Saved From Falling Off the Bridge

"Am I not free to do as I wish with my own money?" 

The Guest Priest’s homily the other day at Holy Trinity was relaxingly beautiful which is encouraging to re-echo to also make your mood lighter and calming.  The clergy says:

One day, there was a guy who confessed his sin, “Father, forgive me for I have sinned against God and against men because of adultery.” 

On the following day another guy came in and also made a confession, “Father, forgive me for I have sinned against God and against men because of adultery.”

Subsequently, the next day, the day after, the day after another, the priest would hear the same confessed sin which annoyed his ears in the process. To address it, he announced to the public during his homily that whoever desires to make a confession out of sin on adultery should simply say that, “I fell in the bridge.”

Confession box has been plagued with “I fell in the bridge” admission which almost exhausted the Priest’s soul and drained his strength because of this stereo-type sin that has been beleaguered the society. 

At the end of his term as a Parish Priest, the Clergy bid farewell to his parishioners when he made his last homily. 

Unfortunately, the one who took his position was not informed about this confession style, so that he has been wondering of this frequent declaration of, “I fell in the bridge” which storms  him almost every day when he is soaked in the confession box.

Consequently, on the day that he gave confession, the City Mayor also went and confessed, “Father forgive me for I have sinned because I fell in the bridge.”  Out of irritation, the Priest stood and flipfed the curtain of the Confession Box and in a high pitch he said, “What seems to be the problem of this bridge that it can be repaired! Every day I would hear the same confession!  Yesterday your wife was here also confessing that she fell in the bridge!”

Likewise, the priest shared about the feast of the Virgin Mary of Nazareth celebrated in their Parish last September 19. He resounded that the message of Our lady of Nazareth is anchored on the call for everybody to return to Her Son, Jesus.

Just a few notes about the Our Lady of Nazareth which is also another story of a falling incident. The journals of the old Portugal accounts that on the early morning of September 14, 1182, on the day of the, exaltation of the Holy Cross the knight and vassal of King Alfonso Henriques in the name of Dom Fuas Roupinho was out hunting on a foggy day. He was pursuing a deer when it came to an unexpected cliff and fell to its demise into the sea below.

The horse which was in close pursuit reared on the very edge of the cliff, and it seemed certain that Dom Fuas would follow the deer to his end. Being aware that he was defenseless and that a little distance to his left was a cave with the statue of the Virgin of Nazareth, Dom Fuas immediately called upon her protection, “Our Lady, help me!” Lo and behold, he was saved, and in countless gratitude he built a small “chapel of memory” (Ermida da Memória) over the cave in Her honor. 

After Our Lady miraculously saved the life of Dom Fuas, the devotion to Our Lady of Nazareth spread broadly through the country and was the source of countless graces for the people. In 1377 King Fernando ordered a Church to be built near the little chapel, and the statue is venerated there now. 

The statue of Our Lady of Nazareth came from the Holy Land where it was one of the oldest images ever venerated by Christians. It was saved from devastation at the hands of the iconoclasts sometime early in the 5th century by a monk named  Ciriaco, who gave the statue to Saint Jerome. Saint Jerome

later gave it to Saint Augustine in Africa, to protect the statue by removing it from the Holy Land.  Saint Augustine then gave it into the safekeeping of the monastery of Cauliniana, near Merida, a monastery on the Iberian Peninsula. 

Further, with emphasis, the Priest pointed out the significance of gratitude towards God for the immeasurable graces that everybody receives each day through inexorable love, giving everyone the innumerable chances to repair misgivings.

He said, how many of us who after an eight-hour comfortable sleep would say “Thank You Jesus” for this new life before rising from the bed?

Based on experience, at some point he could come across with people engaged in a specific church’s organization who instead of helping the Priest are making petitions to remove the Priest.  He encouraged the congregation to be supportive than be the cause for the Priests to leave their post.

Before he ended his homily, he stressed out to get rid of the attitude that causes division and relationship barrier between the priest and the community but rather be “true advocate” who maximize its dependability to keep ministerial functions always on the go to constantly be significant in developing the “church.”

In his homily, he underscores God’s generosity of giving each one more than enough time to connect our lives to Him, that no one can be late to anyone with a heart that humbly turns to His holy will, as the Scripture says:

Matthew 20:1-16 So when the first came, they thought that they would receive more, but each of them also got the usual wage.  And on receiving it they grumbled against the landowner, saying, 'These last ones worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us, who bore the day's burden and the heat.' He said to one of them in reply, 'My friend, I am not cheating you. Did you not agree with me for the usual daily wage? Take what is yours and go. What if I wish to give this last one the same as you? (Or) am I not free to do as I wish with my own money? Are you envious because I am generous?'  Thus, the last will be first, and the first will be last."