Sunday Mass and Sacrificial Offering

Message from Fr. Jose Koluthara, CMI

Lord Jesus, help me become a sharer in your self giving through the sacrificial offering I give during the Sunday Mass.  Amen.

My Dear Brothers and Sisters,

In today’s gospel (Jn 2: 13 -25) we see Jesus cleansing the temple driving out those who made his Father’s house a market place. This event should prompt us to check the motives behind our Sunday worship. Have we come to church to fulfill an obligation, to ask God for something, to complain to God? Or, have we come to our Father’s house: First, to give praise and glory to our God, the Father? Second, to meet Jesus in the community of believers, the readings of Scriptures, and the sacrificial meal of the Lord’s supper? Third, because there is in us a spiritual hunger and thirst that only God’s spirit can fill.

When our motives behind Sunday worship are purified, our offering during mass makes sense. It can then be rightly called ‘sacrificial offering’ because it is based on the understanding of the sacrificial element in Jesus’ offering of himself and then we add our own sacrifice to that offering, something like the widow’s offering of her ‘two coins’, not from her abundance, but from her sustenance.

Sacrificial offering in our church is unique, because we don’t have a church building of our own. We are like Jesus who didn’t have a place to lay his head. We can be proud of resembling Jesus who gave importance to relationships rather than to rituals. Our church is a church of relationships. Thanks to the intimacy with God through your sacrificial offering, the needs of our church are met. I am happy to note that even in your difficult financial situation you were generous enough to support our parish. Our church is growing day by day. More children and youngsters are coming to our church. The 1pm mass on first Sunday of every month has a special focus on children and youth. Their involvement in the mass is becoming impressive. The role played by Legion of Mary in bringing up children as altar servers is praiseworthy. I hope that as our Knights of Columbus grow they can have a presence in every Sunday mass as ushers. The digital projector bought by your contribution has become a valuable tool in the effective dissemination of Word of God, catechesis and in our weekly scripture classes. Sincere thanks to all for your cooperation. May the good Lord bless us in our journey from Ashes to Easter.