TWELFTH SUNDAY OF THE YEAR C

TWELFTH SUNDAY OF THE YEAR C (Zach 12:10-11, 13:1; Gal 3:26-29; Luke 9:18-24) Theme: The True Faith Has its Beginning in the Cross of Christ Reflection: Cross is the Foundation of Christian Faith - We are entering into the twelfth Sunday of the Ordinary Time of the Liturgical Year. Today the Church presents before us the reading which reveal the substance of our Christian life. The substance of Christian life is the FAITH. Although we are often ignorant of the essence of faith, we still call ourselves Christians because of various elements of Christian living. The prayer, the reading and reflection of the Scriptures, the participation in the Mass, the celebration of the sacraments, the obedience to the commandments of God and of the Church. All these elements demand for the attitude of faith. All these aspects manifest the presence of faith. It is true. Yet, for all these the starting point would be always the Cross and the Resurrection of Christ. The authentic faith has its beginning in the death and the glorious life of Jesus Christ. In other words, it is the Paschal Mystery which is the Foundation of Faith. - In fact, Jesus has come into the world not to live and live alone. He has come to die. He has entered into the world with the destiny of suffering and death. The Cross and the Calvary are the means to realize this destiny. Indeed, the mission of Christ has this destiny as the central point. Every single aspect of his life and action is viewed from the death on the Cross and the consequent Return to New Life. If considered from the human logic it surpasses the philosophical reason. It is to be considered from the divine love. God and his plan of salvation to the humanity is the starting point. It means that the entire episode of Jesus Christ and his mission is to be contemplated with the eyes of God. Otherwise, it is almost impossible to comprehend the Christ’s way of the Cross and to walk with him towards Jerusalem. The Cross, thus, is the central part of Christ’s existence and mission. Even the true Discipleship follows the same pattern. Every follower of Christ has to express his willingness to make the Cross the centre of his life. Here the truth is exposed: there is no Christ in the world without the Cross and there will not be any true Christian without the Cross. If we remove the Cross from our life, the foundation is removed. No house remains firm without the foundation. No Christian life can be sustained fully without the condition of the Cross. It is for this purpose, as Jesus we are all called to embrace the cross, not with the fear and obligation, but with the love for God and for others. - The Gospel passage of today highlights the centrality of Christ’s mission and the call to the Discipleship. Already, the contest of the text explains the importance of the Cross. Jesus is making his missionary journey. He is walking towards Jerusalem. All the novelty of God’s love he proclaimed with his words and manifested with his miraculous actions until now has to be finally testified with his personal life and witness. He walks ahead, without fear of course, to the final testimony of it: by embracing the world’s incomprehension and rejection of his message. In this context fall our gospel text. It has three principle divisions: Jesus poses a question to his disciples, he unveils the significance of the Christ and finally the condition of Christian following. Readings: Question of Faith from Jesus – The Response from the Disciples - The passage begins with the question of Jesus to the disciples. It is not any ordinary question but a question that explores the faith of the disciples. The question is double edged and double directed. It is double directed because it is posed to them but first about the understanding of the common people and then about their own understanding. “Who do people say that I am?” (v. 18). He wants to find out the general opinion of the people about his person and work. Disciples do not find any difficulty in responding to this question. They immediately bring to the attention of Jesus the idea of the people: that few think of him as John the Baptist, few others as the prophet Elijah and others as one of the antic prophets come back to life (v. 19). When a person begins working differently, in the innovative and new manner, it is quite common that people try to compare him with the great people of the previous times. Even in Jesus people start to see one of the personalities of the Old Testament. John the Baptist is just beheaded. People believed that he is a great man sent by God. The memories of him have not yet passed from their minds. It is easy for them to see him coming back to life. Elijah is one of the great prophets of the Old Testament who is thought to return to the world. Indeed, people are waiting for it; and when Jesus appeared with the promising presence, they see in him the return of the prophet they are waiting for. Finally, anyone who comes in the name of God and speaks with the divine authority is considered to be the prophet of God. When the people listen to the words of Jesus, they immediately see him as another prophet sent by God. This is the general opinion of the people. Jesus does not bother more about the common opinion. - He wants to know more. He wants to touch in profundity the very life of the disciples. His question of faith is directed towards the disciples now, very straight and very pointing: “But, what do YOU say that I am?” (v. 21). He is not interested in the general opinion of the common folk. He desires the personal conviction on the part of his followers. When he says “but”, he views his disciples far superior than the common people. They are fortunate and blessed to stay with him and listen to him personally and to be related to him intimately. The answer now he expects from them is to be quite different than theirs. Their answer needs to be the fruit of their intimacy with him. Now, Peter comes up with an answer: “You are the Christ of God” (v.20). Jesus must have been content with an answer. He said it well. His answer is exact. But Jesus’ immediate reaction is quite unnatural: he orders them not to refer this truth to anyone (v. 21). He forbids them to talk about this outside. But why? Because the meaning of Christ is not yet revealed. No one knows well the nature of Christ. Few are waiting for the Messiah who would come as a king and win the entire world and establish his kingdom. Others expect the Messiah to be the Priest who can offer to God a perfect sacrifice in the name of all the men. Few others consider the coming of Messiah as the prophet who can bring the justice and judgment of God to the world. All the considerations are true. yet, they are incomplete because of one missing element: Christ as the Suffering Servant. This meaning is not yet realized and it would take place only after a while with the his death and resurrection. Until then no one can fully understand who is Christ. Even Peter does not know this aspect when he utters the answer. It is here Jesus takes the occasion to reveal the meaning of Christ and calls the disciples to enter into the comprehensive understanding of his mission. Conclusion: Christ and the Cross are inseparable – Central Part of Christian Life - Jesus reveals the meaning of being “a Christ”. Christ is the one who undergoes suffering, death and enters into the resurrected life (v.22). His very life is not for living for himself but for dying for others: self-donation for the salvation of the humanity. Keeping aside all the classical meanings of the Messiah as the King, Priest and Prophet, Jesus unveils the actual and real nature of Christ as indicated by Isaiah: the Suffering Servant. By this he reveals that the true Christian mission consists in the unconditional obedience and the utter abandonment of the self to the will of God. He confronts the suffering out of his personal will. He sets out to meet (or to embrace) the passion of the Cross. Thus he completes the definition of the Christ: the one whose mission is to sacrifice himself for others. - It is the same mission that Jesus offers to those who wish to follow him. The words that follow the revelation of the significance of Christ make the call to discipleship evident. Jesus indeed says: “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me” (v. 23). The conditions for the discipleship of Christ: denying the selves and taking up the cross. Denying the self and taking the cross are complimentary to each other and one completes the other. The first calls for the total abandonment of the self. No personal wishes. No private business. No hiding properties. The life becomes utterly open before Jesus. The disciples has to stand poor and needy before Jesus. He has to throw himself utterly onto the shoulders of Jesus. He is totally dependent on him. This is called the radical renouncement of personal life. The first is not full without the second. One has to enter into facing the suffering, the difficulty and the passions. There is no other way for the disciples except the way of the cross. Denying the self is not enough. It is only the first step. The second has to follow: he has to take up his daily cross. Jesus never promises a life of roses to his disciples. He pre-announces a life of thorns and a road of stones which leads up to the Calvary. As the Master, he himself does it first and concretely testifies it with his passion, death and resurrection. There is a demand for the radical challenge to live the daily life – with the cross of physical pains, psychological depressions, social evils and the spiritual struggles. Nothing to complaint. Nothing to murmur. Nothing to grumble. Everything is already announced. Christian life does not exist without the Cross. - Our faith consists in recognizing and accepting the Christ – Crucified and Risen. Today, Jesus invites us to respond to his question: who am I for you? Each one of us has to give an answer. Our answer is not to be just any of the public opinion of him. It should be A Personal Conviction of the Personality of Christ. It emerges not from the idea given by others but with the profound living of the mission of Christ. If we do not embrace willingly the cross, our Christian life becomes only superficial. If there is no cross on our shoulders and in our hearts, then we are not authentic Christians. We are only Christians by name, not by living. Then we become only actors, not the testimonies. We are called not to act but to witness the Christ through our words and deeds. In fact, Paul reminds us that we become children of God only through faith. Let us answer the question of Christ today: his question is direct and personal. It is for me first, for you then, and for all of us in general. All our life is only a research to answer this question of Christian faith. Let us search and research for an answer placing the cross before us because if cross is missing from our life than faith itself is missing. We are of Christ and Christ is within us and therefore, we are the people of the cross. The Cross becomes our Sign and Sacrifice becomes our Essence. Let us ask Jesus for the inspiration of the Holy Spirit so that we grow in faith of Jesus who suffered and died, and risen for us. Finally, we profess the mystery of faith in the Holy Eucharist: let us announce your death O Lord, let us proclaim your resurrection until you come. Mystery of faith, the Church reveals, is in the living and proclaiming of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ through our lives. Let us Live for Christ. Let us Dye with Christ. Let us Rise in Him.

ELEVENTH SUNDAY OF THE YEAR C

ELEVENTH SUNDAY OF THE YEAR – C (2Sam 12:7-10, 13; Gal 2:16, 19-21; Luke 7:36-50) Theme: God’s Immense Love Forgives The Repentant Sinner Reflection: God’s Grace Always Passes Through the Mediation - Today we are entering into the eleventh Sunday of the Ordinary Time of the Liturgical year. We may also call it as the Sunday of God’s mercy and forgiveness. The readings of the day are particular in revealing God’s immense love towards the fallen humanity and places himself as the source of pardon and grace. In fact, God acts often and always through the mediation. God’s grace and pardon, as the consequence, come down not directly but through the persons and means that he himself prepares. The entire Old Testament is the testimony of it. God speaks through the various human resources – his spokesmen and his prophets. God intervenes in the life of his people in different modes and forms: he is present with them, not directly, but in the form of pillar of cloud and the pillar of the fire. It is not that God cannot and did not wish to speak and act directly. He only chooses the means that is very close to the human comprehension so that the man understands his presence and his action. In the New Testament we are empowered with the mediation of Jesus between God and man. He is the One through whom and in whom God manifests his perfect and overwhelming love for the humanity. As such Jesus’ word becomes God’s word and Jesus’ deed become God’s deed. It is because of this, as Paul exhorts, that Jesus Christ becomes the Image of Invisible God. After that Jesus himself now speaks and acts in the world through the mediation of the Holy Spirit and the Church. - The first reading of today emphasizes the fact that God manifests his love and pardon through the mediation. King David commits a grave sin. It is a grave sin because of its two sided effect. He wants to take the wife of Uriah as his because of his lust for her. The sin of lust is accompanied by the sin of killing. He understands that as long as Uriah is alive his desire will not be fulfilled. Though does not take his life directly, he makes sure that he is killed in the war and for this he purposely places him in front of the battle. Lust and killing are the sins that David commits before the Almighty God. They are contrary to the mission he is entrusted with, that is, to rule the people with goodness and love. The aspect that has to be noted well in this episode is this: David does not know and does not acknowledge his sin. As king, he thought that he could do anything and everything. He acted in his power and even forgetting that it is God who made him the king. He is not in the condition of realizing his sin. At this juncture, God himself takes the initiative to show David what he has done. He sends the prophet Nathan to make him know what he has committed. It is only through the mediation of the prophet, God’s messenger, that David realizes his sin and starts feeling guilty for the grave sin. He finally acknowledges and admits his sin and weeps for his wrongdoing saying, “I have sinned against the Lord” (2Sam 12:13). Immediately the prophet pronounces the pardon of God: “The Lord has forgiven your sin and you do not die” (2Sam 12:13). God’s grace and his intervention comes through the mediation. - The sacrament of Penitence and Reconciliation is the means of God’s mercy and forgiveness. For those who express their doubt of confessing the proper sins to the representative of God, the episode of David and Nathan is the example. God speaks and discloses his grace through the people he has chosen for himself. The first element, it is God’s own initiative to remind us of our sin. The second element, it is in the presence of God’s messenger that one can realize and accept his proper sin. Without the presence of this mediation, often the sinner does not know what is actual sin and how he has affected the others with his action. The actual sin and its consequences in the life of the one who has committed it and in those against whom he has committed can be explained in the presence of the other. The third element, it is an action that demands the personal humility and contrition by expressing it in sorrow as David did: I have sinned against the Lord. the fourth element, it is the mediation that God himself offers us through His Eternal Begotten Son Jesus Christ. Any sacrament for that matter is a means of God’s grace to us. When we approach them with sincere heart we begin to see their effects in our life. The truth is revealed in the gospel that we have today: a sinner woman approaches Jesus, weeps for her sinful life and receives the pardon from God. Readings: Love does not count the errors - The gospel reading of today presents to us the attitude of the sinful woman. Her desire to be with Jesus and her gestures of love for Jesus draw her closer to the grace of God. She is forgiven in love because the true love does not count the errors. Jesus does not count her as sinner but only sees her acts of humility and sorrow and sends her purified and renewed with forgiveness. In this context, it is apt to meditate upon the attitude that the woman manifests in front of the one whom she loves more, Jesus. Along with her we can observe the attitude of two other personalities in the reading: the tax-collector and Jesus. - The attitude of the sinful woman: the first attitude of her is the courage. It is not easy and acceptable for the woman, that too considered sinful, to enter into the house of the Pharisee. Yet she enters with the courage. Her courage has come from her deep desire to meet and to be with Jesus. The desire to interact with the Lord makes the one to take any further step without any fear. The second attitude is her humility and self-renouncement before Jesus. She enters into the house. The first gesture is an act of humility. She kneels down in front of her beloved Jesus and weeps for her sinfulness. The next gesture is an act of self-renouncement. She unties her hair and wipes the feet of Jesus. A woman cannot unloose her hair in the presence of another man and in the house of the other. Yet, she did it for the Lord. Her gesture manifests her readiness to place her life totally in the hands of the Lord without hiding anything for herself. It is the sign of her total self-abandonment in the presence of Jesus. It is the gesture of realizing and acknowledging her lowliness and sinfulness in front of the One who is Holy and Merciful. The fruit of her attitude is the forgiveness and being sanctified. - The attitude of the Pharisee: the one who has invited Jesus for the dinner is very hasty to judge the situation. While looking at the woman who entered and touched Jesus and looking at Jesus who allowed all this, he is embarrassed. He accused Jesus and condemned the sinful woman. His accusation against Jesus is this: if he is a prophet, he might know what kind of woman she is (v.39). His judgment against the woman is this: she is a sinner (v.39). His is an attitude of self-justification and judging the other by appearances. The scene reminds us of the prayer of the Pharisee and the tax-collector in the temple narrated by the same author Luke (18:9-14). Pharisee considers himself as just man, observer of the law and thus very closer to the kingdom of God and he treats all others as sinful and cursed. Jesus replies to his attitude with the parable and makes him realize that God’s love embraces all. - The attitude of Jesus towards the sinner: Jesus enters into the situation altogether in the different manner. He does not see the superficial practices and outward appearances. He penetrates deeply into the condition of the sinner. He does not count the quantity of the mistakes one commits. He counts only the quality of the heart. The Pharisee and others treat the woman who has entered into the house as sinner of the city and try to blame her. Jesus, on the other hand, sees in her a woman who is ready for the conversion and new life. In the gestures she has expressed Jesus reads her heart. Jesus finds in her humility and in giving up of herself a true and sincere love. For Jesus this attitude of love is very important. It is love which generates the forgiveness and it is forgiveness which makes the love grow. Out of love for Jesus and his message, she places her life wide-open before the Lord. It is out of love for the sinner that Jesus forgives her. He sees both her faith and love: all your sins are forgiven (v. 48), your faith has saved you, go in peace (v.50). The forgiveness is the fruit of Jesus’ love for her. He accepts the sinner to come to him. He permits the sinner to manifest the proper faith and love. He never wills to condemn but to correct and to pardon. The divine love of Jesus surpass the fragility and frailty of human condition. Humility can win the heart of God. Conclusion: Courage to acknowledge the mistake and ask pardon - The question that we can asks ourselves while reflecting on the gospel passage of today is this: what is my attitude in the presence of the Lord. How am I manifesting my desire and my love for him? Whom do we reflect through our life: the Pharisee or the sinful woman? Pretence and self-justification or humility and self-acceptance? We need to learn to have desire for the Lord. It is the desire that leads us to do anything for meeting the Lord. Let us learn from the sinful, yet repentant woman to grow in the desire for Jesus. - In the presence of Jesus we can realize the fullness of human nature. He is the mirror of holiness and divinity. Standing before him we can see ourselves and our life. With the power of his loving presence we can accept ourselves with humility. He is the mediator of God’s love and forgiveness to the humanity. The grace of God passes through his words and actions, particularly through the merits of his paschal mystery. In our lives, it comes through the listening to the scriptures and through the participation in the sacraments of the Church. For it is the Holy Spirit who represents the presence of Jesus in and for the world. - Let us manifest an attitude of humility and self-emptying before Jesus. It is for this the Church places the rite of penitence in the beginning of the mass. We need to enter into the banquet of the Lord and share his presence with the repentance and with the reception of God’s forgiveness. We need to learn to improve also our behavior and our gestures in the Church, the presence of the Lord. Let us prepare ourselves well with the attitude of love in order to meet the Lord and to receive his grace. Finally and ultimately it is the love that generates the forgiveness and mercy, because God’s immense love forgives the sinner.

TENTH SUNDAY OF THE YEAR - C

TENTH SUNDAY OF THE YEAR – C (1 Kings 17:17-24; Gal 1:11-19; Luke 7:11-17) Theme: Let Us Get Up and Keep Walking In Life With Hope Reflection: God is the Father of All - We are entering into the tenth Sunday of the Ordinary Time of the Liturgical Year. The readings of today invite us to take courage and to get up and walk ahead in life. The words that Jesus has directed to the dead young boy are: “Young man, I say to you, rise!” (Lk 7:14). The same compassionate and life-giving words are reaching to us today: “You, my children, who are spiritually lost and dead, rise up and keep living.” In fact, Jesus words are of kindness and mercy. He does not will that anyone one of his sheep loose the way and remain passive and dead in life. He calls us to life. He calls us to hope. He calls us to the courage of facing the life. - Indeed, Jesus has come to give us life and life in abundance (John 10:10). There is no other person in whom the fullness of life exists expect in Jesus because he is the life (John 14:06). His entrance into the world and his mission for the world is centered upon pouring out his life for the life of the humanity. His entire life and mission are the novelty of God’s love. He reveals God’s love of being with and for the humanity. It is the entire humanity that he embraces and synthesizes in himself. He has not come just for one group of people, Israel, although he is born and brought up in its place and culture. He has to start his human process from somewhere and he has preferred it to be from the chosen people of God. It is because the God’s design of salvation has to be a continuation in history and the promise of God is to take its realization. But soon the small camp of his birth, life and work will become universal embracing the entire world without barriers. Love has no limits and confines. His presence and his mission touches every sphere of human life. - This God’s love to reach out to everyone, be it the chosen one or the stranger, is revealed from the beginning of Jesus’ entry into the world. The novelty of Good News of Salvation consists in this: God love all, touches all, embraces all and brings all into his arms. Soon in his ministry Jesus unveils this truth: God is the Father of all. Specially Luke is very particular in this aspect. The entire Gospel of Luke reveals that God takes the side of poor, small, humble and the rejected of the society and shows them his mercy and kindness. This is the general context of the Gospel passage we have listened today. Jesus raises the dead young man of the widow at Nain (Luke 7:11-17). Prior to this we can find another healing that Jesus extends to the Centurion’s servant (Luke 7:1-10). Initiating from here Jesus goes out to meet and to be with the flock that is outside the chosen sheep-fold. He is sent to all those who are in need of divine touch. He proclaims until now the salvation to all by preaching about the kingdom of God and doing miracles. Now he cross the borders of the Israel. He embraces also the others. For him there is no difference between the own and the pagan. - With this Jesus starts revealing the unconditional love of the Father to everyone who is found in difficulty and depression. In fact, he throws the invitation to all: “Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest” (Math 11:28). His invitation includes all: physically over-loaded with the slavery and unjust labor, psychologically burdened with the mental agony of doubts and confusion, socially dejected with the deprivation of common goods, and finally spiritually blinded with the struggle between passion of the world and faith of the religion. He answers everyone and he heals every heart because he has taken the human face because of love which feels one with the pain and suffering of humanity. Readings Human Face of God – He Moves in Compassion - Jesus rises up the widow’s son in the village of Nain. The calling of the dead young man to life is not a miracle automatically accomplished by Jesus because he is divinely capable. It is a dynamic miracle which contains the dramatic action of Jesus. The dramatic action of Jesus is this: he is moved with the compassion. He feels for the widow who is in deep depression of the lost of her son. His feeling is elevated to the level of compassion. What is the meaning of compassion? Literally, compassion means “passion with” – suffering with. Its significance is not only physical and mental but contextual and situational. It is not just a movement of the eye to cry-with. It is not just an extension of the hand to help the needy. It is more than that. It is the beating of the heart for the person. As such, it means assuming the pain of the other, to be identified with the other in the condition and it is a participation in the feeling of the other. - It is with such compassion that Jesus is moved with he saw the woman cry. The Gospel narrates it well: “When the Lord saw her, he had compassion for her and said to her, ‘Do not weep’.” (Luke 7:13). The miracle of Jesus is initiated and accompanied by the compassion. This feeling of Jesus for her makes him to enter into the dramatic action for her. First of he feels himself one with her. He takes her pain as his. He participates in the cry of her. Finally, he rises her son from death. Jesus never wants that someone cry. He does not permit that the tears to tear the person apart. - God is human also. In Jesus he becomes human. He assumes the human nature. He takes upon himself, thus, the entire existential condition of man. Like a man, he begins to eat, drink, sleep and rest in his body. Like a man, he begins to think, respond and grow in knowledge of the mind. Like a man, he also begins to have faith, trust, respect and love for God and for neighbors in his spirit. As man is an integration of body, mind and soul, so also Jesus enters fully in these aspects. He experiences as man experiences all the facet of life: joy, sorrow, cry, pain, suffering and finally death. He is fully human, as he is fully divine. It is in his fully human nature that Jesus not only becomes man but also becomes a concrete example for man’s living. Entering into the world, Jesus feels for many situations and is put under many temptations but never deviated the right path of true humanity. Whereas, man fluctuated and often carried away from his true human nature by the sickness, tribulation and the suffering. Man has not learnt to accept his human nature which is prone to various changes in the world because of the outside passions and of the inside struggles. In this context, it is Jesus who is truly human, becomes a ever living example for the transcendence of man. - Jesus has conquered the entire fragility of human nature with his passion, death and resurrection. He has risen from the dead. He is ascended into heaven. He sends his Spirit to be with the man. With his Spirit present in the world, Jesus touches every human heart, penetrates deep into his being, and calls him back to life. His words are clear: Get Up and Walk. Falling is human but getting up is divine. Each human being carries within him the elements of divine nature because basically he is a spirit, a spirit that gets up and keep going ahead and a spirit that transcends towards the higher standards of life. Indeed, Jesus’ invitation to man to get up and walk is important, particularly, in this age of rapid growth. why? In the age of philosophy, science and technology, there is a tremendous change and unimaginable development. Man grows day by day. He learns to reason out and analyze the situations. He learns to prolong and sustain life by the scientific researches. He learns to make the life easy with the technological instruments. It is a good and positive side. But it is not enough because there is another shade for this rapid growth of the man’s capacity. And it can be answered only by Jesus. Conclusion Trust In Jesus – He Will Wake Us Up - The world is undergoing tremendous and unreachable changes. It is the fruit of the brain of man. His capability is at peaks. If he wills he can achieve anything. This is the positive side of human potentiality. But the unfortunate reality exists side by side. The another side of the coin is this: his movement is proving to be only horizontal. In his horizontal movement man gives importance to himself. He wants to be the master of his life. He wants to command the entire creation as though he is the creator. Someone may ask: but what is the wrong in it as long as man is such a capable being in the world? There is nothing wrong as long as he grows in knowledge, science and technology. But the problem is that he completely neglects the vertical movement. Let us keep aside, for time being, the aspect of faith and religion. Even his own human nature and its values are at stake with these rapid changes. He has no time to feed his spirit which is the dynamic element of his entire human life. - Without the spirit, life becomes just biological and mechanical. Man is moving towards this: he becomes either animal which looks only for the needs of the body or he becomes a machine which lacks the breath. If he neglects, one day he may realize and turn back. If he consciously reject the spiritual sphere what could be his future. He lack the true spirit and therefore he is not able to accept the true human nature. He becomes so strong and powerful in the external growths. He strives every second for the luxurious and comfortable life. He wants to avoid the slightest situation that troubles him. It is true that he learnt to grow and keeps himself living. But when he is confronted with the hunger, difficulty, trouble, incomprehension, sickness and suffering, he is deeply confused. He has no way out. He becomes either reluctant and defensive or loses completely his control of life. Why? Because he learnt to grow but he did not leant to live. What is living? Confronting the situations that come on the way with the courage of the human spirit. When man lack such spirit he lack the possibility of true living. This is the present condition of the man in the world. - The world that is surrounded by the realities of pain, sorrow and death. Every human nature is prone to these changes. It is normal. Man becomes depressed in front of these difficulties because he did not learn the truth of life and accept its challenges. He tends to forget or neglect that human life is comprised of the mixture of emotions and changes are part of it. Though he remembers and knows that these are part of his human condition, he has not learnt to accept. Knowing and accepting belong to the sphere of the Spirit. When man lack it, he actually dies. In this context, the words of Jesus bring consolation and courage to the human heart. It is in Jesus that the mysteries of pain and death are revealed and illuminated ultimately. Jesus balances the both: the pain and the glory of life. He knows what is glory and pain. Above all, be it glory or be it cross, he accepts them in humility and obedience. He knows and accepts because he is always accompanied by the Holy Spirit. With the power of the Spirit he carries within himself the fullness of human nature with its both transcendence and fragility. Thus he becomes the ultimate example for man. The latter can learn from him how to accept life and balance it with the Christian spirit. Modern man is lacking this spirit because he is utterly controlled by the passions of the body and mind alone. It is the faith in Christ Jesus that brings him back to the true life. Having the power of calling man to the possibility of receiving life he says: Do Not Be Discouraged! Get Up and Keep Walking Ahead in Life.

CORPUS DOMINI - Year C

CORPUS DOMINI: Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ – Year C (Gen 14:18-20; 1 Cor 11:23-26; Luke 9:11b-17) Theme: CORPUS DOMINI calls us to be the Loving Sacrifice to 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 and 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.

CORPUS DOMINI: Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ – Year C (Gen 14:18-20; 1 Cor 11:23-26; Luke 9:11b-17) Theme: CORPUS DOMINI calls us to be the Loving Sacrifice to 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 and 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 C (Proverbs 8:22-31; Rom 5:1-5; John 16:12-15) Theme: We are generated in and by the Love of the Trinity Reflection: Our journey of Faith begins in the name of the Trinity - We have completed the celebration of the Easter Time with the Solemnity of Pentecost – the descent of the Holy Spirit. The disciples are empowered and led to the truth as Jesus has promised. Jesus promised that when the Spirit comes he will bring his disciples into the understanding of the truth. Holy Spirit has arrived and rested on them in the form of tongues of fire. Fire symbolizes both purification and recreation: purification by burning what is of old nature and re-creation by making one into a new being on the other. Such work of the Spirit has already begun in the disciples. Their old nature of fear is burnt away and thus they are purified of their mind. They are created anew with the gift of courage and fortitude. And the effect is seen immediately in the preaching of the apostles and their testimony of life even to the extent of dying for their Lord, Jesus Christ. - After such a great celebration of the Paschal mystery with which we have to begin our true and daily journey, the Church admonishes us to begin the Ordinary Time of the Year by reflecting once again on the great mystery of God and his love for the humanity. As a result of this desire of the Church we celebrate in the coming Sundays, including today, the feasts of the Lord: first, the Trinity, then, the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ and finally the Sacred Heart of Jesus. - In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit: We start, thus, this Sunday and the days in the rest of the year, in the Holy Name of the Trinity. We require such a celebration of the Trinitarian mystery because Triune God is the foundation of our faith, life, journey and our final destiny: “we live, move and have our being in HIM.” What happens when we invoke the name of the Trinity? We become mindful of the PRESENCE and EFFECT of the Three Divine Persons who is, in a mystery, the Holy Trinity. There are Three Divine Persons and all existing as one God; we may attribute and distribute particular events and interventions to each of the Persons, such as, the creation to the Father, the redemption to the Son and the sanctification to the Holy Spirit. We may do it in the human logic and human understanding, but in reality and in mystery, they are not divided and they remain an inseparable unity. Indeed, each particular event is the common act of the three persons together. Trinity in Perfect Unity: Unveiled in the mysteries of creation, salvation and sanctification - We can revise once again the mystery of the unity of the Trinity in relation to the creation, salvation and the sanctification of man and the world: o in the creation, though it is attributed exclusively to God the Father, there is the presence of the Son in form of the Word spoken and there is also the presence of the Spirit hovering on the waters; o in the redemption, though it is attributed exclusively to God the Son, there is the presence of the Father in form of the Will fulfilled and Plan accomplished and there is also the presence of the Spirit which has led the Son to carry on the mission that the Father has commissioned him; o and finally in the sanctification, though it is attributed exclusively to God the Spirit, there is the presence of the Father who is the fountain of all sanctity and holiness and there is the merit of Son’s death and resurrection through which the purification and sanctification flow and to give full completion, the Spirit who sanctifies comes from the Father and the Son and therefore, there could not be the Spirit except in and through the Father and the Son. - The Trinitarian Unity is the Source for the unity of whole creation and whole humanity: o We find it hard to prove, in the human level and in the human concepts, the mystical union of the Three Divine Persons. But in the revelation of the Scriptures, both in the Old Testament or in the New Testament, we observe the presence and the effect of the united work of the Trinity with regard to the whole creation and humanity. o In the Old Testament we see the undivided design of God for the salvation of man. The whole plan of God and all the events that take place within this view go hand in hand as the many rings of the same chain. The chain is unbreakable from the creation to the intervention of God in choosing for himself a people and till the extension of the promise to whole humanity. It is the one and same mystery of God within the framework his promise of salvation. o In the New Testament we see the continuation of the same redemptive design of God. It is not something that starts newly with the New Testament but what whas already initiated by God in the form of promise is brought to its fulfillment. The only novelty is that this fulfillment has taken place in the perfect and eternal manner. But the unity of the chain continues. The will and design of God has been fully obeyed and brought to the completion (“It is accomplished” – the final words of Jesus on the cross) by the Word made flesh, Jesus Christ. This is the mystery of God in the process of salvation. o In the Time between the salvation and eschatological consummation, that is in our present time of the Church, the unity of God’s plan continues. We see the presence of the Holy Spirit who inspires and sanctifies and leads all to the communion in God. Even this is not a divided mystery but the same mystery of the Old and New Testaments. Thus, the unity flows from the beginning of the creation to the ultimate end of it on the last day. This is the mystery of God in the progress of salvation. o In this way, it is the whole Trinity who has worked for the salvation of man and creation. Not just single person but the totality of the Three Persons who is the cause of creation, redemption and the sanctification. - The presence of the Trinity in the work of salvation: o The project of salvation: it is the Father who promises the savior, it is Son, who is present in every Word spoken by the prophets and it is the Spirit who is present in transmitting the word by the Father; o The Incarnation: it is the Father who has sent the angel Gabriel to Mary with the good news of salvation and blessings of grace; it is the Son who has taken human form in her womb; and it is the Holy Spirit who has come down upon her. o The Paschal event: the passion-death-resurrection of Jesus Christ: it is the Father who wills, it is Jesus who obeys and completes it and it is the Spirit who strengthens Jesus to accept and fulfill this will of the Father for the salvation of humanity. o The Pentecost: we have seen already in the last week about this: it is Father who sends the Spirit in and through the merits of Jesus Christ his, Son and finally it is the Spirit who descends to initiate his mission of sanctification of the world and leading it the Father. o The Eucharist and other Sacraments: in the Eucharist, the fountain and culmination of all the sacraments, it is the Word of the Father that is Spoken, it is the Deed of the Son enacted and it is the Power of the Spirit that effects the fruit of salvation: It is the Father who sends the word. It is the Word/Son who is spoken. It is the Spirit that speaks. Therefore, in our time, it is the Eucharist which is the fullest manifestation of the Holy Trinity and we can contact and interact with God the Trinity in our daily Liturgy. o The Church: the Church is a mystery because of the presence and effect of the Holy Trinity:  Church is the People of God, the Father (the people who are chosen/elected, bought and redeemed and in a word, the people that God called for himself)  Church is the Mystical Body of Christ, the Son (the body which has Jesus as its Head, the Spouse who is washed and prepared by the Bride-groom for himself)  Church is the Temple of the Holy Spirit (the temple in which the Spirit pitches his tent, the holy place in which the Spirit dwells, the holy edifice where the Spirit acts).  Church is One because it is Trinitarian. Church is Holy because it belongs to the Father who is Holy. Church is Catholic because the redeeming act of Jesus has universal character as he has died for all. Church is Apostolic because it is the succession that is transmitted by the power of the Holy Spirit. God in One and Three – a mystery of the Trinity - Is God one or many? in other words, Is God monotheistic or polytheistic? In the Christian Faith God is One but not monotheistic as in the Jewish and Islamic belief. Judaism and Islam believe that they only one God, God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. God is not even polytheistic in the Christian understanding just because there are Three Divine Persons in the Godhead and each of them being God in himself, constitute only one God. This is the mystery. Mystery which remains a mystery for the human logic. Still it is mystery revealed and manifested in the Second Person Jesus Christ: o We cannot simply bypass the mystery of Trinity because Jesus himself proclaims it in his word and deed when he says that:  He is sent by the Father (it is Father who sent me and I am in the Father and the Father is in me)  He himself is the witness of the Father (I have not done what is mine but what my Father has told me to do)  He promises the Spirit who will be sent after his return to his Father; o In the baptism of Jesus once again the Trinity is revealed as it was in the Incarnation:  Jesus who has gone to river Jordan to be baptized  Father speaks about his son: “he is my beloved son, listen to him”.  The Spirit comes down on him in the form of a dove. o Therefore, if we really believe in Christ, we believe also his words and we accept his deeds with faith in which there is the manifestation of the Trinitarian God. So Our God is neither monotheistic because there are Three Individual Divine Persons (God the Father, God the Son and God the Spirit), nor he is polytheistic because these Three Persons are not three God but one God (Triune God). He is the Triune God: God in three divine persons. Trinity is Unity of Love: The only way to know him is Love - Trinity is Unity and Community in Love o Trinity is Unity: as we have reflected the Three Persons in Godhead are United just because they are in Love and they are the love; o Trinity is the Community: Three divine person, not being divided, creates the community:  Trinity is a family without borders of hatred and heredity;  He is a society without barriers of race and color;  He is a world without limits of war and aggression. In this way, the Trinity stands as a model for the family-society-world and on the whole: to the whole humanity and creation itself. o This is in the bond of Love: love is not an act of a single person; there should be at least three elements which constitute love:  One who loves (the Father)  One who is love (the Son)  The love that passes from one to the other (the Spirit) - The knowledge and understanding of the Trinity is possible only by Faith and Love: o Ideas fails because they are personal (each one has his own idea and his own background for thinking and finally the personal thinking is always limited to the self) o Philosophy fails because it is not objective (each philosophy has its reasons when the reason has limits and cannot go ahead it concludes that ‘the object’ doesn’t exist just because it is not conceivable, tangible and do not fall in the spheres of knowledge) o Theology also fails because it is only a search towards the Objective Truth (theology can really go beyond the reason and really work hard to search and can coin many words: for example : hypostatic union in the matter of Christ’s humanity and divinity; consubstantiation: to explain the presence of Jesus in the Eucharist; it is nice to see the progressive aspect in the theology but it has its limits to reach and to express the ultimate Truth) o Only Faith understands it and Only Love reaches it:  In Faith: we leave aside our own limited ideas, leave aside the philosophical reasoning, leave aside also theological failures and we can, more than knowing God in concepts and words, Adore him as he is;  In Love: as we have seen, love has no limits either personal or not even common (because majority believes it need not be true in the matter of God); it reaches beyond; it lives this moment of unity and community; - To Believer and to Love - Our immediate action and is the only secure way: o Keeping aside thinking how God looks like, how is he and where is and all (all the questions are only in the human mind; God has no questions, instead, stands as an ANSWER for all; o Living in faith and love: We are not in the capacity to come out of our own mind to understand others giving them the chance of talking. We are not in the capacity to come out of our own homes to meet others giving them the chance of entering. Still further, we are not in the capacity to sacrifice our own life to give other a chance of living. This is our human limitedness. In such a finitude of our being, how can we presuppose to understand the mystery of God and his presence and effect in us; we need to transcend our finitude and give way to the faith and to the love. - The only way we have before us is: TO BELIEVE AND TO LOVE. The faith keeps the human logic aside to give way to the embrace of a mystery. Love makes the one to totally surrender himself to the mystery without any doubt even if it costs his very life. And in Christian understanding both faith and love are the two aspects of the same coin and two realities of the same mystery. - Therefore, acknowledging that we are born out of the love of the Triune God, let us take glory only in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and glorify him saying: Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit as it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be world without end, Amen.

PENTECOST - Year C

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