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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Let us make Crosses!

There are crosses made in God, silver, platinum, diamonds and other metals. God chose us to make this cross by using ourselves personally. I hope you all know where these ashes come from! The journey of the ashes is so fascinating in many ways: it was part of a tree so green and fresh coming into this world; had to be cut off from all that these palms were used to doing and was chosen in the ministry of worship; the first call was so painful that leaving a particular way of life to a life so different and full of surprises; the second call is even more crucial that it goes through a radical transformation experiencing the life of nothingness but now part of the tree of life: The Cross.

Every Christian is on the journey towards the Father. Our Church is a journeying Church. Children are not aware of the spectacular vocation that we receive at the sacrament of Baptism. Jesus tells us ‘I chose you’, thus every call is a choice of God. This awareness leads us to great heights in our spiritual formation that every time we come in contact with sacraments like Eucharist and Reconciliation and Anointing of the sick, we are filled with a numbing effect and chilled skin. We feel great, elated, blessed, honored, comforted, consoled, respected, loved, cared, forgiven, and owned by God.

Though these expressions could reveal the elevation of the palms metaphorically in the triumphant entry of Jesus to JRS, the joy is short-lived. That makes the 2^nd call so special to each one of us that we will be tested like Gold. This fire that burns the palms into ashes is the same fire that decorates the Sacred Heart of Jesus. This flame of love is the reason behind our repentance. We are ready to give up all that make us so powerful, arrogant, proud, important like the fresh palm into people of God’s Power, proud of our weaknesses, humble and loving as symbolized by the ashes.

These 40 days of lent are going to be very crucial to all of us as the readings today are reminding us to put more emphasis on our spiritual life, prayer life and social life filled with acts of charity and kindness. The journey cannot be backwards where we deny these ashes and prefer to stay on as fresh palms – being happy with temporary happiness or even deny the sacraments and say that we don’t need God anymore! – back to the palm tree! We have wandered far enough. Let us group together now to stand together as people of the Tree of Life. Let us make Crosses!

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Blessed are they who love!

Poverty breeds anger and aggression. The desperate people in Haiti could express their anger in many different ways. Watch the change of language! The tone, the choice of words, the modulation and the format! One doesn’t need to go far to get an education in obscenity these days: in grounds, malls, theaters we could hear teenagers using foul language without any logical reasoning. Words that were bad in 60s are now culturally acceptable. Psychologists still argue that if the kids use them in the privacy of their rooms, it is ok! The peer pressure, music and song lyrics, TV shows and movies shock our culture and make us uncultured. More than all these lack of role models in parents and lack of parenting stand top of the list.

Marriage as a sacrament, calls for a deep sense of responsibility. The church always taught us to be ‘doubly careful’ in parenting the teens. Bad models and extremists concepts are copied so powerfully in the young minds and hearts. As a teacher, I have always learnt that the best way to get best results from the students in terms of academics and respect – the violent way. Most of the accomplished teachers at that stage of my life were tough and unsocial. They got their results. I publicly whacked my students for nearly 10 minutes because they did not do their homework. It troubled me so deeply that I vowed never to use force in my teaching career. This was possible only when I reflected upon the exact opposite role models I had as teachers who made me a joyful person.

How strong are you in your vocation as a husband, as a wife? In other words what is your level of patience and understanding! Every one of you married in the Catholic Church, when you filled in your pre-nuptial enquiry form took an oath on God and in front of a priest that you are aware of what you are doing. Our children or grandchildren register the vocabulary of your happiness, sadness, anger and excitement all alike! I personally believe that the failure of the student heavily depends of the failure of the teacher.

These harsh words from Isaiah and the ‘Woes’ in the gospel today are not the result of foul language! They are language of caution and care. If we want to summarize the whole gospel in a single sentence, we could say, ‘Blessed are you who love, for you will continue to experience the Love of God.’ All those ‘Blessed’ words are words of love: If you love, you will be hungry, you will weep, and you will be hated, excluded and insulted. If you are rich on account of someone else, you are filled at the expense of someone else’s food, and you laugh at someone else’s downfall and are looking for cheap praises, we have to be sure that there is no true love there!

Being ‘Blessed’ is the result of a rich experience of living in God’s love for a great period of time. One does not become blessed overnight! Patience is a virtue. It is interesting to note the words of St. Paul. Love is patience. It is different from ‘Patience is a form of love.’ This young man told the master that he is a seeker of truth. The master asked him what he should have first to seek the truth. The student said, ‘an overwhelming passion for it.’ The answer is, said the master, ‘an unremitting readiness to admit you may be wrong.’ We are so fast in expressing our love but too slow in expressing that we are wrong. We are so fast in saying, I love you but too slow in saying ‘I am sorry.’

The challenges of patience in real life situations extend our persistence in our faith. When was the last time we prayed for patience! If we prayed for patience, don’t we see the change of our language, the language of our children? Don’t we see more of ‘Blessed’ instead of ‘Woes’? Blessed are you who love!

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Finding God in deep waters!

In the movie FIREPROOF the story explains to us how parents in their honored position could influence their children in their early years of marriage. You have someone teaching you first handedly and you take the lesson for your life. In the Church, so many saints have lived a rich, full life of grace which they handed down to us as life-lessons to be lived. Seminarians were often guided by the examples lived by the prophets and the disciples in appreciating their vocation especially the 2 vocation stories that we heard today. On the contrary, the society will not tolerate a criminal talking about justice and peace; an uneducated person talking about educational systems in the international levels; a non-believer talking about the importance of sacraments or a teen talking about obedience to parents or the importance of speed limits!

The last thing a fisherman wants to hear is the ‘how’ of fishing from another fisherman. An experienced fisherman does spill certain tips to the new ones. What we have in today’s gospel is experienced fishermen who fished all their lives and tips came from a carpenter who never learnt anything about fishing. What would have gone through in the minds of those fishermen! How would they take this situation lightly! The reactions are so contradictory: an acute aggression – How dare you! Shut up and get out! Leave us alone! Or a dry nasty smile – ‘the what?’ ‘What do you mean deep waters?’ ‘Excuse me! What is your last name again! Or a big surprise – ‘Wait a minute! Are you commanding me who am so weak and tired of fishing and more over frustrated at the result of last night?

The word for fish in Greek is Ichthus which is a symbolic word used by the early Christians. It can be read as an ACROSTIC, a word formed from the 1^st letters of many words. Ichthus has the meaning of Jesus Christ, Son of God, the Savior. They could not openly practice their religion as the persecutions were on. Ichthus was their secret sacred symbol used to recognize another believer. Fish is another word for Jesus.

It is God himself teaching us where to find him and how to find him. Put out into deep waters! This catch is not for a hobby or business. This is for life. I am motivated to fish because I am hungry and I am driven by the force in me that I want to live. This is the force in every Christian that we look for God because we want to live. Finding God is not staying away from the spirituality, not staying away from dinner table, not staying away from responsibilities of father, mother and children. I hate snow but I love Nazareth or Watertown! I want God but I won’t get in the water! This also calls for honesty and truthfulness in our commitment to work. Those working in big offices and getting big salaries: I take big fish without even thinking of going near the water. All those who receive big should be prepared to give big in terms of sharing.

Though this phrase ‘fishers of men’ is traditionally used for vocation to priesthood and religious life, it teaches us the simple wisdom that ‘Once you fish for God, you are qualified to fish for people.’ 1^st lesson for the disciples is fishing or finding God. This is the foundation to finding people. The object of finding or fishing for people is to share God with them. Every kind act of charity is sharing God with others. Are you hungry! Let’s find the fish and let’s find the people to share our meal with! I guess we are in deep waters and our food is getting ready on that Table!

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Charitably Challenged!

“Certainty is the mother of quiet and repose, and uncertainty the cause of variance and contentions” Edward Coke. Many a times what we want is not knowledge rather certainty. If we have a choice between certainty and hope, we will certainly choose certainty every time. Buying a house, choosing a partner, developing a friendship, and most of our life-choices are based on certainty. We avoid doing anything that is not certain; we try to avoid saying anything that is not certain. But there is a certain opium-effect in the things that are not certain too, such as spreading rumors, possessing an attitude that motivates us – ‘why not’, ‘let us find out’ that violates laws and peace in a society.

Prophets are one set of people who could never be certain on most of the convictions for which they lived for. They were never certain of their life: they were chased, beaten, killed or termed as false prophets. They were never certain of their prophecy: it may be true, could be true, doubtful, a lie or opposing to the will of God. They were never certain of their vocation: cursed God, asked God to leave them alone or ran away from their vocation. What were they certain of? They were certain of the love-story between God and people. They knew for sure that their uncertainty on all these things is related to God’s love for his people.

Someone jokingly said that there are 2 things certain: death and taxes. Can anyone be certain of love, life and vocation? By looking at the divorce rate, abortion, greed, carefree and careless societies we are certain that we cannot be certain of love, life and vocation. We even witness people trying to buy certainty in the modern world. If you stay in our marriage, I will give you this much money. Human love can never be perfect since there is earth and God’s spirit mixed together in creating us. There is a pull towards God and a pull towards hell constantly defining us. God promises us in the 1^st reading: ‘They will fight against you but not prevail over you’.

Our love can have depth only if it constantly finds meaning in God’s love. Every sharing of love in the family springs from God’s love. I very well remember on my ordination day, in the ceremony, the Archbishop asking me the question on my commitment; the answer was ‘I am, with the help of God’. The wedding vows you take are always accompanied by God’s help and care.

Would you be interested in buying a car with wonderful design, color, brand and other paraphernalia without an engine? A house without a roof? Every created thing on earth has a definite function to support our well-being. What makes us human beings is not our ability to dominate, rule, kill or being selfish rather our ability to love. The lesson that Paul teaches us today is the journey of Love in our lives. Child loves according to its ability and knowledge and a grown-up loves according to his/her ability and knowledge.

A little kid playing with her Barbie doll is normal that she wants to imitate her mother by pretending to be the mother though unknowingly. And the society accepts that and approves that and certifies that it is normal. If a grown-up does the same, we bring in all kinds of abnormal psychology onto him/her and term them as psychologically challenged. If we apply the same arguments here: a little kid knows little about love and makes a lot of mistakes as a kid, as a teen, as a young adult but as an adult we cannot be termed as charitably challenged!!! It will be a shame on our faith, hope and Christian dignity that Christians are called CHARITABLY CHALLENGED! Don’t we want to be certain of God’s love or Is God’s love is one-sided? God’s love remains, what about my love?

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Spirit of the Lord!

Seminary is one of the best places we see the trial and error of the Eucharistic celebrations. Once this young seminarian on a day of recollection was given the bible instead of a lectionary to read the 1^st reading. When he approached the end of the reading, he forgot what to say at the end of the reading, thus he said, ‘Its finished.:’ I can remember how many times I practiced before I went in for the exam on Prophets. One of the exercises in that exam was to read like a prophet.

The Holy Eucharist is put in such a manner that it gives us the idea of a dialogue between God and people. People take part in those responses. Responsorial songs, other songs in mass are all our prayers to God who spoke to us primarily with the Readings of the mass and also in the Homily of the priest. I remember once celebrating mass in OLSH, I noticed the people were not responding…

The Jews have a very colorful way of taking the Torah around the synagogue and let the people touch the Torah in reverence and walking up to the place the priest invites the appointed reader to read from the scroll. Regular public reading of the Torah started with Ezra after the people came back from the Babylonian exile. The readers were chosen among people who are of good standing in the society. In our church we don’t just call them reader: they are Ministers of the Word. The liturgical commission tells us that the basic requirement of these ministers is faith in the word of God. A reader must be someone with a love of scripture who believes that it is alive and active and gives guidance.

This appears in 16 psalms as the starting word thus becoming an important word. This word which means ‘Praise the Lord’ is an exclamation of joy, praise and thanksgiving. Gospel readings are taken from the original settings of Jesus and contain the voice of Jesus. Our joy is rooted in our longing to meet him in Word and in Deed. Jesus not only reads the scripture in today’s gospel, he becomes the scripture today and all time.

The tone and content of the message tell a lot about the reader. Often we know to whom the message is intended for. Only God’s word has the power to address all people, all nation, all environment, all needs and desires and all seasons. One such diversity of concentration is seen today that the Word was given the Holy Spirit and be anointed is given to the poor, prisoners, blind, oppressed and slaves.

Jesus just came back from the wilderness preparing himself for his definite mission that God called him to be. Only when we have the mind-set and a deep longing for God’s Spirit that the scriptures can penetrate us and make us realize that the scriptures have to be fulfilled in and through us someday, preferably in the near future.

Every Christian should feel that there are things to be fulfilled every time we read or listen to the Word of God. Life goes on as we witness there are so many unfinished business on the way. So many assignments on love are pending. So many smiles, kind words, little sacrifices, compassion and understanding, more over faith is lacking. When do we honestly say to ourselves and God, “Today, this scripture is fulfilled.” When do we say to ourselves “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me.”

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The Gentle Voice!

Very seldom in the Bible we witness the Trinity so clearly visible and at work. Today’s gospel reading is one of those passages where we see the Trinity so visible and at work. So often we read in the NT that Jesus filled with the Spirit did this and did that. Baptism changes the outlook on life: from children of people to the children of God. Transfiguration and Baptism are the objective witnesses of the voice of God in the NT. Both the messages spoke about the intimacy of the father and the son, and also the importance of listening.

Jesus’ words and actions revealed the Heart of the Father. Jesus inaugurates his public activity by stepping into the place of sinners. Our Pope explains the baptism of Jesus as Jesus’ way of referring to his death and the Heavenly Voice is the Father’s way of referring to the Resurrection (Jesus of Nazareth p 18). Baptism thus is our readiness to surrender to the will of the father following the invitation initiated by God primarily.

To build a house we get quotes from professionals, to put our children in schools, we get ideas from friends and well-wishers, to get jobs we approach many and all our consumer mentality is accompanied by our friends and people even to buy clothes and pets! Who do we approach and what do we do to construct our spiritual homes? Why do I need a spirituality, why do I have to come to Church, why do my children and I need sacraments? Do we have any questions at all relating to our relationship with God? What do we do when we have those questions?

There is a gentle voice within each of us. As children we heard it and now that we are adults we pay more attention to the voices of parents, siblings, friends, critics, television, strangers and experts. When these voices become so central and fascinating we don’t listen to the gentle voice within us clearly. Our conscience is ignored or suppressed by our own deafness. It is the gentle breeze through which God comes to us so powerfully. If we are so noisy ourselves or in a noisy situation where nothing could be heard except the noise, this gentle breeze has no effect in us.

Baptism is one such moment where we experience that calm and tranquility in us and begin to listen to our consciousness. Everyone at the time of baptism receives a responsibility: the child, the parents, the God-parents and the congregation. Jesus’ life-style changed by Baptism: from working with wood as a carpenter to being busy with the business of the Father; from a small family to the ends of the earth; from Cross to Resurrection.

Jesus heard Father calling him ‘you are my beloved Son’. Here is the big challenge for everyone: When do I hear my parents call me – You are my beloved son or daughter? What do I need to do to achieve that status? When do I hear my children call me – You are my beloved mom or dad? What do I need to do achieve that status? Does my conscience tell me that God is yet to reveal to me that he is pleased with me? God-parents! Do you really feel that you have done your part in educating your god-children spiritually and could hear God saying ‘I am well-pleased’?

Whose voice is the strongest in our lives that we hear it all the time even in the absence of that person and why? Do I listen to my conscience and act accordingly? If I have to change one thing in my present life-style, what would that be? Let us gradually calm other voices and pay more attention to our conscience, the gentle voice within us!

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Earthen Vessels!

We are still mourning over the dead in Haiti and its mounting death tolls we continue to pray for a miracle there. I don’t know if you agree with me on what is the big fuss about showing our love and concern in collecting and donating NOW! UN appeals for about 550millions and we promised 100millions or more. The rest of the world is pouring in their help: a time when we saw 200,000 or more people dead and more than 3 million are affected. There are undoubtedly poor and rich in the world, poor countries and rich countries in the world and also poor living in rich country and rich living in poor countries.

This couple who got married in the gospel is by the standards of the scripture, not important at all. They are never mentioned anywhere after this event. The UN and well-to-do nations should see to it that every poor nation on earth has to be given an opportunity and a fair chance to live and be respected. Were they alarmed that they are going to have that huge an earthquake? Did they have the facility to know? Looking at the natural calamities and bad philosophies of people in recent years, we witnessed more attention and care shown after the incident. What mattered was why putting us in the incident in the first place? Jesus did not work this miracle after a few weeks of this wedding! He came in when the time is apt.

The poor don’t have to be poor and blame God for it! We have the resources to take care of our race which is one: Human. Whether it is Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India or Haiti on natural disasters, other countries fighting each other wanting to prove who is right and who is wrong, what we have seen is only the suffering faces of people and what we have not seen are their moments of joy and peaceful life before the calamity! We need to get used to seeing people that way in their happy and peaceful environments.

The roots to those blessings and graces are found in families. I first learned the concept of non-violence in my marriage (Gandhi). Many of us cannot and will not accept that our marriages will lack the ingredients. Many of us are not prepared to invite Jesus who is the solution to our problems or Mary who is sensitive to our needs! Every individual has his/her own style of running a family. All weddings are same but all marriages are different. We learn our style from our parents and significant others. No one can his/her style is the best or the only solution to all problems. My husband and I have never considered divorce…murder sometimes, but never divorce (Joyce Brothers). No man or woman really knows what perfect love is until they have been married a quarter of a century (Mark Twain). Getting a dog is like getting married. It teaches you to be less self-centered, to accept sudden, surprising outbursts of affection, and not to be upset by a few scratches on your car. (Will Stanton).

The biggest challenge here is journeying with God from our wedding to marriage: from our 1st day of celebration to the rest of the days living. Jesus needed those earthen vessels and water to change the water into wine! In the same way Jesus needs our open hearts filled with human love thus he could bless us by making us divine in our thoughts and actions. Miracles cannot be seen in families where husbands and wives and children cannot see each other eye to eye! Where did we hide our earthen vessels? Are they broken? It is about time we bring them out and let our families see them. How much water can it hold? How much do we have in them? Forming a family filled with love and respect is a great way to show your commitment to God and a great donation you can give to the less fortunate ones!

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Our Spiritual Journey!

Some of our journeys in life have no sense of direction or destination. This pastor began to preach the homily when suddenly two men came with machine guns one in front and one at the back of the church. The man in the front spoke up, “Those who want to take a bullet for Jesus remain in your seats.” Within seconds the people ran for their lives including the assistant priests. Only 20 or more people were left in the church. The man spoke again, “Ok Father! The hypocrites have all gone, please begin your homily.” If our spiritual journey is not planned we would not have any goals to achieve in life.

One of the parables for the religious educators narrated by Fr. Anthony De Mello is that of a sheep found a hole in the fence and crept through it and wandered far off and lost his way back. Then he realized that he was being followed by a wolf. He ran and ran, but the wolf kept chasing him, until the shepherd came and rescued him and brought him back to the fold. In spite of everyone’s urgings to the contrary, the shepherd refused to nail up the hole in the fence. God respects us and gives us freedom to choose. Life is full of choices. God’s love is the freedom we enjoy in choosing.

Magi Caspar from Tarsus, Melchior from Arabia and Balthazar from Sheba were to come together as a unit, a community. This unity from different backgrounds sometimes opposing backgrounds were not work of people. The 12 disciples of Jesus and their differences so unique but in the presence of Jesus could work together. Husbands and wives coming from different family backgrounds, mindsets, and other numerous differences were joined in marriage by God. Begins the journey of life: to search for meaning, to search for happiness, to search for inner peace and love.

We all need a Star to guide us on our way. It could be the power of the Bible, Marian devotion, Daily Eucharist, Power of the sacraments or just a simple personal prayer, but we all need some form of spirituality for our day-to-day sustenance. Most of our wandering and losing ways could be avoided through this.

We all will experience a TIME WITH HEROD. Most lives confusion starts there. All the violation of the commandments, all the power and glory of the nature of God’s love will be blurry or even diminished and forgotten. Temptations rule us. Power of sin takes possession of us. We decide whatever we see and hear are facts and truth. We don’t ask God to guide us to the truth. Our hasty decisions were about to bury us alive! But God still guides us through all those confusions.

After numerous attempts, struggles, trials and temptations, we find God. We realize the importance of giving in the presence of God. Myrrh is a symbol of human vulnerability. It is symbolic of the humanity of Jesus. Like us, he experienced joy, sorrow, fear, frustration, loneliness. The gift of incense is symbolic of the divinity of Jesus. Gold is an ideal gift for a King. The ideal king led by love. Epiphany is after all realizing that we should have something to give to God. It is not just the epiphany of God, rather our own epiphanies.

The more we bring the best in us to the benefit of the other and God, the more we are blessed with the wisdom and love of God. Wise men were guided by the Wisdom of God. Wise men would have spoilt the whole salvation history. They would have killed Jesus. After all the wisdom of man is never enough when it comes to loving other and loving God.

Where am I going? What am I searching for in life? What are my Herod-times? Do I feel the need to model my own Epiphany with that of Jesus? How wise am I? Do I value God’s wisdom as an anchor in my spirituality and way of life?

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New Year Resolutions!

I have been checking on the most common New Year resolutions around us: It’s always been Lose Weight, Manage Debt, Save Money, and Get fit, Quit Smoke or Drink. "People are so worried about what they eat between Christmas and the New Year, but they really should be worried about what they eat between the New Year and Christmas."

In a way, New Year is everyone’s birthday. New Year is a special time to reflect on God’s generosity. It is a time to be happy that God gave us enough and more opportunities to share His love and care with different people. Rarely do we admit that ‘Time’ belongs to God and our bodies are timed. God is beyond time, but He loves us in time. Every opportunity that we get on earth to show our love, faith, care, responsibility is special and important to us. Wasting, ignoring or being indifferent to those opportunities is equal to saying no to time, thus God’s generosity.

We read in the 1st reading one of the finest blessings in the OT. We need God’s grace & blessings every day to keep our time holy and God-filled. It makes us to act fast on love: the shepherds went in haste. We cannot afford to idle away in experiencing the grace and blessings of God. It compels us to reach out; to seek the face of God in others. It should make us restless. St. Augustine experienced that: “Our hearts are restless until they rest in God.” God’s gift of time is an invitation to seek His Face, His Kingdom. Mary as mother of God experienced the restlessness in her heart. The agony and ecstasy she had to go through in her continued efforts to fulfill God’s will never missed to affect her Son in the womb. Jesus was not only sharing her blood as nourishment, but also her spirituality, her restlessness and her rejoicing in the Lord in time. It took her and Joseph eight days to call the baby ‘Jesus’. Those eight days were great days of preparation - a desert experience – longing to call the baby ‘Jesus’ a name meaning Savior.

God creates us in time, gives us necessary grace and blessings to make our time holy by the way we live. Today as we reflect on the response of Mary to the call of God, on how she made all efforts to make her time holy, let us reflect on our own response to the call of God: our call to be a father, a mother, a son, a daughter, a grandparent, a friend and a child of God and a child of Mary. This will lead us to pray for our country, our world and its peace. We need peace to purify our time. Today is a special day traditionally we pray for World Peace. Pope JP II said, “To pray for peace is to open the human heart to the inroads of God’s power to renew all things. To pray for peace is to pray for Justice, for a right-ordering or relations within and among nations and peoples. It is to pray for freedom of every individual. It is to seek God’s forgiveness, and to implore the courage to forgive those who have trespassed against us.”

Mary is the model of the Church and a great source of inspiration to all of us. By remembering her faithfulness to God, we live out her values and inspiration all the days of this year and the years to come. Let us make all our God-given time holy following the example of Mary, the Mother of God. Amen.

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