“Allowing the ‘tender touch’ of our Blessed Lord to ‘warm” our cold hearts!'”

(Based on Acts 11:19-26 and Jn 10:22-30 – Tuesday of the 4th Week in Easter)

Two explorers who were at extreme parts of the Arctic (= area surrounding the North Pole)…
…. were describing (or rather, boasting!) about the extent of cold in their places.

“It was so cold where I was,” said the first explorer, “that the candle froze and we couldn’t blow it out.”

“That’s nothing,” said his rival.

“Where I was, the words came out of our mouths, in pieces of ice…
… and we had to fry them to hear what we were talking about.”

Well… that’s quite a bit of exaggeration!

But its also a ‘freezy’ reminder to us to check how are our words, our hearts and our lives!

Do we spew out “cold words” of hostility and animosity?
Are our hearts and lives “cold” with indifference and lethargy?

We need the “tender touch” of our Blessed Lord to “warm” our “cold hearts” …
… and in order to come to experience “abundance of life” in Him!

The Gospel of the Day presents the dimension of “coldness” that was experienced by the people, who encountered Jesus, in accepting Him as the Lord of Life.

The Gospel passage the Day begins with St John giving a dual-context in the encounter between Jesus and the people…

1. The religious atmosphere of the time: “The Feast of the Dedication was then taking place in Jerusalem” (Jn 10:22a)
2. The physical atmosphere of the time: “It was winter” (Jn 10:22b)

The Feast of Dedication was also called as Hanukkah.

This feast celebrated the liberation of the city of Jerusalem from Antiochus, the Syrian King.
This King had desecrated the Jerusalem Temple by building an altar to Zeus and sacrificing pigs on the Temple Altar.

The Feast of Dedication celebrates the day that Israel regained control of the temple and re-consecrated it to the one true God!

However, it is to be noted that though year after year, they gathered to celebrate the re-dedication of the Temple…
… their hearts were, perhaps, still far from God Yahweh!
… their lives were, perhaps, still, yet to be in accordance with the Will of God!

This is what St John, the Evangelist, points to, when he speaks of the physical atmosphere of the time: “It was winter” (Jn10:22b)

This statement was not just about the weather or the season of the year

He was describing “a season of life… a season of faith!”

It was his style of diagnosing the interior condition of the “Faith of the People” who had come for the Feast of the Dedication!

Many of the people of Israel, were in a season of “winter”…
…”cold” in their hearts: to accept the person of Jesus – the One Who had inaugurated the Kingdom of God, going about doing a lot of works of salvation and healing!
… “cold” in their minds: to accept the teachings of Jesus – the One Who was exhorting them to live God’s commandments not just externally, but with the sincerity of the heart!
… “cold” in their lives: to accept the challenge of Jesus – the One Who was convicting them of their sinfulness and inviting them to a life of repentance and holiness!

It was this being in a “season of winter” that prompted them to ask Jesus with a sense of apathy and irritation:
“How long are you going to keep us in suspense?
If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly” (Jn 10:24)

“Tell us plainly” was the utterance of a frozen people…
…who had “winter” in their hearts and their minds
… who were “cold” and had begun to take their faith for granted
… who were “frozen” and were merely satisfied with external dedication of the Temple, without an inner renewal of the heart!

We need to examine our lives and check….
… Am I also a “frozen person?”
… Am I also, in a “season of Winter?”

Is my relationship with the Lord…
… a mere utterance of the lips and fails to affect my daily living?

Is my practice of devotion and my participation in the liturgy and sacraments…
… a plain ritualistic and a routine custom, without making me to truly enter into intimacy with the Lord?

Is my life of faith, just an ordinary and lethargic one…
… taking the grace and blessing of the Lord for granted
… and not wanting to make efforts to grow in love of the Lord and neighbour?

The Lord gives us the one straight answer: “My sheep hear my voice; I know them and they follow Me” (Jn 10:27)

We are called to dedicate not just our externalities to the Lord…
… but much more our internalities – our hearts, minds and lives to His Providence

Let us seek to come out of the “Season of Winter!”

Let us….
… be warm in the love of the Lord
… be enthusiastic, receiving the touch of the Divine
… be ardent, to seek, hear and follow the voice of the Good Shepherd!

God Bless! Live Jesus!

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📖 Discovering the beauty of the Catholic Church through the Catechism
MAN’S VOCATION LIFE IN THE SPIRIT – GOD’S SALVATION: LAW AND GRACE

Called to beatitude but wounded by sin, man stands in need of salvation from God.

Divine help comes to him in Christ through the law that guides him and the grace that sustains him. (CCC # 1949)