THE KITTEN AND THE DOG: Who is my True Friend?

The Kitten and the Dog: “Who is my True Friend?”

(Adapted from the Parable of the Good Samaritan- Luke 10:25-37)

Once there was a naughty little cat.  He does not like to go to school.  He only wants to play and play.  He always quarrels and quarrels with his friends.  He disobeys his father and mother.  He destroys all toys given him by his parents.

So the mother-cat got angry with the little cat and the father-cat also got angry with little cat.  The mother-cat scolded little cat.  The father-cat scolded the little cat.  The little-cat cried, “Meow, meow, meow.”

And the little cat said, “Since my mother and my father treated me this way, I am going to run away from home.”  So as father-cat and mother-cat were watching television, little-cat sneaked outside and ran away into the streets and into the city.  He roamed around the city, saying “meow, meow, meow.”

But as he was in the middle of the city, he got lost.  And he wanted to return home but he could not remember his way.  He tried to search for the alley he passed through but he could not find it and it was getting dark. The little-cat got worried and he cried, “meow, meow, meow.”

The little cat got hungry and thirsty and he had no money to buy food.  So he went to a restaurant owned by the rabbit.  And the rabbit asked the little-cat: “Ik, ik, ik, ik.  What kind of food do you want to buy?”  The little-cat answered, “I have no money to buy food.  But I am hungry and thirsty.  Can you give me fish and milk?”

The rabbit said: “Ik, ik, ik, ik, no, no, no.  We do not give food.  We sell food.  No money, no fish; no money, no milk.”

So the little-cat went out feeling sad.

The he met a horse.  He said to the horse, “Meow, meow, meow.  Can you give me one dollar to buy food?  I am so hungry and thirsty.  And I have no money to buy fish and milk.”

The horse answered: “Me, he, he, he.  I do not have money yet.  You see, it is only Friday and Saturday is the day of races.  Sorry, me, he, he, he.”  And he left hurriedly afraid that the little cat would pressure him to give money.

Then the little-cat grew more worried because the night was getting deeper and there was going to be a rain.  He was not only feeling hungry and thirsty but he was feeling cold too.  So he went to a small house to cover himself from the rain.  In the house, he was met by a chicken and a turkey.  The chicken and the turkey did not like cats.  So they drove out little-cat from their house.  The chicken shouted, “pot, pot, potak!  Get out of our house!”  The turkey followed “Kalakalakala, get out of our house.”  And they pushed little-cat out into the rain.

So the little cat walked into the rain feeling hungry, rejected and lonely.  Then at the corner of the street, he cried: “Meow, meow, meow.  I do not have a friend here in the city.  The rabbit did not help me.  The horse did not help me.  The chicken did not help me.  The turkey did not help me.  Who is going to be my friend?”

As he was crying at the corner, a dog came along.  The dog looked frightening.  He was wearing a coat like a gangster.  He was biting a slice of bread and from his mouth you can see big, sharp teeth.  He was considered a “terror” in that street. His name was "Pit Bull.” And as this dog walked heavily into the street, he saw the little-cat crouching in the corner.

The little cat became scared and terrified.  He was even more scared when the dog said: “Groarwl, what are you doing here?”  The little cat, trembling said, ““Meow, meow, meow.  I left our house because I was angry with my father and my mother.  And now I’m lost.  I do not know the way back home, and I am hungry and cold but nobody helped me.”

Then the dog said: “Poor little cat.  Come, I’ll bring you to your home.”  And the dog gave the little cat the slice of bread he was biting and shared him his coat.  Then they walked together into the little-cat’s house where his mother and father were waiting for him.

Now, which of the animals did he met was the true friend to little-cat?

(Note:  I wrote this “parable” for a Sunday School some years ago and found it in an old file..-Fred Vergara )

HOLY EUCHARIST AND LIFE'S MEANING

HOLY EUCHARIST & LIFE’S MEANINGS (John 6:53-69)

(Sermon by The Rev. Dr. Winfred B. Vergara, St. Michael & All Angels Episcopal Church,                                              2197 Jackson Ave,, Seaford, NY 11783.August .26,.2012)

“Lord, to whom shall we go? You alone have the words of eternal life.” (John 6:68)

In the early ‘60’s, there was a famous word introduced and popularized by a Jewish psychiatrist, Viktor Frankl . The word was  Logotherapy. It is a combination of the Greek word logos, which to Frankl means “meaning” and therapy meaning “cure.” In other words, logotherapy is the cure or healing through meaning.

In essence, logotherapy is founded upon the theory that it is “Man’s Search for Meaning” (the title of Frankl’s book originally published in 1959) that drives and motivates human beings to live and to survive even in the most difficult of circumstances.  Frankl drew from his own personal experiences and the experiences of his fellow Jews in the concentration camps during Nazi Germany (circa 1933-1945).

Frankl discovered that many like him who survived the Holocaust were people who had great meanings to their lives.  Either they dreamt of serving God and humanity whenever they come out alive; they wanted to write or tell their stories; they believed they have  friends or loved ones waiting for them outside the camps. Their deep commitment to that dream, their profound sense of mission, their confounded longings for love fulfillment, enabled them to survive forced labor, maltreatment, starvation, loneliness and the fear of death.

Applied to physical or mental sickness, Frankl concluded that the search for meaning, is a major factor in healing. Those who survived surgeries, those who survived terminal cancer, those who were healed of psychosis, were those who have meanings. They have a mission to accomplish, a project to fulfill, a relationship to mend or a dream to pursue.  

Meanings to our lives give us the reason and the will to live. We struggle to drink the bitter medicine in order to get well.  Patients miraculously wake up after a coma because their loved ones whispered they would be waiting at the recovery room.  Cancer patients brave the pain of surgery, the difficulty of chemotherapy or radiation because they want to live longer and fulfill their purpose.

Meanings to life also enable martyrdom . Prior to his assassination, Martin Luther King, Jr.  spoke rather prophetically about his death, in a speech in Memphis on April 3, 1968, “And I've looked over, and I've seen the promised land. I may not get there with you, but I want you to know tonight that we as a people will get to the promised land. ”  The following day, he was killed from an assassin’s bullet.

The Philippine hero, Ninoy Aquino was teaching at Harvard University as an exile in the United States, and  recuperating from heart surgery but the call to liberate his country from the dictatorship of Marcos was so strong.  He prepared to return to his homeland, aware of the danger which he brushed aside, saying, “The Filipinos are worth dying for.”  On that fateful day of August 21, 1983 he was martyred  on the tarmac of Manila International Airport.

Life’s meaning is not confined only to living long or dying by martyrdom. Years ago while serving at a parish, I was visiting an elderly woman in the hospital.  For several weeks, I would visit to give her Holy Communion and to pray for her healing. One day, as I was about to pray, she held my hand and said, “Father, please don’t pray for my healing anymore.” Pardon me, Ma’am, what did you say? “Please don’t pray for my healing anymore. I am now alone, all my friends and family are gone, there is nothing else to my life. I think this cancer is God’s way for me to go. Please, I want to rest; I want to die; I want to be with the Lord. Give me a favor; pray that the Lord will take me soon.”

For a moment, I could not say anything. I wondered if I was being asked like Dr. Jack Kevorkian, to be a “priest of death.” All the while, I was hardwired to always pray for healing whenever I am with the sick. But this time, I believed in her sincerity. And that very moment, I prayed for God’s will. The following day, the nurses told me, she died peacefully.

Life’s meanings have meanings. According to NYC City Health Records, there are an average  of 500 deaths by suicides in New York City alone, a good percentages of them, in the subways.  The rate of suicide in the United States of course ,pale in comparison to that of Japan, which reported suicide as the “leading cause of death” especially  for Japanese males from ages 28 to 44. The reasons of suicides in New York and Tokyo, are varied but many of them are due to the loss of jobs, loss or loved ones, depression---and the lack of life’s meanings. Without meaning, life is not worth the living. And money has no correlation in life’s meanings, as megarich celebrities who committed suicides  illustrate.

The Gospel this morning is about meaning to life. Jesus said, ”I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink his blood, you would have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.” Some of his listeners thought that he was crazy and left. Jesus turned to Peter and the twelve disciples, “are you going away also?” And Peter replied, “To whom shall we go? You alone have the words of eternal life.” 

Had those listeners waited for a while, they would have known the real meaning to life.

The Holy Eucharist which we celebrate today is about meanings to life. As children of God, we are engaged in a ritual filled with symbols and meanings. The Church is the Body of Christ where Christ is the head and we are members of that one Body.  That is why we have a Body exercise:  we stand to praise God, we kneel to pray, and we sit to listen.  But more than the physical calisthenics, is the very meaning of the Eucharist. At the Altar of the Lord, we proclaim: “Christ, has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again.” The altar of the Lord is also the Altar of the world, where Christ had been offered for human sin in all its protean forms.

The Eucharist on Sunday is therefore the alpha and omega, the beginning and ending of Christian mission that gives meaning to our lives. On Sundays, we come to the Table to be nourished by the Bread of Life and the Wine of Salvation.  Then we depart to serve “like bread broken and given to the world. “ We are sent into the world to witness to Christ’s message of love, peace and reconciliation.  The message of Christ that we bring is clear:

John 10:10 - I come that you may have life in all its fullness.  John 14:27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid. John 16:33 “In the world you have tribulations but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” Revelations 3:20  “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.”   “I am the Bread of Life; they who come to me shall not hunger; they who believe in me shall not thirst. No one can come to me, unless the Father draws near. And I will raise them up on the last day.”

Today, as we gather in this Holy Eucharist, we are heirs of God’s promise in Christ. The joy of the Christians is two-fold: we have the gift of eternal life and we are called to be bringers of this gift to others. As we partake of the Body and Blood of Christ in this Holy Communion, may we gain meanings of His Word, knowledge of his will, and bearers of His salvation.  Amen.

(Photo Caption: In 2008 while on a study tour of "Palestine of Jesus," I was invited to preside at a Holy Eucharist in the Church of the Primacy of Peter, by the lake of Galilee. The chapel is owned by the Roman Catholic Church, which explains the background of the amazing portrait of Pope John Paul II. The spot where the chapel is located, is the spot where Jesus asked Peter (three times) , "Do you love me more than these?" And Peter replied, "Yes, Lord, you know that I love you" to which Jesus said, "feed my sheep." It was a great honor as well as a humbling experience for me to celebrate the Eucharist on the Holy Land.) 

WHY JESUS SPOKE IN PARABLES

WHY JESUS SPOKE IN PARABLES (Matthew 13:10-17)

The Rev. Dr. Fred Vergara

When I graduated from my first seminary (and that was some 34 years ago) and spoke my first sermon in the congregation I was assigned to, I spoke “Greek.” I mean, I spoke in the language that my people could not understand. I spoke about such systematic theological terms I learned from John McQuarrie, Paul Tillich and Rudolph Otto, Bultmann, Moltman, etc. and all those big names in seminary. Such terms like “mysterium tremendum,” “eschatological expectation” and the “quagmire of existential vacuum.” My people were polite so they never said a word. I wonder if they ever learned but I think they were beginning to suspect that I just wanted to impress.

Then one day, I got inspired from a Grade School book about Aesop’s fables and I chose the fable of the Sun and the North Wind having a contest which of them was stronger. They have chosen a man by the road as the arbiter of their debate, that is, which of them can take this man’s coat off.

The North Wind blew hard and strong but it could not take the man’s coat because he pulled it tight in his body. The Wind even blew harder and stronger but the man even more clung to his coat tighter and tighter. No amount of wind blowing can blow that man’s coat off.

Then it was the turn of the Sun. It simply shown brightly. The warmth was felt by the man and he voluntarily took off his coat.

I related the fable to God’s love: like the ray of the sun, it simply shines and gives warmth. It does not use power of force or aggression. 1 Corinthians 13, I says, “Love is patient and kind. It is not arrogant nor rude.” In love, we do not force people to respond to our proclamation of God’s Word. Once I went witnessing for Christ, with an aggressive, fundamentalist evangelist. He made sweeping judgmental statements on a family and practically forced them to “repent” and prayed the “sinner’s prayer.” I was wondering if they really repented sincerely or they were simply intimidated by his forceful voice and commanding figure.

Sometimes, we act like the wind. We think that power and aggression are what makes things happen. We despise the meek. We are not impressed by silent personalities. We are awed by flamboyant personalities, by articulate expressions. In the story of the prophet Elijah, he wanted to hear God from the cave in which he hid. First, there was a terrible wind but God was not there; second, there was a strong earthquake but God was not there; third, a great ball of fire but God was not there either. Finally, there was “a still small voice”---and God was there.

After the Mass, the silence of my congregation was broken. One of them said, “Father, for the first time, I understood your sermon.”

In Matthew 13:10, the disciples asked Jesus, “Why do you talk to the crowd in parables?” And Jesus replied, “the reason why I talk to them in parables is that they look without seeing and listen without hearing or understanding…but happy are your eyes because they see and your ears because they hear!”

In Sunday School we were once taught that “a parable is an earthly story with heavenly meaning.” It is similar to the Lord’s Prayer “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” The kingdom of God is hard to explain, except in parables. It is hard to explain because it comes from above and is eternal, It cannot be seen, except by faith. Its development is transformational,  like a tiny mustard seed growing like a strong Philippine mahogany or  like a Silicon microchip enabling a rocket to fly to the moon. Its value is like a pearl of great price or a field filled with minerals of gold.

Jesus is the Son of God who comes down from heaven and dwells among us. He is therefore the Ultimate Parable. No one has seen God, the Father; but Jesus, the Son, He had made Him known. In the fullness of time, God  let the Son's ray come down with the warmth of His love and the stillness of His peace. Like the Sun, we felt the warmth and we voluntarily take off our pretensions and surrender our life. We behold his glory as the only Son sent from the Father: the Way, the Truth, the Life.

In Jesus, we have a heavenly meaning come down to become an earthly story, full of grace and truth. So too, in peace and love and in the still small voice of witness, let us let our light shine before the world that they may see God's work among us, as we glorify God, our Father who is in heaven. Amen.