Service a self gift

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

Prayer of our hearts

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Service: A Contemplative Act of Listening

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

📺Service: A Contemplative Act of Listening

Neighbours and outsiders

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Risk of the Gospel

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

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

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

Pilgrimage

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

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

as stars in the night and crops in famine

Joseph may have had known God's consolation and comfort in his lonely nights as he had lost his mother. Perhaps his dreams were of a missing affection. He suffered rejection and jealousy, he was sold, he was jailed. He did not turn bitter, but became a provider of good things. "God sent me before you to preserve your lives, he said.

If we justify our bitterness how are we to carry out the mission of Jesus to preach the good news and heal the sick? There may be reasons to hold grudge and be angry. The Christian living must take us to such a process of being providers of good things, not people of bitterness and hostility. In our darkness, let us dream of grace as stars in the night and crops in famine; not for us to be the centre, but to preserve the lives of many.

He loved us

Jesus loved us. He loved us ‘to the end.’ Here, the phrase ‘to the end’ is not simply meaning he loved us until his last breath. It means that he loved us to the absolute maximum of his capacity to love. Julian of Norwich, in her ‘Revelations of Divine Love’ speaks about the boundless love of Jesus and its connection to his sufferings, “Even his suffering on the cross could not fully satisfy his marvelous love; and Jesus very affectionately said these words, ‘If I could suffer more, I would suffer even more.’” His sufferings were a sign of his self-emptying love.

This sharing is about the affectionate relationship we can have with Jesus, and how deeply He loves each of us. We will consider the tradition of devotion to his wounds and His pierced side and Sacred Heart as a sign of the love of Christ for humanity. We will see how these spiritual practices developed, how they sometimes strayed from their essential meaning, and the journey back to their true meaning. Our main focus will be the devotion to the Sacred Heart, and insights from Pope Francis’ recent encyclical, ‘Dilexit Nos.’

Moving away from earlier emphases on the triumphant Christ, from the 12th century onward, a more affective piety developed, intensely focusing on Christ’s humanity and suffering. The making of crucifixes, Man of Sorrows images (depicting the wounded Christ), and instruments of the Passion provided tangible focal points for devotion. These images were designed to evoke empathy, pity, and affectionate love in the viewer, leading to a deeper identification with Christ’s sacrifice. Consequently, many mystics deeply contemplated his wounds, especially the pierced side, seeing them as profound symbols of his love, and also expressed great affection for the Heart of Jesus. For these mystics, the wounds were revealing the intimate, affectionate, self-sacrificial love of God, a love that ‘poured out’ everything for humanity.

Cistercian mystic St Bernard of Clairvaux (c. 1090-1153) taught that one could enter into the “secret of Christ’s heart” through the wound in his side. He would speak to Jesus saying: “Where have your love, your mercy, your compassion shone out more luminously than in your wounds, sweet, gentle Lord of mercy?” For German mystic Mechthild of Magdeburg (c. 1207-c. 1282) the wounds were direct doors to divine intimacy. She describes drinking from the wounds, especially the side wound, as a source of divine grace and spiritual nourishment. A German Benedictine nun St Gertrude (1256-c. 1302) describes intimate communion with Christ, often resting her head in the wound of his side, experiencing it as a refuge and a source of overwhelming love and comfort. Spirituality of St Catherine of Siena (1347-1380) a Dominican tertiary and Doctor of the Church, was centered on the Blood of Christ, which flowed from his wounds, especially the side. She frequently speaks of “bathing in the Blood,” “drowning in the Blood,” and “clothed in the Blood,” seeing it as the ultimate sign of divine love.

The ‘Heart of Jesus’ became the embodiment of his interior life, his compassion, mercy, and boundless charity, and a yearning for reciprocal affection from our heart. His wounds were an invitation to intimacy and transformation through divine love, revealing that Christ’s suffering was not merely something to be pitied, but was an active outpouring of love. To truly imitate Christ through compassion means to ‘suffer with’ Him. This is not just a passive feeling but an active spiritual journey that helps us develop deep empathy for His Passion, leading us to a sincere conversion of heart, profound gratitude, and a genuine commitment to alleviate the suffering we see in others, just as Christ did.

In our lives, every struggle and suffering we face is seen by Jesus. When we lovingly unite these personal hardships with Christ’s own Passion, they become redemptive. This is what it means to ‘offer them up’: to entrust our pain to Him, allowing God to transform our struggles into means of grace, not only for ourselves but also for others, through our participation in Christ’s loving sacrifice. This ‘offering up’ receives its value from the true imitation of Christ, resembling His self-emptying, patient, loving, and life-giving sacrifice. It is crucial to remember that it is not the pain or misery itself that is valued, but rather the imitation of Christ’s attitude in the moments of our sufferings - His unwavering love and self-giving even in suffering.

The late medieval period preceding the Reformation saw a flourishing, and at times, an awkward growth of popular devotions. Though in the pre-Reformation era, we saw as rich in vibrant and sincere faith, we could also see many practices that could easily slide into superstitions. The 17th century in Europe was a period marked by significant religious, political, and social changes. Before 1517, spiritual and temporal authority of the Roman Catholic Church was virtually unchallenged. After the Protestant Reformation the religious landscape of Western Europe had significant changes. As the Protestant Reformers de-emphasized practices that seemed to suggest human merit or mediation as necessary for salvation, many traditional devotions, particularly those involving saints, relics, and even the Mass, were rejected or severely curtailed in Protestant territories. Churches were stripped of images, pilgrimages ceased, and the focus shifted to preaching the Word of God.

The Counter-Reformation movement of the Catholic Church desired to renew and strengthen its spiritual life and doctrines. While it certainly aimed to halt the spread of Protestantism, it was also a genuine internal renewal. the Council of Trent (1545-1563) addressed the very abuses that had fuelled the Reformation. While it upheld the legitimacy of devotions, it also sought to purify them. The Council mandated proper catechesis, promoted reverent use of sacred art, and encouraged a more disciplined, theologically sound practice of piety, seeking to restore integrity and spiritual depth to devotional life. There was a flourishing of mystical experiences and the emergence of new religious orders and spiritualities.

Devotions were re-framed not as mechanical acts for merit, but as expressions of love, gratitude, and a desire for deeper union with God. The rosary, the Stations of the Cross, and various novenas gained renewed spiritual significance, becoming pathways to contemplation and an affective relationship with Christ, Mary, and the saints. This era saw a renewed emphasis on the emotional and aesthetic dimensions of faith, fostering a vibrant popular piety that aimed to engage the whole person in spiritual growth.

While the Counter-Reformation promoted devotions to grow in intimacy with Jesus, Jansenism, a 17th-century Catholic movement, contrasted sharply with the era’s growing emphasis on Christ’s love and affectionate devotion. It stressed human depravity, believing that original sin had so deeply corrupted humanity that individuals were utterly incapable of doing good or desiring God. Jansenists promoted an extraordinarily strict moral code and a highly demanding approach to the sacraments, especially Holy Communion. They believed that one must be in a state of near-perfect contrition and profound purity to receive the Eucharist, making it a very rare possibility for many. Instead of nurturing loving communion with God, Jansenism cultivated a fearful, distant piety, directly opposing the vibrant, hopeful, and affectionate nature of Christian faith that was blossoming in that time.

Against this backdrop, the apparitions to Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque took place between 1673 and 1675. She reported that in these visions, Jesus revealed his Sacred Heart as a symbol of his immense love for humanity. The Sacred Heart is a representation of his love – burning with love, wounded, and surrounded by thorns symbolizing the pain caused by sin and ingratitude.

Pope Francis’ fourth and final encyclical, ‘Dilexit Nos - Encyclical Letter on the Human and Divine Love of the Heart of Jesus Christ’ was published on October 24, 2024, on the 350th anniversary of the first apparition of the Sacred Heart of Jesus to St. Margaret. Pope Francis uses it to call for a rediscovery of ‘the heart’ as a way towards unity, peace, and reconciliation in a world often marked by individualism, social inequalities, and technological challenges.

According to classical Greek understanding, the word kardía denotes the inmost part of human beings, animals and plants. It indicates the human soul and spirit. Thoughts and feelings proceed from the heart and are closely bound one to another. The heart is the place of desire and the place where important decisions take shape. The heart serves to unite the rational and instinctive aspects of a person. According to the Bible, the heart has no place for deceit and disguise. It is the place of sincerity, indicating our true intentions, what we really think, believe and desire. It is the part of us that is authentic, real, entirely ‘who we are.’

The heart of Christ, as the symbol of the deepest and most personal source of his love for us, is the core of the preaching of the Gospel. His heart shows his sincere love for us, his message, and his actions. It reveals his desires, and stance he had taken. His love saw the entire humanity as ‘his own.’ The heart shows the entirety of Christ revealing that God is closeness, compassion and tender love. Whenever Jesus healed someone, he preferred to do it in close proximity touching us. When we are hurt by lies, injuries and disappointments, he encourages saying, take heart my son/daughter. Jesus looks attentively into our lives and sees all that we are, the sadness, failures, disappointments, rejection and everything. Seeing this love, looking up to Jesus, what do we seek? Salvation, success, victory, prosperity, protection or security? What we must discover is that ‘he loved us.’

The heart of Jesus is “the natural sign and symbol of his boundless love.” Devotion to the heart of Christ is not the veneration of a single organ apart from the Person of Jesus. As we venerate that image, our worship is directed solely to the living Christ, in his divinity and his plenary humanity, so that we may be embraced by his human and divine love. With this heart, the incarnate Son of God is alive, loves us and receives our love in return.

It is not the power of the image of the sacred heart that we approach. The venerable image portraying Christ holding out his loving heart also shows him looking directly at us, inviting us to encounter, dialogue and trust; it shows his hands capable of supporting us and his lips that speak personally to each of us.

The Gospel reveals not only divine charity but also human affection of Christ. The heart of Jesus throbbed with love and every other tender affection. The image of the sacred heart speaks to us in fact of a threefold love. First, we contemplate his infinite divine love. Then we see the spiritual dimension of his humanity, in which the heart is the symbol of that most ardent love which, infused into his soul, enriches his human will. It is a symbol also of his sensible love.

All the hopes and aspirations of his heart were directed towards the Father. This heart also knew that he had always been loved by the Father. The fire of the Holy Spirit fills the heart of Christ. The pierced heart is the declaration of God’s infinite love. His pierced side is also the source of new life, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Being in his heart, we are also brought to the same communion Jesus has with the Father and the Holy Spirit. Entering into the heart of Christ, our hearts are filled with affections and emotions that are flooded with grace and charity. We know the consolation and comfort of the heart of Christ, and both the hearts find the joy of mutual giving and receiving. We realise that we are received, understood, and known completely in his love. That love welcomes us, nourishes us, completes us and leads to an experience of fulfilment.

This devotion invites us for a personal encounter with love and friendship. Heart speaks to the heart. So, it is from the heart we understand the compassion, mercy, tenderness and affection of Christ. It is in our heart we receive this love and respond. We contemplate the sacred heart to find the tenderness of faith in a world characterised by harshness and indifference. In this contemplation, Christ's passion is not only recollected but becomes present to us by grace. This contemplation is an act of love. His heart, oppressed with rejection, humiliation, weariness and anguish, might find consolation by true repentance and genuine love. We recognize our own sins, which Jesus took upon his bruised shoulders. Whenever we offer some suffering of our own in imitation of his passion, that suffering is illuminated and transfigured in the paschal light of his love.

There is a natural desire to console Christ, when we feel sorrow for his sufferings. This desire to console him grows with the honest acknowledgment of our bad habits, compulsions, attachments, weak faith, vain goals and, together with our actual sins, the failure of our hearts to respond to the Lord’s love. This experience purifies us, leaving us more desirous of God and less obsessed with ourselves. It is not a feeling of guilt that makes us discouraged or obsessed with our unworthiness. This does not mean weeping in self-pity, as we are so often tempted to do. In contemplating the heart of Christ and his self-surrender even to death, we ourselves find great consolation. The grief that we feel in our hearts gives way to complete trust and, in the end, what endures is gratitude, tenderness, peace; what endures is Christ’s love reigning in our lives. In seeking to console him, we will find ourselves consoled.

Our hearts are now opened to the working of the Holy Spirit. Helped by the Holy Spirit, our best response to the love of Christ’s heart is to love our brothers and sisters. Jesus loved, not just the privileged and the worthy, he recognized the dignity of every person, especially those who were considered ‘unworthy.’ They are even more ‘worthy’ of our respect and love when they are weak, scorned, or suffering, even to the point of losing the human ‘figure’ as Christ was disfigured. We don’t have to necessarily search for them, the needy and the poor are with us and around us.

We have seen the aspects of consoling and being consoled by Christ. There is another aspect of reparation. The true reparation asked by Jesus is to unite filial love for God and love of neighbour in order to build the Kingdom of the heart of Christ, the greatly desired civilization of love over the ruins accumulated by hatred and violence. So, reparation is not a pious practice of taking up pains and sufferings or adding a quantity of prayers, it is a total conversion of heart leading to concrete actions for restoring beauty and goodness and healing the wounded world. The heart of Christ desires that we cooperate with him in restoring goodness and beauty to our world. Our conversion of heart, if it is honest, imposes the obligation to challenge the evil structures.

Reparations in the perspective of the Gospel have a vital social dimension. So, our acts of love, service and reconciliation, in order to be truly reparative, need to be inspired, motivated and empowered by Christ. Christian reparation cannot be understood simply doing many pious activities, however indispensable and at times admirable they may be. Reparations must possess a tireless creativity. They need the life, the fire and the light that radiate from the heart of Christ. Repairing the harm done to this world also calls for a desire to mend wounded hearts where the deepest harm was done, and the hurt is most painful. At times, complete reparation may seem impossible, such as when goods or loved ones are definitely lost, or when we cannot remedy certain situations. The true spirit of reparation is the hope that every wound can be healed, however deep it may be. We often find comfort in our pious devotional practices, no matter how rigorous they might seem. Bu, reparation, if it is to be Christian, demands acknowledging our guilt and asking forgiveness in order to touch the offended person’s heart.

In Catholic tradition, reparation is fundamentally about a heartfelt conversion that inspires acts of love and justice. However, this concept was sometimes seriously misunderstood throughout history, distorting into an emphasis on self-inflicted pain and harsh conditions as the primary way to make amends to God. Reparations, at times, are seen as causing God’s mercy. This distortion stemmed from practices like asceticism, which, while originally aimed at spiritual growth and uniting with Christ’s suffering, deviated into harmful extremes. For example, the Flagellant movements of the 13th and 14th centuries involved public self-scourging, turning an internal act of repentance into a raw, external display, almost as if to produce God’s pity. Later, the severe moral rigor of Jansenism in the 17th and 18th centuries reinforced the misguided belief that intense self-denial was necessary to gain grace, driven by fear rather than love.

True Christian suffering, when rightly understood, unites us with Christ’s love for the world, leading to acts of justice and compassion for others, and seeking to heal the brokenness in the world, rather than adding inflicted pain for personal satisfaction or a transactional exchange with God. Instead of fostering love and selfless service, these misconceptions reduced a beautiful spiritual practice to a harmful, self-focused torment that ultimately misses the core of Christian faith and its call to loving relationship with God and neighbour. Even when individuals genuinely believe they are performing acts of extreme self-inflicted penance out of love for God or for reparation, such practices are not after the heart of Christ. God desires our wholehearted love, not our misery. Those who suffer for the sanctification of the world, can develop a spiritual pride, because the whole rest of the world is sinful. The individual, perhaps unconsciously, begins to perceive themselves as having a superior spiritual status due to their extreme acts. This stems from a misunderstanding that greater suffering equates to greater holiness. This happens when their actions imply a God who is somehow pleased by human pain and suffering, rather than by the loving and free conversion of the heart.

True Christian reparation is concrete acts of justice and compassion for a wounded world by spreading the waves of his infinite tenderness in this world. Love includes sacrifice and challenges. The sacrifices and sufferings required by these acts of love of neighbours unite us to the passion of Christ. Often, our sacrifices have to do with our own wounded ego. The humility of the heart of Christ points us towards the path of abasement. God chose to come to us in condescension and littleness. Acts of love of neighbour, with the renunciation, self-denial, suffering and effort that they entail, can be similar to those of Christ when they are nourished by Christ’s own love.

We need to remember that the visions or mystical revelations related by certain saints who passionately spoke of the sufferings, wounds or the heart are not something that the faithful are obliged to believe as if they were the word of God. We need not feel obliged to accept or appropriate every detail of their spiritual experience, in which, as often happens, God’s intervention combines with human elements related to the individual’s own desires, concerns and interior images. These experiences must always be interpreted in the light of the Gospel and the spiritual tradition of the Church, even as we acknowledge the good they accomplish in many of our brothers and sisters. These devotions must express our openness in faith and adoration to the mystery of the Lord’s divine and human love. It must be genuine, free of all superficial religiosity and piety. Otherwise, certain rigorous forms of devotional practices developed based on such revelations result in a Christianity stripped of the tender consolations of faith, the joy of serving others, the fervour of personal commitment to mission, the beauty of knowing Christ and the profound gratitude born of the friendship he offers and the ultimate meaning he gives to our lives. They claim secret knowledge and true faith, and a kind of spiritual elitism.

As devotions help our daily practice of faith, they also can deviate from faith and become superstitious. Catechism of the Catholic Church 2111 says “To attribute the efficacy of prayers or of sacramental signs to their mere external performance, apart from the interior dispositions that they demand, is to fall into superstition.” We all have religious practices that are special to us. But if we start to believe they work automatically, like a magic spell, without our heart truly being in it - without our faith or love for God - then they become superstitious. That is where we are giving power to something other than God, treating a prayer, a relic, a medal, or even quantified adorations, as if these possess divine power. Sometimes, we even unknowingly add our own little twists to devotions, mixing in practices that might stimulate and comfort guilt, sadness, or a need for protection, and then suggesting these personal additions are the real solution and cause divine power.

Catholic practice of the veneration of relics is a legitimate form of devotion (CCC 1674). It honours the saint as a model of holiness and acknowledges that God works through His saints, both in life and after death. The novenas, litanies, and relics remind of the virtues lived by the saint and invite us to follow those virtues. Instead, if our belief is that merely touching a relic automatically grants a blessing, protection from harm, or remission of sin, without any accompanying faith, repentance, or intention to grow closer to God, that is not right. People can go on ‘collecting’ relics for their supposed magical power and have a monopoly over the supposed power even for fighting wars. In extremity of devotions even there can be tendencies to create fake relics.

Pilgrimages have always been a meaningful religious practice across the world. In ancient times the pilgrims were not even sure whether they would return. There is a physical effort, penance, and a spiritual journey, often leading to deeper conversion, prayer, and an experience of the sacred. But merely completing a pilgrimage cannot secure salvation, free of sins, or guarantee specific blessings.

An indulgence, in Catholic teaching, is the remission of temporal punishment due to sins whose guilt has already been forgiven. It is a gift from the Church, offered on specific occasions, that the faithful can receive through prayer and good works, drawing its power from the vast merits of Christ and the spiritual treasury of the communion of saints. It's absolutely not a guarantee that you can go out and engage in all sorts of wrongdoing and then simply 'buy' your way out or be magically freed.

The abuse of selling indulgences in the late medieval period exemplifies superstitious practice. Many were led to believe that they could pay to get themselves (or their loved ones) out of purgatory, rather than understanding it as a spiritual act requiring genuine repentance and charity. Offering Masses for the deceased is a pious and charitable act, rooted in the belief that the prayers of the living can assist the souls in purgatory. We do it out of our gratitude towards whom we know, and out of charity for all the deceased. If it is the number of Masses offered, or the size of the monetary offering for them, that ensures a faster exit from purgatory, we are deviating our faith from relying on God.

Now, while genuine practices like asceticism and penance have always been part of Catholic tradition, some went to the extremes. There was a trend where people would even spiritualize self-inflicted pain or torture, and that is where it really deviated from the true focus on Christ’s love. Authentic penance is about working towards justice and a radical conversion of heart - it is about inner transformation as persons and communities, not just outward suffering. When pain becomes the goal for ‘self-purification’ or ‘pleasing God,’ it can actually feed spiritual pride or an unhealthy focus on oneself instead of God. It is almost like the pain itself becomes intoxicating, and that is when a distorted spirituality steps in to justify these unhealthy practices. Perhaps it was because the plague and poverty raised many questions on God and human existence. Attributing all suffering directly to divine retribution can lead to despair, fear, and a distorted image of an avenging God.

The Sacred Heart of Jesus is the supreme embodiment of Christ’s boundless love, inviting us into a deeper experience of intimacy and affection. It is also a moment for expressing our tender love and affection. This devotion inspires us to heal a wounded world through genuine charity and works of justice. Entering into the heart of Christ, we are consoled, we are brought to the communion with God and others especially the ‘unworthy’ of this world.

Sent to the Lost Sheep

Jesus summoned his twelve disciples, and gave them authority over unclean spirits with power to cast them out and to cure all kinds of diseases and sickness. Jesus called his disciples to continue his mission, rooted in the transformative and unifying qualities of the Gospel. He gave them authority, not to rule but to distribute from the storehouse of grace, freely like God. Dear friends, we have this great opportunity to follow Jesus on his way. Discipleship is not achieving a status, but embracing a journey walking close to Jesus. Jesus teaches, heals, feeds, and in doing so, he shows the essential qualities that define the taste of the Gospel and the nature of our ministry.

This Sunday, we learned that peace to be the guiding light for the Gospel that we are sent to preach. The Gospel is Good News, and its primary fruit is peace. Yesterday, we heard that we are meant to offer a blessing. As disciples, we are not just recipients of blessings, but are called to be a sign of God’s time of favour. Today we are told to seek for the lost and cherish the bond of unity. When he came to ‘his own,’ his own did not have any boundary. He reached out to all. The lost sheep or the scattered children of Israel were already dispersed to far places. So, ‘the lost’ for them was the harassed and dejected, and the sheep without a shepherd. It is to them the Good News was given, that the kingdom of God is close at hand. It had to begin at home, a ministry of peace, blessing, unity and seeking out the lost. It is the first ministry, a call to a compassionate search for those alienated from God and community. It is an authority shaped in the life-giving love of God, an authority for people, and for their salvation. The authenticity of our authority is validated by how closely our actions resemble those of Jesus. It is not the authority of the leaders alone; it is of all the disciples.

Joseph had the authority to distribute grain from his store. As disciples, we have the authority to distribute from the store of blessings opening the spiritual granaries of heaven for a world that is hungry and thirsty.

The Gospel often challenges societal norms and personal comfort zones. Some make profit out of conflict, so preaching peace might invite their resistance, we may be termed as siding with those whom they condemn to be evil. Similarly, seeking the lost also may put stigma over us because those who are sought do not come under a holy frame of religion or society. It is easy to turn to a mode of judgement and condemnation instead of a truly contemplative mode rooted in compassion and charity.

We often wish change in ‘the other.’ They may change their ways, they may return to the Lord, they may avoid sins. These rushing to the ‘pagan territories’ may bypass our own primary responsibilities of seeking the lost, the rejected and the lonely or of challenging the systems that have created den of robbers. When eyes are blind with biases and prejudices over the pagan others, our enthusiasm, though honest, may lead to frustration, conflict, or ineffective ministry. It also relates to a lack of understanding of the Missio Dei (the Mission of God), where God is already at work in all cultures. The comfort zones can also define this saying “don't go to pagan territory” as to limit the store of graces to an insulated Christian community. This exclusion fails to embrace the universal call of the Gospel.

Our discipleship is a mirroring the very life and character of Jesus. This initial focus on ‘the lost sheep of Israel’ serves not as a limitation, but as a lesson in mission: that true transformation begins at home, within our own communities and hearts, embracing the harassed, the dejected, and those without a shepherd – the real lost sheep of our time, regardless of their societal or religious frame.

Time of blessings

Harvest is about good crops, and it is for the benefit of the farmer. Farmer watches over the field; sun, rain, ... everything matters. It is a cry, a struggle. 'Labourers for the harvest' is for the good of what is sown; for those who are dejected, harassed and are like sheep without a shepherd. Gospel is life for them, not a deceiving dream or an exploiting promise for those who struggle. 

At times human life is left to be a lone fight with God and people.  Many may be angry with God and may have cursed God. There is no one to relate to. There they beg for a blessing, a moment to live. Harvest of joy is to be extended to the field of these hearts that knew the abandonment. this blessing is not just greeting God's help, but ensuring our support for them.

Often we pronounce condemnation and curse or interpret the misfortunes to be because of curses from God. Curse is strange to the nature of God. Jesus announced the year of God's favour; its a time of blessing. Blessing must shape the nature of our observations, discernment, decisions, and directions.

Greet: Peace be with you

 Christian living is after the language of the Gospel. Every ministry of the Gospel is shaped essentially by peace. Peace is not relaxation or a tensionless state nor is it an absence of violence or conflict. Peace is a docility to life i.e. it is lifegiving. So, the Gospel is lived, preached, and introduced in peace that is lifegiving.

Greeting of peace is not just a customary greeting. It is a sincere desire that life be experienced by everyone. But, how can we offer peace or life if we ourselves have not experienced it? Peace can be experienced only when we take all our life’s realities to the tenderness and the freedom of the love of God. Its personalising of the freedom of the Gospel – kindness, mercy, love, forgiveness, care, freedom from fear and guilt, confidence to face truth and stand for truth, willingness to forgive, love, and serve, spontaneity of the children of God in daily life, prayer, and relationships – being consoled, comforted, nourished, and strengthened. Isiah expresses this tenderness and freedom similar to a child’s experience of love at its mother’s breast, being fed, or playing on her lap. While we often emphasise on the ‘power’ ‘victory’ factors of the Gospel pointing to the miracle workers and healers we neglect this personalisation process which really needs to touch our hearts. We have mistaken seeing grace as a problem solving energy, it is tenderness of life we need greatly.

Once we have known the peace having consoled and strengthened by God, we are gradually transformed into Gospel men and women. The gospel is the covenantal mark that we bear on our life. These signs essentially carry peace within. Anything that is taken in the name of the Gospel but devoid of peace is not of faith, nor of the church nor of tradition. They may speak of the nobility of tradition, language, true faith, and so on, yet causes conflicts and power-consolidations; they are ideologies not the Gospel.

The light of the gospel has a struggle to shine where we are most vulnerable, our homes and our communities. Greeting of peace that the life of ours and of God may find a place in their life fruitfully is the door that we knock that in turn we ourselves may be received into the light of the Gospel.

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.