Bula from Fiji, where I am at home, visiting my family, especially my mother who is struggling health-wise. What a gift it is to have our travel borders beginning to open up again.
The pandemic lockdown period gave us missionaries and many others, a taste of what it must have been like for our first missionaries, including St Joseph Freinademetz, who left their home and family knowing they would most likely never return.
We now live in a world that is becoming more complicated. Just look at the internet. I listen to parishioners who are complaining of their difficulty in keeping up with technology.
Recently I was reading the book “Seeking Spirituality” by Ronald Rolheiser, reflects Fr James Aricheera SVD. I found this book to be a good guide for those who are seeking spirituality. According to him, three main things hinder one from interiority and spiritual experiences. They are “Narcissism, pragmatism and unbridled restlessness”.
To get a general understanding of them he writes, “Defined simply, narcissism means excessive self-preoccupation; pragmatism means excessive focus on work, achievement, and the practical concerns for life; and restlessness means an excessive greed for experience, an over-eating, not in terms of food but in terms trying to drink in too much of life”. When I reflected further on this, I realised that many of us have those things in us, but we are not aware of it.
What a weird world it would be if we took today’s Gospel at face value! Jesus spoke about cutting-off body parts and plucking-out one’s eyes. Did he really mean that his followers should do this?
Knowing who Jesus is and what following him means is something that each one of us as Christians needs to grow more deeply in every single day. It is a lifetime journey.
There is a distinct message of hope and a call to mutual help in the readings offered to us this Sunday.
The Divine Word Missionaries this month celebrated 125 years in Papua New Guinea with a range of celebrations, giving thanks to God for all the blessings bestowed on the mission, the people, and the missionaries themselves.
SVD Superior-General, Fr Paul Budi Kleden, was special guest at the celebrations, having made it all the way from Rome, despite the COVID-related difficulties in international travel.
Jesus today sends forth his disciples to preach repentance and bring healing to peoples’ lives. The mandate is clear; no possessions, depend on the generosity of the people, but preach repentance and bring healing.
To borrow again a story from my friend, Fr Bel San Luis, there was a very devout man who is in his house when there was a huge deluge in town.
There was this story of a boy who was playing on a cruise liner with his alphabet blocks. Then in a few minutes, the ship encountered a storm.