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.