Why did Jesus ascend?

I was meditating on the Ascension of Jesus into Heaven and is now seated at the right hand of the Father. In St Louis, Missouri, there is gigantic Basilica with proud mosaics on the ceiling. In the middle of the Basilica portrays the bold mosaic of the Trinity in which one can observe the Son of God is right on the bosom of the Father and of course the Holy Trinity at the bottom. The Greek translation employs kolpos meaning bosom; Jesus is in the bosom of the Father. Jesus is in the bosom of the Father, meaning, Father and Son are One. 

Why did Jesus ascend to the Father? Whilst appearing to the disciples Jesus assured them an Advocate, the Holy Spirit. Jesus tells them that unless he goes there will not be Advocate, hence, he has to ascend so that the Advocate can descend and remain in the humankind to sustain and carry on the works of Jesus. I have never found it hard to believe that the Holy Spirit is living in each one of us. Every human being is contained with Holy Spirit. One may wonder whether am I dwelling on abstract ideas on Holy Spirit and am I trying to promote high school Catechism class? 

I believe, each one of is spirit and body. These two important components make a human being. If one is simply a body, then one is simply a structure or mass of flesh and blood. But if a person is both spirit and body, then the person becomes a being in which case a person is fully alive. I do not need to extenuate the body because it is visible and body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. So this temple is visible and easy to believe. I want to dwell on the spirit. The human spirit is inner self or psychologists would name it as conscience. It is the sacred sanctuary where every human being makes a proper decision. Our spirit drives us to make good and proper decisions which are according to the law of God which is love, peace and happiness for everyone. Since this spirit is capable of making a right and good decisions and God is good and right, it must be coming from God or it is divine. Therefore, I truly believe that where God is present and dwells. Our spirit is divine. This divine spirit makes us human because God intended that his creation be holy and perfect like Himself. It is true when one ignores the spirit (conscience), one is not able to make right choices as God intends, therefore, choices make without spirit are truly lead one to gloom and doom. 

Back to my original argument that Jesus ascends so that we are responsible and capable of making proper choices in life with the use of the spirit of God in us. Jesus calls this spirit as an advocate. Our inner being, our conscience, our spirit is his advocate. If our spirit is His advocate, then, we are all Jesus' messengers in this world. While Jesus assuring of His advocate, he means, that we truly believe in our spirit, because, human experience has taught us that spirit can never cheat us and make us choose wrong things in life. 

In conclusion, it important for us to make decisions but certainly informed by our spirit by which I mean, an advocate of Jesus or our conscience. If this happens then our world will be a better place for us and others. We can live in peace and respect for each other. 

Let me be your Mother

I tend to get nervous on Mother's Day. It has become an important day for many. Everyone tries to remember their own mothers for the sacrifices the mothers made to make their children world beautiful. Mothers give up their own world and make their children their world. I am intrigued to pen my thoughts today under the title "let me be your mother." In this title, a mother begs her child to be her mother again. Obviously, you can perceive the discrepancy in the title. On a such an honourable day everyone wants to talk good about their mothers, hence, its always children showing care and love towards their mothers. But as you can see, I would like to do it vice-versa, namely, a mother begging the child to be a mother again. 

According to the above title, there are two things to focus, namely, a bad mother begging the child to give her yet another chance to be a mother and begging the child to turn away from bad behaviour so that I can be your mother again. In both of these, it is mothers' perspective.

Firstly, we know there are bad mothers who have been a bad example for their children by behaving in a manner that would have hurt the child so deeply the child would abandon the mother. This is not an alien to humanity. People have lived this experience throughout the history. I have known a certain person whose mother is a drunkard and a menace to the family. She has been to different rehabilitation programs but nothing has helped hence there is hurt and sadness among the children. The children grew hearing abuses thrown at them. But fortunately, children have not turned out to be like their mother. The children regret to be the children of that drunken mother. This is only one example, but, you know there are so many bad mothers who cause discord among her own children. Mother has a certain responsibility towards her own children which also requires giving up her own whims so that the children are given more importance. If not, there will be discord, hatred and abandonment between children and mother. 

Secondly, there are mothers who have to see their children go astray or take a path that is not expected of her children. There are children who have not obeyed their mothers and hence, gone their own path; a path of disaster and death. I know a certain person who has turned out to be a drug addict and cause enormous pain and sadness to the ageing mother. He even becomes abusive physically towards his mother and beat his old mother. Mother has to bear this and swallow the pain. I wonder if this mother ever regrets to have given birth to this drug addict. This is a very sad situation in the life of a loving mother. If the son had obeyed her mother from early times, the son would not have turned out to be a drug addict and abusive. In this situation, precisely, a mother is praying for the conversion of her son so that she can be at peace that her son is truly a child about whom she dreamed big. Here, the mother is begging the child let me be your mother again.

In conclusion, as I congratulate all the wonderful and dedicated mothers, I challenge the mothers to be mothers again so that when the next mother's day, you can celebrate with undivided hearts. The challenge is for the bad mothers to be good and for bad children to be good. This way, everyone can have a great mother's day.  

The nail: Wicked Embrace

O, Lord! Why did you create me?

How I penetrated your bones

Yet Lord, You hung on me

You endured my wickedness

Wickedness triumphed your innocence

My cruelty made you bleed to death

Every drop of blood flowed through me

Oh! How painful your suffering?

Yet, I ignored your silent suffering

Momentary triumph ended

You broke my wickedness

I couldn’t hold you no more

Now, I knew you’re the Savior

Ultimate victory over evil

Now, I stare and watch you Triumph

My hardness couldn’t defeat you

You’re humble yet powerful unlike me

Thank you, Lord, for the awareness

You’re strong and I am weak.

The Tree: Loving Embrace

A calm day in the woods

Chaos in Jerusalem plentiful

Jesus of Nazareth is sentenced

The tree stood tall over the woods

Misery struck the woods

Romans hunted for a tree

A tree, that can contain the Savior

The tall tree looks across amazed

Tree falls like creations bow before creator

Unwilling though to lay down its life

Brought forth to be a Wood of the Cross

Cross for the Savior to hang

Tree learns about the Savior

Great distress strikes the woods

Creature contains now the creator

Shadow of sadness covers the creation

Bleeding Savior walks to embrace the tree

Tree refused to contain the creator

Jesus looks with intense pain and distress

Utters in silence “You’re the wood upon I hang”

Union of creation and creator

Expressed beyond imagination

Savior embraces the tree

Whole weight of the tree upon Savior

Every fall creates wound on the creation

The creation is bleeding with pain

Every drop of blood flows through the tree

Suffering Savior embraces the tree with love

Now, one last intense embrace

Screams Savior “I commend my spirit”

Helpless tree watches and waits

The Glory of God in the gentle embrace of the tree.

Change is good

Dear Parishioners
I would like to convey the greetings of Christmas to each one of you. This Christmas must have brought to you joy, hope and peace. My Christmas celebration was as good as it can be, and I enjoyed thoroughly. I have announced to you on the Christmas Eve Mass that my time as named pastor of the North Cluster of Parishes has come to end. I had met with the Parish Councils of both parishes in which Fr Paul Martin, Superior of the Jesuits announced that Fr. Packiaraj SJ will be the named pastor for the North Cluster with due blessings from the Bishop. In the same meeting, it was expressed that I would be going for my further formation as a young Jesuit priest. But, before that, I would be taking a break in India with my family.
Allow me to express my heartfelt gratitude. Firstly, I would like to thank the Almighty God for giving me an opportunity to minister to these parishes in the North Cluster and it couldn’t have been possible without your assistance. God has been good to me in these two and a half years of my service in the North Cluster. Secondly, I would like to thank the superior of the Jesuits, Fr Paul Martin for placing the trust and confidence in me and letting me to get on with my ministry by allowing me to make use of my gifts and blessings in the service of the people of God. Thirdly, I would like to thank each one of you for assisting me in my ministry as priest. You have been a wonderful parish to me and I will cherish your warmth and goodness. I would like to extend my thanks to you for giving me a prospect to serve you. It is truly admirable.
As a priest, I had been entrusted with two parishes of St Teresa and Holy Rosary on 10 July 2015 by Bishop Francis Alleyne. I had the task of sharing with the communities the functions of teaching, sanctifying and governing. The Canon Law 519 alludes, I have to carry out the task with the help of the other presbyterate or deacons and with the assistance of the lay members of the Christian faithful.”
I will always cherish your love and care for me. Although I have been quiet, you have always been in my prayers and thoughts. I will continue to so even if I am not with you physically. Now, I have time to savor and thank those experiences that I had during my stay with you. We have been a wonderful community of God’s people. We have been strong body of Christ and each one of us have been able to contribute to this strength.
I know some of you are disappointed that this happened so instantaneously that you did not have time say proper goodbye to me. Christmas is the time to celebrate because Christ is born so I did not want to disrupt your celebrations and as Jesuit I was informed by an elderly priest, ‘don’t ever get used to a place.’ I truly enjoyed being the priest of your communities. I have tried to bring Christ’s love to you. If I have hurt anyone, I beg your forgiveness. If I have disappointed at any time, I would like to seek your forgiveness. 
Let us begin our New Year with joy, hope and peace. May the New Year bring us closer to each other especially the people who may not like us or people who give us a royal run around. Let us trust in God and His Mercy so that we can move forward with same Apostolic Zeal and Aggressivity that Our Lady and St. Therese had. I would like to end with the motto of Jesuits, “For the Greater Glory of God.” Do keep me in your prayers and if you have time, drop a few lines of encouragement. I pray our paths may cross again sooner.

Humanizing Warrior Genes

Much ink has been split on the much debated and researched topic of good and evil in relation to human behavior and morality. Moralists from every religion have tried to define morality in different ways. Psychologists have tried to unravel the mystery of good and evil for it might be relative. Victims of violence have questioned as to why evil is thriving feeding on the human power and dominance. Have you also been thinking and pondering on these two asymmetrical realities of human life?  

Browsing the TV channels to find a fitting program, came across a revealing and a pristine program on BBC Two named "Are you good or Evil?" I found it extremely interesting with some of the new discoveries in the field of moral psychology. The main issue that I gathered from it was, why do behind bars killers and psychopaths succumb to violence? 

Children are born with good morality. Despite their limited growth of the brain, they choose good impulses as opposed to the bad impulses which are true. If a child discovers that someone is in pain, its basic impulse leads the child to show sympathy and affection. For instance, if the mother is sick, the child does feel sympathy, but it won't be able to show the sympathy of adults. Thus, the scientists in California have proved with few experiments that Children usually choose good moral impulses. 

The concept of "warrior genes" are present in some of the people. They are innate and genetic. But in the case of marines, these warrior genes are trained and motivated. No marine or any humans would like to kill another human, but marines are trained to possess these 'warrior genes' which makes them 'bloodless' humans who will be ready to kill the opponents. This may be the same case with the team sports. The team must be trained to possess these warrior genes to fight against their opponent team. Therefore, in this circumstance, these genes are inflicted. In the process, they lose their basic moral impulse they had in their childhood. Could we place terrorists, suicide bombers, robbers, and criminals in this category where they are trained in their warrior genes? 

Scientist Prof. Jim Fallon learns from an extensive experiment with the psychopaths from the behind bars that the violent criminals and psychopaths have or inherit "warrior genes" by birth. They are unique people with some little impulsive disorder. These warrior genes take priority in their lives. Their genes feed on the abuses and bad experiences these children have in their childhood. And they grow to be violent with having nourished their warrior genes. This triggers their brain to act in a different manner. They don't feel but they think. Any feeling is the same feeling for this, whether its rape, or a table, it’s the same. This is an extraordinary problem which leads them to act violently even to the extreme of killing other fellow humans. If at all they had been treated well in their childhood, they would have turned out to be good people as it has happened to the scientist Jim himself who is supposed to be having a warrior gene, but he was well taken care of in his childhood. 

Criminal activities or violence is done not from their free will. As hitherto mentioned through their difficult upbringing, the free will vanishes and the warrior gene dominates. This ultimately takes over their lives leading them to commit criminal acts. Therefore, children must be cared for with utmost tenderness and love. The "warrior genes” must be treated in the sense recognized by some means and treated appropriately. Hence, we must understand why people are behind bars. Do we think they really want to be behind bars and not experience the light? Do we think that they have murdered or raped because they really wanted to? I think scientific discovery will throw much light on the questions. This will pave a path to the proper criminal justice system and to judge according to their ability to commit the crime not just the act of crime and hence, to treat the perpetrators. Parents must be more careful in handling their tender children. 

The climax of the Jesus’ ministry is the cleansing of the Temple of Jerusalem. All four Gospels narrate this event, but John’s Gospel has an interesting flavor to it. Jesus makes a whip out of some cord and drives out evildoer from the Temple. Heart of the event is not how he drove out the evil but keeping the temple clean and worthy of God. If our ‘warrior genes’ is active evil will be active but how to do, we domesticate those genes is crucial. We are potentially evil because of our flesh and blood. But most of us who are good prefer to supersede the evil and embrace the good and, hence, think and act well. For instance, when we are angry, we choose to overcome by not retorting at the spur of the moment. This will help us to be good although our inclination to retort and do evil. This is possible only if we have been able to domesticate our ‘warrior genes’. Let us ask for God’s assistance to work on our behavior and our character so that God is pleased with us always. Hence, we are ready to welcome the Lord at Christmas.

Pettiness: Not our way

Wright brothers, Orville and Wilbur had finally succeeded in getting their homemade airplane airborne on December 17, 1903. Ecstatic over their success, they sent a telegram from Kitty Hawk, NC to their sister in Dayton, Ohio saying, "First sustained flight today. Fifty-nine seconds. Hope to be home for Christmas." Well, it seems sister was so thrilled by their success that she immediately took the telegram to the editor of the local Dayton, OH newspaper. The following morning edition found the Wright brothers' name splashed across the front page. The headline that day read, "Popular Local Bicycle Merchants Home for the Holidays." Quite obviously, the newspaper editor had missed the important point of the historic telegram.

Have you wondered why God became Man to save the world? God is almighty and all powerful yet became humble and seemed weak. God took on the flesh and became incarnated. During Advent, we focus on God becoming Man, the mystery of the Incarnation. God took initiative in the history of human salvation by sending His Only Begotten Son to be our Redeemer. Let us make this as the key of all our preparations for Christmas. In other words, it is to welcome Christ in our midst as Prophet Zephaniah says the King is in your midst and as John the Baptist says, He is mightier than I am. The king and mightier is in our midst, namely, in our lives, in our families, and in our Church community. Let us keep Christ in the center of all our preparations for Christmas.

The pettiness of Christmas might distract us from real and genuine emphasis. What does distract us from the praxis of Christ? Is it pettiness? If it is true, each one of us must guard against this to keep ourselves fixated. Petty things must not affect the true emphasis or else we will find ourselves vexing-over small matters of concern at the price of greater matters of concern. It is spontaneous to act in situations of concern, but it is equally imperative to discern before we act so that we may not miss vital focus on the situation. There are myriad situations in which we might like to act on matters, both at Church or at home. Pettiness is like a “chip on the shoulders” or an infection if which not treated might detrimental.

Pettiness can lead one to paranoia and frustration because of being petty, one is proving to be superior to the other or one is trying to be perfectionist considering others as imperfectionists. When we act without discernment, we tend to prove that we know better than others. This is a natural tendency that we have put up in our day to day life. A woman cited to me that she stopped driving because her husband always annoys her with instructions whilst driving. Obviously, the husband feels obligated to instruct her because he knows driving better than the wife. We know the persons in our lives who are “know all” persons. These people think that they have responsibility for the world, hence, they want to point out what is wrong with others. Pettiness can be the guiding force for the “know all” person. A perfectionist would love to point out to others, how imperfect another person is? Again, the person would like to point out errors of other persons because perfectionist thinks that he is obligated to make the world perfect. Hence, even the petty things might affect the perfectionist. A man elucidated his ordeal with his perfectionist wife. When husband washes clothe and presses it, the wife must find fault, either soap is still not washed properly or there is more than one line whilst pressing clothes. Hence, they have to struggle with each other, one being a perfectionist and another being, I am OK with what I do. There will be petty things bothering the relationship and friendships. If not attended and discerned, the relationship can be curdled.  

Joseph and Mary were not distracted with microscopic details at the manger whilst at the birth and nursing of Jesus. They embraced what is available with an attitude of sacrifice and surrender to the existing situation. If they had to fret over the things that were not in their favor, the childbirth and nursing would have been harder. They had to look beyond the pettiness to embrace the larger reality of God’s plan for Jesus. In life, we must look-over something and not fret about every little thing so that we look at the larger reality of life. Let us introspect, whether we fret-over trivial matters and hence distract others and ourselves or we, like Mary and Joseph, look at the larger reality. It is true, those small things make bigger reality, however, the small things must not allow us to distract from the bigger reality. This Advent must help us to supersede petty things and must help us to keep our horizon open to welcome and invite the Lord into our midst. At the same time, the Advent must help us to keep our minds and hearts fixed on important things in life and if possible ignore petty things, in order that we live a happy and good life with each other.