ASH WEDNESDAY-"BEGINNING LENT" by Fr. Michael Payyapilly V.C.

let's all stand for a moment as we close eyes bring ourselves into the presence of jesus the lord has invited us over here to be with him there's always a blessing and a grace in being invited by jesus let's ask the lord to give us the grace to be joyful about this invitation to have great hope in this invitation lord when you speak to us give us a heart of a child a child that absorbs everything that you say a child that finds it exciting to listen to what you have to say so speak lord your children are listening a reading from the gospel according to matthew chapter 4 verses 18 onwards as he walked by the sea of galilee he saw two brothers simon who is called peter and andrew his brother casting a net into the sea for they were fishermen and he said to them follow me and i will make you fish for people. immediately they left their nets and followed him as he went from there he saw two other brothers james son of zebedee and his brother john in the boat with their father zebedee mending their nets and he called them immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him the gospel of the lord blessed mother intercede and pray for us hail mary full of grace the lord is with thee blessed art thou amongst women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb jesus holy mary mother of god pray for us sinners now and at the hour for death amen the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit kindly be satan once again good evening dear friends you can say that with a smile i know it's the season of lent and lent kind of gives us always this feeling this feeling of uh feeling either of a built up sorrow that we have supposed to be in in remorse so we have to be in in that whole season of mourning it's always a season of growth lent is for us as as christians it's so important for us to understand this is the one time when the church actually concentrates so much on growth and growth cannot be something that's sad it's always something that's joyful so we we have that season of joy uh like i said someone told me you're smiling is because you got a holiday well i always believe your holiday is still just the last day when you've not got rest um the day you don't get dressed that holiday all goes out to the picture but i had a good good holiday in the fact that uh i was also able to make uh a couple of retreats as well where during the time of my my holiday so i got to drive through the the amazing countryside in in victoria and i was lucky i didn't go outside victoria i would have got stuck so uh i got an opportunity to come back immediately when the lockdown was was called as well but uh yeah so we've come right into this beautiful season of uh season of lent a time for our growth and we should have a lot of joy and happiness a lot of anticipation if you don't have anticipation for growth that means we have no hope in growth when we when we enter into the season of lent it's not about uh i've said this before so it's not about what we give up it's always about what we have to give up even that when we have to give up something we are kind of we're kind of thinking it will it be too much will i be able to do this will i not be able to do this and we are so engrossed in that that the whole the whole anticipation of growth is not there when there's no anticipation of growth there will never be growth because that means we don't believe that there will be change we don't believe that there will be a growth in christ it's so important for us to understand we have to believe i have i will grow after these 40 days how many of you believe you will grow after these 40 days not physically i'm talking spiritually how many of you believe you will grow after this 40 days of lent only half growth full growth extra growths you can have two hands it's so important for us to have that anticipation i will grow i need to grow if i'm the same michael i was after last lent then i don't think when we don't have a growth that means it's always that means we're always falling if you start thinking that there is no growth and i'm i'm maintaining something you can't just maintain anything it will always start falling just as nowadays especially in the western western churches you can't maintain a parish you can't maintain a parish parish maintaining is not um it's not a feasible idea if you try to maintain your petitioners your parish will just keep going down you have to desire to be an evangelizing parish that means we want more we want to grow more we desire to know jesus more and that's that's the way there'll be growth otherwise it's just about maintaining that's why as catholics it's it's a very uncatholic and very unchristian thing to think that there are too many people coming into our church you know when you sit over here and then you think to yourself too many people in our pews why are other people from outside coming in over here very unchristian very unchristian why are people from the other places coming here very very unchristian you've basically you've basically lost the very foundation of discipleship that means there's no growth when there's no growth you're only falling down and that's the same in our own spirituality as well we should we should anticipate that there is going to be a growth i am going to i'm going to be with jesus and i'm going to grow with jesus and that's that's the whole invitation to lent as well the invitation by jesus to come and grow with me an invitation to come and grow with christ um i don't know how many of you many of you would have uh would have shopped in india you shop in any of most of the asian countries if you if you do street shopping one thing you need to know to do is bargaining you should know how to bargain when we were in bangalore as brothers we were doing our philosophy studies we would be sent out once a month uh otherwise we're always inside the seminary then we'd be sent out and our seminary was uh quite a distance from the city of bangalore so we had to catch two buses and and go there and i think it would be a one hour one hour one hour 15 minute bus drive to to the city and then when we go there we used to go shopping and we can't go into the big shops because we basically didn't have much money we we would be given 50 rupees per month that is actually one dollar okay that's one dollar a month and uh that that included of course we didn't have to buy our food or stuff but you buy your your toiletries and and those kind of things half the money would go off in the bus trip going up and down so and then you have just the the remaining to buy that paste and and soap and because we'll go in the morning we'll wait till the evening it's a one month in one month you're getting to go out only once so we don't come back anytime soon we go and then we'll take our own sweet time to come back and one place we go for shopping is to these uh wayside stalls that are there and we are permitted if we save up we we get to buy buy things that we require that might be a bit of an extra sometimes because we used to play basketball and and volleyball we needed shoes and so we still used to buy shoes we used to buy shoes for 150 rupees that's three dollars that shoe used to last us nearly seven years on cement basketball coats that's because the shoe was that bad you know you had the soles and the rubber will never go off those shoes weren't ours some of some of us we would buy it and then we would hand it down to our juniors so when the third years are leaving and going the juniors will be roaming around the seniors wings and they'll ask them can you give that shoe you know we look at all the shoes and those shoes were terrible actually that's why most of us ended up with pretty bad knees and with surgeries i had surgeries with both my knees so um but we used to go shopping on these wayside stalls and when we went there they'd be they'd be very very welcoming you know the people who had the stalls so i remember one of our one of our brothers he's uh he's a wonderful priest now i won't tell you where he is but um he's a wonderful priest and he went into a shop and we've got this in our mind if they tell us 200 rupees you have to immediately bring it down to 100 and then you start bargaining from there you know from half the price so they wanted to buy some t-shirts and he actually didn't want but he was in a group of around two or three and they wanted to buy some t-shirts they went in and they started bargaining this chap was very welcoming he welcomed them he said come in come in come right in they walked in they had this uh this little bargaining till he told them if you give me two of the t-shirts for hundred rupees that's two dollars if you give me two of them i will i will buy it for hundred and immediately now he said that not because he wanted to buy it he actually just wanted one but then after they say okay we will give you two for 400 he'd say give me one for 50. so that's his idea so he said you give me two there 400 and they said yes and then he said okay then i'll take one for 50. they said no you're giving you're getting you're giving 100 rupees and you are going to give we are going to give you two and he said no i don't have the hundred and they caught him by the caller the very same people who were so welcoming i can't exactly remember how he escaped from there but i don't think they they would have done too much to him because he was this nice puny little character so i don't think they would have manhandled him because they knew he might not have survived any any kind of beating but it's just this concept you know the way they'll welcome you and they'll tell you come in please to go off to to eat so out of the 50 rupees we'd have some for paste some for soap some for the bus charge and then we'll go to eat now the whole day you know so you go to eat and there's this there's this kerala paratha that's basically like a flat bread and you go in you get two of them for um one is for five rupees so that means two of them ten rupees i'm not even converting that into dollars because i don't know how much that would be now we get inside if we get inside usually we won't we won't buy any anything to eat with it it will just tell them give us some gravy because that's free and and when we are standing outside you'll have these people all standing and they they'll tell you come right in come in when we were getting in once they said come right in we said we want they said we got everything you just come right in and then we wanted to tell them how much money we have no you just come write it made us sit over there and he brought us our two flat breads and then he brought us some nice chicken curry as well and he smiled he said you want anything else we said we don't have the money for the chicken curry he got so upset took the chicken curry back and so you can leave that's the kind of invitations we generally get invites come come everyone's there to tell us come it's interesting how jesus in the scriptures when he calls the disciples he says come always with the disciples it happens in matthew chapter 4 when jesus calls the disciples in the nrsv doesn't say the word come but in other translations it says come follow me to peter and andrew he says come follow me to james and john he says come follow me to matthew we read in in in matthew chapter nine verse nine matthew chapter nine verse 9. as jesus was walking along he saw a man called matthew sitting at the tax booth and he said come follow me always there's an invite come we read in in john chapter 1 verse 39 john 1 39. anybody if you have ah very good so why was it working before oh it crashed okay it crashed now it's resurrected so here we have the disciples come to jesus they ask the lord lord where do you stay and jesus says come and see now jesus's invites of come is not an in white way where it is all about about cheating them of things or depriving them of things or sending them back empty rather we read in isaiah chapter chapter 55 verse 1 onwards isaiah 55 verse 1 onwards isaiah 55 verse 1 onwards ho everyone who thirsts come to the waters that you have no money come buy and eat come buy wine and milk without money and without price mind you this is not about wine this is not about milk it's about the spiritual graces that the lord is speaking about verse two why do you spend your money for that which is not bread and your labor for that which does not satisfy listen carefully to me and eat what is good and delight yourselves in rich food come and receive from me and that is what jesus is telling the disciples as well come come to me in matthew chapter 11 verse 28 it says come to me all you who are heavy burden can we go 11 28 matthew 11 28 come to me all you who are weary and carrying heavy burdens and i will give you rest so there's a promise i'm gonna give you something i'm gonna give you something you come to me you're not gonna go back empty but now we've got to understand what is jesus promising these disciples when he says come to me what is jesus promising what does jesus jesus's invites have you know jesus when he says come to the disciples does it end at that what does it go into what does come turn into what does come turn into go jesus jesus's first interaction with the disciples is come to me and what is jesus's last interaction with the disciples go into all the world so the coming to jesus always has a purpose coming to the lord can never be without purpose coming to jesus will always have a purpose in second timothy chapter one verse nine second timothy one verse nine is it very hot am i feeling very hot and you're feeling very hot just imagine the priest in his big cassette i've got three layers you know underneath this so and just think with the with the shosible as well on top of that so whenever you find it very difficult and you're fanning yourself just look at me and think tell the lord lord thank god i'm not him and then you'll feel better you'll feel some cool breeze you know that we can't put on the air conditioning in uh in these these times we're not permitted to put on the air conditioning so that's why bear us bare with us so we read second timothy chapter one verse nine he who saved us now you read he who saved us so he who saved us and he called us to what there is a holy calling so that calling that jesus gives the calling to discipleship is a holy calling and that is why we need to somewhere make uh get a better understanding of matthew 11 28 because very often matthew 11 28 is come to me all you who are weary and heavy burdened and i will give you and i will give you rest and very often this is looked looked upon as being a worldly blessing come to me i will give you rest just as just as some of you said before i left uh for my holidays father go you need rest basically you are telling me we are tired of you so you can go so that's the kind of rest we always think about it has to be physical but the rest that jesus speaks about is always spiritual and a spiritual rest is about growth and that is why the word says he who saved us and called us with a holy calling not according to our works of what we understand in this world is is a call but according to his purpose so that means when jesus calls there is a there's a purpose there's no invitation of the lord that doesn't have a purpose whose purpose his purpose his own purpose and grace not for your and my satisfaction not for your and my my comfort and pleasure and very often i think that is where our christian spirituality is actually crumbling where we made jesus the god of this world who is supposed to give us things of this world and as long as he gives us things of this world we are satisfied we are happy and we continue to worship it's a very faulty idea of the lord because when we have that kind of a spirituality over a period of time we start realizing the things of this world are just passing take even things like healing we get very excited when we are healed right how many of you would like to get healed tonight see even though i've just spoken about it one sentence earlier it doesn't matter i remember one day giving one full talk about something similar like this you know that how we need to ask the lord for the grace to be able to reach heaven and not run behind these healings and miracles and after that one hour talk i think it was on first friday one hour talk or so i finished went out over there and there was a long queue father pray i'm sick you're worldly people we always get stuck stuck with the world and that's sad we get we get stuck with with this worldly pleasure while jesus is speaking to us about something totally different he's speaking about his purpose his grace his holy calling which has a far deeper purpose than just things of this world and that is what we now need to start understanding jesus's invitation has purpose so this season of lent through the church the lord is inviting us come the lord is inviting us and saying khan come for what come for what for a holy calling in order to establish his own purpose and what will be the end of that invitation to come no no no go you have to go forth and how can he send us if we are not prepared what will he send us with it's like kind of how i went for my examinations i wasn't prepared with grace marks i used to pass bless my teachers any teachers here teachers teachers yeah only one teacher two very good teachers be kind to your students give them some excess marks what's the use of going and being sent forth if if you're not prepared and that is where jesus when he invites these disciples you know when the disciples come to jesus and they tell the lord lord where do you stay jesus says come and see and then they go back home right yeah see they don't go back come and see if i tell you you ask me father where do you stay and i say come and see don't stay i don't want you there i'll show you maybe open that door a little and say this how it is not much inside it's the same as yours and now you can go home but jesus when he says come and see they don't go back because there is a purpose in what the lord is doing so let's understand what jesus does the first thing that jesus does when he invites and tells them to come he's changing their mindset he's changing their mindset mind you jesus is inviting people who are spiritual he's not inviting just just uh people who don't believe in god all these disciples believed in god all these disciples were good practicing jews and he invites them to change a mindset because they were excited when they when they saw the lord um peter andrew comes and tells peter we have found the messiah we have found the messiah he's excited about it we have found the messiah but you have nathaniel who tells something else what is that what good can come out of nazareth why does he say that what good can come out of nazareth why does he say that i've got time don't worry i have lots of time why does nathaniel see what good can come out of nazareth to understand this you actually have to understand what they are looking forward in the messiah they are looking forward to a political messiah they are not looking forward to a spiritual messiah the israelites were waiting for a political revolution to take place the messiah will come the son of king david the height of israelites success was when king david their perfect king was on the throne and now they've lost everything they've come under the roman roman rule and that is when every time they remind themselves of the coming messiah it comes from that prophecy in isaiah chapter 11 verse 1 that says a shoot will come up from the stump of jesse who is jesse david's father so someone will come from the line of david and he will he will help israel and redeem israel how politically that is what they were looking at the messiah to be politically that is why we actually read in acts chapter one verse six take acts chapter one verse six so when they come to when they had come together they asked him lord are you all tired you all went to work and came yes are you tired you ate something and came now don't worry after this you can go home and eat so can you say that loudly you know all the the reason i say this is because there are many people watching online and some of them say yup your your parishioners are very without any energy and those times i say they are not my parishioners people from outside whenever they say good things i say yeah they are my parishioners all the others are from the outside so we read that loudly when you will restore the kingdom to israel they are still thinking about david's lineage that is going to give them that political revolution that's going to change everything that is why nathaniel says what good can come out of nazareth no warrior comes out of nazareth no one who will come and lead us as a political messiah can come out of nazareth so they were looking forward to this very worldly mindset even in their ideas about about jesus and that is why who was so disturbed when jesus was born herod why was herod disturbed he thinks his seat his throne is going to go it's all about that political messiah that was the understanding of the people of israel as well they were not looking for a spiritual messiah they were looking for a political messiah and that is why it's so significant when jesus asked the disciples who do the people say i am i'm jeremiah i'm one of the prophets okay so who do you say than i am and that is why when peter says you are the messiah the son of the living god not just a political messiah the son of the living god suddenly from nowhere and that is why jesus would tell him you didn't say this my father told you this because apart from from the father saying they would never have understood that is why for them everything was this worldly what happened when when jesus um when jesus started doing a lot of miracles the people were so so excited the disciples were excited in mark chapter 1 verse 37. are you people smiling yes um i know some of us are not with mass because in those we are not expected to as long as we can social distance and this is for all this i'm saying this for all those online should hear the things that that they complain about that you will get me sick some of them say that father they are not wearing their masks they'll get you sick i want to play i want to tell them poor things the people are getting sick because of me they are sick of me so we we read in in mark chapter 1 verse 37 yeah this is after jesus has done all those miracles and everyone's now searching for the lord what is the what do they come and say everyone is searching for you and the lord says i have to go on to the other villages they are not very happy with that they do this another time as well when when in john chapter 6 when jesus multiplies the five loaves and feeds the people they all come searching for for jesus why they were thinking of bread king political messiah this is good why do you think they were all so excited palm sunday when jesus walks into jerusalem everyone takes the palms and they start putting it there they wanted him to become king why was everyone excited the political messiah is here that was the whole idea and that is precisely what these disciples had kind of kind of started thinking they thought these miracles and these healings and this was this was all that jesus was about that political messiah who is suddenly going to give us important places isn't that why the mother of james and john comes and says in your kingdom and give them the left and the right she doesn't mean that kingdom she means this kingdom she doesn't mean in heaven as though any mother is going to come and say when you go and my sons die then you go and give the left and the right no mother is going to come and say this she is speaking about this kingdom she thinks jesus is going to have a kingdom here it's all these worldly concepts and jesus transforms that the worldly ideas that they have come with and they have approached him with jesus when he said come is turning them from their worldly mindsets and he's transforming their mindsets into something that is godly and that is why he speaks about his kingdom that is not of this world my kingdom is not of this world and you cannot be people of this world as well that is why for him when peter says who do you say that i am when peter says you are the messiah it was so important to jesus he doesn't want us to be people of this world he doesn't want us to act like this worldly people he doesn't want us to have a relationship with him that is only based on what we are going to get in this world and it's sad if we turn into christians that are so obsessed with what jesus is going to give us in this world his promises have never been about this world when he says the path to the kingdom of god is narrow and you have to walk that path he's talking about his kingdom not about what we are going to get from here and that is when you see a change not only in their worldly attitudes that worldly attitude change will start bringing about a change in their desire for opposition for power and for money what does james and john want they want position what is peter very happy about his position we we know the time when when uh when jesus would would tell peter to take the coin and give us as taxes someone who was bothered about the taxes and jesus would would tell him go catch a fish take the coin pay your tax and pay my taxes will this worldly tax that peter was bothered about that one coin we read in acts of the apostles chapter 3 verse 6 when he comes across a person who is who is at the at the entrance of the temple and he's begging from peter and john what does peter say gold or silver i do not have because i'm not bothered about it anymore gold or silver i do not have i'm not bothered about it anymore what did the early christian community do they started selling everything and sharing it with everyone why because they were not bothered about this worldly pleasures how sad nowadays we have lots of faith we are like these disciples when when jesus called them initially you know the the peter was he was he spiritual yes he was spiritual was james and john spiritual they were spiritual was judas spiritual ah come on i mean this is a problem with us human beings if one person is bad he's totally bad we won't give him in one others jesus wouldn't have called him so there's some kind of spirituality in him so jesus invites him jesus tells him come as well and he comes so there was spirituality in all of these people but still there was that that idea towards money there was this idea towards position there was an idea towards power because for them it was all about what this world had to offer jesus transforms that and gives them a focus about about the world up above about his kingdom and that is why jesus invites us to change that attitude that we have that jesus is all about what we get over here why do we come to church why do we pray not because jesus is going to do good things for me no wonder it was so easy to make the transition for the people of this world to to replace jesus with santa isn't that true why was it so easy for the world outside to replace jesus with santa because if jesus gives good things santa also gives good things so easy to make that change santa doesn't promise us kingdom of god he doesn't promise us the the heavenly riches and this is where we need to come and and move about why do i come to church why do i pray i'm in preparation the lord is teaching me what about this world no about what i should get in this world no he's teaching me how to live in this world so that i can make my way to his kingdom that is what we should be joyful about that is what jesus says when he says come when he's telling us come this season of lent he's telling us come come so that i will teach you so that there will be a change in our mindset moving from just people who are who are confined to the thoughts of this world and the desires of this world and that is why it's always a battle what happens when we are this worldly people we become very obsessed with ourselves what i want what's comfortable for me take even take even the whole idea for me this is this is an idea that keeps cropping up because i find it very very difficult to digest the whole pro-choice idea the pro-choice idea is a very very selfish idea of my life what i will do with my life where i cannot see another and the least of all the the most weakest of all is a child in the womb the most defenseless sometimes i i find it find it amusing when when we when we see when we see these videos about about animals and and people are so bothered about about little animals and and i saw uh recently a video about a bird someone actually hatched an egg off of a bird a little parakeet you know that love birds that they call them the small ones so he he there was one abandoned egg and he takes that one egg and he goes home and he gets it hatched and the small tiny little thing you know it doesn't have anything on itself it's a small tiny little speck and how he feeds it and and then how it's now grown and it has actually beautiful feathers it flies around and and there's so many comments of such such love you know you've done so much for that such a hopeless creature and you helped it i'm thinking there's one defenseless child in the womb when not one person feels it's bad for them it's pro-choice people of the world will think like the world oh christians if for you it doesn't bother you if it doesn't bother you then you are of the world and you will think like the world and for us then jesus will become about what comforts he gives us in this world what what job he gives us in this world what blessings he gives us in this world i haven't gone above we cannot live at that state if we live at that state we cannot be sent what will he tell us to go and do then if we ourselves are not transformed with what confidence will he send us out if we are not transformed within how important it is and that is why we start seeing the disciples change look at him for him it's not a bother anymore silver or gold i don't have early christian community we don't have does it bother us no it doesn't bother us today does it bother us i don't have enough bank balance i don't have as much a good house as my neighbor has back in india we have this big competitions about houses i don't think you do this over here not much of that over here but uh back in india it's a big competition how big the house needs to be big bigger biggest and s test test after that just because your neighbor has something big here it happens in the form of cars like all that loan and big that big uh you know you barely come over here and then you need that you need that bmw you need to drive that murk because everyone else drives the merc and in my my garage i just have that small toyota yaris and and it seems to be shrinking smaller and smaller and and look at their their cars so i have this big fat loan and i'll go and and buy that big fat car so here it's not the house we have it in other forms but are we people who are so so oriented to the world and that is why jesus is telling us come i'll teach you something else i'll teach you something that's way beyond just the silliness of this world well how long is all this with us 50 years 60 years the bible tells 70 or at the most 80. nancy more than 80 who is more than 80 here anybody more than 80 yes peter days of grace according to the bible not me at the most what hundred and compare that to eternity have you even given it a thought eternity and ever and ever and ever and ever if you are not prepared forever and ever and ever in you fill in the blanks it's so important to understand we need that change those disciples didn't just just just end up the same way they came in when the lord said come see james the very same person who wanted position in power letter of saint james chapter 3 verse 13 to 18. james 3 13-18 who is wise and understanding we have to remember who is saying all this the one who wanted one of the one of the positions who is wise and understanding among you sure by your good life that your works are done with gentleness born of wisdom continue but if you have bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts do not be boastful and false to the truth such wisdom does not come from above but is earthly unspiritual it is devilish we don't use those words nowadays do we we use good words it's devilish it's unspiritual it's earthly why does the lord say all this because he said my kingdom is not of this world he himself acknowledges and says the ruler of this world is now in control who is that the devil and what are we running behind what's the difference between adam and eve and us any difference oh adam and eve offered forbidden fruit right what the devil offered they took what the rule of this world offers we take we rejoice in it and we pepper it on top with a bit of spirituality and we say jesus gave me jesus gave me and so happy jesus gave me blessings jesus gave me graces everything jesus gave me after all this jesus gave me where is it what has it led us to if if my experience of jesus is healings i'm not saying healings is wrong i'm not saying blessings is wrong but if i'm getting stuck there i'm sorry i'm eating the wrong fruit if i'm stuck in this healings and miracles i'm eating the wrong fruit that's only a starting point and then the lord tells us now come to me i'll teach you something greater when jesus invited these disciples to himself and he had those beautiful moments with them not once in the scriptures do we read about about jesus healing peter or james i mean even the mother-in-law got got something peter didn't get we have problems when our mother-in-law gets and we don't even that woman got i didn't get after everything peter james john none of them what he was giving them was something far deeper there was a healing going on within from the worldly to the godly can we desire for that that is let that let that be what the season of lent is all about from the worldly as jesus has invited us and told us come into this season of lent i will take you from the worldly into the godly that is what it should be like james who was was so obsessed with with getting position now he's saying that's earthly that's unspiritual and that is when you see them having a change in their whole approach itself not only did they change within then you see the change happening in how they started dealing with others earlier on when you had when you had the the 5 000 people who came to the lord and they were hungry what did the disciples say as a solution when there were so many people they were hungry and jesus says oh all of them are so hungry what solution did the disciples have get rid of them get rid of them what a perfect worldly solution isn't that true what is disturbing me get rid of it i'll come back to the same abortion what disturbs my lifestyle and my freedom and even makes me makes it hard for me to to to have that extra bit of comfort and money get rid of it in relationships if someone is difficult get rid of them parish priest not good get rid of him but isn't that true we have a throwaway culture today right everything now we have is always throw away you're throwing it away throwing it away we have all the plastic we took and we threw it away where did it go it's all there underneath is rubbish it's cluttering the world it doesn't go anywhere all this that we've been doing as throwaway culture it doesn't go anywhere this world absorbs it the generations and the generations that come after like we say in the very same way why are they speaking about all the environment and taking care of the environment it's good by the way i'm not speaking against it it's good to take care of the environment why are they speaking about it because they say not about 10 years from now they're speaking about 50 years 100 years from now what our children and our grandchildren and our great grandchildren are going to experience then what about the spiritual aspect of life what about that throw away culture that we've developed in this world today throw away relationships throw away people throw away holiness throw away prayer oh throw away god so perfectly worked out we threw away threw away threw away threw away till now we have now thrown away god as well why so sadly in our western cultures even in our hospitals we don't put up a crucifix in our own hospitals in our own schools throw away culture please the world keep pleasing the world and ultimately all that we have thrown away this world has absorbed it all that negative spirituality to grow from there for them it was this this dismiss the crowds get rid of them to later the ones we see in the acts of the apostles and the epistles are people our disciples who embrace everyone who comes to them those who are going through difficulties those who are going through sickness those who are unwanted those who are rejected they embrace them you see the jesus factor there when the lepers came to jesus he embraced him when the blind came to jesus he embraced them everyone who came to the lord the lord embraced them and that we start seeing in the disciples after he has formed them when he said come to me he changed the way they approached just think of it these very same disciples in matthew chapter 19 verse 13 onwards when they bring children to jesus what did the disciples say don't disturb the lord that also get rid of don't disturb the lord get rid of that also all these there were people who just thought okay let's just throw away all these things that disturb our life let's get rid of it jesus changed that mindset a christian should have that mindset when we come forth when we go forth from this 40 days of lent and we go out it shouldn't be about getting rid of everyone it should be about embracing everyone bring them into our heart our heart has enough and more space for people we won't run out of space when we come into the church and it's packed we won't run out of space we can sit on the floor and make someone sit on the chair you won't run out of space ever if your heart is big enough how important it is for us to understand to be able to to change that whole attitude as well we read in in john chapter 18 verse 10 when peter is is faced with a problem in john 18 verse 10 what does peter do when jesus is arrested what's his reaction to a problem yeah take the sword and cut isn't that what we do the moment i'm afraid someone's going to do something to me or say something about me cut we all wield beautiful swords with us all of us have those hoards busy cutting people around from that invitation to come for peter if if there's if there's a person who's as humble and simple as a lamb from acts of the apostles it's peter there's so much so much of a change in a transformation that's why jesus says come even their very approach to prayer changed for them earlier prayer what was it about they slept through the difficult moments of prayer isn't that true gethsemane they slept through it when were they awake when they when were they when were they awake when when jesus was transfigured all the exciting moments they were awake boring moments they slept but that attitude to change that attitude to pray changed after jesus called them and worked on them that should change for us as well there's no prayer that is boring there's no devotion that is boring if i'm still saying that certain devotions are boring and it's not inspiring i still haven't yet transformed i need to pray always and ask the lord lord you've invited me and you've said come how important it is not to turn out to be a judas i always think you know peter heard the the voice that said come andrew heard the voice that said come james and john heard the voice that said come matthew heard the voice that said come nathaniel heard the voice that said come judas heard the voice that said come but he didn't allow himself to get transformed for him it had to be a revolutionary reader leader and jesus wasn't doing well and so for him at such a such a perfect example of how he was still so worldly he went and betrayed the lord for something worldly he was also invited and said come we are all invited come we have all entered into lent together but it will depend on us how we will come out of this lint will not come out the same all of us will be different but it depends on how much we want to get transformed the rich young man came to jesus and when the rich young man came to the lord spiritual person yes kept all the commandments yes went to church i'm just adapting it went to church yes pray the rosary yes came for lenten beginning evening retreat yes give up everything and follow me he was one of those where jesus said come follow me sell all your possessions come follow me and he went back and he said no i'll be a person of the world. i don't want to be a person of the kingdom so it's left up to us during this this season do we want to be person of the kingdom in in john chapter 5 verse 40 and we'll stop with that john chapter 5 verse 40 you refuse to come to me to have life how many of you want to live how many of you want to live forever and ever and ever in his kingdom that's the life jesus is speaking about when jesus speaks of life it's not just and that is why when when martha and mary cry over lazarus true jesus resurrected lazarus but did lazarus die again yes when jesus had that conversation with martha what was that conversation about yeah the resurrection and the life what life it's not this worldly life every time jesus speaks about life it is this and we are still bringing it down to this worldly level get over it grow from it sometimes i think even you know we've been doing these retreats in in melbourne for the past 19 years or so at least us and before that definitely there would have been so many so many priests and sometimes especially these healing retreats and and healing masses and healing adorations that we haven't and it's good praise god for it god works his miracles i'm i'm not speaking against it i'm just saying can we grow from there please grow from there don't get stuck in in that in that same situation and and assess jesus and assess your experiences based on how many healings and miracles took place how many souls are saved is my soul saved is my family's soul saved that is where we should get at ultimately it doesn't matter lord if i don't have anything take all those disciples they came out of their catechism classes and the lord said go forth now he was so confident and they went everywhere they went alone they went into dangerous places they were killed and it didn't matter because for them they were kingdom people they had gone above this world these children of god grow above this world you're all doing that it's hard because we live in this world it's so hard that's why i like preaching because this is my retreat i'm preaching to myself grow above this world so important for us we still come back to this world but then we still have to remind ourselves and that's why the season of lent is so beautiful us to actually make that that journey that at the end when we have have easter it's not about easter okay i was abstaining and now suddenly i can eat meat and i'm so happy now oh i stopped drinking and i start drinking if you stop drinking oh please continue to stop get rid of that you're wasting your money on it if you've decided 50 40 days of lent i'm not going to smoke or pray and desire and tell the lord lord take me out of this worldly thing don't tell the lord lord let 40 days pass so soon because on easter day it's not about going back home i know in our home we used to have because we we we abstain and and when we we come home my uncle would make amazing pork and after midnight mass we have to come back and have pork i had someone who told me and i found this very amusing that uh and and they were amazingly honest but they're very close to me um they said they should not go for midnight mass because at 12 o'clock after that abstinence they had to have their meat very very very good people mind you but sometimes to us it was after that easter celebration come home and celebrate but what is the church telling us what is the lord telling us go now 40 days i've trained you go forth but we are going home

Channel: MOMENTS OF JOY

Views: 10,624

Keywords: Fr. Michael Payyapilly, Lenten Talk, Voice of God, God's Grace, Divine-Potta Ministry, Lent, Catholic Faith

Id: ezr4eqYhidA

Length: 62min 1sec (3721 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 01 2022