thegoodfellas/blogset-br huggingface dataset:
Jesus Forgives and Heals UsMydear brothers and sisters in the Lord Jesus, already I can see a remarkabledifference between yesterday morning and this morning. Yesterday morning I sawso many faces still filled with sadness. But now, when I came here on thestage, I found greater joy on you faces. And you were singing more joyfullythan yesterday. And therefore, in the words of Saint Paul, Christianity is areligion of peace. A peace which is in the heart, because only if there ispeace in the human heart will there be peace among the nations, among thepeople. Politicians are trying to have only an artificial out of peace, amongpeople whose hearts are still filled with bitterness and hatred. And the Christian answer is that there cannotbe peace in the world unless there is peace in every human heart. And thatinterior peace can only come to a deep experience of the Lords inner healing. Again,in the words of Saint Paul, Christianity is the religion of love, not only lovetowards God but more in a way among ourselves. The problem in the world todayis too much hatred. Love, however wrong, is still love. But the problem of theworld is hatred and what Christianity, authentic Christianity, is offering theworld is love. If there is no love in the heart you cannot call yourself aChristian. And thirdly Christianity is a religion of joy and the Lord wants usto evangelize thru the joys in our hearts and thru the joy in our faces. Andtherefore in every church in Brazil, the Sunday, Eucharistic celebration mustbe celebrations of joy. But joy can only come about if there is peace in all ofthose attending the Eucharist. Only if there is love in the relationships. (Applause)Yesterdaymorning, we spoke about God, our father, and we said the Bible says of God thatGod is love. And Jesus tells us to pray to God calling him father. And SaintPaul says our father God, is a God for us. For us. If God id for us, says SaintPaul, who can be against us? And I told you yesterday that the name I prefer togive God, our father, is a God for us, the God by our side, the God that isalways tending for us. Then we spoke about the greatest gift of God our fatherto us and the greatest gift of God to us is Jesus, His only son. And theGospels give us a special name of this Jesus, it says that Jesus is God withus. He is Emanuel, with us. That is how the Gospel begins, by saying that alittle baby that is just born is God with us. And how does it end? By Jesushimself saying I am the God with you, I will be with you always until the endof times. And as we read the Gospels we will see that Jesus comes to do twomain things. One is something negative, that we may not be in sin, that we maynot be physically sick, that we may not be emotionally broken, that we may notbe under the power of Satan. But dont forget that Jesus
has come to also dofor us something positive, to give us peace which the world cannot give, togive us a power that only God can give, to give us the new life that can onlycome thru the Holy Spirit. And this morning I want to continue by telling youwhat Jesus is still doing for us today.As I said yesterday the mostimportant thing that Jesus has come to tell us that we have in God our fatherwho wants us to be perfect and Holy but who is always ready to forgives us ifwe go the wrong way. He is more eager to forgive us than we are ready to askfor forgiveness. And therefore is thru our repentance that we open ourselves toGods forgiving love. And how is it possible that that love can so forgive andwipe out our sins? And the Christian answer is only one it is by the death ofJesus in the Calvary Cross. The answer for the evil and suffering in the worldgiven by many religious philosophies today is to close our eyes to thesesufferings, to try to do away with it, to forget them, to try thru every meanto take them away from our lives. But the Christian answer is to be aware thatfor as long as we live in this world there will be sin, there will be evil,there will be sickness, there will be death. But with Jesus we can conquer allthese things. And Jesus by his death has come not only to conquer death, but toconquer the fear of death. And therefore the cross is the Christian responseand the Eucharist is the daily celebration of the Easter mystery, the death andresurrection of Jesus. One of the most beautiful stories in the Bible is a specialincident in the passion of Jesus and to understand this incident I want to tellyou a sort of modern parable. There was a prisoner in the jail and he wascondemned to death. And one day, the jailer comes and opens the door of thatjail, the jailer. And tells him you are free. And this prisoner could notbelieve his ears. And he told the jailer but why am I set free? I know Ivedone terrible crimes. And I know I deserve to die because of my crimes. Tell mewhat has happened? And the jailer said Come, I will tell you. And he tookhim out in the street and pointed out to him a hill in the distance and he saidDo you see that hill? Do you see on the hill those three crosses? Well thatcenter cross was meant for you and the criminal said Then what has happened?and the jailer said Somebody else has taken your place.Now,you know I am not telling you (applauses) rather I am relaying to you a fact ofhistory. When Jesus was to be condemned to death and Pilate wanted to saveJesus at any cost, Pontius Pilate. You know how many attempts Pilate did tosave Jesus? Because he knew Jesus was innocent. Finally he thought of anbrilliant idea, he knew that at the time of Passover the Jews had
the privilegeof having one prisoner set free for them. And Pilate said I know I have injail the worst prisoner I ever had and his name is Barabbas, but I will bringhim before the people and I will tell the people choose whom do you want to beset free And Pilates was sure that no one would want Barabbas to be set free.Barabbas was a notorious robber, the Gospel tells us. He had killed so manypeople, he was like Hitler, worst like Stalin, or like Milosevic. Nobody wants him to be set free. And PontiusPilates was sure that everyone would want Jesus to be set free, so many of themhad been healed by Jesus and therefore Pilates said with certainty choosewhich one you want to be set free. But you know how crowds can be swage in anyway and the leaders began to impress on the crowds not to choose Jesus to be setfree. And the crowds asked for Barabbas to be set free. And Jesus was put todeath in place of Barabbas. Barabbas is you and me.SaintPaul says all of us have sinned. Sinning in the Bible is not only doing badthings, is also not doing the good things we should be doing. In the Bible sinmeans falling short of Gods expectations of us. And therefore Saint Paul saysin the Romans letter do you think that you Jews are better than the gentiles?Do you think that you Jews are better than the pagans? And Saint Paul saysnot at all. All of us, the Jews and the Pagans, we have sinned. If Saint Paulwas here just now he wouldve asked us the same question. Do you think you,Catholics of Brazil, are better than the Hindus of India? And Saint Paul wouldhave said not at all. All of us have sinned, then the Bible says that thewagers of sin is always death, therefore, conclusion, all of us deserve to die.Physically, emotionally, spiritually. But, and this but is the but ofsalvation, Jesus has died in our place. He has taken upon himself all our sins,all our sufferings, all our wounds. And in the tremendous words of Saint PaulJesus who we knew had no sins became sin. Became sin, so that we could becomehis holiness. But because Jesus died in our place, we dont have to dieanymore. This is the Christian meaning of salvation. What does salvation meanspecifically for the Christian faith? Is the experience and the assurance offorgiveness of sins. Everything else is secondary. But this is what Christian salvationmeans.Many years ago there was a series ofmurders in a town in India. Many, many cases of murder then and for one yearthe police could not find the causes, the perpetrators of these murders.Finally they found out the four assassins. They were all young people, fromvery good and rich families, Hindu families. And when the magistrate waspassing judgment on them he said this is one case where I have a pleasure onpassing judgment of execution. Because the whole country of India had anaversion towards these four cynical assassins. Because they had killed theseten people, good,
innocent people, only for the joy of killing and for thegreater joy that they would never b discovered by the police. And the leader ofthese four when he heard the sentence of death passed on him only smiled acynical smile. And then came his time in the prison. And people were sendinghim many books to read. And there was a charismatic group in that town. Theywere sending him bibles and Christian literature. At first he threw them aside,but he had nothing else to do, he began to read them. And then he wrote to hismother Mommy, the only book I now read is the Holy Bible. And then came theday of his execution and as he was being taken up to the scaffold to be hung, themagistrate asked him do you have one last wish? and he said yes. I wouldlike to read the Holy bible and he opened the bible on Lukes Gospel, chapter23, where we have a very strange story of two criminals being crucifiedtogether with Jesus.I used to often wonder why thebeautiful story of the passion of Jesus was spoiled by the mention of a namelike Barabbas? I was still most surprised why the beautiful stories of thesufferings of Jesus was spoiled by the mention of two criminals with Jesus? Infact, the Gospel speaks of Jesus as the other criminal, the Gospel tells thatJesus was crucified with other criminals. As if Jesus too was a criminal. Andwe read there the story of what happened as Jesus was hanging there on thecross the high priest and the Pharisees began to taunt Jesus, began to ridiculehim, and to tell him if you are the son of God, come down from the cross. Andwe will believe in you. Even the passers by began to make fun of Jesus and tosay the same thing if you are the son of God, come down from the cross. Wewill believe in you. Even the soldierssaid the same thing if you are the son of God, come down from the cross. Andwe will believe in you. If Jesus had come down from the cross we would insteadbe hanging there. And then the thief on the left hand heard what his people wassaying and he also told Jesus if you are the son of God, come down from thecross. Save yourself. And save us also. What did Jesus do? Jesus kept quite.That was the last temptation of Jesus. It was not the temptation in the agonyof the garden, but Jesus conquered it by saying Father, not my will, but yourwill be done. Jesus knew, he had the power to free himself from the cross, didhe not say I could ask my father for a legions of angels. Did not Jesus sayI have the power to lay down my life and I have the power to take back mylife. And Jesus did not say anything.And when the thief on the left hand found that Jesus was not doing what hewanted him to do he began to curse Jesus. And what did the thief on the righthand do? He
heard all this and then he turned to his friend, the othercriminal, and said why are you abusing this innocent man? If we die is becausewe deserve that. We are criminals, but this man is innocent. He doesnt deserveto die. And I fell if his is dying he is dying for us. And now comes theworst, this is what I want to tell you this morning, and then the thief in theleft hand said in a tremendous act of faith, in a way the greatest act of faithin the whole bible, turned to Jesus and he said Lord I know, in the eyes ofthe world you are about to die, but to me it seems as you are just beginning tolive. In the eyes of the world you are a criminal, but to me, you seem to beGod. In the eyes of the world you seem to be an ordinary human being, acarpenter, but to me, you seem to be king, the king of kings. The Lord oflords. And then he cried out to Jesus Lord do not forget me, remember me,when you shall come into your kingdom. Could there be a greater act of faith?Then a man telling a dying person you are alive, a human being you are theking of the world, a criminal you are God. And what did Jesus reply? Jesuswith his heart broken because of our sins, Jesus from his heart which wasfilled by compassion, turn to this criminal on the right hand and he saidtoday today, not tomorrow, not in a distant future, you will be with me inparadise.(Applause)That criminal from the town in Indiaread these two verses, from Lukes Gospel, chapter 23. He closed the bible,gave it back to the magistrate, went up the scaffold and was hung. The whole ofIndia still thinks he was Indias worst criminal, but we know, a few of usknow, that he is with Jesus in Paradise.(Applause)My dear brothers and sisters, thatincident in the passion of Jesus is not meant to be a story that happened 2000years ago. Today, the Lord is asking us which side of the cross we want to be?Do we want to be on the left hand side? And to be aware of my sufferings and myproblems and to tell Jesus Take away my problems. Take away my sufferings.And when Jesus does not do that maybe to curse Jesus. There was a young man inBombay that was very, very sick. But before that I went to see a young ladythat was sick and she was just 18 years old and unfortunately she died. Shebelonged to a very religious family, daily communicants. But at the funeralwhen they came to take away her body for burial in the cemetery of the churchher mother began to be hysterical, her mother began to cry out, her motherbegan to scream, her mother began to shout, her mother began to curse God. Orwould you rather be on the right hand side? And as the thief on the right handside, know your problems, know what sufferings you are going thru, know thepains and
hurts of your heart, and then you just pray to the Lord. And you tellthe Lord Lord, I know yours will be the final victory in my life. And to justpraise him for all his suffering. I went for a funeral of another person. Ayoung man, belonging to the charismatic prayer group, he was suffering fromleukemia and he died. He was the only son of his parents. But throughout thenight there was singing and praying and for the funeral, I was there for thefuneral, singing and praising God with everyone. I was there with my piano andaccordion.(translator interrupts You shouldbring it here next time. Audience applauds)And the people asked these personsthe next day at the offices, Hindus asked Christians the next morning, tell us more about your religion. If therecould be so much joy even in a funeral there must be something in it. The parish priest who was anti charismaticwhen he saw the joy and praising at his funeral for the next few days wouldspeak about it at all his masses. And then he came into the charismaticrenewal. My dear brothers and sisters, where would you rather be? On the lefthand side of the cross? And know your sufferings and problems and when nothingis happening, curse God? Or would you rather be on the right hand side? Andknow your sufferings and problems and praise God. Because as I praise God myproblems become smaller and smaller. And God becomes greater and greater.Choose where you rather be.My dear brothers and sisters,therefore I speak again and again, that the greatest healing we receive is thespiritual healing. The healing that comes about from the experience of Godsforgiveness towards us. When we repent and come back to our father. As I saidyesterday Jesus has also come to heal the human heart and to heal us even toour past, which is incredible. Has come to heal our family background. He hascome to heal us when we were in our mothers wound. He has come to heal us whenwe were in our childhood. And I feel, and I have been saying this everywhere,that this aspect of Jesuss ministry, inner healing. It is so important andnecessary that every human being in the world must have gone thru a process ofinner healing, must have said a prayer for inner healing, if possible, evengone to a retreat for inner healing. Some years ago, I was giving a retreat tosisters and the mother general, and the mother superior, the general of thatcongregation, brought a woman to be prayed for. And this woman had a baby andthe sister told me that from the time of his birth the baby had not slept. Itwas four months old and more than that it was screaming and screeching day andnight. And it was contorting its limbs. They took that baby to many doctors, tomany pediatricians, to many psychiatrists, but there was no success. So weprayed over the baby, there was some improvement. The baby was now able tosleep one hour a day, which was obviously too little. Then the nun happened totell me that the woman
had told her that when she was pregnant with the babyshe had a very great shock. So then I told the sister why didnt you tell methis before I prayed? Now send for this family. Because in the mean time theyhad gone back to their village. I am going to the next town to preach aretreat. And send them to that place. Because I feel that that baby will not behealed accept by the power for prayer. At the last day of the retreat, the parents came with the little baby. Iwas happy when I saw them entering the hall. And what did I do? I asked one ofthe sisters to hold that baby and to be on one side. And I put the mother inthe center of these 80 nuns making the retreat. And I told the sisters, after Itold them about the shock the mother had, that we were going to pray for themother, not for the baby. Or rather, for the baby through the mother. And as wewere praying for the mother, the baby stopped crying and screeching. And as wecontinued praying for the mother, the baby fell into a deep sleep. And thru outthose two hours praying meeting with a lot of singing and clapping andshouting, although not as much as you did last night. I thought the baby wouldget up and start crying and screaming all over again, but no, the baby was fastasleep. They wrote to us two weeks later that from that time the baby had beensleeping practically the whole day and the whole night.(Applause)Maybe to make up for the lost sleep.Maybe because I prayed too much. You know prayer is like medicine, you cannotpray too much. And this was one of the most beautiful things in our ministry,praying for babies in their mothers womb and praying for us retrospectivelywhen we were in our mothers womb. And wonderful things can happen instantly.Again, there is something else thatJesus came to do. Not only healing us spiritually, but forgiving our sins. Notonly healing us emotionally from every fear even when we were in our motherswomb. But even physically from all of sicknesses that come our way. And theLord Jesus is doing today the same thing that he did along time ago. But aboveall Jesus has come finally to deliver us from the power of Satan. All thishealings will not be sufficient, will not be adequate, unless we are also freedfrom the power of Satan in our lives. Some years ago, I was giving a mission ina certain town in India, the evenings were meant for the sermons, for thetalks. And in the mornings we were hearing confessions, praying for people,counseling them. And as I was about to finish the person with me, there was aconfusion at the door and I saw three women dragging a young girl into my room.And this girl was shouting let me go! Let me go! And then I asked the womenwhat is happening? Where does she want to go? Where is she pointing out at?They told me Father, she is pointing at
the cemetery. She wants to go to thecemetery because we found her there as we were coming to the church. And wefound her there about to kill herself and we stopped her just in the knick oftime. And we dragged her by force to this place. And this girl was gettingviolent, she was about thirteen years old. And she was shouting let me go!I want to go there! And then I held her hand and I said I won t let you go unless you tell me why you want to killyourself. She wouldnt tell me at firstbut when we prayed by the power of the Holy spirit even the demons have to opentheir mouths and speak. And finally I got the whole story from her. She was studying in the eighth standard,eighth standard, in high school and two years ago she had failed in theexamination. And she had to repeat the class. Last year, she had failed herexams again and she repeated the class again. And this year, she had done herexams so badly that she was sure she would fail the third time. But this is thefirst thing I want to tell you, this is how the hearts of young people arehurt, one of the greatest hurts of young people is their badness in theirstudies. They may try to do very well. They really want to study well but maybetheir intellect may not be so bright and parents will tell them they are lazy.Parents will compare them to other children. And after studying very well ifthey fail, they experience a tremendous hurt within. They are ashamed ofeverything. Everybody is condemning them. So this is what the girl felt, thattremendous hurt and shame, but to make matters worse, her elder brother who waslike a father figure to her, had told her if you fail the third time I dontwant to look at your face. You know, such remarks from people whom we love andwho we think loves us, can be very painful. And this is what he said if youfail the third time I dont want to look at your face again. And more than that, he said you can go onand kill yourself. You can die. And this is what we call a curse. Now parentsoften curse their children without thinking and they think it is only a joke,that they said it only out of anger, but every word has the power to do things.Therefore Saint Paul says never use words that break down a person. Always usewords that build up a person. So this was a great hurt, she was already hurtabout her failure at school, the deep feeling of inferiority and now she feltextreme rejection. Her brother said I dont want to look at you again. Go andkill yourself. Now, what to do? How tobring her the healing of Jesus? Is not easy to speak to children becauseobviously they cannot understand things we say. But under the power of the Holyspirit, the words would come out, so this is what I told her, I said I amspeaking not