READ FR. JOE'S HOMILY @ HIS BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION MASS
Beloved brothers and sisters in our lord Jesus Christ. We
are people with flesh and blood and therefore when we relate to God also, we
want to feel God like flesh and blood. This among the common people in Maharashtra
was recognized by none other than the famous Lokmanya Tilak. And so he
encouraged and fostered this concept of a flesh and blood God in
Ganesh…Ganapati. And we are having these days the celebration of this Ganapati.
Lokhmanya Tilak went further and advised, that this Ganesh, a so called flesh
and blood kind of statue should be ultimately immersed in the sea. It has to be
put into the ocean of the absolute. There was another Narayan Vaman Tilak. Who
instead of doing this way, went the direct way of getting to know the flesh and
blood God in Jesus, and he converted to Christianity and composed many a kirtans and Bhajaans which today are very well know in Maharashtra. But there was a whole lot of Indians, Hindus
who were searching for this flesh and blood God beginning with the absolute
Bhraman and kept on jounerying down the Vedas culminating in the Bhagavad Gita. And in the 6th
chapter, Krishna tells Arjuna “Forget it, you can never touch God on the level
of materialism – Prakriti, you have
to come to the level of Purusha, a
personal encounter with God. At that time in Bethlehem this God was born. He
became flesh. And that is the beauty of incarnation. The final longing for God
to be in flesh and blood became in a historical manner present amongst us, and
she who bore this flesh and blood God, was Mary. And that is why in so many
ways what the Eucharist actually is a flesh and blood God amidst us was exactly
in Mary, even before the institution of the Eucharist. My dear people therefore
we become Christ bearers and therefore our pray has to be that most beautiful prayer
of John Henry Cardinal Newman. “Dear Jesus help me spread your fragrance
everywhere I go. Flood my soul with your spirit and your life penetrate and
posse my entire being so utterly that all my life maybe a radiance of yours.”
Lets pause for a while, Mary was the most beautiful person research has shown
and BBC once proclaimed it that the most
beautiful woman in the world are the religious nuns, because when they give
themselves completely to the Lord beauty shines through their own personality.
Mother Teresa was like that externally one could look at her face and feel that
she was not so beautiful but if you looked her Holiness her radiating Christ
brought about the beauty and that’s what we have to be lets pray at this mass
that in the likeness of Mary we may be truly Christopher’, truly Christ bearers
starting with me and all our priest we are Alter
Christus … Other Christ. Pray for us
that we may be truly people who radiate Jesus. Amen
Submitted & Collage
Newsdesk
