En aquel tiempo, Jesús exclamó: Te doy gracias, Padre, Señor de cielo y tierra, porque has escondido estas cosas a los sabios y entendidos y las has revelado a la gente sencilla. Sí, Padre, así te ha parecido mejor.

Todo me lo ha entregado mi Padre, y nadie conoce al Hijo más que el Padre, y nadie conoce al Padre sino el Hijo y aquel a quien el Hijo se lo quiera revelar.

Venid a mí todos los que estáis cansados y agobiados, y yo os aliviaré. Cargad con mi yugo y aprended de mí, que soy manso y humilde de corazón, y encontraréis vuestro descanso. Porque mi yugo es llevadero y mi carga ligera.

Un día, un joven lleno de vigor y entusiasmo presumía en la plaza del pueblo de tener el corazón más sano y hermoso de todos.

La gente se arremolinó y confirmaron que su corazón era perfecto, no tenía ni manchas ni rasguños y latía con la precisión de un reloj.

De pronto, un anciano se presentó también en la plaza gritando que su corazón era más hermoso que el del joven.

La gente lo examinó y vio que tenía muchas cicatrices, que le faltaban trocitos y tenía grandes huecos.

El joven le dijo: "Déjate de bromas. Mi corazón es más perfecto. El suyo, anciano, es un montón de cicatrices, heridas y dolores."

Es cierto, dijo el anciano, pero mira cada cicatriz es una persona amada. Arranqué trocitos de mi corazón para dárselos a las personas amadas. Otras veces, entregué un trozo de mi corazón a personas que no me ofrecían nada. Esos son los huecos que ves. Dar amor es arriesgar y esas heridas me recuerdan que sigo amando.

¿Comprendes ahora por qué mi corazón es más hermoso?

El joven permaneció en silencio, arrancó un trocito de su corazón y se lo ofreció al anciano. Éste lo recibió y lo colocó en su corazón y le dio un trozo del suyo al joven.

El joven miró a su corazón que ya no era perfecto, pero lucía más hermoso que antes porque el amor del anciano fluía en su corazón.

Jesús nos dice hoy que el es "manso y humilde de corazón".Y nos invita a examinar su corazón en el que cabemos todos.

¿Si usted tuviera que ofrecer una casa al evangelio de Jesús dónde lo alojaría? ¿En su cabeza o en su corazón?

El corazón, no la cabeza, es la única casa donde el evangelio de Jesús puede albergarse.

Los sabios e inteligentes tienen cabeza, los humildes y sencillos tienen un gran corazón.

"Te doy gracias, Padre"…

Jesús ofrece descanso a nuestros corazones siempre inquietos, siempre buscando, siempre deseando nuevas aventuras.

El cuerpo después de un día de trabajo, después de un largo paseo lo único que necesita es una silla. Para el corazón no hay silla, pero el Señor es la silla para un corazón que necesita descanso, fuerza y sabiduría.

"Vengan a mí los cansados", invitación de Jesús para todos los días, pero invitación urgente y necesaria para los domingos.

El domingo es el día en que los cristianos hacemos santo el tiempo, disfrutamos de la creación de Dios y adoramos a Dios Padre y Creador.

Así como durante las vacaciones los niños olvidan libros y maestros y los mayores descansan debajo de la mata…el domingo olvidamos las luchas del trabajo y nos centramos en el Señor que nos habla al corazón.

El domingo escuchamos la invitación a ir al Señor y a seguirle. Y recibimos el encargo de anunciar a los hermanos que nadie está excluido del amor y de la gracia de Dios.

Y, a veces, le decimos a Dios: Mira la violencia en el mundo, en mi barrio, en la iglesia. Haz algo. Quisiéramos un Dios que baje a cerrar las pompas de agua, a barrer la basura de las calles, a eliminar los vendedores de drogas…Pero parece que Dios no hace nada. Tiene otro trabajo y nos dice simplemente: "toma mi yugo".

El yugo hace el trabajo más fácil, más rápido y más eficiente.

El yugo de Jesús es suave.

¿Cómo puede ser suave, preguntan algunos, con tantas normas a cumplir?

Sí, el yugo del cristiano tiene sus limitaciones, pero Jesús es mi compañero, unido a Él puedo llevar el peso de mi vida, Jesús tira conmigo y nunca estoy solo con mis problemas.

Y si no puedes, confíale tu debilidad, pídele ayuda, ora y celebra la eucaristía unido al yugo de la comunidad.

Maestro, ¿cuál es la tarea más difícil de la vida?

No tener ninguna carga que llevar.

HOMILÍA 2

“I give praise to you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for although you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned you have revealed them to little ones”.

If you had to offer a home to the gospel, what room would you give it? A room in your head or in your heart?

The temptation of the wise and the learned is to think: a room in my head, I only trust in my wisdom, everything else is off limits.

I, who am one of those little ones, I offer the gospel my heart because the essential things of life can only be seen with the heart.

When we come to church, this place becomes our rest area. We turn off everything and turn on our hearts.

Tired of carrying the loads of life we listen to Jesus’ invitations.

“Come to me all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest”.

The promise that God will give us rest reminds me the parable about the two pairs of footprints in the sand walking side by side. Suddenly there is only one pair of footprints.

And God said to me that is when I picked you up and carried you.

God lifts us up and carries us when the burdens of our lives are too heavy.

What wears you down? Your family, your work, the people around you, the priest in front of you, your church…? Yes, I know, everything and the above.

You know that in the Old Testament, the day of the Atonement they sent a red cow into the desert and it carried away the sins of the people. That was a simple and perfect solution.

We have something more perfect and efficient, Jesus, the lamb of God, carries away your sins and mine.

“Take my yoke which is easy and light”.

In Jesus’ time the Pharisees were making Religion very complicated and difficult. They had 613 rules and regulations, 613 don’t do this, don’t do that. That kind of religion was a heavy yoke around people’s necks. It was worse than slavery. 

The yoke of Jesus is not a new doctrine or new morals, it is a new reality, a new being, a new power which can transform our lives.

Here is the good news. Praise God. Jesus’ religion is simple and positive. Love God, love your neighbor, be kind and believe. Jesus’ religion is a perfect fitting yoke.

“Learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart”.

The Christian faith is a response to Christ as a living, loving person, not just a set of principles or a creed we have to embrace. The person of Christ and his work can be summarized in one word: love.

Jesus is our Savior not because of the cross, not because he shed his blood. God does not need his blood to save us. He needs his love.

Jesus is our Savior because of his love. Only love works wonders, heals, forgives and gives life.

Only Jesus is powerful enough to save us all. Love is symbolized by the heart, like the famous and now universal logo of New York, I (a heart)….NY.

Jesus love is everlasting. 

Let me tell you something, my personal confession, as times goes on I believe in fewer and fewer doctrines, but the few ones I believe in, I believe them with all my heart. Faith is much deeper than beliefs. “We can believe something to be true without making much difference to us, but we place our faith in something that is vital for the way we live”.

God loves me so much that he is the only one that does not scare me. You do scare me.
My body, when I am tired needs only a chair, but my heart which is never tired of searching new adventures does not need a chair, to find peace, hope and joy it only needs only the Lord.

Tomorrow, Independence Day, reminds me that we are not independent, we are interindependent. We need each other. Not even God is independent. He needs us and we need him.

Have a blessed Day.

HOMILÍA 3

McMillen tells the story of a young woman who wanted to go to college, but her heart sank when she read one of the questions on the application: Are you a leader?

Being honest, she answered: No, and returned the application expecting the worst. To her surprise, she received this letter from the college: Dear Applicant, a study of the application forms reveals that this year our college will have 1,452 new leaders. We are accepting you because we feel it is imperative that they have at least one follower.

Today it is our turn to answer this same question: Are you a leader? I hope you are honest and say: No. Jesus, our true leader, needs at least one follower.

Jesus did not land on our planet earth as a world leader, as a brave general or as a bright philosopher, so he spent most of his life living in an unknown village, ignored by everybody. Only at the end of his life as “all things had been handed over to Him by his Father” He began to preach about his Father’s love, and to proclaim the kingdom of heaven as something real and present in the world.

God does not need 1,452 leaders, he needs just one follower and Jesus became that faithful and obedient follower.

God is the leader and Jesus is his messenger before he became the message for all of us.

The leaders of his time, the scribes and the Pharisees were more important than God. Men always tend to seat on God’s throne.

The Pharisees were making religion very complicated and difficult. Their religion consisted of don’t do this and don’t do that. To be religious in those days it was more a curse than a blessing. To be religious is more demanding than obeying a thousand rules.

Religion had become a burden, like a yoke on the people’s shoulders. They were leaders of death.

God who is merciful and forgiving, God who wants to be near us sent Jesus, his son, to give us not a new religion, but a new being.

“Come to me, all of you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens and I will give you rest”.

The burden he wants to take from our shoulders is the burden of religion, of bad religion. The yoke of the law, the 613 commandments of the Old Testament.

We are not Atlas, the god of the Greek mythology forced to carry the world on his shoulders.

“Take my yoke upon you and learn from me”.

Jesus religion is simple and positive. Jesus came to remind us that only God saves, only Jesus` love on the cross saved us from our sins and open for us the gates of heaven.

Yokes are made for two oxen, for two people in love. No love, any yoke becomes a burden, real hell, a lethal injection gone wrong.

When Jesus says “my yoke”, what he means is that while we will be on one side of the yoke, he will be on the other side bearing the greater part of the load.

To take his yoke upon us is to be his followers, his disciples.

“In his book, “Pilgrim’s Progress”, John Bunyan tells the story of a Christian on a journey, carrying a large bundle on his shoulders. He arrives at a place somewhat elevated above the surrounding area. On that hill there stands a cross, and below the hill there is a grave. As the man comes to the top of the hill with his heavy burden, the load is suddenly released from his shoulders. It drops to the ground, rolls down the hill, and disappears into the empty grave. That is a picture of what Christ has done for us. We labor along, carrying a heavy load. The cross appears before our eyes. We lay our heavy load down there, ant it is rolled away”.