Dear friends,
Hope you are doing well. The nature has been a little gracious to us by offering some warmer weather this past week. It would be great if it would continue to be the same.
A particular lady was driving her car on a cliff side area. As she was driving she noticed a truck following her. In the beginning she did not mind. But as she kept driving she realized that the truck was following her car alone. She was a little frightened and started driving a little faster and the truck kept following the car. She went near a gas station and stopped the car, got down and started walking towards the counter of the gas station. The driver of the truck stopped his vehicle too and started walking towards the car, which made the lady really frightened.
The lady kept looking at the truck driver steadily unable to think anything of what was going to happen.  The truck driver approached the car and opened the rear door of the car and grabbed out a man from inside the car. This made the lady really scared and she was almost to the point of screaming for fear. The truck driver came to the lady and said, “Madam this man was hiding behind you with the intention of killing you. I saw him get into the car with a knife. I was following you to tell you that and to save you from him. Sorry if I had caused any inconvenience to you.” Saying so he took the man to the police. The lady took a long time to come back to her senses.
This may be a story, but it brings a message to us. We are scared of little events in our lives. Though sometimes the events may scare us, we should try to see what good can come from that. Those events may be the means of God to protect us from a greater fall on our way. Little inconveniences in our life may be the roadway leading to better fortune in our lives. Or these events may prepare us to face even greater misfortunes in our lives. If we learn to accept them in that way, our life might be a happy one.
Only our deep faith in God would help us take these happenings in this way. We must trust in God that he will not let us down or will not put us into any hot soup. Because he is our maker and the destiny of our life. If we keep that in mind, we will be content in life. God may have his way work in us through some misfortunes sometimes. Interestingly, some of those misfortunes are necessary to make our life worth living and they add taste to our lives. Without those kinds of things life would become monotonous and tasteless very often. So let us take them and taste the life to the full with a deep trust in God.
God bless.
Yours sincerely in Christ Jesus,
Fr. A. Antony
 

Dear friends,
 
Hope you are all well. We are oscillating between colder and warmer weather. We need to take what we get. Hope at least we get a warmer time every now and then.
 
Once there was a holy man whom people believed talked to God every time he prayed to God. He was considered a pious and devout man of God. He lived like one. At the same time there were some people who thought that he was a cheat. One such man was the pastor of that town. He wanted to embarrass that holy man.
 
Planning to execute his plan, the pastor told the man, “I hear that you are a holy man and God appears to you to talk with you. So next time when you meet God ask him what is the biggest sin that I committed”. The man said to the pastor that he would ask so. Then he left. The pastor could not see him after that for a while. So, the pastor thought that he was a cheat.
 
One day he happened to run into the holy man. The pastor wanting to make him feel for his hypocrisy asked the holy man, “Oh holy man, what did God tell you when you asked about the biggest sin I committed?”. The holy man smiled at the pastor and told the pastor, “God does not remember any of your sins. Because He forgot everything the very moment He forgave your sins. That is what he told me”. The pastor felt bad at this answer of the holy man.
 
God is not an account keeper to keep track of all the sins we commit.  He is a loving father who is always willing to forgive us always and our sins. If God were to keep all our sins, we cannot survive at all. We need to keep in mind that God’s primary job is not to take revenge for the sins we commit. But on the other hand, his preoccupation is to love us at any cost, even at the cost of sending His son to die for us. Somehow, we took into our mind an impaired image of God as if He is someone who is waiting for a chance to take revenge. That is not so. Because if God keeps track of our sins, He can not perform His primary duty of being God, which is to love. Because, as the psalmist says, “If you, LORD, keep account of sins, Lord, who can stand? “. (Ps: 130:3). Also in the letter to the Hebrews we read as God saying, “For I will forgive their evildoing and remember their sins no more” (Heb:8:12.)
 
So, knowing that God loves us and is a loving Being, we need to start loving Him. We need to get rid of that distorted image of God that we have as the person trying to take revenge for our shortcomings. Our feeling sorry for the sins should come from the love we have for God, not from fear we hoard in our minds. Love Him.
Yours sincerely in Christ Jesus,
Fr. A. Antony
 

Dear friends,
 
Hope you enjoyed a bit of the warmer weather this past week. Hope this weather keeps coming again and again or keeps steady till the spring comes.
 
Now we are in the ordinary time of the liturgical year. This will continue until the second week of February when we start another important season of the liturgical year. In a Catholic’s life, it is a very important season when people become more and more good towards God. Let us wait for that.
 
I was watching a talk show on the television the other day. It was about young people loving (dating here?). The young boys and young girls were the participants. The talk was about how deep they love for each other, how crazy they love each other, what could they do most to express their love each other and things like that. Then the talk came to a point when they were asked about hurting themselves. When a boy or a girl gives up the other or when the love breaks up, they would feel so bad and anxious or sorrowful that they hurt themselves physically.
 
Though this seemed stupid they made a point there. When the anchor of the show asked why they would hurt themselves like that when it does no good to both the parties one person replied: When I physically hurt myself, I feel happy because of the fact that I am hurting myself FOR my person, whether a boy for a girl  or a girl for a boy. Apart from the stupidity or irrationality of what they do, the depth of love they expressed was the point I would like to focus on.
 
We hear many times that people are killed for their religion and God. This happens mostly in Christianity. This is the most expensive way of expressing the love towards God. The depth of love that one has for God can be so deep that it can give strength of mind and heart to withstand or bear all pain for the love of God. This would be the measuring rod for the love we have for God. I say this because, when we are able to hurt ourselves for the love of a human being, the love is so deep and expressly strong. If we could so love in this way, and if we really love God, no pain or suffering should abstain us from loving Him.
 
If our love for God is true, we would go through any amount of pain for the love of God. Remember the days of old, when in spite of all difficult situations, our ancestors made their way to church for Mass and other activities in the Church. But what we now see is entirely the contrary. Even for small and very little inconvenience we abstain going to the Church, even if it is the day of Obligation. Do we love God, really?

Sincerely yours in Christ,
Fr. A. Antony