If freedom is to be real ...

If freedom is to be real, primarily we need to cultivate a cultural conscience that uphold the values that bring about freedom. If the members of the society are to commit themselves to fulfill their duties and responsibilities, it is essential that there is an environment that is free of any form of domination.

The power to make all to bend their knees and freedom of living with equality and justice cannot go together. Even now the incidents of 'distancing of the untouchables' and cleansing ceremonies after the 'low' people's presence do not speak of a free society that has a potential for growth. The preference of political intentions over the real matters that hinders the growth towards an integral development of the society as a whole cannot be seen as a real love for our land.

The concern over GenZ demands on various matters was the recent phenomenon the country witnessed. Their struggle, their needs, and approaches are not of the same kind; yet they all deserve attention and call for the dimension of true freedom. Perspectival conflicts mostly create a gap because the 'Baby Boomers' and the 'millennials' are applying their theories and values to the real life struggles the GenZ bring to the focus. It may be noticed that the responses were often political responses and criticisms rather than clearly studying or clarifying the matters raised. The required clarity includes policies, scientific explanations, failed tactics and reasons, newer possibilities and their potentials and challenges etc. The falling economies, destabilization of government systems and institutions, alarming climate emergencies will have their impacts globally and locally in various degrees. By dwelling on petty political interests parties are already failing a future that should be truly free.

What should freedom ensure today? We have wasted our time and energy in demonizing and cleansing of the past. We need to construct willfully a culture that can sustain us together, not the ways to solidify power. Such political orientation is a failed system if we look at the needs of the approaching time locally and globally. Should the freedom we uphold not keep alert on issues of clean water, air and safe food? Should all our children not have opportunity to study and rise to their potential? Does our freedom not include surety of trains running on time and not missing a connecting train? All these require cultivating a conscience, not just personal, but cultural and social.

Assumption

Mary was assumed into God's glory. We too may be, by God's mercy, assumed into the same glory. Every moment of grace transforms us into the image of Christ. It also shines with the beauty of its 'blessed fruit. '

Forgive! Why should I?

Though we may be ready to do any religious activities and we may be successful in doing them, it is hard for us to follow the call of Jesus to forgive. We might ask, “why this is done to me,” and we may be right in asking that because we bear real scars from the injustices and evils done to us. At times it might seem that God too has not been gracious to us that we could think of it and do likewise.

Forgiveness is a grace, because only grace can heal the pain we bear. Our anger may be right and justifiable, but it destroys us because it may become an obstacle to receive grace. It may breed hidden hatred and malign our interior nature. We might turn bitter and hard, and increases our pain.

Evil remains evil. It must be named, rejected, and condemned without compromise. But that individual or group is in need of our forgiveness. The pleading ‘give me time, I will repay you’ may not be there at all. Perhaps it is for us the need of time to forgive, but intention to forgive is a matter of now.

Forgiveness is an effort with grace. Let us make an effort to separate from what we are heavy with choosing not to seek revenge or cultivate the grievance. We surrender our demand for vengeance to God, allowing His grace to dissolve the emotional bitterness over time while preserving our own peace.

Who has to forgive? Nations, peoples, races … have to forgive. We know that injustices scale up into historical, structural, and collective memory. Just as in individual persons, unforgiven historical injuries like slavery, colonial exploitation, ethnic conflict, and displacement are passed down across generations as cultural trauma and inherited resentment. When we do not intend to forgive, past injuries become the foundation of our present identity. How sad is it that even nations prompt people to find their identities on the past injuries. This keeps whole societies frozen in defensive hostility. Always the one to be forgiven is not a needy but someone who possesses power and still continues to oppress. Here forgiveness means refusing to let past oppression dictate future relationships, allowing a people to define themselves by their dignity rather than their victimhood. When an oppressor holds power, the victim feels completely disempowered. Is forgiveness possible? We have a wounded saviour. His wounds were clear effect of injustice and violence. But through the same wounds grace and mercy flowed out. He transformed the marks of suffering into channels of divine life.

Dear friends, for today’s world, forgiveness is a great prophetic sign. If we have forgiven, we are telling the world that forgiveness is still possible. It is not compromise, nor allowing our victimhood. Forgiveness does not excuse evil or negate justice. By forgiving, we may experience an internal liberation from the pain we carry. Freed so, we reclaim our life. It is a resemblance of god’s mercy. As Ezekiel carried the bundle as a sign of the burden of exile. Every need for forgiveness carries such a bundle of a pain that is to be freed. When we forgive, the weight drops, and the burden of carrying past injustice is replaced by divine freedom.

Spoken in the name of the Lord

Among the guests of Herod, perhaps there was so much laughter and celebration, noise and cheer. On other side, the last groaning still may have had the voice crying out in the wilderness.

Jesus began his public ministry when he heard that John was arrested. After the death of John, Jesus began to point to his own cross. John was put to death, Jesus withdrew to a lonely place, he is moved with compassion to the people who followed him, and he feeds them. John’s martyrdom wasn’t just a tragic event; it was the prophetic preview of the Calvary path. The first reading takes up the radical call “he has spoken in the name of the Lord.”

Jeremiah states: “As for me, I am in your hands; do with me what you think is good and right.” it is total self-surrender rooted in absolute trust. By placing his life into the hands of a hostile court, Jeremiah strips his persecutors of their ultimate power over him. When a prophet surrenders completely to God, human threats lose their power. The primary implication for us is clear: to stand for the Lord, one must first die to self-preservation. Truth cannot be spoken faithfully if we are still negotiating for our own comfort, safety, or approval. In the case of John, it would have been far safer for him to remain silent on political morality. The correctness seems to belong to the powerful, but speaking ‘right’ means proclaiming truth even when it threatens comfort or survival.

To ensure we do right, we need to form our conscience rooted in God, truly on God. To speak or act in the name of the Lord is not simply invoking a pious formula or claiming God's endorsement for our own opinions. It is not a radical activism. Jeremiah doesn't claim personal authority. He listened to God, he was sure that: “The Lord sent me to prophesy against this house and this city all the words you have heard.”False prophets may be powerful and popular, they may work miracles, but many may satisfy the religious, ideological, political crave of people. Only when the content and the spirit of the message align with divine justice, mercy, and truth, we actually speak in God’s name. True prophets speak what God commands, fully aware that the message might bring rejection, persecution, or death.

What about our prophetic living? We might mistake extreme asceticism, fanaticism, or separatist isolation for a true prophetic dimension, but these tendencies often center on the self rather than on God. When holiness is reduced to severe physical discipline or angry ideological zeal, religious pride quickly overshadows love, mercy, and God’s patient truth. True prophecy is never about retreating from the world to keep our lives pure. Rather than hiding behind walls of moral superiority, a prophet is called to step into the brokenness of humanity as an instrument of divine healing, light, and justice. If we dare to speak in the name of the Lord, we must know that truth has a cost. Speaking and doing right in the name of God will inevitably clash with systems built on self-interest, compromise, or pride.

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catholicity

 Catholicity may be better experienced when Christians are able to see the church beyond its 'visible boundaries.'