All men and women are brothers and sisters. Each person is precious and priceless.
We must treat each other as we would treat God.
This is the teaching of Jesus.
This is our belief.
Acts 14:21-27. Psalm 144:8-13. Rv.1. Apocalypse 21:1-5. John 13:31-35.
We have to experience many hardships before we can enter into the kingdom.
The Lord is kind and full of compassion.
God lives among men. He makes his home with them. His name is God-with-them.
By this love you have for one another, everyone will know that you are my disciples.
The Body of Jesus
When he had gone, Jesus said: Now has the Son of man been glorified, and in him God has been glorified. 32 If God has been glorified in him, Godwill in turn glorify him in himself, and will glorify him very soon. 33 Little children, I shall be with you only a little longer. You will look for me, and, as I told the Jews, where I am going, you cannot come. 34 I give you a new commandment: love one another; you must love one another just as I have loved you. 35 It is by your love for one another, that everyone will recognise you as my disciples.
The Church is not to learn from the world. There, ‘rulers lord it over people’. They love to be called lords, your Excellency etc. They go around in finery and live in palaces. “With you it must not be so’. In the Church leaders are to follow on Jesus and be his image among the flock. Jesus is no longer visibly with us. ‘I shall not be with you much longer’. He has just washed the disciples’ feet out of his love for them. In a moment he will give himself to them and throughout the ages as food under the appearance of bread and wine. The Last Supper reveals the intimacy with Jesus and with one another experienced by the Founding Members of the Church. In the Last Supper we see before our eyes the Church community that Jesus founded.
Throughout the ages till ‘Jesus comes again in glory’ wherever his members gather in intimate fellowship to celebrate the Eucharist and their love for one another, there we see the Church. There we are to experience Jesus. This is the ‘source and summit’ of our faith.
Jesus is among us ‘as one who serves’. It is this humble love for one another in mutual service and fellowship which is to be the sign of the Church. It is not our basilicas, Bishops and Cardinals in their finery, the world-wide organization with its political power, and vast numbers of statistical members. If we boast of these we make a travesty of the Church Jesus founded.
The Church will only have true power when it can say with Zachaeus “I give half my property to the poor” and with Peter, “Silver and gold I do not have”. For then it will also be able to say, “In the name of Jesus, get up and walk”. Jesus was rich but became poor for our sakes.
The leaders of the Church, among not above the sheep, are to be visibly humble shepherds who “put fresh heart into the disciples, encouraging them to persevere in the faith”.
Jesus inaugurates the New Covenant by which in him we become the children of God. He is Abba, Dad, to us. God’s generous love which is unmerited and of which we are unworthy is manifested in Jesus. It is a love that knows no bounds even to the joyful death of Jesus on the Cross to win us life. This love of the Father for us is the life blood of the community and should be the very air we breathe. Living in this love makes us ‘his community’. If the Christian community delights in this love the world will meet Christ and see the light.
Do you manifest this love to the members of your community? Is your family a community of love in Jesus? Can the world see Jesus in your parish community?
Father, may I always be a living and loving member in the community of Jesus.
1. Sit quietly, recollect yourself. Concentrate on Jesus. Call on the Holy Spirit. Take your time. There is no rush and there is no fixed rule to follow. Be free in the Spirit.
2. Be aware that Jesus is with you. Use a mantra if you like, e.g. ‘Jesus, Jesus, Jesus ..’
3. Read the passage with Jesus who was there and in the Holy Spirit who inspired it.
4. Note the words and sentences that strike you.
5. Pray about these and ask the Lord to speak to you through his Spirit.
6. Keep a journal of the inspirations you are given for your life. Jesus is present to you and he is speaking to you.
7. If the passage is a ‘dramatic’ one try and live the passage in your imagination. Remember it is not just imagination because Jesus is present now with you. Put yourself in the scene. It is the Holy Spirit who makes Jesus real.
Weekdays of the 4th week of Easter 2010
Monday 26th April 2010
Sheep pen in the Judean wilderness today John 10:1-10
”Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door but climbs in by another way, that man is a thief and a robber; 2 but he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. 3 To him the gatekeeper opens; the sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4 When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. 5 A stranger they will not follow, but they will
flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.” 6 This figure Jesus used with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them. 7 So Jesus again said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. 8 All who came before me are thieves and robbers; but the sheep did not heed them. 9 I am the door; if any one enters by me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture. 10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.
Jesus alone is the key to human life. Without him we cannot enter into life. We live but not fully. If want abundant life, we can only get it from Jesus. Of ourselves we are like sheep wandering around here and there. But Jesus is ever present and calls us by name. We need to listen and answer. We have to listen to something in life – the cravings of our hearts for things or persons, the call of the world to seek the ‘good life’, the invitations of other spiritual teachers, but Jesus alone is the Way. It is through him alone that we will find the happiness that our soul longs for. But how are we to find him? We must believe his word, that he alone gives abundant life. Then we must search for him daily in the Gospel and in prayer. Jesus responds to our earnestness. How earnest are you to find him?
Tuesday 27th April 2010
Flock of sheep in the Judean wilderness John 10:22-30
It was the time of the feast of Dedication in Jerusalem. It was winter, 23 and Jesus was in the Temple walking up and down in the Portico of Solomon. 24 The Jews gathered round him and said, 'How much longer are you going to keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us openly.' 25 Jesus replied: I have told you, but you do not believe. The works I do in my Father's name are my witness; 26 but you do not believe, because you are no sheep of mine. 27 The sheep that belong to me listen to my voice; I know them and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life; they will never be lost and no one will ever steal them from my hand. 29 The Father, for what he has given me, is greater than anyone, and no one can steal anything from the Father's hand. 30 The Father and I are one.
Jesus is the Saviour. We do not and cannot save ourselves. We cannot keep ourselves from the influence of Satan and evil. We cannot keep ourselves free from sin, much as we cannot keep ourselves free from bodily sickness. Only Jesus can save us. What must we do? We must be his sheep. We must allow Jesus to save us. We need then to surrender to him. We need to stay close to him and listen to his Word and allow him to lead us through his teaching and strengthen us through his Holy Spirit. If we do that then no one can pluck us from his hand and we are safe. If we want to stay close to Jesus we must spend time with him every day and we must have him in our hearts throughout the day and night. He must become our every present companion through prayer. Because it is through faith, then it takes effort. Are you willing to make the effort to be his sheep?
Wednesday 28th April 2010
John 12:44-50
Jesus cried out and said, He who believes in me, believes not in me, but in him who sent me.45 And he who sees me sees the one who sent me.46 I have come as a light into the world, so that whosoever believes in me will not live in darkness.47 If any man hears my words, and does not believe, I will not judge him: because I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world.48 The one who rejects me, and does not accept my word, is judged already: the word that I have spoken will judge him on the last day.49 For I have not spoken of myself; but the Father who sent me, he gave me a commandment, telling me what I should say, and what I should speak.50 And I know that his commandment is life everlasting: whatsoever I speak therefore, even as the Father said unto me, so I speak.
No one has seen God as he is ‘in unapproachable light’ but we have seen God because ‘the Word became a human being’ Jesus is the visible likeness in human form of the God no mere human can see. So now there is only one way to know God, we must look at Jesus. No one is without fault who deliberately refuses to look at Jesus and to study his Words. We find the image and words of Jesus in the Gospels. By looking at Jesus we can see what God does and how he acts. We can see his likes and dislikes. We can discover his attitudes towards the problems of daily life. Jesus in his words and actions is the perfect manifestation of God. If I refuse to study him, how can I be without blame? Do you want to make the effort to know the human Jesus through the Gospels and so know God?
Thursday 29th April 2010
John 13:16-20
16Amen, amen, I say to you: The servant is not greater than his lord: neither is the apostle greater than he that sent him. 17 If you know these things, you shall be blessed if you do them. 18 I speak not of you all: I know whom I have chosen. But that the scripture may be fulfilled: He that eats bread with me shall lift up his heel against me, 19 at present I tell you, before it come to pass: that when it shall come to pass, you may believe that I am he. 20Amen, amen, I say to you, he that receives whomsoever I send receives me: and he that receives me receives him that sent me.
Jesus has just washed the feet of his disciples. He has taught them that though he is Lord and Master he has humbled himself to wash their feet. He is to be their model. As he has done so must they do. He did it out of love for them. Jesus is our model too. We are not greater than he is. We too must wash one another’s feet. Are we slaves of each other out of love? This is what Jesus expects of us. Each day I must do this in a figurative but real way. Until we each do this and the Church has an institution does this we will all lack credibility. Mother Teresa did this in reality all her life and the world acclaimed her as a saint. We cannot live under the shadow of the saints; we have to do it ourselves. Do you see your religion as the washing of the feet of others?
Friday 30 April 2010
John 14:1-6
1 Do not let your hearts be troubled. You trust in God, trust also in me. 2 In my Father's house there are many places to live in; otherwise I would have told you. I am going now to prepare a place for you, 3 and after I have gone and prepared you a place, I shall return to take you to myself, so that you may be with me where I am. 4 You know the way to the place where I am going. 5 Thomas said, 'Lord, we do not know where you are going, so how can we know the way?' 6 Jesus said: I am the Way; I am Truth and Life. No one can come to the Father except through me
“Do not let your hearts be troubled”. Whether we are troubled or not depends on our real faith in the presence of Jesus in our life. Are we like the apostles on the boat when Jesus was asleep? Without trust they were very troubled. Jesus was there but they didn’t realize he was God. He had to rebuke them: “O men of little faith, why did you fear?” May be he needs to rebuke us. Is Jesus real for you? Only the Spirit can make him real.
“There are many rooms in my Father’s house.” Jesus is ‘from above”. He doesn’t have the words to describe his Father’s house to us who are “from below.” But that is our true home. We have been chosen from before the foundation of the world to be holy and perfect in Christ Jesus in order to live with God he Father. We are now on the way home. “We don’t know the way” says Thomas. “I am the Way”. Once again, to live in intimacy with Jesus now is to live with God. In as far as we live with Jesus now, we have reached home. Do you want to cultivate intimacy with Jesus now? “Now” is so important. It is all we have.
Saturday 4th Week of Easter1.
1st May 2010
John 14:7-14
If you know me, you will know my Father too. From this moment you know him and have seen him. 8 Philip said, 'Lord, show us the Father and then we shall be satisfied.' Jesus said to him, 9 'Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? 'Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father, so how can you say, "Show us the Father"? 10 Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? What I say to you I do not speak of my own accord: it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his works. 11 You must believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe it on the evidence of these works. 12 In all truth I tell you, whoever believes in me will perform the same works as I do myself, and will perform even greater works, because I am going to the Father. 13 Whatever you ask in my name I will do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.
‘Nothing grows under the banyan tree’. So many leaders do not allow others to grow for fear that they will surpass them and take the lime light. Jesus is not like that. As the Father is Love so Jesus as the human expression of the Father is Love in human form. He wants us to grow. He wants us to surpass him in doing mighty works for his Father. The works we do and which are greater than those of Jesus are for the glory of the Father and not for our name and fame. We are not to go on an ego trip. Our work must be according to the mind of the Father and done with the pure intention of bringing people to him. He must increase and we must decrease. Who are you working for? Can you forget your ego and surrender yourself to him and so only do what he wants you to do?
“God anointed him with the Holy Spirit and with power, and because God was with him, Jesus went about doing good and curing all who had fallen into the power of the devil. Now we are witnesses. to everything he did.” (Acts 10:38)
You can follow in his footsteps.
God needs to fill you with his Holy Spirit.
How can he, if you are already full of self.
“Learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart,
and you will find rest for your souls”. (Matt 11:29)
“Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, did not count equality with God something to be grasped. But he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, becoming as human beings are; and being in every way like a human being, he was humbler yet, even to accepting death, death on a cross.” (Phil 2:6).
God anointed him with the Holy Spirit and with power
The more we are empty of the spirit of self the more we can be filled with the Spirit of God. This was his secret.
Paul and Barnabas urged them to remain faithful to the grace of God
We are his people, the sheep of his flock.
The Lamb will lead them to springs of living water.
I know my sheep and I give them eternal life.
Jesus is our religion
“The sheep that belong to me listen to my voice; I know them and they follow me”. Jesus is saying he has friends and disciples and they are close to him. They have an intimate relationship. Those close to him do only what pleases him and he loves them even to the point of giving his life. His friends will never be lost because he will save them. He has the same divine power as the Father.
Religion has no value without a personal relationship of love with Jesus. Ours is not an organisation with rules and regulations. It is not a system of rituals and prayers with a moral code that must be followed in order to save one’s soul.
One of the main reasons for his violent death was that Jesus publicly criticised the formalism of the Pharisees and the priests. They had made ‘the law’ central and it became an end it itself. They had made ritual the touchstone of religion. Jesus criticized and condemned this attitude.
We too may have fallen into the same mistake as the priests. We have created an organisation with its rules such as going to Mass on Sundays, fasting, abstinence, reception of Sacraments etc. - a worldwide organization spreading out from the Vatican to the remotest village parish. However we are first and foremost to experience Jesus. Our religion is ‘falling in love with Jesus’. Jesus must be the object of our life search, the focal point of everything we do. We need to have a religion which is manifestly a community of people centred on Jesus. The presence of Jesus in every community activity should be clearly visible to the participants and to onlookers. “Without me you can do nothing’. Religion can easily become an empty shell of formalism. People are looking for Jesus who is truly risen and alive. Many fail to find him in the Church and go searching elsewhere.
Though we respect the laws of the Church we must never feel that we are bound by them. We are bound by one thing only. We must search for Jesus with all our heart and soul. We are his sheep and he is our shepherd. We must make our own Psalm 63: O Lord, you are my God, for you I long for you my soul is thirsting like a dry weary land without water’. Jesus is our life and all we do is to please him and so we keep his commandments. Laws are to help us love Jesus more. We love and forgive, starting with those who have harmed us and are at enmity with us through to our own families, spouses and children.
Is religion for you a relationship of love with Jesus and then with everyone? Is Jesus the centre of your life? Are you one of his sheep?
Father, O that today I may hear the voice of Jesus and do his will.
"spiritually stimulating and inspiring reflections...a wonderful book which will lead us and others to God," Bishop Anthony Poola, Bishop of Kurnool, India.
"deep and profound reflections which will nourish and sustain God-thirsting souls", Fr. Bernard Swarna D.C.L. Episcopal Vicar, Judicial Vicar, Archdiocese of Hyderabad, India.
"This book can transform your life" Fr. Kata Rajulu, Germany
"These reflections will serve their purpose if they encourage you to open the door to him (Jesus, Rev.3:20) and let him into your life. he will then dine with you and you with him and that will be another story - your story". From the author's Introduction.
If you would like to purchase this book just email me at jesus4ourworld@yahoo.com price £6.50 + postage and packing
LIFE WITH THE RISEN JESUS
To meet Jesus is prayer, sit quietly and comfortably. Call on the Holy Spirit to lead you in prayer. Concentrate on Jesus, using a mantra if you like (Jesus, Jesus, Jesus). Be aware that Jesus is present to you. Read the Gospel with Jesus and with the Holy Spirit who inspired it. Take your time. Place yourself in the scene, observe everyone and speak to Jesus. It is not mere imagination because Jesus is present and by faith we meet him. "I will be with you till the end of time" (Matthew 28:20)
Monday 19th April 2010
John 6:22-29
On the next day the people who remained on the other side of the sea saw that there had been only one boat there, and that Jesus had not entered the boat with his disciples, but that his disciples had gone away alone. 23 However, boats from Tiber’i-as came near the place where they ate the bread after the Lord had given thanks. 24 So when the people saw that Jesus was not there, nor his disciples, they themselves got into the boats and went to Caper’na-um, seeking Jesus. 25 When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, “Rabbi, when did you come here?” 26 Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you seek me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. 27 Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life, which the Son of man will give to you; for on him has God the Father set his seal.” 28 Then they said to him, “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?” 29 Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.”
The people were interested in what they could get materially. They came to Jesus looking for bread. That was their focus and their priority. It was a consumerist mentality. If they had known Jesus, they would have wanted him. They would have come looking for him, for his friendship, his Word and his closeness. In Jesus’ friendship we find everything. He himself is the bread of life. He is trying to tell us through these miraculous signs that he will be everything for us if we believe in him, come close to him daily in our ‘prayer of his presence’. We should search for him in our lives and not for what he can give us. Do you make Jesus the centre of your life and for whom you search every day?
Tuesday 20th April 2010
John 6:30-35
So they said to him, “Then what sign do you do, that we may see, and believe you? What work do you perform? 31 Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’” 32 Jesus then said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven; my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. 33 For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven, and gives life to the world.” 34 They said to him, “Lord, give us this bread always.” 35 Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; he who comes to me shall not hunger, and he who believes in me shall never thirst.
We need to eat ‘true bread’. Natural bread is good and gives us health but it cannot allow us to live for ever. However long we live one day we will have to die. But Jesus tells us there is another kind of bread that gives life to the world. This bread will enable us to live for ever This bread is not a substance. It is a person. The bread that gives us everlasting life is Jesus himself. It is not a matter of eating. It is a matter of being. We must come to Jesus and we must believe in him. We must accept his offer of friendship. If our life turns around Jesus then we will not taste death and we will live for ever. This is not a doctrine to be believed, it is an experience to be enjoyed. Are you wiling to make the effort to focus your life on Jesus, the Friend of friends.
Wednesday 21st April 2010
John 6:35-40
Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; he who comes to me shall not hunger, and he who believes in me shall never thirst. 36 But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe. 37 All that the Father gives me will come to me; and him who comes to me I will not cast out. 38 For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me; 39 and this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up at the last day. 40 For this is the will of my Father, that every one who sees the Son and believes in him should have eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day.”
Jesus will say to his disciples: “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed”. Peter will say to his Christians: “You did not see him, yet you love him and still without seeing him you are already filled with a joy so glorious that it cannot be described because you believe”. Is this your experience?
Jesus will never send away anyone who comes to him in sincerity with their weaknesses and their sins. To a person who really wants to be healed of the wounds of sin, Jesus is always ready do works of healing. The question is: do I really want to be rid of my sins? Do you?
No parent would wish to see his child cast into everlasting torment, so the Father will do anything to prevent you going to eternal death. He would even die on a Cross.
Thursday 22nd April 2010
John 6:44-51
No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day. 45 It is written in the prophets, ‘And they shall all be taught by God.’ Every one who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me. 46 Not that any one has seen the Father except him who is from God; he has seen the Father. 47 Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes has eternal life. 48 I am the bread of life. 49 Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. 50 This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that a man may eat of it and not die. 51 I am the living bread which came down from heaven; if any one eats of this bread, he will live for ever; and the bread which I shall give for the life of the world is my flesh.”
It is the holy communion with Jesus that gives us everlasting life. It is the holy communion with him which is the bread of life for us. It is not the ritual of receiving Holy Communion, eating the host and drinking from the chalice. If we want to live forever then we must be intimately united with Jesus in love through prayer. To give us this union with himself Jesus comes to us in all his humanity and Godhead under the appearance of bread and wine. It is Jesus we must meet when we eat ‘the bread and drink of the cup’ and not just go through the formality of eating and drinking. When we become him whom we receive then there is no possibility of tasting death, only of tasting life. Jesus is Life. Is your life Jesus?
Friday 23rd April 2010 .
John 6:52-59
The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” 53 So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you; 54 he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. 55 For my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. 56 He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. 57 As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats me will live because of me.
He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me and I in him
His ‘flesh’ means Jesus with his body and in all his humanity and he will be present under the appearance of bread and wine symbolizing that he is our food and the means of our transformation from being weak and death-bound humans to being filled with the life and strength of God, divine human beings who will live with and like God for ever. His humanity is the only way. He will fulfill these words at the Last Supper when he instituted the Holy Eucharist – his Body given for us and his Blood shed for us. He is present in all his fullness and completeness to be our strength and our life. He is the one who loves us and gives his life for us. He is a Saviour who sacrifices himself for us and it is he offering the one eternal sacrifice of his life begun on the Cross who is present. Do you abide in him?
Saturday 24th April 2010
John 6:60-69
Many of his disciples, when they heard it, said, “This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?” 61 But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples murmured at it, said to them, “Do you take offense at this? 62 Then what if you were to see the Son of man ascending where he was before? 63 It is the spirit that gives life, the flesh is of no avail; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. 64 But there are some of you that do not believe.” For Jesus knew from the first who those were that did not believe, and who it was that would betray him. 65 And he said, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.” 66 After this many of his disciples drew back and no longer went about with him. 67 Jesus said to the twelve, “Do you also wish to go away?” 68 Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life; 69 and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.”
To want to know Jesus as someone real is a gift from the Father through the Spirit. It is generously offered. Yet it is a gift that must be generously received. Through the Holy Eucharist we have bodily union with Jesus. Are you able to believe this? Of course you believe it but does it have any impact on you. Does the time after this holy communion become a precious time with Jesus? Can you believe that you become ‘one body in Christ’? You in your inner self have union with Christ through love. You have that now and so possess eternal life now. One day when your body is old or sick you will leave it behind but in Christ you too will ‘ascend to where he was before’. He will clothe you with a body like his own and you will be like him ‘because you will see him as he is’. Can you believe this with a faith that transforms you?
H