FOURTH SUNDAY OF THE YEAR - B

FOURTH SUNDAY OF THE YEAR – B
(Deut 18:15-20; 1 Corinthians 7:32-35; Mark 1: 21-28)
Theme: We are the Consecrated Possession of the Lord: Let us remember and live this dignity of our Christian Vocation

Reflection

- As we enter into the fourth Sunday of the Ordinary Time of the Liturgical Year, we have to once again remind ourselves of our identity and dignity as Christians: We are the Consecrated Possession of the Lord and we have to live as belonging to him alone as his anointed and redeemed children.
- We are moving in our journey towards perfect communion and fellowship/friendship of our Lord Jesus Christ and in this journey, as Pope Benedict XVI says, we are not alone. In fact, Jesus will not leave us alone on our way but he is with us and he keeps walking with us always making us remember our unity with him and this is our dignity of Christian mission: we walk towards him but with the same presence of him.
- We connect ourselves and our present situation with the past in which we have promised our faith in Baptism and with the future in which we become fully participants in the eternal habilitation with God in Glory. With this aspect of continuity let us remember also what we have reflected last week and connect it for today and see how it has effect for tomorrow too.
- Last Sunday we have mediated upon our ever ready availability in the camp of Jesus by synthesizing whole reflection into a theme: “The time of the world is completed. It is time for us to enter into the working field of Jesus with the total conversion and with the committed belief to the good news of the Kingdom of God”. This reminds us that we are full of ‘the presence of the Spirit’ in the conversion of our heart and life and we are also full of ‘the presence of the Word’ in the acceptance of the gospel proclaimed. With this power of the Word (Jesus Christ) and with the power of the Spirit (Holy Spirit) in and with us we become enriched and encouraged in our path towards fulfilling our Christian mission with ease and with enthusiasm.
- All the readings of today give us today the same message that “we have to bear in mind our identity and our dignity of being God’s beloved and consecrated possession.” Let us enter into the readings to understand this deeply and to carry with us the fruit that provides for us as the spiritual nutriment.

First Reading
The Prophet is the ‘Word and Action’ of God and Jesus is that High and Eternal Prophet of God

- God promises a Future Prophet through Moses:
o This passage is to be read in the light of messianic tradition of Judaism and in this background it points out to the ideal face of the prophet (the efficacious presence) and his special and powerful task in the confrontations with the other political-religious institutions of the people of Israel (that is of the king, the priest, the Levite and the judge).
o Prophet is the ‘spokesperson’ of God himself. With this immediate divinely natured aspect, the prophet is closer to the God’s mission in the world than other departments as we have seen such as king, as priest and as judge. He speaks for God or more aptly, it is God who speaks through him. the prophet is the ‘voice’ of God and the ‘word’ of God.
o The internal structure of his mission as the prophet has its ‘anchor’ in God himself. It is not his personal choice or will but it is the will of the one who sends. The foundation, therefore, for the prophecy is God himself; as long as he acts and lives as ‘Voice’ of God, even his words and his actions are so potent and so efficacious and so creative as the words of God himself. Therefore, the word of God and the prophet of God become one in nature because the prophet has not his life or rather, he does not live for himself anymore but lives for God and lives for his word.
o God promises this kind of prophet in the future who becomes the ‘Word of God’ in human word and in human action with the divine flavor and fragrance. This promise which was made by God through the Moses is perfectly realized in the person of Jesus Christ, the Word-Incarnate of God, ‘the Voice and Work’ of God, which has manifested in the authentic and authoritative teaching which has the capacity of renovating the recipient (Gospel). This promise is made by God in the words: ‘I will rise up one prophet from among his people….’ (v. 18).

Second Reading
We are people set apart for the love of God by fulfilling our Christian status of life

- Christian virginity is the ‘total offering of life/ perfect consecration of life to God’s love: Paul expresses this in the second reading of today in which we are asked to read the passage with the eyes of faith and with the heart donated to God.
- Single life or solitary life is neither a sin nor a weakness: it is a Christian vocation in which whole humanity of the celibate person is consecrated to the love of God.
- Event the matrimony or family life is neither bad nor something not allowed: it is also a Christian vocation in which the one is offered totally for the well being of the partner, thus, husband to the wife and wife to the husband; they have to live this love reciprocally and together they have to become a ‘perfect offering’ to the celestial love of God.
- In both of them, the choice of the status of life in which one wants to live is not the important matter. Both of them divinely planned and both of them have their unique nature and role in the world.
- The significant note that Paul makes here is that ‘whatever life one chooses’, the ultimate consecration should be to God becoming participants in his eternal love. This is the Christian message of life and vocation. It is God who has to be above all our normal, personal and social choices. If there is a list of preferences in one’s life as a Christian, the first of the list should be God and His Will.
- It is in this background that we can also connect it to the words of Jesus that ‘in heaven there is no marriage, no husband, and no wife, they all will be like angels’ (Mathew 22:30).
- Therefore, we have to seek first the kingdom of God (Mathew 6:33) and let the love of God precede all other human occupations because: it is the heavenly life and it is the authentic Christian life to which we are called and to which we have to offer ‘virginity of our life’, in other words, ‘purity of our total self’ to God and to His Kingdom on earth so that we are worthy of participating in His Eternal Joy and Love.

Gospel
Jesus Christ is the Word and Work of God in and for us

- Word at Work: Jesus preaches and operates at the same time in Mark.
o We will begin by entering into the general context of the passage: In the Gospel we see the first miraculous driving off an evil spirit from a man. The evangelist Mark directly and straightaway enters into the central point which he wanted to convey. His Gospel does not contain long introductory part like that of John and not even long infant narratives like that of Mathew and Luke. His is the first gospel and he wants to project Jesus, his life and ministry, as the one sent by God (1.1-2) and as the one who is more pleasing Son to God (1:11), and as he is set out to fulfill the work of salvation in a word and in a deed.
o Mark’s intention is not to divide his word from his action, his preaching from his miracle operation, his teaching from his mission of salvation. it is found here in the particular passage which appears still in the first chapter and thus, still in the very beginning itself; Here we see Jesus teaching in the temple and immediately ‘as though the matured fruit cannot stay longer on the tree’, he demonstrates the effect of the word already at work of demolishing what is evil and re-constructing what is divided and collapsed.
o Jesus word and work at one and the same time is destructing here the ‘possession’ of the evil by which man has lost his identity and dignity of being a child of God and thus, he started repairing the damage by pulling out the power of unholy spirit.
o The reaction of the people around is noteworthy:
 When he preached – they were taken up by wonder (v.22: astounded)
 When he healed – they were taken up by fear (v. 27): though the English version say that they were ‘amazed’ and closer translation say that they were taken up by ‘fear’, which might be also the wonderstruck-fear.
 In both the people have seen something new when never happened before: that he teaches the word with authority and he works miracles with command.
o Both the word and work, thus both teaching and healing, are not separately seen here. They come in the one instance and they come one after the other or rather one from the other. That continuation or that connection is seen here. It is all because the Messiah sent by God has initiated his mission of redeeming people from the power and fear of evil.
o His word is always transformed into an act of bringing fallen creature into the true identity and dignity of being God’s children.

- Evil divides and Jesus unites:
o We will start by entering into the particular context of the gospel passage. We will take even small elements which seem to be insignificant but they provoke that man is always ‘tempted’ and ‘operated upon’ by an evil that is always at work of pulling him away from God’s design and will. Once again and little later, Peter will admonish us with this truth saying that “Discipline yourselves, keep alert. Like a roaring lion your adversary the devil prowls around, looking for someone to devour. Resist him, steadfast in your faith, for you know that your brothers and sisters in all the world are undergoing the same kinds of suffering” (1 Pet 5:8-9).
o Jesus’ word is effective and efficacious: we see Jesus preaching to the people but not as the Scribes (v. 22): this difference is made between Jesus and the Scribes to show that both are authentically given the possibility of teaching the Law. Even the scribes were authorized by God in the Old Testament to handle well and to teach well the Law of Moses. But people did not find any newness or creative effect in their teaching. They only teach and their teaching remains only as a teaching. Jesus teaching is little more authentic and with prophetic voice (first reading – he is the promised prophet sent by God to speak in His name) of God. He speaks and his speaking has special effect, not only in the form of miracles but even prior to it because people have seen something different tone and efficacy coming from his words and soon they recognized that he is speaking with authority and command. Mark brings out this difference to show the authenticity and redemptive character of the ‘word’ of Jesus.
o Unclean spirit takes a possession of a man (v.23): we have to consider here that subject is man and the object is an evil spirit but it is the object that takes the control of the subject. A man with an unclean spirit, in other words, a unclean spirit takes a man as his possession or man himself allows to be ‘controlled’ and ‘operated’ by a unholy spirit. Whatever is the condition, the damage is also to the subject, that is, to the man. The consequence is:
 Man loses his integrity which means he becomes divided, he becomes a slave to the other who is considered as more powerful than himself, though in reality, it is the subject who is always potent and persistent.
 Man is not anymore the one who speaks, who does; it is the words and works of the unclean spirit which has taken control of him which are exhibited.
 Man loses his mind, his thought and sometime even the integrity of the body because often we see in the gospels that evil spirits ‘stir up and throw’ the persons to the ground.
o Started shouting: ‘he cried out’ (v.23): till now in the same synagogue there was this man, calm and quiet, tranquil and without making noise; but only when it has heard Jesus talking ‘with authority’, it has roused up because it has recognized the power of the word of Jesus and started crying out: the words of Jesus always arouse the difference between good and bad and provoke to choosing the good. The word of God is so powerful that it breaks open the heart and reveals what is holy and what is unholy in the person. We read this in the Letter to the Hebrews: “Indeed, the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing until it divides soul from spirit, joints from marrow; it is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart” (Heb 4:12).
o Evil spirit also recognizes Jesus as the Son of God (v.24): we see little later Peter proclaiming the identity of Jesus as experienced by them in the illusory manner till then confessing: “You are Christ” (Mk 8:29). But even before that and even before the people with amaze confirm him to be the Messiah by the words with authority and by the miracles with command (v.27), we see the evil spirit already confessing Jesus as the ‘Holy One of God’. We can observe two things here:
 One, he speaks in the plural manner: “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us”: and here we do not have any reference to the ‘plurality’ of the evil spirits; there is only one unclean spirit which has possessed man; but it speaks it speaks ‘We’ and ‘Us’; this means that it is exhibiting its dividing nature telling in other worlds: ‘I have divided man; he is not himself; he is mine; he has become my property; he has come under my control; we are two in number now’. This is the diving character of the evil: it destroys the integrity of human nature.
 Two, he confesses in the singular manner: “I know who you are, the Holy One of God”: when it is time to recognize who is the One who is acting upon him, he immediately confesses that he already knows him; man has not recognized the power and presence of Jesus but the evil spirit has immediately understood it and thus has cried out ‘accepting’ and ‘confessing’ his helplessness and his incapacity.
 In the first phrase, we see the ‘triumphant’ nature of the evil spirit as though it has won and brought the man to himself by possessing him and by destroying his identity and dignity of being the child of God: we see the tone of victory on the part of the evil spirit.
 But in the second phrase, we see the ‘losing’ nature of the evil spirit as though its ground is being shaken, as though its action is being questioned, as though his power is being dethroned and finally as though he has lost his property, the man: we see the tone of loosing on the part of the evil spirit.
 It is because of this prior recognition of word and work of Jesus, the Messiah, that the evil has lost its game even before Jesus has commanded it. It is because of this it was silent and helpless when Jesus said: “Be silent and get out of him” (v.25). it is because of this, without any further trial it has just left him with the last agitation in the man.
o Devil in Greek means “the one who divides” and the one who seeks for all the possible modes in order to create confusion and thus division. Making this as the starting point let us go back in understanding what happened both in the gospel and in the second reading:
 When the scribes were teaching the Law of Moses, people found different and divided explanations. They found the Law becoming into various laws losing its integral significance of being ‘Word of God’. But when Jesus was teaching the same, people found it being put together whole law, prophets and the psalms into one and single ‘Will and Word of God’. Therefore, while the devil divides, Jesus started re-uniting the nature of the Word.
 Devil has divided the man and destroyed the one human nature of man who is basically supposed to be ‘image and likeness’ of God and damaged this identity and dignity; devil was at work, not the man; devil was speaking, not the man; devil was controlling the whole condition of man and thus man has become a slave in the hands of the devil; But Jesus, driving out this evil spirit from him by his authoritative command, has restored him again to his normal human nature and thus he has become again ‘an image of God’.
 Little more power is the admonition of St. Paul in the second letter: he brings out, as we have already seen, the only two Christian life styles, either being celibate or being married; only these two realities are true and commanded by God; and only in these Christian vocation man finds his ‘consecrated love’ to God and to the mission: as the celibate to spread the love of God to all and as the married one to share the love of God to his married partner; the will and word of God makes this ‘unity of love’.
• Though it seems to be strange and impossible for our day as we enjoy the modernism and secularism in all the aspects of life: personal, social, psychological and even moral. Yes, indeed, it look out-dated and ‘insignificant’ for today’s society. But for the one who believes in Jesus and for the one who desire to have a true joy and joy without end, this virtue stands still alive and active and meaningful.
• On the other hand, Paul admonishes the community of Corinth to retrospect once again their attitude towards their moral behavior. By talking to them in the name of Jesus (for a prophet always speaks and acts for God and in the name of God – first reading), and making fraternal observation tells them: “I say this for your own benefit, not to put any restraint upon you, but to promote good order and unhindered devotion to the Lord” (1 Cor 7:25). It is not for his good but it is for the good of the one who observes it;
• He says that any other relationship will divide the ‘nature of the unity’ of love between man and woman; and this ‘division’ is the character of the devil. The evil spirit who is always at work like a lion plays with the one who is not attentive to God’s word and will. It controls him and divides him.
• It is because of this ‘diabolic attitude’ in us that we have so many divisions:
o in ourselves: often there is no coherency between our words and actions;
o in our families: often we do not trust fully the other either because of our ego or because of infidelity;
o in our society: often we feel insecure and frightened by the elements of superiority or inferiority complexes or because of the different authorities that take control of us – be it political, economic, or cultural;
o in our religious sphere too: often we encounter doubts and questions about God and the faith because we do not find an immediate response from them for problems of our existence;
• on the other hand we have Jesus who has assumed our human nature and by becoming a obedient servant – to live and suffer for us and thus to stand as a ‘force’ and ‘source’ of life for us and finally to lead us to the ‘acceptance and living’ of our identity and our dignity of being children of God; thus Jesus came ‘restoring’ everything to the Kingdom of God by ‘seeking and saving the lost’ (Luke 19:10). He becomes the point and force of ‘unity’.


- Evil spirit may be the first one to find out ‘Son of God’ in ‘Jesus of Nazareth’:
o Another important theological point we observe here, although partially, is that: the Evil spirit also finds out, in fact the first one to find out according to Mark, the relationship between ‘Jesus of Nazareth’ and ‘the Son of God’;
o though it seems to be very simple here it has an underling truth which we have to note; especially, in the contemporary times when all the theologians are trying to gather together the canonical and traditional and magisterial teachings of the Church to find out connection and link between Jesus of Nazareth and Word-Son of God.
o There various Christological views come up to find out the ‘authenticity’ of Jesus as Son of God:
 One is ‘an ascending Christology’ by which we have our starting point: Jesus of history and how reveals his identity of being Son of God through his life and ministry and particularly through the Paschal mystery; and thus, we move from Jesus of Nazareth to the Son of God.
 Second is ‘a descending Christology’ by which we have our starting point: ‘Eternal Word of God’ who has entered into the history in the person of Jesus of Nazareth who by his words and deeds reveal that he has come from above and returns to Him who has sent him for the self-communication of his love to the world.
 Third is ‘Christology from within’ by which we have our starting point: Jesus Christ who is both of History and Mystery and we cannot take one element into consideration to find out his true identity.
o But to conclude our reflection, I just bring out this observation, though looks very peripheral and banal: even before all these views have come up with much struggle and with much study and inquiry and with much agreements and disagreements, there is already this relationship made between ‘Jesus of Nazareth and Son of God’ as one and the same in the beginning of the Gospel of Mark itself and specially, confessed by the enemy of God, devil himself: “What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? I know who you are: Holy One of God”.
o Let us keep aside, for a while, all these theological deviating views and ‘confess’ that Jesus is the Son of God and that he has come to make us realize by his Word and Work ‘our true identity’ as the Children of God.




Conclusion

- If we reach Jesus, listen to him and accept him we are safe and firm in our integrity both as Christians and as human beings. If we leave ourselves controlled by the evil spirits with negligence and with indifference to the presence and power of God, we lose what we are and we become ‘the property of the devil’ and thus confusing ourselves and the world around us.
- Let us therefore remember our identity and dignity of being ‘the consecrated possession’ of God and live worthy of it.

THIRD SUNDAY - YEAR B

THIRD SUNDAY OF THE ORDINARY TIME – B
(Jonah 3:1-5, 10; 1Cor 7:29-31; Mark 1:14-20)

Theme: Let us enter into the time/hour of Jesus because the time of the world is over

Reflection

- Today we celebrate ‘our participation’ in the ‘hour of Jesus’ and thus, the third Sunday of the year places before our minds and hearts this message of Jesus. We have started our walk of faith, in this liturgical year, and search for the true life in Jesus by recalling to our minds the Christian vocation with which we are entrusted in the celebration of the feast of baptism of the Lord; Again we have made ourselves closer to the message of the Church, who has placed herself in the post of John the Baptist, and thus listening to her, we have listened and followed Jesus and thus we have decided to be with him and this is what we have meditated and reflected last Sunday.
- Today, this Sunday, the third ordinary Sunday of the liturgical year, we are called to go little further, in our walk of faith and in our journey towards life in Jesus; it is for this Jesus himself invites us, with the message of the kingdom of God which receives us with our conversion and with our faith. From here we have the message of today that we have to enter into the ‘time’ and ‘hour’ of Jesus himself because the time of the world is over.
- The time of John the Baptist is over; the time of his mission is over; the time of the preparation for the ‘hour of Jesus’ is over; there begins the actual time of Jesus and the fullness of the time of the kingdom of God; this is what we see notice at the beginning of the gospel of today; it is after the arrest of John the Baptist that Jesus initiates his mission of proclamation inviting the people to reject the ‘time of the world’ (conversion) and to accept the ‘time of God’s presence’ (belief); Jesus begins his message calling them to participate in the kingdom that is already present amidst them in his own person.
- The time of the promise and the preparation is over; God has promised in the history of his chosen people Israel that he would send the savior/Messiah who would gather all the people into one kingdom; from the call of Abraham to the ‘arrest of John the Baptist’ it was the story of preparation for the actual realization of it in the entrance of Jesus Christ, the Beloved Word and Son of God, into the world. Now is the time of not only hearing but living the good news already promised and prepared. Now is the time of not only getting ourselves ready to listen to him and to follow him but ‘staying’ with him as the true disciples who always place themselves at the foot of their master. Now is the time of not only proclaiming the kingdom of God but ‘actually participating’ in it with total return to him and that is the real conversion and believing.

First reading

- Conversion: Turning away from their own ways and following the way of the Lord:
o This is what happened in the first reading of today: in the story, the prophet Jonah who is already saved by God from the great fish is offered life again to give himself to the proclamation of the word of God and pointing of the wrath of God upon the wicked.
o He comes out to preach to the people of Nineveh who are fully occupied with their own desires and wishes; but once they have heard the sentence of the Lord from the mouth of the prophet that in forty days the city of Nineveh would be destroyed, they immediately left their ways, from big to the small, have put on the sack, the symbol of humility, and have fasted to please God by doing according to his will.
o This is the true conversion: they have rejected (conversion) and have accepted (believe) in the word of God (gospel/good news) and thus became the people of God (kingdom of God).
- The story of Jonah is an example also for every one of us: to be at the disposition of the proclamation of God and to preach conversion to all:
o The people of Nineveh are not part of the chosen people of God, Israel; but God who is merciful and loving willed that all the people turn to him with repentance and with the desire to be as his people.
o The mission of Jonah is an incredible one for a Jew: to preach the conversion for the salvation even to the country which is considered until now as the sign of malediction (vv.1-3); God makes even malediction into benediction when the people repent and come back to him.
o The response of the ‘infidels’ and unfaithful people is also exemplary: the people who have who have been understood as the one who are fully immersed into their sin and punishment have accepted immediately the message of the prophet and turned to God with the three gestures:
 With the faith in God and in Prophet (v.5a)
 With the works of conversion (v. 5b), and
 With the radical change of life which justifies them before God (v.10).
o The change of attitude from God is also a model: even God, who is said to be unchanging and unmoving ones he takes some decision, as we see now, changes his attitude towards the people plead him for the mercy and salvation; God changes his mind; God turns away from his decision of destroying them; God, if we can say still, also have the change of heart, the conversion, ‘turning of the self towards the other’. He turned towards the people and listen to their prayers and has seen their works of repentance and has the mercy towards them as he is the “God who has no desire in the death of the wicked but wills that he converts himself and thus live” (Ezek 18:23); this is the ‘good news’ that Jonah had to proclaim and he has done as he is asked of and thus he becomes model for all of us both for the ‘internal conversion’ and for the mission of preaching the message of ‘conversion’ to the others.

Second Reading

- The figure of the world will pass away (v. 31):
o The central message of St. Paul for today is this: that the appointed time is grown short and everything is place before the great change with the mystery of Jesus Christ; the appointed time for entering into this mystery is very short; now is the appointed time of the participating into the life of Christ who is above and beyond the world;
o This world is passing away; the present form of the world also will vanish; there will remain only the ‘form’ and ‘life’ of the spirit in and by whom we will sanctified and made partakers of divine life in Christ;
o At this juncture, we have to transform our worldly attitude. Though we possess everything possible in the world we have to be feeling as though we do not possess anything because whatever we accumulate in this present world will pass away; we have to change our attitude towards the worldly needs and goods; we need them in deed, but we are not for them; we need to have control over them rather than allowing them to take control of us; we have to be consistent and content both in our ‘having’ and in our ‘losing’ of these worldly goods; this is the attitude that the Risen Jesus asks of his followers; and for us today, this is the conversion: we need to turn away from our wanting of more and more of the world and its life and turn towards Jesus Christ who wants us even more.
o In a word, we have to comprehend well that ‘the time of the world is short’. We have to digest the truth that even our life is short; therefore, our time in the world is already measured with the span of days and years and one day, we find ourselves at the end of the time, or passing of our life; in order to enjoy to the full the life in Christ we have to ‘leave’ what we have (conversion – leaving what we have like the disciples in the gospel who have left their nets and their father too) and we have to ‘accept’ what we are offered (believe in the good news) that we are the children of God in the new life that Jesus himself gives us with his death and resurrection.

Gospel

- ‘Leaving’ what we have is the conversion – ‘accepting’ what are called for is the faith:
o Today’s gospel presents to us this ‘proclamation’ and the ‘call’ of Jesus. Let us reflect it more deeply to grasp its content for us today by the exegetical study of it.
o Arrest of John and beginning of Jesus public ministry (v. 14): we have already noted this in the introductory part of the reflection. The mission of John as the predecessor of Jesus is accomplished and his time is over and thus, the time for the preparation for the kingdom of God is over; Now is the time to enter into the kingdom that is already present and Jesus exactly starts his mission with this proclamation that “the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is near; convert and believe in the gospel”.
o The kingdom of God is near (v.15): the Greek text reminds us the more closer meaning that ‘the kingdom of God is here’: with this we have three possible meanings:
 The kingdom of God is already begun because Jesus is present here;
 The kingdom of God is imminent: it will come very soon with the paschal mystery of Jesus and thus, with his passion, death and resurrection;
 The kingdom of God is imminent: it will be fully realized at the glorious coming of the Christ at the end of the times;
o Repent: in the Old Testament the conversion is ‘a return to God’. May be here the same idea is found again with little more profundity; in the New Testament there is new conception of the verb ‘repent’: the repentance and faith are linked with the call of Jesus; for example, Levi is converted (Mk 2:14) only because he is called by Jesus and has the enough faith to leave everything in order to follow him.
o Believe: it is the acceptance of being saved by faith in Jesus from the part of the disciple; believing the good news means ‘taking into heart’ the word and the will of God and doing everything possible, even giving of the self and life, to allow it to lead us and guide us; therefore, the faith is always accompanied by the ‘sacrifice of the self’ and the ‘offering of the life’ for the ‘eternal life’ we opt for.
o Jesus saw/found first disciples (v.16): Simon is the one who is seen first along with Andrew by Jesus, at least according to Mark; Jesus gives him the name of Peter only little later; in reality it is not certain whether Simon is the one who is called first as we have seen also last week (John 1:35-42); but Mark presents him to be the first one to be found and called. Jesus appeals his name frequently in the gospels and makes him little above in the group of the twelve (example: Mk 1:36; 3:16; 8:29; 9:2; and the list goes on). It also shows that Jesus has a special role designed for him: to be the first of the community.
o There are other disciples, Andrew, and little further, James and John: these first four disciples have their own priority in the group of the twelve; Mark lists them to be the first ones (3:16); they appear in the beginning of the discourse of Jesus on the end of times (13:3). Above all, Jesus takes them in precedence to other in many important occasions: he takes Peter, James and John (there is no Andrew) with him when he rose up the daughter of Jairus (5:37), to the Transfiguration (9:2) and for the prayer in Gethsemane (14:33). These apostles are given a position of precedence also by Luke in his book of the Acts of the Apostles (Acts 1:13; 3:1-11; 8:14-17; 12:1-3).
o Follow me (v.17): nothing is prepared in the anticipation to the call of Jesus. This is precisely the theological presentation of the call that Jesus offers: the immediate response by the disciple is characterized not by the preparation from the part of the one who is called but by the one who called, Jesus; everything has a starting point only in and from Jesus; he calls when he wills and we are to be ready to accept this call at any time; all other things like personal merits (whether we are personally worthy of it or not), moral, spiritual and psychological preparations are not of great value for Mark; it is the call of Jesus and one who listens to it has to follow him immediately.
o Call is always followed by the promise: Jesus calls them from where they are and from what they do; he calls them with the promise of making them even more: fishers of men; Jesus uses their own language to make them understand the ‘significance’ and ‘value’ and ‘depth’ of his calling;
o Left their nets and followed him (v.18): Mark underlines the aspects of ‘radical requirements of the faith’; once call of Jesus arrives to us our response and our acceptance of it should be ‘immediate’; here the disciples were throwing the nets into the sea and once Jesus called them their reaction is immediate; they did not think of the future of their nets or their own future; Just they immediately followed him. This is the concrete attitude of every disciple who accompanies his master; but in the Gospel of Mark, this ‘radical leaving’ of what they have to follow Jesus has become the expression of the ‘style of Christian life’ who becomes the disciple of Jesus through the faith.
o Leaving their father and the boat (v.20): it is not little that they have left; they have left everything: they have left their father, their work, their country, their family; this is the total offering of the oneself to the call of Jesus; the first Christians were of this type of attitude: they have sacrificed everything for their Christina mission and for facing the persecutions.
o Conversion is ‘turning completely opposite’: the disciples who were facing the sea for their work and their earning with their nets and boats, NOW have ‘turned towards Jesus’ who called them; they did not look back; they are now facing only Jesus;
o Believe in the gospel is ‘digesting every word of it’: the disciples immediately understood the power of the word uttered by Jesus: follow me; it is a call to the new life; it is an offer of new being; it is a word that transformed them; their word became Jesus’ word; their life became His life; they opted for what he gives rather than holding on to what they possess; and this is the ‘faith’/believe: leaving/renouncing what we have and accepting/embrace what is given/offered to us;

Conclusion

- It is a call to the faith: “believe in the good news”: Jesus calls us to believe in the gospel with the conversion of life; each one is responsible for his own life and mission; each one is offered this call in order to participate in the kingdom of God. The choice of embracing or rejecting the new life is placed in our hands and it is we who have to respond to this call with the total and committed faith; let us examine ourselves of our faith in Jesus: where do we stand in faith? Are we really firm in faith once the difficulties and troubles hit us with the doubts of the presence of God in our life? Today we are here to answer this call of Jesus to faith. Are we really ready to face this call and respond to it with faith?
- It is a call to the mission: “Get up and go to Nineveh and announce to them what I say”: like Jonah each of us is entrusted with a mission: to proclaim the word of God. But many times we are like Old Jonah who always tried to escape from the mission of God by telling many excuses. We have our own excuses for our mission; our routine and daily excuses are: time is not enough, I am not capable, I do not know, it is not my work, I am busy with my work, and finally for what it serves, I do not find any meaning in keeping my faith in God; these are our normal and usual resistances. We stop the word of God flow from us like that of Jonah; we have followed Jesus and therefore, we have the mission of transforming his word and his message into our word and our message and this is the true mission we called for. Let us remember this always and try to fulfill this mission so that we gain the ‘joy of being’ with the Lord.
- It is a call to conversion: we are asked to leave immediately what we have and what we desire and turn to Jesus who gives us his life; we have different meaning of it; it is not that immediately we give up everything and set out for the divine life; it is not even so easy in our times and in our conditions and in our world; Jesus asks us to ‘convert’ our minds and our ways: we have to replace our thoughts with the will of Jesus; we have change our ways of personal interest and walk in the way of sacrifice and self-renouncement that Jesus shows us; we have to finally, give our priority to the call of Jesus than to the pleasures of the world although they have become part of our life in our conditioned life today. Our priority has to change; our message has to change; our life has to be transformed into his. That is the call to conversion.
- All this call to the faith, to the mission and to the conversion is an urgent call: we have no time; our time is fulfilled; our old nature and our old behavior has to be transformed immediately; our old self has to die; the world which we have built for ourselves has to pass away; now is the time for the change; now is the time for the living; now is the time for the Christian action and vocation; tomorrow is not certain; day after doesn’t exist; we have to be ready to face everything and to change everything and first of all, ourselves; therefore, let us set out into the world, into our community, into our society, leaving aside what we are and what we have; let us set out with what we are in Christ and with what we have of Christ;
- Let us get up; let us leave out boat; let us take the ‘step’ of Jesus; and let us keep ourselves on the mission of preaching and vocation of testimony; the world is waiting for us; the church is waiting for us; our family is waiting for us; above all, God is waiting for us because it is his time; therefore, as today’s theme encourages, let us enter into the time/hour of Jesus because the time of the world is over.

SECOND SUNDAY OF THE YEAR - B

SECOND SUNDAY OF THE YEAR – B
(1Sam 3:3-10, 19; 1Cor 6:13-15, 17-20; John 1:35-42)

Theme: We are called to listen, follow and stay in the tent of the Lord

Reflection

- We are in the second Sunday of the Ordinary Time of the Liturgical Year. We are just starting our journey into the mystery of Christ so that ‘we will always remain with him’. In fact, we have already began our celebration of the Ordinary Time with the last Sunday itself; today is the second Sunday; in this Sunday the church proposes us to have our eyes fixed on the ‘Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world’. It is the first step in our travel towards fully entering into the life of Jesus our savior;
- Indeed, though last Sunday was the first Sunday of the liturgical ordinary year, the church has asked us to celebrated the feast of the baptism of the Lord; it was right and appropriate also because it is with the Baptism that Jesus has set out to inaugurate his public mission of preaching about the kingdom of God and doing good to the people leading them to the true way of the salvation and from our part it is apt to start our liturgical celebration of the Ordinary Time with the same feast because we are reminded and re-immersed into the mystery of our own baptism in which we have been called and sanctified as the children of God and with that ‘moment of our entrance into the faith through the baptism’ we have also ‘set out’ to following Jesus giving testimony of the Christian life and vocation; therefore, we have just participated in the call of God through the baptism as it was exactly revealed in the baptism of Jesus, who although it was not necessary for him, still have received it from John the Baptism and in the waters of Jordan, shown it as the ‘first condition’ to be God’s children.
- In the procedure that the Church proposes for the three cycles of the celebration of God’s mysteries, we have the gospel of Mathew for the year A; gospel of Mark for the year B; and the gospel of Luke for the year C; and the gospel of John is inserted in the ‘proper mysteries of Christ’, especially, in his great events in the history like that of Incarnation, in the Paschal event, that is, in his Passion-Death-Resurrection and in the descent of the Holy Spirit; this insertion is because of the ‘special attention’ that the Church gives to the theological meaning of the fourth Gospel and moreover to make her children participate in the life of Christ beyond geographical, historical and contextual confines of the gospel; this means that:
o Gospel of Mathew is written particularly to the Jewish Christian community and it presents Jesus as the ‘fulfillment of God’s promise’ of salvation; therefore, it has a character of belonging to a special group.
o Gospel of Mark is written particularly to show that Jesus is the ‘Son of God’ who is the Messiah and the savior and it is the first written gospel and its contents are limited; it presents Jesus as the ‘son’ God and ‘son’ of Man in whom the salvation of God itself is hidden; therefore, it has a character of limitedness in the presentation of Jesus and is geographically limited;
o Gospel of Luke is written particularly to show that Jesus is the ‘savior of the poor and marginalized’ and he has come to the world to be with the suffering and with the sinners; it present Jesus as the ‘Son of God’ making himself poor and sitting in the company of the overthrown people of the society; therefore, though it seems to be having universal character of Jesus preaching, it’s predominance is only for a particular sections of the society: poor and marginalized, weak and the sinner, woman and suffering people.
o Gospel of John is completely different in its character: it is both particular and universal; it is both beginning and the end; it is both a call and a fulfillment; It starts with the eternal plan of God and ends with the consummation of everything in him; the gospel starts with Word Christ who was already there from the beginning and enters into the world to be with the men; in this way this Gospel is peculiar and significant in its presentation of the mystery of Jesus Christ;
o And may be for this reason, the Church proposes this gospel for all the predominant event of Jesus;
o Even today we have the gospel reading again from John; it is because of the reasons we have already seen; and the intention the Church is that we have to re-start our Christian journey with the spiritual nourishment of the richness of John’s theology; if we see, second Sunday of the ordinary time of any year we have the gospel reading from John and only from the third Sunday we actually start the gospel proper to the destined year.
- Discipleship of Christ: we reflect today on the discipleship of Christ; Jesus calls the first disciples and asks them to follow him and they immediately follow; and today we have to remind ourselves of our own calling through our acceptance of faith; in fact, we called to be his disciples; the second Sunday is dedicated to this calling of Jesus; once we are admitted into the Christian faith through the baptism (first Sunday), we are now endowed with the responsibility of following Jesus with the committed zeal and will (second Sunday) and we will again meditate about the same calling of Jesus next Sunday also (third Sunday); in this way, the Church prepares us to acknowledge and embrace the life of true discipleship so that we go forward to be in his tent; following Jesus is the common theme for these weeks of Christian Liturgy;
o Jesus calls and men respond: this is the common understanding of discipleship and today many preach on this; many preach on the Christian vocation as the invitation of Jesus; Yes, indeed, Jesus calls and we are given the possibility to respond to his call and follow him; this is the structure of the first two gospels too: Both in Mathew (4:19) and Mark (1:17) present to us the calling of the first disciples by Jesus inviting them to follow him and he would make them ‘fishers of men’; this is the normal understanding of the theme of discipleship: it is first Jesus who calls them and they, leaving their belongings, follow him immediately;
o ‘come and see’: many use these two words for their preaching today; they are the beautiful words of Jesus at the beginning of his public ministry and in particular when it is compared to the ‘common invitation’ of Jesus who has preached: “Time is fulfilled; kingdom of God is near; be converted and believe in the good news” (Mk 1:15); these words ‘come and see’ go beyond their ordinary meaning and it makes the one who accepts them to participate fully in the ‘true living of Jesus’. In this way, today’s preaching for many is founded on this invitation of Jesus’.
o Both these points of view are not wrong; they are meaningful and apt; and they open us the opportunity to enter into the discipleship of Jesus;
Gospel of John: opens the new path of entering into the mystery of Christ

- A different structure of discipleship of Christ: but today we have another point of view of understanding the disciple of Jesus; I want to present another way of viewing the whole scenario of the call and the response between Jesus and his followers; it is an integral and comprehensive one; let us reflect over the same words of the Gospel to learn it:
o In the Gospel of John we have two pillars:
 One is John the Baptist who show to the people the ‘Lamb of God’ (vv. 35-36): what happens there:
• He is with his two disciples: and it is his staying for the Lord
• Fixed his sight on Jesus who is passing by: and it is his being in the Lord
• Said: ‘Here is the Lamb of God’: and it is his testimony of the Lord;
• Therefore, we have to carefully notice all his particular gesture to understand who this John the Baptist is.
 Second is Jesus who has asked those two who follow him: ‘what do you seek’ (v.38-39): what happens here:
• Then (v.38) is the continuation of what is already happening: and it is the attention of Jesus to those who desire to follow him
• He turned to them: and it is the initiative of Jesus to dialogue with them;
• Observing that they are following him: it is the observation of Jesus;
• Said: ‘what do you search for’: it is action of Jesus who creates a desire in them;
• Therefore, we have to comprehend well each and every movement and moment of Jesus;
 These Two pillars have a common destination: preparation and acceptance of discipleship on the part of the two followers (v.37): what happens here:
• Two disciples have ‘listened’ what John has said;
• They have ‘followed’ Jesus;
• In this way, they stand between two pillars: firstly, John who showed them the ‘True Lamb of God’ and to whom they have listened and according to whose word they have followed Jesus and secondly, Jesus himself who has initiated the dialogue with them by knowing their desire;
• Therefore, it is ‘internal and spiritual desire’ of the disciples to know the truth, the way and the life that precedes both the demonstration of John and the invitation of Jesus.
• And both John and Jesus are aimed at bringing and leading those desired disciples one to the true God who is at work for the salvation of humanity.
• John prepares and shows the way of salvation and Jesus actually calls them into the participation of it and the disciples listening to John followed Jesus and following his ‘invitation’ they went, stayed with him and found the messiah in him.
o This is the actual structure of the disciples that the church places before us by offering to us ‘the passage from John’s gospel’:
 First of all, the man needs to have a desire or a quest for finding true God and true life;
 Secondly, God is always ready to reveal the ways and means to know him and this revelation is there from the beginning;
 Man, who has the quest, has to search for the probable means that are present before their eyes, and thus embracing those means, he enters into the life of the one whom he is searching for;
 To put it in the context of today’s gospel: men who are really thirsting for God, have to search for the means of self-revelation of God and that means for the present world is the Church; God is revealing himself in and through the Church and the Church placing itself in the place of John the Baptist, show the true ‘Lamb of God’ and the true savior of the world; if one listens and follows the Church and its life through the word and the sacraments, one can really ‘meet’ Jesus and this Jesus calls him to be with him;

First Reading: Call of God to Samuel through Eli

- This is the exact mode we find also in the first reading of today; there is God’s call offered to the boy Samuel; when God’s voice has come, the boy has thought that it is Eli that is calling him and that’s the reason why he goes to Eli and makes himself present to him; the boy is not in a condition of knowing the call of God; he needed certain help of the prophet Eli; and finally it is Eli who has understood that God is calling Samuel; he guided him rightly to the following of God’s voice and accept it by consenting: “Here I am Lord, speak, your servant is listening” (v. 10);
- If the presence and guidance of Eli not were to be there, Samuel would have lost the call of God and thus he would have lost also the possibility of entering into the ‘mission of salvation’ that God has prepared for him; Eli’s word and enlightenment was a necessary for that moment, though we may say that God has many other ways of revealing and making his call accepted;
- Thus, Samuel represents here for the one who is always open to the God’s intervention and action; and represents the one who is always ready to listen and follow the way that that the ‘mediator’ between God and him indicates; on the one hand, the desire of Samuel and on the other side, the guidance of Eli, that made the call of God completely revealed;

- Let us make a synthesis of whole reflection and say that according to the present structure, discipleship is founded not firstly in the call of Jesus but in the ‘personal desire’ of the one who seeks for God. It is this desire that makes us to listen and to accept the church that has been planted in the middle of the garden of the world and that would lead us to the true savior who takes away the sin of the world and only by this we have the possibility of ‘following and staying’ with Jesus; this is the meaning of discipleship;

Discipleship is a dialogue and testimony

- Let us also reflect little on the words ‘come and see’: they are the words that is central to the whole of the passage; here comes the intervention of Jesus for the disciples who really follow him; he himself initiates a dialogue with them; he asks them of what they are searching for;
- What do you search for? (v. 38): is the question that is posed to us each time when we meet the word of God; what are we searching for is the question we have to pose ourselves whenever we are tempted to go away from his path. What do we want in life, in Christian life? It is the basic question with which we can always remain intact in our rapport with God and with the Truth of love; it also reminds us to purify our ways now and then and thus to remain worthy of God’s action in our life;
- Each and every time, Jesus offers us an invitation of ‘come and see’: it is not come and listen; it is come and see; therefore, it makes the one who comes to participate directly in the very life of the Lord; it is seeing where does the Lord live; it is seeing what does the Lord do; it is seeing how does the Lord give the testimony of his mission;
- Every Sunday we come to the church just to see the Lord; but are we still seeing what we are asked to see; God invites us to see his actions and his marvelous and wonderful events are before our eyes, in the form of the word proclaimed and in the form of the bread broken and shared; are we really ‘seeing’ them; if we see, we actually participate in its essence, that is, we really take part in the same humble and obedient life of Jesus to his Father; it is the actual meaning of discipleship; it is not only following him but it ‘living’ with him, in him and for him;
- That day they remained with him (v.39): once the disciples went and saw where he lives, they also felt to remain with him sharing all that he has and he offers to them; remaining with him is both ‘first requirement’ and ‘first fruit’ of discipleship.
- We have found Messiah (v. 41): we do not have elaborate explanation of what has happened to them that day or what Jesus had done to them; but one thing is certain; something strange has taken place; some change has come in them; they could feel it; they have found what they were searching for; and their experience was so enriching and overwhelming that ‘they could not control their joy of being with the Lord’ and they have come out to their friends and relatives and gave the testimony of their first sight with this ‘Lamb of God’ that John has indicated them; they exclaimed: we have found Messiah.
- Discipleship does not end with ‘listening, following and being’ with the Lord; it consists mainly in ‘living’ his life; it consists in ‘giving testimony’ to the joy of being with the Lord;

Conclusion

The readings of today offer us three important things:
- That we have to listen to the words of Jesus, to follow his path confronting all the obstacles that come on the way, and to ‘dwell’ in his tent; and this is what we are called to do today and from today as we start ‘our journey with the Lord in the Spirit to the Father’ in this liturgical ordinary time; let us first of all ‘imbibe’ the desire for the Lord because once we have this desire to follow him, we are ready to face any kind of situation or any amount of difficulty and we even become ever ready to offer our life for him. let us not lose this desire;
- That we have an answer for those who question: what is Church? Why we have to listen to her and why we have to come to the church? Can we not have the experience of God directly rather than this Church, her preaching and her sacraments? The answer is that ‘we are not capable of knowing God directly’. We are limited in our mind and in our thoughts; we are very small and fall short in front of the ‘greatness’ of God; we may try but we have many possibilities to fail rather than to have knowledge of God by ourselves; God himself knows this and that is the reason why he has chosen to reveal himself and this is the revelation manifested in the Old Testament in the form of promise and prophecy and in the New Testament in the very person of Jesus Christ; and now the same revelation comes to us through the means of the Holy Spirit working in and through the Church; one may say that we cannot keep boundaries for the action of the Spirit for it can also work outside the Church and without the Church; may be; but we have to stop only with may be because we are not sure, though we don’t doubt the power of the Spirit; but the we have one sure way that our Lord Himself has shown us founding his community of followers on the ‘rock’/peter (v. 42) and thus commanding them to defuse this faith in the name of the Trinity; thus the Church is the sure ‘means’ of our knowledge of Christ because it is not human institution, though sometimes it may be criticized of its physical and material structure, it is the mission and commission of Jesus himself; leaving aside all those who do not want God or Christ or some faith, for those who wish to follow Jesus, the Church, like St. John the Baptist, indicates ‘the True Lamb of God’ – Jesus Christ. Therefore, we need the church and its presence in the world for the knowledge of Christ and his mission of salvation for the world and for all the humanity; for this, first of all, we have to understand ourselves as limited as humans in front of God, because his ways are not our ways, and his thoughts are not our thoughts (Is 55). Though we have lot of potency to generate and create anything with technology, once we place ourselves in front and in the presence of God, Almighty, we have to accept our human incapacity and thus follow the same means that God provides us to reach him and for our time and for our Christian faith, it is Church alone that is the ‘proper’ means to reach him;
- We should not become perplexed with the reality of the Church; humanly speaking it may has its own limits; but as long as it strives for the coming of the kingdom of God into the world through its word and actions we may follow it; the followers of the church can easily become followers of Christ too; John’s disciples have become Jesus’ disciples; disciples that followed the word of John have reached to the place they were searching and found the messiah; it would be the same case with all of us who are in the church and we wish to be the disciples of the Church; though we are fearful to see its struggle for existence today in the modern times, it will never fail because it is Christ who leads it and keeps it remained with him and in him with the sanctifying grace of his Spirit;
- Let us therefore, as we are here for the liturgy of the word and the Eucharist, our spiritual nourishment, bear this truth in our minds and in our hearts that: “We are called to listen, follow and stay in the tent of the Lord.”

BAPTISM OF THE LORD - Year B

BAPTISM OF THE LORD – Year B
(Is 55:1-11; 1John 5:1-9; Mark 1:7-11)

Theme: We are of the Lord; let us therefore, live as his true and beloved children

Reflection:

- Today the Church celebrates the feast of the Baptism of the Lord: Jesus, after his life at home and with his people for thirty years, comes to the river Jordan to receive baptism from John the Baptist, his predecessor who walks before him to prepare the way for him and to show to the world his presence, and thus to enter fully into the mission for which he has come to the world; in this sense, the feast of the Baptism of Jesus stands in between his preparation and his actualization of the will and purpose of his Father;
- The feast of Baptism is a central point to which all the preceding events like His Incarnation (that is, the Christmas), His manifestation to the Magi (that is, the Epiphany) lead him and from which all the following events like His Proclamation of the Kingdom of God and His Paschal Mystery begin. It is the ending of all his preparations and the beginning of the actual mission; it is the completion of his private manifestations at home and in his home town and it is the starting of his public testimony to others and to the surrounding towns;
- Even liturgically, this feast stands as the summary of all the preceding celebrations in joy and in festive atmosphere and at the same time it stands as the stepping stone for all the proceeding message and ministry by word and deed; we also stop celebrating and start living; we stop all the holidays and start working; we stop ‘being’ what we are and start ‘doing’ what we have to; it goes still further, we stop ‘showing’ that we are Christians and begin to ‘live’ and ‘testify’ our Christian vocation; this feast invites us today to pass from our identity to our task; to pass from our identity of being children of God to our task of living as the children of God; and thus the Church invites us to carry with us always this truth that ‘we belong to the Lord’ and thus we have the responsibility (and more than responsibility), ‘the mission of living’ as his true and loving children.
- His first and intentional manifestation to the people: every event of Jesus is the self-manifestation of God himself and until now only the infant Jesus has manifested himself as the ‘savior born’ to the pastors and as the ‘king of Jews’ to the three wise men from the east. And little further, as the ‘boy of maturity and wisdom of God’ to the scribes and doctors of the Church in the Jerusalem temple with his ‘questioning and answering’ them. Now as we follow the scriptures is the first time that Jesus who is by now well-grown and fully-matured in his decision to set out for the mission of his Father, comes out himself and with the committed vigor and manifests ‘his true divine identity and divine mission’ to the public with the testimony of the who sent him, the Father, and, with the power of the one who is in him, the Spirit. Thus this feast reminds us that it is the first and intentional act of self-manifestation of Jesus who is filled with the mission of God.
- Let us immediately enter into the readings which the Church herself presents to us today with lot of care and study of the scriptures so that they fill us the spiritual nourishment this particular moment as we listen to them and again so that we will enjoy their richness of meaning and take them as our torching guide in our walk of faith as the baptized children of God.

First Reading: Let us offer everything to Him who makes it ‘spirit-filled’ grace for us

- Today’s first reading is full of spiritual power; each word of it gives us boost to opt for what is useful and what remains for ever; each verse of it encourages us to lead a life worthy of God’s call with the necessary sacrifice and ever-willing renewal of the soul. At the first look this reading looks out of place for the feast we celebrate because of lack of any reference to the baptism, but when we enter deeply into its integral comprehension, we find that its placement is right and that it prepares us to leave what is of this world and to choose what God has promised for us. Besides this, the reading begins with God’s call of invitation to the waters (v.1) and ends with the effect that these waters of God (Son and the Spirit) brings about (v. 11) in each individual recipient. Let us meditate and take into our hearts at least ‘three ways’ of placing our life in the hands of God;
- We have to spend our belongings for the things above (v.2): the verse encourages us with the demanding question: “why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen carefully to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food”.
o In the cited verse, first there is a question that makes us to have a self-examining our daily worries and fatigue: we really worry too much about buying and gathering many things for ourselves; we spend so much of our money to fill our homes with the things; we spend lot of energy to accumulate a lot for ourselves; many times, we spend each and every drop of blood to grow in life with riches and with prestige; who can say that they are not needed? They are very much needed as we live in the world and as we are capable of getting of all them; it is not a fault to have these things and necessary and available comforts in life; the only question of God is whether we are really spending our life for that which is real bread and the bread that satisfies us. Are we really happy in life with all that we have and we are doing? We have to question ourselves sincerely;
o Secondly there is a solution for the many ‘dissatisfactions’ of our life and the only way we need for our ‘true liberation’ is that which God proposes. He asks us first of all ‘to listen’ to him carefully, like Mary in Bethany, and then ‘to eat’ what is good and lasting, the bread that comes from heaven and the food that God himself provides us; therefore, ‘liturgy of the word’ and ‘liturgy of the bread’ are the solutions for our unending displeasures.
o This is what we have to seek for and for this we have to spend all our energies and our capacities: to participate in the marvelous work of God in front of our eyes, the Eucharist in which we are given the ‘word’ and ‘bread’ that satisfy our hunger and thirst and that makes us reach the true path.
- We have to capture the sight of God before we miss it (v.6): the verse reminds us the truth that it is not we who really search for God but it is He who searches for us and who makes himself closer to us and thus it is call for us to be attentive and observing ‘his presence’ near and in us: “seek the Lord while he may be found, call upon him while he is near”.
o God makes himself ‘one of us’: from the beginning it is God who is in search of men; from his first question of seeking ‘Adam where are you’ and until now it is He who makes himself known to us; ultimately he comes down to the earth ‘searching for the lost men’ ( I have to come to seek and save the lost – Luke 19:10); His ultimate nearness to us as ‘God-with-us’ is revealed in the person of Jesus Christ amongst us; he knows our preoccupations; he knows what are searching for; he knows that we spend our time and energy to seek something else; he knows that man neglects his capacity to know him and to come near him; therefore, he himself comes closer to man and makes his presence felt by him;
o We have to move into him: now is the time for us to respond to this nearness of God; we have to ‘seek’ him with the sincere heart; we have to call upon him often so that we receive his answers for our life;
o Baptism is time for us to ‘find him’ and to ‘accept him’ and finally to enter into his life.
- Allowing the power of the word, the spirit, work in our hearts (v.10): the verse encourages to leave a space for the operation of the presence of God: “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return there until they have watered the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater”.
o The purpose and power of rain is to make a ground/soil bear fruit: the word that comes from God is in the same way enters deeply into the heart of men and tills the will – that is, making it sharpen to accept its presence – and finally makes it fruitful in following his ways. Otherwise its purpose and power are in vain; it makes even the barren ground flourish; it is so powerful that it cuts through and goes deep like that of double edged sword and cleans it and implants its goodness and charity;
o We have to prepare a space for it: God is always willing to enter into our hearts; he sent his Son so that he goes deep inside our hearts, indwells there, and makes our life a really Christian; he pours out his Spirit upon us and the Spirit’s work is continuous even though thorns of our indifferences, stone of our hardness of heart try to block it; at the end the spirit prevail and makes the love sprout from the heart that was senseless and spiritless;
o In fact, Jesus through his baptism enters into the waters of Jordan symbolically but more than that he enters in each and every recipient of baptism and remains there until bear much fruit and we shall remember his own words: ‘I speak to you these things so that you may bear the fruit and the fruit remains forever’ (John 15:1-11).

Second Reading: In true faith we can be the conquerors of the world

- Love is the Letter and Character of John: John’s particular character of his gospel or his epistles is: love. He views God as the God of Love and he goes little further and says ‘God is Love’; it is from this back ground we have to read each and every phrase of his writings; all that God does is the manifestation of his love in his Son and in his Spirit;
- In Love God has generated us: another truth that we have to understand is ‘with the revelation of love by regenerating his Son Jesus into the world’ he has opened the possibility so that all those who participate in this love become ‘regenerated’ in and by Him with the merits of loving sacrifice of His Son and with the sanctifying grace of His Spirit. We have to carry with us this reality as long as we are Christians that ‘we are generated into the world by our parents’ and in baptism and in faith ‘we are regenerated into the heavens by the love of God’.
- In faith we win the world: once we participated or become part of regenerating love of God we are capable of conquering the world because we are filled with the ‘power’ of Jesus who is victorious on the dominion of sin, evil and death and we are the indwelling temples of the ‘presence’ of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor 3:16 – “Do you not know that ou are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? if anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.”) and the Spirit who always battles against all forms of evil that drags us always out of grace and out of love like a roaring lion (1Pt 5:8 – “Discipline ourselves, keep alert. Like a roaring lion your adversary the devil prowls around, looking for someone to devour. Resist him, steadfast in your faith”). Thus in faith and in love we can always confront these situations of temptation and spiritual battle and finally win over the powers of the world;
- We stand above the world: we are called to be in the world but not of the world; we do not belong to the world though physically we are confined to this earth; as Christians we have an vocation: standing above the world and its implications; passing through the desires and pleasure of the world that surround us but without ‘stopping’ ourselves; we continue our spiritual journey in spite the attacks from every part of the human sphere and in every form of its pressure; we are capable of moving ahead only because we are regenerated by God in the Word and in the Spirit which took place in the event of our baptism of faith; we have to always bear this in mind and in heart: our identity as ‘regenerated’ by God and our mission as ‘standing’ above the world;

Gospel: ‘You are my son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased’ is God’s voice for us today

- Baptism of Jesus reveals His mission of love, of humility and of sacrifice:
o We will understand the gospel from its exegetical explanation so that we have also the possibility of participating in his ‘person’ and in his ‘work’, that is, in his identity of being a Beloved Son of God and in his mission of setting out for the fulfillment of His Will;
o He allowed himself to be baptized (v.9): Jesus came to the river Jordan and placed himself in the line of sinners, in the middle of his people, as though sharing all that they have, and asks John to give him the same rite as he was doing for others; though in the beginning John hesitated with his unworthiness before his greatness, once Jesus assured him that it has to be done in this way for now, then he has given him the baptism; Jesus permits himself to be in the condition of sinners (Rom 8:3) because he has humbled himself as a mere man (Phil 2:6-7) and undergoes the baptism of John; this baptism of Jesus is an announcement of his death on the cross (Mk 10:38);
o here we have another important virtue to learn: love that lowers itself for others; here we find the manifestation of the greatness of God-Love; but manifests in the manner which is contrary and incomprehensible to the mind of man; it is a greatness of love that is manifested in the act of humility, in the act of lowliness, in the act of utter degradation; He allows himself to be baptized, that is, to be immersed, in the waters of Jordan; we have to keep in mind two points here:
 Firstly, ti is not that Jesus was in need of baptism but he willed it; he allowed it; he permitted it; he desired it; he has surrendered himself completely to the design of God; all this is in response to the man who is self-satisfied with his limited and arrogant understanding of the world and himself and to the man who pretends to be in no way need of God; only in self-diminishing/ ‘humbling oneself’ that one can really feel and find the presence and power of God. The modern man is content with his technological developments and scientific progress and thus thinks in the pride of his capability that he can travel above the heavens; in this self arrogance he does not find any more time and space for the thought God and need of God. For this kind of attitude of man, Jesus’ love which is manifested in his humility gives an answer and makes him to realize the futility of the passing things and instills in him the desire to reach God;
 Secondly, Jesus reveals to the maximum his divine filial relationship to God: he proclaims himself in the silence of the human line and in the hidden gesture of being baptism that he is the Son of the One who has sent him and he is there to do everything for His glory; it also reminds us to bear always in our hearts that we are the children of God and thus we have the responsibility of obeying his word with total self-sacrificing love and thus manifest our filial bond that we have with God.
o The heaven were torn open (v.10): this imagination signifies that the communication is an act and that there is a communication between the heaven and the earth, between God and men; this kind of invocation previously appears in Isaiah 64:1: “O that you would tear open the heavens and come down”; and again at the hour of the death of Jesus there would be mentioning of the veil that is torn open which signifies that with the breaking opening the hurdle in the temple there is open also a possibility for the new communication between the heaven and earth (the veil in the temple represents the firmament of heaven).
o Spirit of tenderness and sacrifice in the form of a dove: the coming of the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove helps us to comprehend the sense of the mission entrusted to the one who is ‘sent’ of God;
 the figure of a dove is in contrast to the imagination of an ‘eagle’ (Ex 19:4 and Deut 32:11) that has directed the marching of the people of Israel in Exodus to the promised land through the passage into the desert and into the waters of Jordan;
 the figure of a dove also reminds us of the ‘spirit of God’ hovering over the waters in the beginning and at the work of creation (Gen 1:2);
 the figure of a dove would also refer to the dove that Noah has sent out in the time of deluge, the great flood (Gen 8:8-12) and Peter connects it to the image of baptism of the purified humanity which has come out of waters (1 Pt 3:20-21);
 again, if we analyze the understanding of Hebrews of the image of a dove we get the complete meaning of it; they consider dove as an expression of sweetness, love and tenderness and in the same time they recall the idea of cry and suffering; this final impression come from the fact that the dove is the only suitable bird for being offered in the sacrifice.
o Therefore, the image of a dove orients Jesus towards a mission of love, of weakness, and of sacrifice.
o Beloved Son is realized in being ‘servant of the Lord’ (v.11): this verse that ‘you are my beloved son; with you I am well please’ sends us back to the Psalm 2:7 in which God affirms says to the Psalmist ‘you are my Son; today I have begotten you’ and the adjective of ‘beloved’ is used to constitute an allusion to the Isaac who was destined to the sacrifice (Gen 22:2, 12, 16 and Heb 11:17-19). This indicates that Jesus is the unique Son and that his relation to the Father is a relation of love. The last words of the phrase, “with you I am well pleased” are taken from the songs of the ‘Servant of the Lord” (Is 42:1) because Jesus is the servant of God who will fulfill his mission in the suffering and in the sacrifice;
o Therefore, the baptism of Jesus, through the various images, words, allusions, declares the sense of the mission given to Jesus: a mission of sweetness and love, which has to be realized through the humility of suffering and death and through which alone he enters into the kingship of the world.

- Baptism of Jesus reveals the reality of the Trinitarian God at work in every event of salvation:
o Our Christian faith confirms and proclaims that our God is Triune and three persons who are the ‘communion of reciprocal love’; in love three become one; theology also elaborates this truth by saying that ‘in love which is the binding force of union each person of the Trinity moves towards the other two with complete self-offering and with the total openness to be filled by others’. It becomes a play of love; in love there is total self-giving and total receptiveness; in love there are no conditions; in love there are no limits; in love there are no boundaries; therefore in perfect giving and receiving each stands before the others: because of love and it is for this reason we say that ‘God is Love’.
o In every event that God intends and brings into realization there is the presence of the Triune God: in the act of creation – there is the Creator, the Word he utters and the Spirit who hovers over the waters: and we say it is an act of the Father in the Son and in the Spirit; in the act of incarnation – there is the Father who wills and makes his Son enters into the world, the Son Jesus who obeys the Father and makes himself to appear in human form and the Spirit who makes this will of the Father and the incarnation of the Son possible with his power; now in the event of Baptism – there is the Son who stands there for the baptism, the Voice of the Father who testifies him as the Beloved Son, and the descent of the Spirit in the form of a dove; in this way, the Baptism of Jesus reveals the presence of the Trinity in the work of renewal of human being through the grace of baptism.

Conclusion:

- In the baptism we become the children of God, brothers and sisters of Jesus, members of the Church and indwelling place of the Spirit and the instruments of grace to others;
- In the baptism we are immersed into the mystery of Christ:
o into the mystery of incarnation of Jesus where we learn the act of ‘total humility of the self’,
o into the mystery of proclamation of the kingdom of God where we learn the act of ‘committed research into the depths of the principles of God’s will’,
o into the mystery of passion and death where we learn the act of ‘utter commending of the life’,
o at the end, into the mystery of resurrection where we learn the act of ‘testimony of new life’.
- In the baptism we participate in the death of Jesus and thus rise to new life; our life is transformed and our mission is reformed;
- Therefore, we have to carry with us always this truth that ‘in baptism we become children of God because we belong no more to the world but to God’, and that therefore, we have the responsibility of living a life of true children; thus on the one hand, let us enjoy our identity of ‘God’s chosen children and on the other hand, let us also enjoy our mission of suffering and sacrifice in love.

EPIPHANY OF THE LORD - YEAR B

EPIPHANY OF THE LORD – Year B
(Is 60:1-6; Eph 3:2-3, 5-6; Math 2:1-12)

Theme: Let us read well the signs of the times and change our way/ways

Reflection

- Centrality of the feast of Epiphany: today we celebrate the Epiphany of the Lord, that is, the self-manifestation of Jesus to all the people of the world. It is an important feast for the Church that she keeps it between two great manifestations of Jesus in the world: Jesus’ self-presentation to the world in his incarnation and Jesus’ self-sacrifice and offering of new life to the world in the paschal mystery; it is for this reason, the church proclaims today the date of ‘Easter’ and all the principle celebrations around it starting from the Ash Wednesday to the First Sunday of Advent; in this way this feast serves as the central and connecting day of the whole liturgy of the Church; it ends with the all the manifestation of the first mystery of Jesus on earth: his birth and his presentation to the whole world as the ‘boy’ born for the salvation of the humanity; and it opens the new manifestation of the second and final manifestation of Jesus on earth: his baptism, his public life and ministry and his paschal event of passion-death-resurrection and thus, as the ‘messiah’ who offered his life to obtain new beginning for all those who follow him; such is an importance of the feast we celebrate today: we close our adoration of baby Jesus and we move towards finding the adult and matured Jesus who is ready to fulfill his Father’s will and thus manifest his unconditional love on the cross.
- Celebration is perennial: Jesus’ manifestation is an ever growing and an never ending celebration; He wills to manifest himself always and everywhere there is a true need; today is the ultimate manifestation of the purpose of his ‘entrance’ into the world and his ‘indwelling’ among the people; he has already manifested himself on the day of Christmas: he manifested himself to Mary and to Joseph; he manifested himself to the shepherds in the night bringing them to himself through the message of an angel; he manifested himself to the few people of Bethlehem;
- Universal significance of the feast: Now is the time to widen and enlarge this manifestation; now is the time to make this manifestation universally significant and that all people are called to participate in this revelation; now is the time to invite all to ‘follow’ and ‘to see’ the glory of God; and this is the feast of Epiphany: the manifestation of the Lord to the Magi, means wise men, from the east; Although Jesus is born in particular time, in particular place and to the particular parents, his birth is not confined to the particular people; his birth is for all; his love is for all; his glory is for all; his joy is for all; and thus his self-manifestation is for all; to his people first and to all others next; the coming of the Magi from the distant place signify that they do not belong to the elected people of Israel but belong to the section outside the chosen race; his fragrance of love permeates the whole earth; his message of salvation embraces the whole universe; his invitation to participate in the eternal joy reaches to the ends of the earth; thus this feast has a character of universality and catholicity in our particular sense;
- Call to have great joy: the magi have found great joy when they have seen the star which was always a guide for them from their house to the savior’s house; today is the day of joy just as all the Christian celebrations are the moments of finding the true joy of the Lord; this joy is not restricted to some people alone; it crosses the boundaries of all spheres of life; it is an inner joy that the heart finds in ‘embracing’ the Lord born of us.
- understanding the signs of the time: the wise men from the east have seen the ‘strange star’ in the sky as they are also astronomers and they have immediately understood that there is something miraculous event taking place; they have so curious and they are so overwhelmed by this star that they have followed it till the end; they had made their way to the place where it has pointed them to. It has to be same with us as we celebrate this feast. God in fact provides us many ‘signs’ and ‘occasions’ to find out his interventions in our life; we have to be attentive to these ‘little’ yet ‘meaningful’ manifestations of the Lord; this is what is for us understanding the signs of his presence; once we understand what this sign/or incident or the occasion means for us we are encouraged to follow it until we reach its final realization in our life; now let us see ‘the star’ of this particular feast for us today and what it ‘shows’ to us and where it guides us.

From this particular celebration of the Feast of Epiphany we can learn at least four things in order to have the same experience of the Magi, the Wise men of the East:

First: Our desire for the Lord has dominate our knowledge of him

- Having a knowledge of the word of God and having a teaching of the scriptures thoroughly in the mind is not enough to have the experience of the Lord or to participate fully in the manifestation of the Lord but we need have desire for him and this desire is the fruit of the knowledge of the Lord; there it is not enough that we stop with knowing him but we move towards desiring because only in the desire we get him and only in the desire we become united to him and only in the desire we become part his life;
- It is this message we learn from the attitude of the Magi today: it is in contrast to the leaders and the priests of the people of Israel; King Herod and his priests have turned the pages of the scriptures, have found the prophecies about the baby-savior born in Bethlehem and thus, they acquired the full knowledge of who, where and what of the ‘king of Jews’; but they have not moved even a single ‘step’ to go and see him; they have stopped with the knowledge they got; they are happy to find out all the references of him; they are content to guiding the magi with the exact information of the birth of the king in Bethlehem; but the fate is that ‘they have not moved’ out of their houses; they are satisfied with the knowledge of his birth; they never had a ‘desire’ to see him and to meet him;
- But the attitude of the Magi is different and goes beyond that of ordinary knowledge of the priests and leaders of the locality: they too have the knowledge and they too have seen the star and they understood well what it means for them and for the world; for the world it gives the message of the new born king; and for them it gives the message of making a ‘journey’ towards him and to embrace him with all their life; once they have understood this and once they had this knowledge of the ‘king born for the Jews’ and to all they have not remained there. More than having the knowledge of it, they had desire to find out what it means and where it leads; they had the desire of becoming part of this great event in the history; they had the desire of offering their total life to the one who is born in the world and to the one which this star indicates and leads them; this is this desire that made them ‘move’ or step out from their houses and from their places; this is this desire that made them to have a long journey; though they travel for long time they are tired or they have not given it up; because the desire in them has dominated their physical fatigue and their mental knowledge; their desire to see the baby king is so great that nothing stopped them from their journey; so it is desire that goes beyond the ordinary knowledge of him;
- We are called to learn this truth that ‘our knowing of Jesus’ is not enough to participate in his manifestation and we need to have ‘the desire’ to find him and to be with him and to be for him; unless we have this desire it is difficult for us to see his light and his glory; it is this desire that will make us move out of our comfort zones: like that of our house, our family, our relations and specially, our thoughts, our ideas, our knowledge and all that what is ours; it is this desire that will makes us make a ‘journey’ towards him who is our king and savior; otherwise we remain in our houses and with our occupations and preoccupations without recognizing the ‘true life-giver’ born for us; therefore, let our knowledge of the bible or scriptures has to lead us to the desire of finding him and to the desire of having him and finally to the desire of ‘being with him’ always.

Second: we have to make ourselves ‘humble and small’ in front of the greatness of the Lord

- The Magi are not an ordinary people; according to the tradition we come to know that they are Wise men, the astronomers who read the stars and thus, in a certain sense, they are scientists; there is also another understanding of Magi that they are kings from the east and it is known with the gifts they carry to offer to the ‘strange one’, Jesus, who is born. By this we know that they are in any not small people but ‘they are already great’ in their status and in their places;
- But their attitude of making themselves ‘small’ and ‘humble’ by their leaving their royal and kingly throne and position and following a star that would lead them to the ‘wonderful event’ for the universe is noteworthy; it was in reality not necessary for them to abandon their greatness as rulers/as kings but they have still done it because they have recognized that there is born a King who is above all kings and specially, above them and their own kingdom; they have made themselves small and unworthy and in the particular manner they have so humble that they have give up their dignity and have come down to ‘glorify’ the King of kings;
- Even their gestures demonstrate this virtue of their meekness and humility: let us read once again the verse 11: “On entering the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother; and they knelt down and paid him homage. Then, opening their treasure chests, they offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.” Let us observe keenly the important acts; first, they have entered into the house or the presence of the king born for the world; secondly, they have ‘seen’ him; thirdly, they have bowed down and adored him; fourthly, they have opened their bags; and finally, they have offered the gifts to him; each gesture is very significant;
- This is the teaching we have to learn from these wise men:
o First: let us make ourselves small and meek; we have to give up our pride and arrogance; we have to recognize that we are humans and in any way not greater than God as we always tend to be and pretend to be; we have accept our unworthiness before the great manifestation of the Lord; what are we? We are after all his creatures and the work of his hands; how can we try to dominate him or at least how can we question him and his actions; if we do not understand them let us ‘try’ at least to be ‘quite’ because we have no capacity to comprehend all the marvelous events of the Almighty for us; this is the teaching not only for us Christians but to all those who pretend to be ‘gods’ and tend to dominate the world with their knowledge and scientific experiments and with their technological enhancements; they are great things that man can do; we accept this fact that God has given the capacity and capability to the man; but it doesn’t mean that we can overtake God and take up his place; Jesus being God made himself appear in the human and much less in servant form; it is to teach us that we are small and we have to be humble before ‘appearance and action’ of God;
o Second: we have to imbibe well all the gestures that the Magi have manifested so that they could really fulfill their desire by ‘embracing’ the King of kings: we have to first of all ‘enter’ into the house of God and we do it every time we come for the mass or for the prayers; entering is not enough; we have to ‘see’/or participate in what is this small baby Jesus is doing for us right now, means, every time when we come we have to ‘observe’ well the word proclaimed for us and the Eucharist given for us; entering and seeing is not enough; we have to ‘bow down and adore him’ with all our meekness and with our smallness as the wise men of today have done it; from this act of adoration come also ‘opening’ of the self, not only the shelf, opening of the heart, not only of the eyes and this will make us ‘offer’ all that we carry from our house; we carry from our house all the troubles, all the difficulties, all the sufferings and also with them, all the hopes, all the desires to be good Christians and this is for us, the gold, the incense and the fragrance; only in this way we can ‘participate’ totally in the mysterious manifestation of the Lord;

Third: We have to leave the way we have come and take another way

- The third point we have to learn from the Magi is that we have to return to our homes and our work and to our life itself with an ‘another way’ found from the joy of meeting the baby savior; the Magi have done this and they encourage us to follow the same; let us reflect again the last verse of the gospel passage of today: “And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they left for their country by another road” (v.12). The previous verse 11 is full of gestures of Magi in their confrontations with the baby king and the present verse 12 is the decision-prepared by an angel by which they have made their return journey in a different way; and both these verses are conjunct with a word “and” which signifies that there is a close link between the first and the second and that the first one leads to the second and the second is the fruit of the first.
- The Magi were always attentive to the ‘sign’ or ‘star’: from the beginning they were following the star because they were attentive to it; now again there is God’s intervention in their decision, this time it is in the form of a ‘dream’ and yet they were attentive to heed to it; it is this attentiveness and heeding to ‘God’s sign’ which made them to save themselves and the king whom they have just embraced and adored from the furious Herod on one hand, and which made them to take a different way/another way that their return is not just like their coming but it is different because it is filled with joy of experiencing the presence of God in the world; they have changed their way; they have trodden another way; their return is quite different and joyful;
- We are invited today to ‘change’ our ways of return as those of Magi; we here into the church; we listen to the word of God; we experience joy of being in His presence; this joy should be continuous; we have to carry this joy to our homes, to our lives, to others whom we meet and to our working places; this joy has to be shared; this joy has to be reaching to other through us; for this we have to return to our homes differently; it has a spiritual meaning: we have to return from the presence of the Lord to our homes/our lives with the renewed heart and transformed life; the way we have taken to church is that of ordinary and usual one; our way to God’s presence is full of hurdles and full of doubts and full of desperation; but once we participate in the glory of God all these will be transformed into the ‘hope of joy’, ‘courage of confronting the life’ and finally ‘joy of living them’. Therefore, let us change our way; let us renew ourselves; let us leave ourselves to be transformed by God;

Fourth: We have to be ‘true’ and ‘authentic’ researchers of God

- We enter into the last point that we can learn from the Magi today; Magi as we have already noted are not the Jews; instead, they are gentiles; they are pagans; they are outside of the house of Israel, the privileged ones of God;
- But they are the ‘symbol’ for all those who search for God with sincerity and with truth: they have come all the way from their countries ‘searching’ for the one who is born to change the fate of the world; they have come from distance ‘seeking’ the true God who would be amidst his people; they have not stopped their researched; they have continued until they have found him whom they are searching in spite many doubts and many hindrances on the way;
- We have to be ‘authentic’ seekers of the truth and ‘sincere’ researchers of God: we are circled by many religions and many faith and many ideologies; we are affected by lots of doubts about the presence of God and specially about his silence towards the suffering humanity; we are attacked many a time by many who come and block our faith by creating number of doubts about the scriptures, about the church, about the failures of the priests and about the failure of Christians in giving testimony of life;
- When these attacks come from outside we are immediately shocked or disturbed; we feel as though our foundations were shaking; we tend to really cling on to them and their powerful images; specially, few religions who always find fault with the Christianity; it is normal that we are disturbed and preoccupied about the effect of these religious attacks;
- But we need not fear them; we can make these stumbling blocks as the stepping stone for climbing upwards in our authentic research for the truth; they give us possibility to deeper our own faith and to deepen our seeking; they are the occasions for us to question our stand as Christians and to grow in the firm faith; they are the doors for us through which we enter into the reality of ‘true and authentic’ faith that will sustain us; we have to learn to treat them with respect, not with fear;
- The Wise men of today’s reflection are our models and examples; they have never given up their research and their seeking; instead, they have made even the chosen people to recognize and to realize who this baby is and for whom he is born; if we sincerely seek the truth we do not give up until we find it; and seeking the truth is a process and we are still in the process; we know the Jesus is born for us and we have accepted him as our savior but as Christians; still we do not have answers for all the problems of the world; but our trial is always is there; our research is always there; the world’s technology and science and the other religious pressures give us the possibility and encourage us to ‘continue firmly’ in our seeking the truth and in growing in faith; let us learn to be sincere seekers of God;

Conclusion: You/I are the star of the world

- Jesus is the star of God’s love to the world; he is the light of the world as he himself manifested in his proclamation; he is the light that has shown on the people who are walking in the darkness; he is the true light in which we see ourselves clearly and thus take part in his ‘heavenly splendor’;
- Church is the star of Jesus in the world and for the world; the church leads all men to the truth by its interpretation of the scriptures and by its proclamation and theological explorations of the truth: Jesus Christ - the Truth, the Way and the Life;
- Each Christian is the star to the others; we have to shine in our life first with the joy and glory of God and thus we have the responsibility of throwing this light on others; we have to guide the world now; for this we have to ‘deepen our own life and faith’.
- Today and Now, You are the star and we always have this vocation of being the star; and you have to guide yourself, your family, your work and your life to the manifestation of Jesus;
- For all these, let us remind ourselves, let us first understand well the signs of the God’s presence and doing in our lives and change our way/ways with the renewed heart and transformed spirit and be the ‘true seekers’ of God.