PENTECOST, THE COMING AND MISSION OF THE HOLY SPIRIT AND THE CHURCH

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Meaning of Pentecost:

Pentecost means the 50^th. Pentecost marks the 50th day of the Resurrection of Jesus. Though Passover and Pentecost have been celebrated by the Israelites, in the Christian understanding Passover, Pentecost even many other feasts which we celebrate as Christians were or rather are feasts of the Jews, the Israelites. But, Jesus the Passover Lamb, through His life, death, and resurrection, and through the sending of the Holy Spirit has changed those Feasts and given a new meaning and asked us to commemorate those days with a different meaning. That's why, when we see the Old Testament Feasts through the New Testament, they have a different meaning. All these Old Testament Feasts are not an end in themselves, rather they were a foretaste of what was to come.

 

The Event of the Pentecost:

Thus, when Pentecost marks the 50th day of the resurrection of Jesus and also on that day Father and the Son sent the Holy Spirit on the disciples as we see in Acts 2. In the Gospel, we find that Jesus had asked the disciples not to leave Jerusalem but to remain there; because he was to send the Holy Spirit. “I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high” (Luke 24:49). The Risen Lord was in the world for 40 days. He appeared to the disciples in those days. On the 40^th-day, He ascended to heaven. “After his suffering, he presented himself to them and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God” (Acts 1:3). Jesus, along with the Father, sent the Holy Spirit on the disciples on the 50th day of His resurrection.

 

The Acts of the Apostles book was written by St. Luke, the author of the Gospel according to Saint Luke. Therefore, the Acts is the second book by St. Luke. He continues from where he had left in the Gospel. Both the books can be read as a series. The first chapter of Acts briefs the Gospel. The second chapter begins with the Coming of the Holy Spirit in the form of tongues of fire. “And suddenly there came from the sky a noise like a strong driving wind, and it filled the entire house in which they were. Then there appeared to them tongues as of fire, which parted and came to rest on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in different tongues, as the Spirit enabled them to proclaim” (Acts 1, 2-4).

 

The Ministry of Proclamation:

 

The ministry of preaching can be separated into two parts, namely proclamation by the Head and proclamation by the Body, i.e., the Church. Jesus preached for almost three years. He stopped His solemn preaching to the world after His solemn entry into Jerusalem. He didn't use words to preach to the people. From that time to the day of Pentecost, there was no preaching but then we find on the 50^th day with the coming of the Holy Spirit, the Church became alive. St. Peter stood up in front of the people and preached. He represented the disciples who received the Holy Spirit. As we saw in verse 4, it was the Spirit who “enabled them to proclaim”.

 

The Birth of the Church:

Now, there arises a question about the birth of the Church. When was the Church born? There has been confusion with the birth as some call the Good Friday as the Birthday of the Church while some say it is the Pentecost.

"Christ has flooded the universe with divine and sanctifying waves. For the thirsty he sends a spring of living water from the wound which the spear opened in His Side. From the wound in Christ's side has come forth the Church, and He has made her His Bride." 

–  Origen ofAlexandria (185—254 A.C.)  

In both events, we can find reasons to believe. Let’s go a step ahead. We can find realities in both but taking them both together I think we can see from a different perspective about the birth of the Church. Church has been given different imageries in the New Testament. Some of them are – Body of Christ, Bride of Christ, Sheepfold, Vineyard, Temple, Leaven, etc. Bride of Jesus is one of the prominently used imageries for the Church. Jesus is seen as the new Adam or the Second Adam (cf. 1 Corinthians15:45).

1)     1) Church as the Bride of Christ

      i) Adam-Eve & Jesus-Church 

Eve was created from the ribs of Adam. That is the old creation. And in the new creation, the new Eve was born from the side of the New/Second Adam, Jesus. In the New Testament, Bride is an image of the Church. And this Church also is called Eve and this new Eve is taken from the side of the Second Adam, that is, Jesus. As the old Adam was made to sleep, the New Adam also slept on the cross and from His side a new Eve, that is the Church was born.

 

a)   a) Eve created from Adam

“So, the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man’s ribs and then closed up the place with flesh. Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man”

(Genesis 2:21-22).

b)    b) The Church created from Jesus

“But when they came to Jesus and found that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. Instead, one of the soldiers pierced Jesus’ side with a spear, bringing a sudden flow of blood and water” (John 19:33-34).

 

                        2) Church as the Body of Christ

 

There is another imagery of the Church as the Body of Christ. Adam was created from the mud. He was merely a statue; he remained inanimate, i.e., lifeless, till God breathed into his nostrils and then he became a living being. “Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being” (Genesis 2:7).

3)     

3) 3) Connection between Bride and Body

 

What is the connection? There is a strong connection between the Body and Bride. The first-ever love poem gives the reason for it as Adam exclaimed:

“The man said,

“This is now bone of my bones
    and flesh of my flesh;
she shall be called ‘woman,’
    for she was taken out of man” (Genesis 2:23).

 

The bride and the bridegroom are to be considered one: one flesh, having single identity. The next verse says, “That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh” (Genesis 2:23-24).

 

St. Paul, writing to the Ephesians, uses the imagery of marriage for the Church. Though it is pretty long, I feel it’s very important to read this passage to get the real meaning of this imagery.

“Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Saviour.  Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.

Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. After all, no one ever hated their own body, but they feed and care for their body, just as Christ does the church— for we are members of his body. “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.” This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church” 

(Ephesians 5:22-32).

 

Reflecting on these passages, we can compare Bride and Bridegroom to the Head and the Body. This is the basis for both – the Theology of the Body and the Theology of the Church. This new Adam now incorporates so many members into his body; because His Body is the Church. This Body, this new Adam remains in a way inanimate or dormant for almost 50 days till the coming of the Holy Spirit, as Adam, who was created from the mud, remained inanimate, lifeless till God breathed into him. Likewise, the Church which was born from the side of Christ at His death, remained inanimate, in a way lifeless till the coming of the Holy Spirit. When the Spirit entered into the disciples, the Church became animate that is living and then we find they start proclaiming.

 

Nature of the Church

 

The Spirit enabled them to preach, so there is a connection between the birth of the Church or the beginning of the Church we can say from the side of Christ to the Pentecost, the Church which remained inanimate, lifeless in a way from the day of the Death of Jesus now becomes a living organism; that's the Church is not an institution or an NGO, rather it is a living Being,

Similarities between Christmas and Pentecost

 

The coming of the Holy Spirit has similarities with the Birth of Jesus, the Mission of Jesus. Jesus was born, assumed the human nature; whereas the Holy Spirit dwells in persons. He doesn't take a new form as Jesus took, but He dwells in persons.

Jesus was sent by the Father whereas the Holy Spirit was sent by the Father and the Son, that is, Jesus Himself.

Jesus has only one form. He doesn't take any other form than coming in the form of a man, whereas the Holy Spirit came in different forms not merely in the New Testament. We can find the coming or rather the presence of the Holy Spirit in different forms, which we have previously discussed. There are eight major forms or symbols of the Holy Spirit that we can find in the scripture. They are - water, anointing, fire, cloud and light, seal, laying on of the hands, finger, and dove; because Spirit, the Holy Spirit takes different forms as He desires.

 

The fourth comparison is Jesus was limited to time and space like human beings. Definitely, though He was not a human being. We need to understand the difference. Jesus was (is) a divine Person with two different natures, both divine and human. Being in the human nature, He was like us – limited to a particular space and time, but the Holy Spirit is not limited to a place and time as He is in His divine nature here in the world. Therefore, He is omniscient and omnipresent; so, there is no limitation. For Him, there is no restriction of time and space.

 

The fifth comparison is Jesus won the redemption for all, rather He redeemed all of us, paying the price with His blood. The Christ Event, that is the entire life, passion, death, and the resurrection of Jesus, can be said as the objective salvation. That is, we are all saved from God’s side. But, we need to experience, we need to own what God has already done for us and given to us. That is called subjective salvation. And here the Holy Spirit is present with us working through the Sacraments and giving us His Fruits and Gifts known as the charisms to make Christ present in the world or to continue the work of Christ. And through these sacraments the salvation won for us is made present to us. Thus, we personalize all that God is giving us and thus we get saved or rather we take part in that salvation.

 

The sixth comparison is - Jesus is the Vine, as Jesus Himself said, and you are the branches. Actually, it was only in words but only with the coming of the Holy Spirit these branches are made part of that Vine, again about which we have already seen. I would provide the link in the description. Please do watch. It is the Holy Spirit who grafts us into that vine that is Christ Himself and makes us members of His Body.

 

The seventh point is - Jesus is the temple not built with the human hands. Jesus is the Temple. Temple is an imagery of the Church. Everyone baptised into Christ is part of that temple. Everyone is a temple of the Holy Spirit. “Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God?” (1 Corinthians 6:19). Being joined with Christ, we are not merely individually temples of the Holy Spirit, rather as part of the Temple, that is, Jesus Himself. St. Paul writing to the Ephesians says, “Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit” (Ephesians 2:19-22). So, this is the Temple about which Jesus was speaking not about His earthly Body alone, the Body with which He lived on this earth. Now, He is speaking about the Mystical Body, which we already saw and we are members of His Body.

 

St. Peter in his First Letter writes, "As you come to him, the living stone that is Jesus rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to him you also like living stones are being built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 2:4-5). So, we are all a temple and definitely as Saint Paul says we, each one of us, are a different, separate temple, because the Spirit of God dwells in us. But, all of us as living stones put together are being built into that spiritual house, the Temple, that is Jesus Himself.

 

The eighth point is Jesus in His human form was here till His Ascension but the Holy Spirit is in the world till the end. And now with the coming of the Holy Spirit, as we have seen the Church comes into action. The Spirit doesn't have a body and so the Spirit works through the members of Christ. The Spirit works through each person who has been grafted into Christ. Then to whom is this Spirit is given? In the Old Testament already it was promised that God would send His Spirit or rather pour His Spirit on the Israelites in Isaiah, "For I will pour water on the thirsty land and streams on the dry ground I will pour out my spirit on your offspring and my blessing on your descendants” (44, 3). But this was rather a misunderstanding we can see; because Israelites saw that they were the only ones who are saved but through prophet Joel God would open the mind of the Israelites telling that God is going to pour out His Spirit on everyone.

 

“And afterward,

    I will pour out my Spirit on all people.

Your sons and daughters will prophesy,

    your old men will dream dreams,

    your young men will see visions.

Even on my servants, both men and women,

    I will pour out my Spirit in those days.

(Joel 2:28-29)

 

So, the Holy Spirit is given to everyone irrespective of a Jew or a non-Jew and Saint Peter in his first proclamation just after the coming of the Holy Spirit would use this quote from prophet Joel in Acts chapter 2 verses from 14 to 17.

 

Implications

 

We have already seen how the Spirit is active in the world and this Spirit is active in the world but especially in the Church in you and me as the members of this Body. God wants us to be a Jesus in this world. That is the mission of the Holy Spirit. To put in one sentence the Mission of the Spirit is to make us all another Christ, make us all image of God. Do we want to let ourselves be formed in the image and likeness of God? The Holy Spirit is sent for this Mission and every Christian has the responsibility to be another Christ. To be a Christian is being members of the Body of Christ, that is to say, to be another Christ, to be a presence of Jesus in this world. Very often we say that we don't feel the presence of the Holy Spirit, we don't experience the spirit. Now the Spirit is within us. It depends on us whether we have attuned to the promptings of the Spirit; whether we have come into that realm, into that wavelength of the Holy Spirit. That is the challenge for which we need to surrender ourselves as the Blessed Virgin Mary and the Apostles surrendered themselves. And throughout the history of the Church, we find everyone has been trying to surrender oneself.

Now it's our time to surrender ourselves to the working of the Spirit. May the Holy Spirit who is in the world who has been sent into our hearts, into our being, may inspire us, animates us, help us to be living beings, to be part of the Body of Christ. Catechism of the Catholic Church number 747 says, "The Holy Spirit whom, Christ, the Head pours out on His mumbles, builds, animates, and sanctifies the Church. She is the sacrament of the Holy Trinity's communion with men." I think, this statement gives us the gist of all that we have been reflecting on. May God help us to be really members of His Body, not merely members but living and active, real members of His Body. May God help us all! 

 THE ASCENSION OF THE LORD

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Jesus, the Second Person of the Most Holy Trinity was sent by the Father for the redemption and salvation of the world. Through the Christ Event - His Birth, Teachings, Miracles, Passion, Death, Burial, Resurrection, and Ascension, He accomplished the Mission. The Ascension of Jesus, after 40 days of His Resurrection, completes the circle of the Mission as St. Luke says, "He presented himself alive to them by many proofs after he had suffered, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God" (Acts 1:3).

The Ascension of the Lord to heaven denotes the completion of the Mission. He went back to Father Who had sent Him. Through the great Mystery of Incarnation, He became the partaker of our fragile human nature and by ascending to heaven and being seated at the right hand of God the Father, He has made us partakers of His divine nature. St. Paul, describing the great mystery of human salvation, would say, "But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus" (Ephesians 2:4-7).  

The Risen Lord in the World

The Risen Lord was in the world for 40 days in His Body. St. Luke, narrating the presence of the Risen Lord would say, "After his suffering, he presented himself to them and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God" (Acts 1:3). He was NOT with the disciples as He was with them before His Passion and Death. He used to appear to them. 

• He used to teach them. The Emmaus Journey is an example of this (Luke 24:13-35).
• He could enter into the closed rooms; He didn't need any doors to be opened to enter into the rooms. "On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” (John 20:19-20).
• He fed the disciples. "When they landed, they saw a fire of burning coals there with fish on it, and some bread... Jesus said to them, “Come and have breakfast”" (John 21:9-12). 
• He ate with them.  On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about" (Acts 1:4). 

The Event of the Ascension 

"After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight. They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. “Men of Galilee,” they said, “why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven” (Acts 1:9-11).

The Risen Lord didn't disappear from the disciples without their knowledge. Though St. Luke doesn't name the place of the Ascension in the Acts, he does mention it in the Gospel as he writes, "When he had led them out to the vicinity of Bethany, he lifted up his hands and blessed them" (Luke 24:50). He took them with Him. He ascended to heaven in front of the disciples as did prophet Elijah in front of his disciple Elisha. "As they were walking along and talking together, suddenly a chariot of fire and horses of fire appeared and separated the two of them, and Elijah went up to heaven in a whirlwind. Elisha saw this and cried out, “My father! My father! The chariots and horsemen of Israel!” And Elisha saw him no more" (2 Kings 2:11-12). 

St. Luke, while narrating the Ascension event, says "a cloud hid him from their sight" (Acts 1:9). Cloud has a very significant role in the Scriptures. We find God used to appear and speak to the Israelites from the clouds. In the New Testament also there are at least two events when God appeared in the clouds - the Baptism of Jesus (Matthew 3:13-17) and the Transfiguration (Matthew 17:1-13). Pope Benedict XVI, in his book "Jesus of Nazareth" gives the significance of the cloud in Ascension. According to him, this reminds us of the following events:

• The Transfiguration (cf. Matthew 17:5, Mark 9:7; Luke 9:34-35).
• The hour of the encounter between the Blessed Virgin Mary and Angel Gabriel, who announced to her the "overshadowing" with the power of the Most High (cf. Luke 1:35).
• The holy tent of God in the Old Testament - "Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. 35 Moses could not enter the tent of meeting because the cloud had settled on it, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle" (Exodus 40:34-35).
• The Lord, in the form of a cloud, led the people of Israel during their journey through the desert. "By day the Lord went ahead of them in a pillar of cloud to guide them on their way and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, so that they could travel by day or night. Neither the pillar of cloud by day nor the pillar of fire by night left its place in front of the people" (Exodus 13:21-22).

"This reference to the cloud is unambiguously theological language. It presents Jesus' departure, not as a journey to the stars, but as his entry into the mystery of God. It evokes an entirely different order of magnitude, a different dimension of being." - Pope Benedict XVI, "Jesus of Nazareth"

How does the Risen Lord, seated at the right hand of the Father look? What is the kind of body He has? The Second Person of the Most Holy Trinity assumed human nature. The divine Person took human nature and became Man. He took flesh from the Blessed Virgin Mary. He was like us in every way but sin as the Scriptures say, "For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin" (Hebrews 4:15). He lived, suffered, died, buried, rose from the dead, and ascended into heaven in the same body. Jesus had the signs of the wounds in His resurrected body as well as He said to St. Thomas, “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe” (John 20:27). The Risen Lord has the same body that He took from His Mother, the Blessed Virgin Mary. As seen above, He has the signs of the wounds in His Body. 

Jesus seated at the Right hand of God

Jesus, the God-Man, is the only mediator between God and humans as St. Paul says, "For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all people" (1 Timothy 2:5-6). He is seated at the right hand of God. He is praying for us. Again, St. Paul says, "Who is to condemn? It is Christ Jesus, who died, yes, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us" (Romans 8:34). 

His being seated at the right hand of God, the Father doesn't in any way make Him inferior. St. Thomas Aquinas, in his Summa Theologica, would say:

• It is to abide in the Father's glory and to reign together with the Father.
• It belongs to Christ as God to have, equally with the Father, the identical divine glory. 
• It does not indicate a secondary place, nor a place merely next to the Father. 
• It means that Christ as God rules in absolute equality with the other two Persons of the Most Holy Trinity - the Father and the Holy Spirit. 

"His presence is not spatial, but divine. "Sitting at God's right hand" means participating in this divine dominion over space." - Pope Benedict XVI, "Jesus of Nazareth"

Therefore, it is very clear that Jesus is truly God and in no way, is He inferior to the Father. As He was with the Father, before the Incarnation, Jesus is with the Father. St. John, the beloved disciple, would say, "No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known" (John 1:18).

The Christians Place in Heaven

As already noted in the beginning, everyone baptised in Christ Jesus is in heaven with Christ, their Head. Through the Sacrament of Baptism, we have been grafted into Christ as branched to the Vine, making us inseparable from Him. St. Paul would say, "And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy" (Colossians 1:18).

Out of compassion for us He descended from heaven, and although He ascended alone, we also ascend, because we are in Him by grace. 

- St. Augustine

The Mission of the Disciples

Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.

Mark 16: 15

That was the last command of Jesus, the Head to His mystical Body. The disciples are to carry on the Mission of Christ, for which the Father sent the Son. The Holy Spirit is the unifier and advocate for the disciples in their ministry. There are many passages that testify to this fact. The Holy Spirit was sent to work through the disciples. Jesus said to His disciples, “When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who comes from the Father, he will testify on my behalf. ²⁷ You also are to testify because you have been with me from the beginning" (John 15:26-27).

The Church, as the presence of God in the world, has to perpetuate the Mission of Christ. The Holy Spirit, the Third Person of the Most Holy Trinity, animates the Church. The First Council of Jerusalem, the First ever Council of the Church, said, For it has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to impose on you no further burden than these essentials" (Acts 15:28). Again in the same book, we read, "God exalted him at his right hand as Leader and Savior that he might give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. And we are witnesses to these things, and so is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey him” (Acts 5:31-32). 

We, as the members of the Church, the Mystical Body of Christ, are with Christ in heaven, and Christ, as the Head of the Body, is present in the world.

 

 

 

HOMILY FOR THE SIXTH SUNDAY OF EASTER

 

HOMILY FOR THE SIXTH SUNDAY OF EASTER

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Sunday Mass Readings for May 9 2021, Sixth Sunday of Easter, Year B
1st Reading	Acts 10:25-26, 34-35, 44-48
Responsorial Psalm	Psalms 98:1, 2-3, 3-4
2nd Reading	1 John 4:7-10
Alleluia	John 14:23
Gospel	John 15:9-17

"Whoever loves me will keep my word says the lord and my father will love him and we will come to him" (John 14 23). 

The previous Sundays' readings spoke about the relationship that God wants to have with us and the readings of the Sixth Sunday of Easter speak about what God wants us to do in this world, His only command to love. The word love denotes different meaning for different people, according to the context and the relationship they are in.

When Jesus says love, it is much more than what we think or feel or define. For Jesus to love is to give oneself. So, even in the Gospels and in the Bible also we can find varied degrees of love. But, Jesus calls us to reach the highest degree of love of giving our own life. In the Second Reading from the First Letter of Saint John chapter 4 verse 10, we find that in this is love not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son as expiation for our sins. So, the prerequisite to loving is to be loved. Because of the Fall in the garden of Eden, we lost that ability to love as God desires us to love. One who loves, cannot be selfish. He cannot be self-centred. He has to be other-cantered. When Eve and even Adam chose to eat that fruit, they became self-centred. They closed the door of receiving that love from God and also the door to love. And the coming of the Son of God, the Saviour, Jesus opens that door again especially His death.

As I said, prerequisite to love is to be loved. We need to be loved. A child who has never experienced the real meaning of love, I think, that child can never love anyone. Because the child doesn't know what love means. Because of that Fall in the garden of Eden, we lost our real identity. What we do is the outcome of what we are. Therefore, to love we need to be loved and we need to have that ability to love first of all we need to experience the love of God. That's why, Saint Paul writing to the Galatians would very beautifully write, "And the life I now live in the flesh I lived by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me."

Saint Paul experienced the real love of the Son of God who gave himself for Saint Paul himself. He says he gave himself for me. Saint Paul had already personalized the love of Jesus in his life and he had accepted that love for him and so he could do everything. That's why writing to the Philippians he could say I can do anything in him who strengthens me. It's not self-confidence. It is again God-confidence. It is a total self-giving in the previous sentence of what I just cited the quotation from Galatians chapter 2 verses 19 to 20. He would say, "I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me."

It becomes possible only when, as Saint Claire of Assisi would say, "We become what we love and who we love shapes what we become." Still, the quote is there, but I would like to just focus on this one sentence. Jesus became human. He became man; because, He loved us. His love for us made Him what we are, humans, man. Then St. Clare would continue to say, "If we love things we become a thing. If you love nothing we become nothing. Imitation is not a literal mimicking of Christ, rather it means becoming the image of the beloved, an image disclosed through transformation. This means we are to become vessels of God's compassionate love for others." So, true love means becoming like the beloved. We are called to be an image of Christ in this world.

To be Christian is to be Christ-like, to be another Christ, to be the vessel of Christ, to be a carrier of Christ. In other words, we can say, a Christian is one who has surrendered himself, given himself - his body and his very life to Christ, for Him to live through the person, as we have just seen from Saint Paul's letter to the Galatians, "It's no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me". Then only, it is possible to love. Otherwise, it would all remain to do some favour for others, that would only inflame the person or it would boost the self-image of the person; but it would not mean real love. In the Gospel of the day, Jesus says, "As the Father loves me so I also love you. See the kind of relationship, the love that Jesus expresses towards us. "As the Father loves me so I also love you." What kind of love is that?

If you study deeper this reality, the mystery of the Holy Trinity, we would find that love means self-giving. It's not a feeling. Actually, love is not the feeling that we would say. It's giving; it's self-giving. The Father gives Himself, empties Himself into the Son, and in return, the Son receives the Father and empties Himself. So, there is a cycle of giving and receiving, giving and receiving is going on and on and on. That process can never end and Jesus says, "As the Father loves me so I also love you". Then He says, "Remain in my love". To remain in the love of Jesus, Jesus says, "Love one another". To remain in the love of Jesus, we need to keep His commands. In St. John 15 verse 10, He says, "If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love just as I have kept my Father's commandments and remain in his love. So, to remain in the love of Jesus, we need to do what He commands us. And what is his commandment? In verse 12, He would say, "This is my commandment love one another as I love you". See, as Jesus loves us, we need to love one another. That's when, in the beginning itself, I said the prerequisite to love is to have experienced love, to have been already loved by God. So, before we think of loving, we need to accept and personalize the love of Jesus, God emptying Himself.

 

That's why the Most Holy Eucharistic Celebration is the centre of Christian Life. We would experience God emptying Himself and giving Himself - His Body and Blood to each one of us, and there we are invited to experience that love by receiving the Lord into our life, into our body, and to become one. That's what St. Clare of Assisi would say, as I had cited earlier, "It is a transformation". We are being transformed into the image of the person of Jesus. Then we would become like Jesus. Then we would let Jesus live through us, as Jesus let the Father live and work through Him. That's why always He would say, it’s not I live here, it's not what I want I do; no, I do what the Father wants. Jesus did and lived every moment of His life as the Father wanted Him; because He loved the Father. So, the same love has to be seen in and through our life. And that is impossible, unless we let ourselves be loved by God. We need to allow ourselves to be loved by God. Very often, we want to do great things for God; but, that is impossible. God doesn't want great things from us, as Saint Mother Teresa of Kolkata would say, "God wants us to do simple things with great love."

Mother Teresa got that great strength to be the image of Jesus in this world from the Holy Eucharistic Celebration and also from her Adoration of the Holy Eucharistic Lord. The same Lord whom she received she adored the Most Holy Eucharist. That was the centre of her life. Then, we would become as Saint Paul writes to the Corinthians in his First Letter chapter 13; the entire chapter says about love or Saint Paul writes about love. In this chapter, we can find qualities or characteristics of love. Love is patient; love is kind. It's not envious, not boastful, not arrogant, not rude, but, it bears everything, believes everything, hopes everything, and endures everything. Let's ask God, first of all, to let ourselves into His hands which is a challenge - letting ourselves into the hands of God to be loved by Him as we are. And once we realize how precious, how important we are to God, we would let Him live and love through us. May God give us this grace.