COME OUT !

The Church keeps the previous Sunday of the Holy Week as Sunday of Reparation. Traditionally the Crucifix and the statues of Saints in the church are covered with purple cloth. The significance of this is that the faithful are encouraged to concentrate and meditate more deeply on the passion and death of Jesus and repent for their sins which caused his death
The Gospel narrative of Jesus’coming late to Lazarus tomb is quite enriching (Jn 11.1-44). Jesus tells Martha: “I am the resurrection and the life; who ever believes in me, even if he dies, will live” (25). When we believe we are sharing in the risen life of Jesus.

The Church is inviting us to listen to the words of Jesus. “Lazarus, come out!” (43). Let us put our own name and listen Jesus calling us to come out! Yes, we need to come out of our selfishness, pettiness, unbelief, lust, greed, jealousy, cruelty…. Before raising Lazarus, Jesus told his disciples to take away the stone (39). What are the stones?-hurdles which prevent me from experiencing the risen life of the Lord within me? Through prophet Isaiah, the Lord is telling: “It is your sins that separate you from your God” (Is.59.2). Lent is the time the Church is calling the faithful to acknowledge this truth. Let us not be ‘puffed up with pride’ telling that I don’t have any sin’…As Pope John Paul II has said “insensitivity to sin is the greatest curse of this century”. Since we do not acknowledge our sins, we are in bondage and are not free to live like the children of God.

When the dead Lazarus came out, he was bound and Jesus told the disciples: “Unbind him, let him go” (44). What are the sins, bondages and oppressions from which I need to be unbound? Let us thank the Lord for the beautiful Sacrament of Confession and Reconciliation where the Lord through His ministerial priests, is unbinding us and letting us “go in peace”. “Whose sins you forgive, they are forgiven them (Jn 20.23)

Are we ready to cooperate with the grace of God to roll away the stone that stands between us and Christ? Are we ready to ‘unbind’ one another by forgiving them from the depth of our heart?
Lent is a time for removing these obstacles , to cleanse our conscience from dead works (cfr. Heb 9.14), such as hatred, anger, selfishness, pride, self righteousness, drunkenness, all impurities in thought, word and deed……

Yes, let me hear my loving Lord calling my name and telling me “Come out!” for He came, suffered and died for me so that I can experience His abundant life (Jn 10.10b).

“You should put away the old self of your former way of life, corrupted through deceitful desires, and be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and put on the new self, created in God’s way in righteousness and holiness of truth “ (Eph 4.22-24)

Journeying with the Lord

Starting with Ash Wednesday we had been united with the Lord in spirit through our prayer, fasting and penance, keeping up the traditional forty days of Lenten Observance. Let us keep in mind the Biblical significance of the special commitment of ‘40 days of prayer and penance’.

• God created man in His own image and likeness (Gen 1.27) to enjoy the Divine Life in fellowship with Him, which he lost due to sin of selfishness and disobedience. The growing sin of mankind ‘grieved Him to His heart’ (cfr Gen 6.5, 6). But in Noah who was walking with God, He found a man blameless and righteous (6.9). And through his loyalty and obedience, the Just God did an act of purification and elimination of the wicked with a flood for 40 days.
• The Law was given to Moses after his forty days of fasting and penance at Mount Sinai.
• During the forty years of journey through the desert, Israelites experienced God’s caring love and protection; they were set free from the Egyptians and at the end they could enter into the Promised Land.
• Samuel’s and David’s reign of 40 years was significant; the Israelites were brought to unity and the kingdom was established for them.
• Prophet Elijah journeyed forty days to reach Mt. Horeb to have a deep encounter with God.
• Prophet Jonah asked people of Nineveh to pray, fast and do penance for 40 days to repent and to seek God’s mercy.
• Jesus, after His Baptism was led by the Holy Spirit to a desert where He fasted and prayed for 40 days before confronting the Devil and entering into His Public Ministry.

Now we are journeying with the Lord in the Holy Week, started with the Palm Sunday commemorating the triumphant Entry of Jesus to Jerusalem to complete His work as our Messiah- to suffer, to die and to rise again. The Holy Week is the most significant week of the year. Let us spend each day of the week reflecting deeply on the Gospel messages which tell about the salvific mission of our Lord. We can experience that the Divine Word is so rich and new each time we reflect on it as it is the Holy Spirit, the Author of the Divine Word who illumines our mind and heart shedding His light into our being.

Just note a contrast between the disciples of Jesus and the Pharisees in the Gospel narrative of Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem (Lk 19. 37-39). “The whole multitude of the disciples began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the deeds of power that they had seen” (37). —“Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, order your disciples to stop” (39).

The disciples were those who were with Jesus, who have heard Him, seen His mighty works…..In short they had experienced the Lord. And hence praising God was just spontaneous for them. Whereas the Pharisees were not with the Lord. They were ‘at a distance’, trying to judge and criticize His words and deeds. They could not experience Jesus and it was ‘foreign for them’ to praise Him.

Do I personally experience the wonderful, caring love of the Lord through my prayer life, reading and meditation of the Scripture, through my Sacramental life…Or do I find it difficult to ‘befriend’ Jesus in my day to day journey with Him? Let us ask the Holy Spirit to help us come out of our ‘hurdles’ and be one with the Lord.

“Lord Holy Spirit, give me the humility to acknowledge that there is some of the Pharisee in me. Help me Lord Jesus Christ, to throw it at your feet and become your true disciple through the Sacrament of Reconciliation. At the confessional you are waiting to embrace me and make me a new person. You are my healer, strength and salvation. I thank and praise you all the days of my life.”

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