, we will be like the girl and the father surrounded by fire, but untouched by it, because there is nothing there to be burned. We have already burned away the things that can cause us to burn, and can relax in Christ Jesus who came to show us a new way, no matter what is going on around us in the world.

And this is the peace we find in the Good news today!

AMEN.

Fr. A. Christopher, HGN

Ministry of Fr.Chris

Click on the Photo to view the entire album

Some of the ministries that Fr.Chris did & doing:

1) Charismatic preaching and healing ministry
2) Music ministry
3) Social work - helping flood-affected people
4) Taking faithful for Lenten Pilgrimage
5) Organizing children's Christmas to increase their faith
6) Conducting awareness programmes
7) Organizing rallies to protect the rights of Christians
8) Organizing rallies to support the Christians affected by Hindu fanatics
9) Reach-out programmes
10)Media Ministry

News Article

GOD HAD A PLAN FOR HIM
A coma, a bomb blast and a tsunami were all part of Father Antony’s preparation for the priesthood
Friday, 27 August 2010 12:23

By Angelyn Dee
Special to The B.C. Catholic
Photo by Vincent L. Chan
Invisionation Photography

Close calls with death have occurred all too frequently in the life of Father Christopher Antony, HGN.

In 2003 he survived a three-day coma that lasted from Good Friday until Easter Sunday. He has twice been held at gunpoint by terrorists, survived a bomb blast and even the deadly tsunami of 2004 that wiped out everything and almost everyone on India’s Andaman Island that he called home.

Each brush with death has only strengthened the conviction within Father Chris that, in his own words, “God has a plan for me. I am called as a priest, but there is something special He wants me to do in my priesthood. I am still trying to discover what it is.”

Born in India as the eldest of three sons, Christopher could not consider the priesthood. Eldest sons were expected to help support their families and parents, and it was unlikely a seminary would accept him.

During his childhood, his grandfather would take all the grandchildren to 5:30 Mass each morning and would always tell Christopher’s mother, “Make Victor a priest.” Even when his family moved to their island home in 1982, Grandfather’s last words as they boarded a bus were, “Make Victor a priest.”

At age 11, Christopher was sent to a Catholic boarding school along with Victor. There, various priests recognized a priestly vocation in him, but Christopher’s response was always to point to his brother: “Not me, but him.” As he always ranked first in his studies, Christopher’s father wanted him to be a doctor. His brother, Victor, was to be the priest.

However, God’s plan prevailed and Christopher did eventually enter the seminary. For the first three years his father discouraged him and pleaded with him to leave and even kept him home for two years. But Christopher was determined and eventually his devout father came to realize that it was him, and not his brother, who had a priestly vocation.

Ordained in 2003, Father Chris is a member of the Heralds of Good News. Founded in 1984 with the specific aim of promoting vocations and sending out saintly and hardworking missionaries to places where there is a shortage of priests, Father is one of four HGN priests who arrived in Vancouver in July last year.

Assigned to St. John the Apostle Church in Vancouver, where his humble and quiet presence is felt, Father Chris assists Msgr. Mark Hagemoen with the daily life of the parish. His special love is Holy Mass. “Everything I prayed for during the intentions of the Mass, I have received, even little things. I realize the importance and the effects of Holy Mass. I try to follow the words of Mother Teresa, ‘Say every Mass as if it were your last’.”

Described by Msgr. Hagemoen as “a gentle pastor of souls … a humble priest who desires to serve Christ and his Church”, Father Chris hopes to dedicate himself to parish ministry for the next several years, after which his superior would like him to study for his doctorate degree in Mass Media Communications.

It is Father’s dream to one day evangelize through the media in his native India, where he earned the Gold Medal Award for his Masters degree in Communications and founded the Heralds Animation and Social Communication Center. For now, Father Chris is in Vancouver, where God’s plan for him continues to unfold.

(This article was published in BC Catholic on Aug 30, 2010 - page 2)

22nd Sunday of the Year – C
Sir 3:17-18,28-29 Heb 12:18-19,22-24 Lk 14:1,7-14

Introduction: The common theme of today’s readings is the need for true humility and the blessedness of generous sharing with the needy. The readings warn us against all forms of pride and self-glorification. They present humility not only as a virtue but also as a means of opening our hearts, our minds and our hands to the poor, the needy, the disadvantaged and the marginalized of society. For Jesus, the daily human needs of the poor are the personal responsibility of every authentic, humble believer. The first reading, from the book of Sirach, reminds us that if we are humble, we will find favour with God, and others will love us. The second reading, from Hebrews, gives another reason for us to be humble. Jesus was humble, so his followers are expected to be humble, trying to imitate his humility. Paul reminds us that Jesus was lowly, particularly in his suffering and death for our salvation (Heb 2:5-18), so we should be like him, that we may be exalted with him at the resurrection of the righteous. Paul seems to imply that we have to follow Christ’s example of humility in our relationships with the less fortunate members of our society. In today’s gospel Jesus explains the practical benefits of humility, connecting it with the common wisdom about dining etiquette (see Prov. 25:6-7; Sir. 3:17-20). Jesus advises the guests to go to the lowest place instead of seeking places of honour so that the host may give them the place they deserve. Jesus’ words concerning the seating of guests at a wedding banquet should prompt us to honour those whom others ignore, because if we are generous and just in our dealings with those in need, we can be confident of the Lord’s blessings. On the other hand, if we act out of pride and selfishness, we can be sure that our efforts will come to nothing.

Most Rev. Paul-Émile Léger served as Archbishop of Montreal from 1950 to 1968, and was elevated to the cardinalate in 1953 by Pope Pius XII. He was one of the most powerful men in Canada and within the Catholic Church. He was a man of deep conviction and humility. Then on April 20, 1968 he resigned and laid aside his red vestments, crosier, mitre, and pallium in his office at Montreal and disappeared. Years later he was found living among the lepers and disabled, outcasts of a small African village. When a Canadian journalist asked him, "Why?," here is what Cardinal Léger had to say, "It will be the great scandal of the history of our century that 600 million people are eating well and living luxuriously and three billion people starve, and every year millions of children are dying of hunger. I am too old to change all that. The only thing I can do which makes sense is to be present. I must simply be in the midst of them. So, just tell people in Canada that you met an old priest. I am a priest who is happy to be old and still a priest and among those who suffer. I am happy to be here and to take them into my heart." (Barry Robinson, http://www.rockies.net/~spirit/sermons/a-or09-2-keeping.php.) Is that your calling? Is it mine? Probably not. Today’s gospel says: “Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous."

Dear Friends, there is a journey we all have to make, the journey from pride to humility. Genuine humility is not something forced from outside. True humility is one’s own personal recognition of one’s true status before God. It is wise to stay humble, lest we stumble. But most often many of us lack this true humility.

Let’s probe this lack of humility a little more. Why would someone want to exalt himself/herself or, in the language of Jesus’ parable in the Gospel today, want the best place at table? One reason could be feeling inferior to others or lacking self-confidence. They try to compensate by exalting themselves. A proverb from somewhere in Asia is good; it says, “Don’t make yourself so high, you are not so low.” In other words, “Don’t boast or be snobbish, you are not so inferior that you have to compensate by looking down on someone else.”

The solution to the problem of feeling inferior to others or lacking in self-confidence is not in boasting or behaving like a snob or demanding the top place at the table. The solution is in recognizing that we receive our value from God and not from others’ opinions of us.

So the problem of pride or lack of humility is not really the problem. The problem is one layer deeper, forgetting that since baptism we are all sons and daughters of God, forgetting that we, by ourselves, are not capable of saving ourselves and are saved only by the death of Jesus. We have all been purchased by Jesus for the Father at the greatest price. We all cost the greatest price; that price is the life and death of Jesus. That is the only thing we can boast of, and nothing else. We are worth the life of Jesus! And so also is the person next to you, behind you, in front of you. So we are all equally precious.

Our model in humility is Jesus. Let us look at him closely now. When God became man, he chose to occupy the lowest possible seat. Paul described in Phil. 2:7-8, the six steps in humility that God took in coming to this earth. "Jesus emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, coming in human likeness; and found human in appearance, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross." Humility was Jesus’ favourite theme. "Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted." "Whoever humbles himself like a little child is the greatest in the kingdom of God." "Learn of me, for I am meek and humble of heart." Humility is a strange phenomenon. As a rule, when we discover we have it, we lose it. Humility is like a rare flower -- put it on display and it instantly wilts and loses its fragrance! St. Augustine said: "Humility is so necessary for Christian perfection that among all the ways to reach perfection, humility is first, humility is second, and humility is third." He added, "Humility makes men angels, and pride makes angels devils." St. Bernard declared, "Pride sends man from the highest elevation to the lowest abyss, but humility raises him from the lowest abyss to the highest elevation."

Dear friends, pride goes before destruction and hence must be kept deflated. A big truck got struck under a low overhead bridge. Nobody knew what to do, until a small boy suggested that they let the air out of the tyres. This done, the truck, now a couple of inches lower, grazed through. A bit of deflation can help us all at times.

There is a prayer that is a difficult prayer to pray. It is called the Litany of Humility. As it is a long litany the following are only excerpts:

From the desire of being esteemed,
Deliver me, O Jesus.
From the desire of being loved,
Deliver me, O Jesus.
From the desire of being honoured,
Deliver me, O Jesus.
From the desire of being praised,
Deliver me, O Jesus.
From the desire of being preferred to others,
Deliver me, O Jesus.

The litany continues

From the fear of being humiliated,
Deliver me, O Jesus.
From the fear of being despised,
Deliver me, O Jesus.
From the fear of suffering rebukes,
Deliver me, O Jesus.
From the fear of being suspected,
Deliver me, O Jesus.

The second part of the prayer is even more difficult to pray:

That others may be loved more than I,
Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.
That others may be chosen and I set aside,
Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.
That others may be praised and I go unnoticed,
Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.

I am sure you will agree that it is a difficult prayer to pray if we really mean it. The Litany of Humility is a prayer that we could do with praying and practicing. Let us humbly accept that there is a little bit of the Pharisees in each of us, perhaps more in some than others, which we should really get rid off with the help of the grace of God.

Dear Friends, there is a journey we all have to make, the journey from pride to humility. Genuine humility is not something forced from outside. True humility is one’s own personal recognition of one’s true status before God. It is wise to stay humble, lest we stumble.
AMEN.

Fr. A. Christopher, HGN

17th Sunday of the Year – C
Gen 18:20-32 Col 2:12-14 Lk 11:1-13

My Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Prayer is the support, sustain and protect of religion. Only the self-sufficient do not pray, the self-satisfied will not pray, and the self-righteous cannot pray. Otherwise, all of us pray. We pray because we can’t help praying. We must pray in adversity as well as in prosperity, for our piety must be like a good well, which must not freeze in winter and must not run dry in summer. A lot of kneeling keeps us in good standing with God; for one thing, you can’t stumble if you are on your knees. However, our problem is not prayer but persistent prayer.

A Jewish tale is told of a man who argued with God. It happened one day in the synagogue when Ben Ezra was pouring out his prayer so vigorously that the rabbi grew worried and said to him: “You are a headstrong man, Ben Ezra. Perhaps you argue instead of pray.”

Ben Ezra replied: “Listen, rabbi, and I will tell you what I have been saying. To the master of the universe I say this:

These are my sins and I confess them. I argue with my wife, but you know my wife! I lost patience with my children, but what parent doesn’t? I cheated a little in the shop, but just a little. How small my sins are, Master of the universe, but they are mine and I confess them. And now, consider your sins. Sometimes you dry up the skies and our crops wither in the fields. Other times they burn up because you send too much sun. You let the rains come before a poor man has his roof repaired. You do not stop war and the young men die. You take away the light from the eyes of a child and he is blind. You take away our loved ones and we are left alone until we too must die. These are your sins, Master of the universe, and they are great. But I will make you a proposal. You forgive me my little sins and I will forgive you your great ones.

“That was my proposal, rabbi, and I ask you what was wrong?”

The rabbi did not answer for a long time. And then he looked at Ben Ezra and said, “No, it was not wrong. But why, oh why, Ben Ezra, did you drive so small a bargain? For sins like these you could have asked him to send the Messiah. You could have asked him to redeem the world!”

In today’s first reading it is Abraham, not Ben Ezra, who is busily bargaining with God over the number of just people needed to save two cities from destruction. There is a comical picture of Abraham as a shrewd and persistent bargain-hunter at a Dutch auction – where the price decreases – fifty, forty-five, thirty, twenty, and ten. Abraham is the street-wise character who presses God for the best deal possible. In his persistence, Abraham was like the postage stamp sticking to one thing till it gets there. Jesus too teaches a parable about persistence in prayer and then adds, “Ask, Seek, Knock” (Lk 11:9). Hence we must keep on trying with our petitions without getting discouraged. It is only from the valley that the mountain seems high.

In the first reading Abraham wonders whether God will get angry at his final markdown of the original price, God agrees not to destroy the cities for the sake of ten good people. An equally generous picture of God emerges from St. Paul’s letter that we heard: “God has forgiven us all our sins and cancelled every record of debt we had to pay.” However, that image of a generous and forgiving God is not one that people readily believe in. That is why, when Jesus teaches his disciples to pray, he insists that they relate to God as Father, Abba, and approach him in the confidence of children who know they are loved. Jesus insists that we relate to God with deep faith him that he would surely answer our prayers.

For four years it had not rained. So the priest gathered all the villagers go on a pilgrimage to the shrine on top of the mountain to pray for the rains. In the middle of the group, the parish priest noticed a youth, all wrapped up in warm clothes and a rain coat. “Are you crazy, my dear young man?” he asked. “It hasn’t rained for the past four years. It is so hot and dry. Dressed like that, you will die of heat.” “I have got a cold, Father. If we are going to pray for rain, when we climb down the downpour is going to be heavy; so it is better to be prepared.” At that moment thunder and lightning tore the sky and the first drops of a torrential rain began to fall.

That reminds me of another story. Pilot to passengers in mid-flight: “I regret to inform you we are in terrible trouble. Only God can save us now.” One of the passengers turned to his neighbour, a priest, to ask what the pilot had said and got this reply: “He says there’s no hope!”
Faith makes everything possible. Prayer without FAITH is nothing but meaningless words.

Our first point was pray persistently; the second point was pray with deep faith. Now the third point is pray without any selfish motives. Not all our prayers are answered all the times. And there could be many reasons for that. Sometimes when we pray for something our intentions are not always good. Sometimes our intentions in prayer are selfish and need to be purified.
Mary, Catherine, Margaret were stuck on an island for many, many years until one day God appeared to them after their continuous prayers. He said that he could only give three wishes so since there were three girls, each would get one wish.
Margaret went first. ''I hate it here. It is too hot and boring. I want to go home!'' God said, "Okay,''. And off she went. Then Catherine asked. ''I miss my family, my friends and relatives. I want to go home, too!!'' And off she went. Mary started crying and said, ''I wish my friends were here!''
In ‘Our Father’ Jesus taught us to pray in a climate of unselfishness and love. Have a close look at to our Lord’s Prayer; Jesus taught us in plural form. Words like ‘we, us and our’ are only used. This sends a clear message that our prayer should not have any selfish motives. Remove all the selfish elements from your prayers.
Many people say: “I have done the nine Fridays, the five Tuesdays, and the three Saturdays; also the novena to St. Jude. I have joined the charismatic movement; I’m involved in shared prayer, dialogue homilies, and sunset meditations. And still I come up with zero!” Jesus’ answer is that it is still worthwhile to keep on asking, to keep on seeking, to keep on knocking, because God is more than silence: he is also Word, and he will reply.
Remember in the end Ben Ezra received his answer from God; For God did send the Messiah in Jesus, and he did hear the cry of the messiah’s appeal to forgive us all our sins. And that is our most precious bargain.
Finally I would like to conclude by sharing my own experience. God will surely and definitely answer all our prayers. Every drop of our tears will be answered. Praying together in the family is very important. Parents should teach the children by example to pray everyday. I always say, the Holy Mass is the greatest form of Prayer. Anything and everything that I prayed during the Holy Mass, I have received from God. You can take it as a kind of witness. Yes, my dear friends, make this Eucharistic celebration as the centre of your life and pray unceasingly; pray with deep faith and pray without any selfish motives.
AMEN.

Fr. A. Christopher, HGN

May God Bless my media ministry

This is my first attempt in the Internet world to share my thoughts, homilies, sermons and opinions. May God bless my efforts and bless me with wisdom and knowledge to carry out this ministry.

Hope to post my homilies soon in this blog.

Rev Fr Christopher, HGN