Clothe yourself with Love Col. 3:14

  Today I want to talk about my pathway to become a disciple of Jesus. We all have a unique story of how we came to have a relationship with God! Some of you, have had this strong relationship with God from the very beginning. Others like me rebelled a bit before we returned to God. My journey to have a serious relationship with God started during the war. It was like I was spiritually awakened from a long sleep! I thought I was very “religious” growing up and I went to mass every Sunday but there were times I felt something was missing, I didn’t know how much I needed God and I didn’t know how to go about it, in seeking him. Sometimes I wonder why did it have to take a war to wake me up and realize my constant need for God. S ometimes in life, we need to be woken up as well, woken up from our complacency, our denial that we are not absolutely spiritually bankrupt! No no! I am fine! We tell ourselves! What are you talking about? P erhaps we need to be woken up from our cozy slumb

The theme that seems to prevail in our readings today is “Fear not” or “Do not be afraid”. It is hard for me to not fear. Is that a big confession? Sorry! I don’t know about you, but there are situations that throw me off balance, I have never been able to switch off fear! This is mine: I love airplanes! I do! But there are these few minutes after take off when you are tossed around, and my natural reaction is to hold on firmly to my seat in a vain attempt to stabilize the plane!   Eventually the plane does stabilize but it isn’t because of this priest here. However way I would like to claim I did it, I surely was afraid. I couldn’t switch that fear off for the life of me. I surely trust God for my ultimate safety but obviously I still have a long way to go in establishing that trust. Jesus is telling us not to be afraid because it is our Father’s good pleasure to give us the Kingdom of God: That means everything including not to fear! and Jesus knows well the conditions that we