Many of us will feel we are doing alright when it comes to loving one another. We are in a close-knit circle of family and friends. Loving them is not a problem; in fact it comes very naturally. Until a conflict occurs and we find ourselves in different circles. Today’s message pushes the boundary of our circles because in true love all humanity belong to the one same perfect circle.

“Love one another; just as I have loved you, you must also love one another” (Today’s Gospel)

So what is this true love? St Thomas Aquinas defined love as “willing the good of the other”. It means that confronted with a choice we must consistently choose what will be better for the other, sometimes at the expense of our own self. John Lennon invited us to imagine a brotherhood of humanity where all the people shared all the world and dream of everyone joining in this perfect circle so that the world will live as one. It will only happen if this begins with ‘me’.

“Just as I have loved you”. God is the source of unceasing and unconditional love. For some of us our relationship with God is in a conflict simply because God does not make the world the way ‘I’ want it to be. And ‘I’ want it instantaneously too. No matter how much we reject and blame him, God remains faithful to us. How did we end up in conflict with God who unceasingly will what is good for us?

In our human, self-defense mechanism we tend to blame the other. Sometimes we blame God. Many daily conflicts arise in our family and jobs because of choices we made. They become more complex and long-drawn over time because we keep rejecting love; this willing of the good for the other. When we do not want to live in the same circle as the other, there is a cause and effect of our choices. It is not God’s fault. This was never his way when he said, “Follow me”.

‘I’ am a blameless victim in a conflict. This ‘blameless victim’ does not exist. As long as we do not love one another, we tumble into the vicious cycle of causes and effects. These can only stop when we take it upon ourselves to love the other. The unconditional love God for us must flow through the life we live into the life of the other. To be able to truly love, we must assume our part in any conflict and in any breakdown in relationships.

‘I’ must first confess humility and trust in the love of God; to admit yes, reluctantly maybe and feel embarrassed or ashamed. ‘I’ must concede my prideful opinions and not pass the blame. ‘I’ must search the broken relationship and surely I will find moments to be grateful for. Use gratitude to power up love. ‘I’ must completely surrender as judgement is not for me, only willing good for the other. In ‘my’ lowliness I respect and obey the authority over me and trust in the consoling love of my ever faithful God. Taking is easy and giving is tough but when both hands clap, we come back to live in the same perfect circle.

Every week in Easter we get the same message, “Follow me”, follow my way. At our next point of conflict let us all do just this. Follow this Love and let it flow.

Let Love Flow: unceasingly, unconditionally.

5th Sunday of Easter

I had it all then, a happy family and a good job. Nothing at all excessively as I am just an average man living an ordinary life. Which was why I was surprised by an emptiness that plagued me then. I could not understand it then but something inside me was bugging me, almost begging, questioning me about the meaning of my life. I searched everywhere, venturing into new experiences only to slip into a mild depression as I failed to fill that emotional void.

I stood at the back of the church like I have always been doing for the last 15 years appearing only to fulfil my obligation. I wasn’t interested to volunteer my time to the church. I had moved on from being a deeply religious person as I found my feet in the corporate world. It never even occurred to me to search the church to fill my emptiness.
Then a call to serve in a particular ministry began to echo like a little voice in that emptiness. Over the weeks it recurred more frequently, growing louder each time, same time exerting a pull over me. Unexplainably I went on to answer that call.

Now it is 20 years since. My life has completely transformed. I have found the meaning and purpose of my life in that answer. I did not know it then but now looking back on these last 20 years I know that it was the voice of my shepherd calling out to me. I acknowledge now that I was a lost sheep then. I didn’t even know and it was perhaps the grace of my spiritual instinct that made me follow that voice.

“Jesus said, ‘The sheep that belong to me listen to my voice; I know them and they follow me’” (Today’s Gospel)

Today is Good Shepherd Sunday. It is also Vocation Sunday. Today is a call to each of us to ministry and Christian service. It is a day to search through the din of our life and listen to that inner voice. It might just change your life as it did mine. Because following this voice will lead us to the meaning and purpose of our life.

Our lives are interlinked. We are of the one same flock. We cannot escape the consequences of each other actions or inaction. When we act only for our own self the other will inevitably get hurt. When others do only for themselves we get hurt. The Good Shepherd knows the path out of these complexities of our human life. He tells all sheep the code to stay on this path, “Love one another”. Just imagine. If we listen and fulfil that voice would not our lives be filled with lasting happiness and joy?

The Good Shepherd knows the rich pasture. Grazing in it feed us with meaning in life. He calls us into a vocation; the purpose of life is to pass on the unconditional love he has for us to each other. When we do good to someone do we not feel an inner glow of fulfilment? That is being human too. This fulfilment is where our human and spiritual lives are in union, where the stray sheep meets the good shepherd.

Listen to that voice. It is not about Himself. He cares unconditionally for each of us. He will lead us out of our emptiness to find meaning and fulfilment in our life. “Follow me”.

Flocking into the Church of the Good Shepherd in Jericho. Listen to that voice will transform our life.

4th Sunday in Easter: Good Shepherd or Vocation Sunday

In recent weeks we stood helpless and sad. There was the fire in Notre Dame and then those terror attacks in Sri Lanka. If we knew no one personally, then we were at an emotional distance. We wondered, “Why God?” After all this was his own church, his own people. But we, those from the distance, did not get angry or blame God. It was a “stray flame” and “an act of terror”. We accept that these events were consequences of some people’s actions. We sought God in the aftermath.

However when events become personal our human self cannot stay at that emotional distance. Many things do happen to us as a consequence of both other people’s actions and our own. When there is a storm in my life I have a tendency to blame God, “If you are God why do you allow this to happen (to me)?” Maybe I am not fully aware that I feel a self-entitlement in life. In my desperation I cry out, “Where are you God?”

Storms do pass. When they do they leave us tired, hollow and empty. Our sky is clearing up after a heavy storm but it is still dark. But we live. Inside us we tell ourselves it is going to be a new day. Hope fills up part of that nothingness. Hope is like a light in the darkness. At the dawn of a new day, it is like a charcoal fire in the distant on the beach.

“Jesus called out, ‘Have you caught anything, friends?’ And when they answered, ‘No’, he said, ‘Throw the net out to starboard and you’ll find something.’ So they dropped the net, and there were so many fish that they could not haul it in. As soon as they came ashore they saw that there was some bread there, and a charcoal fire with fish cooking on it.”

We will see God in the aftermath of a storm. We find him in the consolation after the disaster, we feel him in the unity of the people coming together. When storms become personal we must sought for him in the people around us. God act and answer us through the people he has placed in our life. It is in each other that the fire of hope glows. We are inter-linked by the consequences of our action, good or bad. But our God is a God to everyone and for everyone. In a way only He knows, He will always restore each of us individually.

In Him there is always forgiveness for our actions that led to bad consequences. There is no judgement, only unconditional love. He gave everyone a freedom to choose our ways, and that freedom includes believing in Him. God will always be there to pick up the pieces and restore them. On that beach he picked up the three denials of Peter to not only restore but empower each of those, “Feed my lamb, look after my sheep, feed my sheep”.

God shows us the way to live, the way to true freedom. It is not a transaction of good behavior and reward. His unconditional love is offered to restore every person. His way is the only safe passage through our storms in life. With that safe passage comes the reward of true joy, fulfilment and peace which we so desperately seek for in life. His way is open to everyone regardless of the times we choose to deny him. We only have to “Follow me”.

At the site of the Primacy of St Peter where today’s gospel occurred. “Feed my lambs, look after my sheep, feed my sheep” goes beyond restoration. It empowers us to go on a journey to true joy.

3rd Sunday of Easter