27th Day of Lent: March 31, 2014: “The man believed in what Jesus said and left” (John 4:50)

             27^th

              Day 

                    of 

                          Lent:

            March 31, 2014:

     “The man believed in what Jesus  said and left” 

"Lord I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof.I believe that what you say it will be."

(John 4:50)

   Trust is a huge issue. How far can we trust a person, Jesus, God, significant person, spouse, siblings, parents, teachers, pilots, drivers, cops, lawyers etc?

 We trust that they will get you want to be, desires to be, and hopes to be? 

To trust in the promises of the Lord that you will live a hundred years old, you will have prosperity all around can be challenging when you see all around you destruction, defeat, devastation, disappointment, distress and decay.

And yet Prophet Isaiah assures the people of Israel that God is creating everything new. Jesus continues to surprisingly show up in the lives of Gentiles and perform miracles and especially creates new life out of death, illness, exclusion, marginalization.

The more I open my eyes to what is right with the world; I am convinced that God continues to deliver his promises.

Sometimes we are blinded by our prejudices and biases that we reject the obvious. It is usually the ‘outsiders who get it’ as in the case of the Gentile royal official who unflinchingly trusts in the word of Jesus.

 Do we have the patience to continue on the journey of our faith despite setbacks, slow downs, disappointments, lack of clarity in the direction our lives sometimes take us?

The goal of spiritual life is not a point of arrival but it is about keep moving, keep walking, keep trusting, keep believing in the promises of the Lord.

As Pope Francis said this morning in his homily don’t be ‘spiritual tourists in your life of faith’.

 God Bless you always!

Sincerely Yours,
Rev. Fr. Cyriac Chandy Mattathilanickal, MS

La Salette Retreat & Conference Center Director

Wishing you and yours A Holy Lent!            

                                                                           Rev. Fr. Tom Puthusseril, M.S.

                                                                           Shrine Director

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=amEntTOmwMA

Pope Francis: don't be 'tourists' on the spiritual journey of faith

(Vatican Radio) Where are you on your spiritual journey? Are you wandering aimlessly like a tourist? Have you stopped or lost your way? Or are you heading straight for your destination? Those questions were at the heart of Pope Francis’ reflections during his homily at Mass in the Casa Santa Marta on Monday morning.
Philippa Hitchen reports:  

Reflecting on the day’s readings from Isaiah and St John’s Gospel Pope Francis distinguished between three different types of Christians and how they live their spiritual lives. Before God asks anything of us, the Pope said, He always promises us a new life of joy, so the essence of our Christian life is always to journey in hope and trust towards those promises.

But there are many Christians whose hope is weak and while they believe and follow the commandments, they have come to a standstill in their spiritual lives. Pope Francis said God cannot use them as a leaven among his people because they have stopped and they’re no longer moving forward.

Secondly, he said there are those among us who have taken the wrong turning and lost our way. Of course, the Pope continued, we all sometimes take the wrong road, but the real problem arises if we don’t turn back when we realize that we’ve made a mistake.

The model of a true believer who follows the promises of faith, Pope Francis said, is the royal official from today’s Gospel reading, who asks Jesus to heal his son and does not doubt for a second when the Master tells him the child has been cured. But unlike that man, the Pope said, there are many Christians who deceive themselves and wander aimlessly without moving forward.

These people, Pope Francis said are perhaps the most dangerous group because they wander through life like existential tourists without a goal and without taking God’s promises seriously. But the Lord asks us not to stop, not to lose our way and not to wander through life. He asks us to journey on towards his promises like the official who believed what Jesus told him.

Despite our human condition as sinners who take the wrong turning, the Pope concluded, the Lord always gives us grace to turn back. Lent, he said, is a good time to consider whether we are journeying forward or whether we have come to a standstill. If we have chosen the wrong road, we should go to Confession and return to the right way. If we are a theological tourist wandering aimlessly through life, we must ask the Lord for grace to head off again on the journey towards the promises of our faith.

Text from page http://en.radiovaticana.va/news/2014/03/31/pope_francis:_dont_be_tourists_on_the_spiritual_journey_of_faith/en1-786398
of the Vatican Radio website