First S. of Advent,Nov.28,10

Advent, 1 St S,Nov.28,10

(Lk.1:5-25)


Today marks the beginning of the liturgical season of Advent. The readings that we heard just now from the Scriptures prepare us for this beautiful period of expectations and waiting. The waiting is for the celebration of Christmas, for the birth of Jesus, for a day stamped in our memory with great feelings of joy and peace, of forgiveness and reconciliation, and of goodness and generosity. The period of Advent offers us an opportunity to reflect on the unbounded love of God , our Father, who has loved us so much as to send His son to die for us and to reclaim for us the right to be called the children of God.

The reading from the Gospel describes the events that make this period of Advent significant and glorious. There is no other better preparation for Christmas than to reflect on the life and teachings of the John the Baptist who was the forerunner of Jesus Christ, our Savior. John the Baptist stands at the door of the season of Advent inviting us to a new life through our repentance. Through his own personal life, through his teachings and penance, he shows a way of life that is open to God though the conversion of our hearts. As the angel Gabriel tells Zechariah, he will bring people back to God.

Zechariah and Elizabeth belonged to the priestly family of Aaron. They were both devout observers of the law. Zechariah was privileged to offer prayers and incense at the evening prayer time in the Temple. It was a great privilege , usually happening once in a life time in the lives of the priests of the time. It was in such a pious and august moment that Zechariah received the announcement that his wife would give birth to a son and that the son should be named John.

The angel, Gabriel, spoke to him about the role John would play in the great story of the human salvation that would later unfold. He would be a forerunner of the Messiah, would bring about conversion in the hearts of people and would be filled with the presence of the Lord.

All these great words of the Angel were more than enough for Zechariah. He prayed for a son in order to become blessed in the eyes of the Lord as well as in those of the people. He got more than what he desired. His son would forever be associated with the life of the Savior. He was filled with fear. His faith faltered. He doubted the possibility of such great things happening in his life. He was made speechless for his doubt. He had to start again, learning the way of humility and coming closer to God. What John would preach later in his life, the path of repentance, has begun in the life of Zechariah right there in the Temple itself.

The qualifications and the role of the John the Baptist would serve as a great reminder for a spiritual reawakening in our personal journey of faith. What is required in this period of Advent as we wait for the Spirit of Christmas to pervade us in this season is to prepare ourselves for a life of conversion , avoiding the paths of sin and selfishness.

This period of Advent, hence, is a time to focus on our values of life and perceptions. The voice that resounded in the hills and valleys of Palestine, calling the people to repentance should be heard in our hearts too. We have to question the values and mindsets that are controlling our lives. Our selfishness and arrogance have often separated us from God as well as our neighbors. We need to go back to the basics. What does it mean to be a Christian? Does it just consist in the external observance of certain rituals and traditions or does it involve a way of life that is steeped in love and forgiveness?

In the heart of many Christian families, there is no peace. Where is the conversion that should happen because of the presence of the Lord in our lives? Do people who see us recognize that we are different because of our faith in the Lord?

We are invited in this season to wear the mantle of the prophet, John the Baptist, and invite our fellow brethren to a new way of life through the changes that are happening in our lives. We have to become more mellow and compassionate .We have to show that our greatness consists not in dominating the lives of others but in serving and helping them to become greater in their lives. John the Baptist has very powerfully indicated that his role is not to sideline Jesus, but to allow Him to grow. If we in our public and private lives allow Jesus to grow and shine in our neighbors and members of the family, the changes that will take place in our lives will be dramatic and significant. .

The Kingship of Christ,,Pallikoodasa,Nov.21,10

The Kingship of Christ,10
Pallikoodasa,4th S.

(Mt.22:41-23-12)

Rev. John Powell narrates in his book “The Christian Vision “a legend about an old Irish King who wanted to adopt a son as he had no children. Two qualifications were stressed for those who would like to be adopted. The person should have a deep love for God and for his neighbor. One young man who heard of this decided to go for an interview with the King. He had no robes or expensive clothes. But he borrowed them from his friends. After weeks of traveling, he reached the entrance to the castle. But there he saw a beggar in tattered clothes asking him for his robes for protection from the cold. He gave his robe to him and took the tattered clothes of the beggar. He was ushered in the presence of the king. But there, to his surprise, he saw the beggar sitting in resplendent clothes as the King.

It is in the poor that we see the Kingship of Jesus Christ. It is when we become humble and poor that we become followers of the real King. The Kingship of Jesus Christ does not rest in power and control but in love and service.
Today we observe the Feast of the Kingship of Christ. The word King nowadays evokes images of imperialism, control, power, extravaganza and luxury. But Kingship is also a symbol of service and compassion. It is in this sense that we should look at the feast of the Kingship of Christ.

This feast was instituted by Pius Xl in 1925 through his encyclical” Quas Primas”. The encyclical was written at a time when dictatorships were emerging and consumerism and materialism began to dominate the minds of people. The Holy Father wanted to remind people where our loyalty should lie and who the Lord of the Universe is.
In today’s Gospel, Jesus tells his listeners not to get caught in ambiguities and dubious arguments but to offer their obedience to the Messiah. Using psalm110:1, He reminds them that the Messiah was pre-existent since David calls him Lord, but also is his son as it was predicted that he would be one of David’s descendants((2 Sam.7:12) If David calls the Messiah, the Lord, then, the Messiah is the Lord of the Universe. Jesus, indirectly, asks his listeners to accept Him as the Messiah and follow His teachings.
Jesus uses the occasion to remind His listeners that there is only one authority and it is God and every one in authority has to be obedient to God for his claim to power. He then tells them that the greatest among them is the one who serves others. He reverses the order of the secular world and makes the lowliest the greatest. He tears down the false masks of the hypocritical religious teachers who do not practice what they preach. The Pharisees believe only in the shows of authority but in practice they are hypocrites, deceiving people by their non-exemplary lives.

Rabbi, father and teacher were titles given to those who taught the Law of Moses. When Jesus asks his disciples not to accept these titles, he is reminding them that his followers should seek to serve and not to be served or honored.
What does the Kingship of Christ mean for us? It means that our first and foremost allegiance is to be offered to Jesus. It is from the perspective of our attachment to Jesus that we should view all other things and events in our lives. Our positions and accomplishments should be occasions of service to others. It is by serving and loving one another that we show our loyalty to Jesus. Otherwise, we would be just hollow persons, with no ring of sincerity in our hearts.

St. Augustine has summarized beautifully well this idea in the following words: “We are leaders and servants: we lead when we serve.” Servant –leadership is the model Jesus presents before every one who is in the position of the leadership. We are called to encourage and develop the talents and the gifts of those who are entrusted to our care. Our positions and privileges should not be used to deprive others of their rights and opportunities.
Jesus is the King of Love. He showed his love by dying for us. The sincerity of love is expressed through the sacrifices we make for the well-being of others. Our world is craving for the love that Jesus has shown in His life. We have to preach the life of Jesus through our lives. It is when we become humble like Jesus that we begin to realize others too are the children of a loving God. As Henri Nouwen, one of our great spiritual writers, puts it: “When we want to be in the center, we easily end up on the margins, but when we are free enough to be wherever we must be, we often find ourselves in the center. Giving away our lives for others is the greatest of all human acts.”
The celebration of the Kingship of Christ has also another purpose. In the coming weeks, we will be preparing ourselves for the birth of Jesus through the season of Advent. It is then that we celebrate the birth of Jesus as a weak and fragile child. The Kingship of Christ reminds us that even in that fragile state, he is the Lord of the Universe.

Cleansing of the Temple,Pallikoodas,3rdS,Nov.14,10

Pallikoodasa 3rd S.Nov.15,09
(Jn.2:13-22)
During his recent visit to Spain in the first week of November,the Holy Father Pope Benedict XVl consecrated a church in Barcelona that was in construction for the last 130 years.Known as the Church of the Holy Family(Sangrada Familia) , it was declared a minor Basilica.Its Architect,Antoni Gaudi, is in the process of beatification.Speaking at the time, the Holy Father observed that the church "stands as a visible sign of the invisible God" and that" it points to the One who is Light".Those words of the Holy Father are true of every temple of worship.
The Jewish Temple for the Jews was their most sacred place where they entered into deep communion with God.It was hence shocking for Jesus to see the Temple desecrated by commercial transactions and noisy trade deals.
In Deut.16,16, the Israelites are asked to make an annual pilgrimage for the Passover to the Temple and offer sacrifices. Those who could afford are asked to sacrifice an ox or a sheep and the poor two turtle doves or pigeons.
The Passover is celebrated on the 14th day of the month of Nisan (the first month of the Jewish year) and is followed by the festival of the unleavened bread.
Jesus comes to the Temple for the Passover celebration. The spectacle of trading, and the scene of shouting and bargaining that go with it provoke in Jesus such a moral outrage that he lashes out at the traders and money changers and drives them away from Temple.
The people who are there ask Him for signs or credentials that he has the authority to drive away traders from the Temple and to speak on behalf of God. Jesus gives them the sign of his divine authority by referring to his resurrection . They cannot catch the meaning of his words and even his disciples get the meaning only after his Resurrection.
We have more than a Temple in our midst. Our churches are the places where Jesus is present really. It is there that we pour out our pain and agony. We are comforted by the loving presence of Jesus in our churches. But how poor we are in our participation in the Eucharistic celebration! We find pretexts to avoid going to the church on Sundays on account of social obligations or of job-related matters.Our social obligations often take precedence over our obligations to the Lord.
The Church is also the living community of the followers of Jesus. We have to respect our fellow brethren and do anything that is possible in our power to lighten their burdens and support them in their times of pain and hardships.In coming to the aid of the poor and the suffering in our midst,we show our love for the Church which is the visible Body of Christ on earth.
Our body is the Temple of the Holy Spirit (1Cor.6:19). Hence,our thoughts and words should be in conformity with the presence of Lord in our hearts. We who receive the body and blood of Jesus should lead a life that is full of love and forgiveness. If we allow ourselves to be conquered by our sinful passions, how can we bear witness to the presence of the Spirit of the Lord in our life?
Anger, hatred, contempt, lack of compassion and unforgiving attitudes are the ways in which we diminish the holiness of our lives. The Temple of our life is being made unholy by these vices. We shall take the whip of repentance in our hands and purify ourselves from such unchristian ways of behavior and show the compassion and love of Jesus to others. As Fulton J. Sheen puts it: “We must nourish ourselves with the truths of God and mortify ourselves of those things which are harmful to the soul, and be just as scrupulous in avoiding moral evil as we are avoiding physical evil.”

Posted by George Madathiparampil at 9:38 AM

Pallikoodas 2S,Nov.7,10

Pallikoodasa 2nd S.,Nov.7, 10
(Mt.12:1-14)

When John Paul the First was elected the Pope, there was not much awareness among the public as to who he was. But during the public audience, when he began to receive the people, there was a wide acclaim about the way he interacted with them. One student at a University rushed to his classmates to tell how he was thrilled from toe to head when he saw the Holy Father greeting a young girl in the audience. The Holy Father was all smiles when he leaned forward to greet the young girl. For people accustomed to dour traditions and rituals of the time, the attitude of the Holy Father was a welcome change.

Traditions and rituals have a meaning. When they are practiced without the soul that inspired them, they become cruel and suffocating. In religious life, traditions and rituals are observed in order to become more spiritual and reverential and not to become hard-hearted and insensitive.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus reminds his listeners about the purpose and goals of traditions and how necessary it is to show compassion and mercy in one’s attitudes in the observance of rituals.
The reading that we heard just now from St. Matthew’s Gospel presents the escalating controversy between Our Lord and the Pharisees. The Pharisees are out in the open to trap Jesus in his ministry and to accuse him falsely of violations of the rules about the observance of the Sabbath. The pharisaic tradition has established 39 categories of actions as forbidden on the Sabbath. Harvesting is one of these.
So in their eyes, what the disciples did by picking the ears of the grain when they felt hungry is an action forbidden on the Sabbath. They use this incident to accuse Jesus of encouraging his disciples to violate the laws of the Sabbath. Jesus blunts the power of their arguments by showing how their own ancestors did the opposite of what they were saying.
Jesus confronts them with four arguments to show the hollowness of their accusations. First one was the example of David who ate the Show Bread or the Bread of the Presence which only priests were allowed to eat. Second, priests themselves make a lot of actions in order to prepare themselves for the observance of the Sabbath. Third, from their own prophets’ statements, Jesus shows how acts of mercy are more important than Temple sacrifices. The last and the most important of all is that Jesus is the Lord of the Sabbath. They become speechless before these arguments
Jesus uses the occasion to show them the meaning of the religious traditions and rituals. The whole purpose of religious observances is to help people to come closer to God. Rituals and traditions become meaningless if they distract people from coming closer to God.
The words and actions of Jesus are a powerful reminder to each one of us to look at the way we lead our lives. For many of us, a life of faith means a life of rituals and traditions. It does not change a bit our selfishness and arrogance, our lack of compassion and unforgiving attitudes. It is when we come down to serve our neighbors and the poor that we make our faith alive.
Innumerable are the occasions when we have ignored opportunities where we should have shown mercy and compassion, love and forgiveness.

The Church becomes a cold place if the people do not develop mercy and compassion in their lives.Of all the religions, Christianity is the only one founded on love. If our lives are solely engrossed in our own selfish designs and ambitions, we become the laughing stocks of the world. Let there be a strong decision on our part to reach out to one another and to get reconciled.

Today is the day for us to make a deep transformation in our lives and allow our faith to change the way of our life. As Mother Teresa has said, “In this life we cannot do great things. We can only do small things with great love.”