UNLESS I SEE…

II SUNDAY OF EASTER, YEAR C, 07.04.2013.

The Invitation to see... the invitation to believe

A week later (Jn 20:26)… yes we are celebrating the day, a week later! A week after that great event, which is still fresh in our mind, that event which gives meaning to our Christian life, a week after the day which had a dawn that gave light and hope to the whole human kind, a week later we celebrate today the Low Sunday, or the end of the Easter Octave.

Today the Liturgy has two verbs that dominate the message… to see, and, to believe. The first reading presents to us what the faithful saw when the apostles were around; and what the people saw in the Christians! The second reading speaks of the things that John saw revealed to him by God, as things seen and yet to be seen! The Gospel presents to us Thomas, who wanted to see in order to believe and Jesus who invites him to see and to believe! The Liturgy invites us to see and to believe!

There can be five kinds of people: those who don’t see and so don’t believe; people who see but don’t want to believe; people who want to see in order to believe; people who believe and therefore see; people who believe no matter what they see! It’s important for us to know to which category we belong to.

The first category is almost an impossibility…today everyone is given to see. But this fact notwithstanding, if someone has not seen the wonders of the Lord, and has no clue as to believe in the Lord, it is not the person’s mistake.

The second group is abundant today… they see but are adamant not to believe. Pride, Negative Influences, Arrogant Independence makes these persons purposely turn down the Divine Revelation.

The third group is where majority of us fall into. We would like to see, we long for signs and wonders, we rush to places to catch a glimpse of reported miracles, we storm the heavens with a prayer for a sign, we pick up news and reports that indicate something extraordinary, we look for something that will provide a justification for what we want to believe.

The fourth group is the exemplary group that keeps the faith community going! The persons who believe so fervently, that they see things so wonderful and inexplicable around them. They believe ardently and so they begin to see and the more they see the more they believe.

The last category is where we are invited to be; to be persons who believe no matter what they see. During the holy week I would have heard the confessions of over 300 hundred persons, and so many of them struggling with what they see in their own life on a daily basis – problems, concerns and crises. There are those who see what is happening to the innocents who suffer, the just who are stifled, the kind who are trodden over. The world today has countless instances of unjust policies, inhuman practices, usurped justice and unheard cries. In spite of all this we are challenged to believe! 

Dear Friends, Thomas was someone who loved Jesus to the core, he wanted to go with Jesus and die with him; he was convinced that Jesus was dead, Jesus was killed for the sake of Truth, for the sake of liberating the people from meaningless ritualism and slavish faith. He was so sure of the death and suffering of Jesus that the wounds of the nails and the lance were the absolute proofs for the identity of Jesus. But Jesus comes with all his mercy to assure him of the same, that he died, that he was killed, that he was wounded… all because he wanted them to believe –, to believe in the unlimited forgiveness of God, to believe in the unconditional love of God, to believe in the Mercy of God! Right enough in the year 2000, Blessed Pope John Paul II initiated the tradition of celebrating the Divine Mercy on this Sunday, the Sunday when the Risen Lord appeared with such merciful understanding to strengthen his disciples in faith.

Today the same Risen Lord invites us to see, to see and to believe! To see him present in our lives and believe that he wants us to act on his behalf everyday! To see him wounded in every person who is in need, who is troubled, who is depressed, who is broken…and believe that it is the Lord beckoning us to act with mercy and love. If we respond to the invitation, we can rightfully proclaim with all our heart, My Lord and My God! 

May the Divine Mercy fill our hearts and make us ever merciful to all those with whom we live specially among them, those in need.

 

St. Joseph and Pope Francis

19th March 2013... Feast of St. Joseph and Inaugural Eucharist of Pope Francis

to live without egoism and to be ready to listen to the other!

There are a few things that I have always admired in Saint Joseph.

The first is the fact that he was an example of a person who was not dominated by his ego.  If he were egoistic, he would have denounced the girl whom he was to marry, when he found her pregnant. If he were egoistic, he would have thrown the dreams and the visions that God gave and done what he willed. The very fact that we do not hear anything about Joseph in the Gospels is evidence to the fact that he lived his life without any attachment to his ego.

The second admirable aspect is the quality of listening... when Mary narrated the visit of angel Gabriel he listened, when the angel came and delivered him the message he listened, when the boy Jesus spoke in the temple, his mother questioned him, but Joseph listened!

The World today is in need of these two qualities... to live without egoism and to be ready to listen to the other! Imagine if today's spouses had these two qualities...how low the number of divorces will be; imagine if today these two qualities reigned in religious communities, what a witness of the Reign of God that would be; imagine if these two qualities were found in today's political leaders and international relations, what a world of peace we would create.

Let us imitate St. Joseph in these two - the Spirituality of a Egoless personality and Listening Mentality.   It goes well with the event of Holy Father's inaugural eucharist and with his motto, miserando atque eligendo, the first part recognising the gratuitous mercy of God and the second part the fact of having been called by God to a specific mission! In a translated version the motto reads… Lowly, yet Chosen!

Pushing our Ego aside, lending a listening ear to God and to God's people, let’s walk together as people of God, let’s build together the Church of God and let’s profess our faith, loud and clear through our everyday life.

I am glad today I will be part of the people of God at St.Peter’s Square 
thanking God for this new leader given unto us.
St. Joseph, pray for the Pope and protect him always!

THE CALL TO JOURNEY WITH HOPE

17^th March, 2013: 5^th Sunday of Lent: Year C.

THE CALL TO JOURNEY WITH HOPE

A roadmap for the Journey:

Persevere through Problems...

as Israel did, to walk through the desert...and find the promised land across.

Prioritise Christ...

as St. Paul considers, everything else as a loss, before the surpassing value of knowing Christ.

Progress as Pilgrims...

forgetting the past, focussing on Christ and Progressing towards that fullness brought and promised by Christ... to that home where God our Father and Mother, awaits us... to progress as pilgrims, with joy and with hope

A Call to Journey with hope: The roadmap for the Journey.

We are at the end of such a significant week! We have loads of thoughts to reflect on and take to heart. Expectations, Celebration, Gratitude, Mystery, Wonder, were the feelings that dominated the week that has passed! And today the dominant note is one of HOPE. The Liturgy of the Word too invites us to the same sentiment of faith. Last week the Liturgy called us to Celebrate. Every celebration is to reinforce the energy within a person or the community to go on with life – and following it right on, the Liturgy today calls us to Journey with Hope.

Holy Father Pope Francis, when he greeted the faithful gathered at St.Peter’s Square said it in simple words, “Iniziamo un cammino, il vescovo e popolo!” – Let’s begin a journey as the Bishop and his people! A journey, he said!

In his first homily as the Supreme Pontiff, at the Eucharist celebrated with the Cardinals, he presented a beautiful project, in three words – “Camminare, Costruire, Confessare” – To Journey (walk), to Build and to Profess!  Journey… is the central theme today, it is the central theme for a Christian Spirituality. St. Paul points it out in his letters with various terms, we run, we journey, we press on, towards to goal, with hope.

A Journey needs a roadmap… and today’s Word of God provides us with the Roadmap in three words, in three ‘P’s – Persevere, Prioritize and Progress.

For the Hebrews under slavery and burdensome labour, the prospect of journeying to the promised land, a land flowing with milk and honey, was a fantasy. When they actually undertook it, they could not believe their own selves. The Psalmist expresses it so well, “When the Lord restored the fortunes of Israel, it was like in a dream!” (Ps 126:1) When they embarked on that journey it was in no terms easy… they were faced with the endless desert, with no food and no water, they were faced with a sea with freedom on the other side and death approaching them from behind, they were faced with treachery within and immorality that abounded…but those who stuck on to the journey crossed the Jordan into their promised land. Persevering through Problems, is an important ingredient towards success in faith. We see, in the first reading today, how this faith was rewarded for the people of Israel. The journey of Christian life is not different – with its own share of deserts and seas and temptations and death – but a disciple of Christ is called to Persevere right through these problems, and journey in faith.

What if we lose the vision, the direction, the energy… it is St. Paul again who instructs in various words…set your hearts on the thing above and on grace that Christ brings, he instructs. I consider everything as a loss, as a trash, as a garbage… because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ. The second dimension of the roadmap to real faith, is Prioritising Christ above anything or anybody else in our daily life. When our self considerations of comfort and career, or our considerations of attachments and allegiances become more important than God, Christ and all that pertains to our circle of faith, we can easily lose direction, lack vision and get lost in the mire of daily concerns and personal glory. What we need to do is fix our gaze on Christ, look to Him and be radiant (Ps 34:5). Thus we will journey on!

The third dimension of the roadmap is the most important! With the lost direction, with the lost time and with the negative experiences we can be caught up in the past. We see today a group of people who brought that lady to Jesus today… they we so impressed with themselves that they caught that lady sinning, they were so caught up with the law of the Moses given in the past, they were so involved in the fact that Jesus had insulted them so many times in so may ways, all things of the past… that they failed to see what was going on in the mind of that woman. The grief that was crying out from her eyes, the shame that was constricting her heart and her body, the anger that was swelling in her mind, the guilt that was tearing her apart – nothing mattered to those people who stood with stones in their hands. Jesus saw what they did not see! The person who was there on the ground waiting for the stones to be pelted, thinking to herself, it was better to die than to live, it was better to be stoned than to be looked at with the past in reference. It would have been easier for Jesus to send those self made judges away than to reassure that woman of her worth! Without a word on her burdensome past, Jesus tells her – Go and sin no more! Go… Go… Go on… To go on, with Christ in focus, to press on forgetting the past and to progress in the path of Christ…that is the call today!

With the hope that God awaits us where we are headed to, we are called to progress. Falls, faults, failures and fake successes…let them not deter us. To rise, to restart and to resume our journey is an act of hope. That is what Jesus calls us to. To journey with hope, to never be discouraged but persevere through problems, to prioritise Christ without losing our focus, our vision our direction, to progress constantly towards that fullness that Christ wishes to offer us. Like pilgrims set on a journey towards the house of grace, we are called to journey on!!! The Compass is set… Christ is the coordinate points… Christ is the direction… God our Father and Mother awaits us at home… lets journey in the path that Christ has traced, with joy and with hope. 

God bless Pope Francis

Someone on the corridor this morning returned my greeting, “Viva il Papa” and more than agreed when I said, “what a beautiful choice of a title – Francis!” He immediately added, “it suits the times… but let’s hope he doesn’t take it too seriously!”

Very true, it is a daring title, a bit scaring too. Though this morning the Vatican clarified in specific terms that it was Francis of Assisi, who is invoked here as patron, I was still thinking…

Francis could refer to the spirit of Francis of Assisi or Francis of Saverio…or both!

Francis of Assisi, was a revolutionary FROM WITHIN the Church when many thought reform was only to step out and rebel. Francis led the Church back to its roots of childlike faith in God and simple life in communion with brothers and sisters and the whole universe! A task that disturbed many, because it was prophetic! The Church today needs that return yet again – to love, to brotherhood and sisterhood and to trust in God and in each other in our walk towards a simple holiness, modeled after Christ.

Francis Xavier, burned with zeal TO REACH OUT to the multitudes, an ardent evangeliser! He can challenge the Church today, which is taking its baby steps in the New Evangelisation, a call from the signs of the times!

Yes, it could be both these Francis, who have visited us again…in the person of Pope Francis, not forgetting the humble and kind saint Francis de Sales!

As a love-bound-Church let us pay heed to the call that the ‘owner of the boat’ gives us… Let us return to our roots – Simplicity, Humility and Prayer!

PAPA FRANCESCO

Lets thank God for Pope Francis 

Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio....

The initial comments as i heard from the people walking out of the piazza...
1. "Oh...someone who never profiled in the so-called probables!!!"
2. "What a emotional moment...the first few moments he did not know what to do! He just stood there..."
3. "What a beautiful Choice...Francesco...a real message of humility"
4. "First time a Pope bowed in front of the people asking them to pray for him...a great sign of humanness!"
5. "How nice of him to have first and foremost thanked Benedict XVI and recommended him to our prayers..."

My feeling all along till i reached back home was...
DEAR HOLY SPIRIT...YOU HAVE REALLY MANIFESTED YOUR HAND...
THANK YOU HOLY SPIRIT...

The Conclave Begins today… Thanks be to God.

12th March, 2013.

“The boat of the Church does not belong to me”, declared Benedict XVI, “neither does it belong to you. It belongs to the Lord and He will never let it sink.” That was the assurance of faith with which the Supreme Pontiff Emeritus took leave of the public domain. Ever since, the number of interpretations of the plausible reasons and postulated treasons, the volume of fanciful predictions and preposterous prophecies, the degree of journalistic curiosity and pretentious perceptivity, have augmented to demonic proportions. Such as the conclave, which has always been a secret space of holy silence, has been dubbed as if being an under-cover operation of a political conspiracy. What was hurting was to see the Christian news agencies, and worse still Catholic news vendors, who have been behaving like some infantile upstarts making these sacred events into a paranormal affair and a naïve number game. Today, finally the Cardinal Prelates enter that private ‘space behind closed doors’, and the hand of God will have a free space to operate. In the name of secular autonomy and freedom of expression every form of demonization has been unleashed against the Church in the past three weeks and every urge to paranoid interpretations given vent to. I hope and pray atleast beginning this day, some respect will be shown to the real faith that Catholics have that it is the Holy Spirit who raises the leader of the Community at a given time, with the given need in perspective. With hordes of the so-called Catholics having joined the fad-conditioned secular masses in criticizing their own pastors and shepherds, and looking at them with suspicion and pessimism, I wish those who have remained calm and committed to their basics in faith have a respite with the proceedings given their due respect. Let us pray together my fellow catholic brothers and sisters, that we remain steadfast in our faith and continue to feel the Holy Spirit still guiding us on, amidst all insanity that pervades the moment. Let us wish our elders, our shepherds, a moment of Divine Guidance all through this process of discerning our Chief Shepherd. Let us remain united with them in prayer.

The call to CELEBRATE...

4TH SUNDAY OF LENT: 10.03.2013

The call to CELEBRATE...
a three point line of action! 

Step 1: REALISE WHO YOU ARE 
O Christian! realise your dignity!
The son returned to his senses and realised who he was.

Step 2: RETURN TO THE LOVE OF GOD
Decide to come back to God!
the sacrament of reconciliation is the sweet embrace of the Lord!

Step 3: REJOICE IN THE LORD
That is the essence of Christian Life, to Rejoice!
Rejoice in the Lord, again i say, Rejoice! Celebrate Life!

My reflection for this Sunday

Rejoice O Jerusalem and all who love her rejoice! Right at the entrance antiphon, the Liturgy today makes its central theme crystal clear – The call to Rejoice…the call to Celebrate, because we have the opportunity of returning to the Father’s house, to the Mother’s heart of the Lord, to the embrace of forgiveness that God wishes to offer each one of us! And Jesus narrates a beautiful story today, a parable par excellence that speaks to us of that house, that heart and that embrace.

Our life of faith has to be a celebration, a perennial joy, a loving experience, a journey with our hand in the hands of God. What a joy to have a God who is so close to us, so close to us that the very moment we wish to return to God, we bounce right into God! From the call that we received last Sunday, the call to bear fruit, the whole week Jesus has been teaching us of the fruits that we have to bear – the fruit of communion, the fruit of forgiveness, the fruit of love, the fruit of humility and so on. When we take to heart the call, and embark on that journey, there would sure be moments of fall and failure. Jesus assures us today – it is not the worst issue to fall, the worst is not knowing that you have fallen.

The first step towards a true Christian life is the REALIZATION of who we are. With the life situations, the daily choices and commitments, it is possible that I forget who I am. The First reading today pictures to us God calling the people of Israel through Joshua, to realize who they were and all that God had done for them! That exactly is the first line of action that Jesus gives us today through the example of the younger son in the parable. We read that ‘he came to his senses’... that is, he finally realized who he was! Pope St. Leo the Great would say, "Christian, recognize your dignity and, now that you share in God's own nature, do not return to your former base condition by sinning. Remember who is your head and of whose body you are a member. Never forget that you have been rescued from the power of darkness and brought into the light of the Kingdom of God." The message is clear – to become aware of my dignity as a Christian and to remember who I am.

The second step is presented in the second reading, where St. Paul reminds us that God has reconciled to Godself through Christ and has given us the ministry of reconciliation. It is infact an invitation to RETURN to God, reconciled to God, to our brothers and sisters in God. In doing that we become new creatures; in returning to God we become newly born. Jesus recounts the father in the parable as saying about the younger son who had returned to the father, that he was dead and he is come alive, that he was lost and is now found! So, the call is to return to God. If we truly realize who we are, we cannot but return to God, because we cannot stay away from God. St. Agustine’s words, “Late have I loved you, O Beauty ever ancient, ever new, late have I loved you! You breathed your fragrance on me; I drew in breath and now I pant for you. I have tasted you, now I hunger and thirst for more. You touched me, and I burned for your peace” are words of beauty and wisdom which makes us understand that we are made for God and our hearts would always be restless, until they rest in God. Let us Return home, let us Return to the bosom of God. The Sacrament of Reconciliation is the direct highway to the heart of the One who waits for us eagerly for ever right at the door post to spot us from far, to run to us and embrace us. James says that in such simple words – Come close to God, God will come close to you (Jam 4:8).

The Realisation and the Return to God create an atmosphere of joy that one cannot hide. That atmosphere is the state of life to which Jesus calls us today as the third line of action. “REJOICE in the Lord always, I repeat, Rejoice,” cries out St. Paul (Phil 4:4). Christian life is a celebration, a celebration of every moment, a celebration of every experience be it ordinary or extraordinary. In the parable Jesus speaks of two decisions that were made – the first one was, “I will arise and go to my Father”, a decision that leads to celebration, joy, happiness and rejoicing. The second decision was that of the Elder son – He was indignant and he refused to enter the house!

The Choice is ours dear friends! 

What decision would I want to make? To arise and go to God and thus run towards a Celebration OR become angry, upset, unforgiving, unloving, grumpy, jealous, and cold towards my brothers and sisters and refuse to enter the house, thus remaining in sadness and grief.  Let us pay heed to the call, the call to Celebrate – to celebrate the love and the mercy of God, to celebrate our faith and celebrate our brothers and sisters in faith! 

With the younger son of the parable, let us arise, let us go to God and let us celebrate life in the Father’s house! 

Thinking of our dear Pope Emeritus...

As the news of the CONCLAVE is aired...
that it will commence on the 12th MARCH, by afternoon...
I am thinking of the Feb 27th...
I was happy to be part of the historical event of
the final audience of Pope Benedict XVI...
I prepared this audio file
to post a video perspective of mine...
My simple gadgets
didn't cooperate to the completion of the project...
anyway..since the audio was set...
i thought of sharing this...

The final audience of Pope Benedict XVI - as i saw it

The Embrace that changed me!

If you had a look at the post two days back, regarding the Catechesis of persons with disability, I had shared my feeling with regard to the need to be sensitive to persons who live with disabilities, around us!

Today again we were discussing on the experience we had at the Office of the Sector for Catechesis of persons with disability. One of the three professors, began sharing his experience!

He narrated an incident on the first day of his career as a teacher in a Middle School. When he entered the class and settled himself in the chair, suddenly from amidst the kids who were seated a boy stood up and made his way towards the new teacher. The new teacher was a bit shocked, first of all because the boy was upto something unprecedented, and secondly the boy was autistic and that could be seen on his face and his management of his self. With no experience of this sort and total unpreparedness to deal with a boy of this nature, when the teacher looked at his assistant with bewilderment (in Italy there is a rather widespread custom of having 2 teachers in a class), the assistant who was a old timer of that class gestured the new teacher to be calm... but before that the boy was already holding his hand out towards the teacher. The boy embraced the new teacher, in what he called a squeeze that was in no way gentle or soft! The teacher felt even a little pain and was wondering what to do next, when the old-timer gestured again to remain calm. When the boy released his grip and the teacher just managed to take a breath of ease, the assistant made a sign from behind telling him to return the hug, which the teacher did promptly. The boy went back to his place with a content heart!

The teacher explained to us in a moved tone, what the assistant at the end of the class told him! "This is the first time John (name changed) has come up to a new person and given a hug right away. He seems to find in you some thing that tugs him," said the assistant. The teacher told us, "I was totally unprepared for a boy like that in that class... but that embrace changed me! I have from then got myself trained in educating persons with disability and have linked myself to so many associations that carry on that great ministry."

May be each of us needs that embrace... that hug that changes us!

Love one another!

Mar 8, 2013: International Women's Day
Friday, Week 3 of Lent - Year C.

March 8 - World Women's Day. All women known to me, and those who aren’t too, I thank God today for you all. You make the world a beautiful place to live in. In you, I remember to thank God for our mothers, sisters and every woman, who bears the motherly imprint of God!  Let us live with a divine love in our hearts…that’s the invitation of the WORD today.

LOVE - that is the commandment that Jesus declared to be the greatest. True love is demanding! It presupposes equality, liberty, dignity, respect and regard for each other. Love can never co-exist with injustice, with violence of any kind, with prejudices or judgments of persons, or even the slightest form of disrespect. Do we really love? A question so relevant today as we celebrate Women's day...with things that are reported from various corners of our nation and the world... does the world really know what it means to love!!!