Why Proclaim?

THE WORD AND THE SAINT

December 27, 2018: Celebrating St. John the Evangelist

1 John 1:1-4; John 20: 1a, 2-8

Evangelisation has been a commission given to us by the Lord himself - through the disciples and apostles that Jesus had and handed over to us in time: Go and Proclaim! But look at the world today, beset with a terrible problem of religious violence and religious fundamentalism - killing, persecutions, attacks, polarisation and even wars in the name of God! Is evangelisation needed today? Is it so important to proclaim one's God at the cost of life, peace and harmony? Don't you get that question very often in your heart? 

If you do so, you are one step closer to understanding what evangelisation means. Is evangelisation, proselytisation? Is evangelisation adding to our numbers by hook or by crook? Is evangelisation a crisis management of making sure as many as possible are somehow drawn into the safe zone that we called 'the saved'? Is evangelisation brainwashing the other, specially he weak - economically, spiritually or socially? These questions are current and they need to occupy the mind of a person who wishes to understand what truly evangelisation is!

John, whom we celebrate today, puts it in such simple terms: "I write this, that your joy may be complete!" He would put it so, because he had in fact heard it from Jesus himself (eg. Jn 15:11): "I say these things, that your joy may be complete". Here lies the key to understand Evangelisation and its necessity.

We are called to share our experience with the world, so that the joy of the world, the joy of each person around us, the joy of the entire humanity be complete. Why proclaim: so that the joy that God truly wills be complete! But that requires that those who proclaim, possess that joy and then go on to share it! That is evangelisation - not judging, nor coercing, nor frightening, nor canvassing but sharing, sharing the joy that one has experienced.

Hence, called to proclaim, do I possess that joy? If I do not have it in me, how can I give it to the world? Having experienced that joy, do I feel the urge to share it? My joy becomes complete when I share it. The joy is the message, the joy is the person that I have in my heart: the Word made flesh!

The Birth of Christians

THE WORD AND THE SAINT 

December 26, 2018: Feast of St. Stephen,  the first Martyr

Acts of the Apostles 6: 8-10, 7:54-59; Matthew 10:17-22

No it is not a mistake... it is meant: the birth of Christians...just after the day that we celebrated the birth of Christ

I was amused when I looked at this picture of St. Stephen when I was looking for something to post... amused because the picture spoke what came to me as a reflection of the readings today.

If anyone read the Gospel of today and complained that they did not understand what exactly it meant, they could be directed to the first reading and that would make an elaborate and concrete explanation with example, of what Jesus says in the Gospel. 

Holding the Book (the Word) and the Stones together, with such serenity in the face and an olive branch in the other hand... portrays Stephen to the detail. Accepting to be a disciple, to belong to the apostolic community and to proclaim Jesus through service (Stephen was a deacon), was a bold acceptance of the consequences that Jesus spoke of already. Stephen seems to have accepted that demand, along with a firm faith in the promise of the Lord : do not search for what to say or what to do...the Spirit will enlighten you as to that! Stephen, enlightened by the Spirit, does exactly what Jesus did on the Cross: prays for those who persecuted him! 

To celebrate the feast of St Stephen immediately after the Christmas day also brings out a sharp message: yesterday was the birth of Christ, today is the birth of Christians...yes, the first time some one died to belong to Christ forever!