My Blog/jyojyo

In the time after that the transfiguration of Jesus was
revealed, Jesus with Peter, James and John has to go down from the top of the
mountain. In the same way likewise, we have to go down for us to face the
reality of our lives. Jesus meanwhile has to face death as he goes down hill
and approach Jerusalem thereon. In a separate occasion, in order for Jesus to
cure the man born blind, he need to spit in the mud that he must place in the eyes
of the blind man. Accordingly, Lazarus needs to be untied in the time that
Jesus performed the miracle of resurrecting him (Lazarus).

The name “Lazarus” means, “God is my health”. It was
proven that through resurrection, Jesus is more powerful than death thus
conquering it. Christ becomes our companion especially in times of misery.
Miracles were performed for Jesus to reveal the glory of God. “Death cannot
prevent the glory of God,” articulates Fr. Paul Andrew S. Sayon V. He carefully
identified that Jesus is the Master of life and death. He said that we should
prepare for our demise for it is the moment for us that we are to encounter
Jesus.

What took place in the context of the resurrection of
Lazarus is the synonymous reality that Jesus is the giver of life. Because of
sin, man has to face death, but Jesus surpasses this occurrence because with
Jesus, death was conquered replaced by a new life because Jesus is the “life
bearer”, and that his presence is meaningful because he hailed man from sin to glory.
God indeed through Jesus has shown His glory. Each one who shares a
Jesus-filled life, experiencing it, becomes aware of his encounter with Jesus
as the person obtains a new life. Anybody can experience this sequential
process by the side of Jesus if he only desires.

Martha and Mary are believers of Jesus but each of these
two personalities has distinguishable characteristics. While Martha accompanied
Jesus to the tomb of Lazarus, Mary chose to be in solace praying. Martha in
disgust though pays the Lord respect remorse by saying to Jesus that his
brother would not have died if Jesus had been within their reach in the
severity of Lazarus’ illness. In the time that Jesus arrived in the tomb,
Lazarus was already stinking being dead for four days.

Martha grieved in remorse, as Jesus being compassionate is
equally mournful and assures Martha who stays beside, unlike Mary who in solace
was somehow maybe locked in her room or situated in an isolated place,
determined not to question God. With a sort of enlightenment, Fr. Paul says,
“We should not bear a query to God questioning his deeds, as he has his own
Divine plan. When faced with a big problem, we ought to inscribe in our mind
and heart that God loves us even if we are in a difficult situation.”

Standing by God’s presence, we are faced with this
boomerang: “Do we receive Jesus as a visitor in our homes even if he by
omnipresence was somehow disguised in the form of any other person?” By the act
of welcoming Jesus anytime, God becomes generous by attending to our problems
and is attentive to our supplications. We should work hard for a thing, for
after enduring sufferings, it becomes easy for us to relate to someone whose
problem is similar to what we had encountered.

Behind our mere span of sight as we are darkened of
despair, if only we would be flexible as to see light, it will be revealed to
us what satisfactory plan God reserves for our condition. We only need to
surrender our pains and difficulties to God. It should be of our attitude to
check our reminders as in a training camp for us to progress identifying the
right direction. We ought to be confident and sincere before we travail
enduring with strength as we are shaped and are ripe for determination. If we
would only realize that death, especially our own is a beautiful encounter for
it means we can now face Jesus.

If one fears God, death becomes different, as life to a
faithful sojourning pilgrim is but temporary. “We should be prepared to face
death just like our first day in school, like our first communion, and that
upon determining the date of marriage as it approaches as scheduled for we then
are obliged to prepare flowers, dresses and others. Likewise it is sad to note
that when it comes to death, we hide the reality in the time that this has to
pass. It is our duty to prepare the sick and should be aware to allow a priest
to attend to his needed confessions and for him to be anointed not for death
but for spiritual health,” explains Fr. Paul. He said, “Confession and
anointing of the sick gives a new life even in painful moments.”

What is pleasing with Martha is that she expresses faith
in Jesus, that his brother shall obtain life. We should observe that in one’s demise, he knows not where will he be
going, but with the life that Jesus offers, he can have hope, and in the same
way can trust God whom the mourners can rely for their passing family member,
relative or friend. With a priest giving absolution to his (the dying’) sins
through confession meant for God whom the priest personifies and with this God
generous of forgiveness, man can obtain peace and he will be blessed with the
thought that there will be no room for despair in the eve of his death for his
faith is affirmed.

Lazarus came back to life but should be untied. In the
same way if we long to receive peace and face a new life, we should be untied
of our past that we should scrap these away from us, and welcome the rolling
beside of the stone if we have to be raised new and purified. We should
cooperate and participate in many situations of healing, for God is willing to
help us. We can be mitigated even be totally healed or can obtain rescue if we
help ourselves, so God can be assured of the instance in what way will He
approach helping us if we cling to Him as He finds love, with us giving our
consent even if in our human nature we have choices whether we ought to submit
to His desires or chooses to refuse being helped.

-Jyotisman Nearu Upendra 

The Lord still communicates with us even in the most
obscuring situation of our lives. Even in difficult moments, the Lord is still
with us. We are part of him being oil lamps of Holy Ghost indwelling. Citing
for example the experience of Jonah, even in the bottom of the sea, God still
conveys to him what is His will to Jonah’s life. We should discern the will of
God for even the only begotten Son Jesus had been subjected to the will of the
Father. Jesus fasted and prayed, and like us, was tempted though he did not
give in to the Devil’s enticements but manages to be tenacious and was firm to
his mission that is the salvation of man.

It was not actually the length of fasting that Jesus was
steadfast and strong against the luring enemy, but that he was honed and was
prepared for the coming delegation of duties to him by the Father. In Noah’s
time, there was cleansing as it rained for forty days. Moses however
communicated with God by the burning bush for 40 days. Jonah was in 40 days of
preparation for his mission. Combining everything, the common denominator is
that they all prayed.

In the Paschal Mystery, there was suffering, death and
resurrection of our Lord Jesus, in the same way that we must repent, and must
be cleansed by dying to our sins, for us to receive relief as we obtain
healing, with this episode moreover occurring as our sins are forgiven, knowing
well from our hearts that we are shaped as a new being. We can descry that
based from these that are mentioned, it is as if it was arranged that in Acts
2:38 which speaks about repentance, baptism for the forgiveness of sins, and
infilling of the Holy Spirit, we visualize death, burial and resurrection as we
after rigid compunction, ought to bury our sins, receive forgiveness, and
become a new person.

In John 13:1, “Before the feast of the Passover, Jesus
knew that his hour had come to pass from this world to the Father. He loved his
own in the world and he loved them to the end.” If we put this in the context
of dying, he by giving his life loves in perfect dimension even he knew that he
was to be sacrificed and would be assimilated to be like a lamb in slaughter.
He accepts being in paroxysm lured whipped and tortured by the Jews whom he considers
his friends.

Christ died for us that we may obtain salvation and no one
can equal the sacrifice he offers being compelled to accede to the will of his
Father. Salvation through the death of the Son of God is the deliverance
offered to us by God himself. In 1 John 3:16, the following was asserted, “The
way we came to know love was that He laid down his life for us; so we ought to
lay down our lives for our brothers.” Somehow God has this reminder for us in 1
John 3:17-18, “If someone who has worldly means sees a brother in need and
refuses him compassion, how can the love of God remain in him? Children, let us
love not in word or speech but in deed and truth.”

“Christ’s death and resurrection will be useless unless
persons will accept that gift where he offered his life two thousand years
ago,” says an eloquent priest who was invited speaker in a Charismatic prayer
meeting. He somehow disclosed that to him we repeatedly celebrate the Paschal
mystery of Christ because until now many of us believers cannot accept the gift
of salvation. I understand from his talk that, unless man in the moment desired
in his human life, with him gifted of affection, offers himself more so his
heart or life, by accepting the gift of God which is the death of Jesus for the
redemption of our sins as we men need to die from our sins that these may be
effaced, until now in haste man makes himself blind, dead, and mute. No wonder
crimes, distrust and cheating continue to accelerate. What Christian mind do we
have being coiled to our vices and attachments?

Death of Christ will continue to be ineffectual in purpose
if we will not accept the challenge to step out from our dark places as we are
confined to our own arrogance. Every time we bequeath from our houses and
desert prayer meeting places, we begin to see beggars, people present in
streets, and those who are in vehicles seemingly racing, old and young alike
for whom Christ died. We view in Television and listen to radios situational
that makes us believe that the love of man had waxed cold because he abandons
God who is his first love. Likewise, for Christ’s death to be effectual to us,
we should open our hearts, our hands to the gift of God who is Himself in the
form of the only begotten Son, Jesus Christ who is our Lord.

We should direct our selves to welcome changes in
attitudes and evaluate the kind of lives or say lifestyles that we have. We
should purge our own hardness of hearts and listen to the still small voice who
speaks in our inner selves with Him knowing well that we are loved as it is him
who loves his own in the world and these whom he loves are given to him by the
Father. We should embrace our parents and heed to their advices even if the
devil tempting speaks to us that we being in the young generation should be
boastful of our own choices.

We need to be humble enough to be subjected or are
compelled to submit that through correcting our vices, we can obtain
resurrection and be at home with our new selves.

- Jyotisman Nearu Upendra