TRINITY SUNDAY – Year C (Proverbs 8:22-31; Rom 5:1-5; John 16:12-15) Theme: We are generated in and by the Love of the Trinity Reflection: Our journey of Faith begins in the name of the Trinity - We have completed the celebration of the Easter Time with the Solemnity of Pentecost – the descent of the Holy Spirit. The disciples are empowered and led to the truth as Jesus has promised. Jesus promised that when the Spirit comes he will bring his disciples into the understanding of the truth. Holy Spirit has arrived and rested on them in the form of tongues of fire. Fire symbolizes both purification and recreation: purification by burning what is of old nature and re-creation by making one into a new being on the other. Such work of the Spirit has already begun in the disciples. Their old nature of fear is burnt away and thus they are purified of their mind. They are created anew with the gift of courage and fortitude. And the effect is seen immediately in the preaching of the apostles and their testimony of life even to the extent of dying for their Lord, Jesus Christ. - After such a great celebration of the Paschal mystery with which we have to begin our true and daily journey, the Church admonishes us to begin the Ordinary Time of the Year by reflecting once again on the great mystery of God and his love for the humanity. As a result of this desire of the Church we celebrate in the coming Sundays, including today, the feasts of the Lord: first, the Trinity, then, the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ and finally the Sacred Heart of Jesus. - In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit: We start, thus, this Sunday and the days in the rest of the year, in the Holy Name of the Trinity. We require such a celebration of the Trinitarian mystery because Triune God is the foundation of our faith, life, journey and our final destiny: “we live, move and have our being in HIM.” What happens when we invoke the name of the Trinity? We become mindful of the PRESENCE and EFFECT of the Three Divine Persons who is, in a mystery, the Holy Trinity. There are Three Divine Persons and all existing as one God; we may attribute and distribute particular events and interventions to each of the Persons, such as, the creation to the Father, the redemption to the Son and the sanctification to the Holy Spirit. We may do it in the human logic and human understanding, but in reality and in mystery, they are not divided and they remain an inseparable unity. Indeed, each particular event is the common act of the three persons together. Trinity in Perfect Unity: Unveiled in the mysteries of creation, salvation and sanctification - We can revise once again the mystery of the unity of the Trinity in relation to the creation, salvation and the sanctification of man and the world: o in the creation, though it is attributed exclusively to God the Father, there is the presence of the Son in form of the Word spoken and there is also the presence of the Spirit hovering on the waters; o in the redemption, though it is attributed exclusively to God the Son, there is the presence of the Father in form of the Will fulfilled and Plan accomplished and there is also the presence of the Spirit which has led the Son to carry on the mission that the Father has commissioned him; o and finally in the sanctification, though it is attributed exclusively to God the Spirit, there is the presence of the Father who is the fountain of all sanctity and holiness and there is the merit of Son’s death and resurrection through which the purification and sanctification flow and to give full completion, the Spirit who sanctifies comes from the Father and the Son and therefore, there could not be the Spirit except in and through the Father and the Son. - The Trinitarian Unity is the Source for the unity of whole creation and whole humanity: o We find it hard to prove, in the human level and in the human concepts, the mystical union of the Three Divine Persons. But in the revelation of the Scriptures, both in the Old Testament or in the New Testament, we observe the presence and the effect of the united work of the Trinity with regard to the whole creation and humanity. o In the Old Testament we see the undivided design of God for the salvation of man. The whole plan of God and all the events that take place within this view go hand in hand as the many rings of the same chain. The chain is unbreakable from the creation to the intervention of God in choosing for himself a people and till the extension of the promise to whole humanity. It is the one and same mystery of God within the framework his promise of salvation. o In the New Testament we see the continuation of the same redemptive design of God. It is not something that starts newly with the New Testament but what whas already initiated by God in the form of promise is brought to its fulfillment. The only novelty is that this fulfillment has taken place in the perfect and eternal manner. But the unity of the chain continues. The will and design of God has been fully obeyed and brought to the completion (“It is accomplished” – the final words of Jesus on the cross) by the Word made flesh, Jesus Christ. This is the mystery of God in the process of salvation. o In the Time between the salvation and eschatological consummation, that is in our present time of the Church, the unity of God’s plan continues. We see the presence of the Holy Spirit who inspires and sanctifies and leads all to the communion in God. Even this is not a divided mystery but the same mystery of the Old and New Testaments. Thus, the unity flows from the beginning of the creation to the ultimate end of it on the last day. This is the mystery of God in the progress of salvation. o In this way, it is the whole Trinity who has worked for the salvation of man and creation. Not just single person but the totality of the Three Persons who is the cause of creation, redemption and the sanctification. - The presence of the Trinity in the work of salvation: o The project of salvation: it is the Father who promises the savior, it is Son, who is present in every Word spoken by the prophets and it is the Spirit who is present in transmitting the word by the Father; o The Incarnation: it is the Father who has sent the angel Gabriel to Mary with the good news of salvation and blessings of grace; it is the Son who has taken human form in her womb; and it is the Holy Spirit who has come down upon her. o The Paschal event: the passion-death-resurrection of Jesus Christ: it is the Father who wills, it is Jesus who obeys and completes it and it is the Spirit who strengthens Jesus to accept and fulfill this will of the Father for the salvation of humanity. o The Pentecost: we have seen already in the last week about this: it is Father who sends the Spirit in and through the merits of Jesus Christ his, Son and finally it is the Spirit who descends to initiate his mission of sanctification of the world and leading it the Father. o The Eucharist and other Sacraments: in the Eucharist, the fountain and culmination of all the sacraments, it is the Word of the Father that is Spoken, it is the Deed of the Son enacted and it is the Power of the Spirit that effects the fruit of salvation: It is the Father who sends the word. It is the Word/Son who is spoken. It is the Spirit that speaks. Therefore, in our time, it is the Eucharist which is the fullest manifestation of the Holy Trinity and we can contact and interact with God the Trinity in our daily Liturgy. o The Church: the Church is a mystery because of the presence and effect of the Holy Trinity:  Church is the People of God, the Father (the people who are chosen/elected, bought and redeemed and in a word, the people that God called for himself)  Church is the Mystical Body of Christ, the Son (the body which has Jesus as its Head, the Spouse who is washed and prepared by the Bride-groom for himself)  Church is the Temple of the Holy Spirit (the temple in which the Spirit pitches his tent, the holy place in which the Spirit dwells, the holy edifice where the Spirit acts).  Church is One because it is Trinitarian. Church is Holy because it belongs to the Father who is Holy. Church is Catholic because the redeeming act of Jesus has universal character as he has died for all. Church is Apostolic because it is the succession that is transmitted by the power of the Holy Spirit. God in One and Three – a mystery of the Trinity - Is God one or many? in other words, Is God monotheistic or polytheistic? In the Christian Faith God is One but not monotheistic as in the Jewish and Islamic belief. Judaism and Islam believe that they only one God, God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. God is not even polytheistic in the Christian understanding just because there are Three Divine Persons in the Godhead and each of them being God in himself, constitute only one God. This is the mystery. Mystery which remains a mystery for the human logic. Still it is mystery revealed and manifested in the Second Person Jesus Christ: o We cannot simply bypass the mystery of Trinity because Jesus himself proclaims it in his word and deed when he says that:  He is sent by the Father (it is Father who sent me and I am in the Father and the Father is in me)  He himself is the witness of the Father (I have not done what is mine but what my Father has told me to do)  He promises the Spirit who will be sent after his return to his Father; o In the baptism of Jesus once again the Trinity is revealed as it was in the Incarnation:  Jesus who has gone to river Jordan to be baptized  Father speaks about his son: “he is my beloved son, listen to him”.  The Spirit comes down on him in the form of a dove. o Therefore, if we really believe in Christ, we believe also his words and we accept his deeds with faith in which there is the manifestation of the Trinitarian God. So Our God is neither monotheistic because there are Three Individual Divine Persons (God the Father, God the Son and God the Spirit), nor he is polytheistic because these Three Persons are not three God but one God (Triune God). He is the Triune God: God in three divine persons. Trinity is Unity of Love: The only way to know him is Love - Trinity is Unity and Community in Love o Trinity is Unity: as we have reflected the Three Persons in Godhead are United just because they are in Love and they are the love; o Trinity is the Community: Three divine person, not being divided, creates the community:  Trinity is a family without borders of hatred and heredity;  He is a society without barriers of race and color;  He is a world without limits of war and aggression. In this way, the Trinity stands as a model for the family-society-world and on the whole: to the whole humanity and creation itself. o This is in the bond of Love: love is not an act of a single person; there should be at least three elements which constitute love:  One who loves (the Father)  One who is love (the Son)  The love that passes from one to the other (the Spirit) - The knowledge and understanding of the Trinity is possible only by Faith and Love: o Ideas fails because they are personal (each one has his own idea and his own background for thinking and finally the personal thinking is always limited to the self) o Philosophy fails because it is not objective (each philosophy has its reasons when the reason has limits and cannot go ahead it concludes that ‘the object’ doesn’t exist just because it is not conceivable, tangible and do not fall in the spheres of knowledge) o Theology also fails because it is only a search towards the Objective Truth (theology can really go beyond the reason and really work hard to search and can coin many words: for example : hypostatic union in the matter of Christ’s humanity and divinity; consubstantiation: to explain the presence of Jesus in the Eucharist; it is nice to see the progressive aspect in the theology but it has its limits to reach and to express the ultimate Truth) o Only Faith understands it and Only Love reaches it:  In Faith: we leave aside our own limited ideas, leave aside the philosophical reasoning, leave aside also theological failures and we can, more than knowing God in concepts and words, Adore him as he is;  In Love: as we have seen, love has no limits either personal or not even common (because majority believes it need not be true in the matter of God); it reaches beyond; it lives this moment of unity and community; - To Believer and to Love - Our immediate action and is the only secure way: o Keeping aside thinking how God looks like, how is he and where is and all (all the questions are only in the human mind; God has no questions, instead, stands as an ANSWER for all; o Living in faith and love: We are not in the capacity to come out of our own mind to understand others giving them the chance of talking. We are not in the capacity to come out of our own homes to meet others giving them the chance of entering. Still further, we are not in the capacity to sacrifice our own life to give other a chance of living. This is our human limitedness. In such a finitude of our being, how can we presuppose to understand the mystery of God and his presence and effect in us; we need to transcend our finitude and give way to the faith and to the love. - The only way we have before us is: TO BELIEVE AND TO LOVE. The faith keeps the human logic aside to give way to the embrace of a mystery. Love makes the one to totally surrender himself to the mystery without any doubt even if it costs his very life. And in Christian understanding both faith and love are the two aspects of the same coin and two realities of the same mystery. - Therefore, acknowledging that we are born out of the love of the Triune God, let us take glory only in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and glorify him saying: Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit as it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be world without end, Amen.

PENTECOST - Year C

PENTECOST – Year C (Acts 2:1-11; Romans 8:8-17; John 14:15-16, 23b-26) Theme: The Descent of the Holy Spirit and the Ascent of the Humanity Reflection: Pentecost – the Fiftieth Day of the Resurrection of Jesus - Today we celebrate the Pentecost – the feast of the Holy Spirit. It is the commemoration of the descent of the Holy Spirit upon Mary and the Apostles, the first community of believers. Holy Spirit is the greatest and ultimate gift of Risen Jesus. He proclaimed about the coming of the Holy Spirit. He promised the same the Advent of the Spirit. And finally He sent the Spirit of Truth and the Advocate of Life to his disciples. Thus, the proclamation and the promise are realized today with the hovering of the Holy Spirit. It is made a reality. - Pentecost is not the name of the feast. It is an adjective which underlines the Greek term with the meaning of the “Day”. Therefore, it is the Fiftieth Day. What actually means is the Descent of the Holy Spirit on the Fiftieth Day. Why and what is this fiftieth day? It is the fiftieth day from the Resurrection of Jesus. Forty days the Risen Jesus appeared to the various believers including the disciples; he confirmed them in faith; he commissioned them to proclaim the Gospel of Life; he asked them to wait for the coming of the Spirit for the strength; then he ascended into heaven on the fortieth day; after ten days of Jesus Ascension Jesus has sent his Spirit into the world and on to his disciples. Therefore, it is on the fiftieth day of the resurrection that the Spirit has come down. The number “fiftieth” may not be the truth of revelation. The number is the Church’s creation with the deep study of the Scriptures. It is not, thus, as though God has followed the numbers correctly and has acted accordingly. God has no particular time and particular dates. He acts according to his Will and to his Goodness. - Fiftieth is the divine number: It is the Church, always under the guidance of the Spirit, who has understood the number of the fiftieth. In the scripture it is already indicated that it has divine connotation. It is the number of symbol and significance: seven is the holy number and the day after seven times seven (thus forty nine), the fiftieth is the holy number which reminds of the Year of the Grace of the Lord. Therefore, the fiftieth number indicates the “fulfillment of a time of God in history.” In the Old Testament it remembers two events: o The memory of the Covenant: the first event is the Hebrew feast, the feast which comes after the seven weeks of the Paschal escape from Egypt. In this feast they remind themselves of their alliance with God on the Mount Sinai. Therefore, they commemorate the day of the Law and the day of the Covenant which God has made with them through Moses. o The Year of God’s Favor: the fiftieth year was celebrated as the year of God’s favor. It is the precept of God himself that the people of Israel have to follow and observe. According to the precept the fiftieth year has to be proclaimed to be the year of pardon, liberation and restitution. The slaves have to be forgiven of their guilt. They have to be liberated. And finally, they have to be given back their properties. In a word, the slavery is eradicated and the liberty is proclaimed. This indicates that the Lord has showered upon them His Favor. Pentecost – the Day of God’s Grace - Announcing the time of God’s Action and Favor: The Old Testament celebrates every fiftieth year as the Year of God’s special favor. As we have already reflected, those who are under the slavery are offered the forgiveness, freedom and regain of their belongings. It is as though they have said good bye for the past and oppressed life and have restarted their life from the beginning. The old is gone and the new has begun. They are no more slaves but free children of God because it is He who has given them the favor of life. - In fact, Jesus himself started his mission with the proclamation of the event of God’s Favor which will be ultimately realized in Him. His first words remind us this truth: o “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor” (Luke 4:18-19). Jesus repeats and realizes in himself the prophecy of Isaiah and thus he says “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing” (Luke 4:21). o In the beginning of his public appearance he announced the kingdom of God: “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news” (Mark 1:15). With these words Jesus inaugurates God’s kingdom of freedom, love and the peace in the Holy Spirit (Rom 14:17) and invites his hearers to accept it so that they will also have a new life of forgiveness, liberation and restitution. - Spirit will announce what Jesus has accomplished: today’s gospel gives the nourishment for the truth that the work of the spirit is only the continuation of what Jesus has already fulfilled. Spirit continues. The agents of the work of God are Jesus and the Spirit. Jesus established and confirmed the kingdom of God by his death and resurrection. Now it is the time of the Spirit to carry on the same work of sanctification and the salvation of humanity and the world. It is what Jesus already promises about the Spirit saying that “He will glorify me, because he will take what is mine and declare it to you” (John 16:14). Spirit does not act on his own without the command of Jesus. He does not speak of his own things and for his own glory. He only takes what is already proclaimed and fulfilled by Jesus and reveals their significance in the individual and community life of the believers. This is the work of the Spirit sent by Jesus. Thus, Jesus who is not physically present in the world after his ascension sends the Spirit to be present with the believer and with all so that all will be offered the possibility for God’s favor. - Spirit gives the testimony for the Christ’s event: the assurance of Jesus is that the Advocate is the ultimate testimony for his work. He says “When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who comes from the Father, he will testify on my behalf” (John 15:26). The Spirit that the Risen Jesus will send is the Spirit of Truth. He will reveal the truth behind the words of Jesus, the words which seemed to be hard for his listeners (John 6:60-71). He will make them understand the loving design of God behind every word and action of Jesus. He has nothing but to speak and to act in the name of Jesus. He does everything on the behalf of Jesus and in the place of Him. Therefore, the only task of the Spirit in the world is to give testimony to the mystery of Jesus Christ. - Spirit is the ‘Breath’ of the Resurrection: After he has risen from the dead and while the disciples are still with the fear of Jews, Jesus has appeared to them and breathed on them. This breath is the breath of life and thus, is the breath of the Spirit and he continues with that: “receive the Holy Spirit” (John 20:22). Jesus has already given them the experience of the Spirit in that moment. The disciples have experienced with it feeling inside of them the peace and the courage. Only that they have to still wait for the descent of the Holy Spirit in the fullest manner and that happens in the Pentecost. The coming of the Holy Spirit is the fullness of life and God’s favor. This is what Jesus has promised and fulfilled. For this he has come into the world, manifested it with his words and deeds, accomplished it with his paschal event, and finally brought all his followers to it in the Spirit. The purpose of whole of life of Jesus is to announce God’s favor to all and call them all to participate in it with the power of the Spirit. Pentecost – the Day of Fire and the Day of Unity - Spirit of Fire: the Holy Spirit has descended upon the Apostles in the tongues of fire. It is one of the forms of the Spirit in the Bible. There are many images with which the Spirit is attested: the water, the dove, the wind and so forth. But the very moment of His Descent has taken place in the form of fire. Therefore, the fire must have some very special significance. The Spirit appeared in the tongues of fire. What are the common characters of fire? o The fire burns: the first quality of the fire is to burn something that comes into its contact. It makes into ashes what is put into it. It extinguishes what exists before. And the Spirit as Fire does the same. It takes hold of us and burns us to the end. It makes us into ashes. It burns what we are before. What we are will be burnt out and we become Spirit filled, as if we do not have anymore our life and but life of the Spirit. Our old existing will be extinguished so that breath of the Spirit refills us. o The fire moulds: the second quality of the fire is to mould. We here of the proverb: “the gold is tested by fire”. Here the fire has the capacity to give another shape to what is put in it. The better example in our day-to-day life is the iron put in the fire. In the fire the iron is shaped and reshaped as one wants. Iron is molded in and by fire. So also with the presence of the Holy Spirit. As fire it moulds our hardened hearts. Our lives are rocky and hard before the Spirit’s coming. With the coming of the Spirit we become mild and gentle. We become so elastic to be shaped according to the will of God. o The fire forms and transforms: the burning and molding characters of the Holy Spirit are destined to form us into the image of God and to transform us into his Children. Our old nature will be eradicated and we start new life. We are no more old creatures but new creatures with the efficacious presence of the Holy Spirit. The formation of our Christian life and the transformation of our Christian task begin its course with the coming of the Spirit. Spirit does not keep quite. It starts its work immediately. - Spirit of Unity: the first miraculous happening of the day of Pentecost is exactly this. The spirit gathers together all the believers of Jesus Christ under one roof. It creates in them the dimension of communion. This is what happened when the Spirit has come upon all those gathered here. The principle of the union and communion is the primary gift of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost. o Without the Spirit, the division: There is a mention of the tower of Babel in the first chapters of the book of Genesis. What happened there is on the contrary to the plan and purpose of God. There, men have acted against the will of God. They wanted to exhibit their human knowledge and capacity. In their blindness of pride and arrogance they started building the tower so that they could reach the heavens. They rejected the being God’s creature and thus depending on him for their existence. They evil intention is manifested in their will to climb heights of heavens with their own capabilities. In a word, they have started acting against the spirit and will of God. What happened henceforth? God has divided them in confusion. He made them not to understand each other. All were talking in the same language but no one understood the other. The confusion of their language and the division of their work and finally, they collapsed in failure. It is an event in which it is proved that without God’s spirit of oneness no one can succeed. o With the spirit, the unity: the opposite happens with the coming of the Spirit. We see this in today’s first reading. There are people from different parts of the world gathered there. On the day of the Pentecost, after receiving the Spirit, all are filled with the gift of tongues. They started speaking in other languages and for the surprise of everyone (Acts 2:7), all the hearers are able to understand them clearly in their native language. It is all because “the Spirit gave them ability” (Acts 2:4). There was the confusion of the language and the misunderstanding in the case of Babel Tower. Now just the opposite. With the spirit there is the clarity of language and understanding of each other. o All the believers are united into one family of God: all those who profess faith share in the same grace of the Lord and therefore belong to the one family of God. We are not anymore expected to live in the confusion and misunderstanding. Instead, we have to manifest our openness to the other and our hearty comprehension towards the others. The space that is created by the Spirit is: all to be united with one heart and one soul. This was the first quality of the first Christian community filled with the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:43-47 and Acts 4:32-37). The unity of the believers is exhibited ultimately in their sharing and offering each to the other in fraternity. Therefore, there is the fraternity of love and unity. Pentecost – a task to eliminate the distances and testify the life of community - World of division: now we are living in a world which is divided in all its spheres. The division is seen among the family members, in the society, in work and in the communities of Christian faith too. This is the reality that exists now, though often we negate it. o The technological development has proved itself failure of unity because it has cause many divisions in the various aspects. It has fallen short of its success of communion. It has given the possibility of individual and private life rather than encouraging the common and community life. In this way, although the technology has produced the impression of creating free choices, it has ultimately destroyed the common sense of the people because with the private life they have completely forgotten their community responsibility. o Growth in the other arias, like that of the psychology, philosophy and even sociology have given, rise only to the respect of individual. Of course, they are very important for personal growth and character development. But they are not enough for the Christian witness. They have blocked the testimony of the Christian togetherness, because they learnt to live personally and not for the community. o And in all the other spheres of human life, there are many hurdles that stop the virtue of personal sacrifice and the sharing of one’s talents and capabilities (not only material goods) with others. It is our experience in the daily life. The personal talents are mostly used for the accumulation of personal wellbeing, rather than, for the common good and for the building of just and loving society. o In this way, today’s society is consummated and contaminated with the individual and private life and success than the common welfare which is the part of building the kingdom of God. In a word, the world of today is the witness of various divisions rather than the unity which is the fruit of the Holy Spirit. - Christians are the witness of the unity: in this situation, we as Christians are called to be the first ones to live this unity and to proclaim it with their life and action. We have to be the living testimony for the God’s proposal and act of unity in the Spirit. In this way, we have to be united first with the same mind and heart. Our community or parish life should be of one family of believers. We have to witness this not with our words alone, but more effectively with our very living. In a word, we have to be An ANSWER for the World division and we have to be A RESPONSE to the World’s attitude of private life. - The question we have to ask is: are we really the people of the Pentecost? Then the answer becomes easy in the light of the word of God that is proclaimed to us today. Are we united ourselves first? Are we ready to be burnt by the Holy Spirit so that we are molded into the formed and reformed beings of God’s Spirit? Are we ready to be taken over by the spirit so that we become the witness for the unity of the Spirit? - The answer is not of a word but of our very life. Our daily living is the proof for the presence of the Spirit. We are the ones as such to remove the distances, between the families, between friendships, between those who work in the various working fields and finally between the communities of various forms. The only way for saying that we are celebrating the Pentecost is that we are full of the Spirit and the witnesses of Christian unity and life. - Therefore, let us remind ourselves that “We are the people of the Holy Spirit and hence people of Life”, and only then we celebrate the feast with the worthy manner. Glory be to the Spirit, Amen.

ASCENSION OF THE LORD - YEAR C

ASCENSION OF THE LORD – Year C (Acts 1:1-11; Heb 9:24-28; Luke 24:46-53) Theme: With the ascension of Jesus we are raised to the Capacity to Transcend Reflection Jesus ascends with the glorious body - Today we celebrate the Feast of the Ascension of Jesus. Jesus enters into the heavens. It is the important moment in the life of Jesus. He has come down from heaven and accomplished the purposed for which he has come and now is the time to go back and sit in the glorious throne from where he has descended. This moment of ascension complete the earthly life of Jesus even in his glorious body. Before the passion, death and resurrection earthly life of Jesus was in his human body. But once he has passed through the moments of suffering, death his body has become glorious. - It is with the glorious body that Jesus appeared to the disciples and other people after his resurrection. It is because of this glorious aspect that Jesus was able to enter into the room with the doors closed. It is because of this glorious aspect that Jesus was not recognized immediately by the disciples of Emmaus though he was walking with them and talking them about the scriptures. It is because of this glorious body that Jesus can appear to them suddenly and disappear from them in a fraction of a second. - Today Jesus ascends to heaven with the glorious body. He is taken up into heaven by the Father. He has the power to come down and has the power to go up too, just he has the authority to give his life and to take it again (John 10:18). He is always conscious of this and especially with this consciousness of his time to return to His Father (John 13:1-2) that Jesus has put himself towards Jerusalem and starting living the moments of glory in the humility and in the death on the cross. After gaining victory over sin and over death through his resurrection of the body Jesus confirms the glorious life that awaits all who believe in him. Assuring it further the hope of eternal life that Jesus ascends into heaven. Therefore, it is with the ascension that the earthly life of Jesus reaches its completion and it is with the ascension that the descent and the mission of the Holy Spirit has its beginning. Ascension is a moment of Joy and also a moment of Mission Entrusted - Jesus did not ascend into heaven immediately after his resurrection. He would have certainly done it. He preferred to remain with his own for some more time. It is not only to prove that he is truly risen. Apart from confirming them in the faith of risen life, he has something more to do. He has to give final testimony to all that he has done before the resurrection. His testimony of risen life was consisting in his donation of peace, unity and love to his people so that they all stay together as one community of believers. This is what we have been reflecting all through the time of Easter. To have a glance at what we have meditated upon we remind ourselves: that Jesus has offered peace to the frightened disciples; that he has given the comfort and consolation to the disparate disciples of Emmaus; that he has donated to them the possibility of remaining with him and be united to him with the resurrected life as the binding force. - This shows that Jesus had to accomplish the mission of affirming and confirming his disciples in the faith and hope of the eternal life. As a continuation of this mission Jesus entrusts the same vocation of calling the people of all nations into the faith that can save them. Jesus accomplishes from his part what is to be completed on earth. Even commissioning of his disciples to go and proclaim the gospel is part of his Risen Mission. only after doing this that He ascends into heave. This is what we hear from the readings of today: “After his suffering he presented himself alive to them by many convincing proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God… when he has said this, as they were watching, he was lifted up” (Acts 1:3, 9). And again “So then the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven…” (Mark 16:19). He has given them the mission of preaching the good news of risen life and only then he ascended into heaven. - This indicates that there is certainly a connection between the resurrection and the ascension: the connecting aspect is the mission of proclamation and testimony. Jesus after showing them the glory and joy of resurrection he does not leave them like that but gives them the mission of testifying this glory and joy to the world. This mission in which we participate is the knot between the risen life we are called to in our baptism and the eternal life we will receive with our ascension into heaven. Therefore, we have the joy of having life of Jesus and we have also the vocation of spreading this life through our word and work. This is the preparation we can do for the moment of our ascension one day into heaven. Human capacity blocked by sin and re-opened by Jesus - “Reach High”, “Hold the skies” and “Climb to the heavens”, are the words we often use in our life. This is the aspiration every man has. Everyone wants to “go up” in life, “reach the heights”, and “touch the sky” and thus wants to climb to the heaven. Human being is capable of doing this. Naturally he is given the capacity for transcending what is below and to reach what is above. - Human being is a composite of both body and soul, thus a physic and a spirit. He has a need of the body and a need of the spirit. More than a need he has a desire: A desire to become better and best, a desire to supersede all, a desire to stand on the highest point of achievement. He is in tension between these two realities which are integrated into him as one being. The body seeks for something visible, touching, and earthly. The spirit instead looks for something invisible, beyond peripheral and thus other worldly. This tension that makes man both being and becoming. As a being he is in the world and as a becoming he wants to go beyond this world. - It is natural aspiration of man to grow and to better himself. The natural philosophy also affirms this that man is capable of transcending himself because he is spirited being, not just biological being. The theological understanding of man also confirms this that man is “the image and likeness of God” and thus has the dignity of his fellowship with God, the divine being. - The desire is took the wrong direction: the desire of human being to utilize his natural capability to reach heights is thwarted by his selfishness and pride. Biblical revelation helps us understand it better. The desire of first of man has taken wrong step and wrong decision. He desired not only to go beyond himself and to reach certain heights but more than that “he wanted to be God”. This is the first sin of man and we call it original sin or original guilt. By desiring to be like God man has lost his lost his natural capacity to ascend. He became incapable because he failed to judge between good and bad and finally failed to choose good and has fallen to the temptation of equating himself with God. From here the natural desire of man to reach heights has taken another direction. In everything man stated looking for his own achievements and success in selfishness and in pride. The result is that he has become purely earthly and this worldly. He started suppressing his spirit which strives for goodness and for something beyond this world. He started neglecting and destroying the cries of the soul which longs for the life of happiness and blessedness. As a result, the doors of heaven and the possibility of transcendence are blocked in some way. Alone and by himself, Man finds himself incapable of attaining what his spirit desires. He needs someone to open the doors of the skies/heavens. He needs someone who can bring back to him the possibility for transcendence. He needs someone who can buy back to him the natural capability which is lost by his sin of pride and arrogance. It is Jesus who has come to rescue man from this condition of incapacity and put him in the right way of self-transcendence. - In Jesus the Heavens are Opened: the heavens are opened by Jesus for his coming and for his going back, thus for the incarnation and for the ascension. By his death, resurrection and ascension Jesus has re-opened not only the doors of heaven but also the blocked incapacity of man. Man is made capable again. Man is raised from the fall of grace. Man is given the capacity to transcend. The way is prepared, the truth is revealed and the life is offered and it happened in Jesus who is the Way, the Truth and the Life. Today’s liturgy reassures us this truth that in the ascension of the Lord our humanity is elevation to the divine living and divine nature. - Peter too proclaims the truth that in the resurrection and ascension of Jesus we have become participants in the divine nature: “His divine power has given us everything needed for life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Thus he has given us, through these things, his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may escape from the corruption that is in the world because of lust, and may become participants of the divine nature” (2 Peter 1:3-4). We are made holy. We are made capable of godliness. Our human nature assumes the divine nature. Our body becomes glorious with the effect of resurrection. Our spirit is place in the capacity to transcend and reach heights with the effect of ascension. - Paul also acclaims our condition of being elevated with the fruits of the paschal mystery of Jesus, that is, with his death, resurrection and ascension: “God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ – by grace you have been saved – and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (Eph 2:4-6). We are saved. We are given mercy. We are raised to new life. We are elevated to the grace of sitting with him in heaven. With the death our human old nature is buried and with the resurrection we are called to participate in the divine and glorious nature. - The work of God in Jesus Christ and in the Spirit is this: that God knows the helplessness and pathetic condition of man and thus he himself comes down in the person of Jesus to drag man out the pit of incapacity. He does this with the very act of assuming the same fallen nature of man. He has taken upon himself the fallen and deteriorating nature of man as the consequence of sin and has raised it to the glorified and transcending divine nature. We are called to Ascend and Transcend: we are placed in the ascending movement - With the work of Christ and in particular with his resurrection and ascension Jesus has made fallen man divine and holy. Man is brought back to the ascending movement. With the selfishness, pride, arrogance of technological development on the one hands, and with the fears of limitedness and desperation on the other, Man is in continuous and constant struggle in his journey towards the transcendence. To such man, an answer for his paradoxical existence and strength for his frightened living is provided in the very person of Jesus Christ. Therefore, the solution is available. - The availability of the answer or solution is not enough. First thing is that man should come to the consciousness of that God has already answered all his existential problems. Secondly he should believe that he is elevated to the capacity for transcendence. Thirdly, he should step ahead to assimilate to himself the dispositions available. Only then man can fully become capable for making this movement towards the heavens – reaching to the skies. - Once he knows where he stands with the faith made available in God he always has the possibility to “look upwards”. This looking upwards, growing in heights has the positive meaning. It is not as the first man has done with desiring to become ‘like God’. It is looking up with hope and not with arrogance. The hope of rising above himself and reaching out to God who is the sources of this ascension. - We, as Christians, have to understand that we are the children from “above” and we belong to the nature and sphere “above”. This knowledge leads us to the truth that we have no stable tent here on earth but only up in the heavens. This truth which keeps us looking above as the disciples were looking above as Jesus was ascending. They did not want to keep their eyes down or their sight on earth. It is here that the angels remind them this ascension will take place also in their lives when they carry on the vocation that he has called to. - Look above but work down: the ascension also teaches us that we are in the world and we have to work in and for the world, at the same time keeping in mind that we are not of the world. Our citizenship is not of this world. Our permanent living is not in this world. Our tent is only temporary here. One day we have to fly. One day we have to rise above. One day we have to reach the heavens. But the time we have now and here is the time of hope. - With the hope as our weapon we keep on battling with the earthly nature that makes us fall again and again. With the hope as our instrument of growth we strive for the realization of Kingdom by and through us in the world. And with the hope as our guard we rise every moment above ourselves so that we come nearer and nearer to our future ascension. Conclusion: One thing we should keep in mind always: as the result of the ascension of Jesus we are called to Ascend and Transcend: we are placed in the ascending movement. Our true humanity is being available for the work of the Spirit in and through us. Our true divinity is to look upwards with the hope of meeting our Lord one day in His Glory. Mean while what we have to do is: to keep ourselves completely in this movement towards the Glorified Lord.

SIXTH SUNDAY OF THE EASTER - YEAR C

SIXTH SUNDAY OF EASTER – YEAR C: (Acts 15:1-2, 22-29; Rev 21:10-14, 22-23; John 14:23-29) Theme: As Resurrected Christians, Let us “be in” the shelter of the Lord Reflection: God Pitches His Tent Amidst Us - We are in the six Sunday of Easter. This long celebration of Easter joy encourages to be with the risen Lord. This is the time to make a decision of coming out of our earthly belongingness. With the Easter strength and hope, we learn to break open the earth and its passions and pleasures, which often misguiding and trouble creating, and thus resurrect from it. We do not belong to the earth or to this world anymore because we are risen with the Lord and the risen Lord is not of this world but of the heavenly world. We carry in us and along with us both the joy and the task of the Easter celebration: Joy of being risen with Jesus and the task of being risen people. The Christian task of being risen people is reminded everyday and every week in the liturgical celebrations. The present Sunday, the present week, we are renewed to take up upon ourselves the task: the task is to be in the shelter of the Lord always because we are risen with the Lord. - Being in the shelter of the Lord is not our human merit but the merit of Jesus Christ who has opened to us the possibility of entering into the heavenly house. What is the heavenly house? It is the eternal presence of the Lord. If we allow ourselves the Lord to enter into our life, our life itself becomes the heavenly house. Indeed, the eternal desire of the Lord is this: to stay with his people and in his people. He has expressed his desire of “living” with his people, or making his shelter among his people, long ago and from the beginning of time. We can see the glances of the shelter of Lord in the people of Israel. The Lord, Yahweh, who wills to be always with and for his people, makes himself a pillar of cloud, and thus brings all his people under his shelter. It is with the shadow of his presence that he leads them into the promised land. The people of Israel have journeyed for very many years under the shelter of the Lord and thus finally reached to their freedom in the promised land. The life and the journey of Israel, God’s chosen and beloved people, is only the pre-figuration and the preparation for the eternal journey of the entire world into the shelter of the Lord. The promise of the Old Testament is realized. The preparation has been completed. The time has come finally. God’s promise is that he would remain with his people forever. The preparation of the way for Lord and its fulfillment is now complete. Finally Jesus Christ, the Word of God, has come into the world. It is in Jesus Christ, his eternal and only begotten Son that God has made his permanent shelter among his people. God made himself one of us. God has come down to be with us. His immense love for the humanity made him to belittle himself and to appear in the human form. All this is to realize his desire of becoming a “shelter” for the man and the world. Thus God becomes ever “Emmanuel”, God-with-us. Thus God builds his house among us. All this happens in and through Jesus Christ. St. John reminds us the significance of Jesus’ birth: “God pitched his tent amidst us” (Jn 1:14). - In the mission of Jesus – in his birth, life, death and resurrection, and sending of the Holy Spirit – God has established his shelter permanently in the world and for the man. All these events of Jesus Christ on earth are included and manifested in the great Eucharistic Action. It is with the entrustment of his body and blood that Jesus makes his presence in the world until the end of times. Eucharistic presence – the ever living presence of the Lord amidst humanity – is already initiated in the Incarnation when Jesus assumes the human nature and enters into it for being very closer to the humanity. The same presence is made permanent in the Cross and resurrection. The same presence is being manifested every time when the Eucharistic celebration takes place in the “memory of the Lord”. Bringing into memory of all that Jesus has said and done is the work of the Holy Spirit who is given to us by the Risen Lord. Thus with the sanctifying grace and empowering work of the Spirit the Lord continues to offer the possibility of staying in his shelter. Not only to the small group of disciples and few followers of Jesus, but it is extended to everyone. God opens the space for everyone without any differences and barriers. It is the in the reach of every man who wills to be with the Lord. Readings: Love is the Foundation of God’s Home in the World - The shelter of the Lord, the sending of the Holy Spirit, the remembrance of Jesus are the important words found in today’s gospel. Yet they do not stand separated. They are not mere individual words. They are very closely connected with the knot of love. The bond between them can be comprehensible if we enter into the reflection of the passage. Jesus exclaims: “those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them” (v.23). It is love for the Lord that makes his presence possible. God becomes our home when we love him. Love has the immense power of uniting. It unites not only two bodies and two minds, in the physical and psychological spheres, but also unites two hearts in the spiritual level. True love brings an unbreakable union between the persons. Such a love is the basement for the coming together and above all for being together. Indeed, it is this unconditional love that made God to come down and stay with the humanity. He makes his tent in the midst of man and he continues his presence with him. He expresses and manifests his love for man in various ways. He waits with patience for man’s response of reciprocity. Although, often his partner, the man, fails to recognize the love and neglects it because of his immersion in the worldly things, God still offers the shelter of his home to him just because love does not turns back. It is purely because of his love that God has come down to the humanity. When the humanity loves and observes God’s words, God is ever ready to extend his wings of his presence. This is the assurance of Jesus in today’s passage. With true love man can make God come down and stay with him. Other way round, God is very eager to make his home with the one who calls on him with love. - The discourse continues. God comes and makes his home with us. It is the Spirit of the Lord that makes the heavenly home possible on earth and in the life of each lover of the Lord. Love makes possible the coming of the Holy Spirit. God never abandons his people. He never removes his tent from us. He never throws us out of his home. His home is eternal. It is always with us. The home – the presence of the Father and the Son – is now made available to the humanity with the descending of the Holy Spirit. Now the shelter of the Lord is present in the teaching and in the remembrance that the Spirit provides. Jesus assures us again the fruit of love – the Holy Spirit: “the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you” (v. 26). The Holy Spirit is the fruit of love between the Father and the Spirit. The same Spirit creates a bond of love between God and man by his work of reminding us of the presence – the shelter – of Jesus who has established it and left it for our living. Since the Spirit is the fruit of love, wherever people are in love he is present in them and with them and thus makes possible the home of the Lord. His teaching and his reminding has a destiny: a destiny of creating the home of love (shelter of the Lord) amidst the believers and followers. This the reason why the entire last discourse of Jesus rotates around the intimacy of love, in the particular manner in the Gospel of St. John. Even though today’s gospel passage appears only in few verses (23-29), its message is concentrated on the loving home that God establishes and continues in the midst of humanity, in the heart of each and every one of us. Conclusion: We are “the home” for the World - In the world there is more absence than presence of the Holy Spirit. In the precise words: the world is blocking the presence and work of the Spirit with pride and arrogance. What are the symptoms that the Holy Spirit is lacking in the world? The symptoms are found in the various forms: the attitude of defense, of fear and of confusion instead of openness, of recognizing and accepting the other; the attitude of creating circles, groups and borders instead of respect, equality and justice; the attitude of institutionalism and formalism where the laws and formalities have their say instead of opting for the human values and working for the profound needs of the society. On the other way, with the presence of the Spirit there will be the peace, justice and unity. And all these are compressed in one word: love. There is also the presence of the Spirit. There are people who offer themselves for the wellbeing of others – the human society. They go out to meet all the hardships and fight against the injustices and stand for the truth, only because they love – they love their life as the gift of God to live for others. But these people who make visible the presence of the Spirit are few in number. Their presence and work is often considered as futile and not of the standards to the growing world. Their humility appears as their helplessness. Their meekness appears as their weakness. Their love is treated as the selfishness by the world. - The world with its innovative ideologies, philosophies, sciences and technologies offer to us different shelters. They seem very attractive and beautiful. Often we become victims for this. We feel that we are fortunate to be in the modern world with innumerable possibilities of life. All these are indeed necessary for the human growth. But often we fail to understand that there is another aspect: the spiritual growth. In the hurried and competitive life we forget that we are losing our spirit, which means, we are losing our inner happiness, joy and peace. The absence of these virtues is the absence of the Spirit. We are covered by many other false shelters. Thus we become only the people who look well externally but internally losing our true life. Is there still possibility of getting into the home of the Lord amidst there confusing and conflicting situations? Yes, indeed. We have the possibility. Jesus is always available for us. His presence is made reachable in the Eucharistic celebration. In it and through it he speaks to us and he gives himself to us. He wills to come to be with us. He will that we also come to stay with him. Just one step towards him is enough. Jesus takes many steps to meet us. The Easter time reminds us this: the Risen Jesus visits us to be with us and to make his eternal home in us. Let us realize this and listen to him. Let us transform our love for the world and its passions into the love for Jesus and his presence. The Lord comes to make his home with us. In turn, we become homes of love for others. - We are “house of God” for others: Our God is the One who feels one with us and comes down to meet us. In his love he is with us. He becomes our home. We are called to be in this home by the Risen Lord. The closed doors of this heavenly home are opened and the entrance is made possible by his death and resurrection. We have our identity of being in the house of the Lord. The Christian identity of being in the house of the Lord entrusts us also with the task of becoming ourselves “a loving home” for others and for the world. let us take up this task and set out to open the doors of our love so that we become truly the risen Christians. Therefore, as the Risen Christians we have to stay in the house of the Lord and become “a shelter” for the others. Alleluia.