Withdrawing to a lonely place

Christ himself becoming a localized hero would disrupt the will of God. A Christ-cult is not what Christ asked his disciples. When he calls them to follow him it is to imitate him. We may have many fan associations of Christ. There God is not glorified, nor are we growing in his image.

'Growing into full maturity in Christ' is the purpose of a renewed humanity. It is a process from a state in denial of grace to a life lived with the working of grace, growth from a 'man of flesh' to 'man of the Spirit.' Many of our structures of institutions, theorization, customs and traditions stand in resistance to life, healing, and grace. Adherence to an idealized faith, a hero image, 'spiritual centre' when the growth in Christ is kept aside, is the emptiness that swallow even a 'spiritual man.'

Withdrawing to a lonely place, being with the Father, is also walking into one's own interiority away from crowd's attention, praise, and cheering. It is there one time to time recognizes one's own specific call, charisms, and limitations. It is there one receives courage to fulfill what one is meant to, and humility for setting limits to one's 'powers.' It is there one realizes one needs another in fulfilling the will of God.

Having the mind of God

Healing, peace, nourishment and so on are disturbances to many. They do need some troubles in order to be at ease so that attacking on them they find their existence. if there is no trouble at all they may imagine, suspect or accuse some problems. Peace and reconciliation, what have you to do with us? they might ask. Life disturbs them.

The will of God is that all have life. It has to be the mind of anyone who says, 'your will be done.' To know the mind of God and to realise it in our life, we have received the Holy Spirit. The sign of the Spirit's presence is that we have the same mind of Christ.

Often Spirit is imagined to be power based, and rarely life based. Power is a craze and life is a ever comforting thirst. Life is an embrace. If we want to experience God, forget about all power images, earthquake, lightning, explosion, command, rule, conquer and so on. Instead, ask for the grace to imitate life patterns around.

Prepare the way

One's real way is to be transformed into another Christ.
The way alone prepares the way for the Lord.
John the Baptist saw the truth and pointed to the Truth,
the cost of preparing the way was his own life.
He found the Way, Truth, and life.

A life-giving death and life of sacrifice was the way of Christ.
That was visible in his service mindedness which brought life in different ways to many.

John's life teaches us to what/whom or how to be obedient and faithful.
To serve did not mean servitude,
it was not pleasing the powerful, accepting vulnerability, and be submissive.
John has never been an adulator.
He served truth, stood firm, and died as a true testimony,
a voice crying out in the wilderness.

To speak truth, to be service minded, we need courage and humility at the same time. Both concerns the truth of lives and a capacity to be compassionate. That capacity is the sincere desire to be like Jesus, assisted by grace. 

Simple Faith

What qualifies the simple faith? Is it believing anything blindly or doing anything without any further thought just because something is said to be in relation with God or religion? Does every religious or even very pious practice necessarily lead us to God?

Simple faith is about the surety or the confidence one finds because of one's deeper trust in God. Being pious or learning strict observance of devotional practices without that trust is not simple faith. If it was fine, any superstition can be called as simple faith. Younger generation today are in a danger of falling prey to it. They are led to a world of gods and piety, and made to believe that they are in a holy and godly space. They are led to a hallowed realm not at all in touch with the daily realities where God actually speaks. They are deceived.

If we are humans, we need the natural world first, not the religious world. Children wearing saints' clothing, always saying prayers, writing Bible do not necessarily find their souls. They need to have the sight of mountains, birds, and flowers, they need the joy of playing in streams, they need affection of human hearts. It is there they find the tender touch of God and moulding of their souls.

We need our touch with others and nature to have a deep inner self, to feel the grandeur, beauty, depth, and providence. Every time doing the act of 'praying' or only doing divine things is in fact keeping the real presence of God away. The holy space is only an alternative mental world we ourselves have created. We need to learn to trust. Only trust can generate simple faith.

All will come

Who will be in high places in the kingdom of God? Who will be seated at the right and left of Christ when he assumes his power? Who will be the first? These questions were very much part of the journey of the disciples of Jesus. It was never a strange question in any society to ask who were the first, the elite or the privileged.

‘Try your best to enter by the narrow door,’ was Jesus’ advice in order to find life. Many could not enter, perhaps because their super-claims of their worth of entering the gate were heavy upon them. The reason shown for their failure is that they were wicked, and that they did not seek the will of the Father. Who? Those who had claims of familiarity with the master in eating and drinking with him, and according to Mt 7: 21, 22 they even prophesied, drove out demons, and performed miracles.

The category of the first always had the privilege of being strict and faithful to all the laws and customs, oaths and sacrifices. The last were the poor, marginalised, people in the category of sinners who were lawless and godless. These claims and accusations did hurt Jesus, and very often invited his criticism. Very often, the choice of time and mode of healing, the stand he took on certain occasions, even famous parables like Good Samaritan and Prodigal Son challenged the hard heartedness of the first.

The Kingdom of God that Jesus has introduced is a reality among us, in our very lives. It is in the experience of God’s love, care and providence. It is not an absence of limitations and pain, but rather the experience of God-with-us. As a realisation, the kingdom of God among us, here and now, is based upon the Emmanuel experience of the heart. As a pattern of life, it is constantly seeking the kingdom of God and its righteousness. It is a life moulded in gratitude, generosity and service. Taken into responsible relationships, the kingdom of God informs us with the sense of equality and mutual respect. We are all the children of God.

An open heart is the narrow door; a heart that seeks the kingdom of God and his righteousness, a heart that is free of prejudices. It is not easy to break the cultural and religious barriers that keep our selves secure and comfortable. But entering the kingdom is by bringing down those boundaries of the self, and following the way of Christ.

The kingdom of God is not other-worldly; a superperfect and transcendent world, something beyond human reach. We have often framed such alternative worlds to be the kingdom of God. That higher world will always have the temptation to make ourselves first and the custodians of that world. There, in that kingdom, every knee shall bow before ‘my ways of thinking about God,’ ‘my moral views,’ and ‘my spirituality.’ With the image of a Kingdom framed within the kingdom of emperors, we cannot understand the kingdom of God Jesus introduced to us. Being the first we may have a sure guarantee of the kingdom, even the right to condemn the least as uncivilised, sinners, unnatural or ungodly. In fact, making ourselves first, we close the doors against the kingdom of God for ourselves and for others.

Whom do we expect to be there in the kingdom of God? Is the kingdom exclusively of ours who are the first and have the full knowledge of God? Our prejudices and pride over claims to be the first will be brought to shame. From east and west, north and south, all will come to take their place in the feast of the kingdom. All will come, from all languages, races cultures, and faiths; all creation will come, animals, plants and humans, to find their place in the kingdom of heaven.

An open heart is the narrow door. Jesus could say, “I am the door.” Each one of us is a door to one another to enter into the kingdom. The other is the door for me to enter, and so it seems very narrow to break ourselves into the full freedom of being the children of God. But that is the way to enter into the joy of the kingdom. The narrow door is an effort for a renewed conscience formed with fraternity, love, compassion, and solidarity, that we all may gather together. That is the way God’s glory is experienced among us and shines forth.

Redeem the kingdom of God

Throughout centuries, especially in recent years people have migrated to an alternative mental stage and call it as the kingdom of God. They find everything supernatural, godly, pure, holy, and perfect there. The unfortunate level of it is that these mental stages are projected to large crowds if some are able to convince others flocking in religious circle. Our temptation to imagine Godly abode as a perfect world, as a transcendent experience rejects God-with-us experience.  

The nature of the kingdom of God that Jesus introduced to was not a superperfect, transcendent world. We did not have to wait for death to enter there. It was all about our trust in God, confidence in being in the hands of God. This sense of care received also places us in responsibility of mutual care of one another. So the experience of the kingdom of God is in the sense of providence, care, protection from God as we are children, and in the sense of gratitude for what we receive, and in the generosity, compassion, solidarity and justice they evoke. It does not become a matter of concern what will happen after death, whether we live for ever or we continue to be what we are and how etc. That is a matter in the providence and love of God. Even in the moments of pain there is hope in God. But we cannot be blind to the unjust pain inflicted to our brothers and sisters by some unjust system. It is part of the seeking of the righteousness of the kingdom to stand by the victims and hunger and thirst for justice along with the suffering people. The experience of the kingdom, in short, is living as the children of God. 

We have rejected the kingdom of God that Jesus introduced by picturing it in metaphysical categories. Today the concept of the kingdom of God itself is in need of redemption bringing it into really humane or natural frame. It is necessary towards the way for the future. 

to generate a renewed conscience

The Church must prioritize its efforts to generate a renewed conscience in humanity to be united in one heart facing the coming catastrophic events. Let us say, such disasters may hit us from five years from now, but preparations for such calamities are to be taking place now. It is gradual and deep process to form a conscience, and to break the existing boundaries is not an easy task.

 
Governments in their part, may have to rethink of policies to ensure necessities for a simple living of everyone. Their lives and livelihood do matter. Though always the rich are ensured lifeboats, they cannot find safety anymore. The time for annual gimmicks of planting trees is over. Corporates succeeded in downplaying the impacts of their 'development' on our habitat. Now the trees cannot take roots, water cannot find its freshness.

 
Fake faces of religions act very powerfully in society though we might say that religions have gone away. If at all religions have to make a relevant contribution, they need to have a metareligious role to play now at the depth of human heart. We may expect a miracle like exodus. But in reality, we will have to walk through fire and water. Only a humanity walking together in compassion and solidarity shedding all the barriers can pass through the crisis.

 
How do our congregations, youth movements, organizations ... bring into their planning the 'mission' of motivating the generation of renewed conscience formed with fraternity, love, compassion, solidarity ... Are we still comfortable in the safety of an imperial system continuing to make plans for its survival and control of others?

Hope is active

Hope is not a pleasant feeling about the future. It is active and alive. It is not a mental compromise to adjust with present struggle and crisis. Hope generates a dynamism sprouting from the grace within. It gives us the way to walk. In times of miseries, hope enables us to be bonded in solidarity and empathy in order to walk together. 

Climate, war, intolerance ... are on the rise. Disasters should not be a time of horrible destruction in an inhuman mode. In the time of disasters, only hope can help us to be humans of heart, compassion, sharing, solidarity, and cooperation. 

Assumption

The whole creation is striving for/ waiting for its fruition in union with God.

Mary, one among the creation, one among us,
waited, brought its fruit, found its completion.
It was the work of God.

It was fitting that she was born immaculate,
God may have prepared many generations to break the clutches of sin,
that gracefulness was all that was there when she was born.
It is to be contemplated that she preserved it in a graceless world,
a world fought for power, wealth, and transcendence.
To spend grace in a graceless world is harder than death,
so, a thousand swords may have pierced her heart.
Yet she held her heart full of grace.

In life, or in death, when was she not in grace?
She was always in heaven.
Grace was there in her, life was there in her, God was there in her,
all the while she was a wife, she was a mother, she worked, sweated, wept.

If assumption is seen as a liberation from material world, it collapses the whole meaning of incarnation and redemption.
Her life itself celebrated the liberty in bringing forth the Messiah.

Mary seen as the type of the church,
seeing what was granted to her,
are we assumed to grace to be grace-bearer in a world whose powers become self destructive?

Preaching for the re-discovery of souls

Following the preaching ministry St Dominic, Dominicans have defined their charism as 'preaching for the salvation of souls.' They were committed to make the encounter of God with humanity being within their shaky 'holy grounds.'

In different moments of history, people were losing souls because of the distortion of faith, often by those taking advantage of the misery of people. These interpretations distorted the image of God and humanity in their interesting spiritualties. At times they also gave images of exalted power of God or human.

Today, we have fragmented selves, societies, and so even fragmented divinities. The crisis today involves unbearable power to control and to transcend. At the same time, the same power tears us into pieces. A huge number of people are at the same time alien to this world of power achieved by some privileged.

So the world cries out for justice, and seeks compassion from those who have heart. What is the truth of economic policies, environmental challenges, wars, medical marketing etc? How does humanity face the alarming disasters, especially the children today? What about the indigenous people thrown out of their habitats? There is the crucified God, humiliated and abandoned. "What will become of them because of our 'social, political, and environmental' sins" must be a constant painful cry within us. Dominican preaching must evoke conscience to these concerns.

Contemplation of truth which does not turn to be an assurance of justice, neither contemplates truth, nor does it form a face of God in one who is contemplating. It does not produce fruit, nor does it carry the seeds of salvation.

Contemplation and preaching today is for the re-creation of truly human soul - not a wretched human nor a transcended superhuman. It is to find the true roots of humanity, and place it in its proper place. God brought forth humanity within the community of creation assuming its interior self from the bond with the community. We thought that it is something wrong with us to have that identity. If we find the roots again we will heal the fragmentation of our souls. Preaching for the rediscovery of our souls is a common effort which also includes the preaching given by other than human community of creation.

My soul ...

If one understands the many dimensions of one's soul, one can only illumine it with gratitude and pour itself out in generosity. It is exactly in a different direction the foolish rich man addressed his 'soul,' 'Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.'

Jesus taught us to have confidence, not in the grain in our barns, but in the providence of God. His call for seeking justice and ensuring the kingdom of God is this providence in human actions and work of grace.

The man who came to Jesus with the request to settle the matter of property was probably denied the just portion that he deserved. His brother may have been greedy and powerful. Jesus probably was sad on the emptiness of that greedy person. This emptiness is also reflected in the sadness filled in the heart of rich young man.

The question is not only about how we handle riches, but what is our richness and what is the sense that it generates in us. We are in a time even crisis is made opportunities for profit at the cost of common welfare. Many lost lives and livelihood to Covid, but during the struggle there emerged many super rich people. Many died and fled due to Ukraine- Russia war, but it became an occasion for weapon sale. People die due to hunger, when we have surplus of food grains.

Greed is connected with the craze for domination. After possessing wealth and ruling over the world, what is the nature of 'soul discovery' within us? If the world is in misery and conflict, that reflects our 'souls.'

Psalmist has a beautiful expression: "Bless the Lord, my soul, let all my being bless his holy name." It is not a verbal jubilation, it is the orientation of the soul for action having found the manifold roots of one's soul.

Penitential Pilgrimage

"Pope meets the indigenous"

Pope is in 'penitential pilgrimage."
Wow! Beautiful headlines!

The same publishers had blamed Pope for supporting the 'destructive' nature of Amazon Synod. Even the very feather headdress was scorned at. Then, the synod was defending the habitats of the indigenous which challenged the interests of the corporates. So the 'Pope was wrong.' Now, it is simply an apology, and it does not matter to us.

But it should matter to us.
The indigenous voice, songs, dance, and forms of prayer do have the Word element, they deserve recognition. After all who is anyone who is to offer recognition other than Christ himself.
This penitential pilgrimage also should matter to us, because of the injustices caused by categorizing and humiliating some as low cast and outcast.

Rise again

Advanced warplanes cannot fight the heat waves, and hurricanes,

Yet we are getting for space wars.
Economy of greed, fraud and revenge,
never cares for life on the planet.
The few superrich are assured of life life-savers,
as others struggle for survival.
But, their money cannot stand,
the fire is so hot,
the storm is so strong.
Turn to the dust with gratitude,
see the soul of humanity,
we might rise again.

Sanctuary of the Lord

Moulding a heart for justice, kindness and peace, we can come to the door of our hearts and say, here is the sanctuary, the sanctuary of the Lord.

It is not one moment effect or a day's effort. Growing goodness and the deprivation of the good remain with us. The thorny nature formed from our deficiencies will turn harmless. The orientation for goodness treats them within.

Empty images of God

We are stressed because of availability of too many alternatives. We choose the best one,
and immediately there is a feeling that some other choice would be better.
Even God, we prefer the best image suitable for our state of mind,
still we find many others.
We hunt behind these images
in familiar religious imageries,
at the cost of the real one,
ending up loving empty images of God.

Blind eyes

God cannot open the eyes or ears, 

if one has blinded or deafened oneself.
They never grasp the values of the Good News.
They abandon the source of life giving waters, and prefer broken cisterns.
The prophets follow things with no power in them,
not because following any strange Gods,
but by following power and money covered in the very name of God.

Hyper-piety and rigid traditions blind and deafen us.
Truly open ears and eyes recognize the light of the gospel in the very lives they live.
God is gracious.

Jonah's sign

Jonah stands for anyone, especially the zealous ones,

who applies divine justice exclusively to themselves as the chosen ones,' 

acts with pride,
and condemns all others wrong,
and desires their destruction,
and fails to have tender love.

Christ acted justly,
loved tenderly,
and walked humbly before the Lord.

Who deserves justice according to our judgments?
who deserves our tender love?
are we comfortable to walk humbly or do we need a defenses that pride offers?

Reception for Jesus

Was there someone for talking to the man who was carried by the good Samaritan to the inn? Was there someone to prepare food for him? We don't know. After all it is a parable. Religion and customs could not receive him, but the stranger could.

Jesus faced rejection from many.
The reception at the house of Martha and Mary was consoling, comforting, and strengthening. They came near to him, poured wine and oil, talked to him and served him. Son of man did need a place to rest and be comforted.

Whether the 'reception' is given or not is not at all a matter for us now. We go to buffet, have food, and return home. But 'reception' does matter whether it be in a family, or society, or in the church. Our comfortable belonging depends on the hearty reception. We must receive it, and offer it.

Rest for your soul

 "My spirit in me seeks for you."

The spirit is a thirst to grow into what we are meant to be.
The spirit of God touches this thirst, comforts, consoles, strengthens.
The yoke is easy, for it is supported by divine life,
and strengthens our being.
Gradually and slowly, the rest may be felt,
moment of fulfilment, fruition, and passing on.

Preferring Christ

Having Jesus is not about changing one's belief system. It is a radical choice to be a human so fully that one lives not just for oneself alone but for all humanity and the whole creation. Gifts of the Holy Spirit is given to us to enable us to live this choice.

Until this desire becomes the essence of our worship, Christ will continue to be in a deity form in our imaginations. He will not be experienced as the messiah, and his incarnation will never be experienced as a reality.

Until it is brought to our conviction, the Eucharist will be a bread ritual invoking supernatural power to the bread. God's question to the Israelites will be repeated, "What are your endless sacrifices to me?" The Eucharist is about living in Christ entering into communion he established with God. This communion includes a living sacrifice, reconciliation and fraternity.

Having Jesus necessarily involves sacrifice, communion, a life of gratitude, deeds of love without boundaries. Any attempt to extend the boundaries is sensed as a threat to a community, religion or culture in a cocoon safety. That is the challenge of having Jesus. Preferring one's loved customs, traditions, liturgy, religious leaders and their 'powerful' ministries above Christ is not worthy of Him.