Preparation for the Revelation of Christ

'Preparation' for many of our significant events immediately orients towards 'confessions' - often ritualistic and routine. Preparation cannot be simply like a 'housecleaning' before such events. It is not simply a regret over failures, it needs to be our efforts for a sinless environment. It is needed on a personal level having an inner disposition - a heart cleared of resentment and indifference and in a communal atmosphere where we as families or communities free ourselves from toxicity and hypocrisy. Thus we make sure that we don't provide space where sin thrives. 

A moralist demand is often considered as the radical and prophetic call for holiness. It serves only an immediate adjustment, an adherence to laws because of the guilt or because of the fear of punishment. The honest desire to know and love Christ is the source and power for an environment of grace. 

Christ gives us the freedom because his love is liberating and lifegiving. Similarly, preparing ourselves truly involves having the strength to walk away from undue dependencies, and placing a healthy and graceful guard over ourselves. There is a risk that some 'overly spiritual' may call us 'unloving,' or 'filled with pride.' Here, refusing to serve their interest is really a resistance against evil, because their 'being spiritual' is a manipulative dynamic that simply uses others for their benefit. True spiritual freedom refuses to bow to guilt-creation or toxic expectations. Having healthy guards actually enables us to love freely without resentment.

Further, it makes a necessary environment to love beyond our grudges, revenge, jealousy, and divisive boundaries. "I have no problem with anyone" does not mean that one loves. Love is a deliberate choice every moment, every day - a conscious and continuous effort sustained by grace whereby we may slowly form an environment of grace and life. It is not grown on moral frames, but on truth, love and justice. That will be the preparation for the 'revelation of Christ': Christ being revealed for us, and through us.

Too sure where the Kingdom of God is?

If we have missed the kingdom of God, it is because we were too sure of where the kingdom of God is. 

Where is the kingdom of God? See there! There (only there) God's anointing rests. That is the truth (only truth). That is true faith. Without any doubt, that is God. The announcement of the kingdom, however, was precisely about breaking this kind of rigid certainty. It broke down boundaries safe within exclusive walls - and it was necessary to break them in love. When we are too certain about the kingdom, truth, and God, they can turn idols without even our knowledge. Holiness can be easily a privilege of the hypocrites.

Perhaps what we really miss is the heart and mind of Christ to understand the presence of the kingdom, truth, faith, and God. If we don't have the heart and mind of Christ, these may be deformed by biases and power equations, ideological rigidity, and spiritual pride.

Gratitude - Empty and Rich

Gratitude is not simply 'thank you' in words, nor is it in some symbols of flowers or gifts though they may be meaningful. Gratitude orients one's life towards the giver in reverence, and to the needy in kindness. Gratitude sprouts in freedom, and does not ask for slavish submissiveness, and aims for the growth of the receiver.

In religion, gratitude is not about saying 'thank you' repeatedly. God receives gratitude, not in our 'show-off' piety but in what we have made gracefully out of what we have received. A gratitude that wells up with enormous feeling towards God and makes us happy, but does not open our hearts to the needy is not the gratitude God desires.

Often, romanticised spirituality only serves to guard our own hypocrisy and injustice. A wonderland experience of what we prefer to do and practice, justified by our thinking about god and what may please him, often reflects our celebration of pride elitism and 'higher' holiness. We may construct the meaning for 'surrender' and 'sacrifice' accordingly.

Spirituality is not about thrilling emotions (even suffering can be a willful thrill for some, self accusation and being tortured under guilt can be soothing for some) while leaving the conscience untouched is merely self-indulgence in religious dress.

God's image on Caesar's Coin?

The debate over the taxes to Caesar begins with an attempt to trap Jesus. The Herodians and the pharisees come with a compliment to Jesus that Jesus was truthful and did not mind man’s ranks. To the question of paying taxes to Rome, he points to a coin. A coin is for transactions, whether it be in the public space or in a religious space. In both it can be a sign of political power. The coin had the impression of Tiberius Caesar, claiming divine authority, ‘Son of the Divine Augustus.’ Economic taxes had to be paid in these coins. The temple had its own coins for religious purposes. A man’s rank also like a coin, can be brought to a value of exchange, and it was evident with Pilate and Herod.

God, or what belongs to God, or our own belonging to God cannot be transactional; it is not a give and take relation. Yet, these very things with religious interpretations can be bearing power symbols. The relationship between God and humanity is defined by a covenantal love; “I belong to you, and you belong to me.” It is something that we need to bring to our heart that this relationship is unconditional, and we are marked by the impression of this covenant. This love continues even when we fail; and despite our falls, God desires the same love be there towards God instead of being filled with fear or guilt. Regarding what really belongs to God, pointed to mercy and sincere devotion: “I desire mercy, not sacrifice” (Hosea 6:6; Matthew 9:13), “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength” (Deuteronomy 6:5; Mark 12:30).

 When we understand our faith and devotion similar to give and take style in economic dealing, it distorts grace into a transaction. When we take faith as a transaction, we stamp Caesar’s impression onto the things of God. “Return to Caesar what belongs to Ceaser and return to God what belongs to God” is a warning not to mix these two.  Jesus objected to such legalistic and transactional understanding.

In many devotional practices, there is often a temptation to use Caesar’s coin instead of what belongs to God. If our praying, sacrifices, devotions are with the purpose that God may give blessings as a return, we are attempting to buy divine favour or merit. Holiness becomes an exchange rate. When a person’s spiritual worth, or moral purity is evaluated based on social standing, donations, or political alignment, religion becomes commodified. Is it not a spiritual commercialism? Holiness is not about accumulating spiritual capital or rank, but about being in God’s love like a child and responding with trust. In many of our personal religious teachings on holiness, faithfulness, and devotion, what lies behind is our selfishness, greed and crave for power with beautiful impression of God.

The tax to Caesar was not a contribution to the society it was a sign of piety to the emperor and the Roman rule. Though there may not be a God-image, sacrality/purity is often attached to economic and political interests and create chaos. When political ideologies, national identity, or social ranks wrap themselves in the mantle of religion and divine sanctity, they create an idol. The divine authority, Holy scripture, or religious symbols become instruments legitimize, enforce, and expand political control. There may be megaevents of dances, worship, processions in the name of God. These events intended to polarise power only secularise and materialise religion. Finally we are left with the coin of Caesar though we thought that we want to worship God. A leader, empire, or certain views may be taught as a mandate from God, and consequently any dissent may be seen as a rebellion against the empire and against God. It attributes divinity to a temporal power, and distorts what is truly Godly, just, and holy.

When the high socio-economic status or political power is sacralized as though the divine favour rests on them, it alienates the vulnerable, the poor and marginalized. The coin turns to be of less worth, there is a curse on them. The lower strata must exhaust themselves to be find favour in a divinised society. The impression of blessedness was offered to them when the gospel was announced by Jesus. But, if they claim the freedom of the children of God, they may be viewed as treason or apostasy.

With an honest heart, bring before God the coin we have. See clearly what impressions they have got and their true intentions. Do they affirm your dignity as the children of God? Do you feel the freedom or the weight of power when you hold the coin? 

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Prayer – The Search for God's Goodness

Prayer means talking to God. This conversation gradually transforms us into communion with God. This union is a transformative encounter that pours out our heart before God. We know that a deep relationship becomes intimate and strong only through true and deep love, open communication, and constant presence; prayer is the time and path to speak to God with an open heart without any fear or hiding, and to remain in His presence.

At the core of true and authentic prayer lies faith and trust in God. Without trust, prayer can become an anxious transaction, or merely an attempt to escape from problems. Trust helps us deeply experience the truth that God listens to us, understands us, and always desires our well-being.

Jesus promised us: "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you." Is this like a guarantee of a quick solution—an easy-fix technique—such as those we find in the market, in management, or in religious 'powerful' prayers and mantras? Christian spirituality does not teach magical prayers. Asking, seeking, and knocking call us toward continuity, perseverance, and patience. It is God's goodness that is found, received, and for which the door opens. When we ask, we are humble; we acknowledge our dependence on God and open our hearts to receive whatever God gives. Seeking is not merely looking for solutions; it is walking along the path of God  - discovering  God’s presence and wisdom in every day realities of life. Knocking teaches us to live in a vibrant hope and to endure with patience even when the answer is delayed. The fruit of prayer is not that everything becomes easy or that life's trials disappear. Rather, prayer bestows upon us the grace, strength, and light to walk faithfully amidst life’s challenges.

Seeking, asking, and knocking mean placing our entire existence and the realities of our life before God the Father. It could be our daily struggles and weariness: the heaviness of work, family responsibilities, and physical or mental exhaustion. It could be our weaknesses and shortcomings: our sins, temptations, doubts, fears, anxieties, and repeated failures. It could be our deepest desires and hopes: healing, reunion, reconciliation, the search for life's purpose, and waiting for peace. We surrender this true and real form of our life into the transforming ocean of God’s goodness.

Therefore, praying from the heart is possible only through the freedom that the Gospel gives us. This freedom of the Gospel transforms us from being fearful servants into beloved children of God. Since we know that we are unconditionally loved and saved, we are free to throw off our masks, speak with childlike love, and pour out our hearts before Him without any hesitation. Then, we truly find the God whom we were seeking.

Communion of saints

November is a time that reminds us of the mystery of human mortality and eternal life. Imagine the beginning of winter in Europe thousands of years before; no electricity, no cities … long nights and cold. The lifeless world itself was a natural metaphor for human frailty and mortality. There were also many beliefs around the growing darkness and the wandering spirits; even about the dead coming to visit their family members.

In many Christian traditions this is a season of filial love, intercession, and hope. Thus, the cold of winter is answered by the warmth of communion in love, bringing all of us together in one Body of Christ. The celebration of all saints or all souls is not merely a day dedicated for them, it is about a celebration of life together. In the Incarnation and Resurrection, Christ bound humanity to Himself. Paul’s image of the mystical body (1 Corinthians 12) applies across the threshold of death: if one member suffers, all suffer; if one is honored, all rejoice.

Those whom we call saints lived a life in grace and entered into God’s glory. Many of us, whether living or deceased, are in a purgation process in the fire of God’s love. All of us together are walking in this common pilgrimage, making the communion of saints a dynamic reality. The saints are not distant superheroes of the faith; they are our elder brothers and sisters who help us. Our departed relatives and the unremembered deceased are not lost to the void in some far away place; they remain connected to us in prayer.

To ignore the saints implies that Christ’s victory over sin was merely theoretical. The saints lived christ’s life in their time, and showed that divine grace genuinely transforms real human flesh, history, and culture. Here, we need to keep in mind that a faith that gazes only toward the sky risks becoming blind to the earth. It may even risk the sanctity of our human living. Pope Leo XIV observed that the history of the world, without the saints, would be immeasurably poorer and less human. Without the saints, history may lean heavily toward secular cycles of political power, war, and corruption. The saints reveal an alternate history; love and sacrifice, solidarity and justice, compassion and kindness. History was not a history only of the rulers and the powerful, but of those who had a vulnerable heart. Christ made Himself vulnerable by taking on human flesh, suffering, and dying. Christ’s heart was open, exposed to rejection, grief, and physical pain out of love. Because the saints are those who conform themselves to the likeness of Christ (Imitatio Christi), their holiness requires opening their hearts to love and suffer alongside others, rather than building walls of self-protection, domination, or indifference. The Communion of Saints cannot remain as a distant reality in the far future. If we are genuinely united with the saints in heaven and the souls, that same communion must encourage us to live in deep unity, reconciliation, and peace with all those walking beside us today irrespective of religion or nationality.

We can of course find individual sanctity of the saints. But to project them as isolated holiness-icons prevents the communion of saints from being lived in reality. It may be applied also to our own search for holiness as an individual or as a preferred select community. We cannot nurture sanctity while maintaining strict boundaries and suspicion of other 'evil' or 'sinful' people. From the life of the saints, we can see that the prophetic signs of communion were real at the margins. There, holiness was not a comfort within the walls of worship places. Holiness was challenging but brought to a lived reality in the margins. Holiness always unfolds within real human context.

A contemplation on the reality of the Communion of saints may call us deeper into being in the body of Christ. St. John Chrysostom reminds us that to honor Christ’s body on the altar while despising His body in the poor is a contradiction. Spiritual communion separated from physical and social reality is incomplete. The communion does not happen in a mystical world, how can the communion be a reality when the vulnerable fall short of the joy of a true communion. It feels the strain of what is lacking economically, and in social justice. So, the Communion of Saints carries an inescapable dimension of social justice.

The Communion of Saints manifests the "blessedness" of the kingdom of god when the Church actively stands with the poor, feeds the hungry, weeps with the grieving, and defends the persecuted. The Beatitudes are not passive promises meant only for the afterlife; they are the present reality of God’s Kingdom breaking into human history. The joy of the Kingdom is not an escape from reality, but a transforming power that turns injustice into a space for divine mercy and liberation. To nourish one another in Christ means ensuring that no member of the body lacks daily bread, human dignity, or fundamental rights. It challenges economic systems that hoard resources for a few while leaving others to starve.

In the present global context, millions of people live on the margins—treated as disposable, faceless, and voiceless. Many around us—perhaps even ourselves at times—experience the crushing reality of becoming invisible victims of injustice and rejection. The Communion of Saints stands as a direct divine counter-narrative to this global indifference. In Christ’s Body, there cannot be any throwaway people, no outsiders, no gentiles, no enemy. The weakest, most broken member is not a burden to be discarded, but a vital part of the body that demands the greatest honour and care. Being in this communion naturally moves us to extend ourselves to all who are labouring, struggling, and heavily laden.

To profess belief in the Communion of Saints is to commit to building peace in our families, parishes, and communities. The mutual nourishment of the Mystical Body takes place here and now, when we forgive one another, bear each other's burdens, and share our daily gifts. It is a time to be messengers of peace. We can’t afford to fight among ourselves, or promote war. We can’t afford to spread hatred and separate others in suspicion. It is a time to be together as humans and as children of the earth to care for one another in times of climate crises and disasters which we cannot avoid.

When this sacred time is reduced to our devotional prayers to the saints, and obligatory ritualistic prayers for the dead, we miss the grace of what we celebrate. This is a time to celebrate life and grace, to be prepared for the realisation of Christ in us as he reveals as the universal king.

As we pray for the dead throughout November, let us cast away all fear and superstition. We do not offer prayers out of anxiety, but out of filial love and gratitude. The Communion of Saints reminds us of our true direction as a pilgrim people bound together by grace. As we remember those who have finished their course, we honor them, not merely with candles and rituals, but by living as active instruments of Christ’s unity, justice, and peace on earth, holding the most vulnerable close, until all are gathered into the eternal feast of the Kingdom.

The missing peace

We desire for peace. So many of talks about need for peace themselves show that there is an absence of peace. These talks go on in the context of family, mental health, companies, and on international levels. While the search for peace is everywhere, genuine peace remains one of the ambiguous realities of our contemporary world. Perhaps, it is because we define peace as a smooth track to achieve our own interests. In reality, humanity is starving for authentic peace.

Peace is not just an absence of conflicts; peace necessarily ensures life. Pope Francis often emphasised that peace is an attitude of the heart, an openness to life, a disposition to welcome the other. Peace cannot remain an inner comfort, it also involves the lives of the other. When peace is desired, whether as an individual, family or a society, it naturally creates a culture that welcomes, protects, and nurtures life in all its dimensions including the life of nature. Where peace exists, life grows; where peace is absent, life is devalued and destroyed. It is also on the other way; where there is openness to life, an attitude of welcoming instead of suspecting, where there is genuine love, peace begins to sprout. When we are free to pursue truth, goodness, and justice, peace arises naturally.

When freedom is equated with a right to do whatever one pleases, gratify any desire, or assert power over others it disrupts peace. Peace established under domination, or forced submission is not peace at all. True peace is built on mutual responsibility, justice, reconciliation, and shared dignity. We were created out of the love of God the Father, and we live as brothers and sisters. That is the foundation of building peace.

St. Thérèse of child Jesus whose feast we celebrate today, shows a spiritual path for achieving interior and exterior peace through absolute trust in God's providence. There​, peace can be related to the confidence of the little child who sleeps without fear in its father’s arms. If we honestly observe, much of the anxiety and conflict in our lives comes from our desperate attempt to control every outcome. The success of a project, victory of war, winning court case, my argument in a society-discussion we want them all ​on our side. Conflicts often remain unresolved not because of the issue itself, but we don’t want to give up, we want to win, and defend our pride. defensive debates become part of our daily attitudes. Where does peace begin then? In all that we have reflected so far, Peace Begins from little moments of trust, humility, and acts of love. Though these may sound too soft, and may be neglected easily, these principles offer a true path for resolving interpersonal conflicts, and cultivating peace in family homes and modern workplaces. Every family, community or workplace may have challenging situations or members who irritate us. Of course it is a struggle. It may be a great effort assisted with grace to treat the so-called difficult people with the greatest warmth and kindness.

Often, peace is not our first option. We wrongly think that overpowering or defeating is what sustains us. In fact, a conflict environment itself is destructive. What we need is a peace culture which may shape our attitudes, behaviours and relationships. We often think peacebuilding requires grand gestures or major interventions. The reality of peace is an outcome of small-level choices. May be let us focus on small acts of restraining ourselves, quiet service, and interior calm. May be let us avoid a sharp reply, an irritating sarcasm, or unnecessary criticism.

peace is not something we win by conquering others, but a gift we receive when we learn to surrender our pride and rest in the Father’s love. Angels sang of peace for people of good will. By making room for one another in kindness and trust, we become the very prophets of peace our world so desperately needs. It is truly prophetic today dear brothers and sisters, because peace does not bring any profit in this competing economic world, but conflicts create huge profit.

Repentance-Good-Life

Repentance is often not possible because its foundation is faulty. We may root repentance into sin, and sin as the cause of all the miserable things we are at. We may be assuming our problems as punishments, curses and other unknown things behind and are thought to be somehow connected to sin. So, repentance is to get rid of all these miseries. Instead, true repentance is our openness to the life of God.

To be in the life of God, the direction given to us is to renounce doing evil and to learn to do good. Why do we do evil? There may be some people intentionally doing evil. They know fully that what they choose to do are evil, but they sacralise those evils as good for the support from others. Many evils we have in our life may have happened by mistake, and we are carrying the burden of it. We regret on them. Many other evils are out of our helplessness. It happens. Often, they may be justified, because there may be hidden pains or injuries that lead to those evils. Often, we may be attached to these evils or the injuries behind them though they are painful. God also may justify them, because God knows what has happened in reality. But God does not want us to remain in them because he knows that they damage us however justifiable they are. God calls us to his life, in which we may be consoled and comforted and experience life. Repentance is this readiness to take this option before us.

Learn to do good is not just doing some good deeds, it includes our views, thinking, our conversations, attitudes to events and people, and of course our actions. The good we are called to possess have a name that is Christ. So, the goal of repentance is to be like him. It is a path of grace. Just like Christ proclaimed the gospel offering us life, where we find an episode of our life within the gospel story. Christ’s life was sacrificial and redemptive, our ‘good-life’ is also to be sacrificial and redemptive. Our memories give us a language to reread our pain and injuries which may hold us in evil. Let us have the language of the gospel to reread and reinterpret our lives. We have the altar to which come with our burdens and sorrows, there is another living altar of Christ at home where repentance becomes fruitful, offering sacrifice and being redemptive for others. It is not about how broken we are or how damaged are our relationships, but it is all about the possibility of our entry into the grace available for us.

Dying

If our communities have lost life, it is because we have chosen not to have a lifegiving death. Willfully we have kept aside the sense of sacrifice, service and death.

Can these dry bones live?

Many problems we may have, and many of them seemingly have no answer. Prophet Ezekiel is addressed with a question, "Son of man, can these dry bones live?" perhaps it is a similar question "can these problems have any answer? The prophet receives a command, "Son of man, prophesy to these dry bones." A prophesy is to open 'truth' before the crisis. Often the problems find no solution because we are not ready to find the truth lying within, what exactly is the issue behind the problem. Rather we might expect God to do magic to solve our problems; to end war, solve climate crisis, resolve family issues etc. when we are ready to put the basic truth, structure, and facts honestly It is a sign that we are ready to receive the grace. Then, the prophesy is to enter into the breath of life. "O breath of life, come from every corner, breath upon the dry bones ..." What breaths more deeply into our death than the life in love. Love involves deliberate choices aiming at goodness ready to face the reality with truth. The breath comes with what we need the most; may be virtues for growth, courage, kindness and care. Breath fully into our deaths, and spread the breath over wherever death has its sign.

If freedom is to be real ...

If freedom is to be real, primarily we need to cultivate a cultural conscience that uphold the values that bring about freedom. If the members of the society are to commit themselves to fulfill their duties and responsibilities, it is essential that there is an environment that is free of any form of domination.

The power to make all to bend their knees and freedom of living with equality and justice cannot go together. Even now the incidents of 'distancing of the untouchables' and cleansing ceremonies after the 'low' people's presence do not speak of a free society that has a potential for growth. The preference of political intentions over the real matters that hinders the growth towards an integral development of the society as a whole cannot be seen as a real love for our land.

The concern over GenZ demands on various matters was the recent phenomenon the country witnessed. Their struggle, their needs, and approaches are not of the same kind; yet they all deserve attention and call for the dimension of true freedom. Perspectival conflicts mostly create a gap because the 'Baby Boomers' and the 'millennials' are applying their theories and values to the real life struggles the GenZ bring to the focus. It may be noticed that the responses were often political responses and criticisms rather than clearly studying or clarifying the matters raised. The required clarity includes policies, scientific explanations, failed tactics and reasons, newer possibilities and their potentials and challenges etc. The falling economies, destabilization of government systems and institutions, alarming climate emergencies will have their impacts globally and locally in various degrees. By dwelling on petty political interests parties are already failing a future that should be truly free.

What should freedom ensure today? We have wasted our time and energy in demonizing and cleansing of the past. We need to construct willfully a culture that can sustain us together, not the ways to solidify power. Such political orientation is a failed system if we look at the needs of the approaching time locally and globally. Should the freedom we uphold not keep alert on issues of clean water, air and safe food? Should all our children not have opportunity to study and rise to their potential? Does our freedom not include surety of trains running on time and not missing a connecting train? All these require cultivating a conscience, not just personal, but cultural and social.

Assumption

Mary was assumed into God's glory. We too may be, by God's mercy, assumed into the same glory. Every moment of grace transforms us into the image of Christ. It also shines with the beauty of its 'blessed fruit. '

Forgive! Why should I?

Though we may be ready to do any religious activities and we may be successful in doing them, it is hard for us to follow the call of Jesus to forgive. We might ask, “why this is done to me,” and we may be right in asking that because we bear real scars from the injustices and evils done to us. At times it might seem that God too has not been gracious to us that we could think of it and do likewise.

Forgiveness is a grace, because only grace can heal the pain we bear. Our anger may be right and justifiable, but it destroys us because it may become an obstacle to receive grace. It may breed hidden hatred and malign our interior nature. We might turn bitter and hard, and increases our pain.

Evil remains evil. It must be named, rejected, and condemned without compromise. But that individual or group is in need of our forgiveness. The pleading ‘give me time, I will repay you’ may not be there at all. Perhaps it is for us the need of time to forgive, but intention to forgive is a matter of now.

Forgiveness is an effort with grace. Let us make an effort to separate from what we are heavy with choosing not to seek revenge or cultivate the grievance. We surrender our demand for vengeance to God, allowing His grace to dissolve the emotional bitterness over time while preserving our own peace.

Who has to forgive? Nations, peoples, races … have to forgive. We know that injustices scale up into historical, structural, and collective memory. Just as in individual persons, unforgiven historical injuries like slavery, colonial exploitation, ethnic conflict, and displacement are passed down across generations as cultural trauma and inherited resentment. When we do not intend to forgive, past injuries become the foundation of our present identity. How sad is it that even nations prompt people to find their identities on the past injuries. This keeps whole societies frozen in defensive hostility. Always the one to be forgiven is not a needy but someone who possesses power and still continues to oppress. Here forgiveness means refusing to let past oppression dictate future relationships, allowing a people to define themselves by their dignity rather than their victimhood. When an oppressor holds power, the victim feels completely disempowered. Is forgiveness possible? We have a wounded saviour. His wounds were clear effect of injustice and violence. But through the same wounds grace and mercy flowed out. He transformed the marks of suffering into channels of divine life.

Dear friends, for today’s world, forgiveness is a great prophetic sign. If we have forgiven, we are telling the world that forgiveness is still possible. It is not compromise, nor allowing our victimhood. Forgiveness does not excuse evil or negate justice. By forgiving, we may experience an internal liberation from the pain we carry. Freed so, we reclaim our life. It is a resemblance of god’s mercy. As Ezekiel carried the bundle as a sign of the burden of exile. Every need for forgiveness carries such a bundle of a pain that is to be freed. When we forgive, the weight drops, and the burden of carrying past injustice is replaced by divine freedom.

Spoken in the name of the Lord

Among the guests of Herod, perhaps there was so much laughter and celebration, noise and cheer. On other side, the last groaning still may have had the voice crying out in the wilderness.

Jesus began his public ministry when he heard that John was arrested. After the death of John, Jesus began to point to his own cross. John was put to death, Jesus withdrew to a lonely place, he is moved with compassion to the people who followed him, and he feeds them. John’s martyrdom wasn’t just a tragic event; it was the prophetic preview of the Calvary path. The first reading takes up the radical call “he has spoken in the name of the Lord.”

Jeremiah states: “As for me, I am in your hands; do with me what you think is good and right.” it is total self-surrender rooted in absolute trust. By placing his life into the hands of a hostile court, Jeremiah strips his persecutors of their ultimate power over him. When a prophet surrenders completely to God, human threats lose their power. The primary implication for us is clear: to stand for the Lord, one must first die to self-preservation. Truth cannot be spoken faithfully if we are still negotiating for our own comfort, safety, or approval. In the case of John, it would have been far safer for him to remain silent on political morality. The correctness seems to belong to the powerful, but speaking ‘right’ means proclaiming truth even when it threatens comfort or survival.

To ensure we do right, we need to form our conscience rooted in God, truly on God. To speak or act in the name of the Lord is not simply invoking a pious formula or claiming God's endorsement for our own opinions. It is not a radical activism. Jeremiah doesn't claim personal authority. He listened to God, he was sure that: “The Lord sent me to prophesy against this house and this city all the words you have heard.”False prophets may be powerful and popular, they may work miracles, but many may satisfy the religious, ideological, political crave of people. Only when the content and the spirit of the message align with divine justice, mercy, and truth, we actually speak in God’s name. True prophets speak what God commands, fully aware that the message might bring rejection, persecution, or death.

What about our prophetic living? We might mistake extreme asceticism, fanaticism, or separatist isolation for a true prophetic dimension, but these tendencies often center on the self rather than on God. When holiness is reduced to severe physical discipline or angry ideological zeal, religious pride quickly overshadows love, mercy, and God’s patient truth. True prophecy is never about retreating from the world to keep our lives pure. Rather than hiding behind walls of moral superiority, a prophet is called to step into the brokenness of humanity as an instrument of divine healing, light, and justice. If we dare to speak in the name of the Lord, we must know that truth has a cost. Speaking and doing right in the name of God will inevitably clash with systems built on self-interest, compromise, or pride.

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catholicity

 Catholicity may be better experienced when Christians are able to see the church beyond its 'visible boundaries.'

MAGA cult

A cult usually create a convenient deity for the group. It serves the intentions of the group, emotionally, (closed) culturally, and politically. Apparently everything is right and appealing. MAGA cult may be a matter of study and evaluation for all Christians, because in one way or the other, it has influenced their way of thinking about leadership, morality, perceptions on humanity and even the Christ and his kingdom. Perhaps we have conveniently forgotten the gospel for celebrating this cult.

Cult may have pleasing events and celebrations. 500 people reading the Bible together will be a great event. What if we do a great Bibiolatry event and donot follow the gospel? Is God glorified, or is a nation glorified? Worship is due for God, not for Bible, not for any glory of religion or nation, nor any concept of God.

Evil of war

The current debates among christians on war appear to tell that the politicised Christianity has no place for Christ or the values of the kingdom of God. Power and domination and business are its interest.

The entire world is not a Christian system. Yet the 'we only' christian expect the whole world to follow christian values while they themself downplay them. Evils do exist, they can be overcome only by good. Following a christ's path in dealing with evil is what is expected of Christian. Instead the path of violence and power, a dehumanising evil direction to deal with evil has no gospel logic. So war is a crime, a mortal sin, it cannot be justified.

salvation ~ Atomic power

Some Christians seem to believe that cross has failed to offer salvation; salvation and peace come from the nuclear deterrence. Strangely, this salvation is realized only when 'we' have  ammunitions and others are powerless, and when we have the dominating power. This peace and salvation is strange to the Gospel.

Just as there are evils, the structures that breed them are also to be 'sanctified.' Better, the Christians nurture a right conscience to introspect historically the structures of evil in the world, before canonizing the missile trade, invasions and dominations.

War is a MORTAL SIN

War is a MORTAL SIN.

For the Catholics, it may be a crucial time time to check on to their Christian conscience. We could go ahead with convenient moral interpretations on war. We cannot do it anymore. It is not about 'I am with Pope Leo,' or 'I am with Trump,' it is about how we perceive building of structures of greed, power, arrogance, supremacy, and willful hatred. Perhaps, we ourselves have been breeding it in different ways, but no more.

some weeks before, it was essential that Hormuz be open, because the vulnerable are affected across the globe. Now the Hormuz is going to be blocked for all nations putting pressure on all the globe. where is the concern for the vulnerable now?

In the kingdom of God there is no specially chosen people; all are the children of God. There is no elite holy people who can demonise others and justify their violence.

Of course, "God hears the cry of those who fight evil," not of those having evil intentions and killing whom they identify to be 'evil' and cover up their own Killing as holy acts. Ultimately God desires good of all, not behaving like a mad goon.

Your GOD is too small, if you have to take God's name to cover up your madness, pride and greed.

The christ's being handed over to the hands of the wicked men calls us to identify the innocent humanity being handed over to war and violence (even by ideology ) by their very leaders. Whether it be 'Iran,' 'Israel,' 'Lebanon,' 'Iraq', 'Syria,' we have them in relation to the choices of their leaders. Leaders do not carry the human heart of their own people. Even the biblical prophets criticised Jerusalem for its exclusive elite belief of their arrogance and cruelty connected to the 'chosen' aspect. whether it be in the church or in Israel it intrinsically deny god's being with us. If the christian prayers do no have the heart of christ, and carry the inclusive nature of the church, christianity is just an "obscure collection of weird cultists." How can one pray for the strength to kill and rage war if one has a spirit of christ. how can one offer tithe for the expenses of killing people? Their Christ is only an idol they themselves have conveniently created.

'Israel' no more seems to represent a covenant with God. The leaders and the estranging ideologies some of them carry do not have the refelction of Yahwey-elohim who is compassionate, slow to anger, abounding in love. Any one who uses 'Israel' in prayer may immediately connect to the present images of it because that is just in front of us. It is a liturgical trauma to many to have the name when that contradicts what the prayer means.

Expansion of territories, invading, has only spirit of greed and arrogance, and pride is a necessary function in that system.

Do We Trap God in Our Laws

The Scribes and Pharisees in the gospel passages were not villains in their society; they were the guardians of ​the identity of their religion and society. They emerged into the​ir strictest form when they saw there was an apparent crisis of their faith and traditions.

Let’s imagine we have got a Dr’s prescription. It may have suggestions on what to do and what not to do, and which medicine to take and how. That is wonderful. This is wonderful—so wonderful, in fact, that we decide to laminate it, frame it, and place it in a golden box. We carry it around, garland it, and offer it incense. This is precisely what the Pharisees were doing.

To prevent breaking any of the Commandments, the Scribes created many fences, many subsidiary regulations, that would protect them. Though well-intended, these often overshadowed the original intention. While the goal was the life and holiness of the people, the result was merely the preservation of the holiness and honor of the Law itself. The written code of law was seen to be the Law of God that would possess ​the entire heart of God.

Jesus criticised the self-centred, hypocritical, and politically motivated interpretation of the law. It deprived many of their dignity as the children of god. In a shame-honor culture, public adherence to the minute forms of laws had become a source of social capital. They were prove​n righteous and honored in society. Such perfect following was demanded of all if they were to be worthy of God’s reward. Under the retributive ethics and theology​, these well-defined the merit of the privileged and the misery of the vulnerable. The holy ones exercised power over the sinners. They used the Law to create hierarchy rather than holiness. Jesus’ strong critique​, “Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites…” was not a punishment or curse but a disaster they themselves have caused upon them​selves by the very adaptation of the law.

The privilege of having the law also offered a guaranteed possession of ‘the way, truth and life.’ So, the New Testament approach ​to finding the incapacity of the law to offer life points to Christ as the way truth and​ the life. There was a serious mistake in identifying the Law as the Logos itself. We must move from Torah-centrism to Logos-centrism. Jesus’ saying, “I have come to fulfil the law” does not mean that he was the one who did everything in its perfect way. “I know the father, I have come to do the will of the father, the father has sent me…” are to be seen as the key for understanding his mode of fulfilling the law.

Jesus repeatedly says, “You have heard it said... but I say to you.” He is not the lawgiver like Moses, he is not an interpreter like the scribes, but he is the law in whom we can see the will of God. He is the path we need to walk, he is the truth of the scriptures, moral values and our very lives, he is the life that we ultimately desire. His drawing on the law was not on ethical perspectives on honour for parents, adultery, lies, and murder, he reorients the very first commandment ‘I am the Lord your God’ as a law-bound legislator to a Father. Ways of honouring God in the temple or in the public sphere, the sabbath etc receives the content of life from the relationship to the Father. There the reward cannot be self-centred, hypocrisy cannot work, and there cannot be any power game. Because all are the children of one Father. His choice of healing on the sabbath was to break the fences the law had created.

When Jesus says your righteousness must exceed that of the Pharisees, he calls us to be away from self-honouring legalism and grow into the freedom of the children of God. The law had been a guardian or a tutor (Galatians 3:24), but they had made it God. Understanding Christ as the law is the ‘Law of the Spirit of Life’ (Romans 8:2).

Anytime we believe that strict following of the law is like a ladder to go up to God there is a failure. We expect to climb the ladder to bridge the gap to the Divine through our own effort, turning salvation into a wage earned rather than a gift received. It again centres to ourselves, making God a debtor to our goodness and our faithful fulfilling of the law. The call is not just to mimic Jesus but to participate in his life. The ‘Law of Christ’ is not being a good individual, it is being in Him, it is living the beatitudes of the kingdom. We desire and make effort to do it, and grace completes what we are not able to do by our own.

The nature of Christ in us is essentially openness to life and freedom. When someone acts for the good of the other, by working for social justice, by voicing for the marginalized, offering silent forgiveness to an enemy, comforting those in shame, or practicing hospitality to the vulnerable. Its not because one sees them as commanded by God as a condition that God will give a blessing in return. They are expressing the life of Christ that naturally lives for the life of the other. If we can ask, “What does the Love of Christ require in this specific moment?” our attention changes from rigid compliance to active discernment. It is true that we seek intellectual and emotional and even spiritual comforts in definitions. While being lawful is often reduced to adhering to definitions of faith and morals, Christ liberates us into a process of discernment led by grace. Ultimately the practical living of Christ the law is done by self-emptying love. Yet we live in a tension. We are perfected in Christ, yet still struggling through our own gracelessness. So, our life is a constant returning to the union with Christ.

Blessedness of emptiness

 We live in a time of empty realities. Many of us feel like a modern-day remnant, just left out. The Babylonians once took the useful, the scholars, the priests, the craftsmen and the smiths the best who can contribute to the economic powers are chosen and the unskilled and the ordinary just live to survive, Many feel discarded by technology or shifting economies. We are told our value lies in our utility, our skills, or our bank accounts.

If we listen to Christ today, are we among who hear his voice as ‘Blessed are you!’ the very first Gospel moment begins with the greeting of the angel to Mary ‘Blessed are you,’ Jesus in his first sermon at Nazareth announced the time of God’s blessedness. Jesus looks at the very people the world ignores - the hungry, the weeping, the merciful and says, ‘Blessed are you.’  

Using passage from Isaiah 61 he opened the kingdom first to the poor. “The Lord has anointed me to preach good news to the poor...” (Is 61:1) “Blessed are the poor theirs is the kingdom of God.” The anointing to preach good news is “...to comfort all who mourn ... to give them a garland instead of ashes.” (Is 61:2-3) “Blessed are those who mourn, they will be comforted.” Isiah cried out calling all to the richness of God’s grace “…, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters... why spend money for that which is not bread?” (Is 55:1-2) “Blessed are those who hunger.. they shall be satisfied.” In the ancient world, inheriting the land was for the strong and the military conquerors. Prophetic promise is that the land (and the world) ultimately belongs to the non-violent, not the conquerors.  Zephaniah focuses on the remnant who were meek and useless. “But I will leave within you the meek and humble, who trust in the name of the Lord... They will eat and lie down and no one will make them afraid.” (Zephaniah 3:12-13) Psalm 37:11 is the foundation for the Beatitude “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.”

To ‘see God’ was the ultimate goal of the pilgrims. They would sing on the way: “Who may ascend the mountain of the Lord? ... The one who has clean hands and a pure heart... They will receive blessing from the Lord.” (Psalm 24:3-5) “Blessed are the pure hearted for they shall see God.” From many passages we know that the prophets were obsessed with the idea that God prefers mercy over sacrifice. “For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings.” (Hosea 6:6) To be merciful is to reflect the very character of God’s steadfast love. Peace in the prophetic sense isn’t just the absence of war; it is the presence of integrity. “The righteous who walks in his integrity - blessed are his children after him!” Proverbs 20:7 (Micah 4:3 / Isaiah 2:4). Peace descends not only on them, but also upon their children. In the Roman world, the Emperor was the ‘Son of God’ because he brought peace through war conquest. By calling peacemakers ‘sons of God,’ Jesus gives them a divine title. Jesus claims that those who bring peace through reconciliation are the true children of God.

The Beatitudes are real when we desire and actualize God’s will in our lives. This blessedness isn’t a promise of future riches; it’s an invitation to realize that God’s favor is currently resting on the very people society ignores. For generations, many considered prophetic hope as a pie in the sky comfort, something that may happen in the afterlife. But in the person of Jesus, ‘it has come already.’ The healing of the broken-hearted is a current event. We no longer look past our tears toward a far distant shore; instead, we look into the face of the One who stands among us.

Jesus does not just comfort and heal those who walk in the valley of death; He identifies the Kingdom with them. Blessedness of the kingdom is with them and within them. The experience of the kingdom is also personified in Jesus. He is the living fulfillment of the promises He preached, being in our midst to offer Himself as the answer to our deepest needs, “I am the bread, I will give you rest, why are you afraid, do not weep, and finally abide with me….”

Each promise (comfort, mercy, the land) is coupled with a clear emptiness (mourning, hunger, or poverty). This is a call for the mutual building of the Kingdom, a participation in God’s work. We extend our hands to the poor, share our bread to the hungry, comfort those who mourn, stand with those hunger for justice, make efforts for peace-making, … Just as Isaiah says the comforted mourners will in turn become ‘Oaks of Righteousness’ who rebuild the ruins, the experience of the Beatitudes call a people to move from being the recipients of the promise to the agents of it.

However, in our world today, many face a new deportation, forced to move away from their homelands. Even the ‘skilled’ who survived the early wave of change now ‘hunger and thirst for justice’ as job security vanishes. We are a world of people living in a ‘nowhere land’ of digital gig work and agricultural decline. There is a powerful system that values them only for their immediate utility. Here the useless and the humble and meek never own the land. They are moved to the margins with beautiful policies of minimum wages. We are met with empty realities, and we carry it home without being satisfied.

If the agricultural sector fails and technology leaves us empty, gathering together as the people of God, our communities and simple social structures need to reflect the reality of the beatitudes where ‘righteousness and peace kiss each other’ (Psalm 85:10). Our current empty realities may then be transformed into a poverty of spirit required for the Kingdom to break through.

Therefore, let us not be disappointed of your emptiness. In our age however rich or poor we are or however holy or sinful we are, in the eyes of the Master; we can be recognised as the poor of Yahwey – the very ones upon whom the Kingdom is built. Because we all carry an empty reality. Let us not carry our 'nowhere land' in despair. Instead, let us come to Him, let us go out as Oaks of Righteousness to comfort those who are still in despair. May our integrity be our peace, and may the blessing that rested on Mary and the prophets rest upon us and our children.