2-7 th January 2023

02 – 07 JANUARY 2023: HOLY MASS REFLECTIONS 02 JANUARY 2023, 1 Jn 2. 22-28; Jn 1. 19-28 Thrust: Humility and Honesty! Indicative: The world will always try in different ways to deceive us and deviate us from God and truth. In such a context, let us be convinced that as long as we remain in God, nothing can deceive us. 1. We live in a world that is prone to lie, falsity and wrong. It is resentful and resistant toward truth and right. It constantly assails us and allures us with many temptations. They try to deceive and detract us in subtle and disguised ways. Often the temptation for ego- projection, and self-glory is very strong. 2. This is what confronted John the Baptist as well. There was a clear alluring possibility to present himself as the awaited Messiah. The people were already impressed by him and were quite disposed to accept him as the Messiah. Thus it was a bright prospect for him to enjoy cheap popularity. 3. But he resists and overcomes this bait for self-glory. He stands before us as a noble example of humility and honesty. In all honesty and humility, he denies such presumptions and truthfully confirms his role as the messenger and precursor who announces and prepares the way of the Lord. He identifies himself as the mere voice of a messenger in the desert. He confesses that he is not worthy to untie the sandal strap of the Messiah. 4. What a difference and example! Usually, many desperately seek recognition and popularity. They will try every possible means even false and wrong to become and stay popular. But here is one who is riding on popularity but who is humble, honest, and courageous enough to deny the false identities and present his real identity. 5. Even though he knows that he may lose his fame and importance, he discards the false garbs. It is because he is clear and convinced that being truthful is more important than being important. Believe in the truth, abide in him and do what is right - this is the simple route to a faithful life. This was his identity and mission! Imperative: What is really important is to be truthful and faithful, and this is possible only by being humble and docile. This is the only and the right way of being great and important 03 JANUARY 2023: 1 JOHN 2.29 – 3.6; JOHN 1. 29-34 Thrust: Know and Testify! Indicative: Those who know God and experience Him, will see Him. Those who see Him will become like Him. Those who become like Him will testify about Him 1. John the Baptist knows and proclaims Jesus as the "Lamb of God Who takes away the sins of the world". He sees him as the Son of God Who is come to save the world. And he bears witness to him as the Lord and Master. 2. Today, we too are specially called by God to become living testimonies for God. We need to personally know Him and see Him. We need to become "light to the nations", showing the Lord and leading many to Him. 3. Here we note that to know God is not merely intellectual. To see God is not merely perceptual or empirical. The world glorifies itself in its magnitude of knowledge. But the true and highest knowledge is to know God and the height of knowledge of God is to belong to him intimately. 4. Therefore, all such knowledge that is prone to alienate us from God, which is prone to sin and bears no testimony to God's love and power, is only empty knowledge and even evil and harmful. We can testify to the Lord effectively to the extent we ourselves personally and deeply know him and see him, and commit ourselves to show him to many and lead them to him. 5. It implies a profound personal familiarity and connectivity with God in terms of an intimate inseparable relationship. This makes us passionately rooted in God and unflinchingly loyal to Him. 6. This sets us to accompany others, to enlighten and guide them. This is further to lead them constantly to the same intimacy and relationship with the Lord. This mission and commitment do not stop with a mere personal closeness and relationship with God. 7. It also sets us on a journey of following God's ways and values. Concretely, it means to part with sin resolutely, to live righteously like God's children who know him, love him, and live his life, and to bear testimony to him, as did John the Baptist. Imperative: Let us not content and pride ourselves with a magnitude of knowledge but be intent and stride on the rectitude of life. The more we are with God and closer to Him, the more we will be like him. 04 JANUARY 2023: 1 JOHN 3. 7-10; JOHN 1. 35-42 Thrust: What are you Looking for? Indicative: There is a frantic search in the life of many. But many are not clear and sure of what they are searching for. We need a searching and attentive spirit to discover God's presence. 1. John the Baptist knew Jesus to be the Lamb of God that carries the whole burden of sin in humanity. Accordingly, he directs the attention of two of his disciples to Jesus. Here in him, we see a true leader and guide. He could dispossess even his own followers. He does not keep his followers vehemently as his own possession but rightfully guides them to the greatest source of life. 2. Immediately, the two disciples leave him and follow Jesus. It is not an act of instability or defection in disloyalty, as found abundantly in today's many followers. Rather, it shows their spirit of search for what is true and higher. 3. They were not such followers who blindly cling to John the Baptist. They would also not easily desert their loyalty with self-interested calculations. They just want to discover personally who is Jesus. They have the openness and eagerness to set themselves in search of him. 4. They stay with him and experience him. They discover something profound. They discover the Messiah in Jesus. Their search was meaningful and successful. They found what they were searching for. In fact, they find more than what they wanted to find. 5. They wanted to know where Jesus was staying. But they experience the person with whom they stayed. It is more than a discovery of a place or the whereabouts of a great man. This is a deeper transition and journey. Their experience goes beyond the place to the person. 6. Still, they do not stop there. Those who truly and personally experience Jesus cannot but share it with others. They share the same experience with others and bring them also to Jesus. Andrew brings his brother Peter also to the Lord. Imperative: True loyalty is never a blind adherence to anything lower and false but a willing search and commitment to the higher and the true. For a follower of Christ, the highest discovery is the Lord himself (REFLECTION 2 FROM 2021, 17 JANUARY) Progression of the journey of discipleship. There is a clear progression and maturation in Andrew’s discipleship. 1. (Verse 35): “Already placed in an initial situation of discipleship”: Andrew was already introduced to the way of discipleship, by having been a disciple of John the Baptist. He was being taught and guided in the conditions and principles of discipleship by John the Baptist. Similarly, a disciple need not always directly and immediately encounter Jesus, know him and follow him. He may be gradually led to Jesus. Discipleship is a progressive ascent, and one should not unduly desire sudden growth and full-scale following. 2. (Verses 36-37): “Led by others, led to Jesus”: At the sight of Jesus passing by, John the Baptist declares, “Look, the Lamb of God!” This is both a simple vocative address of an invitation to draw attention to Jesus and is also a confirmation of Jesus’ identity as the Lamb of God, who carries upon himself the burden of the sins of humanity, in their place and on their behalf. Therefore, an initial disciple is to fix his attention on Jesus who is the Lamb of God. John the Baptist, himself a noble disciple who walks the way of the Lord, like a true disciple does not let the focus fixed on him; rather he shifts the attention of his disciples toward Jesus. This is the nature and the duty of a good disciple: never keeping himself as the centre of attraction or point of focus but with all self-detachment, lead all to Jesus, the real centre and goal of focus. Andrew too like a good well-disposed disciple, he “hears” the attestation of John the Baptist, “looks at Jesus” as asked by the Baptist, and “followed Jesus”. In his discipleship, a disciple may need many to show him Jesus, teach the truth about him, and to lead him to Jesus. There is nothing wrong to take the mediation, guidance, and help of others in his knowing and getting closer to Jesus. At times it can happen that some initial disciples, in their self-complacency refuse to seek and accept the help of others, and at times even may not admit that they were helped by others in their following Jesus. However, this initial following is imperfect because still there is not yet any personal knowledge, experience, intimacy, and commitment to Jesus. This is more a setting on the journey of discipleship in the spirit of searching to know the Lord personally. It is a search for a deeper way of discipleship. 3. (Verse 38): “A spirit of searching to know where the Master stays”: Seeing the two disciples following him, Jesus asks them, “What are you looking for?” and they answer, “Where are you staying?” Jesus’ question and their question in answer indicate the true spirit of discipleship. A true disciple should be constantly in search, looking for the Master. When a disciple ceases to search and to explore, he ceases to progress and mature in his journey. Andrew and the other disciple were not sure and clear of Jesus’ abode, but they were clear and sure of one thing: they wanted to know it. The desire to know where Jesus stayed was not a mere matter of a location, a place of his stay. It is rather indicative of his life situation. Therefore, the question of the disciples was rather a question to see at first hand the life condition, and the ambience of Jesus’ way of life. How many disciples of today really know what they are looking for? First of all, is there that motivation, that spirit of search to know the Lord from close? How many disciples are really interested to get more and more familiar with the way of life of Jesus? Is it not true that the way some of the present disciples live, without sense of purpose and direction, as if they are groping in the dark, shows that they do not really know what and who they are following? 4. (Verse 39): “Go, see and stay with Jesus”: Jesus’ answer to the disciples’ query about his place of stay was, “Come and see”. As an instant response, they go, they see where he stayed and stayed with him. This is a fundamental requirement for any disciple’s progress in following Jesus. They should constantly hearken to the call of Jesus, “come and see”. One who goes and sees where Jesus is, cannot but stay with him. Every day, a disciple of Jesus must go to Jesus, see him intimately, and spend time with him. He must personally experience Jesus. He must share the same life situation of Jesus. It is not a picnic for site-seeing. It is an invitation for a personal encounter and communion. How many pay heed to the ceaseless invitation of Jesus, “come and see”? How sad it is that this invitation is totally drained of its essential content and unceasing call, and is reduced only to the initial stages of formation, the so-called “come and see” program and stage? After that stage, where do the disciples go and what do they see? Is staying in the formation house, or in the parish or convent, or for that matter even a family, really a staying with Jesus? Speaking in terms of regularity to the church-going or fidelity to prayer and spiritual devotions, how many followers of Jesus bother to go to the church, stay a while in the intimate presence of Jesus and participate in the spiritual moments of Word and Sacrament? 5. (Verse 41): “Finding the Messiah, the Christ”: Having gone, seen and stayed with Jesus, Andrew declares to Simon Peter, his brother, “We have found the Messiah”. He experienced something profound and personal. Closeness with Jesus touched him. He was deeply affected by the person and life of Jesus. He could not keep it for himself. The power of Jesus’ experience was so overwhelming that he could not but share it with others. He would not wait or delay for long. That is why “early the next morning”, he found his brother and confessed to him his personal discovery. A disciple’s being with Jesus must lead him to a personal discovery of the Lord as the Saviour. It should deepen his knowledge and conviction about the Master. Years and years of frequenting the church or participating in different sacraments, and hours and hours of staying with the Lord, bundles, and bundles of prayers and spiritual activities – whether all these have led us to find the Lord? Why is it that still many disciples are living lives which are clearly untouched by the Saviour, as if they have not yet met Christ, as if they are still strangers to him? How many disciples today can honestly and confidently say, “We have found the Messiah”? 6. (Verse 42): Following Jesus personally and leading others too to Jesus”: Andrew “brought Simon” as well to Jesus. A true disciple who follows Jesus is not content with his own following the Lord, but in zealous to bring others as well to Jesus to follow him. Discipleship is a discovery of the immense treasure of the Lord but is not limited only to the individual. The personal communion with the Lord is so intensive that it becomes so extensive, striving passionately to extend the embrace of the Lord far and wide, to one and many. There is something basically wrong when the devotion or the spiritual fervour of a disciple becomes more of a private enterprise and does not seek to include and extend to others. A disciple who cares only to maintain and promote himself as a disciple and does not feel concerned to lead others and help them grow in their spiritual journey is rather dubious. In fact, this is the last mission mandate of Jesus at his departure from the earth: “Go therefore and make disciples from all nations” (Mt 28. 19). How many disciples of the Lord today bring others closer to Jesus? Whether they are leading others to the Lord or misleading them away from the Lord? 05 JANUARY 2023: 1 JOHN 3. 11-21; JOHN 1. 43-51 Thrust: Love and Live! Indicative: Those who love, live by God’s own life. Love is life-giving and life-saving. Hatred is life-destroying. Therefore those who hate, do not live in God and they are dead 1. Jesus calls Philip, “Follow me”, and he follows him. The following of Jesus is like a burning fire that spreads its heat to others also. So Philip finds Nathanael and shares with him that he had found the Messiah, awaited and foretold by the prophets. It is Jesus of Nazareth. 2. Nathanael does not hide his apprehension, stating, “Can anything good come from Nazareth?” Still, at the invitation of Philip, “Come and see”, he proceeds to meet Jesus. Here we can appreciate openness of Nathanael. He is not clung to or closed within his preconceived idea about the Messiah. 3. This is already an essential ingredient of faith. Such openness can come only from a heart without duplicity and guile. At the encounter with Jesus, this is the compliment he receives from Jesus, “Here is a child of Israel in whom there is no malice”. Indeed, the biggest and the best compliment that one can receive and that too from Jesus. 4. The encounter is not a casual meeting. It becomes transformative. Nathanael confesses his total faith in Jesus, saying, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the King of Israel”. He too becomes a disciple of Christ. 5. Encounter with Jesus and personal experience of him cannot but transform the person. For that transformation, a guileless heart becomes a pre-requisite. And loving others becomes the effect and fruit of it. This is a quite valid process and journey. 6. In love, Jesus died for our sake and gave us life. Therefore, whoever believes and loves Jesus will certainly have his life. This life will manifest itself in sharing the same love and life with others. One cannot love Jesus and live in him but remain without loving others. Those who hate others are destroying the life of Christ and thus they become murderers. Imperative: The beauty of Christian faith and devotion is that it necessarily leads to charity and dedication concerning others. In fact, love for others becomes even the proof and testimony of faith in Christ. 06 JANUARY 2023: 1 JOHN 5. 5-13; LUKE 3. 23-38 Thrust: God in history! Indicative: God becomes man. He is born into our human history. He shares in our human lineage. Thereby, his divinity is humanised and our humanity is divinised 1. God gives us eternal life and this life is in His Son. Whoever believes and abides in the Son will obtain this life. To give us this life, the Son shares our human life becoming one of us. The eternal God takes upon himself the temporary human flesh. He inserts himself into our human history. He becomes part of a genealogy, narrated painstakingly in today’s gospel of Luke. 2. The detailed listing of the genealogy is an authentic indicative of God’s condescending love for us and His eternal plan of salvation through the incarnation of His only Son. This is an essential tenet of faith to believe in: that the Son of God has incarnated himself as Jesus of Nazareth in the human womb of the virgin Mary. 3. This is something so great and worth-rejoicing. Just imagine that God Himself is born as one of us! Thereby our sin-tainted humanity is certainly elevated. This exaltation takes place already at incarnation itself and thereafter during his life struggle. And at the end of his earthly life reaches its climax and peak in the sacrifice on the cross and the victorious resurrection. 4. As John attests in the first reading, God Himself bears testimony to this truth. Wherever God steps in, it gets transformed. God enters our human history and so it becomes sacred and salvation history. He comes and walks on the earth and it becomes a pilgrim land and abode. He puts on human flesh and nature and they become divinised. 5. The genealogy shows the divine encounter with the human. His sharing in our humanity is not a limitation or restriction on the infinitude of his divinity. Rather, it can be seen as an explicit explication of perfection. He shares that very humanity that he himself has created. The very fact that he subjects himself to time and space is not again an imperfection. Rather, it shows his perfection to make himself part of the imperfection without losing his intrinsic perfection. 6. The variety of names in the genealogy is composed of persons with their own inadequacies. This again shows us that in God’s eternal plan, nothing is despicable or discriminated. Though as a human, he may be confined to a place and time. But as the incarnate Saviour, he is not bound by any category because his salvation is for all. Imperative: We are destined for the life in eternity. We have access to this through the incarnation of the Son of God. And we will possess this life when we believe him and live in him 07 JANUARY 2023: 1 JOHN 5. 14-21; JOHN 2. 1-11 Thrust: God hears! Indicative: We are living in a world that is predominantly under the power of evil. For sure we will be attacked and disturbed. But as long as we belong to God and adhere to Him, evil shall not strike us down 1. In the gospel, we have the miracle of the wedding in Cana. When the wine ran short, Jesus intervenes at the mediation of the Mother Mary and changes water into wine. As we are just at the beginning of the New Year, this miracle can be a great assurance and comfort in our journey in the new year. 2. Four aspects can be highlighted: our own life situation; the power of Mary’s intercession and mediation; Jesus’ intervention and transformation and our response and cooperation to God’s action. 3. The wedding at Cana is very symbolic of our own life situation. We too come across similar experiences. There will be moments of scarcity and lack. Our resources will run out. Our efforts will fall short. There will be pressing situations of fear, problem, uncertainty, failure and disgrace, shame and dishonor. 4. In such situations, Mary comes to our rescue. There is a sense of sensitivity, solidarity, and remedy toward the wedding family. She senses their problem even without being told. She anticipates their need even before being requested. She becomes one with them. She feels their difficulty. She takes the initiative to remedy their problem-situation. 5. She turns to Jesus. She recommends and pleads on their behalf. She has the freedom, confidence, and intimacy to approach her beloved Son. She does not seek self-recognition. She is not attention-seeking. Rather, she turns everyone’s attention to Jesus. She directs the servants to do what the Lord tells them to do. 6. The power of her intercession and mediation is great. Jesus loves her and respects her. So he does not reject her request. He anticipates his “hour” just for her sake. He intervenes in their desperate situation. He changes water into wine. It is not just a miraculous happening. There is Restoration and transformation. Honour and dignity are restored. Scarcity is replaced by Abundance. There is a solution in the place of the problem. Fear and uncertainty turn into confidence and assurance. Failure is changed into success. 7. There is also something to be done on our part. We need to “fill the jars with water to the brim”. This is highly suggestive. The jars with water stand for our life with their human capacities, resources, and efforts. God is certainly willing to intervene and transform our life situations. But he wants our human cooperation. That too, he wants to the brim, in full measures. He wants us to cooperate with His grace to the best and the maximum. Imperative: Many problems and fears may continue to haunt and torment us in the New Year too. But we need not be worried too much. Because we have the sweetest Mother Mary to intercede for us and mediate on our behalf. Jesus is always there to intervene and change our life situations for the better