5th Sunday of Easter 2016

A Sikh called Singh and a friend were travelling through the mountains of northern India. A winter storm was howling around them. In the midst of the blizzard they found a man lying by the roadside, apparently dead. The Sikh wanted to stay and give help, but his friend refused to even slow down.

The Sikh massaged the hands and feet of the man very briskly, rubbed snow on them, and then took the man onto his back and trudged along slowly. The warmth of the man’s body added to that of his own, had a reviving and sustaining effect on both of them.

After a mile of painful progress, he found another body lying by the wayside. It was that of his late companion, frozen to death. He did not have enough warmth to fight the storm.

This story gives us an analogy that in life there is a journey and a destination. The Sikh and his friend journeyed together to reach their destination. For the Sikh, the journey is as important as the destination; but for his friend, the destination only matters. So the story ends with the Sikh’s friend never reached his destination as he never made his journey worthwhile while the Sikh who saved a man during their journey had finally arrived at his destination.

My dear friends, in our Christian life there is a journey and a destination too. Our destination is heaven. God created us to share His life and love with us. He even sent us His only Son to secure us of our final destination i.e., heaven. Moreover, the Holy Spirit guides us towards this destination. If heaven is our Christian destination, what then comprises our journey? Well, our Gospel reminds us that our life here on earth is a journey. Therefore, we have to make this journey worthwhile. Our journey matters in order to reach our destination which is heaven. Just like the Sikh, we have to do something for the other. Jesus made this clear in our Gospel that we have to love one another as God loves us. If we are only busy thinking about heaven but we never love one another while we are here on earth, then we end up like the Sikh’s friend who never reached his destination. Yet, when we are busy loving one another while we are here on earth, we surely shall reach heaven even though we are not aware of it. My dear friends, we are all in this journey. Let us love one another as Jesus loves us (John 13: 31-35). Amen.