St. Francis and a rich bishop

Saint Francis of Assisi died, and an angel who escorted him to the gate of heaven told him, “Quick, quick! Just follow me whatever you have!” So St. Francis followed the angel only with his religious habit which was nothing but rags.

Now, a bishop near the town of Assisi died on the same day St. Francis died. The angel also told the bishop to follow him with whatever he had now. So the bishop followed him with his miter, crozier, purple cassock, facia, alb, cincture, chasuble, and, in one bag, a gold chalice and a platinum ciborium, a gold paten, and in the other bag, a lots of jewels and gold coins.

Now, the angel brought the two to the gate of heaven. As one of the gospel passage goes, the gate of heaven was so narrow and low. And, as one expects, there was Saint Peter in front of the gate and said, “Good works, gentlemen! Welcome to heaven. Now Jesus is waiting for you on the other side of the gate. Hurry up and get in!” Saint Francis  who was wearing the old and worn out habit took it off right away, and enter the gate without any clothing, but without much difficulty since he was very thin.

Now, the bishop, with all his apparels and baggages, could not pass the gate. With his miter and crozier, he was too tall; his baggages were too big to go through the gate. So he gave up these, but still his apparels were too cumbersome to pass through the gate. He had to take them off one by one until he was left without any clothing. Alas, now, he realized that his belly was too big to pass the gate through. St. Peter looked at him and said, “Brother, I guess you should lose some weight. Go to the corner and start working out.” When he went to the corner, he met many of his senior bishops. They were all doing sit-ups. One of them said, “Jesus was right. Many who are first will be last, and the last will be first.”

Two squirrel brothers – where is the safe storage?

An old squirrel had two very young sons. He loved them so much but realized that there were not many days left for him to leave this world. So a few days later he called his two sons. “My sons, listen to my words carefully: I have to leave you soon. Now we have lots of food everywhere because it’s summer. And when the fall comes there will be more food because all the nut trees will bear nuts. But, listen! When fall comes you should work hard and gather those nuts. And store them in a safe place. I say to you, it must be a safe place! And…” The squirrel felt hard to breathe. The two sons wept and called their father. “And, and, and……” The father tried to say something but could not continue. He breathed his last breath.

As the father squirrel told, two sons saw an abundance of nuts when the fall came. The older brother told the younger, “Let us be parted and have our own territories.” So they divided the woods into half and half. Then, the two gathered nuts diligently. The elder squirrel hid nuts in the rocky ground near his hole where he lived. He thought, ‘It will easy to take them out because it takes only two minutes from my home. And it’s safe since no one can see!” Now, in the other side of the woods, the younger brother was storing nuts on the top of a big tree’s trunk where there was a hole. The tree was very high and took quite a while to climb all the way up to the hole to put nuts. In fact, the elder one gathered much more nuts than the younger one since he didn’t have to travel as much far as the younger one.

One day in the late fall, It started raining so much. The woods was flooded and mud swept the whole ground. The squirrels had to escape to the trees. The elder brother couldn’t do anything but saw the rocky ground being covered with mud. Then the elder squirrel realized the rocky ground was not a safe place at all.

My brothers and sisters, where do we spend our money, and where do we spend our time, and where do we put our hearts? Is it down here on earth and this world or is it the kingdom of heaven?

Jesus says today that he will come at an unexpected hour. Yes, we will meet him at our death and at the end of the world. And these times, we don’t know. But these are not the only occasions we will see Jesus. He comes in different forms and in different people while we are still living here and now. We really and truly meet Jesus in the forms of bread and wine during this Mass; Jesus visits us in the forms of the poor and the oppressed; Jesus is present in our family and friends who needs our care and love. In this sense, we are not really far from the judgment! Unless we put our hearts and treasures in heaven now and today, we may not be able to put them in heaven ever after.

Listen to him!

The Transfiguration confirms the divinity of Jesus as we heard, “This is my Son.” At the same time, this is another occasion that reveals the Three Persons in one God – the Trinity: the voice is of God the Father; the cloud represents the presence of the Holy Spirit; and the Son who shines like the Sun.

Now, at the revelation of the divinity of Jesus, what do you hear? “This is my Son. Go and talk to him”? No! God the Father tells us to listen to him.

In our life of faith, we are used to talking to Jesus but so much used to listening to him. There are many ways to listen to him, but, the best way is to listen carefully to the Gospel proclaimed during the Mass. But we can listen to him only when we are prepared. Unless our heart is cleansed and kept in silence, our hearts are full and busy with all kinds of things in daily life, and cannot receive the word of Jesus. Please come to the Mass early, and please keep silence before the Mass in prayer. It is not to understand better but to let Jesus touch and move our hearts so that our life may be changed.

Accepting suffering

The miracles of loaves and fish (Mt 14 and 15), the walking on the water with Peter (Mt 14), and the miraculous cures of the sick (Mt 14 and 15); then Jesus asks his disciples who they think he is. Peter answers, “You are the Messiah, the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

But when Jesus foretold his disciples about his Passion, the same Peter scold Jesus, “God forbid it, Lord! This must never happen to you.”

It is easier for us to praise God and to acknowledge his grace and power when we experience wonderful things happening in life. But how many of us would be willing to take sufferings of life as a means to participate in the Passion of Jesus Christ?

No one finds suffering pleasant. But we can still accept suffering. Denying makes suffering unbearable. But, accepting suffering brings fruit. Jesus accepted his Passion, not because he liked it, but because suffering is our reality and it is the reality that really brings something good. Denying or avoiding suffering is lying because much part of our life is suffering. If we suffer, let us give some time to think about what this suffering would bring us.

to detest one’s sin

Probably many of us have experiences that we ask for forgiveness of our sins and Jesus’ grace to keep us safe from falling into sins, but we fall again the same sins. We come to confession with same sins over and over again, but we realize nothing really changes. Why? Is the grace of Jesus not sufficient?

Although we go to confession, and we say that we detest our sins in the act of contrition, often we find ourselves secretly liking our sins and sinful actions. If we truly believe that Jesus cures us of diseases of sins, it’s enough to touch the fringe of his cloak like the sick people in today’s gospel. But we see more of Peter in today’s gospel in our struggles.

Do we really detest our sins? And, do we really believe Jesus can cure us of sins? Let us ask these questions today.