"What is New Evangelization?"

Research figures show that while the Mass attendance of the Catholic population in 1957 was 75%, but in 2011 it has drastically came down to abysmal 31%.

 

The attached powerpoint on New Evangelization gives us good insights into the relevance of New Evangelization in present times.

 

It is also good to reflect during this Year of Faith, and how it calls us as mentioned in the Church Document, 'Evangeli Nuntiandi [59], "The whole Church is Missionary, and the work of Evangelization is a basic duty of the people of God".

 

The ppt. consists of good reflections from our former Popes [Paul VI and John Paul II].

 

Bottom line: Can we not try once again to understand in deep spirit that strong conviction and wisdom of St. Paul, "Woe to me... if I do not preach the Gospel"?

Co-Existence?, there is a better idea!

In the last mail, a short write up on the 'Co-Existence' had featured... the text below is the continuation to it...  read on...

 

The question that Christ put to the Pharisees in Mt. 22:42, “what think ye of Christ”, often baffles everyone. The famous oration of Mark Antony to the agitated crowds in Caesar’s funeral [as narrated by Shakespeare], two lines of that would aptly fit in here… “you are not wood, you are not stones, but men! And being men, reading the will of Caesar, it will inflame you, it will make you mad, ‘tis good you know not that you are his heirs”.

Besides faith being enkindled, and stimulated for greater intimacy with the Lord, one would acclaim the similar words of the disciples on the way to Emmaus, “were not our hearts burning within us…” and one would ‘literally’ become ‘mad’, and get sucked in Christ’s love as were Peter and Paul and the other Apostles when one comprehends what really happened, the most ‘crazy’ thing, and the most unthinkable that took place in the first century A.D. in that God-incarnate Jesus and his historical times.

Reading through books like, The Founder of Christianity, Jesus through the Centuries, Rebuilding a Lost Faith, the Crucified Rabbi, Life of Christ, Tacitus Annals, Younger Pliny Letters, Josephus [the historian] and Eusebius himself, besides the latest arrival the tri-series of ‘Jesus of Nazareth’ by Pope Benedict XVI, we are amazed to learn and bow in worship for that historical person, God-Incarnate Jesus, who asked the pharisees, 'what think ye of Christ?'. 

Especially the tri-series of Pope Benedict XVI on 'Jesus of Nazareth'... it is an account of what the man who sits on the Chair of Peter thinks about the key question: “Just who was this Jesus of Nazareth, anyhow?” We were asked simply, about Christ: what is the evidence on which you base your acceptance of His Divinity? The book clearly and forcefully lays it out. We can take it or leave it, but not without a nagging sense that we really have not looked at the evidence.

What Pope Benedict did was to state, in brief, his considered opinion and research. He concluded that all the evidence available to us over a 2,000-year period, including the latest scientific evidence, indicates that Jesus Christ is who He said He was. That is, He was in fact the Son of God, sent into the world by the Father for the redemption of mankind from their sins. The Pope proceeds to examine all the evidence that this position is not true. Tome after tome has been written to try to prove that Christ never existed, that He was merely a man, that He was a political fanatic, that He was a prophet, that He was a spirit, that He was almost anything but who and what He said He was. Yet, once one’s evidence is set down, it can be examined for its coherence and logic. This examination is what our Pope Emeritus has done. If some evidence that makes sense can be shown to disprove the fact, well and good. But it has not been produced yet. In fact, the evidence tends in the direction that the Church has always said it did. If the Word was made flesh and did dwell among us, we want to know it, and acknowledge that it does make a difference to our lives, to how we live and how we think.

Jesus of Nazareth has affected human thought, human character, human ideals, and human history more deeply than all the other children of mankind combined. Even the great Strauss tells us, “Christ and Christianity represent the highest moral ideals to which the world can ever expect to attain”, and Renan declares, “Jesus will never be surpassed. His ‘religion’ will forever grow young again… all ages will proclaim that among the sons of men there has not been born a greater than Jesus”. If such were the declarations including the testament of Emperor Napoleon, who are secular in the eyes of the world, what would be the thought of those who hold HIM to be divine?

Buddha is sometimes thought to bear a closer resemblance to Christ than any other prominent figure of the past. In gentleness, humility and charity this probably is true. The mighty multitude of Buddhists in the world attests the fact. But there is still a heaven wide difference between their respective attitudes. Buddha advanced no claim to be either God or the Son of God. He longed for death, and taught his followers to long for it, and to extirpate from their souls the will to live, because the miseries of life were too intense to be endured. Christ, on the other hand, while recognizing all the sin and misery of earthly existence, did not proclaim annihilation to be man’s greatest boon, but pointed to a life hereafter, as the compensation and justification of the present one. Professor Harnack of the University of Berlin, although a radical free thinker, uses in regard to Christ such phrases as the following, “a ray from His light transforms a person inwardly…His Gospel cannot be replaced by anything, and it stands above all rivals of that time and all time… the appearance of Christ is and remains the most unique foundation of all moral civilizations.”

But not only are the words which have been spoken and written about Christ absolutely unique; His own declarations in regard to Himself are without a parallel in history… “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life… He that has seen me, has seen the Father… I and the Father are one…I am the light of the world…He that believes in me shall not perish but shall have everlasting life… before Abraham was I am… Come to me all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and lowly of heart, and you shall find rest unto your souls…” who else in all the course of history has justified such language, who won and has retained for 2000 years the love and adoration of unnumbered millions, not as a saint or teacher, but as very GOD!

It is impossible to suggest for Him a single virtue that is wanting in His flawless record. When one connects such profound greatness of that God-incarnate Jesus of Nazareth with proofs of His miracles, His Gospel and the way He transformed the every sphere of the world and creation, he/she is compelled to speak with the centurion, “truly this was the SON OF GOD”.

In what way, then did the Incarnate Son of God, before parting from this earth, provide for the continuance and advancement of His Kingdom? He did not write a book, nor did He order one to be written. Instead of doing that, He founded a Church, against which He declared the gates of hell would not prevail, and with which He promised to be present while the world should last. 

To conclude this little write up, recalling again that quotation of Cardinal Manning, “If Christianity is historical, Catholicism is Christianity”. And so, ‘pack up’ O you, Secularists, Protestants, and even Catholics, [those Catholics, many of whom have got into that rut of secularity and at times worse than the secularists themselves], and turn to the Church of God, for,

               "hers the kingdom, hers the sceptre!

                fall, ye nations at her feet!

                hers that truth whose fruit is freedom;

                light her yoke, her burden sweet." [excerpt from 'the Church of God' by Aubrey Thomas Vere, 1814-1902]

Therefore, the word ‘Co-Existence’ is not a bad idea, but there is better idea… CONVERT. Now, don’t get me wrong, “getting along” (or coexisting as the bumper sticker generation calls it) is all well and good, not as an end unto itself, but as the first of many steps on a much longer road that leads to conversion to the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church.

thank you,

Do Anti-Catholics have no shame?

Religion writer Philip Jenkins, distinguished professor of history at Baylor University, has famously declared that anti-Catholicism is the "last acceptable prejudice," and given the behavior not just of the blogosphere but of journalists and pundits last week, it is easy to see why. As the pontificate of Pope Benedict XVI drew to a close, the tortured logic of reporters looking to sensationalize the story was matched only by the boorishness of commenters on Catholic blogs. The sense of dignity and decency that surrounds the coverage of, say, the departure from office of an American president was absent in far too many people whose parents, presumably, reared them better.

Pope Benedict's pontificate, we were told, was a "failure"—a value judgment the supposedly objective press had no qualms in rendering. One oft-repeated statistic was that the Holy Father was resigning when his "approval rating" was "only" 74 percent. Setting aside the fact that it is as absurd to speak of "approval ratings" for Catholic clerics as it is would be to poll a group of strangers about my performance as a father, I suspect that President Obama would be ecstatic to have such an approval rating, roughly 20 points higher than his is today. And, of course, the media would trumpet such a number as proof of the President's widespread popularity.

We were told that the average Catholic "never connected" with Pope Benedict the way he did with Pope John Paul II. That neither man wanted the average Catholic to connect with him but rather with Christ was, it seems, beside the point. The Church and her leaders must be judged in secular terms, rather than in the spiritual terms that lie at the heart of Her mission.

We were treated to all kinds of speculation concerning the reasons for Pope Benedict's resignation. Even if any of it were true, no one other than Pope Benedict and God would know; but the fact that the Holy Father had been explicit about the reasons for his resignation meant that each bit of speculation that ran counter to his stated reasons was, in essence, a declaration that Pope Benedict is a liar. (In this, sadly, Catholic journalists, pundits, and bloggers were just as guilty as secular ones.) From allegations of a homosexual conspiracy in the Curia to the disgusting suggestion from professional "Catholic" homosexual Andrew Sullivan that Pope Benedict wanted to spend more time with his male secretary, Msgr. Georg Gänswein, the major theme that ran through most of the speculation was sex.

And everyone agreed that Pope Benedict's resignation had, at least in part, been occasioned by the "enormity" of the clerical sexual-abuse scandal, and the Holy Father's "inability" or even "unwillingness" to deal with it. On February 28, the day that Pope Benedict's resignation took effect, CNN linked from every story covering the historic occasion to a piece on their site by Jeff Anderson, the ambulance-chasing lawyer who not only has made tens of millions of dollars suing the Catholic Church on behalf of sexual-abuse victims but has made it clear that he wants to destroy the Catholic Church. It was Anderson who reignited the media frenzy in 2010, when he fed information to New York Times reporter Laurie Goodstein that resulted in a series of stories that helped pave the way for Anderson to sue the Vatican directly. Yet CNN found it perfectly appropriate for such a man to outline the steps that the next pope should take regarding clerical sexual abuse—steps mainly designed not to protect children but to make it easier for Mr. Anderson to continue to stuff his wallet.

Of course, much of the outrage over Catholic clerical sexual abuse has had little to do with protecting potential victims and everything to do with undermining the authority of the Church. That is why, even as Pope Benedict left office, journalists and pundits and blog commenters could declare, with seemingly straight faces, that the Holy Father had been part of the problem and not the chief force behind the solution. That Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger fought, from the mid-1980's, to get control over clerical sexual-abuse cases consolidated in the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (which he headed at that time) so that he could personally attack what he called the "filth" in the Church makes no difference; nor does the fact that, since John Paul II finally acceded to his request in 2001, the CDF has successfully prosecuted most priests whose cases have been sent to it. Nor does the fact that the Charter for the Protection of Youth, passed by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in 2002 through the efforts of Cardinal Ratzinger, has resulted in historically low levels of new allegations of clerical sexual abuse in the United States—low single digits every year since 2009.

If those who beat this drum in order to attack the Catholic Church and undermine the authority of Pope Benedict XVI really cared about the victims, they would, instead, applaud the actions that the Holy Father took both before and after his election as pope. Instead of throwing around widely inaccurate numbers—"100,000 children raped by Catholic priests worldwide"; "tens of thousands raped by Catholic priests in the United States"; "hundreds or thousands of new allegations every year in the United States"—they would look at the actual numbers, and join faithful Catholics in thanking Pope Benedict for taking leadership on this issue, even when he faced opposition within John Paul II's Curia for doing so.

But what purpose would that serve? Not the one desired by those who did not have the common decency to stop spreading lies for even a few days about Pope Benedict's "past in the Hitler Youth" and his "rehabilitation of a holocaust denier." While Jewish organizations in Israel joined in thanking Pope Benedict for strengthening relations between Christians and Jews and expressing their hope that his successor would continue Pope Benedict's policies, these anti-Catholics, professional and amateur, let the world know that they know better.

And, in the end, that is the real point of anti-Catholicism today. Because if the specific claim of the Catholic Church is true—that She was founded by Christ, and continues to be guided by the Holy Spirit to preach the Truth to all—then the simple fact is this: None of us knows better than the Catholic Church. And that flies in the face of the "collective wisdom" of the modern age, which declares that the individual is the measure of all things, and that all "opinions" are equally valid—whether thought up by a journalist or an ambulance-chasing lawyer in the shower this morning or revealed by Christ and confirmed by the Holy Spirit over the course of 2,000 years.

Of course, one doesn't need to agree with the teachings of the Catholic Church in order to practice a little common decency, and to hold one's tongue when an event that means nothing to you, but a great deal to faithful Catholics, is taking place. But a lack of common decency, like anti-Catholicism, is one of the defining marks of the modern age.

Five 'Quick Takes', related to the Church

• The First Quick Take: - Dr. Karl Barth [a great 20th century Protestant Theologian] and Dr. James V. Schall, S.J. [Catholic Theologian cum Professor at Georgetown University]

Does it look like the Church makes a mistake when it tries too hard to engage the world, meaning... trying to 'answer'/please the media or the secular world during these days of the CONCLAVE and how it tries to leverage the proceedings at the CONCLAVE itself?

Reading through Karl Barth, one of the great Protestant theologians of the twentieth century, it is striking that he pointed out after the Second Vatican Council (to which he had been invited but couldn’t attend owing to illness): “Is it so certain that dialogue with the world is to be placed ahead of proclamation of the Word of God to the world?”

That’s a call for a prophetic stance, not some peaceful marketing campaign. Vatican II’s sweeping blueprint for Catholic social engagement, Gaudium et spes, in particular, struck Karl Barth as not only overly optimistic, but out of tune with the understanding of the “world” in the New Testament. Historically, he pointed out, Christianity has often clashed with “the world.” Christ had come into the world NOT to seek the consent of any, but to witness to the TRUTH, and Himself was the TRUTH, right! We’re going to have to think through this and many other challenging truths in the days and weeks to come.

Well, the esteem for the Church and the prophetic value in the documents of the Vat. II, does in no way come an inch down, but... it is not unlikely that the Protestant Theologian had an insight to offer to the Church especially when trying to engage too much with the 'world'.

Now coming over to Dr. James V. Schall, [S.J.], a renowned Theologian and Professor at Georgetown, who in his recent interview to the 'NationalReview' was in fact very pointed and astute in his remarks on Pope Benedict XVI [Emeritus], and it is here what he said...

How is retirement? Do you feel a kinship with Pope Benedict XVI because of his transition?

FR. SCHALL: Retirement is a funny word, isn’t it?... Actually, I gave pretty much the same reasons he did, except the “burden” of our respective offices cannot be at all compared. When Benedict XVI talks of “retirement,” it means very little, in a way. He is a man of mind. Mind remains the same waiting to be thought, be it that of Plato, Aquinas, Samuel Johnson, or Chesterton. Few in the world have really been willing to come to terms with the reordering of mind that this man has accomplished in his long and fruitful life. It is in this reordering that the real seeds of our future lie.

How do you think history will remember Pope Benedict XVI?

FR. SCHALL: It will remember him as the greatest and most learned intellect ever to occupy the Chair of Peter. No public official in our time has been anywhere near his intellectual equal. This disparity is itself the cause of much disorder, if we grant, as we must, that truth is the essence of intellect and indeed order. In reading Benedict, I have always been struck by how familiar he is not just with the Old and New Testaments (in their original languages) but with his constant referring to the Fathers of the Church, especially Augustine, and the intellectual popes like Gregory the Great and Leo the Great, and also Irenaeus, Basil, Maximius, Origen, Bonaventure, and I do not know them all. He knows German philosophy well, and always cites Plato. He is at home with all the Marxist philosophers. Indeed, in Spe Salvi, he cited two of the most famous ones as witness to the logical need of a resurrection of the body. Benedict is a member of one of the French academies. No one has really begun to do his homework on what this pope has thought his way through. The media and most universities are, basically, hopeless. I suspect his final ‘opera omni’ in a critical German edition will equal in length that of Augustine, Aquinas, and Bonaventure.

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• The Second Quick Take: -  Since, 'betting' on the would-be Holy Father does not involve 'excommunication'... just thought of tossing a few opinions.

 The Church's mission throughout time is to bring the Incarnate, Crucified, and Risen Christ to the world. As early as St. Athanasius, the Church began to recognize who Jesus really was. This has continued in recent times through Pope Paul VI with his ‘Humanea Vitae’, John Paul II and his ‘Theology of the Body’, and BXVI through his ‘Deus Caritas Est’ and his recent  ‘Jesus of Nazareth’ writings. [In my opinion], the next person to the Chair of St. Peter, besides the other crucial things needing the attention of the Church, will have to continue to bring the mystery of the Incarnation to the world. The sexual, familial and dignity of life sins of today can be directly attacked by a proper understanding of the Incarnation, and how even in our human sexuality God built a part of His message of creation.

Actually what qualification did Jesus really notice in St. Peter when he said, "you are Peter... and on this Rock I will build my Church..." IN FACT, he only asked him, "Simon... do you love me more than all the others", which he repeated three times, and got the reply he wanted from Peter, and then added, "feed my sheep". And so, only deep love for HIM... is the most needed qualification, asset or skill. Anyway, Christ will see to it.

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• The Third Quick Take:    Adopt a Cardinal www.adoptacardinal.org 

There is something interesting going on for the Conclave to elect the New Pope. The Cardinals, who weighed down by the weight of years and authority... they need our prayers. Some enterprising folks on the internet... also aware of this great need of prayer for the princes of the Church... have developed a very simple approach to the need. They have developed a website called ADOPT A CARDINAL and it’s easily accessible by going to the rather obvious name of www.adoptacardinal.org

It takes about 20 seconds to go through the process and having a randomly chosen cardinal assigned to you for whom you agree to make whatever sacrifices and offer whatever prayers you choose in order to bolster him spiritually in the work in which he is currently engaged. I did it and got assigned 66 year old Cardinal João Braz de Aviz, from Brazil. He's been a Cardinal just about one year to the date... so he’s one of Pope Benedict’s cardinals. The simple email confirmation you receive will also tell you what his office is.We can do it right? Let us pray for them, because through prayer, grace flows through us and touches them. Therefore log into www.adoptacardinal.org and start praying for 'your' Cardinal.

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• The Fourth Quick Take: Encyclical of Pope Pius X [written on March 12, 1904] concerning Pope Gregory the Great

Continuing to reflect on the Mother Church, [in continuation to the previous mail], there is an excerpt from the encyclical of 1904, I reproduce it here below:

“Kingdoms and empires have passed away; peoples once renowned for their history and civilization have disappeared; time and again the nations, as though overwhelmed by the weight of years, have fallen asunder; while the Church, indefectible in her essence, united by ties indissoluble with her heavenly Spouse, is here to-day radiant with eternal youth, strong with the same primitive vigor with which she came from the Heart of Christ dead upon the Cross. Men powerful in the world have risen up against her. They have disappeared, and she remains. Philosophical systems without number, of every form and every kind, rose up against her, arrogantly vaunting themselves her masters, as though they had at last destroyed the doctrine of the Church, refuted the dogmas of her faith, proved the absurdity of her teachings. But those systems, one after another, have passed into books of history, forgotten, bankrupt; while from the Rock of Peter the light of truth shines forth as brilliantly as on the day when Jesus first kindled it on His appearance in the world, and fed it with His Divine words: “Heaven and earth shall pass, but my words shall not pass”[Mt. 24:35]

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• The Fifth Quick Take:  A few more thoughts on 'Pope and Twitter'

The last mail spoke of the Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI and his Twitter page, which in a span of just months had earned 3 million followers. In one of his earlier sermons he did mention that Church should use technology to sanctify the world. Sadly, the world does not reciprocate its appreciation. If you take a moment to observe the responses which the Pope’s tweets received, you’ll see the filthy underside of the internet: foul language, abuse, libel. Underneath the responses to the Pope lies incredible hate. His recent announcement of resignation and the recent abdication has only provoked more hatred.

What is it about this mild-mannered and diminutive academic that provokes so much hate?

Pope Benedict doesn’t stand for himself, but for the entire Gospel of Jesus Christ. And in rejecting him, people really are rejecting what they perceive of Christianity. The world isn’t free to perceive the Gospel as light and truth. In truth, the Gospel answers the deepest aspirations of the human heart, and sets us free from the slavery of sin and the unhappiness it causes. But the world perceives the Gospel’s light as darkness. The restrictions the Gospel places on human moral action seem like a terrible and abhorrent tyranny. We might well cite the Gospel of John which says, “And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil…for everyone who does evil hates the light, and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed (Jn. 3:19-20).

One Christian writer from the second century, in the ‘Epistle to Diognetus’, expresses our paradoxical relationship with the world. He says, “what the soul is in the body, that the Christians are in the world. The soul is spread through all members of the body, and Christians throughout the cities of the world. The soul dwells in the body, but is not of the body, and Christians dwell in the world, but are not of the world… the flesh hates the soul, and wages war upon it, and the world hates the Christians though it has suffered no evil, because they are opposed to its pleasures. The soul loves the flesh which hates it... and Christians love those that hate them… the soul dwells immortal in a mortal tabernacle and Christians sojourn among corruptible things, waiting for the incorruptibility which is in heaven.”

Our culture is diverging sharply from Christianity. We no longer hold similar goals and values in common. It is no surprise that as we do so, the world becomes increasingly intolerant of us. It pours the foulest slander on the Pope. It also expresses itself by promoting and enacting laws, and tries to do-away with Christ and His Gospel. These conflicts and setbacks can be the occasion for us to reflect fruitfully on how being Christian affects one's relationship with the world. It may be surprising that we, [Christian] are always in tension with the world, as similar to the views held by Karl Barth, ‘Christianity constantly clashed with the ‘world’ and its culture.

In relation to this thought, there is an article by Mr. Scott P. Richert, "Do the Anti-Catholics have no shame?". It sounds interesting, read on.

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Thank you.

Cherrapunjee, Called as Sora....Youth Fest...2013

Some of the Best photos in Shillong 2012

Christ, My Hope. Easter 2013

Something remarkable in the Gospel according to St. Matthew, its beginning and end as well:

“Emmanuel – God with us” - 1:23

“I am with you always, to the end of time” – 28:20

All that lies in between is the most momentous story of the 1^st century… A period of unique traffic of two worlds, heaven and earth; a period when God Himself had visited them in Jesus, the Nazarene… A period of turning point in human history when in His infinite love allowed Himself to be put to death by crucifixion, then ROSE FROM THE DEAD and overcame death, the last enemy… HOPE has been rekindled for the human race… the belief in His Resurrection is not something that grew up within the Church, but it is the central belief around which the Church itself grew… the Church continues to proclaim through the ages, “Christ, my hope, has risen…and He is present as a force of Hope through His Church”.

Dear friends,

As we join the chorus of the angels "Do not be afraid! ... He is not here; He is risen [Mt 28:5-6]"; and reiterate with St. Paul, “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death is your sting?” [1 Cor. 15:55], and rejoice with the Psalmist, “This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice in it and be glad!” [Ps. 118:24], we meditate and joyfully sing ‘Christ My Hope’ is risen to fill our hearts with all the riches of Hope.

An Encounter leading to ‘Faith-based Hope’:

St. Augustine in 4^th century, on an Easter Sunday had exclaimed, "‘Resurrectio Domini spes nostra’ - the Lord's resurrection is our hope.’ We relive today that event of His Resurrection which changed the course of our lives and human history. Jesus rose again so that we, although destined to die, should never despair with the presumption that with death, life is completely finished. Christ is risen to give us hope, and so life will be victorious at the end.

In the encyclical ‘SPE SALVI – facti sumus’, Pope Benedict XVI engages with the contemporary world, and exposes its sheer nakedness of ‘dictatorship of relativism’ which characterizes itself to build a Society apart from God, to place its hopes in science, and panders  around materialism and acid secularism. The signs of such dangers continue to engulf hearts of men and women of our time, not sparing even those within the Church.

Pope Benedict XVI in the same encyclical poignantly remarks that humanity is redeemed by love… unconditional love. A person needs the certainty which makes him/her say, “neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus” [Rom 8:38- 39]. Such absolute love exists, with certainty, and only in that the humanity is “redeemed”, despite apparent difficulties in human life. St. Paul tells, “Flesh and Blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God” [1Cor. 15:50] and the Church writer Tertullian [3^rd century] boldly adds on, "Rest assured, flesh and blood, through Christ you have gained your place in heaven and in the Kingdom of God".

Pope Benedict XVI in the same encyclical throws more light when he said that ‘For in Hope we were saved, [Rom. 8:24], should never be understood as though ‘redemption’ [salvation] is simply given, but rather it is offered to us in the sense that we are given hope, which is certain, joyful and is above all ‘faith-based Hope’ in Him, possible only through an ‘encounter’ with Him, who rose from the dead and  is alive as a force of Hope through His Church.

To hope in the promises of the Risen Lord and to be His disciples is not mere fascination for His moral achievement as few popular personalities opine preposterously. Jesus is more than mere ‘moral hero’. He is the God-man, and ‘one with the Father in His divine nature’ [Jn. 10:30]. ‘It is an encounter with an event, a person, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction’ [Deus Caritas Est, no.1].  An experience and an encounter like Mary Magdalene, who said, ‘Christ My Hope’, is what required for us and the world.

 ‘Christ, My Hope’ – An experience like Mary Magdalene:

With the death of Jesus, the hope of all the Apostles, the disciples and Mary Magdalene including, seemed to have been doomed. But with His Resurrection, something extraordinary happened with convincing proofs, viz. empty tomb and their encounter with the risen Lord, which are attested to by all the evangelists. St. Paul himself teaches [in 1Cor. 15] that Easter faith is the conviction on which the entire edifice of Christianity is built, because the encounters with the Risen Lord by the early Church filled them with Hope, and changed everything: their understanding of themselves and their responsibilities, their understanding of history and of life-beyond death.

The experience of Mary Magdalene, the first to encounter the Risen Jesus, is quite significant. She ran to the other disciples and breathlessly announced, "I have seen the Lord!" [Jn. 20:18]. And how moving, and what a cause for hope it is, that Jesus chose to appear first, not to Peter, the leader of the Apostles, or to John, the beloved disciple, but to a penitent sinner [Mark 16:9]. Jesus was the one who helped her to be reborn, who gave her a new future, a life of goodness and freedom from evil. She, like the other disciples, had witnessed to Jesus’ rejection by the leaders of the people, arrested, scourged, condemned to death and crucified. But on that Resurrection morning, her faith is born anew, more alive and strong than ever, now invincible since it is based on a decisive experience. In this world, hope cannot avoid confronting the harshness of evil, the wall of death and the barbs of envy and pride, falsehood and violence. But the encounter with Jesus helps us to experience all of God’s goodness and truth, heals us completely and restores our true dignity. Mary Magdalene went to the tomb while it was still dark, but the darkness did not remain, the dawn broke and God's Son had risen.

No wonder, an ancient Easter liturgical antiphon is attributed to her as if she uttered, ‘Christ My Hope’ – which means all human yearnings find fulfillment only in Him, and that we can hope for a life that is good, full and eternal, for He is alive and now among us. The Apostles and Mary Magdalene were to ‘be transformed’ [Rom. 12:2] and take the Risen One to “all nations” with the knowledge that He would be with them always, [Mt. 28:19].

“I am very happy; he’s a prophet”:

‘Habemus Papam’! Ever since those words were spoken on March 13^th from the loggia at Vatican, the media across the globe, the internet world and the world leaders have been tiptoed and abuzz with stories and prognostications about the new Holy Father, Pope Francis, and ‘any’ news of the Church.

Amidst several responses, both Catholic and secular as well to such historic moment, there is ample insight to glean for oneself, and probably to which everyone can join their voices in unison, is a natural outburst by a wheelchair-bound beggar outside St. Peters’ square [at the corner of Via della Conciliazione] who exclaimed, “Sono molto contento; e un profeta” meaning, “I’m very happy; he’s a prophet”. The name ‘Francis’ would aptly fit the joyous outcry of the beggar as a ‘Prophet’ - one who brings about hope from the Lord.

Besides, a few seminal themes Pope Francis has talked about during these days of his nascent papacy those including the need for ‘greater brotherhood in the world’, ‘material poverty’, ‘inter-religious dialogue’, he had also spoken more than half a dozen times concerning the Devil/the Evil One. In his first Mass as Pope, he addressed the Cardinals quoting Leon Bloy [a French writer], “Whoever does not pray to God, prays to the devil’…when one does not profess Jesus Christ, one professes the worldliness of the devil…”; on Palm Sunday, addressing the faithful and youth, the Pope said, “We must not believe the Evil One when he tells us: you can do nothing to counter violence, corruption, injustice, your sins! We must never grow accustomed to evil! With Christ we can transform ourselves and the world”. There are other references to the Devil, to which His Holiness Pope Francis has sought the attention of the Church and the world.  This should not baffle anyone but point everyone to certain critical reflection.

In fact, the talk of the ‘devil’  by Pope Francis, has struck many across the spectrum of Catholic and secular thought, and it is explicitly clear that he is not trying to score points with the contemporary world steeped in materialistic culture. His take on ‘Spiritual poverty’ of the world, which he expounded in his meeting with country diplomats, was on similar lines of the talk on the devil, which disguises itself as such. In fact poverty, both ‘Spiritual and Material’, is the central message of Christianity, which Pope Benedict XVI continually reiterated during his pontificate.

With a dig at the ‘devil’, Pope Francis re-asserts that sin exists in the world, there is something “out there” [an actor, agent and, evidently, as a personal being] that deceives, and so must be fought against to overcome one’s sins and to overcome ‘violence, corruption, injustice’ in the world. He draws the attention of the world to focus on the contest between God and Satan which is central to Christian faith, and hence the role of the Church to exist as to offer HOPE… the Hope which comes from the Risen Lord, who had conquered death and the ‘culture of death’ which Blessed John Paul II fought against, and that which manifests itself in the materialistic culture that the world wants to adorn itself with. Pope Francis teaches us to return to reality, which is Christian Realism, viz. to be committed first to Christ, to ‘encounter Him’. Such encounter not only overcomes the ‘spiritual poverty’ of our times, but leads one to reach out to those in material poverty as well, and foster ‘greater brotherhood’ in the world.

Speaking to the young people on Palm Sunday, Pope Francis said, “ours is a joy that comes from encounter with the person of Jesus... you bring us the joy of faith and you tell us that we must live the faith with a young heart... do not listen to the devil which disguises itself as an angel! Do not let him steal our hope, the hope that Jesus alone can give... such joy and hope, we must bring to this world, follow Jesus!”

The world stands in need of Hope of the ‘Risen Redeemer’:

Yes, Easter is a time when we thank God who gives us Hope not only for the Life Eternal, but for the gift of each day we spend on earth, which is a preamble to Eternal life. Each new day is an opportunity to live in union with God; we can cherish each day, not as an entitlement, not as drudgery, but as a time to live with God, to love Him, and to praise Him, as the Church prays throughout this Easter Octave, “This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice in it and be glad!” [Ps. 118:24]. Easter Joy should fill our hearts and be percolated into all that we do. We need to imitate our father and founder Don Bosco who lived, as ‘seeing Him who is invisible’.

Yes, Easter is a time when we renew our Baptismal promises and repeat the words of Martha [Jn. 11:27], “Yes, Lord, I believe…” to the question Jesus puts, “Do you believe that I am the Resurrection and the Life?” But quite often, our faith is skin deep and short lived like that of Martha herself, “Lord, by this time there will be an odor, for he [Lazarus] has been dead four days” [John 11:39]. Jesus pats on our back and affirms, “Did I not tell you that if you would believe you would see the glory of God?” [John 11:40]. Faith-based Hope has immense riches for us, and the ‘Year of Faith’ exhorts us in this regard. But how eager are we to grow in faith and encounter the Risen Lord?

Yes, the world stands in need of Hope of the Risen One:

Aristotle had said, “All human beings desire to know the truth”. In the turning point of human history about three centuries later, God-incarnate in Jesus not only clamed, “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life” [Jn. 14:6], his own disciples acclaimed, ‘grace and Truth came from Jesus Christ’ [Jn. 1:17], and ‘Himself was the Truth’. The ‘encounter’ with Him made the Apostles ‘to go to the entire world’ [Mk. 16:15] and offer radical witness for Him, and thus proffered Hope of the Risen Lord to varied cultures and nations. The ‘pagan’ culture of the Roman Empire, which is more ‘materialistic’ than our contemporary culture, had itself changed through the martyrdom of the early leaders of the Church, Peter and Paul. Its conversion became final when thinkers like St. Augustine found the ‘Truth’ and felt they needed the Church to continue to offer that sense of life and Hope of the Risen Lord for the world.

We live in a culture more and more characterized by falsehood and untruth, and that which tries to hijack the Truth itself. It may be ‘the Devil or the Evil One’ as Pope Francis calls it, or may be the ‘dictatorship of relativism’ as Pope Benedict XVI points out, or describe it as ‘godlessness’ which continues to disguise itself in our world.

Christ has chosen us to be His own possession as Salesian consecrated religious, so that continually ‘encountering’ Him in our everyday life, we may make His light shine forth for the world, and offer it the true Hope He alone can give. Becoming ‘witnesses to the radical approach of the Gospel’, the theme of the GC-27, is a clarion call of the Rector Major to get back to our roots and to understand what it means to be ‘His possession’, and what it means to become ‘bearers of His Light and Hope’. 

Mother of the Risen Redeemer:

We turn to our Blessed Mother Mary, who stands as a model because she is the one, “who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord" [Lk 1:45]. She is the silent witness of Easter and Mother of the Crucified One now risen, and at the hour of pain and death she kept the flame of hope burning. She teaches us also to be, amongst the incongruities of passing time, convinced and joyful witnesses of the eternal message of life and love brought to the world by the Risen Redeemer.

May the Risen Lord bless us with the riches of Hope He offers during this season of Easter, may He accompany us as He did with those ‘disciples on the way to Emmaus’, and continually stir our hearts that we may live each day and every moment of each day as ‘Easter People’, who spread that Joy and Hope for a world that desperately stands in need of. He assures us, “I am with you always, to the end of time”, Mt. 28:20.

Thank you

Papireddy Gade