DAY 02- MAY THEY ALL BE ONE: THE EUCHARIST, THE SACRAMENT OF UNITY-RMC Lenten Mission - 7th Mar 2022

[Music] dear friends we welcome you once more for this mission service thank you for joining us for making time to take part in this mission service we also ask you to invite your friends your relatives as you can and also try to pray and fast so that the lord blesses you abundantly as we begin we begin this mission service we pray as the lord said to me they all be one eucharist a sacrament of unity and so we pray so that the lord may bless us it's difficult to share to care with everyone to be one with everyone and so we pray and sing this song sometimes it's not easy to be good [Music] sometimes it's not easy to pray for everybody sometimes it's not easy to share with everybody sometimes it's not easy to do the things we should sometimes it's not easy to be good sometimes it's not easy to do the things we want to sometimes it's not easy to say the things we want to sometimes it's not easy to do the things we should sometimes it's not easy to be good sometimes it's not easy to care for everybody sometimes it's not easy to mix with everybody sometimes it's not easy to do the things we should sometimes it's not easy to be good sometimes it's not easy to be good prayer before listening to god's word thank you heavenly father for making yourself known to us showing us the way of salvation through faith in your son we ask you now to teach us through your word so that we may be ready to serve you for the glory of our lord jesus christ help us to think and to pray heavenly father give us faith to receive your word understanding to know what it means and the will to put it into practice through jesus christ our lord help us to think and to pray almighty god we thank you for the gift of your holy word may to be a lantern to our feet a light to our path and strength to our lives take us and use us to love and serve all people in the power of the holy spirit and in the name of your son jesus christ our lord help us to think and to pray almighty god make your word our rule your spirit our teacher and your glory our supreme concern for the sake of our savior the lord jesus christ help us to think and to pray now we pause for a while and pray for father peter michael claude send your holy spirit on him touch his lips his heart that he may break your word to your people we also ask you to bless all our listeners may they receive your word and may they accept your word as the light of their path let us pray god our father only you can give meaning and purpose to our life let your word pierce deeply into our hearts and change our lives so that we may know life at its best and learn to live for you and for others we make this prayer through christ our lord amen the lord be with you and with your spirit a reading from the holy gospel according to saint john glory to you o lord jesus said to them truly truly i say to you unless you eat the flesh of the son of man and drink his blood you have no life in you he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life and i will raise him up at the last day for my flesh is food indeed and my blood is drink indeed he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me and i in him the gospel of the lord praise to you lord jesus christ brothers and sisters in jesus christ when i was studying in the seminary one morning rather on the 24th december morning my prefect the priest in charge of me knocked on the door and said to me there is a sad news and the news is that your father passed away this early morning dear friends there was sadness in his eyes i was sad and then he tried his best to see if i could reach for the funeral the parish priest of my parish called me up and he said to me you are to come from bangalore all the way from bangalore to nasik and i think it will be difficult for you to reach on time tomorrow is the 25th of december we cannot bury the body tomorrow and i would advise you that you let mommy go ahead with the funeral and then he said to me peter i was there when your dad breathed his last your brother took me to your house early in the morning at around two o'clock your dad was lying on the bed with people sitting around i gave him the anointing of the sick then i gave him the communion and i can tell you in all honesty your dad died in peace dear brothers and sisters when i reached home my mummy narrated a second side of the story and she said when the priest gave your dad the communion daddy looked at me and he did not turn away his eyes and there was a smile on his face and she said to me your father looked so handsome peter and i believe that jesus who said to us he who eats my body and drinks my blood will never perish but will have eternal life jesus has kept his word my brothers and sisters to lose my father was sad but to know the way god took him was a consolation dear friends we go through life as christians and life is a pilgrimage a journey god tells us i am with you jesus tells us behold i am with you till the end of time and that is a great consolation for each and every one of us god when he says something he does it and how does jesus keep his promise of being with us till the end of time the first thing is he has promised us his holy spirit this is the spirit of life when he rose again and he appeared to the disciples he breathed on them his spirit and he said receive the holy spirit he breathed in them the spirit of life none of us can live without breath we breathe we live because of the breath of god and much more now after the resurrection of jesus we breathe his spirit the spirit which is given to us so god knows our need as we go through this life that we need breath and he himself gives us his breath his power of life the second important thing that jesus does to fulfill his promise that he will not leave us is that he gives us this beautiful sacrament the sacrament of the holy eucharist he gives us his own body and blood because he knows that as we go through this journey of life we will need nourishment every single one of us works so that we can eat and we eat so that we can live so breath is important for life and food is important for life and god becomes the provider both of breath and of food this is how jesus keeps his promise today as we listen to the gospel the gospel is a beautiful gospel john chapter 6. the beginning of the gospel tells us how people were touched by jesus generosity they came all the way to listen to his words and he had compassion on them and he decided that they should not go back home hungry because they will not be able to make that journey god is a god who understands our need he is the jehovah jireh and that is the reason he feeds this multitude he performs a miracle and then we hear people are after him because they think if we have this man as our king he will feed us every single day and then starts this beautiful discourse where jesus says you are looking for the bread that will satisfy you the or the hunger of your body but i am here i am the living bread which has come down from heaven and the entire chapter is a discourse a dialogue between these people and jesus dear friends he says i am the bread of life he who eats my body and drinks my blood will never die but will have eternal life and these people are wrecking their brains and they ask themselves how can this man give us his own body and blood to eat and drink this is difficult saying and these very people who wanted to make jesus the king of their life they left him but instead of looking back and calling them back and saying to them hey listen i only meant it in a symbolic way i did not mean that you have to eat my body and drink my blood are you gone off your head it was a symbolic gesture that i was referring to no in fact he lets them go he turns to his own disciples and he tells them do you also want to go away do you also want to go away and peter turns to jesus and on behalf of the disciples he says to jesus lord to whom shall we go you have the words of eternal life you have the words of eternal life my brothers and sisters in jesus christ our god does not leave us he keeps his word let us look at the disciples when jesus rose from the dead some of the disciples did not believe that he has risen because they had seen him crucified they had seen him die a miserable death in their eyes and so two of their disciples are going away from jerusalem to emmaus and jesus walks with them look at the disciples they are sad they are broken and then jesus talks to them why are you sad and then they tell him all that has happened and then he explains to them from the scriptures and they listen to his voice and as they listen to his voice something changes in their heart and when they go further they invite jesus not knowing that it is jesus to come and sit with them and eat and when he took the bread he blessed it he broke it and when he broke the bread immediately the eyes were opened in the breaking of the bread they realized they discovered this is jesus this is the power of the eucharist the presence of jesus and the fourth thing that happens to these disciples they are filled with joy they run back to the disciples now they are on a mission to give the good news that we have listened to his voice we have received from his own hands his body and now we are have come here to tell you that yes he is risen we need to do something for his people well dear friends the emails experience sums up the eucharist beautifully the eucharist has four movements the first is we listen we come to the eucharist broken sad and we confess our sins our sins not anybody else's we tell god we are broken we are misunderstood we need you we are sinners forgive us he forgives us in the eucharist and the second thing that happens is we listen to his voice his words and something happens in our heart you will have n number of stories about people who have been touched by the word of god during the eucharist sinners have turned into saints because of they because of them listening to the word of god the third thing that happens at the eucharist my dear friends jesus breaks his body and pours out his blood for us the question is do i recognize jesus or when i look at the priest breaking the bread and sharing the chalice do i think it's just a bread it is just wine no the scripture is very clear saint paul says the bread that we break isn't it the body of christ the cupboard that we share isn't it the blood of christ jesus himself when he instituted the eucharist he says to his disciple this is my body this is my blood he doesn't say this is symbolic he says this is my body this is my blood and then he adds something beautiful he says to us do this in memory of me do this in memory of me the last part of the eucharist my dear friends is we are people who have been who have experienced god and we cannot remain the same we cannot be people who are sad and broken because now he has not only strengthened us with his word he has himself given us his own body and we go through this pilgrimage of life this difficult journey with the strength of god and we go out to the world preaching that i have experienced the lord i have experienced the lord and i am a person on mission the mission to spread his love to others dear brothers and sisters which nation can say as we can that our god is so close to us that we can see him our god is so close to us that we can touch him our god is so close to us that he gives us his own body and his blood the best that anyone can receive god himself giving himself to us so that we can go through life this is our god he will never leave us he will never forsake us jesus has assured us if you eat my body and you drink my blood you will never die there have been kings and queens and great people who have tracked their brains and tried their best to find eternal life to find ways and means to extend their lives and many of them like pharaohs have built huge pyramids thinking that will take them through but here we have one who has risen from the dead the one who gives us his own body and blood the one who will never lie the one who says and does the very thing and he says to us and this is the assurance if you eat my body and drink my blood you will never perish this is the gift of the eucharist and that is the reason my dear friends many of you many of our ancestors many of our people who went through difficult times it surprises us how did you go through such difficult times and your answer will be because i receive the body of jesus jesus is my strength dear brothers and sisters we have relied on the words of jesus and jesus has never failed us the second important thing about the eucharist my dear friends the eucharist is a sacrament of unity it is a sacrament that unites us with god and that is the reason at the table of the lord at the altar we have the saints gathered and we pray holy holy and that is the reason my dear friends this is a window a path that connects god to us and us to god but that is not all the eucharist also unites us to one another it is the table of our life it is the center of our life our lives will begin from the the altar marriages are solemnized at the altar baptisms happened at the altar ordinations happen at the altar i am confirmed at the altar i receive the lord at the altar i confess my sins so that i can take part in the eucharist in a worthy manner and come to the altar and when i die when i die my body is brought to her to the church to the altar and taken from there this is the center of our life everything stems from here this is the epicenter of our growth of our life dear brothers and sisters this eucharist unites us with one another it is a sacrament of unity and that is the reason that is the reason jesus prayed for every one of us he prays he says father i pray that all these remain one just as you are in me and i am in you may they too be one may they to be one and then he goes further to pray and i pray not just for them i also pray for those who will believe in me based on their words which means he prays for every single person throughout the generations for me today maybe tomorrow for some children who will be born few years later he prays that we all be united because my dear brothers and sisters it is the words of jesus which says a house divide divided can never stand up and so the eucharist unites us jesus prays for unity and how does it unite us when i come to the to the mass to the holy eucharist i look at my brother my sister their needs i give them the sign of peace i know what their needs are i contribute to the the church so that the church and the vincent de paul and other organizations do social work my brothers and sisters this eucharist unites us one of the most important thing that we must remember is that jesus had many enemies but every time they tried to lay their hands on jesus dear brothers and sisters he escaped it was only his own who handed him over to his enemies his own who broke jesus in that sense who broke the unity that was among the apostles dear brothers and sisters the evil one is active and one of the potent weapons that the evil one uses is division division we as missionaries as church which is on a mission are supposed to present jesus to the world but what type of jesus are we presenting to the world when we ourselves are divided when we are not the answer to the prayers of jesus when he prayed for unity amongst us dear friends it is very sad god wants his children to be one united because we are one big family what breaks or you breaks the community the family of jesus few things that break us first of all the lust for power the lust for power breaks the church and this lust for power is in every one of us it was also exhibited by his own apostles james and john wanted power one wanted to sit on his left and the other wanted to sit on his right others were angry with them because they thought we didn't think about this so this struggle for power this need for power can really destroy the church the power to dominate and even i as a priest i as a priest could be the source of the evil one to break the church when i to want offices and when i do want to lord it over but jesus says this is not the way you and the ones who are following me should be john does not have the last supper written but john has something else which shows what is the meaning of the eucharist he has jesus washing the feet of his disciples by that john tells us that if we really want to be like jesus if we really want to exercise his power his power is exercised not with lording it over on others but his power is exercised by being a servant and that is what we see in the gospel of john jesus washing the feet of his disciples and they are shocked peter in fact says you are a master you cannot wash my feet but jesus says i am your lord and master but if i have washed your feet you two should wash each other's feet this is what will unite the church we being of service to the other not we being people who want to lord it over others dear brothers and sisters the last judgment is based on service the last judgment is based on love this is what we need to do i'm proud to be a catholic because i have not seen any christian any catholic begging outside the church we take care of our own and if in your parish this anybody is going to go hungry that night we are responsible we cannot let that happen our powers are to serve to reach out to the people because my lord is hungry if my brother my sister goes hungry and we just don't limit ourselves to the church the church is always ready to dig into its pocket its own people contributing whether for famine relief whether for flood relief whatever we are there for the people the second important thing that breaks the unity of the church is gossip dear friends the experience of the disciples at the emails experience of the disciples rather is the last part of the experience is when they experience jesus they run out into the darkness becoming light and reaching to their disciples and other people and tell them that yes we have experienced the lord what do they go out and tell do they gossip do they talk negative things do they pull people down no they speak about jesus they speak about that experience in one of the parishes one of the parish a couple wonderful couple told me father we do not come to the church i said what happened why and they said to me our parents are in the parish council but when they come out they come back home they're only talking about this person or that person they are maligning people's name and we don't like it dear friends when we receive the body of christ on this tongue how can we use this tongue to malign other people's name how can we pull people down and sometimes people can go as far as even maligning the names of priests and sisters and brothers dear friends the church the the lord says very clearly if somebody you have anything against somebody go talk to that person if you cannot then take somebody with you there is a there is a proper procedure that we can follow the church has all its systems in place you and i don't have to take the law in our hands we cannot break the body of christ we cannot be the ones who are breaking it from inside we cannot present a fractured christ to people my brothers and sisters it is important to know that god is the judge if somebody in the office does wrong it is god who will judge you can exercise all that you can but not using force using wrong means and so my dear friends the second thing that breaks the unity of the church is people who gossip and speak wrong you and i are sent out as messengers when we step out of the church we're supposed to meet people we're supposed to ask them how are you do you need any help can i be of assistance we are supposed to listen to people instead of that we gossip we have listened to the word we have received the body of christ and instead of being messengers we become destroyers like that of being the messengers of satan the next thing my dear brothers and sisters is jealousy jealousy is a very important thing that divides the church and it is so rampant in our church sometimes that we don't want other people to go ahead if it is a difficult task we allow other people to go ahead but if it is a easy task we want our name our children we will fight for this that breaks the church my brothers and sisters and another important thing groupism my dear friends we are united nobody should be able to break our our unity at the crucifixion of jesus his clothes were torn and shared among the soldiers but the inner garment they said let us not tear it let us cast lots the church and the theologians the scriptures scholars teach us and tell us the inner government stands for the unity of the church and the unity of the church shall not be divided god will not allow such evil act he will protect it and we are responsible for that as priests as sisters brothers people in the parish council choir every single person we cannot take sides we are one the scripture says in christ there is no male no female no jew no gentile we are all one in christ and if you are one in christ my brothers and sisters then it does not matter what language you speak it does not matter what gender you are it does not matter how rich or poor you are it does not matter what language you speak all that matters is you are my brother my sister we are together the body of christ if we are united we do not present a fractured image of christ and sometimes we priest we religious also can be instruments of destruction just as the apostles were used judas peter judas in particular was used by the evil one to destroy the unity v2 can fall into the hands of the evil one siding with one group of people one language group one right all these things i take the vow of chastity and so does every religious even including the diocese and priests the vow of chastity tells the lord and the people i'm opening my heart to every single person if i practice groupism favoritism i am not opening my heart i may not get into sexual relationships and say that my chastity is intact but if my heart is close to some people then i have played with this very vow of chastity because this vow tells me that i need to open my heart to everyone my brothers and sisters we have this good news the eucharist is a symbol of god's love and expression he knows we need him he has given us his own body and blood he will never leave us even if we die he will grant us eternal rest we shall never perish so my dear friends during this pandemic we had the eucharist online and we have attended the eucharist because we couldn't go and receive the body and blood of christ today many people are taking the shortcut and they say now okay we don't want to go to the church no my brothers and sisters this is a beautiful sacrament when we did not have opportunity god came to us in a spiritual way and we have prayed the spiritual communion we cannot hide behind this we have to make it a point when it is possible to go to the church all the able-bodied people should make it a point to go to the church and tell the lord i am on this pilgrimage and i need strength and i know you are my strength lord i believe in you because you have said to me he who eats my body and drinks my blood will not perish lord i believe in you for this grace and that we become people who are united not divided let us pray to the lord dear friends thank you for joining in for today's mission service today we would like you to do a small exercise with your family dear friends families are the domestic churches where two or three are gathered in the name of jesus jesus is present so the exercise is very simple at any time of the day when you are together as a family hold each other's hands as one body and pray the our father meaningfully it's a simple exercise but i'm sure it will bind our families close to one another dear friends tomorrow's theme is a very interesting one it is a question is your marriage a sacrament of love a very interesting topic so dear friends we would like you to become messengers to those who still have not heard about this mission so on whatsapp group or through personal messages sending send in the links to your friends so they too may join in and answer this question or rather get answer to this question is your marriage a sacrament of love dear friends also a reminder the mission service will be premiered every day at 6 00 am every day at 6 00 am join us for live mass at 7 00 am the mass will also have a small instruction tomorrow's instruction is on anger and anxiety a burning issue dear friends today most of us are going through this and i'm sure god will god will help us to understand ourselves well and overcome anger and anxiety and lastly do not forget to join us for adoration and rosary this evening at 7 00 pm god bless you [Music] sometimes it's not easy to pray for everybody sometimes it's not easy to share with everybody sometimes it's not easy to do the things we should sometimes it's not easy to be good sometimes it's not easy to do the things we want to sometimes it's not easy to say the things we want to sometimes it's not easy to do the things we should sometimes it's not easy to be good sometimes it's not easy to care for everybody sometimes it's not easy to mix with everybody sometimes it's not easy to do the things we should sometimes it's not easy to be good sometimes it's not easy to be good

Channel: Redemptorist Media Center, Bangalore

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Id: ifxVqC3sAeA

Length: 35min 12sec (2112 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 06 2022