SAVED ON THE CROSS

You remember the two thieves who died with Jesus on that Good Friday afternoon? They had a number of things in common: they were guilty of the same crime, suffered the same sentence and had exactly the same opportunity of grace, one at His left the other at His right. But one simple detail separates these two men: One asked to be saved from the cross, the other preferred to be saved on it; one wanted to be taken down from the cross, the other wished to be taken up to heaven.

Many Christians of today are pretty much like that thief on the left. We often pray the same way he prayed. We want a Christ without the cross and a Christianity of roses and glory only. We like to lay claim to our position as sons and daughters of God with the reasoning that the Son of God cannot be on the cross. “If you are the Son of God”, we often say to Him, “save yourself and save us”. “If You know You are God enough bring me down from this cross of pain and sickness, misunderstanding and embarrassment, loneliness and lowliness”.

Of course He has the power to bring us down just as He had the power to come down from the cross Himself. But if He decided to hang on there and die, it is because there must be certain situations where coming down from the cross is directly opposed to going up to heaven, where our material comfort and temporal satisfaction is detrimental to our spiritual good. In such cases, it is infinitely more profitable to be saved on and by that cross than to be saved from it.

This truth may sound strange to some people because it supposes that there are instances where suffering and unpleasant situations are more beneficial than their removal. Well, it may be better to look at it this way. Our Lord Jesus saved us by His life and love which incidentally involved suffering and death. And since that day when He died on the cross, suffering, disappointment and even death have gained an additional meaning. By dying on the cross, the Son of God gave a new status to the crosses of men. That which was formerly and purely an instrument of suffering and shame and death, can become in Christ a means of salvation and exaltation.

Now don’t think I am proposing that one must do nothing to alleviate suffering and inconveniences in oneself and in others, or worse still that one should go in search of sufferings. No! What I’m saying is that if there are certain troubles you must bear, then bear them profitably by bearing them in union with Christ just as the Good Thief did. We often speak of offering them up to Christ. It’s all part of carrying our crosses after Him.  

Lord, if my being taken down from this cross will cost me my being taken up to you, I prefer to stay and die on it. Amen.

Have  a good day and God loves you.

I WANT TO SPEAK IN THE TONGUE

According to Mark 16:17, speaking in tongues is one of the signs that are associated with believers. Paul names it in his letter to the Corinthians as one of the gifts of the Holy Sprit. In the fourteenth chapter where he valorises spiritual gifts as regards their relevance to the Christian community, he gives less importance to speaking in tongues saying that it would be much better for one to prophesy than for one to speak in tongues. Above all these, the apostle advises that we should make love our aim and aspiration for “if there are prophesies, they will be done away with; if tongues, they will fall silent” (1 Cor. 13:8) but love will last unto eternity. It is the perfection of all spiritual gift, and “once perfection comes all imperfect things will be done away with” (1Cor 13:9). So I would prefer to speak in the tongue of love than to speak in tongues. And what does it mean to speak in the tongue of love?

To answer this question, we first try to define what we mean by the tongue of love. The tongue of love is the language of God and the language of God is the Word of God and God has only one Word and that is love. The Word of God (which is identical with God – cf. John 1:1) that became flesh in Jesus is nothing but a personification of love. We can actually say that this love is the Spirit of God, His essence, and when He speaks, it is this Holy Spirit of His that communicates. We call the Sacred Scripture the Word of God and rightly so because though written by men, each word was written under the breath of the Holy Spirit. It was God who was speaking and the Holy Spirit inspired the human authors to put down in intelligible words the one Word of God. That is why, I think the Bible is that voluminous. Poor human beings with their limited faculties were trying to put down in human language the one-worded language of God. If God Himself were to write the Bible, the Bible would have been one little sheet with just one word on it – love.

How then does one speak in this tongue of God? We happen to have an example in the Scripture. It is narrated in the second chapter of the Acts of the Apostles. On the day of Pentecost, we are told, after spending 9 days in prayer and expectation in the Upper Room, the apostles received the Holy Spirit. First there was a sudden violent wind that filled the room in which they were. Then there was a big fire which separated into flames and rested on the head of each of them. The fire got into them and became the ‘gift of tongues’. I don’t think they were speaking in tongues in the normal understanding of the expression. There were not speaking intelligible or mysterious words. They were speaking in their everyday language, perhaps Aramaic or Greek. What made the difference was that their words were backed up with the Spirit of God which transformed those words into the tongue of love, for they were saying nothing other than the good news of love, the love of a God who became man and died a shameful death just to save us from sin and death by His raising to life. It is not therefore surprising that everyone there, regardless of region and language was able to understand what they were saying. The language of love is a universal language which everyone understands.

The illustration above was a miracle. It doesn’t happen ordinarily. But there is an ordinary and everyday way of speaking in the tongue of love. The tongue of love is spoken more in act than in words. It consists in loving the other as Jesus loves us. Self-denial is one of the principle character for that is exactly how Jesus showed His love for us – “He emptied Himself, taking the form of a slave, becoming human as we are; and being in every way like a human being, He was humbler yet, even to accepting death, death on a cross.”(Phil. 2:6-8) “No one can have greater love than to lay down his life for his friends.”(John 15:13). So speaking in the tongue involves a kind of dying to oneself God’s sake, and no one can claim to love the God he does not see if he does not love the brother he sees. (cf. 1 John 4:20). In practical terms, it means being patient with the other, not being jealous or boastful, not being rude, always ready to sacrifice rather than seek one’s advantage or even one’s legitimate rights, not taking offence or storing grievances, never rejoicing in wrong doing, being zealous for the cause of justice and truth, and ready to make allowances, to excuse the other (cf. 1 Cor. 13: 4-7). As I said, this is the language everyone can understand, it is the language that God speaks, it is the noblest of all aspiration and that is why I want to speak in this tongue. I invite you to aspire towards the same perfection for that is the ultimate purpose of our being.

THE THIRD SERVANT IN THE PARABLE OF TALENTS

At Mass today, the Gospel reading was on the parable of the Talents. I am sure you know the story. One guy was given 5 talents, another 2 and the third was given 1. The master who gave them the talents left everything to their initiative. The first two guys invested their talent profitable but the last guy buried his.

Why on earth did he do that? Well he said it was because he was afraid of the master. He considered the master as a mean gentleman that "reaps where he did not sow and gathers where he did not scatter. How honest that was! How admirable and audacious! He said his mind. And if that is truly the case with his master, we can really lay blames on the poor guy.

Well the guy was wrong in his perception of the master. The story reveals the master as a generous, wise and considerate man. Remember he did not even ask the other two servants to refund him his capital; he gave them but the capital and the profit. This act alone does not potrait someone who reaps where he did not sow.

In reality, friend, man of us are like this third servant in the sense that we have a misguided notion about God. There are not a few people who think God kind of a kill-fun entity out there who places laws against does things that makes us feel good. Some see God as one big mean fellow that punishes us with a guilty conscience when we do some of the things we like to do.

No, that is not God. God is love and whatever he tells us to do, he tells us because he cares about us and because He knows that at the end that won't make us happy. He is calling you and me to us our three Ts: time, treasure and talent . we must not bury them as the third servant erroneously did. We should use them for the betterment of the world, to put a smile in the face of the needy person next door, we should use them to promote justice and right morals wherever we find ourselves. In short, we should us our 3 'T's to build the kingdom of God here on earth. Be sure of this: there is an abundant reward in store for anyone who does this. God will faithfully multiply his or her lot until he or she becomes more or less intoxicated with blessing. I mean it. it's true; I have tried it. May be you can do the same. Try and see. PEACE