FROM THE CROSS TO THE SKY

Looking up to the Cross!

THE WORD IN LENT - FOURTH SUNDAY

2 Chronicles 36: 14-16, 19-23; Ephesians 2:4-10; John 3:14-21

Through the desert God leads us to freedom! We have gone through a good part of our journey: from the desert to the waters, from the waters to the mountains, from the mountain to the cross, and today on the fourth Sunday of Lent, we are called to reflect on the journey from the cross to the sky! Although the cross has become an indispensable symbol of salvation that God has offered us in God's bountiful love for God's children, let's beware that we do not get stuck to the cross, as if it is the cross itself that saved us. We cannot forget that fact that it is the One who was crucified on it who saved us; many have been crucified, but it is the innocent lamb of God who offered Himself for us, as an eternal sacrifice on the cross, who has saved us. That is why the cross becomes a pointer, a pointer to the One crucified on it, a pointer to what He wanted us to experience and understand, a pointer to where He wanted to take us: to His Father, to the sky, to paradise!  

The Cross is a Reminder: The cross reminds us of the gratuitous gift we have received from the Lord. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us, St Paul would explain in his letter to the Romans (5:8). Look at the reminder given by the first reading today - how the people repeatedly and regularly fell away from their state of being 'people of God'. It was God who drew them to Godself. Not just once or twice but repeatedly and unceasingly, even upto our days and our lives we see this phenomenon continue. We constantly go away from the Lord, but are reminded through varied means to come back to the Lord and sustained in many ways to remain always beloved people of God.

Every time we raise our heads and look up at the cross, it reminds us of the enormous love that has been lavished upon us at any point of time in our lives. It's a reminder of the fact that we needed someone to die for us, in order that we may be saved, although we deserved not. It is reminder for us to be grateful and mindful of the mercy granted us. It is a reminder that we are called constantly to get back to the way of righteousness, and that the moment we decide to do so, we have someone to look up to who points to the new heavens, and the new earth, the new Jerusalem to which we are called. It is not only a warning reminder, but also a happy reminded - that is why this Sunday is Laetare Sunday - we are called to rejoice in that reminder.

The Cross is a Reaching Out: There is yet another message that we are given to reflect on, looking at the Son of God lifted up on the Cross - that God is lovingly reaching out to us. Just as the bronze serpent lifted in the desert was a sign of God wanting those people to live, so is the Son of God lifted on the Cross. It is obvious: God so loved the world that God gave God's only son, that we may have life. There is a sense of revelation here, the highest revelation of God and the nature of God, in the absolute love that was revealed in Christ, specially in the Christ crucified. That is why we needed to freeze that moment and keep it in our memories as the moment of ultimate revelation. Jesus who died on the Cross, already has risen and he shall never die again! That death on the Cross was once and for all - but we still have the crucifix everywhere... in every Church and in every place we gather. Today that is becoming an issue for many non Christians - certainly it will become an issue, because it is the highest form of revelation of God's love to human beings. 

God is reaching out, and drawing us to Godself... when I shall be lifted up from the earth, I will draw all people to myself (Jn 12:32), Jesus would say later in the same Gospel. While God is reaching out through Jesus, Jesus is drawing us to God in the name of God - that is why the Cross: between heaven and earth, between us humanity and God - that sole mediation of salvation. The Cross is a sign of that reaching out and the drawing up!

The Cross is a Reconciliation: The Cross was not Jesus' destination, certainly not. He declared it; those who prophesied his coming stated it; and those who proclaimed him later made it very clear - that the ultimate aim of Christ was reconciliation of everything, that every thing and every being on earth enters into that perfection communion with God, the source and summit of all. In Christ everything shall be reconciled to God - and the Cross is the rainbow of promise we are called to look up to, the sign of hope that this will ultimately happen. Our destination too, just as Christ's, is the Sky, the paradise, the eternal presence of God, the absolute communion, which is the experience of salvation. 

Looking up to the Cross, is not only to look at the cross, but to look beyond, at the promise that God has offered us! The Cross remains a reminder of that promise and our call to grow worthy of that promise. The Cross is a continuous recalling of the God who is reaching out to us that we may be reconciled in God and enjoy that eternal and inexplicable bliss, the joy of salvation! 

God leads... to Godself through the Other!

THE WORD IN LENT - Saturday, Third week

March 09, 2024 - Hosea 5:15- 6:6; Luke 18: 9-14

Through the desert God leads us to freedom. Truly, that freedom is the absolute communion with God, the eternal freedom, the salvation or the eternal boundless life. In short, God leads us to Godself. These days we are reflecting on how the Lord leads us, and to what the Lord leads us. Yesterday we said, the Lord leads us to the decision of Returning to the Lord... this return, the Word says today, is through the Other. 

Not sacrifice, but love - instructs the Lord through Hosea. It is only love that can lead us to God. Sacrifices, offerings, worship and adoration that we offer to the Lord are made meaningful and fruitful, only in love. In love do we become acceptable to God. But what kind of a love? A love that says in empty words to the Lord - I love you Lord with all my heart, with all my spirit and with all my soul? It has to be a love that is expressed in concrete, in action, in life - in our rapport with the Other. 

This triangular dynamic is a typical Christ perspective: the dynamic that is between me and God, essentially through the other. It is in the way that I treat the other, in the way I relate to the other, in the way that I respect and welcome the other that I determine the way I will be treated and related to by God. If only we realise this, we would understand immediately what it means to have a contrite and humble heart. It is not a heart that is humble and lowly before God, but a heart that is humble and lowly in dealing with the other. 

When a heart is humble and mindful of the goodness of the Lord, the mercy that it has received from the Lord, it shall reflect the same mercy and love to the other. Where there is a judgement of the other, disrespect of the other, manipulation of the other, exploitation of the other, despise of the other, it is a clear sign that there is haughtiness! Though that is not expressed or made manifest in God's presence, God notices it, sees it and is aware of it. The result is, we deprive ourselves of the abundance and fullness of God's love!

Thus the Lenten journey, to be led to Godself, through the Other - in mercy not in sacrifice. To love the other, to be merciful to my brother and sister, to honour and respect every other who is beside me, in order that my love and my regard for God becomes authenticated. The Word invites us today to "Go and learn, what it means: I desire mercy, not sacrifice!"

God leads... towards a decision to Return!

THE WORD IN LENT - Friday, Third week

March 08, 2024 - Hosea 14: 2-10; Mark 12: 28-34

Through the desert God leads us to freedom. When we say God leads us, it is an internal experience of conversion. Yes, the Lord leads us from within. We are led to that point of return, the point when our hearts take a definitive turn and decide to return to the Lord, forever in love! The Word today presents to us this experience, from God's own point of view. 

Listening to the first reading today (or reading it) we would have come across the term "come back" at least thrice and a sense of that term for a few more times. That is the repeated call of God to us during the season of Lent - come back! Return! Although the Lord knows how far we have gone from the Lord, in our thinking, our values and our choices, the Lord does not make it a cause of rejection. That is the merciful God that we have! Instead, the Lord speaks to our souls, our hearts, our minds - "I am the Lord your God, listen to my warning!" says God.

Returning to the Lord, begins from knowing or recognising that call. All of us know what it means. We see that scribe today questioning Jesus about the first of all commandments... not that he wanted to know, because he knew it already. "Well said" he says to Jesus! Jesus did not need that acknowledgement, but he had already given his teaching, linking that love of God to the love of one's neighbour! The scribe recognises that newness in Jesus' teaching too! He was indeed a clever man, and he deserved an appreciation from Jesus and Jesus gives it to him dutifully. 

Knowing that we need to love God above all and that loving the other is the best way to love God, is the way to salvation, the way to the promised freedom - to which God leads. But knowing alone is not enough. Jesus was very precise when he affirmed that scribe - 'you are not far from the kingdom of God'... however, you are not yet there! That is the message to us too: not enough to know! We know a lot and we speak about it a lot. But that is not enough. We would only come close to the Reign, but we would not enter it yet!

We can enter the Reign, Jesus reminds us today, only if we make that decision to definitively return to the Lord in love. In loving God above all and in loving our brothers and sisters, we will experience how God leads us, towards that decision to return, towards that freedom of the Reign. 

God leads... through our Choice for God!

THE WORD IN LENT - Thursday, Third week

March 07, 2024 - Jeremiah 7: 23-28; Lk 11: 14-23

Through the desert God leads to freedom. God leads us, certainly, no doubt about it. But have we chosen to respond to what God proposes? Jeremiah recounts to us in the first reading how the people chose not to respond to God, or chose something else in the place of the orders from God. It is not necessary to choose something against God, but very decision to choose something different from what God wants of us, would gradually take us against God. That is why, the choice is either for God or against God. 

Jesus puts that direct and clear today: one who is not with me is against me; one who does not gather with me, scatters! Our desires lead us to tendencies; our tendencies lead to convictions; our convictions lead to our choices and our choices demarcate where we stand: with God or against God. There is no neutral way about it; I am either with God or against God. 

As we just reflected upon, our convictions are fundamental to our choices. Convictions are born out of our repeated responses, following a particular pattern, to similar situations. Even sins are such, aren't they? That is why a conviction could be sinful too! What matters is not only how well founded our convictions are, but also how God-founded they are. Our convictions should be as firmly as possible founded on what God wants of us. 

When we are not guarded, when we are not careful and when we are not mindful of the convictions that we are forming within us, the evil one can easily attack, defeat and enter our lives sharing out his spoil. The Word therefore instructs us never to harden our hearts, to open our ears and our minds to the Word of God and to God's ways, that we would form the right convictions within us, and choose God above all. 

When we make a choice for God, we make a choice for all that God wants of us, all that God has planned for us, and all that God has in store for us - that is the Will of God and the Reign of God. That is the salvation, the freedom that God leads us to, through our Choice for God.

God leads... through the Word and God's ways!

THE WORD IN LENT - Wednesday, Third Week

March 06, 2024 - Deuteronomy 4: 1,5-9; Matthew 5: 17-19

Through the desert God leads us to freedom. God leads us in varied ways and one of the privileged ways is through the Word, that we are constantly gifted to hear. First of all, through the Word that comes as part of the Liturgy. Certainly, it does not stop there. There are other ways in which the Word reaches us - our prayer moments, a discussion with a friend, a striking inspiration somewhere, a heart touching experience that we could come across, a problem, a success, a confusion or crisis - all these can bring us in touch with the Word. 

The Word is imprinted in our hearts. The capacity to discern between the right and the wrong, the examples of what is desirable and what is not, the experiences of others that teach us what is good and what is harmful - these are promptings of the living Word which guides us in God's ways. We are given the grace to choose these, and that is freedom. When we believe that God leads us to freedom, what do we say: that God leads us to that state where I readily, willingly and resolutely choose what is right, good and holy. 

It would be infantile, we know, to hold on to the opinion that freedom is doing whatever we want! Mature understanding of freedom is, that it gives me the ability to choose on my own without any internal or external pressure, what is good and what is due to be chosen. This is a formation, an education, a growth. We, as children of God, have received this formation from God, God's Spirit, the Word that instructs us and the Community of Faith that has nurtured us. God leads us on in that direction - that is why we say: Your Word O Lord, is a lamp unto my feet!

There is enough reason here why Jesus declares it in the Gospel that those who live by the Word and the ways of the Lord and teach others to do it, remain people of the Lord. On the contrary, even if one claims to be a child of God, a disciple of Christ, if he or she does not live by the Word or at least strive to live by it, with all the struggles, failures and temptations - the person cannot be identified as a person of God, a child of God, or a disciple of Christ. Journeying by God's Word and God's ways... that is the guarantee that God leads me! 

God leads... a humbled contrite heart!

THE WORD IN LENT - Tuesday, Third week

March 05, 2024 - Daniel 3: 25,34-43; Matthew 18: 21-35

Through the desert God leads us to freedom, to liberty that can find its way into our lives, only when we make space for it. Yesterday, we reflected upon some traits that would prevent us from progressing towards where God leads us - that we would not be led unless we allow ourselves to be led. Today the Word speaks to us of one sign that we allow ourselves to be led by God - a contrite, humbled heart.

It does not take perfection or sanctity to be identified as God's children - then it would be impossible for any of us to fall into that category. What matters is a humble, contrite heart. The first reading today explains to us that a humbled contrite heart is as acceptable as a holocaust of rams and bullocks, of a thousand fattened lambs. Simply said, it is the most loved disposition of the Lord and the ideal identity of a child of God. 

How do we understand a humbled, contrite heart? As a heart of that person who puts himself or herself down before others, treats oneself without respect and despises oneself before God and before others? Is that what God appreciates in us? How can that be? Does not God love us above all? Has not God invested us with a dignity that belongs to Godself - the image and likeness in which God has created us! If so, would God want that we belittle ourselves, that we treat ourselves without dignity?

The quality of a humbled, contrite heart is knowing and accepting oneself with all sincerity, without any pretence. Knowing how unworthy I am before God and accepting all that I am and all that I have as a gratuitous gift from God. It is, appreciating every bit of love that I experience from God beginning from all the blessings and never forgetting the abundance of mercy with which the Lord has always forgiven me all my unworthiness, weaknesses and sinfulness! 

The integrity of this humbled contrite heart can be seen only in extending the same acceptance and forgiveness to the other, my brother and my sister. If I am mindful of my 'forgiven'ness, I will certainly forgive. If I am not ready to forgive, Jesus says, I am not humble or sincere enough to accept that I have been forgiven. My haughtiness and pride blocks my heart and that haughty, proud heart cannot be led by God! It is only a humbled, contrite heart that God leads!

God Leads: do we seek to be led?

THE WORD IN LENT - Monday, Third week

March 04, 2024 - 2 Kings 5: 1-15; Luke 4: 24-30

Through the desert God leads us to freedom... God leads us, or atleast God offers to lead us! What marks the difference is whether we allow ourselves to be led! We cannot be led unless we allow ourselves to be led. Not allowing ourselves to be led can have some reasons behind it - it could be out of ignorance, obstinacy, pride, prejudice or wickedness! We see the wickedness in act, in the wish to push Jesus down the cliff because he allegedly insulted them, today in the Gospel. 

Pride and prejudice blind the eyes of our minds and makes us see only what we decide to see. Even something that is apparent may not be noticed by us, because we are so filled with ourselves - our ideas, our desires, our agenda, our plans and our own promotion. Obstinacy blocks us from doing something that is so simple a solution to many a problem, merely because we do not feel like doing it. We wish to hold on to something just for the sake of it, just as Naaman did. He had to be educated to understand his folly. Fortunately, he allowed himself to be educated and thus opened his eyes.

Why was Jesus being so insinuatingly critical towards the people in the synagogue - because they were unable to see the apparent. Their eyes were closed, blocked not so much with ignorance as with obstinacy and pride. Jesus wanted to open their eyes and their hearts and see what the Lord is doing for them, right in front of their eyes; where the Lord wanted to lead them all - to the salvation promised, to freedom. But they were not ready to be prodded!

This is a danger we all run into: the danger of missing the great offer that the Lord has for us - to lead us through the desert to freedom, through the cross to glory! God wishes to lead us and every plan and project is on. All that is needed is our assent to it, that we say an yes! Just as the widow of Zarephath who was open to be led by Elijah although she did not really understand what Elijah meant; just as Naaman who accepted to do what Elisha wanted although he was too proud to carry what he considered a despicable order of someone; are we ready to allow the Lord to lead us on?

The responsorial psalm goes a step ahead and teaches us what sort of an attitude should characterise a child of God: not just allowing God to lead us, but seeking eagerly to be led by God. When we seek to be led by God, when we willingly submit to be led by hand, we shall see the glory of freedom, the glory of the salvation! 

FROM THE MOUNTAINS TO THE CROSS

Arriving at the Sanctuary of Glory!

THE WORD IN LENT - THIRD SUNDAY

Exodus 20:1-17; 1 Corinthians 1: 22-25; John 2: 13-25

Mountains, we reflected upon last Sunday, are special experiences in life but not the point of arrival. They point to much greater and more glorious destination - the Sanctuary of the Lord, the sanctuary of God's glory; and for us, it is the Cross! The Word for this Sunday finds us arrive at the Sanctuary of Glory, the Cross. From the mountains, we are called to move towards the Sanctuary. 

The Mountain: In the first reading we have the reference to the mountain, the mountain where God speaks. One may wonder...but where is the mountain in the passage of the reading! It is in the content - the commandments, the commandments which were given on the mountain, just as Jesus taught his laws in the sermon on the mount. The commandments refer to the special and the peculiar way in which God spoke to Israel; in fact, the commandments made them who they were, the people of the covenant. Jesus chose to build on those commandments and gave his teachings, making of those who believed in him, the People of God, the Church. The mountain is the experience of listening to God, the experience of entering into a relationship with God, the experience of establishing a covenant with the Lord. 

The characteristics of the mountain, furnish us with other aspects of the life in God - the do's and don't's, the ethics and mores, the difficulties and challenges, the uphills that demand - that can be summarized in terms of the commandments which are directive at the same time as they are experiential about life. The commandments that we are reminded of, are not merely laws or regulations, but an expression of committed relationship that we wish to enter into with God. This relationship takes us towards the sanctuary, an experience of special rapport with God.

The Sanctuary: In the Gospel, we find Jesus speaking of destroying the sanctuary and reconstructing it in three days. Clearly, obvious today for us, the reference was to himself. That reference is a revolutionary call, not just in the days of Jesus, but even today. In a context today, where there is so much emphasis on the institutionalisation of faith - building or beautifying sanctuaries, investing on structures and focusing on welfare projects - this perspective of Jesus is still prophetic. The person is at the centre of faith. Relationship with God is the crux of faith. It just cannot be structures, systems, empty traditions, or ritual rubrics. Much worse, it cannot be economy, finance and social dominance! It is a choice that we are called to make here, a radical choice of our values and priorities as persons and communities. 

Those choices will take us to the real Sanctuary, the holy ground to which we are called - that is, persons and interpersonal respect, community and interpersonal relationships. It is only in the right relationships that the Sanctuary of the Lord is truly built. The persons and the Community of persons are the real sanctuary, the real Church to be built up. We cannot here hide from or bypass a direct critique that the mind of Christ would make on the growing tendency to spend disproportionate finances on building churches and cathedrals, instead of building up the people of God, in love, compassion, justice and truth. The question here is where does our glory lie? Which is that sanctuary of glory that we wish to arrive at... it is truly the Cross. The Cross is our true sanctuary of glory!

The Cross: In the second reading we have St. Paul who proclaims in categorical terms: we preach the Crucified Christ; in Cross is our glory. It may be a sign weakness or scandal for some, a mere slogan for others, but for us it is the power and the wisdom of God! It represents entire grammar of salvation that Christ wished to reveal to us - the grammar of love, sacrifice and total acceptance of persons. That is where our lenten journey should take us: to that sanctuary of glory, to the Cross. 

The Cross represents the wisdom of God, the wisdom that offers us a covenant of love, a way of life, a pact which would take us towards glory, if we accept and respect it. 

The Cross stands for the power of God, the power of love that sacrifices, gives itself, empties itself and destroys itself, that we may have "the power/the right to be called children of God" (Jn 1:12).

The Cross is the manifestation of the glory of God, the glory which burns with zeal, which fills the earth with that light which would make each one examine his or her own life, throw out the unnecessary accumulations and bring in the Son of God - thus journeying towards salvation, towards freedom, that freedom to which God leads us. 

 

To Freedom - through the absolute love of God!

THE WORD IN LENT - Saturday, Second week

March 02, 2024 - Micah 7: 14-15,18-20; Luke 15: 1-3,11-32

Through the desert God leads us to freedom. There is a highly pertinent question to ask here, which we have not asked so far in our reflection: but why does God lead us thus, to freedom? Because, as we said yesterday, God so loves us! For God so loves us that God has given the only Son for our salvation, for our liberation, for our salvation. That is why St. Paul declares: "there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus" (Rom 8:1). That is the abundance of love that God has for us. 

Do we deserve that love? We know very well, we do not! Can we ever deserve, or merit, that love? Let us be very clear, we would never ever deserve or merit it! But these questions do not occur to God! God never sees whether we deserve or not! God treads down our faults, and throws our sins to the bottom of the sea, tells us Micah today! But we cannot understand that, just as the elder son who could not just get it when the father celebrated the return of the younger son! He could not understand it.

The reason is: the Lord is compassion and love; the psalmist puts it so succintly - the Lord IS compassion, not only that God has compassion! The Lord is compassion and love, and therefore there cannot be imagined a more profound love or more abundant an expression of love and compassion than God's. God's love for us is absolute, no one can measure that love and no one can set boundaries to that love. We cannot understand that love, we can only just get into that love and be drenched in it, just as we find the younger son in the parable.

The younger son was mindful of his unworthiness and sinfulness, but the father was not! He refused to pay attention to it; all that mattered to the father was that the son had returned. It is the same with God, who loves us to that extent that none of our sins and unworthiness stands between God and us, the moment we decide to return to the Lord. The Lord wishes to liberate us, free us, not only from the sins, but from the very thought or consideration of our sins. That is an absolute freedom, that comes from an absolute love that God showers on us. Yes, it is the Lord's love that frees us, an absolute love that frees us absolutely! 

To Freedom - through truth and integrity!

THE WORD IN LENT - Friday, Second week

March 01, 2024 - Genesis 37:3-4,12-13,17-28; Matthew 21: 33-43,45-46

Through the desert God leads us to freedom. We journey towards freedom with our trust in God, we reflected yesterday. The question today is, but why God? Why do we have to trust in God? The answer is: who else can we? On what else can we found our lives, other than God's love for us? In whom can we really place our trust and confidence if not God who knows us through and through? God alone is the Truth and God alone knows the truth... to acknowledge that absolutely is integrity. It is only through that truth and integrity can we really journey towards true freedom.

Joseph of the Old Testament was  threatened for being true to his dreams, revelations from God. He was condemned to be killed by his own brothers but God raised him to the throne, to save his entire household. Jesus was being threatened for being true to his identity, that God and he were one and that he was the revelation of God. He was condemned to be killed by his own people but God raised him to New life, to save us God's people, God's children! Joseph and Jesus are presented to us as beloveds of God, living in truth and integrity - they were free children of God. 

Certainly it was not difficult for Joseph or Jesus to understand where their life was leading them  to, atleast for the present - still they chose to remain faithful to the call that they had received, standing for truth and living in integrity. Faithfulness to God is faithfulness to Truth, and truth alone can set us free because it leads us to integrity and empowers us in the times of trouble and threat. Living the will of God is living the dreams that God has for us, which God alone knows; our faithfulness to those dreams, even that God alone knows. Inspite of the hiddenness, our faithfulness to it, is the integrity that leads us to freedom, the absolute freedom that God leads us to.

God loved the world so much that God gave God's only Son; the Son loved God so much that he gave himself entirely; how much do we love God and God's Son and what are we ready to give up, that we may live for and live by truth. In that integrity, we shall find our way to Freedom, the promised land of Salvation.