Reflection paper about the classes of fr. Romolo

Nidhin

The classes of fr. Romolo were really inspiring and full of knowledge. The classes on Christology, according to fr. Romolo should be an encounter with Jesus. We really start to love a thing only when our intellect presents it as something good. So the intellectual knowledge about Jesus is very important. In our encounter with Jesus we must encounter with the total Jesus that is  Jesus as fully human and fully divine. The human nature of Jesus we understand from the description of the evangelists. On our journey of encountering with Jesus we would have to go through different levels more specifically three levels. The first level is the level of reason. Here we try to understand Jesus with our intellect. The second level is the affective knowledge that is the knowledge of Jesus as our friend. Then the third and the most important level the knowledge that Jesus is the groom of our soul. This process of knowing Jesus is a life long process. We can never say that we have known Jesus fully. We must know Jesus with our experience. The knowing of Jesus must be implemented in following Jesus. Following Jesus demands more sacrifices and these sacrifices must come out of our love towards Jesus, the love that doesn’t reach in personal sacrifice is not good love.

Fr. Romolo had also given us some trust worthy sources of knowing Jesus: They are “Gospels, Creed, Church teachings and our personal experience of Jesus. Since the OT is fulfilled in NT we can say that the Old Testament gives us the testimonies that Jesus is God, because in Jesus we get the knowledge of the true god, the salvific will of the God is fulfilled in Jesus and the mediation is fulfilled and summarized in Jesus.

Most important knowledge I got through the Christology class of the fr. Romolo is that the hidden life of Jesus is a proof that he was fully a human being. He had really undergone all the life situations that I have in my life and he had also many trials and miseries in his life too. These knowledge gives me courage and more assurance that Jesus can really understand my feelings and troubles as a human being with limitations. Jesus public life also encourages me to do many missions for the people of god as He had done and loved them and lived only for them.

Another important knowledge I had received from sharing of fr. Romolo is about the special devotion of our congregation; the devotion to Five Wounds and the devotion to the Holy spouses. They always go together. The five wound are the signs of love of god towards the human kind. We are saved through these wounds. This is a mark or seal of the Nuptial union of Jesus with man. The holy spouses are the models of the nuptial union of man to Jesus. The stigmata are the signs of union in the midst of sufferings. In the life of holy souses also we find these sufferings. They also abandoned themselves and their all dreams for the fulfillment of the will of God. In the life of Jesus also we see this sufferings and abandonment of his will for the fulfillment of the will of God the Father, “Yet not what I want but what you want” (mk. 14:36).

Fr. Romolo’s classes on the psalms were also inspiring and rich in knowledge and devotion. Those classes helped me to understand the meaning and the importance of the liturgical prayers that we do every day. The psalms don’t speak about god but these are the dialogue to god. When we pray the psalm we speak to god. These are not simply inspired ideas but inspired prayers. The psalms include all the feelings and emotions of man so it can be considered as the best prayers. The symbols that are used in the psalms are the beauty of the psalms. The whole creation joins together with us when we pray the psalms. There would be always a triangle form of god, man and creation in all the psalms. The last one that is the creation is changeable and it can be replaced with our feeling or our enemies. Psalms are also giving us some hints about Jesus Christ. Therefore we can conclude that the subjects that fr. Romolo had chosen for us are interconnected and leads to the knowledge of Christ and the necessity of following him.