Ordination motto “You are not your own” (1 Cor 6:19)

As I am at the threshold of receiving the gift of priesthood, it sets me thinking about the motto I have chosen to live the whole of my priestly life.  The very first thing I want to emphasize by choosing this motto is the fact of being led by Christ. In the world I live and work, I see a dominant pattern of leading oneself. Against a philosophy of semi-pelagianism which proclaims ‘you are your own master,’ I want to bear witness to the truth ‘I am because He is.’ Leading oneself will lead you nowhere. It will only cause you to stumble and fall. That is the reason why St. Peter tells us that there is no stumbling in a life that is perseveringly fixed on Christ and so he exhorts – “be all the more eager to make your call and election firm, for, in doing so, you will never stumble” (2 Pet 1:11). St. Peter is speaking from experience because steeped in his own directions he fell from grace but one look from the Lord was sufficient for him. He wept bitterly. He came back to the Lord very strongly and lived his call of being the Rock only when he allowed himself to be led by the Lord. Jesus clearly told him, being led is sharing in his suffering, “when you were young, you fastened your own belt and walked where you would; but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will fasten your belt for you and carry you where you do not wish to go” (Jn 21: 18).St. Peter understood this when he said, “for it is better to suffer for doing good, if that be the will of God, than for doing evil” (1 Pet 3:17). It is a reminder for me. When I left home for joining the seminary, my elder sister understood when she quoted from the book of Sirach, “My child, when you come to serve the Lord, prepare yourself for trials” (Sir 2:1). It is very easy to follow one’s own inclinations and lead a life while seeking ease and comfort. But it is not that easy when you have to constantly remind yourself – “hey Aneesh, you are not your own, you belong to Christ.” The human heart is always a battlefield between love and lust.” When you belong to the Lord, you cannot claim that you belong to the world too. The line of a poet comes to my mind – “the world is not my home, I am just a passing through.”  St. John reminds me, “For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life, is not of the Father but is of the world” (1 Jn 2:16). So Aneesh, move from being a ‘man of concupiscence’ to a ‘redeemed man of love.’

St. Paul teaches me to be fully saturated with Christ and so he proclaims, “If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord; so then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s” (Rom 14:8). There is no other joy except in belonging to the Lord, “Christ Jesus has made me his own” (Phil 3:12).And so in this journey of being led, I am not alone I am “surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses” (Heb 12:1). I believe in the communion of saints. So I have the saintly companionship of Sts. Peter and Paul and my cherished saints – Blessed Virgin Mary (I have a special devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Undoer of knots) and St. Joseph, Sts. John Bosco, Dominic Savio, John Paul II, John XXIII, Kuriakose Elias Chavara (my patron saint, since my Baptismal name is Kuriakose), Augustine, Aquinas, Monica, Alphonsa, Jose Maria Escriva, Edith Stein and Bl. Mother Theresa of Kolkata. This may be the reason why a priest friend of mine wrote to me, “your experience is not altogether new. The path of experience that you are walking has already been walked by many a great men and women. You are not alone in this journey. And so have the courage to walk.”

The incarnation of Christ constantly reminds me that I am an embodied human being. I have a body with which I am identified as an entity, a person, able to influence another body. This theology of the body has its own language. If the language of Judaism is Hebrew, the language of Islam is Arabic and my mother tongue is Malayalam, the language of Christianity is the ‘body.’ Christ spoke to us with his body at the incarnation (Heb 1:1). The fallen nature of humanity is restored by Christ and now we are no more fallen but redeemed. And while I offer the Eucharist daily, I celebrate the redemption brought about by Christ. “This is my body, given up for you.”  Yes given up for me. There is objective redemption. May God help me appropriate that redemption subjectively moment by moment!

Ask constantly to yourself: If you are not your own, if you are not your own making whose work are you? And tell yourself, “You are his handiwork, created in Christ Jesus” (Eph 2:10). When we try to write the script of our life story, Jesus will gently remind you, “You are a personal letter written by the Spirit of God (2 Cor 3:3). Be aware that “Your life is hidden with Christ in God” (Col 3:3).

“You belong to Christ” (1 Cor 3:23).Belonging to Christ means listening his voice: “everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice” (Jn 18: 37).

“So, as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, walk in him, rooted in him and built upon him and established in the faith as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving” (Col 2:6,7). The conviction of being rooted and built upon him necessitates a belief that “You are God’s field, God’s building” (1 Cor 3:9). “The spirit of God dwells in you” (Rom 8:9) and so “Live your life for God” (Rom 6:10). Because it is, “In him we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28). Then we can say with St. Paul, “It’s no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me” (Gal 2:20).

Fulton sheen in his book, “Priest is not his own” brings about two dimensions of being a priest – the fact of being a victim (offered) and a priest (offerer). Christ, the High priest was at the same time the offerer and the offered at the sacrifice on Calvary. Every Eucharistic celebration calls you and me to live in these two dimensions, taking upon the whole of humanity and offer it to God the Father. Then He will be pleased with your offering. Who shall climb the mountain of the Lord? The one with clean hands and pure heart!

Let my prayer be –

God my Father, you created everyone to visibly image the hidden depths of your being

Help me to be a sign of your glory and presence,

To bear witness to the truth that YOU alone are real.

May my heart not rest till I rest in you!

Jesus my brother, you came in a body

To redeem our fallen bodies,

Help me to appropriate the redemption that you brought about,

May you make of me a healing presence broken and shared at every Eucharist!

Breathe in me oh Holy Spirit your holy anointing,

May my unheard groans of adoption cry out “abba father”

Remind me each day of your abiding presence

To live in the house of the Lord all the days of my life!

Pray for me oh Holy Mother of God that I may be made worthy of the promises of Christ!

My Guardian angel, protect me!