23rd Sunday Homily

Today the whole world is in happiness, the mother of everyone especially the poorest of the poor, is canonized  by Pope Francis. I am proud as an Indian that she is the fourth Indian Saint. There is no one like mother Teresa who loved the poor, who dedicated the whole life for the poorest of the poor of Calcutta in India. We may not see another icon like mother Teresa in our life time again. She is something beautiful for God.

Mother Teresa’s life began in Yugoslavia in 1910 and ended in Calcutta India on September 5th 1997. She served 69 years the poor people. Received 127 awards and Nobel price of 1979. 4500 followers working in different parts of the world. You may know mother Teresa received Bellarmine Award in 1981 and visited Bellarmine 1982. Her speech is so beautiful and inspiring. 

By this canonization Pope Francis is highlighting the merciful side of the church  in the jubilee year of mercy. 

Father Brian, the priest who campaigned for her sainthood says,“Even in popular culture she’s identified with goodness, kindness, charity,” 

In her words, I took vow of poverty to understand the poor and their life better. 

One day a journalist saw mother caring a man in the street who had wounds all over his body, she told motherTeresa, mother, I wouldn't have done this work if I was given a million dollars. Mother Teresa replied, I also wouldn't have done this work if someone has given me a million dollars, I do this just because of Jesus and I see Jesus in them. 

Mother Teresa says, to understand the poor 1. we have to have a life of prayer and 2. we have to have to have relation with Jesus. Mother Teresa many times in her speeches reminded us in the speech she gave at Bellarmine the story in the Luke's gospel where mother Mary visits her cousin Elizabeth. According to her this is a story of outreaching to needy. She says, the moment Jesus came to Mary's womb she hasted to help her cousin. She went there to help her washing, cooking and cleaning. Small things but with love. She knew Elizabeth needed her. 

Mother Teresa says, every time we receive Jesus we must have that joy and haste to give Jesus. We should have haste and joy to help others. 

In the city of Calcutta, her sisters receive Jesus in the morning in the form of the Eucharist and the whole house is moving to give Jesus to others. What a beautiful concept. Our celebration of mass  shouldn't end here it should move us to give Jesus to others. 

Dalai Lama asked Buddhists to follow the path of mother Teresa. He said mother  is the incarnation of Maha Karuna (immeasurable compassion)and Dalai Lama says, she represents love without distinction and compassion for all humanity and her love expressed through humble service.

Arch bishop was talking to students at St. X and sharing a an experience, someone in America asked mother Teresa how can I serve poor people? To serve poor, She said,  you do not have to go to India, they are on your door steps. Yes, they are here around us. They may be one of your siblings, Neighbors, co workers, friends
They may not be hungry for a piece of bread but they may be hungry for love, they may not be naked for a piece of cloth but they may be naked because they lost human dignity. They may not be homeless for a room but they may be homeless for human love and touch. Yes, they are on our door steps. The alcoholic man you meet in your street is Jesus, the homeless man you see on the street is Jesus. She said give them a smile and from smile you start your love.

She says, love is not a luxury of few but it is a simple duty of everyone. She asks, give your smile to everyone. 

Today's gospel teaches us 'If anyone comes to me without hating his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple" We may feel our religion is odd, Jesus asking to hate? It's not Jesus asking us to hate but asking us to give priority to God and things of God. That's what mother Teresa did, she gave priority to love God and to do what he wants us to do. Mother Teresa is a great example of discipleship explained in today's gospel. She left everything for the sake of the gospel. 

Pope Francis said in his canonization homily, Mother Teresa, in all aspects of her life, was a generous dispenser of divine mercy, making herself available for everyone through her welcome and defence of human life, those unborn and those abandoned and discarded.  She was committed to defending life, ceaselessly proclaiming that “the unborn are the weakest, the smallest, the most vulnerable”.  She bowed down before those who were spent, left to die on the side of the road, seeing in them their God-given dignity; she made her voice heard before the powers of this world, so that they might recognize their guilt for the crime of poverty they created.  For Mother Teresa, mercy was the “salt” which gave flavour to her work, it was the “light” which shone in the darkness of the many who no longer had tears to shed for their poverty and suffering.

One thing mother Teresa taught me personally and all Christians in India to open our hearts and love people beyond their religion. In my country 97% of people are other religions( that's billions of people) and she taught me they are also children of God and they too will receive heaven if they do good. Her words always inspired me. She said once when asked about conversion, she said, this is my point view of conversion, if you are Hindu be a good Hindu, if you are a Muslim be a good Muslim, if you are a Protestant be a good Protestant, if you are a Buddhist be a good Buddhist. She wanted people to come closer to God (however they understood Him) and believed that in this way they would also come closer to each other, love one another, and ultimately create a world that is better for everyone to live in.


You all know that I am from India where mother Teresa worked as a missionary.  I wished but unfortunately I could ever see  Mother Teresa but I have received a blessing and signature from Mother Teresa! I am so happy Tomorrow this signature will turn in to a relic. 
I receive this blessing and signature when I was a philosophy student in 1996. I was editing a handwritten magazine for the seminarians. I had crazy idea of getting mother's signature for the magazine. I asked one of our Friars to paint her picture on a letter size card and I posted mother Teresa with covering return postage. I was eagerly waiting and the next day we heard she fell sick and was in ICU. I lost hope but she recovered and the first thing she did after her recovery is to send her blessing to us. We keep this as a precious memory( the picture is on the top).  She put a card with it and it said: 

fruit of SILENCE is Prayer
The fruit of PRAYER is Faith
The fruit of FAITH is Love
The fruit of LOVE is Service
The fruit of SERVICE is Peace

Let us celebrate mother Theresa loving everyone and giving our joy to every one 


Fr. John Pozhathuparambil

July 24 The Lord's Prayer

We Christians are called to be experts in prayer.  In today's gospel disciples ask Jesus to teach us to pray. What is prayer? Catechism of the church says, prayers is the raising of one's mind and heart to God or the requesting of Good things from God. If you google, Google gives you an answer. Google says prayer is a solemn request for help or expression of thanks addressed to God. Then What's prayer for you and me? I would like to think prayer is a communication and this whole process called prayer has to become our life. We can't separate prayer from our life. 

I will start with a story from St. Francis of Assisi. A student Friar asked Francis, can you teach me how to pray? Francis and this particular student friar went to a mount to pray. Francis said, let us pray the prayer our father. Francis gave a bucket to the friar And said when you finish one our father you will put one stone in the bucket and I will do the same. They started prayer and spent the whole night. When sun raised student friar saw his bucket is full but francis is still holding his first stone. He waked francis and francis said to the brother, sorry brother, when I started thinking of our father I couldn't pray anything other than thinking of him. For francis prayer is everything even his life. Franciscan thinkers say that Francis became prayer himself. 

There are many stories about prayer. 

John viani used to see a farmer every morning in the church, before he goes to work. He asked what are you praying? He said, I look at Jesus, Jesus looks at me. That was the prayer of the farmer.

Whatever is our prayer form we are all called to be people of prayer. 

Today we are too busy and sometime our work become intoxicating or exhausting that we can't  find time in prayer. Jesus was highly wanted or sought after people but he found time to hide in the mountain to pray. The disciples must be also feeling overwhelmed and intoxicated by ministry. That's why they asked teach us to pray.  

Jesus taught our father the prayer we call as Lord's Prayer. This prayer is said by every Christian. What does this prayer means?

The prayer starts with 'Our father'. Jesus is not calling my father, he calls our father. it's a community prayer. It talks about our new family and new relationship. We are brothers and sisters in one God the father. This father is father of everyone, Asian, European, American and African. Secondly, God is addressed in great intimacy. The word 'Abba' means Pappa, dad. And this father is in heaven and His name is holy. What does this mean ? It means heaven is our destiny and God must be highest value in life. Only God be praised by me. Your Kingdom come.  What's the kingdom teaching by Jesus? Peace, compassion, non violence, healing etc. when God become central value of everyone's life the kingdom is here on earth as in heaven. We wish God's kingdom on earth. 

Give us this day daily bread- the word used in Aramaic is epi usione. This word is not used much in Aramaic. It means 'super substantial bread'. What are we praying? For daily bread, yes. But we are praying for more than that- food that feeds the soul. We need that bread. 

Forgive us - it's the central teaching of Jesus. When we pray think about broken relationship, people who did hurt us. And this prayer reminds us of God's forgiveness and call to forgive others. Jesus did many things but the main purpose of his coming is to forgive our sins. We are called to be agents of forgiveness. Then finally do not lead us to temptation but deliver us from evil.  We are in a midst of spiritual struggle and this prayer is asking the Lord to deliver us. 

A disciple asked guru why I can't feel to pray?

He said its because you are afraid to look in to yourself. 

Mother Teresa worked day and night in the street of Calcutta. Indian express one of the leading news papers wrote about mother Teresa:

'The wonder worker of gutters of Calcutta begins her day with one hour adoration. 

Dear brothers and sisters, let us be people of prayer'. And let us find time to be with the Lord. 

Fr. John Pozhathuparambil

July 10th Good Samaritan

Everything is on the bible; parables, miracles is about Jesus. Today's story is about Samaritan- Samaritan means some one who helps the stranger. We have heard and reflected this passage many times and encouraged us to be Good Samaritan to others.We are going to see this story in a different way as the fathers of the church teaches us. According to them this story is of God's love- how Jesus saves a fallen human being. This story explains what happens when we sin. When devil robs us from the love of God, we loose senses of Truth, proper functioning of our will and has very dysfunctional spiritual life.

This man in the story is traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho. Jerusalem is God's city, symbol of ordered life, spiritual growth. Jericho is city of sin, symbol of dysfunctional soul and spiritual life. This man is traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho means he is going away from the friendship of God, going away from religion, spiritual life. This story is of all men who fall from the friendship of God to a dysfunctional spiritual life. On the way he fell in the hands of robbers.

Who are the robbers? They are evil spirit. This man is attacked by evil spirit. There is something humiliating about every robbery. More than loosing our valuable things, we feel humiliated, we feel we lost our security. It's the same with someone who looses friendship with God. He feels humiliated, ashamed and Insecure. 

Three ways of attack- laziness, bargaining, evil personification.

Not only he is attacked, this man is stripped off which means he lost his even his dignity. Stripping off in the biblical language is loosing one's dignity. When slaves were taken one place to another, they were naked, this action was telling they are stripped of their dignity. When evil spirit attacks he tries to take off our dignity, dignity as sons and daughters of God. One more thing follows after this: they beat him and went off leaving him half dead. When we loose friendship with God, we are half dead and we are Helpless. He is beaten up by sins and he is helpless.

A priest  and Levite came. They symbolize the religion of the time. They are also going from Jerusalem to Jericho. It's showing the fallen religion. They are also going away from God. Religion is good  and I have given my life but if it looses its spirit, it's not good at all.

Here comes now the portrait of Jesus and who Jesus is. 

Jesus himself Is the Samaritan in the story. When we are fallen in sin and beaten by sins and half dead and helpless. It's Jesus who can help you to get back to your life. 

Look at the story closely, Samaritan man approached him and poured oil and wine in his wounds. This explains the Sacramental life of the church. Jesus approaches us when we are helpless and wounded by sins. Oil is the sacramental life- we use oil for baptism, anointing of sick. It's so powerful and heals us. Wine is the symbol of Eucharist. Jesus heals our wounds of sin by pouring his blood to our wounds. If you feel today you have traveled from Jerusalem to Jericho and beaten and half dead by sins, Jesus says, I am the Good Samaritan do not worry, I will help you to heal. I will pour my blood and body to regain you.

He pays two silver pieces. What are the two silver pieces mean? This means Jesus has paid back for us to save us from the sin. And he is the Good Samaritan who gives his life in order that we will have life. 

Fr. John Pozhathuparambil OFMConv.

June 19 Who do you say I am?

In today's gospel Jesus confronts disciples with a question, who do you say I am? 

I would like to share a story from my novitiate. It takes long twelve years of study to become a friar priest. It's in the the fourth year we enter in to novitiate. It's an year dedicated to prayer and work and at the end of this year we receive franciscan habit.  As a preparation for receiving habit, we had a week retreat in a place like Gethsemani. And the preacher on the second day told, it's a day off and  we will have only one session in the evening and he asked us to find who Jesus for us individually? By 7 pm we all gathered in the meeting room to share about who Jesus is for us. One of the friars stood up and he said Jesus is Immanuel, he quoted Old Testament and New Testament, quoted theologians and he proved Jesus is Immanuel. Excellent presentation, everyone clapped. Another friar stood up and he said Jesus is the savior. He explained how Jesus is Saviour, how Jesus forgives our sins how he fulfilled the Israel's waiting for the Saviour.  Everyone applauded again. Then the third friar stood up and he said Jesus is a friend. He shared several people's experiences and stated that Jesus is a friend. He also got appreciation. Then we reached last friar, we all looked at him, we all had notes, books, Bible to talk about Jesus. Here a friar stands without any notes. He looked at the preacher and us and he said with a fearful voice, Jesus is the love I betray (deny) everyday. We could see tears flowing from his eyes. We felt the notes and books in our hands on fire. Nobody looked at each other for a moment. It was a deep silence for several minutes. We all answered from our head, what we learned, the informations we collected from different sources but this friar answered from his heart and from his deep thought and his personal experience. 

Today Jesus is addressing us this question to us, who do you say I am?   we may respond as disciples did, what we learned in the catechism, from parents, from priests. It's very easy answer. But that's not satisfying answer for Jesus.

Jesus is not looking an answer from what you learned from the bible, from the books from catechism but he is looking for an answer from your personal experience. Certainly it is important to study and to know it, but it is not enough or do not stop with that.

Pope Francis says, in order to know Jesus, “what is needed is not a study of notions but rather a life as a disciple”. We come to know him “in the daily encounter with the Lord through our victories and through our weaknesses”. It is precisely “through these encounters” that “we draw close to him and come to know him more deeply”. 

Fulton J sheen said, 'if you see jesus either you will throw stones at him or you will throw yourself at his feet' 

There are two types of faith, the faith we inherited from our parents, family members and friends. The second the faith we personally experienced. What we need is the faith we experienced. This faith will have more energy and enthusiasm. This faith is more in to loving Jesus and living for him.

By asking who do you say I am, Jesus is not asking for information but commitment. Jesus continues after this question, “If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me". This is what Jesus wants, if you love him follow him always and everywhere. I have heard many people say that when you really follow Jesus,he gives us pain and suffering. People say this when they look only for happiness and success by following Jesus. Let me put this in another way.When we have suffering why don't we hold on to his comfort?  When we are humiliated why don't we look at Jesus who was humiliated on the cross? When we are wounded why don't we look at Jesus who is wounded on the cross?When we loose hope why don't we look at Jesus who is the hope for the world? When we are in sin why don't we look for Jesus who is forgiveness? When we do not have peace why don't we look for his comfort? Remember if we love Jesus, we have to follow him everywhere and always rather than looking at our benefit. “If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me". 

I conclude with Pope Francis' prayer,  "Father, grant us a deeper knowledge of Christ, Holy Spirit explain to us this mystery of Jesus”. Let go in to deep reflection and seeking to find who Jesus is for me and to follow him everywhere and always.

Fr. John Pozhathuparambil

June 5 Do you feel your dream dying?

We call the word of God as Evangelion or good news. What's the good news? Good news is about the resurrection of Jesus. Resurrection is the key point to understand the Bible. After the resurrection so many people started believing deeply in Jesus. Many of them became missionaries to proclaim this good news. Evangelists started writing New Testament after the resurrection episodes. Everything Jesus said or did is in anticipation of his resurrection. What is resurrection? Resurrection is about life- a new life.  It's life giving message. 

Jesus is God of life. His ministry is ministry of life. He heals blind eyes, he heals deaf ears, he heals spiritually dead, he gives hope to hopeless. He is God of life. And today's reading proves the Jesus is God of life, he is compassionate to our pain and suffering. 

We have attended many funerals and it's not happy time, It's awful experience. Sometimes we loose words to comfort the family. And today's miracle is set in such a sad situation. The mother of this young man is a widow. Being widow at that time means no guaranteed income, no insurance, no support. This young man was her only support. Her son had comforted her in her first loss of a husband, but now that her son was dead, therefore the sadness doubles. It's a disaster for her. She lost all hope.  Jesus moves with pity.  He asks the young man, stand up again- arise. He gives the young man back to mother. Jesus gives a new life to the young man and to his mother. This is the Jesus we proclaim. He is the giver of life. 

Why Jesus did this miracle? This miracle was to show God has visited his people and he will visit again. In a world of broken hearts, God sees and cares for us in our grief. God is made flesh in the person of Jesus, and He can understand our pain and suffering. He is no more someone above, he is with us. He is not someone enjoys human suffering, he  shows the capacity to suffer with us, to be close to our sufferings and to make them his own.

You may feeling spiritually dead, no life, no hope but Jesus can give you life. He can resurrect you. God hates sickness, suffering, sin, stupidity. He has compassion on our miseries and gives us His healing touch. 

Do you feel your dream is dying? Or your dream could be dead, prepared for burial and on the way to the cemetery like the Widow of Nain. Jesus says to you, stand up and rise.  Get your hopes up. This is your Time of Resurrection. Resurrect your dream with the power of Jesus. 

 The people around  were afraid. Whenever there is new life people are afraid. People are afraid to welcome newness in life. Do not be afraid like people in the crowd, decide today to allow the resurrection of Christ to inspire you. Activate your resurrection power and bring back those amazing and awesome dreams to life with Jesus. 

I would like to share one of my friends story. They were a rich family in Dubai. Three children, very happy life, a home in India and another in Dubai. One of the business partners cheated then and they lost everything. They lost both of their homes, money, friends and their dream all dead. Their dad was in prison. They decided to take their lives. At that night they get a call from a priest to attend a retreat and trust in Jesus. They decided to attend and nothing much happened but their youngest daughter received hope from Jesus. She felt like Jesus saying to her dead dream, wake up! And she started searching for jobs, she was only 21 and she got a job in a company. From there she started building their life with the hope given by Jesus. She hard worked, she is working now as a air hostess in Qatar airways. She visited me couple of  weeks benefit and she said Jesus gave her life back. He gave me hope, I believe he is God of life. Now they have a new home in India, her dad is released from the prison. Paid off most of their debt. And this is and this was only possible by God and God alone. 

Dear brothers and sisters,

Do not be afraid, decide today to allow the resurrection of Christ to inspire you. Activate your resurrection power and bring back those amazing and awesome dreams to life with Jesus. He is the God of life. 

May 22 Holy Trinity Sunday

One day a Christian group came to my grandma's home and questioned her faith about the concept of Holy Trinity. She invited them to her prayer room and asked them to kneel down and pray to Jesus that you will understand the mystery of Holy Trinity. This was a teaching for her grand children and to the Christian group that everything of the faith is not understandable through head, everything of the faith cannot be proved in the lab. 

The mystery of the most Holy Trinity is a basic doctrine of Faith in Christianity, understandable not with our heads but with our hearts. It teaches us that there are three distinct Persons in one God, sharing the same Divine Nature.  Our mind cannot grasp this doctrine which teaches that 1+1+1 = 1 and not 3. But we believe in this Mystery because Jesus who is God taught it clearly, the Evangelists recorded it, the Fathers of the Church tried to explain it and the Councils of Nicaea and Constantinople defined it as a dogma of Christian Faith.

Why Trinity is important in our Christian life? 1) All prayers in the Church begin in the Name of the Holy Trinity and end with glorifying the Trinity.

2) All Sacraments are administered (we are baptized, confirmed, anointed, our sins are forgiven and our marriage blessed and our Bishops, priests and deacons ordained) in the name of the Holy Trinity.

3) We bless ourselves, and the priest blesses us, in the name of the Holy Trinity.

What are the Biblical proofs? There are only vague and hidden references to the Trinity in the Old Testament. But the New Testament gives clear teachings on the Holy Trinity.

1) At the Annunciation, God the Father sends His angel to Mary, God the Holy Spirit overshadows her and God the Son becomes incarnate in her womb.

2) At the baptism of Jesus, when the Son receives baptism from John the Baptist, the Father’s Voice is heard and the Holy Spirit appears as a Dove.

3)  At the Ascension, Jesus gives the missionary command to his disciples to baptize those who believe, in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

What are the life teachings of this feast? 

 1) Let us have the firm conviction that the Trinitarian God abides in us, that He is the Source of our hope, courage and strength and that He is our final destination. The awareness and conviction of the presence of God within us, gives us the strength to face the manifold problems of life with Christian courage.  It was such a conviction that prompted the early Christian martyrs, when taken to their execution, to shout the heroic prayer of Faith from the Psalms: "The Lord of might is with us, our God is within us, and the God of Jacob is our helper" (Psalm 46).  

 2) This feast is inviting us to practice the Trinitarian relationship of love and unity in the family relationships of father, mother and children because by Baptism we become children of God and members of God’s Trinitarian family. Pope Francis says, Holy Trinity is the model of the Church “in which we are called to love one another as Jesus has loved us.” Love, Pope Francis said, is the distinctive mark of the Christian. This mystery of the Holy Trinity asks us to renew the Christian mission of living in communion with God and others.

In the letter to Corinthians chapter 13 we read about the conflict in the church of Corinth. Somebody said, I am following Peter, somebody else said I am following Paul. Finally paul said, brothers and sisters, stop fighting, this is all about Jesus.  And this is then last thing paul said to the church in Corinth as the answer to bring them together, may the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ,and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all.  He wanted the church of Corinth understand the love among the Trinity and the communion of the Trinity and be peaceful and love one another. Communion is so rich word. It means 7 things, presence, fellowship, Sharing together, intimacy, participation, communion, friendship. 

We live in a world of confusion, fight, war, hatred and individualism. Therefore, celebrating this feast is very meaningful. 

Let us pray to open our hearts and our minds to understand this.

We have heard the old age saying, no man is an island. But we are proud to be islands. We  are proud to be individualistic and narcissistic. Pope Francis says: “We are not called to live without the other, above or against the other, but with the other, for the other and in the other”. 

Any psychologist will tell you that addictions, depression, anxiety, neuroses and many other mental ailments flourish in isolation; however, by sharing honestly in groups they tend to get better. Man is not an island, he is created to live like Holy Trinity in loving relationship. And whenever he looses this relationship he looses happiness and peace.

Dear brothers and sisters, let us remember when we have a broken relationship the only help we have to seek is grace of God -God the Father, who created us, his Son who saved us, and the Holy Spirit who continues to guide us. Our lives should reflect the Trinity. This is our mission as Christian. We should be always creative like the Father, compassionate like his Son, and dispose our talents in the service of others like the Holy Spirit. Let us celebrate this feast reflecting and renewing about our relationship with God and others. 

St. Francis Xavier’s favorite prayer was this: “Most Holy Trinity, Who live in me, I praise You, I worship You, I adore You and I love You.”   Let us say this prayer mindfully.  May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ,and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all.  

Fr. John Pozhathuparambil

Courtesy: Catholic Bishops Confrence India 

Homily 6th Sunday

Jesus said to his disciples:
“Whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him".

Today's gospel is written in the background of Jesus' departure. Jesus knows that his departure will create pain in the hearts of the disciples. Therefore, he assures disciples that he is not abandoning them and promises his continuous presence will be among them through word of God, Holy Spirit and his peace. These words of Jesus are so comforting to disciples and to us that he is present among us. He is alive and live with us! 

There is a Sufi saying, If you step once in to God, God will step thrice in to you. According to eastern thought three is a full number. Therefore, it means if you make your first step in to God, God will come in abundance. 

Jesus says in today's gospel, that if we keep his words, he will come and live with us.  Jesus is talking about the simple first step that we should take in our lives. The simple first step is to love Jesus, and invite him in to our lives. If you want to love him spend a little time each day in personal prayer, scripture reading and reflection. 

Today approximately 25% of all adults live alone, they feel abandoned, belong to nowhere. Spouses, parents and children often live as virtual strangers to one another.   This is unfortunate because we never need to be alone.  Jesus promises us he can always be present to us.  He can give is peace, he can make our burden light and He can turn our grief into joy.  In order this is to happen, just make your first step, start loving him and make a personal relationship with him.

You all might have seen the painting the light of the world by William Hunt Holman. It's picture of Jesus knocking at the door, if you carefully observe, the door has no handle which Hunt purposefully did. He wanted show us that if Jesus wants to come to us we have to open our doors of our lives, our hearts.  

I know the  first step is a struggle. I asked one of my friends to go for a renewal retreat, he said, I can't because I will be transformed. He knows once he transformed, he has to accept new ways in his life. So he wants to be just as he is now. 

We fear to give up our sins and pleasures because it is a challenge. 

In this process of opening our hearts to love Jesus, Jesus promises he Is not only the one who is going to help us, we are going to get an advocate who will teach us and remind us of Jesus teaching. Therefore,  the role of the Holy Spirit is two fold a) to teach "  b)to “remind" us of what Jesus has taught us.

Pope Francis says, God has left the guidance of the Church "in the hands of the Holy Spirit." "The Holy Spirit  as Jesus said, will teach us everything" and "remind us what Jesus taught us"

"The Holy Spirit is the living presence of God in the Church. He keeps the Church going, keeps the Church moving forward. More and more, beyond the limits, onwards. The Holy Spirit with His gifts guides the Church. You cannot understand the Church of Jesus without this Paraclete, whom the Lord sends us for this very reason. 

When Jesus lives with you another beautiful thing happens in our lives, he brings peace in to our lives.  "Peace" is not just the absence of conflict or the peace world gives you, it is the concept of shalom, the total well-being of the person and community.  “In Johannine language, peace, truth, light, life and joy are figurative terms reflecting different facets of the great gift that Jesus has brought from God to the world. 'Peace is my gift to you,' is another way of saying, 'I give them eternal life' (Jn 10:28) (Raymond E. Brown)

Dear brothers and sisters this is the opportunity Jesus promises us. Everything begins in loving him.  Depends on our first step.

We have cows in India and we tie them up on a pole to feed them grass. They can eat only the grass around.  We are like cows tied on a rope eating grass from a circle. Let us break our bondage of sins, pleasures and enjoy the great opportunity ahead of us. Let us take first step, open the door snd let Christ live with us and let us enjoy peace.

Fr. John Pozhathuparambil OFM Conv.