The Uphill Struggle of Discipleship

Message from Fr. Jose Koluthara, CMI

Lord Jesus, empower us to make the word of God resonate within social situations. Amen.

My Dear Brothers and Sisters,
According to a myth popular among the ancient Greeks, Sisyphus, the king of Corinth and reputed founder of the Isthmian Games, was punished by gods because he outwitted them. Punishment was to push an enormous boulder up a steep incline. The moment he reached the top, the boulder would roll down and Sisyphus had to begin all over again. The task of bearing the message of God’s word to others and the daily duties of discipleship can be similarly burdensome, requiring similar “Sisyphean” strength and endurance.
Each day, the disciple must accept to begin anew the often uphill struggle of hearing, keeping, living, doing, preaching and witnessing to the truth of God’s word. Because that message of truth often brings to light that which is slack and sinful and challenges those who hear it to repentance and conversion, the bearer of the message is sometimes abused. Shooting the messenger is often deemed easier than allowing the message of truth to penetrate, penalize and purify.
That Jeremiah and Jesus experience the weighty burdens of their respective ministries is clearly seen in today’s first reading (Jer 1: 4-5, 17-19) and gospel (Luke 4:21-30). Recall the utterances warning Jeremiah of the resistance and rejection he would encounter. Initially well received by his hometown crowd Jesus soon became the object of their derision. Paul knew that many would find the word of God on love (2nd Reading, 1Cor. 12:31-13) to be impractical, even impossible to implement. Paul, like Jesus and Jeremiah before him, was convinced that the living word of the living God is the norm by which believers are to form their values and set their priorities, the challenge to which they are to respond, a means by which they come to God and themselves and the tool by which attitudes are adjusted, and hearts are sensitized to others’ needs.
By virtue of the presence of God within, Jeremiah, Paul, Jesus and every struggling disciple are rendered capable of exercising a prophetic ministry. Are we ready to become God’s prophetic voice in bringing the churches together?

INTERESTED IN VOCATIONS? No prophet is accepted in the prophet’s hometown. Do not be discouraged by jeers when considering religious life or priesthood. If God is calling you, contact Fr. Hansoo Park 416-968-0997 email vocations@vocations.ca www.vocationstoronto.ca/

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Be Strong and United

Message from Fr. Jose Koluthara, CMI

Lord Jesus, help us face the future united and strong interpreting the word of God for life. Amen.

My Dear Brothers and Sisters,
This week’s readings invite us to face the future united and strong. Reading the word of God and interpreting it for life are the best means to meet this challenge.
In the 1st reading (Nehemiah 8:1-4,5-6,8-10) we find the emphasis on the power of the word of God to: (1) make God’s will known; (2) touch and change human hearts; (3) rally the people to be renewed in their resolve to listen to God’s will. As Ezra read and interpreted the law for the people, their mood noticeably shifted from one of attentive affirmation and adoration to one of sorrow and weeping. As God’s word is read, the word reveals not only God’s goodness and love but also the failures and sinfulness of the one who listens. Nevertheless, Ezra did not permit the people to wallow in regret. Rather, he encouraged them to dwell not on their sinful selves but in the redeeming and liberating word of God, and so to replace their regretting with rejoicing.

In the Gospel, (Lk 1:1-4;4:14-21), Jesus, like Ezra, reads aloud and interprets the word of God for his contemporaries in Nazareth. He declared that the words he read were being fulfilled. His words, the words of Isaiah, were the words of good news, healing and liberation from every form of enslavement such as sin, injustice, slavery, poverty, illness, oppression. Jesus did not merely promise “pie in the sky when you die”; on the contrary he demanded that through the sharing of the rich with the poor, there be daily bread on the table, here and now.

In today’s second reading (1Cor. 12:12-30) Paul provides the praying assembly with the motivation for all their efforts at liberation – we are one body; we share one baptism; we are all given to drink of the same Spirit; we, though many, are one; we, though with different social status, different ethnicity, different gifts, different functions, are all one body in Christ. It is this very oneness that must move us to action, for when one of the members of the body of Christ suffers, all are affected. Therefore, each one of us is responsible for the freedom and dignity of all of us.

Let us hope that the word of God, which we hear expounded today, might move us to an evolution from regret and repentance to a joyful realization and celebration of the healing, liberating mercies of God.

INTERESTED IN VOCATIONS? The call of the disciples is so familiar to us that we tend to miss the wonder of the disciples’ response, which was immediate and complete; they leave everything and follow Jesus. Can we do less if we feel that God is calling us to the priesthood or religious life? If you think God is calling call Fr. Jose or visit http://www.vocationstoronto.ca/

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Spousal Love

Message from Fr. Jose Koluthara, CMI

Infant Jesus, help me to be faithful, forgiving and generous in love. Amen.

My Dear Brothers and Sisters,
God’s love for humankind is often pictured in the bible as spousal love or marital love. Unlike the relationship that unites the parents and children and brothers and sisters, spousal love is born of a choice; two people freely choose to commit themselves one to the other. So too spousal love is creative. Those who love one another as husbands and wives become a new entity; “the two become one body” (Gen. 2:25). Creative spousal love is also fruitful; from their love for one another spouses bring new lives into the world. Spousal love is also complimentary. Each without the other does not know wholeness. Authentic love is also enduring; those who love in this way promise to do so until death separates one from the other. Given these qualities, the very idea that God loves each of us as with spousal love is all the more remarkable.
In today’s first reading (Is.62:1-5), Isaiah emphasizes like his prophetic colleagues Hosea (ch.2) and Ezekiel (ch.16), God’s willingness to continue to love Israel as spouse and to renew their relationship even when Israel was a less than worthy partner. Despite their infidelities and sinfulness God remains faithful and forgiving.
Within the context of the wedding feast at Cana, Jesus (Jn 2:1-12) manifests the gracious and generous goodness of God. The abundance and quality of the water-turned-into-wine are symbols of God’s generous love. Let us become partakers of this generous love by exercising our charisms rather than egos.

INTERESTED IN VOCATIONS? Call Fr. Jose or visit http://www.vocationstoronto.ca/

St. Augustine’s Seminary Retreat Weekend — February 5-7 “The Love of Christ urges us on.” To radically respond to His call to follow Him whole-heartily. Jesus is inviting you to spend time with Him so that you may discover His call to the priesthood. February 5th to 7th, 2010, St. Augustine’s Seminary, there will be an opportunity for young men of 18 years or older to spend a weekend for time of prayer, reflection and information on the process of becoming a Christ’s disciple through the Catholic priesthood. During this gracious year for priests consider the call to the priesthood. If God is calling you, say yes…Come and See. Those interested are asked to speak with their Pastor or contact the Office of Vocations for further information at 416-968-0997.

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Sacramental Solidarity

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

Lord Jesus,  help us face the struggles that are inherent to our solidarity with you by remembering and repeating the blessing, “I am the beloved of God”.  Amen.

My Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Last Sunday we reflected on “Travelling towards God” keeping the journey of the Magi in focus.“ Are we, the baptized Christians, travelling towards God with one heart and one mind?”, is a pertinent question when we celebrate the Baptism of the Lord, this Sunday. The question becomes more focused in the context of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity that we observe this year from January 24th to 31st.

Lord’s Baptism is a sacrament of solidarity. Jesus desired to be completely one with mankind, so it should not be surprising that he joined the crowd of self-admitted sinners at the Jordan. In all he did he identified himself with every aspect of the human condition. Eventually, Jesus’ solidarity with sinners would lead him to the suffering and death on the cross. It was his loving and unquestioning acceptance that assured the demoniacs, lepers, paralytics, Roman Soldiers and sinful women of God’s care, forgiveness and healing.

Our solidarity with Jesus through Christian Baptism in water and the Spirit would not only require the acceptance of all others as brothers and sisters, but also a share in his suffering and death. In this aspect the gospel for today (Lk. 3:15-16, 21-22) offers both strength and encouragement.

At his baptism, while he prayed, the Holy Spirit came upon Jesus to grace him for all that lay ahead of him. A voice from heaven identified him as Son and called him Beloved. This enabled Jesus to say in the trying moments “I am the Beloved of God. Others will leave me, but God will never leave me. I am the Beloved of God. I live by the hope and by the strength found in that identity”. These same gifts are accorded to each of us who are baptized into Jesus’ dying and rising.

By virtue of our sacramental solidarity with Jesus, we, too, are graced by the Spirit, welcomed as children of God and pronounced “Beloved!” When we face the struggles that are inherent to our solidarity with Jesus, we must remember and repeat the blessing, “I am the beloved of God”. Then we, too, can live in the hope found in that identity.

 

VOCATION SEEDS As John the Baptist introduced the people of his time to Jesus a voice from heaven said, “You are my Son, the Beloved, with you I am well pleased.” Perhaps God is calling you to do the same in our time as a priest, deacon or religious. If God is calling you, contact Fr. Hansoo Park 416-968-0997 Email vocations@vocations.ca or visit www.vocationstoronto.ca

Travelling Towards God

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

Infant Jesus, make us insightful travellers in the world so as to see your manifestation everywhere.  Amen.

Today’s feast, Epiphany of the Lord, is characterized by traditional motifs like astrologers and kings, rising stars in the east. Apart from this there is another underlying theme, travelling towards God. Isaiah's vision, as shared in the first reading (Is. 60:1-6), features sons and daughters travelling home to Jerusalem. What Isaiah prophesied is presented in the gospel (Mt. 2:1-12) as fulfilled in the travellers, the foreign astrologers, from the east who made their way to Bethlehem to offer gifts to Jesus and to pay him homage.

If God manifests himself to foreign astrologers, why can’t we Christians see God? The following illustration may solve the problem. A little girl was looking through the family album and found a picture of a man sitting behind a cow. All that was visible was the man’s legs and feet. She took the picture to a photo shop and told the clerk: “This is the only picture of my grandfather that I have. So please remove the cow so I can see what he looks like”.

Something always seems to get in the way, to prevent us from having an unobstructed view of our God. Call it a cow. In the most radical sense, it is the sacred cow of science. Once upon a time, God was out in the open; we saw God everywhere: making thunder, causing flowers to grow, healing sickness – God was part of everything that happened.

But then, gradually, science began to take the place of God. It taught us that thunder is from the heat coming through the clouds, that photosynthesis grows grass, that medicine cures sickness. With each advance in science, God got crowded out of view. Today, almost every physical phenomenon is completely covered by the sacred scientific cow. We desperately want someone to remove the cow so we can see God again.

Faith tells us that God is the only reality; everything else is real only insofar as it is part of God’s reality. Everything else is a cow of some kind, blocking our view of God. Any desire in the wrong place or wrong time or wrong expression becomes shaped into a cow or a golden calf.

This feast challenges each of us what it is that we are manifesting to the world from our own experience of God.

VOCATION SEEDS “On entering the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother; and they knelt down and paid him homage. Then, opening their treasure chests, they offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.” God asks us to give our lives. What treasures have been given to you to share with others in Christ’s name? If God is calling you, contact Fr. Hansoo Park 416-968-0997 Email vocations@vocations.ca or visit www.vocationstoronto.ca

Prayer and Family

Message from Fr. Jose Koluthara, CMI

Infant Jesus, bless all the members of our family with reverence and faith-filled prayer. Amen.

My Dear Brothers and Sisters,

In recent years, words such as “dysfunctional” have been used to describe the changing face and growing fragility of family. Almost every day media brings before us some horrific account of abuse or neglect or worse. Parents abandon children; children mistreat elderly parents. Unwanted newborns are left to die in dumpsters or in bathrooms at high school premises. Poverty creates even more problems, as children go hungry and whole families find themselves homeless. Economic concern have caused the disintegration of family bonds when one parent or both must travel far from home to earn an adequate living.
 
The Holy Family, whose relationship we honour and celebrate today was not without its own struggles. A betrothed man, Joseph feels jilted; words at the child’s presentation in the temple cause anxiety; a political threat causes the family to seek refuge in a foreign country and hide out in Nazareth after their return; a child runs away in Jerusalem; a son is arrested and executed in his prime. Truly, theirs was a family fraught with all of the ups and downs, joy and sadness of our own families. Yet, as in all good families the manner in which Mary, Joseph and Jesus dealt with the exigencies of their life together made all the difference.

Theirs was a union characterized by reverence for one another which helped them to cope with the difficulties in their lives. Another coping skill, a vital aspect of healthy holy family life, is faith-filled prayer - prayer alone and prayer together. Today’s gospel (Lk 2:41-52) illustrates beautifully that Mary, Joseph and Jesus valued prayer and allowed it to punctuate the various moments of their lives. Because of their piety and their desire to observe the Jewish feasts, the Holy Family would have made prayerful pilgrimage to Jerusalem at least once a year for Passover. Prayerfully, Mary and Joseph presented their son to God in the temple. Prayerfully, Mary pondered in her heart the will of God, to which she and Joseph submitted even without the security of full understanding. May the Holy Family help us pray together and stay together as a family.

INTERESTED IN VOCATIONS? Call Fr. Jose or visit http://www.vocationstoronto.ca/

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Babe of Bethlehem

Message from Fr. Jose Koluthara, CMI

Infant Jesus, you take away the sins of the world, grant us your peace. Amen.

My Dear Brothers and Sisters,

God chose Bethlehem for his Son. Why? If Jesus was born in Rome or Alexandria or Athens or Corinth, it would have made more sense from the point of view of spreading His message. Sophisticated Rome would have been an excellent home base for Christianity. Jesus would have found a warm welcome in Alexandria because that city was famed for its cultural, educational and commercial offerings.
Home to Socrates, Plato and Aristotle, wouldn’t Athens have welcomed the wisdom that Jesus had come to impart? Wouldn’t the thousands who passed through Corinth, who gathered there for business and pleasure, have been interested in Jesus’ words and works?
Given the divine power and purpose, Jesus could have entered into the human situation at any time in any place. So why Bethlehem? According to the prophet Micah (1st reading, Micah 5:2-5a), Bethlehem was small and insignificant compared to the other clans of Judah. Perhaps it was chosen because Bethlehem was David’s family home and the place of his anointing as king. The very name Bethlehem means, “house of bread”, an appropriate title that anticipated the one who would give bread for the life of the world. Aside from its association with David and the nurturing symbolism of its name, another aspect of Bethlehem’s history suggests its special importance. The village of Bethlehem was about five miles south of Jerusalem and the main livelihood of the village was shepherding. People on pilgrimage to the Holy City for Passover purchased their lambs in Bethlehem. How significant that Jesus, the Lamb of God, sacrificed for the salvation of the world was to be born in Bethlehem!
In today’s 2nd reading from Hebrews (10:5-10), the author reminds us of the saving power of Jesus’ sacrifice. While we celebrate the joy of Jesus’ birth, and while we rejoice in his coming among us – just as did Mary, Elizabeth and John (gospel, Lk. 1:39-45) – our focus must not be solely on the baby of Bethlehem and the peaceful crèche. Christmas’ greatest gift was nailed to a cross, and through Him all other good gifts have come – life, light forgiveness, peace, justice, hope, faith and joy.

INTERESTED IN VOCATIONS? Call Fr. Jose or visit http://www.vocationstoronto.ca/

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