Dear brothers and sisters,
Today the Church celebrates the Solemnity Or Lord Jesus Christ, Universal King. This Solemnity marks the end of the liturgical year. But if we remember the gospel from last Sunday we notice that the end of the liturgical year speaks about the end of the world. Sometimes when we think about the end of the world immediately we imagine something catastrophic like in a movie. If we want have the right image about the end of the world we should listen carefully today's gospel. What does today's gospel speak about? For the Solemnity Our Lord Jesus Christ, Universal King the Church chose the most humiliating moment during the live of Jesus. The moment when Jesus was crucified, humiliated, dishonoured, ridiculed. "He saved others, they said let him save himself if he is the Christ of God, the Chosen One". Even in this difficult moment, the moment of death, the leaders humiliated Jesus. How does Jesus respond? No, we haven't got the answer. We can find only one sentence of Jesus'. When one of the criminals hanging there says to Jesus: "Remember me when you come into your kingdom". In this particularly difficult moment, the moment of death, Jesus show us Who he is. Jesus' answer is: "I promise you, today you will be with me in paradise". At this point Jesus teaches us that the final moment of our life is a good time for conversion. In an instant when we can change our life. But we are free to choose, we can follow Jesus but this is not mandatory. One of the other criminals who was crucified with Jesus, hanging there, abused him. "Are you not the Christ? he said. 'Save yourself and us as well". Even at the moment of death he refused conversion. This gospel account show us how we have to be prepare for our death. Sometimes I find that to speak about death and the end of the world is not very popular. There is silence on this topic not only in the church but in our life as well. We live for today and we don't think about the future. What will happen to us after our life ends? That is most important question in our faith. That is the question which we must confront today on the feast of the Solemnity Our Lord Jesus Christ, Universal King. If I recognized Jesus as King of my life even in the most difficult moment of my life, like moment of death, I can follow Jesus. Thousands of thousands of Christian who lived before us knew this and today we call them martyrs. Why on this day of the Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, Universal King we speak about death and the end of the world? The answer is a paradox being so easy and so difficult at same time. For us, for Christians the end of the world and death is not the end, every Sunday when we profess our faith we repeat: "We look for the resurrection of the dead". Death is not the last moment in our life the last will be resurrection and everlasting life with Christ. But sometimes we Christians profess our faith without thinking about what we are saying. We only repeat something familiar to us without being the conscious of what the text of the Credo is saying or don't believe anymore in the resurrection. But this situation is nothing new for example Saint Paul wrote to Corinthians: "If there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is empty, and or belief comes to nothing". Today's solemnity is for us the opportunity to renew our faith. How do that? We have two ways for renewal of our faith: Adoration and Prayer. At this point we need go back in the beginning of today's gospel. The first sentence teaches us to venerate Jesus. "The people stayed there before the cross watching Jesus". Today we need to recognize Jesus on the Cross as our master and our King. That is our adoration and this adoration is the starting point for prayer. In today's gospel we can see the one criminal who prays and teaches how we can pray: "Jesus remember me when you come into your kingdom". These two ways are mandatory for us: adoration and prayer because they build our faith.
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Dear brothers and sisters,
Today's gospel speaks about a man whose name was Zacchaeus. He was anxious to see what kind of man Jesus was. Right away we can ask: why was Zacchaeus anxious to see Jesus? Probably, because he heard about Jesus, maybe Zacchaeus knew that Jesus was capable of performing miracles, or maybe he didn't have anything more interesting to do. "He was one of the senior tax collectors and a wealthy man". He had other people working for him. Zacchaeus as one of the senior tax collectors didn't have to work, which meant Zacchaeus had a lot of free time. He was seeking for something meaningful in his live and one day Jesus entered Jericho. According to Luke's Gospel Zacchaeus was too short and could not see Jesus. He, therefore, ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree to catch a glimpse of Jesus who was to pass that way. He was so determined to see Jesus, he was ready to climb a sycamore tree just like a child not like one of the senior tax collectors. What happened next: Zacchaeus saw Jesus and Jesus saw Zacchaeus and then spoke to him: "Zacchaeus, come down. Hurry, because I must stay at your house today". A beautiful story, but what is the importance of this story for us? Do we want to see Jesus? Are we ready to run ahead and climb a tree because we want see Jesus? Are we ready with faith to handle adversity in our lives? Zacchaeus was too short to see Jesus, he overcame his limitation and finally he was able to see Jesus. But this story is not finished. When Zacchaeus saw Jesus, to some people Jesus was doing something incredible by saying, "Zacchaeus, come down. Hurry, because I must stay at your house today". Brothers and sisters today Jesus call us: Mark, Michael, Jacinta, Pam, Halinka, Stefan and everyone else... come down. I must stay at your house today. Are you ready? First I need to ask myself: Am I ready accept Jesus in my house? If my answer is: Yes and if your answer is Yes ... ATTENTION When Jesus entered Zacchaeus' house, his life changed completely: "Look, Sir, I am going to give half my property to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody I will pay him back four times the amount". Why Zacchaeus, one of the senior tax collectors and a wealthy man, became a benefactor of poor people? There is only one answer: he met Jesus and that was enough for him. If we one day will be able to meet Jesus in our life that will be the most incredible experience. We can't wait any more, the day is today. Today, 3 of November is the perfect day for meeting Jesus. Look the last sentence of today's gospel: "Today salvation has come to this house"- it's not tomorrow or next week but today is the day which we can met Jesus. Dear brothers and sisters.
Today's gospel starts in the Temple. The Beautiful Temple which took 46 years to build, spectacular and magnificent. While some people were speaking about the beauty of the Temple Jesus said something what was unexpected. "All these things you are staring at now - the time will come when not single stone will be left on another: everything will be destroyed". Sometimes our Master Jesus speaks and teaches not with tranquility but he prepares us for hard and rigid times. Like the moment when we must acknowledge Jesus. In the gospel according to Matthew (10,32) Jesus teaches us: "Whoever acknowledges me before others, I will acknowledge before my Father in heaven". We are conscious that Jesus speaks about end of the world. When the followers of Jesus heard and we heard, today, hear this story, about end of the world naturally we ask: "When will this happen, then, and what sign will there be that this is about to take place?" What is Jesus' answer to this question? "Take care not to be deceived" "because many will using my name and saying, "I am he" and "The time is near at hand". Today we can find out if the words of Jesus are true. Some people don't believe in Jesus any more but they have a different religion with name of consumerism or hedonism. Sometimes we can find our lives like that, we live only for pleasure. Pleasure and the good life are not wrong but these are not the true meaning of our lives. At this point I need to ask myself, you need ask yourself,' what is meaning of my life?' As Catholics and Christians we have the correct answer: Jesus is meaning of my live. Jesus said to us in the gospel according to John: "I am the way, the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father but through me". Jesus gives our lives meaning, only if we want. If I don't follow Jesus I will be a 'free person'. I can doing everything and anything in my live. If I want to follow Jesus I need to acknowledge Him. It's not possible to be Catholic and Christian without this acknowledgement. Every day we are called give witness. Show to world: Yes, I am catholic, I am a catholic priest, I am a catholic husband, wife, we are a catholic family. It's impossible to live a catholic life whiteout acknowledging Jesus before others. Even that is not easy, of course today being a catholic is not easy. Never in history was it easy. Jesus says that in today's gospel: Men will seize you and persecute you because of my name- and that will be your opportunity to bear witness. In addition Jesus tells us how we can defended ourselves: 'Your are not to prepare your defence, because I myself shall give you an eloquence and a wisdom that none of your opponents will be able to resist or contradict'. We should listen carefully: ' I myself shall give you an eloquence and a wisdom'. Do we want to receive this reward from Jesus? If our answer is: Yes; we need to listen carefully our Master Jesus, we need to read the gospel in order to discover what he wants to give us. We need to nourish our lives with the Body and Blood of Jesus. It is not enough do that only sometimes but every day with endurance. Jesus teaches us in the last sentence of today's gospel: "Your endurance will win you your lives". With endurance we need follow Jesus, with endurance we need to listen to His word, with endurance we need nourish our lives with the Body of Christ. Your endurance will win you your lives. |
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