Joseph: A Gift of Silence
March 15, 2008
Gospel: Mt 1:16, 18-21, 24a
Today, we have St. Joseph, the foster father of Jesus. We know very little of Joseph. But it seems that everytime he appears in the gospels, he is confronted with nearly impossible situations. He often travels from bad to worse situations. What a trial this must have been for Him!
Even though he moves from bad to worse situations of life, the bible presents him as a calm and quiet person; always able to hear the voice of God in the midst of the turmoil of life. What was his secret of life? The Bible gives us two clues. First of all, we are told that he was a just man. Elsewhere in the gospels, Jesus explains to us the meaning of being a just man: giving to God what belongs to God, and giving to men what belongs to them. In other words, a man who keeps the commands of God, a man who loves God, a man who loves his neighbour. Doing what one knows to be right. As Joseph shows us in the gospel, it is never wrong to do the right thing. No matter how awkward the situation might be; no matter how inconvenient, trying, expensive, exhausting it might be. If we know in our hearts that something is so right it simply couldn’t be wrong, then we have to go all the way to do it as Joseph did.
Secondly, although Joseph is present all throughout the story of the nativity, we do not have even a word reported by the evangelists as spoken by Joseph. Joseph was a silent man, did silently all that he knew to be right. In the midst of all the hustle and bustle of our lives, God is demanding only one thing from us. Give me a break! Stop talking and merely doing things. Give me a break, bring me into your life. Let me speak to you!
Let Joseph teach us some silence, and then we will be able to listen to God even in the midst of confusions and turmoil in life. May God bless us all.
Divinity in Humanity
March 14, 2008
Gospel: Jn 10:31-42
When Jesus came into this World, his humanity was a major issue to his enemies. I mean the scribes and Pharisees could not accept him as the messiah, the son of God; they had seen him growing up as the son of a carpenter, who hailed from the inconspicuous town of Nazareth. That is why, in today’s gospel, they accuse him of blasphemy.
Today, when we look back through the eyes of faith, we are amazed that the people of that time were so blind to the divinity of Christ. So much so that we tend to lend more importance to his divinity, easily overlooking the very humanity that made it so hard for the Pharisees of his time to accept his teachings. People of Jesus’ time were wrong in thinking that he was only human and not divine, and we, too, can be wrong if we consider that he was only divine and not human. Jesus is fully divine and fully human in all things but sin.
During the coming week, we will meditate once more on the passion and death of Jesus. The passion that Jesus went through was not a fiction. When He struggled at the garden of Gethsemane to accept the suffering from his father, he experienced the same confusion that we experience, time and again, when face to face with temptation. When Judas betrayed him and Peter denied him he experienced the same sadness we have known when someone close to us hurt us deeply. When soldiers mocked him and spat upon him, He was just as humiliated as we would have been, and would surely be, whenever we had to pass through humiliation.
When we understand this truth and meditate upon it, only then will we be able to appreciate the salvation brought by Jesus and assimilate his good news in our lives. May God bless us.
Leap of Faith
March 13, 2008
Gospel: John 8:51-59
Surrendering in faith…
One week from today will be the last day of Lent 2008. All these days we were preparing ourselves to celebrate the great mysteries of our salvation. All these days we were listening to our God in a special way, in a personal way, trying to understand where we stand, who we are and what we have to be. Did we do a good job in listening to God?
In the book of Genesis we have Abraham listening to God. We are told “Abram prostrated himself, God continued to speak to him.” —Genesis 17:3. Before listening to God, Abraham surrenders himself completely to his God. He did not keep anything away from God. Asking God to enter into all the areas of his life and then help him to understand where he stands, who he is and what he has to be. When Abram surrenders himself completely before God he makes Abram ‘Abraham’, the father of faith.
In our reflections the past days, did we devote ourselves to completely surrendering our lives and our selves for God’s transforming power? If so, today’s gospel is telling each of us something very personal. ‘Before Abraham was I am’. What does it mean? It means we are Christians for a reason. The reason is that we believe in a God who created all that we are, providing us all that we need, and protecting us all the time. He is the beginning of everything. If we listen to him and make his word our way of life we can also claim for our own all that Abraham enjoyed after accepting the word of God and surrendering himself completely before God. May God bless us.
(photo in front page from a church)
Truth to Set You Free
March 12, 2008
: Jn 8:31-42
Today’s gospel makes a powerful statement about the importance of obeying the word of God in our lives. “If you remain in my word, you will truly be my disciples and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free”.
Understanding the word of God has so much to do with the way we read and listen to the word of God. Let me suggest three things for improving the way we read the word of God.
First of all, one has to do with passion. Imagine yourself receiving a love letter from someone, or a letter from someone whom you love very much. You will read it once, twice, thrice; and again, and some more. Then you will try to read in-between the lines, you will try to understand the different shades of meanings of the words that are used. Am I right? That is how we have to read the scriptures. Each passage from the scripture is a love letter from God, so read repetitively until it speaks to you personally, in your life situation.
Secondly, read with imagination. When you read a passage imagine all that is happening there as if you see it in a movie, Make yourself a part of that scene; for example, you are reading a passage where Jesus is teaching the people. Imagine yourself sitting there near Jesus, listening to him, and then imagine the cadence of his voice while speaking to the people, as occasionally, his eyes search for you. He looks at you from time to time, as if what he was saying at that particular time was meant for you alone.
Thirdly, read prayerfully. Imagine an author whom you like. Take Shakespeare…you are reading his Romeo and Juliet… and Will is sitting near you, able to explain what he was truly meaning to say…. how would you explain that experience? That is what happens when you read the scripture prayerfully. You are inviting the Holy Spirit to be with you to help you understand each word. Begin the reading with a prayer to the Holy Spirit and conclude with another for thanking him for his help and his inspiration.
When we read the scriptures following these three small methods — passionate reading, reading with imagination, and reading in your most prayerful manner — then we will be so much more open to the Word of God; given the means to strengthen the foundation of our lives in him, enabled to a worthiness which will produce its fruits in all we do for those we love and all those whose lives touch our own.
Believe in the Light
March 11, 2008
: Jn 8:21-30
There was once a time when Catholic pulpits echoed with homilies and sermons that were filled with fire and brimstone. I mean there used to have much emphasis on sin and hell. Not any more. Now, we speak a lot about love and forgiveness. However, sometimes it is good for the health of our souls to remind ourselves that ultimately we all are sinners and if we do not make use of the opportunities that God continues to give us to turn toward him, we can end up in hell. At least today the church makes us hear this warning from Jesus. “For if you do not believe that I AM, you will die in your sin”.
What does it mean? It is simple to say that it is because I believe in him that I am here in the church - and how can I die in sin? Friends, if we are not careful, we can easily become hypocrites. I mean we consider Jesus as someone who was there in the past. We can consider Jesus and his teachings as an ornament which we wear when we go to the church or prayer. Once we are out of the church we forget him and his message. Today, listen to him: “For if you do not believe that I AM”. He is not something of that past, or the future, he is ‘I am’; the one who is with us all the time, in each and every moment. Through the sacrament of Baptism we become the integral part of his body. What does it mean? My existence means the existence of Jesus. The existence of my brother means the existence of Jesus.
Many a time we forget this dimension of our life. We forget this responsibility that we have taken upon ourselves on the day of our baptism. And it is when we forget this reality that God is with us, it is then that we fall into sin. Friends, let us not consider Jesus or our religiousity as an ornament that we have to wear at some part of the day or life. May Jesus, may our faith, have total control over life and existence. Then as Jesus puts it in the gospel of today, “we will do nothing of our own but as He wants us to do”. May God bless us. Amen!
Sin and Self-Righteousness
March 10, 2008
: Jn 8:1-11
For our reflection today, we have this carefully drafted, beautifully written, story of the woman caught in the act of adultery. When you read this passage - if you are careful - then you can read a lot of things in-between the lines. We are told that they caught her in the very act of adultery. Think about the attitude of these Pharisees. Where were they standing? What were they doing? Think about the voyeuristic mentality of those men.
Secondly, if she was caught in the act of adultery, then there need to be two persons. What about the man? Why do they bring this woman alone to Jesus, and letting the man who was involved, walk away as if nothing happened?
Thirdly, what was their main intention? To bring order to society? To punish the criminals? None of these. The scripture states, “they did it to trap Jesus, so that they may have something against him to arrest him”.
Friends, this passage shows to me and you, although we are created in the image and likeness of God, how malicious, how sinful, we can be when we walk away from his ways and commandments.
Jesus looks beyond sinfulness; both of the crowd of Pharisees, who only had malice in their hearts, and of the woman, who was caught in adultery. For Jesus, each person in that angry crowd, and the woman, bears the image of God; and this image of him within them is darkened and distorted through their sins, which need restoration. And that is what he came for. It is the sick who needs a physician, and not the healthy.
(photo in front page is a representation of a 1912 painting by Cubist Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, titled “Pharisees”)
And Jesus Wept
March 9, 2008
Gospel: Jn 11:1-45
In the gospel of today we have the ‘I am’ statements of Jesus, in the story of the raising of Lazarus. Jesus says ‘I am the resurrection and the life’. This is the greatest self-identification offered by Jesus ever. What is our God interested in? ‘Life’. It was St. Ireneus who wrote, “Gloria Dei Homo Vivens” - the glory of God is a human being fully alive. That is what Christianity is all about. The glory of God is a man fully alive. Then what is that which saddens the heart of God? It is when we allow death to rein in our souls at any level; physically, psychologically and spiritually.
And that is what Jesus, the son of God says in the gospel of today says ‘I am the resurrection and the life’. In the Gospels Jesus raises three people from the dead. The first one is the daughter of Jairus. Then, the son of the widow of Naim. Then, the third is Lazarus. St. Augustine offers a meditation, combining all these three miracles of Jesus. According to St. Augustine, the death of the daughter of Jairus points to the spiritual death, an internal death. Notice we are told that she died in the House. The resentments, grudges etc, these may not be expressed in words and actions but are burning inside poisoning my thoughts and imaginations. Jesus wants to go even to those places and bring it back to life. He wants to heal us of that spiritual death.
In the second case, we have the son of the widow of Naim. The young man died and is carried outside of the house to the cemetery. Augustine says he expresses the spiritual death that has come out from the heart and has began to express itself in action. The resentments and grudges have began to express itself. They come out in words, in gestures and in actions. It is a more intense sort of spiritual death.
The third person that Jesus raises from the dead is Lazarus. Now he died in the house, had been carried out and buried in the tomb. By the time Jesus gets there it had been four days after his death. That is why his sister says ‘Lord surely there will be a stench’. Lazarus’s body in the grave with its stench stands for that death which has not only has come out from inside of a person but now installed itself as a habitual part of his life. My anger, my hatred has come out and has become a part of life, something that determines my decisions and actions. I have begun to stink, or my life has begun to affect so many lives around me. My spiritual death is not just my problem anymore; it has become the problem of my family, society and community. According to St. Augustine, it symbolizes the worst kind of sin a human being can be in.
Let us look at some of the details of today’s gospel. We are told that Jesus approached the tomb and he groans. What does this possible mean? St. Augustine says this was God’s deep pain at our dysfunction. If the glory of God is a human being fully alive then God hates to see us crawling ourselves into the arms of death, where we don’t flourish, where we can’t flourish. So God in Christ groans in deep sympathy for the human beings who have thrown themselves into such situations. Secondly, we have one of the most poignant passages in the whole Bible. By the way, it is also the shortest sentence in the whole Bible. “And Jesus wept.” God is weeping for us in our sin. It breaks God’s heart when we are not fully alive.
Journey in Faith
March 8, 2008
: Jn 7:40-53
We know that Christianity is something more than a religion; it is a way of life. Something that affects the core of our being, something that has to do with all the aspects of our life. Many a time when we speak about Christians we only make two distinctions: practicing Christians and non-practicing Christians.
Often we think of non-practicing Christians as lost cases. And what about us — the so-called practicing Christians? Well, we practice our faith. And, that’s it! Many a time we are just satisfied with the physiological happiness that we get when we participate in the daily masses, saying rosaries or other church-prescribed practices.
Is it enough? Do we allow our faith to influence the decision-making processes of our lives? Do we examine the progress in our faith? Do we allow God to be the most important person or power in our life? If so, it will be evident in our lives and attitudes.
In the Gospel of today, we have such a person. Nicodemus. For the first time we see him in the gospel of John 3, coming to Jesus at night, for he was a Pharisee. Asking Jesus how he could possibly be born again?
For the second time, we see him in the gospel of today. Standing up for Jesus among the Pharisees, with out fear, inviting them to, first, hear and know what Jesus is doing before condemning him. And finally we see him in John 19: 39, after the crucifixion, with more courage, coming out openly for the burial of Jesus. Friends! This is the progress of faith. From darkness to the circle of his own people and then to the public at the burial of Jesus, Nicodemus confesses his faith.
May his life help us to examine our faith. How much progress have we made in our faith, especially during this Lenten season? Have we done - do we do - anything to grow in our faith? Let us know that faith is not a magical word or a thing. It is a path. The more we travel this path, the closer we come to experience God in our lives. Let us pray with the apostles, “Lord increase our faith”! May God bless us.
Know Your God in Prayer
March 7, 2008
Gospel: Jn 7:1-2, 10, 25-30
Jesus said to his people, “You know me and also know where I am from. Yet I did not come on my own, but the one who sent me, whom you do not know, is true.”
In fact, there was truth behind the hostility and hatred faced by Jesus from the Jewish authorities, scribes and Pharisees of that time. They thought they knew everything about God and his ways. But their knowledge was just intellectual and not experiential. They considered God as someone who had to be feared and revered so that He may not interfere with their lives. So it was enough to keep the precepts and commandments; the mere literal observance of them. They never tried to know the one who gave them and the purpose for which they were given to them. In short, they did not know their God and his ways.
In the gospels, we come across a person who recognized Jesus and his mission; Simon, who was in the temple at the time of the presentation of Jesus. He recognized Jesus as the Messiah because he had personal experience of God in prayer. Anna, too, recognizes him for the same reason. John the Baptist recognized him for he had known God and his ways in his life. All these holy men had known God as He is. But the people who did not recognize Jesus had a concept of God of their own; a messiah of their dreams, a messiah who would act as they wanted him to act. We read in today’s gospel that when he failed to live up to their expectations, “they were looking for chances to Kill Him”.
Where are we? With those who recognize the messiah or with those who do not want to accept him since he is different from the God of our dreams. Do we search for chances to kill him? Friends, each time we fail to live up to our Christian call, we are indeed searching for chances to kill him. Because a Christian who lives a life of scandal can do more harm than a non-believer who attacks the church. Let us implore God’s grace to grow in knowledge and love of Him and his words. May God bless us.
(the photo in front is from intimacywithgod.com)
The Power of Intercession
March 6, 2008
Gospel: Exodus 32:7-14
In the passage of today we have the picture of a powerful intercessor, Moses, interceding before God for the people who turned away from him by worshipping a golden calf. To intercede means to take the place of another in prayer. Intercession does not mean praying with someone for their needs but in place of those not praying for themselves. Since we are all sinful and weak, we all have gaps in our prayers and need someone else to “stand in the gap,” to take our place, to intercede.
“Thus I have searched among them for someone who could build a wall or stand in the breach” (Ez 22:30).
Moses became a great intercessor. He didn’t feel like standing in for the Israelites in prayer, especially after their disobedience and constant complaining, but still he did. He prayed to God: “Let Your blazing wrath die down; relent in punishing Your people” (Ex 32:12). “So the Lord relented in the punishment He had threatened to inflict on His people” (Ex 32:14).
There was a Moses who interceded for the people of Israel. There was a Lot who interceded on behalf of his people. All the prophets were intercessors before God. Jesus himself was an intercessor before God the Father and when He left us He promised us another intercessor, The Holy Spirit, who came to the apostles in the form of tongues of fire. It is the Holy Spirit who dwells within us who makes us cry out, “Abba, Father!”
Take a look into the miracles of Jesus. He was always eager to perform miracles in behalf of those who interceded for others. It was Jairus who interceded for his daughter, the Syro-Phoenician woman interceding for her daughter, four men bringing a paralytic to Jesus, even breaking the roof of the house of Peter.
Don’t stop interceding before the throne of the Mercy of God, for all that you have in your life may have come to you through the intercession of someone praying for you. So, intercede for your family, your children, friends, leaders of the world. May God bless us all.
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