English Reflections

A British Philosopher, and writer said, “Without civic morality, communities perish; without personal morality their survival has no value.” Today we find every trend of moral degradation prevailing in our society and in our community. What is moral and immoral is still debated by many.  Everything is like one packet of combo food, in the packet there are different foods but at the end, after consuming all, one would realize there was no difference in the taste.  I would say for us Christians; a healthy moral life must be based on Christ’s teachings. You can no more invent a new morality than to place a new sun in the sky.   If no Christian morality exists, the “divine spark” will not be seen. Today we face a deep darkness of confusion because we have failed to live up to that morality that Jesus has handed us.
Prophet Ezekiel says, “He who has chosen to renounce all his sin shall certainly live.” God assures us that if we change our way of life then His grace will be upon us; and If we respond to His call, His amazing grace will be available to us all the time.  Even when life seems to be hanging on by a mere thread, the Lord of life holds out hope.
To keep up our morality, we need to take our responsibility.  God will never excuse us from our duty, His fairness consists in holding us responsible for the life we have chosen rather than the one we have forsaken. We must check our initial reaction to the call of God, as did the first son in this Sunday’s Gospel.  He first said, ‘no’ to his father’s call, but “afterwards thought better of it and went” (Mt 21:29.)  We have got the responsibility to develop a reflective attitude to life, to rethink and make the right choice with regards to our moral life.  We must strive to translate our noble promises into noble performances, not like the second son who said, “Yes” to his father, but “did not go.”
Saint Paul reminds us of our moral duty by instructing, “Do nothing out of selfishness or out of vainglory; rather, humbly regard others as more important than yourselves, each looking not for his own interests, but also for those of others. Saint Paul writes this letter to remind them not to bring division in the community, exacerbated by outside oppositions. Same mind, same love, united in heart, thinking one thing. Are the elements of unity!
Christ united himself with humanity even to the Cross, emptying himself, no holding back. Yes, means yes to the point of considering the other person’s interest first.  Day by day our world seems to be reclining towards individualism, materialism, and consumerism.  But still, the moral teaching of Jesus is the foundation of human life and its origin.
 

Fr. Joachim Lepcha

As the smoky and unhealthy air prevailed all over our city and everyone was staying at home with mask on, I was praying in the church every day and reflecting on the beautiful saying of Cardinal Newman; “God has committed some work to me which He has not committed to any other.  I have my mission. I will trust Him.  He does nothing in vain.  He may prolong my life; He may shorten it; He knows what He is about.  O my God.  I will put myself without reserve in thy hands.”  Today we are all asked to commit ourselves totally to His will and we will experience in return His abundant and wonderful gift of grace. That same commitment, Saint Paul expressed in his letter to the Philippians (1:20) as he commits himself to the Lord. “Christ will be glorified in my body, whether by my life or by my death.”
One of the missions in our lives is to work in the vineyard of God; that is to become a coworker in His kingdom on earth and receive exactly what is right from a God who is so generous and lavish.  One of the missions entrusted to us is to forgive those who trespass against us. Forgiveness not only brings joy to the sinner but also a wonderful grace of God in oneself. “Let them turn to the Lord to find mercy, to our God, who is generous in forgiving.” (Is. 55:7) When we have a mission to serve and give more than is necessary, then God will multiply like He did at the wedding at Cana; bread for the crowd; and He pays a day’s wage even to those laborers who came to work at the eleventh hour (Mt. 20:9)
In God’s eyes, we are equal, envy should have no place in our lives. We have been late so many times to respond to God to work in His field.  Many a times we have been lazy, stubborn, and stone hearted to listen to His call and we were late; yet in His generosity, we have been blessed with others who are constantly working in His field. He counts our efforts and change of heart; he does not count our credit.  This parable of the vineyard illustrates very well our theology of grace and mercy. When we express our gratitude to God in our daily lives by sharing our grace, mercy to others, our daily ministry of serving our family, our parish, He will show us his care by giving us his grace and eternal salvation.  Our call to God’s vineyard is a gift from Him for which we can never be sufficiently thankful.


During this difficult time, we are asked to be grateful to God by avoiding sins, by rendering loving service to others, sharing our blessings especially to our parish community, and constant prayer.  Even sometimes we may have doubts in God’s justice, “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways.” (Is. 55:8)
“He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.”  (Mt. 5:45) Coming to work for a whole day or the end of the day, it is His choice to pay.  Regardless of the farmer’s disposition toward God, God gives sunshine and rain to all the farmers in equal portion. When God gives good sunshine and good rain to an evil farmer, it is an example of God loving His enemies. God makes no distinction between the evil and the righteous in this instance—He gives good gifts to both.

Fr. Joachim Lepcha

In the first reading, Ben Sirach offers his critical assessment of the costs of wrath and anger. It causes havoc on human relationships; it has devastating consequences on one’s relationship with God. It means, we as human beings cannot handle the vengeance. We cannot even handle love; forget about vengeance! That is why, God says, “Vengeance is mine; I will repay.” (Rom 12:19) “The vengeful will suffer the Lord’s vengeance.” (Sirach 28:1) Instead, “If you forgive your neighbor’s injustice; then when you pray, your own sins will be forgiven.” (Sirach 28:2)
In the Gospel of Mathew (5:43-44,) Peter presents Jesus with a question about limited forgiveness. The seven and seventy-seven times may be allusions to Genesis 4: 24, but in the Old Testament Reading, Cain is avenged seven times and his son Lamech’s vengeance is symbolically limitless (seventy-seven). Yes, it is true in saying, “Reconciliation is a gift we give to someone else, but forgiveness is a gift we give ourselves.” It takes more energy to hold on to hurt than it does to try and be free of it. Wrath and anger will always take a lot of energy and often only hurt us. There is a famous proverb, “If you want to kill someone, dig two graves, one for the person whom you want to kill and one for yourself.”  If we forgive and let go of all these negative hurts and feelings, it will open us up to experience the forgiveness and peace that God has already offered us and it also opens the door to future reconciliation.
Vengeance may seem sweet at the time, but it only opens the door to the Lord’s vengeance.  Not because God is vengeful, but because our hands are so full, they cannot receive the kindness of our merciful God. Open your hands and your heart! Receive the mercy of God and do unto others as God does to us.
Jesus asks to us to love our enemies. The heart of Christianity is love, but the power of love is in forgiveness. The Lord asks us to forgive seventy times seven (Mt 18:22) that is to be always ready to forgive. Though forgiveness is a difficult thing to do, it warms the heart and cools the sting.   Unforgiving is self-destructive. Everyone needs forgiveness because one way other, knowingly, or unknowingly we might have offended another.  A mean and revengeful disposition shuts out God’s forgiveness and the wrath of God is kindled against the hard and relentless.
There are many ways that we can exercise mercy and forgiveness. We must have time to cool down our anger with rational manner. Let us view all our hurts and offences from God’s point of view. God uses hurts to improve our character, for it is the best teacher to develop our human maturity and spiritual effectiveness. We must sit down and take everything to prayer, relating everything to God in His presence, recalling how much and how often He has forgiven us.  Regardless of the wounds and hurts we may have inflicted on others, God forgives us. That is why we pray, “Forgive us our trespasses as we have forgiven those who sinned against us.”
 

Fr. Joachim Lepcha