Chance of a Lifetime

Message from Fr. Jose Koluthara, CMI

Lord Jesus, give me wisdom, courage and patience to risk all for the reign of God.

My Dear Brothers and Sisters,

A new era dawned in Sydney, Australia last week. The youth from all over the world with Pope Benedict XVI amidst them were brimming with life. The long awaited World Youth Day 2008, inaugurated with the welcoming Mass by Cardinal George Pell, came to a close with the Papal Mass at Randwick race track last Sunday. 500,000 youngsters attended it. In that open-air mass Pope Benedict urged the young pilgrims to be agents of change because the world needed renewal. “In so many of our societies, side by side, with material prosperity, a spiritual desert is spreading: an interior emptiness, an unnamed fear, a quiet sense of despair.” The Pope said a new generation of Christians can build “a new age in which hope liberates us from the shallowness, apathy, self-absorption which deadens our souls and poisons our relationships.” This Sunday’s readings deal with the attitudes and actions required for ushering in a new generation and a new age.

In the 1st reading (1 Kings 3:5-12), we see the young Solomon as king praying to God thus”…. I am only a little child. I do not know how to go out or come in…. Give your servant therefore an understanding mind to govern your people, able to discern between good and evil”. And God responds by giving him a wise and discerning mind. The wisdom which king Solomon received from God enabled him to make judgments in such a way that he remains as an inspirer even today. In the 2nd reading (Rom 8:28-30) we find Paul, also a wise man, maintaining hope despite all the things that happen in life to suggest the contrary .

The Gospel (Mt. 13:44-52) presents before us the kingdom of God as the chance of a lifetime. With the twin parables of the treasure buried in the field and the pearl of great price, Jesus teaches of the supreme value of the reign of God, emphasizing that those who seek it must be willing to risk all in order to possess it. In Jesus, they would find a wisdom and a way of life of far more value than any buried treasure or any fine pearl. The third parable of the dragnet challenges those who might be tempted to “write” off anyone, while reminding us that their eligibility is God’s concern alone; we, for our part, remain responsible for gathering them in and seeing to their needs without rendering judgment

Let us gird ourselves with the attitudes and actions required to help the youth and see that we send a team to the WYD 2011 in Madrid, Spain.