Our walking forth as missionaries starts from our walking back to the Father’s House

Rev.Fr.Malcolm P Fyfe (Founder: Indian Union)

Benjamin Franklin once said, “By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail”. Our culture is a fast food culture: our food has to be in within a few minutes; our needs have to be met immediately. Waiting is against human rights. Time spent in waiting is time wasted. Husbands and wives, children and parents, friends and relatives are all met in time-frame. They disconnect or get deleted when the time is up. Too much organizing and programmed functions have their effects in grim faces and pain in the neck. Preparing for an event, preparing for a project and preparing for an organization attract more studies and research compared to preparation for life and happiness.

The population of India is around 1,150,000,000 by July 2008. The vast majority of people are Hindus (more than 80 %), followed by Muslims (more than 13 %) and Christians (more than 2.3%) according to a survey taken in 2001. There is a lot of reservation in taking the message of Christ in Muslim territories. There are challenges in taking the good news to China. We are aware of the practical difficulties we encounter as missionaries in a foreign land where people follow some other religion. The missionaries brought the Holy Bible, baptizing hundreds and thousands of people at one time fearing for their lives. They had no time for personal fellowships with the ordinary people.

The forced conversion by the British Empire was very vehement. They say that in Goa (a State in India which used to be a Portuguese Colony), a State in India the Missionaries and other influences made sure that they demolished all the temples and built a church on the ruins of every one of them. Goa became a Vatican City in India. Beef and alcohol came into the culture of the Indian working class. The Brahmins called them ‘Parangis’ means a nomad or a hippy. Christianity existed in India, “according to the tradition”, from the time of the Apostles, (Bartholomew was in India according to some sources). A few years ago, India had 52% of the total educational institutions in India were managed or run by the Christians who are only 2% of the population.

The Church is missionary in nature. The Church teaches us that Jesus was a missionary and Jesus sends all of us as missionaries to the ends of the earth to announce the lessons of love to all people: “As the Father has sent me, so I send you” (Jn 20:21). Often in our Church this sending is so abrupt and rushing like the commando and his troops: Let’s go, go go go go... Some don’t even participate in this military activity. This military operation is aimed at killing all the enemies that we see before our eyes; shoot aimlessly in any direction wherever a tiny noise is coming. Church’s mission is so different from this understanding.

The missionary nature of the church is seen as a project to be completed or a given work to the missionary priests and religious. The two parables of building the tower and wanting to meet another king in battle reveal us that there is more to mission than hasty decisions and actions based on instincts and emotions.

What is mission? It is a God-given call to appreciate and share one’s religious experience and insights first within one’s own community and tradition and then with people and communities of other cultural, social and religious traditions. Why? In doing so we attempt to fulfill the divine mandate given to the church that humanity reflect God’s own life as one people drawn together in love and respect. (Definition by Senior and Stuhlmuller).

All missionaries are called by God: the opening words of Jesus in today’s Gospel are ‘If anyone comes to me’. Missionaries are first and foremost people who make their journey towards God. The reasons to be the apostles and disciples of Jesus are to be with him and be sent out. It is a journey from darkness to life, from death to life, to slavery to freedom, from tears to joy and from profanity to holiness in a personal level. Since the Church is the universal sacrament of salvation, we all are called by God. Personal knowledge of God is essential in all our missionary activities. Missionary life of the Church has its origin in God. We learn from the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit since they teach us the importance of being a missionary. Father heard the cry of the people and came down; Jesus was sent by the Father as a missionary (Filiation), and Holy Spirit comes to us as a missionary (Spiration) from the heart of the Father.

All missionaries are teachers in nature since we share the knowledge and wisdom of God. We are sent in the name of God. Our words and actions represent the One who sent us: we represent God in all that we do and say. St. Francis of Assisi tells his friends, “Preach the good news, if necessary with words.” As teacher of the wisdom of God we use different methods in our God-sharing. A mediocre teacher tells; a good teacher explains; a superior teacher demonstrates and a great teacher inspires. (William Arthur Ward). Missionaries are sent by God to inspire people to love God and neighbor.
Missionary Lessons from the two parables:
1. Building a tower is our free choice. Setting out to meet another king in battle is our free choice. God gave the whole Eden Garden to Adam. Obeying God’s will is our free choice.
2. Our setting forth depends heavily on our self-knowledge and worth. The rich man must have knowledge about his own resources. The king must have knowledge about his army.
3. Once the choice is made, there is no looking back. In Lk 9:62 Jesus said to him, “No one, after putting his hand to the plow and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.”
4. Calculating the cost depends on the depth of our hope, faith and love for God.
5. The accomplishments in life bring a great sense of satisfaction and transformation. Every rich man wants to build a tower – that is his dream. Every king wants to expand his territory – that is his dream. Every Christian wants to share the love of God. St. Paul says, “I have competed my race, I have fought a good fight.” (2 Tim 4:7).
6. Our incompletion brings in ridicule from people of our faith and our relationship with God. We give up God’s work for selfish reasons or running away from God (Prophet Jonah)
Our missionary activities are not centered on mere work or time consuming enterprises rather they are channels of grace that brings both the person with the mission and the person to whom the mission is address a lasting effect. We as Christians influence others constantly since we are graced constantly by a missionary God.

Our God is a missionary God. Our God brings Good News to the lost sheep; likewise He is all set to reach our hearts through love. The ninety nine sheep were left all alone to support one another with the same mission of the Good Shepherd. As our missionary activities seem difficult and impossible, causing us great pain, despair and confusion, it is worth a wait that the Good Shepherd will come back to us with the great news of bringing the lost sheep. God is with us: let us share the joy of the Good Shepherd. May God bless all our missionary efforts to bring unity, peace and harmony to our world! Amen.

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2. The call for holiness stresses the importance of reconciliation and the readiness to sacrifice.

The evils of our society:

All are called to holiness. “How do you feel about being called a living saint?” a news reporter asked Mother Teresa one day. Her answer was shocking and relevant today and everyday of our lives. She said, “You have to be holy in the position you are, and I have to be holy in the position God has given me. There is nothing extraordinary about being holy. It is simply a duty for you and for me”.

What is holiness? We say God is holy. When we say that, it is not just one quality of God, rather it is the sum totality of the qualities of God. Holiness summarizes all qualities of God. When the Church calls all Christians and others to holiness, once again, the Church did not ask the faithful to put on this particular quality called ‘holiness’, rather the Church asks the faithful to resemble God in their personal life in all aspects of their living.

Why are we not striving to be holy? Why do we fear the present social evils: the decline in community, individualism, consumerism, greed, decline in values, decline in family, young people as both victims and perpetrators, drugs and alcohol, poverty and equality, crime and violence? Connected to all of these issues was the perception that we no longer share a set of common values and that we have lost our "moral compass”.

Being associated with the society in all good and evil is our safest way of living. Standing out as people of the chosen race, a royal priesthood, a people set apart – gives us a sense of insecurity. These people are called ‘funny’, ‘possessed’, ‘strange’ and other names. Holiness is possible when we stand out from the sinning masses: prophets stood out and Jesus stood out. The inability to stand out makes us live in sin as there are no prophets and there is no prophecy. Even if we witness prophets they merely fill our conversations and not our personal lives. The accumulation of sin takes away our pride as Christians and leaving the priests at the confessionals alone. A lonely priest at the confessionals represents a lonely God and a well-accompanied Satan.

Sacrament of Reconciliation

Our society gradually loses the faculty to listen to our parents, children, teachers and dear and near ones, so it is not all that impossible to witness people not listening to short suggestions given by priests and still hold on to ‘how many ‘Hail Mary’s father? Or ‘how many ‘Our Fathers’ father? The Sacrament of Reconciliation still holds the myths of numbers and statistics. Why do we still pray ‘Our Father’ and ‘Hail Mary’ when our sins are hurting people? Is it forgivable or justifiable when we don’t attempt to do anything for those who we hurt by our words and action?
Sacrament of Reconciliation extends the sanctity of the Sacrament of Baptism. Through Baptism we become the children of God; through the sacrament of Reconciliation we regain our status as children of God since it is aimed at purifying our hearts as often as we strive to become holy. In the parable of the prodigal son, the son remains the son of the prodigal father forever. He was the son when he was with the father; he was the son when he was away from the father. He was the son when he was in his senses; he was the son when he was not in his senses. It is the confession that made him feel his sonship. It is the reconciliation that brought him the robes, ring; brought joy to the family to celebrate a feast. It is the Sacrament that brought him hugs and kisses and embraces from the father.

Sin knows how to take and sacrifice knows how to give. Sin in the prodigal son took away not just the money and the property of the father: it took away the image and likeness of God in us. Sin took away the imprints of God in us. People who look at us think that we are beggars or homeless. When people look at us, we no longer remind them of the Father. Sin takes away the wealth of the father: the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Sin takes away our nearness to the father. God the Father sacrifices everything to us. The Psalmist sings in Ps 7, ‘You have made me little less than a god; put all things under my feet.’ God gave us life. Jesus gave us light and be the way to the Father. He gave us the Holy Spirit to come to our senses. God so loved the world…
Readiness to Sacrifice

The prodigal son recites the act of contrition. He has known the dangers of sin and the dangers of taking, grabbing and madly possessing and greedily spending what has been strongly constructed with love and sacrifices of God. The prodigal son leant the lesson to give and that lesson will be modeling on the Sacrifice of Jesus. The father taught him to sacrifice everything for love.

Fr. Jules Chevalier, our Founder said ‘the Heart of Jesus is the remedy for the evils of our time’. He envisioned a new world emerging from the Heart of God to bring peace and harmony to our society. A repentant heart accompanied by the readiness to sacrifice is going to cure the evils of our society. Let all those who invent and market destructive energies and those who use them learn God’s way of justice and peace: No one can bring peace with a gun in hand. Let all those who fight and kill in the name of God learn God’s way of justice and peace: God belongs to all and we belong to one another. Let all those who promote ways to destroy our society, culture and values learn God’s wisdom: Holiness is the only lesson that is preached and lived the longest in our human history.

In the first letter of Peter, we read, “As he who called you is holy, be holy yourselves in all your conduct, since it is written, ‘you shall be holy, for I am holy.” (I Pet 1:15-16). Christians ought to understand and accept that holiness is not an option but a requirement to enter the Kingdom of God. To become holy is to have one’s entire personality freed from sin and filled with love, faithfulness, and purity of God. (Ralph Martin). Let us strive for holiness with a repentant heart and a readiness to sacrifice all for love. Amen.

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1. We suffer because we fail to see the Christ who suffers. Christ’s suffering is rooted in the compassion of God.

Dear Friends!

I have just preached a Lenten Mission (24,25,26 of March)and topics are concerned with the modern life and its challenges. The three topics that i have reflected on are presented here in three different blogs. These are intended to help you prepare for the Holy Week. God Bless you all.

TALK ONE

INTRODUCTION

The field of human suffering is very wide, varied and multi-dimensional. When a child cries it has too many meanings that the mother is often confused and panicked as to what to do especially if the child is the firstborn: we wonder as to who is in pain and who is suffering. As little boys and girls we cried for all our whims and fancies and got all that we wanted: we wonder as to who is in pain and who is suffering. As young adults there are restrictions on both young men and young women to cry in public lest they embarrass people: More and more suffering is pressurized within us like the pneumatic tubes. In pain and in sorrow we behave differently by controlling our tears, sucking up our emotional explosives under our throats resulting in various psychosomatic illnesses and depression.

God is used or abused as a dart board with all our piercing comments with acute adjectives: A blind God, a deaf God, a heart-less God, a stone-God and the like. The loss of a friend, a spouse, a child or a parent brings in a total rejection of reality, meaninglessness and loneliness. The loss of people is the worst kind of suffering that we go through. The loss of power, money, and security triggers anger and frustration accompanied by revenge and sleepless nights and wasted daylights: this pain is tolerated with terms and conditions. Matured and disciplined people can distinguish between the loss of people and loss of things: Inability to distinguish these two result s in prolonged suffering.

WORLD OF SUFFERING:

Human world is full of suffering. Suffering is something which is wider than sickness. We can witness physical suffering that which affects our bodies and moral suffering that affects our soul. There are as many physical sufferings as there are moral sufferings in our society. Suffering is expressed in words such as agony, misery, distress, troubled by the feelings of mental or physical pain, miserable, and the like. A person who suffers never asks what and how of suffering but why of suffering. Suffering seems almost inexpressible and not transferable.

Everyone wants to know why we suffer since suffering seems to be and is almost inseparable from our earthly existence. Some of the reasons we hear are: Desire is the root cause of our suffering or we have sinned so we suffer. Our fathers and forefathers have sinned so God is punishing us. When Tsunami hit India almost all Christians said, ‘God is punishing Indians on account of Christian persecution.’ Or still others say ‘we are responsible for all the suffering because it is our fate: we are destined by God to suffer.’ Suffering and evil are identified with each other in our Christian tradition.

Though these explanations temporarily ease us a little, they seem to be insufficient. God is seen as a Loving Father who brings a lot of comfort to the prodigal son from his pain and suffering; a Just Judge who is merciful and forgiving. God is compassionate and concerned about our suffering. He saw the people of Israel and came down. God said to Moses: ‘I have heard the cry of my people.’ There are hundreds of similar passages in the Bible where God acts in favor of people in alleviating pain.

SUFFERING THAT COMES OUT FROM US:

When we concentrate on the suffering that has been created by us that we inflict on each other is endless let alone the nature has its own way. People suffer when we fail to love, respect and share our human worth with one another. People suffer when we say no to the commandments, no to God and neighbor which is eventually a no to self. People suffer on account of wrong influence and leadership in family, society and country.

SUFFERING THAT COMES TO US:

We have no control over nature and natural calamities bring suffering to us. We have no control over death which brings in suffering to us.

Now it is clear that so much of the suffering in the world is man-made. Though we have

explained a little on the outer forces that bring suffering to us, there is a huge area that is unknown to us on human suffering – our sufferings that have no explanation, no reason and meaning. The question ‘Why me?’ seems to be a better escape and God seems to be the only culprit. It is after all easy to blame God for all our unknown and mystery-area.

HOW DO WE EXPLAIN THE MYSTERY-AREA OF SUFFERING?

Sacred Scripture is a great book about suffering. We have two people to meet today to understand human suffering in a different angle. The first person is Job. We read in the Scriptures that Job is not guilty even by God’s standards but he had to go through a lot of suffering. The following lessons could be derived from the book of Job:
1. Not all suffering is a result of sin. We don’t always experience suffering as a punishment. Job’s suffering is the suffering on someone who is innocent. Why God lets it happen? It is beyond our human mind.
2. God permitted this testing – suffering has the nature of a test.
3. The test was done to demonstrate Job’s righteousness.
There are suffering moments inflicted by God upon us to witness God’s mercy: These punishments were designed not to destroy but to discipline us (Mac 6:12).

The second person is Jesus as experienced in Good Samaritan. Love is the fullest source of the answer to the question of the meaning of suffering. God gave His son for us in suffering and death on a Cross. Jesus calls Peter ‘Satan’ when Peter forced Jesus out of suffering. He eliminated suffering of different kind in the society. He healed the sick, fed the hungry, raised the dead thus he was sensitive to every human suffering whether it be a physical or moral suffering. The 8 beatitudes are addressed to the people who suffer in various ways. He is portrayed as the suffering servant of God. He suffers voluntarily and innocently (Is 53:7-9). Jesus did pray to take away the cup from him.

Good Samaritan knew well about the situation of the road from JRS to Jericho. Good Samaritan Jesus knows this road – He went all the way to JRS and Calvary. The following lessons that could be derived from the parable of the Good Samaritan:
1. Jesus has been through all suffering in body and soul before us. He suffered and died and was raised to life for us and for our hope.
2. Jesus is not a passerby, a sight seer or an aimless traveler. He knew his mission and vision clearly that we all need him sometime along our way to JRS. We will be beaten, bruised and struggling for life. We will even be close to death.
3. He carries each one of us on his shoulders and cares for us while we are so busy being unconscious or consciously absent in our own world.
4. We are called to be Good Samaritans who brings help in the suffering of others. We need love and love only to appreciate God’s compassion in our suffering.

CONCLUSION:

Not all the suffering has the same purpose and reason. Some are understood and some remain a mystery. There are innumerable sufferings in this world that are caused by the death of family and religious values in our society. There are sufferings on account of God’s will not as punishment rather a test to prove our righteousness. All our sufferings have only strengthened our faith since God gave us Jesus who took our suffering onto His and saved us. Like Jesus we are sent into the world not as passersby rather as Good Samaritans to share the suffering of others in word and deed. Jesus went about doing good. Amen.

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