If we dont want 'others' in heaven?

Those who have entered heaven with a sure ticket have their heaven, salvation, and Christ smaller than the chairs they are enthroned in. They celebrate loneliness in their heaven because they have kept all ‘others’ away. Unfortunately, they found no one on the way worthy of being with them in heaven, probably because their journey had been lonely.

When Pope Francis compared different religions to different languages, it is an endorsement of the multiplicity of religious manifestations and a call to partake in dialogue and mutual understanding. It does not refute the Church’s doctrines on salvation. Instead, it emphasises the necessity for respect, openness, and cooperation among people of different faiths.

Pope Francis’s likening of different religions to different languages is very much within the framework of the Catholic Church’s doctrines on interreligious dialogue and reverence for various religious traditions. The Catholic Church acknowledges the significance and inherent value of other religions and posits that they can function as channels for human capacity for God.

The concept of ‘no salvation outside the church’ has evolved over time. While historically, it has been interpreted to signify that salvation is exclusively attainable within the Catholic Church, the Second Vatican Council and subsequent teachings have underscored the potential for salvation among those who, without their own fault, lack knowledge of Christ or his Church, yet earnestly seek what God wills and strives to fulfil. If someone continues to imagine heaven as adherence to the imperial Christendom, that has little to do with the heaven that Jesus introduced.

What should the Pope have said, “You wretched people, you have no salvation unless you all become Christians?” The world might ask, “What shall we do then?” “Believe in Christ!” “What does this ‘believe in Christ’ mean?” “Which Christ should we believe, Eastern or Western, Catholic or Protestant? Your Christ is a need for the Western guilt culture. We have read from the bible a different Christ who called the world to the freedom and joy of the children of God. Being in a Christian sect does not seem to be a necessity.”

Christ, the Logos, has many languages, reveals in diverse cultures and histories. His grace is visible throughout history in the goodwill of millions of people whom we meet them in our daily lives. The Church is wherever the body of Christ extends, by its members seeking to do the will of God.

Is there anything wrong in saying, “We need to keep meeting, to weave bonds of fraternity and to allow ourselves to be guided by the divine inspiration present in every faith, in order to join in “imagining peace” among all peoples. We need such “occasions to speak with one another and to act together for the common good and the promotion of the poor”. In a world at risk of being fragmented by conflicts and wars, the efforts made by believers are invaluable for holding out visions of peace and fostering fraternity and peace among peoples everywhere.” Message of Pope Francis to participants in the international meeting for peace organised by the community of Sant’egidio Paris, 22-24 September 2024.

I understand that Pope Francis also believes that Christ is the way, the truth and the life. He has not made the statement all of a sudden from nowhere. It has been in the vision of interreligious dialogue initiatives of the Church. The interreligious dialogue was not seen as an exercise by some intellectuals. Instead, it is in the form of the Church’s being. As ‘through him, and for him, and in him’ everything is made, the Word has been visible and present in culture and history. Christ has a much wider space than Christian religious culture and language.

Pope said that religions are like many languages that speak of God, not that there are many Gods. Was Christianity itself a perfect and whole language that spoke of God in every way and every time? Unfortunately, the present controversy itself is a language that speaks of the church and its attitudes. If there is crisis in Christian identity, what is that identity which is in crisis? What is the form of Christian/catholic identity in need of revival? Can that be comprised of certain cultural values, beliefs, prestigious achievements and so on? They do have the risk of being symbols/language without meaning, looking for the beauty of style over the message.

The tomb was empty of her

Tomb was not an unfamiliar place for Mary Magdalene.

Can 'the Lord' be contained in such a tomb weighed under darkness?
Mary looked into the tomb, into her own death once she carried, the tormentations she has been suffering...
lifeless darkness, painful burden, crushing her conscious thoughts, and strangulating life-spirit.
Mary looked into the tomb,
The tomb was empty of her.

Emptiness...

The Lord had made her his own, "you are mine."
"Yes, Lord, You are mine."
Love called her out, and the Apostle to the apostles was created.

Thomas the Apostle

Thomas was not the Way, but a pilgrim on the way just as John the baptizer was not the Word but a voice crying out in the wilderness. Thomas was on the way just like any other disciple to the ultimate confession, 'my Lord and God.' In John's gospel everyone, one way or the other, go through a growth; some in their fear of shame, some in darkness, some in blindness, some in thirst, some in the cruelty of death come to him for a light of hope. Everyone needs to walk through a certain difficulty of 'unbelief' yet an irresistible need for the Messiah. 

'Do not .... ' instructions of Jesus

'Do not .... ' instructions of Jesus direct us against the hypocrisies we might fall into under the disguise of religion. Do not pray like the pharisees, Do not be like the hypocrites, ... The sermon is over after announcing the beatitudes, and teaching on the essence of the law. Now every disciple or listener must test what they produce. Knowledge of the law, performance of worship do not guarantee the joy of the kingdom. Coming down to our daily realities, the lessons are necessary even to witness the events going to happen in the plane, the healings, miracles, even the encounter with the religious leaders. 

Our Father - Life of liberation

The prayer 'Our Father' is not a prayer, it is a how about prayer-content. It is an attitude which we need to have in prayer. The basic platform for this attitude is to come together as the children of God. It is in the freedom of the children of God we must pray. To stand before God as children, and  ask him to provide, forgive, and protect, the beatitudes is the affirmation and confidence. The beatitudes opens the kingdom for all, it also bring us all hand in in hand for nourishing one another. So, Our Father is also a pattern of life, of liberation, peace and justice.

unbearable burden and the seed of the Gospel

Perhaps due to the hardness they had to undergo, the Jewish traditions (biblical) maintained a hostility in their worldview. It was justified by their theology and cherished by spirituality. Nature was hostile, people of other nations were hostile. The other people are not of God, and so, our god hates them. God allows them to overpower Israel because of sins. These 'sins' were often the projection of unbearable hostility to one's own self. Women were unclean, inimical, and evil because they were seducers, and men were lured by foreign women. This suspicious closure was well maintained by a retributive ethics and theology. Even the salvation brought by Christ underwent an interpretative frame based on this hostility, ransom, and retribution.

Jesus did not proclaim this hostility. Instead, he showed human brokenness and vulnerability as a sacramental possibility in our everyday life. Those condemned and unclean were raised to hold the joy of the kingdom. The kingdom would sprout like a seed. Touch of grace will give new streams to our inner richness. Vulnerabilities and tears were seen as matters of condemnation and signs of God's curse. Now in the light of the gospel, they are time and space of an embrace of God, the holy ground.

Lessons for Discipleship

The base for discipleship is the reality of being the children of God. Children's trust spreads from being innocent reliance to a responsible commitment to the values of the Gospel. So, the faith aspect we speak of involves these dimensions and influences our personal, social, political, and religious aspects of life. It teaches us to be joyful in struggles, and walk ahead with hope. Gradually it takes us deeper into a lifegiving nature that is of self-emptying.

The lifegiving-selfemptying connection is the 'ransom' that Christ was, and that Christ asks us to be for one another. Something may be paid and remission may be given does not contain the lesson Jesus taught about the love of the Father. God wants all to be fully alive and flourishing. Grace is given to us that we can live a life that is according to God's will. Where we are weak, the same grace makes us to take these weaknesses into an experience of salvation. Gospel is the guiding light for a life of grace and for taking our weaknesses without fear or shame to the abundance of life.

listen to the Spirit

A breath of love is generative. The breath of love that comes from God is within the very nature of God. This divine self-communication takes place in the Holy Spirit, takes us and our history also into a bond of love. history. The goodness of God is manifested in creation. The entire creation drinks from that goodness. God opens himself to us in the Holy Spirit, so that we may participate in the depth of God’s love and goodness.

Humanity is in need of the breath of love. It is yet to open itself to live in the breath of love. It is yet to desire for the goodness of God to be reflected in its life. What we need the most is an earnest desire for it. We can no longer be agents of division, hatred, war, and destruction. By God’s own help let us bring into our sight both the dry lifeless condition and the living and fruitful condition; thirsty ones, drinking from the fountain of life, turns to be a heart of overflowing streams. Being in a gentle flow of stream is refreshing. That breath of love and the stream of life is the Holy Spirit.

“Let anyone who is thirsty, come to me…”

“Let anyone who believes in me come and drink.”

“From his heart, shall flow streams of living water.”

“My spirit fails. My soul thirsts for You like a parched land” (Ps 143: 6) expresses the deep longing for life. We can see today, the complexities of life, and the struggles that we carry. Some are condemned and some are despised. No human condition is incapable or unworthy to yearn for God. In fact, already there is the cry of the Holy Spirit deep within that we may be filled by the life of God. Drinking from the wellspring of life we begin to live afresh.

Life produces its fruits, and there is a joy of the harvest. The fruit that the Holy Spirt produces in us as persons and as the church is conforming us into Christ. All other fruits and charisms are to be known within our conformity with Christ. It is a celebration of re-creation and of a harvest as the feast of Pentecost itself was the feast of the first fruits. No one receives the Holy Spirit as a personal possession, we have received the Spirit as we are one body in a family, community, a parish or the church. Perhaps, it is a time that we once again come together as small groups experiencing the vibrance of the Holy Spirit, as a body that knows the members. Something that is essential here, first of all, is the realisation of the need for the Holy Spirit and the readiness to be guided by the Spirit. Secondly, it is something of great importance is the joy of mutual building through the charisms each of has received.

The gifts of the Holy Spirit are generated in us out of sincere following of the values of the kingdom of God, and seeking its justice. Indwelling of the Holy Spirit wells up from us and from the church as fruits of the Gospel which we received, sprouted and grew. A person or a church that does not seek the kingdom of God is hypocritical in calling out for the Holy Spirit and claiming to have the whole possession of the Holy Spirit. So, we cannot take the Holy Spirit for granted. If we do not have the readiness to listen to the Holy Spirit, if we are not ready to listen to the voice of one another, no prayer to the Holy Spirit, no worship in the name of the Holy Spirit will dispose ourselves to the working of the Spirit. Dramatic performances and mesmerising events cannot bring down the Holy Spirit. Our favourite imaginations like consuming fire that burns and destroys hide the gentle Spirit who sanctifies through the spring of new life.

Often, we speak about a second Pentecost and expect the Spirit to come. The Spirit has not gone away. We need to ask ourselves how willing are we to take the Gospel as the first option in our life. It is costly because it risks our devotional easy ways, rigid moralism, ideologized beliefs. When the values of the kingdom become the first option, the Spirit will well up within us and will manifest the nature of Christ. So, the manifestation can happen only through a sincere gift of our very ‘self’ to God. Through the action of the Spirit-Paraclete, a process of true growth in humanity may be accomplished in our world, in both individual and community life.

The Spirit never manifests in isolation. Instead, the Spirit makes God visible in the Church when we are open to the Spirit. What if we take the existence of the Church for granted? The church lives as the body of Christ, mutually building, healing, and nourishing one another. When each church and denomination claim originality, distance one another, when different renewal movement hold an elite holy attitude and condemn others, when we upheld order, unity, solutions at the risk of unity itself, when we divinise power and authority and forget love and service, we take for granted that there exists a church. But that is a church that resists against the Holy Spirit.

Noone has the monopoly over the Holy Spirit; no branded evangelists, no great preacher, no gospel channel has the custody of the Holy Spirit. All of us are continuously called to give ourselves to God with our whole being. This is our deepest vocation. We can do it only by the Holy Spirit. The Spirit enlightens our minds, and helps us to do His will. Ultimately the Spirit brings us into the mystery that gathered as one body in Christ we are all the children of God. We live it consistently experiencing the breath of love and causing the streams to flow out as fruits of the goodness of God.

This is something important for us today as humans to live in the reality of the kingdom of God. It is also important for us today to live in the Holy Spirit, a life of goodness, communion and love, that millions of years later when no humans may be there to celebrate Pentecost, the creation may still share the first fruits for its children, of course, God’s own children.

A breath of love is generative. The breath of love that comes from God is within the very nature of God. This divine self-communication takes place in the Holy Spirit, takes us and our history also into a bond of love. history. The goodness of God is manifested in creation. The entire creation drinks from that goodness. God opens himself to us in the Holy Spirit, so that we may participate in the depth of God’s love and goodness.

Humanity is in need of the breath of love. It is yet to open itself to live in the breath of love. It is yet to desire for the goodness of God to be reflected in its life. What we need the most is an earnest desire for it. We can no longer be agents of division, hatred, war, and destruction. By God’s own help let us bring into our sight both the dry lifeless condition and the living and fruitful condition; thirsty ones, drinking from the fountain of life, turns to be a heart of overflowing streams. Being in a gentle flow of stream is refreshing. That breath of love and the stream of life is the Holy Spirit.

“Let anyone who is thirsty, come to me…”

“Let anyone who believes in me come and drink.”

“From his heart, shall flow streams of living water.”

“My spirit fails. My soul thirsts for You like a parched land” (Ps 143: 6) expresses the deep longing for life. We can see today, the complexities of life, and the struggles that we carry. Some are condemned and some are despised. No human condition is incapable or unworthy to yearn for God. In fact, already there is the cry of the Holy Spirit deep within that we may be filled by the life of God. Drinking from the wellspring of life we begin to live afresh.

Life produces its fruits, and there is a joy of the harvest. The fruit that the Holy Spirt produces in us as persons and as the church is conforming us into Christ. All other fruits and charisms are to be known within our conformity with Christ. It is a celebration of re-creation and of a harvest as the feast of Pentecost itself was the feast of the first fruits. No one receives the Holy Spirit as a personal possession, we have received the Spirit as we are one body in a family, community, a parish or the church. Perhaps, it is a time that we once again come together as small groups experiencing the vibrance of the Holy Spirit, as a body that knows the members. Something that is essential here, first of all, is the realisation of the need for the Holy Spirit and the readiness to be guided by the Spirit. Secondly, it is something of great importance is the joy of mutual building through the charisms each of has received.

The gifts of the Holy Spirit are generated in us out of sincere following of the values of the kingdom of God, and seeking its justice. Holy Spirit cannot be generated in a powerful 'Praise and Worship.' Indwelling of the Holy Spirit wells up from us and from the church as fruits of the Gospel which we received, sprouted and grew. A person or a church that does not seek the kingdom of God is hypocritical in calling out for the Holy Spirit and claiming to have the whole possession of the Holy Spirit. So, we cannot take the Holy Spirit for granted. If we do not have the readiness to listen to the Holy Spirit, if we are not ready to listen to the voice of one another, no prayer to the Holy Spirit, no worship in the name of the Holy Spirit will dispose ourselves to the working of the Spirit. Dramatic performances and mesmerising events cannot bring down the Holy Spirit. Our favourite imaginations like consuming fire that burns and destroys hide the gentle Spirit who sanctifies through the spring of new life. Holy Spirit cannot be generated in a powerful 'Praise and Worship.'

Often, we speak about a second Pentecost and expect the Spirit to come. The Spirit has not gone away. We need to ask ourselves how willing are we to take the Gospel as the first option in our life. It is costly because it risks our devotional easy ways, rigid moralism, ideologized beliefs. When the values of the kingdom become the first option, the Spirit will well up within us and will manifest the nature of Christ. So, the manifestation can happen only through a sincere gift of our very ‘self’ to God. Through the action of the Spirit-Paraclete, a process of true growth in humanity may be accomplished in our world, in both individual and community life.

The Spirit never manifests in isolation. Instead, the Spirit makes God visible in the Church when we are open to the Spirit. What if we take the existence of the Church for granted? The church lives as the body of Christ, mutually building, healing, and nourishing one another. When each church and denomination claim originality, distance one another, when different renewal movement hold an elite holy attitude and condemn others, when we upheld order, unity, solutions at the risk of unity itself, when we divinise power and authority and forget love and service, we take for granted that there exists a church. But that is a church that resists against the Holy Spirit.

Noone has the monopoly over the Holy Spirit; no branded evangelists, no great preacher, no gospel channel has the custody of the Holy Spirit. All of us are continuously called to give ourselves to God with our whole being. This is our deepest vocation. We can do it only by the Holy Spirit. The Spirit enlightens our minds, and helps us to do His will. Ultimately the Spirit brings us into the mystery that gathered as one body in Christ we are all the children of God. We live it consistently experiencing the breath of love and causing the streams to flow out as fruits of the goodness of God.

This is something important for us today as humans to live in the reality of the kingdom of God. It is also important for us today to live in the Holy Spirit, a life of goodness, communion and love, that millions of years later when no humans may be there to celebrate Pentecost, the creation may still share the first fruits for its children, of course, God’s own children.

Event creation - Pentecost

The preparations for Pentecost takes over the nature of event management. Our expectations are high. Such exciting doings cannot rightly open ourselves for the receiving of the Holy Spirit. First of all, Pentecost is not the only day Holy Spirit lives in us. It is an everyday reality. Secondly, the Jesus event in our life is not a crazy following, it is a loyal, responsible, mature relationship. It means  well reflected acts welling up from that relationship. 

The presence of the Holy Spirit is not  a magical outcome, but it is the fruition of the Gospel in us. There are many secret pious practices developing in the name of faith and evangelization. Seemingly they are zealous, and have greater faith than 'normal' people. But in fact, they are instrumentalizing and magicalizing devotions and even  the eucharist. We have failed to live in the Holy Spirit by finding comfort in cultic closures of our beliefs. There is no faith, there is no devotion. Genuine faith and devotions will lead us to seek justice, and live the values of the kingdom in our lives. That is the only way we can be open for the Holy Spirit. 

The Helper

Jesus sends the Holy Spirit to us, the Spirit that comes from the father. The Spirit is the true witness to the inner life of the trinity, to the whole history of creation, evolution, sciences, arts and civilizations. Helped by the Spirit, we know the free from all prejudices.

 
As Christ sends the Spirit to us, we are also sent by him, for we have been with him. We know the truth and bear witness. Unless helped by the Spirit we can end up in living for isms, even those of faith, religion, liturgy and so on. They have no root in the Father.

It's Spirit that knows the mind of God. When we have the Spirit we too know the mind of God, and act accordingly by the help of the same Spirit.

Remain in my love

We are on the 6th Sunday of Easter. Have we met the risen Christ? In opening the Scriptures and breaking of the bread, the Church has been leading us to have an intimate experience with Christ present amidst us. He is recognised as Lord and God, walking along with us amidst our doubts and fears, caring, guarding and healing as a good shepherd, holding us all together as branches in a vine. Then, He calls us to the ultimate aim of his incarnation, passion, death and resurrection; the communion with the Father. He says, “abide in me,” “remain in my love.”

That is not so exciting, isn’t it? But it is the truth that Christ opened for us that our joy may be complete, and may bear fruit. We are often excited and enthusiastic in adoring and worshiping a super-spiritual divine being. The communion with him does not excite us much. Not because it is difficult or mysterious, but the communion involves a commitment to love others also.

God of superpowers can be worshiped very safely in a cultic system, and we can go free. Bit worship that Christ seeks happens in communion, and only in communion. All that we do in the name of God and in the name of the Church devoid of this communion only affirms what St John wrote, “God’s love is not in them.”

This abiding in God is a deep mystery, a bond of love. Let us listen to Christ in love! He says, “I am in the Father,” “you abide in me. I abide in you,” thus, we remain in the love of the Father. Jesus called us to follow him, Jesus asked us to love God and love others. It is a communion with God and others. The gospel passage today teaches us what it means and how it is essential for us.

Jesus loved us from the love he received from the Father. “I have loved you as the Father has loved me.” The call to abide in him is to be made real after the example of how Christ abides in the Father, and has loved the Father. “… just as I have kept my Father’s commandments,

and remain in his love, if you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love.” The life that we have received in Christ makes known the love of the Father whereby we have the joy of Christ himself and that our joy may be complete.

If we are to live in that communion, primarily we need to be filled with a constantly reminded awareness that we are all God’s children, “and that is what we are!” This reality and the primary commandment to love is what compromise at the risk of communion with God. Keeping aside this commandment, we are strict with all commandments that we have made in the name of God. We teach and preach them as God’s commandments. We have reinterpreted the commandment and justified our boundaries and prejudices. There is no communion with the Father. When we create divisions in the name of God, traditions, liturgy, and authority, Father’s love does not remain with us, because we have chosen not to have communion. When we surrender our spirit to immoral and inhuman structures that spread lies and hatred, we don’t remain in Christ and his love. This is very much visible in our lives and in the life of the church, in the very moments we have multitude of activities, increasing devotional practices, shrines, and religious festivities.

Being in communion with God, just as Christ loved God, and being in communion with others as Christ loved us, really means a life of goodness, justice, love, authenticity, and compassion. It also means a readiness to accept all as the children of God, beyond all prejudices. Then our families, our parishes, religious communities will be truly living in Christ and in his love. We will have joy, and we will have fruits that will last.

video

Abide in Him

Christ is the sacrament of God and also of creation. 'Abide' calls for deeper communion with God, creation, and humanity. 'Abiding' cannot be exclusive to Christianity as a religion. Maintaining religion, Christianity has done away with Christ. We are eager to worship, but have no much attempt to 'abide in him.' Worship and devotion are never a romantic attachment or a 'intoxicated religious' world. Christ never ask for it. The life that he asked of the disciples is of becoming like him. 'Making home in him' cannot be possible by recitation of 'Jesus' or repetition of Word of God. It can be true only by seeking the kingdom of God and its justice. That is the only 'way' to be one in the vine, producing fruits, and glorifying the Father. 

Shepherd's Care

There are many relaxation techniques for body and mind. 'Peace' that Christ offered was not a stress-free time. Christ brought us to an experience of shepherd's embrace, of care, of consolation, healing, and strengthening. It is not a perpetual tranquility or smooth going. It is a hope of new life, rising, passing over, and walking. Jesus said that he will be with us always. 

Jesus spoke of himself as the good shepherd who would lead us to green pastures. Our weaknesses, brokenness, sorrows are filled with the care of the shepherd. We may be fed and be satisfied. He takes us to the streams of water, that we may be filled. All these speaks of the goodness of God which often takes the metaphor of a banquet. It is from Christ that we are filled and fed. 

We enter into him in communion with his self, and in communion with one another. There, as the shepherd, we too become door for one another to the green pastures. We become  home to one another that all experience the comfort of the shepherd's care. 

What I give is my flesh

Eating the flesh of Christ is not an easy thing. A routine reception of 'communion' does not ensure consuming Christ, the Word made flesh. Only by entering into communion with God and one another we can be 'satisfied' of eating Him. The flesh he gives us to eat is also a sacrament of human reality in its existential, biological and cosmological dimensions. Thus, the flesh given us to eat ("the bread I give to you is my flesh") has the taste of wounded humanity, its struggles and burdens, sweat, blood and tears. All narratives on suffering are beyond interpretations. His flesh interprets it for us. If the sacramental reception has no connection to the living reality of human flesh, our 'communion' has no relation with Christ.

'Attending' of mass, and receiving of communion as a receiving of  'food of great blessing,' and a 'bread of miraculous power' often keep the reality of communion aside. More than a communion that we enter into, it becomes an instrument of benefit from God. Approached as a sacrament of living presence of Christ, we can never be away from our responsible commitment to the injured flesh of humanity and nature.

Everything exists in him and for him. He holds all things in being. Our flesh, like the Word, is incarnated into communion. Thus his Word is our food, and his flesh is our food.

The third day

The third day is not a miraculous day after two days, it is the moment hope takes us a bit more to the fullness of life and peace. 

Victim

God did not punish Christ on the Cross. It is we who punish the innocent victims seen in the punished Christ on the Cross. So, on one hand, in the crucified we see the mercy and love poured for us, and on the other hand we see the justice to be ensured for the millions of victims who suffer. Both are invitation to embrace the cross, one to accept God's love, and second to extend life through a sense of justice.

"There will be poor always," "someone has to do these things," "at least they have an income" ... are the 'holy sacrifice' language justifying the victimhood. Saviour's redeeming cross should not be a justifying language for injustice. Enter into the victimhood suffered near and far, there there is the life giving Tree; not when cross becomes a devotional object.

Victim suffers a burdening, burning and pulsating pain. To speak to the wearied, what we need is peace that fills us with life. That consoles our 'fire' of anger and direct us into healing and grace. Victims are reminded, not about their woundedness, though important, they are led to peace and love. We think of the abundance of life, not about a destructive end. In time, we enter into fullness of life, consoled, strengthened, and healed.

from the streams of life

Was Jesus fully aware in detail what was going to happen to him in Jerusalem? I like to see as he was not. There were uncertainties and darkness. "Father, this cup ..." was a cry for strength to walk into the darkness. Like him, we too drink from the stream of life, to step into the dark with trust in the Father. It terrifies, but as we walk, the stream gives freshness to life. Led by hope we walk until light begins to spread.

Uncertainties and complexities we face are often termed as evil, even are personified. Listening to these realities are difficult, but brings light to the darkness we are burdened with. Easy readymade answers may offer satisfaction for us. They are not truth, they are stories.

What must shine in us in the darkness is the virtues by which we grow into Christ. But these virtues we desire can be grown only when we know that we are one body in Christ. The pain and suffering is seen in compassion, shared in charity, acted upon in justice. God loves us in Christ, we grow to Christ to be in communion with the Father, "Into your hands, I commend my spirit."

Stone her to death

‘If there is one of you who has not sinned, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.’  If I don't, I will be counted among those who have sinned. Today we would surely stone, because it is fully right, and the law has to be fulfilled. 'In the name of mercy we cannot compromise justice,' goes the reason. Mercy has its nature, when it sincerely attempts to re-member the other into ones own self, into the body of Christ, and to God. How can the sinful, the condemned, the waste of the world be membered into my own very self? That is the challenge of mercy.  

Susanna was innocent. But the truth of the powerful was the truth accepted by the religious and holy community. Truth cries out in the victims of injustice, and courage seeks for that truth which is revealed only when justice prevails. 

Spirituality takes us face to face with hardness, mourning, brokenness, rising up, freedom of our lives. Many bear the burden of condemnation. How can we do the re-membering of those lives into our body without mercy? Often we rightfully condemn and seek destruction. Mercy seeks life, as truth opens the unknown web of sinfulness where the 'concerned sinner' thrown into. 

Lifeless ruler Christ

"Christ lives, Christ rules, and Christ commands" is a strange Christ with no light of the Gospel. He is not sent by God to give us life and love.

Christ brings us peace, which is life-giving. 'Ruler Christ' demands submission which is not life-giving. Christ is the truth, and opens our heart to truth, that we may have freedom of the children of God. 'True truth' always has a face of compassion and charity. Compassion makes truth courageous, fruitful, and charity makes truth into a life-giving reality. 'Commanding Christ' creates truth and asks to make that the truth.

Grain of Wheat

A deceived sense of fulfilling the covenant actually makes our heart a heart of stone. No ritual, or strict following of religious law guarantees the faithfulness in the covenant. Yet, our confidence is in ways of ritualistic, devotional performances. Some are very attractive offering power, benefits, prosperity, 'deliverance' and the like. Devoid of God, they make our hearts empty of life and love.

"I will 'plant' my law," is also significant. It may have its own time to grow. We cannot program the growth of God's kingdom in ourselves and in a community. Grace grows through our struggles and pains. If we are sincere before God, grace finds its channels in us even across graceless conditions, in our sinful fate.

The law of God is not any written code or commandments. 'I am yours, and You are mine,' is the covenant. The self-emptying death was the ultimate sign of God's love for us. It is from this sacrificial love, the law of God is planted in our hearts. Like a grain of wheat, that love which is planted in our heart begin to grow once it is offered in self-emptying moments of our life. 

Sprouting pain of constant origination

A sprouting pain is a graceful part of growth in every life. Sacrifice, life, joy, hope ... are deeply connected to this sprouting pain. The value of a sacrifice is not in the suffering involved, but the life it produces. No suffering has a salvific value from its suffering as though God is pleased with suffering 'for His sake.' The salvific value is in the hope and joy a person lives despite of suffering because of the trust he/she has placed in God.
The hope is not something about a life after death. Death is not the foundation to meditate on our hope. Life is the foundation. Hope gives us the life to live for the next moment, and next day. That hope gives us the sense of being originated every moment. Still we are being born. Every moment is a sprouting moment, a moment of our origin.

Dwelling place of God

'Full of grace' is what can be said of the dwelling place of God. Ever-flowing grace, and life is the beauty of that dwelling. We are covered, flowed over, consoled, and recreated in the abundance of waters. Our lives are getting more and more centered around worship places. But, do those worship places represent ever-flowing grace? When a worship place become a boundary, how can it contain God? We need symbols and life-styles that represent a temple-less God; God being present everywhere. 

Darkness, life, light

Nicodemus was an honoured man. He didn't have anything to hide. Yet he came in darkness to meet Christ. 'Darkness' deserves our special attention, for it is very significant. In the beginning there was darkness . God said; "let there be light." There was order, the cosmos. Creation was sign of God's goodness, beauty and love. The same light radiates in us and on us.

In the words of prophet Isiah we have a wonderful expression, "the people who sat in darkness saw a great light." It was a time of invasion, insecurity, captivity, and bondage. They were in darkness devoid of god's glory. They also interpreted it to be the outcome of their own sin, another expression of darkness.

St Paul uses 'death' to expression the lightless-ness of our life, a life that has not known Christ. Being in Christ we have life or grace. St John imagines the same as an error if we don't know Christ, since he is the truth. When we know Christ, the truth, we have light.

What is that light and life?
The light and life that we receive is the gospel. The gospel is that 'God so loved the world, and sent his only son. Anyone who believes in him may have eternal life. Those who sit in darkness see a great light as Christ is being lifted up on the cross. Even in the most unjust death, he poured out love for all humanity. It is that love that we need to see on the cross. Jesus does not ask for pity on his suffering and bleeding image and take pains and burdens for ourselves. The light that radiates over those who sit in darkness of chaos, captivity, bondage, sinfulness or error is the experience of the love of God. Only the love that comes from God can clear our chaos, heal our pains, fill our areas of lifelessness with grace, nurture our life with virtues. As he is being lifted up, the light of God's unfathomable love spread over our hearts, our societies. Then, as John wrote, we come to light, and all know that we do the things of God.

In chaos, God makes his voice resound, and transform our life into a life of beauty, goodness, and love. In the unique life of each one of us these chaos and beaty are also significantly unique. It is there the Son of man being lifted up that the light may shine on many more around us.

The focal point here is that God makes the light shine over us to console us and to lead us forward. God gives life. Often we prefer to believe a theology of condemnation, and we call it humility, repentance, and act of conscience. Our focus is on God's wrath, curses and punishment. That is against the light of Christ. As St John stated, "though light came to the world, they preferred darkness." "They are condemned already," not by God, but by their own refusal to receive light and life.

Godless godliness

How did a people whose lives were filled with godly things missed God terribly?

When godly things - beliefs, traditions, rituals, customs etc turn self oriented and intolerant, they harden our hearts. Bypassing their directive function, they glorify themselves. They stand for power, and religion. They offer benefits, create a world of religion which is 'only true, and only holy.' Holiness is sought and experienced in closed chamber. All outside this chamber is condemned to be sinners.

Without personalizing the goodness and justice of God, we cannot love God. The 'fear of the lord' is seen not in god-full life, but in a heart and mind of humility, gratitude, and generosity. That is why love of god is inseparable from love of neighbours.

Christ - the fulfilment of the law

The revelation of God was indeed the law that God gave us to follow. I am slow to believe that the innumerous laws were part of revelation. Is Christ the end that a Christian, or the Church itself aims to complete or become? We have systems, laws, rituals and traditions which have a function of directing. They are not the end, they are not the things that we want to preserve and secure. In what we desire, pray, act, and do, Christ is the end, the Omega. Christ alone fulfils the law, because Christ is the end/purpose of the law. 

No one, also the church, cannot attain this end as long as Christ is made a crowned deity.

True Worship-forgiveness

True worship can happen only when individuals and societies are ready to come face to face with their own truth. Only truth can give us true humility, and truth alone gives us the needed courage for true contrition. If, thus we have received, forgiveness is that courage one can offer to the other for coming in face to face with truth. The focus is not on the offence. but on justice that build mutually.

When truth evades, trust is given to the temple, sacrifices, the king, priests, the prophets, and princes. Devoid of truth, they become instruments of injustice. These prideful greatness themselves became causes of shame. These must be radiant with the truth of the society and of the offeror, and the truth of God.

A humble, true, contrite, forgiving heart worships truly. Other worships insults God though they verbally and ritually praise God.

Ransom unknown to God

Ransom theology has done great harm to Christianity throughout centuries. It does not represent what Jesus taught, did, and what he told about God. It is fascinating for preachers of sin-punishment logic for it can exploit a well cultivated guilt-conscience. 

Where is space of theology of grace, creation, and life? Space for creation is there in the liturgy of Easter. But scarcely the liturgy touches on creation, or the abundance of life. The life and light of easter glory is preached and heard as a continuation of suffering that is seen as ransom as though the father's justice demanded human blood for evoking his mercy. 

Ransom theology in one way or the other justifies suffering and even violence. Suffering and evil must be condemned as suffering and violence themselves. Son of God suffered and died, many innocents suffered and died. Many suffer and die as victims of war, hunger and humiliation. They are indeed victims of injustice. It must be called injustice.

Ransom theology models a saviour who paid the ransom, and yet still  promote  a spirituality of penance and reparations; again a GOD who demands suffering that mercy may be evoked in him. Why there is no penances and reparations for the injustices that we see around? Why don't we take up actions that ensure justice and see true penance in them? Self-inflicted suffering and being hungry just to appease God only serves an empty GOD who is a lie. 

Temple and the law

Laws (even religious) have the capacity only to demand a social order. A relationship with the divine can not be realized by any law. What we need is a sincere heart. A temple must be a symbol of a sincere heart where true worship can happen. Otherwise temples will promote worship that suits GODs created in the framework of the power of laws. Does our worship-places represent a sincere heart?

Christ the Law

We may extend or narrow our friendships, intensify enmity or compromise with evil, all by manipulating law that we have access to. Being lawless, we can be very much ‘righteous’ to ourselves and before ourselves. The sacred laws codified were with a hope to be holy as God is holy. The holiness of God cannot be real if there is no justice, even if we have ‘holy’ structures, incense and ‘holy’ songs and praises everywhere.

Paul finds Christ as the new law. We cannot manipulate, or be hypocritical and follow Christ the law. Christ is not rules and regulations. Christ is the way we walk and the end we accomplish. Though frail, sincerity is the only requirement to follow Christ the law.

Often, we hear this gift to be led by Christ the law as individual obligation. It is ‘you’ (in singular) who is to follow Christ, keep his ‘commandments,’ and be holy. It is ‘we’ or ‘you’ (in plural) that follow Christ, or follow Christ the law, and be holy as God is holy, and being perfect as our heavenly Father. Has any one got a merit, it is shared for the good of all. Has anyone flawed? It is a concern for all, not as a worry or shame, but as a need of the body to make one another complete.

In these little ones

Purpose of the laws is to train one to see the face of God in the other. So the law, more than any of the rules and regulations, take us into the most vulnerable conditions. It is there we see the face of God, and serve God. No ritual or custom can substitute it. 

In order to train ourselves in this, it is also important to identify temptations that disfigure a Christian vision. 'In these little ones you did it to me' goes through a temptation of screening these little ones through our celebrated prejudices of race, religion, language and morals.

Wilderness

God, man, the tempter, the angels, all in the wilderness. Did Mark have Adam in mind as he sees them together? However, the wilderness shapes one's life amidst our struggle among the angels, the beasts, and the evil one. It is the good news that stands as mirror to see what shape we have received. So the true repentance is our alikeness to the Good News.

Every temptation is a hindrance to the shaping done by the Good News. They don't appear evil. They offer something good, and even as something divinely true. But they don't carry the blessedness of the Gospel. God's word becomes an instrument of magic, God's care is assumed to play a hero. Every temptation is a distortion of God's blessedness to a deity's strength, and is a bowing down before the devil. 

Tax Collector

A tax collector (in the New Testament times) was the most hated person in the society. He had to hear the filthiest words charged to him. He was not necessarily a cruel exploiter of people. He collected taxes for Rome. The Roman system ruled with power and illtreated all under them.

 
Mathew may have been hated by all. For Jesus, he was not a man to be hated. Jesus' gaze entered the prison that Mathew was thrown into. His love lifted the yoke that Mathew carried. He was led to liberation, and his days were turned holy. The despised found a home in the house of Mathew to find healing of compassion.

The tax booth was more open to Christ than the temple quarters. The custodians of God killed the anointed one.

gospel impossible

 There are preachers and evangelists who have become more believable than Jesus Christ. Their kingdom-values exploit the emotional sensitivities of the 'believers,' and true faith is given. Gospel is inclusive, liberative and peaceful. These, they say, cannot be the pleasing to God. Given the context, these preachers are more correct than Jesus. But, they make the gospel impossible.

Constitutions of Vatican II in Synodal Formation

I am grateful for this opportunity to share a brief note on the Synodal formation. It is not theological in nature, but a simple presentation. Fifty-six plus twenty major superiors of congregations serving in the archdiocese of Goa come from different parts of India. This very fact, offers a context for seeing clearly the human condition today in concreteness “with its problems, its wounds, its challenges, and its potential.” It is a time of global crises, in environment, pastoral leadership, political systems. We are also in an age of war. These socio-cultural, ecclesiastical, and pastoral conditions may be considered into the synodal formation keeping in mind the constitutions of the Second Vatican council, Sacrosanctum Concilium (The Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy), Lumen Gentium (Dogmatic Constitution on the Church), Dei Verbum (Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation), Gaudium et Spes (Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World). Here as we think of ways for synodal formation, the new problems and challenges must be at the background of reading anew the teaching of Scripture and tradition. As part of a synodal formation we need a process of reading and reflecting on these constitutions in a synodal way.

The council called for a return to the roots. The foundation is Christ. The renewal process must take us to Christ. It is time to evaluate the ways that led us to fix our attention on some traditions. There the church does not become a universal sacrament of salvation, instead it reduces itself to representing certain historical time and culture. Synodal formation is to enable the members of the church to find Christ afresh among us.

Liturgy expresses Christ. Liturgy, whether it is a sacrament, a blessing, offices, or a domestic liturgical celebration is an experience of Christ. The participation of everyone ensures awareness, engagement, enrichment in the closeness to Christ. A synodal formation calls for meaningfully planning for all these types of liturgies. A true synodal formation can avoid divisions in the name of uniformity and rigidity in matters of liturgy. As liturgy is catechetical, it seeks ways for meaningfully sharing, participating, involving, enacting of the faith. The participation involves involvement of people, not just experts, in the meaning making and life-giving process in liturgy.

New trends in religion, - beliefs, structures, attitudes - happening globally do enter the church here also. When they come in the name of tradition, true faith and holiness we are even ready to condemn the council and Pope Francis himself. There are also many exciting and attractive forms of spirituality and religion entering the church. Many of us are agents of these trends knowingly or unknowingly.  

Synodal formation aims to foster a renewed consciousness that church is the people of God. All the members together make up the body of Christ. It is a living body, not an operating system. The synod formation must necessarily work towards resolving the strangeness created by the church functioning as an organisation. The deciding group and obeying group distinction is never a synodal way. We must come out of the full satisfaction of participation in an opportunity to light a lamp, offer bouquet, clicking photos together. Participation involves planning and decision making. Are some less powerful and less holy? The universal call to holiness is often presented by many vibrant preachers as an obligation. Every walk of life finds and contributes to the holiness of the church, because of the holiness of Christ. Why then is still the holiness of priesthood and religious life still on the top of the pyramid and others are worldly. Why we have nothing to speak when media with wrong ideologies publish these hypes using the life stories of our members?

The teaching on the Word of God reminds us that we are not people of the book but we are people who encounter and live the Word of God. When the Bible is made a magical text and all kinds of misinterpretations take place, a synodal formation involves pastoral and dogmatic attention into the ways of reading the Bible. The Words of eternal life is a participation in an event. Popular practices have made it a devotion of words and texts. There are practices of bibliomancy and bibliolatrous. Only a proper ecclesiastical sensitivity to what is happening in and outside the church lead us into a formative time all rereading, understanding, and living the word of God with our lives.

 Who are to participate in the synodal formation? Who needs it? Synodal formation is a formation that has to happen within the whole church. It requires a spiritual and pastoral conversion towards receptive listening to all voices and an honest reading of the signs of the times.  Its an ecclesiastical formation.  At the foundational level it necessarily involves redefining of authority and power. The Christian meaning and purpose of authority and power. We cannot see the kingdom of God coming in reality by maintaining imperial structures. We need to reflect together how can we make possible a process of listening to all the members of the church, in order to listen to the voice of God. Can the authorities allow a synodal process in our systems? Is synodal formation for ourselves also? Unfortunately, it is in this time when we speak and discuss many things about the synodal nature of the church, we find that there is no synodality in many processes. The attitudes behind those unfortunate incidents must speak to us what image of the church we like to project to ourselves and our world.

Synod seminars and discussions are beautiful. But our encounter with truth is far away. We must acknowledge that many sensitive and unchristian elements are preferred and maintained.  Sincere attention is lacking in areas that would burn our fingers. Synodal formation cannot happen if we cannot come face to face with truth. There still exists divisions based on cast, and regional politics. How can we plan a synodal formation that really involves the sociocultural, ecclesiastical, pastoral conflicts seriously? Synodal formation has the potential to form ourselves in basic values concerning human person and dignity, equality, solidarity with the least in order to form a just political stand. We also need synodal formation in training ourselves in the values of the kingdom of God in order to see our faith, liturgy, and the very vision of the church itself. A hurried synodal process ended up in some question answer sessions without having the big picture. Instead, people got negative narratives from videos that it is a destructive process in the church.  The conservative blend is going to make a havoc and rift within our churches. They do have good reception in our communities. If synod formation has to attend to the growth of faith, how sincerely are we going to correct the prevailing superstitions and false believes? There is no synodality when we get no response as we point out these elements to people concerned. Synodal sensitivity is in want when authorities find very nice with a media coverage of a person who left a million worth job and joined a congregation where there are five other ‘ordinary’ vocations also made vows together. We cannot find a synodal functioning when no response come from higher CRI authorities when due issues are conveyed. The Grievance Redressal Cell is not accessible to our members. Even now, if a superior is present to listen to phone calls or checks letters of the formees our speaking of synod is far from reality. Synod becomes a mockery when even now, the ‘claimed rape-victimhood’ of a religious sister and the uncertainty of her companions need to challenge our synodal listening (The rape accused is no more an accused, instead is acknowledged as a servant of God). There is no synodal process when sisters have to have adorations with tears because they don’t get proper salary in our institutes and are transferred unreasonably.

Synodal formation involves all of us, what we and our people believe in reality, what we imagine of a church, how we attend to the complexities of life and try to understand. Are we still the providers and decision makers? It’s a time to start afresh from Christ who showed an authority that is life-giving not ruling.

:- Reflection presented at XVII annual major superiors meeting 19th January 2024

"Teacher, where do you stay?"

Masters of religion does not necessarily teach faith and a life in God. They often create an atmosphere to make religion a passion. They, unfortunately, find their resources from channels and publications that hold scepters of intolerance. Some of them also pick up anti-narratives of the teachings of the church, and make themselves only true and traditional Christians.

To 'visit' where one's master 'stays,' may help us to understand whether the master hears from God or not. The signs of a master who is alike Christ are like freedom joy, peace, goodness, grace, love. Intolerance is the sign of a master who teaches only 'religion' which is empty of God. "We will teach you who are 'ordinary' and worldly people," is their language. They promise to pray for us since they hold an elite holiness. They offer salvation for us by leading us to a world of fear, punishment, curses, demons and devils.

As a disciple, when our life and faith makes home with God, we know closely the dwelling place of a true master. Its a growth from Simon, which means 'hearing or listening,' to a faith strong as rock, Cephas. On this rock the church is renewed and rebuilt as light to the nations, and as life for the world. Only in such a journey we will understand the true meaning of Christ being the lamb of God.
For one who has made home with God, the lamb is the outpouring of life. Masters of religion favourably chose to emphasize the atonement had to be and has to be made. God seeking retribution is within the boundaries of conditions of his own love. These masters have not made home at the bosom of the Father. They close the doors against faith and the abundance of life.

Christ the teacher knew the heart of God, he wants to come and make home in us. So he speaks of the life in abundance. He teaches us to trust in that life irrespective of growth or crisis, joys or sorrows. Through the consolation that we receive through his anointing we know the 'Christ' in him.

Eternal life and its other worldly oddness

Eternal life is not a life in some other world. God has formed us from the earth, and yet we were not ready to accept its limitations. Conquering and despising were the ways humans adapted to face these limitations justifying that God has commanded to conquer and God has called us to depart from the world. Every moment can be eternal if we fructify the beauty that is within us, even in the midst of pain and crisis.

Spiritualising

 'Great and terrible day' was the description about the coming of Elijah. But When the precursor came his name was 'John,' which meant 'God is gracious.' The 'terrible' was because of hardness of heart that had to turn to God and to others. This turning can happen only when we really know that God is gracious.

Any form of spiritualizing our experiences also must have the same sense, that God is gracious. To help us in this process, the Holy Spirit is given to us. Spirit sheds light upon our innermost depths. We are able to see and understand the 'hardness and brokenness and bitterness.' This inner revelation is an action of grace within us. No law and rubrics can do it. It gives us freedom because we know the truth. In fact it is essential to welcome the messiah in our heart. All the gospel canticles are from the freedom that rises from knowing personally that God is gracious. The light that radiates the reality of incarnation is this freedom.

Often our spiritualities go wrong, because graciousness of God is not the roots of our spirituality. We find a favourable ' terrible and great' description to our problems, suggest solution-paths and justify them, and further justify by spiritualizing them.

Come my love

"Rejoice daughter of Sion, ... the Lord rejoices over you with happy song, and he is among you "
"Rejoice Mary, highly favoured, the Lord is with you."
"The Holy Spirit will come upon you..."
Then Mary said, "My Beloved lifts up his voice, he says to me, ‘Come then, my love, my lovely one, come."

Rejoice that the Lord is with us, feel that love, receive the Word in our flesh.

Zeph 3:13, 17 Song 2: 10

Let him who has no sin

"We are following God's holy laws. We are always right."
There are super-holy Christians who are holier than Christ, and are disturbed about the holiness of Christ. Christ's holiness seems to be protected by them.

The one who said "Let him who has no sin cast the first stone" should be stoned to death. It was a he and a she. It turns out to be holy 'we' and sinful 'they.' It is not about God's law and holiness, it is ideology and politics of distancing. They will very well be justified and spiritualized. Even God's love can be legally condemned.

Emmanuel

Emmanuel experience can never be a private affair. God has pitched His tent among his people. It is both a blessing and a challenge. When God restores the integrity /righteousness as a free gift, it is an experience also of being clothed with garment of salvation/gladness. Since it is not a private joy, the tent expands. Since its God who dwells, there cannot be boundaries either. Whenever we fix limits to salvation, its a sign that we have never known the joy of salvation. Salvation limited to an elite group is an ideological salvation. That 'salvation' experienced is a surgical-action pleasant feeling on some built up emotions. They don't need an Emmanuel though they speak of God in thousand words.

Salvation-Word-bringing forth

Can injustice, wickedness, and sin be 'taken away'?
They are denial of justice, goodness and grace respectively.
They can only be done away by being filled by justice, goodness and grace.
Thus, "The Lord will make both integrity and praise spring up in the sight of the nations." Is 61:11

This bringing forth is the meaning of salvation.

"He has anointed me to bring good news to the poor,
to bind up hearts that are broken;
to proclaim liberty to captives,
freedom to those in prison;
to proclaim a year of favour from the Lord." Is 61:1-2

To liberate Christianity from Sin centered salvation, there need to be a fresh springing up of integrity and praise among the believers. Human-sin centred salvation and its theology even defines God and God's persons in relation to the perils and rise of humans.  From a human-focused salvation it has to look up to Word-centred salvation where life and beauty of Christ truly reveal. Sin is a human choice, not a metaphysical power. Only the beauty of Christ can reorient the human choice for goodness. The Word is the seed that grows in human heart that turns to be Christ. 

Word cannot be in text alone. The 'rights' of the text made the pharisees and scribes rightfully judge Christ to be wrong. The Word opens to universal goodness, where beauty and truth shine.

Labourers

Hope is alive when we have a filial relationship with God. In the goodness of God, we are also consoled and strengthened. Even in the midst of tears we can see the harvest already. The labour needs to necessarily possess the quality of hope and joy to be patient in the season of waiting. 

Any one who awaits the harvest in the fruitfulness of grace is a sincere laborer. One needs not be priests to be laborers. A laborer holds in one's heart the presence of the master, the consolation and comfort, and the strength to wipe away tears. The filial love for God offers the laborer directions to move, to heal and to give words of grace, and fill the world with goodness. See the hearts of humanity and the womb of the earth, hungry and thirsty for justice, the harvest is growing. 

Love for Jesus

Peter loved Jesus. He would go any extend to show that love protecting Jesus. He took sword and cut the ear of the soldier. 

Once Jesus asked Peter: "Do you love me?"

Peter had no doubt. He said, "Yes, I love you."

Jesus said, "feed my lamb," Love for Jesus is in feeding the lamb with care and tenderness; never by taking swords.

Question-answer

Does my God get offended or pleased with my words and actions? Does his happiness depend on my actions? Is it a demand from God that I should be perfect and holy like him and try to live and search what he likes rather than living my life as it gives me happiness and joy?

First of all, there is no ‘my god’ and ‘their god.’ If there is God, God must be God for all, not only for humans but for everything in the universe.

God is a perfect being. God has a fulfilled inner life, communion, love, spiration or whatever we call it. God has perfect happiness and perfect well-being. I do not believe that God takes offence because of my actions or words. God’s well-being must be unaffected by anything or anyone, for good or for ill. We use the term ‘impassibility’ for this. We often anthropomorphically apply human ways of sensational responses to God. God cannot feel upset or otherwise emotionally dissatisfied. Any such emotional dissatisfaction would be inconsistent with the fulfilled inner life that a perfect divine person must have. We can understand, as a denial of the care and affection when our character and conduct occasion a negative response to God’s relationship with us. It is a dishonor from our part. Because it is when we do well in our actions and behavior and flourishing in our natural capacities, we give glory to God in our humanity. Since God is love, God does, relates, speaks … in love. There is no need that God has to ‘forgive’ as though God was waiting for the moment that we ‘repent’ and make some reparations. God cannot but love. That love desires and ensures our goodness. Its we who are incapable, or reject that embrace of love. It may be due to our own hurts, sorrows, that have become heavy or solid that we cannot rise up to or look up to the real love of God. Many ways we are trained to nurture shame and guilt and close ourselves within our own pains. The same is repeated in our relationship with God also. We use shame, guilt, and fear as categories defining our relationship with God. We make stories and spiritualities that justify these categories. Thus, we disfigure the image of God, and create unhealthy spirituality.

Perfection/holiness that is held by the Jews was according to the completion of prescribed sacrifices and offering. All could not afford to make these sacrifices and be holy. Only the privileged could be holy accordingly. According to Greek thinking being perfect would mean being faultless. Ordinary people could not be educated and learned, and practice wisdom. So, Jesus assured the kingdom to all the children of God. There is freedom and joy from which true worship can be there.

Is it a demand from God that I should be perfect and holy like him, and try to live and search for what he likes rather than living my life as it gives me happiness and joy?

God wants us to be perfect and holy. But we need to understand what is meant by being perfect and holy. Perfection is not a mathematical perfection. That perfection can mean that we are expected to be mistake-less in our stature, behavior, speaking and all that we are. If we are super-perfect like that we are like God, and we don’t need a God at all. We are being perfected by others. So, our trust, sincere relationship, and genuine affection are the signs of our desire for perfection. Perfection is found in Christ. We too have that perfection when we grow into the full stature of that body. This extension towards others in all sincerity and good will is the holiness we can speak of. What is God’s holiness? God desires the good of all, God wants all to be alive. That is the holiness. That is why he looks after the well, and nurses the injured ones. Repentance is the readiness to be open towards God’s grace. The experience of being found, accepted, forgiven, shown mercy, welcomed, healed … are subjective expressions of the same love that is received. Discerning this process and possibility in our life is the seeking the will of God. The will of God is not an eternally written blueprint. The will of God is that all may have life. That life is possible, and is received through many experiences and persons. It may involve learning, guidance … ‘What gives happiness and joy’ may be at times satisfying the above mentioned sorrows, devaluing, pains … They are only substituting for what we really need. They may be safe shelters where we can hide. They may have good, holy and spiritual faces also. But may not be offering the life that we really need. So discerning the will of God needs to go along with understanding ourselves truthfully, compassionately and charitably. General principles available may be helping as guidelines. We need to understand our inner longings, burdens and pains, and how God approaches them with a will to offer life. Often we understand as though God knows only to judge between right and wrong, and bring justice through punishment. But God’s justice is that we may be strengthened and live a full life. In that sense, some of our very personal struggles require more kindness from our part in order to avoid any form of belief that leads to guilt and shame and fear of punishment from God. Some are to be understood as permitted by God if it is not harming anyone.

Is the world created by God bad, that I have to live in this world as if I do not belong to this world avoiding all things that give me joy?

God found everything he created ‘good.’ That is always the Biblical and Christian understanding of creation. Its from the influence of dual universal principles of good and evil we also got a separation of spiritual and material world. Matter was seen to be evil, and opposing what is spiritual. The hate for the world was intensified by the situation of black death. Many of us spiritualized that hate. God created the world so that we may enjoy the good things of the earth. But we need to be conscious that the enjoyment should not involve denying the good things for others. The powerful in the world often controlled the world by maintaining their greed and pride. They created and maintained systems that supported their greed. What we need is a sense of gratitude for what we receive. Our hearts do find joy in enjoying the good things of the earth. We must increase that joy by being grateful to the giver, and being generous to the needy.

Is God happy and pleased with me when I do fasting and penances rather enjoying the things around me and created for me by him? Do my fasting and prayers make me holy and grow in my life as a good person?

We can understand it in relation to the previous answer, both positively and negatively. God does not ask for fasting and penance as though God finds some joy in our being hungry and undergoing pain. If our pain satisfies God, and accordingly he gives blessings, that is a strange God. God, at the same time, also wants us to know the pain of those who suffer, and treat them with charity and generosity. In that sense fasting, penance and almsgiving receive value. But any regressive form of such practices (humiliating or dehumanizing) is not encouraged by the church.

One can prudently decide what helps oneself for growth. The value of abstaining is to be understood according to the area where a person needs self-control. For one it may be about food, for another it may be about music, entertainment, wasting of time, gossip. Accordingly, one may choose what moderation needs to be exercised. Its is effortful, may go through failures, but takes a steady and focused growth. For some it may be different types of fixations on disciplines and perfections. Here what is required is to practice flexibility and patience.

Sickness, in itself, is not a good thing. First response to sickness needs to be a good treatment. Some sickness can be painful and long lasting. It can become a burden and cause of disappointment. With the help of grace, we may go through different stages of sickness. It involves acceptance, patience, offering, cure, etc. “God wants me to be sick, I want to suffer …” are not good approaches. God is not asking for reparations as though God wants to see some suffering punishment, and then be ready to forgive and bless.

“Only a faithful believer can trust in a God who is as helpless as the victims themselves, and know that it is God’s way of proclaiming that God loves the victimized of this world.” What is the meaning of this?

This statement is in connection with the incarnation, not in relation with the problem of evil. The explanation is like this: there is no form of charity or compassion that can show solidarity to the sufferer other than being one of them. Here the sufferer knows who is the One suffering with him/her. If a bishop goes and stays in a poor village doing all that they do, having their food, and getting sick as they get sick having no special care of being a bishop, there is a sense of being one with the people. That matters. The same can be spoken about the incarnation. However, it is not a solution to the problem of evil. Jesus also did not say that all evil will end since he has come. The blessedness of the victimized is to be ensured by the rest of the body that is in grace. That is the basic seeking of the kingdom of God and his righteousness. Seeking the kingdom of God is not about ritualistic pious practices. It is living the beatitudes in daily realities. A faithful believer is not a blind believer, a faithful believer trusts. It will be taken up in another answer.

Why must the formation period be painful? Is it because of disciplining oneself? Does it make one lose one’s identity of who that person is?

First of all, we are learning all through life. If any one feels that we have learned or achieved full formation one is fixating or stagnating one’s growth. If we feel that we must make the formation really painful it is a wrong view. That also may be coming from the view that God is happy when we take pains ‘for him.’ Discipline itself is not an end, it is towards something. We need a pattern that moulds us according to a form. To be Christlike is the pattern that moulds us as a disciple who disciplines oneself in the path of the master, Christ. We practice the blessedness that the kingdom visualizes, we practice virtues that form us as a good and mature person in Christ. Formation must be aiming at this. We may find it difficult to practice these, because of some burdens, sorrows, hurts … that we have already mentioned in another answer. Often, we blame the devil at this point. But it is our inner hurdles we need to give attention to rise up to the mode of working of grace. 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.'

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. It is from that sense we get the idea that discipline must be something that is in the nature of punishing oneself. We are given the life of God, and 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 finds its ways to nurture and fructify; its growth into goodness, the real good of oneself and others.

Life/grace causes a flourishing of one's own life and extends to others. Only in freedom and truth can we genuinely reach out to the  other. So life also means truth, justice, compassion and mercy. One must let a genuine transformation happen in one's life.

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. Denying yourselves clearly means 'a passing through' these injuries by personal efforts, through available help, 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.

God does not make us slaves, nor does God demand a slavish obedience from us. God has created us so unique that he respects our person. It is neither a master-servant relationship. Jewish view in the Bible is as humans represent God by living a life according to the commandments. They can be friends of God who enters into a covenant with God. Jesus taught us that we are the children of God. There is a deeper sense of belonging. Here, they know the will of God not by law, but by the relationship of being the children of God. It is not at all a mechanical following of what God says, but there is dialogue and communion in which one understands the will of God and fulfills that. In that freedom one is able to recognize the good that God wants to realize. There, obedience flows from a mature relationship and deep love.

Our faith in Jesus or our Christian faith has value only because Jesus rose from the dead?

As I understand the question, it looks like the question wants to emphasize on eternal life. We firmly believe that Jesus is alive. We know that he lived here, and was killed, and rose again. The contents of Christian faith fall short if the resurrection did not happen. If it simply says about doctrinal nature, it may be sufficient. But, the question seeks a deeper presentation of its implications. After stating that Jesus is risen, is it an attempt to prove the resurrection of Jesus, or to live as people who experience the living presence of Jesus? How do we imagine or where do we expect this risen Jesus? Is he standing somewhere as someone hiding there unseen always? He lives in and among us. An evangelist perspective of personal salvation has damaged the way we need to understand the church as a communion. We are one body in Christ. We are alive in Christ. We experience the presence of the risen Christ in the communion we have among ourselves.

What do you mean by normal? Is it subjective?

It is a debated issue, and often controversial. One may be understood normal when one conforms to the accepted patterns of behaviour in a community or society. If it is about oneself it is also told about the consistency of one’s behaviour. The problem here is who decides what is normal. Only because the majority agrees to something, others become normal and unnatural. ‘Normal’ is a subjective term. But, in order to justify honestly we need to say that what we call as normal to oneself should not be a convenient choice over time. It needs to be something naturally part of oneself. It may not conform to the demands or expectations of the society. But that is the natural response of that person. Every unique subject may have one’s own web of relationships that formed its nature, biological, geographical, cultural and social.

I am a disciplined person and strict with myself. Does it mean that I am right and others also have to be like that?

We need to see the value desired in making the disciplinary path or that strictness. Being strict and perfect can be from fear of failure. It can be from fear of being challenged by others. It can be from a sense of elitism. Often moral perfection, if not practiced for the sake of virtues, leads to arrogance. Restrictions can also be brought because of our insecure feeling of freedom. Then we begin to spiritualize in the name of poverty, hating the world etc. One may practice discipline, understanding well what helps oneself for a mature and joyful growth. Discipline must bring freedom, not perfection. It can be an example for others if it helps them. One cannot force it upon others. That does not help others, but shows one’s own failure in achieving virtues in all the strictness one follows.

What is redemption that Jesus redeemed us and can anyone who is redeemed be lost again and yet can we call as redemption? Redemption is not a magical one time visa. Personally I don’t like these words, redemption, salvation … Jesus gave us life, the freedom of the children of God. It is up to us whether to reject that life. If one says that one is redeemed and does all nonsense, there is no sign of redemption. Redemption based on guilt-punishment-ransom-freedom has a lot of limitations to understand the mission of Jesus and the will of the Father.

Is it necessary to profess Jesus as the savior if I believe him in front of others or is it ok to keep it to myself? (someone like a new believer who is famous in the society don’t want to profess publicly) if he does not profess will God reject him or deny according to the Gospel of St. Luke 12: 8? There are people interpreting that there must be verbal profession. We need to understand that this verbal profession is only a nominal confession of faith. If there is true faith it will necessarily reflect in the life, attitude, perspectives and behaviours. Someone says that he believes, and no sense of justice and goodness, and illtreats wife neighbours, then where is the faith? The remarkable sign of faith is in the life one lives. That shines as the sign of the gospel.

Jesus is always introduced in the gospels as Son of God and not as God. So can we say Jesus is God? Or because of His testimony about Father that whoever has seen me has seen Father and I and Father are one that we conclude that Jesus is God? I don’t know whether I am speaking some heresy but this thought came to me. We cannot have a scientific explanation or proof for whether Jesus is the son of God. Synoptic gospels have the term Son of Man and son of God as a messianic figuration. John’s view is of his communion with the father. He foresees to introduce us to that communion. My understanding of the son of God was clarified as the concept of Logos was clear to me.

“No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the Kingdom of God”. Does it mean if any priest or religious who left will never enter heaven? Does it mean in that way or something else? ‘Entering’ heaven does not depend on whether one is priest or religious. “…a hand to the plow and looks back…” has to be taken in the context of his teaching on discipleship and the context of the early Christians when the gospels are written. The cost is of a life for Christ, and a life of equality and love. It is costly and demanding. Priesthood and religious life is pictured as a divine profession, that is why departing from that is seen as giving away from God’s will. God’s will is that all live their life to the full, socially, psychologically, and biologically. ‘entering’ itself is questionable. It is not a place to enter. It is being in Christ. For being in Christ it is not necessary to be a priest of religious.

“I watched Satan fall from heaven like a flash of lightening.” Does it mean to say there is place like heaven and it is above? We don’t have a clear picture of origin of devil in the bible. From the then existed concepts from Jewish- Greek- Persian views only we are able to understand these expressions about satan. This quoted passage indicates the defeat of satan as the disciples came back telling about what happened during their ministry. It is the work of the spirit by which the evils are removed.

What does it mean to born again in water and spirit?

“born again in water and spirit” points to the preparatory function of John the Baptist and the role of Jesus. Water baptism as a ritual and the spirit as reality may have developed from those early times. Being born again, in St John’s language, is the new life one receives by believing in Jesus. It is clear from the Gospel and letters of St John that it is not sufficient to follow a religious tradition. It is to follow Jesus, ultimately to follow the law of love. Here we see the contrast St John makes with Jewish the law which was incapable of providing life, and Christ new law giving life. Similarly we see this contrast in St Paul’s presentation as law incapable of providing grace, and Christ the new law providing that.

 

 

 

Militant Christianity

To establish his kingdom, Christ did not form a military system parallel to the powerful Roman army. He could not preserve himself. He was killed. But, he rose, and lives. New forms of militant movements in Christianity may preserve what they like in 'Christianity.' But they will not lead to a risen experience of the Church.

Militant Christianity may support or justify war, side with warring nations. War is a sin. Who minds? The militant ideologies of Christendom is their gospel; a gospel devoid of Christ.

What does it profit if, one day, Christianity wins the whole world, and has no Christ in it?