Make Family Holy

Message from Fr. Jose Koluthara, CMI

Lord Jesus, help us to decide that people are more important than things.   Amen.

My Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Today’s liturgy invites our attention to two families: Abraham and Sarah, Joseph and Mary. Their adventurous acts in forging their way and in forming themselves as God’s people are reminiscent of the struggles faced by families today. In an article titled “Unintended Consequences”, Fr. James Smith illustrates the impact of social pressures on American Life. ‘Unintended consequences’ is an expression used by social scientists to account for side effects of larger issues. On this feast of Holy Family it is worth reflecting on the “unintended consequences” of modern life on Canadian families.

Years ago we thought that technology and work-saving devices would give us more free time. But, in fact, now we work more hours than people did twenty five years ago. Lack of time is the worst problem of the families at present.

Both parents have to work now, whereas one parent’s work was enough in the past. Why? Needs increased. Today parents think of themselves becoming successful only if they house their children in certain neighbourhoods, clothe them in designer clothes, feed them junk food and teach them to take care of themselves.

Now the parents spend more time at work than with the children for the good of the children. If they sincerely believe so, are they not considering themselves as providers rather than companions? Does it not mean that parents think children prefer presents from them rather than their personal presence? And does it not turn their children into little more than small consumers?

We may not be able to control outside forces, but we can remain in charge of our inner lives. We can decide that people are more important than things. We can decide that families are worth more than careers. We can decide that we have values worth handing on to our children; and they would be better people for having them. We can decide that our children would benefit by our presence. We can decide that our family should be holy.

Celebrate God’s Presence

Message from Fr. Jose Koluthara, CMI

Lord Jesus, help me to become a new creation through the gift of God’s presence.   Amen.

My Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Every year we celebrate Christmas. In every Christmas we celebrate the presence of God. How should we celebrate this wonderful gift of God’s presence in Christmas 2008? This Sunday’s readings give us certain models.

The first reading from 2nd Samuel narrates David’s model of celebrating the gift of God’s presence. He wanted to build a temple for the Lord. But God intervened through the prophet Nathan and told him to wait. Constructing a temple at that time might cause confusion and misunderstanding among people regarding the real nature and purpose of the God’s gift of presence. Because people were used to the ever available presence of God through the mobile tent and tabernacle with them. That is to say, they had always the experience of God being with them wherever they went. It was almost like the experience of God in their hearts. If building a temple undermines the concept of God’s ever-available presence in the hearts, David was not doing a service to God. So he was asked to wait even though the temple would have helped to unify the people in some respects.

In the second reading, we see Paul speaking about the mystery revealed to him. Though the gift of God’s presence was first given to the Jews, in God’s total plan it was to embrace the Gentiles too. In other words, God’s gift of presence was meant for all people on earth. And so the Jews had to take their eyes from Jerusalem’s temple and look for God’s presence in the hearts of all people. A shift from temple to hearts.

In the Gospel we find Luke depicting Mary as the model in welcoming God’s presence. She accepts and activates the word in spite of her doubts. When she said ‘Yes’, the power of God overshadowed her and made her a new creation and through her the whole creation became new and redeemed. How do we celebrate this gift of God’s presence in our lives? Did the Eucharistic Congress in Quebec (held last June 15-22, 2008 with the theme The Eucharist, gift of God for the life of the world) help us to celebrate this gift of God's presence in us? Is our church an “upper room” for us to reach out to people? Does the gift of God’s presence unite us through our worship in the church and motivate us to embrace the needy?

From Anxiety to Joy

Message from Fr. Jose Koluthara, CMI

Lord Jesus, transform my anxieties into your joyful presence. Amen.

My Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Today is Gaudete Sunday. The name comes from the Entrance Antiphon from today’s liturgy. Every mass has an Entrance Antiphon (usually a phrase from scripture) assigned to it, and it used to be a custom to assign a title to every Sunday mass. The title was a Latin word taken from the first word of the Entrance Antiphon. The first word today is rejoice - Gaudete! The colour of vestments for today’s liturgy is rose. The lighting of the rose candle in the Advent wreath adds to the ambience of this joyous day.

All the readings of this Sunday underscore the theme of joy. In the 1st reading from Isaiah, we read “I will greatly rejoice in the Lord”. In the 2nd reading (1 Thes.5:16-24), Paul exhorts the Thessalonians to rejoice always, pray without ceasing, and give thanks in all circumstances. Though we do not find explicit reference to joy in the gospel (Jn 1:6-8,19-28) John the Baptist’s plea to make straight the way of the Lord is an emphatic declaration that sin and joy won’t go together and therefore people should confess their sins and undergo conversion.

Do our rituals and symbols produce real joy in our life? Is it not true that they do not match our reality. We profess that Christ comes to save us, but we don’t really believe that we need to be saved. Take the case of our anxieties. As theologian Paul Tillich says every human being labours under a triple anxiety: anxiety about one’s own existence, about the meaning of life and about guilt. Tillich calls these absolute anxieties because they exist in the heart of humanity.

It is a strange fact that we don’t worry much about absolutes. At the same time we are worried about a lot of relative anxieties like pain. We don’t want to think about death; but pain evokes general anxiety about death. Anxiety about the meaning of life exhibits itself in our frantic drive for identity, affirmation and relevance. Guilt anxiety is the basic realization that we can do evil but not undo it.

In this human condition, Advent is an invitation to trace a passing pain, a nagging worry, an uneasy conscience back to the source in the absolute anxieties of death, meaning and guilt. We might even discover that we do need to be saved. Not from anxiety, which is natural. But we need someone to transform death to resurrection, give meaning to our life, forgive our sins. Here comes the relevance of John the Baptist’s proclamation.

A News Event

Message from Fr. Jose Koluthara, CMI

Lord Jesus,  help me to spread your good news with power and joy.

My Dear Brothers and Sisters,

A newspaper gives us news and also comments on news, which we call editorial. What about the good news we preach? The power of the good news which Jesus brought effects change with its full power when it is handled as a news event.

Professor and author Halford E. Luccock (1885-1960) often insisted that this fact should not be forgotten. “Christianity”, said Luccock, “did not come into the world through the editorial page; it came through the news columns. It was a news event - front page, stop-the-press news. Something happened: The word became flesh and dwelt among us. The gospel was first preached as news. Wherever it has been preached with power, it has been preached as news. Whenever it has dwindled down to mere advice, become merely editorial Christianity, it has evaporated in a cloud as vague as fog”. Preaching the good news with power, living under its message, guided by its truth, this is the challenge in which every Advent believer is to be renewed. Since it is good news, it must be communicated not only with power, but also with joy.

In the 1st reading of this Sunday (Is.40: 1-5, 9-11) we see prophet Isaiah proclaiming with joy the end of the exile and the exiles were able to look ahead to the future with hope. God would come for them and carry them home. Their path once almost impassable by sins would be made smooth and straight! (This was good news indeed).

The author of 2nd Peter proclaimed the gospel of God’s coming among us once more in the return of Jesus. That of course, is obvious good news: “the bad news”, if we dare to call it that, is that we must await that coming without the benefit of a timetable and we must maintain ourselves in holy preparedness during what seems like an interminable delay.

In today’s gospel, John the Baptist, Jesus’ own herald, appears as one who preached in word as well as in deed and lifestyle. John’s message is unmistakably clear and powerful. This was indeed the good news - the Saviour comes. His was also news that demanded change, change in the form of repentance, confession of sins, and baptism with water. Only change can free us from what holds us back from the fullness of life.

Awareness of God

Message from Fr. Jose Koluthara, CMI

Lord Jesus, help us become a power that no evil can defeat by our renewed attentiveness to God in our midst.

My Dear Brothers and Sisters:

Popular among the Greek and Roman tragedians was a theatrical device known in Latin as deus ex machina. That phrase, literally translated, means “God from the machinery”. When deus ex machina was called into play, the featured god would be lowered onto the stage via a pulley to resolve what seemed to be a hopeless situation. In short, deus ex machina is a quick fix in a story.

Is this sort of quick fix for which the Israelites were hoping when through the prophet Isaiah (1st reading Is 63:16-17,19; 64:2-7) they cried out to God to “Tear the heavens and come down”? With their backs against the wall, politically, economically and spiritually, the prophet and his contemporaries sought relief, relying on God’s love and mercy. Isn’t this also the sort of remedy each of us desires?

We see the proliferation of violence and war and we move nearer and nearer to disbelieving that human beings could ever make a lasting peace. We are over-whelmed by ever-increasing immorality and inhumanity that erodes our relationships and wears away at the ethical fabric of our culture. We recognize the unconscionable greed and disregard for justice that too often steer commerce, pollute the environment and control the economy. We bemoan the lack of integrity and altruism in those who are entrusted with the responsibility of leadership. In our frustration, we cry out to God, “Tear open the heavens and come among us to fix all this mess!” And yet, as the annual season of Advent reminds us , our desire for a deus ex machina is unfounded, for God has already come among us, and has chosen to remain with us as bread and wine, as word and spirit, as wisdom, Lord and love.

While much of this holy season is future-focused, in that we anticipate the fully revealed presence of God upon Jesus’ return in glory (Cor. 1:3-9, 2nd reading), these weeks also call us to an existential awareness of God in our midst, in our hands and in our hearts, here and now. This blessing of God’s continuing presence with us has become available to us through the birth of Jesus.

Each Advent, we stir that spark of divine presence into a flame, or at least into a glowing ember, by our renewed attentiveness to God in our midst. Each advent we are renewed in confidence because God is within us. Each Advent we remember that we must work together for good, and together we become a power that no evil can defeat.

Liturgy of our Lives

Message from Fr. Jose Koluthara, CMI

Lord Jesus, open my eyes to care for the needy and make my life a liturgy pleasing to you.

My Dear Brothers and Sisters:

We are standing together on the threshold of a liturgical year now ending and another soon to begin. When endings mesh with beginnings, it seems only natural to look over our shoulders at what has transpired in our lives. As we take truthful inventory and determine the measure of who we are, it also seems appropriate that we gather up all that we are and offer it to God as the liturgy of our lives. But just what constitutes that liturgy? How do our lives come together to celebrate the One whose kingship we acknowledge today? What sacrifice have we to offer to the Lord of all life, whose own sacrifice has opened the way to life everlasting for us (1Cor15:20-26,28 2nd reading)?

Centuries ago, the prophets posed similar questions to God on behalf of their contemporaries. How could they make of their lives a liturgy worthy of the character of the God who called them into being? What had they to offer in prayerful thanksgiving and worshipful praise to the God who promised to be their shepherd, rescuing them when they were scattered, bringing them home when they strayed, binding and healing their wounds and giving them a protected rest (Ezek 34:11-12, 15-17, 1st reading)? God’s answer to the prophets’ questioning was challenging as it was simple: “Do justice; love tenderly; walk in truth with God.” In this challenge lies the whole of the law and the prophets; in this challenge lie the seeds of a life-liturgy worthy of God.

In today’s Gospel (Mt 25:34-46), Jesus teaches us the words and the gestures, the symbols and the rituals to the life-liturgy that best acknowledges, thanks, loves and praises God: “I was hungry; you gave me food. I was thirsty; you gave me drink. I was a stranger; you welcomed me. I was in prison; you came to visit me.” These are the prayers of the true-life liturgy without which no other liturgy in church has meaning. If the hungry are not fed, the naked are not clothed, etc., then we have failed to recognize and tend the God who lives among us in these least ones. If the thirsty are not offered drink and the ill and the imprisoned are not visited and cared for, then even when two or three gather, the promised presence of Christ will be lost to us.

If and when we do take the Gospel challenge seriously, let us not think of what we are doing as charity. Let us realize that we are merely beginning to meet the demands of justice, a justice by which we accept to live when we agree to love tenderly and walk in truth with God.

Be Gift and Grace for Others

Message from Fr. Jose Koluthara, CMI

Lord Jesus, help us acknowledge our gifts and talents and place them freely at the service of others. Amen.

My Dear Brothers and Sisters:

Do you remember Shel Silverstein’s parable The Giving Tree (Harper and Row Publishers, New York:1964)? “Once there was a tree”, it begins, “and she loved a little boy.” Regularly from the boy’s childhood to his teen years to his adulthood, he came to the tree. When he was a child, he came to climb her trunk, eat her apples and swing from her branches. And the tree was happy. As he matured, his requests for the tree’s particular gifts and talents became more insistent, more costly. First, when the boy needed money she gave her apples to sell, and she was happy. When he needed a home, she gave her branches; when he wanted to get away from it all, she happily gave her trunk for a boat. At long last, the boy who was an old man by now, came back to the tree, who was no more than an old stump. Since all the man wanted now was a place to sit and rest, the tree offered her stump to him. And the tree was happy.

Like Jesus in today’s Gospel (Mt 25:14-30), Silverstein told a parable that captured the essence of what it means to acknowledge our gifts and talents and to place them freely and fully at the service of others. Such generosity with oneself requires the type of risk-taking, that is exemplified in the first two servants in the parable of the talents. Each dared to risk investing all that had been entrusted him by his employer. Neither held back anything even though worldly prudence may have dictated for him to do so. From these risk-taking servants, and from the giving tree, we learn that all comes to us from God as a gift; therefore all should be given as gift, without judging the worthiness of the recipient and with full awareness that what we give may be misused, undervalued or even abused.

In contrast to the two daring servants and the utterly selfless tree, the third servant chose what he thought to be the safe path. He did not risk, he did not give, and in the end even that which had been entrusted to him was rescinded. So it goes with those who refuse to spend their God-given selves, their time, their talent or their treasure for the sake of the kingdom. These may, in the end retain what they have, but what good shall a treasure be that cannot traverse the final passage we know as death?

Today, the parable continues to speak its message, assuring us that we are both gifted and graced, and in that capacity we are to be both gift and grace for others…even if we are only an old stump where another can find rest.

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ENCOUNTER & COMMUNION

Message from Fr. Jose Koluthara, CMI

Lord Jesus, help me to encounter God in others and thereby enjoy communion with God.  Amen.

Last Sunday we gave importance to holy people by commemorating all the faithful departed. This Sunday we are invited to focus attention on holy places. Today is the feast of the Lateran Basilica, the mother church of the Christian world. The basilica, part of a generous donation by the Laterani family, was presented to the church in 311 C.E. One of four papal basilicas, the Lateran has a holy door which is opened every quarter century to mark the beginning of a holy or Jubilee year.

What is it that defines a place as holy? Some sort of religious experience or believers’ desires for the same makes a place holy. Often sacredness is attributed to mountains and rivers. Recall that Abraham first called God El Shaddai, i.e. God of the mountain. A subtle revolution took place during the prophetic tenure of Elijah. He could encounter God in the “still small silence” of his own heart. Because God chose to be present in such an intimate manner the prophet himself became a holy place.

The temple, built as the site of God’s presence on earth, became central to the life and liturgy of the people of Israel. This fact is borne out in today’s first reading (Ez. 47:1-2,8-9,12). Ezekiel compares the temple to an Eden-like place and a source of life giving water for his people. In today’s gospel (Jn. 2:13-22) the reaction of his contemporaries to Jesus’ statement about the temple being destroyed underscores its continued significance in their eyes. However, Jesus was speaking about the temple of his body. In Jesus, the holy place had become a holy person. Thenceforth, Jesus would be the “place” wherein God could be encountered and wherein communion with God could be enjoyed. That same privilege has been extended to those who believe in Jesus is affirmed in today’s second reading (1Cor. 3:9-11, 16-17). By virtue of the Spirit of God dwelling within, believers become living temples, i.e. holy places in whom others should be able to encounter and commune with God.

If this belief were fully integrated into our lives, wouldn’t it greatly and necessarily affect the manner in which we relate to one another? If I regarded you, if you regarded me, as a holy place, wouldn’t we be more careful not to desecrate one another? Today’s feast and its accompanying scripture selections challenge us to make it so.

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With All Souls In God

Message from Fr. Jose Koluthara, CMI

Lord Jesus, strengthen our relationships with those who have gone before us to God through prayer and forgiveness.  Amen.

My Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Today’s feast of All Souls and scripture texts that accompany it challenge us to become aware of the ecumenical and universal quality of life with God beyond death’s passage. On the other side of the grave, there is no room for the biases and prejudices that separate people from each other on a regular basis. There will be no distinctions between black and white, rich and poor; there will be no one labelled freak or lunatic. There will be only great souls united with all other great souls from time immemorial; all will be one in the Great-God-Soul who called each into being, who called each to death and then to life eternal.

It seems only logical to prepare for eternity by following its all-inclusive and non-prejudicial policies in the here and now. Today’s liturgy challenges the members of the praying assembly to recognize and co-operate with the power of God’s grace so that they may be transformed.

In the first reading from Lamentations 3:17-26,we get the picture of a man who was tempted to despair, but finds help in the "steadfast love of the Lord", "his mercies" and "faithfulness". This is no longer merely the God of the past, this is the God who is dealing with him personally now. Therefore he can say, the Lord is "my portion". In the 2nd reading (1 Cor 15: 51-57), Paul emphasizes his faith in transformation: "For the trumpet will sound, ...and we will be changed" In the Gospel (Mt 11:25-30), we hear Jesus speaking to men driven to weariness and despair: "Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest"

Though we remain confident in these promises, many of us may celebrate this feast of All Souls with a sense of regret. Many “if only’s” may well up in our heavy hearts. If only I had said I was sorry… If only I had been more patient with my spouse, my children, my aging parents, my in-laws, my boss, myself… For those who wish to lay their regrets to rest, today’s feast can be appreciated as an opportunity to strengthen our relationships with those who have gone before us to God. It can be a time to pray for them, to ask for their forgiveness and to realize our union with them in God, in Christ, in the Spirit.

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Archbishop's Visit Pictures

On October 26, 2008 the Archbishop of Toronto, Thomas Collins visited St. Edith Stein Parish. The occasion was the 10th anniversary of the canonization of our patron St. Edith Stein. This was the first visit of an Archbishop to our small parish but during the mass His Grace said that he was a long way from retiring and planned on coming back.

 
 
 
 


For more photos click on the picture below...

Archbishop's Visit to St. Edith Stein

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Live Your Love

Message from Fr. Jose Koluthara, CMI

Lord Jesus, help me live your love tending the hurts of my “neighbour”.   Amen.

My Dear Brothers and Sisters,

His Grace Archbishop Thomas Collins recently celebrated mass for the Knights of Columbus. The Gospel reading was that of the Good Samaritan. One of the Archbishop’s messages in the homily was that to be Catholic you just need to “Love God and love your neighbour”.

As Christians, we are called to love God and our neighbour as our self. This is not an easy task, especially when our neighbour appears different from us. So often we tend to judge and exclude people, rather than loving them as our neighbour. Today’s readings invite our attention to these aspects.

The first reading (Ex 22: 21-27) calls the attention of the Israelites to the fact that they were aliens in the land of Egypt and asks them not to oppress a resident alien, not to abuse any widow or orphan. They are further instructed to consider the poor as their “neighbour” and love them. The gospel (Mt. 22:34-40) reminds us of the twin laws that are to govern our lives: Love God; love your neighbour as yourself. These laws should govern every word we say, every decision we make, and everything we do. In fact, we should consider aliens, widows, orphans and the poor as our “neighbour”. In our love for these, our love for God is manifest and real. Our love should make us think about the hunger, the homelessness and the daily indignities that the poor are made to endure.

To prompt our sensitivity to the plight of the poor and to more deeply authenticate our love for God, the following illustration may prove helpful. Once a Rabbi overheard the conversation of two men seated at a nearby table. Both had a fair amount to drink and both were feeling quite mellow. With their arms around one another, they were professing how much they loved the other. Suddenly, the older of the two, Ivan, looked at his friend and asked “Peter, tell me what hurts me?”. Peter looked at Ivan and answered with a question of his own: “How do I know what hurts you?”. Ivan’s response came quickly “If you don’t know what hurts me, how can you say you love me?”. As is poignantly reflected in this brief anecdote, the love Jesus calls us to have for our neighbour, i.e. for the poor and needy, cannot be a mere passive platitude that speaks of love, but does not live  and give  love. That love required of us must dare to ask the hard questions about hurts and needs. This love must be willing to hear the answers, meet the needs and tend the hurts that are therein revealed.

Our Mission

Message from Fr. Jose Koluthara, CMI

Lord Jesus, help me to appreciate your special love when you feed and fill me.

My Dear Brothers and Sisters,

As we celebrate World Mission Sunday 2008 on October 19th, the liturgical readings invite us to reflect on our mission in this world. It is one of involvement in a world and a culture imbued with the principle of separation of Church and State.

The 1st reading from Isaiah (45:1-6) refers to God’s constant and continuous involvement in human history. Though Cyrus was not Israel’s king, it was his efforts at re-establishing political exiles in their own lands that brought about the freedom and restoration of Israel. In a word, prophet Isaiah regarded Cyrus as messiah i.e. anointed one of God (v.1). Verses 4-6 give us God’s intervention in the life of Cyrus. “I call you by your name,…though you do not know me… I arm you, though you do not know me”. All people in the world are called by God and strengthened by God to fulfill their mission.

Consider these prophetic words spoken by the late Archbishop Oscar Romero:

“Our hope for a new world must not deaden but rather increase our concern (and our efforts) to improve this world, where the new human family is taking shape and which will in some way, be a dim prefiguring of a new age. Although we must distinguish carefully between temporal progress and the growth of the kingdom of Christ, the former, nevertheless, has a lot to do with the latter in so far as it can contribute to improving society… May Jesus, whose body was offered up and whose blood was shed for mankind give us the strength to offer ourselves in suffering and in sorrow, just as Jesus did, not for himself but in order that the world might know true justice and peace.

God’s reign is already present on our earth in mystery. When the Lord comes, it will be brought to perfection. That is the hope that inspires Christians. We know that every effort to better society, especially when injustice and sin are so ingrained, is an effort that God blesses, that God wants, that God demands of us”.

The “missing experience” in the Eucharist

Message from Fr. Jose Koluthara, CMI

Lord Jesus, strengthen me in my personal attention to discern your real presence in the Eucharist.

My Dear Brothers and Sisters,

In today’s Gospel (Mt 22:1-14) we see one man coming to the wedding banquet improperly dressed. He might have thought he was correctly attired. But the host spotted an outsider right away and banished him. The feelings of the host behind that can be thus expressed. “You think you look like one of us, but your eyes are blind to see what you miss”. It is about this missing factor I would like to reflect on at the end of this year of the Eucharistic Congress.

Many of us look and talk like we belong to the inner circle of God, close enough to be invited to this memorial feast of his Son’s death and resurrection. We try to belong; sometimes, we even spruce up our souls and start out on a spiritual programme in search of God. But most of us get tired quickly, lose interest and give up the chase. Do you know why? Because we haven’t seen God; we haven’t experienced God.

An example from hunting will illustrate. When the first dog caught sight of a rabbit, it let out a howl and hurtled off barking. Other dogs got excited by the noise and joined the chase. There are few sights as exciting as a hound on the scent, flinging its body about with wild abandon. Leaping in the air, burrowing through briars, wiggling under barbed wire, scurrying through drain pipes. But most dogs tire of the chase and turn back after a while. Do you know why? Because they never actually saw the rabbit. They just got excited by the barking and enthusiasm of the first dog; they acted as if they had seen the rabbit and their enthusiasm would make up for their lack of sight. But it cannot. Either they see the rabbit or they don’t. And no amount of enthusiasm and effort can substitute.

It’s the same with humans in chase of God. We have to actually see God. Instead, we see the saints in search of God and think we can imitate them. But even if we become faithful as Moses or as poor as Francis or compassionate as Vincent de Paul, we finally quit trying, knowing we will never succeed. Because Moses saw God in the bush, Francis saw God in the leper, Vincent saw God in the poor. But all we see is other people seeing God. Second-hand sight does not cure blindness. We have to see God with our own eyes.

Celebration of Eucharist with Symbols

Message from Fr. Jose Koluthara, CMI

Lord Jesus, we are afraid of being rejected; strengthen us to become a vineyard that produces good fruit.

My Dear Brothers and Sisters,

What do you think of celebrating this Sunday’s liturgy having two banners depicting a vineyard on either side of the church? Today’s readings present us with a fine example of the power of a good symbol. In the 1st reading from Isaiah (Is 5:1-7), the prophet uses the image of the vineyard to speak about the state of God’s people, who had not been producing good fruit for the Lord. Jesus picks up the same image to speak about his own experience of being rejected by the leaders of the Jewish people. And as we read that in today’s Gospel passage (Mt 21:33-43), we rightly hear it as a warning to our own time that God expects us to produce good fruit, too.

The image of the vineyard is clearly a symbol in these passages. Like all symbols, it has more than one simple meaning. Notice that the parables in the two readings, though similar, differ in significant ways. In the 1st reading, the vineyard is destroyed because it produced wild grapes. In the Gospel the tenants (chief priests and elders) are destroyed and the vineyard is given to other tenants (Gentiles). In the first reading, the challenge is to all of Judah. In the Gospel the challenge is to the Jewish leaders who oppose Jesus and his mission.

It is this multivalence, this ability to carry many levels of meaning, that distinguishes a true symbol from a mere sign. Symbols are rich carriers of meaning, allowing people to enter into them and draw from them a variety of insights and meanings.

Since good liturgy relies on symbols, we have to make ourselves aware of tapping the power of symbols. For an effective participation in liturgy, sometimes a theme is chosen and the whole liturgy is based on that. Though this is a good practice in itself, the use of symbols in liturgy may serve the purpose better. The problem with a theme, at least one narrowly conceived, is that it attempts to make the liturgy say one thing to everybody. Good use of symbols, by contrast, invites us to engage the symbols in a context of mystery. This means that different people may draw very different meanings from the symbol, as the Holy Spirit touches the minds and hearts of each member of the worshiping community.

The liturgy does have its own dynamics and demands, but it also must remain open enough for the wide variety of people who celebrate it to enter into with their own backgrounds and abilities. That’s what good symbols allow.

The Holy Otherness of God

Message from Fr. Jose Koluthara, CMI

Lord Jesus, make me a catechist teaching your mercy and generous forgiveness through my life

My Dear Brothers and Sisters,

The readings of this Sunday seems to invite our attention to the importance of catechesis in the church. The U.S. Catholic bishops have designated this third Sunday of September as Catechetical Sunday.

The first reading’s insistence (Is 55:6-9) that God’s ways are not our ways provides a solid basis for the need for catechesis. The Gospel parable (Mt 20:1-16) provides a good example of how different God’s ways are from our instinctive human reactions to a situation. It might be good, therefore, to focus precisely on that disjuncture.

There is a tendency among us humans to bring God “down to our level” by attributing to God some of our baser human attitudes and behaviours. For example, because many of us have a knee-jerk reaction to the wrongs done to us and tend to pay back blow for blow, evil for evil, we may think that God will act with like spitefulness. Similarly, we who tend to hold grudges, dredge up past hurts and relish vengeance. We presume God will not forgive because we cannot or will not; we think God will harbour anger because we do. We think that God would never afford the grace of another chance for conversion, for repentance, for reconciliation because we find such grace “cheap” or “offensive” and thereby stifle its possibilities. We have to be on guard against diminishing the holy otherness of God. This otherness of God is revealed as mercy and generous forgiveness when human standards would dictate otherwise. Here lies the crux of the challenging mission shouldered by catechists.

Do we give special respect and reverence to catechists as those who help the community to embrace values and behaviour that flow from Christ rather than from society? Too often people assume that the function of catechesis is to produce people who will behave according to society’s accepted rules, that is to conform to the status quo.

Yet if God’s ways are not our ways, the fruit of good catechesis will be people who challenge the status quo whenever it is at odds with the values of the Gospel.

Let us specially pray today for all the religious teachers in Catholic Schools and parish religious programmes, preschool catechists and catechumenate team members.

Sign of Salvation?

Message from Fr. Jose Koluthara, CMI

Lord Jesus, make me aware of my sinfulness, whenever I see your cross as salvific sign.

My Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Today we celebrate the Feast of the Exaltation of the cross. Is it not ironical that we exalt an instrument of execution? Despite its obvious cruelty and infamy, the cross has become a central symbol of our faith. Because of Jesus’ love radiating from the cross, it has become the sign of our salvation and the cause of our joy.

The bronze serpent referred to in the 1st reading (Num. 21:4-9) stands as a salvific sign reminiscent of the cross. Moses' lifting up of the bronze serpent in the desert is compared to the lifting up of Jesus on the cross and in his resurrection (Gospel Jn:3:13-17). In the early Christian Hymn quoted by Paul in today’s 2nd reading (Phil. 2:6-11), the cross of Jesus is celebrated as the passage through which Jesus accomplished the salvation of mankind.

Besides its value as the sign of our salvation, the cross, according to psychologist Kelsey, is also a vivid symbol of the evil that is in each of us. In an article titled “The Cross and the Cellar”, Kelsey suggests that each of us has an ordinary personality which we “wear” in public; underneath that public persona is a cellar which hides the refuse and rubbish which we would rather not see ourselves or let others see. Below that, there is an even deeper hold, a truly hellish place, full of dragons, demons, violence, hatred and viciousness. The cross is crucial because it shows what possibilities for evil lie hidden in each of us. Whenever we look upon the cross we see not only what the love of God for sinners can do, but also what mankind can do, has done and still does to human beings.

Scratch the surface of a person, says Kelsey and below you’ll find a beast or worse than a beast. This reality is attested to by the cross. History also attests to this reality. Remember the Nazi concentration camps where six million Jews were systematically tortured, starved and eventually gassed to death by other human beings. Recall the untold numbers of wars within nations, ironically called civil wars. Remember Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Waco, Columbine, Iran and more recently, Iraq. All of these and so many other atrocities come together and stare out at us from the cross.

Caring Correction

Message from Fr. Jose Koluthara, CMI

Lord Jesus, help me to give caring correction instead of criticizing and complaining.

My Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Today’s readings invite our attention to the watchman’s role given us by God. As believers we are bound to one another by our shared faith in the same God. By virtue of that bond we willingly accept to become responsible for one another in the greater human family we call church. That responsibility includes loving support, service, respect for one another as well as the caring gift of mutual correction.

The first reading (Ez 33:7-9) compares the prophet Ezekiel’s efforts at brotherly correction to that of a watchman or sentinel warning others of the dangers of their wicked ways. While it was their responsibility to warn his contemporaries, it was their responsibility to take his warning to heart.

Paul, in today’s second reading (Rom. 13:6-10), describes the communal bond that binds the members of Christ to one another in terms of an indebtedness of love. That love does no wrong but labours solely for the good of the others.

The gospel (Mt. 18:15-20) offers a “method” of restoring the mutual indebtedness of love once it had been lost through sin. This “method” requires that the brother who loves another enough to correct him should go to that brother vulnerable. The process being taught by Jesus for resolving differences is often the exact opposite of what we usually do. Too frequently when we find fault with another, we take circuitous rather than a direct course of action. We criticise and complain. In effect, we give ourselves over to gossip rather than to growth and to backbiting rather than caring correction. But Jesus recommends that we approach the other one-on-one, with no power. This will make us more likely to ask than to accuse and to seek agreement rather than argument.

In his excellent book titled “Life Together” Dietrich Bonhoeffer, quoting James (5:15) exhorts, “Confess your sins to one another”. If believing sinners do not reach out to one another in this way, then, despite their shared worship, common prayer and all their fellowship in service, each remains alone. In mutual confession and correction, the breakthrough to community takes place; a breakthrough to new life is made possible.

Liturgical Catechesis

Message from Fr. Jose Koluthara, C.M.I.

Lord Jesus, transform me by the renewing of my mind and make me a living sacrifice

My Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Today’s word from St. Paul about offering our bodies as a living sacrifice offers us an ideal opportunity for some liturgical catechesis. That term can refer both to catechesis about the liturgy and the catechesis that flows from the liturgy.

Those words from St. Paul are echoed in the Fourth Eucharistic Prayer: “… by your Holy Spirit, gather all who share this one sacrifice into the one body of Christ, a living sacrifice of praise.” (Rom. 12:1). That makes this prayer the logical one to use today, of course. Eucharistic Prayer is the central prayer of the liturgy, but it is often the one that people have the most difficulty making their own.

Helping you to understand the unified structure of the prayer and the purpose of its various parts can enable you to make this prayer more fully your own. The current General Instruction of the Roman Missal describes the parts of the Eucharistic prayer in #55.

Beyond the structure of the prayers, Paul’s words offer the opportunity to lead people into the meaning of the Mass, especially into the commitment to daily sacrifice that is implicit in the Amen that we proclaim at the end of the Eucharistic prayer.

Of course, if the Eucharistic Prayer is to exert its full power to form us and to shape our attitudes, it must be proclaimed well. Presiders must examine themselves (and invite feedback from members of the assembly) on how well they proclaim this prayer at every Mass.

Is the variety of Eucharistic Prayers in the sacramentary used well? Are all the prayers used regularly or is one used almost all the time?

A final question to ask is whether the choice of which prayer to use is made on the basis of links to other elements of the liturgy of the day.

Have you ever felt the need to be part of a Liturgical Planning Committee in our parish? If so, will it turn out to be salt and light for our parish liturgical life?

Authority to Nurture

Message from Fr. Jose Koluthara, CMI

Lord Jesus, give me the power to nurture others.

My Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Authority is the focus of today’s readings, authority conferred, authority revoked, authority abused in the service of self, and authority used rightly, in the service of kingdom. By definition, the word authority means:  the power to enforce laws, exact obedience, command, determine or judge; ‚ one that is vested with this power; ƒ power assigned to another; „ an accepted source of expert information or advice (The American Heritage Dictionary). Etymologically, our English word authority is rooted in the Latin word auctorem or auctor, which means enlarger, founder or more literally, one who causes to grow. Therefore, it could be said that those on whom authority has been conferred or bestowed are thereby vested with the power and the responsibility to help others to grow. Unfortunately and as is reflected in today’s first reading from Isaiah, some, like Shebna, do not use their authority appropriately and, for that reason, their authority may be better exercised by another. Many have fallen in line behind Shebna in abusing their authority, e.g., Henry VIII of England, Josef Stalin, Adolf Hitler, to name only a few.

In today’s gospel, Matthew tells his readers of the occasion and the circumstances whereby Peter’s authority was conferred. Instead of conducting a job interview, Jesus was enlisting the help and loyalty, the love and service of a friend. To that end and by way of preparing him for the authority that would be his, Jesus asked Peter one question: “Who do you say I am?”

Peter’s response was forthright and unequivocal; you are Messiah, you are Son of the living God! It was his true and intimate awareness of Jesus’ person, purpose and mission that prepared Peter for sharing in the authority that would be given him. The same intimate knowledge of Jesus similarly prepares all others who would also be given share in that authority. Without knowledge of Christ, without a loving relationship with Jesus, no one can claim authority over another.

Saving Grace

Message from Fr. Jose Koluthara, CMI

Lord Jesus, stretch my arms with yours on the cross in the saving embrace of all mankind.

My Dear Brothers and Sisters,

All three of today’s readings and the responsorial psalm mesh today to focus our attention on the universality of God’s offer of salvation. God’s mercy and salvation is for all people, regardless of race, creed or colour. United by the saving grace of God, we gather today as one family, mindful of our need for the Lord’s mercy.

In the gospel (Mt. 15:21-28) we see Jesus at first refusing the Canaanite woman’s plea to cure her daughter tormented by a demon. His refusal was not a matter of prejudice but a protocol. The divine protocol had foreordained that salvation should come to sinful humankind, first to the Jews and then to all the peoples of the earth. The Canaanite woman challenged that protocol and, because of her faith and daring, Jesus granted her a share in the blessings of salvation, viz., healing for her daughter.

By extending those salvific blessings to a non-Jew, Jesus was fulfilling the Isaian prophecy that comprises today’s first reading…..” the foreigners who attach themselves to God, who observe what is right and do what is just will also be welcomed and attended by God…for God’s house shall be a house of prayer for all peoples”. (Is. 56:1,6-7)

Paul was also fully aware of the privileges of protocol and he desired that his fellow Jews, who had allowed God’s initial overtures to them (in Jesus) to go un-answered, would not allow God’s continuing overtures of love to pass them by. Paul’s love and concern for both Jews and Gentiles is clearly evidenced in today’s 2nd reading (Rom 11: 13-16,29-32).

Contemporary believers, both Jews and Gentiles, Catholics and Protestants, and followers of Islam, are reminded today by Paul, Isaiah and Jesus that membership in the house of God is open to all. Ever since Jesus stretched out his arms on the cross in the saving embrace of all humankind, no one person, no one group can claim an exclusive right to God, to God’s reign and to access thereof. Because of Jesus and the love of God, the mercy of God and forgiveness of God that has been revealed in him, the protocol has been established…Members – All!.

A New Language, A New Vision

Message from Fr. Jose Koluthara, CMI

Lord Jesus, help me learn the new language and the new vision you teach and have an experience of understanding and oneness with others.

My Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Today’s scripture texts from the first book of Kings, from Paul and from Gospel according to Mathew invite us to an experience of understanding and oneness with others. Each presents us with the gift of God’s Word and the challenge of recognizing the various languages through which that sacred Word is spoken. Elijah (1st reading, 1 Kings 19:9, 11-13), for example, had traditionally recognized the Word of God as spoken through various natural phenomena, e.g., as in the strong and crushing wind or in the tremors of an earthquake, or in the heat and flames of a fire. These perceptions enabled Elijah to think of God in terms of irrepressible power or an unharnessable force. But on that day, on the mountain known as Horeb (or Sinai), God’s Word came to the prophet speaking in another language, not with nature’s noises but in the still small silence of the prophet’s own heart. While the prophet was searching and listening elsewhere, the Word of God was speaking within him. He became as it was, “inspired” or “God-breathed”. He understood this new language God was speaking and he opened himself to hear and heed its directives.

In today’s second reading (Rom 9:1-5), Paul shares with his readers the truth of God’s Word as mediated through the language of the paschal mystery. Jesus had been spoken into the Jewish tradition of patriarchs and promises, covenants and messianic expectations. Yet, the Word made flesh was not fully appreciated or accepted by many of Paul’s and Jesus’ Jewish brothers and sisters. Heartbroken that his own did not understand the new language that God had spoken in Jesus, Paul pleaded that they do so, even after the fact. If they did, Paul promised that God would speak the language of reconciliation and salvation.

A language of strength and courage is spoken in today’s Gospel (Mt 14:22-33), when Jesus exhorts, “Be not afraid!” and invites believers “to come!” despite the deep waters and despite our fears. Jesus promises to stretch out his hand and catch us before we are overwhelmed. Italian filmmaker Federico Fellini once said, “A different language is a different vision of life”. Today Jesus offers to teach us not only the new language of unfaltering and fearless faith, but also a vision of life that sees all, loves all and cherishes all as God sees, loves and cherishes.

Chance of a Lifetime

Message from Fr. Jose Koluthara, CMI

Lord Jesus, give me wisdom, courage and patience to risk all for the reign of God.

My Dear Brothers and Sisters,

A new era dawned in Sydney, Australia last week. The youth from all over the world with Pope Benedict XVI amidst them were brimming with life. The long awaited World Youth Day 2008, inaugurated with the welcoming Mass by Cardinal George Pell, came to a close with the Papal Mass at Randwick race track last Sunday. 500,000 youngsters attended it. In that open-air mass Pope Benedict urged the young pilgrims to be agents of change because the world needed renewal. “In so many of our societies, side by side, with material prosperity, a spiritual desert is spreading: an interior emptiness, an unnamed fear, a quiet sense of despair.” The Pope said a new generation of Christians can build “a new age in which hope liberates us from the shallowness, apathy, self-absorption which deadens our souls and poisons our relationships.” This Sunday’s readings deal with the attitudes and actions required for ushering in a new generation and a new age.

In the 1st reading (1 Kings 3:5-12), we see the young Solomon as king praying to God thus”…. I am only a little child. I do not know how to go out or come in…. Give your servant therefore an understanding mind to govern your people, able to discern between good and evil”. And God responds by giving him a wise and discerning mind. The wisdom which king Solomon received from God enabled him to make judgments in such a way that he remains as an inspirer even today. In the 2nd reading (Rom 8:28-30) we find Paul, also a wise man, maintaining hope despite all the things that happen in life to suggest the contrary .

The Gospel (Mt. 13:44-52) presents before us the kingdom of God as the chance of a lifetime. With the twin parables of the treasure buried in the field and the pearl of great price, Jesus teaches of the supreme value of the reign of God, emphasizing that those who seek it must be willing to risk all in order to possess it. In Jesus, they would find a wisdom and a way of life of far more value than any buried treasure or any fine pearl. The third parable of the dragnet challenges those who might be tempted to “write” off anyone, while reminding us that their eligibility is God’s concern alone; we, for our part, remain responsible for gathering them in and seeing to their needs without rendering judgment

Let us gird ourselves with the attitudes and actions required to help the youth and see that we send a team to the WYD 2011 in Madrid, Spain.

Seeds, Words and Their Growth

Message from Fr. Jose Koluthara, CMI

Lord Jesus, help us accept the seed, your Word, take it home with us and lovingly tend to it.   Amen.

My Dear Brothers and Sisters,

One much-loved teacher gave everyone in a first grade class a lima bean along with an explanation that each of them would be solely responsible for what became of it. With the bean and the explanation, they were also given a paper towel and a small Dixie cup and were instructed to moisten the towel, wrap it around the bean, put it in the cup and place the cup near a window or other light source. After a week or so, the teacher invited them to bring their sprouting beans to school. Some of them were ashamed to say that they had lost the bean or “the dog ate it”. Others had forgotten to keep the bean moist and its growth was stunted. Some forgot about the light source and the bean sprouted but withered. Still others among them were proud to show off a relatively tall and healthy sprout with a hint of a leaf here and there.

Since all of us can, in some small or large way, relate to seeds and growing things, the scripture texts for today, especially Isaiah (55:10-11) and Matthew (13:1-23) are particularly significant. Both the prophet and the evangelist prompt us to compare the word of God to a seed, planted anew in us each week. Like a much-loved teacher, the church provides, through the liturgy, both the seed and the wherewithal to allow the seed to germinate, to grow and thereby to transform our lives. But in order for growth to occur, we must accept the seed, take it home with us and carefully, lovingly tend to it while allowing it also to tend to and care for us. While Jesus lived and walked and worked among us, he planted the seed of the Word in the form of parables. Then Jesus challenged, “Anyone who has ears should listen!” and so does Jesus continue to challenge his listeners today.

Listening to Jesus means understanding and accepting that the seed of the Word is portable, that is to say, it may not be left hanging in the air, intermingled with the smell of candles, flowers and incense. But in order to be portable as well as translatable into every aspect of the human experience, the Word must germinate within the good soil of the human heart and mind and, ultimately, the human will. If the Word we hear does not germinate in us and then travel with us across the threshold of the church and on into the rest of the week, it cannot accomplish its God-intended purpose – to achieve the end for which God spoke it into the world and into each of our lives (Is 55:11).

Our Approachable God

Message from Fr. Jose Koluthara, CMI

Lord Jesus, make me ever approachable learning from you how to be gentle and humble of heart.  Amen

My Dear Brothers and Sisters,

God, as is revealed in today’s liturgy, remains utterly approachable. In today’s first reading (Zech 9:9-10), the prophet Zechariah celebrates the approachableness of God, who does not remain aloof and pompously distant from the people but comes away in all meekness. Israel’s God repeatedly assures believers, “I am with you”; “I have seen your plight”; “I hear your cries”; “You are mine and I am yours”. Israel's God made the divine presence as obvious as a pillar of fire illuminating the darkened desert sky or the cloud that signalled nearness by day. By describing the divine love for Israel as that of a mother who never forgets her child (Is49:15) or as a loving parent who teaches a son to walk, raises the infant to his cheeks and stoops to feed him and enfold the child in love (Hos 11:3,4), the prophets of the Hebrew scriptures affirmed the divine desire to be near, to be approached.

That desire took on human form and features in the person of Jesus, whose very incarnation signalled the ultimate gesture of divine approachability. In Jesus, God came so near as to become one of us. This mystery is dramatically and clearly expressed in today’s Gospel (Mt 11:25-30), wherein Jesus first insists that those who know him can also know God who is revealed in him. “Then,” Jesus invites, “Come to me and find rest. Learn from me and be refreshed”. There is no mention of protocol here; no appointment is needed; no political correctness or special attire is specified. There is simply Jesus, made accessible in flesh and blood, made forever present in bread and wine.

“Come to me, take my yoke upon you”, Jesus asks, and then specifies that his is an easy yoke and a light burden. In a comment on this invitation by the utterly approachable Jesus, T.W. Manson (“The Teaching of Jesus”, UK, 1931) has explained that the yoke is not one that Jesus imposes but one that he himself wears. In Jesus’ day, a yoke was a common wooden device that paired two oxen and made them a team. The ever approachable Jesus invites each of us to become his yoke mate and with him and in him, to find our burdens lessened and sorrows shared. Our weariness and weighty worries of life will not drag us down or overwhelm us because the One who has called us into being has shouldered our troubles as his own.

Two Living Pillars

Message from Fr. Jose Koluthara, CMI

Lord Jesus, help me respond to you in faith so that my life may completely be redirected.

My Dear Brothers and Sisters,

This Sunday we are celebrating the greatness of two very different men who received God’s call and God’s grace and thereby became living pillars in our faith community. Aside from their shared faith in Jesus, little else would have brought Peter and Paul together to be leaders of the growing Jesus movement. Had Peter not met Jesus, he would probably have grown old sailing the Sea of Galilee and hauling in his catches. Had Paul not encountered the risen Jesus on the Damascus road, he would probably have continued to serve as a rabbi among his Jewish contemporaries. But Peter and Paul did meet Jesus and respond to him in faith, and as a result, their lives were completely redirected.

Henry Nouwen has suggested that the church would do well to take advantage of the feast of Peter and Paul to celebrate their perseverance, their spiritual insights and their strong commitment to bring the Gospel to the whole world. (Sabbatical Journey, 1998) Because of their deep personal relationship with Jesus, they were able to overcome barriers that might otherwise have kept them apart. As different as night and day, they found a union in Christ that continues to call others to similar communion. Their ability to overcome their differences challenges each of us to a similar generosity.

The insight of Peter and Paul speak anew to us today and call forth similar wisdom in us. With Peter, we are invited to answer the ultimate question (Gospel, Mt. 16:13-19) upon which all other questions and their answers depend. Like Peter, we are to affirm: You are Christ, the Messiah, our hope, our model, our way in and our way out, our open door, our mentor, our friend, our life, our brother, our God. With Peter, we are to shake off the chains (1st reading, Acts 12:1-11), whether these are self-made or crafted by our circumstances, and walk in the freedom that Jesus has won for us.

Standing beside Paul (2nd reading, 2Tim.4:6-18), we remember that all our life can be offered as a sacrifice or a libation poured out in praise of God. Paul reminds us that Jesus stands by us to give us strength and encouragement through all the ups and downs, through every turn and detour we may meet along the way.

Turning Points and Transitions

Message from Fr. Jose Koluthara, CMI

Lord Jesus, touch me and transform my fear to trust in the turning points of life.

My Dear Brothers and Sisters,

praying assembly today there is a turning point that creates a change of heart or a new mindset. As Within each of the three scripture selections set before the scholars have described it, there is a definite and discernible movement from wretchedness to joy. In today’s first reading (Jer 20:10-13) the plight of Jeremiah openly bemoans the fact that he was called to be a prophet at a turbulent time in his people’s history. Suffering from their rejection of his message and threats against his person, Jeremiah pours out his complaint. Yet, right in the middle of his griping, there is a change, and the jeremiad of the prophet yields to joy. Why? Even amid his difficulties, the prophet was aware of the presence of God with him, “like a mighty champion”. That powerful presence effected a turning point in the prophet’s attitude. Fear turned to trust and desperation to dependence on God.

A similar shift, though more subtly expressed, is evidenced in today’s second reading from Paul’s letter to the Romans (Rom 5:12-15). Before Jesus sin reigned in the world, and with sin, death. But with Jesus, God’s gracious and saving gifts were poured forth on a sinful world. Jesus effected in his person and through his mission the turning point of the story of our salvation. Because of Jesus, sin is healed by God’s merciful forgiveness, death yields to life and wretchedness to joy. Walter Brueggemann (The Message of Psalms, 1984) has called this shift or turning point that is reflected in the life and spirituality of the believer a transition from disorientation to new-orientation.

In today’s Gospel (Mt 10:26-33), it is Jesus who makes his disciples aware of the possibility of transitions or turning points in their lives. The disciples should expect to face the same doubt and rejection and to be embroiled in controversy and conflicts as Jesus was. But rather than meet these difficulties with fear or allow those who oppose them and their work to intimidate them, the disciples of Jesus are encouraged by him with the promise of God’s parental and fastidious attentiveness. So carefully does God attend disciples that every hair on their heads is known and protected. With this knowledge of God’s care, disciples can make the transition or turning point from fear to fearless service and from disorientation to a new orientation towards life.

“My Love For You”

Message from Fr. Jose Koluthara, CMI

Lord Jesus, help us to love you as you loved, to live as you lived, to serve as you served.

My Dear Brothers and Sisters,

“How do I love thee? Let me count the ways… I love thee to the level of every day’s most quiet need, by sun and candle light. I love thee freely…I love thee purely…I love thee with the breath, smiles, tears of all my life and…I shall but love thee better after death.” With these words, poet Elizabeth Barrett (1806-1861) gave eloquent expression to her love for her future husband, Robert Browning (1812-1889). Many through the years have made these words their own when searching to find a way to communicate their feelings to their beloved.

“How do I love thee?” God asks, and through the imagination of the Exodus author, God tells us of a fierce and protective love like that of a mother eagle encouraging its young to grow and develop (Ex 19:1-6). God’s love is also a spousal and desirous of an unending covenantal relationship. God’s love speaks of a belonging that makes special and holy the beloved. You are mine; I am yours, promises the God of Exodus.

“How do I love thee?” When Paul broaches that question and answers for God, his is an amazing declaration of the underserved and unrequited love of God for humankind (Rom 5:6-11). We were powerless, godless; we were enemies and sinners and in complete disregard of our unworthiness, and with a generosity that defies human logic, God loved us to such an extreme that God sent divinity into time and space to become one of us and to die for us in order to achieve our justification. Justification, or being set in right relationship to God, is the measureless measure of God’s love.

“How do I love thee?” I love you, pledges Jesus in Matthew’s gospel (Mt 9:36-10:8), as a shepherd loves the sheep, even when, and especially when, the sheep wander, tired and aimless, with no worthy leader to tend to them. I love you like the farmer loves the harvest and risks all to see it safely and completely gathered in. I love you as deeply as to call you, when the world may regard as unlikely candidates for leadership – I call you, tax collector, the sinner, the betrayer, the political extremist… I call you all to be my hands, my feet, my mind and heart for a needy world. “How do I love thee?” I love you fully and freely, and as God, I choose to love you in life and beyond death for everlasting life.

Dead Or Alive?

Message from Fr. Jose Koluthara, CMI

Lord Jesus, help me translate my piety into a sincere and compassionate caring for one another.

Scottish biblical scholar, William Barclay (1907-1978) included the following anecdote in one of his sermons: A minister was called to assume the pastorate of a church in the Americas. Although he had been warned that the congregation was, for all practical purposes, “dead”, he regarded the call as a challenge and decided to accept it. Soon after his arrival, he discovered that his congregation was indeed “dead”. No planning, no exhortation could kindle a spark of life or waken a hint of a response.

One Sunday, the new pastor announced from pulpit that since the congregation was dead, he was going to carry out the funeral of the church. On the appointed day, a coffin was brought into the church and placed in the centre aisle; the church was decked with mourning wreaths.

When the time for the “burial service” arrived, the church was crowded as it had not been in years. Solemnly, the pastor proceeded with the service, at the conclusion of which, he invited all present to file past the coffin. As they did so they received a shock. The coffin was open and empty. But the bottom of the coffin was not wood; it was a mirror. As each person peered into the coffin of the dead church, each saw his/her own face.

In a certain sense, the prophet Hosea (6:3-6) and the evangelist Matthew (9:9-13) are delivering a similar message to the praying assembly gathered for today’s liturgy, viz., a congregation is dead, that is, its members are dead if the ritual they celebrate is empty… if there is sacrifice but no mercy… if there is private profession of piety but no public expression of that piety in mutual love and service; if, when gathered round the altar, they dare to call upon God as Abba – Daddy and then they go forth from the altar and fail to recognize and care for others as brothers and sisters.

The first reading and the gospel frame our liturgy today with the challenge to remember that ours is a God-centred and people oriented piety. Without both, i.e., without a focus in God that is translated in a sincere and compassionate caring for one another, piety is “like a morning cloud, like the dew that passes early away” (Hosea) and the one who practices such piety is, indeed, dead.

The Body and Blood of the Lord

Message from Fr. Jose Koluthara, CMI

Lord Jesus, make me your presence in the world through the Holy Communion I receive.

My Dear Brothers and Sisters,

This annual feast offers an ideal time to reaffirm the church’s belief that the bread and wine are truly changed into the body and blood of the Lord. There should be no question that this is the faith of the church. The challenge is putting that doctrine in the proper context. There is always a danger that in emphasizing one tenet of the faith, other important beliefs are overshadowed. The result can be a distortion of the faith tradition rather than a strengthening of it.

With regard to belief in the Real Presence of Christ in the form of His body and blood, there are two major contexts that need to be maintained. The first is that He offers us His body and blood precisely as food and drink. His presence is not for its own sake so that we might adore the host or view Him as a prisoner in the tabernacle. He is present in the body and blood to feed and nourish us and to transform us more fully into His body in the world.

The second essential context is the various ways that Christ is present in the Eucharist. He is present not only in the bread and wine but also in the assembly, in the presider, and in the word proclaimed. These other forms of His presence are not in competition with His presence in the Eucharistic species, but work with that presence to enable us to encounter the Lord throughout the celebration of the liturgy and to be transformed more fully into His likeness.

Today let us concentrate on the richness of our Eucharistic tradition. Let us take pains to see the connections between the various modes of Christ’s presence and recognize the true purpose of the Eucharist as our own transformation. Once this is fulfilled, the goal of liturgical formation is achieved. Let us ask ourselves the following questions: (1) What is my experience when I say “I adore you Lord!” (2) Does that adoring attitude take its origin from the transformation I underwent and the satisfaction I got feeding on the body and blood of the Lord?

Trinity and Community

Message from Fr. Jose Koluthara, CMI

Lord Jesus, help us to foster the interpersonal relationships in our community contemplating the mystery of the Trinity.

My Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Today, Trinity Sunday, we pause to consider mystery in our lives. The difference between mystery and problem is vast. A problem is something we can solve.

Managing to pay all our bills each month is a problem. Mystery, though, is not something that can be solved or managed. We all live with mystery, although we may not be aware of it. One of the most fundamental mysteries of all is life itself. We recognize it, we cherish it, we fear losing it, but we do not understand it anymore than we grasp its end – death. Do we understand love? Try to explain why you love someone, you will always fall far short of the truth.

Nicodemus was faced with mystery, and he resorted to problem solving, He was a leader in the community, a Pharisee of high repute. But he was also drawn irresistibly to the person of Jesus. Prudently, he went to Jesus under cover of darkness, seeking to resolve his dilemma. But Jesus spoke of belief, not solutions. Belief has to do with entering into mystery. Jesus startled Nicodemus by telling him he must be born again, of water and the spirit. Reduced to a problem, this makes no sense. As mystery, we believe.

It was faith that prompted Paul to conclude his second letter to the Corinthians with this blessing: “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you”. Reason did not bring Paul to this declaration of Trinity, only faith, the acceptance of mystery.

The Trinity is not unreasonable, it is beyond reason. Augustine admitted, “I can experience far more than I can understand about the Trinity”. Theologians such as Leonardo Boff and Elizabeth John describe the interrelatedness of the Three Persons as community. God is not a dominant ONE, cut off from any relationship with others. Nor is God just two figures, Father, Son, absorbed in each other. But, as Boff suggests, God is the eternal spilling over into a third person, the Spirit, who “forces the other two to turn their gaze from themselves in another direction.”

Theologian Belden Lane continues, “God then, is a community of differentness bound together in unity. The Trinity continually seeks new webs of interconnectedness, while at the same time remaining separate and wholly itself”.

God's Kiss

Message from Fr. Jose Koluthara, CMI

Lord Jesus, give me the “kiss” of the Spirit and liberate me from my bondages.

 

My Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Today we have gathered together to celebrate the liberation that is Pentecost. Luke, in today’s first reading (Acts 2:1-11) speaks of the Spirit in terms of “tongues, as of fire”, and of “a noise, like a strong driving wind”. He describes a boldness in the disciples, where once there had been only fear; he speaks in terms of understanding among people of different cultures and backgrounds where once there had been a divisive confusion. He tells of an openness and a universal outreach where once there had been a parochial exclusivity.

In today’s 2nd reading (1 Cor. 12:3-7,12-13) Paul describes the Spirit as one who enables and expresses our prayer, as one who equips us and encourages us with charisms and as the one in whom all of our diversities find their unity and complementarity. John, in today’s gospel, reminds us that the Spirit is indeed breathed upon and into each of us with the ability to share these gifts of peace and forgiveness with one another and the world.

David Watson has suggested that we think of the Holy Spirit as the early Christian mystics did – as God’s kiss – and that we understand that, in coming together for worship today, we have, in effect, come to kiss and be kissed by God. Remarkably, the word most commonly translated as “worship” in Christian Scriptures means to bow or to prostrate oneself and it is derived from a root meaning “to kiss”. As John R. McRay has explained, this special word references the practice of bowing to kiss the hand or foot of the one to whom homage is paid. The idea of emotional and spiritual emptiness in the presence of the Holy, lies at the heart of the experience of worship. Keeping in mind this special derivation of the scriptural term for worship, we might say that we have come together on this feast of Pentecost emotionally and spiritually empty and eager to be filled with the presence and power of the Spirit. We have come to bow down in homage, i.e., to kiss the hand of the One who guides us, protects us, feeds us and fuels us for service.

The Gift Of An Agenda

Message from Fr. Jose Koluthara, CMI

Lord Jesus, strengthen us to come down from the mountaintop to be your witnesses throughout the world.

 

Do you remember Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I’ve been to the Mountaintop” speech delivered at the Mason Temple in Memphis, Tenn., on April 3, 1968, the day before he was assassinated? King’s speech resonated with a hope and conviction that a new day was about to dawn, and with it new assurances of civil rights for African Americans. Five years earlier in another of his memorable and moving speeches, King had described what he had envisioned on the mountain top. “I have a dream”, shared King, “that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character…” (August 28, 1963).

King’s dream and his mountaintop vision would have remained just that except for the fact that he came down from the mountain and marched the streets of Selma, Atlanta, Washington, etc. in order that his visions and dreams be realized. Today’s feast of Jesus’ ascension challenges believers to do likewise. Although the disciples of Jesus may have been tempted to remain in the relative safety of the mountain in order to preserve the experience of the nearness of Jesus, that was not to be. As Jesus instructed, they were to be his witnesses in Jerusalem, throughout Judea and Samaria and even to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:1-11, 1st reading). With Jesus’ own authority, they were to make disciples of all the nations, baptizing and teaching them, all the while assured of the presence of Jesus (Mt 28:16-20, Gospel)… all the while compelled by the hope and inspired by God’s wisdom and insight (Ephesians, 1:17-23, 2nd reading).

Nowhere did Jesus say that his disciples should stand off at a safe distance and critique the world. On the contrary, following his lead, Jesus’ followers were directed to immerse themselves in the world, making its burdens their own, its suffering theirs to alleviate. Today, Jesus’ disciples are to do likewise.

Mountaintop experiences are necessary, of course. Mountaintops are places where visions are born and fed. Mountaintops, both real and virtual, are places where discussions take place, where committees are formed, where agendas are made. But the best-laid plans are of no avail unless believers are willing to go down from the mountain and realize their visions and dreams by translating words into works, decisions into deeds, and proposed goals into achievements.

The Gift Of Promise

Message from Fr. Jose Koluthara, CMI

Lord Jesus, help us experience the promised Paraclete as a person, a presence and a power in our life situations.

 

One of Jesus’ promises is featured in this Sunday’s Gospel (Jn 14:15-21): the promise of his own continued support and presence in the person of the Paraclete or Spirit of truth.

When considering all the things that Jesus could have promised his own, the promise of the Spirit becomes all the more significant. Certainly, it was in Jesus’ power and it may even have been the unspoken wish of his disciples that he would promise them an easy mission, spent among people who shared their traditions a mission that they could exercise in relative comfort of their own homes and hometowns. Jesus could have promised his disciples fame, popularity and a warm welcome from those to whom they reached out with good news. Jesus could have promised his followers power to dominate. Jesus could have assured his that they would be immunized against hostility and prejudice. He could have promised peace without a price and justice without hard work and sacrifice. Jesus could have promised those who gave themselves over to his ministry a life without suffering and pain. But all of these promises, however appealing, pale into insignificance when compared to the promise Jesus did make and keep: the promise of the Paraclete or Holy Spirit. A person, a presence and a power like none other, the promised Paraclete would remain with the disciples and continues to remain with and within those who love and believe in Jesus.

In today’s 1st reading (Acts 8:14-17), Luke recounts some of the first inroads made among Samaritans. The goal of the first disciples challenges us to a similarly zealous concern for those in faraway places who suffer from natural catastrophes such as earthquake, tsunami and mudslides as well as catastrophes devised by human hatred and injustice, e.g. ethnic cleansing, war, tribal conflict, trade embargos that starve the poor, etc.

In today’s 2nd reading (1Pet 3:15-18), the ancient writer reminds us that the Spirit also enables believers to endure the suffering that comes from doing good.

As is reflected in today’s Gospel, the Paraclete enables those who follow Jesus to retain their union with him and with the Father. So also will the Spirit of truth prompt Jesus’ disciples to keep and obey his commandments.

A Church of Living Stones

Message from Fr. Jose Koluthara, CMI

Lord Jesus, help us become a church who fully and truly reflects your loving concerns for humankind

My Dear Brothers and Sisters,

From last Sunday’s celebration of Jesus, our Good Shepherd, we turn our attention this week to who we are and how we are to live as Jesus’ sheep, or, to put it another way, as church. To aid our prayer and reflection in this regard, each of the scripture selections for today offer images and analogies that emphasize some aspect of what it means to be church. Luke, in the first reading from Acts (6:1-7), will remind us that service is an essential constituent of church, service to God, service to the word, service to one another and, in particular, service to the poor and disadvantaged.

In the 2nd reading (1Pet 2:4-9) we get several images of the church. The first one says that we, as church, are living stones built into an edifice of Spirit upon the corner-stone of Jesus Christ. Reflecting upon the implications we have to ask ourselves these questions: 1) Are we, as the living stones of the church, true and authentic memorials of God’s encounter with humankind in Christ? 2) Do people look at us and recognize in us an “awesome shrine”, an “abode of God”, a “gateway to heaven”? 3) When they are in our presence, do others have the sense that God is with us, within us and therefore with and within them? 4) Does our lack of unity, our indifference to the poor, our refusal to take the challenges of the Gospel seriously render us an obstacle and a stumbling block, a counter-witness to what we are to be as a church of living stones?

The other images are an affirmation of church as “a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a consecrated nation, a people claimed by God to proclaim glorious works”.

In today’s Gospel (Jn 14:1-12), the evangelist alludes to these works as the proper responsibility of the church. Promising that they (we) would do the works he did and works far greater than his, the risen Jesus left his own an agenda to be accomplished in the interim between his advents. Part of that agenda is to continue being a church who fully and truly reflects the loving concerns of Christ for humankind. Unfortunately, this agenda has not always been met. Let us not forget that we are daily and continually blessed with every gift and grace necessary for fully realizing our potential and God’s intentions for the world.

The Gift of Patience

Message from Fr. Jose Koluthara, CMI

Lord Jesus, give me the gift of patience to welcome sincere criticism.  Amen.

 

My Dear Brothers and Sisters,

The fourth Sunday of Easter is often called “Good Shepherd Sunday”, and it is also customarily designated as the World Day of Prayer for Vocations. On this day I feel inclined to speak on the gift of patience.

In the 2nd reading (1 Pet 2:20-25) Peter encourages us to be patient. The author of the New Testament as well as Jesus have much to say about patience. The fact that this word is translated in different places by different English words such as endurance, perseverance and fortitude suggests that we are dealing with a very rich concept.

Patience is the discipline of compassion. This becomes obvious when we reflect that the word “com-passion” could be read as “com-patience”. The words both have their root in the Latin word “Pati”, which means “to suffer”. The compassionate life is a life lived patiently with others. Patience is extremely difficult because it runs counter to our unreflective impulse to flee or fight. When we see an accident on the road, something in us prompts the accelerator. When someone approaches a sensitive issue, something in us tries to change the subject. When a shameful memory comes to mind, something in us wants to forget. And if we cannot flee, then we fight. We fight the one who challenges our opinion, we fight the ones who question our authority, we fight the circumstances that force us to change.

Patience enables us to get beyond the choice between fleeing and fighting. Patience is the third way of staying with it, living it through, listening carefully to what presents itself to us. Patience means stopping on the road to help, overcoming fear of sensitive subjects, paying attention to shameful memories. It means welcoming sincere criticism and evaluating changing circumstances. In short, patience is a willingness to be moulded by outside influences even if we have to give up control and enter unknown territory. May I wind this up with a quote from St. Augustine: “Patience is love at rest”.

Presence and Reverence

Message from Fr. Jose Koluthara, CMI

Help me, O Risen Lord!, grant me the grace to recognize You and respond to your presence in the breaking of the bread.

My Dear Brothers and Sisters,

In today’s second reading (1 Peter 1.17-21) St. Peter urges his readers to “conduct yourselves with reverence during the time of your sojourning”. Reverence is an essential aspect of good worship, though it is not always as evident as you might wish when we gather for liturgy.

Often reverence is compromised by our penchant for haste. Fostering an atmosphere of reverence requires enough time to enter into the mystery present in our midst. As the revised General Instruction of the Roman Missal notes about the liturgy of the word, it “must be celebrated in such a way as to promote meditation. For this reason, any sort of haste that hinders recollection must be clearly avoided” (#56).

Beyond haste, our problems with reverence often flow from a lack of appreciation for the ways that Christ is present in the liturgy. Reverence means recognizing and responding to the presence of the divine. If we do not recognize Christ’s presence, we are not likely to respond with reverence.

Today’s gospel (Luke 24.13-35) account of the journey to Emmaus gives us a good example of this problem. Only after the two disciples recognized Jesus in the breaking of the bread did they respond with awe and reverence. Through most of the account they simply do not recognize that Jesus is with them.

When we take part in the Eucharistic celebration, are we aware of the various ways that Christ is present amidst us: in the assembly, in the presider, in the word proclaimed, and in the sharing of Christ’s body and blood in communion? If liturgical ministers are intensely aware of Christ’s presence and manifest that in the way they carry out their ministries, this will be conveyed subtly but effectively to the assembly. Let us ask ourselves the following questions. Do the lectors wait until all are really ready before they begin proclaiming the word? Do musicians allow significant time for silence before starting the responsorial psalm and gospel acclamation? Do eucharistic ministers handle the body of Christ with care and grace? Is it not advisable to spend 5 to 10 minutes in silent reflection just before the mass?