Joke: A Jewish Rabbi and a Catholic Priest met at the town's annual 4^th of July picnic. Old friends, they began their usual banter. "This baked ham is really delicious," the priest teased the rabbi. "You really ought to try it. I know it's against your religion, but I can't understand why such a wonderful food should be forbidden! You don't know what you're missing. You just haven't lived until you've tried Mrs. Hall's prized Virginia Baked Ham. Tell me, Rabbi, when are you going to break down and try it?" Rabbi looked at the priest with a big smile and said, "At your wedding.”

In today’s Gospel, Jesus appointed the seventy-two others, besides the twelve apostles, to go ahead of him in pairs to every town and place he intended to visit, saying, “Into whatever house you enter, first say, 'Peace to this household.'” The Lord Jesus continues saying, “If a peaceful person lives there, your peace will rest on him; but if not, it will return to you.” What does it mean by “a peaceful person” if it’s not a person of peace as biblical scholars have defined? If that house has all the people living in it as people of peace, then the peace of the Lord will remain. The question is: How can it be that everyone in a family is a person of peace, so the peace of the Lord remains? Is it possible that each one of us, through the virtue of our Baptism, brings peace to others? Or at least, the peace that we exchange with each other at Mass will remain with us and continue to bring that peace home, at work, in school, or wherever we are?

It is not only about going to Mass, saying many prayers and rosaries, and doing many good things to others, these are all good, but it would be better as what Saint Paul reminds Galatians community and to every one of us, reported in today’s second reading saying, “For neither does circumcision mean anything, nor does uncircumcision, but only a new creation.” What is a new creation if it’s not whoever is in Christ, just as Saint Paul said in his writing? (2 Cor 5:17) Saint Paul also continues in today’s second reading, saying, “Peace and mercy be to all who follow this rule and to the Israel of God.” What is this rule if it’s not what reported in Psalm 125 saying, “Do good Lord, to the good, to those who are upright of heart” (125:4). This rule, then, is to those who are upright of heart, the Lord will do good to them, or rather, peace & mercy of the Lord will be with them, and they will become the new creation. So, to be a person of peace, one needs to become a new creation. How are we able to become a new creation to share that peace with others, especially with our loved ones?

Saint Mother Teresa of Calcutta shared many inspiring stories that she encountered in her ministry. One of the stories she shared was about a visitation to this household, or rather, to visit an elderly man living in a poor and dark house himself. In her visitation, Mother Teresa asked the man if it was okay for her to clean his house since it was dark and dusty. The elderly man gave her permission to clean. In cleaning up, she found a lamp covered with dirt. She said to him why he didn’t use the lamp to light up the house. The man responded that nobody would come to visit him, so what was the point of lighting up the house? Mother Teresa then said to him that if she sent her sisters to come to clean up his house, would he light up the lamp? The elderly man agreed to that. Mother Teresa began to send her sisters to come to help him clean up his house. He lit the lamp, and the house filled with light and became brighter. Two years later, he felt sick and before he died, he asked the sisters to deliver his message to Mother Teresa saying, “The light that Mother Teresa lighted in his life still burning, even though it’s small, but in that darkness of loneliness, the light that she started was precious and still burning.” By helping to clean the house and lighting the light, the poor man found peace and departed from this earthly life with that light burning within.

Just as Mother Teresa brought light to dispel the darkness of a life of a lonely and elderly man, have you and I ever brought light to anyone, including our loved ones? Just as her kind deeds done to the elderly man that helped him find the meaning of life, have you and I ever done any kind deeds to others? Have our kind deeds to them brought light to dispel any darkness of loneliness, addiction of any form, or any darkness of envy and jealousy? Have you and I ever found peace in our own selves? Or how would we become a person of peace? If you and I are peaceful people, how can we share that peace with our loved ones living under the same roof? How would we bring that peace to share at work, in our community, and in this society? The decision is always yours.

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY