Unconditional belonging, grace and freedom

We are truly the children of God. That is what Jesus taught us. Being one in Christ the Son, we are all children of God. Moved by the Spirit we are all the children of God. The same spirit of being the children of God makes us cry out ‘Abba father.’ It is in the home of the Father the children grow, find their being, welcomed, strengthened when they are weak, healed when they are injured, and found when they are lost. This is the core of Christian life, it had to be the essence of our life. Yet, for some reasons, through history, we were fascinated by sin and guilt, and the entire faith was often framed within a legalistic focus on transgression. This focus tragically obscured the profound, unconditional welcome found in the Father’s home. Perhaps there is a background of the retributive theology of the Old Testament which supports a ransom theology.  If the sin is necessary to explain salvation, perhaps we have understood salvation wrongly. Children-freedom-grace model would have given a much better face to Christianity than the sin-salvation model. Freedom of the children of God is something we need to meditate deeply and grow. It is not something that we need to merely experience but also to ensure where it is not found.

Prayer vs Court Process

The parable of the unjust judge (Luke 18:1-8) is one of Jesus’ most insightful teachings on how we understand our relationship with God and how easily that image can be distorted. The widow, with her unwavering insistence, is often our model, and the unjust judge, by analogy, becomes a reluctant God who needs to be persuaded. So, often, we hear this parable interpreted simply as a call to persistent prayer: “Keep asking, keep knocking, eventually God will give in!”

While perseverance in prayer is, without doubt, a virtue, Jesus’ intention in this parable goes deeper. He isn't saying, "God is like this unjust judge, so we must keep on asking Him." He is saying, "If even an unjust judge, who cares nothing for God or humanity, will eventually respond to persistent pleading, how much more will your loving Heavenly Father, who yearns for your well-being, listen and act on your behalf!" The warning here is vital: God should never be pictured like this judge.

The Pharisaic system, for all its devotion, often maintained an image of God as a distant, legalistic judge, meticulously weighing merits and demerits, demanding endless rituals and perfect adherence to an complex system of law. Prayer, in such a system, could become less about heartfelt communion and more about proving one's worthiness, a transaction to earn favour. This placed a huge spiritual burden on people, leading to anxiety, guilt, and a constant fear of not being "good enough."

Jesus showed us a home and introduced us to have conversations in that home. God has made a home with us. Prayer is a conversation in that home. Other than in a homely atmosphere, where can we find true justice? The parable clearly shows the need for perseverance in prayer. Jesus assures us that God, unlike the unjust judge, will “grant justice to his chosen ones who cry out to him day and night.” More than what we say or what we practice, true prayer is an attitude and a growth. In one way or another, prayer is an openness to the righteousness of God. When we seek God’s action, asking for personal favours or spiritual growth, it is all about calling for the establishment of God’s righteous order in a world often marked by emptiness. The prayer Jesus taught us is all about the just and righteous rule of God. “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven,” is not only a request, it is also an openness for God’s will in our life. This is the ultimate request for a just, equitable, and truthful reality. Similarly, “Give us this day our daily bread,” desires economic and social justice and also shows willingness to work for that justice. “forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us,” looks for restoring peace and reconciliation, also the readiness to forgive and be reconciled.

Seeking God’s will in prayer leads us through a growth in truth, justice, and trust as an essential environment for genuine communion. Prayer is not just our pleas or performances of rituals, it is also our genuine actions of kindness and of standing for justice where there is injustice.  Prayer acknowledges one’s situation, needs, failings, and genuine intentions without any pretence. It is also a freedom from seeking any hiding places in the name of piety, religiosity, or social activism. Prayer challenges us to come face-to-face with ourselves. As the truth of our life is before us, what gives us confidence in prayer is our trust that God is just and will respond to our sincere appeals according to His perfect will. So, the prayer is not just a personal request, but aligning our will with God’s righteousness. Prayer is never a religious activity, but a life style.

How often in different ways we hear, that the best way to approach God is to beg harder, plead and suffer helplessness? The widow's insistence models the unshakeable faith that God will indeed "grant justice to his chosen ones." It teaches us to trust deeper. When we embrace Him as the loving Father who has already made a home with us, the entire nature of prayer transforms. Prayer becomes a sincere conversation in the secure atmosphere of that home. It is a radical act of vulnerability, laying bare our genuine self—our needs, our failings, and our deepest intentions—without the pretense of piety or activism.

To pray, then, is to step out of the lonely courtroom of self-righteousness where we have to defend our case, where we fear the judgment of a legalistic God, and to fully embrace the truth of Christ's desire: "Your kingdom come, your will be done." This is an openness to God's righteousness that bring our anxious, self-seeking will to His gentle, just, and life-giving reality. 

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Be compassionate

Be compassionate, grant pardon, do not judge, and do not condemn… they ask from us something so great from our deep resources. To approach the truth of a person or an event, we do need wise judgment and a process of discernment. It isn't about ignoring wrongdoing but about reorienting the purpose of judgment itself. In this sense, it is less about a detached, forensic analysis of actions and more about a heartfelt attempt to see the whole person – we may be able to see them where they are freed from our biases and prejudices. It’s the discernment of a compassionate heart to reread and retell the story of their pain, their struggles, and their value. Then, wisdom guides us to judge in truth, which has a compassionate face.

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Capax dei

We know a missing element in our hearts, may be formed in different ways although our lives. This emptiness is a yearning for grace, one way or the other shapes the very uniqueness of a person. This Capax Dei is a spiritual longing in our being.

In Mary, the capacity for God blossomed into the most beautiful flower. She received in her the Son of God. She is also the living testament, that the capacity for God prepares generations to form grace structures to fill us with grace. About her conception, our faith defines, Mary, from the moment of conception, by a singular grace and privilege of Almighty God, and in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, Savior of the human race, preserved free from all stain of original sin. If we see it as a divine magic of one moment we have less reason to rejoice. Of course, what happened in Mary is a divine grace, but it also signifies a completion of that inherent receptivity, perhaps as a culmination of grace-structures formed through many generations, culminating in Mary utterly open to the Divine.  These generations, persons showed their truthfulness and openness to receive grace to fill their yearning, being healed of wounds that sins would originate in them and breed.

Mary has a face, a blueprint for humanity’s ongoing transformation. Her "fullness of grace" is not a static, unreachable ideal, but an active invitation. Mary’s Capax Dei radiates a boundless compassion that shows the Divine love she so perfectly contained. Each generation, holds the potential to build upon this sacred lineage, to cultivate anew this capacity for God. It is in acts of empathy, in selfless giving, in the fearless embrace of the marginalised, that the ‘Capax Dei’ of a generation truly expands. Her birth, then, is a constant spring of hope, reminding us that the human spirit, imbued with its sacred capacity, can continuously transform itself, mirroring her grace, extending her charity, and thereby becoming, in every living moment, a fresh epiphany of God’s presence on Earth.

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Blessedness

Being poor and hungry, suffering and mourning were not signs of divine blessing, but signs of a curse according to many beliefs. Even now many prefer to believe so. But to these, Jesus attaches the blessedness of God’s kingdom. There is a freedom to trust because he taught about God to be our Father. The Gospel sets people to feed, console, stand for justice, and ensure resources for the feeble. The hungry being satisfied, those who weep being consoled and so on, are the signs of liberation the Gospel brings. These are the marks of Christ humanity can bear on their lives; the beauty or the glory revealed in us with Christ’s Glory. The blessedness is a gift and a responsibility which reflects the opening words of Gospel announcement “… he has sent me to proclaim good news to the poor, liberty to captives, to open the eyes of the blind…”  These acts of grace make a renewal in us in the image of the creator. See around, see within - he is everything and he is in everything. There are no differences, domination and divisions, no one is higher or lower, outsider or one’s own, nothing is strange or hostile … only Christ. The things of above, for Jesus, were not super-transcendental high ideals, instead they were breaking one’s separating boundaries and extending oneself to others in love in the freedom of the gospel.  Live the beatitudes in the freedom of the gospel, see the beauty of Christ being revealed in us, and in the church.

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Beyond Vengeance: Embracing Life for All

When prophets called for repentance, a self-critique for renewal, they condemned those on the other side who were apparently strangers or enemies. Jonah is a symbol of all those attitudes, and the time they held this approach. If they pleased Yahweh, they could expect Yahweh to do what they liked.  Jonah, though he spoke of the nature of Yahweh as full of love, compassion and slow to anger, he does not expect Yahweh to act according to his nature. Jonah represented the general approach of the people. Gradually, in some sectors, the understanding took a renewed outlook, taking a universal vision; God's goodness and compassion extend to all people. Jesus revealed God as Father of all, and we are all God's children. The righteousness of God is inclusive of all, seeing the good of all. It is natural that we may desire to win. Divine righteousness means the winning of everyone, and the life of all. Seeking vengeance and destruction is not about divine justice, but about self-righteousness. Every other person, other nation, or other race may be destroyed in establishing justice; that may be our expectation of justice. Ultimately, that which would remain is a 'me' who is justified. That is actually a hell. In our evaluations, viewpoints, and even in prayers, revenge-seeking attitudes may be present. Unless our perspectives, choices and observances are moulded by the nature of divine righteousness, which desires good and life for all, we have not known the heart of Christ. 

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Weapon for a Battlefield? Rosary as a Channel of Grace and Peace

The Holy Rosary is a prayer centred on the life of Jesus, life of Mary and the life of each of us. We meditate them through the Joyful, Sorrowful, Luminous and Glorious Mysteries. The repetition of the Hail Mary is a contemplative means to involve the grace announced to humanity in the person of Mary deeply into our personal lives, and to live the Gospel events. We invite Mary, the perfect disciple who pondered all these events in her heart, to help us see her Son's life with greater clarity and love. Mary's divine agency is to be understood within the aspect of fullness of grace. The healing, help, care, and victory that we ask of her are all within this grace. The imaginations on her victory should never be pictured or imagined as though in a war model, as though she was a war goddess. If pictured like that, we take away the nature of grace and divine action. Her power or agency is not a separate, inherent force, but the perfect channel for Christ's grace. Her "victory" is therefore the triumph of humility and obedient faith, not military might.

 God's favours are not for one nation, or people or religion, God's grace is given from his abundant goodness for the good of all. He grants victory, but not by destroying anyone, but by brining good for all. the figures like god fighting for his own people misrepresent the god images in the gospel, and instead we fill our beliefs with politicised images of god with vengeance, anger and siding with our interests. The same is true with the prayer of Rosary. Rosary is not a weaponised instrument, nor the prayer of rosary is a magical prayer. Rosary is a life story we are trying to retell and relive. There we hope for the graces that was once present in the life of those who were participants in the gospel story. We win by grace, not over anyone, but by a growth in grace for the good of all. The war models we have in our religious imaginations must give way for models of peace and dialogue.

In many new trends, under politicised emotionalism we are celebrating religion and its symbols. Are we glorifying god? Many are happy that there seems to be a revival and great witness. In such trends, we are risking grace for identity games. They are war-cry and celebrations without life and grace in it. If the crowd has no life, what will gather them after this momentum?

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sorrows of Mary

In devotions to the sorrows of mary, she has seven sorrows. If humanity's wounds are truly the wounds of Christ, Mary's sorrows also will be unresolved. From the view of redemption, Rachel weeping for her children at Ramah, the cry of mothers of babes in Bethlehem… were they not sorrows for Mary though jesus escaped the cruelty of Herod?  To understand and honour the sorrows of Mary, perhaps what we need is to accept and welcome her as our mother and listen to her what she would say. That is what Jesus said, "Here is your mother." Though we justify that what we do is to venerate, we have made her a superpowerful deity who is almighty, fighting war and bringing victory. From the view of devotion, we see the seven sorrows of Mary; often these sorrows are seen from the view of what we can get from her, even from her sorrows. She had the sorrow of uncertainty, separation, fear of loss, horrible sight of pain and death. Let us listen to what she has to say, what she suffered then in the time of Jesus, and her sorrows today in the time of ours. Give up the tendencies to put these into devotional coverage and moral condemnation without seeing a world in sorrows. We see miracles in her tears, fragrance, oil, apparitions even in her messages on sorrows. But do they call us for consoling those sorrows. Our devotional ways around her statues do not console her nor her children.  her sorrow isn't a historical event to be commemorated, but a living reality. Being the type of the church is not simply an imaginative ideal, the sorrow is alive. If the church truly embody the christ, every human sorrow alive in the wounds of christ is also a sorrow of Mary.  When we look at the world, we see mothers who fear for their children's safety, we see children in impoverishment, or children thrown into the world of unknowns. We see families torn apart by conflict, war, migration, and evacuations. Do we feel the pain? Can we as the church, feel the pain? The best way to console a mother is to care for her children. When we work for peace and justice, comfort the afflicted, feeding the hungry, and sheltering the homeless, we console the sorrows of Mary. Every act of mercy and love is a balm to her sorrowful heart. Instead of focusing on apparitions and signs, we are invited to see her tears in the real-world tears of suffering people and to act on that sight. We can see faith alive, God alive.

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Peace is about life,

 if there is a price for peace,

is it peace?

submission is never a price for peace,

its a failed peace.

peace is about life,

life of all,

do you desire that peace?

you ask us to submit,

thus, you have unchallenged rest, trade,

you call it peace.

we submit to your unchallenged power

permit your will,

and you grant us peace.

is that peace.

peace is about life,

life of all,

do you desire that peace?

of course that peace has a price,

of respect, commitment, and effort,

seeing the good of all.

you mediators, do you see that,

that we deserve to live?

our future,

see it is all emptiness,

see around

devastated smoky place,

ashes not soil,

covered in toxins,

will there be life and smiles?

peace is about life,

life of all,

do you desire that peace?

we bear the mark of war,

wounds, hands and legs cut off

burned skin,

future will ask of these marks,

do you have life beyond of these marks for them.

if you celebrate conflicts,

they will mark them with our scars.

there will be no life.

peace is about life,

life of all,

do you desire that peace?

peace is about life,

life of all,

life in abundance,

life in its entirety,

do you desire that peace?

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A Walk with God

Faith is a matter of how we live our lives with God and how we experience god's life in our daily realities. It involves a deeper understanding of God's ways and being ready to walk in that path, because we trust in the goodness of God. 

Faith is deepened when we can really experience that God is in our life. Often, our faith remains as an abstract thought. It is important that we can freely raise our hearts to God. It may be our joys, sadness, beauty, or ugliness or whatever, but that personal touch is important in the path of faith, because our roots must know the touch of grace. Our deeper longing can find the touch of grace if we are ready to take what we ask from God, even into our bodies and emotions, and truly experience it.

Life of grace is not an individual affair. We know our faith and grow in faith being within the body of Christ. This body can be our family, community, friendship, classroom, a company, a governing body or the entire human family or even the entire creation. We grow, help, and complete each other in faith. 

Faith is not sensationalism, where we are led into a magic world of blessings and divine experiences. Faith is a life lived in the strength gathered in grace. Jesus does not ask us to live in a heavenly realm. True faith places us properly on the ground where we are called to walk with Christ. Walking with Christ gives us the maturity in faith. We find the accompaniment, strength and comfort of Christ. He interprets and guides our lives. 

Faith is not a definition or ideology. Often these days, we are misled by ideologies. They use the sentimentality of faith and Christian belonging, and promote inhuman, unchristian, and divisive attitudes. We cannot have the experience of faith there; we cannot grow in Christ. It is actually a test of faith, whether we choose Christ or politicised beliefs. So, along with the request to increase our faith, we also need to ask for the grace to understand true faith in Christ and for the grace to stand by that faith.

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Be present to the scars

Have we come home? Or are we still in the rush of the day - in the road, in the office, still waiting for an interview, or just lost after a few tough words with our loved ones? We are in a churning disk to be thrown out any time to unknown directions. Even amidst the offers of success and prosperity, we are pushed into yet another competition, at times exhausted. 

Let this evening take us to a newer capacity to form a consolation in our struggles. A life that is messed up, lost, or unachieved; a life that turned against our dreams - all these bear the touch of our tears and sighs. We are what they have shaped us. Let us come home, this evening. Being tender to ourselves, our feelings, sinking moments - let us be simply present to them. In our minds, let's allow all those who have shaped our present, for both good and bad, to be present with us. Perhaps in the dim light we can see the scar of tears that they too bore on their lives. They have come through great tribulations. Rarely anyone can claim an absolute success, but an evening grace offers an image of Christ being formed in us. We do bear the scars of our falls, but can we be a healer? Can we be a quiet, anointing light - a steady radiance that shines from within our brokenness.

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we were all wanderers

 we were all wanderers 

settled in a land 

in gratitude we told 'god gave this land.'

we forgot the journey, 

forgot the fear we knew; 

our privilege became the holy right.

we were all wanderers 

there are only early settlers

once we got power 

we chased others away 

"it is our land," we said.

it is evil, it is crime, it is sin 

to kill, to chase,

 we are killing the smile of the world.

we are killing the smile of the world. 

and in our hearts' own ground, 

the gratitude is dead,

the gratitude is dead. .

We called ourselves holy 

and sanctified the crime.

justified inhumanity.

our conscience is dead,

because we served not God,

but selfishness, power, and arrogance

we served nationalism, not god.

 we are killing the smile of the world.

we are killing the smile of the world. 

we are killing the smile of the world. 

and in our hearts' own ground, 

the gratitude is dead,

the gratitude is dead. . 

we were all wanderers.

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stop wars, we want peace

we the children of the earth
cry for healing
cry for peace
build a civilisation of love

stop wars
we want peace,
we want life.

you celebrate war
you cry victory, victory
you say it's divine will,
written in the book.
is there such a god?
we don't let that god enter our hearts.
that god is a god of death
but we know that you push it in our broken hearts.
you have cut our roots,
filled our world with boundaries,
and you draw god on those walls.

do you see the death of life
death of humanity
death of future?
death of children
innocent children
children filled with fear,
shattered, they trembled,
with rivers of tears.
stop wars
you want to still kill them?
what have they done to you
you want to still kill them?
you want to still kill them?
you want to still kill them?
what do you gain?
you celebrate aggression
you celebrate heartlessness.

you kings and rulers,
you men of crime
men of evil heart
you see profit in war
profit in bloodshed
your power and wealth.
what have you gained?
you want to still kill them?

o you see the death of life
death of humanity
death of future?
children filled with fear,
shattered, they trembled,
with rivers of tears.
you want to still kill them?
what do you gain?

you kill, and you say it's for peace.
arrogant rule, your profit, unlimited power
so you want to kill
that's peace for you.
You kill, and you say it's for peace.
arrogant rule, your profit, unlimited power
so you want to kill
that's peace for you.
you celebrate aggression
you celebrate heartlessness.

we the children of the earth
cry for healing
cry for peace
stop wars
build a civilisation of love.


O stop wars
O stop wars
O stop wars

we the children of the earth
cry for healing
cry for peace
we want to celebrate peace
we want to celebrate life.
peace, peace,
life,.......
life,

we rise up for peace
please stop killing
we want peace
peace
we want to live
we have our wounded hearts
wounded bodies,
torn hands and legs
lost eyes...
please let us live
we cry for peace
let our tears flow for peace
stop war
please stop killing
peace ......

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sanctuary of our own lives

As the sun goes down let us raise an altar. The Bible has examples of building new altars or rebuilding the fallen altar. We find the graciousness of our life as life longs for its fruition in offering itself. Gather the life events, build an altar. “What can I offer? What can I bring to God, hoping for continued guidance and grace?” Let us offer whatever we are. It is acceptable. A sincere and wholehearted giving is what is important. This willingness to engage honestly with our inner selves, to confront our struggles and embrace our capacity for love and compassion, this is the true sacrifice laid upon the altar of our lives. They are precious, and approach them as so sacred that they reveal to us the heart of God. Here the altar turns to be a sincere conversation with the divine. Then there is a sanctuary of our own lives. As the night deepens, let this closeness with ourselves and with God be our evening offering.

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sacramentality in human living

 As evening is near and we feel the weight of the day, of our life, we may have asked why God does not just fix our struggles and sufferings.  At times thoughts about God bring more questions than answers. We expect goodness and sweetness everywhere, but we do not always find them. The night can feel bitter as we struggle with our own pain or witness the deep sufferings of others. It can seem like God stands far away when he is most needed, as silent observer of our loneliness and injustice.

Every injured living creature looks miserably and helplessly for mercy and empathy. We don’t find God coming to fix these griefs. God is present not only in beauty and glory, but also in our ugliness and failures, not as victorious but as a sufferer. God the giver of life and full of goodness seem to be a useless God. God suffers in our pains; God also brings consolation into them by our compassion. There is a sacramentality in human living. When we live mercy, kindness, or forgiveness, we are not just being good people; we are revealing a divine presence. Our empathy and shared experiences are not just natural traits; they are the very way God’s love becomes truly visible in the world. Being near to a sick person, we offer a sacramental presence of God to the sick, giving an experiential reality of mercy of God when we show mercy. Sincere living of beatitudes becomes real brightness in the dark when the grace begins to extend to where the frailty of God appears. God’s revelation happens in reality as the grace in us turns to be a blessedness even when God seems to be absent and useless.

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ailing body into a river of grace

Evenings have a way of taking us inward, our thoughts, and feelings. As the day is over, we often become more aware of our pains and the quiet struggles within us; hidden shames and silent battles. Time seems moving slow.  We long for a gentle hand to hold ours, for a comforting presence, for healing, and for renewed strength. Sometimes, the approaching night can increase our anxieties, our disappointments, loneliness, and pain. Perhaps, the stillness of the evening can help us to leave them into further depths.

Let us ask God to help us immerse our ailing body into a river of grace. Healing is not just about medicine and rest; it is also about a deep, inner peace, grace through pass over the moments of pain and suffering. In moments of pain, let us trust in a love that holds us close. Let us find the courage to forgive ourselves and the world, and to hold onto hope even when we are still in the dark, daring to walk ahead. At times we may be attached to our sickness or emotional pain. It is important that we permit ourselves to be healed. It is okay to let go of our hurt and allow ourselves to be healed. Even in our deepest loneliness and pain, there is a grace that doesn't demand a perfect surrender and devotion, but a warm love that simply settles over us. This love might gradually give us the freedom to permit to let go of our hurt and allow ourselves to be healed. It is the grace that helps us to endure our hurts and death, but to find them as holy grounds in our pilgrim journey. Let us gather strength and courage to descend to the depths of self-emptying moments. This is not a distant light of a dream, but a comforting presence that walks with us into the night, making a home in our hearts.

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