Morning Voice

April 2, 2023. Palm Sunday of the Lord's Passion – A. Readings: Mt 21:1-11; Is 50:4-7; Ps 22:8-9, 17-18, 19-20,23-24; Phil 2:6-11; Mt 26:14—27:66. A Bantu proverb says: “Pain is inevitable suffering is optional.” And a Latin proverb adds: “Experience purchased by suffering teaches wisdom.” There is no glory without suffering, and no triumph without sacrifice. But the sad fact is that the same people who praise you and clap for you at the time of glory, are the same who will stone you in the hour of your agony. Mankind in general, and Christians in particular have a kind of split personality. They can praise with their mouth and insult with their very mouth. They bless with their hand and stone with the same hand. A story goes that a Bishop dropped by a sister’s convent on a pastoral visit. Upon arriving, the Mother Superior was so proud of their parrot that she praises it to the Bishop saying that it was a very pious parrot. "When you pull its right leg, it prays the

March 26, 2023. Fifth Sunday of Lent - A. Readings: Ez 37:12-14; Ps 130:1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 7-8; Rom 8:8-11;Jn 11:1-45. What is the Resurrection, and what assurance do we have that we, too, will be risen? “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died." John 11:21 An Albanian proverb says: “Faith begins where reason stops.” And another proverb adds: “It's easier to lose faith than to find it again.” There is a sad reality each one of us, oftentimes, goes through, the seeming absence of God. When passing through difficult times and hardships, we end up thinking and believing that God has forsaken us or gone away from us. In today's Gospel, in their helplessness, Martha and Mary, in front of the death of their only brother Lazarus exclaimed to the Lord: “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died." Their common exclamation is that of each one of us in front of life's problems: "Where are you, God?” Or to quote the Psalmist during t