Saturday, March 14, 2009

GUIDELINES TO CURB OUR EARTHLY GREED

GUIDELINES TO CURB OUR EARTHLY GREED

A sobering comment on the worthlessness of working unnecessarily for material possessions is the old saying that there are no pockets in a shroud. Every generation learns, often through bitter experience, that life is brief and entrance into heaven cannot be bought with riches. We leave the world the same way we came into it. So what is the point of hoarding when someone else, who may care nothing about us, will inherit and perhaps waste all we have worked to achieve. The rich fool found this out to his cost because death exposed his real poverty. During his life he behaved as if he was going to live forever. He failed to realize that what counts when we die is not wealth but the person we become in the process of living. Greed cut him off from God and other people. It showed the foolishness of thinking that happiness could be attained without taking God and death into reckoning.
In case we are in the process of switching off, because we think that this gospel applies only to the rich, it’s well to remember that Christ preached this gospel to people who were very poor by our standards. This is the story of the person who spends life without reference to God. Christ is really warning us about going it alone and trying to hold our future in our hands-of wasting time, gloating over possessions and setting ourselves down securely in this life’s comforts. This is a caution about greed and the hold which possession exercise over human heart. Greed and meanness are not confined to the wealthy but the most common of human failings and all of us can become victims of them in our struggle to earn our daily bread. The spell disaster for us as and blind us as to where true values lie. The frustrations, disappointments and incomplete joy that the pursuit of material possessions bring are a reminder that happiness does not come from having what we want, but being content with what we have.
We can overcome the temptation of greed by helping those who are less fortunate than ourselves. What is given to others is not lost but is transformed into a treasure for eternity. In the evening of life we will be measured by the good we have done, Rather than wrap money around our hearts, we are urged to give our money to the poor. In the light of what Jesus says, each of us has some hard thinking to do about our attitude towards possessions. God is at the end of the line waiting for us when life is over.

WAYS TO CLEAN OUR DIRTY LINEN WITH HIS GRACE (BAPTISM)

WAYS TO CLEAN OUR DIRTY LINEN WITH HIS GRACE (BAPTISM)

Once more we are reminded of the baptism of our Lord, which was the curtain raiser to his earthly ministry. It began his mission if gathering all people into the one family of God and leading them back to his father. Jesus went about doing good touching human lives, healing people, freeing them from darkness of sin and directing them to lives worthy of their calling. We too have been chosen to continue this saving work, which Christ began, and to be a part of this mission in the world we live in. At the moment of our baptism the good seed of God’s life was planted within us. That grace-filled day was but the start of our conversion. It takes a lifetime for that seed of God’s love to grow, mature and blossom. The only home for a Christian to live in is Christ and we should settle for nothing less. If we are to enter into this new and exciting experience as members of God’s family we must have a clear idea of what kind of family we are meant to be. To follow the way traced out by Christ, who is our brother, demands a loving personal response on our part. Baptism is a dedication of self to the call of Jesus who went about doing well.
This is a time to reflect on the extent to which Christ has penetrated our thoughts and influenced our Behavior. We are what we do. How many of us can honestly say that we are leading lives which are worthy of our baptismal calling? The power of God shines out where we least expect it and in the most unlikely places. His spirit will be at work and incredibly active in the depth of our person when we open our hearts to those who have lost their dignity through poverty of hard times. We preach not by words only but by the way we live and by the effort we exert to make the world a better place by our presence. The practice of charity and humility spotlights what is wrong with selfishness and arrogance. It exposes evil and sinfulness for what they are. The example we display in our everyday activities paves the way for the Christ in others. Today, we pray for a greater insight into our roles in Christ’s mission. God works through ordinary people like us. As the baptism ceremony states, ’We are to walk always as children of the light, keeping the flame of faith burning brightly within our hearts’. Being a disciple of Christ demands outstanding service. It costs no less than everything.

BAPTISM; THE CLEANSING WAY TO INCREASING YOUR GRACE

BAPTISM; THE CLEANSING WAY TO INCREASING YOUR GRACE

It was certainly an unusual occasion for John the Baptist to be preaching repentance to the people on the banks of the river Jordan, and urging them to prepare a way for the Lord, when Jesus approached him and asked to be baptized. Jesus had no need of baptism as he himself sinless and full of the Holy Spirit from the time he was born. By immersing himself in the waters of Jordan he chose purposely to put himself\f in the side of sinners and to assume the burden of our sins. He came to share our way of life and die that we might live. This first act of public ministry was one of humility and it launched his mission of loving service to the despised, the poor and the spiritually crippled. God put the seal of approval the father upon the work, which he was undertaking because as he came out of the water the heavens echoed with the exclamation, ‘You are my beloved son in whom I am well pleased.’ This was the outward sin that he was appointed the savoir of the world. He was now ready for a ministry, which would generate divine life in others.
The baptism of our lord generally makes us think of our own baptism. Christ’s baptism was not just an isolated event in his life; it was the beginning of a new era in God’s relationship with mankind and has implications for us all as it affects each of us at the deepest and most personal level. At baptism the spirit of God takes possession of us in a very special way, to direct and guide us in the footsteps of Christ. Baptism unites us with Jesus in the most intimate manner, bringing us to the family of God with the right to call God our father.
Even though, we were baptized when we were a few years old, our baptism is not merely an event of the past; it is an ever-present reality, a constant sharing in the divine life of the Risen Christ. It is a daily invitation to come closer to God and to be helpers in the work of saving the world. We are called to be servant of God in our own sphere of living and to make the world a better place. In our everyday life we may not have the ability to do great things but we have the power to do good things. We are told that Jesus went about doing well. What a beautiful way for us to make a public statement about our faith. Through good works each of us, in our own way, completes the mission, which Christ began after his Baptism. It is a day to ask ourselves if we are being true to the direction in which our lives were pointed at our baptism