June 19 Who do you say I am?

In today's gospel Jesus confronts disciples with a question, who do you say I am? 

I would like to share a story from my novitiate. It takes long twelve years of study to become a friar priest. It's in the the fourth year we enter in to novitiate. It's an year dedicated to prayer and work and at the end of this year we receive franciscan habit.  As a preparation for receiving habit, we had a week retreat in a place like Gethsemani. And the preacher on the second day told, it's a day off and  we will have only one session in the evening and he asked us to find who Jesus for us individually? By 7 pm we all gathered in the meeting room to share about who Jesus is for us. One of the friars stood up and he said Jesus is Immanuel, he quoted Old Testament and New Testament, quoted theologians and he proved Jesus is Immanuel. Excellent presentation, everyone clapped. Another friar stood up and he said Jesus is the savior. He explained how Jesus is Saviour, how Jesus forgives our sins how he fulfilled the Israel's waiting for the Saviour.  Everyone applauded again. Then the third friar stood up and he said Jesus is a friend. He shared several people's experiences and stated that Jesus is a friend. He also got appreciation. Then we reached last friar, we all looked at him, we all had notes, books, Bible to talk about Jesus. Here a friar stands without any notes. He looked at the preacher and us and he said with a fearful voice, Jesus is the love I betray (deny) everyday. We could see tears flowing from his eyes. We felt the notes and books in our hands on fire. Nobody looked at each other for a moment. It was a deep silence for several minutes. We all answered from our head, what we learned, the informations we collected from different sources but this friar answered from his heart and from his deep thought and his personal experience. 

Today Jesus is addressing us this question to us, who do you say I am?   we may respond as disciples did, what we learned in the catechism, from parents, from priests. It's very easy answer. But that's not satisfying answer for Jesus.

Jesus is not looking an answer from what you learned from the bible, from the books from catechism but he is looking for an answer from your personal experience. Certainly it is important to study and to know it, but it is not enough or do not stop with that.

Pope Francis says, in order to know Jesus, “what is needed is not a study of notions but rather a life as a disciple”. We come to know him “in the daily encounter with the Lord through our victories and through our weaknesses”. It is precisely “through these encounters” that “we draw close to him and come to know him more deeply”. 

Fulton J sheen said, 'if you see jesus either you will throw stones at him or you will throw yourself at his feet' 

There are two types of faith, the faith we inherited from our parents, family members and friends. The second the faith we personally experienced. What we need is the faith we experienced. This faith will have more energy and enthusiasm. This faith is more in to loving Jesus and living for him.

By asking who do you say I am, Jesus is not asking for information but commitment. Jesus continues after this question, “If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me". This is what Jesus wants, if you love him follow him always and everywhere. I have heard many people say that when you really follow Jesus,he gives us pain and suffering. People say this when they look only for happiness and success by following Jesus. Let me put this in another way.When we have suffering why don't we hold on to his comfort?  When we are humiliated why don't we look at Jesus who was humiliated on the cross? When we are wounded why don't we look at Jesus who is wounded on the cross?When we loose hope why don't we look at Jesus who is the hope for the world? When we are in sin why don't we look for Jesus who is forgiveness? When we do not have peace why don't we look for his comfort? Remember if we love Jesus, we have to follow him everywhere and always rather than looking at our benefit. “If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me". 

I conclude with Pope Francis' prayer,  "Father, grant us a deeper knowledge of Christ, Holy Spirit explain to us this mystery of Jesus”. Let go in to deep reflection and seeking to find who Jesus is for me and to follow him everywhere and always.

Fr. John Pozhathuparambil

June 5 Do you feel your dream dying?

We call the word of God as Evangelion or good news. What's the good news? Good news is about the resurrection of Jesus. Resurrection is the key point to understand the Bible. After the resurrection so many people started believing deeply in Jesus. Many of them became missionaries to proclaim this good news. Evangelists started writing New Testament after the resurrection episodes. Everything Jesus said or did is in anticipation of his resurrection. What is resurrection? Resurrection is about life- a new life.  It's life giving message. 

Jesus is God of life. His ministry is ministry of life. He heals blind eyes, he heals deaf ears, he heals spiritually dead, he gives hope to hopeless. He is God of life. And today's reading proves the Jesus is God of life, he is compassionate to our pain and suffering. 

We have attended many funerals and it's not happy time, It's awful experience. Sometimes we loose words to comfort the family. And today's miracle is set in such a sad situation. The mother of this young man is a widow. Being widow at that time means no guaranteed income, no insurance, no support. This young man was her only support. Her son had comforted her in her first loss of a husband, but now that her son was dead, therefore the sadness doubles. It's a disaster for her. She lost all hope.  Jesus moves with pity.  He asks the young man, stand up again- arise. He gives the young man back to mother. Jesus gives a new life to the young man and to his mother. This is the Jesus we proclaim. He is the giver of life. 

Why Jesus did this miracle? This miracle was to show God has visited his people and he will visit again. In a world of broken hearts, God sees and cares for us in our grief. God is made flesh in the person of Jesus, and He can understand our pain and suffering. He is no more someone above, he is with us. He is not someone enjoys human suffering, he  shows the capacity to suffer with us, to be close to our sufferings and to make them his own.

You may feeling spiritually dead, no life, no hope but Jesus can give you life. He can resurrect you. God hates sickness, suffering, sin, stupidity. He has compassion on our miseries and gives us His healing touch. 

Do you feel your dream is dying? Or your dream could be dead, prepared for burial and on the way to the cemetery like the Widow of Nain. Jesus says to you, stand up and rise.  Get your hopes up. This is your Time of Resurrection. Resurrect your dream with the power of Jesus. 

 The people around  were afraid. Whenever there is new life people are afraid. People are afraid to welcome newness in life. Do not be afraid like people in the crowd, decide today to allow the resurrection of Christ to inspire you. Activate your resurrection power and bring back those amazing and awesome dreams to life with Jesus. 

I would like to share one of my friends story. They were a rich family in Dubai. Three children, very happy life, a home in India and another in Dubai. One of the business partners cheated then and they lost everything. They lost both of their homes, money, friends and their dream all dead. Their dad was in prison. They decided to take their lives. At that night they get a call from a priest to attend a retreat and trust in Jesus. They decided to attend and nothing much happened but their youngest daughter received hope from Jesus. She felt like Jesus saying to her dead dream, wake up! And she started searching for jobs, she was only 21 and she got a job in a company. From there she started building their life with the hope given by Jesus. She hard worked, she is working now as a air hostess in Qatar airways. She visited me couple of  weeks benefit and she said Jesus gave her life back. He gave me hope, I believe he is God of life. Now they have a new home in India, her dad is released from the prison. Paid off most of their debt. And this is and this was only possible by God and God alone. 

Dear brothers and sisters,

Do not be afraid, decide today to allow the resurrection of Christ to inspire you. Activate your resurrection power and bring back those amazing and awesome dreams to life with Jesus. He is the God of life.