Thanks to God, you have heard his message through his Son Jesus Christ. It is God's own message which the Church proclaims, not some human thinking. It gives you strength when you believe it. May Jesus, God's living Word, be always with you. R/ And also with you.
One-page
synopsis: The feast and its objectives: All baptized Christians who have died and are now with God in glory
are considered saints. All
Saints Day is intended to honor
the memory of countless unknown and uncanonized saints who have no feast
days. Today we thank God for giving ordinary men and women a share in
His holiness and Heavenly glory as a reward for their Faith. This
feast is observed to teach
us to honor the saints,
both by imitating their lives and by
seeking their intercession for us before Christ, the only
mediator between God and man (I
Tim. 2:5). The Church reminds us today that God's call for holiness is
universal, that all of us are called to live in His love and to
make His love real in the lives of those around us.Holiness is related to the word wholesomeness. We grow in holiness when we live wholesome lives of integrity truth, justice, charity, mercy and
compassion, sharing
our blessings with others.
One-page
synopsis: All Souls’ Day
(November 2, 2017) Homily:
All
Souls’ Dayisa day specially set apart that we may remember and pray
for our dear ones who have gone for their eternal reward and who are currently in a state of ongoing purification.
"Heavenly Father, we come before you today to ask your forgiveness and to seek
your direction and guidance. We know Your Word says: "Woe to those who call evil
good", but that is exactly what we have done. * We have lost our spiritual
equilibrium and reversed our values. * We have ridiculed the absolute truth
of Your Word and called it Pluralism. * We have worshipped other gods and
called it multiculturalism. * We have endorsed perversion and called it
alternative lifestyle. * We have exploited the poor and called it the
lottery. * We have rewarded laziness and called it welfare. * We have
killed our unborn and called it choice.
God loves you and has chosen you and had the Good News brought to you. May the grace and peace of God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ be with you. R/ And also with you.
Today’s passage is built around the saying in verse 21, “Give back to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God”. It is a “wisdom saying” and the passage invites us to enter into it with our feelings. Its truth should touch us so deeply that we are filled with gratitude, and also with humility as we realise that do we do not live up to it – as individuals, as a Church and as communities. The saying then becomes a call to repentance.
Jose Hong Singapore: When housewife G. Naggammal Koh speaks with strangers in Tamil, she often gets surprised looks. The 67-year-old grew up speaking the language, is a Hindu and identifies herself as Indian. But Madam Naggammal was born a Hokkien Chinese.
At the end of World War II, the Russian head-of-state gave an elaborate banquet to honor the British Prime Minister Winston Churchill. The Russians arrived in their best formal wear -- military dress uniforms -- but their honored guest did not. Churchill arrived wearing his famous zipper coveralls that he had worn during the German bomb attack in London. He thought it would provide a nostalgic touch the Russians would appreciate. They didn’t. They were humiliated and insulted that their prominent guest-of-honor had not considered their banquet worthy of his best clothes. Wearing the right clothing to a formal dinner honors the host and the occasion; neglecting to wear the right clothing is an insult. Weddings were such an important occasion in Palestine in Christ’s days that people were expected to wear the proper clothing to show appreciation and respect for the invitation. In today’s Gospel, Jesus demands the wedding garment of righteousness from his followers. (Fr. Tony Kadavil)
Story Starters: From Fr. Tony Kadavil’s Collection Gospel text : Matthew 21:33-43 1) Wild Vines in the Lord’s Vineyard In his book From Scandal to Hope, Fr. Benedict Groeschel (EWTN), examines the roots of the clergy sex-abuse scandal. He details how disloyalty spread through seminaries, universities, chanceries and parishes. The most notorious case was that of Fr. Paul Shanley who helped found the North American Man-Boy Love Association in 1979. He lectured in seminaries, once with a bishop in attendance, maintaining that “homosexuality is a gift of God and should be celebrated,” and that there was no sexual activity that could cause psychic damage-- “not even incest or bestiality.” No wonder Fr. Charles Curran had little trouble getting seventy-seven theologians to sign a protest against Humanae Vitae, an encyclical which reaffirmed marital chastity! A few years later the Catholic Theological Society (CTS), published Human Sexuality: New Directions in American Catholic Thought, a study which accepted cohabitation, adultery and homosexuality. Now, however, all these chickens have come home to roost. We are paying the price – in lawsuits, public humiliation and loss of credibility. The media gave us a glimpse of the enormous destruction in the Lord’s vineyard done by those wicked tenants. They did so with great relish because the scandals discredit a teaching authority they, by and large, find annoying. But this attention by the media has had consequences the media probably did not intend. It has alerted Catholics to the widespread pillaging of the vineyard, which ultimately means the damnation of souls. Fr. Groeschel asks, “Does all this scandal shake your faith in the Church?” He answers, “I hope so, because ultimately your faith should not be in the Church. Ultimately your faith is in Jesus Christ. It is because of him that we accept and support the Church. We believe in and belong to the Church because Christ established it on his apostles." We see in today’s Gospel that the owner of the vineyard is God. He will care for his Church, not by committees or document, but by raising up saints who will properly tend the vineyard.
