Christ's Sacrifice of Obedience

The first reading of today (1st Sunday of Lent) narrates the sin of disobedience of our first parents. As against this sin of disobedience Christ the New Adam makes the final sacrifice of himself a perfect sacrifice of obedience. Thus his sacrifice brings salvation to the whole humanity. To aid an understanding of what the sacrifice of obedience of Jesus was I would like to share an excerpt from my dissertation on Rene Girard's Mimetic Theory of Violence.

The sacrifice of Jesus is quite extensively pondered in the Epistle to the Hebrews. This Epistle partly devoted to explicate the difference between the old sacrifices under the old covenant and Christ’s one and only new sacrifice on the cross under the new covenant. The one and only sacrifice of Jesus is the ‘sacrifice of obedience.’ His was a sacrifice of total surrender to the will of the Father which is evident in Hebrews 10:3-10. The death of Jesus on the cross is part of this sacrifice of obedience.

The whole life of Jesus is one great act of obedience. This is vindicated by the fact that his earthly life is surrounded by references to obedience. The very first words he says upon coming into this world are: “Here I am, ready to do your will” (Hebrews 10:7). The last words are: It is consummated. “Father into your hands I commend my spirit” (Luke 23:46). At every important moment in Jesus’ life there are references to the Father’s will, beginning from the finding in the temple (“Why were you searching for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” Luke 2:49), while passing through Samaria (“My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to complete his work” John 4:34), (“I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge; and my judgment is just, because I seek to do not my own will but the will of him who sent me” John 5:30), in ‘The Bread from Heaven’ discourse (“For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. This is indeed the will of my Father, that all who see the Son and believe in him may have eternal life; and I will raise them up on the last day” John 6:38-40), while at the ‘Festival of Booths (“My teaching is not mine but his who sent me” John 7:16), agony in the garden (“My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done” Mathew 26:42), (“My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done” Luke 22:42), and finally on the cross (“Then Jesus, crying with a loud voice, said, “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.” Having said this, he breathed his last” Luke 23:46).

As we are in this joyous season of lent - joy because of coming back to the Father's house, let us make our own lives a sacrifices of obedience to the loving Father.

Picnic to Mula Dharan

When departure draws close people think of spending more time together - especially the little time that is left before departing. Since the day of departure is arriving super-fast we the SyMPH students organized a picnic to share some light moments together. We went to "Mula Dharan Dam" near Ahmednagar. The best part of the day I should say was the visit to the dam. The dam makes me wonder about the meeting of God's creation and human creativity. The dam is really marvelous and well maintained. We had the opportunity to go to river bed via tunnel - not everyone gets this opportunity. The second best part of the day was the lunch we had on the banks of the river. Fresh fish fry and fish curry was served which was so delicious that I just can't explain it...

We also visited Shirdi to pay homage to "Sai Baba" a favourite saint of our Hindu brotheren. In all these the company of our staff members was really praiseworthy. Their presence was indeed the most cherished one.

HOLY SPRING

We are on the threshold of a very meaningful season which marks a significant phase in the whole plan of salvation. The season of Lent as we know, is a time for renewal – ridding the old self and putting on a new self. I would like draw the example for renewal from the nature itself. If we just gaze at the trees we see them shedding off old and dead leaves and giving birth to the new ones. A tree that was looking bear and dead-like appears fresh, green, full of leaves, full of life. We call this phenomena ‘Spring.’ Lent has to become for us a Holy Spring. Lent has to be a time of death to old selves and rising in Christ on Easter Sunday. But this resurrection has to be preceded by conversion.

The Mother Church offers us a period of forty days to undergo transformation. A period of forty days is not to be taken as a conventional

number used to indicate a period of time necessary for actual preparation and maturation of an event of great significance. Thus the number forty was used to indicate the years that erring Israel had to spend in the desert before they were prepared enough to enter the Promised Land.

Often we might fall prey to the danger of marking lent by time. It may turn out to be a mere practice of the exhortations of the Church regarding the season. One may fast, pray and abstain for forty days and just await the forty first day to get back to old practices. I say, if all the fasting, praying and abstaining don’t lead to a deep conversion experience everything would seem useless.

So as we are about to embark on this beautiful season let us plan how worthily we can enter into the season. Let us plan each step we take with Christ on his way to Calvary. And may every step we take with Christ be a milestone we cross before reaching our conversion, because "conversion is resurrection."

I wish that all of us may be liberated from our iniquities just in time to have a real Easter experience, a death and resurrection experience.

THE SALESIAN CREED

We believe that God loves the young. This is the conviction which is at the origin of our vocation, and which motivates our life and all our pastoral activity.

We believe that Jesus wants to share "his life" with young people: they are the hope of a new future, and in their expectations they bear the seeds of the Kingdom.

We believe that the Spirit is present in them and that through them he wants to build a more authentic and human Christian community. He is already at work in individuals and groups.

He has given them a prophetic task to carry out in the world which is also the world of all of us.

We believe that God is awaiting us in the young to offer us the grace of meeting with him and to dispose us to serve him in them, recognizing their dignity and educating them to the fullness of life.