TO BE A MODERN MESSIAH OF CHRIST

The first verse of the gospel of St. Luke presents the pronouncement of Jesus about his messianic secret. It is the inner revelaing of Christ who had to undertake the great suffering for our sake. The purposive ness of his coming was much in contrary to the expectation of the people at that time. The suffering that Jesus had to go is not a minute’s but for hours and hours for the redemption of this sinful world that people of that time would not imagine that their saviour would undergo sufferings to redeem them. Does not the salvation history of Christ seem strange that the messiah, the Son of God going to suffer in the human hands? That is to state that god’s ways are always unknown to man, our humanness cannot comprehend god’s likeness, because God cannot be the God of what a man expects that a God should be.

Later, we Jesus giving the open invitation to all of us during this time of lent, an open challenge put before by Christ to all who want to be his followers. He stresses the need to let go off our self –glorification such as I, ME, MINE, MYSELF and so on. If we want to be his followers then let our self-centeredness should be buried in the other centeredness of Christ and our attitude of indifference and selfishness should be crucified in the generous heart of Christ.let us loose ourselves in christ to have life in him.

Today, I see Jesus placing before me his own self and the world. He calls upon my discernment to choose whether to follow him or to follow my own self-attachments and selfish motives. I see Jesus standing on one side and the other side the world, (with its things of power, pleasure, authority, publicity, recognition and so on) standing. Now it is my choice to decide on which side I would stand. Do I want to stand at the side of Christ, to follow him in his suffering, to be a man for others, to be a man of god, to suffer one with Christ? Or do I want to stand on the side of the world to just remain as a mere spectator to the sufferings of others, only seeking self –glory and self-security, untouched and unmoved by the agony of others. Let us with one heart feel the invitation and call of Christ to stand by him inorder to be modern messiahs in this present world. A man who lives for himself lives never; a man who lives for others lives forever. Let us continue live in the heart of Christ who lived for others, for he is the way, the truth and the life.

BRO. S.VIMALA THIYAGARAJAN