Religious Life is a Radical and Total Belonging to Jesus

Religious life is casting the net in deeper waters. Jesus tells the disciples who were at shallow waters and catching nothing, “caste your net into deep waters for a catch” (Luke 5: 4-11). There one would find all different sorts of fishes. To begin with, it is moving away from our comfort zone.

What is religious life? When marriage and ordination are considered sacraments, religious life is not a sacrament, why? It is our baptismal consecration lived fully, radically and totally (Perfectae Caritatis 5). In other words, it is moving out and casting our net into deeper waters.

To understand religious life fully we must understand our baptismal consecration. Baptism is an indelible mark, character, seal placed on us. The Roman Empire and most empires of that time had slaves. Slaves like objects could be stolen from their masters. So each master had developed a seal and put that on slaves indelibly with the help of a burning iron. That mark stated to which master the slave belonged and the master protected the slave. St. Paul brings this idea into our baptismal consecration. “Let no one trouble me any longer, for I bear on my body the marks of Jesus” (Galatians 6: 17). It means that he has a new owner; I belong to Jesus and he defends and protects me. “Having believed, you have been branded with the seal of Christ” (Ephesians 1:13). St Paul’s writing is filled with the phrases, slave of Christ, ambassador of Christ, prisoner of Christ; all these mean the same. If the above is baptism, religious life is a baptised person belonging to Christ totally, fully, and radically. It is one becoming a slave, prisoner or Chrsit totally, fully, and radically. Mark 12: 30 puts it more existentially, “love you God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength” (Mark 12: 30). Never let go, if you are put out through the front door, return back through the back door. With the New Testament it is not the slave’s seal, but the marks/wounds of the crucifixion. “I am crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me” (Galatians 2: 20). Thus a religious person would be able to say, if you have seen me you have seen Jesus. Like Jesus said, whoever has seen me has seen the father (John 14: 9).

Religious life is a total surrender. Pope Francis says, whoever puts Christ at the centre of their life, moves aside… and when we are no more at the centre of lives, we are displaced. We are taken out of ourselves.

Often one mistakeingly defines religious life with the vows, as though vows create religious life. If that is the case even animals could be religious. Vows are either the consequences or the means to total surrender. If we live in total surrender to Christ the consequence of it is a life of poverty, chastity, and obedience. Or, if I want to completely surrender to Christ, a life of poverty, chastity, and obedience become a means to arrive there. Without Christ the centre the vows would become a problem. Once a student after her post graduation in zoology, began her research. Her research was on house lizards. She acquired a house lizard, took care of it, and started her research from its head. Months of studying every part of it. Head, body, and finally she came to its tail. As soon as one holds the tail of a house lizard, it as a survival instinct cuts itself off from its tail. The student did not find it a huge problem, because she had finished studying its head and body. So she let it go. After a few days, the tail without the head and the body began to stink. The tail is useful and complete only when it is along with the head and the body. The same with the vows, it has its beauty only when it is together with one’s total belonging to Christ.

If religious life is a total belonging to Jesus, one who is religious should be where Jesus is. “Whoever serves me must follow me, and wherever I am, there shall my servant be also” (John 12: 26). Thus we get those most popular words in religious life, ‘follow me’. A religious follows Christ to the street, to the temple, to the cross, and also to glory. That is absolute, total, radical following.

Let us examine this radical following with the example of Matthew following Jesus. When Matthew followed Jesus he had literally burned the bridge behind him. Alexander the Great, used to burn the bridges and boats in which his soldiers came to conquer a place. So they had only two choices, either win the war or die. Matthew had nothing left to return back. He was a tax collector for the Romans. He collected taxes from the Jews. The Jews would not give him any other work because the Jews detested the tax collectors who worked for the occupying Romans. Romans would not take him back because Matthew has gone and joined Jesus, whom in their eyes is a Jewish leader, a troublemaker, someone in popular belief was a messiah to free the Jews from the Romans. Matthew knew no other works too. His leaving was total. I wonder what Matthew did when after the death of Jesus, Peter said I am going fishing.

Hebrews 12: 1-2 gives a picture of who a consecrated person is. It is following Christ, with the help and support of his witnesses who have gone before us. It is laying aside our weightage (humility) and sinfulness that restrict us to go free. It is running the race with perseverance, keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus. Jesus moves fast, he does the impossible, if we take our eyes off him, we will lose him. Remember Peter who began walking on the water and lost his balance and way when he took his eyes off Jesus (Matthew 14: 28-31). Jesus is the pioneer and perfector of witnessing God. He, scorning shame, endured the cross; thus entered into his joy and glory.

The purpose of religious life is to ‘witness’. It is reassuring the fallen ones, the vulnerable ones to get up, you can do it. Witnessing is giving courage to those who are frightened and are almost giving up. The authority comes from how totally we belong to Jesus. We are called to live in the world, though not of the world, and dare to embrace a different kind of life. The difference is going beyond what the gentiles do (Matthew 5: 46-48). Exodus 23: 2 says, do not join the majority to do evil. Proverbs 29: 25 says fear of the other is a trap/snare; get out of that pressure. Being religious is daring to be alone in the world, where you seem not belong to, yet be a witness to Jesus.

From the retreat talks by Fr John Kusumalayan, OP.

Comments

New Year, New Beginning

The past year was different to different people. Some of us were very successful, won every battle we fought. Some others of us did not win every battle that we fought, might have found difficult even to get up from bed everyday, we just survived. But for both it is a new year. For those very successful, it is time to stand on the ground and not be overconfident, complacent, arrogant and egoistic. And it is also time to give back. And for those of us not very successful we have another new year with 365 blank pages, 365 blank days. It is a fresh new beginning. Start your dream and go all the way. “There are two mistakes one can make along the road to truth—not going all the way, and not starting”, said Buddha. Every New Year tells that we cannot eternally postpone important things in our lives. We must begin somewhere. How many lives do we have on this earth? One, two, three, four, or more? One of the foremost thinkers and philosophers of China, Confucius, four centuries before ...

2025 Must Create Its Own Art

People are afraid of art, because real art brings the question and the answer into your house. Tonight’s art becomes inadequate and useless when the sun rises in the morning. The mistake lies not in creating art for tonight, but in assuming tonight’s answers will serve tomorrow’s questions. Louise Bourgeois, a French American artist, reflected, “art is a guaranty of sanity;” but that guarantee must be renewed with each dawn, each cultural shift, and each evolution of human consciousness. If some art endures through generations, it is only because of its capacity to speak, its ability to demand fresh interpretations that test and challenge the new. To guarantee sanity in the coming year, 2025 must create its own art. Why create art? Why watch art? Why read literature? True art, in the words of Sunil P Ilayidam, shakes that which is rigid and unchangeable. Art serves as humanity’s persistent earthquake, destabilising comfortable certainties and creating space for new ways of...

Fine Ways of Disregarding Vital Issues

Observing the preoccupations of Pharisees, scribes and religious leaders of his time (Mark 7: 1-23) Jesus commended that they have fine ways of disregarding the commandments of God in order to maintain human traditions and interests. They put aside weightier matters to uphold human decrees. In modern politics we hear the jargon, ‘politics of distraction’. In a country of mass illiteracy and unemployment, farmers’ suicide, etc. politicians and other key people divert public attention by discussing building temples, girls wearing hijab to college, etc. Noam Chomsky, an American social commentator says, “The key element of social control is the strategy of distraction that is to divert public attention from important issues and changes decided by political and economic elites, through the technique of flood or flooding continuous distractions and insignificant information.” The corrupt politicians must have learned this strategy from the pickpockets (or is it visa versa): they di...

Human Empowerment Vs Technological Determinism

This article, Seeking truth in a barrage of biases , presents an inspiring call to action for maintaining our intellectual autonomy in the digital age. Written by J Jehoson Jiresh, it addresses the critical challenge of navigating through algorithmic biases and misinformation while offering hope and practical solutions. The author beautifully frames our modern predicament - how even a simple online search for running shoes can shape our digital landscape - and transforms this everyday observation into a powerful message about reclaiming our agency in the digital world. What's particularly inspiring is the article's emphasis on human empowerment rather than technological determinism. The article presents three key strategies for hope and change: Active critical engagement to question assumptions and challenge biases Seeking diverse perspectives to break free from our echo chambers Demanding transparency and accountability in algorithmic systems Most uplifting is the article...

Zacchaeus’ Last Will

Zacchaeus, as we know, was a chief tax collector and a rich man (Luke 19: 1-10). He, as any tax collectors of his time would do, used to collect much more than due, even by force and violence. Now we might say, in a very self-justifying manner, that I am not a tax collector, thus this gospel does not concern my life and me. The figures of a survey done on taxes; taxpayers and tax collectors could be quite embarrassing. 72% people do not pay taxes fully or partially. They cheat the country and the government. 26% of people pay the full tax, not because they love their country and its development but because of fear of being caught and punished; they are in a search of completely safe ways of evading taxes. The rest 2% are involved in collecting taxes. They cheat the country and people by collecting more and not correctly accounting for it. That leaves us with a 100% of ‘Zacchaeuses’ in our societies. Thus most of us stand in need of salvation for our families and ourselves. Zacchae...

Religion Must Help Greater Acceptance And Not Control

What if you see people who never came to your church or never were part of the universal Church found with God; forgiven by god, loved by god, helped by god, and even pampered by god? Our average human spirit and mind will feel a bit of discomfort and repulsion. That exactly is what is happening with apostle John in Mark 9: 38-41. Membership in a religion in many phases in history, and religious practices like praying, church-going etc. has become tools and means of exercising superiority and control over others, or it becomes a means to exclude people. In the name of religion and religious practices we take control of what can be done, who can do it, what is good and bad, what is moral and what is immoral. This approach creates an exclusive moral, good, pure, and authentic race or people or group. We keep doing it as individuals and institutions for the fear of losing control over others. And that is the end of humanity. Stopping others from doing good comes from a sickening clo...

Inter-religious Sensitivity in the Time of Covid-19

I was religiously pleased and humanly excited to read the story of a Hindu doctor reciting Kalima Shahada for a dying Muslim Covid patient in Kerala. Beevathu, 56 year old, was all isolated from her family in a covid ward. She had been there for 17 days, she was on a ventilator, and it was increasingly clear that there was no hope. After the consent from her family she was taken off from the ventilator. Beevathu lies there between life and death. Nothing more to happen. But like any good dying Muslim, she perhaps wanted to hear the Kalima Shahada (the Islamic oath of faith) to be chanted to her by one of her family members; but there was none, the situation made it so. Dr. Rekha, a Hindu doctor, was attending to her all these days. She knew what was happening, and she also knew what was not happening. Dr. Rekha knew the words of Kalima Shahada , thanks to her upbringing in UAE. She went close to Beevathu’s bed chanted into her ears, “ La ilaha illallah Muhammadur rasulullah...

Great Teachers Create Vocal Students

Picture a classroom where questions are met with impatience, where unique perspectives are dismissed, where vulnerable thoughts are cut short. Gradually, hands stop rising, eyes avoid contact, and the once-vibrant space becomes a vacuum of missed opportunities and untapped potential. This silence is not respect—it is retreat, it is a silent protest, and it is dissent. When teachers fail to listen, they unwittingly construct invisible barriers. Students quickly sense when their contributions hold no value, when their voices are merely tolerated rather than treasured. The natural response is self-preservation through silence. Why risk sharing when no one is truly receiving? This silent classroom is a warning sign. A teacher who does not listen will soon be surrounded by students who do not speak. Andy Stanley has spoken about it on leadership, "a leader who does not listen will gradually be surrounded by people who do not speak." It is true in every field, including educatio...

Jesus Sends Seventy-Two To Meet And Get Transformed

For a person of faith, ‘God comes, ever comes’ is a constant experience; logically, it also means that God goes, ever goes to the other. We read in Romans, “God came to save us when we were still sinners.” At another point of time in history we were the other to whom God came. Throughout his earthly journey, Jesus demonstrated a radical commitment to crossing boundaries, meeting others. This wasn't merely a strategy for spreading his message—it was a fundamental aspect of his vision for humanity. He didn't establish a comfortable base and wait for people to come to him. Instead, he was constantly moving—crossing territorial boundaries, cultural divides, and social barriers. He didn't try to change people from a distance through arguments or condemnation. He shared meals with tax collectors, conversed with Samaritan women, touched lepers, and welcomed children. Each encounter was an act of radical hospitality that said, you matter and your story matters. Jesus didn't k...

SPRINGBOARDS and WALKING STICKS

Search This Blog