No sinner can live in darkness, thinking that he/she has no place in God’s heart.

The mystery of the heart of Jesus is the mystery of love. Christianity is led by the principle of LOVE and it is discovered that immense treasure of love, in the heart of Jesus. His heart was pierced on the cross for love of us. The blood and water which flowed from his side healed and redeemed the humanity from their ailments and sins. The pierced heart of the redeemer always stands as a sign of immeasurable fountain of love by which the children of god are cleansed and have become dearer to the Father.

From the wounds of Christ flow immense love and infinite mercy of God. The unfathomable love and infinite mercy of God. The unfathomable love and mercy gushing from the most Sacred Heart of Jesus is a fountain of healing agent for the sick and forgiveness for the sinner. From his opened side, the source of life gushed forth for the souls, and the ocean of mercy opened for the whole world.

To St. Foustina- the apostle of Mercy Jesus said, “Let no soul fear to draw near to me, even though its sins be as scarlet. My mercy is so great that no mind, be it man or angel will be able to fathom it through out all eternity”. So to say, the love and mercy of Jesus in His heart is deeper than any ocean. The human mind has conquered and measured the depth of the ocean and it proved that the Pacific Ocean is the deepest of them all. But who can fathom the depths of Jesus’ mercy and comprehend the depth of His love for us? So deep, so great, infinite, unfathomable, immeasurable and inexhaustible treasure is his love for us. If so no matter how sinful or weak we are why we must fear to approach Him?

The people of Israel on their way to the Promised Land sinned against God and Moses. As a result many were bitten by the fiery serpents and died on their way. Then Moses pleaded for the people and God asked Moses to make a Bronze serpent, and set it on a pole; and if a serpent bit any man, he would look at the bronze serpent and live (Num 21:4-9).

The pole God asked to Moses to put up was the symbol of the cross that was raised at Calvary and Jesus was symbolized as the serpent with healing power on the pole. Since the appointed time for the Father had not yet come, to reveal His son to the world, the Father had asked Moses to make a bronze serpent in the place of His son. All those who looked at the bronze serpent in faith were cured and lived.

In fact the Father had in His mind His only Son Jesus on the Cross whose heart was pierced and the blood which gushed forth would be the healing agent for the redemption of the world. Definitely, the Father willed that everyone looked at the bleeding heart of His Son in FAITH AND LOVE would be cured from all infirmities and be redeemed. St. John witnessed it when he said, “In this is love, not that we loved God but that He loved us and send His Son to be the expiation for our sins.” (1Jn4:10)

The water and blood that gushed straight from the wound in His side, fills our lives with his gift of Grace. To that fountain of love Jesus invites us saying, “Come to me all who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble3 of heart.”(Mt.11:28-29) Are you laden with your sins, sickness, struggles, pains, loneliness and troubles of any kind? Yes, Jesus invites you and me to look at Him, His heart bleeds on the cross for us. Call on Him in LOVE AND FAITH. Certainly you are to be healed, heard and comforted.

The ‘Rest’ He promises to give you is nothing but peace, serenity of souls and freedom from all worries and cares of life. The blood and water, which gushed forth from the heart of Jesus as a fountain of mercy for us, is all powerful. When Jesus invites us, “Come to me all……” He invites us to that ocean of love, peace, joy and serenity.

The two rays gushing forth from the Sacred Heart denote blood and water which flowed when His heart was pierced. The pale ray stands for water which makes the souls righteous. The red ray stands for the blood which is the life of the souls by which our sins are washed away. Theses two rays issued forth from the very depths of His tender mercy when his agonized heart was opened by a lance on the cross. These rays shield and protect us from all evil, harm and snares of Satan.

The depth of Jesus’ love is shown when on the cross he forgave his enemies and brought all men in peace and reconciliation and that was his mission on earth. Jesus through His intimate words of revelation He gave to St. Faustina of Poland says, “I am more generous towards sinners than the just. It was for their sake that I came down from heaven; it was for their sake that my blood was spilled, let them mot fear to approach me; they are most in need of my mercy.”

Enlightened and encouraged by the assurance of Jesus’ unfathomable mercy and love, let us approach the fountain of love with all our weakness, failures, sins and problems of life. Let us throw all our cares and worries on to Him and be cleansed and strengthened by the fountain of love. Let us strive for an experience of holistic healing- of body, mind and soul. Lt’s enjoy peace, serenity and joy that Jesus promised when he said, “Come to me all who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”

Prayer:

Lord Jesus, anoint us with your precious and take us into your care. Make our hearts humble homes for you to dwell. Draw us O Lord, to your heart of love, to your boundless love. Our hearts are made for you Lord, draw us to your wounded side opened for us and may we drink from the fountain of life that we may thirst never more. Receive us all into the abode of your most compassionate heart, and never let us escape from it. Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, rule over our hearts, lives and our homes. O Blood and Water which gushed forth from the heart of Jesus as a fountain of mercy for us, we trust in you. Amen.

- – - written by Sr. Mercy Pottokaran OSB

Life is meaningful not when we earn, but when we loose.

It is the time set for each one of us to refrain from this world of commotion, where we make and hear a lot of cry. We are bursting to talk about inflation, scams, saving environment and tigers. Yes, it is an urgent need to speak out and do something. But the question is whether our hearts do remain lively as a garden that is looked after well, or is it like a deserted place? Are the promptings of the Spirit dying out like a cry in an open field, even without an echo? Or are they like a little girl who is conversing to her beloved doll with all her gentleness and innocence but still gets back no reply?

As Jesus is going to take away our brokenness, are we preparing ourselves to be given completely into His hands? What I believe more than anything is the need to do something in this season to save and create new intra, inter and transcendental relationships. For Israelites the liberation from Egypt, was the greatest God experience not because God was with them in the form of a cloud during day and a pillar of fire at night, but because they were one- with love suffusing through their hearts, nerves and veins calling each one to focus on their destiny- moving through the desert for forty years, at times carrying others and being carried by others. It was a splendid experience for them not because they conquered many nations on the way but they lived each moment of these years in an altruistic way.

When we do so we are indeed creating spiritual reservoirs for ourselves which will take us past through any desert- when faith and hope seems dead- even for years. When our Muslim brothers go to Mecca and our Hindu brothers to Ganges and to many other places as pilgrims to wash away their brokenness, we see a God who is coming into the backyard of ours- calling us not to Jerusalem or to Mount Calvary- but to join hands with our neighbours irrespective of their conditions, to wash away our brokenness. He is willing to be broken down anywhere and to any extent to make us complete. The wheat fields around us are adorned with golden colour, signifying the time of Fulfillment. Now why should we hold on to ourselves? Everyday let us live a moment for others.

Down the ages, there were a few people who lived with an altruistic spirit. Mother Mary, after hearing the Good News from the angel did not hold back but in the nick of a moment rushed to serve Elizabeth. What Mary started on that great day, came to a full circle when Jesus stretched out His hands on Mount Calvary. It was this outpouring of love that turned the obscure village called Nazareth, then the little city called Jerusalem, into a Holy Land and not by their divinity alone.

The radical following of this love can be seen in Mother Teresa’s life too. Mother Teresa was soaked in this love and that is why from the very dawn of her mission up to her very last moment she could give. The amount of money- with money everything else comes- that came into her hands is unimaginable. When she walked down the streets of kolkatta and when she went to Norway to receive the Nobel Price, the size of her cloth bag was same. She never left her zone and for me she always remained as ‘The Monk with Ferrari’. She was like a sponge soaked in the water which once you remove from the water and press, it gives away everything. The harder the demand, the better she could give. When you transform love into service- that is the greatest spirituality one can attain.

The question is, are we willing to lose a bit of ourselves? By sharing the sufferings of others and being with them in their loneliness, we can take part in the sufferings of Christ, and so we can also help others to resurrect from their shackles of life.

Each raindrop makes a big ocean. Likewise each moment of our life makes our life span. So when we dedicate a few seconds for our neighbours the words of Jesus are indeed being fulfilled in our life too. He says, “no one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s own friends.” (John 15:13). Let us pray that God may teach us the Language of Love that is understood by all.

- – - written by Fr. Jobin Manivelil SVD

It is striking to note that the man attacked by the enemy in the parable has no name. It can be anyone.

The Parable of the Good Samaritan is one of the best parables Jesus narrated in the gospels. The ultimate goal of every human person’s life is to inherit eternal life. The lawyer who stood up from among the crowd raised a question regarding the means and ways to inherit eternal life. This query was not the outcome of a thirsty seeker’s pursuing mind. He wanted to test Jesus and trap him in words.

Jesus foresaw it rightly. Hence Jesus encountered him with a counter question. “What is written in the law? What do you read there?” The lawyer who is versatile in the Torah answered these fundamental questions citing from the Old Testament, namely, Deuteronomy 6:5 where we read how Yahweh reveals the means to inherit eternal life to the Israelites, saying, “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might”. In Leviticus 19:18, Yahweh speaks about love of the neighbour: “You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against any of your people, but you shall love your neighbour as yourself: I am the LORD”. Jesus acknowledges the lawyer’s reply as right.

The command to love the LORD is qualified by four words involving the core of one’s personality, such as, heart, soul, might and mind. These expressions categorically show us how God’s claim on us reaches to every area of our existence including our innermost being, that is, our heart; that gives us our identity, our soul; that gives us energy, strength, resolve and resources, that is our might.

No part or cell of our self is to be withheld from the love of God. Love for oneself is the reason for all our activities as a human being to exist in the world. A person who hates himself totally ends his life. The expression, “You shall love the LORD your God… and your neighbour as yourself”, has a deep and profound meaning.

Our love towards God does not exclude our love towards our neighbour. Indeed, when we really love God, we live out that love for our neighbours as well. In Christianity, love of neighbour is the only bypass to God and eternal life! This is vividly inculcated to us in the first letter of John 4: 7-21. The phrase “as yourself” implies love for oneself. Love for oneself is also expected from us.

Therefore three types of love are demanded from one who wants eternal life, such as, love of God, love of neighbour and love of self. They should be always in this gradation too! These three are inseparable from and complementary to each other. Jesus emphatically states that eternal life is not attained just by knowing the commandments, but in doing them or by living a life in view of inheriting salvation. Those who live well-ordered lives now have been touched by the kingdom of God; in other words they are close to eternal life. The first stage of the parable (Luke 10: 25-28) leads us to the second (Luke 10: 29-37).

What has begun as the lawyer’s test for Jesus now turns to be Jesus’ test for the lawyer! The lawyer cleverly asks Jesus who his neighbour is. Here we must keep in mind how Jews interpreted the idea of one’s neighbour. For them the neighbour is a member of the same religious community, namely, a fellow- Jew. They generally exclude the Samaritans and the foreigners from the category of neighbours. The lawyer’s question demanded a distinction between those who are one’s neighbours and those who are not. Therefore he was cunningly asking Jesus who his neighbour is. His clever question has a hidden implication that who is not his neighbour! Practically speaking, he was asking Jesus whom he should love and whom he is not bound to love.

Jesus interprets the Old commandment of love of neighbour in the light of the parable of the Good Samaritan in which three men came upon a man (the name is not given) who had been robbed and abandoned half dead along the road from Jerusalem to Jericho. Of these three, a priest and a Levite saw the man, but did not attend to him. Both hail from religiously respected and honoured people. However, it was a Samaritan, who was mistrusted and despised by the Jews, who cared for the man who had been fallen victim to the robbers. This Samaritan, whom the lawyer probably excluded from the category of his neighbours, is presented by Jesus as worthy of being considered a neighbour and to be loved. Jesus turns the lawyer’s question “Who is my neighbour?” into “Am I a neighbour to other human beings who are in need of me?”

How can we prove ourselves as true neighbours to other human beings?

Jesus obviously specifies that a neighbour is one who showed him mercy. We are also invited for the same. In this parable the neighbour and his actions are defined actively, not passively. We get a detailed description of the Samaritan’s care for the injured man. There are a host of verbs in active voice to point to the care he gave him, such as ‘came near him’, ‘he went to him and bandaged his wounds’, ‘poured oil and wine’, ‘he put him on his animal’ , ‘brought him to an inn’, ‘took care of him’, and so on. (Luke 10:33-35). The person who fell among the robbers is referred as ‘a man’.

He can be any human being; man or woman; rich or poor; one who speaks my language or another language; hails from my caste or tribe or ethnic group or not. He can be of my country or not; of my region or not; of my religion or not. Jesus asks the lawyer (one who wants to inherit eternal life) to act or do like the Samaritan in showing mercy to anyone who is in need, “Go and do likewise”. The parable teaches us that the neighbour to be loved is anyone who is in need with whom we come into contact in the course of our life journey.

The duty and obligation of a neighbour is beyond all boundaries irrespective of receiving any reward or even a word of thanks. The Samaritan would not have expected any payment or reward for what he did to the man who was robbed. This parable also teaches us how the eternal life or salvation brought by Jesus is universal and accessible to all humanity. Since a Samaritan (non-Jew) is made an example of Christian conduct of love and charity, we are taught that even a Samaritan or a so-called pagan has found the way to eternal life while those chosen ones, the main stream Jews, miserably failed!

- – - written by Br. Vineesh Joseph, Ranchi