Palms and a Donkey!

I must confess I was distracted by a collection of countries when I started preparing my homily. Jesus’ march towards JRS and singing Hosanna are all look like a July 4^th celebration. It is a kind of independent day for many reasons! So, I started to analyze the various national anthems around the globe. To my surprise I found most of them are outdated. In our digital age, our national anthems are songs of soldiers still; war and victory such as: Scotland sings about Edward’s army, Italy sings about being ready to die, looking for victory, UK is still sending victories to the Queen, scattering their enemies, confusing their politics! Ireland claims that they are a fighting race and face their foes. Many countries bring forth the aspect of unity and freedom.

Here we see Jesus marching into JRS and the palms bring out the sense of victory in Jesus. Palms stand for victory. They want victory for Jesus; they want Jesus win the war! Little they know what he is waging against! Little we know that the palms and donkey are so closely connected. It’s a pity it cannot be called a Holy Donkey Sunday! Certainly that would be a better name compared to Halloween!!! We are so much preoccupied with the palms every Palm Sunday as it is popularly known as! But the objective behind the palms is the importance of the Donkey!

All those national anthems certainly validate the strong muscle power of the stallion horses. Marching for our motherland without a horse is unthinkable so much so that the image horse is so associated to War and bloodshed. So contrasting is the effect that the image Donkey is traditionally seen in the eastern concept as the image of peace and humility! Those palms were actually for peace! That royal anthem of our Lord is for peace!

Think of all those time we carried guns, bullets, swords in our hands and even our tongues at times – so sharp we are! Proudly riding on our horses – our comfort zones, our powers and our investments! This is about time our hands hold fast to the palms that are oriented toward the donkey! What is my personal anthem? Something more than being free and brave needed here. Are you free to love? Brave to sacrifice? I am marching towards toward JRS with palms and donkey with Jesus. Are you coming in or going out?

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Stones used for building!

In ancient India, there was a tradition called SATI that was in practice for a long period of time. It is a funeral practice where the wife of deceased husband throws herself in the same fire as the husband’s funeral pyre and dies along with him. Mostly it is done voluntarily but sometimes it is out of force. Similar tradition is found in Greece, Japan and some parts of Islamic world. The obvious reason could be that the society is patriarchal in nature and it is better for women to die after her husband rather than suffer till the end. They were considered nuisance as they were not included in any celebration and were seen as bad omen and were blamed for all the evils around them. Records show that this practice was done till the 18 or 19 Century and now is punishable under law. There were other such practices went against women as well.

Seeking justification for sins is a common tendency in all of us. Adam started it – it is the woman! … that you gave me! It is rather tricky here as to whether Adam blames God or the woman! I did that because… Usually the judge would be asking a YES or NO question to leave the reasoning part to the professionals. When we reason out or justify our own sins, sins don’t seem to be bad. We don’t need the sacrament of reconciliation. The priests who did bad things, more recently the stories from the Irish church leave the dioceses bankrupt and the image of priesthood scratched and stained; imagine if they come up with a justifying reasons on each of those sins!

Woman caught in adultery had no other way other than to accept her sins and blames of the people. No one wants to know her justifying reasons! In the commandments we study: thou shalt not kill! May be Jesus was practicing the 5^th commandment as it precedes adultery, lying and coveting. Their sin of killing comes before her sin of coming adultery. And all those people could be charged and punished for attempted murder in modern courts! The weight of the felony could be seen in the severity of the punishment in our modern world. In most cases it is life with parole! What is the punishment for adultery? It is considered a joke and a great topic for the new agencies with computer analysis and interviews with prostitutes who are after money! No punishment ever debated now! A public apology may be!

What is more severe is using God and religion in justifying our ruthless behavior! The people like David Headley who was involved in Mumbai Attack and killed innocent people and others involved in Jihad create fear in the lives of simple people! Why? Their justifying reason is bigger than their sins! Kids almost always have justifying reasons for their behavior but as grownups every Christian should show humility and a great level of patience in admitting and learning from mistakes. Why don’t we ever think that only we have good reasons for our blunders and others have no reason whatsoever but should be ashamed of themselves like the woman in the gospel today?

The 1^st reading today reminds us of God doing wonders, the unthinkable such as opening the sea, rivers in wasteland. Thus it is not difficult for God to put reason in our brains! God respects and loves us that we respond to God’s love in freedom. If those people would have seen her justifying reasons and if this woman their justifying reasons, sin would not have played a big part here! Those stones would have built something!

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People gather to eat!

Breaking of bread is the central act in our worship traditionally thus Christianity is the only religion that could be said of ‘people gather to eat!’ though the prayer before the meal is a little lengthy! Every Eucharistic celebration relives the spirit of the parable of the prodigal son. As we run into the church with the entrance song and penitential rite we resemble the person of the Prodigal child: we stand humiliated, smelly and torn inside and outside. We were forgiven at the start of our journey inside our home: around the Eucharistic Altar.

During the course of the time of our returning the blunt reason is – Dad! I am hungry, that’s why and that what made me to return – interestingly enough we found that the Prodigal Son avoided the blunt reason of – Give me food! Now! to ‘Father forgive me!’ That’s why every Mass is called Eucharistic Celebration.

The Penitential rite is followed by the Liturgy of the Word! God speaks to us and orders the servants to empower us! Those servants are among us, around us and in us! The priests not only find faults with you and the way you live, rather through preaching and breaking open the word, he encourages and empowers the people. He helps God to wear shoes on them; wear ring on their fingers and helps clothe them. Why? The reason behind empowering and encouraging is to make us ready for the meal of the celebration like Sons and Daughters! Not like slaves or servants! Not to forget the age-old tradition that only sons and daughters were allowed to ask what they want and not the servants and slaves (Intercessory prayers!)

This meal is not a meal of the ‘saintly Christians!’ – ‘look who is here! How dare he or she sits next to me! I won’t believe that he or she is good because he/she comes to church every Sunday because he/she is acting to be one! how shameful after all that she comes openly to the church! Remember the prodigal son is always the son of the Father: during the request for the share, during reckless squandering, during his pain and starvation and during his acceptance back. There is no one moment passed the father thought of him as a stranger! The moment one thinks he or she is superior to someone, that person will be eating the meal as a slave not as Children of God! That’s why the elder brother could not come in!

Lent is a great time to reflect on the graduation ceremony of the Prodigal Son and personalizing the whole parable as our own: From the way we came into the church, accepted, forgiven, empowered, encouraged, and more over loved by God in an intimate way – after all the bible story is one incident. We all have wandered numerous times and been accepted back numerous times. And the big question to be asked again is: Do I eat this meal as a Son or a daughter or do I eat this meal as a slave? Shouldn’t I be thankful that my prodigal brother or sister is back? Or should be cursing? The prodigal nature of the son might change but the prodigal nature of the Father will never change – because God is love.

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The Formula!

I have always been fascinated whenever I read the ‘Formula’ story by Father Anthony DeMello. The mystic was back from the desert. ‘Tell us’ they said, ‘what God is like.’ But how could he ever tell them what he had experienced in his heart? Can God be put into words? He finally gave them a formula – so inaccurate, so inadequate – in the hope that some of them might be tempted to experience it for themselves. They seized upon the formula. They made it a sacred text. They imposed it on others as a holy belief. They went to great pains to spread it in foreign lands. Some even gave their lives for it. The mystic was sad. It might have been better if he had said nothing.

The religious experiences of people were viewed as theological reflections and were handed down to people from the beginning as religious investments. We believe Moses’ spirit is present in all the 5 books of the OT and the rest of the OT is the result of various individuals who reflected God in various circumstances. The Gospels were according to individuals in divine influences. The letters of Paul brings back the spirituality of one man Paul. Thus every influence in the bible is the result of people who wants to hand down their great experience to another as their own treasure. But the amazing part in doing this is the limitations of those experiences that God cannot be contained. He is more than all those scriptural experiences put together.

Abraham’s readiness and sacrifices on the mountain, Moses’ Burning bush experience, Moses receiving the 10 Commandments, the JRS temple and other great experiences that has been handed down to us for our faith and awakening. But the difficult question is making those experience our own in our own way. Jesus’ Journey to the desert was a new experience to show us his humanness and his point of enlightenment. The transfiguration experience is so spectacular which gave us a great lesson that God cannot hold back his love for us. His reveals everything of his godhead to us so much he loves us.

This experience of the Samaritan woman with Jesus opens various doors and windows in Jesus’ ministry that He cannot stop revealing himself to those who love him dearly. God’s love is the foundation of our faith. The rich religious experiences of Jesus taught him there is more… Not just mount Tabor; not just mount Horeb, but there is Mount Calvary: The mount where not many have been; the mount where not many want to go and experience!

Have we stopped or finalized our spirituality by just reading and reflecting the passages from the scriptures? Is the scripture our means and ends of our spiritual life? We need to realize that all scriptures are human experiences with God. If that is the case, every human life can become a scripture in essence. Personalizing our scripture experiences in our family environment, in our own families, in our own situations are the best way to arrive at the depths of our being, the cave of our hearts.

Lent is the great gift from God to personalize all those scripture passages in the light of faith. Let us familiarize those scripture passages by reading and reflecting the scriptures. Children need to hear them and parents have to read them those great treasures of God’s love and those experiences have necessarily be heard and heard again, reflected again as families. Only then we can write and live new experiences and leave behind or pass on our rich God-experiences to the generations to come.

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Away from the sea; on the mountain!

The movie 7 Pounds has a very special message to convey: giving is divine. Will Smith is all set to give 7 pounds of his body organs to 7 different people – 7 being the perfect number. The most beautiful part of generosity is the acceptance from the part of the receiver. The Hispanic lady suffers from the brutality of the husband is given a new life, new home with her kids, and the girl with a heart issue is given a new heart, a new life and the blind Jewish guy was given his eyes. These people experience a moment of grace. Wow! What an experience! A sigh of relief! I have a life now! I am new again! I have a great hope! What a great man! A Mahatma!

The experience of Abram and the experience of the friends of Jesus were similar to this in many respects. Abram was chosen by God for a definite role to be the father of a nation. I am going to take you away from your comfort zone and test you, your faith and your commitment. He was a wandering Armenian. No great responsibility, no children and no knowledge of the ‘wow’ experience of God. He was chosen and was led in deep waters to stretch his limits. After listening to God’s promises we could have easily joked, ‘You must be kidding!’ The people of the 1^st covenant were represented by this man to have an intimacy with God on the mountain.

The disciples, so confused and disoriented were led to the mountain. They were out of their comfort zone. These fishermen Peter, James and John were so used to water and fish and nets and boats were dragged to mountain, rocks and moreover an intimacy with Jesus. The receiver does not understand what he was receiving. Jesus was giving them a glimpse of his divinity and his original nature and that his humanness is the will of God. These simple disciples were chosen alongside with the whole Jewish tradition of scripture and prophecy. What an honor! What a privilege! What an experience! The people of the new covenant were represented by these pillars of the church to have an intimacy with God on the mountain.

Just as God showed us how much he loves us by becoming a human person and through transfiguration shows us that this human body can be glorified by God so too every human person has the potential to show his divinity through being fully human, fully alive. Every moment in the life of Jesus’ earthly mission was filled with moments of transfiguration that he was constantly showing us how to be divine in our human condition.

Lent is one such time to constantly finding and expressing our own God-energy in us, the ‘divinity’ in us. We do that not by pretending that we are pious and holy, rather continuously looking for opportunities to love and serve and also praying for more opportunities to show our commitment to God. Husbands taking initiative to be more loving and responsible in bringing unity and peace in the family; wives showing a lot of support and encouragement and leading the way from the front and children respecting and following the guidelines.

This transfiguration happened when the disciples were ready to move out of their comfort zone to the zone that they were not familiar with at all. Climbing up the mountain proves the strength, will power and perseverance of the disciple. Once we have seen the transfiguration of Jesus, it is time to show him with our own God-given potential to reciprocate that mission in the way we are familiar with. You have all received everything freely, now give freely! Amen.

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Jesus was human enough!

I made the mistake of telling my father, "But Dad, I'm only human! He wisely answered, "No, the problem is you are not human enough." (Jesus was human enough!) Why did Jesus become a man? What is the reason of incarnation, the Word becoming flesh? The reason is found in Jn 3:16, ‘God so loved the world…’ His humanness is the center through which we connect to God. God of the mountains, thunder and lightning, seas, the whole universe was made the God of love, who could be experienced from the cave of our hearts. God came down to meet us; God pitched his tent among us.

If that is the reason why Jesus came down to us, these temptations came in the way of Jesus to escape that mission. Jesus was asked to let go of his mission to be human. The devil did not disturb him at the time of fasting, rather at the time of hunger. The devil exactly knows the right time and right place and the right measure of testing you and me, let alone Jesus. The object of these temptations not only concerns just Jesus and the Devil but the whole Salvation history.

He was hungry and he had the power to change the stone into bread. This covers all the basic temptations of his human needs. The next level of temptation is power and glory. In the words of Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, they are self-esteem needs which are above the physiological and safety and love needs. He is the Messiah, the Lord, the one who is to come thus he had the power to be exactly that. The third is even more crucial: that’s where many of the promised people failed: to think that you have the power of God to the extent of making yourself God. Adam, Moses, David, Solomon and so many other individuals in varying degrees come close to this temptation including you and I.

These three levels of temptations cover the sum of all human temptations. If Jesus had to give in to these, the price is going to be too expensive: we will not be able to experience God’s love in the human heart of Jesus; our connection is going to be cut forever; the promise of resurrection and eternal life are at stake; we are going to lose along with God that Love is a myth, a lie, a dream and a fabrication. Jesus is doing so, will also wound the heart of God and be called ‘the son in whom I’m very dis-pleased and disappointed.

Every time we yield to temptations we do exactly the same: paying a heavy price of wounding the Heart of God. A London newspaper sought the help of its subscribers in addressing the problem of evil. Readers were invited to send in their responses to the question, what is wrong with the world today? The best response of all was also the briefest. It read, Dear Sir, I am. Yours faithfully, G.K. Chesterton.

So often these temptations stress the importance of winning the fight with the Devil and we forget the importance of being and doing good. Our primary goal is not fighting the Devil but to experience and respond to the Love of God. Jesus addressed those issues so humbly with utmost responsibility. Humility is way of Jesus. Jesus humbled himself to the point of death. Humility of Jesus was rooted on his prime mission that all sons of daughters of God will have an opportunity to experience God in a human way.

What have achieved through our Pride? What have we achieved by being selfishly increasing the pleasure principle that gradually isolates us from other people, our family and from God! We need a walk to the desert! We need to go alone! We need to go now!

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