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?

sacramentality of liturgy

The church is meant to be the sacrament of salvation. No liturgical renewal that does not hold the sacramental nature of making the gospel visible to the world is fruitful. The adorned stones and the solemn festivals in the temple were more aesthetic and awesome than the ordinary carpenter. But the ancient and the beautiful did not carry sacramentality with them.

the temple

Rivers of grace flow in all of us. These rivers meet each of us in one or the other way. That is the way we make ourselves of the temple of God. The dwelling place of God is in the communion of all creation.

Faith- love- healing

The real cost of discipleship is a deliberate choice to love. It is costly because that choice demands laying down all our boundaries that separate others from us. So many 'what abouts' may come on the way to make exceptions to this choice. Such excuses devalues what we choose in following Christ. 

The 'known' disciples immediately become faith healers and miracle workers. Jesus was not a faith healer. The faith that he had or he asked for was not a religious definition of a creed. He healed because he was full of love. It is that love that healed. Do the disciples have the deliberate choice to love? Most healers stand in contrast to Jesus. While preaching religion, they do not denounce hatred and cruelty, but instead propagate enmity  indirectly or directly. They canonize violence. 

Understanding Jesus' words

Did apostles know everything that Jesus taught? No! They gradually understood that their understanding was to be corrected as they moved through various circumstances. They knew that Jesus was guiding them, though not fully knowing what all those things meant. They taught and they lived what they understood. They were understanding gradually. There is a foundation, but it was being built gradually further. Have we understood Jesus, or the apostles? Some of us claim that we do, even more than them. Can we close God to what they understood, and say that we are sure what Jesus said, and still says? Should our interpretations not be open for new light? Understanding Jesus' words receives its impetus from the Holy Spirit that cries out with deep sighs in cultural changes, new trends, pains and tragedies, and innovations and strengths and new capabilities. Thus the understanding speaks the words of touching and completing those groanings.  

The Dead

Where are the dead? We have only one answer. They are in Christ. They live in Christ. Though they 'died,' they live, because Christ lives. Our relationship with the saints and the dead are not as an obligation that the non-doing of a veneration or prayers may cause punishment or trouble for us. Instead, our relationship with the saints and the dead is of charity, personal and divine. The remembering of the dead makes sense only within the communion in Christ as one body. All are part of that body. Remember their lives, the life they endured. We remember whom we know in gratitude and love. We forgive them and ask forgiveness from them. Those who are unknown are remembered in generosity and charity. All being in communion is the joy of the entire body. ||

It is not just about the dead alone, this time is a practice to extend our mercy and kindness to the weak, the vulnerable and the condemned. Just as it helps their sanctification or purgation, it also sanctifies us. A heart to receive the sinful and the vulnerable is essential for our own being in communion with Christ. A saintly ‘we’ group and a rejected ‘they’ group never open heaven for us, rather we close it against ourselves however holy and upright we claim to be. The reality of purgation is in active love and mercy. Often our attempts are only to prove the romanticised reality of a fascination towards purgatory. Very many learned hatred are sanctified under faithful living of Christian faith. They must burn in the flames of love that makes us accept the condemned, the sinful and whom we hate. Often this hatred is justified as fight against the evil, but it only sacralise our heartlessness against our brothers and sisters. Thus we close heaven for ourselves and for them even now. An honest living deepens our communion in the one body of Christ. Except for the moments if there are deliberate evil deeds or holding of hatred, in our simple lives we live a life of holiness. Peace, holiness, sanctity, all these can never be achieved holding it as a high ideal, they are a call and a responsibility we need to commit as individuals and as the church. It is everyone’s role to strengthen, comfort, and console one another. This communion reminds us to live in Christ, in communion with him and with others. Died to sin, died in Christ all have a new self, that is being part of the body of Christ. 

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Grace-culture

How much more do we speak of sin than of grace? How much more emphasize on the 'instruments' of sin than we being the instruments of grace? A guilt culture is so dominant in Christian spirituality that it almost avoids the 'freedom of righteousness,' and the freedom of the kingdom of God. Find a small sign that we ourselves, or a simple gesture being an instrument of grace. It will open a new culture of grace within us. We shall be freed of a world framed in the culture of guilt.

self-canonised terrorists

 There are self-canonized terrorists whose cruelty is justified by legal and political correctness, and even by descriptions of Gods and scriptures. There are on the other side terrorists condemned by others.

Sign greater than Jonah

Nineveh was the capital of the ancient Assyrian empire, a great cultural center, beautiful with gardens, statuary, parks, and a zoo. It was destroyed by the Babylonians. So many years after, in a time after return from exile, some reflected the greatness and fall of this city to form the story of Jonah.  Jonah was reluctant to preach.  There is something significant in Jonah. Though he knew the nature of God as loving, merciful, and slow to anger, he could not tolerate God being merciful to a foreign nation. Jonah reflects the conscience of the exclusive chosen feeling of  the then Israel. All are God's people and God wants to bring life for all people. God made a covenant, People of the covenant have a call to be a sign for all people, that all receive the promise of God. 

Jesus introduced the kingdom not simply as a vision, but as a call and commitment. His announcing statement was this, "The spirit of the Lord has anointed me to preach Good News to the Poor. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised. It was the sign of the nature of the kingdom of God. Here is someone greater than Jonah.

The story of Jonah says that the Ninevite, though a gentile nation, repented listening to the preaching of Jonah. The people who asked for signs from Jesus, were not ignorant of the message. The message was clear, 'God is with us,' God is compassionate,' 'God cares for the poor and the weak.' But they were shrewd enough to know that these have consequences. So they use tricks to escape from them. The challenge was to accept universal salvation. 

The great sign challenges us too. God loves all, all are God's children. God's heart holds no boundaries of nation, religion, ideology, and traditions. So, be at ease to see the freedom and joy of the kingdom is offered to all. To allow that from the heart requires an attitude of accepting and welcoming those whom we have judged and kept aside. Then, the sign that we are called to become is the freedom of the children of God, sign of the message that God is with us, message of peace and consolation.

Sign greater than Jonah

Illusory perfections

When we form theology and spirituality from illusions, we expect perfections in others by being in those illusions. Those demands form arrogance and stubbornness. Can we achieve holiness or heaven by such imaginary worlds? Rather, why don't we try acts of kindness, love and mercy though we can't give defined moments and actions of those? We can't trust the spontaneity of these qualities, but are ready to confide on the security of illusory perfections.

Announcing the Gospel

Preachers pull the crowd in many ways.

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

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

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

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

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

you will find your life

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

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

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

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

Lose these for my sake ...

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

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

Priest - liturgy

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

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

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

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

Christ-coming

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

John the Baptist

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

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

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

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

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

Did he keep peace facing the sword?

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

Christian Obedience

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

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

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

the last

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

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

Worship of Liturgy

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

walking on knees

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

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

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

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