Dear Friends in Jesus,

Let me share this story with you. Once Buddha was threatened with death by a bandit called Anguliaral. "Be good enough to fulfill my dying wish," said Buddha. "Cut off the branch of that tree." One flash of the sword, and it was done! "What now?" asked the bandit. "Put it back again," said Buddha. The bandit laughed. "You must be crazy to think that anyone could do that." Buddha replied saying, "It is you who are crazy to think that you are mighty because you can wound and destroy. That is the task of weak people. The mighty know how to heal and build."

In the world today, there seem to be a lot of weak people who go round pulling down bridges that keep people together. They are about dividing people and keeping them apart. They provoke and indulge in conflicts and wars. When will our society realize that the real test of power is not capacity to make war, but to make peace?

The readings of this Sunday urge us to become bridge-builders between people. One of the tasks which faced the prophets in the aftermath of the fall of Jerusalem was to rebuild a shattered society. So God spoke through Jeremiah: "You have scattered my sheep and driven them away, but I myself will gather them again." (Jer 23:2) St. Paul also was concerned with building a new society in which both Jews and Gentiles would find peace through the blood of Christ. (Eph 2:13). When the heart of Jesus went out to the crowd who were "like sheep without a shepherd" (Mk 6:34) he was bridging the gap of alienation between poor peasants of Galilee and the religious leaders who never cared for them.

More than two thousand years have rolled by, since Christ went round building bridges. But still our society remains divided and hostile. One's inhumanity to another makes countless thousands mourn. Pope John Paul II chose "Build Bridges" as his theme for one of his Masses in the Philippines. At the end of the Mass, the Pope made this commitment on behalf of everyone present: "We commit ourselves," said he, "to build bridges between all people, between the young and the old, between children and their families, between the rich and the poor, people of different races, different nations, and between all religions and Churches."

Any multiplication is vexation and division is as bad. Therefore it is the duty of all of us who enjoy the peace of Christ to commit ourselves to build bridges between divided people. "Divided we fall and United we Stand." God bless us that we may all stand for our Parish and for our world.

Sincerely yours in Christ,
Father Lawrence