Fifth Sunday of Ordinary Time

 

How are you?  How was your week?

 

Today we celebrate Korean Lunar New Year.  “May the Lord bless you and keep you.”  (Numbers 6)  Happy New Year and wish all of you happiness and peace.  Let us greet our neighbors sitting next to us by saying: “Happy New year.”  

 

We reminisce during the New Year about our hometown.   Anyone from Seoul?  How about Kangwon Do?  Choongchung Do?  Kyungsan Do?  Jula Do?  Jeju?  U.S.A.?  Hometown is a place of our birth as well as a home where we spent our youth.  Let us think back on our youth for a moment.  

 

“My home is a small town full of peach and plum blossom flowers as well as Azalea.  It was full of many beautiful flowers and I miss playing in the field.  Flower town and new town; my hometown.  When the southern wind blows the willow trees dance; I miss my hometown.”  (from a song “Hometown Spring.”)

 

As time passes, so do the memories of your youth.  Today, let us reminisce our past as much as you want.

 

We also remember our ancestors and those who have past.  We consider and thank our ancestors for supporting us.  We ponder our family members who have gone before us and express our love for them: “thank them for having lived with us; shared the moments together; especially today.”  We recollect the times we shared together in order to memorialize them.  Through this mass we pray for God’s mercy and eternal rest for them.  

 

On the New Year, we share with our family members who are with us.  We express love to those who eat, sleep, and share with us.  We also comfort and support each other during difficult times: thank them for their perseverance; thank them for being together; thank them for overcoming lack of work.”  Today is a day to love one another.  It is also a day to express our love and happiness with families who are far away.  

 

It is the first day of the Lunar New Year.  May God bless you and have a prosperous new year.  

 

Let us meditate.