MY CHILD, DO YOU LOVE ME? - THE GIFT OF PIETY. (Homily for May 13, 2016. Friday of the 7th Week of Easter).


Bible Study: Acts 25, 13 to 21 and John 21, 15 to 19.


Since the beginning of this week, our readings have somehow touched on the gifts of the Holy Spirit and the need for us to pray for these gifts. Today, we hear Jesus asking Peter the same question three times. “Peter, do you love me?” This question inquires about whether Peter has this beautiful gift of piety.

According to the novena prayers; “The gift of Piety begets in our hearts a filial affection for God as our most loving Father. It inspires us to love and respect for His sake persons and things consecrated to Him, as well as those who are vested with His authority, His Blessed Mother and the Saints, the Church and its visible Head, our parents and superiors, our country and its rulers. He who is filled with the gift of Piety finds the practice of his religion, not a burdensome duty, but a delightful service. Where there is love, there is no labour.”

He who is filled with the gift of piety finds the practice of his religion not a burdensome duty but a delightful service. When Jesus was entrusting the church to Peter, he wanted to be sure that Peter will not find his office as a burden. There are many people who find the practice of their religion as a burden.

Too often, you encounter an unhappy minister constantly complaining about his pastoral ministry. He seems to know everything that is not right and he seems to blame everyone else for his unhappiness without realizing that the fault is his own lack of this gift of piety.

Consider the example that Jesus gave to Peter, “When you are young, you used to tie your own belt and go to wherever you feel like going. When you are old (meaning, when you become mature in the pastoral ministry), people will tie your belt for you and take you to places where you do not like to go.” This example is just a summary of the priestly life. You suddenly no longer have time for yourself and you cannot afford to tie your own belt and go wherever you like. People place very high demands on you yet you dare not complain about anything. The secret to enjoying this life of sacrifice is piety; loving God above anything else.

Do you feel called to the priesthood or religious life? Then this is a very noble objective, so noble that you have to begin by first examining your conscience whether or not the love of God in your heart is greater than the love of other material things on earth. Some persons actually enter the religious life simply because they feel priests and sisters are “enjoying”; that they ride big nice cars and do not seem to have any worries. Such vocations are inspired by love for material things and not love for God. They only end up as very unhappy persons who worship material things for the sake of seeking consolation for the pain and regret of having become entrapped by the priesthood or religious life. They find it very difficult to keep to their vows because their love of God is not deeper than their love for the flesh. The gift of piety makes all the difference.

Every Christian has a certain degree of love in their hearts for God but the minister of God should have a greater love. His/her love for God has to be BIG ENOUGH to stand trial and persecution. It has to be big enough so that he does not become discouraged in the face of challenging circumstances or raw temptations. It has to be big enough that the minister may be able to make sacrifices daily to ensure that the flock of God are well fed for instance, not just with unprepared homilies, but with rich food to nourish their minds and souls.

St. Paul remains a model minister in so many ways. His love for God was so outstanding. Not even imprisonment or persecution would stop him from continuing his mission of feeding the flock of God and making new disciples for God. We pray that like St. Paul, God may raise up more and more men and women burning with passionate love for God.

Apart from being a minister, we all need an adequate amount of piety to be Christians. The only reason why we give in to sin is because we do not love God enough so as not to disappoint him or choose something else in place of him. Without genuine piety in our hearts, our service of God is only neck-deep or mere pretence at best; we just do things to make people see that we are good but deep down within us, we are something else. Let us pray for an infusion of this beautiful gift of piety today.

Today we also celebrate the anniversary of the apparition of our Lady of Fatima. Between May 13 and October 13, 1917, three Portuguese children received apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary at Fatima, a city 110 miles north of Lisbon. Mary asked the children to pray the rosary for world peace, for the end of World War I, for sinners and for the conversion of Russia. The names of the three children are Francisco, Jacinta and Lucia. The third visionary, Lucia dos Santos, became a Carmelite nun and died in 2005 at the age of 97. Mary gave the children three secrets. Since Francisco died in 1919 and Jacinta the following year, Lucia revealed the first secret in 1927, concerning devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. The second secret was a vision of hell. The third secret spoke of a "bishop in white" who was shot by a group of soldiers who fired bullets and arrows into him. Many people linked this to the assassination attempt against Saint John Paul II in St. Peter's Square on May 13, 1981. The message of Fatima is simple: PRAY.

Let us pray: Lord Jesus, fill me with your Holy Spirit, may my love for you be deeper than any material thing so that I my dutiful fulfil the demands of my calling. Amen.


God bless you. Good morning. Be Happy. Live Positive. Have Faith. It is well with you.

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