For the Video Reflections of the Seven Dolours or Sorrows of our Blessed Mother click HERE
Friday, 14 April 2017
Audio Reflections on the Seven Dolours or Sorrows of our Blessed Mother
For the Audio Reflections on the Seven Dolours or Sorrows of our Blessed Mother click HERE
Holy Saturday, April 15, 2017 - THE SEVEN SORROWS OF MARY -
THE SEVEN SORROWS OF MARY
Yesterday
we celebrated the passion and death of the Lord. The last words of Jesus on the
cross were “it is finished, it is accomplished”. Jesus accepted what the father
sent him to do. And so he could say “it is finished”. However, it continues
because of whom Jesus left behind. And he left behind his mother and his
disciples.
During the
course of our meditation this morning, when all over the world is Holy
Saturday, we will spend this time with Mary by going through the mysteries of
her life as mother of Jesus, as mother of God and see what fruit we can draw
from the manner in which she responded. There are so many things that one could
say about Mary but for our reflection this morning I will take, what is
commonly called the 7 sorrows, the 7 dolours of our Blessed Mother.
The first of these is the prophecy of Simeon, Lk 2:34-35
- Jesus is brought by Mary and his foster father to the temple to be presented
to God, to be gifted to God, to be handed over to God. And even as he is
presented, Simeon who was waiting for the Lord’s kingdom realizes that it has
come in this child. And his response on encountering Jesus is to address his
mother, He speaks to Mary and tells her in prophecy that Jesus will be a sign
that is accepted, and rejected, a sign that will frighten those who are corrupt
and dishonest, a sign that will wake people up from their slumber and a sign
that will be rejected and killed. And even as he says that, he brings Mary into
salvation history when he speaks of a sword piercing Mary’s heart as well. Mary
will be a collaborator with her son in achieving salvation history. And through
this prophecy of Simeon brings to our attention the fact that just because God
has favoured her, just because God has chosen her, just because God has given
her the privilege and honour of being the mother of Jesus does not necessarily
mean that everything will be smooth sailing. As a matter of fact it means she
would have more difficulties than others who were not chosen. So often in our
lives we might tend to lose hope, we might tend to think God is not on our
side, we might tend to think that God is punishing us and we might ask “where
is God in all of this?” If we reflect on the prophecy of Simeon addressed to
Mary we will realize God is constantly present. So let the first sorrow of Mary
be an inspiration for us that no matter how many trials we may have to undergo,
no matter how many swords pierce our own hearts, we will look to Mary for
consolation and strength.
The second sorrow is traditionally narrated as the flight
into Egypt Mt. 2:13-15. It speaks you might say of
displacement, it speaks you might say of uprootedness, it speaks you might say
of change and transformation, it speaks you might say of Mary and Joseph’s
world being turned upside down; it speaks of instability, it speaks of the fact
that they are unable to make their home in one particular place, and have to
constantly to be like pilgrims moving from one place to another. Many of us are
fortunate to be living in the same place for a number of years, many of us are
fortunate to have stable homes, many of us are fortunate to live in countries
in which the political situation is stable and there is no threat of a war; and
yet I want you to reflect on the instability of your life, of sometimes your
own life is turned upside down and upheavals in your heart, when you are having
marital discord for example, when your children go astray for example, when
your parents don’t understand you for example, when in the community of
religious you feel that you are isolated and alone, when as the Superior of the
community or as the Parish Priest as in a parish, you feel that the
parishioners, the members of your community don’t understand you, then you go
through these upheavals, there’s unprootedness I would like you to bring to
mind the flight into Egypt, and you will see and reflect on how Mary and Joseph
were so obedient to God’s word because they knew that God’s plan for them was
better than the plan they would have for themselves. The flight into Egypt is a
sign that God is in charge. So no matter how many upheavals there may be in
your life, no matter how many times you might be uprooted in your hear, keep in
mind that at these times the Lord is with you.
The third sorrow is commonly called the finding in the temple
Lk 2:41-52 and even though it seems that it was Mary who found
Jesus, my own interpretation is Jesus was never lost. It was Mary who was lost
without Jesus, because the answer, the response of Jesus to his mother “Why did
you look for me, you ought to know where I can be found. I can be found doing
my Father’s business,” Mary was, at least in the beginning, looking in the
wrong place and then she realized that Jesus is found when we do God’s will.
And that is why in the gospel of Luke; Mary is portrayed right from the time of
the Annunciation in Lk 1:26-38, till the end of the gospel, as a woman who
constantly does God’s will. She learnt, you might say, from that incident of
finding in the temple that if she had to be a disciple of her son, she to
constantly do God’s will. And so I ask you where are you looking for Jesus? If
you are looking for him only in the tabernacle, if you are looking for him only
in the church, if you are looking for him only in holy places, you are looking
for a very, very, limited places because the Lord in the words of Teilhard de
Chardin, the Cosmic Christ, the Lord is now the Risen Christ, the Lord must now
be found in all things, in all persons, in all situations. And primarily, as
the Lord tells us in Mt 7:21-28, the Lord can be found when you do God’s will.
The fourth sorrow of Our Lady which is not really narrated by
the scriptures is Mary encounters Jesus carrying his cross.
Even though none of the scriptures speak about Jesus meeting his mother on the
way to Calvary or Golgotha, tradition is clear about this encounter because the
Gospel of Luke tells us Jesus meets the women of Jerusalem on his way to
Jerusalem. So surely he would have met his mother. What kind of an encounter do
you think it would have been? Do you
think that Mary would have been feeling sorry for herself; do you think she
would have been feeling sorry for er son, do you think she would want to reach
out to Jesus and wipe his battered face? Do you think that she would want to
help Jesus carry the cross? What kind of an encounter would this have been? I
invite you to spend a few moments reliving this scene, seeing in your mind’s
eye the Mother and Son. I would like to think that they would each be consoling
the other. I would like to think that they would each be strengthening the
other; I would like to think that they would each be reaching out to the other
rather than being concerned about their sorrow. And so this encounter might be
summarized in one word ‘selflessness’. It might be termed as a reaching out.
When you reach out even when you’re sad and you feel the whole world is
conspiring against you, when you reach out in sympathy and empathy to someone
else, when you avoid making yourself the focus and saying ‘Oh, look at me, how
I’m suffering for my sins and for the sins of the others”. When you avoid doing
that and look outside of yourself then you are being like Mary focusing on
Jesus, and focusing on others.
The fifth sorrow is Jesus dies on the cross Jn19:25-27
narrates this scene where Mary and the beloved disciple are standing at the
foot of Jesus’ cross. And Jesus, before his last breath in the Gospel of John
hands over his mother to the beloved disciple and hands over the disciple to
his mother. Who then is the beloved disciple? The beloved disciple is anyone
who loves Jesus. So if you love Jesus you cannot but take Mary into your home,
if you love Jesus you cannot but honour his mother and ours. If you love Jesus,
you cannot but make Mary an integral part of your life. As a matter of fact in
the Gospel of John this is how Church is described. The Spirit of Jesus (which
he breathes before his death), the beloved disciple (anyone who loves Jesus)
and the mother of Jesus. These three elements make up church. These three are
what church is all about in the Gospel of John. So today let us realize that we
cannot really have a full church, the church of the Lord unless his mother is
in that church as well. I am fond of saying that if Mary had to say NO we would
never have had Jesus, and you would not even be listening to this talk of mine.
So the fact that you are listening to the talk has its origin in Mary. And once
again I repeat the beautiful words of the Memorare “It was never know that
anyone who fled to her protection was left unaided.” And proof of that is again
in the scriptures where the mind of Jesus has changed because of the
intervention of Mary at Cana, Jn 2:1-12.
The sixth sorrow is Jesus is handed over to his mother, the
pieta of Michael Angelo. And if you can google this, put
down ‘pieta’, you will get a number of images of this beautiful scene, you will
a number of images of this beautiful scene portrayed. So beautifully by Michael
Angelo and so many artists after and before him of Jesus lying dead in the lap
of his mother. And Mary is not a woman who’s going to shed tears for herself;
Mary is not a woman who’s going to shed tears for her son, Mary is a woman
who’s going to continue the mission because she knows that her son has done all
that was required of him and that she is to do all that is required of her. And
that brings me once again to how so many of us unfortunately cry at the death
of a loved one as if the person is never going to rise again, how many of us
cry at the death of loved one for years after the person has gone simply
because we do not believe in the Resurrection. If you are one of those who is
crying for a dead parent, or a dead relative, or a dead friend, then I need
your you to understand that our God is not a God of the dead, but a God of the
living. And so today is not a day when you shed tears. Today is a day when you
give thanks that God did through your parent, through your friend, through your
relative who is now living with God all the beautiful things. And now you have
to let go, now we have to leave it in the hands of God, now you have to believe
that the person is in a much, much better place and situation than ever before.
And the last sorrow is when Jesus is laid in the tomb,
Even as we stand watching them lay Jesus in the tomb, let us stand with Mary
and us stand with confidence, let stand with courage, let us stand with trust
and faith and hope.
Let us
remain quiet and as we see the stone being rolled to close the tomb, let us
together recite the Hail and Holy Mary. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is
with you, blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb,
Jesus. Holy Mary, mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our
death. Amen
Thursday, 13 April 2017
GOOD FRIDAY
Though
Jesus died on this day, it is still called GOOD because it was on this day that
he obeyed his Father, God perfectly. Jesus did not come to die. He came to
SAVE. If salvation could be achieved ONLY THROUGH the Cross, he was willing to
be obedient to the Father's will. Also, it was BECAUSE he died on the Cross and
in obedience to God that he could be raised. Good Friday is thus the starting
point of the Easter Resurrection.
Click HERE to hear my Good Friday Reflections
Friday, April 14, 2017 - Good Friday - Love Conquers even Death
To read the texts click on the texts: Isa 52:13-53:12; Heb 4:14-16; 5:7-9; Jn 18:1-19:42
We
celebrate today my dear brothers and sisters, what is traditionally known as
Good Friday. And it would seem strange first of all that we celebrate the day
on which Jesus died, and stranger still that we consider such a day Good. What
really is the reason why we celebrate? And why is the day on which Jesus died
called “Good”? The answer to both these questions can only be found if we focus
as all the Evangelists and especially John has done on the Passion and death of
our Lord from the perspective of the Resurrection. Because if Christ were not
resurrected, if he were not raised from the dead, his death would have no
meaning, his death would have been the end. But it is only because he rose
again, that his death took on a new meaning, a meaning that death never
possessed before. It is in the light of the resurrection therefore that we must
look at the death of Christ and what it means for us today … and yet, we must
remember that the Passion and Death of Jesus were indeed historical events,
that Jesus had to suffer and die. That Jesus had to go through the ignominy of
the cross before his resurrection.
In yesterday’s
liturgy, the Eucharist of Maundy Thursday, we witnessed how in a very symbolic
way Jesus brought his whole life together by giving to his disciples two
important symbols – the washing of the feet and the breaking and sharing of
bread and wine. These two powerful symbols were his way of showing them that on
the one hand their lives too had to be lives of service and reaching out just
as his life had been, and on the other hand that they must be lives in
community, lives in union with each other, lives not as individuals, but as a
group of people all moving toward God. And on the day on which he died, the day
following the last supper, Jesus made those symbols a reality. He not only
symbolically washed his disciples’ feet and shared not just bread and wine, but
rather his very self, his very being, his very life. And what is more important
is that he gave his life willingly. This going to his death willingly, was in a
way a summary of his whole life, a bringing together of his whole life, a life
which had always been a life of giving, a life of sharing, a life for others, a
life of love. Besides being narrated so beautifully for us in the Gospel of
John that we just heard, it is also narrated equally beautifully in the Song of
the Suffering Servant from the book of Isaiah that we heard as our first
reading. This song though written 550 years before Jesus was never really
understood till the Passion and Death of Jesus. When Isaiah uses the double
expression, “that which has not been told” and “which they have never heard”,
he is not repeating himself, but rather intends to bring to our attention how
incredible, how incomprehensible the whole mystery is. The whole thought of the
people of that time, their world would have been turned upside down. He was a man
of sorrows and grief because he bore our own sorrows and grief. In the face of
violence from those who despised him, he submitted willingly. Not only did
people pay no attention to him, they positively despised him, rejected him and
yet the man to whom they refused fellowship was truly one of them. We are told
my dear brothers and sisters, through the Song of the Suffering Servant that
God protects and saves not through war like aggressiveness, but through
humility. Redemption is through the mystery of suffering. We must be confident
therefore even in the midst of suffering because Jesus himself experienced
trials and tribulations, suffering and ignominy, and is thus able to share with
us our own. The priest of the Old Testament, as we heard in the letter to the
Hebrews offers sacrifices other than himself for the forgiveness of sins, Jesus
offers his very self. Jesus became the High priest through the mystery of his
Passion, Death, Resurrection and Exaltation. Since he gave his life for others,
his Father gave him back his own life. Jesus died believing that the Father
would raise him on the third day and He did.
And this is
why we celebrate today, and this is why the day on which Jesus died is called
Good.
In view of
all this what is the relevance for me today? What does Good Friday mean for me
now, here, in my situation? In answering these questions I must point out first
of all how difficult it is to understand how we can be so moved at the Passion
of our Lord, and oblivious to the Passion of our next door neighbour. It is
difficult to understand how we can shed tears at the suffering and death of
Jesus, and not be moved one bit at the anguish and suffering of our brothers
and sisters around us. It is difficult to understand how we can look up at the cross
of Christ and be overcome with pity and shame, but untouched by the numerous
crosses that we see people carrying everyday. The relevance of Good Friday lies
in being able to see Christ crucified today. We can only do this if our lives
are modelled on the life of Christ, lives that are lived for others. To live
for others means first of all that we have to forget ourselves, that we have to
get rid of the Ego, the I, that we have to think of others before we think of
ourselves. The Israelites of old were called as we heard yesterday to be a
contrast community, a chosen people, a nation set apart. We are called to be
that contrast community today, not in the way that we dress, in the food that
we eat or in the language we speak, but rather through our way of proceeding,
in our way of behaving, in our way of being, in our way of love. Christ is
calling us today not so much to die for him, but to live for him. Are you
willing to live for Christ?
Let us pray
then as we unveil the cross of Christ in a few moments from now that our
celebration of the Passion and Death of Jesus will transform our lives into
lives that resemble his, so that like Jesus, we too in our own ways may be men
and women for others. It is only in this context that suffering and pain and death
take on a new meaning as they did in the life of Christ. Amen.
Wednesday, 12 April 2017
Video Reflection on Maundy Thursday from 2013
Video Reflection on Maundy Thursday from 2013. Click HERE
Video Reflections of Maundy Thursday, April 13, 2017
To hear and see the Video Reflections of Maundy Thursday, April 13, 2017 click HERE
Tuesday, 11 April 2017
Audio reflections of Wednesday, April 12, 2017
To hear the Audio reflections of Wednesday, April 12, 2017 click HERE
Thursday, April 13, 2017 - Maundy Thursday - There is only one commandment, the command to LOVE unconditionally
To read the texts click on the texts: Ex 12:1-8,11-14; 1 Cor 11:23-26; Jn 13:1-15
The English
word Maundy comes from the Latin Mandatum which means a command. What is this
command? And who gives this command and to whom? The command is the command to
love. The command is given by the Lord Jesus; and the command is given to his
disciples and through his disciples to the whole world. Throughout his life,
Jesus has lived a selfless life. Throughout his life he has lived a life of
giving, of reaching out, of encouraging, of boosting up. Throughout his life he
has led a life of unconditional love which requires nothing in return. He has
lived a life of love that only wants to give. And now, on this Maundy Thursday,
he brings together his entire life through two symbols.
I direct
you to the first of those symbols found in Mk 14:22-26. It is the scene of the
Last Supper. And Jesus knows that the time has come for him to depart from this
world and to go to the Father. So what does Jesus do in symbolic form? In
symbolic form he brings together his life through two symbols, of bread and
wine, to the symbol of the Eucharist. The English word Eucharist comes from the
Greek Eucharistene which means to thank. So at the Last Supper in this
Eucharist which he celebrates with his disciples, Jesus gives thanks to the
Father. Thanksgiving even though he knows that he is going to die. Thanksgiving
even though he knows that his body is going to be broken on the cross and his
blood shed; thanksgiving because he knows that the Father always does what is
best for him and for the world. And while they were eating, Jesus breaks this
bread and identifies the broken bread with his body. He shares the cup of wine
and identifies the wine with his blood, and the command here is to do this
breaking and shedding of body and blood in remembrance of the Lord. The symbol
will remain at the level of symbol unless it is transformed into reality. In
the case of Jesus the reality of his life was brought together in these symbols
and from the symbol taken to the cross. Is the Eucharist the centre of my life?
When I use the term Eucharist or Mass, what do I mean? Do I refer to the ritual
that is celebrated in the Church? Am I one of that who hears Mass and forgets
about it later? Am I one of those who goes to the Sacrament of the Eucharist
only to fulfill an obligation or because I am scared of punishment by God? Does
my Eucharist end in the Church or is my life a Eucharistic life. If I have to
be a true disciple of Jesus I cannot let the ritual end in the Church. The
ritual has to be transformed into reality. Like in the case of Jesus, the
symbols of bread and wine became in reality his body and blood, so in my case
whenever I participate in the Eucharist I need to be transformed. I need to
become a better person, I need to give and to reach out and to love. If not,
then I need to ask myself whether I am really participating in the Eucharist.
In the Eucharist you will be celebrating today every single sacrament is
contained Every single sacrament is brought forth, the sacrament of
reconciliation, the sacrament of community, the sacrament of baptism, the
sacrament of giving and of giving till it hurts. And so my plea to you be that
as we celebrate the Eucharist this Maundy Thursday, that you ask God to keep
your mind open to the grace that he wants to pour therein, that your Mass, that
your Eucharist will be celebrated on the altar of the world and that the bread
that is broken and the wine that is shed will be your own giving of yourself, a
giving till it hurts, a giving even when there is nothing to give; a giving
which will go beyond everything that you have ever done before.
A second
symbol which is used by Jesus in the gospel of Jn 13:1-12 is a symbol of the
washing of the feet, and even though washing of the feet may be interpreted as
the sign of humble service, as the sign of doing humble labour, as a sign of
choosing the lesser place, it goes beyond. Because it is not merely humble
service or choosing the menial job, it is a prophetic gesture. Jesus does not
wash the feet of his disciples before the meal like may have usually been done
but Jesus begins to wash the feet of his disciples when they are in the midst
of the meal in order to open their eyes. So already, when he got up from the
meal they would have been confused, they would have been wondering what he was
doing. If he had washed their feet before they began the meal, we could have
interpreted it merely as humble service. However, because it is in the midst of
the meal that Jesus gets up from the table, he wants to give a completely
different interpretation to this prophetic gesture. Later on he explains what
he means when he asks his disciples to do what he has done. “If I then your
Lord and Master have washed your feet, you also must do likewise, which does
not mean merely physically washing the feet, but which means living the life of
Jesus. And that is why when Peter refuses the washing, Jesus says “unless you
let me wash your feet you’ll have no meros. Meros is heritage, meros is
something which you leave behind, meros is legacy, meros is translated as a
part. You cannot be a disciple of Jesus if he doesn’t serve you and you do not
accept his command to love and to serve forever.
And so as
we enter into Maundy Thursday, as we listen to the mandatum, to the command of
the Lord inviting us to a fuller life, let us realize that it is in giving that
we receive, it is in reaching out that
we are reached out to. It is in dying to our ego and ourselves that we will
have life eternal.
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