family of God

Holy Family of Nazareth is a communion of love.
In that communion fullness of grace lives and brings fruit.
Communion of love cannot close the door for anyone.

If the church has to be a communion of love,

it must shed its elite spirituality elite theology, elite God, and elite holiness,

stop terming 'others' as pagans, heathens, barbarians ...

Communion of love cannot hold arrogant pride and scornful boastfulness.

Communion of love cannot canonise them and justify cruelty and evil.

Instead, it opens the eyes and hearts of goodness,

towards the truth of Christ that is beyond all elite thinking.

The light of Christ shines among all people of goodwill.

They are the family of God, 

a family beyond the boundaries of elite 'chosen' people.

The Word did become flesh

Beauty (glory) of God shines in people good will; not as a rewarding light shining on them but as a flower's beauty. Good will reflects in virtues, but in them, what invites to God's beauty is the sincere labour one makes to keep the good will always.

Where do we experience, share, and hold this beauty other than in our physical-biological reality? It is sacramental. All theo-logics spoke about that aspect of us which we call soul. Rarely they considered the physicality in contemplating human reality. Christ's very incarnation speaks primarily of being human. He dwelt among us that we may be fully human. We be his body, sacramentally and physically.
Titles God of gods, and king of kings ... destroys the very will of God in incarnation. If Christ is Christ only with these titles, he is yet to incarnate, there is no beauty of God nor of humanity shining in him. Christ is born human, humanly.

The Word in us

The Word found a home, not in a sacred world, not in the temple, not in the palace.
The word found a home in the profanity of everyday human conditions.

The Word was made flesh.
The Word was visible in nature
in its marvelous dynamics of caring for and maintaining each of its members.
The word has been in human forms in care, kindness, compassion and goodness in all ages.
The Word incarnated in human form.
He was cared for by a helpless mother and father,
sheltered by shepherds.

There is a communion of bodies that care for the Word made flesh.
Care manifests in a blessing,
"Blessed are you, and blessed is the Word you have given birth."
There is rejoicing in my flesh because of your presence, your word, your touch.
It is in communion of our bodies we can welcome and in-personalize the Word.
It is in communion of bodies we can be the living Word, incarnate and risen.
There is beauty and glory shared,
pains and injuries known,
healing desired,
and Christ is known to be alive in the flesh.

Joy of His coming

In preparation for Christmas, some are preparing sweets, some are planning for cribs, others thinking of gifts. The sight of the final outcome and the enjoying of sweets are the moments of happiness. Christmas joy, really, is an outcome of having the child at the manger of Bethlehem in our life. Once we have seen him, taken him, and loved him, our life receives a new light and joy.

A theme that comes often in this season is the great banquet in the book of Isaiah: “… the Lord Almighty will prepare a great banquet for all peoples (Isaiah 25:6-9).” In the context of Advent, a time of waiting and preparation, this great banquet is awaited and personalised. A humble feeding manger becomes a symbol of the great banquet, where God’s abundance and love are shared with all people. This banquet, where God will wipe away tears and destroy death, remove every disgrace from all the earth offers a powerful message of joy and hope. The banquet at the manger is not a symbol, it is a reality. The poor, the meek, the afflicted will eat and be satisfied; those who seek the Lord will rejoice in him (Psalm 22:26). We go to the manger to take him into our hands and hearts, to be fed by him, to be comforted and healed; burdens to be lightened and find rest for our souls.


Another verse from Isaiah, “the Lord will rejoice over you” (Isaiah 62:5, Zephaniah 3:17) provides a comforting renewal promise from God. People suffered abandonment and rejection, and the land became desolate. God renamed their painful wounds, as ‘God’s Delight,’ and ‘the Bride of God.’ When the mystery of incarnation touches us deeply, this child given to us is an anointing, soothing our weary souls. Regardless of our past experiences, feelings of abandonment, or societal labels, we find a new definition in the baby in the manger, the banquet of life. In him, we can find that we are worth something, the worth of a child of God. This is our true identity, one grounded in love and acceptance, fostering a sense of inner peace and fulfilment. By calling us the ‘Bride of God’ God shows us how he cherishes our belonging to him. It is nourishment that removes every shame and makes us stand worthy amidst people. In those moments of despair, when the weight of the world feels particularly heavy, we can sense God’s gentle hand guiding us through our pain. It is often in the quiet stillness of prayer that His comfort washes over us like a warm embrace. The Holy Spirit speaks truths of our lives into our hearts, reminding us of God’s unfailing love and the sacredness of our journey, even when the path feels obscured by shadows. In fact, we are re-narrating our life in the joy of God, re-naming and rebirthing ourselves. It is the beginning of a process of re-birthing the Messiah in us.


We can experience God’s unique comfort through the presence of our loved ones — those who listen to us, who walk beside us, and whose laughter reminds us of joy even amidst sorrow. They become sacraments of His grace, reflecting the love of Christ in tangible ways. Nature, too, reveals God’s majesty and tenderness; a blooming flower, a serene sunrise, or the gentle rustle of leaves can spark a mystical connection, drawing us closer to the Creator who designed these wonders for our delight.

The comfort from God is woven throughout the fabric of our lives, illuminating even the darkest corners. It invites us into a deeper relationship with Him, fostering a mystical intimacy where our souls resonate with His divine presence, ultimately guiding us toward healing and peace. In this sacred communion, we find the strength to persevere and the assurance that God's love surrounds us, cradling us in our moments of need.

The banquet, the comfort, rejoicing are they all real? Or a feel-good imaginations? The child given to us makes it real. Christ is the banquet of joy, a reality we must realise in us. The divine child is fed at the breast of Mary. Mary brings forth the best fruit of her life. The shepherds arrive with help and care. There is a banquet of communion of bodies, the potential of grace in human bodies. Joy comes as a living reality only when our bodies are engaged in communion which ensures comfort and healing for one another. Tears will be wiped away, no one will be abandoned, prejudices may be removed, and life will be ensured. Christ is revealed and born in our communion. There is the real joy of the birth of Christ.

When children cry in fear and pain, when there is no flower and sweetness, when only smoke, fire, and bombshells are all around, the joy of Christmas is not from a passive hope but from an active stand for justice. If there is no Christophany in us amidst the invisibles and the uncounted among our brothers and sisters, there is no good news.

We pray that we may be able to approach Christ with a sincere expectation to see him in our life. In us, there may be a manger, fear of tragedy, or wandering for meaning. The reality of incarnation may be real in us only if we are ready to see Christ in simplicity, humiliation, shame, and limitations. Because it is there, we find ourselves in Christ to be born anew into the freshness of life.

Perhaps it is worth taking the child Jesus like Simeon in our hands. He saw a fulfilment of what he had waited for. His heart was filled with peace and contentment. Let us now take into our hearts the words of Isaiah 9:6: “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” Christ, born as a child, is a sure sign that he has entered into our human realities. His rule in faithfulness and justice will ensure life and hope for us. He guides, guards, nourishes, and leads us in peace.

This is a great gift to us from God. In Christ, God recreates us, not just by a command, but by an active involvement in our lives. We are reminded of a transformative relationship with God, our relationship as the children of God. When we truly embrace this gift with open hearts, a deep sense of gratitude and joy fills our hearts. Is it not wonderful to feel that joy, especially when we understand what it truly means to be the children of God? It’s a journey that brings us closer to God and to one another.

Joy also springs forth when we actively live out the virtues seen in the Bethlehem community. In sharing joy with others—especially the marginalized and the poor—we mirror the heart of God, who delights in lifting up the downtrodden. In doing so, we experience the freedom that comes from loving as we have been loved, and our joy becomes a wellspring that nourishes our souls and those around us.

Gratitude is something essential for experiencing joy. We often find ourselves struggling to find happiness in the midst of challenges. What else can make the people around the nativity scene joyous other than gratitude? Mary and Joseph were grateful; the shepherds and the wise men were grateful. There was nothing so great to be excited about. There was not only an incarnation of Christ, there was also an incarnation of care, presence, and happiness, which brought all of them there. Can we find something in our lives every day to be grateful for? Gratitude gradually shifts our focus from limitations to something worthy of us. Perhaps, our words or actions were very significant to some others. Even some silly things have been so great step in our own life. We realise something surrounding us, goodness and provision in our lives. Even for the moments we have failed, gratitude can give us a sense of need for God’s assistance in our lives. God’s sure presence, the experience of ‘God is with us’ is another reason for great joy.

“… a child is given to us.” This givenness deeply expresses the generosity of God. It is also a great sign of God’s love, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son (John 3:16).” Love is the reason for God’s generosity, and God gives fully because God’s nature is love and goodness. Jesus emptied himself for us in his love that we may live fully. Thus, God’s generous love redeems us from sorrows, fears, loneliness and rejection. This divine generosity invites us also to be generous. We offer gifts to others in this season of Christmas. If we are to share in God’s nature of generosity and goodness, we share ourselves in a process of self-emptying. That is strengthening, healing, comforting and life-giving. As we become a sacrament of God’s love and goodness, we experience joy not only in receiving but in giving. That is the beauty of joy that flows from love shared among us all. It also reflects the beauty of God, and causes the song of the angels, “Glory to God in the Highest, and peace to people of goodwill.”

joy fruitfulness

Joy comes from the sense of fruitfulness.

Joy descends deep into oneself to bring more fruits once again.
Gospel grows in us to form the tree of life that bears fruits in every season.

Christ was not there

In the crowns, Christ was not there.

When they fought wars,
expanded kingdoms,
spread a 'Christian God,'
adorned crowns,
Christ was not there.

Faith - grace - Immaculate

Faith is a responsible and mature choice for a deep relationship. Often our 'faith' ends up in believing in magic. Making God or Christ a hero is the worst crisis of our faith. A hero deserves fascination, not trust. The hero enters the scene, and everything is brought to what we wish.

The manger at Bethlehem deserves faith, not amusement. There is poverty and shame, and the presence of the hated. A hero does not involve himself in such 'human' realities.

The immaculate conception is a gift of God to Mary, and so, in turn, a gift to the entire humanity as it is part of the plan of salvation. It is not a magic. It is God's way of preparing Mary to be the mother of Christ for us. Many generations were part of this plan opening their lives to the fulness of grace. In Mary, fullness of grace was received.

As a gift to us, the Immaculate conception is an assurance for us that God will fill our lives also with grace. The pride, hatred, revenge, greed, and competitiveness have raised structures that severely damage the image of God in us. The pain, burdens, and divisions that they cause remain as sin-originating principles. Faith, being a sincere, responsible relationship with God, brings light and life to us. Our injuries may be healed, and we may be enabled to deal with our bitterness in the ocean of grace. We may be able to sustain one another with the grace we each has received, and together conceive the body of Christ.

Light to see the Messiah

An anointing and the presence of the anointed one is an experience of salvation over our wilderness. It is faith that gives light to see the messiah even when Messiah enters our life not with glory and power but with kindness and mercy. All will be gathered in the heart of the messiah. Messiah is a connect between humanity and divinity, between creation and the divine. We have repeatedly crucified the Messiah even before he would be born in us by making him a deity. He is divine, one substance with God. Deifying constrains the divine into some forms and make an object of cult. Messiah liberates, but a deity-messiah blinds.

 The gospel is a life-outline for living with the Messiah, and living in him. Gospel opens our heart to relive him, not to deify him. All who have got the light of faith come with their own perfumes, lowers, music and songs. If Messiah lives and our definitions go insignificant, the friends of the bridegroom still rejoice. Friends who have no faith, keep guarding the bridegroom's room. 

To be born in the Messiah

We have entered the season of advent. As the birth of the Messiah is near, it is also a preparation for how we, too, are reborn into the newness of Christ. The gospel passage presents to us images of destruction and crisis. But these images are not for being frightened, but for being watchful of ourselves.

In fact, the whole season of Advent calls us to watchfulness, to see how we are prepared for the birth of the Messiah in us. Many times, we will listen, “Prepare the way of the Lord.” This preparedness is with a purpose that we may stand confidently before the Son of Man. How shall we be watchful or prepare ourselves? Come out in our darkness with the hope of radiant light even if it is still dark. There may be a little drop of sunshine which has come to visit us. Amidst struggles and crises, this radiance is a deep desire, a sigh of our emptiness. We want to cry from the wilderness, “Come Lord.”

Advent hope, and the Christmas joy find their true and deep meaning in the shattered shelters of wilderness. The dawn of the revelation of the Son of Man brings great consolation and peace. We meet with ‘the Lord our Integrity,’ the faithful love. So, the salvation we enter into is an experience of dwelling in confidence in that love. Let us begin this from the experience of being consoled. In the coming days, we will also listen to readings describing the rich banquet of food and wine. Consolation in God’s faithful love leads us to approach him confidently and be filled and satisfied.

Isiah speaks of Christ as the virtuous branch who practices honesty and integrity. This season must make us such a branch that offers consolation, completion, and satisfaction for others. It’s a season we must feel the force of life in us, the life of Christ that wants to flower and fructify in us. Can we imagine ourselves as the virtuous branch after the image of Christ?

Amidst the disasters and perils, this season also gives us a great sign: a woman with a child. See Mary with Jesus, her hope and trust, and her dreams. Advent challenges us in our preparedness and watchfulness in our sincere effort to safeguard the dreams of women with child. Every woman wit a child dares to hope. They cry in the wilderness for a drop of future. We cannot have an experience of integral salvation and a joyful celebration of the birth of Christ when a woman places her child in the manger without bread. We cannot make Beth-lehem, the house of bread, if we continue to create the house of emptiness.

Let us feel the force of love that wants to sprout, let us feel the warmth of the rising Sun, the salvation drawing near. It's an earnest desire and a sincere commitment. Drawn to the Lord our integrity, we walk in confidence to be born in the Messiah.

Universal King

Christ who unites everything and holds everything in peace is honoured as the universal king.
The imperial image of Christ before whom every knee shall bow is a human creation. While reestablishing Christendom the kingdom of Christ cannot come.
God or the saints with golden crowns is a disfiguration of the message of Christ. It only stands for triumphalistic craze of a religion.
Gospel requires 'good soil' to have Christ born in.
Christ is not a superpower deity standing with hammer, sword, and scepter. Christ is the logos, the word, through whom everything was made. The word guides and shapes the cosmos, history and culture. Thus, he is the shepherd and the source of life.

Natural-Divine

 Do Christians really believe in 'incarnation' that God really became a human being? However Christian imaginations are generally about super-naturals, victories, and triumph. Is it not abominable to imagine Jesus or Mary having a romantic feeling? Were not thousands of generations open to natural graces that open the channels of race towards a supernatural grace of Immaculate Conception? It is easy to glorify God 'becoming' bread (which is not correct. Eucharistic presence is Christ in the form of bread), but difficult to accept God acting in natural ways/laws. In the first, there is a miraculous wonder, in the second, it is a call to relate our life to God so naturally as we are.

Good and evil

We are habituated to binarize between good and evil. There are often many things that cook up evil, but remain invisible or unnoticed. These constructive elements may be disguised within the very things we have categorized as good and holy. This chosen good reflects the cruelty of our hypocritical judgements.

Where will we place God in this good-evil creation? Which is a holy people, a leader, or a nation? Truth is unconcealed only when there is kindness and compassion. So, God cannot take sides. If we put God into our chosen good and maintain the disguised evil, surely, we will also promote evil-making structures in the name of God. It can create rituals, customs and even history. 

Truth is grey and lives pass through varied struggles of good and evil. There are chosen evils and imposed evils. The light of truth is in the honesty of heart which is rarely known.

Mark of the Covenant

The owner would make a mark on his animals as a sign that it belonged to him. Many groups of people also had certain marks of them as an identity of the particular group. 

Circumcision marked the sign of the covenant with God as one belonged to God. But the law-covenant bond followed a pattern forbidding to safeguard the purity of the covenant. 

Covenant of grace is inviting, not forbidding. Its a belonging to Christ, being in him, he being in us, and we all being in him. The imprint of Christ is the mark of the new covenant, sign of being loved and found by Christ. Reception of baptism does not guarantee this imprint in us. Covenant of grace takes us to a communion, producing its fruits.

Halloween

It is better not to demonise nor canonise Halloween. It is to be taken in the context of the anglosaxon-celtic cultural background. Like Onam in Kerala, it's a harvest festival. It's perhaps because of it, the role of the tomato, and pumpkin ... It is also a new year celebration, the beginning of a new time. As the (re)beginning of time, the dead are believed to return homes. Afraid of evil spirits the living would disguise their face to escape from them.
Gradually all these became fun and game.
Many of them who celebrate don't even think about a God to dishonour or a devil to be celebrated. Some people like to see devils everywhere and they do find them. People who are religious and God's people engaging in war, hatred, greed, power-games ... are all for God's glory. There, in fact, beliefs are worshipped than God, and evils can be easily justified.

You shall not be like that

Christ suffered, but it was not because he suffered that he became the Messiah. He is the Life-bearer/ grace-bearer for humanity and, of course, for the entire creation even before the incarnation. He poured out his life that we may have life. His suffering and self-emptying were life-giving. 

Christ poured out his life as a ransom for many when Kings and priests gathered power and wealth. There is a king in the palace, there is a high priest in the temple. Our high priest is one among us being a source of life for us all. 

Here, the question comes to the disciples: Can you drink the cup I have to drink? It is not simply about a readiness to suffer. It is about an attitude of becoming a ransom that offers life. One works, suffers, serves, and thus flowers, but we need to see what fruits are produced from these flowers. Are they life-giving fruits? 

Life is non-sided, and the authority of life spans beyond boundaries. Disciples looked for power and position even in relation with Christ, because they understood him within the frames of powerful and wealthy priests and kings, not according to the nature of life.

Gospel into liberation and chains

The kingdom of God has no boundaries of languages, cultures, and religions. If the gospel we have heard and interpreted has not liberated us to understand that God loves everyone, we have not listened to the Gospel. The rightness, trueness, and power of the gospel are in the freedom and peace that all humanity can experience. Taking religion into public spheres under the disguise of devotion, worship, and witness rarely does any act of faith. Instead, they are attempts of religious supremacy, an expression devoid of freedom.

Victory Rosary and the Glory

God's glory is where 'the righteousness and peace' is realised. This righteousness cannot be restricted to any religious rule or the super-spread of any religion. 'Peace on earth' is what is pleasing to God rather than victories of religions.

Praying the Holy Rosary is for entering the heart of God and moulding one's life after the Gospel. Selfish, egoistic victory language describing the 'powers' of the Rosary is not a Rosary that reflects the Gospel.

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.