The Viking-Christian Dialogue: Ancient Wisdom in Modern Context

In the hit series "Vikings", the first encounter between Ragnar Lothbrok and the monk Athelstan in the series "Vikings" crystallizes a profound cultural and philosophical collision that would shape European history. In this dramatic moment, two worldviews meet: one centered on power, immediate reality, and plural gods; the other on faith, written word, and monotheism. When Ragnar discovers Athelstan attempting to save a Gospel book amidst a monastery raid, the scene encapsulates fundamental questions about faith, knowledge, and what humans choose to value. The monk's dedication to preserving sacred texts rather than material treasures puzzles the Vikings, highlighting how differently these cultures understood worth, wisdom, and the divine.

This historical moment of first contact between Norse and Christian worldviews serves as a powerful lens through which to examine enduring questions that still resonate today: How do we determine value? What deserves protection? How do different cultures understand the sacred? What role does the written word play in preserving wisdom? These questions, first dramatized in such encounters, continue to shape contemporary discussions about faith, materialism, and cultural understanding.

The relationship dynamic of Ragnar Lothbrok and Athelstan in this series bring out enduring tensions between fate and free will, violence and peace, and competing views of sexuality and purpose. While Norse culture emphasized courage in facing destiny and valued heroic combat, Catholic teaching developed systematic approaches to war, sexuality, and community that offer surprising relevance to modern challenges. This dialogue between traditions provides fresh perspectives on contemporary issues from hedonism to individualism.

Historical Context and Modern Parallels

The relationship between Ragnar and Athelstan serves as more than historical drama – it represents an eternal dialogue between different approaches to life's fundamental questions. Their interaction moves beyond simple conflict to mutual understanding, mirroring how modern societies might approach ideological differences.

The Viking age occurred during a crucial period of European Christianization, creating unique syntheses of beliefs and practices. Today's post-secular society faces similar challenges of integrating different worldviews and finding common ground between seemingly opposing philosophies.

Core Philosophical Contrasts

Destiny and Free Will

The Norse concept of Wyrd (fate) emphasized accepting and courageously facing one's destiny. This fatalistic approach finds echoes in modern deterministic philosophies and materialist worldviews. In contrast, Catholic thought developed a sophisticated understanding of free will working in harmony with divine providence – offering a middle path between pure determinism and radical autonomy that many seek today.

Approaches to Violence and Peace

Norse culture's view of heroic combat as potentially sacred seems alien to modern sensibilities. Yet their understanding of violence as sometimes necessary but always serious carries wisdom. Catholic just war theory developed this insight systematically, creating ethical frameworks still relevant for military ethics and conflict resolution:

• War must be a last resort after all peaceful options are exhausted
• Protection of innocent life takes precedence
• The ultimate goal must be establishing peace, not conquest
• Force must be proportional to the threat

Sexual Ethics and Modern Hedonism

Both traditions offer sophisticated responses to contemporary sexual ethics and relationship challenges.

The Norse Perspective

• Pragmatic approach to sexuality while valuing family bonds
• Marriage as social institution supporting community stability
• Understanding of consequences in pleasure-seeking (reflected in their mythology)

Catholic Sexual Ethics

• Sexuality as sacred, oriented toward total self-gift in marriage
• Celibacy as positive choice for spiritual fruitfulness
• Marriage as permanent, faithful, and open to life
• Chastity as freedom rather than repression

This systematic Catholic approach offers particular relevance to modern challenges:

• Integration of physical and spiritual dimensions of human sexuality
• Focus on lasting joy over temporary pleasure
• Understanding sacrifice as meaningful rather than mere deprivation
• Vision of love transcending pure physical attraction

Community vs. Individualism

Modern society struggles with extreme individualism. Both traditions offer correctives:

Norse Wisdom

• Emphasis on clan loyalty and community bonds
• Understanding of individual honor within community context
• Recognition of mutual obligations

Catholic Social Teaching

• Balance between individual dignity and common good
• Principle of subsidiarity in social organization
• Framework for social responsibility and solidarity

Finding Meaning in Modern Life

Perhaps most relevantly, both traditions offer wisdom about finding purpose in an often seemingly meaningless world:

Norse Contributions

• Courage in facing mortality and uncertainty
• Finding meaning in duty and honor
• Appreciation for life's dramatic nature

Catholic Synthesis

• Integration of suffering into larger narrative
• Purpose beyond material success
• Hope while acknowledging life's struggles
• Balance of justice and mercy

Conclusion

The dialogue between Norse and Christian traditions, dramatically portrayed in "Vikings," offers rich resources for addressing modern challenges. While these worldviews often appeared in conflict, their interaction produced enduring wisdom about human nature, community, and purpose. The Catholic synthesis particularly offers systematic responses to contemporary issues while maintaining deep respect for human dignity and freedom. In our own era of competing worldviews and searching for meaning, this ancient dialogue provides surprising relevance and guidance.

This heritage suggests several key insights for modern people:

1. The importance of integrating physical and spiritual aspects of life
2. Finding meaning beyond pure materialism
3. Balancing individual rights with community good
4. Understanding sacrifice as potentially meaningful
5. Seeing how apparent opposites can be reconciled

In an age of increasing polarization, the example of Ragnar and Athelstan's relationship reminds us that wisdom can be found in unlikely places and that seemingly opposing viewpoints might contain complementary truths. Their story suggests that authentic dialogue between different worldviews, while challenging, can produce profound insights for addressing perennial human questions.

Saint Francis Xavier and the Goa Inquisition

This is a response to hindutva propagandists who have been spreading lies about St. Francis Xavier claiming he could not convert Konkani brahmins through his preaching so he resorted to forcibly torturing them to get them to convert to Christianity using the Goa Inquisition. The main source cited by these propagandists is a letter from Francis Xavier to king John III of Portugal, but before I get into the letter, I want to lay some context for the unacquainted reader:

1. Christianity is a 2000 year old missionary religion. Jesus taught his disciples to "go into the whole world and proclaim the good news to all creation" [Mark 16:15] and "Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit" [Matthew 28:19]. From the very beginning the Gospel or Good news has been proclaimed inviting repentance and conversion with baptism.
2. For the first 15 centuries, Christians were mostly united and there was no need to clarify the Church which Jesus Christ founded, but that changed with the reformation by Martin Luther. The word Catholic means Universal and become a way to denote those who remained with the Apostolic Church after the protestant reformation in 1500s. But the first recorded usage of the word Catholic dates back to the first century A.D in a letter by Bishop of Antioch to the Smyrnaens (people of Smyrna). Both Antioch and Smyrna are located in modern day Turkey.
3. St. Francis Xavier was Spanish, and worked as a missionary in Goa, a Portuguese province. Among Spain and Portugal, the concept of Inquisition originated during the Muslim occupation of Iberian peninsula after the conquest of Tariq ibn Ziyad, who defeated the Visigothic king Roderic in the battle of Guadalete in 711 AD and they remained in Spain for centuries, finally driven out in 1492. There is a tremendous amount of history here which I would argue is more enjoyable than movies and shows on Netflix and other streaming platforms or in theatres. For more information on the historic events during this period, including the birth of Portugal, research the Spanish Reconquista on history channels and source materials of the same. More on the Inquisition in point 7.
4. Spain + Portugal = Iberia. Portugal did not exist for a thousand years of Christian history. The peninsula was called Iberia in ancient times. During the Christian era it comprised of different kingdoms (Castille, Aragon and Navarre) later united into Spain. In 1143, Portugal  (blue region in map) was formed out of the Western part of then Spain. Both Spain and Portugal developed maritime technology - ships and navigation with a desire to reach the hitherto unknown parts of the world and spread Christianity there.
   
5. Catholic today = traditional Christian. In the english speaking Western world - USA, UK, most churches belong to Bible based offshoot movement of Christianity which has given birth to thousands of denominations. Historically Luther was the fountainhead of the reformation which began the splitting of Christianity into thousands of denominations. The countries we focus on here - Spain and Portugal remained with the historical Church from the time of Jesus Christ, called the Catholic Church. The reason this is important is because from an Indian context, the most influential country is the UK and the British monarchy through the East India Company ruled the Indian subcontinent from the battle of Plassey 1757 to 1947 - roughly 190 years. The city of Bangalore where I live for example was a key British centre and so were cities like Kolkata, Chennai and Mumbai. The British also built the large network of rail routes across the country to effectively transport goods/people mainly for economic gain. The British royal family today are successors of king Henry VIII who severed ties with the Catholic church so that he could marry Anne Boleyn. The Pope (head of the Catholic Church) denied his request for annulment of his first wife, Queen Catherine of Aragon. Henry VIII founded the Anglican church in 1534.
6. In Indian context, Portugal is important because they occupied Goa. More about how and why later. Spain and Portugal both pioneered discovery of distant lands and they had an agreement dividing the world into kingdoms which the Spanish and Portuguese would explore, conquer and colonise. The Spanish crown sent Hernan Cortez and Christopher Columbus thereby claiming Latin America and the Portuguese later brought parts of South America under their influence. On the other hand the Portuguese under the explorers Bartolmeu Dias and Pedra Alvares Cabral ventured around the the coast of Africa and rounded the Cape of Good Hope. It was the famous explorer Vasco da Gama followed by Alfonso de Albuquerque and Francisco de Almeida who first established Portuguese presence in Goa and Cochin. Besides India the Portuguese and Spanish brought parts of Indonesia, Philippines and Japan under their influence. Other major European naval powers in an Indian context are the British, French and Dutch.
7. Started in 1478 in mainland Spain, the Spanish Inquisition was imposed as an enquiry on Christians who had converted from Islam and Judaism reported to be going back to their former religious practices. As a result of this inquisition people fled to Portugal so Portugal started their own Inquisition in 1536. The key point to note with both these Inquisitions is that they were applied on Christians to ensure they were faithful to the faith that they officially professed.
8. St. Francis Xavier, besides working as a Christian missionary in Goa, also worked as a missionary in Indonesian islands of Maluku and Ternate, Japan and off-shore China. St. Francis Xavier was not an ordinary priest, but had the very important position of Apostolic Nuncio. Nuncio is an official representative of the Universal Catholic Church of Rome in a territory or country. St. Francis Xavier was at the position of an Ambassador in todays language in all these lands mentioned above. In his role as Nuncio, he wrote a number of letters to the Pope and monarchs of countries like Spain and Portugal in whole colonies he worked.

Now, let's look at the paragraph in the actual letter from St. Francis Xavier regarding the request for the Inquisition.

Date: 16th May, 1546

To: King John III of Portugal

The second necessity for the Christians is that your majesty establish the holy Inquisition because there are many who live according to the Jewish law and according to the Mohammedan law without any fear of God or shame of the world. And since there are many who are spread around the fortresses, there is a need of the holy Inquisition and of many preachers.

This is the only letter of St. Francis Xavier where the Inquisition was requested.

1. Firstly note that the focus of the letter is not any other religious group but the Christians "second necessity for the Christians". Ostensibly these were converts to Christianity based on point 2 below.
2. Secondly, the examples cited are of those Christians who are practising Jewish/Muslim law and way of life. Notice that nothing is mentioned about Brahmins or Hindus. Not directly and not even an indirect reference made using words like heathen/pagan.
3. The most astounding aspect of this letter is the place from where it was written. As mentioned already, St. Francis Xavier was a Spanish missionary working besides Goa in islands of Indonesia, Japan and off-shore China. The letter was written from the fort of Amboina (picture below) in the island Maluku of Indonesia. The word fortresses mentioned in this letter give us a clue of where it was written from. Therefore the letter was not written from any part of India but from an Indonesian island.
   
4. The word Indonesia means islands of India. This is how these Portuguese colonies were addressed during that period. But the only Portuguese colony in present day India is Goa and there is a huge distance between Goa and Amboina. One needs to travel from the Arabian Sea, thousands of kilometres across the Indian Ocean to reach this Maluku island of the Indonesian archipelago.
5. As mentioned in the first point in the Context section, Christianity is a missionary religion and has been so since the very beginning. In the very beginning of the book of Acts in chapter 2, the apostle Peter preaches and 3000 are added to the number of Christians. St. Paul made 4 missionary journeys the last which ended with his beheading in Rome. The missionary nature of Christianity is not a changing phenomenon based on historical and political situation. Rather it comes from one of the most important command of Jesus Christ, based on its location at the very end of the Gospel of Matthew and Mark. It is one of the last recorded command of Jesus in the Gospels.
6. For the first 300 years Christianity underwent severe persecution - worship was forbidden so Christians worshipped in tombs called catacombs and early Christians were crucified, burned, beheaded, thrown to lions and subjected to every conceivable torture and execution. There was no temporal benefit but every possible suffering and danger for those early Christians and the same is true even today. My ancestors faced severe persecution under Tipu Sultan the "tiger of Mysore", having their ears and nose cut off and marched hundreds of kilometres given a choice to apostatise and if they refused thrown down from a steep precipice to their deaths. More recently, several missionaries were killed in India instigated by right wing hindutva elements - Graham Staines and his 2 sons aged 10 and 6, Sister Rani Maria, several Christians in Kandhamal, Odisha; and just over a year ago Manipur Christians, who still are suffering totally ignored by the right wing government in the state and center.

Understanding these points it becomes clear the depth of lies and propaganda from the hindutva elements. There is nothing new about hatred of Christianity and propaganda against the Holy Catholic(Universal) Faith. The mockery of Jesus Christ and the Apostles at the ongoing Paris Olymipics in a disgusting Last Supper drag performance is just the latest in the long list. What is needed is a dispassionate objective investigation of the facts and true history in the face of those who work feverishly to rewrite a false version for the consumption of unassuming public.

Are all women better than their husbands?

Recently I heard a male preacher saying "all women are better than their husbands". A minute later the same preacher said "My wife is better than me in some areas" and "I'm better than my wife in some areas". This got me thinking about the this statement. As a Catholic, my mind immediately went to the Holy Family, where Mary was certainly better than St. Joseph because she was conceived immaculate in her mother's womb. Mary was without sin is considered the greatest of the human race. In support of his statement the preacher named 3 couples where he said this is true.

I then applied logic to this and the preachers logic seems to be that of all married couples he has encountered in every case the woman was better than her husband. This preacher has probably not encountered every couple alive today and even if he did, he couldn't have encountered couples in the past. Even in case of the couples alive today, it seems that the judgment criteria cannot be perfect because the judge is a human who has limitations. The fact that mankind has been continuously making scientific discoveries and our knowledge is improving over the years is a testament to the fact that we are not perfect.

Biologically, men and women's brains are different. The areas for violence and sex are larger in men's brains and in women's brains the chemicals that control these are more. Therefore in non-violence women are biologically better equipped than men. This seems to suggest that women are better at avoiding conflict and maintaining peace. But biology is not the only indicator of behaviour if it were then we would not be free to choose our actions. But we can act against our impulses. Someone who feels the urge to act violently can control, overcome and channel this impulse in a non-violent direction. If this was not possible, there would be no sin in violating the sixth commandment. Even outside Christianity most people agree in agency and role of the will. Because people have free will, they are responsible for their actions. Even determinists who believe in fate and/or predestination would have difficulty explaining why we have civil laws as guidelines of behaviour. The purpose of any kind of laws is to educate, inform and guide people to act in ways to keep the laws and avoid contravening them. This comes with the implict assumption that people have the capacity to overcome their undesirable impulses.

If the preacher's statement on the superiority of women implies that women are superior in every aspect, applicable to all couples alive today, we can think of a practical, empirical challenge to this assertion - world records. Most physical world records are held by men. In case of these world record holders for example, unless none of them are married, at least the man's wife is unlikely to be better than him in the world record category. Usain Bolt's would probably beat his wife at the 100 meter sprint. Eliud Kipchoge would likely lag behind him if they competed in a marathon together.

Circling back to the biological difference in the brain capacity for violence and sex, the Bible command to men to love their wives as Christ loved the Church calls men to channel their energy to battle their own passions and deny themselves as Christ denied himself. The ultimate call and test of manhood I believe is the readiness to sacrifice oneself. Along with tendency to violence comes the willingness to take risks. In every society, it is men who are expected to take risks to defend their family. Men perform tasks which involves serious risk of bodily harm and injury.

The Christian command challenges men to a sacrificial love which should lead us to break our bodies and shed our blood daily in love of our spouses and for our children. It's not how hard you hit, but how hard you can get and keep moving forward, says Rocky. The greatest man fought and defeated the greatest enemy - Satan.  Jesus Christ in doing this conquered mankind's greatest adversary and is the perfect example for us men. Following this example, the Apostles, martyrs and Saints gladly gave up their lives to show that this can be practically lived out by mortals.

We have discussed examples of couples where women are superior to men and found areas where men are better than their wives. We have looked at biological and empirical angles to this question. Overall it seems that among married couples, women are better than their husbands in some areas and men are better than their wives in others. So what is the takeaway from this?

"Men, love your wives" and "women, submit to your husbands" says the Bible. Today with the prevalence of Feminism especially in Western and Christian communities, the desire to reverse male violence can take us to the other extreme of mindlessly comparing and increasing the rift between men and women. I think we in Christendom need to be aware of the origins and effects of radical Feminism. Carrie Gress's book "The End of Woman: How smashing the patriarchy has destroyed us" talks about some of these but a fuller discussion in this article would be both premature and unjust, because I have not yet completed my reading of the book and there is so much to share on these points that I couldn't possibly do justice to it in this article.

For now, I like to conclude by saying that God who created both man and woman created us equal in dignity and partners and collaborators in building the family, the basic building block of society and the microcosmic church. Both men and women are created in the image and likeness of God and called to allow Him to perfect us through the grace of Sacramental marriage and help each other reach heaven, our destination. Not only the partners but also children entrusted to our care. As couples decisions should be made through discussion and dialogue between spouses. Each of the Biblical commands to men and women should be taken by the same sex and not thrust on the opposite sex.

Thinking with your heart

As a rational, analytical person, I tend to focus on the logical and rational. Professionally, this makes sense because as a programmer and solution architect, the proof of your solution is whether it works - whether it solves the problem. You have to objective enough considering the environment your solution is going to run under - whether it takes into consideration all dimensions of the problem and achieves its objective. In the realm of ideas and philosophies go, rational and logical consistency is one of the chief criteria to know whether something is true or helpful. Practically, though, we accept lots of ideas and philosophies based on the authority of those who told them to us. For example, as a father, I observe my children get their ideas from their parents and teachers.

While logic is good and helpful; even an intellectual, constantly thinking person tends to make slow and gradual progress in the advancement of ideas. In mapping our physical environment, I feel we need an orientation to prioritise which ideas are more important than others. Furthermore, as humans, we must be in touch with our own thoughts and desires. We need to orient our mind and will to the purification of our thoughts and desires. If we don't do this, we end up chasing one thing after another, we are constantly going in circles of useless pursuit. We are therefore, never really improving our peace of mind and our search for happiness is like a dog spinning in circles trying to grab its tail. This is why I think philosophy of life is crucial.

Modern society as I see it, suffers from a disordered philosophy of pursuing fleeting joys. Today medicine has advanced leaps and bounds over previous generations. Technology has enabled unprecedented quality of life in terms of making many previously difficult talks easier. Nevertheless, this century is known for depression. While these advancements should have improved our quality of life, statistics show that we are not much happier than our previous generations. This happens, in my opinion as a result of a philosophy of life that falls woefully short.

India has a long tradition of the guru or teacher. A person with wisdom whom people listen to with the hope to advance their life philosophy and hopefully help themselves live more fuller and happier lives. Today, we have no dearth of gurus and teachers, with their bands of followers. Self-proclaimed god-men among them, propound their teachings, through technology, reaching people near and far.

“Merely having an open mind is nothing. The object of opening the mind, as of opening the mouth, is to shut it again on something solid.” ― G. K. Chesterton.

A pearl of wisdom from a bygone era. With the plethora of religions, philosophies we have today from the past and present, there is a lot at stake and we need to apply critical thinking and reasoning to weigh ideas, thoughts and philosophies and decide and determine which we should buy into and which we should reject.

The title of this article, thinking with the heart, for me does not mean thinking with emotions. The classical ancient understanding of the heart is the core of the person. So thinking with the heart means thinking with the core of my being, not just my intellect. We want to look not just outward - our environment, the world around us, but also inward - our thoughts, desires, emotions and affections. Every great scientific theory, medical breakthrough and technological advancement has validating methodology and proving procedure to test and verify whether it works in the environment. In the same way, we need to have a proper framework to evaluate ideas so that they are validated both externally and internally, on our desires and emotions as well.

Take the relativisation of morality, religion, sexuality prevalent in our modern world. The media seems to suggest that our god is really ourselves. Each person can choose their own morality, religion and sexual orientation and preference. For the throngs of multitudes who have bought into this, there is a deception at work which makes the person blind to the danger and error of this philosophy.

Observe from a heart thinking standpoint ( core being thinking - not just emotional ), a person who is asked about the death penalty for instance. The question is really about justice and mercy. Logic states that if a person has murdered, then the death penalty is just. In the case of murder, violence and rape, the victim is another person. Still there can be outrage for a heinous crime and today despite being in the 21st century, mob mentality and violence still can take over. This is not heart thinking in my opinion. It is a disproportionately emotional response in heat of response to instigative speech. Mobs e.g in the Bollywood movie "Kai po che", based on the Gujarat riots, inflict mindless violence.

What about pleasure seeking taken to the extreme - destructive alcoholism, masturbation and addiction to pornography? If it does not affect another person, is it okay? As in the earlier stated case of emotional responses, people get a dopamine rush. Just like emotions can carry a person to do things they regret later, in the same way, addictions can cloud the intellect. We need to avoid taking hasty actions in the heat of the moment. Objectively, a person reduces themselves by indulging in these addictions. We become slaves of our passions and end up letting our animal instincts take over.

Finally, heart thinking involves understanding that we as humans are social - made to love and be loved. Look at all the popular songs and movies around the world. Whether in India or the Middle-East or Hollywood, love is celebrated. Here again we must understand that love is beyond emotion, though emotion is part of it. We can experience righteous anger - a correct emotional response to an objectively wrong action. But the emotion by itself doesn't make the response justified. Because we can end up like a wild horse which has no direction if we let emotions cloud our intellect and will.

Could it be that the universal acceptance of love in our cultures reflects the image in which we are created? As the moon reflects the rays of the sun, could we feel compelled to give and receive love because that desire comes from the source of Love?

Indeed, God is love and he who lives in love lives in God and God lives in him.

God made us in his image, in the image of love, He made us,

God took on flesh and became man, because God is Love,

God sacrificed himself for us, so that we could be free to love.

Besides being love, God is also truth. While God can be known through our minds and logic, looking inward, we know that parental love we receive is a reflection of a greater Love. Anyone who denies their inner nature, their thoughts and desires, is ignoring the internal data at their own peril. While bright Christian thinkers like Augustine, Aquinas, C.S Lewis have presented solid logical arguments for the existence of God, we know from internal data, that not all have equally sharp intellect. Would a God of intellectuals be as great as a God of all? I think not, and God is accessible to all people through multiple channels. Just like a blind man can listen to a movie and a deaf man can watch the visuals with subtitles, God is accessible to both the mind, intellect and interior senses like faith and emotions. While the mind can and does help us know truth, we must not dismiss religion just because it speaks to people through non-intellectual channels as well. Faith is not a lesser channel to know truth because it is non-rational. Let us be wholesome people growing our minds and hearts. The future of humanity depends on it.

Nice guys and Jesus

Was Jesus "nice"? Proponents would say he had compassion on people: fed them by multiplying loaves and fish, healed sick, raised the dead to life and we cannot but agree He did all these. But was he just a nice guy? Consider the cleansing of the temple. Christ was filled with zeal for God's house and made a whip of cords to drive out the money changers, saying - my house would be a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of robbers. What does this tell us about Jesus? Was this an aberration in his character?

Certainly not! Jesus did this out of love. How so? Because love is beyond kindness! Being just a nice person on some occasions doesn't work. Jesus stood for something and was willing to be disagreeable. In fact the Word of God tells us His action was immediately taken offense at by the temple priests, who plotted to kill him. My personal thoughts on this action of Christ was for the sake of the innocents who Jesus wanted to be able to come to the Lord and meet with God in the temple.

For me, this applies both to place of worship and the home. Christ has a burning love for innocents as he said “If anyone causes one of these little ones—those who believe in me—to stumble, it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.” How zealous are we about the sanctity of our churches? What example do we set for our little ones, of reverence for the Real Presence? We are called to battle not flesh and blood, but the forces of evil, starting with ourselves. When we bow and genuflect, when we receive Christ in Communion with the respect due to the king of kings and Lord of lords, we join in Christ's battle, directing our zeal for His kingdom at the mastery of our own flesh and bodies. In doing so not only do we worship God and sanctify ourselves, but also witness to children and people around. We help in the work of salvation and sanctification.

How about the other church - the home - the domestic church? How zealous are we, to nurture our little ones, our children in the virtues? Today we have many bright and brilliant minds, but spiritual dwarfs. The world has tried and failed, focusing just on knowledge and skills. How passionate are we to educate our kids to build not only their IQ but EQ (Emotional Quotient) and SQ (Spiritual Quotient)? Do we take ownership and responsibility for their formation in virtue and Christian living? On the home front, as a father of four, I see the promise I made to raise children in the faith is incredibly important and cannot be understated, especially in today's culture. Why do we have so many delinquents, suicidal, depressed young people unable to get out of the vicious cycle when facing the hurdles of life? Because we as a society listened to the lies of the modern dream of success - a false promise of fathers who work hard and provide for their children, but at the cost of the paternal guidance every human being has the right to receive.

We have allowed generations of children grow into men and women who can't handle failure. Because we scoffed at fathers when they corrected their children. We accused fathers of harshness and lack of love, when they wanted to raise them to be able to stand on their own. We have failed to see the weeping hearts of fathers because we couldn't see their faces wet with tears. What will we answer to our Lord when we meet him about how our society taught children to think one parent loves them while the other doesn't. How many more lives must be ruined before we realise that every child has a right to both their mothers and fathers love?

Finally, as a Catholic prayer warrior, I would fail in my duty if I didn't talk about the darker side of the undermining of fathers in our society. We owe our very being and existence to our Creator God, our heavenly Father. The proper name of God is Father, and this is not physical, because God is eternal - beyond space-time. The Catechism teaches:

By calling God “Father”, the language of faith indicates two main things: that God is the first origin of everything and transcendent authority; and that he is at the same time goodness and loving care for all his children. - CCC 239

God did not merely choose to reveal Himself as Father. Rather, He is Father by nature, in two respects: through the eternal generation of the Son in the Holy Trinity, and in His act of creating, especially the creation of those creatures that are “in his image” (see Gen. 1:26). Therefore, human fatherhood is best viewed as a partaking in the Divine Fatherhood of God, one that, by God’s design, is most apt for understanding Divine Fatherhood.

The use of the term “Father,” therefore, is not to be viewed as a concession to the patriarchal culture of the time, but as revealing the very nature of God.

In undermining fathers, our society is allowing the Evil one to sever children from the embrace of our heavenly Father. It's high time we opened our eyes to the downward spiral our children will be headed, unless we act with all urgency and focus on raising children holy and pleasing to God. As in the movie series, Rocky Balboa tells his son to stop whining and stop giving excuses, but bounce back from the hits of life he receives. Let us apply this lesson spiritually and give our children true love, both the nurturing love of a mother and the strong, firm, yet equally essential love of a father, so that they may be able to stand up and live lives worth living, and fulfil the purpose for which they were born.

The Divine Programmer

The scan report was clear "hydrocephalus due to aqueductal stenosis". The situation was begging the natural questions, what, how, why? On the one hand our human limitation is to be concerned and explore the natural options and courses of action and none of those were very promising. On the other hand, as a believer and intercessor I knew something more was needed and recognized that such a situation called for us to go down on our knees in prayer.

There is a story in the Gospel of John chapter 9, where Jesus meets a man born blind. His disciples ask him why this man was born blind, was it because he sinned or his parents? Then Jesus replies, neither this man nor his parents sinned, but so that the works of God may be displayed in him. For us as a couple, this would be an opportunity to trust God and allow him to glorify His name. But at a deeper level, it was an opportunity to us for self-examination. What is our attitude to children? Do we accept children unconditionally as a gift from God our heavenly father or do we take for granted the life that God is placing in our care?

This situation brought us to challenge our faith. I felt like Abraham when he was called to offer his only son, Isaac as a sacrifice to God. We resolved to adopt and attitude of faith and surrender in this situation. Faith as a child in our heavenly Father, knowing how if I as a father had a child who needed something, I would be pleased that my child trusts me enough to ask for that need. Surrender to trust God totally in what he wanted to do and would do. The doctors and our own research told us that depending on the quantity of fluid, the child can have pressure in the brain preventing normal growth of tissue.

I needed no reminder because I was already aware. I had a few times earlier visited some differently-abled children's homes and met orphaned children with this condition. In this context, we would like to think that we wouldn't abandon such children. Here was a situation not about abandoning, because that is not an option, but in our hearts accept with the same joy and gratitude the child that God places in our lives. Yet thinking of the kind of suffering and hardship that may be ahead on the road for the child we pleaded with God and shared the prayer intention knowing that many in our community were united with us in our prayer. I thought "God, these children will be born into some family. Instead of letting them be born into families which won't accept them, if you want it to be born into ours, we are open, let your will be done."

Every morning after we said the guardian angel prayer, besides blessing my daughters Sancia and Tanya, I placed my hand over my wife Seema and also over the womb and prayed the Aaronic blessing, and also this prayer "May the life of Christ in all its fullness flow in you". While I prayed and blessed them I was mindful of the power of the life of Christ and the power of those words. When it was time for the next scan, we approached it with faith and expectation.

Two months after the 5th month scans (we did a confirmation scan after the initial scan), due to COVID19, I was not allowed in the scan facility and was waiting in the basement. I started praying and we had already sent prayer requests in our household group. When I called Seema sometime into when I thought the scan may be almost through, she told me the scan doctor was flummoxed by what he saw and size of the ventricles had actually reduced. There was no explanation how this is possible. We know as believers that when the natural can't explain then only the supernatural it has to be. Since then my heart sings the song "I will sing of the mercies of the Lord forever"

We all know how from the moment of conception, the fetus continuously and rapidly grows. Even Sancia our three-year-old elder daughter can now explain how the baby grows in the womb. Considering that the cells only grow and never shrink, and that the ventricle size actually reduced, I knew that the only possibility, however far-fetched, was that the fluid quantity in the brain somehow reduced in the womb itself. Come June 18th, I was waiting outside the operation theater for delivery. when they brought him out I saw a normal looking boy, praise be to God. The next day we did a MRI scan and consulted doctors with the report. They said there is no need for surgery. The fluid in the brain is still present but in small quantity and not at high pressure so that the brain tissue growth is normal. Compared with what we were prepared for, this has been a complete and powerful miracle in our lives. Recalling back the confirmation scan we did in Srinivasa diagnostic center, considered the best ultrasound scan center in Bangalore. The scan doctor then said to my wife "not good" and gave a very bleak picture and dismal outlook to the situation.

As a software engineer, I often think of difficult technology problems in terms of God's acts of creation and redemption. How much we are amazed by technology, the man made wonders of the concrete urban environment we live in. Yet how great is God's own works, the universe, the laws of physics and the natural order. The way life grows from a single cell, the zygote which has the master program of God, our divine programmer. Each and every cell in our body has the instructions on how every part of the body should be. We live in the age of artificial intelligence and machine learning but we have never come close to creating a single intelligent self-replicating program that grows itself from a tiny cell, and we probably never will. Even whatever marvels we accomplish as humans, we  achieve it with the faculties which God created in us. Let's think for a moment which is a greater miracle, God healing the child in the womb or the human person. Surely for a software engineer its not too difficult to fix a bug in a software he has written. A doctor may find it challenging to treat a patient and bring him back to health, but what would a doctor say if asked to create a cell which can grow into a human person?

Psalm 8 composed by David says:

When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,

what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?

You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor.

You made him ruler over the works of your hands; you put everything under his feet:

My prayer now is "who am I God that you have done so much for me and for my family. Let these your works remind me of your love for me and help me to live my life worthy of being your son." This is my wish for myself and for you all, that we praise and glorify God for his amazing works and that we live our lives in a manner worthy of his sons and daughters. God bless you all, Amen.

UPDATE: It's 1½ years since the above post and our little Reuel has regular vision and physio therapy. With the former his binocular vision has been greatly corrected. Earlier he couldn't grasp objects today he's can't stop grabbing toys and examining them. He also communicates beautifully with the sweetest voice calling his dad, mum and siblings too and much more. We hope with physiotherapy he will stand on his feet soon.

Spiritual Parenthood and the Sacraments

God has blessed me with two little angels, Sancia and Tanya. As a father, the most intimate bonding time with them has been funnily enough through changing diapers and for my wife perhaps it is feeding them. In my experience as a parent, kids can make a complete mess till they learn to use the bathroom and even then it takes them time to learn not to dirty their diapers or clothes. In our spiritual lives, that's what sin does and some of the saints even had the spiritual gift to smell sin on people. So just as babies need a mother or father when they get dirty, we need mother Church when we sin.

In the sacrament of Reconciliation, we go with the stench of sin on us and as a good parent would always welcome the child in such a situation and take them to be washed and cleansed, so also in this Sacrament, the priest who represents God and man listens to our sins and says "through the ministry of the Church, may God grant you pardon and peace and I absolve you from your sins in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen". The priest is using the authority given by Christ when he appears to the Apostles on Pentecost and told them "receive the Holy Spirit. Whose ever sins you forgive, they shall be forgiven and whose ever sins you retain, they shall be retained". In this sense, Confession is a spiritual diaper change where God our Father cleanses us and makes us clean and gives us the grace to avoid sin and be holy. However in my opinion, the costly price of this Mercy is the Blood of Christ, the holy Lamb of God. Yet, we must realize that no matter how many times we sin, Confession is free and limitless because the Mercy of God is free and limitless. Just as a parent will not charge the child money for a diaper change (imagine how crazy that would be!), and do it as many times and as frequently as needed, so also the Church will freely dispense of the Mercy and Grace of God in the Sacrament of Reconciliation.

Breast milk is actually produced by the alveoli taking nutrients from the blood of the mother. So this is paralleled by Christ giving himself to the Church by giving his Body and Blood for us. Pelicans are known in times of famine to feed their young by ripping their own flesh and feeding their flesh and blood. Thus they have become a symbol of the Eucharist. In this context, Eucharist gives us spiritual nourishment like nothing in the world can give. While breast milk and regular food which we as parents give our children is nutritious, there is only one food that can make us live forever, and that food is the Eucharist. I have found in my own spiritual life, that when I have been frequent to the Eucharist, I am much fortified in my challenge to avoid sin and live out holiness in my life. Hence Eucharist is considered the source and summit of Christian life. No wonder then, that I consider my time and effort in releasing the Mass Finder app a labour of love to do what is in my power to bring people closer to God through the Eucharist.

One of the great blessings in the spiritual life of our family is being part of a community of like minded people. All this started when Sancia was about 3 months old and my wife was at that time in her mothers house (an Indian tradition) and I wanted to make the right spiritual start to our now 3-member family and felt we both badly needed time together to reflect and meditate since the last few months was an arduous journey in our relationship as recently married couple. So we attended a retreat that immensely blessed both of us and enabled us to clear lots of issues with a firm resolution to turn a new leaf and work more towards making our family as God wants us to be. Now we are part of Couples for Christ, India where we get regular spiritual nourishment and opportunity to live our lives deeper in the Gospel.

I used to teach Sunday school catechism some years back and this year, since my little one is a few months old and little less dependent than she was, I decided it was time I answered the desire to share the faith through catechism again. When my kids were baptized, we became more fully conscious of our role and responsibility to bring them up in the faith. I feel that since I have a love for the faith and since that love has inspired me to study it over the years, I have almost an obligation to answer this call and inspire the young people in my charge to love their faith and grow deeper in it. Thus I share in a spiritual parenthood of the Church and of the Father who wants to all people them to himself. So there you have it, so many parallels which show how beautifully we can relate our Catholic faith to our own family relationships and especially to parenthood in a spiritual sense. That's why when Jesus was on the cross in his most important moments, he said "Woman, behold your son and son behold your mother" thus giving his mother Mary as a Mother for us all. Many of the thoughts for this article came while listening and reflecting on Mother Mary in this video, which I highly recommend:

Mass Finder: find nearby churches and services

On Pentecost this year, I released the Mass Finder app on the Android playstore along with the more generic Faith Finder app. Initially the app had about a hundred churches mainly in Bangalore and few others in India. But once the app got released I got requests from different places starting with Sydney, Australia and the Bay Area, California. Checking the search query logs, I found requests from other places including the Philippines and Singapore. To serve our users, the database grew and now we have over 17,000+ churches in 400+ cities in 200+ countries. Most of the common fields are based on the Google places search results including the GPS lat, long co-ordinates, the City, State/Province and Country, the Rating and the number of Reviewers.

If you do a "Find a Church" query, you get a list of nearby churches within a radius of 5-20 kilometers (you can select the range) sorted by proximity and you can click on the Car icon to allow Google maps to take you there (we do not believe in re-inventing the wheel and since G-maps does this job very well, we just allow it to help you get there). If you click on the > link, you get more information about the church, including Address, Contact details and Mass timings. These fields may or may not be present and we are on an ongoing mission to fill in these gaps. Here are the features planned in the upcoming releases:

1. On first use, collect preferences and provide quick help
2. Add Adoration and Confession schedules and provide "Find a Confession/Adoration" service
3. Provide the days Mass readings text or audio to help users prepare for the Mass and if it is in a different language they can follow the readings this way
4. If when a "Find a Church" or "Find a Mass" search is performed, there are no results in the vicinity and the church data is not present, inform the user and provide an option to probe using google to find nearby catholic churches. These may be added to the database after verification
5. Enable search of churches at different location from current GPS co-ordinates
6. Provide points and badges for volunteer contributors and promote when they earn badges
7. Integrate google sign in so that volunteers can just use their google id and not have to remember a separate username/password for their volunteer account
8. Provide a language list selection in preferences (currently single language is available)
9. Provide church verification and mass schedule verification option and also feature to report inaccuracies and out of date information

Faith Finder is the sibling of Mass Finder and is meant to be open to all Christians so that all can find their churches and join the services in their respective churches.

Many people helped bring this to where it is now, but especially I want to thank my wife and family for their support and encouragement and facilitating me to work on the app. I want to thank my friend Snehan Solomon for his initial contribution to the codebase and Kevin Rodrigues for early testing and feedback, Gideon Santiago for designing a beautiful logo and icon for the app (you can find Gideon's profile and work here: https://gidsant.myportfolio.com/work) and Amanda for sharing lots of data about churches and Mass timings in Bangalore. With the continued collaboration of our growing community of volunteers and helpers, I'm sure we will be able to improve the database and the app and bring many more people closer to God through the Church.

C4TKIndia 2014 :: Project Enabler

Dear friends,

It's been a long time (it always is) since I posted on this blog. But rest assured there's some powerful inspiration to do so for the glory of God. Today, it's been more than a year since the day I embarked an a journey for the differently abled. Last year, 2014, Code for the Kingdom www.codeforthekingdom.org organized the first Christian Hackathon in Bangalore at the Marriott Hotel on Vittal Mallya Road. On day 1, a number of official challenges were presented, one of which was the differently abled challenge. This challenge was presented by Dr. Chip Kingery of ProVISION Asia and I too presented my own project proposal, Service Finder, a mobile application to find any service in a place of worship. My idea was for a crowd-sourced application, and the technology I planned to use was AngularJS front-end on top of a RESTful API. Long story short, I teamed up with ProVISION Asia with inputs from especially useful inputs from Manju and Muniswamy, and ended up building the entire app alone, since by end of day 2, my 2 fellow team members, neither wrote a line of code for the front end which was assigned them. So on day 2, I basically coded the backend and that night, I went home and wrote my first AngularJS application using the Internet for reference working till 6am. I then took a 2 hour or so power nap and attended the morning Holy Eucharist at my parish, then landed at the hotel in time to prepare for the final presentation.

Sunday (presentation and demo day) For the morning and even after lunch, no one from my team showed up nor the team from ProVISION Asia. Since Dr. Chip Kingery also serves as a pastor, he did come in the afternoon perhaps with his wife though I don't recall if they were present for the demo. In any case, I gave it my best shot and presented a kind of technically sound case. When prizes were announced, the top prizes went to 2 groups who used audio-visual to good effect. One built a small app which talks Biblical words displayed on screen. The other big prize went to my friend and his team who built a Bible learning game for tiny tots. A participants choice award was also given out. Each of these prizes were of ~50k. OneHope also announced a special prize money of Rs. 50k to take forward projects for people with disabilities.

Charles (aka Dr. Chip) and Jean Kingery - co-founders ProVISION Asia

Fast forward a year since. I get a mail from C4TKIndia organizing another hackathon (v2.0) at the Fairfield Marriott. Later last year after the first hackathon, I had visited ProVISION Asia office and met Dr. Chip and his team of Krupa Paulson (manager), Manjunath, Muniswamy, Winfred Viren and others once there. I've seen their special school for children with disabilities. We had a simple lunch together sitting on the mat on the floor, Indian style and shared some fellowship. Post lunch I made a small presentation about the project for the benefit of the staff who were absent at the final demo at the Marriott. We discussed on a course of action. The team from ProVISION Asia agreed to prepare a set of questions and answers. I look at a list of features and we decided to co-ordinate. We decide that an MVP (Minimum Viable Product) can have a few basic features but most importantly, sufficient question and answers that can help people with disabilities. When last I heard from ProVISION Asia, no progress is reported on this.

Krupa Paulson with Manju

That same year, God blesses me with an opportunity to visit Silicon Valley for a project at WhiteHat Security. Before leaving for the short 2 month trip there, I attend a program organized by Christian Vision at their new software development center in Indiranagar area. Much against my wishes, I leave for Sunnyvale to spend a Christmas away from home. Royston flies from New York to Bangalore to spend Christmas season with my parents. Upon return to NY, Roy does drop into the Bay Area for a weekend in between and we drive to Los Angeles, visiting Universal Studios there. That's a crazy memorable weekend when he had to wake at 5am or something and singlehandedly do the 6 hour plus drive forth and back. On our return trip, we stop by at a restaurant at Santa Barbara for Pacific crab and super seafood. I return to India on Feb 1st after a hectic time at WhiteHat Security, Santa Clara, CA. The project has given me the opportunity to visit a couple of cousins and make some friends there.

Some time later, I see on facebook that Chip has made a trip to the US for his daughters wedding. Some months later I call him and as I congratulate him, he shares his joy in walking his daughter to the altar and then conducting the wedding service as a pastor. On my return to India, I assign to my staff, Maria Shalini, the work on Project Enabler to make it responsive so that it works on both web and mobile. No news yet from Chip or from ProVISION Asia on the prize money.

I also attend a follow up event at CV Global Bangalore office where I make a short presentation on the progress with Project Enabler. Dr. Chip is in Bangalore but pulls out reportedly due to some last minute scheduling conflicts. I meet the good people at Christian Vision, including Ben Scales and Alwin Daniel. Chip meanwhile has been telling me he's waiting for Ben to conduct a hackathon to build more features into Project Enabler. Still no news of the prize money.

So I anyway decide to attend this years hackathon, hoping to meet some people from last years. As a soldier of God, and a Christian in solidarity with all Christians, I attend the second hackathon. I pitch for Church Finder, to find churches based on Language, Geo-location proximity and denomination. Our team of 3, including Kingsley Fernandes and Snehan Solomon build something demo-worthy and present it on Sunday, day 3 of the hackathon. We win the 2nd prize of INR 10,000 in the best idea category. Neither Chip nor anyone from his team attend this hackathon though Chip is reportedly in Bangalore. After the event, I follow up with Code for the Kingdom and Christian Vision and OneHope, and learn that the prize money is to be transferred to ProVISON Asia and Chip. I received email confirmation to this effect from Ben Scales, representing CV (www.cvglobal.co). I therefore proceed to register a domain and put up Project Enabler with the hope to received 2014 prize money and use it to recover some of my staff salary expenses and to pay for the domain and other project costs. Till date ProVISION Asia has not contacted regarding what they intend to do with the INR 50,000 given them to take forward projects for people with disabilities.

Having shared this long story, I want to use this time to bless the Lord for the opportunity to give Him glory through my skills and talents. I write this with immense joy and gratitude to our Lord Jesus Christ. Also in solidarity with the Lord, who wept for Jerusalem, he probably weeps for the corruption in some organisations which call themselves Christian, and also to strengthen you, my fellow brothers and supporters in my mission, because we know that Christ conquered sin and death and evil once and for all at Calvary, and as today is a Friday just like the special Friday we observe, the Good Friday, when Christ took up our own sufferings in his flesh and nailed evil and death on the cross forever, and rose again on the third day.

As a Catholic young man, I therefore boldly proclaim and join me if you do, that

For our sake he [Christ] was crucified under Pontius Pilate,

he suffered death and was buried,
and rose again on the third day
in accordance with the Scriptures.
He ascended into heaven
and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again in glory
to judge the living and the dead
and his kingdom will have no end.

I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life,
who proceeds from the Father and the Son,
who with the Father and the Son is adored and glorified,
who has spoken through the prophets.

I believe in one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church.
I confess one Baptism for the forgiveness of sins
and I look forward to the resurrection of the dead
and the life of the world to come. Amen.

And we are a Resurrection people and hallelujah is our song.
And we will hold fast to the Sacred Tradition handed down to us through the Apostles,
And we young men will take up arms against Satan,
And with Christ our commander and St. Michael our captain,
We will fight to good fight,
We will run our race,
We will keep the faith.
Amen.

UPDATE: I've had sent an invoice to help ProVISION Asia claim the prize so that they can in turn pass on my part in the expenses incurred in paying for the development of the software application plus the maintenance charges. They eventually paid 20,000 of the 50,000 amount and I have not pursued it further.

He who is gracious to a poor man lends to the LORD, 
            And He will repay him for his good deed. - Proverbs 19:7

Merry Christmas - Thank You Lord

Father almighty God, creator of heaven and earth, of the great Universe with the stars and galaxies. We praise & glorify your holy name and exalt you for the wonders of your creation. I praise you for your great wisdom manifested in creation, the seasons and times, the great balance of all creatures. I'm humbled that even in this day and age when we humans think we have control, your power and greatness is manifested in the awesome celestial glory of the time zones and you've blessed me to travel great distances to reach unexpected places and placed unexpected blessings in my life. For all that you've done in my life this year and the times past, I praise & glorify your name. As I seek ever to know & love you more, you've blessed me with fulfilling my dreams and as I look at the horizon I know that

You are my portion and cup,
You alone are my prize.

I thank You, Lord Jesus my Saviour for being conceived by the Power of the Holy Spirit and becoming Incarnate of the Virgin Mary and becoming man. I thank You  for living among us and allowing us to see Your glory, the glory of the one and only, full of grace and truth. Therefore of all my hopes & desires, I realize that only You satisfy. I place my past, present & future in Your hands and say. Maranatha! Come Lord Jesus.

The Keys to Divine Authority

This article is about keys. Keys opening up treasures in the depths of truth. Treasures that can be the find of a lifetime, of many lifetimes. The first key is the one to understanding the Word of God in Scripture. This is a key handed down to us through the sayings of Apostolic Fathers like Saint Augustine, who said "The Old Testament conceals the New, and the New Testament reveals the Old". Therefore the key he says, of understanding Holy Scripture is through the lens of unity, the all-encompassing, unifying vision of the giants of the past and present. Standing on the shoulder of giants, we can see several passages in Scripture which bring to light a deeper meaning when we view both Old and New Testaments, not as separate entities, but one unified whole, being weaved by none other than the hand of God, the ultimate author of the Bible.

Using this unified understanding of Scripture, I'd like to bring to your notice two mentions of keys in the -Bible, to reveal the deeper meaning of "handing the keys". The first, Isaiah 22:15-25,

Thus says the LORD to Shebna, master of the palace:
“I will thrust you from your office
and pull you down from your station.
On that day I will summon my servant
Eliakim, son of Hilkiah;
I will clothe him with your robe,
and gird him with your sash,
and give over to him your authority.
He shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem,
and to the house of Judah.
I will place the key of the House of David on Eliakim’s shoulder;
when he opens, no one shall shut
when he shuts, no one shall open.
I will fix him like a peg in a sure spot,
to be a place of honor for his family.”

I'd like to bring your attention to verse 22, easy to remember chapter 22 verse 22 - I will place the key of the House of David on his shoulder; when he opens, no one shall shut, when he shuts, no one shall open. . It reveals the Jewish understanding of certain key phrases which will reappear in the New Testament. What is happening here is that God is supplanting one Prime Minister with another, replacing Shebna with Eliakim son of Hilkiah. God is telling prophet Isaiah to go and tell Shebna that he will be replaced by Eliakim:

"I will place the key of the House of David on his shoulder; when he opens, no one shall shut, when he shuts, no one shall open"

Therefore, through these words, God indicates a transfer of authority - the authority of the House of David. In Jewish times, people were ruled by kings and the kings had a "butler" or Prime Minister, who had the authority of the king, who could act on behalf of the king. For example, when Joseph was in Egypt, he was invested with the authority of Pharaoh, the king of Egypt. Other passages of Scripture also talk about this. The second passage of interest is Matthew 16:13-20.

Jesus went into the region of Caesarea Philippi and
he asked his disciples,
“Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” 
They replied, “Some say John the Baptist, others Elijah,
still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” 
He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” 
Simon Peter said in reply,
“You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” 
Jesus said to him in reply,
“Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah. 
For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father. 
And so I say to you, you are Peter,
and upon this rock I will build my church,
and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it. 
I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven. 
Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven;
and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” 

Here, Jesus tells Peter that he will be given the keys to the kingdom of heaven. This has two important implications, first that Jesus has the authority of the kingdom of heaven, or Divine Authority. Second, that Peter is actually being invested with this same authority - to act on behalf of Christ. It means that the very authority of Jesus Christ is given to Peter, who as the rock (Greek:Petrus) upon which Jesus would build his church, would have the power to bind and loose.

When Jews read the expression of handing the keys, when they heard the words of binding and loosing, they immediately understood a transfer of authority. This seems too much to fathom for many Christians, because today we find it hard to submit to an authority to interpret Scripture. Yet, to not do so would be to leave ourselves impoverished with a weak understanding of scripture. It would be a building without a foundation, because we would have no way to determine or confirm our interpretation of the Bible.

The Power of Holy Communion

Greetings, dear friends who have journeyed with me on this spiritual blog. Let me share with you a great secret, which can change your life and may even save the world. Yet, if you read the Church Fathers, or go through the documents of the Councils of the Catholic Church, you'll find that this has been the central belief of the Church for twenty centuries. What I am talking about is Holy Communion, also called the Holy Eucharist. It is a reality beyond normal human comprehension, something which we can understand to an extent, but beyond that , it is something which goes beyond the capacity of our minds. However, there is a way to understand this secret better - a simple word, which needs to be experienced to be understood properly .. LOVE, but not just any love, but more accurately, agape love (or Caritas in Latin - Deus Caritas Est was the first encyclical of our Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI). Agape love is the highest form of love. Agape involves total self giving to the other. The Eucharist is really an expression of the incomparable love which God has for us. The Bible is a beautiful book which tells us about this love, yet this love was not revealed in its fulness for so many thousands of years in the Old Testament, but only revealed in a person - the person of Jesus Christ. It is our privilege, that despite the hard times we live in, we have recourse to this great gift.

Recently I visited the United States, and while there, my brother drove our family (parents and myself) to Washington DC. During our time there, at one point, the roads were cordoned off by cops and suddenly there drove past us, a formation of sleek black cars with dark tinted windows. Everyone watched with bated breath to see if they could spot the President of the United States or another top official of the country. Come to think of it, we as a society (at least most of us) have accepted democracy and elected these leaders into office. Somehow a lot of people saw in Barack Obama a potential leader who could take the country forward. Whether you prefer democracy or monarchy, meeting the head of State is a unique experience which you will remember a long time, especially if your enthusiasm was returned by the kindness of the personality you met. But why am I talking about this? Because every human being, even if they have not experienced what I'm describing, can surely imagine such a meeting in their mind. But more importantly, because there is a King who is far greater than the President of the U.S or the Prime Minister of India. This King has dominion from one end of the Universe to the other. His rule has extended through all known time and continues on to eternity. It is the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for mankind on Calvary and who waits for people like you and me in the Blessed Sacrament, in a vessel called the monstrance (picture at right) or in a place called the Tabernacle. The best part is, we have the privilege of meeting this king and He is never too busy to meet us. For every pinch of love we show Him, He pours out back into us an infinitely more overflowing portion of His limitless love, plus grace to face our crosses, and strength to withstand the trials of life.

How can it be you may ask, that the King of Kings can be present to us in a simple piece of bread? This is where we begin to enter into the infinitely great but simple secret. It seems surprisingly unlikely, but it is questions like this on our faith that have great truths behind them. The key to unfolding this mysterious reality is the love of God. To explain this, we must delve into the deepest kind of love which we can experience in a human context. When two people, a man and a woman are in love, the test of their love is when their relationship is tested by hardships. Many times young people marry and experience a strong bonding in their youth, where the physical attraction and also the complementary psychology of man and woman favours strong bonding during their time together. But as the initial excitement of their relationship wears off, and the passion of their first love wanes, their fidelity is put to the test. So even in this most beautiful form of human love, both partners are fallible humans and need to make a strong effort to remain faithful, but hats off to the couples who have stood by each other for many years, like my parents. Now applying this human love to a divine perspective, we can try to relate to the immense love of God has for us. When we see the Eucharistic Lord before us in what looks like a piece of bread to our human eyes, what we must meditate on is the humility of God. Because the unique thing about God's love is His absolute desire to meet us exactly where we are. God does not show His true power and majesty by taking an awesome form, though He is perfectly capable of doing incredible things. He takes a form like what Jesus took on the cross - humble and meek, speaking few words, but by His very actions, by His passion and suffering on the cross, He shows us how much He loves us. So the Lord we meet in the Blessed Sacrament is one who meets us in silence. Can we listen to Him speaking in the silence of our hearts? You may be a Catholic or a non-Catholic, but it does not matter who you are. What matters is your desire, your thirst. This is the fountain where God quenches the thirst deep within us - a thirst for love, a thirst to know that through our struggles in life, we are not alone. We are in the arms of a great, big, wonderful God.

Many young people have shared with me how certain activities in the Church, they think of as boring. But our human incomprehension is not to be taken as God's limitation. Perhaps one of the most misunderstood aspects is the Holy Mass. But let me now give a very simple explanation of what the essence of the Mass is. The Mass has two parts - the Word and the Eucharist. The Word is about the Bible - God's message to us. But the Eucharist is about actually meeting the Lord Jesus in a very intimate way. The Mass is about fellowship. Recall the Last Supper. Jesus with the twelve, and Jesus breaks the bread and gives thanks to the Father and says take this and eat, this is my body. And likewise with the wine. Forget the Theological context, which is really very deep. First take a slice of what the Last Supper really was. It was really a most intimate fellowship meal. Now lets return to the Eucharist. Here, God meets us where we are in a more intimate way - in a fellowship meal. Imagine someone as great as God coming to your own house and what's more eating with you, or better still, Jesus has a house in your city and invites you to supper, where you are an esteemed guest at His banquet! This is the reality behind all the prayers during the Mass. This great meeting between God and us is what this was meant to be. We ought to be at a loss of words at this point. But a loss of words not because we are ignorant during the Mass, but because we are in the presence of such a great reality that no words are sufficient to explain it. The very experience of it is so great that living it as the Church has done through the centuries should be our mission.

And even if you are not a Catholic or have not otherwise have received Holy Communion, God is present to you with the same love, mercy, compassion and grace. He longs to be with you, even though He is God. He does not come in power, but in humility. Can you spend a moment to meditate on His awesome presence and His infinite love? No human experience in this life even comes close to the this. As has been said by Church through the centuries, the Mass is indeed the highest form of worship.