C S I Coimbatore Diocese.

Environmental Sunday Creation... a sign to manifest and share God’s Glory FEW BASIC THOUGHTS... God created the world to manifest and share His glory to the world. This means that the entire universe came into being and existence as a result of God’s love. This Love is a divine experience. God’s creation inform s that NON-VIOLENCE IS A FUNDAMENTAL REALITY . When we go back in time, the Gods and old myths, had brought Order, through violence – by conquering other gods also by wrestling something into submission. Violence leading to Order is the old way. God creates (Latin) ex nihilo - out of nothing, but through a generous magnanimous non-violent act. God brings the world into existence through the utterance of his Words & through His act of love. Secondly, whether we like it or not we are CONNECTED TO EACH OTHER . Relationships matter: We are all linked with each other through creation – that we share. What connects us is always powerful and basic than what divides us. We are sis...

2nd Sunday after Pentecost: WISDOM ... from above: Proverbs 2: 4-7 A young and new bank manager made an appointment to meet his predecessor who was retiring – to seek advice for his new responsibilities. He asked his predecessor, “how did you become so successful?” his predecessor looked at him and said “towards good decisions.” The young manager continued, “Well how does one come to make good decisions?” the predecessor replied “experience”. The bank manager asked again, “then how does one gain experience?” the predecessor answered, “bad decisions.” Our life is full of decisions. Many of us are tired of making bad ones. Have we ever seen anybody who has been satisfied with his/her decisions? The CAPACITY TO MAKE GOOD DECISIONS is what the bible calls as wisdom. The ability to choose well, the biblical word is wisdom. SPIRITUAL WISDOM Proverbs 1:7 says “the FEAR OF THE LORD is the beginning of knowledge But fools despise wisdom and instruction”. V.20 “Wisdom calls aloud outside; she ra...

  TRINITY SUNDAY             A loving Father whose occupation was a professional doctor one day came home from work. As he walks through the doors of his home the toddler son who was feeling not very well, jumps into his daddy’s arms saying “Doctor please heal me”. The Father responded in his loving voice “Son you are mistaken. Doctor is what I do, but Father is WHO I am”.            In Christian circles, Trinity is known as the preacher’s nightmare. Today,  we briefly reflect on WHO God is.  God is the Holy Trinity. God the Father, God the son and God the Spirit - God in three persons. What does the word ‘person’ mean?  If we ask God what are you? The answer would be, I am God and I am Divine referring to His nature. If we raise the question WHO are you? Then the answer would be,  I am Father, Son and Holy Spirit - referring to His person which is plural. what we call the Holy Trinity. Tri-Un...

PENTECOST SUNDAY A brief reflection:  Pentecost Sunday signifies the birth of the Church. This Sunday is profoundly significant for millions of Christians in the world. In my reflection today, we discuss on the NATURE of the Church. In the words of the Creed towards the end we utter the following words. “... We believe in One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church...“. Let us see this in depth.   The Church is ONE                Jesus gathers his disciples on the upper room and unites them all in prayer. They are one. Jesus prayed that they might be united. We see this clearly in John 1: 20-23. When we commune we are strengthened and we are also powerful when we are UNITED IN PRAYER. Disunity in the Church constitutes a source of scandal. The unity of the Church is the symbol of ecumenical enrichment and diversity. Spiritual life is never only lived individually – it is a corporate communion which is always in unity with ...

WORLD PEACE DAY WISHES TO ALL. Peace and Conflict Resolution - Abram model: Towards a Borderless Church The word conflict suggests that something is not right. Who has to 'right' the 'wrong'?  Is it possible for us to live a life in this world of distractions, disturbances, stress, strain and conflict? We combat conflict almost every day than never before. This occurrence of conflict is increasing by the day.   The people in the world would like to preserve paraphernalia, have all things, get several gifts, own whatever is possible - and keep them for our selves. We desire what we want and not what we NEED. This gives us temporary pleasure and never a permanent joy. It only creates more tension and stress that eventually affects our thought process and behavior and ends in conflict. How do we resolve this issue? What method we want to use to resolve? Here is a masterstroke from Abram on this subject: MONEY AND MATERIALISM   Abram departs from Egypt along with his nep...

TRUE BUILDER: Acting upon the Word of God Equipping the People of God: (6th Sunday after Pentecost)   A brief reflection on Matt 7: 24-29   The parable of the builders comes at the end of the greatest sermon ever preached by the greatest preacher ever - Jesus. These Parables help us to understand with clarity, the theology behind Jesus words. Therefore we have the Parable of the Builders, for today's  meditation.   MERETRICIOUS... never a builder: We listen to Christian radio programmes, watch Christian TV, and listen to the sermon every Sunday. That is wonderful. We feel happy and satisfied about the sermon. We appreciate the preacher. All that is fine! But, nothing changes. Rivalry continues. Hatred increases. Relationships are cut-off and there is more unrest and untold suffering, discrimination's  prevail, war continues and the earth is plundered: All what we listen, hear and read is information and knowledge and this is not just enough. This ...

REWARD AND PUNISHMENT Our Understanding of God as in the Parable of Talents 5th Sunday after Pentecost   A brief reflection on Matt 25, 14-30   If our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ is forgiving and gracious, then why punish? If so, it undermines our understanding of God.   The faithful are rewarded and the unfaithful are punished. Here the third servant captures our attention. What did he do? Indeed the first one RESPONDED IMMEDIATELY to do business with their talents and gained a 100 percent profit, but the third servant… digs a hole in the ground to hide his master’s talent. Why?   I shall come to that in a minute. Just as there were no instructions in Matt. 25:15, there is no mention here of what business enterprise yielded the first two servants their respective profits. Let me now try to unpack a bundle of three arguments for better clarity:   INQUIRY…   Good Steward: Wise investment The master arrives after a long absence, and the se...

OUR DAILY BREAD A SHARING THAT PRECEDES ABUNDANCE... IN JESUS COMMUNITY: A brief note on Matt 14, 15-16; 15, 32 & 16, 5-11   In the gospel of Matthew the story of the ‘feeding’ occurs twice. Is it because the evangelist found the story so important that he told it twice? If we carefully read Matthew 14 through 16, it becomes clear that there is no repetition of the same story.   FORGOTTEN FARMER... The honour of economy comes up for discussion again - the ‘daily bread’. Approaching the arguments on ‘bread’ in the Bible will hardly be materialistic as I have earlier remarked. Whenever we bring ‘DAILY BREAD’ up for deliberation, whenever we pray for it - we pray for everything necessary for obtaining and enjoyment of bread and are concerned on the oven and the flour but never think about the vast fields, the FARMERS who toil in it and the entire country which ships and delivers our daily bread and everything else we eat. For if God did not let it grow, did not ...

CAUTIOUS OPTIMISM, COST-CONSCIOUSNESS & CORONA 20 th June 2020 A brief meditation on 2 Samuel 23: 13-17 (ESV)           David became thirsty Then he remembers that he is in the area of the well in his native city, Bethlehem. To satisfy his NEED, David could not himself go to the well to drink water: He was in a war zone. Three soldiers volunteered to go and fetch water from the well.   David is PRICE-CONSCIOUS... It did not cost anything to him. Perhaps the three soldiers had to postpone another mission in order to fulfill this one. David certainly had to calculate the danger. The action could be risky. But there was a need to be met. Abandoned mission became the “costs” of production and supply.   David is POWER-CONSCIOUS...   The soldiers breakthrough the enemy lines, get the water and bring it to David. But now all logic is set aside. The risk taken by the soldiers was in vain and the men are rewarded w...

Promise of the Holy Spirit 6th Sunday after Easter  23rd May 2020   A brief reflection on John 14: 15-21   OUTLINE The eleven disciples are now in need of encouragement, particularly in a context of the loss of Jesus. And this is exactly what Jesus provides - not only for the fearful and confused disciples but also for us - especially with reference to, and in continuation of our COVID 19 enterprise - THE VIRTUAL LIFE.   TWO INTRODUCTORY REMARKS   Firstly, the gift of God, which is promised in the scriptures, is preciously personal and profoundly intimate that the 'World' of which we are a part of, cannot receive. These promises, love... would never be seen or experienced by this 'World' - an exclusive gift only for all those who LOVE Jesus; Secondly, only THOSE who receive the promises and the love are known as the persons who love Jesus. (John 14,-16 & 21). The person who loves Jesus is the person who loves the Word/teaching.   ...

Ecclesiastical perspectives on COVID-19 Source: CSI Life Magazine July 2020 edition

Believing in Christ: The Way 4th Sunday after Easter Reflection on John 14, 1-7   Let not your hearts be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me. (John 14, 1 ESV)   HUMAN BEING or HUMAN DOING?   The trouble in the minds of the disciples, troubles Jesus. The disciples had to trust in God even when they could not find his reasons: Jesus is the I AM: He told bereaving Martha (John 11, 25-26) that he was the Resurrection of Life and those who believed in him would live even though they died. For Jesus, Gethsemane experience was awful. He could not keep the thought of the gruesome prospect of the Cross, out of his mind. In faith he pulled on. We have similar situations - TROUBLED HEARTS here. We are anxious, worried and confused. Apart from other worries, the novel virus COVID 19 is spreading and the DANGER IS GROWING (Antonio Guterres, UN Chief) - even globally. Climate change makes the virus more hospitable (Alanna Shaikh) and the evasions and our di...

CHRIST, COMMUNION AND CORONA Communion with the Risen Christ in Daily Life Third Sunday after Easter (2 nd May 2020) St. Luke 24: 13-33   LISTEN WITH EYES AND THINK WITH HEART?   Jesus appeared, walked and talked with the two brothers on the road to Emmaus, and they did not understand it was Him. Why? Did their grief blind them? - Human pain and suffering can do that. What kept them from comprehending Jesus? ‘FAITH-SIGHT’ or mere ‘EYE-SIGHT’ though the EMMAUS BROTHERS did not find out Jesus right away, Jesus was with them and they did have their eyes opened. This event teaches that human sight is inadequate to embrace the resurrected Jesus. Perhaps they listened with their eyes (Luke 24, 16) and thought with their feelings? But 'faith-sight' enables.   OBEDIENCE AND VULNERABILITY   Just because we don't ‘see’ or ‘hear’ doesn't mean that Jesus is not with us. We learn... (Phil 2, 7-8) THROUGH SELF-EMPTYING & SELFLESS LOVE where, how ...