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

The evils of our society:

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

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

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

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

Sacrament of Reconciliation

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

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

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

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

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

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

Dear Friends!

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

TALK ONE

INTRODUCTION

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

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

WORLD OF SUFFERING:

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

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

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

SUFFERING THAT COMES OUT FROM US:

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

SUFFERING THAT COMES TO US:

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

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

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

HOW DO WE EXPLAIN THE MYSTERY-AREA OF SUFFERING?

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

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

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

CONCLUSION:

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

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God gave us The Light: it is not a loan!

Our God-consciousness grew along with our civilization. Anything more powerful than man needed a closer-look: trees, rain, moon, snake, lion, water or air. They were all worshipped in the history of human beings at different or at the same time. Solar deity shares a greater part of our earlier spirituality. Many cultures have worshipped the Sun or a physical representation of the Sun throughout history: Egyptian Sun-God Ra, Greek Sun-God Helios and Indian Sun-God Surya all riding in a chariot (2000 years before Christ). One of the most sacred hymns to God in Hinduism (Gayathri mantra) was dedicated to the Sun which is the representation of God (Shiva or Vishnu – debated).

The concept of ‘Light’ is not new to the Jews. The Psalmist in Ps 27:1 already sang ‘Lord is my light and my salvation.’ Prophet Isaiah talks about walking in the light of the Lord… or people have seen a great light… or Lord shall be an everlasting light. All these connotations have some influence of the Sun which is so central to the life of human beings. Sun holds the living space of human beings, lights it up for our biological eyes to see and enjoy the nature, and provides for the green world so that we may have life. The early Church adopted the spirituality of the sun-god and easily applied to resurrection: All Sundays are days of Resurrection in our Christian tradition.

God revealed Himself to us in different ways: sent us priests, kings and prophets. They were all witnessing to the light. No one claimed that he or she is light except the son of Mary and Joseph, a carpenter from Nazareth who hangs around with a bunch of uneducated fishermen and others. A prophet cannot be called ‘The Light’. ‘The Light’ is one of the strong symbols which represented God in the Hebrew society. It is often accompanied by words such as ‘salvation’, ‘life’, and ‘truth’. When Jesus claimed that He is the Light, he wants us to realize that we live in darkness.

The love of God assures that that Light is given to us: God so loved the world that He gave… It is not to be understood as ‘we received the light’. God gave the light to us as a free gift. It is not a loan, not to be taken back. The person who received the light will be shining in darkness. He or she is able to see the Heart of God and walk in the way of the light. When II Vatican proclaimed that Christians are to be the light of the world – it wanted us to see the dire need of the world today: Our world is in darkness. Darkness rules in lawlessness, carefree Epicurean societies, in people who claim to be gods themselves, pleasure overtakes spirituality and in lives that is filled with misery and hopelessness.

We have lot to do. As light brightens up and kills darkness, as light burns away the unwanted so too Christians go about spreading the light of Christ. So much is given to us; so much is expected of us. Every Christian is a light. Let us illumine the lives of our brothers and sisters who live in darkness.

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