Redemptive Mercies

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

Risen Jesus, touch me and transform me through the redemptive power of your mercy. Amen.

My Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Last Sunday we celebrated the feast of Divine Mercy giving importance to the scriptural readings. This Sunday’s readings also remind us of the redemptive mercies of the Lord. The redemptive power of the resurrection and the response that enables the believers to appropriate it, viz., repentance form part of the two aspects of this mercy.

In the first reading from Acts (3:13-15, 17-19), Luke presents Peter preaching to his Jewish brothers and sisters the good news that God’s gracious offer of salvation did not expire on the cross. On the contrary, the power of Jesus’ resurrection reaches into the past, present and future with its redemptive mercies. Even though many of them had not availed themselves of those mercies prior to Jesus’ resurrection, Peter assured his fellow Jews that they could still do so. All that would be necessary for them to know the redemptive power of Jesus-risen was an act of repentance. Do this, says Luke through Peter, “so that your sins may be wiped away!”

The second reading (1 John 2:1-5) assures the repentant that the risen Jesus continues to act as our intercessor. Through the saving sacrifice of himself, he has redeemed us of our sins. This redemption is not ours exclusively but it is for the sins of the whole world as well. This is the real miracle of the resurrection. In spite of the evil, ugliness and pain of the world, at the centre of this world’s reality is the Divine Lover, keeping watch over all. In spite of our failures, our rejection of love, our pettiness, our destructiveness, our violence, God loves us and continues to reach out to us and to offer us the redemptive power of resurrection.

That same power is celebrated in today’s gospel (Lk 24:35-48) wherein the risen Lord appears to his own and commissions them to “preach penance for the remission of sins to all the nations.” When Cleopas and his friend told of their Emmaus experience to the Eleven and their companions, and when the Eleven and the others shared with the Emmaus travellers their own experience of the risen Jesus, a community was born and a mission was inaugurated – all through the power of the resurrection. All of this has come about to proclaim together to all people that death does not have the last word, that hope is real and God is alive.

The Gifts of Easter!

Message from Fr. Jose Koluthara, CMI

Risen Jesus, help us become a spark of Easter light in a world still filled with Good Friday darkness.   Amen.

My Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Jesus transformed the greatest tragedy in life into Easter Power and the speciality of that power is that it is communicable. Have we experienced this communicable power in our lives? Have we succeeded in communicating it to others through the gifts we received?

The gifts of Easter, viz redemption, forgiveness, reconciliation and renewal, were present in the early Christians. This is attested by Luke in today’s first reading (Acts 4:32-35). Changed by the Christ-event, those first believers “stood out” from the unchanged masses! They maintained a holy and healthy unity among themselves despite the differences. Distinctions as regards gender, race, ethnic background, socio-economic status and means of livelihood had formerly been causes of friction and separation among them. But Easter changed everything. To allow divisiveness again to cloud the union that should characterize the community of believers is to reject the gifts of Easter and to bear counter witness to the saving cross of Christ.

That cross, says John in today’s 2nd reading (1John 5:1-6) has made us children of God and assures us of the love of God for each of us. That cross, says theologian Alistair McGrath, is at the heart of Easter’s gift. Through the cross, through Easter’s gifts, everything has changed.

In order to enable us to accept Easter's changes within ourselves, within others, and in order to sustain our faith and maintain a ministry and a lifestyle consonant with those changes, today’s gospel (Jn 20:19-31) reminds us that we have also been gifted with the Holy Spirit. That spirit promotes peace when others would clamour for war; that spirit enables faith to grow beyond doubt (as in the case of Thomas) and empowers those into whom it is breathed to forgive and be forgiven rather than to remain in our sins. That Spirit and the reality of the Christ Event we call Easter can change the world. Are the changes and gifts of Easter evidenced in me? In you?

Jesus lives! Joy abounds!

Message from Fr. Jose Koluthara, CMI

Risen Jesus, help us open our hearts to the grace you won for us on the first Easter Sunday. Amen.

My Dear Brothers and Sisters,

The grave becomes a holy place of communion and remembrance because of the person and the event we celebrate today: Jesus, alive, sprung from death to live forever.

Before Christ’s coming, however, it was the custom in pagan Tuscany for tombs to face west, as death meant the closing of life’s day and the passing into eternal night. After the Christ event, it became the custom among Tuscan converts to have their tombs facing east because Easter had come with all its promise, bringing life and light to all. At the heart of this change of attitude and tomb direction is the joy that the Christ-event has unleashed in the world.

A similarly vivid contrast can be found in the catacombs. In one chamber that dates back to the time of Julius Caesar (100-44 B.C.), the tombs are marked with pagan signs depicting gloom and hopelessness. Nearby is a chamber where those who lived within the century after Julius Caesar’s assassination are buried. These were the Christian martyrs who were burned or crucified or torn asunder by the wild beasts. But in this chamber and others like it there are no derogatory remarks or bitter complaints. Here, there is no gloom. On the contrary, paintings and carvings of lilies adorn the tombs, testifying to a belief in immortality. The inscriptions express a serene and authentic joy, and the entire chamber seems decked out as if for a marriage rather than a funeral. A spirit pervades the place: it is gladness that excludes all enduring sorrow.

What accounts for the difference among these burial chambers? It is the conscious presence of the Living Christ whom God raised up on the third day, who was seen by countless witnesses, who ate and drank with his own after he rose from the dead (Acts 10:34, 36-43, 1st reading). Joy and hope and peace are the signs of Christian faith because Jesus of Nazareth who was crucified is raised; no longer does the tomb encase him. He lives and so shall we who believe in him live forever (Mk 16:1-8, Gospel). Therefore the signs that celebrate our faith are signs of triumph, signs of light, signs of life. These are the signs by which others will know to whom we belong. Jesus lives! Joy abounds!

The Jerusalem Syndrome

Message from Fr. Jose Koluthara, CMI

Lord Jesus, transform the Jerusalem within us and help us become what we are meant to be. Amen.

My Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Jesus made His entry into the city of Jerusalem over 2000 years ago. The city called holy now continues to be an unholy melting pot of fighting factions - both religious and political. Once the psalmist described Jerusalem as a ‘city of compact unity, with peace within its walls and prosperity in its buildings’ (Psalm 122). At present Jerusalem is a veritable war zone. In a city that should be characterised by God’s own justice and equity, retaliation and revenge are the order of the day.

The theological tenor of this Holy Week prompts each of us to recognise that there is something of Jerusalem in all of us. Inasmuch as grudges are retained and forgiveness refused… inasmuch as vengeance is plotted, if only in the mind…inasmuch as we rejoice at the misfortune of another, withhold justice from the victimised or cast an unseeing, apathetic eye upon the plight of the poor,…inasmuch as we continue to return tit for tat, evil for evil, insult for insult… the Jerusalem syndrome lives on and we are all affected.

Despite the fact of our faults and failings Jesus wills to come to us once again, in the mystery of His Passover. He wills to heal and forgive so that the Jerusalem within us might be transformed and we may become what we are meant to be - a people united, a people of peace, a people who cry for justice.

To prompt our efforts in this regard, a 14th Century sculpture, ‘Christ on Palmdonkey’, may aid us. Now housed in the Augustiner Museum in Freiburg, this sculpture was made to be pulled on a cart in the Palm Sunday procession. To those who look upon him, the sculptured Jesus’ unfocused eyes seem to see what no one else can see. There is penetrating insight into the ‘Jerusalem of the human heart’ but also an immense compassion. This same Jesus rides into our hearts today and sees us for who we are. Nevertheless, He loves us because of who He is.