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What particular gift would you ask of God if he spoke to you in a dream tonight and gave you your choice? Many would ask for badly needed health for themselves or for a family member. Others may ask for financial help just to pay off debt and keep the family comfortable. Others would wish to live for many years. But those who would ask for the gift of true wisdom to govern their earthly lives according to justice and charity may be a small percentage. Yet this is the only gift that has eternal value.

We are presented with the Book of Wisdom in the first reading of today. It is one of the last Old Testament books to be written and it gives a good reflection on final judgment, resurrection, and eternal life. The Book of Wisdom covers topics like immortality, righteousness and encourages us that God’s wisdom can be gained through a life of humility. God grants wisdom to His children who are humble and obedient. The part of the book we read today reflects on God’s mercy and how God judges with clemency and gentleness.

Isaiah in the first reading says, “my word shall not return to me void but shall do my will, achieving the end for which I sent it”. This is a powerful demonstration of the force in the power of God to transform, revive, change, and accomplish whatever it declares. It means that God’s words are not empty words but carries with it such power that it transforms whatever it encounters. God’s words are spirit, and they are life. God’s words, in this first reading, serve as a source of great comfort in our society today where there is chaos, confusion, injustice and evil.

I had written the faith digest for the week before reading the gospel for this Sunday and behold the Lord’s invitation: “Come to me all you who labor”. This seems to confirm the urgency of the message from the cross.

The prophet Zechariah prophesied about 520 BC as a contemporary of the Prophet Haggai and they both championed the course of the Second Temple restoration. We read today, his Messianic prophesy about the coming reign of peace and liberation for the people of God. The Messiah will be a powerful, victorious yet humble king, riding in glory on a donkey. This prophecy is fulfilled in the triumphant entry of Jesus into Jerusalem which we celebrate on Palm Sunday (Mt 21:1-11; Lk 19:28-48; Mk 11:1-11; Jn 12:12-19).

Dear Friends,

Today, we address the question about the Most Blessed Virgin Mary and the Holy Rosary.

The story of the Blessed Virgin Mary starts with the fall of Adam and Eve. God placed a curse on the serpent, putting enmity between it and the woman and between its seeds and her seed (Gen 3:15). The Bible and the Church hold Our Lady as the new Eve and Jesus the Seed promised here. Jesus became accursed to free us from this ancient curse (Gal 3:13). St. Paul explains Christ as the New Adam who brings life as against the old Adam who brings death (Rom 5:12-21 1 Cor 15:45-49).

A story was told of a child who was very calm in a flight in the midst of very severe turbulence, while other passengers on board panicked, screamed and prayed. When everything returned to normalcy the kid was asked why he remained calm as the turbulence raged, he simply replied “Because my father is the pilot, so I know that everything will be fine”. If this child could have such confidence in his father, with his limited human abilities, how much more confidence ought we to be in God our Almighty and All-knowing father?

The popular 19th century hymn by J. Oatman of New Jersey, Count your blessings exhorts us to count our blessings in times of serious troubles. The refrain of this song ends thus: Count your blessings, name them one by one, count your many blessings see what God has done. A modified version of it ends with …and it will surprise you what the Lord has done. Also the Archangel Raphael taught us that it is right to keep the secret of the king but a duty to reveal and publicize the deeds of God, and to thank him honorably (Tobit 12:7,11). The reason behind these admonitions is that when we feed our minds with memories of the past great deeds of the Lord, we become emboldened to believe what God can still do in our current situation. Such testimonies give vital force to our faith, dispel our fears and doubts, and strengthen our hope. Above all, they show us the color of God’s love.

Today, we celebrate the real presence of Jesus Christ in the Holy Eucharist. We celebrate Christ’s great gift of himself to abide with us forever. The sacred body and blood of Christ is our viaticum (our companion for the journey). The Lord feeds us with heavenly food to strengthen us in our pilgrimage to the kingdom of God. It is the assurance of life eternal for Jesus says “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life and I will raise him up on the last day” (Jn 6:54). His flesh is indeed real food (Jn 6:55).

In the collect for this mass we pray, “God the Father, who by sending into the world, the Word of truth and the Spirit of Sanctification, made known to the human race your wondrous mystery…” This prayer points to us the truth that what we know about God is only what He reveals to us about Himself and the highest point of this divine self-revelation is the incarnation of Jesus Christ. The invisible God became visible in time and walked with us on earth. This revelation is further consolidated in the sending of the Holy Spirit.

Dear friends, it is Pentecost!

This is the great day when the Church became catholic, which means, a universal sacrament of salvation for all people, nations, languages and cultures. We are re-enacting this universality via our multi-cultural celebration today to show that all cultures, tribes and peoples are taken up in an embrace of the divine human salvific encounter.

As the time for his departure from the world draws near, Jesus rounds off his instruction to his disciples. His attention turns towards the welfare of the disciples whom he will be leaving behind for the continued propagation of the good news of salvation. They have learned to depend on him in all difficult situations, but now, he must go to suffer and return to the Father. Hence, his concern about their survival in the trials that were about to visit them when he will not be physically there to guide. Jesus undertakes a long reassuring parting address promising not to leave them as orphans but to send them the Holy Spirit (John 14:16 -18). He concludes his discourse with a long priestly prayer to his father on their behalf (John 17).

The first reading of today’s liturgy, taken from the Acts of Apostles, tells us how Philip took the gospel message to Samaria and proclaimed the Christ to them and the people welcomed the message. In the second reading, Peter encourages us never to give up our faith due to the persecution and challenges we may encounter since Jesus first suffered for us and left us an example to follow. In the Gospel Jesus said to his disciples; “If you love me, you will keep my commandment.”

In the first reading, the disciples dealt with the issue of injustice and marginalization by choosing men filled with the Holy Spirit to do the ministry of service. Peter, in the second reading, encourages us to draw close to God so that we can be living stones built into a spiritual temple. Jesus tells us in the gospel that He is the way, the truth and the life. St. Peter’s call, in the second reading, is very imperative and profound to us today as it was for the first Christians. We are called to be Saints which means that our Christian vocation is a call to take our place in heaven when our earthly life is ended. We seem to know this but for far too many of us, it is more a subconscious than a conscious thought in our daily lives. While doing the same daily tasks, we waste precious months and sometimes years in which we could be storing up treasures in heaven, because we forget God and the purpose of our Christian vocation.