The Ascending Christian!

Our human civilization has a tendency to celebrate anything and everything. We celebrate birth, all sacraments, wedding days, 40^th anniversary of our meeting, president’s day and the like. The Church recently made it a habit of declaring a year to a particular devotion: Jubilee year, year of the Priest etc. There are quite a many international days such as world day of peace, world day of friendship, mother’s day etc. Every celebration should make sense and our partaking is very essential for any celebration. We don’t celebrate Afghanistan’s Independence Day here! Nor do we celebrate Manmohan Singh’s Birthday! We celebrate the feasts that make sense and make us part of the events.

Christmas is celebrated in all the Christian churches not just an individual has come into this world rather our salvation and redemption need the birth of Jesus. We celebrate Christmas because the event and the person of Jesus are so intimately related to our life and happiness. Easter is celebrated in all Christian churches not just an individual rose from the dead rather our own resurrection and life with God in eternity need the resurrection of Jesus. We celebrate Easter because our eternal life is intimately related to Easter.

Our celebration of Ascension has a purpose. Jesus’ earthly life got accomplished on the cross and he rightly claimed. His resurrection brought hope to humanity and our faith is founded on the resurrection of Jesus as St. Paul rightly teaches us. Our earthly life needs accomplishing. Our own resurrections need assurance. The feast of Ascension is a reminder that we have miles to go and promises to keep. Jesus’ death, resurrection and ascension make us sharers of something so extraordinary and special: I am the way, truth and life. He shows us the way of the Cross, brings us back to life through Resurrection and teaches us the simple lesson of ascending to the Father in all we do and say.

Ascension of Jesus makes us ascending people: people who are on the way up. Our movement is toward heaven and never toward hell. This pilgrim church has one way to tread on, the path that Jesus walked, talked, lived and suffered and rose. God’s goal is not to make Jesus a super-man by doing extraordinary things in him, rather God wants to make us extraordinary people who would take Jesus’ message seriously and live by it.

The ascending Christian is a sure sign of hope in the descending sinful modern world created by corrupted and selfish people. An ascending Christian would certainly live for the values of the kingdom because by baptism every Christian is given the vocation to seek higher values and higher forms of living. By ascension Jesus gives us the glimpse of our own assumption to the new heaven and new earth.

This is a very crucial moment for Jesus as he reunites with the Father in its original design, so too we continue to experience our unity with the Trinity. This unity is our goal and path of our assumption is the path of love and service. The same Jesus who taught us to love God and others now teaches us the importance of being united with God through ascension. Ascension is a great lesson of union with God. That’s why Jesus’ farewell is never a farewell.

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Peace! Shalom! Shanti! (Mother's Day)

She called me a couple weeks ago and said, "This Mother's Day, please don't send me another card covered with flowers and filled with flattery. I appreciate your thinking of me, Get real! I did the best I could, but I was far from a perfect mom!" You remember. You were there!" So this year I got her a card with that old woman on it with the hairnet and the housedress. On the front it says, "Hours of excruciating labor, millions of diapers and countless sleepless nights. On the inside it says," And you get a card. (dot dot dot) Yeah, that sounds fair."

If God created only mothers with motherly qualities, the world would have been peaceful! Honestly all the anger, greed, wars, and other peace less activities in the past have been the language of men and mothers played very little role or no role in them. Honestly speaking, the role of a mother from Proverbs 31 to the present has undergone tremendous changes. We don’t see much of moms cook, arrange tables, do the dishes! Most of the marriages stood on the patience and peace-loving nature of women in the past. Is it a past memory only?

The tradition in India wants the women out of her parent’s house and be part of her husband’s family. She literally marries not just the husband but his family as well. She has to adapt to her new conditions and adjusts herself in all that she does and says. Almost all women face the mighty mother-in-law and dominating nature of the husband.

Peace is almost always a concept that is spoken in the realm of Justice. Not many think that peace is the quality of perfection. Jesus orders perfection – just as your heavenly father is perfect. How can anyone enjoy peace if we live and are chained in sin? Peace is certainly related to the moral standards that we set for ourselves. Just as our kids don’t listen to a single word we say – there is no peace in that family, we chose sin and darkness – result is NO PEACE!

We love to use or intend the word ‘peace’ in all our greetings and farewells. Peace was disturbed in the Christian communities because of unchristian ideas came into our church. The JRS council decides on Christian morals rooted on freedom. They were in search of peace. Jesus’ promise of peace is so essential that we practice it every day in the mass. This peace is given to us not to just feel better or feel superior, rather feel responsible. This peace makes us humble and service-minded that we are responsible towards our families and society.

Inner peace paves way to peace in society. The way to inner peace is honest love. Only love can bring us peace and that’s exactly what happened. Jesus brings peace to us, that is, Love brings us peace. Peace is always a language of love, morally sound and striving for perfection.

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Christianity does not make sense! (5-2-10)

When I was a little kid back home, I witnessed people were so amazed at Christians. Our schools are as huge in number as they are expected of coming from 2^nd largest populated country. St. Joseph’s H S school had more than 3000 students in the main branch and the school also had 2 other branches in the same town. Studying with Hindu, Muslim and other Christian children was certainly a great experience as you are respected and kept as model for other students. You are a Christian. However, I don’t see that often these days. The world has a standard for us!

We know what a Rattle snake is capable of; a Tsunami is capable of or a quarter-back is capable of and the world has standard for any and every concept. When I was in Florida last year, in one of the crocodile show handed me a little crocodile. He asked me if I am aware of what he could do! Probably a good photo to be on our bulletin this Sunday! We also know our mothers embraces and feeling the softness of the fingers of our kids and their capacities. I was amazed at the Emperor penguins. The male will balance the egg on his feet to keep it warm for the whole 9 week, keeping it warm, waiting for the partner’s return with food. Nature teaches us so much about love! Nature revolves around the principle of giving to and protecting family from danger.

Some of the world standards for Christians are 1. We are people of the Resurrection. We chose light and avoid sin. 2. We are the salt of the earth and light to the world – we show others how to shift from glorifying ourselves to glorifying God. 3. Our life as Christians is founded on not using, abusing, misusing, cheating, hurting, judging or disrespecting God and others, rather founded on love for God and neighbor. When Father Chevalier, the Founder of MSC envisioned the society, he said, “I see a new world emerging.” Love is both our theory and practice at the same time. I can wear a Red Philly shirt without knowing any players or the game and make the most noise!

Just as the world has standard for us Christians, we should also have our own standards! And our standard as Christians constantly aims to model on God’s. As a patriot, you have a flag or war photos at home. As a Philly fan you wear their T shirts or caps! But as Christian you can’t just have a picture of the Sacred Heart at home or wear a pious T shirt to the Church! Your continual attempts to participate in a time of worship, a time to pray, a time to help those in need, a time to sacrifice and a be a bridge in the family are all your standard that you have for you as Christians!

It is a pity to see Christians in demolition projects: doing away with Love. If God is Love and Christ is God, we Christians are people of Love. We don’t want another Gandhi to tell us, “I love Christ, not the Christians.” As Paul and Barnabas the church needs people who could carry the message of love to all. After all, Christianity does not make any sense without love! Now tell me how far you are a Christian!

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First Holy Communion (5-8-10)

Dear children! This day is special in your life as you first-handedly experience how the body of Christ tastes. You have accompanied your parents and friends in the past and learnt how Jesus looked like but now you have a different experience. I remember when I was giving communion once; a mother with a child in hand grabbed the Host from my hand. I in turn grabbed it from her hand and gave a gentle slap on her cheeks. She looked at me with a shock and the shock of being pulled something out from her! I am sure you wanted to taste this Holy Host in the past at some stage!

We got to remember that this is a Sacrament that’s been initiated by Christ himself. It was Christ who presided over the table and broke the bread and shared the cup. First and foremost it is the banquet of love and joy. God wills that we share in this meal to take part in the life and love of God.

By participating in this sacrament, we become close friends of Jesus. So far in our Christian life, from the moment of baptism, we have been preparing ourselves for this moment: to be intimately united with Jesus. The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Moses becomes our God.

The teachers, pastors, the church depend on the spirituality and guidance of the parents. No teacher, no pastor and no church can vitally influence these children in the same way as you do. The Church can only celebrate this Sacrament with you; but you have to live this sacrament and guide your children to do the same. God-parents cover a lot of ground in these respects.

Children remember! This Sacrament gives you enormous grace to avoid sin and do good. As you are ready to promise God to go to him as much as he comes to you, you are promising to choose good in all situations. Many Children are addicted to TV, videogames, Xbox, Nintendo, Cellphones and other electronic devices. Many are addicted to food and chocolates. Remember that you are given a special grace to choose things in moderation. Instead of sending a 1000 SMS, try sending 999! Avoid extremes!

This Sacrament is given to you to practice: not to be deposited in the bank. If someone buys you a laptop, you don’t just clean and keep it safe in your cupboard; instead you use it and learn to use it wisely.

Look for signs from your parents! Learn how they pray. Look at your grandparents. Learn how they pray and learn from them. You are becoming part of a history. This is the best gift your parents can ever give you! And the best gift you can give to your parents is the same! They showed you God and gave you God. All your life you try to show them God and give them God. The ‘How’ part starts today!

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Feeding is Divine!

After listening to the conversation between Jesus and Peter who were primarily close friends, I was tempted to verify how intimately men talk and move about in our society. We all know that women are from Venus, thus they are more emotional and verbal compared to ‘most men’, there are equal traits in Mars too. One such thing is called the American Man Hug. It has 4 steps: 1 Begin with a traditional firm handshake, 2. Keeping your hand clasped with your buddy, wrap the left arm around the shoulder of your friend, 3. Slap your friend’s back twice. The back slap is the key. Somehow hitting your friend makes the hug more manly. 4. Release embrace. The IPL in India could bring a shock to many international players as the Indian cricketers freely show how emotional they could become in front of 50,000 fans on the ground.

It is interesting to listen to stories of the past where the husbands met their wives for the 1^st time and how they got close to each other. It is also interesting to listen to stories of how one becomes a friend to someone. "Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another, 'What! You too? I thought I was the only one." - C.S. Lewis. There were love at 1^st sight or murder at 1^st sight; there were murder at last sight or love at last sight. Some of the stories I heard from friends in our HFS written by those friends are so interesting even now to read them all!

There were many studies on the personality of Peter so far. One thing that is very central to our readings today is the life of Peter before and after Resurrection. During Advent we focus on Jesus’ coming thus prepare the way. During Lent we focus on the repentance. What do we exactly do during Easter Season? The best lesson is found in the person of Peter. As there are many changes in the resurrected body of Jesus, so also there are many changes in the lives of the Apostles and Peter being the team leader. Their whole attitude to life, their speech and action show a tremendous energy as if their bodies were resurrected. God didn’t just raise Jesus from the dead; God also raised the dead hopes, dead faiths and dead spiritualties of the friends of Jesus.

The commission of Jesus to Peter is to ‘feed the sheep’. The resources that have been given to Peter were rooted in his answer. This is a human promise and God decides to depend on our human promises. God is making the same mistake that he cautioned us about ‘Don’t put your trust in mortals’. There is a deeper level of commitment and service to people, family, our dear and near ones only when there is honesty in our love for God. The Church in all 2000 or more years taught the same lesson: God is love and love God and neighbor. The tending of sheep is so central to any Church leadership. Parents not only take oaths during the wedding: at the birth or baptism of their children they vow to be there for them in their high and lows, guiding them setting them examples.

Every Christian should be aware that all feeding in family or society is the result of our love for God. This feeding is free, unconditional, unlimited. Children need to see the generosity of parents! Parents pride themselves when their child shares things with others. We don’t want to see a selfish child, selfish society or a selfish church! We take part in the Resurrection of Jesus by feeding the sheep since that’s what God does. Remember the option is given to the 1^st question. If your answer is ‘yes’, there is no option this time; it is a command!

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Parangi Malai - Hippy Mountain!

Catholic Church has never been poor! Financially speaking we continue to have rich resources especially USA. This country and people have given so much for the growth of the church, expansion of mission, education, books, clothes etc. to find solidarity with the Universal church. There have been many abuses from individuals and also groups. People from affluent countries readily give without asking too many questions. One such case was this individual who claimed he is the bishop of India and looted a lot of money from rich countries. People don’t deal with minute details of the ministry or people since they are concerned with the giving aspect of it! When I was the bursar for the Indian MSC establishment, I have been always taught to ‘respect the intension of the donor’.

There are a few historical references to Thomas being involved in missionary activities in Persia and India. India is diverse and every state is like a separate country so often not connected; if connected it is by English language or a moderate Hindi especially in the Northern part. Thomas came to India, as the tradition claims when there was no concept of India as a unified country as we see now. He was sent to a small section of high caste Hindus and was chased out by the local kings. The tradition says he was killed at Mylapore and the place is still called St. Thomas Mount. Funnily enough St. Thomas Mount is translated even today as ‘Hippy Mountain’. Was he a hippy? There have been some attempts recently by the Catholic Church who have the Archdiocese and the Cathedral named after Santhome to change the Hippy Mount to St. Thomas Mount.

The point to remember here is the mind-set of the people: When Jesus rose from the dead, Thomas too his own time in confessing ‘My Lord and my God’ and when Thomas was killed the Christians later took their own time to confess the same ‘My Lord and my God.’ This Thomas took with him his inquisitive mind, clear thinking, logical perception and a mathematical analysis of a situation. From experience we learn he was a man of clarity. He not only took the blame for all of us that our doubt is cleared once and for all; he took that quality with him wherever he was. He preached the gospel to the nations with this clarity so all could understand with clarity.

Mary showed the same kind of clarity, Zachariah, Moses, Abraham, almost all the persecuted prophets, almost all the founders of religious orders, almost all the church leaders simply because we represent a larger community. Our clarity should necessarily bring order and peace, harmony and justice to a larger community. A divorced person should never corrupt the mind of young people talking ill about the Sacrament of Matrimony! An ex-priest on the ills of priesthood! Your individual experiences might differ but that is not the world order! Advertisements and other media portray our values and principles as outdated, morality as archaic, marriage as the choice of cowards, priesthood as escape from the Real world! We don’t have to follow sick people and get sick – ‘an eye for an eye make the world go blind.’

This man ran away from Mount Calvary and he became blind to the Lord and God in Jesus. It is the compassion of God that gave him another chance. Thomas empowered by the Holy Spirit would never lose the second chance. He would hold fast to that chance all his life. He would fill the void of his faith and raise a St. Thomas Mount. It is not a hippy mountain, and ours is not a hippy church!

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Easter: a time to look back at the empty cross and the empty tomb!

We’ve just been to a funeral and cried bitterly. My last bitter cry was at the funeral of my granny. I was her favorite grandchild, not that I am the only child to my parents! Part of the reason was my eyes and appearance that I inherited from my Grandfather. I have often seen people cry in funerals. I still can remember how my dad cried. We normally don’t spend too much time crying over the loss, rather we spend a lot of time in cherishing the moments we lived with him/her. The blood-filled cross and the occupied tomb though initially brought fear among the friends; they gave them hope that resurrection is imminent.

Many of you would have watched the movie ‘Avatar’ by now! The central theme of the life in planet Pandora brings out many of the Eastern concepts originating from – in my opinion – Hinduism and Buddhism mainly. The centrality of the Tree and its roots inter-twined with rest of creation is so natural without which the community is found in chaos and utter confusion. Trees are so central to any civilization. Jews put them right in their 1^st chapter. Man was put along with trees to learn the basics. Buddha’s enlightenment was under a tree. Every Hindu traditional house is decorated with Basil plant and other trees as to their convenience and keeping to their religious beliefs.

Cross is one such tree like the one in Avatar: a tree that intimately draws everyone to itself thus a unifying force to connect us together. We feel a spiritual sensation when we gaze at the cross that it pulls us towards God and neighbor. Jesus’ resurrected body is rooted on the sinful body with pain and suffering. In other words, Jesus’ resurrection is rooted on the Cross.

If patience is Cross; happy marriage is resurrection. If forgiveness is Cross; intimacy and happy friendship is resurrection. If studying is Cross; passing, earning money is resurrection. Rules and regulations are cross, secured life, happy homes are resurrection. Commitments, faithfulness, love are all often seen as crosses. We want God to bless our family, give us everything, take care of us, but we don’t want to practice any religion. We want Easter, but we don’t want Good Friday. Maximize pleasure, minimize pain is always been our motive in life. Couch potatoes with multi-tasking are the growing trend today. Multi-screen viewing is following rapidly.

Jesus wants his disciples not to just experience the joy of Easter, rather the responsibility and accountability with which he carried the Cross. He wants all the run-away disciples to assemble for a just cause; more people to carry his cross, wipe his face; more to be at his side and beneath the Cross. Jesus’ own funeral was empty with loneliness and defeat; thus in His resurrection He brings people together.

The first tree that was planted in the middle of Garden Eden opened their eyes – the tree of life and death. Here the second tree is planted in the middle of Church opens our hearts – the tree of Death and Resurrection. Every time we are prepared to ‘die’ for our values, principles, religious sentiments, love, faith and hope, we are actually given the hope of Resurrection. Resurrection is a reward for those who chose this tree – a great life of love and service. Is this love free? Does this Resurrection come with no price tag? Think again!

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Palms and a Donkey!

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

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

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

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

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Stones used for building!

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

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

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

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

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

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People gather to eat!

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

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

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

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

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

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