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22d Sunday in Ordinary Time Mt 16:21-27 |
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| Background:
No one wants to die. Jesus does not promise us that we will not die, only that we
will not die alone. God took on human form to go down to the valley of death as we all
must and to assure us that death is not the end, that tomorrow will be different
even when today is the last day of our life, and that we will all be young and we will all
laugh again. |
read the padre |
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Story: Once upon a time a man was lying in the
hospital bed. He was so sick he thought he was going to die, indeed he had begun to hope
that he would die just to get rid of the sickness, though he was terrified of dying. Then
the Mother of Jesus strolled into the hospital room. He knew it was her because no one
ever has a hard time in recognizing her. I’m glad you finally showed up. Lets get
this over with. I don’t mind dying. You have to do it once anyway. Now is as good a
time as any. I haven’t come to collect you, herself replied. Then why are
you here? To tell you how much my son loves you. Oh, the man said, relaxing and feeling
the love of which she spoke. I thought you came only to take the dying. You
can’t predict what I and my friends are up to . . . Are you still afraid to
die? No, not really, now that you’re here. So why don’t you take me home now?
There’s a lot of things left for you to do. Don’t worry. I’m always around.
And after that the man was never afraid of death because he knew someone would take care
of him. Hadn’t Himself sent his mother with the message.
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