ARE YOU JESUS?

ARE YOU JESUS?

One day a religion teacher began a class on Jesus by saying to some young children:

“Today I must tell you about someone whom you all must meet. He’s a person who loves you and cares for you, even more than your own family and friends. He’s a person who’s kinder than the kindest person you know. He’s a person who forgives you, no matter how often you do wrong. No matter what you wrong, he is always ready to accept you to love you and to understand.

The teacher noticed a little boy getting more and more excited as he talked. Suddenly the little boy could hold back no longer. He blurted out, ‘I know the man you’re talking about. He lives on our street.”

Dear friends do our neighbours, youth, children see us like Jesus? We are children of Christ and one way of our living suppose to be the way of Christ. Do people see me as a bearer of Christ in my dealing, talking and action?

v    To be a Christian is to be someone who shows others, in practice some of what Jesus is like. 

v    It is important to Jesus that others recognize us a belonging to him. “By this will all men know that you are my disciples if you have love one for another.” (Jn 13:35)

v    You shall be my witnesses…to the ends of the earth.

WHY NO CHANGE?

WHY NO CHANGE?

Mike was a Christian, and his pal Joe, an atheist. Joe lost no opportunity to have a ‘go’ at Mike about what he saw as the irrelevance of Christianity.

One day they were out for a walk when they came across a gang of ‘toughies’, who were fighting and swearing. Joe pointed to the scene, and said, “Look Mike, it’s been 2000 years since Jesus came into the world, and it’s still filled with aggression and violence.” Mike said nothing.

Five minutes later they came upon a group of dirty faced children. Now it was Mike’s turn. He pointed to the kids and said to Joe, “Look Joe it’s over 2000 years since soap was first discovered, and yet the world’s still filled with dirty faces.”

v    Nothing happens until you use the soap!

v    There is nothing automatic about Jesus or his message. It’s like discovering a cure for cancer. Nothing happens until the patient takes the medicine.

SHARING OUR FOOD

 

SHARING OUR FOOD

There is a legend told about Abraham in the Mid-east. According to the legend he always held off, eating his breakfast each morning until a hungry person came along to share it with him.

One day an old man came along and of course Abraham invited to share his breakfast with him. However, when Abraham heard the old man say a pagan blessing over his food, he jumped up, and ordered the man to get out from the table, and form his house.

Almost immediately, God spoke to Abraham, “Abraham, Abraham! I have been supplying that unbeliever with food everyday for the past eighty years. Could you not have tolerated him for just one meal?”

There is a saying about sharing our food with strangers, and unknown to ourselves, actually entertaining angels.

Hey! We do behave at times like Abraham. When we think that we are better than others we do not take their feelings and their views into account. At times we behave that we are holy and perfect among our companions. And the little mistake they make becomes the joke of the day. We like Abraham do lot of good things and charity but can’t bear up the old pagan man or our companions who do not go according to our thought pattern. Are we ready to share our life, time, knowledge and material objects with the person we do not like much?

v    Even a cup of cold water shared with another will not go unrewarded (Mt 10:42)

v    Jesus has strong words to say about those who only love or share with those who are friend, or with those who can give in return (Mt 5:47)

SAINT 

OR 

?

This story is told about Leonardo da Vinci, when he was painting “The Lord’s Supper,” He chose an attractive young man called Pietri Bandinelli to be his model for Jesus in the painting.

The complete work took several years to finish. The final character was Judas, and Leonardo went into the slums, and all of the “dives” in town looking for someone who would serve as a model for Judas. He was looking for someone who would clearly stand out as such in any gathering.

He found the perfect man, one who was depraved and vicious looking. Later as he was painting, Leonardo sensed there was something familiar about the man, and he asked him if they had ever met before. “Yes, w have,” replied the man, “but much has happened in my life since than.” He said his name was Bandinelli, that it was he who was the model for Jesus some time before.

Dear friends whom do you want to be? Life is full of surprises and it was so in the case of Leonardo. The man who was model for Jesus turned out to be a model for Judas too. Time and circumstances changes one’s life but ultimately it is the inner conscience and one’s decision that enables one to be either Jesus or Judas. So whom do you want to be?

v    It is important, more important. To remember that the reverse could equally be true – the Judas of yesterday could be the Jesus of today.

v    After all, a saint is a sinner whom Jesus saved and sanctified. 

WHY NO CHANGE?

WHY NO CHANGE?

Mike was a Christian, and his pal Joe, an atheist. Joe lost no opportunity to have a ‘go’ at Mike about what he saw as the irrelevance of Christianity.

One day they were out for a walk when they came across a gang of ‘toughies’, who were fighting and swearing. Joe pointed to the scene, and said, “Look Mike, it’s been 2000 years since Jesus came into the world, and it’s still filled with aggression and violence.” Mike said nothing.

Five minutes later they came upon a group of dirty faced children. Now it was Mike’s turn. He pointed to the kids and said to Joe, “Look Joe it’s over 2000 years since soap was first discovered, and yet the world’s still filled with dirty faces.”

v    Nothing happens until you use the soap!

v    There is nothing automatic about Jesus or his message. It’s like discovering a cure for cancer. Nothing happens until the patient takes the medicine.

GOSSIPING

GOSSIPING

Three priests were on a retreat together. They were sharing their struggle and difficulties with each other. The atmosphere seemed right and it seemed safe to share at a depth that was much deeper than usual.

One priest confessed to being a secret drinker, and he gave much detail of how he managed to conceal and cover up that fact. The second priest confessed to having a gambling addiction even to using money form the parish account to feed his addiction. He spoke of his dread of the inevitable when he could no longer cover up, and his scam would be uncovered.

The third priest was reluctant to share and it was only after persuasion that he confessed his secret weakness: he was incurable gossip. He has never been able to keep a secret!

Dear friends what kind of person are we? Are we like the first priest, or second priest or the third priest? I hope not like the third priest who gossiped all the time. If we are like him let’s try to control our tongue every time we are tempted to gossip.

v    “If anyone can control his tongue, it proves that he has perfect control over himself in every other way.”

v    I may not plant a bomb or fire a bullet, but I can destroy others with a word.

TO LOVE HIS SON

A wealthy man lost his wife when his only child was very young. A housekeeper came to work in the house and take care of the boy. The boy died tragically at twenty years of age. The old man was without kith or kin, and he died of a broken heart some years later.

He had no heir to his enormous estate, nor could one be found. Neither was there a will, so the whole property passed to the state. In due course there was an action to dispose of the personal effects of the mansion.

The old housekeeper attended the auction, not because she could buy anything but her grief was to strong to keep her away. There was only one thing in the whole collection that attracted her attention. It was a photo of the son. She had loved him as her own. No one wanted the photo and her few pence were enough to buy it.

She brought it home, and proceeded to take it from the frame. When she opened the back of the frame some papers fell out. They looked important, so she brought them to a lawyer.

The lawyer looked at her and laughed saying, “You sure have landed on your feet this time. The old gentleman has left all his estate and all his money to the person who loved his son enough to buy the picture.”

v    Jesus has told us that if we love him, the Father will love us (Jn 14:21)

TO LOVE HIS SON

RADIO OR TELEVISION

RADIO OR TELEVISION

Fulton Sheen used to compare the Old Testament to radio, and the New Testament to television. In the Old Testament, you could hear the word of God, but in the New Testament, it was the word of God in living color!

This is a gigantic step forward, “He who see me, sees the Father,” says Jesus (Jn 14:9). Jesus came “to do and teach” (Acts 1:1). He showed us what to do by what he himself did, and then he taught us what to do.

Dear friends as we are disciples and followers of Jesus we need to do what He has taught us with His very life. We do hear the word of God daily but what is our attitude towards it? Do we try to live it according to the word of God that we hear daily  in the Holy Eucharist? If not, dear friends it never to late to do so.

v    “I have shown you by my example … you now do as I have done”. (Jn 13:15)

v    It is very important to believe and to know that Jesus is the fullness of God’s revelations – there’s nothing more we need to know.

v    Some people listen to Jesus, but imagine there’s another God “up there somewhere” – usually with a notebook and long white beard – and God is not be trusted at all.

GOD WITHIN

GOD WITHIN

An old man and his little granddaughter were at a deep well on the farm and the man was drawing out water for the animals. He lowered the bucket into the well, and poured the wateer into a barrel nearby.

The littel girl was playing around, looking up into the clear blue sky, and then peering down into the deep well.

Suddenly with the spontaneity of a child she asked "Grand dad, where does God live? " The grandfather lifted her in his arms, held her out over the clear deep waters of the well and asked her, "What do you see when you look down there?" "I see myself," said the girl. "And there, " said the grandfather, "is where God lives - in you."

Dear friends we are so busy that we have harldy any time to think of this fact that God dwells within us. Remember that our body is the temple of the Lord so he dwells in us. Let us be aware of this fact and let our lives show that God is within us.

• "Surely you know that you are God's temple, and that God's Spirit lives in you." (1Cor 3:16)
• The surest place to find God is in the temple of our hearts.Would that this could become a prayer room, rather than a pity parlor?

KEEP PLAYING

KEEP PLAYING

The folklore surrounding pianist Ignace Paderewski includes this story. A mother, wishing to encourage her son's progress at the piano, bought tickets for a Paderewski performance. 

They had seats near the front of the concert hall. 

The mother found a friend to talk to and the boy slipped away. 

When eight o'clock came around, the spotlights came on, and only then did they notice the boy at the piano bench innocently playing out "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star."

The master appeared on the stage and quickly moved to the keyboard. 

"Don't quit. Keep playing, " he whispered to the boy. 

Leaning over, Paderewski reached down with his left hand and began filling in a bass part. Soon his right arm reached around the other side, encircling the child, to add a running obbligato. Together, the old master and the young novice held the crowd spellbound.

In our lives, unpolished though we may be, it is the Master who surrounds us and whispers in our ear, "Don't quit. Keep playing." And as we do, he arguments and supplements until a work of amazing beauty is created. 

Source : Tonic for the Heart in 1000 bottles Volume 1

Darrel L. Anderson