Dear Friends,
These days we have a series of sessions in our church devoted to the study of the Holy Qurbana based on the book "A Devotional Study of the Holy Qurbana" by Barnabas Thirumeni. As part of this series,recently I was listening to a young lady explain the preparations needed to be made by the laity for the Holy Qurbana. Two important thoughts were key: prepare yourselves
for thanksgiving; prepare with repentence.
Repentence is something you genuinely feel, when you realise the pain you cause your heavenly Father, by your thought, word and deed. The thought struck me. Day in and day out, by the words we utter, by the thoughts in our minds, by our actions, by our efforts, both open and secret, how much pain we cause the Lord. Even in small measures, by our inappropriate choice of words, by our sly demeanour, by our double standards, by our cheeky and cunning ways, how much hurt are we daily causing Him. Are we really worth dying for? We can get a glimpse of the conflict in the mind of the Lord in the garden of Gethsemene, when "His sweat flowed as blood" as Holy Tradition teaches us. In His mind, He would have thought about the larger sins of
mankind and the treacheries of the ages past and future, which so hopelessly trapped and entangled the human race, stripping it of its original intended glory, and which was fast accelerating the whole of creation into the complete power of Satan. Also it would have crossed His mind, the individual sins of each of His precious creation, each time an individual
person had turned a blind eye to the Lord, and opened arms to sin.
In Gethsemene that day, He would have probably seen me too, sinning and denying Him, turning the other way, and trying not to think about Him, while engaging in gluttony. Surely He would have seen me each time sinning, and each time forgiven me as He was deliberating with the Holy Father and the Holy Spirit that day in Gethsemene.
On the fateful Friday, when He was shamed and painfully murdered on the Cross, just before giving up His Spirit, when He cried for forgiveness from His Father, His prayer was also for me, for whom He was bearing the horrific death.
I thought, how easy it would have been for the Lord to decide the other way "Away with this sinful creation of mine. They have sinned enough and denied me enough, how stone hearted are they! inspite of my hundreds of instructions and admonitions. I will destroy them and
make new creations out of the stones of the earth, they would be more loyal to me than the sinful and pervert human kind."
Then I thought of the unimaginable love of God who willed this never to happen. The great significance of Christmas then dawned in me: ".. and God became Man". By this act, God made sure that He Himself is united so tightly with his precious but fallen creation -man, in a bond that can never ever be broken. Human mind cannot even begin to fathom the depth of this
love of God towards mankind, a mere creation which could so easily have been substituted with another.
This reveals the truth in what St.John says "we love Him, because He loved us first". Our love is a response only. We initiate nothing. We cannot do anything by ourselves. Even the act of turning to the Lord is initiated by the Lord Himself. We do not hesitate to baptize a baby because we realise that the Love is always initiated from the Lord, never by the individual maturity of man, be it a baby or a grown man.
"..and God became man" so that He can Himself repair the damage done to the crown of His creation. He took our sins with Him to be crucified on the Cross. It was for our sins that He was beaten, and humiliated and killed. He became man, so that He may die for us. He
is the sacrificial Lamb seen in the Old testament, which substituted for the Jews in being slaughtered for their sins.
When we partake in His Holy Body and Blood, we participate in His sacrifice; we die on the Cross with Him, and we rise again with Him,as a new Creation devoid of sin. This renewal and
cleansing is what happens through the Holy Qurbana. Surely then "God became Man" to institute the Holy Qurbana, and to provide a path of salvation to the entire fallen human race. "Anyone who eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him"(john 6:56). (It is a pity and must be a matter of great concern for one and all that we who are heirs to this great revelation has become so dull and unattractive as God's people that we cannot show the
Light to the world, leave alone the world, we cannot even show this Light with conviction to ourselves.)
We see the painful words of the Savior at Gethsemene, "Father, if possible, take this Cup of Suffering away from me" How solemn must have been that moment, where The Holy Trinity is revisiting the Divine plan laid out before the foundations of the World! Is there
another way? Can the Son avoid the Cup of suffering? We are not told how the Holy Spirit would have felt. We are not told anything about the Father's words. But surely there must have been a conversation happening there. We know the result of that discussion though. The Son was ever willing to submit to the Will of the Father, which He knew was always good and perfect; The
Father's Will was to go ahead with the plan. "There is no other way this fallen race can be redeemed" must have been the decision.
Perhaps the Son would have again spared a thought about me sinning several hundred years later, and seen the helpless state of doom we are heading into, and would have realised there is no other way for redemption, then He would have decided to go ahead. Imagine the pain of the Holy Father and the pain of the Holy Spirit, allowing the Holy Son to be sacrficed. What a sacred moment in the history of mankind, when the Holy Trinity would have endorsed the slaughter of the Son! (and we seldom think of this, even the disciples close to Him were fast asleep!).
Perhaps the command would have been given to mighty angels and archangels like Gabriel and Michael and Raphael, to stay back and let the devilish acts of the fateful Friday pass. Perhaps then,and only then, would have Judas the traitor, made His appearance for committing his heinous act of betrayal.
God became man to make man like God, as He was originally created. That is the significance and importance of Christmas ('Janana Perunnal', 'Yeldo'). Christmas is the initiation of the gift of God to his beloved creation: the gift of grace, of free redemption.
I know I sinned yesterday;and even though I repent, going by my track record and my sinful nature, I know I would perhaps again sin tommorrow, till I am alive in my body. There would be times again in future when my words, deeds and thoughts will deny the Lord, but the knowledge that the Lord has opened the path to redemption for me, and the constant reminding by the
Holy Spirit to turn away from the wrongs (the gift of Holy Baptism - the Holy Spirit prodding me constantly that I am God's child), will always serve as signposts and powerful reminders for me causing me to adjust my path in my journey of life, so that I am not condemned for ever. Holy Confession will serve as a tool to complete the repentence I become aware of, and the
Holy Qurbana will be the act to be re-born as a sinless creature once again in the Lord.
I would sin when I make myself numb to the prodding of the Holy Spirit in the things that I do and think, little ones and also more significant ones, by giving into the excesses and perversions of the world.(and how numerous have these been in my life so far!) but each time I realise from my inward being, the pain I cause my Heavenly Father, and begin to understand the significance of why God became Man, I cannot but cry uncontrollably and turn back to Him pleading for His mercy. From this is born true repentance, and from this flows the forgiveness of Holy Confession, and the power of the regeneration through Holy Qurbana.
I thank and congratulate the young lady (who also is my Sunday School student) who brought this out so beautifully the other day and initiated these train of thoughts in me. Sharing them with you hoping it might be somehow useful.
These days we have a series of sessions in our church devoted to the study of the Holy Qurbana based on the book "A Devotional Study of the Holy Qurbana" by Barnabas Thirumeni. As part of this series,recently I was listening to a young lady explain the preparations needed to be made by the laity for the Holy Qurbana. Two important thoughts were key: prepare yourselves
for thanksgiving; prepare with repentence.
Repentence is something you genuinely feel, when you realise the pain you cause your heavenly Father, by your thought, word and deed. The thought struck me. Day in and day out, by the words we utter, by the thoughts in our minds, by our actions, by our efforts, both open and secret, how much pain we cause the Lord. Even in small measures, by our inappropriate choice of words, by our sly demeanour, by our double standards, by our cheeky and cunning ways, how much hurt are we daily causing Him. Are we really worth dying for? We can get a glimpse of the conflict in the mind of the Lord in the garden of Gethsemene, when "His sweat flowed as blood" as Holy Tradition teaches us. In His mind, He would have thought about the larger sins of
mankind and the treacheries of the ages past and future, which so hopelessly trapped and entangled the human race, stripping it of its original intended glory, and which was fast accelerating the whole of creation into the complete power of Satan. Also it would have crossed His mind, the individual sins of each of His precious creation, each time an individual
person had turned a blind eye to the Lord, and opened arms to sin.
In Gethsemene that day, He would have probably seen me too, sinning and denying Him, turning the other way, and trying not to think about Him, while engaging in gluttony. Surely He would have seen me each time sinning, and each time forgiven me as He was deliberating with the Holy Father and the Holy Spirit that day in Gethsemene.
On the fateful Friday, when He was shamed and painfully murdered on the Cross, just before giving up His Spirit, when He cried for forgiveness from His Father, His prayer was also for me, for whom He was bearing the horrific death.
I thought, how easy it would have been for the Lord to decide the other way "Away with this sinful creation of mine. They have sinned enough and denied me enough, how stone hearted are they! inspite of my hundreds of instructions and admonitions. I will destroy them and
make new creations out of the stones of the earth, they would be more loyal to me than the sinful and pervert human kind."
Then I thought of the unimaginable love of God who willed this never to happen. The great significance of Christmas then dawned in me: ".. and God became Man". By this act, God made sure that He Himself is united so tightly with his precious but fallen creation -man, in a bond that can never ever be broken. Human mind cannot even begin to fathom the depth of this
love of God towards mankind, a mere creation which could so easily have been substituted with another.
This reveals the truth in what St.John says "we love Him, because He loved us first". Our love is a response only. We initiate nothing. We cannot do anything by ourselves. Even the act of turning to the Lord is initiated by the Lord Himself. We do not hesitate to baptize a baby because we realise that the Love is always initiated from the Lord, never by the individual maturity of man, be it a baby or a grown man.
"..and God became man" so that He can Himself repair the damage done to the crown of His creation. He took our sins with Him to be crucified on the Cross. It was for our sins that He was beaten, and humiliated and killed. He became man, so that He may die for us. He
is the sacrificial Lamb seen in the Old testament, which substituted for the Jews in being slaughtered for their sins.
When we partake in His Holy Body and Blood, we participate in His sacrifice; we die on the Cross with Him, and we rise again with Him,as a new Creation devoid of sin. This renewal and
cleansing is what happens through the Holy Qurbana. Surely then "God became Man" to institute the Holy Qurbana, and to provide a path of salvation to the entire fallen human race. "Anyone who eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him"(john 6:56). (It is a pity and must be a matter of great concern for one and all that we who are heirs to this great revelation has become so dull and unattractive as God's people that we cannot show the
Light to the world, leave alone the world, we cannot even show this Light with conviction to ourselves.)
We see the painful words of the Savior at Gethsemene, "Father, if possible, take this Cup of Suffering away from me" How solemn must have been that moment, where The Holy Trinity is revisiting the Divine plan laid out before the foundations of the World! Is there
another way? Can the Son avoid the Cup of suffering? We are not told how the Holy Spirit would have felt. We are not told anything about the Father's words. But surely there must have been a conversation happening there. We know the result of that discussion though. The Son was ever willing to submit to the Will of the Father, which He knew was always good and perfect; The
Father's Will was to go ahead with the plan. "There is no other way this fallen race can be redeemed" must have been the decision.
Perhaps the Son would have again spared a thought about me sinning several hundred years later, and seen the helpless state of doom we are heading into, and would have realised there is no other way for redemption, then He would have decided to go ahead. Imagine the pain of the Holy Father and the pain of the Holy Spirit, allowing the Holy Son to be sacrficed. What a sacred moment in the history of mankind, when the Holy Trinity would have endorsed the slaughter of the Son! (and we seldom think of this, even the disciples close to Him were fast asleep!).
Perhaps the command would have been given to mighty angels and archangels like Gabriel and Michael and Raphael, to stay back and let the devilish acts of the fateful Friday pass. Perhaps then,and only then, would have Judas the traitor, made His appearance for committing his heinous act of betrayal.
God became man to make man like God, as He was originally created. That is the significance and importance of Christmas ('Janana Perunnal', 'Yeldo'). Christmas is the initiation of the gift of God to his beloved creation: the gift of grace, of free redemption.
I know I sinned yesterday;and even though I repent, going by my track record and my sinful nature, I know I would perhaps again sin tommorrow, till I am alive in my body. There would be times again in future when my words, deeds and thoughts will deny the Lord, but the knowledge that the Lord has opened the path to redemption for me, and the constant reminding by the
Holy Spirit to turn away from the wrongs (the gift of Holy Baptism - the Holy Spirit prodding me constantly that I am God's child), will always serve as signposts and powerful reminders for me causing me to adjust my path in my journey of life, so that I am not condemned for ever. Holy Confession will serve as a tool to complete the repentence I become aware of, and the
Holy Qurbana will be the act to be re-born as a sinless creature once again in the Lord.
I would sin when I make myself numb to the prodding of the Holy Spirit in the things that I do and think, little ones and also more significant ones, by giving into the excesses and perversions of the world.(and how numerous have these been in my life so far!) but each time I realise from my inward being, the pain I cause my Heavenly Father, and begin to understand the significance of why God became Man, I cannot but cry uncontrollably and turn back to Him pleading for His mercy. From this is born true repentance, and from this flows the forgiveness of Holy Confession, and the power of the regeneration through Holy Qurbana.
I thank and congratulate the young lady (who also is my Sunday School student) who brought this out so beautifully the other day and initiated these train of thoughts in me. Sharing them with you hoping it might be somehow useful.
