Love alone is the answer - Peace and Goodness!

THE WORD AND THE SAINT

October 4, 2021: Celebrating St. Francis of Assisi
Jonah 1:1 - 2:1, 11; Luke 10: 25-37

Humanity has so many questions - why are the evil people thriving; why are the innocent suffering; why are there exploitations in the world; who is cause of the misery of the poor; why is there so much of violence and killing; what makes people turn against each other... how many questions we face in our daily life and in today's world. Yes, humanity has all these questions, but Love alone is the answer! 

People may turn evil, but they were created out of love and they are called to live with that love, in joy and fulfillment. When they make mistakes, it begins to affect the other, finally there will be a time when it comes back to them. Self centered exploitation of the other is a deprivation of love. Violence and killings are but inevitable consequences of these. Celebrating Francis of Assisi today, we are inspired to think of a man who loved not just other human persons, but a person who loved every 'other'... the nature-other, the cosmic-other, the 'other' in all sense! That love alone can answer all the problems of today's world. 

If Love is felt to be present around, if Love is felt in each one's heart, if Love is found to animate every relationship, if true Love of God governs the whole world, misery, violence, killing, poverty, suffering, injustice, exploitation and every shade of sadness and grief will be wiped out. Will it happen? When that happens, what Francis of Assisi would say so often would become a reality: Peace and Goodness!

Peace and Goodness... aren't these the really longed for state of life on earth today? How can they come except through love, through a Love that pervades everyone towards wishing the good of every one else, of every other being! Let us understand, remember and remind each other today: to every single problem on earth, Love alone is the answer!

CHRISTIAN RELATEDNESS

You are your other's keeper!

October 3, 2021: 27th Sunday in Ordinary time

Genesis 2: 18-24; Hebrews 2:9-11; Mark 10: 2-16

Christian faith is all about relationship - it is a relationship initiated by God with me and a relationship to which God calls me. One of the first questions that God seems to have asked humanity was: "where is your brother?"  My Christian faith stows me right in the midst of a community. Every aspect of my daily life and not only prepares me for a tangible community life but offers me all the necessary scope towards growing in a life of communion. The family, the neighbourhood, the community of faith... all these are experiences and locus where I learn to live my Christian faith  and grow in it. The Word today offers us three keys to truly understand our Christian faith and a growth in the same: the family, the other and the community.

The Family - this is the first possibility of relationship offered to humanity by God, right at the origins of a person. As soon as a child is born into this world, he or she is given with a family - a father, a mother and the others who belong to that family, which becomes the locus where the child shall breathe, live, move and grow! A Christian family therefore has not merely a biological significance as the node 6 of origin of persons, but an anthropological or existential sense which makes the person truly what he or she is. That is, it attaches the very identity of the person as the ground where the seed of humanity within the person sprouts, grows and flourishes. The family therefore has a great responsibility in what a person goes to become. The family is the primary place of education and the parents are the first educators of a child. The seriousness of the vocation to Christian parenthood cannot be overlooked. 

The Other - let's understand this in its entirety... the Other and the other are not dimensions extremal to me, but they are dimensions that complete me. I cannot be what I am without the Other (God) and the other (my brother and sister) who give meaning to my existence. What distinguishes a healthy human person is a free and mature rapport with the Almighty (in whatever terms it could be known and understood) and with the other (my neighbour, brother and sister given to me to love). I am responsible for the salvation of the others, says the second reading. Salvation, which means not only a blessing awaited in the other world, but fullness of life here and now. Wishing the good of the other, is a commitment that comes with the call to be a Christian. As a Christian, I share the humanity with my fellow brothers and sisters and I share the divinity with Christ the Son of God who became human - I cannot forget this profound sense of the vocation that I have as a child of God and a disciple of Christ.

The Community - this is the crux of my Christian calling. The entire explanation about the spousal relationship in the first reading, besides a reflection on the call to matrimony, actually refers to the mystery that Christ and the Church partake in. That is what St. Paul presents to us in the letter to the Ephesians (5:32).  This mystery is about the Community of faith which is betrothed to the Saviour, that is promised in covenantal relationship to the Lord. It is this Community which is given the responsibility of nurturing every member, with a special attention to the future generation, the young and the children. The life of the Community has to become an element of education to the young, to the upcoming generation, to the entire community of faith, to be built up in relationship with the Lord and with each other. Communion comes from God and division comes from the evil one - a Christian is one who promotes the sense of commuity, accepting the other as one's one brother and sister in God's own family. It is a reminder of our vocation to be God's people, people of faith and people united in the Lord, growing together in witness of love and communion. 

Christian call is all about our relatedness, that we are related to each other in the Lord and related to the Lord in our genuine relationship with one another. May our Christan Relatedness give true meaning and deep joy to every one of us. Let us never divide what God has united - our hearts bound, as one people, in the love of God.