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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