Fruitfulness of faith

Fruitfulness of our faith is reflected as our words and actions become instruments of God’s blessings.

Abraham longed to see the fulfillment of the promise that in his offspring all the nations shall be blessed. Foreseeing those days Abraham rejoiced. What is fulfilled in Christ is to continue in us and in the Church through the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

fundamentalists

"The world is filling up with fundamentalists, all of them claiming to be certain of something. Their very aggressiveness shows that their ‘certainty’ is a cover for disbelief and confusion; it is a drowning man’s grip. When you are full sure of something, there is no aggression, just a quiet resolve to live by it. Fundamentalists are afraid of doubt, so they claim certainties they have no right to, since they have not travelled the path themselves."

from https://goodnews.ie/calendar.shtml

Judging

Susanna was unjustly condemned to death. When Daniel stands at a distance saying that he is innocent of the blood, he is challenging the judgment by the elders. To prove the innocence of Susanna, he has to take the lone path of truth and justice. Jesus said, I do not judge anyone, and if I judge, that judgment is true because the father testifies to it. When Jesus says, do not judge, it also means to show mercy like the Father. So, truth, justice, charity and compassion are involved in a right judgment.

Do our judgments try to see the whole truth? Do they ensure justice? Are they with love and compassion? If not, after all why do we judge? We judge because we feel better about ourselves when we judge others wrong. Our rash judgments show that we can’t accept a difference and that has to be pushed down, we cannot include someone or some idea so we judge it wrong, we want to resist compassion and judge the vulnerable wrong, we cannot experience relatedness and everyone will be judged wrong except ourselves.

So, we require the eyes and heart of the Father to make a true judgment. “For as the Father has life in Himself, so also He has granted the Son to have life in Himself. Because He is the Son of Man, he has given Him authority to execute judgment.” Jesus judges to grant forgiveness, mercy and new life. Our judgments also can be life-giving.

Come to the fountain of Life

Jesus came to give us life, and life in abundance. Through this season of lent we are making an effort to see the beauty of life in us as we are gradually led to share in the glory of the resurrection of Jesus.

However pleasant and happy we are, we like to have changes in life. The change that we expect may be in different degrees. According to the intensity, we might term those unpleasant realities as a life weakened, wearied, burdened, stuck, broken, wounded, injured, pained, or even as dead. Some of them may be so mysterious that we find it difficult to understand them, or to explain or find a solution. As much as possible we can try to understand them, but many popular beliefs on curses, burdens, and punishments which try to explain them fill us with fear, worries and wavering in faith. It affects our trust in God. Led by these worries and fears we cannot experience the life flow into us. Though we are coming to God here we are approaching God only as a problem solver. There is no belonging, or love relationship. In doubts and fears we cannot be open to the source of life.

Do we really desire for that life to fill our lives? Do we believe that God really wants to pour out that life into our pains, troubles, and burdens? Do we really believe that it can happen to you and me? God said, “I give water in the wilderness and rivers in the desert that my chosen people may drink.” God does it freely, not as a reward for an offering in a ‘pay and take manner’ that God pours life into our pains, because God, by nature, is full of life.

In moments of troubles, we may be shattered. If we have the love bond with God, we can experience life in God. Imagine a smoky room in which we struggle to breath, and when the windows and doors are open, we have the comfort of easy breathing. See a plant in bad soil. As it gets manure it has a new life. Or a plant withering in summer heat has a new life as it receives water. Similarly, we place our hope in God who is alive and lifegiving. “Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, can you not see it.”

Undying hope it is not merely a psychological adherence or an intellectual submission to a pleasant thought or feeling. Christian hope is alive, not simply an expectation somewhere in the future. It causes welling forth of the fountains from our depths, from the very lives that are ‘wearied and burdened.’ sprouting of new life. We will be able to live fully even amidst the heaviness of life. We can find new roots that hold us in grace to stand in time of tribulations, the roots connecting ourselves with the fountain of life. God’s life in us will grant us confidence to grow and flourish, it will free us from fear and every push to escape the struggles. In him we have the fountain of life.

It is very beautiful to speak, hear and imagine, but is it really possible and practical? Dear friends, the fountain inside is very much controlled by this ‘but….’ It becomes an obstacle for our desire for fullness of life. We need peace and reconciliation, but how can we let go of so many things in reality? Pope Francis is right in saying ‘no war,’ but politically can it work out? It was the same reason when Jesus the source of life came among us, he himself, the life itself, became an obstacle for many. They loved their boundaries, legal, religious, national or gender. The sabbath laws, purity laws, customs, positions, professions … stood as a stigma against welcoming life. Life embraces beyond boundaries, the fountains flow beyond boundaries. Jesus could welcome all.

If God fills life into our wounds and pains, the boundaries against life make traps out of the failures of people. It is not a life that is hoped for, but the possibilities of exploitation, and the fault with God in showing mercy. The woman in the gospel today was caught by a lawful crowd, and brought to Jesus to prove that he was wrong if he lets her free. If the law served here to be graceless, there are greater sins in many right things that hinders life in us. We need to examine our depths. Merciless legal and gender boundaries, cruel judgments under moral elitism, empty religious customs that only show our pride and money power, manipulation of faith and beliefs and so on are obstacles we have created against life. In the name of God we have resisted his life.

After all these words about life, examine whether we are like that woman ill advised later by some holy and strict experts in religion. Some found her secretly and told her that it is according to the law, and the Word of God says, that she had to be stoned. Though let free she had to suffer the punishment. She started hitting herself with stones to obey the Word of God. We too hear it sometimes, though God is merciful, we have to suffer the punishments because the Old Testament laws say so.

Living fully, an experience of new heaven and new earth is the work of God. But it’s experience begins with me, my life, my society, and time, here and now, amidst our struggles, failures, and temptations. Come near to the fountain with all that we are, with all our burdens and shame and fears. Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, can you not see it.

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