Posts by Radhika Sharda, MD
Choosing Light or the Shadows
Christ is Risen, Alleluia! As Christians we are heirs to the extraordinary reality of the Resurrection. We celebrate this miracle not simply on one day but throughout our lives. Jesus of Nazareth, put to death on the Cross, rose bodily from the dead, a miracle so shocking that it transformed the disciples who encountered him.…
Read MoreFor God So Loved
Growing up in a Hindu family, I went to the temple once or twice a year and was perplexed by the large idols I saw there. They loomed silently over the people like alien figures, expressionless and unfeeling. The silence I felt there was deafening. In stark contrast, the Cross stands like an exclamation point…
Read MoreMiracle, Not Magic
What do miracles look like? Do they flash before us like a spectacle, visible to all who look? Or do they unfold in a more hidden and quiet manner? The miracles we encounter in the Gospels are most often acts of hidden transformation, evident only to those willing to see them. Magic versus Miracle Last…
Read MoreGiving God Your Address
Have you ever noticed that mailing a letter to someone involves reciprocity? You can’t send anything to someone unless he has told you his address. I often marvel at this specificity of location, every time I pen a letter to someone. Out of all the addresses in the world, that person happens to live right…
Read MoreMake Space for Eternity
What happens when something eternal enters human history? How do we, who live in the measures of time, even fathom what the realm beyond time might be like? The Cosmic Calendar Consider the vastness of the universe. Every time we step outside, we encounter a glimpse of the largeness of Creation. Years ago, I came…
Read MoreEven the Smallest Spark is Enough
Every time I light a candle, I am vividly reminded of the gift of faith. As I watch the candle wick catch flame, I marvel at the way a soul can suddenly transform to light, once it receives even the smallest spark. To go from not knowing Christ at all, to knowing and believing in…
Read MoreShe Sat at His Feet and Listened
When I was in college, I had a professor of Shakespeare whose classes often lasted nearly three hours. There was no plan to the day’s lecture, no work to be done; he simply discoursed freely on the genius of Shakespeare, weaving in philosophy and history throughout his talk, so that by the end of each…
Read MoreIf Your Brother Listens, You Have Won Him Over
Confrontation is uncomfortable. Settling a perceived wrong with the person who has done it takes us out of our comfort zone. Far easier it is to complain about it to someone else or to brood over the wound on our own. Yet in today’s Gospel reading, Jesus exhorts his disciples to take the other person…
Read MoreWe Wish to See Jesus
Today’s Gospel reading holds a special fascination for me, because it links the Paschal mystery with Jesus’ desire for those outside the chosen people of Israel. For a long time before my conversion to the faith, I believed that the doors of every church were barred to me as a Hindu. After all, Christ was…
Read MoreAscending and Descending
And he dreamed and behold, there was a ladder set upon the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven… Years ago, when we moved into our home, my boys delighted in discovering a hidden stairway. There was a trapdoor in the ceiling upstairs which could be pulled down to unfold a ladder leading…
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