God Is Always Searching For Us

What is the most important and basic characteristic of our Christian religion? For the natural religions, it is always man searching for God. When tribals slaughter animals to offer their blood to their gods. This signifies man's desire to search and to please an Almighty God.

When Muslims fast and cleanse their bodies in preparation for a very long meditation, it is still man in search of God. When Hindus burn themselves and offer their burning bodies to god, it is also man in search of God. For the natural religions, man is always in search of God. Man longs to see God face to face. But in Christianity, it is the other way around. It is not man in search of God: it is God in search of man. That is the good news for us. From the parables of the lost sheep, lost coin and the lost son, we see that God is in search of us. God is looking for us. However, this does not mean that we can lie back and indolently wait to be discovered by God. No! The message actually is this: We are all so important before God that God cannot rest, that God will always be restless, until He is able to see us and have us in His bosom. That is the good news. The Lord tells us in the Gospel that He is always in search of all of us because we are important and precious to Him (Lk 15 : 3 - 7).

We hear that right from the very book of Genesis (Gen 3 : 9 - 11), the first book of the Holy Scriptures. What does God say to Adam? "Where are you? Why are you hiding?" And Adam says, "I am hiding because I am naked." This and many more Scripture passages clearly show that God is looking for man, is always in search of man. Saint John the beloved says, " It was God who loved us first. It was not we who loved God, but it was God who loved us first. We are only responding to God's love."

From the Book of the Prophet Hosea, the Lord says, " Come back to Me with all your heart; do not let fear keep us apart." Again, it is God in search of man. God is interested in man. God is never growing tired, never resting, until we are found and are with Him. Saint Augustine says, "O Lord, how late have I known you and yet my heart is restless until it rests in you."

When we understand that God is in search of man (us), more so than man in search of God, our spiritual experience is greatly enhanced. What does this mean in terms of communication? Over and over we try to hear God's voice to find direction in our lives and we spend countless hours in search of Him, only to find out that God has been always close-by, but because we didn't recognise Him. We have run away from Him. We consider God mysterious and almost unattainable, but the great mystery is that God is always with us and in search of us.

Let us thank God for such unconditional love. Let us thank God always for searching for us because we are important and precious in the eyes of God. We are precious because we are created in the image and likeness of God and given the grace of experiencing Him always. God is present in us, around us and everywhere in the world. Let us  ask the Lord to open our hearts, minds, eyes and ears to recognise His presence in us and in our midst.

With the grace and light of the Lord. Let us try to become aware of our goodness, talents, gifts, and enormous blessings received from God instead of remembering, dwelling and worrying over the little failures, shortcomings, pain and suffering we have experienced in the past or at present. Let us try to develop a positive attitude of thanking and praising God for what we have received from God.

Wrong

"Today is my birthday and I want  it to be special though I am not celebrating with friends or loved ones," announced Janaki.

"Congratulation. But I don't want you to think that everything will go right for you today or any day", said Khrisna who was a psychologist.

"Why not? I have not done anything wrong or hurt anyone. So why should my life not be perfect?" asked Janaki.

"I think the mistake many of us make is to think that "I am on top of the world and I want the world to be the same for you and me", in the words of the song. We are all frail humans and we are bound to make mistakes so no day  is perfect even though special nice things may happen", explained Khrisna, adding, "the secret is to enjoy the nice moments and build memories so that one can tide over the bad periods  which will inevitably come."

"Thank you for warning me. That is true, I have had my bad times and when I look back, there were times in my life when I felt like committing suicide. So many wrong things have happened to me. It is true that I too have done wrong things but my family and friends have hurt me over the years," said Janaki.

"I think that you should stop thinking of the past and dwell on TODAY. Tomorrow is promised to no-one. If you can wake up in the morning and get out of bed without assistance, thank God for a New Day. As for me, the next thing I do is to count my blessings like reasonably good health and eyesight and for enough money to eat and drink two meals for the day. At sunset, I think back and give thanks for helping me through the day," concluder Khrisna.

First Martyrs of the Church of Rome

Historico - Liturgical Note

Christians always kept in memory the famous fire in Rome on July 16, in the year 64, and the subsequent martyrdom of a large numbers of Christians by Nero. We learn from Tacitus that some  were thrown to the wild beasts and others were burned at the stake as human torches. However, only the Roman Martyrology  mentions June 24 as the day for the feast. The Jerome Martyrology, on the other hand, mentions 979 martyrs on June 29, immediately after the eulogy in honour of St. Peter and St. Paul. This feast was extended to the entire city of Rome in 1923 but it was not celebrated  universally in the Church until 1969.

Message and Relevance

The significance of this feast is expressed in the Opening Prayer of the Mass, in which we ask God, who "sanctified the Church of Rome with the blood of the first martyrs," to help us "find strength from their courage and rejoice in their triumph." There has been an evolution  in the biblical concept of martyrdom. In Judaism martyrdom was an act of obedience to the Law, and there was a gradual development of hope in the resurrection. For Christians, however, martyrdom is understood in Christological context, because the eschatological power of God worka through the cross of Christ. The passion of Christ was in part the result of the violent opposition and hatred of satan, but at the same time his passion and death were oriented towards a glorious Resurrection. Christian martyrdom is in a sense a continuation  of the warfare that satan waged against Christ; at the same time it is a manifestation of the divine power that was victorious through the Cross ( 2 Cor 12 : 9). That is why martyrdom connotes the presence of the Spirit, who can overcome all human weakness. Through our fraternal devotion  to the martyrs we are confirmed in the faith because they are for us a sign of the spirit of God.

In addition to the Christological and Trinitarian aspects of Christian martyrdom, there is an ethical dimension. Here it becomes a weighty argument in favour of the truth of Christianity when we contemplate the heroic courage of the martyrs who are offered to us as examples. It is in this way that we "find strength in their courage and rejoice in their triumph" (Opening Prayer). The office of readings contains. an excerpt from St. Clement's letter to the Corinthians, written  between the years 96 and 98. After speaking of the martyrdom of Peter and Paul, he speaks of "a great throng  of the elect who gave us the finest example of endurance in the face of many indignities and tortures." He concludes: "we ought to put aside vain and useless concerns and go straight to the glorious and venerable norm which is our tradition, and we should consider what is good, pleasing and acceptable in the sight of him who made us. Let us fix our gaze on the blood of Christ, realizing how precious it is to his Father, since it was shed for our salvation and brought the grace of repentance to all the world."

These nameless men and women martyrs that we honour today are expiatory lambs of anti - Christian hatred. They represent all who suffered or are suffering religious persecution throughout the world.

Opening Prayer: Father, you sanctified the Church of Rome with the blood of its first martyrs. May we find strength from their courage and rejoice in their triumph.

Purple - the Colour for Change of Life

Lent comes in the colour of the purple. It is the colour of sorrow, repentance and conversion. What we call as change, we really do not know where we should change, or what we are supposed to change, or change from because we see our lives all right or at least not so bad. This is a point where we should have to convince that we need a change because we need to  realize we are blind. With this thought, we cannot move further.

We have to be born again in a new form to attain the conversion in our lives. When we consider Jesus' life also, it is the same. His incarnation preceded His crucifixion, which in turn preceded resurrection, and in His resurrection is our hope. Therefore, repent and conversion is to make new in the sense it is clearly a miracle. For this, it is not all about sacrifices, fasting, abstinence. Only during this season of lent; it is starting of a new life that we are going to continue throughout our life. "If a shepherd has a hundred sheep and if one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety nine  on the mountains and go back for the one that went astray? If he finds it, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety - nine" Matthew 18 : 12 - 14.

We are not perfect; we make mistakes. The decision that we make to transform our lives must last throughout  our life span; it must not be a temporary decision. Jesus expects that beautiful quality of perseverance in our life. Therefore, we have to come out of our deserts for the prosperous lands of the Kingdom of God. There we will find a tree to climb like Zacheas in the Gospel;  because repentance is not enough,  for the change of life we will have to see Jesus. Therefore, Lent is a moment hearing and feeling the love and presence of Jesus. Therefore, Zacheus in his desire he wanted only to see Jesus but through his change of life, Christ allowed not only seeing Him and also to hear Him and touch Him. That is the real beginning of lent and as well as the new way of life. Up to now, I have mentioned that we need to have a change of life.

However, one may raise the question - How? There are many ways; from those different ways  and means leading a life of prayer is one of the most effective and important way of attaining this. This is the path which most of us try to forget as well. Mainly because of our busy schedule, family problems, lost in our faith, it seems everything is going on well;  loss of eagerness to change the life. Let us offer these as a prayer in this Lent and ask our loving Jesus to give us the desire to pray  and feel His presence so that we will be able to have a lent with a true meaning and a lasting change of life.

On Golgota

The long, hard journey ended
The long day's task was done
Shamefully on a cross
Twixt thieves He hung.
His sagging form suspended
From two nails that pierced the palms
The one on His right repentant
The other had no qualms.
"If you're a God than save us
and save your own self"
Thus spoke the tone of taunt and jeer
A materialistic attitude.
The other full of pity
Welled in his own dark pain
"Lord in Your kingdom remember me"
He did not plead sin vain.
For he plucked from the cross that promise
For a sinner's shame.
A lesson taught.
'tis not despair nor defiance that pays
But the sharing of a common pain
And repentant ways.

Saint Euphrasia

St. Euphrasia was a Roman and born to rich but deeply Christian parents. Her father, a relative of Emperor Theodosius 1, died when she was just a year old and the emperor looked after Euphrasia and her mother. Emperor Theodosius accomplished his mission of converting Rome into a Christian state.

When Euphrasia was seven, her mother took her to Egypt.  There they lived in a large house near a convent of nuns.  Euphrasia was fascinated by the nuns.

She begged her mother to let her serve God in the convent in which the holy nuns lived. She was just a little girl, but she was not to about give up the idea or forget  her request. Soon after, Euphrasia's mother took her to the convent and put her in the care of the abbess.

Then Euphrasia's mother died and the emperor reminded the young woman that her parents had promised her in marriage to a rich young senator. Of course Euphrasia wanted to belong to no one but Jesus. So she wrote a respectful letter to the emperor.

In it she said, " I belong to Jesus, and I cannot give myself to anyone else. My only desire is that the world should forget about me completely. I humbly beg Your Majesty to take all the riches my parents left me and give them to the poor. I ask Your Majesty to free all the slaves of my family. Please cancel all the debts people owe me."

The emperor thought her letter was so beautiful that he read it out loud to all the senators. He agreed to do everything she had asked.

Euphrasia spent the rest of her life as a nun. She never regretted that the Lord had chosen her to be a religious. She often fasted and when faced with temptations, would sometimes spend the day carrying heavy stones from one place to another as penance. Euphrasia died in 420.

There is an unmistakable beauty in the lives of people who sincerely to try to live out their faith in Jesus.

Transfiguration An Invitation For Change

Life is just a journey. God tells Abram to leave his country and go to the place God is telling him to.

We remember that we shall someday return to dust, and our souls will head to the Holy Place where God is calling us to be. The place where our souls go will be dazzling white, like the experience of the transfiguration in the Gospel.

But to go to that place, we have to change some our habits and lifestyles. We have to train ourselves to abandon ourselves completely to the Will of God, which will help us to be holy.

May Jesus, show us the areas in our lives which we can change, and give us the strength to change them. Guide us to always to do Thy will and to abandon my own Will to Thine. Lead us Home when our earthly journey is over.