Tell someone today that God loves them

Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him

Mass Readings and reflection for Friday of the Twelfth week in Ordinary Time 
Friday, 28 June 2013

St. Irenaeus, Bishop and Martyr (+ 202) - Memorial


Gen 17:1.9-10.15-22.

When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to him and said: "I am God the Almighty. Walk in my presence and be blameless.
God also said to Abraham: "On your part, you and your descendants after you must keep my covenant throughout the ages.
This is my covenant with you and your descendants after you that you must keep: every male among you shall be circumcised.
God further said to Abraham: "As for your wife Sarai, do not call her Sarai; her name shall be Sarah.
I will bless her, and I will give you a son by her. Him also will I bless; he shall give rise to nations, and rulers of peoples shall issue from him."
Abraham prostrated himself and laughed as he said to himself, "Can a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old? Or can Sarah give birth at ninety?"
Then Abraham said to God, "Let but Ishmael live on by your favor!"
God replied: "Nevertheless, your wife Sarah is to bear you a son, and you shall call him Isaac. I will maintain my covenant with him as an everlasting pact, to be his God and the God of his descendants after him.
As for Ishmael, I am heeding you: I hereby bless him. I will make him fertile and will multiply him exceedingly. He shall become the father of twelve chieftains, and I will make of him a great nation.
But my covenant I will maintain with Isaac, whom Sarah shall bear to you by this time next year."
When he had finished speaking with him, God departed from Abraham.

Ps 128(127):1-2.3.4-5.

Blessed are you who fear the LORD,
Who walk in his ways!
For you shall eat the fruit of your handiwork;
Blessed shall you be, and favored.

Your wife shall be like a fruitful vine
In the recesses of your home;
Your children like olive plants
Around your table.

Behold, thus is the man blessed
Who fears the LORD.
The LORD bless you from Zion:
May you see the prosperity of Jerusalem
All the days of your life.

Matthew 8:1-4.

When Jesus came down from the mountain, great crowds followed him.
And then a leper approached, did him homage, and said, "Lord, if you wish, you can make me clean."
He stretched out his hand, touched him, and said, "Of course I will do it. Be made clean." And his leprosy was cleansed immediately.
Then Jesus said to him, "See that you tell no one, but go show yourself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses prescribed; that will be proof for them."

 Commentary of the day :

Blessed Teresa of Calcutta (1910-1997), founder of the Missionary Sisters of Charity
A Simple Path, p. 79

"Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him"

Mother Teresa said, "The greatest disease in the West today is not tuberculosis or leprosy; it is being unwanted, unloved and uncared for. We can cure physical diseases with medicine, but the only cure for loneliness, despair and hopelessness is love. There are many in the world who are dying for a piece of bread, but there are many more dying for a little love. The poverty in the West is a different kind of poverty – it is not only a poverty of loneliness bu also of spirituality. There's a hunger for love as there is a hunger for God."

 

The social media phenomenon is proof of the disease that has pervaded society. We have lost the ability to truly care for one another. We do not reach out our hand and touch others. We just click away on a screen or device and make comments about things that are not truly important.
People are still feeling isolated and alone, like modern day lepers, keeping contact only through mediums like Facebook, Twitter and text messages.

My friend Paul Mizzi, who was one of my very first student altar servers when I was a deacon, whose Birthday it is today, turned off his FB account to see who would actually call him and wish him a happy Birthday. He was disappointed at how few people did.

He wrote the following comment:

"Its funny.. And it shows . That with out Facebook people are lost... And they look past the things that are important ."

My response was: "I totally agree Paul. People have lost the art of true conversation and interaction. I sit on a train & watch people exchanging inane details of their lives while ignoring the real people all around them.

Paul, you don't need lots of friends, only a handful of real friends who are there for you when things get rough or those you can call on when you need to move house (he he) but the rest are there to make us feel special. I am so close to finishing with social networking. I used it to spread a message but now I realise people would rather talk footy scores, skincare remedies or recipes for cakes than the real issues of life. You are loved Paul and your family are the ones who really matter. Friends are only friends when they prove they care. And you can tell your friends by how they react to good news for you, if you get likes when you say you have done well, then you know who really is happy for you.

Jesus showed by His touch and His words to people whom society had ignored, that they were special regardless of their social status. They were loved by God and Who better than God is there to love us?
I think the reason people feel depressed or sad is that they don't know that fact.
I always tell the story of the guy who was on a beach with a girl he had met the night before at a club (he slept the last hours of the night with her on the sand as they were both pissed) and two Jehovah's witnesses came up and said to him:
"Hey, do you know God loves you?"
He was about to tell these two weird looking guys in their white shirts and long black pants to go to Bargo but he thought for a second.
He looked at the unrecognisable face of the girl who lay beside him. He thought, "She doesn't love me. She doesn't even know me. My parents don't love me, they split up and fought about how much time they each had to spend with him. Even my so-called friends don't really love me.."
So he said to one of them, "How do you know God loves me?"
THe guy then squatted down and told him, "Because he made you. He gave you life and a body and a mind".
Then a short conversation ensued and he found himself in a church later that day (being a Sunday). He prayed "Lord, if you really are loving me, show me a sign". He said someone then came up and said to him, "God does love you, you know?"
And after that, he never looked back. He gave his life to Jesus. He prayed for a vocation and was doing that when I met him. David Harrison was in a church in Manly praying one Sunday afternoon and his face radiated peace and love. I felt compelled to ask him what gave him such a special love for Jesus (since it was also a Sunday and he looked out of place.. a cool looking young fella in a church while everyone else was at the beach or watching the footy on TV).
And he told me that story.
So I truly believe that knowing that God loves them could transform a person's life, so keep reminding people who are feeling sad, by darling to say, "God loves you!"