Two Prayers, Two Persons

Two Prayers, Two Persons

Last Sunday, when we celebrated the World Mission Sunday, we realized that Christian mission flows from our prayer. This Sunday, the Sunday of priesthood, Jesus tells us how to pray.  Christian life is a life of prayer.  Today's gospel tells us two kinds of prayer, a Pharisee and a tax collector,  one just speaks to himself; the other prays to God. From these two persons, we need to learn about our prayer.

1. Pray to Whom?

First, to whom, we shall pray? From this Pharisee and this tax collector, we understand that both of them prayed to God, but their understanding of God is different.  For the Pharisee, there was not a God in his prayer. His prayer is a way to justify himself before God. For the tax collector, God is almighty and merciful, and beyond human beings.  When one knows who God is, one will have a real prayer.

For Christians, we pray to the Almighty God who is a creator and redeemer of all creatures. Compared to God, we human beings are as nothing. God has created us and sustains us in our daily life. All creatures are from God. God is the Lord of this world and our life. As human beings, we are just creatures of God. Through love, God created us in his image.  So, when we pray, we pray to an almighty God. 

Through the incarnated God, Jesus Christ, we know that God is Father. In Jesus Christ, we dare to call God, "our father". This Father loves us through Jesus Christ in the Holy Spirit; this Father is still the almighty God. Respect is a basic attitude when we turn to God our Father. So, every time, when we say the "Lord's prayer", we do not recite the words of prayer, we talk to God the almighty Father who is the creator of all creatures and beyond all the creation.

 

2. How to Pray?

Second, how shall we pray? This Pharisee "took up his position and spoke a prayer to himself". Because he did not know God, he did not show humility before God. The tax collector "stood off at a distance and would not even raise his eyes to heaven but beat his breast and prayed." This tax collector knew he was before God, the creator of all.  Here are two ways of prayer; they are also two ways of religious life.  The one who does not know God, their religious life is a show or acts self-righteous and is concerned about oneself. The one who knows God, their religious life is a way of transformation. Without God, life will become fragile and self-centered; With God, life will be renewed and full of mercy.

How we pray is about our relationship with God. In front of God, everyone will realize that one is a sinner. In the presence of God, as Christians, we know God loves us, and we seek God's mercy.

 

3. What to Say?

Third, what shall we say when we pray? What this Pharisee said was just to convince his righteousness and to despise other people.  We know this is not a prayer. It is another way to commit sin.

The tax collector prayed to God: " O God, be merciful to me a sinner." Through this prayer, the tax collector turned to God and asked God to renew his life.

Two kinds of prayer, forms two different persons: the tax collector became justified; the Pharisee did not.  What kind of prayer life do you have?

Priests and all Christians, share in the priesthood of Jesus Christ. The first and foremost meaning of sharing in the priesthood of Jesus Christ is to lead everyone and everything back to God though prayer. Through our priesthood, we will always remember who God is, how we respect God, and what to say when we pray.  Being a priest is to live in the presence of God and in an intimate relationship with God our Father.  

 

Life is a mission

Life is a mission.

2013 World mission Sunday

World mission Sunday is a day we celebrate the mission of Jesus Christ, of Church, and of each and every one of us.  Every Christian shares the same mission of Jesus Christ. From our being, our life is a mission.

1.  Jesus Christ  is the first missionary

            Jesus Christ is the first missionary. With a mission from the Father, Jesus Christ came down to our world to share the love of God our Father. From the very beginning of his life, Jesus always chose  to focus on his mission by praying to God the Father every day. Human beings come from God and are the image of God, but sin distorts us and we get lost in our way of life.  Because of sin, many times, we do not know the meaning of life, we do not know why we live in this world, and who we are.  Sin causes us to lose our mission. As we lose our mission, we lose our identity, so, we regret our past, we do not know what to do in the present, and our future is occupied by fear and vagueness. Jesus Christ lives as a model of human life for us  He is"the way, the truth and the life."

             At every turning point of his life, he chose to pray and to seek the will of God, even in his suffering, he prayed to God to fulfill his mission.  Prayer is the way we connect our life with God and fulfill Jesus' mission. Prayer is a way to stay together with God and to do God's will.  With prayer, Jesus fulfilled his mission, even on the Cross.  On the Cross, Jesus said: "It is finished."

            The mission of Jesus Christ flows from his prayer which is in the intimate relationship with God the Father. Through prayer, Jesus always remembers who he is and the mission he carries.  Prayer is also very important for us. Pope Francis in his letter about this year's world mission Sunday, emphasizes the importance of having an intimate relationship with God through prayer.

2.  Christian Church is missionary

            Christian Church is missionary. Christians in a Church community carry the same mission of Jesus Christ. "As the Father has sent me, so I send you" (Jn 20:21). From the very beginning of Christian life, we received the life of Jesus Christ which is our mission. The mission for Christians is to preach the love of God through Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. In the history of Church, Jesus Christ sent his disciples to preach the Kingdom of God, the disciples and bishops sent missionaries all over the world to preach the same gospel. 

          Christian faith is a faith of mission. Christian life is a life of mission. When we celebrate today's world mission Sunday, first of all, we realize that we and our fathers and mothers have received our Christian faith through the missionaries. If you just take a moment to recall your life, you may remember someone who, is that missionary ,and delivered the gospel of Jesus Christ to you and your ancestors. As Christians,  we receive the Christian faith as a mission which we have to deliver to other people. From our being, Christian life is a life of mission.

3.  I am a missionary

            When I was young, my grandfather told me that we used to have a big church in our village, but that church was destroyed during the Culture Revolution.  The Church was built by some missionaries from Italy. Those priests not only came to China as missionaries, but also brought the love  of their local people's contribution with them to build church for the poor people. Now I am a missionary here. It is also true, each and every one of us should always say: "I am a missionary of Jesus Christ."

            Life is a mission. We have received the same life and mission of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now it is our turn to become a missionary, to preach the gospel to our families, our friends. I know many of you may not become a missionary to preach the gospel in a foreign land, but you still can fulfill your responsibility as a missionary through your daily prayer, through supporting the missionary work, through sacrificing your life and choosing to do good on earth.

            Jesus Christ is THE missionary. You are also a missionary in our time. Go, to preach the gospel to your families, to your friends.

Turning to God, Going back to Community

Turning to God, Going back to Community

Lk17,11-19 the ten Lepers

1. The meaning of Suffering

No one likes to suffer, but many times, suffering helps people get closer to each other. These ten lepers who were suffering from the same disease, came to stay together. If they were healthy, Jewish people would not stay together with a Samaritan. (When they were healed, they separated from each other ) It is also true for us. Many times, we are very busy with each and everyone's things, but when one is sick in our family, we will go and visit them, and spend some time with them. Suffering is an opportunity to call our attention to each other.  When we are healthy, when we are rich, most of us just pay attention to ourselves.

Suffering helps people to realize their limitations and turn to God, seeking help. These ten lepers, when they were in their situation of hopelessness, turned to Jesus Christ. Many times, when people are healthy, they do not think of others, they do not realize that they need God. But if they are sick, especially if they are in a situation of hopelessness, they turn to God. If you recall your own life experiences, it is always in a situation of your life that you dislike which changes your life to think of others, to think of God. God calls people through many different ways, suffering is one of them. For Christians, our suffering is also a way to participate in the suffering of Jesus Christ.

2.  Go back to your community

For us as the followers of Jesus Christ, he is not a magician, but God. When Jesus saw the ten lepers, he healed them. Jesus healed them through the power of his word.  Jesus Christ reveals a God who is our Father. A father does not want his children to suffer. As soon as the people turned to God, God healed them.

After Jesus healed them, Jesus told them to go back to their community. Human beings from their nature, want to belong to a community, because our God, who is our model of being, is a community, God in three persons. In the Jewish society, if someone had a disease which could infect other people, they had to leave the community. sickness separated people from their community. It is also true, if people commit sins, normally they also do not want to come to church.  Jesus wanted these ten lepers to go back to their community again to experience a loving community, and the love and mercy of God.

3. Give thanks to God

Ten lepers were healed, but only one came back to give thanks to God, and this was a Samaritan.  Jesus was surprised. Samaritans  were not considered people of God like the Jewish people. Jesus told this Samaritan, "stand up and go; your faith has saved you." Jesus saved this Samaritan body and soul.  Ironically, many times, people just seek to heal the disease of their body and not their soul.

In our life, many times we act just like the nine Jews. We give thanks to our friends, to strangers, but we forgot to give thanks to our family members, to our father and mother, to our God. It is our God who gives us our father and mother, our friends and everything, it is our God who comes among us to save us. Giving thanks to God is a way of realizing our blessings and  staying close to God in a new life.

 

May we always remember, during any kind of life situation to turn to God for help in coming back to our Christian community. May we learn to have a spirit of thanksgiving to God, to our parents, to our family members, and for all God's blessings. 

 

 

 

Increase our faith---LK17:5-10

Increase our faith---LK17:5-10

1. faith is a life in relation with God

Lord, increase our faith. When the disciples asked Jesus Christ to increase their faith, Jesus told them that "if you have faith the size of a mustard seed..."  Jesus reminded them to think what is faith? Faith is just like life, it is hard to give a definition. Faith is a life from God and in relation with God.  Our Pope Francis in his first encyclical, Luman Fidei, the light of faith, tells us that faith is the light of human life.  Faith is a gift from God. As human beings, we cannot invent our faith. Faith is not ours, We receive our faith from God. From Abraham to Mary, and to the disciples of Jesus Christ, they all have received their faith from God and started a new life.

As Christians, we also receive our new life from God in faith. Christian life is a life in faith. Like all the life, our Christian faith also needs to grow up toward maturity.

2. Faith grows up in a community

Faith grows up in Church community.  our God is a Trinitarian God, three persons in one.  Our Christian faith is also in communion with God and others.  As Christians, our faith can only grow up in a community of God's people. In his encyclical, Pope Francis mentioned importance of the faith of Israel and the faith of ecclesial (church). Each and every one of us has our faith, but our faith cannot be separated from our faith community, the holy Church. This is a reason, as Christians, we have to have a community life in praying together, coming to Church together, and listening to the teachings of Church together. From our CCD class to RCIA class, to every Sunday celebration, we grow up in faith day by day.

In our contemporary cultural situation, there is a misunderstanding that I can have my relationship with God, I do not need other Christians, I do not need Church. Please remember, you received the faith through baptism in the Church. You are educated of your faith in the Church, you belong to Church who is the mystical body of Jesus Christ our Lord.   Anyone who teaches you to separate from your Christian community, anyone who tells you not to listen to the Church teachings from Pope to local bishops, be careful, he or she just wants you to listen to him or her. We are born in Church community; we cannot have our faith through any philosophy or ideas.  

Christian faith belongs to Church and grows up with others as our brothers and sisters in a living community.

3. Fulfill one's responsibility is increasing one's faith

Faith is Christian life. In fulfilling our responsibilities, our faith will increase day by day. Faith helps us to do a good job in our daily life. Through this parable in today's gospel, Jesus tells us to fulfill our responsibilities to increase our faith. Many times, people will say, I have already very tired of working outside, I cannot help my wife or husband at home, I cannot education my kids, I do not have time to pray, and so forth.  No matter how tired you are, no matter how bad you feel, no matter how busy you are, your responsibility is you priority.  Serving is part of the responsibility of this servant, so he has to serve when he come back from work.  some of the contemporary cultures favor equality more than responsibility. Jesus reminds us to fulfill our responsibilities. "When you have done all you have been commanded, say, 'we are unprofitable servants; we have done what we were obliged to do.'"  Without fulfilling our obligations, we cannot grow up in faith, we will even loose our faith.  Christian faith never asks people to give up one's responsibilities, but helps people to fulfill their obligation in a better way.

 

Faith is a life from God and in relation with God and others, through Christian community, we have received our faith and will  grow up in faith. Fulfilling our responsibilities is a best way to increase our faith.