THE WORD IN LENT -34

Condemnation or Compassion

Fifth week in Lent: Monday, 23rd Mar, 2015

Dan 13: 1-9, 15-17, 19-30, 33-62; Jn 8; 1-11

Susanna's story in the first reading and the story of the woman brought to Jesus accused of adultery, are two grand examples of the fact that God takes side with the weak and the vulnerable. At times the so-called just and righteous will wonder what is wrong with God, the way God takes sides with the so-called sinners and the undeserving! If we were careful not to side ourselves with the self righteous and self proclaimed just ones, we would easily understand our call to play God's role in the situations we find ourselves in: the role of taking sides with the weak, the vulnerable, the little ones of the Lord! The difference between the above mentioned two camps is this: one itches to condemn, the other is moved by compassion. It is compassion that is Godly and we need to grow seriously out of a vindictive spirit, if we want to put on the mind of Christ. True Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things and endures all things (1 Cor 13:7).

WANT TO SEE JESUS?

Fifth Sunday in Lent: 22nd March, 2015

Jer 31:31-34; Heb 5: 7-9; Jn 12: 20-23

The Word today has an open invitation: Do you really want to see Jesus? 

Wanting to see Jesus is a fitting exercise during the Lent; Jesus answers the question and teaches us an important lesson in knowing God and growing in that knowledge. 

It is possible at times that we say that we cannot know God, imagining God to be far away from us and from our human understanding. Jesus breaks that myth about God and brings God close to us, as close as God becoming human and living amidst us. In Jesus, God establishes what Jeremiah exclaims: that everyone will know God. Each and every one of us can know God and know God personally and intimately. Jesus makes the whole journey so easy and instead of challenging us to rise up to his level, he comes down to our status and assures us that we can have a relationship that is so concrete and real, with God.

Jesus promises us another favour: that He will draw us to Himself! I am reminded of an anecdote that I have heard when I was a boy, about that little girl who got lost on a trek into the forest.  It started to grow dark and the little girl was frightened, she hid herself behind a bush and remained there a bit scared. The father began to go in search his little one, worried and anxious. At a point, he reached the bush where the girl was hiding and as he peeped in to check that bush out,  the girl shouted with a great relief: "Daddy! I found you!" At times we think we are in search of God, or that we find God and understand God. The fact is the other way around. God is in search of us constantly. It is God who draws us to Godself. No one can come to me unless drawn by the Father (Jn 6:44) Jesus had declared and he assures us today that he will himself draw us to where he is (Jn 12:32). He wants us to be where he is; Jesus wants us to share his world, his priorities, his mission and his vision of God. 

Jesus wants us to be like him, who learnt obedience from what he suffered. Lent is a time when we dwell on Jesus' suffering, not to emotionally sympathise with the suffering servant, but to understand the meaning of obedience in life, to prepare ourselves to be like Jesus, always open to the will of God and ready to surrender ourselves into God's hands. The more we surrender into the hands of God, the more serene we can become even at the face of all the trials that our life holds out to us! The less we surrender, the more anxious we become! This is why, the Lord suggests to us that we learn of him who is meek and humble of heart and thus find rest to our souls (cf. Mt 11:29). 

Let the rest of the season of lent be an exercise of this spiritual discipline to surrender ourselves into the all powerful hand of God and find rest to our worried, anxious and restless souls. And the right point to start is where we find those gentlemen from Greece, enquiring: 'Sir, we would like to see Jesus'!