PASSION WEEK

WORLD! ARE WE BEING FOOLED?

Then Jesus told his disciples,”If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me”- Matthew 16:24

The crosses has a significant role in journey of a Christian life. Sufferings, temptations and trials are considered exclusive for those who follow Christ. When we think of this life, we often hesitate to follow the path of Christ. During the preaching of Good news or pacifying someone or guiding someone with the words of relief from Bible, we find ourselves trapped in the failure of its fulfillment. There is a bit of fear lit up in our mind, 'oh there is sufferings and trials'.

Our fear often makes us to walk away from our Father. It transforms us into an escapist who knowingly avoids the facts and duties of a true Christian child. We run away purposely from the hands of our Creator. Why do we do this? Because we love 'US' a lot, we love our family, we love our luxuries, we love the happiness of today and tomorrow, we love the lust of this world and we are not ready to give up all those things that make us happy for following Christ. We love us selfishly. We love the creations more than the one who created it.

When we are under this love of self and love of this world, we are being masked by the magical hands of the world. We can never realize the reality. The shine of the sun is being cut out from our eyes and we just see the sun high above our head. Can we imagine this situation?, Seeing a sun without its Shine. Sometimes we can see this, when there are clouds in the sky. But this sun is of no use. It is really fooling us. Rather than giving light, the sun masked through the clouds, bring more and more heat that can squeeze us out of our life. This condition is same with us, who loves the world. We are being fooled by the worldly happiness. The worldly happiness heats us to the maximum but in reality, it is squeezing our life out from us. To be more precise 'dry frying us in the heat of lust'. Once incinerated, we will be thrown out useless, lifeless and beyond recovery.

We can get this fact clearly when we think in Gods wisdom. For a moment let us give our thoughts to our Creator, let Him show us the real world. In this world, we are enjoying our life to the extent we can. We have our own style of living, our own family, our own likes and passions, our own trade marks, habits and hobbies etc.. etc.. There is a routine on which we are adjusted and we are living happily. But just think for a moment, do this routine remain forever? Are they everlasting and constant?

In our childhood days, we were cuddled and pampered by our parents, we loved to remain so forever, did it remain the same? We always wished to enjoy our life as a teenager, blasting and popping, is the life same even now? We wished to have the settled life with our partner and children, does this life remain the same forever? Or we wished to remain healthy and strong even if old, we wished to do our things by our own, will it be possible forever? The answer is NO. Nothing remains the same forever. The people whom we had in our past life may not be with us now, or they may not be even in this world now. We loose them. We loose everything that we believe to bring happiness forever.

The happiness in buying a new dress, a new car, a new house or gaining anything that our mind desires, may be a job or a possession, whatever it might be, is this happiness the ultimate, will that end our need and desires with perfect satisfaction? NEVER. Nothing can give us the ultimate satisfaction.

So, what we understand from all these array of worldly gains and love is that, there is always a 'chance of loosing' in the happiness that we gain from this world. The boom of happiness that the world gives us now make us believe that we have no sufferings, but here we are being tricked. When we are living, pondering on this world, we are facing difficulties every moment. Let us just think on it. The tensions, the stresses, the physical labor, the pressures in relations, the pressures of satisfaction etc..etc.. we live for satisfying us every moment. Yet we are not. YES we are suffering each moment, yet we pretend that we are enjoying. ARE WE REALLY BEING FOOLED? This is Worldly love.

Now let us see what Lord says to us.

“Come to me all of you who are tired from the heavy burden you have been forced to carry. I will give you rest. Accept my teaching. Learn from me. I am gentle and humble in spirit. And you will be able to get some rest. Yes, the teaching that I ask you to accept is easy. The load I give you to carry is light.” Matthew 11:28-30

Which is easier, the world or the Lord? The world offers happiness with sufferings that is unending, but without help. The Lord offers eternal happiness after a period of suffering, but there is a full proof help if we submit us to Him. Now let us reflect our views of love to world..Are we walking foolishly?

Our Lord, Our Father offers us an eternal strength to tide over this world and gain the everlasting happiness. The worldly happiness is momentary , the happiness that we are being carried away now will stop within few period of time, we will loose what we have now and is subject to a change, this may ruin us or change us from the one we are now, and finally will throw us out beyond repair. But the happiness of life that Lord gives us, if we follow Him, is eternal. In this world, there are sufferings, because, we are not of this world.

“And the world has hated them, because they don’t belong to the world, just as I don’t belong to the world.” John 17:14

Even if we choose to follow Him or not to follow Him, the sufferings are sure to come. But the difference lies on the fact that 'how we humans face these sufferings'. If we are choosing to stand with worldly love, for a moment we will enjoy the present happiness, but we will surely loose it and we will suffer endlessly without any help and finally we will give up, fully damaged and destroyed. But, if we are choosing to follow our Lord and to submit ourselves to Him, we will live in this world with our Lord, who will carry us in His hands and prepares us for everything during our sufferings, and it is the one, who won over this world, that is with us. He lived in this world, suffered and died in this world, but after a day of silence, He rose forever defeating this world, to take us along with Him to the eternal kingdom with everlasting happiness.

Hence, let us think wisely and realize the difference in sufferings that we will endure in this world with and without following our Lord. Now let us choose the right one. When Our Lord asks us to deny all that we have and take our cross and follow Him, He actually directs us to deny the sufferings of the entities of this world, that we have to face alone, and take the cross that God has given us, which is lighter for us to carry, the rest, God will carry for us. How marvelous is His ways. How great is Our Lords care for us. Why we are being fooled by this worlds magical exhausting love, while our Lord calls us with both hands opening to help us through our journey of life in this world. When the world attracts us to be a slave for its lust that parasites on us to our destruction, Our Lord calls us to win over this world and gain eternal happiness. Let us never fear or be fooled anymore.

"Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful.” John 14:27

This peace in our sufferings is more than enough for us than anything. The peace that God provides in our sufferings, if we walk with Him is like an anesthesia during a major operation. We will know nothing in passing through this difficult period, our Lord carries us on His shoulders.

In this week of passion let us realize that the sufferings of Christ due to this world guided Him to resurrection forever. Christ held strongly to Father in heaven.With the confidence in Father Almighty and along with the tears of Mother Mary ,He got strength to endure the cross till Calvary and beyond it. Even though the worldly powers rejoiced, this was only for a moment, after a day of silence, Christ rose with full power that is everlasting and promising for the children of God. Let us bring Christ to our life to live in this world and win over it for an everlasting resurrection.

Lord loving Father in heaven, help us to realize the truth of living with You. Guide us into the proper way of enjoying life's happiness that is everlasting. Let us not be fooled by this world by fearing us and walking away from You. Make us Your own and transform us as Your child who lives with You forever in confidence. Amen.

Readings

Isaiah 50:4-11

Isaiah 58

James 4