Ascension

“He was lifted up while they looked on, and a cloud took him from their sight.” Jesus ascended to the Father. It’s a mystery. Mystery is not a hidden secret, but a truth that we long to enter. The divine mysteries, we watch closely in symbols, and see clearly in faith. We contemplate, celebrate and participate in them. We had the Easter Candle brightly shining. It has melted down and has disappeared. We received its light, and that light is now within us. The Risen Christ lived among us and he has given his light to us. Christ is in us, and we are in Christ. So, the ascension of Jesus is not a distancing from us, but it is a continuing and constant presence. Christ’s ascension is not a separation into a heavenly realm, it is a gathering of us all into a Christ realm; being united in the Holy Spirit, doing the will of the Father in the reality of our lives.

“Lifting up his hands, he blessed them.” According to Jewish customs, raising hands to bless was a priestly gesture. One who sacrificed himself, one who emptied himself taking the form of a servant, is raised as the eternal priest and mediator. The Jewish blessing had these words: “The LORD bless you and keep you; the LORD make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you; the LORD lift up his face upon you and grant you peace.” (Numbers 6:22-27).

Peace was the gift of the Risen Christ. His presence re-created them, his glory shone on them, and clouds of mystery come once again. The disciples were full of joy. This joy has a reason. In the opening prayer we have a phrase, “…where the head has entered, the whole body may follow in hope.” Christ is the ‘head’ of the Church, which is his ‘body’ (Ephesians 1:22-23, Colossians 1:18). His ascension signifies that the entire humanity, united in Christ, shares in the beauty of God. It guides us in courage and hope in the face of daily struggles, suffering, and uncertainties. We can participate in this beauty only in communion with God and the entire humanity that is Christ’s body.

Just as different parts of the body depend on each other, members of Christ’s body are called to support, encourage, and love one another, recognizing their mutual need. Genuine unity in Christ comes not from any enforced conformity or superficial agreements, but from a shared relationship to Christ. Christ’s love was sacrificial, unconditional, and inclusive, and our ascension into a Christ-realm can be only by the same love and communion. We understand, experience, and complete the truth of Christ only by sincerity, compassion, mercy, and kindness.

“He will return as you have seen him being taken away...” The return is not about the presence, he is ever present; it is about the revelation of the glory of the Son of Man. His constant living with us is recognised and realised in becoming mutually-compassionate-being in Christ. His humanity seeks consolation, justice, and mercy. His wounds were alive when he blessed them. Evacuated and displaced, wandering, abandoned, objectised and used humanity our extended self in Christ looks for a further descension into a Christ-self. Though the progresses today make rapid changes, inequality, poverty, exploitation and so on are pains that Christ continues to suffer. Reinforced social structures that nurture alienation, isolation and separatedness, very often covered in religious narratives, stand as original sin that prevents our being one body in Christ to enter into the glory of God. Our Gospel-response is our following of the path of ascension.

He returns to his glory, the beauty of the logos, the Word. It is worth contemplating this beauty of Christ before incarnation and after ascension; gathering, nurturing, sustaining presence in the entire creation, history, and culture. Being one in Christ calls us to honour and serve the glorified and wounded body of Christ in creation.

Unfortunately, instead of being united in Christ, our ideological and devotional worlds have created strange and conventional Christs for us. These worlds maintain spiritual pride and elitism claiming to have superior spiritual knowledge, insight, or favour from God. This is a deceptive holiness that breeds division rather than Christ-like love. These days there are many ‘true Christians’ who only knows that there are so many things kept hidden from you. These people who make false prophecies and sensationalism claiming special divine revelations ultimately lead to fear, exclusivity, or condemnation of others. True holiness points to Christ and His unifying love, not to sensational claims that elevate individuals or create panic. Now also, while doctrine and moral principles are important, an overemphasis on rigid interpretations or definitions, presented as the only path to God, can become a source of judgment and exclusion. This ‘holy’ strictness can mask a lack of love and compassion, which Jesus desired as the sign of his disciples. Sadly, faith is often exploited by individuals seeking personal power, influence, or material gain. They may use religious language and symbols to manipulate the faithful, fostering dependence and division from those outside their circle. Identifying too radically with a theological camp, or religious heroic-leader to the point of viewing others with suspicion, hostility, or as ‘lesser’ believers, is a divisive element.



St Paul wrote to the Colossians, “Seek the things of above” (Colossians 3:1-3). It is not disengaging from the world, but rather viewing and interacting with the world from the perspective of God’s nature – goodness, love, truth, and holiness. Seeking the things of above is to open every way of realising these values in our lives. The matter of above is right and left and among us. We have seen him, he was lifted up, we have seen him in the flesh, we have him in Spirit, and we continue to be him in mutually completing the body. If we are sincere, the mystery we participate will take us to full knowledge of him.

The disciples asked him, “Lord, has the time come? Are you going to restore the kingdom?” We are fascinated by the end of the world predictions and the clear signs identified. Rather than a matter of excitement, it is a revelation that adds responsibility. “You will receive the power of the Holy Spirit, and then you will be my witnesses to the ends of the earth.” Let us sincerely pray that we as the body may follow what the head has done; mutually completing the body, and thus experiencing the glory that Christ has entered. So, the time of the restoration of the kingdom is now, a permanent now in Christ, the time of God’s favour, the time to make active commitment to realise the beatitudes of the kingdom.

“May he enlighten the eyes of your mind so that you can see what hope his call holds for you, what rich glories he has promised the saints will inherit, and how infinitely great is the power that he has exercised for us believers.”

Faithful lower to priests?

? Priests are representative of Christ. Does it mean others are lower to priests?

Only from what the sacrament of priesthood signifies can we understand the aspect of 'representation'. Priesthood is about sacrifice, the self-emptying sacrifice of Christ. Any form that identifies this sacrifice only  in a ritualistic or cultic form does not describe the priesthood of Christ. If a priest assumes his role as a performer of rituals he does not represent Christ. Christ's sacrifice is lived by the Church, and the life of the church is priestly and sacrificial. Priest primarily needs to be a visible sign of this priestly life. The sacrifice that is relived in the breaking of the bread is celebrated by the church, and Christ with his entire body , ie the church, is the offeror. Priest is the visible sign of this offering at the celebration of the Eucharist. The nature of what is signified here does not hold any hierarchical structure that separates the priests from the faithful, neither in status, holiness, power, nor authority. Priest is not the source of grace. He is given power to serve and unite all in love, not to rule.

sandal-wood rosary

 Is there anywhere written or told by any holy people or saints that sandal-wood rosary is very powerful?

I have not heard. Answering the question from the perspectives of faith and devotion, the rosary receives its significance from the life of Jesus and Mary, and in turn our own lives in relation to their lives. Devotions receive their merit from the grace given by Christ, not by any magical power of a devotional object or special power of any prayer. A blessed object has its blessings from God, not a 'power' of its own. Certain devotions are formed as though the water, oil or a statue has some magical power. This trend has also influenced our understanding of the Eucharist. Instead of a rich mystery of life in which we are to participate, we have made it a devotional object, a magical power source. Grace acts as we are open, and it asks for a radical conversion of heart to do and think good and to build 'a civilization of love.'

Evangelisation - conversing with the human cry in the light of the Gospel

Evangelisation is not about changing somebody else's faith, it's primarily setting the Gospel as the form of life that  liberates us from all comfortable certainties.

Due to our certainties we often tend to defend our structures, systems, definitions, and positions even if there are faults and failures. In every challenge, accusation, opposition, there is a 'human cry' before the church and history for a timely response. Certainties offer ready-made answers and demands the world to accepted them for answers, but they don't germinate life. enlivening in the Gospel means conversing with these human cry, listening to the voice of God in them, and placing them in the promises of the gospel to come to the consolation and peace.

Human conditions are always at the core of philosophising process. Pure intellectual exercise cannot make philosophy. Sustaining philosophy emerges from human empathy, compassion, and the truth of the human conditions.

Gospel cannot be theoretical exercises without human conditions. Attitudes and vision of Christ is the Gospel. Then, gospel becomes light for human conditions, and it is the model for life and common efforts.

Leo XIV - New Pope

From a land of Great- Super Power

a man is called to be the servant of servants;
to console the crushed lives of children, migrants, workers.
Power that deports the helpless and closes doors on one side
and a home that welcomes all on the other.

Muddying

We desire 'unity' in the church,

we want to rediscover 'true tradition' of the church,
we want to have 'true and absolute' morality in the church;
pseudo-virtues at the forefront of the game.

Even if there is a humane-graceful-tender environment of grace, some attempt to muddy and smoke around.

Christ will be visible in no church unless there is desire for justice, and an approach of mercy. Christ opposed the powerful who 'used' God for their convenience in the very name of preservation of religion and morality. Christ was accused of agent of Belzebul.

Know, love, feed

 Religions are not free of Hero-worship. In fact, recent religious trends are mostly heroizing God and religious leaders. What becomes impossible is to recognize and love God in truth and Spirit. Christ's questions, "What do you say that I am," and "Do you love me" are very significant and interrelated. Without knowing the other we cannot love, without love we cannot know. 

Knowing and loving do involve feeding and nurturing. Feeding Christ involves extending oneself beyond boundaries. Setting on the everyday normalcy of our life, Christ is a co-traveler. There are still tragedies and emptiness. But there is consolation and peace in knowing and loving him and deepening it in reality in the flesh of all those who are around. Feeding them all is a matter of sincerity  in the answer 'yes Lord. I love you.'

Feeding can be out of tenderness if we know the intimacy of love. It can be out of charity if we know the responsibility added to the claim of loving Christ. Feeding is a challenge when it is against our will. Feeding the 'undeserved' is, of course, not fully of our will. It calls for a sacrificial death, fastened and directed against our will. 

We do not have to be afraid of that feeding. The net did not break despite the catch of 'all kinds of fish.' This feeding is impossible if our religion, faith, and rituals are reduced into definitions and performances. If there is no love beyond borders and openness of heart, we have  not known Christ, we have not loved him. The faith we claim to possess and practice are merely equations. When it comes to judgement of truth, faith, morality etc, we have absolute certainty, but without even considering the mind of Christ. We apply mind to him rather than understanding his mind.

Joseph Carpenter

Joseph is once again 'celebrated' today.

He was righteous, honest, and gentle.
Was he awarded for his perfect work?
Joseph is taken into focus to remind us of the dignity of labour, and
of he dignity of labourers.

The 'work' of God Joseph did was not just looking after Jesus and Mary. 

Being a carpenter was a holy work and it was the work of the kingdom of God.

Are there not 'divine' and 'holy' works and dirty and worldly works? if yes, the kingdom of God in the carpenter's house is very far.

Mercy

We have neither the will nor a system/structure to hold mercy as the pattern of our approaches. So easy recourse is to legal justice system which rarely bring about lasting reconciliation and peace. Mercy extends without definitions and boundaries. We look for clarity, order, judgement and a conclusion. Mercy looks for even unseen roots of failures and pain. To reach there is effortful and holds everyone responsible one way or the other. What we need is grace-structures in societies, organisations, deciding bodies etc. Of course, it challenges our moral and dogmatic brackets.

What was wrong with Pope Francis?

Pope Francis didn’t envision a heaven with gold-plated walls, pillars, and symbols of glory. Instead, his papacy focused on realizing a ‘heaven among us’ by prioritizing the values and joy of the Gospel. His heaven was not reduced to church sanctuaries but extended to the rejected, marginalised, and stigmatised. He was near the least. The stance Pope Francis has taken during his papacy represents a stand against greed and power, elements fundamentally opposed to the Gospel. Was he radical, yes radical following gospel values. Catholic beyond Catholicism, a Christian beyond Christianity.

For Francis, the Church was a home for all, always open for all. because Christ himself is the home of all and the way open for all always. He envisioned a church which essentially has tenderness, closeness, and compassion in clergy, laity, religious institutions, and church systems. He cherished the concept of the Church as a ‘Mother’ (Mater Ecclesia), and often warned against the dangers of the Church losing its essential motherly nature or ‘maternity’   which is characterised in patience, forgiveness, attitudes of welcome and openness, especially to sinners. When the Church lacks a motherly character, the church becomes rigid and disciplinarian, overly focusing on rules and doctrines without the warmth, tenderness, and compassion of a mother. The church ends up in being a ‘stepmother Church,’ an ‘orphanage,’ merely an efficient organisation’ losing its spiritual fruitfulness and maternal closeness to its children. A cold, judgmental, and unwelcoming Church fails to show the merciful face of God.

On similar note, he held the wounded world in compassion and mercy. He used the analogy of ‘field hospital after battle’ for the Church. The world is like a battlefield where many people are injured and suffering. He saw humanity as deeply wounded by sin, conflict, poverty, indifference, loneliness, and social injustices. Pope Francis believed the Church’s primary mission right now must be to heal these wounds. This means focusing on mercy, forgiveness, compassion, and accompaniment. To address the pain and abandonment, the Church must be actively present in the world, going out to the peripheries, seeking out those who are hurt, rather than waiting for them to come to its doors. The urgency is to live the core message of God’s love and mercy, warmth, nearness and offer healing before potentially burdening people with complex rules or doctrines they aren’t prepared for due to their woundedness.   

Some labelled him a heretic, diluting core Catholic teachings and the Christian identity of the West. Pope Francis’s criticised those trapped in a ‘dogmatic box’ rather than a rejecting tradition itself, highlighting a distinction between rigid adherence and a living reverence for the past. The open criticism of the Pope also carries theological weight, considering the Catholic doctrine of papal primacy. 

Pope Francis emphasized Jesus’ message of mercy and inclusion, welcomed marginalized groups. Many were worried that his approach watered down traditional Catholic teachings. This progressive bent contrasted sharply with the views of some conservatives who prioritized strict adherence to established interpretations of scripture and tradition. They failed to understand the pastoral kindness, the openness of the church to the world, and a needed Chrit-like nature. Truth of the dogmas cannot function as definitions and equations, they are to be the Word speaking to the wounded world.

He encouraged role of women in the Church, appointed women to important decision-making roles within the Vatican, allowed them to serve as lectors and acolytes in parishes, and permitted women to vote alongside bishops in certain Vatican meetings. He was criticized for feminising the church.  

Some felt that the Pope’s actions demonstrated a lack of respect for tradition and alienated a segment of the faithful who cherished the older liturgical practices.  The beauty and glory of traditions cannot be captured as they are preserved in amusement; it cannot be a museum piece ‘preserved,’ it is not handed over as some treasure boxed. Traditions grow and evolve and keep its continuity, and carry the present and takes a new form. It has happened in the past through history. Fixation to certain ‘traditions’ do not converse, it does not welcome, and speak language of mercy. He opposed clericalism which tarnished the face of the Church, and left many wounded. 

He understood Christ so well that he was able to see the divine language in other religious traditions. He was sure that we are able to walk together amidst differences. Religious elites found a closed kingdom of God which was tightly closed by themselves; there was no place for Pope Francis in that kingdom of their God.

All these someway disturbed the enjoyment of power. He had the authenticity, humility, and courage to speak against the ugly power structures in the church. It was natural that he was ‘wrong’ in many ways. A few dubbed him the ‘antichrist.’  For some, he was foolish to meet people of all spheres, asking for communion, reconciliation, peace and forgiveness.

He also opposed greed. Greed generated an ugly face of humanity; those who won in the race and those who were victims of it. His opposition to war and his condemnation of greed during the COVID-19 pandemic often irritated many of them. What he always asked for was collaboration of all humanity. 

He voiced strong criticisms on ‘unfettered capitalism’ and the ‘idolatry of money.’ He denounced economic models that prioritize profit over people, using powerful language to highlight the moral implications of such systems. “This economy kills,” he said. He called for a universal basic income, dignified wages, and working conditions, advocating for policies aimed at reducing inequality and ensuring a basic standard of living for all. he also condemned the ‘throwaway culture’ and excessive consumerism, linking these practices to environmental degradation and social disparities. He argued that the relentless pursuit of consumption and waste strained the planet's capacity and marginalized those deemed economically unproductive.   

Many capitalist corporations were unhappy due to his strong critiques of economic inequality and environmental exploitation. Proponents of the free-market system in the US expressed unease with his criticisms, defending capitalism as a system that ultimately promotes innovation, wealth creation, and positive externalities for society. They succeeded translating their opposition in religious language and under traditions and pure theology, and accused him of socialist attachment.   

His encyclical ‘Laudato Si’ gave a comprehensive theological framework for understanding the interconnectedness of social justice and environmental responsibility, directly challenging economic systems that prioritize short-term gains over the long-term well-being of both people and the planet.  He was called an idol-worshipper, new age-satan, and a pantheist. 

His opposition to war was also deeply connected to his broader theological vision of human fraternity and solidarity, as articulated in his encyclical Fratelli Tutti. This vision emphasizes the interconnectedness of all people and the inherent wrongness of violence against one another.   The warmongers who trade on ammunitions could not tolerate that.

Despite all oppositions, Pope Francis consistently used his platform to advocate for a more just, peaceful, and humane world, challenging established norms and calling for a fundamental shift in values and priorities. His willingness to directly critique economic systems and political decisions demonstrates a continuation of the Church's efforts to be a moral voice in the world, challenging injustice and advocating for the marginalized.  

He was a true witness to the beatitudes, where the kingdom of God is of those such as these little ones. It is a challenge to those reinforce power over sharp divisions upon religion, ethnicity, language, nationality... Francis was 'wrong' because the 'right's could not allow a home of God open for all. 

Pope Francis

He lived with Christ, He will be with Christ.

He had a heart of mercy, the face of God,
He had a heart of Christ who was the door.
He hungered for justice and peace,
spread the joy of God.
He condemned war,
sided with migrants.
He held God's kingdom in his heart,
stretching the boundaries of the tent,
embracing all.
He loved the earth, and all children of the earth.

So, he was also condemned,
he did suffer accusation of blasphemy,
he was called an idolator and an agent of devil.

He lived with Christ, He will be with Christ.

They crucified Him

They crucified Him
according to the law of Moses.
Christ gave (lived completely and fully) his life
according to the will of God.

Pilate released Barabbas
according to the custom.
Christ offered Paradise to the thief
according to the love flowed out.

Cross is only a dry wood

if there is no crucified. 

It is in us the crucified lives.

Life of God is shared among all,

not from a heaven above.

Christ stretched out his arms

we are all in him.

Was that death a ransom,

Christ's Father would not ask for it.

He offered his life,

to complete the will of the Father that all may have life.

According to the 'divine laws' and customs,

we can escape from the life of the cross. 

Seeking the will of God, with love,

we meet the wounded healer;

in us for others, in others for us.

Christ has 'entered'

'Christ came to die' does not describe him well. Christ gave us life, fully and completely; he emptied himself of the fulness of life because he was the author of life. He saves us by filling us with life, not by saving from .... Hosanna to Him. 

Life offers consolation and peace to the pain and burdens of ours. Christ's life gives that consolation which is a longing of all humanity. It answers the cry 'why have you forsaken me?' Once this consolation is a nurturing reality in our lives, it is visible that the glory of God shines once again. 

God who is confined to holy places and liturgies is not a giver of life. It is only an object of worship. If we are sufficiently hypocritical, we can very well find comfort in a religious environment. But if we want to really experience and live the life of salvation, Christ has 'entered' our lives; the reality of the passion, death and resurrection of Christ is here in our flesh. Because he lives in us. The very moment we want to give our life for others, there is a cross erected. Our sufferings and pains are not the crosses. But the willingness to offer our lives is the lifegiving tree.

Imagine the entry of ours into the lives of different people, imagine those who have entered our lives. Were we able to pour out our  life completely and fully in a life-giving manner? Perhaps, we were not. Are we willing? Have we seen the self emptying of others for us? You lived for me and emptied yourself for me. Is it a social figuration of Christ events? No, its Christ lived and experienced in reality.

Grace-Body

Sin is gracelessness, and there may be many reasons for this condition more than a particular action called a sin. Settled sorrows, disappointments, sense of loss, despair ... can make that condition where sin, lifelessness, can set in. 

As formed from repeated choices, breaking away from vices involved in our gracelessness and moving to virtue is not easy. restructuring the routine, finding alternative rewards, finding satisfying motivation ... are significant. Often, the 'individual' sense has left each of us alone to be in this struggle. Growth in virtues is possible as we make our efforts together.

There is an emotional side of every emptiness from which sin emerges. So, an emotional letting to experience consolation, comfort, strength, nurture, care, companionship are also important. It is important to practice self-compassion as part of personal experience of divine life. 

Often, a neglected reality is our body except for finding fault with it as the cause for all sins. Experience grace in and through the body. Our physicality can be  sacrament of the divine embrace. Allow body to sense it and be immersed in it. Never to be afraid in body experiencing the intimate love of God.  

powered God- Christ

Deified and politicised God is all powerful, but is in need of human defense and protection. That is an idol at the service of power.

Christ within a religious framework is not Christ at all. Because truth of Christ cannot be contained in definitions. He became one among us, and we claim that we have known him fully.  Christ is not in an up-above heaven. The truth of Christ involves all of us, all humanity, all differences. To understand him, we need openness to the other despite all the differences. To realise in-Him, we need the vibrance of with-the other and through-the other. Christ lives in us, and we all live in Christ. Without learning to trust the other whom we can see how are we to trust Christ who lives in all others and in us together in entirety?

Super-imaging of Christ is, in fact, marking boundaries for Christ. It influences the understanding of sharing of the gospel, being the Church, and relating to others. Every existence is a mutual-existence. and in Him every being a co-being.

I too do not condemn

 These days of lent help us to be closer to Jesus and enter into the heart of God. We began with understanding our struggles and temptations with the presence of Jesus and strengthened by the voice of God. We reflected on ways of closely imitating him, believing and walking with him through the daily realities on the plane. Then we began looking deeper into the heart of God and reflected how we enter. Now, these days we are meditating how we possess the nature of God in our person and community.

We know that it is not easy, and demands a lot of effort. Let us keep the passage of last Sunday also to reflect on the passage given today. “… the Pharisees and Scribes complained, … and then He told them a parable: …” He came to the temple, all the people came to him, he sat down and began to teach. Then the scribes and Pharisees brought a woman …” Women like this are to be condemned to death by stoning according to the law of Moses. A similar tone is seen also on the woman who washed the feet of Jesus with her tears, “What sort of woman is she …” We heard the same accusation last Sunday from the elder son, “this son of yours who devoured your living with harlots ….”
According to the law of Moses, what is to be maintained and achieved? It is a covenantal bond. It does not aim at an individual righteousness which can hounour someone with the position of judge. The covenant is to a people, and any failure in the covenantal bond needs to be repaired by the ‘people’ together. ‘Anyone of you who has no sin…’ is not only a reminder of sinfulness, but also a call to build each other in grace so that no one may be in a state that one loses themselves and unable to experience God’s grace. Are you a righteous one? Thank God, and extend yourselves after the heart of God that they may also live.
‘This one’ was lost but is found, was dead and is alive is a cause of rejoicing and celebrating; not an occasion to condemn. We can go to the extreme that we can find fault with God too. Because these are condemnable according to the law of Moses; they are sinners, immoral, strangers, outsiders, pagans, and unholy. We cannot believe that God can love them. Somewhere there is wrong with the approach of God. Perhaps some need a judge-saviour and judge-deity to serve their own ethical codes. We may not be able to apply fixed definitions to participate in God's nature. Entering into the heart of God is a celebration without biases and judgment. It is a giving and receiving of life to the full.
Jesus asks us to grow a bit more from the possibilities of the law. More than surety of discipline, order and perfection, life is to be directed to a maturity in Christ in whom we grow and participate in the nature of God. St Paul presents it as the goal of life, a goal for which Christ has made us his own. The past is gone; perhaps using the law as a judgment tool, or being condemned by the law, or being guided by the law. But, now “all I want is to know Christ and the power of his resurrection, and share in his suffering by imitating the pattern of his death.”
Christ is not an obligation-framework, he is the source of life. Being in Christ fills in us the newness of life, the power of the resurrection. Life, the Christ-nature has a creative restlessness until this same life flows into all those who are weak, oppressed, and those who don’t see a time of grace. So, naturally, our life and attitudes take a life-giving mode. Life grows as we take a mutually-consoling manner. “No need to remember the past, don’t think of what was done before” is not a denial or break away from the past, but a total reception of the entirety of life into God’s unfathomable love.
People coming back home, people thrown at our feet may not be in a religious context all the time. According to religion, according to our daily life routines, many are easily judged, and those judgements are justified. Can we examine in us for a Christ-response in our attitudes, evaluations and judgments? Recently I heard some holy Christians instructing that it is against the first commandment to help someone or donate blood to someone of a different faith. If our very Christianness becomes an obstacle to be Christlike and make us judge in a godless nature, there is a lifeless chair of Moses still in function. Christ is the door to enter to God and the home we enter into. Christ is the model to follow, in him we have celebration and joy. We welcome, we accept, we embrace, we do not condemn, we desire life and mercy. Let us try, let us ask God’s help to realise the righteousness, peace and joy of the kingdom.

Coming Home

Did Christ die as a rebellious acceptance of violence?
Did he die as a victim of Jewish religious hypocrisy and Roman cruelty?
Did he die as a ritualistic sacrifice for sins; Did he die as a ransom before a judging deity who would pardon only if a cruel death would be offered?

He was a victim of Jewish religious hypocrisy and Roman cruelty. But he lived his life to the full, emptying himself. The abundance of life he would give to humanity would not be defeated by the wicked holiness of the jews.

Perhaps some need a judge-saviour and judge-deity to serve their own ethical codes. We may not be able to apply fixed definitions to to participate in God's nature. Entering into the heart of God is a celebration without biases and judgment. It is a giving and receiving of life to the full.

As we 'enter' our house, there is no home to reach, we make the home and we are the home. Repentance and homecoming is similar as we become one home that is Christ.

Opening the doors to heaven

Heaven is never closed in order to be open for us. Of course, we can make walls around us and be inside them, and be not in heaven. We hold the key to open it. Christ is the door that everyone enters into the Father. We know it, and we are very near to it. But make excuses and  be reluctant to enter.

The keys to enter: 1) free of biases and prejudices about others. It may be based on culture, religion, nationality, ethnicity ....

2) free of biases and prejudices about ourselves. There are biases that stand against the kingdom of God Jesus introduced, such as we are under condemnation, we bear curses, deserve punishments, unworthy and should be ashamed.

3) learn to trust in God, and his unconditional love.

4) Entering the kingdom means to stand against evil. Often many are fascinated by taking sword and fighting against a superhero devil. But it is by opting and living the values of the kingdom we resist evil. We need good will as person and community. Be committed as a community for establishing goodness, peace and justice. 

The kingdom is at hand. They keys are given to you. if you lock, it will be locked for you, if you open, it will be opened for you and for many.

'Adolescence'

 "Why all are speaking about 'Adolescence,'" a Netflix series? It can be seen that what they are speaking is not speaking fully.

Many articles speak of it as a wakeup call for good parenting. If parenting is taken in a wide sense, of course, it is right. Instead, if they points only to their character, behaviour, and their quarrels and anger issues, they speak very less than what needs to be spoken.
Primarily, 'the system' itself is unaware of the world of the 'adolescent' or the online world of people whatever age they may be. There are preferred worlds for them. There is a language, community, values, interactions in that chosen world.
Unliked, unloved, unaccepted, or abused children are Liked, Friended, and loved. Parental emptiness, or belong-nowhere get a filling source online. The breakdown of family and society had been happening even before with various reasons. But those voids were filled with toxic ointments online.
The Series points to the incel (involuntary celibate) groups. The basic belief contains that the women are highly selective and there is a possibility of being rejected. 'I am ugly' is an expression of this feeling of being 'sexually' rejected. So, a 'manosphere' in which a male uprising happens is seen as a solution.
Incel, whether it refers to sexual acceptance or various aspects it involves today, cannot addressed just within the deficiency of parenting. What the articles do not speak is about the standards on which the bullying, the denial, and the rejection are maintained.
Society needs to see the conversations, priorities it builds and maintains for whatever benefit. A denial, humiliation, of friendship, or 'sexual' acceptance base itself on race, colour, nationality, language, religion etc. As 'selection' is highly dependent on these factors, the same factors gathers them into rebellious, reactionist, and even violent online communities. Often they have shown themselves in the real world causing injuries and murders.
If society prefers to form governmental, political and educational system maintaining the hateful separations, and such conversations happen in families incels are not born out of 'personal' quarrels and anger of parents. Jamie's father tells 'we made him' cannot refer to him and his wife alone. it is the society and culture that made him.
What are the ways people, especially the children and the youth, feel they are ugly, unworthy, and get 'red-pilled,' find helpless in 'blackpill,' and get into nonexistence if they are 'blue-pilled'? How do religions and politics maintain and use these incel groups for their advantage?
We need to speak more, and speak sincerely and wholly. Only honest conversations can bring out a healthy generation online and offline.

'Learn to do good'

Law bases itself on order, and gives a guideline. But it cannot ensure goodness. It is up to us whether we learn to do good. Good may differ in its intensity and kind. So, we need to be guided by wisdom. Wisdom itself is a fruit of our active attentiveness to our experiences. Wisdom is also a gift where grace has been present in those moments. 

'Learn to do good' begins in a deliberate decision to 'cease to do evil.' It is must when it is volitional. At least in intention, it must be addressed when evil remains as a weakness. Learning to do good, as an effort and by grace will help us in 'cease to do evil.'

Where do we find freedom to learn to do good unless we seek justice? Justice is not just one's due. It is attending to one's potential for flourishing. That is the righteousness of the kingdom of God. There is no goodness learned, nor justice sought, if a person, a nation, a community is not attended to one's potential to flourish. Instead, there is evil affirmed and constructed.

Compromising to these affirmed and constructed evils is well justified by the capacity of law, because they can be well settled within the matter of order without ensuring goodness. Our Kingdom is well imagined within cognitive, legal/canonical frameworks of the divine being and action, and similarly human being and actions. Compassion, mercy, and love can extend only from the felt need of the other, whatever it may be, as one's own need. It calls for responsible and committed efforts, so we take recourse on the judicial goodness which can bring about very less of our living or the divine life.

Life and death is set before you....

Its a prophetic call to discern the divine will within written laws.
Letters of the law have power and they can be under the manipulative intentions of the powerful.
'You shall live' if we can listen to the voice of God, not to the will of the powerful.
Renounce yourself also include losing one's power over the command of letters one uses.
These letters can be customs, liturgy, traditions, and perspectives.

Losing oneself for finding oneself in Christ!

Here is the commandment of God,

Here is the Holy God,

What is the voice in the 'commandment o God,'

What is truly Godly in the 'Holy God?'

Life and death is set before you....

be a prophet to know and follow life

new Christianity

There is a new Christianity
which Christ never knew.
Christian flavour everywhere,
no virtues of Christ.

They keep holy ideals, but intolerant militants in approach
They speak of virtues, but moralist dictators.
We suffered wars over claims on the promised land,
Now 'son of God' just claims lands for making a peaceful world.
National security, international security all assured when 'son of God' rules.

Mammon stretches his wings to the far space,
and the 'faithful' sing Hosanna to the convenient Christs.

Fun of Peace

 'PEACE' has become a fun now.

Some offer peace as charity.

Emperors and colonial powers had extended peace since they 'did not want war,' but at the submission of you, your faith, and culture.
Now, peace is extended at the submission of oil, minerals. and water.

They say that some GOD was with them!

What comes out of us

 “From the abundance of one’s heart, mouth speaks.” To know what fills our hearts, we must know what feeds our hearts. Jesus often spoke about fruitfulness; fruitfulness, not in the sense of great number or large sum, but they were to be of quality. This quality depended on abiding in him, being pruned for a better produce, preparing good soil for producing thirty, sixty or a hundred fold. What Jesus spoke flowed from his heart, the words given by the Father; his words had authority, his words were truth and life.

What do we speak as a person and as a Christian community? What are we fed with in order to speak? Are we aware of the level of poison that enters us from the polluted water, air and soil? Some deny that. Similarly, we are unaware of the mis-information and half-truths we are feeding on. In such an environment, how are we to engage in an honest and upright conversation? Truth is more than the correctness of knowledge, but it is faithfulness and trustworthiness of a relationship. In this relationship, we enter the process of knowledge about the Father, about ourselves, about our times and their signs. It is a process of gradually being known. Our prayer, faith, and relationship with God, all these are to be in the gradual growth of being the children of God. Our conversations need to flow from these aspects, that we set our heart in communion with the Father and others, and we humbly be open for the truth being revealed in our life and our society. “We don’t possess the truth, but we belong to the truth.” 

Today, we are living a cultural phenomenon where facts are secondary to personal beliefs, emotions, and biases. So, truth is generated, often distorted, manipulated, or disregarded altogether. It affects our daily living environment, public conscience, interactions and social institutions. We have a great flood of information, and thousands of perspectives. We do not know what to trust. Just as we are vulnerable to non-truths and half-truths, knowingly or unknowingly we are also agents of misinformation and lies. 

When in conversations, what we speak about ourselves, about one who is listening, about our family, social and ecclesiastical institutions, are we speaking truth? We speak of problems, but we are rarely ready to see clearly what is the truth. Often, we go into defense or denial and go ahead as though everything is fine. We need truthful observations, critical and logical assessment to understand things. A good tree that bears good fruit stands in integrity in its life. The inner resources we gather must lead us to an integral form of life which manifests fruits from its resources. Whether we have seen ourselves within the communion with God, being in Christ, and being in communion with one another is an important question to be asked. Our own personal self, with its biological, emotional, intellectual, sexual, social dimensions is to be seen clearly and received as it is being known. Our true message is a response from this self in its entirety. We see that science, religion, and politics move away from truth and good will, and take perspectives. We do have perspectives, but we must make sure that we have not bought a divisive and politicised ideological perspective for ourselves. It does happen in religion, society and politics. We require an integral view of things, concerning faith, family, church, changes, relationships, troubles. Instead of seeing them clearly in completeness in their own structures and contexts we may approach partly and may bind ourselves to perspectives and ideological frames. As we are confined to these frames, our conversations cannot be free, honest, and upright. Then, our words do not carry truth and life. Our words are qualified with goodness when heart is filled with goodness.

In the parables of Jesus, there was a fig tree full of leaves but did not bear fruits, in Isiah 5, there was a vine branch carefully planted but produced sour grapes, in Ezekiel 17, there was a twig removed and planted on a river bed which grew but stretched its branches far towards other resources and securities. Each of these offers us feeding roots which frame our conversations. We might speak of the glories of ourselves and our history; in such pompous attires we make ourselves conveniently blind against crises and fruitlessness. We chose divisive securities and enclosed identities, and claim and proclaim them as divine. There is no good news in those words. We can easily manipulate the emotions and beliefs and reformulate in the name of God, causing the production of sour fruits.

Jesus listened to the Father, listened to the cry of his people and time. He was the truth that gives life to all, but the same truth of himself was seen disfigured in front of him. The nature of the kingdom he announced clearly shows that the truth of Christ was a gathering and embracing heart.  So, His words had to bring healing to the truths that exploited them. Religion and society had created truths, and they could not be challenged or questioned because they were declared divine. This divine did not qualify the Father, Jesus was speaking to. 

We cannot have our words lifegiving unless there is desire for virtues. The truth of our words grows deeper as our relationship deepens; both with God and others. The grasp of truth fills us with more compassion and openness. In a genuine conversation, there may be constant recognition of “your words are truth and life.” Those words have authority to heal and to forgive. A heart that seeks virtues considers something fully, not partly, and it takes courage to speak truth without seeing whether others are pleased or not. One speaks of oneself in humility and sincerity; and speaks of others in truth, compassion and charity, seeing good of all. In both, prudence is exercised in speaking what and how. Wisdom comes to the aid to guide the conversation, and the living of it.  The disciples on the Emmaus way asked later, “Weren’t our hearts burning within us while He was speaking to us on the road and explaining the scriptures to us.” Lk 24: 32 Let us pray that our conversations touch the core realities of our lives, biological and genetic, emotional and psychic, social and cultural, philosophical and religious; not hiding, not pleasing, but strengthening, healing, and leading, interpreting our journey on the way in a new language of grace. 

“The mouth of the righteous utters wisdom, and his tongue speaks justice. The law of God is in his heart; his steps never slip.” Ps 37: 30. 

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Flower of Time

Next year, by this time, we may be there, I may have a job, I will have paid back the loan, and we should have a house. My medications may be over and I may be well again. See, we are already in the future. There is an investment of time. This investment involves hopes, dreams, fears, anxieties, and disappointment. Among these moments, some are opening to further events. All of them have something to fill into our life. As the title of J.T. Fraser’s book stands, Time is The Familiar Stranger. Are we running behind an arrow of time, are we being carried on a wheel of time? Or are we creators of time?

Time is unprompted. If we reflect on the spontaneity of time through the thoughts of Henri Bergson’s philosophy, the nature of time is ‘duration.’ Duration is not a measured sum of time stretched out between certain ends. Time is not a series of quantifiable moments ordered in a line; rather, it is a living, flowing entity that we experience only intuitively. Time is lived qualitative inner subjective experience.

Time is ever same, and every day is yet another day. It is true. But we experience passages of life; passages of day and night, birth and death and so on. So, passages invite us to newness, not because we may be wrong somehow, but to move into a qualitative human living. Understanding time as a living entity we can cherish the spontaneous nature of our experiences. Each moment of our lives, no matter how ordinary and familiar, carries its own depth and significance. There is beauty in it. What may come is not known. It permits us to flow with time, finding meaning in the unpredictability and chaos of life.  It encourages us to liberate ourselves from a rigid grasp of time.

Even many spiritual traditions confine time within a horizontal-linear framework. Our craze for the predictability of reality makes time so determined that even God cannot escape from human predictable outcomes. There is sin and punishment, blessing and prosperity, morality, error, and righteousness, all in one line with their causes and effects. These impose limitations on the richness of time.  This reductionist view strips away the dynamic and spontaneous essence of time. They overlook the complex and creative interplay of moments that constitute our lived experience. They may fixate on goals and endpoints, neglecting the significance of the journey itself, with all its nuances and spontaneity.

Often, we value time according to its utility toward a predetermined outcome. What is the use of ‘wasting’ time like this? Here time has become transactional. There we miss the inherent beauty of spontaneous existence; the joys, uncertainties, and unforeseen encounters.  It is in the appreciation of simply ‘being,’ presencing that we can be in the fluidity of time. Michael Ende, in his novel Momo, introduces time as a flower blooming from our hearts. It gradually unfolds. Time is an ever-unfolding tapestry, where each moment is interwoven with the past and the future, creating a rich tapestry of experience that defies any form of calculated and quantified form of time. Time is what we have outpoured for others. We cannot measure it, it can be known only by intuition.

We must begin with courage and hope; we must end certain stories; there are changes inevitable in our lives; there are doorways or passages we have to pass through. There is something sacred about it. These moments are not the same as other moments. The Roman god Janus, god of seasons, time and change, is often depicted with two faces looking into past and future. While we dwell in the present, it is an active blend of all our experiences shaped by our history and aspirations. Though time is seen as abstract, the lived time is complex and layered, demanding a deeper reflection on how we picture our existence within it.

Taking the spontaneity of time leads us to a celebration of life in its most authentic form. There we stand with the unfolding freedom of our hearts. Embracing such a view enriches our understanding of our existence; and fosters a more profound connection with the divine tapestry of which we are all a part. This tapestry of grace carries our events most beautifully, and fully immerse ourselves in the beauty of the now, experiencing it as a sacred and spontaneous gift. The beginnings and the end mark gateways archways, and thresholds that lead us to peace. If there is no peace, there is no grace of time. Time is born of Terra and Caelus, the Earth and the Sky. Peace, grace, and beauty of time unfold as we have a harmonious living with the earth and the sky.

Time is a familiar stranger, but time has a name, Logos, the Word, the beginning and the end, the origin and purpose of all things. Logos is the passage through which all pass, the threshold at which everyone must make a transitional choice for peace, harmony, beauty and goodness. In Logos, every being unfolds and finds one’s truth. In logos one reveals and opens a petal of time. As the Word unfolds, so too does time.