GRACE...!

    Introduction: The Greek word apocalypse means ‘to reveal’ what is concealed. The book Apocalypse is a revelatory literature with two approaches, namely apocalyptic and prophetic. The apocalyptic approach distinguishes the righteous from the wicked and rewards them accordingly. In a prophetic dimension, the wicked may repent and change their ways; the righteous stand in need of exhortation to faithfulness. It is highly pictorial, symbolic and metaphorical. There are about 800 allusions to the Old Testament. It was written in the reign of Roman Emperor Domitian 81-96 C.E. The scholars have opined the date from 90-95 C.E. The apocalyptic imagery and language reveal the severity of God’s judgement. The dominant image of the Lamb shows that God’s word of judgement was spoken in the Cross. Therefore, this book contains prophetic messages to the seven churches in Asia Minor. It is here that we must see the universal salvation that is intended by the author despite a de...

Readings: Ps 118: Act. 4: 32-35; 1 Jo. 5:1-6; Jn. 20:19-31     Dear brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ, in this second Sunday of Easter, the mother church invites us to understand God’s immense love for us. As a response to God’s love manifested in His only son the three readings help us to reflect on God’s mercy. As his faithful children we therefore are encouraged to thank him and praise him for his goodness. In fact the Responsorial Psalm invites us to give thanks to the Lord for he is good and for his love has no end .    The gospel reading continues to explain to us about the immense love of Jesus; even when his own frightened to speak for him, afraid to stand for him and lacked faith to witness to him and secured themselves in the closed doors instead of overcoming trials and tribulations. Like the apostles we do face a lot of difficulties, doubts and uncertainties. It is at this situation the Lord intervenes and strengthens us through his Holy Spi...

It's been a long for Christians who were fasting, praying and doing a lot of charitable acts during these 40 days of the Lent. For sure Easter is not the day to stop doing such good and kind acts. These acts are meritorious when done with an inner aptitude of love for God and for humanity. For it is the love of God that compels us do love the neighbour without any expectation. That is exactly what Jesus did on the Good Friday. Therefore, Easter is the continued fruit/merit of the sacrifice on Good Friday. Therefore, the sacrifice of Christ's life on Good Friday receives its ultimate reward on Easter Sunday. I believe, life on earth is perfectly imperfect. The time is the witness of this imperfect life. If birth is the beginning of life death is not the end of life; for death is only part of this imperfection. So, this perfect imperfection needs to be bridged by the divine imperfect reality. For, it is Christ who indeed incarnated into this imperfect reality; because His orig...

Mahatma Gandhi, the father of India once said "Work is worship." Well said is half done and so this saying has been quoted almost by every secular author in their books. Don Bosco, the saint of the young said " Labore, Labore and Labore ," meaning work, work and work. Whatever be the context but the word WORK speaks much about the work itself. Perhaps why another Greek Ancient writer Euripides said "Work begets maturity." Therefore, the fruit of your hard work is to work more. Strange but true. Work, therefore is not merely a physical or workaholic action rather is a disposition and an attitude. If we do not strive to cultivate this virtue the fate surely drives us down. Instead if work becomes our disposition, our attitude and our culture, then be sure sky is the limit for your success. Thus, no vice can get you down, because you become the trend setter of this new work-ethic and the ambassador of work-culture.  

Right at the outset, I admit that I am not a staunch feminist, yet this presumption doesn’t stop me whispering the truth of my inner voice. As someone said “say the truth and run away”, I do not mean such assumption despite the fact that I, a male, writing on such a significant phenomenon woman .           One cannot but accept the significant role of a woman in building a family or a society. Hence, we must appreciate woman’s contribution in nation building. Neither the governments, nor the civil or church laws build families. Instead, it is a woman who builds the family. If so, why there are rapes, domestic violence, and female-foeticide, divorce and unjust wages? State or religion is no exception. Hence, we must question the system, because if the system is corrupt what can we hope for? Hindu, Islam, Judeo-christian systems and the Greek, Roman, Eastern civilizations were all part of this inequality without being judgemental. Let us now get into the ...

We don’t see things as they are. We see things as we are. It is one’s attitude towards life and reality that makes the individual growing or dwindling. Today, we have examples of individuals who grew from tiny to giants and from giants to pathetic. What makes the difference is disposition/attitude/discernment. Bible is full of such examples. Young people are immensely blessed by God’s choicest blessings. Some young people become pro-active and productive in life and others become over-active and yet unproductive. The difference between the two cases is the distance and discernment. Yes the former is close to God in prayer and discernment and the latter is distanced from God and worse still no prayer and no discernment. Dear young friends in Christ, our God never abandons us; he is always there to help, provided we allow him to transform us, like the blind man who cried out “Jesus son of David have mercy on me.” Lk 18: 38.        God surprises us provided we...

We all know a famous saying "A good teacher teaches. A better teacher exhorts and the best teacher inspires." Fortunate if you have such teachers who walk into your student life. For sure they teach, encourage and inspire you to become better and the best. Unfortunate if you have poor and pathetic teachers who neither teach nor prepare for the class. Such teachers do come into our student life who paradoxically inspire by their despair. Strange but true. But to reach to this aptitude one requires an open mind and heart to accept the things that they cannot change but change one self instead. However, what I want to say is that today during two hours of class we experienced such poor and pathetic performance of a professor who only talked and taught nothing. Plenty of words bla bla bla....I just had a look around the class that was packed with students but then, most of them were all like as if suffocated and some constipated and still worse few were indifferent catching th...