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ESTIMATE THE COST

08 Thursday Nov 2018

Posted by Word Ignite in Bible Commentary, Blogging, Catholic, Charity, Christian, Church, Contemplation, Culture, Discernment, Ecumenism, Faith, History, Holy Spirit, Humility, Judiasm, Latin Church, Lent, Literature, Love, Meditation, News, Parables, Philosophy, Psychology, Reading, Religion, Sociology, Spirituality, Teaching, Theology, Uncategorized, Wisdom, Writing

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Valuables and invaluables, life gains momentum by the thrust of both. Or does it really?  Except for the ones who are homeless, utterly poor, or afflicted with desperation, excluding them, the rest of the population in almost every part of the world, spends on things and services which are not in anywhere relative to their income. There is no estimation of what’s available at our disposal to make a life..how much ever short or long lived that life may be.

Historians believe or rather claim that it took around 2000 years…yes, you read it right, 20 centuries to finish building the great wall of China. According to a 2009 estimation, it would have costed £54 billion to build this 13, 171 mile structure. The two year executive education program run by the Wharton School of Business of the University of Pennsylvania costed a student a whopping $192,900 in 2016. Brian Acton tweeted this on Aug 4, 2009, “Facebook turned me down. It was a great opportunity to connect with some fantastic people. Looking forward to life’s next great adventure.” And then he moved on to created a multi-billion dollar company called ‘Whatsapp’. Whether you’re ambition soars as high as building a wonder of the world or you aspire to graduate with the most expensive degree offered in the world, so that you earn the highest salary ever offered, or you wish to multiply the wealth of your enterprise by investing in a pathbreaking business idea, any of this will demand of you to make an estimate  of what you have, what you can give, what you can expect in return and what it will make of you in the end. An intricate due diligence of the sacrifices to be made, challenges to be faced, obstacles to be overcome, so on and so forth.

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No matter how great is the desire of your heart, is there any desire that can cost you your life and yet let you keep it? There’s none such desire save one. The desire to be a disciple of Christ. Being a disciple of Christ, not merely a follower, comes with an incomparable cost…your very life. In today’s world, more than ever, money plays a very important role in acquiring or possessing comfort or luxury. In the ancient of days as well, money in the form that it was used, played a significant role in determining the standard of living. In the Old Testament however, we learn a very unique role of money, which directly influenced the state of the soul. In ancient Israel, BEKAH, SHEKEL AND TALENT were important currency. Bekah has special significance because it was used as atonement money, for the service of the Tabernacle. From the age of twenty and above, every Jew had to pay half a shekel of silver (1 Bekah) as a ransom for his soul. The Lord promised them that there would be no plague upon them if they paid this tax faithfully (Ex 30:12:14).

A Disciple of Christ is called to renounce himself/herself completely. There is nothing so dear or precious in this world than his Lord Himself, for a disciple to hold on to. The Lord categorically explains the COST OF DISCIPLESHIP in His own words in Luke 14:33, “So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has, cannot be my disciple”. This cost estimation preludes with a very severe warning. Luke 14:26 says, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brother and sister, yes, and even his own life, he CANNOT [emphasis added by me] be my disciple“. In our case, after reading this, and in the case of the great crowds that accompanied Him (Luke 14:25), after listening to Him, we all might be tempted to re-think about fulfilling the 4th commandment given by God Himself. However, there is no love on earth or in heaven that the human heart can experience and reciprocate to, than the love for God and fulfillment of His word, while at the same time obeying every commandment of His. There is none greater than God and therefore there is none that we should obey first than God Himself. The crowds, no matter how great, followed The Lord for miracles, food, astounding speeches and discourses, love and even an escape from their day-to-day tensions.

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Are we the same, one among the crowds, or even worse, among the mob that follows Him to trap Him, attack Him and then finally abandon Him. It is in dying that we are born to eternal life. It is in giving that we receive. It is in loving that we are loved much more. It is in forgiving that we are soaked in Divine Mercy. It is in total abandonment to God and absolute emptying of oneself do we become Disciples of Christ. No ambition, no career, no relationship, no wealth, no prosperity can atone our soul, except for the cost that was paid by the Son of the living God. Only 1 Bekah each was so precious that it could atone for their souls, among the chosen people of GOd. In the case of you and me however, it was not money (as underestimated by Judas), rather t’was One soul that had the power to atone and redeem all souls, starting from the beginning of time and until the end of it. That One soul, that one Bekah of the Divine economy, is Jesus Christ. The perfect estimate, most accurate for salvation of all mankind. Life Himself in return for all life.

So, just like the temple money had to be Jewish and could not be Roman money (which had pagan images), the cost of Discipleship has to be our own lives (the image of God) and not any holocaust or vain sacrifice (pagan). So, let us not undervalue the cost that our Lord paid for our eternal freedom and life, let us not underestimate the work of grace, which empowers us to pay the singular cost of discipleship. Because everything else, as King Solomon – the richest of all, once said, “Vanity of vanities, all is vanity”.

~ John Roger Anthony

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Greater call to freedom

21 Saturday Feb 2015

Posted by Word Ignite in Catholic, Christian, Church, Lent

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For three months, Dayna Curry and Heather Mercer had been prisoners of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, accused along with other aid workers of trying to convert Afghans to Christianity.  In October of 2001 their prison cells was shaken by the thunder of U. S. bombs falling on the city of Kabul.  Weeks later, after a cold, sleepless night in a steel shipping container, the girls and their colleagues found themselves in a new prison south of Kabul, with rockets crashing down on the contested town they were in.  Suddenly, men were banging on their prison doors.  They believed that their Taliban captors were returning, and now their fate was really uncertain as the situation around them dissolved into chaos.  Then, to their surprise, an anti-Taliban soldier came in with reams of ammunition around his neck.  And he was just shouting two wonderful words – “You’re free!  You’re free!”

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Jesus gives a much greater call to freedom. The freedom Jesus offers is better than freedom from earthly bondage. “Freedom does not mean I am able to do whatever I want to do. That’s the worst kind of bondage. Freedom means I have been set free to become all that God wants me to be, to achieve all that God wants me to achieve, to enjoy all that God wants me to enjoy.”  Warren W. Wiersbe

Jesus Calls us out of Bondage to Sin. Levi was in Bondage to Sin. We are all in bondage to sin. The quicker we come to realize and admit this reality, the sooner we may find mercy and grace from God through Jesus Christ.

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The call to freedom included a call to leave, (He was called out of sin). We cannot follow Jesus and stay in sin. Jesus did not play, “Let’s make a deal” with Levi. Has your experience with Christ had the leaving element? If it has not, perhaps you are still yet lost. It then includes a call to believe. It is here implied, in that it is the other side of repentance. Much of the problem with our churches is the notion of easy-believism. That is, faith without repentance. Faith that does not lead to action. This is not biblical or saving faith.

ILL: Booker T. Washington describes an ex-slave from Va in Up from Slavery:

“I found that this man had made a contract with his master, two or three years previous to the Emancipation Proclamation, to the effect that the slave was to be permitted to buy himself, by paying so much per year for his body; and while he was paying for himself, he was to be permitted to labor where and for whom he pleased. “Finding that he could secure better wages in Ohio, he went there.  When freedom came, he was still in debt to his master some three hundred dollars. Not withstanding that the Emancipation Proclamation freed him from any obligation to his master, this black man walked the greater portion of the distance back to where his old master lived in Virginia, and placed the last dollar, with interest, in his hands.” Faith that leads us back to bondage or keeps us in bondage is not the faith God demands.

Finally, a call to follow, “A converted man will not wish to go to heaven alone.” J. C. Ryle in Holiness. The founding Fathers believed in the cause of freedom. Their belief led to action. Following is the activity of faith. Faith’s evidence is following.

C.S. Lewis in Mere Christianity, page 37: “Christianity tells people to repent and promises them forgiveness. It has nothing (as far as I know) to say to people who do not know they have done anything to repent of and who do not feel that they need any forgiveness.”

The filling of emptiness

20 Friday Feb 2015

Posted by Word Ignite in Catholic, Christian, Church, Lent

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It was inappropriate for groomsmen to fast until after a wedding banquet had ended. Weddings lasted seven days, and participants or ‘guests of the bridegroom’ means either the groomsmen (compare Jn 3:29) or the guests-were expected to participate joyfully. Sages even interrupted their schools to hail passing bridal processions (ARN 4A).

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New cloth had not yet shrunk, and when it began to shrink after being patched onto a garment that had finished its shrinking, the patch would tear loose from the garment, making the tear worse (Mt 9:16). In the same way, old wineskins had been stretched to the limit as wine fermented and expanded in them. Because old wineskins had already been stretched to the limit, if they were filled with new wine it would ultimately burst them when it expanded. Traditional rituals must never become a straitjacket that hinder us from celebrating sinners’ embrace of the good news of God’s kingdom.

The object of fasting is to become closer to God through prayer and the denial of a very worldly pleasure: that of eating. Jesus’ answer to the disciples of John makes clear that there is no need for fasting as long as He is with them because He, Jesus, is God and, therefore, the unity with God that is sought through fasting is already achieved through Christ’s presence.

Jesus’ use of the word “mourning” in the passage is important because it both illustrates the feeling of great loss or emptiness that fasting attempts to remedy, and also prophecies the loss of Jesus in his worldly form upon His death and later Ascension. Jesus also refers to himself as the “bridegroom”, an image important to the expression of the relationship between Christ and the Church, especially in the letters of Paul.

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Prophet Isaiah, in today’s first reading, tells us which is the fasting God appreciates: “Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter —when you see the naked, to clothe him, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?

Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear, then your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard” (Is 58:7-8). God likes and expects from us whatever is taking us towards a true love for all our brothers.

St. John Paul II, under the motto “There is more happiness in giving than there is in receiving” (Acts 20:35); helps us to discover the very same charitable dimension of our fasting, which, from the bottom of our heart, allows us to prepare for Easter Time, in an effort to identify ourselves, more and more, with Christ’s love which took him to die in the Cross for us. “What every Christian ought to do all the time, he ought to do it now more carefully and more devotedly” (Saint Leo the Great, pope).

Gain it all in Christ

19 Thursday Feb 2015

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In the beginning, when God created the world, He willed that man have dominion over all of His creation. Here we need to understand that right from the very beginning of his existence, God always desired and ensured to share His richness and kingship with man. But sin snatched away this dominion and man lost the right to be co-heir of God.

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The Lord of creation who became God incarnate, gave His own life, as a ransom to set man free for eternity from what could have been perpetual and indescribably painful bondage. But to be this God incarnate, the ruler of all; lowered Himself as a peasant, and the giver of all; humbled Himself to receive human care. To whom belonged all glory, He chose to dwell in poverty among a nation who by the rulers of the known world (Romans) were made paupers of freedom and peace. By this Lord teaches us the fullness there is in emptiness. The greatness there is in meekness. The sovereignty there is in servitude.

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Renouncing one’s most ardent desire for gratification or fulfilment, faithful willingness to embrace burdens for righteousness sake, and courageously detaching one’s self from this world to be inhabitants of an eternally joyful and holy kingdom, is the ‘call’ to those who seek Truth. Truth whose name is Jesus. Those who follow this King (Jesus) are destined to be rejected, trampled, disowned and persecuted, most often by their own peoples. But just as their King, by His own accord, power and will, rose from the dead into everlasting life, so will each one of those who follow Him and live by His Word.

Many kings, rulers, dictators and commanders, as well as, beggars, indigents, servants and marginalized, all have left (died) with nothing from this world to be carried in to the other world. But those who lose themselves for the sake of Christ Jesus, Christ Himself assures them of the bounty of eternity. Therefore my friends, may we live by the love of Christ, denying our sinful self and embracing the holiness of our Christ, that one day we dwell with Him, His Father, Spirit and all heavenly beings, face-to-face, for all eternity. Amen.

Catholic uprightness is not for parade

18 Wednesday Feb 2015

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Lenten Refection, Gospel of Matthew 6:1-6, 16-18

Today it begins. Another year, another chance. Ash Wednesday, the start of a time which calls for our lives to be specially clothed in righteousness, so as to experience the piety of Christ in prayer, His humility in moments of honour, His denouncing of self as opposed to craving for pompous attention or indulgence, and above all, a joyful willingness to enter and be part of the ignominious suffering, crucifixion and death of Our Lord. As a sign of anticipation of becoming a whole new creation by His resurrection.

Innocence and kindness is being brutally assaulted by forces of darkness, all around the world. This evil does not distinguish between the vulnerable and strong, child and adult, nor reason and faith. The time in which Jesus of Nazareth walked the earth had not been alien to Evil. Infact Roman brutality and persecution would explicitly boast of stripping off human skin while the victim be alive, or throw the accused in dens of the beasts as their prey. There were Christians, numerous in number, who have embraced this fate with and for the love of their Lord Jesus. Death never sees a more valiant and serene face than that of a martyr of Christ.

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In such a world, the Gospel of Christ is still essentially love. And in today’s Gospel, this love teaches the exceptionality of righteous clandestineness in living the faith in day to day life, especially during the holy season of Lent. Christ in today’s Gospel cautions us to be careful of not losing the coveted reward (eternal life) from our Father in heaven. When there is so much persecution, abuse, taunting and mockery of Christianity and Christians all around, it is natural to expect the faithful to; as Jesus calls it ‘parade’ uprightness in public. It could be in response to anti-social or fanatic religious actions against Christians, a retaliation towards sleaze against Christian convictions, or simply as a means to create a buzz within the powerful social media realm.

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Lent calls for prayer, fasting and alms giving. Jesus teaches us that all of this is to be done with righteous generosity and prayerful disposition which build intimacy with the Holy Trinity, as well as builds a strong interior castle (spirit) of holiness for a lifetime here on earth. Christ emphasises on reflecting or expressing visible joy in fasting, praying and alms giving. Expression of this joy needs to be an experience of the spirit within and in doing good to our neighbour. Putting-on of ashes is not a modern invention of the Catholic Church. Ancient Jews, early Christians and now all Catholics embrace this ritual that signifies deep spirituality and the need of wilful reconciliation with God Almighty. Fasting is not a modern initiative to enthuse faith, it is a righteous deed from the days of old, practiced reverently even by Christ Himself before starting His public ministry; as accounted by the Gospels. Alms giving has encouraged the virtue of humility and charity through numerous generations, across borders and faiths. Jesus never used these acts of love and uprightness as a ‘stunt’ to attract followers or subscribers to His teaching. Nor did he flaunt it as agitated response or boastfulness.

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What is essential, as Christ lovingly teaches, is that these virtuous deeds are primarily essential to break, mould and build our interior spiritual self and to a great extent our physical self as well. It is also meant to renew and reaffirm our individual and personal relationship with God. Finally, it is also to be part of the communion with the Universal Church in experiencing and celebrating the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ. It is because of this need of holy interiority and clandestineness that Jesus affirms that no other person would know except “your Father who sees all that is done in secret; and your Father who sees all that is done in secret will reward you”. My friends, I wish you all a personally enriching, holy, peaceful, love-filled Lent 2015. God bless us all and live in us all. Amen.

– John Roger Anthony

The created present the Creator

02 Monday Feb 2015

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The Hebrew word Malachi simply means “My [that is, God’s] messenger.” Malachi was a prophet of God sent to the Jews who had resettled in Judea and to all Israel in general, depicted as “the sons of Jacob” (Malachi 3:6). Toward the close of the book, it becomes clear that God is also speaking to all of humankind. In today’s first reading, the words of this significant prophet of God; “And suddenly The Lord whom you seek will come to His Temple: yes, the angel of the covenant, for whom you long, is on his way, says Yahweh Sabaoth” (Malachi 3:1), draws an illuminating precursor to what unfolds many years later, in the era of the New Covenant.

Like every other day, in ‘the house of The Lord’, amidst worship, sacrifice, reconciliation and fellowship, the people of God; one day found themselves, unaware, in the moment which was prophesied, ordained and anointed by their Yahweh. The evangelist Luke, in today’s Holy Gospel, describes how Malachi 3:1 came to its fulfilment. The day came, the evangelist says, for them to be purified in keeping the Law of Moses. They took him up to Jerusalem to present Him to The Lord (Luke 2:22). Suddenly, the time came upon them (Kairos), when the One whom they seek, was in their Temple. But did they recognize him?

simeon and Anna with Child Jesus

The little infant Jesus of Nazareth; who is God incarnate, omnipotent and majestic, is presented in the ‘house of His Father (John 2:16), by his righteous parents, in accordance to The Law. St. Joseph and Mary testify to being witnesses to God’s command to His people, in dedicating the first-born to Yahweh. How often do parents take joy in offering their children as living sacrifices for the sake of righteousness (Matthew 5:10).

People of God await the coming of The Lord, into their body, heart, mind and spirit, just like how the guests at the wedding await the coming of the bridegroom – with joy (Matthew 25: 1- 13). However, when the groom, The Lord arrives, do our inner eyes of faith recognise Him and our beings approach Him? Today’s Gospel accounts of an elderly man, upright and devout man called Simeon, who looked for the restoration of Israel, and the Holy Spirit rested on him (Luke 2:25). Pope Francis once said, young people can learn a lot from Simeon; who represents the elderly who are wise, holy and humble. He pointed out that elderly such as Simeon teaches younger generations how to be able to expect and ‘recognize’ the presence of God, Jesus, in our everyday life. Those who age in wisdom have upright humility and deep-rooted understanding of righteousness. Such coming of age ensures the constant and living dwelling of the Holy Spirit within such persons.

light of all nations

Simeon gave thanks to God for letting him see / witness salvation made ready in the sight of the nations; a light of revelation for the gentiles and glory for your people Israel. In Isaiah chapter 49, verse 6, Yahweh assures of giving His son as a light to the Gentiles, that He may be His salvation to the ends of the earth. How does this light reach those who do not believe? The Catholic Church’s Vatican II document Lumen Gentium, the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, promulgated by Pope Paul VI on November 21, 1964, guided by the Holy Spirit; speaks eloquently about Universal call to holiness (Chapter V). Jesus the Lumen Gentium is indeed the ‘Light of all Nations’. The document urges an undeniable truth: every person must walk unhesitatingly according to his own personal gifts and duties in the path of living faith, which arouses hope and works through charity.

Friends, let us always be conscious of the fact that Jesus is in our midst, Jesus is within us, and that Jesus is for every one of us. Let us therefore, present ourselves as a holy sacrifice as well as an instrument of His Father in the Temple (Church), to His people as His light and to ourselves also; as the only source of salvation. By doing so, we too like the prophetess Anna, who served God night and day with fasting and prayer in that temple (Luke 2:37), will find and recognise Christ our redemption, and thus begin to praise God and speak of ‘this child’ (Jesus) to all who look forward to the deliverance of mankind. Amen.

“If you love me you will keep my commandments”

25 Sunday May 2014

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Reflection on the Holy Gospel according to John 14:15-21

“15 If you love me you will keep my commandments. 16 I shall ask the Father, and he will give you another Paraclete to be with you forever, 17 the Spirit of truth whom the world can never accept since it neither sees nor knows him; but you know him, because he is with you, he is in you. 18 I shall not leave you orphans; I shall come to you. 19 In a short time the world will no longer see me; but you will see that I live and you also will live. 20 On that day you will know that I am in my Father and you in me and I in you. 21 Whoever holds to my commandments and keeps them is the one who loves me; and whoever loves me will be loved by my Father, and I shall love him and reveal myself to him.”


 

Jesus the only begotten Son of The Almighty God is the living covenant between God His Father and all of mankind. To listen to The Word of God in the Holy Gospels is to be taught by Jesus Himself. The teaching of Our Lord draws us to eternal life. It is a model by which those who have become saints have transformed their lives and have born witness to their exemplary faith. Therefore the commandments of Jesus are not a matter of choice for the faithful. His commandments lead us to truth. The sanctity of this truth is armored by the precious blood of The Lamb of God. This therefore is the only way a soul can find its way to its eternal well being, in the company of all that has been created to worship God in holiness.

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Even though Christ gave us His commandments, by obedience to which He assures us fellowship with His Father and Spirit, He knows the nature of our created being. That nature has been disfigured by disobedience, which led to the compelling Original Sin. Therefore, The Lord’s never drying fountain of mercy guarantees the constant companionship of the comforting Paraclete (Gr. παράκλητος, Lat. Paracletus), who counsels us, advocates for us and helps us to live by those commandments of God through the incarnate Christ. This Paraclete is the Spirit of Truth. The complexity and yet the simplicity of the Holy Spirit is favourable only to those who long to listen to the voice of The Lord. Thus the Book of Proverbs 3: 1-2 says, “My son, do not forget my teaching, but keep my commandments in your heart, for they will prolong your life many years and bring you peace and prosperity.”

The promise of the Holy Spirit by Christ Jesus is the promise of The Father Himself. It is the Father who sends His Son to us and it is The Father who promises to care for us even when His Son momentarily has to depart from the world. The Father who is in heaven is our Father who has carved us on the palm of His hand. Such a loving Father, one who is beyond any human understanding of Paternal love, unlike that of human fathers, is bound by his Holy will and His very nature of being our creator, to protect, care and comfort us – His children, with love and mercy.

Christ speaks to each one of us in unique ways, that is because His plans for each one of us is unique and has no replica in another’s life.  An infilling of the Holy Spirit within the human person is like the adorning of Yahweh’s holy temple by King Solomon, with the finest of Gold and rare jewels. It is the willingness of allowing holiness to engulf every space and void within the Holy of Holies. It is like the commissioning of the finest and exclusive artisan to create a unique throne for the enthronement of The Most High God, within the temple which is the human person. Such an infilling fortifies the will of a person and constantly guards it from being contaminated by concupiscence, temptation, corruption, pride, hypocrisy and sin.

Through discerning the will of God with the assistance of The Paraclete, we allow Jesus to reveal himself to us in ways He has already planned for each one of us, in ways exclusive to every single person. Directing the human will to the obedience of The Word of God – through Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior, therefore is conformity to the command of Christ – “Love God and love Thy neighbor as Thyself.”

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