St. Philip Catholic Church: Alondra, can you translate for me? I prepared my homily but I was motivated that I just want to say in English so that I can be very passionate. ⁓ So today the Church celebrates Laetare Sunday, which means rejoice in Latin. you look at the Lenten season, this is the middle of Lenten and also doing our Lenten season, penitent season. But the reason that we we celebrate to be rejoice is that because Easter is coming and we are about to enter into Easter season, the most important celebration in our liturgical season in this mean, let us be rejoicing because we are almost there. And another reason that we should be rejoicing is because Jesus come to save us. Sometimes we always forget that, always remember we are made for heaven and Jesus made heaven possible for us and we always forget that. Sometimes we can doubt ourselves that, can I actually go to heaven? Am I worthy to be in heaven? I am in a sin, I am a sinner. don't think heaven is possible and we may think it that way. If you feel it that way don't worry Jesus come not for the righteous but exactly for the sinners. If you look, if you remember the gospel reading last week, Jesus go to the woman at the well who also was a sinner and Jesus offered to give you the living water. She was a sinner, Jesus met her where she was at. Today in our gospel also there was a man born blind. If you look at, if you understand in the Israelite, in the history of Israel and Israelite at that time, the Jews They think that if you're born blind, they think that it is rather your sins or because of the sins of your parents. Can you imagine that the man born blind in his entire life ⁓ People are treating him constantly all his life, you are a And he was cast out. And nobody cared about him. So he just had to sit at the corner and just beg for his life, all his life. But there was one person who didn't forget Him. Jesus walked by and Jesus saw Him and Jesus knew Him. And so at that time the Apostles, like regular, they think that, oh Jesus, yes a man born blind. Is this his sin or because of his parents' So the apostle might have expected or what Jesus might say, yes, is this his sin or it is the sins of his parents? Many times we are like the apostles. We like to say, oh, you are a sinner, you make a mistake, you are not good enough. And like that, sometimes even in a Christian life, we can be that way in our life. But Jesus said, no, it is not his sin, it is not his parents' sin that he was born blind, but it is rather that the work of God may be made visible. So in the life, in that time, nobody heard of that someone who was born blind was able to see. It never happened in the history of the Jews and in the history of Israelite. And it is correct so because only God can do that. If you look at the in the gospel Jesus take the mud and this and then put it into the saliva and mix it and put it in the eye meaning that God is recreating at that moment. Therefore, this born man blind, the man are like born blind, the blind man born, that when Jesus is doing that, Jesus is giving a new eyesight, a new life, a new creation. So, it is the new creation, a new form, a new life. Brothers and sisters, that man born blind, it is us. ⁓ Because many times we are blinded by greed, money, popularity, power, and many things blind us in our life. Because of our blindness, you see in the family, in the relatives, in the community, people fought, people fight, people divide because of blindness. Because we do not see like Jesus sees and we only see the way we want to see. Above all things, is sin that blinds us. Therefore, we need to go to Jesus and say, Lord, cure my blindness. So that I may see the way you want me to see. And that's why it is to be rejoice for us. Yes, we may be a sinner. may not be here where we want to be, but we always come to Church every Sunday. We can again and again. Jesus can heal us ⁓ again and and we can... God can always recreate us anew and we can always start a new life each and every Sunday. That's why, brothers and sisters, not because we are perfect, because yes, we are not perfect, we are sinners, but we have a God who can save us. who can recreate us anew and who can heal our woundedness and our sin and therefore we must be rejoice. But to do that we must recognize that we are blind, that we are sinners. God may want to heal us, but if we do not recognize that we need to be healed and we need a wound that needs to be healed and there is something that God can do in us, if we do not recognize that God cannot do it in our life. ⁓ The last thing is after the man born blind after he got healed after he saw Jesus You know what he did? He worshiped Jesus therefore Let us come to this Eucharistic celebration ask Jesus Lord heal and cure my blindness and May I worship you Viene y alaba Dios. Así nosotros tenemos que venir a esta celebración eucarística y pedirle sanación y que nos cure, pero también venir y alabarlo.