Announcing the Gospel

Preachers pull the crowd in many ways.

Popular trend today is a feel good messages, think positive, relax and enjoy; sing and dance. Though it may sound secular, it has appeared very much in religious languages.

Very influential trend today is the politicized version of religion. No religion is free of this form today. These will have holy, faithful, safeguarding, preserving, 'true and original' sacred music-language, vision terminologies which wrap the power-politics under its beautiful appearance.

Related to the above but could be different in itself is a utilitarian style of devotionalism and pietism. Do these prayers, have these devotions and you will have these miraculous, wonderful reward from God. Even running a business, naming a property, and deciding the number of children has become part of devotion. Rarely we know how we are tricked into ideologizing of religion.

Based on a ransom theology, Christians are brought under control by sin-condemnation preaching. The hearers are terrified, brought under shame, and given the burden of guilt.

The Word of God is very 'nice' until it touches us deep. Jesus' choice of announcing freedom to captives and the year of God's favour is not so wonderful thing. The Gospel is not a covering announcement. Just by listening and walking behind Jesus cannot make a discipleship. The salvation he inaugurated is an integral salvation, it touches our entire life, and it is now. So it also asks to participating in his ministry that opens the freedom and joy of the children of God. A politicized Christianity cannot actualize what Jesus preached. A romantic ideal devotionalism cannot take us to the kingdom Jesus wanted us to enter. Condemning oneself is not the mode that Jesus asked us to deal with sin. Jesus taught us to be convinced of the life given to us, the freedom offered to us, and the responsibility of breaking the chains of oppression and injustice in order to let the love of the father be realized in everyone's life.

you will find your life

Having debts written off is only a crude understanding of Christian view of salvation. A self under the burden of punishment is not what Christ taught us to understand about ourselves. We are given the life of God, and the salvation means the growth in that life. It includes freedom, joy and strength. Christ taught us what that life means, what that freedom and joy mean. 

Life/grace cannot be nurtured in closed bags. It causes a flourishing of one's own life and extends to others. Only in freedom and truth we can genuinely reach out to the  other. So life also means truth, justice, compassion and mercy. Salvation of oneself alone is not salvation at all. One takes the name of Jesus, holds Bible, and proclaims that Jesus is the saviour. That does not guarantee a heaven-ticket. One must let a genuine transformation happen in one's life.

Life/grace finds its ways to nurture and fructify; its growth into goodness, the real good of oneself and others. This good also means truth, justice, compassion and mercy. The 'good' stands for all virtues that can be sought in a Christ-like human. Every entry into a little good includes death and sacrifice. It also has obstacles that blocks, heavy burdens that drag the process of growth. Because we all have been formed of burdens, injuries, and pains of our family and society. We often want to defend those pains which are within the thorns of vices. They immediately appear because of our closeness to these pains. Often we apply these 'troubles' to the devil and stand helpless. The roots are where we have grown. Deny yourselves clearly means 'a passing through' these injuries by personal efforts, through available helps, and divine grace. Beginning from a determination, finding constant encouragement from God, rejoicing in the everyday signs of life, we make our way of the cross. 

By adding chosen suffering we cannot 'remove' the inevitable passing through process. God does not rejoice seeing that we take up pains for 'his joy.' God does not offer grace as though someone gives a chocolate as a gift for a favour done for that person. God shares his life and goodness in God's love that desires the full 'goodness' all that is created. It is not a one-man business. Salvation is not a one-man gift, that each one goes and receives one's reward. Salvation is the freedom and joy of the whole in the life of God.

Lose these for my sake ...

Nothing should have happened to Jesus. He could have lived well, following all the laws, obeying the high priest, growing old, and at the end being taken up into heaven in a chariot of fire. It would be even better if he had become an emperor. Though this was not that happened, we all want to 'preserve' that Jesus. 

In our attempts to preserve, protect, safeguard, it is important to ask what do we really preserve? Is it faith, is it Christ, or some particular symbols, customs, rubrics, powers, structures etc? Do recapturing of these reveal more of Christ to us, to others and to the world? Will any one be ready to lose any of these for Christ's sake? 

Priest - liturgy

If we understand Christ properly, every creation can be seen as the members of Christ's body. We grow in and extend into that body. God dwells in and among these members. 

A priest, if he is another Christ, should have every member of Christ's body on his face. If he is acting and ministering in the person of Christ, he should have the attitudes that Christ had in his life. A priest as the minister of liturgy must mirror the life, sufferings, and joys of the community that the people can see in him their community in him. Similarly the priest must see God living in the people. This seeing each other is important communication of communion if we are sincere with liturgy. 

Loading authority over the members is not a functioning mode that Christ wanted. Enrobing a priesthood of power and authority and covering it under an hallow of holy obedience is  canonization of a lie, because it claims in the name of Christ, what was not an intention of Christ. A sense of the sacred when seeing the face of the other is yet to be developed . It may be the faces of the 'other' humans, and those of beings that are other than human. Facing a faceless crowd is not the intention of the church. A worship in truth and spirit turns sacred the faces formed in space and time. True face of a priest must resemble all these faces where the participating faces can all see each other. I dont think any one has a problem in understanding the importance of 'charity' reading the judgement of the great king at the end of time, "when you did this to the least of these ..." But the worship dimension is not permitted other than in the temple court. Ultimately we end up in priest/authority worship, ritual/liturgy worship. For they survive on each other.

If we can see the whole creation as the body of Christ, we cannot have closed boundaries. We can not have ruling priestly class. We cannot have privileged liturgies. In true worship, one faces the other, because in the other God dwells.

Christ-coming

There are Christ moments gently approaching us every moment. It is important that we keep awake in order that we don't miss his 'entry' into us. Every goodness that we are ready to take birth in us and enhance others to grow into there is a Christ-coming. This faithful awakeness is so great a door as Christ himself is the door. Those moments are those of our entry into Christ, Christ's entry into us (we become like him), and our entry into others, and their entry into us. That is the church, Christ being all in all.

John the Baptist

When John the Baptist put his life to risk we must learn where his sight was set on.

He looked forward to a promise,
a promise of freedom
to worship God without fear,
to be holy and righteous in his sight all the days of our life.

He set his eyes on a call to be a prophet
who would go before the Lord to prepare his way,
to give his people knowledge of salvation
by the forgiveness of their sins.

Courage born of a consolation,
In the tender compassion of our God
the dawn from on high shall break upon us,
to shine on those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death,
and to guide our feet into the way of peace.

He was in the darkness of prison, and under the shadow of death. 

Did he keep peace facing the sword?

Perhaps, in his own vision, his call, his doubts, and courage, he pointed out 'behold the lamb of God."

Christian Obedience

Obedience has its Christian sense only when there is filial love. The freedom in that filial love nurtures an obedience that bring about life. Which law did the Father employ in 'sending' the Son to the world? How did the Son 'obey' the Father to accomplish the will of the Father that 'all may have life in abundance'? Otherwise, Jesus could have easily obeyed, and should have Obeyed Caiaphas and his team. They were not seeking the will of God nor the life of the people of God.

Obedience to a competent authority is also in seeking the will of God; not on the other way as though whatever is the will of the authority is to be accepted as the will of God. The primary test of the quality of obedience is whether the obedience demanded and the obedience exercised ensures life of all. A Spirit guided ecclesiology does not divide the church into hierarchy and the faithful. The hierarchy is within the people of God with a ministering function. It is not a ruling function. Their decisive authority is towards nourishment of the life of the faithful. 

Obedience demanded to bring others on their knees is not a virtue, its demanding a submission. Obedience (Ob-audire) propels us to listen (and speak) to one another in truth and charity. Obedience in the sense of attentive listening invites us to listen sympathetically even to voices that are different from ours. Only filial love can make this listening even without a verbal conversation. There is freedom and joy, and life.

the last

Some were not found fit to be taken as laborers. It was the master's mercy that took them for work. Mercy extended for the good of the laborers. Justice is born from truth and shows itself in mercy. Justice that does not desire the good of all only considers partial truth. 

All receive one reward; our being one with Christ. There is no greater or higher reward for anyone. Fitness claims and recognitions are not valuable in the sight of God. children, women, the poor, the helpless, laity, clerics, bishops, Popes, all have the same reward, being one with Christ. Condemning and keeping some away is an eternal pain though we have all fitness worth to be honored holy and righteous.

Worship of Liturgy

The warning and ultimatum given by archbishop Cyril Vasil to the Archdiocese of Ernakulam-Angamaly is devoid of a synodal church and the face of Pope Francis.

The synod and the ecclesial authorities urgently need to ask what we have made of the church, and what we have gained? The eucharist celebrated is going to be ‘in remembrance’ of a victory of arrogance, pride, greed and competitive spirit.

Most shocking and disappointing in the manner involvement of Archbishop Cyril Vasil in implementing the ‘synod’ approved form of the celebration of mass was that there was no Francis approach at all. The synodal approach we try to learn, discuss, and practice these days is totally missing in the letter from him dated 17th August 2023.

Listening, in the synodal path, is not a collection of opinions; it is listening to anger, disappointment, frustration, of a people who are called rebellious, who are satanised by other 34 dioceses which are ‘‘faithful’ and 'obedient' people. Whom did archbishop Vasil listen to, whom did he hear? Who flocked near him? What do his pictures say when he posed with the MTNS , and with police, holding sacrament in hand? Was he not aware of the heinous activities of MTNS? Perhaps not. but his secretary would be aware. If the Archbishop was not willing for conversations what higher merit they had for meetings the papal delegate which other lay faithful didn't have?

What would have cost him if he initiated a conversation with the diocese at least for one hour. A person who came to solve the issue was not ready to study the issue, how would he have arrived at a reconciling phase? A delegate of the Pope unfortunately fell to become a mouthpiece of the predominant powers in the synod. It is a sad state of affairs that the decisions or actions of the 'papal offices' are available to the social media groups much in advance. 

The reluctance of Archbishop Cyril Vasil to show the authorizing letter adds to suspicions. Surely he has a letter of mandate. But why is he not willing to show? Let us say he has shown it to the synod. But, considering the seriousness of the issue involving a diocese, it is reasonable that the letter be shown to the people concerned in the archdiocese of Ernakulam-Angamaly.

Concerning the carrying of the eucharist, did the crowd know that he was carrying the sacrament as to blame them now for insulting the eucharist. As the situation was already tense, it was not a place where the eucharist could receive 'due reverence' and adoration. Was he taking the eucharist as a protecting shield so that people may not harm him? Afterall what did he really want to do in the basilica? Just a visit? It could be avoided. Wanted to adore there, bringing 'Jesus' to the basilica? Did he want to offer mass? Would it not be another adamant show of power in a place where a disastrous event happened in December and remained closed for eight months. Would it not be creating a situation that would lack reverence to the sacrament, and eucharist being used to show power?

The crowd may be accused of insulting Archbishop Vasil as a human person. but the advisers of his are totally responsible for the insults he faced as an apostolic delegate from their improper management of the situation.

I fail to understand how the spirit and vision of Vatican II is present in the proposed liturgy of Syro Malabar Church. I often ask myself, why it was not possible, though there were excellent gifted people there in the church, to find new ways to incorporate the eastern christian mystical aspects in their liturgy that would involve the people of today. What is lacking is a religious imagination that would creatively find ways to carry the 'lives' of today's world; sorrows and joys. Instead, this ongoing quarrel has filled bitterness and drained all life energies from people. Is there Christ experienced and made visible in any of these claimed successful liturgical renewal. The whole outcome of the uniformity appears to be bringing Ernakulam-Angamaly archdiocese to its knees.

It is evident that these issues have a lot of historical root of ego-class, scornful attitudes, humiliation based on socio economic status ... healing of those hurts cannot be done by a solution in liturgy alone. Are the shepherds ready to take up a renewal phase of repentance and reconciliation among themselves? Otherwise, even after the liturgy issue is resolved. there will be new issues created for maintaining authority, domination and power. Conflicts are to be maintained for that purpose. By bringing a conclusion for liturgical disputes, have the synod solved the age old problems in the syro malabar church? To preserve ego, and greed, new conflicts will be created in order to rule and show power.

Unless ongoing dialogues are initiated we may not have any solution at all, and this scandalous fight will be on for many years. There need to be occasions of interactions among the people of these different dioceses. The injuries they have received over the years can be healed only from fraternal interactions. Shamefully, and with sincere repentance, we need to acknowledge that it is the filthy ego of our authorities that created, nurtured and intensified these issues for decades. Ultimately the main thing that is forgotten is the value of Christ himself. I have asked myself often, which has been important, the glory of orientalism or the value of the kingdom made present in our midst in our time. What Gospel the society has read from the 'church activities' these years.

Has the synod established itself as an authentic authority, holy, righteous, and just? How does it stand just in the case of the selling of land in which the major archbishop is facing court cases. However canonical rightness can be claimed, the legal wrongness is before the public.

Here 'all have sinned and have fallen short of the glory of God,' not because of the liturgy, but because of the very silence on the unchristian attitudes of those who exercised imperial power. This sin is upon authorities, priests, religious authorities, lay leaders, and super-spiritual church loving channels. If they did not see something was wrong in the modality of approach the leadership was following, all need to start from Christ. Because we have not understood what Jesus taught. The synod and the delegate continue to speak the language of arrogance and domination demanding submission. Is there no Christian way other than this style of authority? When the authority does not represent Christ and his nature, to whom is obedience demanded. Is that obedience virtuous when the authority exercices its power in arrogance. Christian obedience is valuable only when the authority resembles the good shepherd. Much was spoken about the obedience of Christ, and the humble submission of Mary. Their faithfulness was to a ‘holy’ will. How much of this ‘uniformity’ contains a ‘holy’ will? Who are these ‘rebels,’ ‘those not obeying the pope,’ ‘those against the church’? Once they were your friends, they were their students, they were your teachers and collaborators. Were they evil people? They were crushed and strangulated, and you were silent. Was that silence seeing the glory of God in the style of approach of the heads of the church, or you feared their displeasure? If they surrender/ submit themselves lifeless and voiceless, as they are isolated, condemned, weakened, and threatened, is that what you like to call peace and unity?

Whenever you celebrate the eucharist it will be a remembrance of a victory of arrogance, pride, greed and competitive spirit. So, once again, what have we made of the church, and what have we gained?

..........................................

The disputes happening about liturgy is not about our interest in deeper experience of God, or in realizing communion with God. The tension is caused because we want to be kings and rulers. Then liturgy becomes a language of that rule. Is there a place for Jesus and his love? Liturgy is to bring us into close touch with our identity in God much deeper than any of our patrimonial radical traditions. That identity, primarily, is the image of Christ. Does our liturgy take us, our living reality, crises, complexities, sorrows, joys, celebrations, into that Christ image that we may be remolded?

It is safe and glorious to practice liturgy within a church compound centering on the throne. is liturgy a closed exercise within the walls of the church, does liturgy stop as the celebration is over? is liturgy centred on and about the 'decisive body'? if yes, with no concern we can formulate, continue, and maintain LITURGIES. but if it must involve the life of the faithful, the involvement of the faithful is significant. A decisive body that is blind to how people live, think, behave and change cannot think of liturgical adaptations that can facilitate people for a meaningful conversation with God. When that path is closed, liturgy ends as a symbol, an ideology, a power-based tool.

Rigidity of the law blinds one against truth and justice. One might find all safety in the laws of the church, but if the powerful use the law as an iron rod of their power, it defeats the purpose of the law. The offices, laws, authorities exist because there is church which is primarily a communion. Thrones and powers emerge from and exist for the sake of the church. It is not in the other way as though the communion is realized when all others stand with the laws and offices. Is the communion, experience of Christ bound to liturgy, canon law, doctrines, and traditions? No, instead they find their meaning in Christ. A Christ who is restricted in the 'withinness' of them is not the fullness of life, bread of life, or the life-giving waters. When we close him to our constraints we are draining the church of life, communion and love.

To rebuild the broken altars, first we need to rediscover Christ.

The Church is not within church compounds. The church is an extended body of its members, brought in communion by the grace given to them. The priesthood and sacrifice in the church must be primarily understood as a virtue, not as a cult. A priesthood and sacrifice that do not communicate beyond the church structure still maintain a cult not a lifegiving existence and sacrifice. A priest who is unwilling to go out practices dangerous rituals. because he reduces the sacrifice into a mere ritual.

The one who worships is Christ (having his members in his Body the church). He is the real altar. A consecrated altar is for the sake of the church. It does not become an exclusive centre of Divine presence. Wherever the faithful are, there is the church. Any teaching on the eucharist and the eucharistic adoration will have an emphasis on communion on three dimensions; Jesus' communion with the Father, the communion that Jesus established by reconciling the world with the Father, and the communion of humanity. Having the absence of any of these and making a ritual of sacrifice is a lie, a worship of hypocrisy. Adherence to an authority necessarily does not bring about this communion. Without sincere desire for communion it is a bread ritual, and cruelty to the body of Christ. Our divisions, based on rites, language, casts, regions, are evidence for our lack of sensitivity to the meaning of Eucharist. How long can we fool ourselves calling them the beauty of the church? In contrast, we resist those diversities that can really enhance a community. There is clear enthronement of our pride and ego where there is no place for Christ at all. How nicely we speak of order and particulars of liturgy and the canon at the risk of what is really important - the gospel values, life-witness, fraternity, mercy, ultimately Christ himself. The 'gathering' in his name is not assembling alone, it is unity in love and in the Holy spirit. Neglecting that, whose memory are we celebrating or claiming to be celebrating? We believe in the real presence, not in the magical presence as though Christ can be forcefully brought to the altar having all our hypocrisies well maintained. Of course, it is very special, significant and incomparable presence, but not an exclusive presence. The teaching on the real presence is an answer to a question 'what type of presence is there in the eucharist?' Is it symbolic as in a crucifix? No it is real. Is it simply based on /depended on our faith? No it is true and always. It is substantial, for the whole Christ is present. But we cannot limit this presence into its species.

The Holy Trinity does not have to wait for a time to enter in. Jesus is also not waiting for the 'two or three' to gather in his name so that he can come in as though an outsider coming from inside. Christ, the Word, is present as a person and in grace in every person. That belonging is made visible and reality when we come together. As different members in the body of Christ, each member is a continuation of the other, and together we experience the body of Christ.

walking on knees

Does anyone of us get out of a bus and move on knees till one reaches home to 'show' one's love for one's mother. Does a mother demand such an act as a sign of love? Our devotions have seriously missed the track. Is pain the most desirable thing for God?

Mistakenly we are sure that God is happy about it. Or like a trickster child, we think that we can manipulate God's feelings by self inflicting pain. Or I am taking suffering as reparation for my 'horrible' sins and sins of the whole world. Did God ask for reparations?

Filial love is the essence of devotion. What is the function of self inflicted pain in filial love? Self inflicting of pain is often seen as a sign of deep devotion. It is where devotion often go out of track. 

Fasting and penance have their value only if they hold the sense of justice and charity, not as causes of spiritual benefits or superhuman qualities. They are not to be seen as something that pleases Gd in a special way. In case of natural sickness and pain, we cannot escape them. There can be direct healing through a divine intervention. It may be benefitting if we are able to go through them in god's grace; it may generate, acceptance, humility, patience, endurance, and peace.

Greater sign

An 'ordinary' young couple making their sincere prayer together is still a greater sign of hope for the church than a large stadium filled with 'worshippers.'

 
Jesus living among us, and Jesus conquering the world have a great difference. Stadium-faith excitements will melt like snow.

God was not there

Elijah was fully right to expect God in storm, earthquake or in fire.
For ancient cultures, they were Gods, God of power, vengeance, and anger.
On Mt Sinai there were clouds, smoke, and fire when God came down.
But God was merciful, slow to anger, abounding in love.
It is in this nature, we find stillness,
the confidence to walk on the troubled waters, when Jesus calls, 'come.'
We look for God in mighty sings, in fire, cloud, smoke ...
but seldom expect God in tenderness, calmness, and mercy.

History will testify, 

... in super-shows, God was not there.

faith

Faith is not about the occurrence of events,

it is in placing out trust on to God.
That love and reverence one feel towards the depth of God is what scripture says the fear of the Lord, 

not being terribly frightened.
God's deeds are within his being,
and those actions are assured in 'seeking first the kingdom of God.'

Searching for God only for 'miraculous deeds' is an attempt to give commands to God.

St Dominic

St Dominic sensed a world and a church that was darkened by error. The error was about God, about humanity, and about salvation. This error was not only affecting faith, it was destroying the very sacramental possibility of our humanity by condemning our human flesh. When we proudly say that the preaching of St Dominic brought light to the world and to the church, it is significant to follow how he preached if we are to be the bearers of the same light of Christ.

True faith, for Dominic, was not an intellectual correctness. To understand the true ‘faith’ he preached it is good to see clearly the choices he made for his journey as a preacher. The Cathars could convince more on the struggling soul trapped in the prison of the body. Claiming to be the children of light and knowledge, the albigensians took advantage of the suffering of the time and canonized the misery of people. This ‘nice’ faith further dumped their faithful in severe austerity. They were hungry for bread, they were sick, over that they suffered the burden of being exploited.

Dominic was compassionate. He was kind and charitable. His zeal for preaching need to be placed within his compassionate heart. The true face of Truth can be seen only through compassion and charity. Justice, the other side of truth, also can be seen and brought to reality only in compassion and charity. Emphasis on our doctrinal preaching must rediscover our roots in the compassion of St Dominic. Light to the church must blind our closed eyes and open our hearts with true sense of justice. Without sincere longing for truth, the church has no authority to teach.

Dominic was a man of contemplation. Did he long for a spiritual awakening in contemplating the mysteries of God? His contemplation on the crucifix showed him the meaning of humanity even in the midst of suffering. He studied the scriptures to deepen what he learned from the crucifix. This engagement in contemplative study enabled him to touch the hearts of the people. The sermons he preached became the focus of meditative prayer for them to embrace gracefully the fact of our body. Those meditations would gradually become the prayer of the Holy Rosary.

The light he showed was of salvation and the mystery of christ. He could not see the children of God, embraced by his love being crushed under the condemnation of a lie. If Christ loved them in his humanity, that salvation must be visibly experienced in their life, in their body and in their society. Dominic preached salvation, and offered hope, not condemnation. The misery and sin pained him, but he was the ‘preacher of grace.’

It is very significant today to remember that Dominic chose the path of persuasion and discussion, not sword, though he was put in charge of a group of crusaders. It is wrong to ascribe to rosary the success over the heretics by bloody massacres done by the crusaders. The effectiveness of the rosary has been the depth the faithful began experiencing through its meditative prayers.

Dominican freedom has let us follow the spirit of Dominic to this day. It is easy and attractive to reach condemnation, but it is challenging to be a preacher of grace, and difficult to convince about the gospel of peace. Our popular preachings have done such a great harm as to the effect that many believe that condemnation is the nature of God. A condemned conscience look for reparations by torturing one’s body. A spirituality that justifies this condemnation and self inflicted misery will be exalted as being closer to God denying the world. One way or the other albigensianism is in our blood. Those heretics chose extreme poverty also to shame the luxury of the priests and bishops. The errors about God, salvation and humanity did not matter to them. The injuries the people suffered in hunger did not matter to them. So a poor life was essential for the new preaching groups of Francis and Dominic. They took upon severe austerity not with condemnation, but as a living compassion and with a sense of justice.

The light Dominic showed to the world was the light that was shining in Christ, the light of grace that flourishes in humanity. Dominic was a preacher of grace, not of condemnation. He preached the gospel of peace and chose the language of dialogue, not sword. We pray through his intercession, that following his example we may be united with the blessed.

Transfiguration

He was the carpenter's son, son of Mary.
He was a miracle-worker, healer, a prophet

He was the messiah who was to come.

This is what was made visible to the world.

He revealed himself in transfiguration;

He who was from the beginning,

through whom everything was created,

in whom everything lives,

through whom everything is related to the creator.

"This is my beloved Son" was the voice.

This is the truth that we avoided and thus disfigured ourselves.

Slowly we stopped communicating to life itself.

We are celebrating the discontinuity from others calling it freedom.

Listen to the voice, listen to the Word.

Grace shines in us too to make us a living sacrament.

the universal self that we are transfigured into is the church, the body of Christ.

Salome

Salome found nothing odd to hold the bleeding head of John the Baptist. Her mother's revenge was right, and Herod's power was right. It happens.

The poor and the helpless were chased out, smashed down, stripped off, humiliated. Viewers watched all these with excitement, clapping hands, cheering, and howling.
It was something right to be done on 'those' people. It happens.

Solidarity shown to them in closed rooms does not reflect a conscience of justice.

Sts. Joachim and Anne

Reflection on Sts. Joachim and Anne reminds us of the graciousness they received from God, how they have been living a righteous life in such a way Mary could be born in fullness of grace. I am slow to believe in a magical intervention of God to 'remove' the stain of sin from Mary. Instead, Immaculately conceived Mary is the fruit of filling in of grace through care and preparedness of her parents, grandparents and innumerous elements that stood with them as real presence of God through many generations. It is the work of God in humble human hearts.

'The holy' that become unworthy

 "Jesus, we have a problem to accept you into our 'holy us.' You are not fitting into our holiness codes that keep us a pure group." 'The holy' become unworthy of the gospel, because their holiness rejected the kingdom of God. Often it happens to us too. Those who think of themselves as custodians of faith and holiness become obstacle for the coming of the kingdom. Part of the WYD is "to create a more just and inclusive world." Will our holiness give space for that justice and inclusiveness?

him whom my heart loves

 

“I sought him whom my heart loves…. I will seek him whom my heart loves…. I found him whom my heart loves.” To love and to be loved is a longing and fulfilment. Love burns like fire. It extends the person, and let the love of the other enter the innermost depth.

Mary Magdalene is seen as a person filled with love for Christ.  Her experience of healing had led her to walk with Jesus very closely. She too stood by the cross with mother Mary. Her eager longing for Jesus brought her even to the tomb of Jesus very early in the morning. It was lifeless body placed in the tomb. But her love would not allow that body to take the burden and pain of lifelessness in the tomb. Because she herself had known tomb of pain and darkness.

Her healing from ‘seven devils,’ shows the freedom she entered through the love of Jesus. She experienced comfort and consolation in the love of Jesus in all the tormentation she had been suffering. True love touches our innermost being, our history, our pain, burdens, and all that shape us.   

When Jesus called, ‘Mary!’ the call once again uplifted the life and healing that Mary Magdalene had once experienced. So, the person of Mary can be seen as a person who received love, life, healing, and consolation. Her attitude was not of a bond of attachment, but a communion in love, much more than a friendship or a following.

That love made her worthy of being an apostle to the apostles. Her love made her a prophet, for she came to understand the truth of the resurrection and proclaimed, “I have seen the Lord.”

It is the same love that Jesus asks of us, in our life, devotions, prayers, offerings and all that we do. It is in the communion of love we can find our freedom and healing. It is there we are transformed into apostles. In the communion of love, we are called to respond in justice where the weak are persecuted. Only with the communion of love we can be prophets who see the truth in compassion and mercy.

Unfortunately, perhaps, this is what we desire the least. If love is absent, we don’t look for Jesus. Instead, our systems, mission, proclamation and devotions become spaces of symbols and terminologies of arrogant dogmatism, activism, and militancy, like iron rod, sword, weapons etc. Mary Magdalene invites us to reexamine our own Christless tombs and seek consolation of Christ’s love, and at the same time to stand at the tomb of Jesus to hear him calling us by our name.

Come to me ...

We are troubled and distressed. 

The presence of Christ consoles us, and strengthens us.
"I am with you" is clarified with "come to me all who are burdened..."
The comfort of God's presence is shown in "I AM who am." 

In our anxious moments, God is there by our side.

Religious resources

Religions, today, prone to separate their fold from others, and create dynamics to operate this separation in the most effective way. More than any of the virtues of religion, all claims of true/original/real faith act politically within religion itself and towards other religions. We need to begin speaking of the resources of humility, conviction, interconnection, empathy, and generosity within the scriptures, beliefs, customs, and perspectives. Absence of such elements create barriers and make them thicker and harder.

'Failure' of Jesus

 'Failure' of Jesus in his time, and in ours is that he was not ready to turn the gospel into an entertainment. Though spontaneous genuine human expressions are, of course, our incarnating capacity to receive the gospel, entertainment, we know, enthuses our emotions making us to cry, dance, ... binding us to momentary high feeling. Jesus did not offer a spiritual 'kick,' a feel good. Gospel is a filial relation, a mature response.

Wise, Learned, and the children of God

The 'children' who would inherit the kingdom of God, were the poor, the sinners, the unlearned, women, and also children according to age. They could not afford to keep separating walls if they were to survive. Instead, the scribes and the learned made themselves higher using these separating walls.

The children of God have no high walls around them that keeps them away from others and protect them in 'holiness.' The children of God 'extend their tend.'

Peace - Fear

Fear stands against truth. When fear sets into power, it abuses power and tries to destroy everything. Fear favors partiality, causes suspicion and division.

Peace is born of truth, and the truth can be understood only in peace. But if one stands for peace and truth, the first opposition will be from one's own side, because the other is expected to be seen as an enemy. The option for peace is the Christ-option. Anyone who prefers any other thing to Christ-peace-truth, that will cause fear and destruction of life.

Christ-seed

There is a Christ-seed in every creation. They are all in birthing process of bringing/ revealing Christ to another. As humans we are also groaning within the birth pang of becoming another Christ. The Gospel is the light to see the Christ seed inside of us. The Christ-inside is not a mental freedom or a psychological happiness. The kingdom within is the reality of Christ's face in our very lives, whereby all may see each other in Christ. That is the way we grow into the whole Christ.

The Sower's parable had birds, rock, and thorns to be blamed. But for those who are really interested in 'religion' often our 'religiosity' itself create noise instead of the Word. Worries in religiosity create insensitive rocks, birds and thorns.

If we desire the sprouting of the Christ-seed inside of us, we must see the Word in every being, Word in our life events, and word in history. We cannot 'enter' the whole Christ without others, all others, any other, and the other.

Spirit of the Father speaking in us

We need extraordinary courage to speak of God; not because God is to be spoken in greatness or because someone may oppose us. It is because we need an encounter with truth if we are to speak of God. Sincere contemplation in the light of grace opens to us the image of God. Though contemplation is a gift, it is not a magic. Humble practice of human virtues is necessary to nourish contemplation. As humans, the truth is known to us in human experiences and feelings. 'Spirit of the Father speaking in us' is not about metaphysical realities, it is about the truth of the presence of the kingdom in the community of creation. The truth shows to us both the beauty of it, and the ugliness due to the opposing structures we have created against grace. Truth is rejected, because many don't want a divine presence that is real and true in our humanity (The irony is that the same 'we' pretend to believe that there is a real true presence of human-God in the bread). So a practice of courage footing on our daily lives, enlivened by justice and truth is missing.

Kingdom, a free gift

 "Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out devils," seem to be the living signs of the kingdom of God. These signs will be absent when we we can't appear before others as mere human. Often we are under the burden of protective measures which creates barriers for curing the sick, ensuring life, bringing justice, and eradicating evils.

'God' too becomes an obstacle when God is used merely in a 'glorified' sense. There God becomes a way of escape from our human responsibilities to realise the kingdom here and now. We bypass many that deserve gratitude in just a general thanksgiving to God. Often we are concerned about sacrifices and offerings, customs and practices which are expected to bring God's blessings. We shouldn't miss the kingdom of God by overly thinking of godly things neglecting the human responses the Gospel asks of us. The freely given gospel has the deepest touch on our humanity. It is from the same humanity that we can begin to share the Gospel.

These days, neither the preachers like to preach, nor the audience like to hear that the kingdom of God is a free gift. But being in a market world controlled by consumerist values, we make a god who is a businessman. If you pay, the product is guaranteed. It ends up in finding a god like a street vendors who may not be there when one goes with a complaint about the product. Ads were exciting but delivery is poor. See the quality of 'testimonies' these days.

Christ, not sin, is our focus

Do we truly desire virtues? Often our concern is about vices, mostly without the use of the guiding virtue of prudence. The outcome is an untrue and uncharitable judgement on ourselves. When we are happy about our 'goodness' is it pride? Is it gluttony if we enjoy food? Is it lust that is there in every sexual feeling and desire? Do we have to find sin everywhere as though, God is really happy only if we run to God every time and say, "God, I have sinned," Our evaluation lists of sins must undergo a transformation based on virtues. May the gifts of wisdom and understanding give more light on ourselves. We must come back Christ, from the unfortunate times when we let the idea of sin to shape Christianity and Christ himself. May the gifts of wisdom and understanding give more light on ourselves.

fighting with God

 "I was angry with God, and I cursed God," I have always responded, "good!" because the fight was with 'God.' Wrestling or fighting with God with true feelings of our hearts of our heart is in fact graceful. Because, God is watchful that we may not be injured. Wrestling also clears the ashes, and lights the fire inside. We will surely see the face of God reflected deep within. Where devotionalism can make us blind, fighting with God keeps an open heart and mind with a living trust.

Our personal living testimony

It may have happened that some of us may have been in denial of or resistance to the grace of God (which we call the state of sin). But speaking exaggeratingly of 'the wretchedness we were in' even after we have come to experience grace, is a clear sign that we have understood the gospel wrongly. An imagined devilish, pathetic, horrible, bitter inner state is surely not an image we see reflected in the light of the Gospel. Even if we are the greatest sinners, the gospel directs us to the life of God, and ensures that life. Our personal living testimony must be about that life.

What matters to God

What really matters to God is justice, freedom, and peace. 

So forgiveness of sins foresees receiving the 'sinners' into the fold of the 'holy.' 

That is why forgiveness of sin became an obstacle for the 'holy.' 

The 'power' to forgive is the readiness to reconcile.

What really matter to God is not sacrifice and offering (itself and the style), 

but peace and reconciliation.

Divine justice

Hagar cried out for life of her child, 

no word of bitterness towards Abraham or Sarah; 

and God heard her cry. 

Divine justice is about life, not about revenge and punishment.
What do we desire when we cry for justice?

Bridegroom

Christ is the banquet and he is the bridegroom. 

The joy of his gospel is that we are in him.
The communion in him is experienced in peace, 

and is shared in participating in him with our own roles.
That's Christ lived among us, and the Kingdom brought to reality.

Thomas, Come!

Thomas, Come! See my wounds! Put your finger there, believe.
Faith is transformed into a silent wonder when we find Christ as we rise up to console and heal the wounds of the Body of Christ. The unknown depth is known as we embrace the strange and the wounded.
"My Lord, and my God."

Narrow door

Christ is the door.
Our struggle to expand our hearts to that of Christ makes the path seemingly narrow. 

But, it is the law we must add to our nature to go beyond letters to the understanding what God wills, and others might be expected to do.
The law of letters is about actions, the new law is about attitudes.
Narrow door is our sincere efforts to put on the attitudes of Christ.

Law and loving God

Loving God cannot be ensured by any law. It has to be grown in one's own depths.
Efforts for a virtuous life opens these depths as fertile soil, seeing all things in God's benevolence.
These efforts also include reflection, critical, intuitive, and creative.

Law must ensure this freedom, that its exercise facilitate loving God with all our heart, all our mind and all our strength. One who follows, and those ensure the accomplishment of the law must see that the law has opened ways of freedom for critical, intuitive and creative reflection.

Christ, the Word, the source of peace

Christ, the Word, is the welcoming Truth,
not an intolerant truth.
Christ, the Word, is the source of peace,
because the Word is the source of life.
The Word causes reconciliation and forgiveness,
because the Word is the harmony and communion of all things.

Condemnation and grace

"For God sent his Son into the world
not to condemn the world,
but so that through him the world might be saved."
But what a joy for us to preach condemnation than salvation.
Did God ask us to do that?
What is the standard behind our understanding on holiness, salvation or escaping condemnation?
How much portions of our retreats and seminars take about salvation and grace, or are they more about right and wrong, often judging the 'sinful they'?

Jesus did condemned sins, but they were not destructive to any one. Instead, they ensured love and life. If the risen Christ is the first fruit of the new creation, the similar fruition must be present in us also. But do our life, especially our judgments say that we are here as a sign of God's love, saving and liberating, and not as agents of condemnation.

false safety at the risk of the gospel

 Whether gospel is safe in our hands is more important question than whether Christians feel safe. In the name of false securities do we sacrifice the gospel itself? The difference between defining Christians to be a number of people believing in certain customs and traditions, and those following certain values based on the Gospel of Jesus is very significant and decisive. Identifying paths for new safety and security seems to be escaping from what the gospel is asking us. I have been noticing some arguments which represented a strange social fabric of the ecclesial vision. Accordingly, Indian Christians are only those who were baptized by St Thomas and their descendants. They must preserve and continue their traditions and customs, but not adding anyone to their group. Those joined the Christian fold during the time of the missionaries must return to their original beliefs, because their motivation was not right. Thus go the arguments. These were not the opinions of any Hindu ideology, but of many powerful social media groups of traditional St Thomas Christians. Here, ‘who are Christians?’ itself develop new definitions. But I also observed some strange views with regard to preserving family by girls marrying early, increasing number of children, even neglecting the need for education of girls. I am not sure whether our women must agree to it or whether this is what the Christian dignity would envision for girls. It is certainly possible that we may be able to manipulate the scripture and customs and make a tradition for them. But minimum education and remaining family-women contradicts the cry of the same community against social domination of other communities. Ultimately it is all about reducing the Christian community into an isolated and polarized number in society which the so called leaders can use for their bargain.

Evangelization happens by sharing one’s experience of the living presence of Jesus, and by the experience of others seeing something significantly sustaining one’s life. The initial mission has not been of intolerant domination. Faith became a definition to be believed when the emperor’s religion had to be the religion of the empire. Colonisers had it in their cultural-political interests. though some functioned as their agents, it is always notable that the missionaries stood against any form of injustice by the colonisers themselves. Those who understood the gospel of Jesus learned the good things in the lived values of people whom they met, and objected to what was against justice, truth and humanity. An arrogant proselytization would never be the mode of Jesus’ preaching of the Gospel also.

Pope Francis often spoke against proselytization, and he repeatedly says that true evangelization is by example or witness. There may be cases of imprudent cases where people are manipulated in the name of healing, economic benefit etc. But that accusation just for the sake of tarnishing Christian community is not right. Imprudent approaches may be provoking other communities, on the other side an intolerant approach is also on the growth among the fringe groups. Catholic Social approach is not being in isolation, a separate group. Some specific ideologies may be promoting such tendencies. But generally that is not the case. Genuine Christian approach cannot be pro-Hindu, pro-Jain, pro-Muslim etc. Nor it can be anti-Hindu, anti-Jain, anti-Muslim etc also. Similarly it cannot be pro-BJP, pro-Congress, Pro-AAP etc nor anti-BJP, anti-Congress, anti-AAP etc also. Basic dictum for our sociopolitical stand is to be valuing of the equal human dignity, because we are all the children of God. Any inhuman treatment irrespective of culture, religion, tribe, or cast, must pain a true Christian conscience. That is as s response from the beatitudes that Jesus offered.

I thirst

Jesus entered his last moments facing the pain of hell. they were the moments when God was absolutely absent for him. That emptiness is an indescribable brokenness and crisis. Yet, 'why have you abandoned me' still holds a hope in such a a presence. we find the voice of hope of life even in the emptiness in the words, "into your hands, Lord, I commend my Spirit." It may have been the most painful and conflicting moments than any temptations. It is the thirst for the communion in love that cannot be broken, but now absent, that extends his heart towards the Father. The cry in "I thirst" is a continuation of "why have you abandoned me?"

 
The same communion of love is the true motivation for our relationship with Christ. The sentimentality formed in response to the cruelty and humiliations suffered by Christ can only bring a change that cannot take roots in Christ. (The exaggerated media representations of the sufferings of Christ produce a kind of anti-nonchristian inimical tendencies on one side and a victim mentality within Christians on another side). Christ continued to be on the cross despite the scornful challenges to come down form the cross to prove that he was truly the Son of God. That was the assurance of his love for us. If he had come down from the cross with all his divine power, it would have emptied the interior grace and truth of the stand he took for justice, mercy and love. Because they were to be lived by his followers in love for one another.


Social and cosmic extend of Christ needs to be reflected deeply if Christianity has to find its significance in the future. "Why have you crucified me? "why are you persecuting me" surely come in the line with "you did not give me food to eat and water to drink." We have not meditated sufficiently on our making of the body of christ mutually building through love, service, and communion, and through the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Christ was made an adorable great something, and the living Christ among us was kept aside. Persons, religions, nations, cultures, all kinds of others seek today mercy from the other.

Mammon rules

Mammon rules the world,
mammon rules over God and worship.
Mammon condemns the world for blasphemy.

Idealised faith

 Ideologies in the name of God, whether it be conservative or progressive, do not intend to praise God. They only arrogantly worship themselves. Idealised faith is not a faith at all. It is secure worship of definitions. Some call it certainty of faith. Theology did evolve over time though 'Jesus Christ is same yesterday, today, and for ever.'

The crucified

Moses raised bronze serpent in the desert.
Was it a sign of punishment or sign that God gives life.
Son of man was lifted up on the cross.
Do we see punishment, or the love of God.

The way we view the crucified defines our way of Christian life.

Old wine skin of Sin and Punishments

Salvation is based on God’s love and goodness. We have tied it with sin and punishment. We still seek the security of old wineskins. We have not let grace free us into new wine. Sin, sin, and only sin and their punishments are the reality we can see inside the old wineskin.

At the very moment the prodigal son asked for his share of the property, the father kept a book writing down all the offences he got from the son. While the time he came back the book was full, marking the punishments due for all the offences. Who bore the punishments of the prodigal son?

Luke 15 father is quite different. He did feel the pain of all the offences, rebelliousness, separation, squandering, pathetic end and everything. But he received him not less than his own son. Divine justice is of a heart full of love.

Why do we want to push the equations of penalty and punishment to God's heart? To suit the theology we want, should we disfigure the face of God?

Holy face of the tempter

The tempter has a holy face,
he appears to be God.

God gave manna in the desert, can  he not change stones to bread? Can you not become a bread provider and glorify god's name?

Those who limit God to religious frames will mistake the tempter for God. They get everything in godly flavours, power, pleasures, fame ... They can't be even aware that they are serving the tempter. If not guided by God, religion can lead us to sin.

Suffering of Christ and Divine Justice

Our stubborn morality that demands a punishing justice from God is an absurdity in the nature of God. Justice brought by punishing offences is a process in  'gentile' courts. Divine justice wants everyone to live to the full. This nature of divine justice bring a great commitment according to the gospel values. We the righteous are often not ready for it. 

Jesus was committed to that justice. So, his love was a scandal for the holy. He bore the painful heavy burden of gracelessness. Sin-bearing is an emptying, and going lifeless, because sin is something lacking in grace. Jesus, while assuming gracelessness/ lifelessness poured out grace and life. Grace heals even the burdens and wounds that generate resistance to the path of grace or  the inability to be open to grace. 

Punishment is a must for those who bring God to their ideal legal frames. So, penalty theology is necessary to put Jesus's sufferings as a penalty for the deserved punishment over humanity. God was not adding on punishment after punishment over humanity, God was instead raising and healing many in grace. We find that God in human flesh in Jesus. Jesus lived the compassion and mercy of God. That cannot remain in healing  and doing  good. He also knew how they struggled without grace. 

Jesus had to suffer, because this justice is costly for the privileged righteous, because, taken seriously they have to welcome the unprivileged sinners to the same God's kingdom that they were guaranteed. Even while he suffered an unjust death, he lived a life-giving and self-emptying sacrifice, just as he was when he was healing the sick and forgiving sins. 

beating heart' of the Church

"God's love is the 'beating heart' of the Church," said Pope Francis. 

Charity causes confusion mainly because we like to live within  the securities of boundaries. Charity, at the root is about accepting, and being open, and being transparent. Charity cannot be there without justice, compassion, truth and goodwill. 

For the church to have heart of charity, what we need is Jesus. He was not confused about love. It is to that vision we have the process of the synod. "A synod is an ecclesial gathering with the goal of discerning what the Holy Spirit is asking of the church at the time." Speaking voices may be diverse, but they are not challenges and confusions. Every human cry has also a voice that Spirit speaks to us. We cannot condemn that.

Does our holiness condemn the Holy?

The scribes knew the scriptures and the law. Their knowledge gave them power over the people to dictate how to live, behave, and worship. According to their interpretation, Jesus was mad, and possessed by the devil.

God made a covenant with humanity, ensuring God’s constant presence that we may live with him. The powerful who got access to interpret the law and the scriptures made the covenant a binding demand. According to them God demanded innumerous sacrifices to free humanity from their sins.

The scribes condemned them under curses and clutches of the devil. The good news Jesus opened before us through his attitudes, words, and actions was of justice, freedom, and peace that all the children of God deserve.

The scribes rejected this covenant, the covenant of God’s unconditional love, because it was against their manipulative ways. Jesus, though in the form of God, emptied himself and entered the curse, condemnation, and death of humanity. God dwells there. The man-made sanctuaries are only a representation of God’s dwelling place. God dwells, not in heavens above, but amidst God’s people. When Jesus destroyed the separation between the holy of holies and the condemned world, the sinless and the sinners he too was condemned to be possessed by the devil, an easy way of treating an unacceptable truth. In the very name of God, according to the laws and customs, they condemned love, compassion, kindness, and reconciliation.

Jesus invites us today to have the light of the Holy Spirit that we may not condemn love and justice. May the Holy Spirit guide us to see the dwelling of God among us, especially among the poor and the weak, among those condemned to be sinners.

Constant Conversions

It is not necessary that gospel may be there in preaching and articles. Only through an openness to listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit, we can hear the gospel. Since gospel is life, and creative, we need to have constant conversions.

 
Powerful preachings and mesmerizing miracles may not necessarily contain the gospel. Gospel ensures justice, which is the true fruit of conversion. Only those preaching and healings that bring forth justice carry the gospel.

Uncertainties

Only if the Christian spirituality or theology rediscover Christ the Word of God, not Christ the High Priest and King, it can contribute to the world with uncertainties (intellectual, social, political). The Word is ever creative, source of life. Readiness to trust in that, will let us be quiet amidst uncertainties. The comfort of certainties may not carry the light of truth. Such comfort may be intellectually satisfying but far from reality.

Sabbath: Celebration of Life

These days the readings invite us to have a close experience of Jesus to see him, hear him and touch him. All these are made possible because he is compassionate, merciful, and tender. He is able to sympathise with us in our weaknesses because he became one like any of us. That humanness comforts us, consoles us and heals us. We are taken one step deeper into the heart of Jesus.

Being part of Jesus is a joyous experience, a celebration. Just as the Spirit guided Jesus, the same Spirit guides us also in our lives. It is an experience of freedom and liberation. Sabbath, for Jesus, was this reality of liberation. He did not confine to the customary observance of Sabbath as a day of rest. Jesus would say, "My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I, too, am working." So Sabbath was to live the freedom of the children of God. It is in his humanity people found freedom, consolation and healing.

Salvation is an integral experience. It touches different dimensions of our lives, spiritual, physical, and social dimensions. It is also for us to ensure for one another this experience of liberation and freedom. Some key words we can pick up from the readings are righteousness and peace as an interpretation of the name 'Melchizedek.' People who have experienced salvation, or who have the freedom of Sabbath will surely be ministers of righteousness and peace.

Freedom was not a favourable option for many. So they twisted the meaning of Sabbath. Jesus places his question to our preferences between freedom of the Holy Spirit and the binding customs, ‘Is it against the law on the sabbath day to do good, or to do evil; to save life, or to kill?’If we choose for the freedom of the Holy Spirit, to do good, to save life, we can surely be ministers of life too, saying to the weary and withered, "stretch out your hands."

anointed with truth

John the Baptist was very much appealing to the people as a prophet or as the Messiah. He was not a hermit who lived in silence and solitude. John said of himself as the voice crying out in the wilderness. A voice is prophetic when it is anointed with truth. He did not hesitate to point out to Christ as the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. John proclaimed that Jesus was the one who is to baptise them with fire.

We are anointed with truth that sets us free. Even before becoming visible, this truth, the wisdom of God existed. He was in the world that had its being through him, and the world did not know him. While speaking to the people who were waiting to be baptised John says, the one here stands among you – but unknown to you. Again, “He came to his own domain and his own people did not accept him.” This presence, sure, yet unknown to us, is a call to realise, recognise, welcome, be convinced and to believe in the constant guidance of the Word lives in and among us. The anointing of the truth enliven our hearts to see the Word in the creation, experiencing as the baptism of fire, and transforming ourselves into an instrument of redemptive acts of Christ.

So, for us who follow him, St John writes, “live in Christ, my children.” It is to walk the path that Jesus walked. He is truly the anointed one, so the path is also a path of anointing. What this anointing does actively in our lives can be seen in what Jesus told the disciples of John the Baptist when they came with the question whether he was the Messiah. The blind see, the deaf hear, and the good news is preached to the poor. If they do not happen our proclamation seem to be a lie. If they do happen, we have known him, and have made him known. It is the power, and sign of the presence of the truth of the Gospel in us.

Live in Christ cannot be true simply by grouping as believers. It is becoming like him. Christ took upon himself our humanity, that we have a deeper touch with him. He has not abandoned his humanity, but continues to be united with his humanity. It is not that he has taken it to a transcendental super-spiritual world. He continues to be united with us in whom humanness is real and true, making it his body. So, live in Christ is to be united as one body of Christ.

The Word in the flesh

 The Word became flesh that we may find him in the flesh. 

As we approach the baby Jesus, his presence asks us to stretch our selves to touch his flesh in our ordinary life situations. Simeon was led by a promise, and found its completion in a simple family from Nazareth.

Just as the star guided the magi to the manger, the divine light in our hearts guide us to meet him in the other.

graced one of God

The time of waiting is over,
if we have seen a Christ-birth in us,

it is already a time to rejoice.
It is a moment of fulfilment.

the 'voice' in the wilderness,
is still a 'graced one of God' (John as the name means).
His naming opened dumbness, gave a praising voice.
The fruitfulness of the Gospel, the encounter with Christ,
the birthing of the Word,
first struck by the promise, led through a silence,
a voice in the wilderness, to songs of praises.

Gospel takes us to a period of silence, dumbness of a mystic,
what speaks is the Word, not a prophet.
nothing necessitates the presence of a prophet
except in cases when the Word is not received by sincere hearts.
The function of the prophet is "He shall turn the hearts of fathers towards their children and the hearts of children towards their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a curse."

​In the arms of the shepherd

We are preparing for the coming of Jesus. Actually, it is an attempt to experience Jesus a bit more closely. We want to see the baby Jesus lying in the manger, and love him. In loving him, we also experience his love for us. The incarnation is the gift to us where we find the meeting point of divine love for us and the human love for God.

One beautiful image we have in the Bible to express this experience is of a shepherd. A shepherd in the Bible is not a leader in the sense of administration. Instead, the shepherd images evoke the sense of care, embrace, love, security, and sacrifice. So, preparing for the coming of Jesus, today, invites us to experience the care, embrace, and the lifegiving nature of God as though in the arms of a shepherd.

The Gospel today spoke of the sheep that was found once again by the shepherd. There is consolation, comfort or healing of injuries happening, being in the shepherd’s care. We tend to fall down, but the Word, constant listening to the shepherd sustains our choice to live. Being close to the heart of the shepherd, we find being led to the source of life once again. There we find the baby lying in the womb of God.

Christ was born from mother Mary. Christ, as a baby, is not going to be born in us, but Christ will be born from us through the working of the Holy Spirit. The warmth of the shepherd’s bosom is not to put us in a sleepy stage, but to be awake and alive. There will be great rejoicing at our growth into the fullness of Christ little by little.

He is like a shepherd feeding his flock,

gathering lambs in his arms,

holding them against his breast

and leading to their rest the mother ewes.

Communion, the way of God's governance

Governance and authority of God is not in a Theocratic system, it is in communion. God holds all things in being. In him all things live, move, and have their being. Concerning the authority of Christ, we must reflect deeply on the verses: 

"in him were created
all things in heaven and on earth:
everything visible and everything invisible,
Thrones, Dominations, Sovereignties, Powers –
all things were created through him and for him.
Before anything was created, he existed,
and he holds all things in unity."

An 'emperor/kingly Christ' is too less to explain it. 

As communion is the way of God's governance, the body of Christ must have the life style of communion as the self-authority working within the body. Whole creation is part of the body, the church where Christ is the fullness. The models of authority shaped towards communion may help us to experience a new pathway to experience the reality of 'in him we (together) live, move, and have our being.

Our desire/ prayer that 'your will be done' may be the best way to acknowledge the authority over our life. If that is sincere, we will be seeking the mind of Christ in our words and deeds. It will lead us to stand for peace and reconciliation. Peace is not simply relaxation, free of tension, and calm and cool. Peace is the fruit of manifold ways of desiring and working for life to be filled in everyone and everywhere. That is the will of the Father. 

Necessary Council

 Pope Emeritus Benedict xvi spoke to the Franciscan University in Steubenville that the Second Vatican Council was not only meaningful, but it was necessary.

What exactly is was the vision of the council? Who/what took up the council or who/what failed the council? Interpretation, misinterpretation of, and reaction to the council created different catholic identities. The struggle for creating a catholic identity has set liberal, conservative, neoconservative and traditionalist Catholics to compete in defining what constituted an authentic Catholic worldview. This identity struggle naturally leads to a power conflict and politics.

Their stand on questions related to Cold War politics, US foreign relations and dictatorships, White nationalism etc did influence the created catholic identity. Many of these identities directly counter the dialogical nature of the church that the council envisioned. Anything that seems pious, churchy and christian is not necessarily catholic or Christian.

Church is a communion. Was the church fragmented that the council was 'necessary'? Not only the socio-economic context, but even the intellectual context made it necessary. If then, how is the dialogue with religions and reasons maintained and continued today? or, rather are they all dumped as unnecessary? Sixty years after the council, have the above mentioned identity competitions de-shaped the clergy and the faithful far away from what the council initiated in the church?

Unceasing prayer

 We all have a normal human growth. Similarly we also need to have a growth in spirituality and life of prayer. Perhaps a time of wonder, curiosity are initially necessary. Perhaps we may be guided or corrected by the fear of a punishment. We cannot remain there. We need to grow to an adolescent infatuation, to a mature romance and a conjugal bond.

A genuine prayer can be there only if there is a true image of God. Does God count the money we put in the temple treasury and give blessings accordingly? Does God act as a judge who denies justice to people or condemn and orders punishment? These prevalent images of God is what Jesus challenged. Of course, it is easy to picture and calculate such an image of God. Relationship of love with God adds responsibility not only towards god but also towards others. Otherwise, religious sacrifices and rituals would suffice for our spirituality and prayer.

Very often we are more conscious of the use and benefits of prayer, in other words, the utility aspect. Do we say, I love or I marry .... in order to get this and that? Is that expression proper? It is not proper in prayer also.

Continuity in prayer is a constancy of a relationship, a conversation in love; there may or may not be words, there may be joy and complains, there may be intimacy and pain of separation. The embrace of love is what underlies prayer. So it is not about the words we use or the methods we follow, but the genuinity of love and trust that guide our life of prayer.

The chosen in touch of others

God's choice is not that he picks up some and leaves others. Choice is a subjective experience of having been able to respond to the revelation of God, a message to a time. Since it's open for all its not a preferential privilege to some.

Time is a slow revealer. So the message understood by the 'chosen' one may not be understood by others. That is why we need each other to understand the sign of God's revelation in each of us, a sign that Jesus is alive in us. Usually the sign of Jesus will be responded with crucifixion ie we need to be ready for a self emptying sacrifice. Kindness, mercy, compassion, love are the approaches of that sacrifice, not the rituals that are empty of God.

The only sign

Race, ethnicity, nationality, and religion have been used to claim purity and elitism. It automatically condemned 'others' and separated them, promoted hatred and suspicion. It grows dangerous as God is fixed within this corrupt purity. It can never produce holiness and establish justice and peace that God wills.

St Paul maintained a distinction between children according to the body and the children according to the promise. Children according to the body is bound to the purity according to their race, language, religion... Children of the promise share joyfully the gifts of God, and make the presence of God a living reality. Jonah had closed God within his own laws, morality, and people, but he had to learn that God cares for all. The universality of God's love is the sign of Jonah. The strange thing there is that it was the 'others' the lawless people who were open to the message of God as soon  as they heard it. Even Jonah resisted against the message that God's salvation extends to all nations. 

Children of the promise, according to St Paul, was those coming to follow Christ, who share in the gifts of the Holy Spirit. The children of the promise deepen its meaning and breaks forth itself in the initial announcement of the angels, "Peace to people of Good will." In them the Spirit is alive and active, and Christ is made visible. It was when meeting the 'good' people in pagan land the church began reflecting whether it is not improper to consider these good people may be deprived of heaven. Today, we may see 'even among godless' people there are good people, very good people. Do they not share the joys of the kingdom of God? There is a usual saying that it is not just enough to do good, but one must know Christ. Who has known Christ? One who clams to have known Christ and keep many people away in condemnation or a 'godless' one who exercised some Christ-like attitudes? 

Then should we not preach? Should we not evangelize? yes, teaching to walk like Christ loving every one, seeing the care and mercy of God for everyone, and seeing that happily. Kingdom of God is not in our devotions, prayers, and laws. It is in "righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit" which is made available for all. "The only sign it will be given is the sign of Jonah." God can not be in custody of some religion, culture, or tradition.

Populism-religion

Modernity gathered people from all around to cities, and became a profit producing power. It mixed many peoples and suggested secularism concerning religion, and globalism concerning economics, politics and culture. Modernity's perfect human and society never came even amidst all its 'progress.' While economy maintains its monopoly in a global sense, in politics and culture nationalism with 'its own religion' takes the new political current.  Nationalism, traditionalism, populism are a super mix glue which is changing today's political equations. The populist affirmation and intensification in culture regarding traditions is just politics, nothing about religion. Unfortunately for us today, that sense of religion is the true and original religion.