What gift will you bring Jesus this Christmas? The gift of your life….
Brothers and Sisters,
This week we celebrate the Announcement to Mary in our Liturgy. It is through this announcement that God gave us the gift of his very own life through the incarnation of his Son Jesus Christ. God gave us his life in four phases. Firstly through the incarnation of Jesus, secondly through the life and mission of Jesus who as a human being gave himself for the service of the people of first century Palestine, thirdly through the death of Jesus on the cross and fourthly through the outpouring of his spirit at Pentecost. Mary too gave her life to God at the moment she entered into his plan of salvation through her “Yes”. Today, she gives her life to us also through her prayers and intercession.
So if God who is the creator of all things has given us his life, is it too much for us to also give him our lives? God created us in his own image and likeness so that we can be in communion with him. Therefore our purpose in this life is to be in communion with God, to meet him and to one day see him face to face. This should be our ultimate goal, seeing the face of God and being united with him. We must offer our lives to him. This is not easy, I know! But we must try to offer up everything that we do, say, think, possess and everything that we know. We must offer him our all.
A key way of giving our lives to God is by giving of our lives to our neighbour. Our neighbour is not just the people that we know and love, rather our neighbour may be someone that we don’t know, someone that we have never seen before but needs our help. He may be the old man on the road who’s car has a flat tyre and doesn’t know how to fix it; she might be the young woman who has been abused by her boyfriend; they may be the young children who have been made homeless because of war; he may be your next door neighbour who is addicted to drugs; and so on. After all, is this not what Jesus would have done? Think about his relationships. We need to become more Christ-like so that we can have a Christ-life. In giving the gift of our lives to our neighbour, we will be giving our life as a gift to Jesus this Christmas.
Over the last week we woke up to the news of the tragedies in Lebanon and France. I ask you to join me in keeping the victims of these terrible events in your prayers.
Fr Tony Sarkis
What gift will you bring Jesus this Christmas?
Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Today officially begins our liturgical preparations for Christmas with the Announcement to Zechariah. Christmas is a time of giving and I’m sure that you will agree with me that we truly find great joy in giving rather than receiving. Therefore, as we liturgically and scripturally journey towards the shining star of Bethlehem, let us consider this Christmas what gift we will be taking to the child Jesus at the end of this journey. We know gifts to be giving a newly born baby don’t you think? However, the Magi had the wisdom to know that there was much more to this baby. They gave Him gold because they recognized it was a proper gift for a king. They gave him frankincense because that is what a high priest used when he went into the temple to represent the people before God. They gave Him myrrh because they recognized that this King would die for the world. But what can we present him with 2015 years later? This is quite a challenging question don’t you think? I mean what gift do you give God? Will it be material? Will it be valuable? Will it be sentimental? Will it be spiritual? Will it be emotional? Will it be anything? from Scripture that the three Magi presented Jesus with gold, frankincense and myrrh. These are rather strange.
I would like you to reflect on this as you start your preparations for Christmas. We often get caught up with the gifts that we love giving and receiving, with the banquets that we love preparing and with the holidays that we love taking; that we often forget about the one and only birthday boy, our Lord Jesus Christ. So, before you get bogged down with everything else this year, take a moment to think about your gift to Him and work on it in the next few weeks so that when you complete your journey and arrive at the manger of our Lord, you too will be full of the joy of giving. Imagine how much more this will meaning will carry when the receiver is Jesus.
Over the next few weeks I will be reflecting on this gift of giving and what kind of gift we can present Jesus with in the Shepherd’s Corner. I pray that together as one parish family we can find the right gift which befits the Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father and Prince of Peace.
On a parish note, this week our Stewardship Committee undertook a three day workshop to help them in effective governance. Like all our committees, the Stewardship Committee sacrifice much of their time and resources in helping us manage the financial aspects of our parish. On behalf of all the priests and parishioners we thank you for all that you do.
Fr Tony Sarkis
Renewal not Reform
Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Today we celebrate the Sunday of the Renewal of the Church. It is fitting that the Maronite Church markedly stops at this station after it commemorates the holiness (consecration) of the Church and just before it enters into the Christmas liturgical narrative which leads us to shining star of Bethlehem. Why is this so? As the world changes, the Church must also renew itself to be able to nurture and care for its members, and society as a whole, whose needs are constantly changing. The needs of society today are very different to the needs of society one hundred years ago! For this reason, the Church needs to have open doors and be aware of what is taking place; what issues people face; what struggles they endure; what challenges they deal with on a day to day basis; what brings them happiness and joy; on so on. The Church cannot understand this if its doors are closed. It must also be open to review, criticism, evaluation and renewal. Now, renewal does not mean reform.
I need to make this clear. The Church does not and will not compromise on its teachings and dogmatic beliefs. The truth that the Church proclaims is exactly that – the truth! However, by renewal, it seeks different ways of
proclaiming this true so that it can be more effective. This may be through different pastoral practices, revision of liturgy, different processes and procedures. Basically, the Church needs to continually update itself while holding fast to the Catholic Apostolic teachings grounded in the virtues of faith, hope and love.
Renewal is something that we continually strive for in our parish. Together, priests, religious and lay, we must work as one team so that we truly cater for the needs of our parishioners. I take the opportunity today to ask you to speak to us (me personally or any of the priests) about any issues (positive and negative) that you or someone that you know has. Many times we find that people speak about negative issues in closed forums in front of friends and family. Often, these issues are blown out of proportion causing an environment of gossip which unfortunately leads people away from the Church. I encourage you to come and speak to us about any
issue. In this way you will get the clarification that you need and we will be made aware of issues that you are concerned about. If we work together, we will insure that the renewal of our parish is continually taking place for the greater good of its parishioners.
The last week has been very busy. The Sodality trip to Our Lady of Mercy Shrine at Berrima was very successful with three buses full of people commemorating the end of the month of the Rosary. On Tuesday, we had the Melbourne Cup Luncheon which many people took part in to raise funds for the new presbytery and throughout the week we have had a range of talks and bible discussions which have been very rewarding for those who attended. Thank you to all the committees, organisers and priests who organise them. Your work is exceptional.
Fr Tony Sarkis
