TWENTY FIRST ORDINARY SUNDAY OF THE YEAR B!

There is a popular faith revival chorus that goes like this: “I Have Decided to Follow Jesus. No turning back." This hymn is a powerful testimony that every Christian should know. This is a folk song that originated in India as a song of new converts to Christianity among the Garo tribe who live in an area which is now the state of Meghalaya, but was until 1970, the state of Assam, in north-eastern India.

The lyrics come from the last words of Nokseng, a man from the Garo tribe in Assam. It is today the song of the Garo people and an Anthem for Persecution. According to different traditions, the formation of these words into a hymn has its attributes to the Indian missionary Sadhu Sunder Singh and Simon Marak from Jorhat, Assam.

The true story behind this hymn is as follows: About 150 years ago, there was a great revival in Wales, United Kingdom. As a result of this, many missionaries came from England and Germany to North-East India to spread the Gospel, the Good News of Jesus. At the time, northeast India was not divided into many states as it is today. The region was known as Assam and comprised hundreds of tribes. Naturally, the missionaries were not welcomed to preach and do any missionary work here.

Despite severe opposition from the chief of the tribes, one Welsh missionary succeeded in converting a man, Nokseng, his wife, and two sons. He shared the gospel with them. Thereafter, they received Jesus Christ as their Saviour. Nokseng's faith proved contagious, and many villagers began to accept Christianity.

Hearing this, the angry village chief summoned all the villagers. He then called the family who first got converted to renounce their faith in public or face execution. Moved by the Holy Spirit, Nokseng sang his reply, “I have decided to follow Jesus, no turning back, no turning back.”

The outraged chief ordered the shooting of his two sons. The arrows pierced the boys, and they fell dead immediately. Again, he demanded Nokseng to deny his faith if he wanted to spare his wife. But Nokseng responded, “Though no one joins me, still I will follow. No turning back, no turning back.”Nokseng’s wife also died on shooting.

The chief then asked for the final time to deny his faith and live. Nokseng gladly said these final words, “The cross before me, the world behind me. No turning back, no turning back.” He was shot immediately like the rest of his family.

But this triggered a mass revival in the village – beginning with the chief! The chief was extremely disturbed by the faith of this man. He could not understand why Nokseng, his wife, and two children gave up their life for a man who lived some 2,000 years ago in some other continent. So, he wanted to experience the remarkable power behind the family’s faith.

With the deaths of Nokseng and his family, a miracle took place. The Holy Spirit touched the chief, and he spontaneously confessed, “I too belong to Jesus Christ!” When the gathered villagers heard their chief confessing his faith in Jesus Christ, the whole village accepted Christ as their Lord and Saviour.

This story shows the power of a commitment to follow Jesus, no matter the cost. With our focus on our Saviour, and not on this world or ourselves. We, too, can live the life God has set before us, regardless of the obstacles or sacrifice. God, help us to run towards the cross with joy, no turning back to show a lost world the grace and love of Jesus!

In our gospel today, many disciples of Jesus left Him and returned to their former lives and no longer accompanied Him. The Jews were so impressed by Jesus’ words and actions. Wherever he went, they were to seek Him and listen to His teachings. When Jesus started talking about “eating His flesh and drinking His blood” as food for eternal life, they started to leave Him because of their critical thinking which made them unable to understand why anyone in their right senses would accept this type of teaching. But faith, understood as a total commitment and surrender of one’s life to God, differs from faith, understood as intellectual assent to doctrinal statements. One may have problems with certain church teachings and, at the same time, maintain a firm commitment to Christ and his church.

So, turning to his disciples, Christ asked: “What about you, do you want to go away too?” This question from Christ is like Joshua’s. It leaves one with an option to remain with or to abandon Christ at challenging moments in life. It is like saying, if you too are not convinced and comfortable with this truth, you may also leave. Simon Peter said “Lord to whom we shall go?” You are the source of eternal life.

Jesus has so many sayings which could make His disciples leave Him like: “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,” “Forgive your enemies not only seven times but seventy times seven times,” “those who want to be the first must serve the rest,” ‘if you want to inherit eternal life sell everything, give to the poor and follow,” and so on and so forth.It is easy to accept the teachings of Christ as long as they don’t go against us or as long as we are hit not by it. But when we are hit, we say, “Now the Church is meddling with our lives!”

In today’s Gospel, we are being asked to make a choice, as we are, to choose to follow Jesus or not. Will we choose to follow him for a while and see how things work out, and if they don’t we can always opt out of our choice of him? We know from the New Testament that to follow Jesus, we must make his thoughts, attitudes, values, his way of seeing things, and totally ours. Above all, we are asked to imitate his life-giving and loving service of all others, even at great cost to ourselves if necessary. This is far from easy. It is demanding and challenging. It doesn’t mean that we always follow Jesus perfectly. We don’t, but we must keep trying. Jesus says in the gospel that it is having the same spirit as He had, which gives life. The flesh or whatever is contrary to the attitude and spirit of Jesus can not give true life, joy, peace, etc. With the Spirit of Jesus, all is possible. So if we do things according to the spirit of Jesus, we will do them out of love and service for others. If because of fear or cowardice, we are afraid to risk for Jesus, we simply won’t experience real life and peace within.

So where do we stand? Jesus, like Joshua in the first reading, is offering us a choice: to follow Him and serve God and therefore experience real life, joy, and happiness. We can, as Christians, choose to turn away from Jesus because we feel the demands are too much. If we are honest, we can all say that at times when the demands of following Jesus were too much, we might have turned back but soon realised we were always loved and accepted and forgiven for whatever wrong we did and we started off again trying to be faithful.

Ultimately, faith is not simply a set of ideas to be held on to. It is a living relationship with a person, Jesus. This relationship – through the Mass, prayer, the sacraments, and the help of the powerful Holy Spirit – we can grow and deepen our relationship. There are many people in our world who don’t follow Jesus: Hindus, Buddhists, Muslims, Jews etc. Many of them have been brought to a high degree of union with God through their faith.

We have been chosen to follow Jesus. Experience teaches us that all Jesus promises in the gospels have been confirmed in our lives. No other vision has given us a meaning for life as one of Jesus has. Personally, I value His friendship, Hiis accepting of my weaknesses, and helping me to get up again when I fall. Like Peter, I, too, can honestly say “Lord to whom shall I go, you have the message of eternal life. I believe and I know that you are the Holy One of God”. What about you? Will you stay or go away?

“Lord Jesus, give us the powerful Holy Spirit to see that you have the true message for life here on earth and for the next life too. May your Spirit help us to deepen further our personal relationship with you so that by our witness, others may come to know and follow you too. Amen.”

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        Hypocrisy!

What sin did Jesus condemn more than any other sin? Hypocrisy—especially the flagrant, self-congratulatory kind practiced by the Laity and religious leaders.

Religious hypocrites are unspiritual shams. They are trying to gain a reputation for spirituality by playing the role of God-lovers intent on obeying His law. They are unholy fakes who try to fool people—but they can’t fool God.

In a convocation address, Luther Smith, a professor at Emory University’s Candler School of Theology, warned against the danger of “faking it”—pretending to be something we are not. He mentioned that he had seen a bumper sticker that read, “Jesus is coming. Look busy.”

Although we may look busy, we can’t fool God about our faith, our character, or our service. Like the Pharisees, whom Jesus denounced (Mt. 23:13-28), we may appear to be sincerely religious. But the Lord knows if our profession is merely a facade without saving trust or genuine devotion.

Are you a churchgoing hypocrite, depending on your own good works to gain entrance into heaven? Or are you trusting God’s grace and relying on Christ?

You can’t fool God. It’s not enough to look busy.

God sees our ways and knows our hearts,

From Him we cannot hide;

External righteousness can't save,

For He knows what's inside. —Sper

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2Neeraj Julius and Suman Surin

 Die Empty!

One of the most beautiful book to read is "Die Empty" by Todd Henry. The author was inspired and got this idea of writing ​​this book while attending a business meeting.

When the director asked the audience: "Where is the richest land in the world?"

One of the audience answered: "Oil-rich Gulf states."

Another added: "Diamond mines in Africa."

Then the director said: "No, it is the cemetery. Yes, it is the richest land in the world, because millions of people have departed, "they have died" and they carried many valuable ideas that did not come to light and benefited others. It is all in the cemetery where they are buried."

Inspired by this answer, Todd Henry wrote his book "Die empty." Where he did his best to motivate people to pour out their ideas and potential energies in their communities and turn them into something useful before it is too late.

The most beautiful of what he said in his book is: "Do not go to your grave and carry inside you the best that you have. *Always choose to die empty*

The TRUE meaning of this expression is to die empty of all the goodness that is within you. Deliver it to the world, before you leave.

*If you have an idea perform it. *

*If you have a knowledge, give it out. *

*If you have a goal achieve it. *

*Love, share and distribute, do not keep it inside. Stop judging others and unnecessary grudges inside*.

Shall we begin to give and *spread every atom of goodness inside us.*

Start the race.... *Die Empty*.

 

EASTER SUNDAYS< CYCLE-C < SERMON >

Second Sunday of Easter Reflection!

The scene described for us in today’s Gospel passage is like a two-act play. These appearances of Jesus to his disciples after his resurrection were extraordinary, and the effect it has on them was also extraordinary. Let us see it then as the dramatic event that it was.

*First Act: * First Act is seen in three parts, namely, Time, Place, Action and finally Anti-Climax.

*The Time: * It is Easter Sunday evening, the day of Resurrection, the day on which Jesus is raised from the dead that the First drama takes place.

*The Place: * For three years Jesus had been training his disciples. When the final crisis came, they behaved disgracefully. Judas betrayed him, Peter denied him, and rest of the Apostles ran away due to fear of being caught by Roman Soldiers. He had been called to leave everything and follow Christ but all deserted him and locked themselves up in a room, only the Mother of Jesus, Mary and his favorite Apostle John were there at the foot during the time of crucifixion.

 

All the action takes place in one room somewhere in Jerusalem. It is a large room, for it has to accommodate a big number of people. Many of Jesus’ disciples are there and among them ten Apostles. Two of the Apostles are missing. Judas committed suicide and Thomas was absconding. Why Thomas was not with the other disciples, we are not told, but his absence was only temporary. The possible reason of his absence could be his inner suffering. Thomas was a deeply wounded person. He was wounded by grief, he was wounded by loneliness, he was wounded by unbelief and despair.

 

All this happened to him when Christ his master and friend was put to a cruel and unmerited death. In his pain he wanted to be alone. So he fled from the company of other Apostles. The atmosphere in the room is tense. We notice that the doors are shut and bolted. We get the impression that they are afraid that the mob that cried out for their Master’s death three days ago may break in and beat them up.

 

*Action: * Suddenly the risen Lord appears in their midst. No one saw him enter. He did not knock or ask to have door opened for him. He is simply there. The disciples are alarmed. They are tensed and waited for a sign of how he is going to deal with them. They thought he will rebuke them and seek replacements because they left him alone in the time of crisis. But there are no charges, no calling for clarifications. His first word was "Shalom, peace be with you.” He forgives all of them and then comes really surprising thing, the totally unexpected. Jesus says to them, As the Father has sent me so I also send you. Receive the Holy Spirit. When you forgive sins they are forgiven. When you hold them back, they are held back." Having said that, Jesus departs.

 

*Anti-Climax: -* Now the absent member of their group, the Apostle Thomas, knocks at the door and comes in and immediately they crowd round him and excitedly tell him that Jesus is risen from the dead, that he is alive and appeared to them. But Thomas refuses to believe all what they said. He demands absolute proof that Jesus is alive. He said to them, “Unless I see in hands the print of the nails, and place my hand in his side, I will not believe.” The other disciples are stunned by this stubbornness and this harsh demand. There is absolute silence after that and the curtain falls, and the first Act or the first scene is over.

 

*Second Act: * After Interval, the Second Scene, the Second Act This is also seen in three parts- Time, Place and Action.

*Time: * The curtain rises again on the same scene and we are told that after eight days, again on next Sunday, after Resurrection, the second act of drama takes place.

 

*Place: * - The same room and same group of disciples are there and now Thomas is with them. The atmosphere in the room is not tense, the disciples looked relaxed but still the doors are shut and bolted.

 

*Action: * Suddenly the risen Lord appears in their midst. The disciples are all in attention, wondering what is going to happen to Thomas. Jesus once again enters the room without knocking and put them all at ease by his greetings “Peace be with you” and he calls Thomas and says, “Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side.” Thomas offers no apologies and do not try to “explain” his need for further proof.

 

Overwhelmed by the physical reality of the Lord. He falls on his knees. He cries, opens his soul to his risen Master, and pours out all his unspoken laments, unasked questions, unexpressed feelings saying, “My Lord and my God” - a pure and simple act of adoration. Thomas could say no more, No one of the other apostles have ever called the Lord “God” with such significance. Not one has ever confessed Him to be God so fully and openly. The doubting and suffering Thomas is the first of all to see the divinity of Christ.