Scripture

Galatians 4:1

I mean that the heir, as long as he is a child, is no different from a slave, though he is the owner of everything, but he is under guardians and managers until the date set by his father. In the same way we also, when we were children, were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world.

IT IS THE SYSTEM

UNTIL YOU MASTER GOD'S GLORY IN THE TRAINING YOU CAN NOT BE IN CONTROL OF THE SYSTEM.

1Cor 13:11; Mt. 13:31; Mt. 4:19

A Teaching: Game of Thrones

In this movie, particularly in season six, is a compelling teaching from journey of Arya Stark.
It is amazing to see how see struggles her way to becoming a faceless person. She sacrifices everything, goes through tough conditions and even makes very hard choices just to get there.
Jaqen, the 'faceless man' clearly tells her that as long as she is not willing to give up WHO SHE IS and BECOME NO ONE, she will not be a member of the septon. The... poor girl struggles through tough and painful conditions. She choses to become literally no one. She gives up her name, identity and literally everything she has: including her own sight as you can see in the picture. She becomes a beggar, mops, sweeps the floor and washes bodies of the dead etc.
>She looses her face to gain all faces.
>Her name to gain all names.
>Her identity to gain all identities.
I mean there is a lot that we draw from her for our own journey in life. Just thought of sharing ‪#‎GameofThrones‬

Question & Answer: Call No One Father

Call 'NO ONE' on earth "FATHER" (Mt. 23v.9)
What about my dad?
...I said call no one on earth your Father.
But it is written in your Law that I should honor my father and mother (Ex. 20v.12, Eph. 6v.2). And your apostle Paul says you are my children, this day I have begotten you through the Gospel (Acts 13v.33). Even John your evangelist addresses his first letter to the Fathers?...
...I said you have but one Father in heaven.
What about these others: the Pope, who is even called the Holy Father, the priests, the founding fathers of my nation or congregation?
SO WHAT IS JESUS TALKING ABOUT?
The basic point that Jesus is making is this: Your father may fail you but God won't, he is 'the' Father.
This is what we call an hyperbole and it should not be taken literally. Its like saying "...to wait in eternity". So Jesus also sometimes speaks like that. For example, "anyone who wants to follow me must HATE his mother and father and wife." He is not talking about HATING them as such but he is using the concept to illustrate or describe the seriousness of ones decision.

BACK TO "CALL NO FATHER...
In the context of the passage Jesus is talking about people who have taken their seat on the chair of Moses, literally meaning, 'a chair of leadership or of a religious teacher'. And he says do what they tell you but do not follow them. Why?
Because they have short comings. They are not perfect at what they do? They are fathers but not as God is to you. they are masters but not as I am to you.
SO LOGICALLY HE IS SAYING THE FOLLOWING:
1. God is Father,
2. Man is Father
3. But God is NOT Man, and Man is NOT God.
Jesus' version >
1. Jesus is Rabbi
2. Man is Rabbi
3. But this Man Rabbi is NOT the Rabbi Jesus who is the master
And the concept MASTER explains it all. He is perfect at what he does.

So he is says call no one on earth your Father to mean mind you know the difference of degree in your application of these concepts.
Man Father may sometimes fail to do his duties but God does not
Man Father sometimes sins but God does not.
This is an hyperbole.
We certainly have fathers in flesh, through the preaching of the Word, through social and cultural ties, through the spirit and more so historical founders e.g. *father of the nations*
TO HAVE THIS UNDERSTANDING IS NOT MATURE IN FAITH TO A POINT THAT THE WEAKNESS OF MEN, CALLED "FATHERS" CAN NOT CAUSE YOU TO LOOSE FAITH, AND THE UNDERSTANDING AND LOVE OF GOD AS YOUR FATHER.
Your parents may fail you but you have the Father
A priest may disappoint you but remember you have the Father
An elderly person, whom we call father, culturally speaking, may fail you but you have the Father.
God bless you...

Sr. Teresa Marcazzan: Church Must Embrace Social Media

SOURCE: VATICAN RADIO,

http://en.radiovaticana.va/news/2016/08/15/sr_teresa_marcazzan_church_must_embrace_social_media/1251429

Sr. Teresa with VR correspondent Fr. Nonde CMM

Sister Teresa Marcazzan, who belongs to the religious congregation of the Daughters of St. Paul (Paulines) has said that their founder Blessed James Alberione used to say, “If people do not come to Church, the Church must go where people are.”

Sr. Marcazzan was speaking to Vatican Radio’s English Africa Service, in Rome, not too long ago. She added, “People today are on Facebook, tweeter, and on phone sending messages to one another.” Just as Pope Francis, who uses social media regularly, Sr. Marcazzan believes that the Church must convincingly move to where people are.

Sr. Marcazzan is the Director of Pauline Publications Africa, based in Nairobi, Kenya. She has lived in Africa for the last 42 years. Among her many achievements is steering the committee that saw the publication of the ‘African Bible.’

Speaking on Vatican Radio’s English Africa radio programme, ‘Jubilee Year of Mercy,’ Sr. Marcazzan encouraged Africans to read the inspiring stories of African saints. “The lives of African saints and blesseds are beautiful examples of how to live the mercy of God,” she said.

Through their publications, the Pauline Sisters would continue to produce books and booklets that help readers expand their understanding of God as a merciful father, Sr. Marcazzan said. ‘We have to live and appreciate the joy that this Year of Mercy brings to us and as Pope Francis insists,’ she said, “we must always carry with us, the Bible, especially the pocket Bible.”

Sr. Marcazzan would like to see the Church embrace new media for the efficient spreading of the message of God’s mercy. “We can use these instruments to give good messages: ‘God is love, God is mercy,’ something short as the Pope often does … everyday short messages,” Sr. Marcazzan said.

Notwithstanding the importance of the print media to Africa, Sr. Marcazzan was quick to stress that radio, as a medium, in Africa was still a very powerful instrument at the disposal of the Church. Even as the Church moves into social media it must not neglect radio, she advised. She said radio spreads information to many people quickly and with great immediacy. “During this Jubilee Year of Mercy, radio and all media must be used to reinstate the language of mercy back into society,” she said.

(Fr. Brian Nonde CMM/Vatican Radio

Two New Photos

With Fr. Paul Samasumo *Director for African Service. photo taken during my work experience at Vatican Radio, Rome

With Sr. Jacinta Kitonyi CPS from Kenya. photo taken in Germany

If Not For Peace Then For What?

A challenge!

What rings a bell is the teaching that we find in CCC#2304ff.

You cannot be at peace if you have not eaten, you cannot be at peace if you are worried about the bills and school fees. You cannot be at peace if you are sick. What is Jesus saying today?

Here I offer what I personally regard as the easiest way of understanding what Jesus says in Luke 12v.49-53.

We have to ask ourselves these questions along with many others that will arise in minds today:

What did Jesus come for, if not for peace?

What divisions will take place, or can take place, or have taken place in a household of five?

What FIRE is blazing here on earth?

As we delve into these issues, we need not risk or confuse people on what matters in the context this passage. And a simple question is key: What did he really mean? What could the PRINCE OF PEACE MEAN BY DIVISIONS?

We know that peace is required for our own safety and development. And to maintain a minimum amount of this peace we require at least that there be basic human needs for all of us.

We cannot be at peace with an empty stomach. A hungry person is not a peaceful person they say, but an angry person. Poverty therefore disturb peace.

We cannot be at peace when in hospital, or even when our loved ones are in hospital. For we feel our own pain and the pain of others and our peace goes. Diseases and sicknesses robes us of peace.

Speaking in the same line, we can say that a thirsty person; a person without clothes, a person with worries about bills, fees etc. and a person without safety has no peace.

Today, some experts are even saying that one cannot be at peace without the internet (Facebook, tweeter, WhatsApp etc.) and I think, this is definitely true also.

Look at how lovers get troubled, look at we get troubled when we have not read a text or received a phone call from their loved ones. I knew of my friends dad who always thought that the phone was dead whenever his son forgot to phone him. He used to take it to a phone repair shop until someone calls.

NOW let us revisit the rhetorical question of Jesus: "Do you think I have come to establish peace on the earth?" and let us also move our eyes slightly above and read this> "There is a BAPTISM with which I must be baptized, and how great is my anguish until it is ACCOMPLISHED!

As we do this, let us again ask ourselves here, if not for peace then for what, then for what BAPTISM must Jesus be baptized.

Is it not a baptism that set him on a mission to heal the sick, to share his love with us, to communicate with us, to feed the hungry, to free prisoners, to heal our wounds and forgive our sins.

Is this not the same FIRE he has set on earth for his true disciples?

We can only say no, if begin to think that our desires for true happiness or that our wish to make this world a better place are our own initiatives. But if we take a moment and open our spiritual eyes and read the direction of human history through the eyes of faith, we can say YES and affirm certainly that the earth is on FIRE! If we entered into the spiritual and saw the pains that we have gone through to reach where we are as people, we can certainly say yes. There has been a fire burning and crying for liberation and love. A fire to reach out to others more. A fire for truth, respect, justice and above all love.

So once again, Yes! and how great is this anguish of Jesus until it is ACCOMPLISHED.
How great until the Son of God can declare, as he declared on the CROSS that "it is accomplished".

We never rested nor slumbers and we don't rest until we are there.

Until his promise that "I have come so that you may have life in abundance" is sealed and consummated.

So the Son of God, who is also the prince of peace, does not promise peace, especially to his followers, He does NOT also promote WAR, and this is what this text is saying (do that is to put words into the mouth of Jesus).

Jesus, the Son of God, rather promises suffering, anguish and pain for a good cause in this world. He asks us to make a sacrifice to accomplish. In another passage He makes it even more clear. He says that if the world hated me, they will hate you too. If the world did this to me, what more will it do to you. If it rejected me, it will reject you.

So here is the point, people of LOVE are never at peace, they do not sleep when they see others suffer. Love does not promise a quiet life, a peaceful life but rather sacrifice and courage. And this is the spirit and fire we have.

If not for peace, then for LOVE because LOVE is that FIRE. Instead of looking for peace, look for love. And as you do, know that love will divide and separate you in a household of five: those who love from those who hurt (the sheep and the goats if you like)

And this is called the cost of discipleship: suffering for others, helping others, not  being peace in the sense of not fighting for the welfare of others... not being at peace and nice to be liked by the perpetrators of evil. Not preserving yourself as we learned last Sunday.

We asked ourselves these questions and we can now answer them together in the context of the whole three readings:

What did Jesus come for, if not for peace?

What divisions will take place, or can take place, or has taken place already in a household of five?

What FIRE is blazing or should blaze here on earth?

Through a cross examination of the first reading which says: “Jeremiah ought to be put to death; he is demoralizing the soldiers who are left in this city, and all the people, by speaking such things to them; and even the second reading: "Consider how he endured such opposition from sinners, in order that you may not grow weary and lose heart. In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood, I offer the following spiritual bullets.

1. Jesus came to save and not be served... to give his life as a ransom for many (TO LOVE)

2. He was opposed by many, and even killed for his LOVE. And this can take place and this is what we have in the FIRST READING Cf., Jeremiah the Prophet 38:4-10) and the SECOND.

The division is taking place in the house of five: eg., in the society, in our families, in us, that is where the division is. two camps everywhere, the good and bad. So it will happen, it is happening even within ourselves as individuals. The good news is that good will defeat evil in the end.

3. LOVE is that fire that should blaze.

Why did Jesus come? Jesus explains why he came, and why we struggle for what purpose.

Sometimes we forget that He came... to separate us from sin, from death, evil, from many things..

God bless you!

The God Who Doesn't Think

If by thinking we mean what we do, then God doesn't think. In Mt. 16v.23, Jesus made this point clear, "You are thinking not has God does, but has human beings do."

He insists even in today's Gospel, that God thinks differently. He says whoever wishes to follow him must at least do two things: (i) self denial and (ii) taking up the cross, *Mt. 16v.24ff.

These two acts for Jesus, represent a way of thinking that is different about: (i) ones life and (ii)the world.

Human beings work towards self-preservation. Evolutionists believe that self-preservation is a natural inclination in mankind, but I tend to ask myself these questions: where is self-preservation in mothers, who out of love, jump into fire to save their children? where is self-preservation in love? 

The notion of the survival of the fittest seems to be at odds with Jesus. It seems to be at odds with my culture. We like it or not, we are unfit to survive. At a certain stage or at some point, at least in our old age, or illness, or when we will stumble upon a stone, we will need the help of others. We are never fit to survive on our own. In fact what is weak today in our eyes is strong tomorrow and what is strong today is weak tomorrow. A different thinking therefore sees this theory as a theory of a FOOL who tells himself that self-preservation is survival of fittest. There is no such thing as survival of the fittest because nothing survives in the sense of surviving anyway, for even the fittest die. Nothing survives on its own in the first place. Think different, think realistic. Think survival beyond surviving.

BEYOND SURVIVING

Think of the parable of the rich fool. Think of all the plans that he had for survival... the bans that he stocked, the mansions that we build for the future, clothes that we preserve, all our plans for what will be, and now think of how they are defeated by death. How death conquers our greed.

Dear reader, it is wise to say at this point, that it is unreasonable and foolish to work for self preservation. The only way of preserving ones life is to save others. Save others, for others will in turn save you when you are in need or old. And I think this is what Jesus says when he says think different about yourself, when he says deny yourself and pick up your cross. YES, pick it up right now, you will need it to cross over the other side. Deny yourself and accept others for others will in turn accept you. I am simply paraphrasing here!
He says "whoever saves his life will loose it". That is to say, whoever works for himself works for nothing. Whoever works for his children and indeed the community in which he lives works for something. He works truly, and in the process he works for himself.
And so Jesus says again, ONES CONDUCT REPAYS!
This is a different kind of thinking! And it is a proper way of thinking!

....below in the picture is Abbot Francis Pfanner, a typical example of a man who thought differently...

ONE MUST DIE FOR OTHERS AND NOT KILL OTHERS TO SURVIVE.

Peter, speaking for us, told -Jesus that as far as we are concerned this is not a correct way of thinking about (i) ourselves and (ii) life. And that certainly that was not a correct way God's anointed king, or Messiah must be think.

So the reasonable think, the natural thing, the next move was,
to sit down and plan their strategy: "if he's the king, and if his people are going to be like the house built on the rock, then they must figure out how to get rid of the present kings and priests who are ruling Israel (or, more accurately, misruling it).

The obvious solution would be this: march on Jerusalem, pick up supporters on the way, choose your moment, say your prayers, fight a surprise battle, take over the Temple, and install Jesus as king. That's how God's kingdom will come! That's how 'the son of man' will be exalted in his kingdom!" That, we may be sure, was something like what they had in mind.

Jesus' way of thinking seem to be wayward, to be NOT THINKING.

"Yes, we'll be going to Jerusalem. Yes, the kingdom of God is coming, coming soon now. Yes, the son of man will be exalted as king. But the way to this kingdom is by the exact opposite road to the one the disciples- and especially what Peter- had in mind. It will involve suffering and death."

Jesus will indeed confront the rulers and authorities, the chief priests and legal experts, in Jerusalem; but they, not HE, will appear to win the battle but neither Peter nor the others can regard this as good thinking. For them he was talking nonsense, in fact dangerous nonsense.

Jesus insists that God thinks differently from us. God sees differently; or, perhaps we should say, God sees everything the right way, whereas we don't.
So, the call goes out to follow to all of us who think we are cleaver than Jesus.
The call is to follow him. And this call rings down to all of us like a great bell from a distant

church, calling us from whatever we're doing and thinking.
The bell is saying: Deny yourself, deny yourself, deny yourself
It is saying pick up your cross and follow me, pick up your cross and follow me.
Imagine its sound resonating through shops and offices, through schoolrooms and hospital wards, through bustling tenements and lonely apartments: pick up your cross and follow me.

Imagine yourself coming out of your thoughts about life and this world, opening your door to think differently about everything.
This Jesus, is a compelling and mysterious figure.

Following him will cost everything but it will give you everything.