CORPUS DOMINI - Year B

CORPUS DOMINI: Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ – Year B (Ex 24:3-8; Heb 9:11-15; Mark 14:12-16, 22-26) Theme: We are the Eucharist – We are the Visible Presence of Jesus in the World Reflection: We are called to be filled with the mystery of God - We have completed the Liturgical Time of Easter with the Ascension and with the Pentecost. We are supposed to re-start and continue with the Ordinary Time of the Liturgical Year. Though in the weekly Calendar we already started the Ordinary Time, Sundays we still celebrate the feasts of the Lord. In ordering the Calendar this way, the Church intends that we have to participate fully in the mystery of the Lord so that with the vigor of God’s presence we can continue our year. - Participation in the mysteries of Christian faith and the mystery of God is the only motive. The mystery of God is revealed or unveiled to the utmost level in the Paschal event of Jesus and in the sending of the Holy Spirit. We celebrated the paschal time and now it is time to celebrate the mysteries of God before we enter into the ordinary time of the year. Thus, we have the Solemnity of the Trinity in the last Sunday, the solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ today, and the Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in the next. - With the celebration of these feasts we enter into the mystery of God so that we are transformed into testimonies of his presence to the world. Last Sunday, in the Feast of the Trinity, we have celebrated the abyss of love of God, One and Three. Today we are celebrating the Feast of Corpus Domini, as we often call it, in which we remember that the same abyss of love of God is manifested as something very near to us and as something very close to us. Love of God is made itself present to us. In other words, God made himself a person near to us and a presence amidst us. He has come so close to us so much so he offered himself to us as our food and drink. Old Covenant is perfected in the New Covenant - Today’s antiphon of the mass expresses the Lords providence: “I would feed you with the finest of the wheat, and with the honey from the rock I would satisfy you” (Ps 81:16). We are nourished with the finest wheat and our thirst is quenched with the honey from the rock. The verse from the Psalm reveals the truth how God has taken the side of his people in their exodus. The people of Israel had suffered a lot because of the hunger and thirst and they invoked the Lord even to the extent of testing him. Lord, who is always attentive to the prayers of his people, had fed them: he fed his people with the finest of the food – Manna in the desert and with the tastiest drink – Water from the rock. - God, who has provided their physical nourishment to his people, has willed to fill them also with the spiritual nourishment of his Word. For this He has made an alliance (a covenant) with them. His covenant with his people was marked by the blood. This is narrated by today’s first reading: Moses takes the blood, sprinkles it first on the altar and then reads out the commandments of the covenant and when people have given their consent “their amen” to what is read, he sprinkles the blood also on them so that they become part of the covenant (Ex 14:6-8). This order of the alliance, (sprinkling of blood first on the altar, and only finally on the people), shows that it is God himself who takes the initiative to call people to himself, otherwise, by themselves people cannot climb to God because of their infidelity. He wills to be present among his people and he invites people to be open to this presence. - With the sprinkling of the blood the alliance was established between God and his people. Jesus too repeats the same order. First, he reveals Gods loving will to live among his people. Secondly, he invites his disciples to participate in that love by keeping his commandments. And finally, he establishes the new and eternal covenant between God and people by offering his own blood and by instituting the Eucharist. - The covenant Jesus establishes is new and eternal because it supersedes all the sacrifices of the Old Testament and transforms them into perfect sacrifice. The blood of the goat and rams of the Old Testament sacrifices is replaced by the “very blood” of Jesus himself. No more a third element of sacrifice but he himself becomes the victim for the covenant. This makes the New Testament alliance of God in Christ as an everlasting and perfect covenant. This is the mystery we are called to participate in so that we are filled with his presence and with his power to become his carriers of his love. Memorial of the Paschal Mystery – The Fruit of Redemption - The opening prayer of today’s celebration has twofold character: what Christ has left for us – the memorial, and what we receive from it – the benefits. The opening prayer of the mass goes this way: “Lord Jesus Christ, who has left to us the memorial of the Paschal mystery in the admirable sacrament of Eucharist, grant that we adore with the living faith, the mystery of your Body and your Blood, so that we feel within ourselves the benefits of the redemption.” The first part of the prayer reveals the mystery that Jesus has left with us his presence as the memorial celebration and the second part of the prayer is the invocation of faith so that we participate in the fruits of salvation. We reflect for a while on these two aspects of the prayer. - First – the memorial celebration of the paschal mystery: The Eucharist we celebrate every time in the Church is not a repetition of the sacrifice that is offered by Jesus on the cross. It is neither a simple repetition nor a simple acknowledgment. It is not even a mere recalling to our mind what Christ has done. It is more than that. Recalling has the presupposition of forgetting. Instead, it is a memory. It is a memory in which mind is always aware of what has already happened, thus eliminating the element of forgetting of it even for a single moment. Memory is something which remains always and in all times. It is the constant living of what has already happened as if it still takes place right now. It is a commemoration of what has been already accomplished once and for all. It is the same sacrifice of Jesus once fulfilled is now continued in his remembrance: “Do this in memory of me” is the command of Jesus on which the daily Eucharist is celebrated. The mystery is already fulfilled once and for all since Jesus has done it once and for all as the Letter to the Hebrews keeps it evident: “He entered into the sanctuary, once for all, not with the mediation of the blood of rams and goats but in the virtue of his own blood, to obtain in this manner the eternal redemption” (Heb 9:12). It cannot be repeated because it is not the blood the animals that was shed and which can often repeated but it was his own blood that was poured out. He knows that we cannot repeat it that’s the reason why he asked us to do it “in his memory”. Therefore, the Eucharist is the memorial celebration of the paschal mystery. - Second – the benefits of redemption: what was left with us by Jesus is the celebration of the Eucharist. We have to celebrate it with the living faith. The prayer helps us to learn to adore the body and blood of Christ. Adoring signifies both “admiration” and “mission”. Admiration of what has been presented to us should lead us to living of it as the part of our Christian mission. The fruits of the celebration do not come to us just with the admiration but with the vocation of it. We both profess our faith and testify it with our life. Both should go hand in hand or one should lead to the other: wonder of the mystery and living of the mystery or wonder leading to the living. - What are the benefits it fetches for us: first of all, by the celebration of the Eucharist, we become the real Eucharist; we become the mystery of love; we become like the one whom we receive in it: alter Christus – another Christ. Secondly, we participate in the promises of its nutrition. Jesus enumerates the fruit of the receiving of his body and blood. In his discourse about the “Living Bread” in St. John’s Gospel, sixth chapter (54-57), Jesus assures what will be the fruit of eating his body and drinking of his blood. He describes the four fruits: the one who eats his body and drinks his blood 1) has eternal life, 2) he will be raised up on the last day, 3) he lives in Jesus and Jesus lives in him and finally 4) he lives for him whom he receives. Jesus willed that he wants to be with them and in them in the form of their spiritual nutriment. For this he wills to make himself Eucharist in which he gives his body and pours out his blood. He calls his disciples to take part in this eternal meal. But at the end of the discourse we see many people walking away from him because they did not comprehend him well. They discussed and disputed among themselves with the questions: how can he give his flesh and blood? And how can we eat his flood and drink his blood? They did not want God to be with and within them. They did not imagine that God can present himself so closely to the people: to be with them and for them. They walked out because their intelligence could not reach God’s will of making alliance with his people in the Eucharist. Thus, the fruit of redemption is this: that our memorial celebration transforms us to be the living and visible Eucharistic presence in the world. Eucharist forms Christian and Christian forms the Eucharist - Eucharist is the fountain of Christian life: there is no Christian life without the celebration of the Eucharist. The true Christian takes his foundation and his force from it as if otherwise he has no breath for his life. This is true and the testimony for this is evident from the beginning of Christian faith and life: o The First Christian Communities gathered to “break the bread” – to celebrate Eucharist – for they knew that it is the only source which keeps them united and makes them a community (Acts 2:43-47 and 4:32-37). o The earlier martyrs testified it: “Without the Sunday’s celebration of the Eucharist we cannot live” was the testimony of the martyrs of Abitene. A martyr and a saint Felix believed that it is Eucharist which makes the Christian and Christian who makes the Eucharist. St. Leo the Great wrote that our participation in the Body and Blood of Christ transforms us into the one whom we receive. o Even in our times the Eucharist has the same unconditional and unchanging effect on the lives of the Christians. It forms the Church because it is only because of this celebration that all gather together. It is the life of the Christian community. It is for this reason, Vatican II exclaims Eucharist as the fountain and peak of all the sacraments. - We participate in the mystery of Eucharist: How blessed we are for we are given the possibility of embracing the Eucharistic presence of Jesus. When we participate in the Holy Mass, when we queue up for the communion reception, we touch Jesus by our hand, we taste him with our tongue, we receive him with our faith and finally we embrace him with our heart. This is the blessedness we are endowed with through our profession of Christian faith. We practically and really Touch, Taste, Feel and Embrace Jesus the Lord. This is the mystery. Still we become part of the mystery because he hold it tight in our heart. One the one hand, it is the will of Jesus to be with us and it was his desire from the beginning; it is for this he had assumed our human nature so that he can touch us (even wash our feet) and he can make himself our food and drink (even to become our body and blood). On the other hand, we are happy to receive the call of Jesus to participate in this mystery; unlike the hearers who went away failing to understand Jesus’ words (John 6:60-71), we have comprehended well his words and professed our faith like that of Peter “Lord, you have words of eternal life” (6:68) and finally become participants of the mystery of Eucharist. - Our preparation should be adequate: In order that our participation is worthy enough of the efficacy of the mystery we need to prepare ourselves well. There are many questions we have to ask ourselves before entering into the Church for the Holy Mass: where am I going? Am I really ready to receive him? Did I really prepare myself? How is my attitude towards receiving the Holy Communion? Am I worthy and well prepared? The preparation would be adequate for the reception of the mystery only when we are able to give answers for these questions. Our preparation should be sincere and authentic because it is not a joke or a game to receive the Lord himself into ourselves. It needs high attention and spiritual purification. We may receive the communion without good adequate preparation but what happens is: the communion becomes only a white host. It will not have any effect in our life just because we have not embraced it with worthy manner. Let us be alert and let us keep watching well our attitude and our presence around the altar. What we receive in the Eucharist should not go into misuse. We cannot give the bread from table to the dogs under it, Jesus warns. His warning is very applicable if we receive the “bread of life” with inadequate behavior. - Mystery is Open to us but the question is: Are we open to the mystery in the same manner? Let us celebrate the feast but let not the feast just a celebration but A Witness of Mystery of Eucharistic Love of Jesus. Our words must become actions. Our coming into the church must become our reaching out to other. On the entrance door of one of the Churches it is written: “Let us enter into the Church to love God and let us go away from the Church to love our neighbors”. Thus, it is we who have to become the “true Eucharist” and it is we who have to become “the real and visible presence of Jesus” in the Church and in the World.

TRINITY SUNDAY - Year B

TRINITY SUNDAY – Year B (Deuteronomy 4:32-34, 39-40; Rom 8:14-17; Math 28:16-20) Theme: We are generated in and by the Love of the Trinity Reflection: End of the Paschal mystery – Beginning of our journey of Faith in the name of the Trinity - We have completed the celebration of the Easter Time with the Solemnity of Pentecost – the descent of the Holy Spirit. The disciples are empowered and led to the truth as Jesus has promised. Jesus promised that when the Spirit comes he will bring his disciples into the understanding of the truth. Holy Spirit has arrived and rested on them in the form of tongues of fire. Fire symbolizes both purification and recreation: purification by burning what is of old nature and re-creation by making one into a new being on the other. Such work of the Spirit has already begun in the disciples. Their old nature of fear is burnt away and thus they are purified of their mind. They are created anew with the gift of courage and fortitude. And the effect is seen immediately in the preaching of the apostles and their testimony of life even to the extent of dying for their Lord, Jesus Christ. - After such a great celebration of the Paschal mystery with which we have to begin our true and daily journey, the Church admonishes us to begin the Ordinary Time of the Year by reflecting once again on the great mystery of God and his love for the humanity. As a result of this desire of the Church we celebrate in the coming Sundays, including today, the feasts of the Lord: first, the Trinity, then, the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ and finally the Sacred Heart of Jesus. - In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit: We start, thus, this Sunday and the days in the rest of the year, in the Holy Name of the Trinity. We require such a celebration of the Trinitarian mystery because Triune God is the foundation of our faith, life, journey and our final destiny: “we live, move and have our being in HIM.” What happens when we invoke the name of the Trinity? We become mindful of the PRESENCE and EFFECT of the Three Divine Persons who is, in a mystery, the Holy Trinity. There are Three Divine Persons and all existing as one God; we may attribute and distribute particular events and interventions to each of the Persons, such as, the creation to the Father, the redemption to the Son and the sanctification to the Holy Spirit. We may do it in the human logic and human understanding, but in reality and in mystery, they are not divided and they remain an inseparable unity. Indeed, each particular event is the common act of the three persons together. Trinity in Perfect Unity – unveiled in the mysteries of creation, salvation and sanctification - We can revise once again the mystery of the unity of the Trinity in relation to the creation, salvation and the sanctification of man and the world: o in the creation, though it is attributed exclusively to God the Father, there is the presence of the Son in form of the Word spoken and there is also the presence of the Spirit hovering on the waters; o in the redemption, though it is attributed exclusively to God the Son, there is the presence of the Father in form of the Will fulfilled and Plan accomplished and there is also the presence of the Spirit which has led the Son to carry on the mission that the Father has commissioned him; o and finally in the sanctification, though it is attributed exclusively to God the Spirit, there is the presence of the Father who is the fountain of all sanctity and holiness and there is the merit of Son’s death and resurrection through which the purification and sanctification flow and to give full completion, the Spirit who sanctifies comes from the Father and the Son and therefore, there could not be the Spirit except in and through the Father and the Son. - The Trinitarian Unity is the Source for the unity of whole creation and whole humanity: o We find it hard to prove, in the human level and in the human concepts, the mystical union of the Three Divine Persons. But in the revelation of the Scriptures, both in the Old Testament or in the New Testament, we observe the presence and the effect of the united work of the Trinity with regard to the whole creation and humanity. o In the Old Testament we see the undivided design of God for the salvation of man. The whole plan of God and all the events that take place within this view go hand in hand as the many rings of the same chain. The chain is unbreakable from the creation to the intervention of God in choosing for himself a people and till the extension of the promise to whole humanity. It is the one and same mystery of God within the framework his promise of salvation. o In the New Testament we see the continuation of the same redemptive design of God. It is not something that starts newly with the New Testament but what whas already initiated by God in the form of promise is brought to its fulfillment. The only novelty is that this fulfillment has taken place in the perfect and eternal manner. But the unity of the chain continues. The will and design of God has been fully obeyed and brought to the completion (“It is accomplished” – the final words of Jesus on the cross) by the Word made flesh, Jesus Christ. This is the mystery of God in the process of salvation. o In the Time between the salvation and eschatological consummation, that is in our present time of the Church, the unity of God’s plan continues. We see the presence of the Holy Spirit who inspires and sanctifies and leads all to the communion in God. Even this is not a divided mystery but the same mystery of the Old and New Testaments. Thus, the unity flows from the beginning of the creation to the ultimate end of it on the last day. This is the mystery of God in the progress of salvation. o In this way, it is the whole Trinity who has worked for the salvation of man and creation. Not just single person but the totality of the Three Persons who is the cause of creation, redemption and the sanctification. - The presence of the Trinity in the work of salvation: o The project of salvation: it is the Father who promises the savior, it is Son, who is present in every Word spoken by the prophets and it is the Spirit who is present in transmitting the word by the Father; o The Incarnation: it is the Father who has sent the angel Gabriel to Mary with the good news of salvation and blessings of grace; it is the Son who has taken human form in her womb; and it is the Holy Spirit who has come down upon her. o The Paschal event: the passion-death-resurrection of Jesus Christ: it is the Father who wills, it is Jesus who obeys and completes it and it is the Spirit who strengthens Jesus to accept and fulfill this will of the Father for the salvation of humanity. o The Pentecost: we have seen already in the last week about this: it is Father who sends the Spirit in and through the merits of Jesus Christ his, Son and finally it is the Spirit who descends to initiate his mission of sanctification of the world and leading it the Father. o The Eucharist and other Sacraments: in the Eucharist, the fountain and culmination of all the sacraments, it is the Word of the Father that is Spoken, it is the Deed of the Son enacted and it is the Power of the Spirit that effects the fruit of salvation: It is the Father who sends the word. It is the Word/Son who is spoken. It is the Spirit that speaks. Therefore, in our time, it is the Eucharist which is the fullest manifestation of the Holy Trinity and we can contact and interact with God the Trinity in our daily Liturgy. o The Church: the Church is a mystery and therefore, we can see the presence and effect of the Holy Trinity in the Church too:  Church is the People of God, the Father (the people who are chosen/elected, bought and redeemed and in a word, the people that God called for himself)  Church is the Mystical Body of Christ, the Son (the body which has Jesus as its Head, the Spouse who is washed and prepared by the Bride-groom for himself)  Church is the Temple of the Holy Spirit (the temple in which the Spirit pitches his tent, the holy place in which the Spirit dwells, the holy edifice where the Spirit acts).  Church is One because it is Trinitarian. Church is Holy because it belongs to the Father who is Holy. Church is Catholic because the redeeming act of Jesus has universal character as he has died for all. Church is Apostolic because it is the succession that is transmitted by the power of the Holy Spirit. God in One and Three – a mystery of the Trinity - Is God one or many? in other words, Is God monotheistic or polytheistic? In the Christian Faith God is One but not monotheistic as in the Jewish and Islamic belief. Judaism and Islam believe that they only one God, God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. God is not even polytheistic in the Christian understanding just because there are Three Divine Persons in the Godhead and each of them being God in himself, constitute only one God. This is the mystery. Mystery which remains a mystery for the human logic. Still it is mystery revealed and manifested in the Second Person Jesus Christ: o We cannot simply bypass the mystery of Trinity because Jesus himself proclaims it in his word and deed when he says that:  He is sent by the Father (it is Father who sent me and I am in the Father and the Father is in me)  He himself is the witness of the Father (I have not done what is mine but what my Father has told me to do)  He promises the Spirit who will be sent after his return to his Father; o In the baptism of Jesus once again the Trinity is revealed as it was in the Incarnation:  Jesus who has gone to river Jordan to be baptized  Father speaks about his son: “he is my beloved son, listen to him”.  The Spirit comes down on him in the form of a dove. o Therefore, if we really believe in Christ, we believe also his words and we accept his deeds with faith in which there is the manifestation of the Trinitarian God. So Our God is neither monotheistic because there are Three Individual Divine Persons (God the Father, God the Son and God the Spirit), nor he is polytheistic because these Three Persons are not three God but one God (Triune God). He is the Triune God: God in three divine persons. Trinity is Unity of Love – the only way to know him is Love - Trinity is Unity and Community in Love o Trinity is Unity: as we have reflected the Three Persons in Godhead are United just because they are in Love and they are the love; o Trinity is the Community: Three divine person, not being divided, creates the community:  Trinity is a family without borders of hatred and heredity;  He is a society without barriers of race and color;  He is a world without limits of war and aggression. In this way, the Trinity stands as a model for the family-society-world and on the whole: to the whole humanity and creation itself. o This is in the bond of Love: love is not an act of a single person; there should be at least three elements which constitute love:  One who loves (the Father)  One who is love (the Son)  The love that passes from one to the other (the Spirit) - The knowledge and understanding of the Trinity is possible only in Faith and Love: o Ideas fails because they are personal (each one has his own idea and his own background for thinking and finally the personal thinking is always limited to the self) o Philosophy fails because it is not objective (each philosophy has its reasons when the reason has limits and cannot go ahead it concludes that ‘the object’ doesn’t exist just because it is not conceivable, tangible and do not fall in the spheres of knowledge) o Theology also fails because it is only a search towards the Objective Truth (theology can really go beyond the reason and really work hard to search and can coin many words: for example : hypostatic union in the matter of Christ’s humanity and divinity; consubstantiation: to explain the presence of Jesus in the Eucharist; it is nice to see the progressive aspect in the theology but it has its limits to reach and to express the ultimate Truth) o Only Faith understands it and Only Love reaches it:  In Faith: we leave aside our own limited ideas, leave aside the philosophical reasoning, leave aside also theological failures and we can, more than knowing God in concepts and words, Adore him as he is;  In Love: as we have seen, love has no limits either personal or not even common (because majority believes it need not be true in the matter of God); it reaches beyond; it lives this moment of unity and community; - To Believer and to Love - Our immediate action and is the only secure way: o Keeping aside thinking how God looks like, how is he and where is and all (all the questions are only in the human mind; God has no questions, instead, stands as an ANSWER for all; o Living in faith and love: We are not in the capacity to come out of our own mind to understand others giving them the chance of talking. We are not in the capacity to come out of our own homes to meet others giving them the chance of entering. Still further, we are not in the capacity to sacrifice our own life to give other a chance of living. This is our human limitedness. In such a finitude of our being, how can we presuppose to understand the mystery of God and his presence and effect in us; we need to transcend our finitude and give way to the faith and to the love. - The only way we have before us is: TO BELIEVE AND TO LOVE. The faith keeps the human logic aside to give way to the embrace of a mystery. Love makes the one to totally surrender himself to the mystery without any doubt even if it costs his very life. And in Christian understanding both faith and love are the two aspects of the same coin and two realities of the same mystery. - Therefore, acknowledging that we are born out of the love of the Triune God, let us take glory only in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and glorify him saying: Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit as it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be world without end, Amen.

PENTECOST - Year B

PENTECOST – Year B (Acts 2:1-11; Gal 5:16-25; John 15:26-27, 16: 12-15) Theme: We are the people of the Holy Spirit and hence people of Life Reflection: Pentecost – the Fiftieth Day of the Resurrection of Jesus - Today we celebrate the Pentecost – the feast of the Holy Spirit. It is the commemoration of the descent of the Holy Spirit upon Mary and the Apostles, the first community of believers. Holy Spirit is the greatest and ultimate gift of Risen Jesus. He proclaimed about the coming of the Holy Spirit. He promised the same the Advent of the Spirit. And finally He sent the Spirit of Truth and the Advocate of Life to his disciples. Thus, the proclamation and the promise are realized today with the hovering of the Holy Spirit. It is made a reality. - Pentecost is not the name of the feast. It is an adjective which underlines the Greek term with the meaning of the “Day”. Therefore, it is the Fiftieth Day. What actually means is the Descent of the Holy Spirit on the Fiftieth Day. Why and what is this fiftieth day? It is the fiftieth day from the Resurrection of Jesus. Forty days the Risen Jesus appeared to the various believers including the disciples; he confirmed them in faith; he commissioned them to proclaim the Gospel of Life; he asked them to wait for the coming of the Spirit for the strength; then he ascended into heaven on the fortieth day; after ten days of Jesus Ascension Jesus has sent his Spirit into the world and on to his disciples. Therefore, it is on the fiftieth day of the resurrection that the Spirit has come down. The number “fiftieth” may not be the truth of revelation. The number is the Church’s creation with the deep study of the Scriptures. It is not, thus, as though God has followed the numbers correctly and has acted accordingly. God has no particular time and particular dates. He acts according to his Will and to his Goodness. - Fiftieth is the divine number: It is the Church, always under the guidance of the Spirit, who has understood the number of the fiftieth. In the scripture it is already indicated that it has divine connotation. It is the number of symbol and significance: seven is the holy number and the day after seven times seven (thus forty nine), the fiftieth is the holy number which reminds of the Year of the Grace of the Lord. Therefore, the fiftieth number indicates the “fulfillment of a time of God in history.” In the Old Testament it remembers two events: o The memory of the Covenant: the first event is the Hebrew feast, the feast which comes after the seven weeks of the Paschal escape from Egypt. In this feast they remind themselves of their alliance with God on the Mount Sinai. Therefore, they commemorate the day of the Law and the day of the Covenant which God has made with them through Moses. o The Year of God’s Favor: the fiftieth year was celebrated as the year of God’s favor. It is the precept of God himself that the people of Israel have to follow and observe. According to the precept the fiftieth year has to be proclaimed to be the year of pardon, liberation and restitution. The slaves have to be forgiven of their guilt. They have to be liberated. And finally, they have to be given back their properties. In a word, the slavery is eradicated and the liberty is proclaimed. This indicates that the Lord has showered upon them His Favor. Pentecost – the Day of God’s Grace - Announcing the time of God’s Action and Favor: The Old Testament celebrates every fiftieth year as the Year of God’s special favor. As we have already reflected, those who are under the slavery are offered the forgiveness, freedom and regain of their belongings. It is as though they have said good bye for the past and oppressed life and have restarted their life from the beginning. The old is gone and the new has begun. They are no more slaves but free children of God because it is He who has given them the favor of life. - In fact, Jesus himself started his mission with the proclamation of the event of God’s Favor which will be ultimately realized in Him. His first words remind us this truth: o “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor” (Luke 4:18-19). Jesus repeats and realizes in himself the prophecy of Isaiah and thus he says “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing” (Luke 4:21). o In the beginning of his public appearance he announced the kingdom of God: “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news” (Mark 1:15). With these words Jesus inaugurates God’s kingdom of freedom, love and the peace in the Holy Spirit (Rom 14:17) and invites his hearers to accept it so that they will also have a new life of forgiveness, liberation and restitution. - Spirit will announce what Jesus has accomplished: today’s gospel gives the nourishment for the truth that the work of the spirit is only the continuation of what Jesus has already fulfilled. Spirit continues. The agents of the work of God are Jesus and the Spirit. Jesus established and confirmed the kingdom of God by his death and resurrection. Now it is the time of the Spirit to carry on the same work of sanctification and the salvation of humanity and the world. It is what Jesus already promises about the Spirit saying that “He will glorify me, because he will take what is mine and declare it to you” (John 16:14). Spirit does not act on his own without the command of Jesus. He does not speak of his own things and for his own glory. He only takes what is already proclaimed and fulfilled by Jesus and reveals their significance in the individual and community life of the believers. This is the work of the Spirit sent by Jesus. Thus, Jesus who is not physically present in the world after his ascension sends the Spirit to be present with the believer and with all so that all will be offered the possibility for God’s favor. - Spirit gives the testimony for the Christ’s event: the assurance of Jesus is that the Advocate is the ultimate testimony for his work. He says “When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who comes from the Father, he will testify on my behalf” (John 15:26). The Spirit that the Risen Jesus will send is the Spirit of Truth. He will reveal the truth behind the words of Jesus, the words which seemed to be hard for his listeners (John 6:60-71). He will make them understand the loving design of God behind every word and action of Jesus. He has nothing but to speak and to act in the name of Jesus. He does everything on the behalf of Jesus and in the place of Him. Therefore, the only task of the Spirit in the world is to give testimony to the mystery of Jesus Christ. - Spirit is the ‘Breath’ of the Resurrection: After he has risen from the dead and while the disciples are still with the fear of Jews, Jesus has appeared to them and breathed on them. This breath is the breath of life and thus, is the breath of the Spirit and he continues with that: “receive the Holy Spirit” (John 20:22). Jesus has already given them the experience of the Spirit in that moment. The disciples have experienced with it feeling inside of them the peace and the courage. Only that they have to still wait for the descent of the Holy Spirit in the fullest manner and that happens in the Pentecost. The coming of the Holy Spirit is the fullness of life and God’s favor. This is what Jesus has promised and fulfilled. For this he has come into the world, manifested it with his words and deeds, accomplished it with his paschal event, and finally brought all his followers to it in the Spirit. The purpose of whole of life of Jesus is to announce God’s favor to all and call them all to participate in it with the power of the Spirit. Pentecost – the Day of Fire and the Day of Unity - Spirit of Fire: the Holy Spirit has descended upon the Apostles in the tongues of fire. It is one of the forms of the Spirit in the Bible. There are many images with which the Spirit is attested: the water, the dove, the wind and so forth. But the very moment of His Descent has taken place in the form of fire. Therefore, the fire must have some very special significance. The Spirit appeared in the tongues of fire. What are the common characters of fire? o The fire burns: the first quality of the fire is to burn something that comes into its contact. It makes into ashes what is put into it. It extinguishes what exists before. And the Spirit as Fire does the same. It takes hold of us and burns us to the end. It makes us into ashes. It burns what we are before. What we are will be burnt out and we become Spirit filled, as if we do not have anymore our life and but life of the Spirit. Our old existing will be extinguished so that breath of the Spirit refills us. o The fire moulds: the second quality of the fire is to mould. We here of the proverb: “the gold is tested by fire”. Here the fire has the capacity to give another shape to what is put in it. The better example in our day-to-day life is the iron put in the fire. In the fire the iron is shaped and reshaped as one wants. Iron is molded in and by fire. So also with the presence of the Holy Spirit. As fire it moulds our hardened hearts. Our lives are rocky and hard before the Spirit’s coming. With the coming of the Spirit we become mild and gentle. We become so elastic to be shaped according to the will of God. o The fire forms and transforms: the burning and molding characters of the Holy Spirit are destined to form us into the image of God and to transform us into his Children. Our old nature will be eradicated and we start new life. We are no more old creatures but new creatures with the efficacious presence of the Holy Spirit. The formation of our Christian life and the transformation of our Christian task begin its course with the coming of the Spirit. Spirit does not keep quite. It starts its work immediately. - Spirit of Unity: the first miraculous happening of the day of Pentecost is exactly this. The spirit gathers together all the believers of Jesus Christ under one roof. It creates in them the dimension of communion. This is what happened when the Spirit has come upon all those gathered here. The principle of the union and communion is the primary gift of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost. o Without the Spirit, the division: There is a mention of the tower of Babel in the first chapters of the book of Genesis. What happened there is on the contrary to the plan and purpose of God. There, men have acted against the will of God. They wanted to exhibit their human knowledge and capacity. In their blindness of pride and arrogance they started building the tower so that they could reach the heavens. They rejected the being God’s creature and thus depending on him for their existence. They evil intention is manifested in their will to climb heights of heavens with their own capabilities. In a word, they have started acting against the spirit and will of God. What happened henceforth? God has divided them in confusion. He made them not to understand each other. All were talking in the same language but no one understood the other. The confusion of their language and the division of their work and finally, they collapsed in failure. It is an event in which it is proved that without God’s spirit of oneness no one can succeed. o With the spirit, the unity: the opposite happens with the coming of the Spirit. We see this in today’s first reading. There are people from different parts of the world gathered there. On the day of the Pentecost, after receiving the Spirit, all are filled with the gift of tongues. They started speaking in other languages and for the surprise of everyone (Acts 2:7), all the hearers are able to understand them clearly in their native language. It is all because “the Spirit gave them ability” (Acts 2:4). There was the confusion of the language and the misunderstanding in the case of Babel Tower. Now just the opposite. With the spirit there is the clarity of language and understanding of each other. o All the believers are united into one family of God: all those who profess faith share in the same grace of the Lord and therefore belong to the one family of God. We are not anymore expected to live in the confusion and misunderstanding. Instead, we have to manifest our openness to the other and our hearty comprehension towards the others. The space that is created by the Spirit is: all to be united with one heart and one soul. This was the first quality of the first Christian community filled with the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:43-47 and Acts 4:32-37). The unity of the believers is exhibited ultimately in their sharing and offering each to the other in fraternity. Therefore, there is the fraternity of love and unity. Pentecost – a task to eliminate the distances and testify the life of community - World of division: now we are living in a world which is divided in all its spheres. The division is seen among the family members, in the society, in work and in the communities of Christian faith too. This is the reality that exists now, though often we negate it. o The technological development has proved itself failure of unity because it has cause many divisions in the various aspects. It has fallen short of its success of communion. It has given the possibility of individual and private life rather than encouraging the common and community life. In this way, although the technology has produced the impression of creating free choices, it has ultimately destroyed the common sense of the people because with the private life they have completely forgotten their community responsibility. o Growth in the other arias, like that of the psychology, philosophy and even sociology have given, rise only to the respect of individual. Of course, they are very important for personal growth and character development. But they are not enough for the Christian witness. They have blocked the testimony of the Christian togetherness, because they learnt to live personally and not for the community. o And in all the other spheres of human life, there are many hurdles that stop the virtue of personal sacrifice and the sharing of one’s talents and capabilities (not only material goods) with others. It is our experience in the daily life. The personal talents are mostly used for the accumulation of personal wellbeing, rather than, for the common good and for the building of just and loving society. o In this way, today’s society is consummated and contaminated with the individual and private life and success than the common welfare which is the part of building the kingdom of God. In a word, the world of today is the witness of various divisions rather than the unity which is the fruit of the Holy Spirit. - Christians are the witness of the unity: in this situation, we as Christians are called to be the first ones to live this unity and to proclaim it with their life and action. We have to be the living testimony for the God’s proposal and act of unity in the Spirit. In this way, we have to be united first with the same mind and heart. Our community or parish life should be of one family of believers. We have to witness this not with our words alone, but more effectively with our very living. In a word, we have to be An ANSWER for the World division and we have to be A RESPONSE to the World’s attitude of private life. - The question we have to ask is: are we really the people of the Pentecost? Then the answer becomes easy in the light of the word of God that is proclaimed to us today. Are we united ourselves first? Are we ready to be burnt by the Holy Spirit so that we are molded into the formed and reformed beings of God’s Spirit? Are we ready to be taken over by the spirit so that we become the witness for the unity of the Spirit? - The answer is not of a word but of our very life. Our daily living is the proof for the presence of the Spirit. We are the ones as such to remove the distances, between the families, between friendships, between those who work in the various working fields and finally between the communities of various forms. The only way for saying that we are celebrating the Pentecost is that we are full of the Spirit and the witnesses of Christian unity and life. - Therefore, let us remind ourselves that “We are the people of the Holy Spirit and hence people of Life”, and only then we celebrate the feast with the worthy manner. Glory be to the Spirit, Amen.

ASCENSION OF THE LORD - Year B

ASCENSION OF THE LORD – Year B (Acts 1:1-11; Eph 1:1-13; Mark 16:15-20) Theme: With the ascension of Jesus we are raised to the Capacity to Transcend Reflection Jesus ascends with the glorious body - Today we celebrate the Feast of the Ascension of Jesus. Jesus enters into the heavens. It is the important moment in the life of Jesus. He has come down from heaven and accomplished the purposed for which he has come and now is the time to go back and sit in the glorious throne from where he has descended. This moment of ascension complete the earthly life of Jesus even in his glorious body. Before the passion, death and resurrection earthly life of Jesus was in his human body. But once he has passed through the moments of suffering, death his body has become glorious. - It is with the glorious body that Jesus appeared to the disciples and other people after his resurrection. It is because of this glorious aspect that Jesus was able to enter into the room with the doors closed. It is because of this glorious aspect that Jesus was not recognized immediately by the disciples of Emmaus though he was walking with them and talking them about the scriptures. It is because of this glorious body that Jesus can appear to them suddenly and disappear from them in a fraction of a second. - Today Jesus ascends to heaven with the glorious body. He is taken up into heaven by the Father. He has the power to come down and has the power to go up too, just he has the authority to give his life and to take it again (John 10:18). He is always conscious of this and especially with this consciousness of his time to return to His Father (John 13:1-2) that Jesus has put himself towards Jerusalem and starting living the moments of glory in the humility and in the death on the cross. After gaining victory over sin and over death through his resurrection of the body Jesus confirms the glorious life that awaits all who believe in him. Assuring it further the hope of eternal life that Jesus ascends into heaven. Therefore, it is with the ascension that the earthly life of Jesus reaches its completion and it is with the ascension that the descent and the mission of the Holy Spirit has its beginning. Ascension is a moment of Joy and also a moment of Mission Entrusted - Jesus did not ascend into heaven immediately after his resurrection. He would have certainly done it. He preferred to remain with his own for some more time. It is not only to prove that he is truly risen. Apart from confirming them in the faith of risen life, he has something more to do. He has to give final testimony to all that he has done before the resurrection. His testimony of risen life was consisting in his donation of peace, unity and love to his people so that they all stay together as one community of believers. This is what we have been reflecting all through the time of Easter. To have a glance at what we have meditated upon we remind ourselves: that Jesus has offered peace to the frightened disciples; that he has given the comfort and consolation to the disparate disciples of Emmaus; that he has donated to them the possibility of remaining with him and be united to him with the resurrected life as the binding force. - This shows that Jesus had to accomplish the mission of affirming and confirming his disciples in the faith and hope of the eternal life. As a continuation of this mission Jesus entrusts the same vocation of calling the people of all nations into the faith that can save them. Jesus accomplishes from his part what is to be completed on earth. Even commissioning of his disciples to go and proclaim the gospel is part of his Risen Mission. only after doing this that He ascends into heave. This is what we hear from the readings of today: “After his suffering he presented himself alive to them by many convincing proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God… when he has said this, as they were watching, he was lifted up” (Acts 1:3, 9). And again “So then the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven…” (Mark 16:19). He has given them the mission of preaching the good news of risen life and only then he ascended into heaven. - This indicates that there is certainly a connection between the resurrection and the ascension: the connecting aspect is the mission of proclamation and testimony. Jesus after showing them the glory and joy of resurrection he does not leave them like that but gives them the mission of testifying this glory and joy to the world. This mission in which we participate is the knot between the risen life we are called to in our baptism and the eternal life we will receive with our ascension into heaven. Therefore, we have the joy of having life of Jesus and we have also the vocation of spreading this life through our word and work. This is the preparation we can do for the moment of our ascension one day into heaven. Human capacity blocked by sin and re-opened by Jesus - “Reach High”, “Hold the skies” and “Climb to the heavens”, are the words we often use in our life. This is the aspiration every man has. Everyone wants to “go up” in life, “reach the heights”, and “touch the sky” and thus wants to climb to the heaven. Human being is capable of doing this. Naturally he is given the capacity for transcending what is below and to reach what is above. - Human being is a composite of both body and soul, thus a physic and a spirit. He has a need of the body and a need of the spirit. More than a need he has a desire: A desire to become better and best, a desire to supersede all, a desire to stand on the highest point of achievement. He is in tension between these two realities which are integrated into him as one being. The body seeks for something visible, touching, and earthly. The spirit instead looks for something invisible, beyond peripheral and thus other worldly. This tension that makes man both being and becoming. As a being he is in the world and as a becoming he wants to go beyond this world. - It is natural aspiration of man to grow and to better himself. The natural philosophy also affirms this that man is capable of transcending himself because he is spirited being, not just biological being. The theological understanding of man also confirms this that man is “the image and likeness of God” and thus has the dignity of his fellowship with God, the divine being. - The desire is took the wrong direction: the desire of human being to utilize his natural capability to reach heights is thwarted by his selfishness and pride. Biblical revelation helps us understand it better. The desire of first of man has taken wrong step and wrong decision. He desired not only to go beyond himself and to reach certain heights but more than that “he wanted to be God”. This is the first sin of man and we call it original sin or original guilt. By desiring to be like God man has lost his lost his natural capacity to ascend. He became incapable because he failed to judge between good and bad and finally failed to choose good and has fallen to the temptation of equating himself with God. From here the natural desire of man to reach heights has taken another direction. In everything man stated looking for his own achievements and success in selfishness and in pride. The result is that he has become purely earthly and this worldly. He started suppressing his spirit which strives for goodness and for something beyond this world. He started neglecting and destroying the cries of the soul which longs for the life of happiness and blessedness. As a result, the doors of heaven and the possibility of transcendence are blocked in some way. Alone and by himself, Man finds himself incapable of attaining what his spirit desires. He needs someone to open the doors of the skies/heavens. He needs someone who can bring back to him the possibility for transcendence. He needs someone who can buy back to him the natural capability which is lost by his sin of pride and arrogance. It is Jesus who has come to rescue man from this condition of incapacity and put him in the right way of self-transcendence. - In Jesus the Heavens are Opened: the heavens are opened by Jesus for his coming and for his going back, thus for the incarnation and for the ascension. By his death, resurrection and ascension Jesus has re-opened not only the doors of heaven but also the blocked incapacity of man. Man is made capable again. Man is raised from the fall of grace. Man is given the capacity to transcend. The way is prepared, the truth is revealed and the life is offered and it happened in Jesus who is the Way, the Truth and the Life. Today’s liturgy reassures us this truth that in the ascension of the Lord our humanity is elevation to the divine living and divine nature. - Peter too proclaims the truth that in the resurrection and ascension of Jesus we have become participants in the divine nature: “His divine power has given us everything needed for life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Thus he has given us, through these things, his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may escape from the corruption that is in the world because of lust, and may become participants of the divine nature” (2 Peter 1:3-4). We are made holy. We are made capable of godliness. Our human nature assumes the divine nature. Our body becomes glorious with the effect of resurrection. Our spirit is place in the capacity to transcend and reach heights with the effect of ascension. - Paul also acclaims our condition of being elevated with the fruits of the paschal mystery of Jesus, that is, with his death, resurrection and ascension: “God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ – by grace you have been saved – and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (Eph 2:4-6). We are saved. We are given mercy. We are raised to new life. We are elevated to the grace of sitting with him in heaven. With the death our human old nature is buried and with the resurrection we are called to participate in the divine and glorious nature. - The work of God in Jesus Christ and in the Spirit is this: that God knows the helplessness and pathetic condition of man and thus he himself comes down in the person of Jesus to drag man out the pit of incapacity. He does this with the very act of assuming the same fallen nature of man. He has taken upon himself the fallen and deteriorating nature of man as the consequence of sin and has raised it to the glorified and transcending divine nature. We are called to Ascend and Transcend: we are place in the ascending movement - With the work of Christ and in particular with his resurrection and ascension Jesus has made fallen man divine and holy. Man is brought back to the ascending movement. With the selfishness, pride, arrogance of technological development on the one hands, and with the fears of limitedness and desperation on the other, Man is in continuous and constant struggle in his journey towards the transcendence. To such man, an answer for his paradoxical existence and strength for his frightened living is provided in the very person of Jesus Christ. Therefore, the solution is available. - The availability of the answer or solution is not enough. First thing is that man should come to the consciousness of that God has already answered all his existential problems. Secondly he should believe that he is elevated to the capacity for transcendence. Thirdly, he should step ahead to assimilate to himself the dispositions available. Only then man can fully become capable for making this movement towards the heavens – reaching to the skies. - Once he knows where he stands with the faith made available in God he always has the possibility to “look upwards”. This looking upwards, growing in heights has the positive meaning. It is not as the first man has done with desiring to become ‘like God’. It is looking up with hope and not with arrogance. The hope of rising above himself and reaching out to God who is the sources of this ascension. - We, as Christians, have to understand that we are the children from “above” and we belong to the nature and sphere “above”. This knowledge leads us to the truth that we have no stable tent here on earth but only up in the heavens. This truth which keeps us looking above as the disciples were looking above as Jesus was ascending. They did not want to keep their eyes down or their sight on earth. It is here that the angels remind them this ascension will take place also in their lives when they carry on the vocation that he has called to. - Look above but work down: the ascension also teaches us that we are in the world and we have to work in and for the world, at the same time keeping in mind that we are not of the world. Our citizenship is not of this world. Our permanent living is not in this world. Our tent is only temporary here. One day we have to fly. One day we have to rise above. One day we have to reach the heavens. But the time we have now and here is the time of hope. - With the hope as our weapon we keep on battling with the earthly nature that makes us fall again and again. With the hope as our instrument of growth we strive for the realization of Kingdom by and through us in the world. And with the hope as our guard we rise every moment above ourselves so that we come nearer and nearer to our future ascension. Conclusion: One thing we should keep in mind always: as the result of the ascension of Jesus we are called to Ascend and Transcend: we are placed in the ascending movement. Our true humanity is being available for the work of the Spirit in and through us. Our true divinity is to look upwards with the hope of meeting our Lord one day in His Glory. Mean while what we have to do is: to keep ourselves completely in this movement towards the Glorified Lord.

SIXTH SUNDAY OF EASTER - YEAR B

SIXTH SUNDAY OF EASTER – B (Acts 10:25-6, 34-35, 44-48; 1John 4:7-10; John 15:9-17) Theme: Love is the first and the final gift of God to us Reflection - Today is the last Sunday of Easter. Next Sunday we will celebrate the Ascension of Jesus into heaven. All through these weeks we have been reaping the fruit of the Resurrection of the Lord. Also today we reap the greatest and tastiest fruit: love. Each Sunday of Easter has filled us with its effect. Each weekly celebration of this holy time has offered us the delicious fruit. - The fruits we have already tasted in the times passed are: specially, in the beginning days of Easter there was a gift of peace to the frightened disciples in the room; later there was a gift of presence to the escaping disciples on the road to Emmaus in which Jesus has manifested himself in the breaking of the bread; little later, there was a gift of unity offered to all the dispersed disciples and extended to the flock outside, the gift brought and bought by Jesus, the Good Shepherd, by giving his life for his sheep; the same gift of the Risen Jesus, the gift of union and communion, a gift of becoming one body and one head has been offered to us in the parable of the Wine and the Branches; with that the intimate union that is restored with His Death and Resurrection has to take its effect in all those who believe in him. - The same is extended for today also: the gift of love. It was the eternal love which Jesus has manifested to his Sheep by pouring out his whole life for the sheep. It was the Trinitarian love which Jesus has revealed with his intimate union with the Father and with the Spirit. It is the same love, Resurrected Love that Jesus is offering us today. This love is from God and God is love. It is not human love which has boundaries but this love is divine love which meets no confines but moves to the extent of doing anything for the friendship. God’s Love Has No Limits – Mere Humans Cannot Comprehend It - God has no preferences: the first reading of today expresses this truth that God does not show favoritism. All are equal for him. All are his creatures and his children in his love. He is creator and Father to them all. As a Father he does not show any preferences. He loves his children equally. Among his Children, may be few are at home and few are outside; may be few are elder brothers, may be others younger; may be few wish to remain with their Father, may be others wish to try their own free life; may be few are still under the Father’s command, may be others make themselves masters; this is only human logic and human calculation. For God everyone is equal. Distance is not a matter for him. His Fatherly concern is so great that he waits with patience and pardon. He eagerly seeks for all those who are outside, who live their own life, who fail to come to him, who have chosen to go away from him. He does not want that even one is lost in his fate. - He himself takes the Initiative: God knows that man who has gone away from Him is losing his life. God knows that such a man cannot come back by himself because he closes himself in ignorance and in darkness. God also knows that man cannot begin again his return journey by himself unless somebody helps him to see the way, the truth and the life. It is because of this condition of man that God himself makes the first movement towards man. It is because of this situation of man that God himself takes the initiative to recall man back to himself. And it is because of the incapability and incapacity of man to return that God sends his Light: His Son Jesus Christ. - The Way is made ready: God has prepared the way for them to return to the authentic life. The way that God has paved and kept open and wide in front of man is the mystery of His Son Jesus Christ. The way was prepared not so easily but with the very life of His Son who has taken the place of fallen man and thus dying for them and on behalf of them. This way of return is not for some only. It is for all. It is not blocked but kept open for all to embrace it and to follow it. Anybody can find it anytime and can follow it in order to participate in the friendship of the Lord. - Return road is prepared for Cornelius: such a way is made today for a pagan Cornelius. The way of Jesus is revealed to the pagan authority and the representative of Rome. Though he was persecuting the early Christians he was elected by God. When other disciples and the crowds refused to accept the newly converted Cornelius, it is Peter who makes them to see the love of God in calling Cornelius into the community of believers. It is in this context that Peter makes this statement that God does not show partiality and has no preferences but accepts and embraces everyone who fears him and does justice. There is no difference of nation, race and the status. Whoever comes to him He accepts. - Love goes beyond: by calling Cornelius to participate in the life and faith of his people, God has demonstrated his immense and immeasurable love. He revealed the love which crosses the boundaries and confines of human mind. Humans cannot so easily forgive and embrace the offender but God’s love is so wide it can hold anything and everything. The account of Cornelius and the proclamation of Peter manifest this in today’s first reading. Love is the Essence of God: Love is the Knot between His Children - God’s love surpasses all human logic and human preferences. Cornelius conversion and insertion into God’s house-hold is the example put forward for us today to prove this. In the second reading and the Gospel we climb little higher and find out that this love is the very essence of God. Its further claim can be that: God is Love and Love is God (1John 4:721). This makes clear to us that Love and God are not different from each other: they are one and the same. Personification of Love is God and Manifestation of God is Love. One is unimaginable without the Other. One cannot exist without the Other. Therefore, we have two directions that are to be pondered over: Love as the Essence of God and Love as the essence of His Children: first, God’s love for us and our love for each other: One Bond with Two Knots: love of God and love of neighbor. - First – Love is the Essence of God: John, the evangelist of love proclaims this truth in every syllable of his writings. It is with this truth of Love that he begins his Gospel and it is again with the exhortation of this Love that he also ends his Letters. o The one biggest manifestation of God’s love, according to his theology is: In His Son Jesus Christ. His affirmation is that: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life” (John 3:16) and the same is confirmed later: “God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him” (1 John 4:9). o Jesus proclaims the mystery of love and it is seen in his discourse of today’s gospel. His gives testimony to that greatest love that exists between Him and His Father. Jesus reveals that the Love of the Father is so immense that it embraces all and all that exists comes under its wings. Jesus announces that he himself is in that love: “I remain in His love” (John 15:10). o It is the love that has its origin and source from the oneness of the Father, Son and the Spirit: Trinitarian love. Trinitarian love is manifested in the total self-giving and total self-receiving of each person of the Trinity. The Father gives to the Son all that he has without holding to himself anything. He empties himself totally by pouring out everything to the Son. In this self-emptying he does not lose anything but becomes rich with the love of the Son. The Son too from his part he abandons himself totally in love of the Father and here too he does not lose anything but becomes rich with the love of the Father and the same happens with the Holy Spirit. He gives himself totally to the Father and the Son at the same time receiving from them his whole existence. o In theology this is called: the reciprocal offering and receiving (mutual donation of the self) between the three persons of the Trinity. This reciprocity happens in the love so that no one loses anything by giving but receives everything from the other. This is the love that Jesus proclaims when he says “I remain in his love”. Therefore, love is a mystery because it is part of God’s nature and it is God himself. - Second: Love is the Knot between His Children: The love of God is contagious. In fact, every love is contagious. It affects those who accept it. It affects also those around it. God’s love did not remain only with God. It has been manifested. The nature of God is revealed in the love he has for his creation and in the particular manner, to the humanity. It is God who poured out his love first. It is God who has demonstrated his love first. It is God who has thrown the net of his love. Unless and otherwise, we humans cannot know it fully and perfectly. o Again John’s theology express this view: he says how the love of God has embraced man even before man can know it: “In this is love: it is not we who have loved God but it is He who has loved us and has sent his Son as the victim of expiation for our sins” (1John 4:10). Again in his Gospel he pens down the words of Jesus himself: “It is not you who have chosen me, but it is I who chose you” (John 15:16). Therefore, it is always God who is in the first place and who is the source for the manifestation of love. What happens if otherwise is that man fails to accomplish it. If man tries to invent for himself love or create it for himself he, in reality, damages it because he is not in capability of fulfilling what it demands. The demand, rather the nature, of love is: total surrender to the other. This total surrender is possible only with and in the Trinitarian God. Man by his very nature is limited. Thus he cannot first of all comprehend the nature of love and even if he understands it he cannot fulfill it because it is beyond his worldly realm. o God know this situation of man. That is why he himself comes down to show what that love is and how that love functions. He has shown it in his very only begotten Son Jesus Christ. Jesus as the perfect man and perfect God has comprised well the nature of love. Jesus has understood well what that love means because it is part of his divine nature. He has also fulfilled it perfectly because he is capable of “total surrender to the other”. He has surrendered himself completely to the Loving Will of His Father and He is also willing to take the place of incapable man. It is in this manifestation of Love that Jesus becomes both perfectly divine and perfectly human. He did not withdraw to himself anything but made himself a servant and offered himself in utter abasement (Phil 2:6-11). o God has fulfilled first the requirement for the revelation of his love: the very life of His Son. The mystery is transformed into the mission and vocation: thus, “Love is the Knot between His Children”. Those who embrace the love of God become part of his love therefore become the children of love. Their only source and nourishment is and should be “Love”. o The exhortation of John is: “we love each other because love comes from God: who loves is generated from God and knows God” (1John 4:7) and Jesus gives the same commandment: “Love one another as I have loved you” (John 15:12). Therefore, love is the knot that binds the believers to one another. If this knot is missing, also the bonded relationship will miss and there will be only division and desperation. o The knot we are given by Risen Jesus is the knot of love. We become on in mind and in heart only in and with love. Outside of this we lose our identity of being Christ’s disciples and followers. Each word and action of ours has to be within the confines of this knot of love. In order to reap the fruit of resurrection we have to be reminded always of this love through which we have to meet our neighbor. And regarding the bond that exists between God and his children and among one another, we can still repeat the same words that Jesus has emphasized: No one can divide what God has united: “What God has joined together, let no one separate” (Mark 10:9). The Way is to Observe the Commandments - Love is not a word. Love is not a linguistic aspect. Love is not a mere emotional feeling. It is a Fact. It is a Truth. It is a Living. It is by observing it that we gain it. Jesus has made it clear when he says: “If you observe my commandments you will remain in my love as I have observed the commandments of my Father and remain in his love” (John 15:10). The only way that is provided to remain in love is to love because all the commandments are comprised into two basic ones: love of God and love of neighbor. - Love does not come casually. Love is not found in the business. Love does not exist in the mechanisms. Love has no place in the technology. Love is a manifestation of total self-surrender at whatever cost it may demand. Jesus has done this by surrendering himself totally on the cross and at the cost of his blood. Therefore, love has to be gained. It is gained only by observing the command of love. Just by listening, by reading, by talking, by making discourses love does not originate. It is only by loving that one can gain and remain in love: be it love of God or be it love of neighbor. - Therefore, let us keep aside the words and feelings of love. Let us instead, start practicing what Jesus has done: offering of the self for the good of the other without seeking for our own good. When there is authentic love, even losing becomes gaining. Jesus promises: one who saves his life for himself will lose it and one who loses it for other will save it. Therefore, the real and true meaning of love is revealed in Jesus Christ: love is only to give. - Joy is the Fruit of Love: If we observe the commandments of Jesus we are remaining in love. If we are living in love we are joyful. Jesus has confirmed: “I have said all these things so that my Joy will be in you and your joy will be full” (John 15:11) and that “you may bear fruit, fruit that will last” (John 15:16). Love makes us Joyful and Joy reveals that we are loving people. - One Heart with Two pointers: We shall conclude with the small analogy. The fountain of love is the heart and we all know it well. If we observe well the heart has two pointers: two points of meeting: one on the top and other on the bottom. Without these two places of meeting the heart is not complete and perfect. Heart is made like this. It was not created/made in the round shape but a shape with two meeting points. Why? The answer could be this: because it is the fountain of love. - The first meeting point that is on the top of the heart signifies the meeting point between God and man. God and man meet in love. The relationship between them is nothing else than the love. - The second meeting point that is on the bottom of the heart signifies the meeting point between man and man (between the human beings). Man and man have to meet each other only in love. It is the nature of creation. The bond that exists between them is nothing else than the love. - What happens if these two meetings do not happen? The heart is not full. The love is not perfect. And as long as we have such a heart we have only one thing to do: to love God and to love neighbor. If we fail to do we fail to give fullness of meaning to our heart which means to our humanity. Therefore, what we are asked to do today and the days to come is to reap the fruit of the Risen Jesus. The question that we have ask ourselves every moment is when we have a True Heart, a heart in which the perfect love originates: because “Love is the first and the final gift of God to us.”

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.