In the liturgical calendar, the month of June is a significant one. In this month we celebrate a number of feasts either connected with the person of Jesus Christ - Corpus Christi, Sacred Heart of Jesus, Immaculate Heart of Mary, or the saints of our Church, like Boniface, Anthony of Padua Aloysius Gonzaga, John Fisher, Thomas More, the birth of John the Baptist, Irenaeus, Peter, Paul, etc. These holy men who gave their lives totally to the service of faith and their fellow neighbour tell us a most essential thing, that they were in their earthly life were "at home with the Lord" (2 Cor 5:8).
Along with a relentless news cycle and the various stresses and worries that find their way into each day, the Corona pandemic is ravaging our lives, families and communities. In the midst of this, we celebrate the solemnity of Corpus Christi, a feast which so tangible and dear to us because of its symbolic and personal meaning. Hence, the feast comes as a soothing balm to us. We can relate to this feast as closely as possible because of our utmost devotion and reverence to the body and blood of Christ which we venerate and receive at every Eucharist. The Feast of Corpus Christi – and every Mass – celebrates Christ’s gift of the Eucharist, which the Catechism calls “the source and summit of the Christian life” (CCC 1324). The pandemic has meant that some of us have been long separated from the sacrament, which may make the meaning of today’s feast feel somewhat distant.
1. Creation and Incarnation as God's loving acts
In our liturgies and other church practices, we often use a phrase referred to God’s unconditional love for humanity that is ‘He gave Himself to us’. God as our creator not only allowed us to be what we are but he gave himself freely to us. If creation marks the beginning of God’s first visible sign of his love, then God’s incarnation through the person of Jesus marks another witness of God’s presence amongst us. Today we celebrate in a specific manner both these two acts of God: creation and incarnation.
1. The powerful experience of the Holy Trinity in every day of our lives
We know things around us through our senses. The sense experience makes us understand the reality around us. In other words, we interpret things as we experience them through our senses. Each one might understand things differently based on one's earlier experiences. As we celebrate the solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity, we need to have clarity in place of confusion, faith in place of doubt to understand this complex reality of the Trinitarian God, which we hold so dear to us. The Holy Trinity Sunday is a reminder that God is but with Three. Our Christian faith says that God is a reality of our lives. Therefore the Church today celebrates this amazing feast which consists of a deep theological dimension to our faith and ecclesial life.
One of the post-resurrection promises of Jesus was to send the Holy Spirit upon the disciples, and it is fulfilled today. The first reading from the Acts of the Apostles gives us a fascinating description of the coming down of the Holy Spirit on the fear-stricken disciples of Jesus. The Pentecost scene described here is a vivid and colourful one – tongues of fire, a powerful wind. When the disciples were together the Holy Spirit came upon them and fills them with a heart of Christ. In other words, Jesus appears to them again and the oneness is exemplified. The Father reunites Jesus with his followers in a new way through the Holy Spirit, so that they may continue to live the life of Jesus through their actions and words. The Holy Spirit appeared to them as tongues of fire. It made its way through a loud noise like a strong driving wind. Then they began to speak in tongues, which means they began to speak in different languages. This was a moment we generally call the establishment of the Church.
1. Holy Spirit is the foundational experience of the first Chruch
Pentecost was a foundational and defining moment in the life of the early Church. The Church would become an instrument of salvation, which will speak about the resurrection of the Lord. The Gospel reading tells us that Jesus breathed on the disciples the Holy Spirit. It has some similarities with the first book of the Bible, Genesis, where God breathed on the first man and gave him life; just as Adam’s life came from God, so now the disciples’ new spiritual life comes from Jesus.
The politics around the second wave of the Corona pandemic is intriguing. Along with the nasty news that we hear every day of the effects and destruction of Covid -19, in all of the print and digital media, personally, we are angry not only with the coronavirus itself but also with the government and those who exercise authority upon us. Yes, both the central and state governments have been stupid and imbecile and we are ruled by an emperor who walks in his own shadow! In the words of Mahua Moitra, he is an emperor who is wearing transparent clothing, while others see him naked and still he doesn’t notice it. We did study about such a personality in our primary school day textbooks. Strangely, now we have the reality of that emperor in the person of our country's PM.
Along with the blame game, however, we should not fall short of our own intelligence and precautions as the current variant coronavirus is deadlier. The mutant variant of this Indian virus seems to be so powerful that it influences our whole organism, and nothing seems to be stopping it including our robust immunity. Everything is put to test with this killer virus in addition to immunity. In this context, could we look deeper into the reality of this virus and save ourselves at least for this moment and allow our death to come at a later stage of our life when it is the right time to go?
1. Let's focus on ourselves and increase the sense of awareness.
Perhaps there is a sense of recklessness in the way we behave in our digital world. With the mobiles and constant messaging on apps of various social media, we have left for ourselves very little time to think about. With the constant hanging of news and views, there is a dramatic shift in our attention. In any spiritual practice, focusing our attention is very important to know what is happening to oneself. Either it is for prayer, or participating in sacraments, Holy Mass or puja, attention and focus are a must. This principle applies even to learning or study. Without concentrating on a particular thing we cannot grasp it fully, extensively and intimately. The parable of the weeds among the wheat in the Bible is apt here: "But while everybody was asleep, an enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat" (Matt13:25). The enemy attacks when you are vulnerable. Rule 14 of St. Ignatius’ Discernment of Spirits states that the enemy lays seize at the weakest side.
"Invisibility" and "departing" seem to be the two words, which we have been experiencing during this second wave of the Corona pandemic. Many of our dear and close relatives, friends, colleagues, collaborators, etc. are becoming so quickly invisible to our eyes as the savage illness mercilessly taking lives including the young ones. I believe that the mood of the disciples on that day of their master's ascension into heaven must be similar. Jesus who was physically present with them for many years is no more. Jesus returns to his Father in heaven, in other words, Jesus departs from the earth. The reading does not tell us the mood of the disciples when they saw Jesus disappearing from their midst. The reading from the Acts of the Apostles tells us that two angels appeared to the disciples and assured of his Second Coming as the way he was taken up. They carried a promise along with them with the mission that was given by Jesus “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to the whole creation. He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned” (Mark 16:15-16).
For the last two weeks, we have been reading 5 chapters (10-15) from the Gospel of St John. The Evangelist is focusing his attention on the person of Jesus Christ. For him, Jesus is the true light whom we must follow; he is the good shepherd who gives us his pastures; he is the vine and we are the branches; he is our friend and will give his life for us; he is the life and the resurrection and we have to remain with him to rise again. “This is my commandment: love one another, as I have loved you.” These and many more beautiful sayings St John elucidates in the discourse of Jesus.
This week has been, once again, a very tough week for us. We cannot remain aloof from what is happening to our brothers and sisters, family members, friends, collaborators and colleagues at the surge of Corona infection. It is almost twenty-four hours of the day, our mind is preoccupied with the devastations Corona pandemic causing. The familiar names and faces are vanishing away from our sight. As we raise our prayers and petitions to God our Good Shepherd, we have the beautiful words from St John's Gospel: “A branch cannot bear fruit by itself; it can do so only if it remains in the vine” (Jn 15:4). We are nothing if we are not with the Lord.
1. Interconnectivity leads to Salvation
We live in a world of interconnectivity. The Gospel gives us an image of being linked to the source of our life as Christians, about being connected almost organically with Jesus. "I am the vine and you are the branches... Remain in me as I remain in you" (Jn 15:5). This passage is part of the Farewell Discourse that Jesus gives at the Last Supper. As the separations loom on the horizon, the friendship that has grown up these years together on the back roads and trails of Judea, and in the villages of Galilee is about to be shaken, Jesus will no longer be physically tangible, visibly present. St John the Evangelist depicts Jesus as a very affectionate and sensitive person. His humanity becomes very visible in the way he deals with his disciples so lovingly, and so delicately, and so poignantly, as St John paints this humanity of Jesus.
This week has been quite tough for us. Our province buried two Jesuits in a gap of three days. One returned to the Lord due to Covid and the other young Jesuit due to Cancer. On the one hand, as India is experiencing an unprecedented surge in Covid infections, Bangalore city's health infrastructure is unable to cope up with the situation. People are running from one hospital to another to find beds and oxygen. On the other hand, the political leaders are busy hurling at each other such mean accusations and low talk in the election rallies telling lies one after the other. Moreover, they are conducting election campaigns flouting rules and regulations which they themselves have set and thus increasing the Covid infections.
We are a country where our little achievements or failures are glorified to such an extent, efficiency and efficacy are not the standards that we value. We are a nation where we don't learn from history or past mistakes. Unfortunately, this is applied not just to politics, economics, scientific spectrum but also to our ecclesial or religious structures. We cannot be numb to the reality that we are facing today when we read the scriptures especially the liturgical readings that we have on this Sunday on the Good Shepherd and Salvation. Paul Tillich, the well-known German theologian writes that we cannot be stopped from asking ultimate questions. In other words, they are questions about our life, our existence, like where do we come from and where do we go? What is the finality of our being here on earth, etc? These are very important questions that must shake us up.
1. Shepherding to reach Salvation
The Christian principles teach us that the ultimate goal of our life here on earth is finding our salvation. The end for which we are created, in the words of St Ignatius of Loyola is "to praise, reverence, and serve God, and by doing this, to save our souls" (Sp. Ex 23). Therefore every activity of ours should have an end or finality. The finality is to attain eternal communion with God. The beautiful narration that we have in John's gospel on Good Shepherd after the heart of God must encourage us to believe that Jesus is our true shepherd. He came to take us back to God. He showed us a way to the Father. He is the eternity and the end. In him, we find our true freedom and happiness. His way of going about is that of the Father in heaven. There is nothing that can stop us from reaching that God of eternity as long as we keep our faith in Him.
