AGENDA 2016

Agenda 2016

                                                                                         Fr. Mervyn Carapiet

For many the New Year period is a very special time – a time of new hope and making New Year resolutions. What have you decided to make new in 2016? Are you going to drift into the New Year thinking and acting as you always have, or will this New Year be different? The only change that will take place in your life is what you will take responsibility for. We should not enter the new year carrying a hangover from the old !

I challenge you to look on this year in a new way. Be positive. Accept your life as a gift, giving you an opportunity to make a difference to people’s lives in a meaningful and useful way.  Could you make people and their needs a priority for the coming year? We live in a fast moving and competitive world, where success and the pursuit of money and material things have assumed almost ultimate importance so that other people and their needs are scarcely recognizable.

Be good to yourself – giving yourself time to relax and care for yourself. Listen to the messages your body sends you. Be positive about your successes. Be gentle with yourself and with the projects and plans that have not succeeded for you. Refrain from negativity. Be gracious in defeat. Give time in your life to your God, for him to influence your thinking, your spiritual growth and help you appreciate that you are being held in the palm of his hand.

Be good to people. Respect their dignity as sons and daughters of God. Remember how fragile we all can be in the vulnerable moments of our life. Have a special place for family and close friends. Have an eye, ear and heart for the losers in life. Jesus said: “What you did to the least of my people you did to me.” Never underestimate the effects of the smallest acts of kindness for people. This reminds me of a story told recently at the funeral of a teacher. The man was terminally ill. Just the week before he died he received a card from a past pupil. It read: “Mr. Fitzpatrick, thanks for teaching me how to tie my shoe laces. You never forget the person who taught you how to tie your laces.” This good deed took place thirty years ago, but its memory was still fresh in this past pupil’s mind.

Many opportunities will come your way in this coming year to be good to people. May we be alert to these special moments and have the generosity to respond to them. People’s lives will be better because we passed their way.

 A New Year’s Benediction

May the coming year be one of increased riches of grace—hearing His voice more clearly, knowing His heart more deeply, resting in His love more fully, trusting His care more completely, walking His pathway more peacefully, knowing His presence more intimately, blessed by His goodness more abundantly.

And in all things, may you know the shalom peace of God—encouraging you to move forward, empowering you to boldly take each step, greeting you as you turn a new corner, calming your heartbeat as you walk through dark valleys, softening each footstep as you climb rugged mountains, and increasing your courage as you follow your Shepherd wherever He leads.

You crown the year with a bountiful harvest; even the hard pathways overflow with abundance. The grasslands of the wilderness become a lush pasture, and the hillsides blossom with joy.

Psalm 65:11-12

HOLY FAMILY

HOLY FAMILY

Cycle “C”: Luke 2, 41

…”The parents of Jesus went to Jerusalem for the feast, taking the Child Jesus with them. And the Child was missing.”

Losing a child in a crowd is a parental nightmare. A combination of panic, guilt and desperation makes it a horrifying experience. Mary and Joseph, like all parents, would have struggled hard to keep their imagination in check throughout their frantic search for Jesus. Could he have been abducted by dacoits to be brought up like one of them; or murdered, with his mangled body lying in a thicket or open field? For the moment, those dark fantasies had to be suppressed and all energies galvanised for the search. Abduction and death among dacoits, his mangled body picked up by his mother was still 21 years off  -  the first Good Friday. For the time being, Mary’s search goes on and bore fruit.

Understandably, Mary expresses relief, disappointment and love. When she finally finds her Son in the Temple in the middle of a busy session with the wonderstruck elders, she asks, “Son, why have you treated us like this? Just look, how your father and I have been looking for you anxiously.” Jesus answered with a counter question, “Why were you looking for me? Didn’t you know I had to be about my Father’s business?” The Child Jesus was discovering and working out his identity. Yet we do not read that they were angry. In fact, Mary knew her son had a special destiny, and “she kept all these things in her heart”. We also read  “he went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them”. It was part of the Saviour’s humility that he chose to submit himself to the care of human parents; though he already knew he had his Father’s work to do, he also knew that it was in the environment of the family that he could best prepare for his mission.

This incident allows us to understand that the Holy Family had to face pressures similar to what families face today. From the moment Mary said “yes” to God, her life was plunged into the kind of trauma that the most marginalized people experience  -  homelessness, persecution, refugee status, and finally, watching her Son being tortured to death. Mary belongs among those who have nothing to give this Christmas but themselves.

The true gift holds nothing back. Since Mary gave herself, the Son of God became truly man and a member of a family. And because she gave of her best, she could keep the Holy Family together. Are parents and children today giving of their best? The pressures are pretty similar since the time of the Holy Family of Nazareth.

I was watching a programme on TV one evening in New Jersey. At precisely 9.30 p.m. there was a break, and it wasn’t a commercial. Instead, a message was flashed on the screen: “It’s 9.30 p.m. now. Where are your children?”

Where are they at other times? Times for meals, for prayers and evening study? Can the whole family sit together for the principal meals, and pray together for its own stability and happiness? Or is the home a cheap hotel where people come and go as they like without permission or information? Have discipline and obedience become unmentionable words?  Shall we insist that our children be educated into integral and competent human beings or turn out to be half-baked specimens of humanity, unable to face a competitive world?  Shall our children learn from us our prayers and refined vocabulary, or monosyllabic expletives and words of destructive criticism?

People, especially children, do not become good by being told to; they must be charmed into goodness, which, like love is not taught but caught. The environment in which we have been raised and in which we raise our children is essential to our formation and development.

 A family is a very human environment; in fact, the first a child is introduced to: the joy, the pain, the drama and the ordinary events of our lives are lived within its confines. God chose to mould and form his Son within the environment and culture of a family. He hasn’t broken the mould since, and thrown it away, because in his mind the family continues to be the place of holiness, love and emotional sustenance.  The Holy Family of Nazareth tells us that in God the family is not extinct.

Let me end with the story of a sailor named George. Most of his adult life he’d been on the high seas. He had never married, and now he was old and retired, living with his nephew Bill. Bill was married and had a few children. He had never travelled. All the travelling he could do was to listen to the travelogues of his sailor uncle George. Uncle George noticed there were times that Bill was fed up of family life  -  arguments with his wife, paying bills, children’s illnesses, etc..He often told his uncle, “I wish I was free to roam the world as you did.”

 One evening, after supper, the old sailor told the family about a certain map of buried treasure in his possession and that he would leave it to them at his death. Some years later sailor George died. Nephew Bill located the map. It was in an envelope addressed, in fact, to Bill himself. His hands shook in anticipation as he opened the envelope. It took him just a few moments to read the map. The direction led to the very house in which he stood. George the sailor was telling him from the grave: “Your own home and your family are your treasure. Don’t blow it. Enjoy it while you have to.”

PRAYER:  by Eric Milner-White (1884-1964) [A Dean of King’s College, he expanded and adapted the Festival of Nine Lessons for Christmas. Eric Milner-White went on to become Dean of York, and wrote many beautiful prayers. Here is one of them for the Family]

Almighty Father, who by thy Son Jesus Christ hast poured upon us thy best gift of love, to be the bond of perfectness in the families of men, and the means to bring man and wife and child to thine everlasting mansions; bless, we beseech thee, the homes of our land, that in them love and happiness abide, by faith in thee; through the same Jesus Christ Our Lord.

Lord Jesus, in the Holy Family you have given us a model of sanctity to imitate. We pray that you would strengthen the love in our own families, and that all families might come to know the unity and grace that you only can give.

CHRISTMAS: THE BIRTH OF JESUS CHRIST

CHRISTMAS: The Birth of Jesus Christ

The Son of God became man, - “the Word was made flesh” (John 1) in the womb of a young virgin. No one, except the young virgin, knew that Divinity had set up its tent among men. His royal chamber was the animals’ stable, his throne the manger, his canopy the hanging cobwebs, the reek of the dung the incense.  In this Child the Divine made an advance into the world and man, a divine transfusion by which we are transformed, elevated, redeemed; for whereas we were blind, now we see. In this Child, God and man have a purchase on each other. For God is so great that he can allow himself to become a child. He is so strong that he can appear weak. So overwhelmingly attractive that he draws everyone to himself without forcing anyone. God is so Almighty that he can bind people to himself without limiting their freedom.

The Incarnation, which was the starting point of Christianity, was a descent into the temporal, into the material, into this world of births and generations, into the world of buying and selling, into this world of housing and education, to this world of leisure and of hard work; this world of unemployment and taxes. The Lord Jesus Christ, who is the Son of God, took upon himself all this in order to transform, to elevate and transfigure.

Therefore, our salvation does not consist in a flight, an escape, a retreat from the world. Not a flight of the alone to the Alone. Not an escape from our fellowmen and our day to day burdens.

In every line of progress, spiritual, intellectual and material, the Incarnation must be sanctifying leaven.

Hence it should be the rule and not the exception to have saintly workers and peasants, saintly statesmen and judges, merchants and soldiers. All stages of life must be elevated, from childhood to adolescence, from marriage up to our last day on earth. “All flesh shall see the salvation of God” (John 1).

This divine-human Infant touched off a revolution, a quiet prolonged thunder, from the recesses of the cave of his birth, founding a Kingdom, characterized by unconditional love and undiscriminating service. The centre of this dynamic process is the human heart, and its source, the Son of God, born in the heart of each man and woman today. He is not an ideal or abstraction, a gaunt empty figure beyond description, but a Person in whom is the fullness of the Godhead, the most beautiful among men. He has come, not to use us as tools, carrying us along with him, striding on rapidly towards a high abstract goal. Nay, nothing great he put before us to achieve except to love him, to be faithful to him and to give testimony to him when the times comes. Most great men have failed, for their schemes have been their ideals, and their chosen men their tools. And when these great ones died there was no one to weep over them. But Jesus dying lives, and living he dies daily like the grain of wheat or else he takes no root in our hearts. His ideal is that we love him, that we love one another for him and that we believe in his love for us.

He comes into this world, dispossessed Infinity, naked and cold, that each one of us may give him something – the universe for his stable, for his manger our hearts and their warmth.

LOVE ACCORDING TO ST. PAUL

Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. ( 1 Corinthians Chp 13)

a. The Corinthians were enamored with spiritual gifts, particularly the gift of tongues. Paul reminds them even the gift of tongues is meaningless without love. Without love, a person may speak with the gift of tongues, but it is as meaningless as sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. It is nothing but empty noise.

i. "People of little religion are always noisy; he who has not the love of God and man filling his heart is like an empty wagon coming violently down a hill: it makes a great noise, because there is nothing in it." (Josiah Gregory, cited in Clarke)

b. Tongues of men and of angels: The ancient Greek word translated tongues has the simple idea of "languages" in some places (Acts 2:11 and Revelation 5:9). This has led some to say the gift of tongues is simply the ability to communicate the gospel in other languages, or it is the capability of learning languages quickly. But the way tongues is used here shows it can, and usually does, refer to a supernatural language by which a believer communicates to God. There is no other way to understand the reference to tongues of . . . angels.

i. In Paul's day, many Jews believed angels had their own language, and by the Spirit, one could speak it. The reference to tongues of . . . angels shows that though the genuine gift of tongues is a legitimate language, it may not be a "living" human language, or may not be a human language at all. Apparently, there are angelic languages men can speak by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

ii. Poole has a fascinating comment, suggesting that the tongues of . . . angels answer to how God may speak to us in a non-verbal way: "Angels have no tongues, nor make any articulate audible sounds, by which they understand one another; but yet there is certainly a society or intercourse among angels, which could not be upheld without some way amongst them to communicate their minds and wills to each other. How this is we cannot tell: some of the schoolmen say, it is by way of impression: that way God, indeed, communicates his mind sometimes to his people, making secret impressions of his will upon their minds and understandings."

c. Prophecy, knowledge, and faith to do miracles are likewise irrelevant apart from love. The Corinthian Christians missed the motive and the goal of the gifts, making them their own goal. Paul draws the attention back to love.

i. Paul, quoting the idea of Jesus, refers to faith which could remove mountains (Matthew 17:20). What an amazing thing it would be to have faith that could work the impossible! Yet, even with that kind of faith we arenothing without love.

ii. A man with that kind of faith can move great mountains, but he will set them down right in the path of somebody else - or right on somebody else - if he doesn't have love.

iii. It isn't an issue of love versus the gifts. A church should never be forced to choose between love and gifts of the Holy Spirit. Paul is emphasizing the focus and goal of the gifts: love, not the gifts for their own sake.

iv. "Possession of the charismata is not the sign of the Spirit; Christian love is." (Fee)

d. Have not love: Paul uses the ancient Greek word agape. The ancient Greeks had four different words we could translate love. It is important to understand the difference between the words, and why the apostle Paul chose the Greek word agape here.

i. Eros was one word for love. It described, as we might guess from the word itself, erotic love. It refers to sexual love.

ii. Storge was the second word for love. It refers to family love, the kind of love there is between a parent and child, or between family members in general.

iii. Philia is the third word for love. It speaks of a brotherly friendship and affection. It is the love of deep friendship and partnership. It might be described as the highest love of which man, without God's help, is capable of.

iv. Agape is the fourth word for love. It is a love that loves without changing. It is a self-giving love that gives without demanding or expecting repayment. It is love so great that it can be given to the unlovable or unappealing. It is love that loves even when it is rejected. Agape love gives and loves because it wants to; it does not demand or expect repayment from the love given. It gives because it loves; it does not love in order to receive. According to Alan Redpath, we get our English word agony from agape. "It means the actual absorption of our being in one great passion." (Redpath) Strictly speaking, agape can't be defined as "God's love," because men are said to agape sin and the world (John 3:19 and 1 John 2:15). But it can be defined as a sacrificial, giving, absorbing kind of love. The word has little to do with emotion; it has much to do with self-denial for the sake of another.

v. We can read this chapter and think that Paul is saying that if we are unfriendly, then our lives mean nothing. But agape isn't really friendliness; it is self-denial for the sake of another.

2. (3) The most dramatic renunciations of self are, in the same way, profitless without love.

And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing.

a. Bestow all my goods to feed the poor: This is what Jesus told the rich young ruler to do (Matthew 16:19-23), and he refused. But even if the rich young ruler had done what Jesus said, yet had not love, it would have been of no profit.

b. Though I give my body to be burned: Even if I lay my life down in dramatic martyrdom, apart from love, it is of no profit. Normally, no one would doubt the spiritual credentials of someone who gave away everything they had, and gave up their life in dramatic martyrdom. But those are not the best measures of someone's true spiritual credentials. Love is the best measure.

i. There were some early Christians so arrogant as to think that the blood of martyrdom would wash away any sin. They were so proud about their ability to endure suffering for Jesus, they thought it was the most important thing in the Christian life. It is important, but not the most important. Without love, it profits me nothing. Even if it is done willingly (Poole notes "and not be dragged to the stake, but freely give up myself to that cruel kind of death"), without love, it profits me nothing.

ii. Some believe the burning referred to here is not execution, but branding as a criminal or as a slave for the sake of the gospel. The more likely sense is execution, but it really matters little, because the essential meaning is the same - great personal sacrifice.

iii. As well, some ancient Greek manuscripts have if I give up my body that I may glory instead of though I give my body to be burned. Again, the meaning is the same, and the difference is really minor.

iv. Many Christians believe the Christian life is all about sacrifice - sacrificing your money, your life, for the cause of Jesus Christ. Sacrifice is important, but without love it is useless, it profits me nothing.

c. Each thing described in 1 Corinthians 13:1-3 is a good thing. Tongues are good, prophecy and knowledge and faith are good, sacrifice is good. But love is so valuable, so important, that apart from it, every other good thing is useless. Sometimes we make the great mistake of letting go of what is best for something else that is good, but not the best.

B. The description of love.

"Lest the Corinthians should say to the apostle, What is this love you discourse of? Or how shall we know if we have it? The apostle here gives thirteen notes of a charitable person." (Poole)

1. (4a) Two things love is: longsuffering and kind.

Love suffers long and is kind.

a. At the beginning, we see love is described by action words, not by lofty concepts. Paul is not writing about how love feels, he is writing about how it can be seen in action. True love is always demonstrated by action.

b. Love suffers long: Love will endure a long time. It is the heart shown in God when it is said of the Lord, The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9). If God's love is in us, we will show longsuffering to those who annoy us and hurt us.

i. The ancient preacher John Chrysostom said this is the word used of the man who is wronged, and who easily has the power to avenge himself, but will not do it out of mercy and patience. Do you avenge yourself as soon as you have the opportunity?

c. Love is kind: When we have and show God's love, it will be seen in simple acts of kindness. A wonderful measure of kindness is to see how children receive us. Children won't receive from or respond to unkind people.

2. (4b-6) Eight things love is not: not envious, not proud, not arrogant, not rude, not cliquish, not touchy, not suspicious, not happy with evil.

Love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth.

a. Love does not envy: Envy is one of the least productive and most damaging of all sins. It accomplishes nothing, except to hurt. Love keeps its distance from envy, and does not resent it when someone else is promoted or blessed. Clarke describes the heart which does not envy: "They are ever willing that others should be preferred before them."

i. Is envy a small sin? Envy murdered Abel (Genesis 4:3-8). Envy enslaved Joseph (Genesis 37:11, 28). Envy put Jesus on the cross: For he knew that they had handed Him over because of envy (Matthew 27:18).

ii. "Many persons cover a spirit of envy and uncharitableness with the name of godly zeal and tender concern for the salvation of others; they find fault with all; their spirit is a spirit of universal censoriousness; none can please them; and every one suffers by them. These destroy more souls by tithing mint and cummin, than others do by neglecting the weightier matters of the law. Such persons have what is termed, and very properly too,sour godliness." (Clarke)

b. Love does not parade itself: Love in action can work anonymously. It does not have to have the limelight or the attention to do a good job, or to be satisfied with the result. Love gives because it loves to give, not out of the sense of praise it can have from showing itself off.

i. Sometimes the people who seem to work the hardest at love are the ones the furthest from it. They do things many would perceive as loving, yet they do them in a manner that would parade itself. This isn't love; it is pride looking for glory by the appearance of love.

c. Love . . . is not puffed up: To be puffed up is to be arrogant and self-focused. It speaks of someone who has a "big head." Love doesn't get its head swelled; it focuses on the needs of others.

i. Both to parade itself and to be puffed up are simply rooted in pride. Among Christians, the worst pride is spiritual pride. Pride of face is obnoxious, pride of race is vulgar, but the worst pride is pride of grace!

ii. William Carey is thought by many to be the founder of the modern missionary movement. Today, Christians all over the world know who he was and honor him. He came from a humble place; he was a shoe repairman when God called him to reach the world. Once when Carey was at a dinner party, a snobbish lord tried to insult him by saying very loudly, "Mr. Carey, I hear you once were a shoemaker!" Carey replied, "No, your lordship, not a shoemaker, only a cobbler!" Today, the name of William Carey is remembered, but nobody remembers who that snobbish lord was. His love showed itself in not having a big head about himself.

d. Love . . . does not behave rudely: Where there is love, there will be kindness and good manners. Perhaps not in the stuffy, "look at how cultured I am" way of showing manners, but in the simply way people do not behave rudely.

e. Love . . . does not seek its own: Paul communicates the same idea in Romans 12:10: in honor giving preference to one another. Also, Philippians 2:4 carries the same thought: Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others. This is being like Jesus in a most basic way, being an others-centered person instead of a self-centered person.

i. "Love is never satisfied but in the welfare, comfort, and salvation of all. That man is no Christian who is solicitous for his own happiness alone; and cares not how the world goes, so that himself be comfortable." (Clarke)

f. Love . . . is not provoked: We all find it easy to be provoked or to become irritated with those who are just plain annoying. But it is a sin to be provoked, and it isn't love. Moses was kept from the Promised Land because he became provoked at the people of Israel (Numbers 20:2-11).

g. Love . . . thinks no evil: Literally this means "love does not store up the memory of any wrong it has received." Love will put away the hurts of the past instead of clinging to them.

i. One writer tells of a tribe in Polynesia where it was customary for each man to keep some reminders of his hatred for others. These reminders were suspended from the roofs of their huts to keep alive the memory of the wrongs, real or imagined. Most of us do the same.

ii. Real love "never supposes that a good action may have a bad motive . . . The original implies that he does not invent or devise any evil." (Clarke)

h. Love . . . does not rejoice in iniquity: It is willing to want the best for others, and refuses to color things against others. Instead, love rejoices in the truth. Love can always stand with and on truth, because love is pure and good like truth.

3. (7) Four more things love is: strong, believing, hopeful, and enduring. Spurgeon calls these four virtues love's four sweet companions.

Bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

a. All things: We might have hoped Paul would have chosen any phrase but this! All things covers everything! We can all bear some things, we can all believe some things, we can all hope some things, and we can allendure some things. But God calls us farther and deeper into love for Him, for one another, and for a perishing world.

i. "You must have fervent charity towards the saints, but you will find very much about the best of them which will try your patience; for, like yourself, they are imperfect, and they will not always turn their best side towards you, but sometimes sadly exhibit their infirmities. Be prepared, therefore, to contend with "all things" in them." (Spurgeon)

ii. "Love does not ask to have an easy life of it: self-love makes that her aim. Love denies herself, sacrifices herself, that she may win victories for God, and hers shall be no tinsel crown." (Spurgeon)

b. Love . . . bears all things: The word for bears can also be translated covers. Either way, Paul brings an important truth along with 1 Peter 4:8: And above all things have fervent love for one another, for "love will cover a multitude of sins."

i. "Love covers; that is, it never proclaims the errors of good men. There are busybodies abroad who never spy out a fault in a brother but they must hurry off to their next neighbour with the savoury news, and then they run up and down the street as though they had been elected common criers. It is by no means honorable to men or women to set up to be common informers. Yet I know some who are not half so eager to publish the gospel as to publish slander. Love stands in the presence of a fault, with a finger on her lip." (Spurgeon)

ii. "I would, my brothers and sisters, that we could all imitate the pearl oyster. A hurtful particle intrudes itself into its shell, and this vexes and grieves it. It cannot eject the evil, and what does it do but cover it with a precious substance extracted out of its own life, by which it turns the intruder into a pearl. Oh, that we could do so with the provocations we receive from our fellow Christians, so that pearls of patience, gentleness, long-suffering, and forgiveness might be bred within us by that which has harmed us." (Spurgeon)

c. Love . . . believes all things: We never believe a lie, but we never believe evil unless the facts demand it. We choose to believe the best of others.

i. "Love, as far as she can, believes in her fellows. I know some persons who habitually believe everything that is bad, but they are not the children of love . . . I wish the chatterers would take a turn at exaggerating other people's virtues, and go from house to house trumping up pretty stories of their acquaintances." (Spurgeon)

d. Love . . . hopes all things: Love has confidence in the future, not pessimism. When hurt, it does not say, "It will be this way forever, and even get worse." It hopes for the best, and it hopes in God.

e. Love . . . endures all things: Most of us can bear all things, and believe all things, and hope all things, but only for a while! The greatness of agape love is it keeps on bearing, believing, and hoping. It doesn't give up. It destroys enemies by turning them into friends.

i. "If your brethren are angry without a cause, be sorry for them, but do not let them conquer you by driving you into a bad temper. Stand fast in love; endure not some things, but all things, for Christ's sake; so you shall prove yourself to be a Christian indeed." (Spurgeon)

4. The best way to understand each of these is to see them in the life of Jesus. We could replace the word love with the name Jesus and the description would make perfect sense.

Among all the good human traits (gifts of the spirit),  Love will outlive all other gifts.

 A summary of love's permanence: love abides forever.

And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

a. And now abide faith, hope, love, these three: The three great pursuits of the Christian life are not "miracles, power, and gifts"; they are faith, hope, and love. Though the gifts are precious, and given by the Holy Spirit today, they were never meant to be the focus or goal of our Christian lives. Instead, we pursue faith, hope, and love.

i. What is your Christian life focused on? What do you really want more of? It should all come back to faith, hope, and love. If it doesn't, we need to receive God's sense of priorities, and put our focus where it belongs.

b. Because faith, hope, and love are so important, we should expect to see them emphasized throughout the New Testament. And we do:

i. Remembering without ceasing your work of faith, labor of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ in the sight of our God and Father. (1 Thessalonians 1:3)

ii. But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet the hope of salvation. (1 Thessalonians 5:8)

iii. For we through the Spirit eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness by faith. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but faith working through love. (Galatians 5:5-6)

iv. Who through Him believe in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God. Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincerelove of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart. (1 Peter 1:21-22)

v. Since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of your love for all the saints; because of the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, of which you heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel. (Colossians 1:4-5)

vi. For this reason I also suffer these things; nevertheless I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that Day. Hold fast the pattern of sound words which you have heard from me, in faith and love which are in Christ Jesus. (2 Timothy 1:12-13)

c. But the greatest of these is love: Love is greatest because it will continue, even grow, in the eternal state. When we are in heaven, faith and hope will have fulfilled their purpose. We won't need faith when we see God face to face. We won't need to hope in the coming of Jesus once He comes. But we will always love the Lord and each other, and grow in that love through eternity.

c. Love is also the greatest because it is an attribute of God (1 John 4:8), and faith and hope are not part of God's character and personality. God does not have faith in the way we have faith, because He never has to "trust" outside of Himself. God does not have hope the way we have hope, because He knows all things and is in complete control. But God is love, and will always be love.

i. Fortunately, we don't need to choose between faith, hope, and love. Paul isn't trying to make us choose, but he wants to emphasize the point to the Corinthian Christians: without love as the motive and goal, the gifts are meaningless distractions. If you lose love, you lose everything.

FOURTH SUNDAY OF ADVENT Cycle "C"

FOURTH SUNDAY OF ADVENT

Cycle “C”: Luke 1, 39 – 45

That 15 year teenager, named Mary of Nazareth, suddenly became a mother-to-be. Like the average woman, she submitted to the miracle of pregnancy, to something that took its own course, irrespective of the mother, because, as in every pregnancy, it was monitored by a higher power. In Mary’s case, it was the Holy Spirit. St. Luke, himself a physician, tells us that Mary conceived the person of the God-Man Jesus from day one of her pregnancy. Luke then adds that right after the angel’s visit, Mary made a quickie trip to her cousin Elizabeth in Ain Karim about 90 miles away. The journey took a week plus. So, the young woman was pregnant about 10 days on arrival. Her amazement and sheer wonder at being chosen must have made her forget the difficulties of the travel, the brooks without bridges, the roads without ridges; the snakes, scorpions and dacoits. Those were the material dangers. This 14 year old had also weathered the moral dangers. In choosing to believe and accept the Angel Gabriel’s message, Mary knew that she was risking humiliation by a pre-marital pregnancy, denunciation and divorce by Joseph, social and religious ostracism, and even death by stoning for adultery, which any old rat could bring against her falsely. But Mary’s humble and obedient assent was full of great faith. She knew that God would do everything for her. And on reaching Elizabeth’s house, yet another thrill awaited her: Elizabeth already knew about Mary’s secret: “Blessed are you among women. And how am I visited by the mother of my Lord ?” The meeting between the all but barren lady and the fresh young sliver of a girl is a touching scene, captured in innumerable works of art. The feeling of joy, the sense of anticipation is so palpable that even the child in Elizabeth’s womb leaps for joy  -  the heartiest high jump done by a fetus, and with good reason. There is no mention of Mary telling Elizabeth her secret, the secret Joseph learned through an angel. All we have is her word of greeting, her “Shalom.” Here Mary’s greeting is the vehicle of the Holy Spirit who reveals the presence of the Messiah to the older woman. She responds in faith: “Blessed is the fruit of your womb.” And in great humility the elder bows to the younger. “Why is this granted me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me ?” Elizabeth’s words were prophetic. Even before John the Baptist would be old enough to point out the Saviour, his mother already proclaimed the coming of the Lord !

Now what do you think of Mary’s word of greeting?  Did you ever consider that even before her Son Jesus would institute the sacraments, his mother’s word to Elizabeth was already a sacrament? A sacrament, after all, is an outward sign of inward grace. Here the outward sign was Mary’s word of greeting; and the inward grace was the Holy Spirit’s action that sanctified John the Baptist while yet in the womb. Again, how very peculiar that both the mothers, Elizabeth and Mary, beat their sons to it, anticipating their sons’ ministries by three decades. Mary was the minister of John’s sanctification by her simple word of greeting; and Elizabeth was the first proclaimer of the Messiah in the New Testament.

Worldly joy can be a brief and fleeting experience: mostly it illuminates moments of delight in our lives and quickly fades; but God wants us to experience his lasting joy, the way he gave it to Mary and Elizabeth   His joy has its source in a well spring from which we draw  -  the well spring is the deposit of faith in our hearts since baptism. If we take time at this joyful season to contemplate the meaning of the birth of Jesus we can be confident that God’s joy will be the fruit of that meditation. There are times when it is hard for us to emulate Mary’s joy. We may be ground down by work, depression, worries, and all the trials of life in this world. When this happens we must learn from Mary’s example and ponder the wonders God has done in history and in each of our own lives. He created us, he makes himself known through prayer, scripture and the teaching of the Church, and he continuously showers his blessings on us.

We are very nearly certain that the word that Mary pronounced in greeting was “SHALOM’ (peace). It’s the very same word we pronounce as we turn to each other during the great sacrament we celebrate called the Eucharist. With sincere hearts we invoke heaven’s peace upon our world, hoping to create thereby a ladder reaching from earth to heaven. Let this ladder be placed in every family, in every community, the ladder of prayer and consequent peace, so that there would no difference between earth and heaven.

We can be hopeful that the Holy Spirit wants to fill us with the same sense of joy and confident assurance. This joy cannot be purchased or fabricated, but is born from within: secure, durable, lasting. God will convince us that his truths are not cold and sterile statements, but something that imparts life and power. So give God yet another chance in your life and do not turn away, but welcome him as Elizabeth welcomed Mary, the mother of the Lord.

PRAYER  (Frank Colquhoun):

Our heavenly Father, as once again we prepare for Christmas, help us to find time in our busy lives for quiet reflection and prayer; that we may reflect upon the wonder of your love and allow the story of the Saviour’s birth to penetrate our hearts and minds. So may our joy be deeper, our worship more real, and our lives worthier of all that you have done for us through the coming of your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

CYRIL CARAPIET

Introduction: Two days into our bereavement.  At the time of our bereavement human words prove inadequate, So, rather than look for words to express the inexpressible, let us hand ourselves over to the Church’s liturgy that invokes God’s mercy upon our dear friend and brother, and proclaim our faith in his resurrection in Christ.  The moment he closed his eyes to this world and opened them to the light of eternity, all was suffused in the love of God and the saints, and he was in a flash rejuvenated forever. Such is the advent of the comforting love of God. May it be so for us all as we prepare to celebrate the holy mysteries of Jesus.

TRIBUTE:

Lord, grant that the greater harvest

Which we came on earth to save

May be golden and ripe for the reaping

‘Ere we go to the lonely grave;

That our souls in the last dread autumn

May be clean as the hill and the lea,

When we bring life’s grain to the haggard

And offer it all to thee.

(A Harvest Prayer, from the Irish)

.           It is harvest time, and a much loved and respected one among us has joined the immense throng in obedient ascent to the Lord’s beckoning. The grain was mellow and golden by heaven’s reckoning, and we handed our beloved father, friend and brother over to the transcendent Lord of the vineyard and wheat field.

 A robust citizen of Calcutta, handsome and stately, this noble-hearted man presented a picture of true manhood.

We may well be left asking if all the accumulated excellence and achievements of the departed should be exposed to futility.

The self-sacrificing love of husband and father, a most devoted parishioner; entertainer par excellence his singing voice proved there was music in his soul. The countless hours of adoration of the Eucharistic Lord. The devoted services to his Church that he loved so much. The uplifting assistance to the poor and distressed. The wit and humour of his considerate hospitality. Should this all be exposed to futility? The answer is “no”, since the Resurrection of Christ and the Assumption of his Blessed Mother point our bodies with their comprehensive histories towards a transcendent consummation which we call ”community in God”.

In a world torn by competitive contention, Cyril Carapiet  lived on an island of serene confidence, drawing inspiration from Jesus his music Master. His shop was set on a hill and paved with perfection.

 Ageing graciously is more than a process that happens naturally. It takes years to know the Jesus you first loved and who called you, and to attain the grace of accepting that everything comes from the hands of God. Contending with God rather the devil is the quality of maturing years, and the fruit of it is not more contention but a deeper sense of peace. This last period of life has a depth and spirituality all its own. Here tranquility is neither forced nor artificial.

Life is a game or a piece of music, if that’s how you want it, and the way you choose to play it is the key to being a winner or loser. Coming in first does not make you a winner, any more than coming in last makes you a loser. In the words of Granland Rice, “When the one great Scorekeeper comes, he counts not whether you won or lost but how you played the game.”  Cyril played with  integrity and serenity. His departure was serenely sweet.

What he believed in faith he now experiences, in the words of the Prophet Jeremiah, Chapter 31: “I have loved you. I guard you as a shepherd guards his flock. They will come and sing for joy on Mt. Sion. I will guide them to the streams of water. Men, young and old, will rejoice. I will turn their mourning into joy. Stop your crying and wipe away your tears.” And from the book of Revelation, chapter 1: “I turned round to see who was speaking to me, and when I turned, I saw....one like a Son of Man, dressed in a long white robe tied at the waist with a belt of gold. His head and his hair were white with the whiteness of wool, like snow, his eyes like a burning flame, his feet like burnished bronze when it has been refined in a furnace....His face was like the sun shining in full strength. When I saw him I fell at his feet as though dead, but he laid his hand on me and said, “Do not be afraid...I was dead and look...I am alive forever and ever.”  “Look at my hand and feet...it’s me...touch me.” (Lk 28, 39).

Now in the sadness and smile of our memories he reposes.

We witnessed him hasten home in God’s embrace.

He is now in peace, in fulfilment, in loving.

Into the cycle of living and dying and rising again we let him go.

Into the tapestry of rain and sunshine we let him go.

Into the dance of the stars and planets we let him go.

Into the wind’s breath and the hands of the star Maker we let him go.

We love him, we miss him.

We want him to be happy.

Cyril Carapiet,

 our faithful friend, devoted father and loving brother in the Faith,

Into the darkness and warmth of the earth

We lay you down.

Into the sadness and smiles of our memories

We lay you down.

Into the cycle of living and dying and rising again

We lay you down.

May you rest in peace, in fulfilment, in loving.

May you run straight home in God’s embrace.

Into the freedom of wind and sunshine

We let you go.

Into the dance of the stars and the planets

We let you go.

Into the wind’s breath and the hands

of the star Maker

We let you go.

We love you, we miss you,

we want you to be happy.

Go lightsome, go laughing,

Go prancing home !”

            So, we shall carry our friend to the edge of the river and gently place him in the boat about to depart. Let the sails fill with the sweet Zephyr of the Spirit he loved so much and convey him to the further shore. As he wafts away into the soft sunset, into the embrace of eternity, he turns to wave to us a fond farewell.

 We wave back and say:      Adieu, Cyril, son of Charles Wilton and Ella Teresa Carapiet…, Adieu. 

Let us pray

O great and merciful God,

Bring our dear friend and brother, true son of the Church at his last awakening,

into your house and gate of heaven,

to enter into that gate and dwell in that house

where shall be no darkness nor dazzling,

but one equal light, no noise nor silence, but one equal music, no fears nor hopes, but one equal possession, no ends nor beginnings, but one equal eternity in the habitations of your glory and dominion,

forever and ever. Amen. 

A Prayer for those gathered here

Lord of eternity,

whose power is infinite,

whose days are without number

and whose mercy is beyond our fathoming:

keep our faces always turned towards you,

so that, each day, we remember

that life is your gift,

and the hour of death unknown.

And when finally we meet you face to face,

transform us in the fire of your love,

and receive us into your eternal kingdom.

Amen

Church of St. Ignatius,

Kolkata,

2^nd. December 2015.

ISIS, A SIGN OF THE END TIMES ?

Is ISIS a sign of the end times?"

 Many Christians wonder if the rise of ISIS (the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria), also known as ISIL (the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant) and IS (Islamic State), is a sign of the end times. ISIS has attracted a lot of attention due to its brutal tactics in gaining and maintaining control over territory in Iraq and Syria and its terrorism in other parts of the world (most notably the November 13, 2015, Paris attacks).

ISIS’s murder of Middle Eastern Christians has been particularly heinous. The way ISIS has been beheading Christians (and other victims) reminds many of Revelation 20:4, which predicts the manner of execution the Antichrist will use during the tribulation; “Also I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus and for the word of God.” And, of course, the fact that ISIS is attempting to establish its Islamic caliphate so close to the borders of Israel is a definite matter of concern.

There is no biblical prophecy that explicitly predicts the rise of ISIS. The Bible prophesies an increase in wars and rumors of wars (Matthew 24:6), and Jesus declared that persecution will be the experience of anyone who seeks to follow Him (John 15:18–20). Further, Second Timothy 3:1–4 could be seen as a fitting description of ISIS in many ways: “There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God.”

But these passages do not specifically predict ISIS. Rather, they inform us what the end times will be like. As a result, we should not be surprised by the rise of ISIS. The world is going to get worse before the end times, and then the world will get exponentially worse during the end times (see Revelation 6–18).

Is ISIS a definite sign of the end times? No. Is ISIS a possible sign of the end times? Yes. Could the actions of ISIS lead to a greater conflict that fulfills one of the end-times warsprophesied in the Bible? Yes. But, presently, the world is united against ISIS. Does that unity set the stage for a global government, as predicted in Scripture? Could the world’s being united against a great evil like ISIS eventually lead to the rise of the greatest evil the world will ever see, theAntichrist? Could the leader of ISIS, presently Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, be the Antichrist? Again, it is possible.

Ultimately, we will have to wait and see what role, if any, ISIS plays in the end times. At this time, ISIS is simply proof of what the Bible says about how evil humanity can become without Christ (Jeremiah 17:9; Romans 3:10–18).