May 14, 2017
Fifth Sunday of
Easter
Acts 6:1–7; 1
Peter 2:4–9; John 14:1–12
Mother’s Day
There is this
story about a priest who said in his homily: “We bring nothing with us when we
die. There is no money in heaven! People in heaven have no money!” The whole congregation
fell silent. Then a little girl whispered to her mother loud enough for all to
hear: “Mama, mama, we are in heaven already!”
Today we are
celebrating Mother’s Day. I am sure that even without money, a mother’s love
has a way of making us feel that our home is heaven on earth. A mother’s love is indeed priceless. Can we
just greet the beautiful mothers around us and say “Happy Mother’s Day!”
I once read an
article saying that too much worrying can have a negative effect on our health.
Aside from making us feel tired and stressed, too much worrying speeds up the aging
process of our body and increases the risk for heart attack. For those of us
who have the tendency to worry all the time, Jesus in today’s gospel tells us:
“Do not let your hearts be troubled. You have faith in God. Have faith also in
me.” In the midst of the concerns we have in life, Jesus promises three things
that should keep us from worrying too much:
THE
PROMISE OF HEAVEN. Jesus says: “In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If
there were not, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for
you?” The Lord wants us to reach heaven. It is important that our earthly life
should be a preparation for us to reach heaven. But the question is, are we
preparing for eternity? Some of us may have all sorts of plans—educational
plan, retirement plan, memorial plan. What about our eternal life plan? If we
know what the future has in store for us, then we would surely know how to
prepare for it in the present.
There is one
thing we certainly know about the future. We will have to face death as our
lives on earth come to an end. Life is our journey from B to D—that is, from
Birth to Death. What is between B and D is C—that is, your Choice on how to
live it. The choices we make in this life will determine which side of eternity
we will be. What kind of choice must we make to prepare us for eternal life?
CHOOSE
THE WAY OF JESUS. If we want to reach heaven, then we must know the path that leads to
it. Jesus says in the gospel that He is the way, the truth and the life. He
indeed is the way that will lead us to eternal life in heaven. But sometimes we have the tendency to look for
shortcuts, to look for other ways that seem attractive to us. One of the applications
I use when I drive is Waze. Waze is an app that gives you directions on the
road. Just tell Waze where you are going and Waze will tell you how to go there.
Waze is really helpful especially if you get lost on the road. Waze will give
you alternate routes to reach your
destination. We can use this analogy to Jesus who is the way, truth and life.
When at times we get lost on our way to heaven, Jesus always has another route
waiting for us to follow to get us back on track.
WE
SHOULD NOT WORRY BECAUSE GOD ANSWERS OUR PRAYERS. The continuation of today’s gospel
says: “Whatever you ask in my name, I will do
it.” (John 14:13) When we bring our petitions to the Lord in the spirit of
faith, trust and obedience to His will, He will hear our prayers. (1 John
5:14-15).
There are many
things that cause us to worry in life. In the midst of these,
Jesus promises us 3 things that should keep us from worrying to much:
He promises us heaven, He promises us to show that way to heaven, He
promises that if we pray in spirit of trust and obedience to God’s will, He
will answer our prayers. May these promises of Jesus bring peace and consolation to
our troubled hearts. Amen.
