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.