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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