Good News to the Poorly Spirited

What could be the good message for the drooping spirit, the depressed, the sorrowful?
If I announce freedom to the oppressed will they be liberated? 

what is the freedom to be announced.
Normally they are to be neglected, or to be used and exploited.

To know that there is great goodness in them is the good message.
this message is the good news for them.
What else is the Gospel?

If they see the treasure of goodness in them,
they will not curse in their bitterness,
will not seek revenge in their oppression.

Oil of Gladness and the foolish virgins

For the foolish virgins in the Gospel, it had become a habit to go from one business centre to another to buy oil. They were not merely foolish.

Those who were ready had received the Word in their hearts. The Word was becoming an overflowing fountain. They had hope being sprouted.They were not desperate to run around traders. In their littleness they hear divine melody. they love justice and hate wickedness. So they have the oil of gladness within them.

Mary was most highly rewarded

Mary was highly favoured,

She was highly rewarded,

She was most highly rewarded.

She sings:

            “My soul magnifies the Lord, …

            The Lord has done great things for me…”

Mary was highly favoured

            She was highly rewarded,

            Was it the merit of her actions?

            or of attitudes, or of faith?

            “Behold the handmaid of the Lord,” she had said,

            She became what she was created for.

Mary was highly rewarded

            She was born full of grace,

            gratuitous grace that began a new creation.

            Blessed above the patriarchs,

            for she would show the deepest faith.

            Blessed above the prophets,

            for she would give the Word to the world.

            Blessed above the apostles,

            for she was sent to be the mother of the incarnate Word.

            Blessed above the martyrs,

            for her life was a pure offering.

            Fullness of grace,

           and most honourable merit!

Mary was most highly rewarded!

            Mother of the Word incarnate,

            Mother of us all.

            In the Word she was born,

            she became what she was created to be.

            In the Word we too were born,

            She helps us to be what we are created for.

            We too will be rewarded and honoured,

            united with the Blessed

Devotional Worlds

We may be creating our own devotional world. We cannot practice Christian hope being in a private devotional world. Christ himself lived prayerfully, but never closing himself in a devotional world. Present day spiritual leaders seem to encourage people to bind themselves such private devotional worlds both as an individual and as a particular community. They remain with fixed believes, ideas, perspectives and are somehow not ‘permitted’ to dare for an encounter with a different idea, belief or perspective. Attempting that would be seen as being dishonest with the devotional patterns. In fact, only in such encounters they get a context of correction and modification if needed. 

One gets lost giving into some given patterns of practices within a closed devotional world. What do these private devotional worlds have to offer to the struggles and conflicts of the generation of today? Do these devotions have rooms to place these struggles? They do not formulate constructive symbols to involve the lives of this generation, instead, suggest myths and symbols that do not encounter their lives. As a result, their life and devotion/spirituality go in diverse paths and that in itself remains a conflict within; a spirituality or devotional life one follows which does not know the real concerns of one’s life. 

Instead of a formulation of meaningful devotion, the closed private devotional world takes up a moralising (and often condemning) mode to meet the issues. Practices and customs become something meaningful and fruitful only when one can find oneself in a life path. Devotional worlds remain external to oneself seemingly offering some comfort and consolation whereby one nails oneself beliefs and practices that makes oneself in line with the devotional world. Many of the empty and sterile forms of devotional practices simply deny reality whether it be personal realities of oneself, of the community, or social or cultural phenomena. Instead they tend to promote self-righteousness and condemn others. 

They learn to be happy in a comfort within the smoky shades which they learned to call as piety. It is really alarming about a generation when they are deeply interested in religious activities and pious practices, but are struck down when faced with a struggle whether spiritual, emotional, or social. In fact, people in a devotional world encourages to deny or neglect the real conflicts. Having Christ in our hearts, we are to walk through the struggles and conflicts, with truth and humility, and courage and compassion. Christ should be there as the interior strength instead of being an ideal, principle, or an object of devotional practice. 

We need to be enabled to understand the truth within the struggles and conflicts, and dialogue with them. The symbols and myths within devotions that become easy solutions, interpretations, and part of religious imaginations do not provide such apt realisation or proper understanding. Conflicts and challenges are not something that should be denied or neglected. They are the real crosses that are to be embraced with responsibility. Only there we can find Christian hope, and offer Christian hope to the world. 

Real devotions would seek truth of the living situations, and might reformulate practices that can bring transformation in our attitudes and responses. True devotion is not afraid of such transformations. It is very crucial to reflect whether our devotional practices and religious imaginations (the way we imagine about God, heaven, blessing, life…) intent to make a Christ-formation happen in our person and communities, or, rather, we simply look for pleasing God expect favours for our private world. The answer may show why people are often in a ‘worry and hurry’ within devotional practices. They are found within their devotional bubble-world. It is easy to create a devotional world, because it is about performance. There we wear masks, and are secured with the righteousness that our following of devotions offer. There is lot of space for hypocrisy too. To safeguard one’s own devotional wall itself becomes a serious concern. It does bring about an absence of Christ-presence and so a timely Christian presence. 

It is easy to create a devotional world, because it is about performance. But a pious and loyal heart cannot limit to performances. It does not see the need for worried doings to please God, ensure protection, cause blessings etc, because it has known Christ. Though it takes up crosses it has hope – devotion is to be the reflection of that relationship and hope. 

Have we found truth?

St Dominic Guzman set out to preach;
not because there was no spirituality, there was excess of spiritualities
not because there was no preacher, there were many preachers

Dominic set out to preach,
to preach truth which neither those attractive spiritualities nor the preachers offered.
____________________
Contemplation is the openness to truth.
truth transforms and we shall have its fruits.
Have we found truth, in intuitions, revelations, visions, or learning?
Perhaps we may have,Yet, understanding is further required.
Humble seeking is contemplation,
even while we share there is seeking.

Dominic (and the Dominicans) found new understanding of the contemplated truth,
in the very lives to whom they shared their contemplation.
_____________________
One remains far from the truth of the person of one's spouse, friend, parent, child....
even after many years being together.
yet we dare to claim that we have known the truth of the person of God.
Have we found truth, in intuitions, revelations, visions, or learning?
Perhaps we may have,Yet, understanding is further required.
Humble seeking is contemplation,
even while we share there is seeking.

Good neighbour is a Samaritan

Strange enough, that the Good neighbour is a Samaritan, not just leper, tax-collector. Samaritan is consciously distanced stranger. Samaritan himself is reflected in the wounded traveller who is treated as a distanced stranger. His coming near  shows that he is not afraid, he spends his oil and wine, looks after him. The unknown in the stranger is not necessarily to be suspected of being harmful to us. Remember that  it was strangers that offered blessing to Abraham, and it was at a stranger's voice the hearts of the disciples were filled with new strength of life.

The priest and the Levite conveniently bypassed the needy. their status could defend their passing by because they had to keep themselves pure. The Lawyer also is trying to bypass Jesus, yet he is justifying his passing by by asking a 'noble' question. 

Now the question comes to us: whose neighbour  I am, and  to whom I am  a neighbour. Perhaps, at times we need to be a generous provider, but we may also have to be a humble receiving neighbour too. Jesus received the care of neighbour from Simon of Cyrene on the way to Calvary, and from the thief at his right side on the cross. he responded in gentle words, and to the thief at his left in silence.

provider. Provider with ulterior motive and pride cannot be a neighbour.

It is all in neighbourhood we are nourished, strengthened, hurt, broken, cared, healed, and raised up. What we have received will form in us the shape of our neighbouring to others. True Word of life we receive in neighbourhood, and we live by it. Thus neighbourhood is the new covenant, a new way of being with others. It is also a work of grace/ spirit. Every neighbourhood bond opens a grace channel for us. Some do break such channels and we are deprived of grace leaving us in pain. But abundance of other neighbourhood bonds can heal and strengthen and place us into the web of life, and there is peace.

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Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37)

I can't Believe unless ...

Though some pious movements within the church wants to emphasise that the Christians must remain an isolated community (consecrated/separate group, we are well aware that we are exposed to complex matrix of multiple cultures and peoples. We can find ourselves within a web of disciplines of moral formation within our traditions and institutions. Even religiosity and spiritual practices are framed within categories of moral obligations. Yet when it comes to what we truly are to be, to bring good tidings to the poor, to proclaim deliverance to the captives and restore of sight to the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the favour of the Lord, we easily escape from such commitments hiding in cultic pious customs. Our religiosity is nurturing that kind of view. "I' go to church, 'my' family goes for retreat... may not form a witnessing christian community.

As a religious system it seems to focus on moral actions whereas they have their roots in culture, values, perspectives, social norms etc. The instructions such as not to touch, see, feel are insufficient to enable us to form a living culture in the midst of a fast changing world. The kind of non-sensual orientation remain external to our life conditions, and offer no hope for living. What they live is not a pious life, but a customary living of religious culture. So we can see those trying for their non-worldly religiosity either live with religious content (spiritual insanity) or nurture despair and gradually atheism. It is observed that the Church’s inability to see the changing world and its concerns was the main reason for modern atheism.

Formation of a living culture is not worked out by guiding norms or theories. It is lived and communicated within communities (it is of course not a mechanical group living). It is rather difficult and challenging because we cannot have definite plans and expected results within a time. Even morality is a community responsibility. One cannot condemn another, but must own the responsibility for what has been found condemnable. As isolated individuals no one can learn to live a life style of Christ. A Christian community needs to become a home where these can come with their inability to believe and trust. There one can feel the community’s wounds and pains due to ‘my’ absence. Entering into the community one enters into the experience of making a more complete body of Christ. 

Passion and Communion

We passionately involve in many activities and movements. It may be in our profession, service, in religious activities, conducting programmes etc. We also engage in devotional practices. We are often very passionate and energetic.

Something we need to acquire along with passion is communion. In order to enter into communion with what we are engaged in, it is necessary that we are able to interact with them, or to have dialogue with them. Our own actions and enthusiasm will become communicative, and gradually making it possible that we transcend this interaction and enter into a communion with God who is the source of inspirations and innovations and bring them to their own very proper end.

At the same time we also see that unreflected and imprudent passion and enthusiasm has damaged families and communities. Here the element of communion is absent in attempting to make up a kingdom.

"It is 'I' who have to establish the kingdom." - Without 'me' the group, the office, the movement, the church etc cannot not function. only if 'I' am there things will be in order."

"The kingdom is in the way that 'I' think and imagine." - things have to be in the way that I want. 

Thus ultimately it becomes 'my' kingdom.

The tendency to establish 'my own kingdom' shows that I have not begun to 'leave everything.' That is why Jesus asked to 'deny yourself and follow.' The way we try to practice denial and detachment unfortunately creating another favourable self, a religious or a pious self. A closer look at ourselves shows that the cherished self of ours is formed by many forms of hypocrisy that we have sacralised. That is the self that we are not ready to deny because somehow they offer easy ways (Mt 7: 13) to enter. These are identity mechanisms at work, which also provide for popularity and social approval.If someone happens to unmask these, or open an attack we can be sure that we 'bring down fire' on people (Lk 9:54).

It is impossible to walk behind Christ with our decorated and sacralised hypocrisies. We must take up our crosses which is the reality of our own life. 

Communion can put us in right self with ourselves, our professions, activities, ministries, and God. It is a contemplative approach of living our normal life with laughter and joy, hard works and pleasures, fatigue and crisis. What we lack is a contemplative dialogue with our own life, our truth, hypocrisies, fears etc. The life itself will tell us its meaning and depth and take us to communion.

Plato or Christ? We can't have two masters

Some Christians believe in Plato more than in Christ or in the Bible. It is Plato's view that a pre-existent immortal soul enters the human body and survives after the death of the body. Gnostic and Manichean movements believed that matter (body) is evil and death liberates us. Until then we struggle in the imprisonment of the body (the world). Christian thinking gradually got shaped accordingly and associated this dualism to morality defining good to be connected to soul, and whatever concerns the body and the world is evil.There is no dichotomous concept of the human person in the Bible. The Biblical view is that the human person is a unity, the whole human person. Those condemn the humanity of themselves and exalt the 'body and blood' of Christ are not sincere in their approach. In many ways of our piety we have learned to sacralise our hypocrisy.

Nursing: The Balance of Mind, Body, and Spirit

International Nurses Council suggests to reflect on the theme Nursing: The Balance of Mind, Body, and Spirit for the year 2019.

The whole service of nursing is an engagement with the body. Weak and fragile, broken, wounded, rotten body is approached with care, tenderness and sacredness. At the same time bearing in their (nurses) own body the fatigue, hunger, sweat, drowsiness, and even illness. When fired, they try to raise their minds to hold it within themselves.The wounded healer is made alive in their own body. 

As the theme seems to suggest, nursing requires a well integrated personality both for the good functioning of the service in the hospital, and for the well being of the nurses themselves. A mere academic knowledge may not suffice for placing oneself into such a service. Developing human sensitivity may be the beginning. It is carefully being attentive, first of all to oneself, then to other members of the staff and to the patients. Being attentive to oneself is most important because it is important to be aware of what happens to one's mind and body when we engage in the healing process of others. It is the compassion we give to ourselves that flows to the patients. Since it is dealing with the mysteries of human lives, we may not be able to predict what comes next. So an absence of a healthy network can often burden others. Lack of interest, dedication, alertness can hurt the other members of the staff as there is a collaborative work is necessary. In case of attitudes of carelessness or laziness in correct reporting and offering attention can risk the life of the ones given in trust. Usual 'adjustments' done for covering the mistakes from one's part can be heavily affecting both the life of the patient, and it is cruel as such adjustments sometime load the poor families even for the medicines that have not been used for them. It is  a genuine effort for development and sincere encounter of oneself in order to place oneself properly into the dignity of a nurse.

While keeping the humanness and tenderness as the basic attitude, mind too requires strong base to act on. One has the right to safeguard personal uniqueness of oneself from which one may approach the patients concerned with absolute tenderness and humane heart. Compassion also calls for being alert and offering timely care. One needs to be able to discern the areas where one could be used in the name of service. There one must follow strictly a professional approach, absence of which can end up in one doing the works of everyone and some remain lazy. A strong mind is also required to form a disciplined life. It is necessary to train the mind to balance between work, leisure and rest. When one is missing it can affect the integration of our personality.

Just as one is a unique person, there is something that makes a nurse out of a person, the inner motivation to be a nurse which is much beyond a profession. Only with such a motivation there can be the healing transmitted. These form a spirituality of nursing, concerning oneself, other members of the staff, and the patients. When we consider this in the form of spirituality, here all who are present are highly sensitive. They are thinking, anxious, worried, tired, in pain... only if we can be attentive to this we can form in us the virtues of healing. We will realise that in every attempt here there is a prayer mode, perhaps a prayer that does not require words.

Summer Sprouts: Stories for Bad Days

We require an extraordinary courage and hope to speak of a blooming flower in the heat of summer. In the moments of pain and fear  we often use the categories of danger and death. People can easily identify that it is their own story, but what they need is a cause that they can look beyond. Some periods in history are times of crisis. They can be of natural calamities, crisis in values and culture, or deadly sickness. At times they may be repeated, long lasting, or devastating. The worst thing is that often people have no explanation for what is happening.

People who hold on to retributive theology are most likely to conclude that the world has become very sinful and God has sent punishments. They often develop a crisis mentality. Since it is urgent that we need to be saved from the crisis what is important is to repent, and to withdraw from the world. Gradually it becomes a negative spirituality of detachment that promotes a total disengagement with the world. It's devotional intensity promotes depriving the body of its needs calling it 'desire' with a negative connotation. The opposite is understood to be spiritual and really 'desirable.' Thus we live a Platonic spirituality than a christian life.

A good example is how Europe responded spiritually to the situation after Black death. In our own lives, how happy and excited we are to condemn and hate the body and the world! Are they too bad to be treated so? Why do we keep a kind of unbearable feeling regarding the body? We cannot think of body and soul separately. The inferior status given to the body is a wrong christian anthropology. As it was done earlier we too repeat the same art forms to show that the body is the cause for temptation and sin. Good and evil fight for the human soul, and the evil tempts to yield to the 'pleasures' of the body. These perspectives have made us to feel the body and our natural surrounding as some unbearable burden and made our life and devotions with a melancholic orientation. It can lead us to form a guilt culture that accuses ourselves constantly, and longs to be accused though we may not be consciously aware of it. We may begin to see 'sin possibilities' everywhere ans in ourselves. We can also think of the Puritanism among the Protestants and Jansenism among the Catholics.

Another focus during such times of crisis is on the imaginations of hell and judgement. What we see as the worst things are given to the imaginations of hell; rotting dump with worms and dead bodies was a good image to think of the worst. In the context of war, columns of fire and smoke would fill our hell. Coming ages our imaginations of hell might include the torturing machine monsters.

A vision that is integral with the beauty and goodness of nature and our own body can help us to stand with our own limitations even in the moments of crisis. We do seek interpretations and explanations, but the denial of the world is not an appropriate approach. We must rise above the moments of crisis, but we cannot hold the world responsible for it. The negative things we blame on the world actually proceed from our own ill-spirit or improperly formed 'soul', and not from the body. They may be giving an explanation that offers a solution in dilemma. But the life that we live must be worth lived, and we need 'true' stories for it. We cannot live a true life on 'convenient' stories, whether it be about our body, our world or anything that weaves our life story.

Humanity ... Spiritualities, that we may not all perish

Religion that looks for the continuity of its systems and institutions alone, can be at risk of losing its spirituality. Spiritualities can compliment well because they make up the whole of the human. One who practices the values of love, forgiveness and sacrifice from christian spirituality is in no way objected to look deeper into universal compassion from Buddhism, universal harmony from Hinduism, courage for justice from Sikhism, or peace from Islam. 

The crisis today is a thought that the religious systems are in danger. It is a social phenomena, but the east blame the west and the west blame the Muslims, or chose either new age trends or fundamental approach. The Muslims also react against the western domination and react differently. Instead, in loving and showing compassion no one is irritated but our lost humanity can be rebuilt. The disaster is the preference to religious structures above God.

But it is to be noticed that the religion is often a language used for political moves. Often it is the immature political interventions and international policies that sustains market economy that create domination and tension. There, 'Jesus' 'Bible' and 'temple' can become powerful political icons that gathers support for vested agenda.

Anywhere, the building up of the sense of victimhood and insecurity is a potential formation of hostility and suspect about other communities. Need of our time is to gather the courage to come together as human family or even as an earth community. Towards this purpose not only religious leaders must come together in dialogue, the political leaders also need to come forward to to rethink of their economic and political policies. Surviving alone is a vain hope today! If we live together we can live, otherwise we all perish.

No emperor in nature

Nature was seen to be the caring, nourishing, and protecting presence that embraced us.
We were all children ...
Even the earliest human consciousness concerning the divine were of a caring and protecting mother.

We began hunting, fighting, dominating, battling, ruling and conquering; and our imagining of God too became that of a ruling and controlling.
some became rulers and speakers, commanders, and managers
others became slaves, hearers, sinners and doers.

In nature there is no emperor or king, and so, learning from nature we could re-imagine of ourselves and our gods.

The Word was from the Beginning

A lived faith is something that is to be listened together from one another. It is not something that is suggested or commanded. Truth is revealed in the untold pains of fragmented selves today. Christ's message is there, we can recognise this message and the person of Christ only if we are able to listen as a community. Only when the continuity through traditions meet the social consciousness of today, this listening and living of faith can be fruitful and witnessing. The revelation of Christ is recognised and lived as a community. Since we are human beings and with different cultural perspectives we may realise this presence in different ways. Perhaps this understanding may have been dominated by a western perspective. If we are to realise the unknown Christ, we must be open to the recognition made by Asian, African and many indigenous consciousness. A uniform appearance is never the nature of any form of presence in nature. The differences are not just tolerated but they are necessarily placed in mutual integration.

Christ, the wisdom of God, through whom all things were made, also has inspired cultures and civilisations. These cultures were there even before Abraham was born. They have lived well throughout the centuries according to their conscience. As any religious traditions Christianity too has religious factors which we need to acknowledge. (There are texts, institutions, and significant personalities. There is a cultural-historical context where a religion originates, develop and proceed to deeper directions). Those religious traditions also have inspirational and graceful contents just as Christianity as a religion. If someone has a claim that one has wholly understood the mystery of God and Christ and remain intolerant to others that would be a heretical attitude. We are gradually realising the revelation of Christ for us and in us, as the church, as the community of believers, community of humanity, and as community of all beings. All must be there to complete the body of Christ.

He (the Word) was from the beginning; he is the alpha and the omega. We are familiar with the Word within the annunciation-ascension setting. If Christianity is willing and open to look at the reality of the Word beyond how the Semitic cultures recognised him, it can have a new vision of Christ to come together as a community of all beings, a larger vision of the Church. The Word being the form of the universe, is showing himself in different ways in its journey, visible and unfolding. Even within the human consciousness he is revealing himself and gradually taking it to the purpose of humanity. Then in the Bread of thanksgiving we raise, we proclaim every sacrificial death that the Word unfolds in the universe.

Mercy received: A new confidence, new love

The image of the Divine Mercy is an image of the Risen Christ. Jn 20 19-28 can be a wonderful text to understand the message of the Divine mercy for someone who cannot read the full diary of St Faustina.

It is into a closedness and fear Christ comes close, and speaks to them in the consoling words, “Peace be with you.”

He calls Thomas from his search, and shows his wounds. “It is me, Thomas, put your finger on the marks of the nails, and keep your hand on my pierced side, and believe.”

God desires that we go close to him with sincere heart. God is open to welcome, accept build us once again. This open and welcoming heart of God is the mercy we reflect on. We may be afraid, closed, broken, bitter, and lost. God’s mercy is available for us. We can join our pains and woundedness to the wounds of Christ. He will offer us confidence, strength, hope and new love.

He breathed on them and said, “receive the Spirit, if you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” Forgiveness for us is not an act of kindness, but an action of power and work of the holy Spirit. To offer such kind of forgiveness we need to be confident of being forgiven ourselves. To forgive and be forgiven is the way of peace.

The message of hope here is that God’s kindness can overcome all sins, and bring peace to the world. Though in the midst of troubles and fears, only our confidence in the divine benevolence can heal us of our divisive attitudes, hate, and fights for domination.

It was very much message of hope and consolation especially in the context of the World war I. Though the worse one was yet to come people were already in fear and hopelessness. They could not see any sign of the presence of God.

To this context the Divine mercy is a concrete proposal which require concrete application.

Asking for God’s mercy includes humble acceptance of our own arrogance and hardness of heart, sincere effort to remove every form of suspicion, daring to come out of closedness and narrow securities. He will enter into our rooms and show mercy to us.

More than we plead for mercy, mercy is an invitation that we confidently trust in the heart of love,  and go to him.

It is very important for us that we learn to trust as it is an act of sincerity and faith. As we place our trust in Jesus, Jesus also asks us to learn to trust in our spouse, family members, neighbours, nations, communities ...As war begins from heart the building of peace also begins at heart and our attitudes. As the saviour shows his mercy and heals us, he asks us to turn this mercy into action, “Be merciful.” It goes beyond a mere 3 O’ clock devotion or a prayer in the name of divine mercy.

All these graces and mercy are directed towards the communion with God. St. Faustina says that all these graces and wonders are like ornaments. What really forms our human nature and bring to completion is our relation with God. This sanctity is the grace and mercy lived in our life. Perhaps it was such a realisation that happened in Thomas when he said, “My Lord, an my God.”

Dangerous Paths of ‘faith’

Violence, war, and terror are of course horrible, but fear, hatred, and insecurity are at their roots.

Intense tragedy of the much exalted ‘new world’ is the crisis of self and identity. In a personal way we are challenged on the very worth and meaning of human existence; sense of belonging and purposefulness of life is threatened. It also scattered the structures of traditional religions and cultures. 

Self preservation is a powerful motive to fight the challenges, but when it becomes the purpose itself it can turn hostile and arrogant. Discovering an identity and gaining a sense of meaning in life is the search of many youth today. Unfortunately our systems do not facilitate persons in their quest for identity within the worth of one’s human self. So they tend to bind themselves with religious, political or national ideologies.

The ‘New World’ also challenged the traditions and structures of religion. So from their side the new culture, especially of the industrial world was an apparent threat to many traditional cultures. Every tradition has struggled to survive or face the perceived decline of faith. Instead of understanding the human condition amidst this new situation, religions took a different turn in becoming identity providers at the cost of their essence that was needed to be cultivated. There were also formation of many movements for this preservation mode to be intensified. Morality is to safeguard the conduct of persons and community. When the moral law, which has a culture at its origin, becomes an ideology, its strict following marks the identity of being faithful to religion. 

Movements for esteemed individual right and freedom also became new faiths. Secularism and atheism had their own ideologies to stand for. Often, they remained more in hostility to the systems they opposed than cultivating the values they stood for. So their values were always in opposition to something rather than aiming at the integral development of human person and community.

In both these phases the danger begins when they love to cultivate a sense of insecurity and victimhood. It is well reinforced with the personal and professional crisis of today. It is this crisis that make many to give up their profession, and chose commitment to religion (of course there are people who are really motivated in an in-depth experience). Often the religion becomes their new profession and brand identity. The emphasis they make on others is highly demanding and it often hurts others. For them, they are the only true, authentic and faithful believers. They meticulously practice religion, and show arrogance to the ‘failure’ of others in practicing faith.

Cultivation of sense of victimhood and fear alarms anyone to safeguard against any potential danger. It can also make people suspicious even when we are in a peaceful situation. We are taught to generalise these threats spatially (everywhere), and temporally (throughout the ages) though they may have occurred in different contexts. Those look for advantage will also fill hostility and revenge along with the sense of being a victim. 

There is also wrong identification of the ‘enemy’ when we continue the generalisation. “The church is against the secular world,” “the secular society and atheists always want to damage the church,” “they all have a terrorist attitude” etc are baseless, and we are making separating walls for ourselves.

Who is the trickster? It may be difficult to recognise. If we once again look at the matter of self preservation, the struggle to survive is always a struggle to win. Here it may me a craze to rule. It is ‘me’ that is involved though I may have no power to rule at all. When the ideology dominates over, it is my own victory, and we look forward to that day. The slavish mentality to an empire continues to be in an un-reflected submission to an ideology, even religion. The emperor, my hero rules and there I too rule. One emperor, one nation, one culture, one faith ... all have this craze to dominate. 

The emperor’s conquest, the colonial domination has not gone away. They have come back in corporate economic powers. They well use the religious, political struggles for their benefit becoming supporters and defenders often controlling governments. Who invest control the governments that ‘fight’ for establishing peace? Who aims at domination of a region that is accused of terror? 

Politics, being the system of governance, moulds on power. Often their soft target is intimate ‘faith’ of people. They do manipulate the crisis and turn it on their advantage. In US and the middle east it may be religious beliefs, in Europe it may be a cry for freedom and rights, in Asia it may be ethnicity, language, nation, and culture. The above mentioned process of cultivating fear of destruction, hostility and revenge would be well designed to achieve their purpose. Today the possession of power is to run business, extract resources and evacuate people by using made up reasons. They do create unrest so that they can still convince the people of the nearing threats.

Check at the roots of radical groups or movements asking the true faith and fidelity, there is a businessman, a trader. The innocents trust their commitments, make sacrifices, live for the faith in their innocence, and die if asked. Their innocent sacrifices, believed to be in the name of God or principles, go for the whims and fancies of these traders at the head. Tragedy of it is either the governments benefit from such religious businessmen or the religious structures. So they rarely look into what happens to the innocents and their personal life fulfilment after having gone behind such movements. In the name of preserving our traditions and fighting for our rights they follow piety, gather on streets as they are told, vote as they are directed. The innocent sacrifices come to nothing after the desired purposes are met. There the innocents become the real victims.
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Personal (identity) crisis or life satisfaction added with professional crisis seeking for an identity in religion results religious fanaticism.

Abandoning their profession and responsibilities receives magnified interpretations to be 'great sacrifice.' They begin to defend their adaptation of religion, and the rigidity is forced upon the community where one tries to be a hero. There one receives social recognition, become an honored hero, not bossed over by anyone.
Religion becomes an identity supplier at the cost of many who suffer under the rigidity of such 'ideal' heroes. Those innocents do everything in the name of faith, and the heroes do their business.________________________
See also Humanity ... Spiritualities, that we may not all perish 

The Breaking of the Bread

"They recognised Him in the 'breaking of the bread'"

'Breaking of the bread necessarily involves three realities: Christ Himself who is present, the community that is formed in Christ, the bread, the sign, in which Christ is present sacramentally. 

The braking and sharing, and the presence happens in all these three.

If the 'breaking of the bread,' and the worship of the presence of Christ is only 'bread focused' it limits itself from its full meaning and possibility of becoming the life-source.

Rise

May the power of the resurrection enable us to offer a new life to many deaths that we have brought to ourselves.

We may have learned to sing and dance by seeing and hearing the birds and animals our companions. High mountains, gentle rains, the river flows, scorching summer, and the seasons of scarcity... were also offering some spiritual sense of life, power, beauty, care, plenitude...

Mountains are levelled today, and the heaps of waste become new mountains. if at all any greenery or river remain they are likely to become locations for resorts, tourism; a commodity to be enjoyed, not a home to live in. There is no soul in a spirituality if it has no place for the natural world and our place in it. Our spiritual vision is often constrained and framed within a number of definitions like body-lust-sin, satan-idol-commandments, atonement-ransom-redemption, traditions-piety-customs. They neither help us to open our vision beyond our limitations, nor do they enable us to relate beyond boundaries as Christ envisioned. No moral teaching can guide us to form a culture of life without knowing the tender dynamics that nature shows.

It is through the same Word that became flesh that the whole world was created and is cared and brought to the purposes of each one. It is a response to the Word itself that the human consciousness makes responsible interactions with nature. The life of the resurrection has to give new life to the structure of human consciousness. Nature was not just at the background but they were actively involved at the birth, baptism, whole of his public ministry, death and resurrection.

The wisdom of the Word that is revealed in us grows and comes to its completion with the interactions we make with the community of creatures shaped by the same wisdom of the Word. They are mutually enhancing and rising relations, they are the grace bonds to be lived in our own living environment. The wonder at seeing a blooming flower, the fragrance of woods and flowers, the melody of birds and small creatures, the shining stars ... are the early lessons of spirituality. To pat on a little flower, or an ailing wound without letting it feel pain is the inner power of the resurrection.

May our sincere sobbing that longs to grow to a new life make a growing tension to break out and rise up as we prepare to meet the risen Lord at the dawn. This inner struggle of life springing forth has to come in our vision of reality, values and our inner culture.

Do our meditations on the newness of life make us to put our efforts to give a new life to the springs that have dried up?
Are we able to learn that there is some value in this natural world that is so alive?
Can we avoid eating for enjoyment and limit it for our sustenance?

The power of the resurrection has to grow into a living internal culture. It has to function as our convictions, visions, and commitments. Gradually it might grow into a shared responsibility and a common dream, and then we will begin to see the abundance of life; the joy of the resurrection. May flowers, birds, animals, humans, rivers and forests all rise in a new life as a community of the living.

#returntothedust

The First Station: The Grateful Heart of Christ

'Jesus is condemned to death' is not the first station. The grateful heart of Christ is the beginning of the Way of the Cross. We cannot make any sacrifice or become a sacrifice without growing in gratitude. He does not want us to remind ourselves of the torments we gave him and put a blame on us once again. But a since re effort to walk on the path that Jesus walked - that is the way of the cross.

The first station - Two things we need to meditate on his grateful heart. 

One: Gratitude towards his own life and about the pain that he was to endure. He was thankful because he believed that his sacrifices were accepted, and because he lovingly accepted the will of the Father though it was bitter.

Two: Who understands this thanksgiving sacrifice and lives it? They are ordinary people, the babes. They find their God in their little joys and small complaints, and they know that God accepts both. They also know that pain and struggles are part of their life and God is there.
This wisdom is hidden from the Know-all, and the super-pious categories of people. They cannot pass the first station. How will they live the way of the Cross?

Crosses: Fake and Real

Let us sincerely show our crosses to Christ, with all their heaviness, pain, shame and complaints. Our struggles in loving, forgiving, understanding, sufferings and enduring, loneliness, pain, weaknesses and temptations, yet our sincere efforts trusting in the grace of God - that is our real cross, the life-giving one. Christ will be ready to die on those crosses with lot of love pouring out his life into them, and a new life to us.

Christ will not come to die on the fake crosses we make, crosses that we make by thinking 'I am doing or sacrificing this and that for Christ.' We must recognise the salesmen of such fake-crosses who say that we must do this and that for the love of Christ. They neither help us to recognise our real crosses, nor do they enable us to take our crosses to Christ. They want to promote the crosses they want to promote.

They are the modern-day money-changers of the temple.

Christ that cannot rise

Christ is to be loved and lived,
First we nailed him,
then we idolised him;
it is then he became dead to humanity.
Idols do not have resurrection;
after idolising him,
one cannot expect the power of his resurrection.

To the living one, our relationships are to be of the living.
we don't have to be true before idols,
we just need to perform 'some things' that they say pleasing to god.
we do really well, we chose to fake

We are acting well, for someone and something,
and they say that they are all pleasing to God.

God is mourning,
over God's own death.

Virtual Prayers

Can digital/virtual reality bring about a sacramental presence?
No? Then, what is effective in the online 'praise and worship,' ministries, and adorations?
If 'yes,' why not communion and confessions?
and if it is the faith that matters, then what is the significance of the sacraments in the natural signs, by prescribed ministers and places?

Added to that, 'adorations' and 'praise and worship' in 'our channel' is what is bringing the divine presence! If we are not careful, our fascination for those promoted 'our channel/ministries' gradually turn out to be digital addiction. Whether the content is 'spiritual' or not, the effect that the digital reality makes is the same.

We can raise our lives to God, but it is not fitting when some as if the same sacramental participation is made possible especially in adorations. We cannot pray or worship from a virtual self of ourselves and of God.

Faith does matter, and the divine presence can avail graces and blessings for the people in prayer. But this takes the form of a digital marketing when 'our channel' monopolise the blessings of God where 'our channel' is the focus, not God who is benevolent.

................................
Sacraments are those natural signs which makes a God-human encounter possible in our lives. They do share something of our own human realities. It must also be said that sacraments are only sacraments, signs that brings alive the reality, and it is not reality itself in its completeness.

"Let there be" @Return to the dust

The primary commandment God pronounced was “Let there be!”
and there came to be everything that is.
There are unique qualities of every galactic-bio-geo regions,
Each of them expresses wonderful mystery of the universe.
It is in our conscious celebration of these numinous mysteries,
we have diverse liturgies, festivals, music and dance, a cultural identity.

“Let there be” to exist, sustain, belong, heal and remain connected,
these diverse cultures, liturgies and God-concepts
God said “Let there be”

#returntothedust

Breath of life, nature faces @ Return to the dust

Breath of God was shaping the world in diverse forms, 

even millions of years before the life breath brought forth

the human dimension in the universe.

Before the word, the voice and sound, there was dream
Breath of life comes to the dream, and there is creation.

Open the hearts to that dream,
all those hearts that tie themselves to words.

#returntothedust

Priesthood in nature @ Return to the dust

We have not come into this world
We came forth from nature
We are one among the many diverse creatures
each manifesting specific dimension of the universe.
Human is one mode of the universe.
Each celebrates life, offers, and dies
sustaining and nourishing the whole.
The whole nature is priestly, with ongoing sacred rituals.

We are not a separate individual,
in Christ we are; each a specific manifestation of the Word.
Priesthood is one charism in the body of Christ.
We celebrate holiness, offer our life, and even die,
building and mutually nourishing the body of Christ.
The whole body is priestly, each living a sacred life;
Self-emptying, sacrificing, and life-giving.
What nature does spontaneously, we do in awareness;
What Christ did in his body, we do it in the body we belong to. 

#returntothedust

Together we see the face of God

"the whole universe together participates the divine goodness more perfectly, and represents it better than any single creature whatever." Summa Theologica (Part I, q. 47, a. 1) 

Multiplicity is seen everywhere in nature, even in the experiences and expressions of human consciousness. The human mode of consciousness is part of a gradual process of the dynamics of the cosmos itself in the caring hands of God. The human mode is towards an inner-communion with the numinous mystery that also includes the mystery of human existence. The multiple forms of awareness and expression are seen although various spiritual disciplines, diverse forms of deities and worship, scriptures, mystical trends, and moral codes. 

The interior awareness of the numinous were rather developed within the limits of particular geographical context, and the then available mode of consciousness. They were inspiring interpretations to respond to their context. They effectively guided a specific community to participate meaningfully in the numinous they recognised.

India had deep mystical and metaphysical developments which demanded a specific type of psychic intensity. Chinese traditions recognised a Great Mystery in the vast cosmological cycles in which human was also a functional presence. The Japanese nurtured a spiritual simplicity and spontaneity which they learned from their sense of the aesthetic expression of the numinous in the natural world. The native Americans were aware of a Great Spirit that is present throughout the natural world and in the human heart. The power of the word of the great patriarch cultivated the consciousnesses of all powerful Word among the Semitic religions and made them People of the Book.
In all these traditions they had the first phase as a recognition of the numinous in the nature, the primary revealing agent. Then their experiences were given narrative structures and handed down to next generation by word of mouth and shared rituals. Next phase was to take a written form of what was handed on orally. By now they received a more defined form. However, a classical authority given to the text restricts all kinds of rereading and interpretations. 

The distinctive insights of each of these traditions were their deepest value. Only when they are seen in their relation to each other, a comprehensive vision or the complete beauty of the revelatory experience can be observed. In contents we may observe the differentiated forms of images, disciplines, liturgy etc, but in their mutual presence we may come to know the authentic revelatory process itself. It is important to see how a tradition brings the divine, the nature and the human to be present to each other. It is a revelatory nearness to each other. 

Desire for uniformity can be apparently beautiful, but it is possible only within a closed community. if we opt to do that it can lead to a sterility in the religious process.  Uniformity, of course, saves the challenge to meet differences, but it cuts off the tensions needed for creativity and openness needed for understanding the numinous being revealed in our time. Closed understanding and interpretation of a religious discipline, scripture, and ways of worship can only make divine human communication shrink. When we observe the wrongdoings within religions it is mainly because some individual began assuming this secluded vision of non-interacting and dominating vision of their religious traditions.

Rather, a healing can be experienced only by an openness which cannot be exhaustively understood or expressed in a single form. It is communion we all look for. Redemption, repentance, sanctification,  reconciliation are all in one way or the other indicate to this communion aspect. Moving further from atonement patterns we can also imagine about a communion in personal and cosmic terms. The concepts like logos, mystical body ... also have deep potential to be open for this communion in differences.

Courtesy: Thomas Berry, "The Earth: The New Context for Religious Unity"

Beatitudes from nature @ Return to the dust

"Pray for those who persecute you"?
Learn from nature!
We persecute her and do all evil against her,
yet she rejoices over her children and offer the best.

One part of the nature mourns, another part brings consolation.
Look at the new sprouts, we will have the strength of new hope;
we must have the openness to listen to the Word in the process of sprouting, flowering...

How will we become humble and meek unless we know the deepest humility seen in nature.
How can we be really satisfied in our hunger and thirst,
unless we know the nourishment the nature gives?
How will we be comforted?

Unless we understand the generosity of nature,
how will we understand true justice,
how will we learn true sacrifice without knowing the value of decaying in being generous?

We cannot enter the blessedness,
if we cannot learn the humility and gratitude the nature teaches.
There are limitations, hunger, thirst, death, and decay,
blessed is she because they are the inner capabilities,
to be open for newer and further forms.

Without the lessons form nature,
how will we establish peace?
If we cannot love the nature and learn from her whom you can embrace, and be in,
how can we expect to love God whom we cannot see?
#returntothedust

Word in us ... @ Return to the dust

What about the Word of God in nature,
the divine revelation in and to the community of all creatures,
the community other than human/including humans.
The Word of God is not outside,
it is at the heart of every tiny grain of minerals,
and at the speaking tongue of every star, plant and animal.
#returntothedust

Inner spontaneity ... @ Return to the Dust

It is not because of a law,
that seeds sprout,
flowers bloom,
and the birds sing.
It is from their inner spontaneity.
Where have we locked the capacity of our spontaneity?
Among machines? speed? religion?
Those who celebrate righteousness in the following of the laws and rubrics have killed this spontaneity.
return to the dust...
#returntothedust 

The womb where you truly repent @ Return to the dust

Enter into the womb of nature,
be filled with the dream of nature,
the noble desire, the gentle beauty,
soft touches of creation.

The womb where we all were formed and transformed,
richness of life, plenitude, fragrance, beauty is known,
without them we would never know a God of life,
it is there we are born, it is our life, our story.

Repentance is to see clearly what we are and how we are,
we are children and companions.
Rejoice and smile with flowers,
sing with birds, leap with animals,
shine with the stars,
mourn with the pain of nature,
renew the liturgy of the universe.
Return to the dust.

#returntothedust

Word within @ Return to the dust

Word is the soul of nature,
Word is at the heart of every tiny creature,
Great scientists, sages, artists gave their best works from the spontaneous presence of the Word within.

Can we listen?
It will produce fruits in us.
Then we begin to pray...
For, then, we know the care given to us,
then, we know how we must care,
then we know why and how we need to be grateful,
then we know we need to forgive.
To learn these primary lessons,
return to the dust.

#returntothedust 

Be spiritual as the nature is spiritual... @Return to the dust

New priestly rituals must take into account the rituals of every bit of creation, 

the sanctuaries of diverse bioregions, 

and the community of all creation.
Nature lives a priestly life
self-giving, regenerating
Not offering something for the sake of others,
but offering herself for the life of all
This priesthood is re-creational and celebratory;
decay and sacrifices bring forth or sustain life,
new life shows joyous colours and songs.
If nature had no spirit, how would it be inspired to offer?
how would it call all children for celebration
Together nature has a body, all in the world,
together it has a spirit which shows in diverse forms.
Sacrifice, in communion but in unique forms of every individual.
One shall not neglect the sacrifice of the least of these children,
if done, it is against the wisdom of nature, and the whole body suffers.
if one species suffers, it is the pain of all
if a species go extinct, it is a measure of death for all.
New priestly rituals must take into account the rituals of every bit of creation, 

the sanctuaries of diverse bioregions, 

and the community of all creation.
Be spiritual as the nature is spiritual...

#returntothedust

Return to Dust (06 - 10 March 2019)

(06 March 2019, Ash Wednesday) Return to dust
"Return to dust" is not a curse, it is a call.
Dust gives itself to others in flowers, fruits, minerals, bread, and in body. Thus, there is a sacramentality in it. Spirituality that does not value dust, and sees it as something to escape from, does not show the face of God. Return to dust, to find ourselves and to know the Christ being formed in us.
#returntothedust

(07 March 2019) Return to dust in gratitude
Earth seems to have bestowed on us the power of life and death.
It pleads today to chose life, that we and our descendants may live peacefully here.

Today we do not see the gradual process of fruition,
fruits, grain, oil, milk... are available in a shop.
This situation affects our spirituality also.
We don't have to be grateful to the shop...
let the children learn to say thanks to a banana plant when they have its fruits ... and many more necessary learnings to sense how we are dependent and need to be humble.
It is necessary before they begin to learn scripture verses, that they turn to dust in gratitude

#returntothedust

(08 March 2019) Laws of the dust
The dynamics of the earth processes are a law within
as an interior bonding, not an external imposition
in diverse forms, but connected to every other.
We approach her like an object,
mindless of the psyche of the earth.
The powerful eat up the resources,
and throw the children of the earth to hunger and shame.
Return to the dust
break the unjust economics
free the poor who are thrown out of their habitat
share the resources equally, nature gives it beyond boundaries
give back the shelters of the wild and gentle
cloth the body of the earth that is left naked, and skin torn...

Then, our own integrity will be restored, and human wounds will be healed.
our integrity is within the integrity of the earth.
To find ourselves,
return to the dust. 

#returntothedust

(09 March 2019) Rest time of Nature: keep it Holy

Time of rest has given way to night shifts, and extra duty,
exhaustion and waste was the result.
Nature has its own time and mode of rest.
It has its ways of production, distribution, recycling and disaster management.

Forcing the nature overwork bring exhaustion in many bio-regions
Keep the rest time and ways of nature holy.
See how it is, respect, and join it. 

#returntothedust

(10 March 2019) Fasting and Praying 

 It is worth knowing the history of ours and our family. It makes us aware where we are rooted, and why we are what we are. It offers a sense of belonging.

Earth has a history, of emergence, spontaneity and of pain
from being shaped from solar dust to bringing forth diverse life forms.
A story of change and creativity, death and resurrection,
but at every phase newer and wonderful forms came forth.

Today the earth calls her children, to listen to her story together,
all the children of the earth.
How she gave birth to all, and how she suffers today ...

Now is the time children must fast, from entertainment, consumption, exploitation ...
we ate, not for food but for enjoyment, at the cost of the earth
We must fast, and pray with the earth, " Be with me Lord in my distress."
To return to spontaneities
Return to the dust. 

#returntothedust

As Usual at the Fig Tree

"I waited for him,
I searched for him.
He came to me,
he said that he had seen me waiting and searching.
How could I miss him?
I could not recognise him because I did not expect him to be so familiar:" Nathaniel.

The day is as ordinary as any other day,
people are as familiar as of everyday
works I do are same every day
Joys and pain are just as of every day......
Yet amidst these he passes by, he sees me waiting and searching for him
he moves ahead because I am yet to be ready to see him in familiar forms

A ladder, a significant tree, a pole, a pyramid ....
symbol of a meeting point.
day is same, the moments are same, yet the meeting makes the difference
it is a meeting between my life and of God,
life known and its meaning,
life known and the life's mysteries.
Nazareth produces good fruits.

The waiting and searching
to recognise Christ
the Christ for me
and the Christ in me

Begin to love beyond boundaries and prejudices
to grow in favour of God and people.
May wisdom guide us
in order that the love may be actual in pour contact with God and people

____________________
See also കാത്തിരിക്കുന്നു അവനായ്, പതിവുപോലെ

'Jesus,' One who saves! What is in your name?

The name 'Jesus' is not a name made of J, E, S, U, S. The name becomes important and significant because it  refers to the person and function of Christ. Otherwise it would have been like any other name, just a name. 

Whether be called Jesus, Jesu, Yesu, Isa, Isho, Yezus, Hesus, Jisu, Yeshua, Jisos, Gesus, Yeshu, ... or Zishu, when called in faith they invoke the same person Jesus Christ. It is in response to the personal relationship to him we have him as the source of salvation, grace and truth. It is of no meaning to say that any one of the above name has accuracy or special effect. It is in our relationship with him we receive the efficacy of the name as powerful, sweet, loving... It is not to be imagined in any magical effect. His power, and our submission (every knee shall bow) need to be understood not in a political sense where he rules as a king. As logos everything depends on him for its very existence.

Jesus was named so, because he is the saviour. He is the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. Sin is not some 'thing' that can be taken away. It is absence of grace, so of life, power, light beauty...He is the saviour by giving us that grace, so life, power, light, beauty and strength. He came to give life (grace) in abundance. We who have a relation with him will receive grace upon grace. When we say about the blood of Jesus, again it is about the life that he has given to us. In any archaic  atonement ritual blood was very significant. As the blood is the symbol of life, the anointing we ask him of his blood is truly an anointing by grace. The pain and bleeding is not to create a pity feeling, but to affirm us of the strength of life poured into us.

We too are 'named' according to our character defined by the genetic, familial and cultural settings of our life. So touched by grace in that mode, we may have received a special anointing and a name. 'Jesus' is source of grace, who heals our wounds. We are named perhaps tenderness, consolation, joy, creativity, companion, strength and so on...

Word: Joyous and Passionate Care

How many caring hands we need to be grateful to...
those with gifts and with their presence.
Intimate and personal care,
most of them unseen
unrecognised and unidentified.

Grateful to the unknown yet caring mysteries of the Word
Care about every particular being
Care about its connection with others
Care about the whole body of beings
itself is the Word.

Care foresees emptying and death
yet it alone brings forth life
How many emptying must we be grateful for?

Care is a passion
a joyous passion, not a sorrowful passion
Care is the mystery of the Word
a sincere emptying..
there nothing dies, other than to live again
withers and falls to offer a world to something else.

God's hand..
Creating, moulding, healing and nourishing
emptying care in nature
Wisdom of care,
revealed only to the children of the earth.

The Word meets Flesh

At every weakness and pain of ours,
there is a nearness of Christ.
Only if we can believe that sincere closeness to our own deep emptiness,
we can understand the depth of the self-emptying of the Word...
to be a baby, refugee, labourer, victim, and failure.

Word among us the flesh
among the dry dust to lush green and conscious human
Word is in everything,
everything lives by the Word

Mary loved the Word so sincerely
that she could bring forth the Word in human form
The bearer, full of grace
the borne, fullness of grace and the source of grace.

He spreads the grace fountains
to every emptiness..
Flesh in its beauty and ugliness,
searches the grace streams...

There, in the sincerity of heart,
willingness to be receptive and open,
mercy and faithfulness meet
justice and peace embrace.
Truth shall spring from the flesh
joy and peace be born in us...

Grace streams flow into our hearts,
filled by the Holy Spirit,
our feels, thoughts, visions, words, touches will have grace contents.
We are born...

The Word becomes flesh, the moment of true Christmas.

Ref Ps 85: 10

God is My Strength My Song

Greater the preparation when great person is awaited....
A worthy preparation means that we also know really who is coming...

Preparations for the messiah...
Is the preparation of sufficient quality
Do we really know him? Will we recognise him if he is among us?

What  must we do? the people  asked John the Baptist
He was voice crying out in the wilderness,
"Prepare the way for the Lord"

He warned about the axe and winnowing fan
to look deeply into  the reality of our treasures...
with a sincere heart in absolute trust,

having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience. 

Following all the commandments from childhood, 

one young man asked Jesus: 

"What must I do to inherit the joy of God?"

He was sincere in his question,

and so was his emptiness after having followed the Law.
Why was there no joy of God born in his heart?

It is a distance by option.

We can stop at what gives us a clean face,

where we would have already received the reward.

Scribes knew the Scripture,
they knew how to take advantage of it too,
yet they lost the messiah.

Preparations for the messiah...
Is the preparation of sufficient quality?
After knowing every verse of the scripture so well...
Do we really know him? Will we recognise him?

In Micah's words, "what does the Lord ask of you, but to act justly, love tenderly and walk humbly before the Lord?"

It challenges our nominal performances, and put us into a bond where  the Word has to become a living and accompanying presence than a text; a voice crying out in the human conscience. There we have the sense "your Word is a lamp to my steps, and light to my path."

It opens the eyes of the blind, and the deaf begin to hear in sincere heart and absolute trust, having our hearts cleaned from an evil conscience.

This guiding presence is an inner strength, source of joy; 

for a person,  for a community, and for a family

God is in our midst, 

I (we) stand amidst my (our) struggles; 

God rejoices over me (us) with gladness, 

he renews me (us) in his love; 

he dances with joy as on a day of festival,

and he exults over me (us) with loud singing.

Zeph 3: 18, Is 42: 7, Ps 119: 105, Heb 10: 22, Mic 6:8, Lk 3: 10