Advent is the season to experience the love of Our Father

All new liturgical year starts with Advent in Catholic Church. ‘Getting ourselves ready’ is going to be the key topic in Advent. We all know that getting ready and early preparation means our eagerness to do something. We get ready to visit someone, to go to church, to look for an important project, to build a house and the like show our willingness and dedication. Early preparation allows us to involve fully and experience a sense of satisfaction. No one wants to watch a half movie if we want to go to a theatre. Our eagerness to welcome God’s son starts on the first day of Advent and continues right through the whole year.

Isaiah in the first reading reminds us of God’s presence in our lives as ‘The Father’. In most cultures fathers are heads of the families. In most cultures fathers don’t talk much or let the mothers do the talking. Children feel at home talking to their mothers. Almost all the needs are met through mothers. Fathers fulfill a great responsibility in the families and most often they are not aware of it. While mothers teach them how to love, be gentle, be creative, fathers bring in a security, peace, strength and honour to the family. Witnessing children living without fathers, apart from the fact that the father is dead, is a heartbreaking sight. Most often divorces have always been the selfishness, irresponsibility of the fathers.

Jesus continuously teaches us this particular love of the father. The ‘Abba’ experience of Jesus reveals how close he is to His Father. Though he lived in a patriarchal society, he showed us a father’s love. Fathers love their family in their own way. Fathers have hearts full of love. This Father of Jesus delivers us from evil. Jesus’ Father and Our Father rejoiced at our birth; loved the way we tried walking; saw through all our happy as well difficult moments. Jesus told Mary when he was 12: Don’t you know that I have to be busy with my Father’s business? This reveals to us that we too share the same business. Our Father’s business is to provide us a home, love, care and security to teach, to laugh and play with us.

Advent is not just a season to alert us that we should be watchful! Be alert! Devil is going to get you. Advent is first and foremost the season to experience the love of Our Father. God so loved the world, he sent his son. We experience the unconditional love of the father even to the limits of sacrificing His Son for us. He is ready now to see His Son as a creature and a man in all things except sin. What are we ready for? To love Him or to crucify him? Amen.

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Every Christian should have a Bible

The Hindus say, “In the beginning was music”, and thus all the Hindu gods carry a particular musical instrument with them all the time. Shivites, a particular sect in Hinduism would say, “In the beginning was the Dance”. The whole creation and preservation of the universe is the result of God’s dance. We, the Christians say, “In the beginning was the word.” Every creation and salvation of all and sanctification of all is the result of the Word acting in and through us.

There have been more than a million things, concepts or persons claimed their permanence over God’s Word, such as money, fame or power or human life itself. There have been more than a million attempts and attacks on defaming or eradicating the authority and the reign of the Word. There are more people who refuse to believe in the supremacy of the Word of God than those who believe.

This century will witness a steady decline in the Bible prints and a gradual increase in Harry Potter, Self-help psychology on Business Administration, and the autobiography of the movie actors and politicians. More and more families dust the Bibles or donate them to charity organizations than attempting to find some spiritual nourishment. More and more Catholics approach priests for office work and not for biblical explanations or discussions. Either it is ‘sola Scriptura’ of the Protestants or ‘No Scripture’ of the ‘Catholics’.

Biblical tradition cannot be left to die. Bible contains the Person of God in its fullness. Let us make time in looking at the Heart of God in His words. It is not enough to say that every family has a Bible. Every person should have his or her personal Bible. The more the outer forces increase the more our spirituality has to increase. Amen.

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All you! Works of the Lord! Bless the Lord!

In Indian context, among the various harvest festivals Pongal is regarded as the most colorful and significant harvest festivals of the Southern Indians. Pongal is celebrated in the mid-January and the festival is normally for four days. The first day is called Bogi. On this day the unwanted and old clothes and belongings are all burnt. This signifies a certain renewal in people. The second day is the actual feast day of Pongal which is celebrated with the immediate family. Third day is Mattu Pongal. On this day the cattle which helped them to reap the harvest are respected. Fourth day is Kaanum Pongal. On this day the people visit the dear and near ones. Traditionally all these four days are observed as holy days and celebrated with gratitude in hearts even if the harvest is not plenty.

Here we celebrate another version of harvest festival. We value God’s guiding hand in all that sprang from the earth. We thank God for His generosity and love and care in blessing USA with great harvest overall that people will have plenty to eat and drink. God keeps us in the rich soil where we don’t witness poverty, malnutrition, illiteracy, lawlessness, leprosy in today’s gospel and other sociological disorders. He kept us in good order.

Every best order comes from God. God created the whole world and found it very good. God created man and woman and found it very good. Man started to take care of the creation and found it very bad. Every bad order such as destruction of the natural beauty, pollution of all sorts, war and killings and persecutions, physical disabilities are all the result of man’s efforts in taking care of the earth. The Psalmist sang: Oh! All you works of the Lord! Bless the Lord, sun and moon bless the Lord, stars of the heaven bless the Lord, river and seas bless the Lord… All creation has the right to look up to God and thank. A rose thanks God by flowering beautifully. A man blesses and thanks God by living the standards that God has set for him.

Our gratitude necessarily symbolizes our readiness to be faithful to God. The last words of Jesus today are: Stand up and go. This does not mean ‘continue to be a leper, suffering’ rather renew yourself as you are cleansed from your old self. Resume your responsibility as a witness of God’s generosity and love. May you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving. Amen.

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We need Wisdom to fight ‘Soul-stealing’

A man only becomes wise when he begins to calculate the approximate depth of his ignorance – Gian Carlo Menotti. Knowledge and wisdom come from God as free gifts so that we can understand and appreciate His wisdom. The Psalmist always praised God’s handiworks: O God! How great are your works; how deep are your designs, the foolish can never know this; and the fools can never understand it. God’s wisdom is given to us so that we may witness God’s love and care.

The early Christians were tormented by persecutions on all fronts of the empire. They needed the wisdom to accept their feelings of ‘dejection and rejection’. They wondered, “why should I die for Christ?’ We in this modern world experience a far dangerous situation than persecution. It is a situation of ‘soul stealing’. In persecution they lost their human bodies but kept their souls intact. The world today keeps the polluted bodies ‘intact’ and committing suicides with our souls. Engaging in sin and causing others to sin is in a way ‘soul stealing’.

The early Christians were tormented by false-teachings of false-prophets. They needed wisdom to point out the right people to shepherd them and teach them values of life and values of the Gospel. In our modern society we witness a far dangerous situation than false teaching and false prophets. We are weak and vulnerable to be tempted by anything, to believe in anything even if it brings death to our bodies or souls. This is another form of soul-stealing.

What are some of the forms of soul-stealing that I find in my society, in my family? Do I feel the absolute necessity to pray for wisdom as Solomon prayed? Do I feel that wisdom is far superior a wish than anything else that I wish for? Amen.
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The Poor widow was chosen for a reason

Gregory Ramkisoon, a writer in Trinidad, said, “Charity consists not so much on how much we give to the person but on how much we keep for ourselves.” Though the Old Testament valued ‘wealth’ as a sign of God’s blessing and wealthy people are signs of God’s presence on earth, ‘giving or sharing the wealth’ seem to be one of the main requirements of following Jesus. The rich young man was given the same command. ‘Giving and sharing’ could be difficult because we never experienced the joy and peace in watching others happy. We experience a great joy in watching others help others; there is a greater joy in giving than in receiving.

Today’s gospel is an incident that happened in JRS temple. In the court of Women, a separate place where women could worship, this poor widow was seen giving all she had to the temple treasury. This widow’s offering was a lesson to all people that God cares for us. Man does not live on bread alone. Money is not a master but a slave. She lived on the riches of God. We all learn the joy of giving in Jesus since he taught us how to give till the end. There was nothing in this world that he could not give. He gave his honour, status, and became man. He gave love, care, compassion, peace and food to the people around him. He shared his humanness with the people. Jesus’ greatest moment in giving everything to us is what we witness in the Eucharist. He offers his body and blood as sacrifice for our sins.

All have the capacity to give. Even the smallest gift, when given with big heart bears the divine quality. A widow is chosen to be our model in teaching this great lesson: the art of giving. If Jesus had to choose me to teach a lesson to others today, what would that lesson be? What is one thing that I feel I cannot share or give up? Why?

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One person cannot form a Kingdom

One of the famous sayings of Carl Jung is “Where love rules, there is no will; and where power predominates, there love is lacking. The one is the shadow of the other.” Absolute power corrupts absolutely. Power could be thought of as power in the society, power in the family and power as a personal energy. The worst abuses of power are of recent origin especially in the 20th and 21 century. We have witnessed worst leaders and we know that at the end innocent people suffer. Most of the failures in marriages are results of the misuse of power. Most of the personal problems are the results of the faulty conceptions of the term ‘power’. All the dollar bills carry the phrase, ‘In God we trust’. All the families should have Christ as their head. Lord’s Prayer talks about ‘your kingdom come’. In reality, our hearts hardly carried those values. The phrases like: In God we don’t trust; Christ is not the head of our families; may my kingdom come every day – portray the present nature of the Church.

Pope Benedict XVI has remarked that Christ's Kingship is not based on "human power" but on loving and serving others. This metaphorical title ‘King’ has meaning only when he reigns in the hearts of people both by reason and will. We cannot see Jesus as King if there are no people to form the Kingdom: One person cannot form a Kingdom. This person of Jesus as King is best expressed in the title ‘Shepherd’. The Shepherd is not a handsome, clean, active and fresh looking person that we often see on the photos or sculptures, rather a tired, worn out, sweating & bleeding and hungry and thirsty Shepherd watching over the lost sheep.

Our King and Lord carry the message of Love. Everyone has the right to be happy. Everyone owns God irrespective of one’s conduct and behavior. The hungry, thirsty, naked, ill, prisoner, stranger are all results of man’s wrong interpretations and wrong exercise of power. The genuine understanding of power starts with the feeling of gratitude that God has done so much for us and we are fortunate. Our feeling of gratitude should lead us to be sensitive to the feelings of others.

Indifferentism is the evil that affects our modern society. Everyone needs to be respected and loved simply because he or she is the image and likeness of God. Husbands have absolute respect and love towards wives and children; wives towards husbands and children, children towards parents. Respectful and loving families make great societies. What is the most important lesson that our parents left behind for us to follow? What lesson do you want to leave behind for your children to follow? Name one. Amen.

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We start from him and we end in Him

‘Nothing is permanent but change’ said Heraclitus. Nothing is so important to be valued in all ages, in all circumstances. When we die, nothing seems to be important anymore. A traditional singer in India sang: The people who are related to us come to our house and console us: their obligation finishes there. The wife comes till the end of the street as the dead body is taken to the cemetery: Since ladies were not allowed in the traditional Hindu burial grounds, her obligation ends there. The son comes till the burial ground: since he has to set fire to the corpse of his father. His obligation ends there. ‘Who is next?’ ‘Who would come with me till the end?’ these are tough questions to understand? Though they sound pessimistic they through some light on understand the Gospel today.

Every stage in life is marked with very deep and meaningful relationships: Childhood is marked with mother and child relationship. Adolescence is marked with relationships between friends. Adult life is marked with the relationship between life-partners and children. They all are undeniably important to the normal life and growth of man. One stage affects the other so deeply that his joys and sorrows are very much depended on these relationships. Man is after all a social animal.

Our relationship with God began even before our birth. He knew us and prepared the world for us even before our conception. All our relationships on earth are formed by His grace and unconditional love. Just as His knowledge and wisdom precedes our birth, His love and care precedes our death. God is the only destination we all are going to reach at the end. We start from him and we end in Him. He is the Alpha and Omega.

This awareness should lead us to qualifying our relationships. If we are parents – we strive to become the best parents possible. If we are husbands or wives – we strive to become best husbands and best wives. That is the only way we can glorify God who is the Lord of relationships. Our life is a call to meaningful relationships. God teaches us everyday how to love through the Eucharist and through people. What is the best relationship that I enjoyed the most in life and what is the worst? Why? Amen.

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Eucharist is the center of our lives in the New Jerusalem

Jerusalem (JRS) was the capital city, economic center, nation’s cultural and academic hub and also the spiritual heart people. In modern times it could be compared to the “combination of Washington D.C., Wall Street, Oxford, and the Vatican” (Scott Hahn: The Lamb’s Supper). The destruction of JRS in 70 AD by Roman emperor Titus brought in the theology of New JRS among the Jews and the early converts. The New Temple is revealed to be Christ’s mystical body, the Church, and the worship ‘in the Spirit’ takes place in New JRS. Theologically, it is the transition from the OT to NT.

JRS’s authorities crucified Jesus, persecuted the first generation Christians. In Rev 17-19 we read JRS entirely destroyed by fire. New JRS is going to be the heaven where God’s kingdom will have no end. Peace is the main thrust of the governing wisdom of the Kingdom of God. The culture of death is overcome by the culture of life and love. The old JRS is also the symbol of our old sinful lives. This cry of Jesus is not very different from the cry from the Cross: ‘Father! Forgive them…’

Just as the Temple was the center of the city, Eucharist is the center of our life in the New JRS. The hard construction that we built on our pride, jealousy, envy, lust, greed and sinfulness in all possible ways will be burnt by fire: by the Holy Spirit. Eucharist is the source and summit of our life: it is here we construct new JRS. Every plan and structure we put up in the New JRS will be made out of love, mercy and compassion and Peace of God.

Every Christian is a builder by nature, builder of the Kingdom of God, co-worker along with God. All the energy that we receive in building our families and societies and all relationships have deep impact on the way we approach Holy Eucharist since all Christian relationships are built on the firm foundation of the Eucharist. It is the way the realization of the New JRS. Do I feel to be part of the builders of God’s Kingdom? Does Eucharist have a deep impact on my life? Amen.

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Those additional five coins are worth ten or more in the sight of God

If we ask someone to name three most common negative emotions or feelings in our day-to-day life, he or she would answer: jealousy, envy and indifference. Not many are aware of the difference between ‘jealousy’ and ‘envy’. All our relationships in life one way or other include shades of jealousy or envy. Jealousy and envy are the negative emotions resulting from relationships with people. Jealousy is a resentful suspicion that someone else has what rightfully belongs to the jealous person. Envy is the desire for something that someone else has or a feeling of ill will over another person’s advantages.

Today’s gospel is Luke’s version of the ‘Parable of the Talents’. Last Sunday we read Matthew’s version. In Matthew’s version, the talents were given to the servants according to each one’s ability: five, two and one. In Luke all the servants get one talent each. Everyone is going to trade with the same amount of resources. Though ten servants were given one coin each, the parable has accounts of only three servants.

One of the interesting points in this gospel is the mindset or the attitude of the person who earned five additional ones. The pain and struggle he had to go through in earning those five additional ones. We live in a very highly competitive world. People out there are highly motivated, skilled, trained and stand before us even before we could think. Very often these highly charged people have influence over our lives: most often negative influences. We are frustrated so often we want to give up. This man is a great model for us, that he was not jealous, nor envious, rather put his heart and mind in earning whatever he could. Those five additional ones are actually ten or more in the sight of God.

Jealousy and envy leads us to indifference at times where we lose our very selves. We don’t care anymore about our lives. God calls us to a meaningful Christian living. He wants us to see meaning in life. He wants us to use our lives wisely and responsibly so that we may be aware all our lives that our lives come from God. Am I aware that my life comes from God? Amen.

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We have potentials to grow fond of God every moment

We have already met the Good Samaritan on this way. Jericho is the place to encounter life’s most important people and learn life’s most important lesson. The similarity is very obvious here that we are in a way compelled to think he was one of the victims of the thieves found in Jericho’s roads. This man was a beggar and blind, but what interests many about this man is his passion to live again, see again and his God-given knowledge as to where to find it.

Prayer is a dialogue. Eucharist is a dialogue too. Eucharist is a place we cry out to God to come near us since we are not worthy to go near him. All the distractions and hurdles between us and God are human interventions and man-made in nature. This poor blind beggar went above the distractions and hurdles to pursue life and sight. Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me! Jesus showing mercy is synonymous with Jesus getting close to our hearts. That is what exactly happens in the Eucharist: God getting close to our hearts.

God’s closeness is the sure guarantee as to what we really want of him or want in life. If we are not close to God’s heart, our needs and aspirations have selfish intensions which prevent us to grow fond of him. His closeness is a must in order that we know exactly what we want. “What do you want me to do for you?” is a daily question and daily care that God shows us since we have the potential to grow every moment in His love.

This closeness with God changes our perception of the world. Our perception of the world and God encourage others to give praise to God. Do we share the same passion as this poor but now extremely rich, blind but now possessive excellent eye sight? In a way, this poor man is an instrument in God’s hand to open our blind hearts, our blind minds. Amen.

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Family Life

There has been a worldwide revolution in the perception of moral values in recent years, involving profound changes in the way people think and act. The communications media have played and continue to play a major role in this process of individual and social change as they introduce and reflect new attitudes and life-styles. Divorce is seen as the best possible way of living in families. Self-disciplined and good Catholics and Christians are termed as ‘neurotic’ or ‘psychotic’ people and problem-children are acclaimed as normal in our societies. Platonic relationships, affairs outside marriages, pre-marital sex, pornography and violence of all kinds are seen as normal human behaviors of today’s Christians.

It is about time we thought of ourselves as children of the light as St. Paul proclaims in the second reading today. If we are the children of the light, our family life is of prime responsibility for all of us. The future of our society depends on the present condition of our families. Future Church is based on the foundation of the present families. Families are the hopes and custodians of the present and the future Kingdom of God.

Today’s Gospel could be seen as one of the lessons on how the family could work spiritually and morally. The family that we live in is a free gift given by God. Husband and wife bring in a lot of God-given gifts into the family that they want to build according to their abilities. We cannot afford to bury the Christian values of our marriage in the ground. Whatever is buried in the ground dies and decomposes. We bury the dead bodies in the ground. The Christian values buried symbolize the death of families. Parents should be able to tell their children “learn from me” and not just pointing to significant models to be followed in life.

“Parents must re-double their efforts to provide for the sound moral formation of children and youth. A well-ordered family life in which the parents are obviously faithful and committed to each other and to their children provides the best school for the formation of sound moral values. Parental passivity or self-indulgence in regard to media teaches false and damaging lessons to the young. It must not be forgotten that, in matters of human formation, "more is obtained by reasoned explanation than by prohibition". (Communio et progressio, 67)

The Church is not asking the people to go back to the old ways of living, rather find new and creative ways to make your families a home for God in this modern world based on the virtues of our fathers and mothers. Let us take family life seriously and responsibly. Amen.

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Spoilt children

Matthew Kelly was once asked on what his favorite prayer, he said, the prayer right before the sign of peace, “Deliver us Lord from every evil and grant us peace in our day. In your mercy keep us from sin and protect us from all anxiety as we wait in joyful hope for the coming of our savior Jesus Christ.” Many people pray and we know that prayer can change things. At the same time, we don’t fail to think other questions such as: Does God really respond to our prayers? Does God really listen to what we say? Can our praying make the world a better place? Etc.

St. Augustine says, ‘if faith fail, prayer perishes’. Theologians believe that there is no science of prayer. We cannot find out how much our prayer really worth, like the depth of our love. Rick Malloy, a Jesuit priest says, “Prayer is a risk because it is a lifelong, life-changing act of faith. The word ‘believe’ comes from the German belieben, meaning ‘to belove’. Prayer is all about the risk involved in loving”. Prayer is also relational. By praying we take effort to consciously experience God. The best prayers are often ‘Thank you’ and ‘help’.

Today’s Gospel talks about a widow who is in search of justice. Widow in the Society of Jesus was a nobody. She has nothing: no money, no recognition in the society. The judge has no obligation to listen to her. Some societies demand women to be away from courts or they cannot act as witnesses. We should be happy in many ways that we are compared to a human being. We don’t deserve any justice whatsoever that God should ever listen to us. We have sinned and misused and abused God’s grace and love.

If God is just he is just not in human standards. He is a just God as in the father of the Prodigal son and as Jesus on the Cross. Our God is so weak that he continuously attempts to conquer our hearts. Human beings are so fortunate to have so weak a God who even takes deep wounds as signs of love and hope. All through history man has been the spoilt child of God. Do we see the heart of this prodigal Father? Whosoever shall call upon the Name of the Lord shall be saved, (Rom 10:13)

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Vultures

St. Ireneus says, “The glory of God is man fully alive.”Our lives on earth are not accidents rather willed and protected by God. All our lives have purpose and only we and on other can fulfill the things that we do and say. We must have read Stephen Covey’s book on 7 habits of effective people. In the recent book, ‘the 8th habit’ he argues that being effective as individuals and organizations is no longer optional in today’s highly competitive world – it is simply the price of entry to the playing field. But surviving, thriving, innovating, excelling, and leading in this new reality will require us to build on and reach beyond effectiveness. He calls for a transition of the world from effectiveness to greatness.

The two incidents mentioned in today’s gospel tells us important lesson: The destruction of evil and restoration of the good. In Noah as well as in Lot’s stories tell us that God is the author of life and he has the total power over human life. Though a great amount of freedom is given to man to respond to God’s love, man has only one way of experiencing that life: to stay alive, to stay alive fully.

Our goal as human beings is that we preserve not our lives but preserve the holiness and greatness in us; in other words, we preserve God in us so that we would never be lost. Holiness and greatness require a lot of efforts and sacrifices to the point of losing ourselves and gaining God. Mother Teresa says, “Few of us can do great things, but all of us can do small things with great love.”

The conclusion of the gospel is very interesting. The two people in bed and two people grinding meal together suggest that God’s will be done throughout the day and throughout the night, that is, throughout the whole world. We cannot remain as dead bodies when it comes to fulfilling God’s will; rather we are going to be active participants in fulfilling what God wants of us. Vultures cannot gather if we are fully human and fully alive. Can you name a few vultures that are getting closer to you? Amen

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Citizen

Jesus’ first words in the Gospel according to Mark are: ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the Gospel’. , The word ‘Kingdom’ is very important in our Christian tradition. It occurs more than 122 times in the NT. Among the many different misunderstanding of the term ‘Kingdom of God’, the Church teaching is based mainly on the three dimensions of the Early Fathers of the Church.

1. Origen developed a theology of the Kingdom of God as Jesus being the Kingdom in person. Jesus himself is the kingdom. Kingdom of God is a person: the person of Jesus. Jesus leads us to realize the overwhelming fact that in him God himself is present among them, that he is God’s presence.

2. Origen further developed the theology of the Kingdom of God by saying that the Kingdom is located in man’s inner being for in every holy man it is God who reigns or exercises dominion, is the Kingdom of God.

3. The third dimension developed by the church fathers is that the Kingdom is simply the name for a world governed by peace, justice and the conservation of world.

Kingdom of God is simply put is to understood a state where we accept God’s leading role in our lives. It is the public proclamation of the heart that God is the center of our lives. Many of you would have played Chess. If the king dies, the game is over. Our Christian living is the same: if God is no more at the center of our lives, our life has no meaning.

Many say that they can be excellent people without believing in God. In my opinion it is not possible since every good thing comes from God. The whole preaching ministry of Jesus is centered on the Kingdom of God. Sermon on the Mount is the essence of all the preaching of Jesus. Thus, we include ourselves as citizens in God’s household by practicing all the virtues of the Sermon on the Mount. All the good we do on earth is the result of the promptings of God’s Holy Spirit. Do I accept and appreciate God’s Kingship and the guidance of the Holy Spirit in my day-to-day life? Amen.

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Thanking God

Most of the roads to the heart of Christ are due to our extreme emotions: when we are extremely happy or extremely sad. St. Paul tells us to thank God always in all circumstances. Whenever someone does something extraordinary that warms our hearts, we thank them. Thanking is a part of our everyday habit and culture. Thanking could be viewed in three different ways: 1. the service we received from someone where we owe him everything – our life. In this case it is God. 2. The service we received from someone where there is a possibility of paying back and leveling the scores. 3. The service we received from unknown persons who sometimes we don’t even meet such as bus drivers or pilots, or people we thank to fulfill a culture or a habit.

Quite often we don’t know that we have a duty to thank God simply because we are living and that life comes from him. All that we have is from Him: our family, house, parents, children and all that make us what we are. If at all we thank God it is in the third category where God is unknown to us like the bus drivers or pilots or people we thank to fulfill a culture or a habit. Some people try to barter with God as if they have full control of Wall Street: ‘you have done that to me, so I will do this for you God’.

In today’s gospel the nine Jews did not come back to thank Jesus for the blessings that they received, but an outcaste came back and thanked. The Samaritan truly believed that he is cured of leprosy and his life has meaning now, thus he feels the need to thank and praise God for his mercy and love whereas the Jews though cured of leprosy did not feel wellness in their hearts. Their hearts are still sick with leprosy.

The catch word today is ‘returned’. The leper returned, glorified God. This calls for a new challenge. Our thanking God is connected to returning to God. Our thanking God has something to do with we being cured of our diseases and infirmities. If God shows His love to cure us and give us meaning for our lives, how do I show my love to Him? What do I feel deep down when I thank God? Would I tell my dear and near ones the importance of thanking God? Amen.

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Sin & suffering and World Peace

Buddha taught that life is full of suffering because our craving accompanied by delight and lust won’t stop. Only when that craving in us stops and by the following of Eightfold path one is saved, that is by right view, right intention, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness and right concentration salvation is achieved. Most Hindu authorities believe that evil and suffering is a result of spiritual ignorance.

One way of understanding the problem of sin and suffering in Christianity is accepting that it is a misuse of God’s good resources and by following a wrong decision. It is the illness of beings that are no longer in communion with God. The Gospel today does not just talk about causing others to sin while we being sinful all the time, it also talks about another most important thing: causing others to do good. These attempts to do away with sin or doing good depends on the quality of our faith. That is what the Apostles prayed today: ‘Lord! increase our faith’.

Great contemporary mind like Carl Jung, a psychologist says that all the greatest and most important problems of life are fundamentally insolvable. They can never be solved, but only outgrown. Scott Peck talks about handling the problems of life. He says that Discipline is the basic set of tools we require to solve life’s problems. Without discipline we can solve nothing. With only some discipline we can solve only some problems. Though these arguments deal with personal character buildings, society character building is also as important an issue in our present time.

Dalai Lama talks about a sense of universal responsibility, a feeling of universal brotherhood and an understanding and belief that we really are part of one big human family. On world peace he says, “One nation's problems can no longer be satisfactorily solved by itself alone; too much depends on the interest, attitude, and cooperation of other nations. A universal humanitarian approach to world problems seems the only sound basis for world peace.” Let us pray that our doing good transcends boundaries so that our love reaches to all. Amen.

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Body of Christ

Today we celebrate the feast of the Dedication of Lateran Basilica in Rome, the cathedral of Rome originally dedicated to the Savior, but then to St. John the Baptist.

John Chrysostom says that just as the Lord is called by many names; Church goes by many names also such as a bride, a daughter, mother, a virgin, a handmaid, a queen, a garden, a fountain etc. The writings on Mary reflect the same theology – whatever symbols they used for the church were used for Mary also. The Greek word for ‘Church’ is ecclesia, which means ‘to be called out’. We are the people that are called out by God. There are a quite number of symbols that portray the idea of the church: church as the sheepfold, church as edifice. St. Cyprian says the church is not just the material building of God; it is the house of faith – body of Christ.

Church is one, holy, catholic and apostolic in nature. In reality all those who form the church have violated every word of the definition entirely in all respects. “Religion has become a bit of a dirty work. It sounds dead, old fashioned, archaic” says George Gallup. Some still believe that it is a kind of opium. Atheists and followers of Nietzsche believe that God is dead. Youth has its own way of killing whatever little spirituality found at homes by making the homes look like just breathing spaces. Enough is said and done on sex scandals and faulty leaderships in the church. Spirituality has been pushed out to accommodate psychology, administration and preventive laws on thousand things. More and more children walk in to inspect the craftsmanship of the church; couples walk in to steal some quiet moments together and older people to fret over their lost opportunities in life. We all have gone astray and lost our focus. JP II says, Acknowledging the weakness of the past is an act of honesty and courage which helps us to strengthen our faith, which alerts us to face today’s temptations and challenges and prepares us to meet them.

We all agree that our Church needs direction and focus. Even before we talk about direction, we must feel the need that the Church needs life today. The church is transformative in nature. As church we strive to live the values of the Gospel; strive to become more like Jesus. Transformation is to be felt in all the areas of our Christian living: Christian bodies, Christian emotions, Christian minds, and Christian hearts all need true and complete transformation.

Christian living is a call to authentic living. There is no point in worrying that after 50 years all these churches are going to be museums or public offices if we go on with our religious practices today. But every Christian has the obligation and responsibility to make his/her self, family, community and church authentic by being fully human and fully alive. Christians don’t divide but form. We build the church with our faith, our hope and our love. Let us pray that our building up of church take deep consideration for the future. Amen.

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Mercy received - Mercy shared

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever says Psalm 23. Many agree that the greatest attribute of heaven is mercy since nothing emboldens sin so much as mercy. The bible is the book of God’s mercy all the way, which also includes the sin of man. Mercy is not the antidote of sin; rather sin is the unread page of God’s book of His abounding Mercy.

God’s government is made up of judging rightly and being just. In the parable today Jesus reveals to us that the Mater is righteous and merciful at the same time. Judgment is the place where Mercy lives. Mercy is that which Christ desires to give and men do not deserve. This is what the steward did. He cast himself completely and wholly on the mercy of the Master and was redeemed. The disciples to whom Jesus was speaking must learn that like the steward with his worldly agenda, the sons of light should be casting themselves wholly on the mercy of the Master in every situation.

God’s mercy should motivate us to live a quality life. God’s mercy calls us for a life of holiness since we have received God’s mercy all our life. God wants us to show that mercy to the people who seek mercy. Every sacrament brings God’s grace thus God’s mercy is fully present in them especially in the sacrament of reconciliation. Day after day, time and again God forgives us and gives himself fully in the Eucharist is the sure sign of God’s unconditional love and mercy.

God’s mercy is not something that we are entitled for. It is a free gift given to us out of love. The mercy received is for the mercy shared. The Beatitudes reflect the same idea: Blessed are the merciful. We share God’s mercy to other because we want to share the blessedness of God. What are the ways we experience and share God’s mercy? Amen.

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Worthless

No one likes to lose. Everyone likes to gain something. If at all anyone wants to lose something it would be something or someone they don’t want anymore. Almost always the losable things are viewed as worthless. No one fights for worthless things: the things that would not bring any happiness, money, power or fame, the people who mean nobody to us; the people who cannot make us happy or the people who are not able to give us anything back.

The pain of losing is common not only for human beings but for God too, in fact only God knows that pain fully since we have been frequently losing ourselves. No one will die even for a just man, says St. Paul. Jesus died for us when we were still sinners. Losing becomes difficult to us only when we know the true worth of a person. That true worth of a person is fully known to only God since our worth comes from God. God created us to be valuable and respected since we are the image and likeness of God.

The Gospel passage reveals certain truth to us today. In the eyes of man, that lost sheep or the lost coin is worthless. We tend to say: “I have the ninety nine. I don’t want to risk my life by finding the lost one.” The voice from the ninety-nine says, “He should not have gone out, now see: he is in great danger.” These comments make us aware of the worthlessness of the lost one. We tend to know the worth of everybody according to their usefulness or blindness to the real self of the person who we call ‘lost’.

The easiest way to God’s heart is taking part in the journey of God in finding the lost sheep: in other words recognizing everyone’s worth by not human standards, rather God’s standard. That will certainly make us sharers of the joy in heaven. Let us continue to pray that we recognize that our personal worth and the worth of all human beings come from God. Amen.

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Jesus is our resource

After so many months of media focusing on two candidates, now that the elections are over, it can concentrate on other things. Elections took with it a well-constructed planning and execution. Every planning center very much on the resources at hand. Most intellectuals agree that we start from where we are now, what have we been doing in the past year or so, and what will happen if we continue do what we do now. This will guide us to where we want to be in the future and how do we get there. We, then go on to name our priorities, define target groups and sequence activities. This should also open up the possibilities on who will lead and who will partner, how we should set targets and find resources.

We need a plan to build a house. To build a life, it is even more important to have a plan or goal. The two parables in today’s gospel: the person constructing the tower and the king marching into the battle bring out the totality of human life. Today’s gospel brings out the importance of taking life seriously in its totality, that is life before, during and at the end of a major decisions that we make in life.

Following Christ demands this commitment that we should be aware that we are making a major decision in life by accepting Him as our Lord and God. This major decision is taken at our baptism is to be nurtured and nourished in our day to day lives by the way we live our lives under the influence of the Holy Spirit and also finishing the race wisely and responsibly. Thus following Jesus has a strong impact on us not only at the start of our relationship with him, rather during and at the end of our human existence here on earth.

This commitment does not close our eyes on the hurdles and difficulties that we might encounter on our journey. Winning over those difficulties are possible only when our faith is strongly rooted in Christ. Jesus is our resource to live this life meaningfully. Let us pray that we may grow to maturity in our faith. Amen.

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New meaning to the way we live our lives

Woody Allen said, “There are worse things in life than death. Have you ever spent an evening with an insurance salesman?” Death is a subject that is evaded, ignored, and denied by our youth-worshipping, progress-oriented society. Death is seen as a threat to humanity, an enemy to be conquered or a prison to be escaped; it is not perceived as an integral part of our lives that gives meaning to human existence. ‘Every man dies – not every man really lives’ says William Wallace. We often ask what the meaning of our life is. It is the other way around: we are questioned by life.

Our God is the God of life. He reveals His Sacred Name to Moses as the God who is. Whenenver God the Father conversed with the people, He referred Himself as the God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob. This God is the God of the living. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Moses and other people who come under the line of the Divine, live and dont see death.

We know that life is pleasant; death is peaceful, but the transition is only troublesome. Our life leads us through Death. Christians are people of the Resurrection. Our faith is built on the resurrection of Jesus. We profess that we believe in the resurrection of the dead. Adam was not created by God as mortal (Council of Carthage 418). Man is made for something better than death. Man made death as part of his life through the miasma of evil. Jesus came to liberate man not fighting death, rather accepting death and transcending it through his resurrection.

As we commemorate our dead today, we ought to remember three things for our reflection:

1. The dead has left behind a lesson on our approach of the divine. They have shown what to do and what not to do in responding to God’s love. As we thank God for their lives we pray that our lives carry a certain worth. They have shown us how we must prepare ourselves for our life and death.
2. Jesus accepted and went through death personally to be glorified. Death is not the end of human life, rather a start of the eternal life. Our life on earth is a preparation to that life.
3. Human life has to be respected. Every Christian has the responsibility to raise voice against efforts put in killings, persecutions, war and other mode of irresponsibility which curtail people’s freedom to prepare themselves for our after-life.

Let us pray that we be not afraid of death, but give new meaning to the way we live this life thus God would guide us all through. Amen.

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Clarity & prudence in approaching the Saints

Hero worship is very common among the youth of the world. The heroes of the youth are often movie actors, musicians and bands and the like. In India, whenever a movie is released of a particular actor, the fans would put up very tall poster of their heroes and anoint those posters with milk: a practice which is reserved to only the gods. These heroes influence the youth so much that their whole life is centered on these heroes who would never know them.

God wanted to show his human heart to people, so that we would love him and his human heart through our Lord Jesus Christ. The saints are people who teach us how we approach the human heart of God in Jesus. This people include saints of the OT, starting with Abel to all the early Christian Martyr and of the present generation. They are not gods, rather instruments of God to turn the hearts of people towards God himself. Most instances in history and the present generation, who have not been instructed properly, limit their search of God in the saints alone and don’t go further. There are Christians who invest a lot of time on saints than God. Saints are viewed as the heart of God. A Franciscan priest, Fr. Mychal Judge said, “Lord, take me where you want me to god, let me meet who you want me to meet, tell me what you want me to say and keep me out of your way.”

This feast of All Saints reminds us of two important things:

1. The urgency to practice the qualities of the saints: looking at the shining example of the Saints to reawaken within us the great longing to be like them; to live near God, in his light, in the family of God’s friends. Our Pope says, “Being a Saint means living close to God, to live in his family. And this is a vocation to us all, reaffirmed by the 2nd Vat.

2. Clarity and prudence in approaching the saints: that these saints don’t block our way to God. The Beatitudes in today’s Gospel talk about the qualities of Jesus himself. These saints were reflections of Jesus, thus they are called ‘Blessed’. Our efforts are towards that particular goal: to journey towards becoming ‘blessed’ ourselves, thus we participate the blessedness of Jesus.

Let us pray that these saints walk with us, helping us to find the human Heart of God in and through Jesus Christ. Amen.

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