The Book of Life and Death - Margaret's Funeral (27th July)

The modern tricks to tackle pain and suffering and the books written on that subject are on the increase that it demands we do them. We have to wear blacks, hide our eyes, our emotions, and exchange very few words. Silence in this trauma-filled occasion is almost all the time is understood as a tool to avoid any disturbance that we might cause to the loved ones who experience the loss. Physical distancing is good they think that they are not distracting anyone. Hiding our emotions and not weeping would never make us adults since we are all children of God. Loss of a loved one such as a mother or a good friend cannot be controlled or hidden and there is no reason to control or hide!

Jesus wept at the death of Lazarus and Jesus wept over JRS. There are different stages we experience on our way to weeping. The onlooker just comes and goes and there is no emotion being experienced; for people who know the decease person, it is a moment of feeling sorry – something very external in nature. ‘I feel sorry for you but I am perfectly ok and nothing happened to me.’ For a good friend, it is a moment he/she misses a good company. For a family, it is internal in all possible ways. “I am broken, I am buried alive”, “I am lost and confused”. But very few of us feel that the death of a person is a personal challenge of our faith, hope and moreover love.

Children copy the faith pattern of the parents; friends share the faith pattern of each other. Thus in many ways our faith journeys crossed and we complimented each other and prayed for each other. We judge the faith of people by its cover. That was the way Jesus was judged. The cover looks so dull and uninteresting. It is another life; we are all going to die and nothing special about it; my faith is not founded on the resurrection of Jesus. The cover is worn out and torn in many places.

We need sufficient time with the book of life. That time has to be necessarily filled with faith, hope and love. No one better understands the book other than the author. No one goes through the same channels, roads and journeys other than the author. God is the author of life and death. All answers are found in God only if we have faith and surrender to God in humility and prayerful adoration. Every believer writes his/her own book of life and death. Some books are meant to be read and read again. Every page on motherhood, every page on humble, unnoticed prayers, sacrifices, the pain at her last days are read today for a purpose. Take her book of life and death and decorate your lives, read it; study it for the growth of the family, for the increase of faith in the family.

We read the book of Jesus’ life and death in this house so that we may life and life in abundance. And even the cover speaks a volume here!

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Among the many unwanted, false and distorted image of God down the century that stayed in the mind of people is the image of God as punisher. The primary lessons that we have always learnt in our church reflect are God in each personhood has a distinct role to play in the history of people: God as creator, God as sustainer and God as provider. In Hindu reflection the discussion on who holds the whole world together falls on Vishnu the sustainer God as he has the most time in sustaining and providing for People. In our Catholic stand point, God the Father who is also the creator sustains and provides for the universe through the Son and the Spirit and purifies the world through the Spirit with the Son. Trinity is present in all aspect of Creating, proving for and purifying the universe.

The distorted image took us away from God: God as a destroyer is so strange in our Christian thinking. It makes us uncertain and stagnates our faith in God forever thus there is no room for increase of Faith in God. Why God is going destroy the earth? Why God is going to punish the earth? Why there is a hell? Why there is an eternal judgment and the submission of our account at the last minute of our lives to God? These instigate a lot of fear in people and traditionally have been intended to encourage people to be good Christians. Kali, the woman God in Hinduism, God as great judge, God destroying Sodom and Gomorrah or even the whole world, Jihadists in Islam who kill think they are gods in bringing judgment here and now are a few extremist ways of looking at God.

God’s love is so powerful when we think about other human emotions being put to God such as anger, frustration, disappointment, jealousy, envy, punishing nature. These are emotions originating from people, often installed in God to find reasons for their failures and worst conditions in life. God is not sending the rain because he is angry; my son or daughter died because God wants to teach me a lesson that I was not regular to Church; I met with an accident because God is angry with me.

The primary roles of creating, sustaining and purifying could teach us only about the God who loves. God in the 1^st reading didn’t just lower the number to 10, rather to his Son in history. God so loved the world that he gave his only Son not to condemn but to give life. The only emotion that fits God is love since loving is divine to the fullest. The rest of the negative emotions are from us and from our sins. Deliverance is from God through love.

Adam had a prayer to become a god and he asked the devil to help him. Solomon had a prayer to acquire wisdom and he asked God who is the source of all wisdom. Abraham’s prayer of fatherhood, Moses’ prayer for leadership, Samuel’s prayer of being a prophet, Mary’s prayer of servanthood, Jesus prayer of strengthening the disciples, Paul’s prayer of mission are all remind us a God who cares for life and not death.

Knowing what to ask and knowing who to ask, knowing the right image of God when asking are essential in any prayer. If you have the right image of God, your prayers will be based on that image. God give me the strength to kill my enemies; God give me the courage to forgive and wisdom to consider no one my enemy – they both show us our images of God. Ask the God of love and you will receive love.

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On the feast of Mary Magdalene! (22nd July)

God chose Israel not because they were faithful, sincere, God-fearing, intelligent, powerful or wealthy nation rather Israel was the weakest and smallest people at that time of history. God’s revelation and the economy of salvation are revealed to the weakest and smallest of people throughout history.

One of the powerful prayers of Jesus other than the Lord’s prayer in the gospels is the prayer for the Apostles – I thank you father for hiding these things from the learned and wise and revealing them to little children.. (Matthew 11:25). Towards the end of the prayer Jesus concludes – No one knows the father except the son and here comes the powerful promise: and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. That’s what exactly we found in today’s gospel – Jesus choosing to reveal himself to Mary Magdalene.

What is more interesting is to find the compromising similarities between the confession of Peter and the confession of Mary Magdalene. Peter differs in opinion from the people, proclaiming that Jesus was the Messiah, the Son of the Living God. Jesus says, “Simon! Flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but my father in heaven.” In the confession of Mary – her witnessing to the revelation of Jesus as Rabbouni would attract the same validation from Jesus – “Mary of Magdala, flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but my father in heaven.” In other words, Jesus chose to reveal himself to Mary.

Jesus’ relationship with Mary is so powerful that they not only share the same place of Galilee, they also share the same missionary spirit. Jesus’ relationship with Mary is so central to the apostles, church and to the Kingdom of God because she stood fearless when all ran away; she took part in the agony of Jesus and also took part in the agony of Mary the Mother of Jesus. She stood to the ground till the end! She stood strong in her faith! How strong is our faith? Can we witness our faith till the end?

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God's love is eternal - Funeral of Francis!

Death of a Christian is always a bitter-sweet experience. For people who have no faith, death is a random, chaotic and a senseless word with no purpose or meaning. For them personal tragedy leads only to despair. For them life on this earth is nothing more than a sadistic riddle. For us Christians – the people of Faith, death is a realization of God’s eternal and everlasting love. Socrates once said, “Death may be the greatest of all human blessings.”

Let us look into all our human relationships: the known acquaintances, ordinary friendships, close friendships, legendary love stories, history-book love stories and great marriages all validate the same slogan: Death do us apart. Mark 12 we read about Pharisees asking Jesus the question about after-life. If a man dies and the woman marries 7 people, when happens at the resurrection. Jesus says, when they rise from the dead they neither marry nor are given in marriage. Human relationships are limited to this life; they are lacking in the ‘eternal’ element in them.

Ps 103:17 we read, from eternity to eternity the Lord’s love is with those who fear him. Bodily death is not the primary concern for God’s eternal love but certainly the spiritual death, the death of our faith. As a war veteran Francis would have known how power worked! As a rifleman he knew his targets and also he was a man of commitments: 42 years of service in Jersey Power and light company. These commitments and whole-hearted services are the shadows of our eternity with God. We need these images of committed love, vows and promises to try and experience the eternal love of God.

Eternal love of God is the sure symbol of our eternal life with God: if God loves us eternally, we should be alive to reciprocate that love. With sure and certain hope Francis is welcomed into the eternity of God. That leaves us with a big challenge of in continuously attempting to experience eternity in our own ways. Experiencing eternity needs a tremendous faith and a committed heart to love God and others. As we continue to pray for the repose of the soul of Francis, let us also remember and pray for our own attempts to experience the eternity and those attempts are guided and blessed by the Spirit of God. Amen.

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The Better Part! (18th July)

A priest asked his class, “Tell me 3 things that you learnt in today’s gospel.” Little Johnny got up and said, “1. Jesus was a big eater; Martha had to cook so much. 2. Mary was lazy & a hopeless helper at the kitchen and 3. Martha and my mom have the same style.” The Christians in India are known for inviting the priests to their houses for all occasions. I had one such chance to visit a poor home. They were from a low-caste and they were delighted once they heard the priest is coming into their home. The man had 3 kids and I took a friend along. I cannot forget the day when we didn’t run out of food but we ran out of plates in that house! The little kid wanted to feed me; the joy on those faces was so great and the memory lasted for long. It’s hard to see a thin priest and they blame in on the people.

Both the 1^st and the 3^rd readings talk about feeding the holy men. In Hinduism the great sages always have earthen vessel in their cotton bag to beg for food. Holy men in early civilizations either lived on their own or begged. People viewed the providing to a holy man is a great spiritual duty and it brings in enormous blessing on the family. In the past many took great care in their hospitality as it could sometime bring a curse from the holy men.

Jesus was a great friend of Martha, Mary and Lazarus and always spent time with them on his way to JRS. The familiarity part is so important to understand and appreciate the personality of Jesus. He was a very loving and simple person. He enjoyed the friendship and hospitality of people. Though many people just see this story as something ordinary lacking in substance, Jesus brings in a central theme of checking our priorities in life.

Initially the 7^th day was made holy and the Jews called it Sabbath. Gradually Christians viewed Sunday as the day of Resurrection thus Sunday became our focus. The concept of rest in Christianity is so commercialized that a great shift took place in no time: from a day when we all can rest in God’s word and recline at the Lord’s feasting table for the sake of spiritual refreshment to one day when we can sleep in and spend time with family. The commercialized word ‘rest’ has a meaning of a body that is trying to survive the demands of our society; religion and church as an added burden to our longing for rest!

I work 6 days a week; I have 5 children; I am divorced; I got exams; my children have sports schedules; Macy’s having a sale; we went to the shore are common reasons directly related to our need for rest and our right to take it from our only primary need to take rest in the Lord. Other reasons are so degrading that I don’t like to mention here! We often have blamed it on God and another 20 years won’t make any difference!

Watch when a Christian says, “No time to pray or get to Church.” He or she is lying. The real reason is; I had more important things to attend to; I did not feel that prayer and mass and even God is 1^st, 2^nd or 3^rd in my list. Mary was chosen for a better part – she was given a great faith that permanently believes that our rest in God is the only rest that could bring us refreshment, after all Recreation is Re – creation.

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