High light
(1) Why your truth and My truth is not same? What you mean by truth?
(2)Why Thomas, a most lovable of Jesus disciple, doubted Jesus resurrection?
(3)Why you murmur"My Lord. My God"at the elevation of sacred host or at benediction? What it means?
(4)Can you be a catholic, if you don't understand and believe that Jesus has resurrected? Why Jews still believe that Jesus has not risen, but HIS death body has been stolen by HIS disciples?
(5)Why?When Pilate questioned Jesus(Jn18:37),Jesus claimed that HE is a witness to the truth. Can you find out the real truth by yourself, without the support of God?.
(6)Is truth connected to Mercy!.why this sunday we celebrate Divine Mercy
(7)What do you mean by Mercy. What are the merciful actions, church ask you to do?.
Reflection for April 2017, celebrating, 2nd sunday mass of easter season cycle 1. Church invite us to analyze, how to seek and establish truth in our life!. Also today church celebrate the feast of Divine Mercy:
Let us first analyze about the truth!
We know about apostle Thomas, whom the feast we celebrate on 3 of July. He is famously known as Doubting Thomas!
He is a apostle of Jesus. He loved Jesus & was prepared to accompany Him to the house of dead Lazarus ,though others feared to be stoned by Jews!
At last supper he declared"lord we don't know where you are going,so how can we know the way?"
He refused to believe Jesus resurrection uttered timeless act of faith"MY LORD & MY GOD"at lords 2nd apparition to apostles,where he was present.
People are still searching of "bone box" of Jesus!to disprove Resurrection,the core factor of Christianity!.Do any of the most current alternative theories finally succeed in putting Jesus back in his grave?No:
When we say"MY LORD & MY GOD"at the elevation of sacred Host in Holy Mass & at Benediction,it is reminded the Resurrection & presence of God in the Eucrastic .
In Madras, Thomas is believed to be martyred by a spear. Why Thomas doubted at the 1st time,in his absence? Indicates us that when we live not in presence of God, we find it difficult to identify the truth!
Then what is truth?
TRUTH is a fact that has been verified!or confirmed with reality. But your truth may be different to my truth. With Baptism,we became sons & daughters of God,to be guided by Him for all our actions,leading Holiness in truth.
Truth has to be explored & verified. Then only we can unfold the real truth. When Pilate questioned Jesus(Jn18:37),Jesus claimed that HE is a witness to the truth. Following this statement,Pilate proclaimed that he find No Basis for a charge against Jesus. In reality,only God knows the validity of your truth,as humans cannot read another person's mind. Mt 38:12 reveals,how Jews still believed as truth that Jesus'dead body was stolen by disciples. Without God's support,it will be difficult to find truth!Many times you feel that you are farthest from truth,yet very close to it. When you think you are on top of the world,you can be sitting either on delusion of truth or in a very dangerous place.
So truth,as viewed by human's may different from person to person. That is why we say your truth may be different to my truth. This will create difference of opinions among people, resulting a cross!. That is why God chosen cross to die himself. Depending upon your truth, you will initiate merciful action to support another human being:
Then what is mercy?
There are 5 meanings.(1)leniency & compassion shown toward offenders by a person or an agency charged with administering justice(2)a disposition to be kind & forgiving(3)feeling that motivates compassion(4)something for which to be thankful(5)alleviating of distress: showing great kindness toward the distressed.
Without the support of God, it will be difficult to find out Truth, without truth, it will be difficult to extend mercy. Church most appropriately allocated this sunday as Divine Mercy feast.
Blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy(Mt5:7).This is what Jesus told us at sermon on mount.2000 yrs later He chose a simple uneducated nun to remind the world of this gospel truth that God remains perpetually committed to extending His Merciful LOVE to His children,to all of humanity. The greater the sinner,the greater his right to God's mercy(d.423).God instructed St faustina to have image painted according to her vision of HIM,with the inscription"JESUS I TRUST YOU".He told her"I DESIRE THAT THIS IMAGE TO BE VENERATED,first in your chapel & then(througout world)(D.47) "I PROMISE THAT SOUL VENERATE THIS IMAGE WILL NOT PERISH.I ALSO PROMISE VICTORY OVER IT'S ENEMIES ALREADY HERE ON EARTH, SPECIALLY AT THE HOUR OF DEATH.I MYSELF WILL DEFEND IT AS MY GLORY"(D.49). She then received the chaplet(D.476) & Novena(D.1209) of Divine Mercy, thru'these prayers,for ourselves & whole world but stressed that there must also be acts of Mercy(D.742).
Following healings of maureen Digan & Fr Ron Pytel,She became saint on 30/4/2000.Divine Mercy was declared by St John Paul 2 in 2002.
How to pray Divine Mercy chaplet?
Faustina(Helena Kowalaska)Polish born on25/8/1905. At 20 yrs She joined sisters of our lady of Mercy. Soon she had vision divine mercy of white garment with a hand raise of blessing. Jesus emphasized for a set of prayer said on ordinary rosary,
sign+,OUR FATHER,HAIL MARY & CREED,between Decades(large bead)"ETERNAL FATHER,I OFFER U THE BODY&BLOOD,SOUL&DIVINITY OF U'R DEARLY BELOVED SON,OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST,IN ATONEMENT FOR OUR SINS & THOSE OF THE WHOLE WORLD"for each small bead(decade)"FOR THE SAKE OF HIS SORROWFUL PASSION,HAVE MERCY ON US&ON THE WHOLE WORLD"
the chap let concludes by praying 3 times"HOLY GOD,HOLY MIGHTY ONE,HOLY IMMORTAL ONE,HAVE MERCY ON US & ON THE WHOLE WORLD"to be offered at 3PM-HOUR OF MERCY.
She found difficult to convince her superiors,wrote a diary'Divine Mercy in My Soul"She died on 5/10/1938 &raised to alters by Pope JP2 on 30/4/2000
Todays readings:
Act of apostles(Ac24-27) says"The faithful all lived together and owned everything in common"
Peter (1Pt1:3-9) says"in HIS great mercy HE has given us a new birth, as HIS sons by raising Jesus from the death.
Jn 20:19-31 says"eight days later Jesus Came"
Reflection: Mercy and merciful are words which speak to heart and rightly so because we all need from time to time the experience of mercy and compassion, not only from our neighbor, but from God HIMSELFS. We see something in that nature in today's Gospel: Thomas is unable to come to faith and Jesus reaches out to HIM, inviting him, to touch HIM. The climax of the story is the "beatitude" which closes it. Happy who are those not seen and yet believe.
Jesus showed us, how to change the unit of measurements of Holiness, of the requirement for entrance into God's presence!... Or how we measure growth and worth in the human race. It is not about the volumes of prayers, it is about the depth of them. It is not about how good you look, it is how you treat lilies(humans).
All of us are slaves to our ideas, and concepts, we have of success are what drives us.
When men are measured in terms of their money,and women are measured in term of their looks, we have a long way to go in creating a sense of values for our children. Women must not be measured and weighed like cattle, yet even today they give their height and weight in magazines. Men too must not be measured how much money they have in the bank. Man with x Billion rupees, is worth more than a child with a rupee in his pocket?. Yet watch how people with money are treated compared to those who have non. It is because of our cultural unit of measurement.
IN conclusions
Why did Thomas want to put his finger to the risen Christ’s wound? Why do Jews still believe that Jesus’ body was stolen by HIS disciples? This is a good example to understand misunderstanding of the truth, even in the issues faced by the world in the present day.Without God’s support, the verification of truth is difficult, as we are not avail of 100% information of a particular action! With the present information explosion Era,we'll be misjudge lies as truth, if we don't ask God to show us the truth! When we don't follow God's Will,our life will swing from truth to a lie,until we become physically & mentally sick!
Vatican2 reminded us,a baptized person is called to live a life of holiness(supernatural gift)With baptism,YOU ARE ENABLE TO WORSHIP GOD& PRACTISE CORPORAL(of body-feeding hungry+giving drink to thirsty+clothing nacked+welcoming stranger+visiting sick & imprisoned+burying death)&
SPIRITUAL WORKS (counseling doubtful+instructing ignorant+admonishing sinner+comforting sorrowful+bearing wrong patiently+pray for living & dead)OF MERCY,REGARDLESS OF THEIR STATE IN LIFE(vocation,carrier/job)Read
Finally church invite us today, how to become a practical Catholic, to search for God's Will for you, by understanding truth and carrying out merciful actions!
Thank you!
GBU
