Life of strife and after

Man, on his own, is a hopeless slave.
That man, who did not know,
That there was an answer to his life,
His empty aimless, destructive life.

That man who thought
That there was gain in entertainment
Seeking to fill a wounded spirit
With pleasures that pass and kill

But the truth always dawned
And how painful that dawn,
When all ended in darkness,
In a hollow emptiness.

What he lacked, he knew not,
In his life, to see soul soup,
True strong manna to revive
A flagging and aching spirit.

Some men there are who knew
That they lacked, yes lacked.
In all the wealth and distractions,
They yet knew they needed it.

But what they needed how were they to know?
Go to a lonely place and meditate?
Or pray together in unison?
Follow leaders who say the truth about sin.

And knowing their frailty, they moan,
Knowing this burden, they strive,
To live to do all they can,
Releasing their pangs and chains.

For man is bound until he meets,
The grace that is most perfect.
So lost and forlorn is he until,
He finds that for which he was created.

That is why we preach the Gospel,
Men over the centuries with all passion
Overcoming tempest, storm and wind,
Snake poison, burning oil, the noose of condemnation.

All while having received,
Grace upon grace, blessing upon blessing,
The thing that was most precious,
The living God who redeems us.

Said the Christ, the light of life,
That he who has ears will hear,
He who listens will understand,
Throw the grain to all people.

So that before all shall perish,
Before the fading of our poor lives,
We may find the reason to live,
And find our being and purpose.

Man with Christ, is victorious,
Having the armor of God for ever,
To shield him and help him bear,
The little trouble till his death,

So that one day the moment will come,
Of fulfillment of all life's struggles,
To complete and bring to fruition,
Our blessed lives on earth.

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.