All Creation Searches for God

Listen to your heart, says Bryan Adams, picturing the love story of Robin Hood and his love. The song tries to capture to love between the friend of the poor and his beloved. The Peace Pilgrim said I searched for God in churches and everywhere, finally I found him in all things that is beyond us, the creative force behind all things. In Paulo Coelho's beautiful book, "The Alchemist", a shepherd finds the soul of the Universe and the soul of man being united. Hinduism talks of the atma(soul), encouraging the search for freedom from attachment and journey to bliss.

Sometimes one may wonder. If I have been blessed with being born to Catholic parents and been given the gift of faith in Jesus Christ, how could God not have given the same gift to all? How would that equate to the great good? Well, since God is just, He does provide the necessary gifts to all in His own manner. You can be born in an island and find no church, no temple, no synagogue, no mosque, no stupa, no whatever. Yet, we are created by our Divine master, the master of all things. This is a great creator who has placed in each of our souls, the desire to know and love God.

It is this desire of us people that causes great wise men to leave the pleasures of money or material wealth and seek God far away. It is this desire that causes great conquerors like Alexander the Great to say to his friend - I have conquered so many lands and so many men are in my command. Yet, deep inside, I have an incompleteness and feel no satisfaction. Our human person is not just a machine. Even if it were a machine, the human body is amazing when you consider how it grows from an embryo and how the heart beats - nothing like a human heart has been created. How the mind works - so amazing with so much imagination.

Yet, the human person is more than a body. More than a body and mind. A complete human person is a body, mind, soul and spirit. Yet, this soul is not isolated from other things. Rather, it is the soul that seeks the perfection. One who listens to his soul sees far beyond reason or logic. The eyes of the soul seek the perfect, the greatly good, the most beautiful and lovely, the powerful and yet humble truth. This is the search of truth.

Like Pilate in the movie "The Passion of the Christ" says "quid est veritas" - or what is truth? We all say inside? What is truth? What is the purpose of living? Jesus Christ taught many people - among them were sinners and prostitutes too. Of special note is the fact that there were these groups of people publicly known as sinful, who were touched my the teaching of Christ and followed this teaching, even though their past was colored by frantic search for temporary pleasure and things that pass.

It is this search in every man, in every generation, in every human person. The human soul is restless until finally at the end of time, it rests forever in its creator, God himself!! For me, everything around is a testimony of this search. Science is the search of truth, yet following experimentation as proof of any fact. This is science. For example, Stephen Hawking, considered a great teacher and authority in Relativity, says in the first chapter of "A Brief History of Time" -

"We shall never be satisfied until we find finally, an answer to all the mysteries of the universe".

This is the search of science - a complete explanation of every thing that is beyond our world, that we strive endlessly to. I do love these words of Hawking because the soul in every person can be seen in writings by people from fields so different from one another. This search can be seen in people in lands far away, who met different people and knew different systems of thought.

Each man or woman seeks love. Why? Life feels changed completely when one finds true love. Yet, love is not imperfect, but simply beyond human logic and reason. No person can master love and tell it what to do. It defies logic because it can do things that no logic can do. What is perfect love? An important distinguishing attribute of perfect love is sacrifice and unselfishness. Love is truly tested when it is difficult to love. When it hurts to give, if one can love, then that love is a reflection of the Divine love. The soul of man can find true love in surrender to the Spirit of truth, the Divine master, the Creator and all-powerful. The perfection of all things comes to the great altar in love.

As Catholics, we have the teachings of Jesus Christ - the Gospels, the Sacraments, the Eucharist, the Divine presence in the body of Christ, or Corpus Christi, the actual complete transformation of bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ. This is a miracle greater than imagination because no other miracle in history can unite time from so many centuries ago in such a poignant manner as the Consecration does. Being pilgrims in the search for truth, and being Catholics at the same time means that we continue in the light of the Church to make our lives fuller and meaningful knowing that there is hope of heaven.

This search in all of us is not to be for a lifetime and to end with our graves. Rather, it is a search that thirsts for the God that last for all eternity. This is why Saint Paul says that if you do not believe in the resurrection, your lives are hopeless. The joy of finding God is such as the world has never seen, it is far beyond expectation. It is this great mystery that we say in the Apostles Creed, I believe in the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting.

Amen.

Defending the Church today

The Church, an age-old institution, has believers around the globe. A big tree cannot sustain unless it has great strong roots. God himself has planted the seed of the Catholic Church. Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of God's promise of reconciliation between Him and us. Through Christ life and death, we can come back to God, cleansed by Divine Mercy and perfect love.

What times do you and I live in? Is it a time of world peace, a distance from war-time, decades after the World wars? Centuries after Christian martyrs and saints death? Our search for an answer takes us to the feet of Christ, listening to his words on peace and strife. Peace I leave with you, my peace I give you. I do not give as the world gives. Jesus speaks of inner peace, one that gives deep assurance.

Outside, Jesus warned of division, challenge, opposition, suffering and persecution. If one wonders why he said so, the pilgrim of truth finds meaning only deeper. This is challenge to us to a path that needs constant prayer. We are up in arms not against men, but against the treachery of the devil - forces inside of us and speaking to us in different ways. As Saint Paul wrote to early Christians in Ephesus, Greece, we fight not against flesh and blood, but the powers of darkness (Eph 6:12). How do we stand up to this challenge? What do we need?

This is a battle unlike any other. One that we can fight only because Jesus Christ is on our side. A battle against sin and death, forces of abortion, violence, sensuality and selfishness, imperfect and pleasure seeking love. Yet, God loves us and knows each hair on my head and yours. He only wants to give freely, the gift of love, truth and grace, the gift of life itself. If God is so good and has created us himself with love in our hearts, it is no wonder then, that we thirst for God deep inside. This holy thirst is good and has as its purpose, our complete peace and joy.

For any battle, we need to leave behind all hindering thoughts, take up armor and fight with faith. In the same way, we need to lay aside our fears, ask our Lord to cleanse our past, seek to be in communion with him each day, defend as one us, the Church, united in the Eucharist, in the presence of Christ, the light of the world, the Prince of everlasting peace, the greatest lover and shepherd, who alone can lead us against all arrows and swords. The greatest battle of all time is on, but we can only have the great King on our side if we pray, ask forgiveness and accept His gift of his presence. Let us all pray together.

Come, Emmanuel.

He who stands firm till the end will be saved.

Searching the depths for truth

Hi,
Let me now lead you in prayer, praying to the God of all things, our creator, the master craftsman, the genius of truth, yet so loving and good that his grace has filled my life. So much grace that I feel it is unfair that I receive so much grace. Why me? Why does God choose me to simply shower his blessings in great measure? Someday, when both of us are together, he will tell me more. Why?

Lord,

Nothing, not the music, not the pictures, not the faces, not the empty promises of this world can every satisfy my soul. Precious Lord, if you have created my soul to burn without you, you have known every aspect of it and every dimension of it. Its sense, its eyes, how it sees, its ears, how it hears, its mind, what it conceives.

Lord, I thank you for my soul. For when all books are away, all meaning is clouded, all water is gone, my soul cries within me. When I fall and am entrapped in sin, my soul cries out and I can hear it within me. Precious Lord, let me burn, burn, burn with the flame of pure fire, inflamed by the love you place in me.

I will love each moment I am with you and not seek any thing but the grace you place in my soul. The gloss of existence that disappears with the rain of Christ's light. The light that makes everything seen as what it really is. The light that makes things visible for the pure beauty of their existence.

Living a life of Grace

Every human person has available grace. This, we learn from Jesus Christ, to bear stripping, blood, vinegar, crucifixion and extreme pain and suffering, while still remaining perfectly holy, faithful and loving.


The "human nature" as we heard it said time and time again can be overcome. This Christ came to prove. Grace to not sin at all!! A very strong and true answer to the question is Jesus Christ himself.

The mystery of the Incarnation is about Christ taking human form. Human form is complete human form with all its aspects. Christ took the mind of a man, the heart of a man, the soul of a man and the spirit of a man.

The truth about Christ's teaching is "How much more will God give the Holy Spirit to those who ask of him". It is indeed true that the same grace that Jesus Christ had to overcome is available to us. If one is a Christian, and believes in Jesus Christ and the Gospels, this is the truth.

Let us strive to be Christ-like in all things. Being such is not a celestial goal, beyond reach. If it were true, Jesus time here on earth is useless. But, rather, He came that we may receive the fruits of eternal life. This is life in Christ. Remember that the young man asked Jesus - "how can I be perfect". This is what we seek. We do not seek mediocrity in ethics and morals. We seek, rather a higher truth and goodness beyond that which the world accepts.

Who will take this challenge? Take up your cross and follow me? Many may turn this was or that or the other. What about you? What is your answer? Sharp words chase you away? Wake up calls can come in many ways. Few may realize this in a lifetime. Yet, there is a perfection possible with grace. Perfection through Jesus Christ.

Joshua said "As for me and my family, we will serve the Lord". Personally, I too choose this.