March 21, 2009

Cyrus and Jesus

The salvation that comes to God's people from those who were called a messiah can help us to understand the salvation brought by the Messiah. My homily for this weekend is posted here.

1 comment:

for narnia said...

happy Laetare Sunday, Fr. C! sorry for the delay in responding to your great homily for this weekend. i never really knew or understood much about King Cyrus and how it relates to Jesus, our Messiah. understanding this really does put things into perspective. during my time the past week in praying with and trying to prepare for my turn to lector, what spoke to me most was the second reading from Ephesians, especially this verse: "We are his handiwork, created in Christ Jesus for the good works that God has prepared in advance."~Ephesians 2:10~ i feel that this means that God wants to use each of us in a unique and individual way in the building up of His Kingdom here on earth and that He has planned how we are to contribute in advance. the only thing, i think, is that we all have our free will and sometimes are not always spending enough time in prayer to hear God's voice. for me, personally, i've noticed the difference between spending real, quality time in prayer and times when i sometimes rush through in a hurry. it's definitely not a good thing to be in a hurry when we go to prayer with God. when we take the time to be with God and really listen, He will show us the way and His plan will unfold for us each and every day. the signs and opportunities are all around us if only we are open enough to the Holy Spirit. for example, God might be calling us to join a ministry or ministries in our parishes or He might be calling us to serve in some way in our communities. sometimes if we have a desire to serve or minister in a particular way, that could be an invitation from God. one way to discern God's Will and plan for us is to pray and explore things a little further to see if it is God's calling. we should keep in mind, too, that we are all different and unique from one another and we're not all called to the same things. just like it says somewhere in Sacred Scripture (can you remind us where, Fr. C?) "there are different gifts, but the same Spirit." your homily at the saturday morning daily Mass was very inspiring, too, and seems to fit in with the message i get from this particular reading from Ephesians, especially the part where you said that "our sacrifices and good deeds alone isn't what pleases God, but being in love with God and spending time with Him in prayer is what matters most." and, if we truly are "in love with God, it will only be a natural thing for us to want to serve Him in the way He has and is calling us." i know these aren't your exact words, Fr. C, but this was your basic message in your saturday morning homily. thank you, as always, for your inspiration! PEACE! ~tara t~