Messiah is found

“Here is the lamb of God,” John said, and some followed Jesus

Andrew came to Peter and said, “we have found the Messiah.” Everyone is searching for the anointed to console the burden of lifelessness.

Have we found the Messiah? Can we recognise how the messiah is revealed in the life of others? Can we point it out to them?

Rom 10: 19-18; Mt 4: 18-22

Where God is not permitted to enter

God was expected to be there where people was not permitted to enter, in the holy of holies. But he was born among us. We seek the sacred, the sacred that fits into our ways of defining it.

There was a man very adamant and even arrogant about ways of worship. He believed that the messiah will be born in the hoy of holies which is hidden by a curtain. Alas, women were not allowed to enter there, yet he thought it will happen if at all it has to happen (was it called faith? I do not know).

He heard that the magi came to see the messiah and they went to Bethlehem. There they saw the child born of a family from Nazareth from where no good could come. God was always there where God was not permitted to enter (was it disobedience from the part of God? I do not know).

By the way he decided to go to Bethlehem. He went in procession with incense in front. As he reached the place, he saw a baby smiling in a manger. What rubbish! It is not the Messiah. He complained to the high-priest. It is blasphemy, we must kill the child. People who did not know the Scripture and the law opposed the attempt to kill the child. “They are enemies of God,’ said the high priest. “They are not psychologically mature to obey what we are saying.”

Somehow the child grew. They hated him, they were very arrogant on those who were with him. They spread utter lies about him, distorted his sayings. High priest was silent on the psychology behind, rather he defended them. “He is unable to think beyond Nazareth the region of the gentiles," they said. They were holy, religious, and righteous, and so they decided to kill him. He did it, fully in religious obedience.

Then they came to incense him, very religiously.

God our righteousness

What is the newness that we long for? Newness is that we become more alive, enjoying a freshness of life, it is not that we may become fully new or perfect. The season of advent fills us with the hope towards this newness of our life, “the Lord will surely come.”

Perhaps it is chaos, uncertainties, fear, pandemic, and lifelessness that fill our life. The Scripture gathers all tensions together and makes a single message, “the Lord is our integrity/righteousness.” These are the words we are going to hear repeatedly in the coming days – righteousness, peace, integrity, holiness. Life’s joys, hopes, pains, disasters are all brought together into a newness, into the touch of God. God weaves all together, gathers us together. After the longer nights, once again days will begin to grow (after the winter solstice). So these are the days we wait though still in dark.

Advent gives us the courage to look forward, keep our heads raised high. The newness is already there within us as ever flowing fountains. They are to be brought forth. We shall see the fresh revelation of Christ in us, fresh touches of new life and strength. The Lord has come.

Jeremiah 33:14-16 Luke 21:25-28,34-36 

human limitation

Our normal tendency is to keep things as it is, our traditions, our preferred explanations, beliefs… But we are unable to let changes happen where we really need to accept changes. We want to destroy or transcend every human limitation, even death. We want to change of seasons and natural geo-structures. Dreaming a wonderland it is a trap that consumes and swallows ourselves. But such is the promise beastly powers make, and by the very promise they controls the world.

Our limitations remind us that we are not gods and eternal emperors. Within the limitations and death there are sacrifices and joy. We keep hostility to nature because of our limitations, and condemn it, but become friendly with that which is really worldly; arrogance and hatred, competition, and lies. Even to save God we have hated many.

One serious thing in life how we deceive ourselves is by distancing ourselves from others and natural surrounding. It is illusioning of our mind and escaping from the real living presence of God when we speak too much about a direct experience with God. We experience God's love, benevolence, providence, protection, embrace... through the people around and through the gifts if nature. They are often condemned to be worldly engagement. The worldliness is within ourselves which we dearly protect. They are falsely justified, unfortunately, often with religious interpretations. so our deception embrace a religious colour.

God is kept far away in the very name of God.

Prepare the way for the Lord.

Word alive

In Daniel’s vision, all beasts that came from the sea had great power. But ultimate sovereignty, glory and kingship were given to one like the son of man. Amidst  fear, suffering, crisis and death, the overall picture is that the Son of Man leads the wheels of time. The Ghostly shadows of events reveal their meaning if we can see them within the Word. His words do not pass away, they are alive.

We speak for a time, we look for advantage by manipulating the meaning of events, we look for escaping from our time by suitable interpretations. We forget that our words and choices have its impacts on generations to come. In fact, when we make ourselves indispensable we are making ourselves the center of history.  His words are alive, not because the words have some magical power, but because the words which are spoken are truth and life. The Word is life. Word is not a group of symbols in language printed in Bible that we can use for special powers and blessings. Bible presents word as an event. Whole history is a single event, the Christ event. Every event had a message from God, meaning of which is the Word. The Word causes an event that speaks to us even beyond time.

Word has everything in wholeness. To Him belongs all time and all the ages; all glory and dominion is his now and forever. He has the light that dispels darkness, and fills the world with life.

As He reveals

We have many literatures and visions about the end of the world. Unfortunately, many of them produce fear and agony rather than hope, and thus become empty of the message of Christ. Even when they speak of repentance, the motivation is a fear of disasters. We are led to believe that we are going to perish. Those interpreting crises as a hopeless end have their motives in their own misguided messages. These are the messages ‘in the name of Christ.’

We need to discern what the truth of the approaching disaster is, what significant factors are involved in the renewal we hope for? Does the renewal happen just with the ‘religious practices,’ and do they offer an image of fake ‘holy living’ and make us escape from the real commitment required for the living of a life of justice, peace and love?

Christ assures us of his constant presence even amidst trials and tribulations. Turning towards God is impelled by the assurance of God’s love, our hope in him, our courage to live in the presence of God in difficult times. Christ is revealed within every crisis moment. So many things we want to keep preserve must die, even Christ that we want to preserve must die. Be ready to welcome Christ as he reveals. So when the end is near, don’t suggest frames for Christ. If we can be joyous in the newness of God’s presence, we can already feel the freshness of advent.

catholic

Being an adjective 'catholic' (eg catholic dogma, catholic tradition, catholic teaching...) cannot be catholic, 'catholic' is an attitude (open to the whole).

Voice given to us

Speaking can have its brightness when truth is spoken. High may be the reward for not speaking the truth and engaging in praising the powerful. Then the words lose their voice and become gradually dumb. Only if the strength of God guides us we will be able to speak: “Mene: God has measured your sovereignty and put an end to it; Tekel: you have been weighed in the balance and found wanting…”

Another thing that can hinder our speech is lack of endurance. Our words may carry hasty conclusions rather than truth when we are moved by prejudices and pride. Then, when the eloquence and a wisdom are ‘given’ in time we may not be able to listen.

Communal, elitist traditionalist attitudes also remove truth form our hearts. Communalism, and conservatism speak for power and business, they only have the language of God and faith. They proclaim that their believes which are of past lives for ever, their views are alive but God is dead. The 'dividing curtain' between God and people will surely make dividing walls between the 'holy' and the 'ordinary' people, and among the holy, the elite and the common.

In all the above hindrances we can clearly see that ‘religiosity’ can still be there; more religious, but less and less godly, human, and natural. Just as our roots begin from being natural, our voice too begin from our roots. When we learn from the voices of nature and from other human in humility and sincerity, we both listen to the voice of God and prepare to be enveloped by the Word.

The Word became human, not a super-human; he had the voice of God, not of a Super-GOD.

Don't be deceived

The gospel today is a response to some people’s remark about the Temple, how it was adorned with fine stonework. Solomon’s temple had always occupied their mind as a great structure they had in the past. The second temple was not as glorious as the early one. Now, Herod makes a temple for them.

Let us keep in mind two things from the response of Jesus, “All these things … will be destroyed,” and “Take care not to be deceived, because many will come using my name and saying, “I am he” and, “The time is near at hand.”

What are we excited about? What are we really proud about? Our worship places? Our rituals and traditions? Our ways of understanding about God? Our social structures?, How much place is there for God in all these, though they are all in the name of God? If we cannot find in them the presence of God really alive, they will definitely collapse!

Unfortunately, we create super-GODs in our own liking and re-form our life according to the demands created by these self-made beloved GODs. They cannot give life, because they are empty of God.

Sacred traditions make us rooted in the original inspiration. They meaningfully place us in the present and carry us to the future. Traditions have an inspirational content which cannot be static but dynamic. There is a healthy blend between novelty and continuity in growth and transformation of traditions. However beautiful and perfect they are, any attempt to conserve them as a thing of the past within particular cultural frames will be like leaven preserved in a laboratory. Though in the name of God and faith they are in reality concerned about preservation of institutional structures and ideologies. They will be exclusive in nature and arrogant in approach. They cannot respect all people with their human dignity, but they define how one needs to be human, they define what is to be believed, they define how others have to conduct their lives.

It has happened and it can happen with us too that everything is centred on temple. Righteousness depended on how much you are fulfilling duties towards the temple. God himself was so condensed into the temple walls that outside the temple matters, everything was worldly. Priesthood was meant to be only a part of the cultic system of the temple. Jesus said that he is the temple. In him humanity sees God alive in our midst. He is the sacrifice and the offeror. Jesus also said that we are the temple in whom God dwells. Empty of God, empty of Christ we cannot be the temple. Keeping Christ aside, none of our definitions and social structures can hold the divine within them.

Jesus has taught us that God is loving Father, our basic religiosity is to be defined by a loving relationship with God. Many are around in his name. Don’t be deceived! Think for a moment what Jesus would say, how he would explain, how he would intervene. Then we shall live.

Kingship of Christ

Pilate, a Roman governor asking a man standing wounded and naked in humiliation, “are you the king of the jews?” was a paradox. It is clear in Jesus’ answer to Pilate that the kingdom is strange to Pilate. It is not a kingdom that orders slavish submission. Jesus’ power is to give life, and only one who can give life has true authority. Without him nothing exists. It is through him everything is created, he is the wisdom, in him all flesh (creation) shall see the salvation of our God.

Pope Pius XI instituted the solemnity of Christ the king in 1925 in the context of the growing nationalism and secularization around the world which would potentially disrupt peace. Christ has sovereignty over all creation, including human history. It is to keep in our heart that Christ leads and guides history. That is our confidence even when strange things happen. There are things we need to learn from history.

Christ guides the history by dwelling in our hearts, making in us hunger and thirst after justice, peace and love. It demands the path of self-denial and sacrifice. It may appear both as agreement and resistance, it may be found both within ourselves and outside of ourselves and our community. We need to be conscious that our focus is Christ, not ‘my ways and traditions.’ What we long for is truth, life, holiness, grace, justice, love and peace.

Christ reigns in our hearts by guiding the lowly and especially the young generation by truth. He gives strength to the disheartened, and vision for the young. As a shepherd Christ gathers us all. Only when we understand in Christ, the wisdom through whom everything is created, the self-emptying sacrifice through which he gave life to all, the truth that directs history and strengthens the weak, the shepherd gathering us all together, can we really understand what it means by the kingship of Christ. once we recognize it both in private and in public life, society will receive the great blessings of real liberty, well-ordered discipline, peace and harmony.

If the nationalist and secularist challenges were of ideological and political context, today we can see religious nationalism growing in an alarming way in the name of every religion. Unfortunately their claim is to be original and traditional form of religion and faith. Secular and consumerist patterns have entered religion very cunning way. Economics and corporate market decide the policies and vision for the future. Problems lie in ideologies politicised because of arrogance and pride. They do not sustain neither humanity nor creation.

Within religion, accepting the authority of Christ we need to realise what was religion and God that Christ introduced to us. If we cannot follow that, our religion and God are mere ideological frameworks. The sovereignty of Christ is not a war-cry. The reign of Christ is not when Christians are ruling the world. The kingship of Christ teaches us more of tenderness and gentleness. We are almost recovering from a pandemic. Climate change is going to make devastating effects in the future. In the midst of death and suffering the rule of Christ gives us hope and confidence to stand together in solidarity, fraternity, compassion, and peace. Christ reigns in our heart. To experience the kingdom, we need to act. Christ wants to be king here, not king ruling in the clouds.

Afterlife

We have different ways of narrating ‘afterlife.’ Many of our thinking about life after death is influenced by many popular imaginations, and by personal teaching of some channels and preachers. They may not be truly part of Christian faith. Jesus, in his teachings, was not giving us a detailed narrations about life after death. He taught us the truth about that. He showed us the reality of the resurrection which is granted by God the author of life. He did not teach us about ‘immortality of the soul’ which is a philosophical perspective explaining ‘our’ continuity of living.

With all their controlling power over the business of the temple, Sadducees were not a people who were alive. Pharisees, with their strict practices of law and rituals, also could not be alive. Scribes, having all knowledge of law and Scripture, also could not reach life. Jesus points to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob who looked up to God in innocence of heart, and calls them as living. All are alive in God. All our relationships find their meaning and completion in God. In fact, God is alive in our sincere and faithful relationships. It is there we find the divine communion in our human reality.

alive with God

God is not looking for temples to live in,
temple is where God dwells.
God dwells among us,
it is important that we be alive with God.

Jerusalem, Jerusalem!

Our organizations, movements, institutional bodies of the church ... have expectations to achieve their purpose in the way we want and within the time we want it. Sometimes they function as scattering agents.

Jesus came to gather all around him, and within his body. He said, "those who do not gather with me scatters." We nailed God to a throne, and attached ourselves to thrones that divide.

‘If you in your turn had only understood on this day the message of peace! But, alas, it is hidden from your eyes!

Lord, I want to see

A time of crisis in religion is also a time of commotions. Some tries to compromise, and some to revolt. All will have religious reasons because when there is power struggle religion is an easy tool to manipulate truth and faith. A failure often happens in such situation is the failure to differentiate between the cultural changes and the real crisis in faith. All our attention is called upon those cultural issues at the cost of a genuine introspection on our faithfulness to God. Corruption within religious structures is conveniently overlooked, and the society is condemned for becoming ungodly.

If we have placed our ego and arrogance at the first place of importance, that is indeed the sign of abomination at the altar. If there is no sincere attempt for reconciliation and peace all the celebratory ‘Prayer Events’ are making mockery of God. If we have closed our gates against the Holy Spirit, there is no intention for interior conversion, what wonder can we expect from God from Daniel prayer, Jericho prayer … They only add to the commotions in the time of crisis.

It is important to cry out, “Lord, I want to see.” Sight is an experience of closeness of God. Healing of our blindness is to keep our eyes fixed on Christ and walk the path of life.

in the days to come ...

The great rulers of both day and night will lose its brightness, the bright shining stars will fall from their positions. Then, the Son of Man will appear in great power and glory. Though now is a time of great suffering and tribulations, God will be victorious.

This is the general structure of the end day literature. We have the book of revelation, Zechariah, Daniel and some part of Ezekiel in this nature. There were also works of literature like Paradise Lost, Divine Comedy, and the writing of Nostradamus … with similar purpose. Though they may use religious symbolism, they refer to a socio-political crisis and a need to renew.

Apocalypse is at the same time both a revelation and an opportunity to renew. Having realised what really happens, a passing over is essential. When different belief systems, cultural values, religious traditions, and social structures there can be challenges and conflicts. Sometime they may hit very hard on traditional structures. It can give us a feeling that everything is going to collapse. The end is near! In fact, it is a cultural crisis happening within our religious traditions. It requires an interior revelation. Saying that preserving traditions we can lose our freedom and become fanatics. Many of the end day sayings and scripture fulfilment narratives lead us away from God and from the very intention of the Scripture itself. We expect to keep ourselves pure and untouched by all that happens around, escape from what happens around, and resisting to understand. Anxious forms of pious practices are also not the solution. Every age has a Word content in it, that is the lamp given to us for walking through that time. It gives us the involve anointing and preparation needed for the end days. The end days is not the end, but a passing through into a new creation.

An integral spiritual effort needs to aim at understanding the crisis sincerely, discern the reasons and solutions, and to bring them into action. Today, religion, culture and social life is called for a sincere commitment towards the challenge we face not only as humans but as an earth being. Does it really matter to us? It is not about whether we can prevent earthquakes and volcanoes, it is about how we can nurture one another in the moments of calamities. Is there sufficient spiritual transformation within us to be brothers and sisters in the very context when there are divisions in the level of nations, ethnicity, religion, and culture. This transformation is an ecclesial, ecological and cultural conversion, a transformation towards fraternity, collaboration, goodness, compassion and humanity. That is why Pope Francis often emphasises on these qualities and says that the Covid situation will make us the best or the worst humanity ever depending on our choice today.

We have our confidence in God, we place our hope in God, we experience the closeness of God even in time of trials and crisis. these end days will lead us to be a new creation.

Widow and the unjust judge

Jesus emphasized that God is not a judge through the parable of the widow before the unjust judge. The judge-god was beautiful because it would approve the righteous performances of the Pharisees and the Scribes. God who would show mercy to all would be a disturbance for their holiness because it challenges their privileges. God's attitude is not judicial in nature. God judges creatively to raise us to the fullness of life.

Father who cares for all consoles our distress. Of course, it is bitter to go through sickness and pain. God's constant presence offers peace and strength. God's action is not an individual insurance policy where it is a personal deal. Divine action sustains and enables the entire people of God to ensure justice in their community.

So, when we pray, first of all the primary motivation is the constant love of God. It gives us hope, not doubts about our worthiness, nor about thoughts whether God is happy or not, or God is angry and is punishing ... Secondly, may our prayer be simple and truthful. Father, I am tired, I am having unbearable pain, I am afraid, I thank you... would be the most sincere prayer. Thirdly, prayer needs to include our readiness for action, to realise the beatitudes and live out the reality of the kingdom of God.

One in Christ

The unity of the Church that Jesus prayed for is much different from an organisation following single method or purpose for its good functioning. The unity of the church is from the love with which Jesus loved us. “You have loved me before the foundation of the world” is the depth of love Jesus experienced. Jesus loved us with the same love, and that is the mutual bond that unites us. What this love does is to build up the body of Christ in the work of service.

Each one of us has received a share of grace, and together we are partakers of the life of Christ. We may have overlooked the graces that are at work within us because often we understand only the crowd pulling and mesmerising phenomena as charisms. There cannot be a separate group of people who are spirit bearers of spirit filled believers. Charisms are reflected in our daily commitments and service. Each one of us reflects the nature of Christ, and only in union with one another, can we come to know and reflect the fullness of Christ. Our participation in the abundance of life the Spirit gives us, is a common possession of the whole church. These special graces which we call charisms are indeed personal experiences and lead us to a richer sense of God. It is not a private individual experience that stands separate, because charisms reflect the different organs in a single body of Christ. We need to always keep in mind that the love of God and love of neighbour is more primary, and determines the worth of all charisms and the different ministries through which these charisms are made visible. Here faith and spirituality receive new meaning. They cannot be built on ideological framework and principles. They can be understood, experienced and practiced only in the mutual bond of love that reveals more and more of Christ within us. Only within this communion we are transformed into the image of Christ in a personal way too.

Whenever we have divisions, we can understand that there are individual faith, intentions, and even individual shaping of Christ. They are guarded by our ego as precious and sacred, but they are unholy dividing walls. It is easy to transform Christ, but difficult to transform ourselves listening to the voice of the Spirit deep within ourselves. When we begin to focus on Christ, it will generate a desire deep within us to reflect Christ in us, to be united with others to reflect Christ together among us. There we have our perfect self, and full maturity in Christ. A sincere Christian conscience would always have desired and prayed, “Father, we may all be one.” This prayer is a deep longing that we may reflect the glory of God. The unity of the Church and the experience of the Holy Spirit is an ongoing Pentecost, a perpetual Pentecost renewing each one of us, filling us with the power to change, and enabling us to bear witness to Jesus in our everyday living.

Search sincerely

Let honesty prompt your thinking about the Lord, seek him in simplicity of heart Wis 1:1
It is the same thing we hear from Jesus, " Blessed are the pure in heart, they shall see God."

God sees our hearts, he knows the truth of what we say. We cannot play tricks with God in whatever way we act holy people in front of people. The very untruthful image misguide others making a feeling that those things practiced by the tricksters are the right way.

Often we hide behind these obstacles through which we act nice before people. Let honesty prompt your thinking about the Lord, otherwise crookedness will shape a god of our convenience.

Widow's copper coins

Like the widow at the temple treasury, the poor were victims of the 'prosperity gospel' practiced by the scribes and Pharisees. In their silent grief over their misery they had only God to hope for. what God saw was not what fell in the temple treasury, but her trust in God. The poor and widows had to sell whatever they had for their daily survival. Their helplessness could easily be exploited. By offering money we cannot please God. God wants the gift of ourselves.

 

The widow of Sidon, even in her poverty placed hope in God and offered generosity to Elijah, a hungry stranger. The more we go deeper inside and find the treasure of God the more we grow outward in kindness. Temple treasuries have grown equal to God securing many against their duty to care for the poor.

Pharisees were rich in holiness, scribes were rich with the knowledge of the Scripture and law, proselytes were rich with zeal for religion. But in their richness there was no space for God. The greater was their emptiness the more they swallowed the properties of widows and poor. in their emptiness they even assumed they have swallowed God's kingdom.

Faithful in small things

We may give extra attention and care in great things, but may take small things for granted. In fact there is a greater struggle in being faithful in 'small' things. Sincere care of small things bring beauty to our life. That is the lived beauty of the Gospel.
May the Lord grant us the strength to live the Gospel.

The Lost ones

'This man welcomes sinners," "he shows mercy to them," "he forgives" were 'complaints' from the sinless. The response of Jesus shows how precious they are to him. They are not lost ones, they are the loved ones. In the context of the parable those lost ones were not living in sin, but they were the ones rejected by the sinless. The 'holy ones' could afford to be blameless and perfect before the people. The lost ones could not do that. God rejoices in finding them where they are.

A Gospel Challenge

We follow different laws and customs, written and unwritten. Why are we told that the love of God and love of neighbours is the standard for any other law? “Love is the one thing that cannot hurt our neighbour; that is why love is the reference point for all other commandments (Rom 13: 10). This love is reflected in the living of the Gospel, the experience of the kingdom of God in everyday reality. The Gospel in action asks us to deny ourselves, facing the daily crosses to be taken up.

St. Martin de Porres, whose feast we celebrate today, had a great devotion to the crucifix. He experienced the love of Christ from the Cross, and became a miracle of love for many. He administered medicine and brought healing. He loved everyone with an attitude of humility and service. His love led him to be friendly even with the wild animals and plants.

How does the Gospel place our lives into our living environment? How does the commandment of love find its expression in the reality of our society and culture? How should each one of us commit ourselves in emptying ourselves and taking our crosses? Pope Francis often said: “Let us build bridges of love so that the voices of the periphery with their weeping, but also with their singing and joy, provoke not fear but empathy in the rest of society.” In a recent message on the occasion of the fourth world meeting of popular movements, he asked pharmaceutical companies to release patents that the covid vaccines can be made available to all. He asked to change socio-economic structures that are destructive to humanity.

“In the name of God, I ask financial groups and international credit institutions to allow poor countries to assure ‘the basic needs of their people’ and to cancel those debts that so often are contracted against the interests of those same peoples.

In the name of God, I ask the great extractive industries -- mining, oil, forestry, real estate, agribusiness -- to stop destroying forests, wetlands and mountains, to stop polluting rivers and seas, to stop poisoning food and people.

In the name of God, I ask the great food corporations to stop imposing monopolistic systems of production and distribution that inflate prices and end up withholding bread from the hungry.

In the name of God, I ask arms manufacturers and dealers to completely stop their activity, because it causes violence and war, it contributes to those awful geopolitical games which cost millions of lives displaced and millions dead.

In the name of God, I ask the technology giants to stop exploiting human weakness, people’s vulnerability, for the sake of profits without caring about the spread of hate speech, grooming, fake news, conspiracy theories, and political manipulation.

In the name of God, I ask the telecommunications giants to ease access to educational material and connectivity for teachers via the internet so that poor children can be educated even under quarantine.

In the name of God, I ask the media to stop the logic of post-truth, disinformation, defamation, slander and the unhealthy attraction to dirt and scandal, and to contribute to human fraternity and empathy with those who are most deeply damaged.

In the name of God, I call on powerful countries to stop aggression, blockades and unilateral sanctions against any country anywhere on earth. No to neo-colonialism. Conflicts must be resolved in multilateral fora such as the United Nations. We have already seen how unilateral interventions, invasions and occupations end up; even if they are justified by noble motives and fine words.”

He also asked governments and political parties to stop listening exclusively to the economic elites and represent their people and to work for the common good. He asked religious leaders never to use the name of God to provoke conflicts, rebellions and wars.

This invitation from Pope Francis is a call to restructure our socio-economic models to have a human face which many models have lost. If the love flowed from the crucifix found genuine actions in St Martin, Now, it is our turn to give a living impact of the kingdom of God to the Socio-economic structures we all live in. Righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit are to be lived and brought to our daily commitments. There is the cross, the narrow door for entering the kingdom of God. The Lord wants us to bring the kingdom of God into action. It is indeed a Gospel challenge.

Let me live in your house

In gratitude we remember them,
In love and generosity we pray for them.
May the flame of God's love consume them.

They will live with him in love.

Rest in eternal peace is our union in Christ in love.

It should not be fear that motivate us,
to offer prayers, masses ... for them.
They and we, both are in the hands of God,
they are not to harm us.

It is the quality of our life that is to be moulded,
the moment of choice to live like Jesus, a life of grace,
is the moment of entering heaven.
Purgation is needed all throughout our life;
our struggle to chose for grace, the growth of the inner man.

The heaven that we dont chose to enter 'today' we may never enter.

Saints Companions

We might like to believe the presence of ghosts and demons around us, but not saints. Ghost stories are more real to us because our fear is real though we have not reflected sufficiently about the reality of ghosts. 

However, saints are real. they are our friends and companions. A true friendship and confidence in sharing our life with them is something we need to learn in our relationship with the saints. They are not objects of devotion. Saints are not in our altars and niches, they are where we live our daily lives. Saints companions relate to us in charity. We are applying their patronage in connection with something specific in their life. Our sanctification adds their joy whose completion will be only when everyone is united in Christ. Communion of saints is not an association of saints gathered together, it is their union in Christ.

If we show devotion to the saints, it should not be only for favours. True essence of devotion is love. It is to be inspired to bear witness to Christ in our time and world as they did in their time. As in the saints God is glorified, God is glorified in our lives today. Thus the church becomes the visible presence of God. 

Seeing each of us as the members of the Church, can the world see Christ preaching, healing, comforting?  

What we miss today is a Christian conscience. To have a Christian conscience, first of all we need to have close acquaintance with the person of Christ in order to learn the attitudes of Christ. We also need to know the faith and the social teaching of the church. We also need to learn to see the face of God in events and people and in ourselves. We will be able to see godliness in ourselves and around us. It is a great struggle. But only with such a conscience we will be able to become people of the beatitudes. In one way in  solidarity with those who are deprived of what they deserve, and God is the only hope for us. in other way by becoming the gospel to the poor, bread to the hungry, justice for those who hunger and thirst for it, peacemaker, comfort and hope for those who are persecuted. To be in the company of the saints is a Gospel challenge.