Service a self gift

An essential aspect of love is self-gift. God's nature is love, and God's self-gift to us is Jesus. Jesus too offered himself for us. We offer service as a self-gift and rooted in love. Service primarily look for the good of the other. In offering the self-gift for the sake of the good of the other, we ourselves are transformed. For every act of service adds certain virtue to us and that adds beauty to our person. There the beauty of God shines. The mode of service as an offering and as a gift is very much in align with our nature. Service adds humility, discipline, goodwill, purposefulness, and thus our nature is touched deeply as we engage in service whole heartedly.

Prayer of our hearts

We may have many concerns on prayer; which prayer to pray, how to pray, which prayer for what purpose and so on. It seems complicated, but at its heart, prayer is a free, open conversation with God. We know that there need to be trust, freedom, and a good heart if a good conversation is to happen. When Jesus taught us how to pray, he has asked us to call God, ‘Our Father.’ That is the heart of prayer. Because, prayer, even before being formed into a conversation, is a trusting relationship. It is the confidence of the children of God with which they open up their minds and hearts.

We live in different situations of life, and the experiences that come from these situations do form the nature and content of our prayer. Our work places, works, tables, shops, classrooms, bedroom, kitchen, roads we travel - all of them have to come in our prayers; our worries, our burdens, distractions, temptations and even our secret sins, and our hopes - they are all in our hearts and are open before God and are seen by God. The key is that we bring them to God only if we have found a deep trust in Him. When our prayers are rooted in that trust, they become a meaningful act of reliance. But without that trust, our prayers get distorted.

True prayer is not about using God for our benefit; not a like customer making a demand on the number of prayers invested. Prayer is not a magic spell that changes things as we desire. Prayer is also not a success mantra where we can get immediate success and victories. The situations we mentioned before are brought to God, not because God may have a magical walk and everything will be alright for us, but is a sign of our freedom and hope in God. Prayer seeks goodness for all, life for all; the desire for our good is not granted by the destruction of any others, even of so called evil-doers. God desires the good of all.

Often many of us struggle with a reality that God has not answered our prayers. Sometime, we might have even prayed for many years and have not seen any answer. Is there something wrong with our prayers or our lives? We may have got many answers from many people – faith was not enough, may be there are some sin bondages, perhaps there needs more purifications, God’s time has not come etc. These explanations present the effect of prayer as a scientific definition or mathematical equation where something is wrong or not fitting well. These explanations have made us feel ashamed, guilty, or fearful or more worried or anxious. Jesus would never do that. He did not equate prayer like that. His prayer, and his teaching on prayer encouraged us to ‘pray unceasingly,’ deepening our trust still talking to God with the confidence that God is good.

Very often we hear about the ‘power’ of prayer and about powerful prayers. These expressions have not touched the heart of prayer. Prayer is not a formula for a perfect, easy life. Prayer does not guarantee for a tension-free, victorious life where everything goes smoothly and we never struggle. Prayer doesn't remove these struggles. Prayer is the total openness of ourselves and our life with all that it contains. We present them before the abundance of life. It’s in those moments of vulnerability and trust that we find strength, peace, and the courage to face whatever comes our way.

Though being in the arms of the father, the child of God continues to hunger and asks for daily bread. We do fail and are in need to be forgiven. We still have to find the grace to forgive others. We still struggle with temptations and go through hardships. And yes, we still suffer because of the evil and pain that bitterness of humanity has created in the world.

Prayer is a conversation with God, Prayer is a trusting relationship with God, Prayer is the total openness of ourselves, and prayer is an active responsibility of the children of God. Like our expectations that God listens to our prayers, it is our Christian duty to compassionately listen with our hearts to the cry of the world. There, the unanswered prayers could be heard or supported, or consoled if the children of God absorb the nature of God and actively respond. Then, the prayer and worship become a living relationship after the heart of God.

Service: A Contemplative Act of Listening

Jesus, there is no doubt, enjoyed hospitality. He often visited the house at Bethany, the home of Martha, Mary and Lazarus. These sisters tell about Lazarus to Jesus as, ‘the one you love.’ Martha seems to be outgoing, and Mary is calm and confined to her house. Jesus loved them. As one who had ‘nowhere to lay his head’ (Matthew 8:20), Jesus relied on the hospitality of others for food, shelter, and rest. So, when Jesus said Mary has chosen “the better part” needs to be taken in the context of the lesson on discipleship.

The visit to Martha and Mary is placed within the section on “journey to Jerusalem,” and very often during this journey we hear about the importance of listening and obeying the Word of God (Luke 8:21, 11:28). Mary sitting at the feet of Jesus is a posture signifying attentive listening to the teacher.

During the time of Jesus, the disciples would sit at the feet of their Rabbi to learn, memorize, and model themselves after their master’s interpretation of the Torah. However, these Rabbinic schools were usually only for men. Women were expected to stay in the home and focus on domestic tasks, according to the strict social rules of the day. Direct, in-depth, and itinerant discipleship with a rabbi was not considered an appropriate role for them.

In Luke, it is very significant that there were women accompanying, following, and ministering to him, and many of these women are personally named, granting them individual identities and acknowledging their unique, active contributions in a context women’s existence or contribution was frequently unacknowledged, and their status largely defined by the male head of the household.

Sitting at the Lord’s feet, there is not an affectionate attachment or a filial devotion. It is a gesture of active listening to a master. This radical act signifying her desire for direct instruction also justifies women’s active engagement and spiritual leadership within the early Christian movement. The “better part” Mary chose is available to anyone who decides to make it a priority.

Now, let’s look at Martha. Hospitality was highly valued in ancient Mediterranean culture. We see Abraham serving three unknown men at his home, not knowing who they were. The Jewish law also called for the ethical responsibility of welcoming and serving others, even strangers. Early Christian communities were characterized by strong communal bonds, shared meals, and mutual care and service. Some may have become overly preoccupied or even burdened by the tasks of caring for the poor, widows, and orphans, even being deprived of the sharing of the word and breaking of the bread.

Jesus’ affirmation of Mary’s choice is not a condemnation of service. It is a call for focusing on the primary relationship with Christ and his teaching. If service became merely a task-oriented activity without spiritual grounding, it risked becoming fruitless or leading to burnout. Even good and necessary activities can be sources of anxiety and distraction. It can be true of any form of ministry including preaching, teaching, healing, and service. Mary’s choice teaches us that being with the Lord is the source from which all our service should flow.

Listening to the Lord, the ‘better part’ Mary chose, is essential for authentic service i.e. Martha's task. Being ‘at the feet’ of Jesus should never be seen as a passive piety that avoids action. That is not what Jesus lived and taught. For Jesus, producing good fruits was the real sign of choosing the better part. Even according to the Old Testament teachings, keeping of the law was not merely a set of ritualistic observances; a covenant living was meant to live justice, compassion, and care for the vulnerable. Jesus related the meaning of true discipleship to concrete actions of love towards one’s neighbour. Any spiritual approach that focuses only on comfortable devotion without emphasizing the importance of “producing fruits” or “keeping the Word” risks becoming self-centered and disconnected from the real world.

Some spiritual teachings view the ‘one thing necessary’ is to do only ‘spiritual’ things. These passive, pious attitudes that show no interest in action or service, or that condemning them all as worldly or social is a common spiritual pathology. This hyper-spiritualized faith detaches itself from the concrete realities of human suffering and injustice. They are like soil without enough depth for roots. True spirituality, therefore, cannot be disembodied or separate from the physical and social dimensions of life. Listening to the Word of God and keeping it is about discerning and participating in the active work for justice, peace, and consolation for human conditions.

If we reflect on Jesus’ statement that “I feel compassion for them, they may fall on the way,” is an example of compassionate listening where service becomes eucharistic and revelatory. Direct engagement with the lived realities of others, especially those who are among the least and neglected, cannot be simply an application of a pre-understood divine word, but an encounter that shapes and deepens our understanding of the Word. When we actually serve, we are confronted with the ‘scripure’ of human suffering, joy, injustice, and resilience. This lived ‘text’ merges with the written Scripture, and become new episodes that God speaks to us. In this sense, service is not just an act of charity, but an act of deep listening to the voices that often go unheard in dominant theological or moral discourses. Service, in this context, is the environment in which our understanding of God, justice, and salvation is shaped. True service often requires vulnerability, where we are open to the unexpected, that new revelations about God, humanity, and ourselves occur. This radical openness is a form of deep listening, allowing the ‘other’ (whether a person, a community, or a situation) to speak to us in ways that passive listening might not.

📺Service: A Contemplative Act of Listening

Neighbours and outsiders

 If the story of the Good Samaritan had to be retold to suit a pleasant hearing from the scribes and pharisees, the high priest would have been the one who would extend help. He must be in the temple court, not on the wayside; there is a plea for help; and the High Priest, not a despised Samaritan, extending aid. The very concept of ‘chosen people,’ had become a secure and comfortable fortress against the universality of God’s love. The freedom of the covenant, meant to liberate and expand, instead contracted into a rigid exclusivity.

“Whoever is in need is a neighbour” is not a new definition, it is about docility of heart, and an attitude. Of course, the Scribes and the Pharisees were wrong, for their heartlessness and hypocrisy. Our "likes and dislikes" become the foundational stones of new walls against a quality Christian living, often disguised as ‘wisdom or prudence’ or a ‘true Christian life.’ These convenient boundaries, defined by religion, customs, beliefs, socio-economic status, political affiliation, or even lifestyle choices, become formidable fortresses around our hearts. This is precisely where the ‘exploitative and manipulative systems’ take root. We reinterpret our comfortable ‘right and wrong,’ ‘we’ define the ‘we’ and ‘they’ and make Christian life conventional and conditional.  We create fertile ground for injustice and breed vipers and scorpions.

Like the definition of the neighbour in the light of the Gospel, it is significant to ask, “Who is an outsider” according to these structures we create, and how are they formulated? By Religion outsiders are those who don’t believe what we believe, and those who don’t share our theological framework. By customs and culture the outsiders are those who don’t live like us, speak like us, or share our values. They have come from some other place, they cannot join us and we cannot go with them.

By Beliefs and Ideologies, if we see, the outsiders are those who hold different political views. It can be politicised form of religion or moral values. They are to be seen as ‘enemies,’ and any kindness extended to them is a betrayal of our ‘truth.’ By economic status the outsiders are those who are poor, and being with them is below our status because we are of a higher rank.

How are these outsiders? Often, we chose to be in echo Chambers where we are surrounded ourselves with those who think like us, mostly with identity providers with noble faces of language, traditions, culture, value and so on. Selective Reading of certain portion of the scripture is perhaps the most deceptive one in labelling the outsiders and justifying their exclusion. The emphasis shifts from love justice, hospitality to closedness, from compassionate service to doctrinal purity. These are cultivated attributing Purity and elitism to our group, demonizing ‘the other’ and glorifying ‘us.’ under these closed chambers our hearts shrinks.

Living a covenant with God, living the gospel is to actively dismantle these fortresses, brick by brick, by seeing the image of God in every human being, regardless of the labels we or society has placed upon them. The very act of categorizing someone as an ‘outsider’ immediately lessens their humanity in our eyes, making it easier to justify their marginalization, their suffering, or even their humiliation and exploitation.

The story of the Good Samaritan asks us not just to know who our neighbour is, but to be a neighbour, particularly to those we are most conditioned to ignore, dismiss, or even despise. It is a call to a radical, unconditioned love that dares to transcend every boundary and shatter every convenient narrative we construct to protect ourselves from the beautiful freedom of genuine compassion.

The Risk of the Gospel

The lessons on the discipleship had a sight of beautiful outcome of the preaching of the Gospel. Each of them also had something to tell about the quality of discipleship. But the Gospel also speaks that it will face with challenges and hostility. It is inevitable not because of a strange God, but because the Gospel sets all children of God free. All being righteous in the freedom of God is not a good news for many.

Though we are disciples, we do categorise people according to language, ethnicity, gender etc. We don't find anything strange in terming natives and outsiders, cursed and privileged, high cast and low cast, because Gospel has never been a story to be lived. Instead, Christianity was a title to be taken pride in. So, the Gospel becomes really an offence.

It is important to depart from the pompous Christianity and find the heart of the gospel in the cave of our heart like Benedict found in Subiaco. Entering into the cave is to find the freedom to take up the risk of the Gospel to face the objections. The altar the Gospel prescribes is the joy of the nearness of the kingdom among all peoples, rich and poor, natives and outsiders, cursed and the privileged.

Pilgrimage

Being a jubilee year many have planned to make pilgrimages to different places. As pilgrimage is a journey, it is a journey relating our life to the Gospel. We pray that the promises of the Gospel may be realised in our life and in the world. It is an honest desire, a responsible commitment. In this effort, we join with the saints who have gone before us, and our brothers and sisters who walk their lives through bitter valleys. Our difficulties in adapting a gospel-way are also brought into the steps of a pilgrim journey. There is also a willingness to build a civilisation of love, and for a radical conversion in our life. It also calls for working against the structures of evil. these elements are behind the usual instruction of confession and receiving communion. These confessions and receiving communion are not as a conditional obligation, but as sign of our readiness for what is said here. merely completing a pilgrimage cannot secure salvation, free of sins, or guarantee specific blessings. Even praying for the intentions of the Holy Father adds to our journey the concerns facing humanity and the mission of the Church.

A pilgrimage and spiritual tour are different. The second does not involve the essentials that we have seen here. There are many who plan for trips to far holy places, shrines. just making a trip, and paying a visit and offering those particular offerings of the shrine do not make a pilgrimage. Though there may be an intention of conversion of heart, the element of justice would be missing. With a pure intention and devotion a visit to a nearby place declared by our own local authorities is worth a pilgrimage. if our cojourneying with Christ and the suffering humanity is really seen in our pilgrimages, it would not remain a blind individual pious practice. it would surely realise the promise of the gospel i action through our reaching out to the needy.