Fr Paul Achandy CMI
Prior General

We entered in the Lent season, what is meaning of the Lenten mortification and penance?
Lent for me has always been a grace filled time. It is an opportune time to reflect seriously on our routine life from another angle or perspective. As we meditate Jesus of the gospel and especially on His suffering, death and resurrection, it challenges us to stand firm and live our values as Jesus did giving a big price. Ascetic life of mortification and penance gives us mental and physical discipline to enhance the quality of our spiritual life and thereby by our interaction with the human being and the nature.

Lenten season is centred on the passion of Christ and His death, what is the significance of the passion for us humans?
Jesus Christ was a man for others. The birth, life and death of Jesus had a focus on others. He was sent by the Father to redeem others. The suffering becomes a salvific event and there is a thrill in suffering for others. When the parents undergo suffering, there is some joy as they live for the children. Suffering with and suffering for others becomes a salvific event. When you did to the least of my brethren, you did it to me. It is evident human life that the world goes on through the suffering and pain of others.

The cry of Jesus on the cross, though it can be seen as prayer, it is also a cry of the loss of God, what does it tell you?
The cry of Jesus, My God, why hast thou forsaken me? Very well reveals the pain of Jesus – the physical, mental, emotional, social and spiritual pain. It is a pain of being alone and aloof. It is indeed a human reality that when we suffer for a just cause or when we suffer innocently we experience a social and mental isolation. More than the physical pain, the pain of being neglected and misunderstood by the dear ones pains us. Jesus becomes our model to survive and go with hope in such moments in life and the cried experience of Jesus is not His weakness and His authentic being with the weak human beings.

The tragic plays depict man’s conflict with fate, what do the tragic plays tell the audience of life?
The tragic plays challenge us to withstand the tempting times of life and it shows that end of the road is not really the end of the road, but only the bend of the road.

In many tragic plays fate created against man by nature, society or authority triumphs with death of the tragic hero, how is tragic hero victorious, is tragedy dead with Jesus Christ?
Every so called tragedy needs a reflection of the third day. I have seen the people facing all kinds of odds in life: death of dear ones, loss of all their possessions, loss of self-respect and good name. Quite often the so called ordinary people find a light at the end of the tunnel and they face it with hope, the hope of the resurrection and they have the patience to wait for the intervention of the Lord’s third day.

What does Christ crucified tell of man in his tragic sense?
The crucified Jesus strengthens and empowers the man in suffering. We find new meaning and insight. Till we get betrayed, isolated and till we experience a sense of loss, we do not really understand Jesus of Nazareth. There is an interesting dialogue in the movie, Jesus of Nazareth. It is the conversation of Mary to Elizabeth regarding Joseph. Will he believe me? Christ crucified becomes the power and hope to face any cross in life and to walk cheerfully to the third day. The picture becomes clear when we look back from the third day. Life ahead is rather obscure, but life behind becomes joyful.

Do you think that the passion of Christ is not given proper importance in our retreats and preaching but harp on the Gospel of health and wealth?
Health and wealth are the issues affecting human lives. Many sick people went to Jesus to get cured and many went to Jesus after the multiplication of bread. But Jesus leads them to eternal life and living bread. The sickness becomes a means to encounter the Lord. Christ who takes up the cross for the other becomes the message of the retreat and preaching and a Christian is fundamentally one who suffers with and suffers for the others.