Mary Full of grace

Wandering in the valley of tears, how can we sing a song of joy? Weeping is worth, but it cannot take away seasons refreshing if we want to flower and give fruits. Mary sings the song of joy and hope gratefully acknowledging that God has done great things.

Mary lived a very ordinary life, laboured for livelihood. She lived the will of God, and taught Jesus too the will of God, as in a human way he needed to learn. God who sees the lowliness and feeds the hungry was very much in the vision of Jesus. Mary’s Magnificat is a song of praise about the personal experience of the beatitudes.

How could it happen? When others speak of miseries and tears, as they were harassed, despised and dejected as sheep without a shepherd, how could Mary find the comfort of the shepherd? God was alive for her in every moment and every object and every person. She saw light and beauty, not shadows and death, she touched the Word in and around her, loved the Word with deepest sincerity – a love beyond all telling.

How could it happen when others could not? Why do our pain and injuries burden us and cause lack of grace in us? We know that the hurts and injuries shape us and in turn we act on it, and the same things are given to others. We remain graceless and lifeless. Mary was preserved from every sin, she was filled with the fullness of grace. There was no lack of grace, no lack of life. Grace-lessness cannot be removed, but can only be filled with grace; life-lessness cannot be removed, but can only be filled with life. The chain of pain and injuries were broken in order that Mary may be conceived immaculate. Mary was born immaculate points to the grace at work for many generations. They were not perfect people, but even in the valley of tears they sought to keep the will of God. Every kindness they experienced was matter of great gratitude.

Grace was at work through many generations to bring forth a person to possess the fulness of grace that the Messiah may be born of her. Grace is at work in us to make a generation of healing. God calls us to be a generation that consoles one another, and ensures justice, a generation that establishes peace among nations, strangers, and among multiple species of living beings. We must open ourselves for receiving grace upon grace. We are to be a generation of healing if we want to bear in us a generation of blessing full of grace, so that truth and life may be real and full in our lives, and every flesh shall see the salvation of our God.

Being found

Rejected, ashamed, or afraid we may have lost hope sometimes. Yet, there may have been moments that we were able to take courage, get up, and walk. We may have felt a presence nearby or a voice within. Being consoled, being found worthy is important to rebuild our life. Even in the midst of 'being lost' we might we may rise up to what we are made for. So then, our injuries now made well add a certain uniqueness in what we are. Every flesh – soil, plants, flowers, fish, birds and animals, has its glory in achieving their purpose. There is a divine spark, a voice crying out in the wilderness even in a small flower, every breath, and tears.

We have been lost by our attempts to create Wonderlands by self or by humans alone. The glory that has been destroyed can be rediscovered. That is a moment that we are found. We cannot find salvation without being found along with all other life forms. Reinventing the worth of each one is a celebration, a home coming. Then we may joyfully say the Lord is in our midst.

2nd Wk Adv Tue 2021
Isaiah 40:1-11 Matthew 18:12-14

Everlasting joy on their faces

Sometime our religiosity may prompt us to find fault with God’s graciousness. We may find that God is following a wrong methodology or liturgy. God wills to make the streams of grace flow even in places which our understanding of holiness may not expect. According to the law and holiness code the paralytic in the Gospel was suffering for his sins. He deserved it. But for Jesus he deserved love and mercy.

Jesus forgave and healed. Both the paralytic and the people praised God. The return of the remnant of Israel from Babylon also is expressed as coming to Zion “shouting for joy, everlasting joy on their faces.” Prophet Isiah keeps the hope strong that the people taken in captivity are returning. When they return there will be significant changes as God is alive in their midst. So the prophet tells them to take courage, and god’s salvation brings strength to the weak hands and supports the faint hearts. The blind sees, the deaf hears, the lame walks, and the dumb speaks, and people in bondages are set free. Their way will be secure. So there will be songs of joy as they come. We must imagine this vision “for water gushes in the desert, streams in the wasteland, the scorched earth becomes a lake, the parched land springs of water,” for the remnant returning, the paralytic, and for ourselves.

Do we have something to do in all these flowing streams through the life of people and the life of nature? We practiced religion and learned to expect God to do magic and make everything beautiful and open the eyes of the blind and heal the paralytic. But we wouldn’t let the wounds and burdens be eased. We will teach God what sacrifices must please him. Did God ask for atonement and heaviness of reparations? We found shelter in our making of God and his holiness. There we have lost songs when we have stopped listening to the voice of gladness within our neighbours, and in flowers, leaves and birds. Where are our songs of joy and gladness? How did we adamantly attach ourselves to the spiritualities of the desert, the wasteland and the scorched earth. Where are the streams, gushing waters, and springs in us? Where are the songs of rejoicing?

Grace and salvation do not work as magic. They are like streams in dry land. It is already flowing in us.

2nd Mon Adv 2021 Isaiah 35:1-10 Luke 5:17-26

Prepare the way!

Being a Christian, what defines our life? Whether we are in family, or being a priest or a bishop if it is not Christ that defines our life, we have never thought of preparing the way for Christ. We may do a religious submission and be very faithful in cultic devotion (we are proud of 'that' Christian identity), the preparation can happen only if there is loving devotion. This is what Jesus pointed to when he mentioned how the people who call Lord, Lord, preach in the streets, and working miracles in his name really differed from those who do the will of God.

So the loving devotion means the readiness to act justly, love tenderly and walk humbly before the Lord. It also includes untying the burden of the poor, feeding the hungry, protect the stranger, speak truth, and work for justice and make efforts for peace. ‘Saying’ thousands of prayers and making many penances without the desire for realising these, will only blind us. But if we have done it, our life will be defined as ‘Peace through integrity, and honour through devotedness.’ From this sense we can widen the reflection a bit - what defines our life as a human, as an earthling, and as a part of the universe?

How many generations had gone before Christ was born? Among them there were even kings, prophets and priests. Many have gone, and even their memory has faded. There are some significant among them who are remembered. They were the ones who had been already living the light of Christ though Christ was yet to come. If we are not prepared, the moments that the Messiah is revealed will pass just as any normal moment. If we are prepared we will see the star of the Messiah even in the most unexpected people and circumstances. Messiah will not appear in clouds in the sky; he will sprout and grow from the seeds sown. Prepare the way!

2nd Sun Adv Baruch 5:1-9 Luke 3:1-6

Will we miss his visitation?

When God comes, is he coming as someone outsider? Are we going to see God as someone totally strange? Are we totally strangers to God? Perhaps it may be surprise to us that we ponder the moments when God was actually present and we were looking elsewhere.

Though we are not sure, though we are in the night, yet we are sure of the day. Though torrents are strong, and waves are overwhelming we can have a sure safety amidst them when we know that God keeps us safe. That is why the Lord is the everlasting Rock. Only in placing trust in God we can be faithful to him and have steadfastness and peace. There is sure help from God, we will not be in despair and confusion. We can experience help, strength, protection and guidance. Upon this assurance, we can confidently build our home. Only trust and faithfulness can bring these into everyday experiences. Then God is never seen as a stranger as if we do not know what he does.

God is different from the god of the prosperity gospel who is expected do magic, and expects us to pay either by money or by pains. That god will pull us all around doing so many things in the name of God. God is not super-perfect, he does not re-create a world that is free of every human limitation. we will not be superrich and powerful rulers. What is sure is peace and contentment. God strengthens us in love to stand in time of tribulations. He has given the power to humanity to build a house that all can gather and be safe. Human tendency for divisions, injustice, plundering… will weaken the foundations. We have not known God though We may preach, heal, and repeatedly call out “Lord, Lord,” But may not be seeking the will of God.

Every touch of God is an anointing. The more we feel the tenderness of God’s touch, we will have more of assurance of God the everlasting rock. If we take them for granted now, we may not recognise him when he comes. We should not be framing faces for him in our customs and traditions. Emmanuel is with us in our ordinary lives. If we expect him only in extraordinary ways, He may pass by as a stranger. Advent alerts us. We should not miss it.

Thu 1Wk Adv Isaiah 26:1-6 Matthew 7:21,24-27

Banquet of the Lord

Even before we were born the Lord has prepared a banquet for us through many loving and generous hands. Fruits and grain, water and juice, fragrance and colours God has prepared. Incarnation and sanctification begin with generous giving and an open reception. How generously can I give my life, and how lovingly can I receive what is given?

“They will eat and shall be satisfied” can occur only when people see each other without veils, without slavish chains. Even to eat joyfully we need the passion for life. God wipes away tears and comforts us, guides us to the fulness of life. More than power and richness God desires in us gladness and joy, a people look forward to the future in peacefulness. That is the great banquet God offers.

One serious thing in life how we deceive ourselves is by distancing ourselves from others and natural surroundings, the banquet tables. It is an illusion of our mind and escape from the real living presence of God when we speak too much about a direct experience with God, separating society and nature as worthless. We experience God's love, benevolence, providence, protection, embrace... through the people around and through the gifts if nature. They are often condemned to be worldly engagement. The worldliness is within ourselves which we often dearly protect. They are falsely justified, unfortunately, often with religious interpretations. So our deception embraces a religious colour. God is kept far away in the very name of God, and we miss the banquet. Experience of the banquet begins from how we generously give ourselves, and gratefully receive what God has given. It is not limited to a final moment reward, the banquet of the Lord is an every-moment living. Banquet of the Lord cannot be limited to religious celebrations and rituals. It is hearing the Word proclaimed in every surrounding through people, culture, natural dynamism … It is touching the moments of ordinary life with the sense of the sacred. Even before our ceremonial blessings they carry a blessing. Fruits, grains, oil, every drop of water come with graces, providence, healing, and love.

'Banquet of the Lord' does not make an exclusive sense pointing to our regular practice of receiving communion. 'Banquet of the Lord' is all inclusive of physical, emotional, spiritual fulfilment we receive. If we are sure that it is Christ who is there in the Eucharist, it will take us much deeper than Christ's death, sacrifice, resurrection, and the life that is given to us embraces all of us. So, the receiving of communion make us plunge into the life bond with the whole world. If we further realise that it is the Word that is made flesh that is received and celebrated, there is no difficulty in seeing and enjoying the banquet in our everyday surrounding.

Wed 1Wk Adv

Is 25: 6-10 Mt 15: 25-37

Messiah is found

“Here is the lamb of God,” John said, and some followed Jesus

Andrew came to Peter and said, “we have found the Messiah.” Everyone is searching for the anointed to console the burden of lifelessness.

Have we found the Messiah? Can we recognise how the messiah is revealed in the life of others? Can we point it out to them?

Rom 10: 19-18; Mt 4: 18-22

Where God is not permitted to enter

God was expected to be there where people was not permitted to enter, in the holy of holies. But he was born among us. We seek the sacred, the sacred that fits into our ways of defining it.

There was a man very adamant and even arrogant about ways of worship. He believed that the messiah will be born in the hoy of holies which is hidden by a curtain. Alas, women were not allowed to enter there, yet he thought it will happen if at all it has to happen (was it called faith? I do not know).

He heard that the magi came to see the messiah and they went to Bethlehem. There they saw the child born of a family from Nazareth from where no good could come. God was always there where God was not permitted to enter (was it disobedience from the part of God? I do not know).

By the way he decided to go to Bethlehem. He went in procession with incense in front. As he reached the place, he saw a baby smiling in a manger. What rubbish! It is not the Messiah. He complained to the high-priest. It is blasphemy, we must kill the child. People who did not know the Scripture and the law opposed the attempt to kill the child. “They are enemies of God,’ said the high priest. “They are not psychologically mature to obey what we are saying.”

Somehow the child grew. They hated him, they were very arrogant on those who were with him. They spread utter lies about him, distorted his sayings. High priest was silent on the psychology behind, rather he defended them. “He is unable to think beyond Nazareth the region of the gentiles," they said. They were holy, religious, and righteous, and so they decided to kill him. He did it, fully in religious obedience.

Then they came to incense him, very religiously.

God our righteousness

What is the newness that we long for? Newness is that we become more alive, enjoying a freshness of life, it is not that we may become fully new or perfect. The season of advent fills us with the hope towards this newness of our life, “the Lord will surely come.”

Perhaps it is chaos, uncertainties, fear, pandemic, and lifelessness that fill our life. The Scripture gathers all tensions together and makes a single message, “the Lord is our integrity/righteousness.” These are the words we are going to hear repeatedly in the coming days – righteousness, peace, integrity, holiness. Life’s joys, hopes, pains, disasters are all brought together into a newness, into the touch of God. God weaves all together, gathers us together. After the longer nights, once again days will begin to grow (after the winter solstice). So these are the days we wait though still in dark.

Advent gives us the courage to look forward, keep our heads raised high. The newness is already there within us as ever flowing fountains. They are to be brought forth. We shall see the fresh revelation of Christ in us, fresh touches of new life and strength. The Lord has come.

Jeremiah 33:14-16 Luke 21:25-28,34-36 

human limitation

Our normal tendency is to keep things as it is, our traditions, our preferred explanations, beliefs… But we are unable to let changes happen where we really need to accept changes. We want to destroy or transcend every human limitation, even death. We want to change of seasons and natural geo-structures. Dreaming a wonderland it is a trap that consumes and swallows ourselves. But such is the promise beastly powers make, and by the very promise they controls the world.

Our limitations remind us that we are not gods and eternal emperors. Within the limitations and death there are sacrifices and joy. We keep hostility to nature because of our limitations, and condemn it, but become friendly with that which is really worldly; arrogance and hatred, competition, and lies. Even to save God we have hated many.

One serious thing in life how we deceive ourselves is by distancing ourselves from others and natural surrounding. It is illusioning of our mind and escaping from the real living presence of God when we speak too much about a direct experience with God. We experience God's love, benevolence, providence, protection, embrace... through the people around and through the gifts if nature. They are often condemned to be worldly engagement. The worldliness is within ourselves which we dearly protect. They are falsely justified, unfortunately, often with religious interpretations. so our deception embrace a religious colour.

God is kept far away in the very name of God.

Prepare the way for the Lord.

Word alive

In Daniel’s vision, all beasts that came from the sea had great power. But ultimate sovereignty, glory and kingship were given to one like the son of man. Amidst  fear, suffering, crisis and death, the overall picture is that the Son of Man leads the wheels of time. The Ghostly shadows of events reveal their meaning if we can see them within the Word. His words do not pass away, they are alive.

We speak for a time, we look for advantage by manipulating the meaning of events, we look for escaping from our time by suitable interpretations. We forget that our words and choices have its impacts on generations to come. In fact, when we make ourselves indispensable we are making ourselves the center of history.  His words are alive, not because the words have some magical power, but because the words which are spoken are truth and life. The Word is life. Word is not a group of symbols in language printed in Bible that we can use for special powers and blessings. Bible presents word as an event. Whole history is a single event, the Christ event. Every event had a message from God, meaning of which is the Word. The Word causes an event that speaks to us even beyond time.

Word has everything in wholeness. To Him belongs all time and all the ages; all glory and dominion is his now and forever. He has the light that dispels darkness, and fills the world with life.

As He reveals

We have many literatures and visions about the end of the world. Unfortunately, many of them produce fear and agony rather than hope, and thus become empty of the message of Christ. Even when they speak of repentance, the motivation is a fear of disasters. We are led to believe that we are going to perish. Those interpreting crises as a hopeless end have their motives in their own misguided messages. These are the messages ‘in the name of Christ.’

We need to discern what the truth of the approaching disaster is, what significant factors are involved in the renewal we hope for? Does the renewal happen just with the ‘religious practices,’ and do they offer an image of fake ‘holy living’ and make us escape from the real commitment required for the living of a life of justice, peace and love?

Christ assures us of his constant presence even amidst trials and tribulations. Turning towards God is impelled by the assurance of God’s love, our hope in him, our courage to live in the presence of God in difficult times. Christ is revealed within every crisis moment. So many things we want to keep preserve must die, even Christ that we want to preserve must die. Be ready to welcome Christ as he reveals. So when the end is near, don’t suggest frames for Christ. If we can be joyous in the newness of God’s presence, we can already feel the freshness of advent.

catholic

Being an adjective 'catholic' (eg catholic dogma, catholic tradition, catholic teaching...) cannot be catholic, 'catholic' is an attitude (open to the whole).

Voice given to us

Speaking can have its brightness when truth is spoken. High may be the reward for not speaking the truth and engaging in praising the powerful. Then the words lose their voice and become gradually dumb. Only if the strength of God guides us we will be able to speak: “Mene: God has measured your sovereignty and put an end to it; Tekel: you have been weighed in the balance and found wanting…”

Another thing that can hinder our speech is lack of endurance. Our words may carry hasty conclusions rather than truth when we are moved by prejudices and pride. Then, when the eloquence and a wisdom are ‘given’ in time we may not be able to listen.

Communal, elitist traditionalist attitudes also remove truth form our hearts. Communalism, and conservatism speak for power and business, they only have the language of God and faith. They proclaim that their believes which are of past lives for ever, their views are alive but God is dead. The 'dividing curtain' between God and people will surely make dividing walls between the 'holy' and the 'ordinary' people, and among the holy, the elite and the common.

In all the above hindrances we can clearly see that ‘religiosity’ can still be there; more religious, but less and less godly, human, and natural. Just as our roots begin from being natural, our voice too begin from our roots. When we learn from the voices of nature and from other human in humility and sincerity, we both listen to the voice of God and prepare to be enveloped by the Word.

The Word became human, not a super-human; he had the voice of God, not of a Super-GOD.

Don't be deceived

The gospel today is a response to some people’s remark about the Temple, how it was adorned with fine stonework. Solomon’s temple had always occupied their mind as a great structure they had in the past. The second temple was not as glorious as the early one. Now, Herod makes a temple for them.

Let us keep in mind two things from the response of Jesus, “All these things … will be destroyed,” and “Take care not to be deceived, because many will come using my name and saying, “I am he” and, “The time is near at hand.”

What are we excited about? What are we really proud about? Our worship places? Our rituals and traditions? Our ways of understanding about God? Our social structures?, How much place is there for God in all these, though they are all in the name of God? If we cannot find in them the presence of God really alive, they will definitely collapse!

Unfortunately, we create super-GODs in our own liking and re-form our life according to the demands created by these self-made beloved GODs. They cannot give life, because they are empty of God.

Sacred traditions make us rooted in the original inspiration. They meaningfully place us in the present and carry us to the future. Traditions have an inspirational content which cannot be static but dynamic. There is a healthy blend between novelty and continuity in growth and transformation of traditions. However beautiful and perfect they are, any attempt to conserve them as a thing of the past within particular cultural frames will be like leaven preserved in a laboratory. Though in the name of God and faith they are in reality concerned about preservation of institutional structures and ideologies. They will be exclusive in nature and arrogant in approach. They cannot respect all people with their human dignity, but they define how one needs to be human, they define what is to be believed, they define how others have to conduct their lives.

It has happened and it can happen with us too that everything is centred on temple. Righteousness depended on how much you are fulfilling duties towards the temple. God himself was so condensed into the temple walls that outside the temple matters, everything was worldly. Priesthood was meant to be only a part of the cultic system of the temple. Jesus said that he is the temple. In him humanity sees God alive in our midst. He is the sacrifice and the offeror. Jesus also said that we are the temple in whom God dwells. Empty of God, empty of Christ we cannot be the temple. Keeping Christ aside, none of our definitions and social structures can hold the divine within them.

Jesus has taught us that God is loving Father, our basic religiosity is to be defined by a loving relationship with God. Many are around in his name. Don’t be deceived! Think for a moment what Jesus would say, how he would explain, how he would intervene. Then we shall live.

Kingship of Christ

Pilate, a Roman governor asking a man standing wounded and naked in humiliation, “are you the king of the jews?” was a paradox. It is clear in Jesus’ answer to Pilate that the kingdom is strange to Pilate. It is not a kingdom that orders slavish submission. Jesus’ power is to give life, and only one who can give life has true authority. Without him nothing exists. It is through him everything is created, he is the wisdom, in him all flesh (creation) shall see the salvation of our God.

Pope Pius XI instituted the solemnity of Christ the king in 1925 in the context of the growing nationalism and secularization around the world which would potentially disrupt peace. Christ has sovereignty over all creation, including human history. It is to keep in our heart that Christ leads and guides history. That is our confidence even when strange things happen. There are things we need to learn from history.

Christ guides the history by dwelling in our hearts, making in us hunger and thirst after justice, peace and love. It demands the path of self-denial and sacrifice. It may appear both as agreement and resistance, it may be found both within ourselves and outside of ourselves and our community. We need to be conscious that our focus is Christ, not ‘my ways and traditions.’ What we long for is truth, life, holiness, grace, justice, love and peace.

Christ reigns in our hearts by guiding the lowly and especially the young generation by truth. He gives strength to the disheartened, and vision for the young. As a shepherd Christ gathers us all. Only when we understand in Christ, the wisdom through whom everything is created, the self-emptying sacrifice through which he gave life to all, the truth that directs history and strengthens the weak, the shepherd gathering us all together, can we really understand what it means by the kingship of Christ. once we recognize it both in private and in public life, society will receive the great blessings of real liberty, well-ordered discipline, peace and harmony.

If the nationalist and secularist challenges were of ideological and political context, today we can see religious nationalism growing in an alarming way in the name of every religion. Unfortunately their claim is to be original and traditional form of religion and faith. Secular and consumerist patterns have entered religion very cunning way. Economics and corporate market decide the policies and vision for the future. Problems lie in ideologies politicised because of arrogance and pride. They do not sustain neither humanity nor creation.

Within religion, accepting the authority of Christ we need to realise what was religion and God that Christ introduced to us. If we cannot follow that, our religion and God are mere ideological frameworks. The sovereignty of Christ is not a war-cry. The reign of Christ is not when Christians are ruling the world. The kingship of Christ teaches us more of tenderness and gentleness. We are almost recovering from a pandemic. Climate change is going to make devastating effects in the future. In the midst of death and suffering the rule of Christ gives us hope and confidence to stand together in solidarity, fraternity, compassion, and peace. Christ reigns in our heart. To experience the kingdom, we need to act. Christ wants to be king here, not king ruling in the clouds.

Afterlife

We have different ways of narrating ‘afterlife.’ Many of our thinking about life after death is influenced by many popular imaginations, and by personal teaching of some channels and preachers. They may not be truly part of Christian faith. Jesus, in his teachings, was not giving us a detailed narrations about life after death. He taught us the truth about that. He showed us the reality of the resurrection which is granted by God the author of life. He did not teach us about ‘immortality of the soul’ which is a philosophical perspective explaining ‘our’ continuity of living.

With all their controlling power over the business of the temple, Sadducees were not a people who were alive. Pharisees, with their strict practices of law and rituals, also could not be alive. Scribes, having all knowledge of law and Scripture, also could not reach life. Jesus points to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob who looked up to God in innocence of heart, and calls them as living. All are alive in God. All our relationships find their meaning and completion in God. In fact, God is alive in our sincere and faithful relationships. It is there we find the divine communion in our human reality.

alive with God

God is not looking for temples to live in,
temple is where God dwells.
God dwells among us,
it is important that we be alive with God.

Jerusalem, Jerusalem!

Our organizations, movements, institutional bodies of the church ... have expectations to achieve their purpose in the way we want and within the time we want it. Sometimes they function as scattering agents.

Jesus came to gather all around him, and within his body. He said, "those who do not gather with me scatters." We nailed God to a throne, and attached ourselves to thrones that divide.

‘If you in your turn had only understood on this day the message of peace! But, alas, it is hidden from your eyes!

Lord, I want to see

A time of crisis in religion is also a time of commotions. Some tries to compromise, and some to revolt. All will have religious reasons because when there is power struggle religion is an easy tool to manipulate truth and faith. A failure often happens in such situation is the failure to differentiate between the cultural changes and the real crisis in faith. All our attention is called upon those cultural issues at the cost of a genuine introspection on our faithfulness to God. Corruption within religious structures is conveniently overlooked, and the society is condemned for becoming ungodly.

If we have placed our ego and arrogance at the first place of importance, that is indeed the sign of abomination at the altar. If there is no sincere attempt for reconciliation and peace all the celebratory ‘Prayer Events’ are making mockery of God. If we have closed our gates against the Holy Spirit, there is no intention for interior conversion, what wonder can we expect from God from Daniel prayer, Jericho prayer … They only add to the commotions in the time of crisis.

It is important to cry out, “Lord, I want to see.” Sight is an experience of closeness of God. Healing of our blindness is to keep our eyes fixed on Christ and walk the path of life.

in the days to come ...

The great rulers of both day and night will lose its brightness, the bright shining stars will fall from their positions. Then, the Son of Man will appear in great power and glory. Though now is a time of great suffering and tribulations, God will be victorious.

This is the general structure of the end day literature. We have the book of revelation, Zechariah, Daniel and some part of Ezekiel in this nature. There were also works of literature like Paradise Lost, Divine Comedy, and the writing of Nostradamus … with similar purpose. Though they may use religious symbolism, they refer to a socio-political crisis and a need to renew.

Apocalypse is at the same time both a revelation and an opportunity to renew. Having realised what really happens, a passing over is essential. When different belief systems, cultural values, religious traditions, and social structures there can be challenges and conflicts. Sometime they may hit very hard on traditional structures. It can give us a feeling that everything is going to collapse. The end is near! In fact, it is a cultural crisis happening within our religious traditions. It requires an interior revelation. Saying that preserving traditions we can lose our freedom and become fanatics. Many of the end day sayings and scripture fulfilment narratives lead us away from God and from the very intention of the Scripture itself. We expect to keep ourselves pure and untouched by all that happens around, escape from what happens around, and resisting to understand. Anxious forms of pious practices are also not the solution. Every age has a Word content in it, that is the lamp given to us for walking through that time. It gives us the involve anointing and preparation needed for the end days. The end days is not the end, but a passing through into a new creation.

An integral spiritual effort needs to aim at understanding the crisis sincerely, discern the reasons and solutions, and to bring them into action. Today, religion, culture and social life is called for a sincere commitment towards the challenge we face not only as humans but as an earth being. Does it really matter to us? It is not about whether we can prevent earthquakes and volcanoes, it is about how we can nurture one another in the moments of calamities. Is there sufficient spiritual transformation within us to be brothers and sisters in the very context when there are divisions in the level of nations, ethnicity, religion, and culture. This transformation is an ecclesial, ecological and cultural conversion, a transformation towards fraternity, collaboration, goodness, compassion and humanity. That is why Pope Francis often emphasises on these qualities and says that the Covid situation will make us the best or the worst humanity ever depending on our choice today.

We have our confidence in God, we place our hope in God, we experience the closeness of God even in time of trials and crisis. these end days will lead us to be a new creation.

Widow and the unjust judge

Jesus emphasized that God is not a judge through the parable of the widow before the unjust judge. The judge-god was beautiful because it would approve the righteous performances of the Pharisees and the Scribes. God who would show mercy to all would be a disturbance for their holiness because it challenges their privileges. God's attitude is not judicial in nature. God judges creatively to raise us to the fullness of life.

Father who cares for all consoles our distress. Of course, it is bitter to go through sickness and pain. God's constant presence offers peace and strength. God's action is not an individual insurance policy where it is a personal deal. Divine action sustains and enables the entire people of God to ensure justice in their community.

So, when we pray, first of all the primary motivation is the constant love of God. It gives us hope, not doubts about our worthiness, nor about thoughts whether God is happy or not, or God is angry and is punishing ... Secondly, may our prayer be simple and truthful. Father, I am tired, I am having unbearable pain, I am afraid, I thank you... would be the most sincere prayer. Thirdly, prayer needs to include our readiness for action, to realise the beatitudes and live out the reality of the kingdom of God.

One in Christ

The unity of the Church that Jesus prayed for is much different from an organisation following single method or purpose for its good functioning. The unity of the church is from the love with which Jesus loved us. “You have loved me before the foundation of the world” is the depth of love Jesus experienced. Jesus loved us with the same love, and that is the mutual bond that unites us. What this love does is to build up the body of Christ in the work of service.

Each one of us has received a share of grace, and together we are partakers of the life of Christ. We may have overlooked the graces that are at work within us because often we understand only the crowd pulling and mesmerising phenomena as charisms. There cannot be a separate group of people who are spirit bearers of spirit filled believers. Charisms are reflected in our daily commitments and service. Each one of us reflects the nature of Christ, and only in union with one another, can we come to know and reflect the fullness of Christ. Our participation in the abundance of life the Spirit gives us, is a common possession of the whole church. These special graces which we call charisms are indeed personal experiences and lead us to a richer sense of God. It is not a private individual experience that stands separate, because charisms reflect the different organs in a single body of Christ. We need to always keep in mind that the love of God and love of neighbour is more primary, and determines the worth of all charisms and the different ministries through which these charisms are made visible. Here faith and spirituality receive new meaning. They cannot be built on ideological framework and principles. They can be understood, experienced and practiced only in the mutual bond of love that reveals more and more of Christ within us. Only within this communion we are transformed into the image of Christ in a personal way too.

Whenever we have divisions, we can understand that there are individual faith, intentions, and even individual shaping of Christ. They are guarded by our ego as precious and sacred, but they are unholy dividing walls. It is easy to transform Christ, but difficult to transform ourselves listening to the voice of the Spirit deep within ourselves. When we begin to focus on Christ, it will generate a desire deep within us to reflect Christ in us, to be united with others to reflect Christ together among us. There we have our perfect self, and full maturity in Christ. A sincere Christian conscience would always have desired and prayed, “Father, we may all be one.” This prayer is a deep longing that we may reflect the glory of God. The unity of the Church and the experience of the Holy Spirit is an ongoing Pentecost, a perpetual Pentecost renewing each one of us, filling us with the power to change, and enabling us to bear witness to Jesus in our everyday living.

Search sincerely

Let honesty prompt your thinking about the Lord, seek him in simplicity of heart Wis 1:1
It is the same thing we hear from Jesus, " Blessed are the pure in heart, they shall see God."

God sees our hearts, he knows the truth of what we say. We cannot play tricks with God in whatever way we act holy people in front of people. The very untruthful image misguide others making a feeling that those things practiced by the tricksters are the right way.

Often we hide behind these obstacles through which we act nice before people. Let honesty prompt your thinking about the Lord, otherwise crookedness will shape a god of our convenience.

Widow's copper coins

Like the widow at the temple treasury, the poor were victims of the 'prosperity gospel' practiced by the scribes and Pharisees. In their silent grief over their misery they had only God to hope for. what God saw was not what fell in the temple treasury, but her trust in God. The poor and widows had to sell whatever they had for their daily survival. Their helplessness could easily be exploited. By offering money we cannot please God. God wants the gift of ourselves.

 

The widow of Sidon, even in her poverty placed hope in God and offered generosity to Elijah, a hungry stranger. The more we go deeper inside and find the treasure of God the more we grow outward in kindness. Temple treasuries have grown equal to God securing many against their duty to care for the poor.

Pharisees were rich in holiness, scribes were rich with the knowledge of the Scripture and law, proselytes were rich with zeal for religion. But in their richness there was no space for God. The greater was their emptiness the more they swallowed the properties of widows and poor. in their emptiness they even assumed they have swallowed God's kingdom.

Faithful in small things

We may give extra attention and care in great things, but may take small things for granted. In fact there is a greater struggle in being faithful in 'small' things. Sincere care of small things bring beauty to our life. That is the lived beauty of the Gospel.
May the Lord grant us the strength to live the Gospel.

The Lost ones

'This man welcomes sinners," "he shows mercy to them," "he forgives" were 'complaints' from the sinless. The response of Jesus shows how precious they are to him. They are not lost ones, they are the loved ones. In the context of the parable those lost ones were not living in sin, but they were the ones rejected by the sinless. The 'holy ones' could afford to be blameless and perfect before the people. The lost ones could not do that. God rejoices in finding them where they are.

A Gospel Challenge

We follow different laws and customs, written and unwritten. Why are we told that the love of God and love of neighbours is the standard for any other law? “Love is the one thing that cannot hurt our neighbour; that is why love is the reference point for all other commandments (Rom 13: 10). This love is reflected in the living of the Gospel, the experience of the kingdom of God in everyday reality. The Gospel in action asks us to deny ourselves, facing the daily crosses to be taken up.

St. Martin de Porres, whose feast we celebrate today, had a great devotion to the crucifix. He experienced the love of Christ from the Cross, and became a miracle of love for many. He administered medicine and brought healing. He loved everyone with an attitude of humility and service. His love led him to be friendly even with the wild animals and plants.

How does the Gospel place our lives into our living environment? How does the commandment of love find its expression in the reality of our society and culture? How should each one of us commit ourselves in emptying ourselves and taking our crosses? Pope Francis often said: “Let us build bridges of love so that the voices of the periphery with their weeping, but also with their singing and joy, provoke not fear but empathy in the rest of society.” In a recent message on the occasion of the fourth world meeting of popular movements, he asked pharmaceutical companies to release patents that the covid vaccines can be made available to all. He asked to change socio-economic structures that are destructive to humanity.

“In the name of God, I ask financial groups and international credit institutions to allow poor countries to assure ‘the basic needs of their people’ and to cancel those debts that so often are contracted against the interests of those same peoples.

In the name of God, I ask the great extractive industries -- mining, oil, forestry, real estate, agribusiness -- to stop destroying forests, wetlands and mountains, to stop polluting rivers and seas, to stop poisoning food and people.

In the name of God, I ask the great food corporations to stop imposing monopolistic systems of production and distribution that inflate prices and end up withholding bread from the hungry.

In the name of God, I ask arms manufacturers and dealers to completely stop their activity, because it causes violence and war, it contributes to those awful geopolitical games which cost millions of lives displaced and millions dead.

In the name of God, I ask the technology giants to stop exploiting human weakness, people’s vulnerability, for the sake of profits without caring about the spread of hate speech, grooming, fake news, conspiracy theories, and political manipulation.

In the name of God, I ask the telecommunications giants to ease access to educational material and connectivity for teachers via the internet so that poor children can be educated even under quarantine.

In the name of God, I ask the media to stop the logic of post-truth, disinformation, defamation, slander and the unhealthy attraction to dirt and scandal, and to contribute to human fraternity and empathy with those who are most deeply damaged.

In the name of God, I call on powerful countries to stop aggression, blockades and unilateral sanctions against any country anywhere on earth. No to neo-colonialism. Conflicts must be resolved in multilateral fora such as the United Nations. We have already seen how unilateral interventions, invasions and occupations end up; even if they are justified by noble motives and fine words.”

He also asked governments and political parties to stop listening exclusively to the economic elites and represent their people and to work for the common good. He asked religious leaders never to use the name of God to provoke conflicts, rebellions and wars.

This invitation from Pope Francis is a call to restructure our socio-economic models to have a human face which many models have lost. If the love flowed from the crucifix found genuine actions in St Martin, Now, it is our turn to give a living impact of the kingdom of God to the Socio-economic structures we all live in. Righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit are to be lived and brought to our daily commitments. There is the cross, the narrow door for entering the kingdom of God. The Lord wants us to bring the kingdom of God into action. It is indeed a Gospel challenge.

Let me live in your house

In gratitude we remember them,
In love and generosity we pray for them.
May the flame of God's love consume them.

They will live with him in love.

Rest in eternal peace is our union in Christ in love.

It should not be fear that motivate us,
to offer prayers, masses ... for them.
They and we, both are in the hands of God,
they are not to harm us.

It is the quality of our life that is to be moulded,
the moment of choice to live like Jesus, a life of grace,
is the moment of entering heaven.
Purgation is needed all throughout our life;
our struggle to chose for grace, the growth of the inner man.

The heaven that we dont chose to enter 'today' we may never enter.

Saints Companions

We might like to believe the presence of ghosts and demons around us, but not saints. Ghost stories are more real to us because our fear is real though we have not reflected sufficiently about the reality of ghosts. 

However, saints are real. they are our friends and companions. A true friendship and confidence in sharing our life with them is something we need to learn in our relationship with the saints. They are not objects of devotion. Saints are not in our altars and niches, they are where we live our daily lives. Saints companions relate to us in charity. We are applying their patronage in connection with something specific in their life. Our sanctification adds their joy whose completion will be only when everyone is united in Christ. Communion of saints is not an association of saints gathered together, it is their union in Christ.

If we show devotion to the saints, it should not be only for favours. True essence of devotion is love. It is to be inspired to bear witness to Christ in our time and world as they did in their time. As in the saints God is glorified, God is glorified in our lives today. Thus the church becomes the visible presence of God. Seeing each of us as the members of the Church, can the world see Christ preaching, healing, comforting?  

We speak of a Christian tradition and culture, old glories of chirstian institutions, many dream for a Christian world. What we miss today is a Christian conscience. To have a Christian conscience, first of all we need to have close acquaintance with the person of Christ in order to learn the attitudes of Christ. We also need to know the faith and the social teaching of the church. We also need to learn to see the face of God in events and people and in ourselves. We will be able to see godliness in ourselves and around us. It is a great struggle. But only with such a conscience we will be able to become people of the beatitudes. In one way in  solidarity with those who are deprived of what they deserve, and God is the only hope for us. in other way by becoming the gospel to the poor, bread to the hungry, justice for those who hunger and thirst for it, peacemaker, comfort and hope for those who are persecuted. To be in the company of the saints is a Gospel challenge.

🎬

 ‘Synod’ means ‘walking together.’  So, by walking a journey together, we, as the Church, want to reflect and learn what can help us to live a deeper communion, to achieve fuller participation, to have greater openness to fulfil our mission in the world. The synodal path that Pope Francis opened last Sunday (10^th October 2021) wants to involve all of us in this journeying together.

Synodal Journey

Pope Francis invites us to reflect on the aspect of synodality as the path that God expects of the Church of the third millennium. The meaning of the journey is of discovering the face of a synodal Church, in which everyone, the faithful people, the college of bishops, the Pope: all listening to each other, and all listening to the Holy Spirit. In the light of the Word of God and united in prayer, we will be able to discern the pathways to which God leads us. Since the Church realizes that synodality is the path for the entire People of God, the Synodal Process is no longer only an assembly of bishops but a journey for all the faithful. This journey together embraces the entire family of humanity, together with our fellow Christian denominations and other faith traditions. This journey together will call on us to renew our mentalities and our ecclesial structures in order to live out God’s call for the Church amid the present signs of the times. Only a ‘journeying together,’ can bring together in unity the variety of gifts, charisms, and ministries, embracing all humankind, whose joys and hopes, griefs and anxieties we share, pursuing the good of all, thus becoming the ‘the universal sacrament of salvation.’

The theme of the Synod is “For a Synodal Church: Communion, Participation, and Mission.” The communion we share is rooted in the love and unity of the Trinity. Christ reconciles us to the Father and unites us with each other in the Holy Spirit. We all have a role to play in discerning and living out this union with God and reconciliation between one another. Participation: Through the gifts we have received from the Holy Spirit all are qualified and are called to serve one another. In the free and rich diversity of its members, including even those who feel excluded, all are called together to pray, listen, analyse, dialogue, discern and offer advice on making pastoral decisions. Mission: The nature of synodality enables the Church to witness to the Gospel, especially with those who live on the spiritual, social, economic, political, geographical, and existential peripheries of our world.

Three levels on which synodality is articulated

 The synodal path is rooted in the concrete life of the People of God. “Journeying together” is already being experienced in our ordinary way of living, praying, celebrating and working, even if the term synodality is not known or used. Another level takes place within ecclesial structures and processes, taking into account theological and canonical dimensions, in which the synodal nature of the Church is expressed in an institutional way at the local, regional, and universal levels. Another level is the universal level of synod when convoked by the competent authority.

‘Journeying together’ can be understood from two different perspectives

The first perspective looks within the particular Churches, about the relationships between their constituent parts; between the Faithful and their Pastors, bishops and different parishes or other ecclesiastical bodies, the Bishops and the Pope. How does each particular Church integrate within itself the various forms of vocations, movements and ecclesial and ecclesiastical institutions of various kinds like schools, hospitals, universities, foundations, charitable and assistance organizations, etc. What are the relationships and common initiatives with other Christian denominations? The second perspective considers how we journey together with the entire human family reflecting on our relations, dialogue, and possible common initiatives with believers of other religions, with people who are distant from the faith, as well as with specific social environments and groups, with their institutions (the world of politics, culture, economics, finance, labor, trade unions, and business associations, non-governmental and civil society organizations, popular movements, minorities of various kinds, the poor and the excluded, etc.). The spirit of synodality, I am sure, also motivates us to journey together with water creatures, animals, plants, and birds listening to their voices also.

Ten Thematic nuclei are given to reflect how synodality could be lived in our own different local contexts.

1. Who are our journeying companions in our local Church and in society? When we say: “our Church,” who is part of it? What persons or groups are left on the margins? 2. Listening requires an open mind and heart. Whom do we usually listen to? Whom do we need to listen to? What space is there for the voice of minorities, the discarded, and the excluded? Are we able to identify prejudices and stereotypes that hinder our listening? How do we listen to the social and cultural context in which we live? 3. Speaking out happens only in integrating freedom, truth, and charity. How do we promote an atmosphere of communication free of duplicity and opportunism? How does the relationship with the media system (not only Catholic media) work? Who speaks on behalf of the Christian community, and how are they chosen? 4. “Journeying together” is only possible if it is based on together listening to the Word and the celebration of the Eucharist. How do prayer and liturgical celebration inspire and direct our “journeying together” and inspire the most important decisions? 5. All are co-responsible in the mission supporting its members committed to service in society (social and political commitment, in scientific research and teaching, in the promotion of social justice, in the protection of human rights, and in caring for the Common home, etc.)? Where there are different independent churches coexisting, is there collaboration in mission or we have competitions? 6. Dialogue in church and society is a path of gathering the experience of peoples. How are divergences of vision, the conflicts, the difficulties addressed? What experiences of dialogue and shared commitment do we have with believers of other religions and with non-believers? 7. We address our relations with the other Christian denominations. What fruits have we drawn from this “journeying together”? What are the difficulties? 8. How is authority exercised within our particular Church? What are the practices of participation and co-responsibility? 9. In a synodal style, decisions are made through discernment based on a consensus that flows from the common obedience to the Spirit. what are the procedures and methods we discern together and make decisions? 10.  For us today, this journeying together is a learning process of formation of the human person and of the Christian, of the families, and of the communities. How do we form people, especially those who hold roles of responsibility within the Christian community, to make them more capable of journeying together, listening to one another and engaging in dialogue? What formation do we offer for discernment and the exercise of authority? we need to be familiar with many tools that can help us to understand the dynamics of the culture in which we are immersed and their impact on our style of Church?

Avoiding pitfalls

1) The temptation of wanting to lead ourselves instead of being led by God. Synod is a spiritual process that is led by the Holy Spirit. Our humble efforts of organization and coordination are at the service of God who guides us on our way. 2) The temptation to focus on ourselves and only our immediate concerns. What is God’s plan for the Church here and now? How can we implement God’s dream for the Church on the local level? 3) The temptation to only see “problems.” Fixating on the problems will only discourage us. Instead of focusing only on what is not going well, let us appreciate where the Holy Spirit is generating life and see how we can let God work more fully. 4) The temptation of focusing only on structures. The Synodal Process will naturally call for a renewal of structures at various levels of the Church. The conversion and renewal of structures will come about only through the on-going conversion and renewal of all the members of the Body of Christ. The experience of synodality should focus on the experience of journeying together to discern the path forward, inspired by the Holy Spirit. 5) The temptation not to look beyond the visible confines of the Church. A Synodal Process is a time to dialogue with people from the worlds of economics and science, politics and culture, arts and sport, the media and social initiatives. It will be a time to reflect on ecology and peace, life issues and migration … to fulfil our mission in the world. 6) The temptation to lose focus of the objectives of the Synodal Process. No one Synodal Process is going to resolve all our concerns and problems. Synodality is an attitude and an approach of moving forward in a co-responsible way that is open to welcoming God’s fruits together over time. 7) The temptation of conflict and division. It is vain to try to impose one’s ideas on the whole Body through pressure or to discredit those who feel differently. 8) The temptation to treat the Synod as a kind of a parliament in which in order to govern one side must defeat the other. It is contrary to the spirit of synodality to antagonize others or to encourage divisive conflicts that threaten the unity and communion of the Church. It is also against the synod to polarise to promote one’s ideologies. 9) The temptation to listen only to those who are already involved in Church activities. This approach may be easier to manage, but it ultimately ignores a significant proportion of the People of God.

Synod is intended to inspire people to dream about the Church we are called to be, to make people’s hopes flourish, to stimulate trust, to bind up wounds, to weave new and deeper relationships, to learn from one another, to build bridges, to enlighten minds, warm hearts, and restore strength to our hands for our common mission.

Spirit prays within

The inmost cries long for words,
what do they cry out for?
The Spirit knows them beyond words,
and reach them to their fountains.
Let our prayers reach to the inmost depths,
where Spirit makes our cries his own.

Be free

Sabbath to be a day of rest and to be meant for religious duties was a view of the Priestly tradition. Jesus, following the Deuteronomic tradition, understood Sabbath as the experience of being set free. Untying and freeing of yoke were also suggested by prophets as part of true meaning of fasting.

We are in fact afraid of freedom. Though unknowingly we like to be under bondages. We enjoy the safety of such bondages and give noble and pious forms to them. Then they become sacred and unquestionable. One of such favoured burden is a guilty conscience and guilt culture we live in. We cannot hold hope when protected by guilt and fear, and it explains how we fail in our true Christian living.

“The spirit you received is not the spirit of slaves bringing fear into your lives again; it is the spirit of sons, and it makes us cry out, ‘Abba, Father!’”

Let me see again

Look a bit deeper into the eyes of the other,
the merciful eyes that seek your kindness.
"Lord, let me see again."

Dream to be alive!

The fig tree in the parable Lk 13: 6-9 just grew where it was rooted. There was sunlight, water, nutrients ... and the fig tree was happy about it. But it had to dream about what it was meant to be. 

In the beginning there was dream and everything came to be. We too share the same dream. A ladder, pyramid, or a pillar may be symbolising our desire to ascend to the divine presence above. Yet, some others go deep inside caves to connect to the interior divine power. Whether it is above or within the human conscience want to make a meeting point with the divine. We do receive responses that guide us. These responses touch us deeply in our ‘mortal’ bodies. We can understand St Paul’s presentation of mortal body – spiritual body, physical man – spiritual/inner man, only when we get the difference between the life without grace and the life in the freedom of grace. “Body may be dead,” because it is not producing any fruit of grace. What we produce is sin, and then the grace may be seen as external. Once we are willing to live, grace, in fact, wells up from within. There is the seed of grace, the fountain of grace inside of us. “If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, then he who raised Jesus from the dead will give life to your own mortal bodies through his Spirit living in you.” If the life devoid of grace produces death and sin, the life welling up grace will produce fruits of Christ.

Dream to be alive!

Being in the present, can you interpret it?

Generally, we are good people, and we all have good will. But, we know that it does not reflect always in our words, attitudes, and actions. We know what to do, and what should have been done, but it does not happen. Is it because everyone does in the other way?

Doing good is not just some deeds of goodness. It also includes our desire to behave well, accept others, be patient, tolerate, maintain peace, ensuring growth. Etc. Some time, we may be lacking courage to do the good that is to be done. That first daring may free us for moving in the right direction. Perhaps we are ashamed of ourselves. Am I to do the good works? I am unworthy to do that. Ask for the embrace of God to feel the worth of ourselves. If we are envious, it may put us into competition and desire to defeat. It will not allow us to walk a humble path in relationships. If we are dominated by ego we will lack the freedom to do good even if want to.

A plant which has less water and nutrition surely lacks the capacity for growth, flowering and fruition. When we lack life, personally or as a society, we too will not be able to express the signs of life. I want to live to the full, but just can’t. Life will show its early signs of where we are moving towards. It will show our good orientations and freedom to do good, or our irritation, suspicion, prejudices and competitive spirit that hinder our doing good. 'Be in  the present' is a familiar phrase for us, But are we able to interpret it well? Interpret these signs as early as possible, sense the richness or the needs, make our efforts, trust in the Lord.  Our interpretation shapes the attitudes not only of ours, but of the whole of our generation. Why do you not know how to interpret the present time?

Struggle of the living

If we are dead, we cannot be sensitive to what happens. There will be decay, worms around. We cannot act. If we are alive, we are able to respond. Gracelessness or lifelessness can keep us fine with wickedness. Life and grace bring its struggles too. We cannot nourish grace and live a Christian life with exclusion and inequality. Only if we have grace within us, we will have the fire burning within. Ensuring the freedom of the children of God necessitates the hunger and thirst for justice. Even peacemakers have to struggle against false peace and ensure life. Fr. Stan Sami could have a peaceful death if he could be silent on miseries. Jesus could have died as a great Jewish sage just preaching nice things.

Waiting for the master

Unknown is the hour that someone needs Christ. Be ready, those coming near to you beg of you to open your richness. The gift of grace overweighs the fall. We are habituated to mourn over the fall being blind to the abundance of grace. The gift itself is a task and a challenge. Gift of grace challenges us to live like Christ at every moment of our life.

"Here in this person, I experienced the mercy and compassion of God. I know that Christ lives."
The master comes to you in the one who seeks the tenderness of Christ in you.

St Luke

Luke pictured a compassionate Christ, Christ who welcomes and belongs to everyone, a merciful healer, but pained as any child on earth, Christ who let himself be touched by the sick, women and children.

Drink the cup that I must drink

We have been on the way with Jesus in his journey to Jerusalem. He revealed to us who he is, enquired about what we think about him, taught us how to be a disciple. He also told us that he had to suffer. Now as nearing Jerusalem, he is clearer how he is going to suffer and die. “Now we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of man is about to be handed over to the chief priests and the scribes. They will condemn him to death and will hand him over to the gentiles, who will mock him and spit at him and scourge him and put him to death; and after three days he will rise again” (Mk 10:33, 34).

As happened at the time of the previous predictions, here too there is a misunderstanding. As nearing Jerusalem, perhaps, the disciples expect the reestablishment of Israel and the Messiah being seated at the throne of David. James and John come forward asking for privileged positions in the kingdom.

In his reply to the disciples, we can feel the tender and gentle heart of Jesus in teaching them the depth of discipleship. Jesus speaks of the very purpose and meaning of his life as a life not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many (Mk 10: 45). He knew very well how authority and power can become an exploitative system. Abusive use of authority blind us against the reality of people, history and culture. We will turn deaf to the voice of God and cry of humanity. When Jesus says, “among you this is not to happen,” it is his desire about the quality of disciples, his vision of the Church and the nature of the kingdom of God. “You know that among the gentiles those they call their rulers lord it over them, and their great men make their authority felt (Mk 10: 43).

Journey further is rather difficult. “Can you drink the cup that I must drink?” Jesus asks each of us. It is even difficult and dangerous to walk with him. God chose to be a friend, and servant to the least in the society. Freedom, power and blessings were the privileges of the few. Jesus exercised his power to raise others to the dignity of the children of God. The suffering and humiliation Jesus underwent was unavoidable from the day he proclaimed liberty to captives and the year of the Lord’s favour. Like the master, every disciple is called to make all share the joy of the kingdom of God. It demands that we forgo our tendencies to be a little ruler in the way we can. The more we come near to the sacrificial self-emptying the deeper is the challenge to discard the power to rule, command and control.

“Can you drink the cup that I must drink?” Jesus asks. If we say, yes, we need to first remind ourselves that our life is not for preserving for itself but to be given for the life of many. Then, concerning others “I” must be a servant of all. About our purpose and meaning “I” must be a life giving sacrifice in my life, prayer, work, decisions. This cup gently discourages us from our imaginations of the royal rule of Christendom. “Among you this is not to happen” also invites us to erase many military terminologies like war, weapon, attack, crusade… from our expressions of spirituality and faith. Even unknowingly such symbolism should not dictate a style of belief which Jesus never imagined.

The cup that Jesus had to drink was not simply that of physical or mental suffering. It was at the challenge of abandoning himself to be the life giving sacrifice in his living, speaking, and in dying. The self-emptying was there when he embraced the excluded and the neglected. Healing, raising and even challenging involved an emptying of self, giving of life. Cross itself is an outcome of his generous love. His suffering would merely be an injury inflicted by an unjust system. But offering of his life to give life for many turns his mental and physical injuries into wine and oil of healing, care, comfort and accompaniment.

“Can you drink the cup that I must drink?”

Where is the key?

The aim of the harsh sayings of Jesus  addressing the Pharisees and lawyers was that they would  remould themselves to the freedom of the children of God. It also calls to introspect their approach regarding laws and customs which were really meant to open the richness of life.

They had the key, they had the knowledge of the Law and the power to interpret. They used the key to close the richness against the people of God. Power of interpretation with bad intention will formulate patterns of customs to exploit people.

Do we use the key to open or to close. Do our faith, religious customs, devotions ...  ensure justice and love of God in persons, society, and in different systems we are engaged in.

What does it profit for a man if he does all religious customs perfectly and loses his soul?

N Fan

Don't be a crazy religious fan of anyone.
We might chose to believe the lies they say than the truth we ourselves might know.
Hero worship is not religious faith.

What should have been done!

When rituals loses their sacredness, they are like honouring scarecrows, seeking revelations from dry wood. It can happen with any of our religious rituals however noble and great they are.

If Jesus asked his people to begin a great annual sacrifice they would be very happy. Sacrifices without self-emptying has no life in it. Jesus wanted justice and love of God to form the pattern of our life.

Mostly the popular religious figures are famous for the 'religiosity' they uphold and spread. They are easy, and can hide us from many of our responsibilities in the name of godliness. Those who have money can better do these 'offerings.' They feel themselves justified by the things they have fulfilled.

In our observances, devotions, religiosity... have we overlooked justice and the love of God?

Sign greater than Jonah

Jonah was a sign to the Ninevites, and they repented. They listened to a strange man. But what was the base for their repentance? They were not given the Ten commandments, and they were not part of the Covenant. So if they had to change their hearts what did they change from? It had nothing to do with a  conversion in any 'religious' sense. It was turning away from evil ways, ways of cruelty, injustice and injustice. They cried out to 'god' asking for their life. 

There was a sign greater than Jonah, but they did not repent. Jesus was the sign, not any single miracle, healing, or even death or resurrection taken separately. The sign of Jesus asks us to repent, first to recognize that we are the children of God. There is growth, responsibilities, maturity along with weaknesses and failures. So, to repent is to be open to the Father as his children and trust in his grace. We may have sinned, but our identity is not a 'sinner.' We may have named so, but Jesus has not done it for anyone.

One obstacle to our repentance may be our feeling of ourselves as a holy, selected people, and condemning others to be sinners. There is no need of repentance for 'me.' Thus we lose the freedom of the children and close ourselves within hard shells of our certainties we create for God. If we repent, our repentance welcomes all because all are children of God. Can we make an attempt to pray for a few people whom we really don't like? Christian charity and repentance demand that. Can we be open to the good news spoken by the 'other'?

Wisdom for the Rich Young Man

It would have been really good if we were able to know what is real and true, and the real intentions of people around. We would be happy and successful if we were able to make right decisions and choices. Wisdom guides us to search for the will of God in all things and act accordingly as sincerely as possible. 

For a righteous and godly living, we need the gift of wisdom. Wisdom is closely related with the gift of knowledge. By knowledge we come to know reality even when it is hidden, or when there is confusion and chaos, or when we are trapped to cunningness of others. Knowledge also helps us to know God’s will and plan. Wisdom gives us a direction to our life especially in a specific context according to the knowledge we have received. Wisdom guides us when and how the truth known to be responded to or acted upon according to the will of God. When wisdom is put to use, a “knowing” truth turns into a skill of insight and putting God’s Word to work. Wisdom guards and shapes us into a man or woman of God by possessing the skill of using truth in a generative and fruitful manner. Knowledge without wisdom can make us intolerant and we might do damage with the truth we possess. Wisdom helps us to understand the truth within the providence and mercy of God, and be at peace and serenity. A life of wisdom ultimately results in a life that gives glory to God. 

The word of wisdom or utterance of wisdom or teaching of wisdom also has a prophetic function with the goal of guiding others toward a life of holiness and worship. Wisdom enables us to speak, teach, instruct and counsel others in compassion, and interpret their life in clarity towards the fullness of life. It leads us to practicing righteousness. 

Wisdom guides the society too giving light to the social conscience. It reveals the truth about time, its challenges, conflicts and struggles. We learn how to go about according to what God wants. We have many examples from the life and teaching of Jesus, how he was guided by wisdom. In wisdom, he had to dishonour some conventional practices and accepted values. Many of the lawful signs of blessings, like richness, were interpreted to secure the unjust practices that maintained the status of the privileged. Jesus discerned those so-called blessings as having no value in the kingdom. 

Rich young man makes his entry calling Jesus as ‘good master,’ seemingly for an approval of his own greatness. He was perfect in following the laws. But the lawful richness was a hindrance for him to enter the kingdom, just as the righteousness of the Pharisee in the temple was a hindrance to see someone crying out for God’s mercy. Being religious does not necessarily make a disciple. Rich young man was lacking something like the rich man who was blind towards Lazarus. 

Of course, the poor are invisible, they are seen as unworthy burden on the public purse. In their struggle to survive they are exploited. Though it is lawful to have wealth and richness, the self-centred storing of wealth necessarily creates poverty, injustice, hunger, and inequality. According to the law, it was not necessary for the rich man to share his wealth, it was not necessary for the priest and Levite to attend to the wounded at the roadside. They were disabled to see how the law should guide them. In fact, there they lacked wisdom. Therefore, today we need to reflect more on a globalisation of solidarity and fraternity if globalisation in the level of economy left many uncared. Who owns and has the benefit of increased wealth, fast developments, amazing infrastructures… 

Wisdom guides us to see and act within an integral whole, for the common good and fulfillment of all. The saying of Jesus to the rich young man is today for the individuals, nations, organisations, and global corporates. They do act legally and perfectly following every commandment from the beginning. They keep Jesus too in good records in a very religious manner. Jesus would say, you lack something, sell your richness, share the benefits of developments and technology with the poor, and follow me. Justice, and righteousness according to God's will makes a disciple. Will it make you sad? May wisdom keep us in the path of God.

Hallowed be your name

Prayer is a pattern of life more than a religious activity. Jesus taught the prayer 'Our Father...' saying, "when you pray, pray like this." Anyone who sincerely pray the Our Father  will be a person "of tenderness and compassion, slow to anger, rich in graciousness, relenting from evil." That is how God's name is glorified and His kingdom is established.

The Old covenant bond was "I am your God and you are my people." The New Testament bond is "God is our Father and we are all God's children" We cannot show our love for the Father by hating or desiring the destruction of any of the brothers and sisters.

How could we let the Messiah fail?

Jesus was a wonder and excitement to many of his people. But for some he was a dangerously growing threat. Though many listened to him, many were not his disciples. For some the listening ended in an appreciation “he spoke well!” Others marvelled at his miracles. Some showed affection and praised the privileges of ‘his close people.’ “Blessed are rather those who hear the word of God and keep it” was the response Jesus had.

These are varieties of ways people spoke of Jesus. When Jesus asks ‘what do the people say that I am, the answers vary depending on how they liked to listen to the Word and responded. Some thought of an immediate return of John the Baptist in Jesus because he was known as a prophet and had to suffer an unjust death. Even Herod thought the same. When Jesus worked miracles they may have thought of the miracle working prophets Elijah and Elisha and there was great expectation that Elijah would come in the beginning of Messianic age. Because Jesus taught with authority some thought that he was Moses.

Not only these, Jesus was thought to be a mad man, possessed by devil, drunkard and glutton, friend of tax collectors and prostitutes, antinational and lawless. These are opinions about a man out there, showing some miracles and challenging the authorities having a number of people as his followers.

Opinions are many within the crowd, but the disciples are formed with an intimate knowing of the heart of the master. When a master is gradually understood more than a source of a new path and enlightenment, it seeks deeper convictions on the many questions that arise from the present standpoints. So, the significance of the master reshapes one’s own outlook over the world, religion and ethics.

Messiah would remove all sufferings. How can that Messiah fall victim to sufferings? How can we let our Hero, the master, the Messiah become a failure? Would it not be our failure too? Would it not break whatever we thought about him? They had not understood that being messiah had a price to pay, the price of life, because it is for this he came.

True love and life challenge the self-righteous and selfish powers. But for the disciples Jesus was not practical. His preaching ‘kingdom of God’ is beautiful to dream, but standing on realities we have to see that we live. The failure of theirs and ours is in making God obey for the survival of ourselves and the preservation of God himself. We have failed God by replacing the Gospel with News that seem good to us. Christ can be made an ideology, an object of best explanations and definitions. Christ can also be made an object of cult, a wheat that does not fall down, does not die. The cross itself becomes sign of domination and invasion. In these attempts of preservation it can so happen that we celebrate lies to defend our hypocrisy.

The true understanding, devotion, and communion can be there only in belonging to him. He lives among us. He is the source of our life, the model for our living, and the image we want to become. This, we achieve by sharing with one another the grace that we have received. The living, understanding, and witnessing to the World can happen when we have the messiah in and among us. The suffering, sacrifices, humiliations, persecutions, being handed over … are not the mode of atonement, they are the modes of life-giving.

When Peter professed that Jesus was the Christ the Son of the Living God, Jesus says that it was revealed to them by the heavenly Father. Yet, they needed more understanding on what it meant to be the Christ and the Son of God. It would happen only by being with him in all his trials. Generally, the people expected a political Messiah who would restore Israel. Some of them expected a change of heart in the people, some even expected a cosmic newness. Would all these happen just at a touch of the Messiah? Could it happen all of sudden at the very moment of the arrival of the Messiah?

Let us ask the Father to reveal to us the face of Christ present amongst us today, and also the face of the Messiah the Father asking us to be.