FIFTH SUNDAY OF EASTER - Year B

FIFTH SUNDAY OF EASTER – YEAR B (Acts 9:26-31; 1 John 3:18-24; John 15:1-8) Theme: The Fruit of Risen Jesus is the UNITY: Let Us Be United to One Another Reflection Risen Jesus and the Gift of Intimacy - The gift of unity is the fruit of the Resurrection. We are called to participate and live this gift in our life by being united with one another. There is no division. There is no partition. We all become only one community and one family. Those who are united in themselves and with others give testimony to the experience of the Risen Life. This is the message that today’s reading offer us: If we are Lord’s, we are united and if we are not Lords’ we find ourselves divided. Let us examine and see what we are and how we are. Let us learn to be united to another and thus have a community of joy and love. - We are in the fifth Sunday of Easter. We are still within the time of the resurrection. We still experience the joy of the Risen Jesus. Day by day, we are nourished by the experience of the disciples of Jesus who have seen the resurrected life. Week by week, we are fed by the community experience of the first Christians. Every moment of Easter Time we are filled with the gifts of Risen Jesus. - The greatest gift that Jesus gives to us and to the world is nothing else than His Own Life. From the moment of his coming into the world in the Incarnation until his going back to his Father’s right hand, Jesus’ only mission is offer his whole self for the redemption of the world. He fulfills it first by the word and proclamation which include the numerous miracles. He completes it then by the deed and sacrifice on the cross in which he himself becomes the miracle for the world’s life. In the word, his mission was carried upon and in the deed, his mission was accomplished. In the resurrection his mission has been transformed into the Life-Giving Spirit. The greatest gift of life which he bought with the price of his blood and with the virtue of ultimate obedience, now he donates to those who believe and accept him. - Among such gifts of Risen Jesus, the gift of peace occupies the first place. The aspect of peace belongs, above all, to the inner being of the person, thus belongs to his interior life. The disciples have lost such an inner peace and interior calmness with the passion, suffering and the death of their master, Jesus. Once they have lost the peace they have become fearful and frightened. They closed themselves not for the contemplative life but with fear of losing life. Jesus knows the condition of his disciples. He also knows that the first thing they need is the faith that he is still alive and only then they will be at peace of mind and heart. For this reason, Risen Jesus, appears to them and gives them the gift of peace: peace to you! This is the first word of Jesus to his disciples. Jesus knows that just a word of peace is not enough but his very presence is required for their return to faith. Jesus does the same. He does not just send the message of peace but stands amidst them, makes them experience his presence, creates in them again the faith and finally injects into them the gift of peace. This is the message of the second and third Sundays of Easter: he donates them the peace. - Another significant gift of Risen Jesus is the gift of unity. The aspect of unity is the consequence and the continuation of the gift of peace. Inner peace and tranquility leads to the peace with others. As a result there will originate the unity between all the members of the believing community. This is the message that we have last Sunday and today: being united and belonging to the same flock of Risen Christ. Last week we have meditated upon the Good Shepherd. A shepherd who promised to give his life for his sheep becomes the True Shepherd who actually poured out his body and blood for his sheep. Jesus has brought back the dispersed lambs to the one flock so that there would “only flock and one shepherd” (John 10:16). Even today we have the same message. Jesus brings his disciples back to the unity: unity of brotherhood and unity of the one family of believers. Unity is the heart of the Risen Life - We are the people of resurrection. We are the people of Alleluia as St. Augustine would remind us. Above all, we are the people of the Lord’s Day, day of re-finding the life. This life is complete when it is lived not for the self but for others, after all Jesus did the same. Life is whole when it is lived together. Thus, there is a need for the union and communion to have the life of Christian faith. If only we share the Risen Life we are obliged to lead a life of unity. We are called to the life of communion: only then we are truly called a community. - In today’s first reading we have a great example of the unity of the disciples. We already reflected that the Risen Jesus has gathered together all his frightened disciples with the gift of peace. We have already stressed the point that even the first Christian community has this life of communion. But what happens in the first reading is totally different: a unity between the preachers of Christ and his persecutor, thus, between the apostles and Paul. Paul is coming to join the community of disciples. Even this is the fruit of resurrection. It is risen Jesus who has appeared and inspired the persecutor Saul and called him to be Paul and to be his disciple. Risen Jesus builds a bridge between his followers and his enemies. He gathers all under the same shadow of his life. Paul is united to the body of apostles: unity here is the gift of risen Jesus. The fruit of this unity is again peace. There is peace in the Church: “Meanwhile the church throughout Judea, Galilee, and Samaria had peace and was built up” (Acts 9:31). - In the second reading of today also we have the similar message from St. John. In his letter, John emphasizes the rapport between God and his people. The rapport is the unity. As the result of the observation of the commandments, the faithful become part of God’s life and being. The words of John make this clear: “All who obey his commandments abide in him, and he abides in them” (1 John 3:24). This is the fruit of the Spirit of Risen Jesus: “By this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit that he has given us” (1 John 3:24). The Spirit of Risen Christ is the Spirit of Love. This Spirit keeps all the followers of Jesus, with the same force of love, united. The unity between God and his people is now extended to the unity among one another. The unity is possible only love because the love is not anymore just a word or a language. It is more them that. It surpasses that. It becomes a fact and a truth. Thus, it is an action. Love in the action makes all the participants into a community. John also brings the link (or unity) between the faith and the love. Faith is only a profession: we say we believe. But it is complete and whole if it is not put into the fact and the truth of love. And love, as we have already seen, is an action. This unity is to be understood in order to have an integrated Christian life: faith and love abide in each other and if we are to united we have to be both the people of faith and love. - In the Gospel we have the highest mode of understanding the meaning of unity. The words like “remaining in” and “abiding in” express the intimate union that has to exist between Jesus and his disciples. Jesus opens the discourse with the scene of the vineyard. “I am the true vine, and my Father is the winegrower… Abide in me as I abide in you” (John 15:1-4). In the vineyard, the Father is the Owner and the Master. Jesus, the son, is the vine. But the vine is full only with the branches. Jesus describes these branches to be his followers. He also emphasizes the relationship between Him and His own. It was expressed also in the parable of Good Shepherd: “I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father” (John 10”14-15). The relationship is very profound. It manifests itself in the intimate communion. Today he expresses this relationship in the example of the unity between the vine and the branches. Branches in any way cannot have their own separate existence. They soon find themselves dried up if they are cut off from the vine. Therefore, the branches have only one life and that life within the abiding force of the vine. Bearing fruit is the ultimate meaning of the existence of branches in the vine. - With the fact and consequence of resurrection there is one movement forward in the relationship between God and his people. The expressions like “God is with us”, “God is for us”, and “God is beside us” and so on, have fulfillment in the resurrected expression: “God is in us and we are in God”. We not only belong to God but and above all, we are inserted into God and we are united to God. This is the fruit of the resurrection. The words and saying of Jesus before the passion have been fully realized as a fact after the resurrection. The effect of resurrection is that we have no separate and personal existence anymore. We are one community in which Jesus is the Head (and thus the Vine) and we are the Members (and thus the branches). Paul expresses this both in his personal experience and as exaltation to his community. He testifies his experience when he says “it is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me” (Gal 2:20): he is aware that he is abiding in the Risen Jesus and Risen Jesus in him. He also exalts his believing community to remain in the Lord and for that it is indeed called: “You are the body of Christ and individually member of it” (1 Cor 12:27) and further “the work of ministry for building up of the body of Christ” (Eph 4:12). - If we call ourselves to be true Christians of the Risen Jesus we too have to live this intimacy with Him. If we really want to bear the fruits of resurrection of Jesus we are to live this unity. Our participation in the Word and in the Eucharist enables us to acquire this nature of intimacy and communion. Let us examine ourselves and see where we are. With Jesus we are everything and without Jesus we are nothing (John 15:5) - The source of intimacy between God and man and man and man is the same intimacy between the Trinitarian God. Jesus’ proclamation and testimony never missed this truth. In every word and action of his, Jesus’ only intention is to reveal the work of the Father in the power of the Spirit which comes out through him. John’s Gospel is full of these imagery exclamations of Jesus. One of such is today’s Gospel. As we have already seen in the last Sunday, (which is also quoted above), Jesus declares that he knows the Father and the Father knows him and finally they pour out the Spirit. Today’s gospel is more obvious: I am in the Father and the Father is in me. To sum up: o There is intimate union between the Father and the Son and the fruit is the Holy Spirit. o The same intra-Trinitarian gives force to the intimate union between Jesus and the Spirit and the fruit is the Church – the community of believers. o The same relationship is established between the Church and the world (We Christians and those outside) and the fruit is the love which is manifested in peace, justice and solidarity. - Being united to Jesus and its effect: A Psalm sings: “The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want” (Psalm 23). Paul acclaims: “When the Lord is with us who can be against us” (Rom 8:31). Jesus on his part proclaims: “Without me you cannot do anything” (John 15:5). This is the biblical revelation: away from God we lose ourselves. But this is one side of the world. There is second side: the philosophical and technological world which promises that even without God man can do anything. How can we balance this? What can be the answer to the world which believes in itself and which tries to be God? o The biblical answer: In fact, this is the first temptation: the first man wanted “to be like God”. He heeded himself to the temptation of the serpent. The consequence is that he lost the experience of the paradise: he lost the intimate relationship which he is gifted with. With the fall, man has become incapable of transcending himself because he has lost the grace-filled life. He needs an other capable and spirit filled savior and in Jesus man finds again his dignity and status of being united to God. o The existential answer: Man is aware of his ultimate freedom and he enjoys it every moment of his life. At the same time his everyday existence shows him that he is in the continuous anguish and suffering. This is the paradox that man battles with within himself and with the realm outside him. The paradox is: that he is autonomous and free being on the one hand and on the other hand he is not in the position of exercising his power as he wants. Even philosophical understanding reveals that man is not unlimited though he can enjoy his freedom ultimately. He is limited and it is his everyday experience. He is limited because his existence is restricted to the time-bound sphere. He is limited because he is in the midst of others with whom he has to relate and in his relation he has to give up his interests some times. He is limited finally at the point of death. His existence comes to an end with the death. One thing is made clear: he is not God and his will “to be like God” is insignificant. When he reaches to the end of his life and is facing his death he becomes aware of his limitedness and at least at the moment he cries out for help: a help that has to come only from above and from the unlimited being what we Christians call God. o Many religions express their faith in their gods. It is true that we have to respect the religious feeling and sentiments of others. On the other hand, we know the truth that our God is true God and the Sustainer of the World. It is also true that each religion claims this aspect of salvation. But who has the capacity to bring out the fallen man? Not the god who miraculously save his people. The claim of many religions is that their god is the savior and he appears in the various forms (avatars) and brings out his people in the magical manner. But can this be true claim? o Jesus is the true answer of God: Man is fallen deep down in the hade having no hope for himself and yet yearning for transcendence and crying for help. For this any god who can do miracles is not enough. Miracles can only create emotional confidence in man but they cannot ultimately change life. Only a full participation in the condition of man will make the man to realize his own situation. Therefore, there is a need for someone who can reach him; someone who can assume their form; someone who can experience their nature; someone who can carry their sufferings in himself; someone who can experience the same existential fear of death; someone who can descend to the bottom where man lies down; and finally someone who can rise up himself and thus has the power to rise up others. o It is in Jesus that God has provided an answer to the paradox of human existence because Jesus has taken the human form; he made himself a servant to man; he carried in his body and mind all possible sufferings that man faces; he finally went through also the fearful death; he has descended into the earth so that he can rise up the man fallen and lying there; finally, he is risen revealing that he has the power to give life and to break open the paradox of man. o What Jesus has done is not just a miracle. Yes, indeed, he has done many miracles but what happened. The people had an emotional faith. When the difficulties and temptations have come they have given up their faith and blamed the one who has done the miracles. Therefore, miracles and the magic will not answer the paradox of man. Only an action will help. Jesus’ Action was Complete on the Cross: sign of both pain and glory. He underwent both of them. He knows both sides of the paradox. In fact, he lived and experiences the paradox within himself. Therefore, only Jesus is the Answer of God to the World. o Therefore, we believe in Jesus and our faith is proclaimed not by miracles but by our love in action. Once again John helps us understand better: “This is the commandment, that we should believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just he has commanded us” (1 John 3:23 – second reading). Our faith is useless if we do not have love and our love remains only a emotional feeling if we do not put it in the profound action of the cross: both in pain and in joy. o In this sense alone, we are everything with Jesus and we are nothing without Jesus. The world thinks that it can exist without God. In fact it does. Yet, it has the paradoxes around it. We find love and solidarity in the world because of the Christianity and those who have good will and spirit for the humanity. But, we find all the more injustice, arrogance, power, tendencies of superiority and numerous wars and what could be the reason for this if not “irreligious or unchristian man” who wants to be “like God” and who treats himself as god or demigod? We have to be thus the centre of unity between the life of Jesus and life of the world: we have to live and promote the intimate union and brotherhood in the human community, the world. - Attitude of prayer in the aspect of Intimacy: (John 15:7 and 1 John 3:22 – gospel and second reading of today): “If you remain in me and words remain in you, you ask want you want and it will be done” is the Jesus’ saying in John. “Whatever we ask, we will receive from him because we observe his commandment and do what is pleasing to him” is the John’s admonition to his community of faithful. In these two sayings we have one common element: attitude of prayer (asking). o Often we experience that our prayer is not heard. We prepare ourselves to blame God for not answering our prayers. We utilize all the forms of prayers and all the modes of prayer like a litany or a novena to the saints. We go to the pilgrimages. We do all that we can do. And finally we are disappointed and discouraged when we find that God has not heeded our prayer. o Did we ask at time why this happens? Before blaming God and murmuring against him did we examine and see who is at fault? Do we really understand what prayer is? Did we ever measure our attitude in our asking God for a favor? For all these we have answer today. If not in other passages of the bible, at least here in the above quoted passages we have a reply for our doubts. o Jesus promised that our prayers will be surely heard and will be accepted. But there is a certain condition: it is not a condition which delimits us but a condition which demands our attitude. Before we ask there is something else to do. “We have to follow his commandments” would say John. “We have to remain in him and his words in us” would say Jesus. We have to examine and see whether we really are doing this before we could ask some favor. Therefore, first of all, we have to learn to listen to him and follow what he says and then what we ask in prayer would certainly be answered. o If we are already united to Jesus as he demands such an attitude from us, we have different meaning prayer. If we are already in Christ we don’t need anything else. In Jesus we are and we have everything. Once we are filled with Jesus we don’t ask for anything worldly. Then what is the meaning of asking or prayer here? Here prayer is no more just asking for a prayer but it is transformed into the occasion for God’s glory. God is glorified in us (John 15:8 – “in this my Father is glorified”). Our prayer becomes a living for God. Our prayer becomes a loving others. Our prayer becomes a personal offering of Glory to God. o Therefore, here we have two stages of prayer: first, asking God for something with the attitude of following his words; and second, there is no formal prayer but only glorifying God. If we are in the first stage we have to strive to climb up to the second. If we are already in the second stage we ask nothing, instead we give out (sacrifice/renounce) everything to God’s glory and for the well being of our neighbors. Conclusion: The two stages of prayer also are the fruit of our intimate union with God. Finally, as we are still reaping the gift of the resurrection, today we are called here to collect/embrace this gift of unity. Therefore, we always bear this in mind (our thoughts) and heart (our daily life) that: The Fruit of Risen Jesus is the UNITY and that Let Us Be United to One Another.

FOURTH SUNDAY OF EASTER - Year B

THE FOURTH SUNDAY OF EASTER – Year B (Acts 4:8-12; 1 John 3:1-2; John 10:11-18) Theme: We are the shepherds according to the heart of Good Shepherd Reflection - We are celebrating the Sunday of the Good Shepherd today. It is the fourth Sunday of Easter and as the part of Easter Joy, the Church invites us to have a look at the Shepherd who has offered his life for his sheep. The celebration of the Good Shepherd Sunday in the Easter Time opens the relationship between the Resurrection and the Life that the Good Shepherd promised and fulfilled. - As we have already noted in our theme, we are called, in our free decision of faith, into the status of being the good shepherds. It is the dignity of Christians to be the part of God’s flock and it is the task of Christians to be the shepherds after the heart of Jesus Christ himself who is the Good Shepherd. Thus, it demonstrates both the Christian recognition and Christian vocation at the same time: of being shepherds of the flock that is entrusted to us. Not only the clergy but also the common faithful has the responsibility of being shepherd in their own way and mode: being a shepherd of the family, being a shepherd of the work place, being a shepherd of the community of faith and so on. - For this first of all, we should know who the true shepherd is and what it means to be a shepherd. and this is what we are here to reflection basing ourselves on the illumination of the Scriptures and in particular today’s readings. True Shepherd: Leads His Flock to the Banquet - In the scriptures we have three important references to the shepherd. we leave aside all the prophetic references for a moment. Apart from the numerous prophetic teachings on the shepherd and the sheep we have particularly three moments that come to our mind immediately when we think of a shepherd: first, the Psalm 23; second, the Parable in Luke 15; and third, the Affirmation of Jesus himself in today’s Gospel, John 10:11-18 (also the preceding part): - First: Psalm 23 - Divine Shepherd: The Psalm assures us that it is the Lord who is the Shepherd and in his presence there is no desire for anything else: “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want” (v.1) is the singing of David. In this there are four important moments and movements: o He Leads to Green Pastures (vv.2-3): The shepherd thinks of his sheep and its hunger and thirst. He is always mindful of the needs of his sheep. He is ever willing to take hold of the hand of his sheep. In the right moment and the in the time of need, he guides the sheep. First of all, he himself go in search of the greenery fields and once he finds them, he leads his sheep to the nourishment with the pastures. He feeds it both with the food and water and thus fills it with nutriment for the body, with the peace for the mind and with the repose for the soul. o He Guides to Safety (v.4): He walks before them. He paves the way for his sheep. he sees that his sheep does not falter or tremble. He assures both his presence and guidance. Everything is crystal clear when he is there. The sheep finds the way with ease and without fear because the way is prepared, the path is made ready and the road is smooth and the foot prints welcome it to follow. Even in the valley of darkness the sheep do not astray because it follows the steps of its master. Even in the time of doubt and insecurity it does not fear because it has put all its trust in its master. Thus, the shepherd guides his sheep even in the valley of the darkness and fear. o He Prepares a Banquet (v. 5): The true shepherd keeps his sheep above all his enemies. Not only that he saves from them and their traps but to the shame of their enemies he prepares a table of banquet. The enemies who have tried all the possible ways to draw them away from their shepherd will bend their heads. It is the work of the shepherd to uplift his sheep with pride of sitting in the one table of sharing. The shepherd and the sheep (God and his chosen people in the Old Testament) become united in the fellowship of the table: the banquet prepared by the Lord. o Desire of the sheep to be with the shepherd (v.6): nourished with the providence of her Shepherd, the sheep enjoys His Company and His Love. Being filled with the taste of love, the sheep wishes to remain there in the same sheep-fold for the rest of its life. It is there that the sheep finds its eternal joy and life. It is with the Shepherd that it finds its perfection and its salvation. - Second: Lucan shepherd – the parable of the Lost Sheep (Luke 15: 3-7): The parable taught by Jesus himself. It is the famous and central chapter of the gospel and message of Luke. The shepherd here is one who is brings the sheep into the joyful feast: “Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost” (v. 6). The meaning of the parable is comprehensive in its totality of the whole chapter, the three parables it contains: the lost sheep, the lost coin and the lost son. Here, we find at least three important moments of the relationship between the shepherd and the sheep: o Search with the passion (v.4): The shepherd takes care of each and every one of the flock. When one sheep goes astray or away from him, he does not rejoice in the other ninety-nine and be content with them. He feels sorry for the lost one. He becomes merciful. He experiences deep sorrow for the lost one. Above all, he does not remain only in the sentiments of sorrow and pity, but gets up and goes in search of it. He does not mind of leaving the others in order to find the lost one. He searches for it with the passion and compassion. He does not give up his try and his search. He searches for it until he finds it. He goes any amount of distance because his desire for the lost sheep is so immense. o Rejoices when he finds (v.5): The joy of the shepherd in finding what was lost is tremendous. He takes the sheep on his shoulders for he knows that the lost is sheep is frightened and dependent. He carries it leaping with joy. It is not only the sheep that is re-found but the joy of the shepherd itself: the joy that disappeared with shadow of pain and sorrow. The joy is overwhelming because it is the joy found in the desperation and dispersed. The shepherd is full of joy and the sheep too finds its joy on the shoulders of the shepherd. The relationship between them is one finds the joy in the presence of the other. o Celebrates the Joy with others (v.6): His joy is so overflowing that he cannot hide it anymore or he cannot keep it for himself. He pours out his joy by sharing it with others: with friends and with neighbors. He calls for the feast. He prepares for the celebration. He enjoys the moments of sharing. He offers a banquet of communion and rejoicing. The sheep finds it actual place again. It rejoins its community. It is united with its fellow sheep. It has come back to its original dignity of belonging to the sheepfold. Even the shepherd has the same feeling. He had found his fold full and complete now. The wound of pain and sorrow is healed. The heart is calm again. His life with and for the flock became beautiful and joyful. He extends the joy of his life also to others in the sharing of the celebration: togetherness and communion on the table of banquet. - Third: Jesus Affirmation – “I am the Good Shepherd” (John 10:1-18): The Psalm proclaimed the figure of divine shepherd. The parable expressed the joy of the shepherd. Now, it is no more prophecy of something outside. It is the figure and person of Jesus himself. Jesus reveals himself to be that “Divine and Good Shepherd”. We Jesus proclaiming himself as the Good Shepherd three times in today’s gospel passage. There are two important moments in which Jesus expresses what the Good Shepherd Does: o Laying down the proper life (v. 11): The good shepherd gives his life for the sheep. He stands out as the true care taker and differentiates himself from the hired shepherd. He is ready to do anything for the well being and the unity of the sheep. He is no more outside the flock as the leader. He is moreover within and for the flock as the pastor and as the servant. He does not withdraw his attention and his care even in the times of difficulty and suffering. He walks ahead and if necessary lays down his life in order to pave the path for his sheep. He marks the way for the sheep with his blood. The quality of the good shepherd, rather the task of the good shepherd is properly is this: giving/offering his life for the sheep. o Knowing his own (v.14): The good shepherd considers his sheep not as something he is entrusted with so that he could be a master for it. He treats his sheep as his own. He makes it his own with the qualitative knowledge of it. He knows his own. The path is made simple. Even his own know him. The reciprocal knowing of each other that is at play in their relationship. Here, knowledge is not something intellectual and that which belongs to the mind. It is moreover spiritual and belongs to the heart. Insofar it is the knowledge of the heart or of whole being, it is a reciprocal rapport. It is a rapport profoundly intimate. It is a rapport of authentic love. As Jesus affirms, this knowledge is the same knowledge that is between the Father and the Son. The Father knows the Son and gives himself totally to the Son and the Son too knows the Father and offers himself in the ultimate manner to him. This knowledge has no boundaries because it deals with the sharing of love and life. The true knowledge leads to the love and the love leads to sacrificing what is one’s own for the other. Once the shepherd has this knowledge of the sheep he is every ready to give himself up for it. The Word (proclamation) is transformed into an Action (accomplishment) - Good Shepherd in the Passion – lays down his life: Till now Jesus has proclaimed that he is good shepherd. Until now it is still a mere word and a mere proclamation. The word has a value only when it is transformed into an testifying action. The word “I am the good shepherd” becomes an event of “I am the Good Shepherd” (the capital letters to be noted) first in his Passion and then in his Resurrection. In the passion Jesus, being a good shepherd, lays down his life. He offers his life on the cross. He pours out his blood for his sheep: o Washing of the feet - the humility of the shepherd: the first gesture of Jesus is that he places himself at the feet of the apostles to wash them. His extreme gesture of the pastor is revealed here. The pastor does not proclaim and keeps quite. He puts into practice what he pronounces. Jesus by washing the feet of his disciples, thus, by humiliating himself to lift up the dignity of belonging to God, becomes the True Shepherd. Meekness and Service is the mark of the True Shepherd. o Prepares them the Banquet – the life given in advance: the highest form of the “laying of his life” is manifested in giving his body and blood as the nourishment. Jesus enacts in advance his sacrifice on the cross in which he will totally gives his body and blood in the visible manner. Here in the last supper, in the form of bread and wine Jesus offers his total life in the invisible manner. This is what he means giving his life: preparing a banquet for his sheep with the bread of life and with the wine of salvation. o Death on the cross – ultimate offer of his life: Jesus has already fulfilled his proclamation of being Good Shepherd when he gave his body as the spiritual nourishment and his blood as the life-giving source. The act on the cross is the final and ultimate visible form of transforming his word into action. His self-affirmation is accomplished with the death on the cross. Now he is truly Good Shepherd: not just as the one who tells that he gives his life but as the One who HAS ALREADY GIVEN his Life. - Good Shepherd in the Resurrection – brings back the lost sheep to new life: Jesus already proclaimed that he has the power to lay his life and to take it again (vv. 17-18: “I lay down my life in order to take it again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have the power to lay it down, and I have the power to take it up again”). In the passion and death Jesus has laid down his life. Now in the Resurrection he re-takes it. Now he is alive. Now he is with the New Life: with the life of glory. Now he has the power to give the New Life also to his flock. Once again, he becomes the True and Good Shepherd by coming to life. The word is transformed into the powerful and life-giving event. This life that that Risen Jesus, Risen Good Shepherd, offers to his disciples: o He offers them the peace (John 20: 19-29): He is the true shepherd who is in search of the frightened sheep. The disciples were lost in fear and hidden themselves in the room and the Risen Shepherd stands amidst them and gives them the gift of peace: repose for the mind and heart. o He opens their mind and leads them to the truth (Luke 24:13-35): Risen Jesus is the Good Shepherd who guides the escaping disciples on the road to Emmaus. He leads them back to the truth of life. He opens the scriptures and dispels their ignorance and fear. He breaks their heart so that they could distinguish and recognize the truth of life: “they have recognized him in the breaking of the bread”. o He commands them to be the shepherds (John 21: 15-19): Risen Jesus, who is the Good Shepherd, does not leave his flock abandoned and alone. He entrust it to the chosen shepherds. This is what takes place in his last entrustment to his disciples. Especially to Peter he commissions his sheep: “Feed my sheep” (John 21: 17). The true and good Shepherd always thinks of his sheep. He calls few to be the shepherds of his flock. He calls all his followers to be the shepherds of the larger flock, all the people of the world. We are the shepherds after the Heart of the Good Shepherds - Every faithful of Jesus is a shepherd in his own existential situation. Though there are shepherds in the church – from Pope, bishops, priests, religious, catechists and all the lay ministers – the church itself is the shepherd of the world in the general and wider sense of the responsibility. When it comes to the matter of the Church being the shepherd of the world, each of her members is a shepherd to others. Every member/believer has the task or the vocation of feeding the flock entrusted to him: to the parents as the shepherd of the family, to the owners as the shepherd of the office, to the volunteers as the shepherd of the task given and so it goes on. - Being a shepherd is a mission of “knowing” the sheep and “laying down life” for it: this is the meaning of being a shepherd after the heart of Jesus. As he has loved and offered his life for the sheep, we are called, not to withdraw ourselves in the moments of difficult but to lead them flock with courage and confidence. To know again is to ‘understand the heart’ of the sheep, and to lay down is to ‘be with’ it at any cost. - Banquet is the greatest celebration of the Good Shepherd with the sheep: It requires first that we participate in the banquet of the Lord, in the Eucharist, “with knowledge and love.” It requires then that we prepare a banquet of “communion and love” for others so that we are become one flock and Jesus become the ONLY Shepherd because “there is no name, other than the name of Jesus on earth in which we have salvation” (Acts 4:12 – the first reading). And only in this sharing of the banquet we become and remain as “the children of God” (1 John 3:1 – second reading). - Let us strive with all our strength, with all our mind and with all our heart to realize our dignity and vocation of being Christians: we are called to be the shepherd after the heart of the Good Shepherd Jesus Christ.

THIRD SUNDAY OF EASTER - YEAR B

THIRD SUNDAY OF THE EASTER – YEAR B (Acts 3:13-15, 17-19; 1John 2:1-5a; Luke 24:35-38) Theme: A journey of Risen Life: from the personal experience to the testimony Reflection: Not Historians and Mathematicians – But Be Bearers and Sharers - The Risen Jesus is still amidst us and he will be with us and by us until the end of time. His continuous apparition is present in our daily celebration of the Eucharist. He is present, above all, within us and through us in the world. Being the testimony of his efficacious life-giving presence in the world is our Easter Task: our word is a word that gives life to the listeners and our deed is a deed that elevates the receiver and our life is a life that is ‘given’ for others. - Our journey for today and from today is: we have experienced and have been experiencing the Risen Jesus; we know the fruits of that Risen Life within us, peace, joy and love; as Christ’s followers what we have is not (only) for us; in fact, we have no personal life as we have already meditated last Sunday; what we have and what we are as Christians is for others; we use the word Christian so often because of both of its dignity and task: we bear Christ upon us (the dignity) and we offer him to others (the task). If we keep aside this significance of the word Christian we are the children of the world and we can do whatever we want and we can live however we like to. But once we desire to have the life of Jesus through the faith we profess – which comes to us in the sacramental life – we cannot and should not forget the truth: that WE ARE MADE (called) FOR OTHERS. Indeed, this truth leads us to make the passage/journey from what we have for ourselves to what we are for others and this is the theme of this week: A Journey from the Personal Experience of Life to the Testimony of It by our presence. - Content is same also in the readings that the Church proposes for us today. Jesus, rather Risen Jesus, appears to the disciples. This is not the first time and not even for the last time. He makes himself present to them. It is continuous process in which the disciples are encouraged and inserted into the true faith which will go even to the giving of their life for regaining it in the Heavenly Jerusalem. The presence and the power of Risen Jesus are not to be counted anymore in the human terms. We often tend to prove the Resurrection of Jesus with the number of apparitions he made to his disciples and to those with them. Jesus made himself present to his disciples to bring them to the experience of life they are called to receive. This is the time and time of Easter Joy rather than Easter proof. We have to avoid the temptations to prove the resurrection basing ourselves on the chronological or mathematical facts. It is an experience offered personally by the Risen Jesus and received intimately by the disciples. o Chronological understanding of the Resurrection is trial to put all the apparitions in order. It opens the way for an ascending system as of to whom the risen Jesus has appeared first and where, to the second and where and so on. It will only give make us create a structural series of the resurrection. Once the series is over we stop thinking of that and look for something else (not something more about that). We stop our talking and we break our thinking about it. It only becomes a history in which Jesus has said to be risen. We become only historians. It gives very minimum chance for the personal experience of the Risen Jesus. o Mathematical understanding of the resurrection is very closer to the chronological. It deals with the days and time of the apparitions of risen Jesus. It measures the fact of resurrection with the mathematically numbered system: as of the number of how many times and how many days that Jesus has made himself manifest after his resurrection. It too makes a book of accounts of his presence with his disciples. The statements, such as, “Jesus appeared to his people for forty days” and “he appeared for ten times or more or less”, and so… are the calculations that provide proof for the resurrection of Jesus. Here too, it remains only a historical proof. Once we close this accounts book we stop observing and living its consequence. We become only mathematicians. It makes us feed our life with the gospel accounts of resurrection without having any personal experience of Risen Jesus. - Experience, not just proof: we called not to be just historians and mathematicians but a living experience of the Easter Life. We need proofs, of course! But our faith has to supersede or transcend mere dependence on the proofs. The facts of the resurrection of Jesus are no more the events of apparitions though they are primary for the knowledge of resurrection. They are more than that: the Facts of Resurrection of Jesus are the Disciples who interiorly experienced the Life and who exteriorly testified it with the sacrifice of their own life. Their life was towards The Life. This is what Jesus wanted. He wanted them to have an inner joy and force of this experience. His apparitions were not just for proving his coming back to life from the death but to create in them the faith and to affirm and confirm them in the New Life He Brought into the World through His Life and Resurrection. We are called to be the testimony of this new life of the resurrection and the commission of Risen Jesus is exactly this: “You Are My Witnesses.” Experience of Risen Jesus: in and through the Eucharist - The first meditation is on the experience of Jesus. Unless we have a true and authentic experience we cannot be true witnesses. We have to first live what we want to proclaim and our proclamation will be authentic only when we first live it. We rise above the mere proof and reflect today how the disciples themselves have experienced the presence of Risen Jesus. Every Sunday we have the accounts of Jesus appearance. Even today we have heard of the Gospel and Jesus appears to the Twelve and others with them. At the outset we note that this is not a separate appearance but it is only an extension of the apparition. We observe well the gospel passage. The two disciples who escaped from Jerusalem and attempted to go to Emmaus have returned back to Jerusalem. Their experience was so rich. o Their journey towards themselves and towards their preoccupations: They journeyed with the desperation of losing their master, Jesus. They looked discouraged and depressed. They looked as though drowned deep in the ocean of doubts. They have lost peace of mind and tranquility of heart. In a word, they lost their life. o Their journey towards the Lord: Jesus did not abandon them. He appeared to them as a passenger and opened their mind to understand the scriptures. They still failed in the darkness of their doubt and fear. Then Jesus has only one mode of making them feel his presence: the breaking of the bread. It was the evening and the two disciples asked him to stay with them. The important attitude from the disciples is that even in their fear and doubt they have opened a space for Jesus’ stay. They requested Jesus to stay back with them that night: one reason may be it was becoming night but another reason certainly should be “the hope and strength” that this passenger has given them by talking and explaining the prophetic teachings on Christ. o They found the Lord in the breaking of the Bread: the word was not sufficient. The words were not so much convincing at least to them to put off their doubt. Scriptural quotations have not quenched their thirst for the truth of faith. Something more efficacious was needed and it was “breaking the bread”. When Jesus has broken the bread giving thanks to God they have immediately illumined with the presence of the resurrected Jesus: “It was the Lord” was their immediate experience. - Jesus’ appearance while they are already with the talk of joy: today’s gospel opens with the experience that these two disciples from Emmaus were narrating. The story or the narration was not yet over. The light of faith and the experience of Joy of resurrection of Jesus are just passing through their mind and their heart as they were attending the above narration. Their minds were getting ready to believe the Fact and their hearts were getting open to embrace the Life. Their communion and interaction was preparing them for the acceptance of the Fact and the Life of Resurrection. The experience of the two disciples is so powerful and so contagious that it is touching all others making them open to the truth. - It is exactly at this point that Jesus appears to them: The moment is prepared. The time is ripened. The truth is manifested. The risen life is revealed. “While they were talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, ‘Peace be with you’” (Luke 24:36). He has just arisen in them the confidence. He asked them not to have fear and doubt: “Why are you frightened, and why do doubts arise in your hearts?” (Luke 24:38). He himself makes them feel that they are on the right path: “It is I myself” (Luke 24:39). He shows them as he is with the flesh and bones and with the wounds of the nails. They became joyful yet did not complete trust. They needed something more. They were surprised with his presence. They were astonished with his assuring words. They were wondering when they saw his hands and feet. Yet they have little more doubt. Something else should help them to believe. Another way is needed. And Jesus presents them the way: Banquet – the Eucharist. - He asked them something to eat and they provided them a fish. In the communion of the banquet – sharing the meal of joy – they have recognized perfectly well and have believed in the resurrection of Jesus. It was the banquet of peace (v. 36). It was the sharing of joy (v.41). And finally it was the nutriment for forgiveness from their sins of doubt and unnecessary fear (v.47) and of witnessing love. For them now it has become not just a proof: but A Fact and A New Life. The mystery remains: it is in the Eucharist that the presence of Jesus fully experienced and recognized. The disciples of today’s gospel had such an experience and this is what made them the witnesses for the Life they have heard, seen and touched. Sharers of the Banquet: bearers of the Risen Jesus – the witnesses - The experience is not just an inside job but it is an out-going and out-reaching power: any experience of something good makes us feel empowered and pushes us forward to proclaim it with the joy. It is true of the disciples who have had same experience with the Risen Jesus. They are filled with faith and their faith is measureless. They are filled with joy and their joy is tremendous. They are filled with peace and their peace is countless. They are filled with Life and their life is abundant: I have come so that you may have life and have it abundantly (John 10:10) and again, “I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete” (John 15:11). Disciples have undergone this experience in the fullest manner in the sharing of the banquet. The banquet and the life of the disciples have become so intimate that they cannot be separated. The Christian life, if viewed from outside this rapport with the Eucharist, will have to face the doubt, the fear and the desperation as it was (or happened) for the disciples. The life of the disciples is part and parcel of the Eucharistic mystery as though there is no Christian life without Eucharistic celebration. In turn, this Eucharistic or paschal experience of Jesus, cannot but let out what is happening within: to witness even to the cost of sacrificing proper life. - Witnessing is the Easter Task: The commission of the Risen Jesus is this: “You are witnesses of these things” (Luke 24:48). Jesus first reminds them all the scriptures that were to be fulfilled and are already fulfilled in his paschal mystery – with his death and resurrection. Not only reminds them, moreover he opens the mind of the disciples to understand them all that he has already spoke and all that is happening right now in front of their eyes: the personal prophecy and the fulfillment (Luke 24:44-47). “These things” that Jesus talks about is the “listening – seeing – and experiencing” of his life. The disciples are the witnesses because they have listened to him, they have seen all that he fulfilled and they are now experiencing His Life Within them. It was the task of the disciples and all the followers of Jesus. - The spirit-filled Peter himself is the first and the immediate effect of the Resurrection (Acts 3:11-26 – little of which is found in today’s first reading): we are well aware of Peter who he was before the resurrection and what he has become after (or as the fruit) of resurrection. He is filled with the spirit, the spirit which dispelled from him the fear of accepting the truth. He is filled with the spirit, the spirit which has deleted from him the files of doubt. He is filled with the spirit, the spirit which empowered him to be the first voice for the New Life in Risen Jesus. That Peter, who was frightened even in front of a servant girl in the courtyard of Pilot, is now in the feet. He stands up publicly. He confesses and professes all that happened in him personally and in all the disciples as the community of believers. As the matter of manifestation of the fact they have just worked a miracle in the same name of Jesus healing the crippled beggar (Acts 3:1-10). He knows that he is poor in words and wealth. He also knows that he is rich in the words and treasure of resurrection of Jesus (Acts 3:5-7). - His preaching, rather, his witnessing itself is the inspiration and power of the Spirit: this is manifested in his proclamation. He talk reveals that both the Old Testament and New Testament are united (are fulfilled and made one) in Jesus Christ who is dead and now risen. He also calls people to come back to the Author of Life whom they have crucified among whom he himself was there before the conversion. He proclaims: “But you rejected the Holy and righteous One and asked to have a murderer given to you, and killed the Author of life, whom God raised from the dead. To this we are witnesses” (Acts 3:14-15). The conversion and the forgiveness of sins are always open and are ever available for those who return. It happened exactly to him and with that experience he invites his public to put off the ignorance – the power of darkness and self-closure) in order to put on the armor of Risen Jesus the Holy Spirit – the power of light and self-disclosure). He recognizes and acknowledges himself to the witness for this experience of New Life in Risen Jesus. - John is also a witness as we see in the second reading: John who was also part of the same preaching made by Peter as noted in the first reading because he was with Peter both in the working of the miracle and in the proclamation of the new life. He proclaim from his part and from the background of his experience of the resurrection. His witnessing is the love that God has revealed in the mystery of His Word Son who has become expiation for the sins of the world (1 John 2:2). Conclusion: Let us be such witness of the joy of resurrection - Both Peter and John have experienced the power and presence of the risen Jesus and they could not but witness it with their very life. It is same with all the disciples because they too had the same experience. It should be same also with us. - We have come here not as the historians or as the mathematicians but as the “community of believers”. Community of the believers shares in one banquet (Eucharist) eating one bread and drinking one cup, and thus they are made One Body in the Spirit. - Once we insert ourselves into this community of faith by our own free will and desire we share both the Fact and the Task of Christian life. Fact of being Christian thus we bear Christ within us. Task of being Christian thus we carry Christ to others. - We have to make our journey from the experience of the Sunday Eucharist to the testifying it with our words and deeds of everyday. Our journey is a journey of Risen Life: from the personal experience to the testimony. Let the Risen Lord Be Exalted both in our INNER Life and in our OUTER witnessing.

SECOND SUNDAY OF EASTER - YEAR B - Divine Mercy

SECOND SUNDAY OF EASTER – B
(Acts 4:32-35; 1John 5:1-6; John 20:19-31)

Theme: Experience of Risen Jesus forms a community of one heart and one soul

Reflection

Peace – Pardon – Joy – Faith: the first fruits of Risen Jesus to his disciples

- We are in the second Sunday of Easter. We are still full of the joy of the Resurrection of Jesus. We are still with the happy moments of the celebration of Pasqual mystery. We have passed eight days. Today, the eighth day of Easter is the day of peace, day of pardon, day of joy and the day of faith. This is what we have heard in the gospel. The first fruits of Risen Jesus are:
o The peace – Jesus appears to his disciples and grants them the peace saying “peace be with you” (John 20:19, 21, 26 – three times); indeed, the disciples in need of this peace; they were afraid of the Jews with the thought that, may be they would also be killed like Jesus. They are frightened. They are fearful. They are worried. They are preoccupied. They lost the peace of mind and heart. And Jesus gives them the first fruit of his Risen Life: peace.
o The pardon – Jesus by giving them his Spirit, first, he forgives them for they flew/flight from him during the hour of passion and death and then, he gives them the authority/power to forgive others and that way to spread the rays of pardon to others and tells them: “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained” (John 20:22-23); indeed, they are in need of pardon – to receive and to give; they become culpable in and with the presence of Jesus; they are guilt in seeing the Risen Jesus; they are burning with the sin of flying away from him – sin of abandoning him; Jesus saw their condition of helplessness and guilt. And Jesus gives them the first fruit of Risen Life: pardon.
o The Joy – Jesus gives the disciples the true joy; “Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord” (John 20:20); they are dispersed and desperate because they have lost the sight/presence of their master for few days; they lost their smile on their faces; they lost their inner joy of being with him; indeed, they are in need of true joy – joy which lasts long, forever; Jesus gives them the joy by showing himself Risen and by interacting with them: the Joy.
o The Faith – Jesus re-establishes them in the faith – in the faith they have given up with the moments of suffering and persecution; he tells to Thomas and to all the disciples in profundity to have faith: “Do not doubt, but believe” (John 20:27); they have lost trust in him; they are discouraged with the incidents that took place before their eyes; they are in the confusion of what to believe and how to believe in the One with whom they have spent three years of their life leaving out their families and relations; in the pit of confusion and incomprehensive situations they indeed are in need of faith, in need of someone who will boost up their faith again; and Jesus extends to them the first fruit of Risen Life: Faith.
- Therefore, the peace, the pardon, the joy and the faith are not to seen individually: they are different fruits of the same Risen Jesus. They are all part of One Presence of Risen Jesus. They have to be seen together: The Fruit of Life of the Resurrection.

Being One Heart and One Soul – life of community: the fruit of Risen Jesus to his followers

- The first reading of today presents to us the life of the first Christian community: they formed one community. They have become one in heart and on in Soul. “Now the whole group of those who believed were of one heart and soul,…” (Acts 4:32). Now is the word that shows the present life of the believer in Jesus. They all have come together as a communion of believers. Their faith in the Risen Jesus made them to live a common life – a life with and for others. The community, therefore, is the fruit of the faith, the faith which is the fruit of Jesus died and risen. Two elements are evident here:
- First - The community is the group of believers: it is not anyone or everyone who wished to be in the community or who desired to be part of the community; it is he who believed; it is he who has faith; it is he who knows the present condition of Jesus who is Risen; they have come to know that when we believe in Jesus we are not alone or we are not individuals; there is no more a place or possibility for the private life; every life is open up towards and for the other; communion is the fruit of the Risen Jesus;
o After the death of Jesus all have gone astray; after the death of Jesus all have abandoned the other; after the death of Jesus each has taken his own way; after the death of Jesus each follower is desperately divided himself from the word and deed (the call and mission) of Jesus. Yes, the death divides; yes, the death tears apart the unity; yes, the death kills the communion between the persons.
o After the Resurrection of Jesus all is set to return; after the resurrection of Jesus all have the possibility to find the other whom they have abandoned; after the resurrection of Jesus each has found their return way leaving aside the way they have taken; after the resurrection of Jesus each follower is reunited himself to the life of Jesus. Yes, the life unites; yes, the life brings all together; yes, the life resurrects the communion between the believers.
o Once, we have believed that we are the people, not of the death but of the Life of Risen Jesus, we have the norm of uniting ourselves with Him and as a consequence the charitable act of uniting ourselves with all other believers. It is only if we really believe. The faith will not make us solitary beings or individuals. The faith is always a seed of common life. We may have personal faith but once faith is professed it leads us, by force of the Risen Life, into the communion with others.
o We are free beings. Yes, it’s true. But as the believers in Risen Jesus our exercise of freedom is authentic only with and for the other followers of same Risen Jesus. Our freedom is for the common life. Our free and individual life is to be kept open and transparent. Once we participate in the faith of Jesus we should not give any chance for the human logic of freedom and individual life. Jesus is never for himself. His whole life is for other. Not even a single moment he spent for himself. If we are to be genuine followers of such Jesus, we are to imitate him: live and let live others is the human attitude but live for others even sacrificing one’s own self is the Christian attitude. We are to be human, indeed, true. More than that, we are to be Christians. Therefore we have the task of creating union and thus we have to become the community builders.
- Second – one heart and one soul: personal interests do not come appear anywhere in the scene. Individual desires give way to the common cause. No thoughts and words for the individual priority or well being. All are ONE. “… and, no one claimed private ownership of any possessions, but everything they owned was held in common” (Acts 4:32). What is personal belonging has become now common belonging. The attitude of ‘mine’ is gone. The attitude of ‘ours’ has taken place. All are one not just in the materials things they have but in heart and in soul. What does this mean?
o One in Heart: heart is the symbol of desire. Their desire is common. All have just one desire: to experience Risen Jesus.
o One in Soul: soul is the symbol of life. Their life is common. One cannot and should not live for himself. They all have just one life: the life of Risen Jesus.
o Once they are One in Heart and Soul, everything else is not so important for them; that is the reason why they have no difficulty in bringing all their possession and placing them at the feet of the apostles: the gesture indicates that they have left what is their preoccupation of the heart and soul and now waiting for the new experience: experience of Risen Jesus in and with the other.
o Desire for experiencing Risen Jesus supersedes/transcends the desire for the material goods and pleasures. They have now one desire and one life: Faith and Life in Him who has died and risen again. This desire makes easy the way of renunciation and sacrifice. We don’t feel painful when we lose or give away what we have. We do this in order to regain what is more precious: Life of Jesus.
- How often do we ask ourselves the fundamental question as Christians: why we fail to be one at heart and soul as the community of Jesus? We all listen to the same word proclaimed. We all participate in the same banquet of the Lord. We all say with one voice ‘amen’ to the celebration. We really are one at heart and soul when we are in the Sunday celebrations. But when we come into life why do we fail to live out this community life: sharing of heart and soul? What is the obstacle that blocks us to be together? Here we have to affirm for our displeasure (though it is displeasing to us) that we do not have ‘genuine faith’. Or we do not know and follow the difference between the ‘amen’ of our words and the ‘action’ of our deeds. Whatever it is, the faith is not a profession of formulas but task of living. When we realize this we find ourselves at ease in sharing our life with others: becoming one at heart and soul.
- The first step, thus, is not leaving out everything of our belongings and coming to the community. It is only a consequence. The first things should be our desire for the common life which is the only fruit of faith in Jesus. It is this desire that enables us to forego what belongs to us in order to be with others and with Jesus: the community of one heart and soul. If we take ‘renouncing’ as first step we will somehow and somewhere fall back because there will be still that tendency which makes us go for what we have lost: the things we have sacrificed. If we take ‘desire for something more and valuable: the community life’ as our first step we cherish the desire because here we are not losing anything but only gaining back our joy in another form of being united to the community.
- We are people of both Water and Blood: the second reading of today encourages us further with the truth that we are regenerated by God with the life (One heart and one soul) of Jesus: the water and the blood. Water signifies the purification and the blood signifies the life. Not purification alone but also the very life. We are not stopped with the purification (or renouncing) but we are endowed with risen life (desire for community). This is the reason why we are called with the Waters of Baptism in the faith and we are inserted into the community of one heart and soul with the Blood of the Eucharist. First is not complete without the second and the second is not possible without the first. One life of “Water and Blood” leads us into one life of “Heart and Soul”. This reflection leads us forward into the understanding of what heart is and what the divine mercy is. Mercy is opening the heart for others. This is what happens in the divine mercy of Jesus. Today the church asks us to celebrate this divine mercy of Jesus.

The three moments of Divine Mercy of the Risen Jesus to the Apostles: today’s gospel review
(Following part is taken from the Year A reflections)

- Today, the second Sunday of Easter, the Church also celebrates the day of Divine Mercy. The mercy of God is fully expressed in the love that God has for the humanity, which is extended in His Begotten Son, in whom He is well pleased. In the particular manner, in His offering of self, for the will of His Father, Jesus, extended the loving mercy to the sinful being and to bring him to the participation of life in God.
- His Presence: He stood among them and said ‘Peace, be with you’: Indeed they need an encouraging presence and word of peace. The mercy of Risen Jesus is to give them what they needed in that hour. He stood among them – the gift of his presence; and gave them the word of assurance – the gift of his peace. They are closed themselves in the room for the fear of Jews. Their life and their hope is, shattered. They are in confusion of what is happening in spite of Jesus’ repeated predication of these events. They have nothing in mind. They lost everything what they have. They are just living with the minimum breath of hope that these things will pass away soon and they become normal again, and they can go back to their old life where they have come from before three years. Once the fear of Jews is gone and once all these events are forgotten soon or later, they want to return immediately to their life and forget these three bitter years. These are the bitter years because they hoped for something in Jesus whom they considered to be the Messiah and they desired that they will be saved in the victorious manner. But nothing happened; not even one of their thoughts and desires are fulfilled. All the hopes they had till this moment are shattered. They remained silent and perplexed. They want to forget these moments and return to lead the normal life as though nothing had happened. They do not want to lose their life half a way like this in the hands of the Jews. Therefore, with confusion and with fear they closed themselves in the secret place. Jesus, who always knows their thoughts, has appeared to them. Nothing was impeding him to enter into the room, not even door. The doors remained closed and yet Jesus entered. He is more worried about the closed doors of their hearts than the room. In the right moment of their need Jesus gives them the peace. They are in need of push. They need something extraordinary to encourage them and to lead them out of that ‘room of fear’. They exactly need the peace of heart. And Jesus gives them what they need: ‘peace be with you’ (v.19). His presence and His peace are the first gifts of Risen Jesus to his disciples.

- His Breath: the Spirit: He breathed on them and said “Receive the Holy Spirit”: Breathing the spirit is always an act of creation. In the act of first creation God has breathed his Spirit into the nostrils of man and he began to live and move in Him (we live, move and have our being in Him). in the act of second creation (is a regeneration as Peter admonishes) Jesus breathes the Spirit into the hearts of frightened disciples and they become new creation who live and move in Risen Jesus.
o The Spirit makes them ‘new beings in Christ’: the darkness of fear in them is dispelled and the light of joy is shone upon them. The closed doors are open. The cold hearts become warmed up with the breathing of Jesus. The cowards become the witnesses. They move out with the new mind and with the new heart and in a word, with the new life in Christ.
o The Spirit sends them into the world: the breath of Risen Jesus effects in them, the mission of being sent. ‘Being Sent’ is the mission: sent into the world; sent to give to the world the word of God (evangelization); sent to give the world the grace of God (sacraments); sent to give the world the life (testimony of faith). Jesus who has received it from His Father did it perfectly and those who are sent by Jesus, “As the Father has sent me, so I send you” (v.21), have to be in the world and for the world but not by the world or of the world. This is the mission of regenerating the souls to God by witness of the faith.
o The Spirit gives them the authority: the spirit which Jesus gives as the fruit of His Death and Resurrection is not the spirit of fear but the Spirit of Power. All that Jesus has said and done is transmitted to his disciples by this Spirit. They have to exercise the authority that the Spirit of Risen Jesus gives them. They are given the power to do their ministry of sowing the love. They have to teach and administer the grace of God with the same authority that Jesus has exercised. Their word is authoritative, because it is not from their mouth but from the Spirit that is given to them. Their grace is efficacious because it is not of their own power and merit but of the power of the Spirit that is active in them.
o Do not doubt but believe: The words that Jesus spoke to Thomas are the words to each one of us. Jesus does not want to abandon even one. He searches and seeks what is lost, for he came ‘to seek out and to save the lost’ (Lk 19:10). He goes always behind the lost sheep leaving aside the ninety-nine safe sheep (Lk 15:4-7). He does not take pleasure in the lost disciple, Thomas. He wanted to complete his revelation of glory to them all. That’s the reason why he reappeared to them in the same mode who has done the first time, one week ago. Now Thomas is there. He goes straight away to Thomas and tells him to do want he wanted. He wanted to see the holes that the nails have made and put his finger in his side. Jesus exactly asked him to do the same. The divine mercy never stops anyone from their desire of knowing. Jesus then says to him not to doubt bu believe. More than the holes and the side in which he has put his fingers to touch and see, the assurance of his risen glory came to him in His words of love and comfort: ‘do not doubt, Thomas, but believe’.
 Whenever we are doubtful about the authenticity of Christian faith, the divine mercy is revealed to man by the various appearances in the history of the Church, like that of Mary in Fatima, Lourdes and various other places and different modes. All that just to say one word to the world: do not doubt but believe.
 Whenever the persecutions and trials come in various forms of atheism, secularism, fundamentalism and so on, Jesus generates the holy lives and authentic testimony of the faith in His Church, many saints and blessed people, like that of Pope John Paul II, the defender of faith, for a simple example, the one who is made ‘blessed’ today (1.5.2011), just to tell the world: ‘do not doubt, but believe’.
 The result of this assurance of Risen Jesus is the ‘acceptance of Him’ on the part of his disciples and believers (all the believing community, the first reading) as ‘My Lord and My God’ (v.28). Once Jesus is recognized as the Lord and God, the believer, becomes regenerated and new creation (second reading) who lives for him alone and nothing in the world can separate him from the One in whom He has believed.

- His Joy: The disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord (v.20):
o Joy of seeing the Lord is recognizing him as the messiah: Jesus invited the first disciples to come and see where he is staying. They went and saw and remained with him that day and when they returned they have proclaimed the joy of see the Lord and they said: “We have found the Messiah” (John 2:41).
o Joy of seeing the Lord is accepting him as God: the gospel tells us that the disciples have seen, not just Jesus with whom they have been for all these days but the Lord Jesus, in whom all the glory of God is revealed through the resurrection from the dead. If they have seen just a Jesus of miracles and pious words they would have still remained in confusion and in doubt; but they see the Risen Jesus, the Lord, therefore they have overcome all the fear and doubt and recognized him as the Lord and God and now the joy is all over. No one take away this joy as Jesus promised and not even suffering and death.

Conclusion

Let us be the community of one heart and soul: only this way we have fullness of participating in the celebration and living of resurrection of Jesus.

EASTER SUNDAY - Year B

EASTER SUNDAY – Resurrection of Jesus Christ – Year B
(Acts 10:34a, 37-43; Col 3:1-4; John 20:1-9)

Theme: Alleluia! We are chosen to be the witness of Jesus’ Resurrection

Reflection

Resurrection of Jesus – centrality of Christian faith

- The Resurrection of Jesus is the ‘Central Point’ of the salvation history: CENTRAL POINT BETWEEN REMEMBRANCE AND REALIZATION.
o We move backwards into the past to REMEMBER the Wonderful Acts of God in the history from the first day of creation to this day of ‘new creation’ and ‘new life’ in and through the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, therefore we are always connected to the beautiful experience of past; that’s what we have done in the liturgy of these past few days and in the special manner in the immediate preparations for this great event, that is, in the Vigil:
 We have just completed the forty days of preparations with the fasting, prayer and abstinence.
 We have just finished the intense preparation in the Holy Week in order to be with the Risen Jesus.
 We have fruitfully and gracefully celebrated the ‘Holy Triduum’ in which we have immersed ourselves in the mysteries of Christ and in a special way, in His Passion and Death.
 We have also just seen and celebrated with heart-filled rigor, the ‘LIGHT OF GLORY’ and ‘JOY OF RESURRECTION’ in the Vigil of Easter, last night. In this celebration, before re-echoing of Gloria, we have reviewed all the significant events of God’s doing starting from the creation to the Jesus’ passion and death and sepulcher.
 In this way we moved backwards from the central point of Jesus’ Resurrection and thus we have become the Christians of ‘Contemplation’ (remembering) of the God’s Redemptive designs.
o From now on, we move forwards into the future to REALIZE the ‘newness of life’ from today to that day of ‘New Heavens and New Earth’ (the predication of Apocalypse: “I will make everything new”) again with the faith and hope in the Risen Jesus. Therefore we always go with hope that we are not condemned to death but destined for the new life in Christ. We celebrate this ‘Realization’ in the liturgy of coming few days, in this Easter Season.
o Now is the Time to start the ‘Easter Season’. Season of Joy, season of Life and Season of Victory and we walk along with the Risen Christ for these forty days glancing to his own manifestation of his risen glory amidst the people.
o With the celebration of His Ascension and the descent of the Holy Spirit, the possibility of this realization is made very easy to those who heed to the voice of the Holy Spirit, for He is the One who makes everything new and alive.
o In this way we move forward from the central point of Jesus’ Resurrection and thus we become the Christian of ‘Active Mission’ (realization) of God’s presence in and through us.
- Easter People – Living Witnesses: People who base themselves upon this CENTRE (Jesus’ Resurrection) are both ‘Contemplative’ (prayer) and ‘Missionary’ (testimony).
o People of the Resurrection are not to stop themselves at the ‘beautiful moments of past experience’ (with the life of contemplation and prayer) but actively live and make other live the ‘joyful moments of the future glory’ (with the life of testimony and action).
o Contemplation is certainly necessary to gather the spiritual force and energy but it cannot just be outside of the dispensing of this spirit to others which is possible only in the active life of witnessing the joy of Jesus.
o The contrary is also true that the active witnessing to Jesus is not authentically possible if it is not strengthened by prayer and contemplation.
o Therefore, Easter People move backward into the past to remember the deeds of the Lord accomplished in Christ ‘in contemplation’ and step forward into the future to realize the great things to happen in the Spirit ‘in mission’ and thus they live this present moment throwing themselves completely into the hands of Risen Jesus.

Resurrection of Jesus: proofs of its attestation possible? A divine truth of faith!

- History and Revelation:
o Historically, in the sphere of mere REASON, the Resurrection of Jesus seems to be dim and unclear for various reasons and we are not sure of historical inscriptions for this event.
o Revelation of God, in the sphere of authentic FAITH, the Resurrection of Jesus is completely true and a great event that changed the face of the world.
o Then, how can we proceed forward without any proof of historical reason: The Person of Jesus Christ himself is the Greatest Proof (self witness):
o He is not only historical but revelatory. His journey is not from the history to revelation but vice-versa. He is revealed in history and made the history complete and perfect. Therefore, in the matter of Jesus Christ depending only on the ‘historical proof/reason’ is not enough. Revelation goes beyond the history. History asking for the reason in the realm of Revelation of God is like, as Augustine holds of the Trinitarian Mystery, trying to put ‘ocean into the small vessel’. Therefore, shall we leave it here and say that it is a Mystery that our eyes don’t understand? We should not fall, in this way, fall into the ‘escapism’.
o Everything about the ‘Historical Jesus’ is FORETOLD: Though it is revelation of God, nothing happened suddenly. God’s deeds are always prophetic. From the moment God decided to save man from the power of sin and death through His Son Jesus Christ, He has foretold everything ahead of its actual happening. The Old Testament is greatest basis for this foretelling of Jesus Christ who is to come. The greatest ‘Christ-Event’, which includes his annunciation, birth, preaching, passion, death and resurrection and coming of the Holy Spirit, itself is foretold. Christ himself said that He has come to fulfilled what the Law, Prophets, the Psalms of the Old Testament told about him.
o He himself foretold about his ‘death and resurrection’, at least three times, long before it actually took place and even though his disciples did not understand it properly. Now, He is (risen) what he has already foretold about himself before.
- Is the personal witness completely valid and are there not any other witnesses? Disciples and His chosen people (witness of near and dear ones):
o His disciples were the eye witnesses of his ‘Risen Life and Glory’.
o Mary Magdalene and Mary worshipping Risen Jesus (Math 28:9);
o Disciples on the road to Emmaus recognize Jesus in the breaking of the bread (Lk 24:31);
o The dialogue between Mary Magdalene and Jesus and finally she, with the joy of seeing her ‘Rabbouni’, announces to the disciples: ‘I have seen the Lord’ (Jn 20:18).
o Disciples, themselves fearful and hiding, receive ‘peace and power to forgive sins’ from the Risen Lord (Jn 20:19-29).
o ‘It is the Lord’ (Jn 21:7) is the joyful testimony of the disciple to Peter and other disciples when the Risen Jesus appeared to the seven disciples.
o Peter receiving the authority of ‘feeding the sheep’ (Jn 21:15-19) after confirming his conditional love for Jesus.
- On the foundation of these Apostles’ faith and experience of Risen Jesus that the Christianity has its construction and it is still alive and active like a double edged sword. Therefore we cannot simply eliminate the witness of his disciples on the ‘fact of resurrection of Jesus’. But with this experience of faith, can we satisfy our mind’s doubts on this event and say that no reason could explain it but only faith?
- By its fruit the status of the tree is measured: We keep reason aside because no one saw Jesus rising from the tomb; we keep the self-witness of Jesus or witness of his disciples aside for time being and now we will try to analyze and rationalize what is the consequence of Jesus’ Resurrection? What happened in the life of disciple who followed him till this moment? What is result of the wonderful words and marvelous deeds he has preached and accomplished? What is the destiny of the Kingdom of God that He established with his passion and death? Is everything gone in vain? The simple answer as we see today, is NO.
- Disciples, who were timid and hiding, went on preaching the good news to the ends of the world, even to the cost of their own lives.
- The primitive Christian community, with the life of sharing and togetherness, has witnessed the life and mission of Jesus.
- The innumerable martyrs who have shed their blood for the ‘vision of Glory of God’ in the next life which Jesus promised.
- The small mustard seed which is being planted (with His death) and sprouted (with His resurrection) is now a big tree (Kingdom of God) which has been spread whole through the earth and all the believers enjoying its fruit. By this fruit of faith we know and taste the tree of life (Risen Jesus).
- Therefore, history will stop somewhere but not the revelation, but history is needed for revelation; reason has some limitations but not the experience of faith, still reason help to strengthen the faith; Is not unintelligent to search for the one who lives among the dead? It is unwise to minimize the ‘mysteries of God’ to the level of human tiny mind.

Resurrection of Jesus – A passage to the true life made possible and easy

- True Easter is a Passage from the slavery to the freedom – old paschal mystery
o The passing through is the meaning of paschal mystery: in the Old Testament this passage is designed and guided by God himself through Moses. The passage was from Egypt to the Cana:
o from the slavery to the liberty;
o from the hunger to the feeding with milk and honey;
o from the desperation of perdition to the hope of life;
o from the darkness of suffering to the light of joy; and
o from the death of fear and sin to the life of children of God.
- The passage through the desert and through the red sea: The journey was not at all easy. They had to undergo many trial and temptations. Their paschal journey was from their Last Meal in Egypt to the First Meal in the land of Cana. They had to step out of their house in which they ate together and set out for the travel. In this journey the two greatest hurdles they had to pass through with the complete trust in their liberator are: the desert and the red sea:
o Desert is the time of helplessness and a time of test for the total dependency of the people on the providence of God alone. They should not give up faith and hope. They have to manifest their total confidence in God. They would find themselves in the abandonment but they have to preserve their utter obedience and fidelity to the God’s word. And many of the Israel have reached the Promised Land because of their regain of hope, by getting up from the falls of their despair and disbelief.
o Red Sea is another hurdle they have to pass through. They have to believe in the power and handiwork of God. The important gesture is to get down (because it is deep) into the sea (because the waters stood like the walls) and pass through it and reach the other side. In other words, it is a time to pass through the danger/valley of death (its profound deepness) and come back to the life which will not turn back (life on the other side of the sea), the life which will never be taken away from anybody because who follow them to destroy them are destroyed with the waters of the sea. What a significance we have from this: it is not the waters that saved them but the power of God. Waters has the capacity to give life (our daily experience reveals to us) and to lead to death (the calamities that are created by the floods and storms). But God alone knows how to use them for saving his people. It is through this experience of moments of death in the passing through of the red sea that God opened them the way into the Life of Promised Land.

- True Easter is a Passage from the Eucharist to the Actual Life – new paschal mystery
o This is the same experience that Jesus manifests in his journey towards his Father. His paschal journey starts not just from the arrest in Gethsemane but the Last Supper itself. Jesus comes out the room in which he had the Last Meal with his disciples and sets out to the Father with whom he will have the First Meal of glory. Even here Jesus had to undergo two main hurdles: abandonment (the desert experience of the Old Testament) and death (the Red Sea experience of the Antic Journey).
o He is abandoned by his disciples and even feels the total abandonment by his Father too: “Eli Eli lama sabactani” – O God, O God why have you abandoned me.
o He has also undergone the red sea experience: he gone down to the earth in the tomb which signifies the passage from one side to the other, one stage to the other, transformation from one image to the other; it is only through this he is asked to enter into the bosom of the Father. Even being God’s Son he had accepted – out of free will – to pass through this experience. It is because he knows well that this is the ONLY WAY that God has PREPARED for the SALVATION OF THE WORLD. Passing through the desert/abandonment and death/waters of red sea.
- The Vigil Liturgy of Easter re-lives this experience:
o We participate in the liturgy of the baptism in which the waters are blessed and sprinkled as the manifestation our spiritual immersion into the divine life. We renovate the baptismal promising of renouncing the evil and dying for the sin so that we profess our faith with vigorous freedom.
o Even prior to that many readings of the Old Testament that the Church proposes prepares us to take part in the promises of God which are fulfilled in the New Testament: it is a true passage from the Old to the New Covenant, a passage from the promise to the fulfillment, a passage from the Proclaimed Word to the Celebrated Eucharist.
o We are called to celebrate this feast not only to ‘remember’ what has happened in the past but also to ‘participate’ in them with the task of faith and mission: to proclaim and to live the Easter – real passage from our present life of the world to the future life of God’s glory.

- Readings becomes our spiritual nourishment:
o First Reading: Only question we can ask while reading this piece from the Acts in which Peter preaches to the family of roman soldier is: who was Peter before the event of resurrection of Jesus and who is Peter now after experiencing the Risen Jesus? Enough we have got enough of the proof.
o Second Reading: In as much as we believe in the Risen Jesus we have to search for the things above. We are no more in the sepulcher but risen. No more looking down with desperation but looking high. We are not to be immersed in the life of the earth but with the hope of rising again to our Life and our Life is Risen Christ (v. 4).
o Gospel Reading: ‘come and see’ – ‘see and believe’: John starts the mission of Jesus with the call to his disciples to ‘come and see’ (Jn 1:39) and now he ends the mission of Jesus with disciples’ “seeing and believing” (Jn 20:8).
 According to John’s theology, this is the process of knowing and acknowledging the Truth that has come into the earth: COME – SEE – BELIEVE.
 Once we believe, which goes beyond the reason and historical proofs, THIS EVENT OF RESURRECTION becomes the Day of Victory, Day of Life and the Day of Alleluia because, as the Psalmist says, this is the day that the LORD HAS MADE, let us rejoice and be glad in it. Alleluia.

GOOD FRIDAY - Year B

GOOD FRIDAY – YEAR B
(Isaiah 52:13 - 53:12; Hebrews 4:14-16, 5:7-9; John 18:1 – 19:42)

Theme: Nudity of Christ on the cross: Utter self-emptying for the fullness of the world

Reflection

He empties himself both of his divinity and humanity – stands naked before his Father

- We have reached the Calvary. Our journey of the Lent has come to its final stop. Forty days of fasting, prayer and charity empowered us with the love for Christ and his plans for us. All our Lenten gestures and resolutions have to be finally ‘nailed’ to the cross. It is there that they find their total significance. We have walked all along the roads of our faith. We did not turn back. We did not look back. We have put our hands on the plough and continued our tilling (Luke 9:62 – “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of hand”). We are really blessed we have followed the way of the cross well. We are now at the foot of the cross. We are happy to be there. We are with Jesus. How content we are to complete our journey carrying our daily cross.
- The mystery of the cross is already prepared and prefigured in the Eucharistic meal that Jesus has offered to his disciples as his “farewell” party and as his “departing meal”.
o The body was already given up for them (“This is my body given up for you”), and the blood was already poured out for all (“This is the blood of everlasting covenant shed for you and for all”). They are already given to the disciples in mind and in heart. The invisible self-donation is already over in mind, in soul: The WILL is Fulfilled.
o Only the visible offer is remaining. Only the physical surrender and sacrifice is remaining. Once the ‘will’ is already given, the ‘act’ is only the consequence. The will is the cause and the action is the fruit. The curtain of the action is unveiled. The cross is carried to its fixation. The body is nailed to it. The cross is raised between the heaven and earth. The visible performance of the offering finds its final move in the suffering and death of the flesh of Jesus: the ACT is Accomplished.
- The mystery of Christ in its totality is revealed in the cross:
o Vertical beam of the cross is first two extremes that Christ, the Word of God, has assumed in his divinity: the ulterior part – the peak point – refers to the eternal readiness of the Son in listening to his Father, and the bottom part – the earthly point – refers to the eternal abasement of the Son in obeying his Father: the divine Son-ship of the Word manifests both his readiness and obedience in eternity.
o Horizontal beam of the cross is the other two extremes that Jesus, the Word made Flesh, has assumed in his humanity: at one end is his life (beginning of human life with the incarnation) and at the other end is his mission (accomplishment of God’s design by becoming the life giver in the resurrection). Even in his humanity Jesus has been obedient all through his life and mission. His life and mission is kept open for all to embrace.
o Thus, the death of Jesus Christ on the cross is not a stumbling block or foolishness but it is a power and wisdom that God has manifested. Jesus by dying on the cross becomes the meeting point (+) for God and man and also interacting centre for man and man.

Jesus on the Cross:
Good Shepherd who lays down his life for the sheep (John 10:1-18)

- The shepherd’s characteristics: he has to enter by the gate (v. 2) – he is the owner of the sheep; he calls his sheep by the name and leads them out (v.3) – he is the pastor of the sheep; he goes ahead of the sheep (v.4) – he is the leader of the sheep. Jesus first talks about the ordinary shepherd who is very familiar to his audience. He plainly explains to them the relationship between the sheep and its shepherd. In the Old Testament, in the prophetic teachings and preaching, the proclamation that God is a shepherd and the people are his flock is evident in many other parallels. Selection of a shepherd boy David as the king of Israel itself is a great revelation of this relationship between God and people of Antic alliance. Jesus also talks in the language of the people so that they grasp the meaning in fullness. That is the reason why, whenever Jesus uses an analogy there will be deeper and inner significance which he reveals. It happened very often in his discourses. Even the disciples once asked him why does he talks in the parables and Jesus answers them that it is to explain the mysteries of the kingdom of God. All most all the parables contain this kind of inner message about the reality of God and his expression of love to the humanity. So also so here in this particular analogical explanation in which he provides the difference between a true and a false shepherd. False or selfish or hired shepherd, instead, steals, makes use, and specially escape when his sheep in danger. The one who is opposite to it is the good shepherd walks before his sheep, stands for his sheep, and is ready to give up his life for his sheep.
- I am the Good Shepherd: the characteristics of the good shepherd are noteworthy: he lays down his life for the sheep (v.11); he knows his sheep and his sheep also knows him (v.14); he has the care for the other sheep too (v.16); he strives for the unity of entire sheep-fold irrespective of their place and belonging (v.16); he is not compelled by any outside force to lay down his life but his inner mission received from the Master (v.18). Jesus enters into the deeper meaning. He claims to the shepherd who is the owner, pastor and the leader of the sheep. He confirms that he is not just any other shepherd but a good shepherd who is ready to do anything/everything for the sheep. He walks before them so that if anything happens to the sheep it happens first to him – he bears our sufferings in the first person. He stands for his sheep so that if anyone has to judge the sheep, the first judgment falls on him – he carries our accusations on himself and goes before us. He is ever-ready to give his life so that if a sheep has to die, he dies for it in the first place – he becomes the life-giver in the first place.
- Good Shepherd on the Cross: All that a good shepherd does is very clear from the words of Jesus in his discourse. And it still remains a word. Jesus does not want to remain a preacher alone who speaks in the beautiful expressions. He is more over the fulfiller of all that he says. For this he has come into the world: not only to open the secrets of the kingdom to all, but above all, to open his heart so that the showers of the kingdom bath the humanity and wash it clean, and by that to opens the possibility of participating in the sheep-fold of the Great Shepherd God Himself. In other words, with the pierce in the side Jesus opens his whole person so that the sheep is immersed into flow of the water and blood of his heart and is purified so that it is inserted into the life of the Spirit and thus become a good sheep of the Good shepherd. This is what happens on the cross. His actions – or the event of self-donation – go beyond the mere words. He becomes not a good shepherd of the proclamation but the Good Shepherd of the testimony. Jesus would have remained as any other prophet or a good teacher of any other religion if here were to stop only with the pious proclamations. But it opposes the qualities of the good shepherd. Good shepherd has to be the first one to teach, to lead and to offer himself for the sheep. It is still more in the event of Christ: because His birth itself (His Incarnation) in the view of his dying (Passion and death) for the fulfillment of God’s loving design of the world (Resurrection and Life). This is the unfathomable difference between Jesus and any other religious figure in the various religions: All come to teach and lead the humanity with the beautiful and inspiring teachings, but Jesus is the ONLY ONE who WILLINGLY DIES for it – “no one has the power to take my life, I will give it on my own” – this proves to the world who is the Good Shepherd. Jesus BECOMES the Good Shepherd On the Cross Alone.

Jesus on the Cross:
Merciful Father who embraces his children (Luke 15:11-32)

- Two prodigal sons: We are familiar with the parable of the merciful father in the gospels and in the particular, or in fact only one gospel in which it is found, in the Gospel of Luke. We have different names to call it. We shall keep aside who is the real prodigal son in the gospel: is it the younger son who has gone long distance away from the home and repented and comes back? Or is it the elder son who is being closer to the home, is away from it in the heart failing to accept the repentant brother? Whatever it is, both have gone away from the heart of the father: falling away from reaching to the generous self-donation of the father. The only difference is that the younger one has gone away in the beginning itself and the elder one towards the end: the younger one with the self-desire of having his own life and the elder one with the jealousy and intolerance of his brother’s return. One thing is true: both of them have fallen back and rejected the loving bosom of the father.
- The father’s love is immeasurable: He does not want to restrict his sons. He gives them full freedom. He respects their free acts since they are not anymore children but adults. They are now in a position of analyzing and choosing what is good for them. But father is always father and he wants to be a father. A father can be a good father only one his children are with him. The nature of the father is: he gives his children freedom and still desires that they opt to be with him in their free choice. This is what we see in the gospel we are referring to. Father never says ‘no’ to the freedom that the younger one manifests knowing well that he is taking a wrong step. He feels painful for his acts. He suggests him the good way. But he never compels him or forces him to stay back. He could have very well stopped the son from falling into sin at least by ‘not giving’ him the property. But that is not the nature of a father. Father is fully father only when he shares all that he has to his children: total giving. In other words, he has not material possessions but His sons are His True Possession. What a beautiful relationship between the father and a son.
- Father with the open and empty arms: Despite the father’s good counsel the younger son leaves home by his freedom taking all that he has to receive from him. The truth that we have to keep in mind here is the question: how a son (being a son of the father) can demand his possession from the father when he is not willing to be his son by being with him? it is here that we understand in fullness the nature of fatherhood: it is father who wants to give anything to his son whether his son is worthy or not. When his son has gone away, it is true that he felt painful and heart-broken. But he never stops being a father to him, although the son has rejected his presence and his love. He keeps looking for him with the long desire of his return. He knows it well that he would one day come back because it is to a strange land that he went and he has to return to his home land. It may take some time but certainly he would come back. Father knows this. Yet he did not keep quite with this. He waits for him. He desires that he would come back before he perishes in his misuse of freedom. There is no single moment in which he left his son to his fate. Each second he kept his empty hands open for his return. His hands are empty because his heart is empty with the loss of possession of the son, not with the loss of possessions of earthly riches. His hands are open because he does not want to see his son escape his embrace when he returns. It happens also in the case of the elder son at the end of the gospel passage where he goes and requests him to be his son: the nature of the elder son is perfect only when he accepts both the father and his brother, otherwise he remains only a son, not a brother. This is the merciful and loving father of the gospel which Jesus talks referring ultimately to the Merciful God who always love his children.
- Merciful Father with the Open Arms on the cross: Jesus becomes this merciful father. he opens his arms on the cross. There are many other ways of dying but Jesus willed (or just allowed) this cross-death to happen so that it has its significance for the spiritual understanding of man. He opens his empty arms. He is empty because he has given all that he possessed: his glory, his might, his name, his power and also his son-ship. He opens his arms because this is the only gesture of embrace and from the cross – being in a position above all – he has the possibility of gathering all to himself. In this way, Jesus becomes the merciful father of whom he himself has elaborated in the words. This is because, so that people who did not understand his words, might understand it at least from the actions. Gospel becomes Life. Word becomes Action. Death becomes Gate. What a transformation that the cross brings about in Jesus’ ultimate self-giving. And it happens in everyone who takes up his daily cross, in freedom and in self-denial, and follows him.

Jesus on the Cross:
New Adam who is the Tree of New Life (Romans 5:12-21)

- Old Adam becomes the cause for the fall and death: Paul preaches the great change that Jesus brings about with his death. He compares him with the old Adam and shows how he has fulfilled all that the old one has failed to do. Yes, the first Adam has disobeyed God and has just one what he was not supposed to do: by eating the fruit that was abandoned. Because of this disobedience and rejection of the word of God he has brought it consequences to himself and as the first one of the creation, elder/head of the family, to whole creation: fall from the divine presence and death of the body. Once he loses his divine presence he loses everything else. The only reason for this is: the disobedience.
- New Adam becomes the cause of the rise and life: Jesus is the new Adam who has come to restore everything of man by giving back to God what the first one failed to give. His manifestation of obedience to the Father evident both in words and in actions: he never sought for his own glory but the glory of the Father. Even in the uttermost situations of the temptation he did not give priority to his own power to prove his divinity but opted in freedom only to the will of the Father with self-surrender to him:
o He has the power to change the stones into the bread and prove that he is the son of God in the first temptation in the desert but he seeks for the will of his Father.
o He has the capacity to escape the surrounded soldiers as he has done many other times – “I have been preaching all the time in the synagogue but you did not arrest me but now scriptures have to be fulfilled” (Mark 14:48-49). Many times the soldiers/authority failed to put on him their power. Even in the garden of Gethsemane he has the possibility of running away from them but he did not use his power (Mathew 26:52-53) but opted for the will of the Father.
o Last temptation on the cross is another occasion in which he could have easily proved his divine glory when they asked him to come down from the cross so that they would believe him. He had the great chance of arousing in them the faith by coming down from heaven. But it is not his will that he desired but the will of his Father.
o All these are the occasion where Jesus has restituted that the first Adam failed to do. Old Adam has given priority for his own freedom, for his own glory and for his own selfish interests. The New Adam, in opposition to him, has made the will of His Father his daily food and drink – his whole personhood is for the glorification of the Father.
- Jesus is New Adam – New Tree of Life on the cross: by being such an obedient son from the beginning of his begotten birth from the Father which is manifested in the ultimate manner in his humiliating death on the cross, Jesus becomes the New Adam. He is no more a pointer to the tree of life but He himself becomes the Tree of Life: the cross itself is nothing but a tree – A Tree in the Middle of the earth (and between Heaven of eternal life and Hades of eternal death) so that anyone who eats the fruit becomes the son of God by receiving life: life abundantly. It is on the cross that Jesus becomes this Tree of Life for the whole humanity.

Jesus on the Cross:
New Moses Two New Covenantal Beams of Love (Mathew 5: 1-12)

- Moses of the Old Testament is a law giver: we know well from the Book of Exodus that God has made a covenant with his people Israel under the leadership of his servant Moses. This covenant has its final say in the two tablets of the commandments that God gave to Moses and through him to all his people on the Mount Sinai. The two tablets stand for the relationship between God (first three commandments) and man (the last seven). Yahweh becomes their God and they become His people only when they carry these two tablets in their hearts.
- Moses of the New Testament is a law-fulfiller: Jesus public ministry according to the gospel of Mathew starts with His Sermon on the Mount which has as its introduction the beatitudes. In every instance Jesus affirms himself to be the New Moses. “You have heard” (of the Law of Moses) is the often starting point of Jesus. “But now I say to you” (of the new law that he proposes) is the concluding element Jesus always uses. By this he shows the difference between the law of the Old Testament and of the New. And again, by this he indicates to the New Moses that is present already amidst them, that is, of himself. In fact, he has not come to abolish the law and not even a single letter of it will be removed (Mathew 5:17-20) but to fulfill it and to perfect it with the new element: love.
- Cross is the ‘two beams of love’: On the cross Jesus becomes the New Moses who gives not any more two tablets of law but ‘two beams of covenantal love’: the vertical beam indicating the love of God and the horizontal beam indicating the love of neighbor and both of them having their crossing or meeting centre in his person himself. What a wonderful offer of love to humanity: Jesus becomes the way, the truth and the life. In fact, Cross is the:
o “Gate of Narrow Way” that all have to choose to pass through to enter into heaven, the Way that Leads to the Truth;
o “Seed of Absolute Truth” that becomes a power and wisdom of God for all who believe, which is still a stumbling block to the Jews and the foolishness to the gentiles, the Truth that Leads to Life; and
o “Source of Eternal Life” that gives the strength to all “to lose life to gain it”.
- In this way the Nudity of Christ on the cross becomes his Utter self-emptying for the fullness of the world: so that the world finds in it the way, the truth and the life and so that looking at the One Who Hangs on It learns to empty themselves in order to be ‘refilled’ with the joy and fullness of life.