Exercise the ministry of love!

Buddha spoke of Universal Love: “Human life is dukkha (suffering, unhappiness or dissatisfaction) which has two causes—ignorance and desire. People are bound by three fetters: passion, hatred, and stupidity which could be broken by wisdom and love (or compassion).” Our culture truly embodies those fetters in all possible ways.

Our love is first and foremost is seen as a community love. The Church’s deepest nature is expressed in her three-fold responsibility. We as a Church are set to proclaim the Word of God, celebrate the Sacraments and exercise the ministry of love. Love is the responsibility of the Church. This ministry of love though starts from human love, rises to the love of God. We do have a book in the Bible called ‘Song of Songs’. Our human love constantly has to model on God’s love.

Erick Fromm argues that in modern world happiness consists in the thrill of looking at the shop windows. “Attractive” usually means a nice package of qualities which are popular and sought after on the personality market. What specifically makes a person attractive depends on the fashion of the time, physically as well as mentally. In a culture in which the marketing orientation prevails and in which material success is the outstanding value, there is little reason to be surprised that human love relations follow the same pattern of exchange which governs the commodity and the labor market (The Art of Loving).

“Doubled divorce rate, tripled teen suicide rate, quadrupled rate of reported violent crime, quintupled prison population, sextupled percent of babies born to unmarried parents, sevenfold increase in cohabitation, soaring rate of depression – to ten times the pre-World War II level by one estimate” (David G Myers, “Wanting More in an Age of Plenty,” Christianity Today, April 24, 2000).

Gandhi said, “A coward is incapable of exhibiting love; it is the prerogative of the brave.” We are created to love. Love necessarily implies basic elements such as care, responsibility, respect and knowledge.

Care is seen against Cain’s question: Am I my brother’s keep? God is described as a Mother, father who cares, loves, nourishes. Responsibility is seen against all forms of domination and possessiveness. It is interesting to note the gospel calls it a commandment of love: it is indeed a freedom to love. God’s respect for us is love. Respect is seen against misuse and abuse of freedom. Knowledge is seen as the many attempts to get to know the depth of a person.

Jesus is indeed the incarnation of God’s love. In the same way we are the incarnations of Jesus’ love because we bear the name of Christ. We are Christians. As long as we are Christians or even as humans we grow in love because Love is not an automatic gift, it is an art that we all have to learn to bring about a change in our society. Let’s love sincerely and from the heart. Amen.

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God’s Word

When I came drenched in the rain…………………
Brother said: “Why don’t you take an umbrella with you?”
Sister said: “Why didn’t you wait till it stopped?”
Dad angrily said: “Only after getting cold you will realize”.
But my Mom as she was drying my hair said
“Stupid rain”
That’s Mom………….

God’s word brings the best in us:
The parable of the vine and the branches brings out the idea of how close God is to us. It is compared to the creation story of God breathing into our nostrils – God is that close to us not just in physical proximity but so bonded in love. By nature we are blessed by God to be part of God in this world. We are part of the Vine that Jesus is. That brings in the idea of how close we are with one another. We are united by God in Spirit. The absence of love between branches affects the produce. What can the Christians do? Who are Christians today?

God’s word brings fullness to our human growth:
All our human sciences and intelligence contribute to certain aspects of our growth. There is no science that brings perfect joy and happiness to our hearts. Only God’s word brings that perfect joy and happiness and that is not a science to be studied but a faith journey to be walked and lived. The attractive sciences have an advertizing effect in us which we are not aware of. The big-eye-small-stomach-effect can never bring in fast answers to our difficult questions.

God’s word has a pruning effect in us:
Following the narrow gate seems to be tedious but not optional. Either forget pruning yourself and live like a hippy or go through the narrow gate accompanied by God to be pruned. Our pruning will help us to prune the society – that is the mission of the Church since pruning is God’s work and we take part in the mission of the Church.

Our docility is God’s glorification:
Glory of God is human being fully alive. When we listen to the word of God and act on we are called mothers, brothers and sisters of Jesus. Like Jesus we will be busy in doing God’s work which is centered on Love. May the Sacred Heart of Jesus be loved everywhere, forever. Amen.

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Good Shepherd – the parenthood of God!

Responsible parenting has been the table topic for centuries more so in recent years. Every parent has his or her own style of parenting inherited from their own parents, friends or Oprah Shows. Most of the parents want to be friends, guardians and well wisher or even a neighbor or a stranger instead of being a parent. Recent statistics shows that the maximum number of abortion happens in our country. Most parents teach their children the way to success: in their opinion the way to success is more important than the way to happiness. And most parents think also that the success or failure of children doesn’t concern the parents at all. He or she works hard and passes with flying colors; he smokes pot so he is jail, she was bad so she goes through abortion – I have nothing to do! Parenthood ends somewhere down the line when they are 10 or 12!

God shows us the model of his parenthood.
1. Shepherd symbolizes the total sacrifice of God for his people. God is the Shepherd for all Christians as a parent for a child. His parenthood is a full time vocation. It takes in a lot of love and sacrifice. Every family should have the humility to accept that no family is perfect. In our striving to become perfect the parents have to be doubly careful in providing for the growth of the child. Child grows so as parents! Parents grow as parents all their life. The moment you think you are the best parent in PA, you start to go down. No child grows wholly with just the efforts of the parents. The child needs a society. There is swine flu virus outside; there is swine flu virus inside.

2. Shepherd symbolizes the total responsibility of God for his people. Children need to see parents pray and live out the gospel values. Children need to see parents do good. The 99 saw the good deeds of God in His search of the lost. The devil has no responsibility so he could be reckless and cruel in killing. Most of the toys in the market are guns or guys holding guns! Does it talk about the children or the adult society?

3. Shepherd symbolizes the search of the lost! Do the parents make necessary steps in knowing where the children are at? When was the last time you voluntarily contacted the class teacher to talk about the behavior of your child? Do you know your children’s best friends and their background? We presume a lot of things bringing up our children. The family is acclaimed as the first educator of faith and transmitter of human virtues and values. When do I know my son or my daughter needs m: before or during or after the fall?

4. Shepherd symbolizes a legacy left behind by God for the church. Eulogies talk about the exaggerated version of the actual life of a person! In truth what do we leave behind for our children? Children should be proud to tell others how much you mean to them. What is the greatest thing of which you are proud of your father – What have you leant from your father so far? What have you learnt from your mother so far?

Let us pray that all our leadership in our families and society be blessed by God. Every leadership has its origin in God and gets strength in God. As imitators of the Good Shepherd let us be prepared to take risks and extend the limits of Christian parenthood to the life of holiness and life of responsibility which leads us to the life happiness. Amen

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We are witnesses!

Every age has seen its own witnessing spirit. The word ‘Martyr’ in Greek means one who bears witness (to Christ). That was the standard in which the witnessing spirit was lived out in the early Church. We come across the stylytes and other people reduced the death sentence to life sentence which is even more excruciating in the early Church after the persecution. Witnessing to Christ’s love is not so much in death, rather in life: thus the Church in the Middle Ages saw the ascent of the spiritual journey, the dark night of the soul, radical Religious life in poverty, chastity and obedience. ‘What is the nature of today’s witnessing’ seems to be a scary question to ask. Living our life as Christians seem more of a burdensome work or a service done to the Mother Church.

We are witnesses to what?

1. To Christ and His Resurrection:
We are strengthened by the spirit of the Resurrection of Christ not just in Easter season but throughout our Christian life. Our foundation as a Church is built on Christ’s Resurrection. Jesus is risen so also our status as fallen people. God joined us in the person of Jesus in sin, now it is our turn to join God in purity and open heart. It’s the New Life that Jesus won for us: we can’t afford to live in old life is sin and death. Resurrection of Jesus is the resurrection of the Church. We witness that every time we break the word and bread.

2. To repentance and forgiveness of sins:
Our Creed proclaims what we believe. We don’t lie that too in front of the whole church. All our repentance many think involve only our efforts and matanoia: that is not the whole truth. All the greatest sinners have taught us that it is God who initiates the process of conversion. Sinners feel ashamed of the mercy and compassion of God – the reflection of the Prodigal Son among the pigs, would compel us to be part of God, the rest haven’t felt the famine or still spending the wealth of the Prodigal Father.

3. To Gospel and Mission of the Church:
The people witnessed the preaching ministry of Jesus which brought a lot of healing to hearts and bodies. In Jesus preaching had a firm connection with life. What are Christians known for today? What are we so proud of in Christianity? What is so special about this person named Jesus? Every moment we live as people of principles and values we proclaim the gospel. All these questions have clear answers. Gospel doesn’t start with others or with a book rather it starts from our personal life. We witness our own lives when we stand as representatives of the Church and its Mission.

We are witnesses!

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We are Easter people belong to the Easter God

1. Easter fills us with self-confidence

By believing in the Easter joy, we show a lot of confidence in ourselves. All our sufferings in life at least have meaning now that Jesus is raised. If he is not raised, our faith is a waste; he is raised so our faith is strengthened and raised to a higher level. This also includes that our joy should never be the fruit of corruption rather a hard-earned treasure. All our life’s joy is preceded by a life of discipline and commitment. Jesus is raised because he was busy with the business of the father by accepting death and even the death on the cross. Unless it is earned in hard way, our joys are short-lived and temporary: our world is filled with these joys that come from our inability to go through the hard way and enter through the narrow gate.

2. Easter fills us with hope:

Jesus’ life was a life of hope: He came without anything but was given the greatest man as father and a greatest woman as mother. He went out to preach alone but was given 12 men to share the mission. He carried the cross alone but Veronica and Simone were there to ease the pain a little along with Mary. He died alone but God raised him up to raise the level of us all from slavery to heirs of the Kingdom. Every struggle in life has a way of God. We fail to see, perceive and look at the possibilities of God but only look at our possibilities. Every celebration, every sharing and every event in life has a way of God. Easter proves that we are people of hope trying to find the way of God in our human journey.

3. Easter fills us with Love:

Jesus was raised not just to kill Satan or death; Jesus was raised not just to prove that God is powerful; Jesus was raised not to show that he can work miracles in any person let alone his own Son. Jesus was raised to fill us with Love. Easter increases whatever is lacking in us: It brings new life in our dead self. Like Jesus we are raised in our love and service, we are raised in our virtues and values of Christian life, we are raised as good citizens and neighbours filled with the passion for not just our country but for whole humanity. Jesus was raised to be given back to us again and again at all Sacraments and especially at the breaking of Bread to increase our love for God and others.

4. Easter fills us with Life and Mission:

In Baptism we are given the Easter spirit of Christ. We are given new life. When we say we are Christians, we are actually people who are born in Christ. Resurrection brings us a life of clarity and commitment that we permanently live at the heart of God. We begin to share God’s very own life at Baptism: Easter reminds us of our baptismal promise that we are people of God’s life. That moves us to partake in the mission of the Church to bring Good News of salvation to all. We are Easter people belong to the Easter God. Let us pray that we be united to bring meaning and Easter joy to the people around us. Amen.

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The journey of the Cross! The thrown-away spirituality!

1. Great beginning:
God created everything and found it very good. Our beginnings are great as childhood is the most cherished moment of our earthly existence. We learn things from the scratch. When Israel was a child I taught him how to walk. Like a sapling we sprouted out leaves, got tall, got wide and filling ourselves with information. A healthy sight to watch him or her growing up.

2. The growth of the trunk:
All are given an opportunity to grow in spirit. Without our knowledge this trunk starts growing in us. Our spirituality gets matured as we grow. When I was a child I acted, spoke like a child says St Paul. All our life’s energies get their balance from this trunk – our spirituality. We stand tall in the eyes of God in our spirituality.

3. The Vocation of the Cross:
Every tree wants to share the eternity in best possible places. Some go to Royal palaces, so go to institutions and offices, some go to middle class families and others go to poor houses to serve different purposes. No one wants take this trunk which was made into a cross for thieves and sinners. Anything difficult and not rewarding, I don’t want to do. That trunk does not mean anything to me anymore. I don’t need spirituality: I need money and comforts. I abuse my children easily, I divorce easily, I cheat others easily, I look for escape routes and blame it on others easily. No one wants to carry that cross.

4. Thrown-away spirituality and an orphaned spirituality:
Whenever I throw away my spirituality, we dump it on God. Our world is busy finding new and contemporary ways of burying God. New ideologies shape the character of our children. This thrown away spirituality is carried by Jesus willingly as a treasure. We meet all kinds of people when we throw away the treasure in us. Whenever we throw away our spirit, Jesus falls, pierced, bleeds and sweats and suffers. Only a few came to get their share: Mary, Veronica, the weeping women, Simon of Cyrene and a few disciples of Jesus.

5. Forgiveness of God includes a share in God’s divinity:
This tree at last found a place. God forgives us by thrust opening our hearts and cleansing our hearts with his own blood. This symbol of shame has been recreated as the symbol of love and sacrifice. This rejected, abused and thrown away tree found a treasure in life. We hold Jesus and show him to others when we live our spirituality. Let this blood and sweat of Jesus and also the nearness of the suffering soul of God help us have a deep spirituality. Let our life be a projection of all that God is that we may always reflect God in our thought and deed. Amen.

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We are people of the New Jerusalem!

JRS can easily be compared to life in general.

1. God created humanity in holiness:
Even before the bodily birth of the Son of God, humanity was primarily willed by God as sinless and pure. JRS was a holy city from the beginning. JRS means “City of Wholeness.” (Yeru Shalem); others read it as a “City of Peace” (Yeru Shalom). It is a city in which one may find spiritual “wholeness.” Finally, Jerusalem is in essence a “City of Peace.” This is the original nature of humanity and the only ground to glorify God.

2. We always portrayed and argued that we are masters of life:
The gift of life is not our right to have; we are not the masters of life. We can never possess life. As the earliest records portray (Talmud) JRS was kept as a common land and never been divided among the 12 tribes. No one owned land in JRS as it was kept pure by religious influences. All our lives we tend to rent our lives to all kinds of vices and selfish indulgences to make our Holy Land – our hearts as slaves to evil and forces of death.

3. Human life is not an easy homework:
JRS the Holy City is the spiritual center of the Jewish life and culture for more than 3000 years. For Christians, JRS is the place where Jesus walked, breathed, and preached. Islam has its own share of the City. So many different people fought over JRS: Assyrians, Babylonians, Egyptians, Greeks, Ptolemies, Seleucids, Romans, Byzantines, Persians, Arabs, Seljuks, Crusaders, Mongols, Mamelukes, Turks, British, Jordanians, Egyptians, Syrians, Lebanese, and Iraqis. There are various forces that try to rule us at different times of life: convictions, ideologies, philosophies or even a complete loss of meaning.

4. Human life is sinful and needs God’s assistance all the time:
“This is a city that has been besieged about forty different times and destroyed (at least partially) on thirty-two different occasions. The rulership of Jerusalem has changed hands some twenty-six times. "The City of Peace" has known wars and destruction since it existence was first known to us from the Biblical record. (Ref: http://belovedjerusalem.com/). We hardly keep up our common name and values. Our selfishness is so great that we can sell our God and religion for meager pleasure and rewards.

5. We all need Jesus coming to our life (JRS) and die for us:
Being a Jew, Jesus would have visited JRS often. Luke’s Gospel is the theological reflection of Jesus on his way to JRS (11 to 21 chapters). This time it is going to be different: He enters our hearts as the King. The donkey symbolizing the beatitude: Blessed are the poor in spirit. When we become poor on earthly possessions Jesus elevates us to be rich in love. He suffers for us and his blood is all over us to purify us and make us clean (St. Paul).

6. This journey of Jesus brings meaning to the New JRS:
The Palm branch is a symbol of triumph and victory representing heaven in our midst. We have accepted Jesus as our King by promising Jesus to walk the way of victory over sin. We are not onlookers or travellers, we are the New JRS consecrated by Jesus thus our responsibility in the Church is great. Our victory does not depend on how happy we are in waving our palm leaves and decorate it in houses, rather how receptive we are in proving Jesus is king of our lives by the way we think, feel and act and witness God’s love. As these palms die and still be beautiful and meaningful so also our lives. Our Life is saved and we are the people of the New JRS. Amen.

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Penitential service (04.01.2009)

The penitential practices aim at “dispelling all evil, washing guilt away, restoring lost innocence, bringing mourners joy, casting out hatred, bringing us peace and humbling our earthly pride” (Paschal Praeconuium). The very first words of Jesus are, ‘Repent and believe in the Gospel’. The two verbs ‘repent’ and ‘believe’ characterizes the essence of conversion. Repentance stands in the middle and makes two different journeys. The first journey is the backward movement of looking back at our sinfulness and the compassionate forgiveness of the Father. I have repented from these things that made a slave out of me. The second journey is the forward movement of looking forward at believing in the gospel. When Jesus said, ‘Repent and believe in the gospel’, he did not mean the NT, rather believe in the total message of conversion and salvation. It means the radical following of Jesus. The first act of Jesus after this message was to call first disciples together.

Fulton Sheen used to make fun of nuns: “Hearing nuns’ confession is like being stoned to death with popcorn. Many Christians still think Sunday as a sponge to wipe out their sins. Sacrament of reconciliation often thought of as a freebee; buy one get one free. The Sacrament of Reconciliation is not an additional prayer or a form of popular piety like the way of the cross or a rosary: it is a Sacrament instituted by Christ to impart grace to the soul.

There are three levels of understanding reconciliation: Alteration, conversion and transformation. By Alteration we mean the relatively limited form of change that develops from one’s personal behavior. This includes a temporary apologies or word level sorrys and thought patters. Sorry I scolded you, made fun of you, were made at you etc. Even though these limited forms of change carry the materials of true feelings of compassion, they don’t necessarily form a person in holiness. It could be thought of as the first or early stage of conversion.

Conversion is a radical change in which past affiliations is rejected for some new commitment and identity. We should be doubly careful here that conversion is only the second stage. The prodigal son came to his senses and returned. Zacchaeus invited Jesus and repented and the woman caught in adultery was given forgiveness. Conversion of the heart is indeed a human commitment based on human promises which are often weak and vulnerable. It needs the constant guidance by the Holy Spirit and constant renewal from our part.

Third level is the transformation which is also a radical change, but “one in which an altered perception reinterprets both past and present” (Beverly Roberts Gaventa). Transformation compulsively moves us towards holiness in the way we live out the spirit of forgiveness. The prodigal son was reinstated as the son. Zacchaeus went ahead and shared and the sinful woman became a radical follower of Jesus.

The Church needs conversions and transformations for its survival and mission. All those who are called to be leaders in any form need to kneel in spirit to raise the shattered hopes, wavering faith and fickle love of simple people. We are all leaders and sharers of the priesthood of Christ, thus our hopes are realized and faith strengthened and love deepened by this sacrament. Go then to experience Christ’s forgiveness for he says, “Return to me with your whole heart.” (Joel 2:12)

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We are here on earth to make things grow for God!

The spring season is up. We see signs of new life and new growth all around us. The trees and flowers are budding. People will soon be tending to their lawns, spreading out seed and fertilizer. The feeling of growing something is so great that we bring up new lives around us and thus bring harmony to our eco-system. The capacity of a seed is unbelievable and that Jesus often had a close relationship with seeds and grounds throughout his life. His parables and life are filled with corn fields, vine and the grapes, wheat, mustard and different trees.

The parable of the wheat seed could be seen in three levels:

1. The moment of unacceptance from the part of the people and the struggle to prepare the people from the part of Jesus. The seed falls and it does not share anything with the ground. The ground is the dust, moisture and mud. They represent the age old traditions and practices that shape the lives of the people. It was difficult for them to accept Jesus as the Messiah. A Messiah can never come from Nazareth. He can never work as a carpenter and hang around with a bunch of fishermen. He can never eat with sinners and tax collectors. He should engage himself in politics and overthrowing the Romans. The people could not accept Jesus as their Savior. In the prologue of John we read, He came to his own and the own did not accept him. The Pharisees and Sadducees, the scribes and the Sanhedrin and some of the Jewish royalties and ordinary people voiced his death sentence. They want to do away with him. Jesus teaches them the lesson of love and forgiveness. He teaches them that he is the compassion of the Father.

2. The human life of God. God took the human flesh. He merges himself in human history. He, who cannot be contained in time, is subjected to time and death, body and pain, temptation and accusation. The seed merges with the dust, moisture and mud. It becomes one with the ground that no one can identify what is what. The seed has become part of the ground. He dies for our sins by accepting our own sinfulness on his own shoulders. He experiences the same human experiences of hunger, thirst, cry and agony. He is one of us in all things except sin. He was accused and sentenced to death like a thief. He was crucified and pierced with the lance. His body was buried in a tomb like one of us. He shared the mother’s and father’s love, friends love and the love of enemies which is so fond of. As a human being, he experienced poverty, humility and simplicity. As a human being he spoke the truth and stood for it. As a human being he bore the pain and suffering and death. He did all these as a human being. The dead seed but fully human fully alive.

3. The lessons took deep roots on the ground. The lives of the people were transformed. The disciples received the strength and courage to go our boldly and stand for the values that he left behind. Mary stood beside them and us in all our thoughts and actions. The people who were cured by Jesus were transformed for life. The man who received sight at the foot of the cross was transformed. The thief on the cross saw paradise on that day itself. People’s lives got transformed.

Jesus is that seed who fell and died and rose for us. We imitate him in all struggles and rejections yet stand strong in faith, hope and love. He says the same words to us: If they have persecuted me, they will persecute you too. How do we act against struggle? We imitate him in all our good Christian principles: speaking and living the truth, loving and forgiving and being the heart of God for others. We imitate him when we set to transform others with our love and service. We are here on earth to make things grow for God. We are people of life. Let us be the seed to bring great harvest to the Kingdom of God.
Amen.

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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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