Author: ANTONINO

For Easter, many different cultures have many different ways of greeting one another. In the English culture we say «Happy Easter!». In the Portuguese culture it’s «Felizes Páscoas!». In the Russian Orthodox culture they say: «He Is Risen!» and the answer to that is «He Is Risen Indeed!

Many years ago Nikolai Ivanovich Bukharin was one of the most powerful men on earth. A Russian Communist leader, he took part in the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917. He was the editor of the Soviet newspaper Pravda and was a full member of the Politburo. His works on economics and political science are still read today.

There is a story told about a journey he took from Moscow to Kiev in 1930 to address a huge assembly of Communists. The subject was atheism.

Addressing the crowd, he attacked Christianity, hurling insults and arguments against it. When he had finished, he looked out at the audience: “Are there any questions?” he demanded.
Deafening silence filled the auditorium.

Then one man stood up, approached the platform and mounted the lectern. After surveying the crowd, he shouted the ancient greeting of the Russian Orthodox Church:

– “CHRIST IS RISEN!”
The crowd stood up and shouted in a thundering voice:
– “HE IS RISEN INDEED!”

Amazed and dejected, Bukharin left the stage in silence. Finally, he had learned the lesson that Faith in Christ’s Resurrection was deeply rooted in his Russian Orthodox Communist followers!
HAPPY EASTER… FELIZES PÁSCOAS… JESUS IS RISEN…

– Brought to you by Fr. Bernardino Andrade (bernardinodandrade@gmail.com)

I don’t know in other places but, in the USA, it is common to advertise in the newspapers that there are seminaries, convents and opportunities for those who feel the call to become priests, nuns or to join the religious life that we also call «Consecrated Life».

Of course most of those of advertisements try to impress and attract young people by giving attractive reasons why they can consider joining those communities and that lifestyle. And it works because most of the young people have no proper information about this alternative for their lives. Unfortunately, most of the information they hear is negative, and also through jokes that denigrate a way of life that can be the best answer for their living, which is their love for God transformed into service for others.

I believe that most of us are aware of Mother Teresa and the thousands of young girls who decided to follow her and also of so many many priests and nuns who have lived their lives passionately in love with Jesus and his project. And most of them have lived a very happy life.

But ironically, there was a special religious order that had a very unattractive advertisement with a very high rate of success. The advertisement went like this:

«IF YOU WANT TO BECOME A NOBODY, JOIN US».

Holy Week is the best picture of what a «NOBODY» can be in a Christian life. And those who want to follow him must be open to become a nobody like Him. In the second reading of Palm Sunday Mass, St. Paul (Philippians 2: 6-11) says: «His state was divine, yet Christ Jesus did not cling to his equality with God but emptied himself to assume the condition of a slave». A slave was a «nobody» with no rights and no dignity. An animal would have more rights than a slave. Is this attractive?

The prophet Isaiah, in reference to the Messiah, says something very unattractive and in a way almost repugnant. Who wants to be like this? «He had no form or majesty that we should look at him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by others; a man of suffering and acquainted with infirmity and as one from whom others hide their faces he was despised and we held him of no account. Surely he has borne our infirmities and carried our diseases».

(Isaiah 53). JESUS BECAME A NOBODY. If you want to become a nobody, follow him. I have tried and I don’t know if I have been a good priest but I know that, for almost 53 years, I have been a very happy priest. If I could go back in life I would follow the same road.

Happy Holy Week
Fr. Bernardino Andrade

– Brought to you by Fr. Bernardino Andrade (bernardinodandrade@gmail.com)

The Bishop who ordained me almost 53 years ago, whose name was Francis, said something that impacted me deeply. Actually it brought me closer to Jesus or maybe it brought Jesus closer to me. It was about Jesus’ language. He said that if we compared the language of Jesus with the language of St. Paul, it was like comparing a fourth grade student with a University professor.

Related with this side of Jesus, I had a colleague in the Seminary (who is still in ministry), who collected the nouns most used by Jesus. His name is Fr. José Pereira. He was fascinated (so was I) to realize that all the words Jesus used to teach His deepest messages were very very simple that even the most illiterate people could understand. It was like: wheat, bread, fish, water, birds, flowers, sky, trees, food and so on. Nobody needs to go to school to understand these words and what they mean.

This is what came to my mind when I was reading today’s Gospel (V Sunday of Lent B, John 12: 20-33) and found Jesus saying: «unless a wheat grain falls on the ground and dies, it remains only a single grain; but if it dies it yields a rich harvest». Then I found interesting that the bread I eat daily is no more than the result of a «dead grain» of «dead wheat». The same about potatoes, corn, apples, and all the food I encounter on my table. All of them are the result of a dead seed. And if by any chance the seed refuses to die it is good for nothing.

Especially during this time of Lent I need to deeply meditate about my life and if I want to be «food» and «medicine» to the world. If I want to be a follower of Jesus to build the Kingdom of the Father, I have to be like the grain of wheat. I need to die to myself and let Jesus live in me. I need to stop looking for my personal success, and become just an instrument in the hands of my favorite Carpenter called Jesus.

Love and Peace
Fr. Bernardino Andrade

– Brought to you by Fr. Bernardino Andrade
(bernardinodandrade@gmail.com)

From today’s Gospel: «In the temple, Jesus found people selling cattle, sheep and doves, and the money changers seated at their tables. Making a whip of cords, he drove all of them out of the temple…», Jo. 2, 14-15)

THE ABUSES THAT INFURIATED JESUS

1) The merchants selling animals and the money changers had converted the Court of the Gentiles into a noisy market making it impossible for the Gentiles to worship Yahweh.

2) The merchants sold the animals and birds for sacrifice at unjust and exorbitant prices (18 to 20 times the regular price outside the Temple).

3) The animal-inspectors, bribed by the merchants, disqualified even the healthy animals brought by poor shepherds and farmers for sacrifice. This was an unjust extortion at the expense of poor and humble pilgrims, who were practically blackmailed into buying animals and birds from the Temple booths. Jesus considered this a glaring social injustice aggravated by the fact that it was perpetrated in the name of religion.

4) The Temple authorities, by sharing the profit made by merchants and money-changers, converted it into a “hideout of thieves” (Mark & Luke).

5) Roman coins, bearing the images of pagan gods and the emperor, were forbidden as offering in the Temple. The money-changers, who exchanged the Temple coin (Galilean shekel) with Roman coins, demanded 1/6 of the value of the coin as their commission, even from the poor people who had to pay one and a half days of their daily wage as their annual Temple tax.

6) What especially enraged Jesus was not that a fee was being charged, but that the amount being charged to the poor was exorbitant and, hence, unjust. What was happening was a great social injustice done in the name of religion. In fact, the money-changers were street-level representatives of a corrupt Temple banking system which had become an instrument of injustice, fleecing the poor to benefit the powerful.

By chasing the money-changers and merchants from the Temple, Jesus was questioning the validity of the entire sacrificial system itself — of Israel’s ability to atone for its sins, be forgiven and stand in right relationship with God.

“Jesus’ symbolic attack on the Temple would (in His culture) have had a meaning not unlike that of the terrorists who flew planes into the World Trade Centre – symbolically attacking a building that was widely seen as the “nerve center” of an entire network of political, economic and religious power. In addition to its key religious functions, the Temple had also taken on political and economic roles in Judaea. Apparently, its Treasury was used by many wealthy Jewish people as the “central bank of Jerusalem,” where they stored their wealth, considering it safe from theft or pillaging.” (Dr. Murray Watson).

Love and Peace
Fr. Bernardino Andrade

– Brought to you by Fr. Bernardino Andrade (bernardinodandrade@gmail.com)

On February 11th the Catholic Church celebrated the World Day of the Sick and by coincidence the Gospel told the story of Jesus healing a leper.

In the time of Jesus there was not a more horrifying illness than leprosy. It was not just a body painfully being decomposed in life but especially the condition of being ostracized, excluded and outcast. Their loneliness was unbearable, but lepers, their family and friends had no choice according to the cruel rules of the time of Jesus.

They were accused, judged and condemned for being «sinners». According to their laws, leprosy was a punishment from God for their sins. They «deserved» to be excluded. They were «unclean». And if any person touched them, that person would become unclean. Jesus, who was a rebel against inhuman laws, in the process of healing the leper, touched him, and consequently became unclean.

During Mass on the World Day of the Sick, we reflected about today’s lepers: the «unclean» and the «untouchable» of our society. And we identified some of them like the homosexuals, the poor, the homeless, the prostitutes, the beggars and so on.

Since I started saying Mass in English at Penha de França I have been «condemned» to encounter, every Sunday, a homeless man called “Antonio”, begging for money. I never liked that and I still don’t like it. Instead of Antonio extending his hand begging for money I would prefer to see Carla dressed as a folkloric ballerina offering flowers to the tourists who attend Mass at Penha de France. It doesn’t look good, especially for the tourists.

Somebody said that «In today’s society, image is not the most important thing. Image is the only important thing». His presence «ruins» our image of «good and clean» Portuguese People.

The problem is that Jesus didn’t ask for my opinion. What he tells me is that

«Whatever you do to the least of my brothers you do it unto me» (Math. 25:40).

This is not negotiable. Then I started seeing Jesus in the person of Antonio. That’s why, before giving him some money, I always hug him. He knows that, that’s why when he sees me, before extending his hand to receive money, he extends his arms to hug me with his wonderful smile.

To experience the uncomfortable message of Jesus, at the end of the Mass two Sunday’s ago, I asked Manny and his wife Tracy to invite and escort Antonio to join me close to the altar and bless him. And blessing Antonio (a homeless and a beggar), we also blessed all the «lepers», the «untouchable» and the «unclean» of today’s society.

We blessed him and I hugged him, and I promised that any «leper» who decides to come to our church we are going to extend a red carpet to welcome him or her. They are our masters. They make us more human. That’s why I expect one day to see in every newsletter and in every news board of any Christian church this slogan: COME AS YOU ARE.

Love and Peace,
Fr. Bernardino Andrade