THE WORD IN LENT -25

Better than all sacrifices!

Third week in Lent: Saturday, 14th, Mar 2015
Hos 6: 1-6; Lk 18: 9-14

Sacrifices, after all,  are for the sake of humbling ourselves in front of the Lord that we may grow closer and closer to the Lord. If the same sacrifice puffs up my ego and takes me to a higher plane than my brothers and sisters from where I look down on them,  then that sacrifice not only fails to serve its purpose but takes me away from the Lord.

The Lord invites us to understand that our wish and effort to remain faithful to the Lord who has called us,  is much better than all sacrifices. Remaining faithful to that call would mean, becoming more and more like God. ... loving, compassionate and humble in our spirit!

THIS DAY... LAST YEAR...

13th March, 2014...
This day was special last year...
Pope Francis completed his one year of pontificate and
I was returning from Rome, back to India!
Thinking of one year back in India...
I thank God today for the wonderful experiences 
that the Lord keeps filling my life with!
I can never thank you enough O Lord!

THE WORD IN LENT -24

Getting nearer to the Reign

Third week in Lent : Friday, 13th Mar, 2015

Hos 14: 2-10; Mk 12; 28-34

The Word gives today the easiest way of getting nearer to God and God's Reign. It is through a life that is shared,  thanks to the pastoral courtesy of the Christian call. 'Return' is the call; to where?  To the believing community. The Lord awaits us there. Truly being nearer to the Reign would mean right relationships and mutual respect. Getting nearer to the Reign would mean,  getting closer to one another and getting more and more familiar with the One who has called me.

THE WORD IN LENT-23

With hardened hearts
Third week in Lent: Thursday,  12th Mar, 2015
Jer 7: 23-28; Lk 11: 14-23

The world today is living a life of indifference,  an inhuman and incredible indifference, so cold and selfish. That is why in his lenten message Pope Francis warned us against it. The Word today invites us to listen to the Lord speaking, speaking through the cries of the innocent victims;, the cries of the poor,  the tears of those e who have lost their dear ones to violence and crime,  the miseries of those who have never understood the meaning of enough!

Let's beware of branding the poor as lazy,  citing fate for the miseries of some in stark contrast to the filthy affluence of others,  brushing aside the sufferings of those who are victims of injustice saying we have nothing to do with it. ..when we do all these we are closing our eyes,  shutting our ears and hardening our hearts against God! With hardened hearts we will only be against God, scattering what God wants to gather.

THE WORD IN LENT -22

The Rock foundation

Third week in Lent: Wednesday, 11th Mar, 2015

Dt 4: 1,5-9; Mt 5: 17-19

The Commandments were nothing but the expressed wish of the Lord who brought the people up to their status of God's people. The Old Testament people felt assured that when they walked in the path of the commandments, they were on the right track. At times this assurance and the anxiety to hold on to this assurance made them even highly legalistic. Though Jesus stood tooth and nail against legalism, he too respected the commands of the Lord and taught his disciples how to make it humanly possible to abide by those commandments. The expressed wish of the Father, was something sacred and holy to Jesus and he declared that they are never changing, eternal and foundational for our faith. Our faith, our rapport with the Lord, our faithfulness to God has to be based firmly on something and Jesus offers the right solution: the Word of the Lord. The Word which contains the expressed wish of the Father, the word that will never perish, is the Rock foundation on which our faith has to be established! Whoever obeys and teaches these, will be called greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

THE WORD IN LENT -21

It's our nature to forgive

Third week in Lent: Tuesday, 10th Mar, 2015
Dan 3: 25, 34-43; Mt 18: 21-35

The Word today invites us to understand the figure of the Lord as forgiving. The Lord gives and forgives;  if not,  we would die and perish. When the Lord offered us the greatest of all gifts,  God's own image and likeness,  God gave us the very nature the God beholds. We were made like God,  little less than the angels. God forgives and so we are called to forgive. It is our nature to forgive too. When we do not forgive we are negating our very nature; we become alien to ourselves,  we turn not only ungodly but even inhuman! Let us realise the image we bear and live up to that image! Let us forgive,  not just a few times or just when it is convenient but all the time,  amidst all tribulations. Seems a needed message for the present times!

THE WORD IN LENT -20

The call to reach out!

Third week in Lent: Monday, 9th Mar, 2015

2 Kgs5:1-15; Lk 4: 24-30

"Go to the existential peripheries", invites us the Holy Father repeatedly! But why the insistence? One reason I find very close is, because for God there are no peripheries! For God every one is "chosen" in his or her own way; every place is a "chosen place" in its own manner! For God each and every person is at the centre of existence, no one at the existential peripheries, where we have pushed them to. We may brand someone 'strange', 'alien', 'outcast', 'unacceptable' or 'not-worth-relating to'... but let us understand they are at the centre of the universe that God beholds. Be it the widow of Zarephath or Naman from Aram, they were under God's care! Reaching out is a marked call of Lent, to reach out to the other in need! Reaching out means expressing God to the others. When we reach out to the so called marginalised, the so called persons in the periphery, we are actually in the footsteps of the Lord who chose to be with them, chose to be one among them. Let us reach out today, atleast to one person whom we have not considered within our circles of relationships.

THE FOLLY OF GOD

3rd Sunday in Lent: 8th March, 2015

Exo 20: 1-17; 1 Cor 1: 22-25;Jn 2: 13-25

The Crucifix is the symbol of "the foolishness of God", says St. Paul today. Where does the folly lie? In the fact that God loves humanity beyond all the limitations and defects found in it. True love not only does not hurt, but also takes the hurt on itself without any complains. 

The first readings gives us the covenant, the contract, made between the people and the Lord; and the Gospel presents to us the atrocities humanity ventured into, disrespecting all those commandments and Jesus taking the whip against them. What was happening at the temple was an outright breach of the covenant. 

The commandments given to the people ensured the right place for God and the right place for one's brothers and sisters. Both of these were at stake in the Temple as Jesus saw it, that was the reason for Jesus' anger flaring up against them: that they pushed God out of the Temple area and they push the poor and the penniless out of the bounds of the temple area. This was unacceptable to Jesus, the prophet of God, the Son  of God, the righteousness of God! 

Today, as the Lord enters our lives, our personal lives, our family lives, the life in our faith communities, the life in our societies... what would be his reaction. Just take stock: have we given the right place to God, and the right place to our brothers and sisters? 

We know, the right place or the right perspective is not the order of the day! What is the sign that the Lord poses in front of our eyes: not the whip but the Cross, the Crucifix! That is the folly of God. The love of the Lord takes the pain on itself; the crucifix reminds us that every time we hurt humanity we hurt the Lord; the recent inhumanities perpetrated, the rising crimes against women to be seriously thought of today as we keep the International Women's Day, the hurts against the helpless children... the world stands in need of repentance and conversion!

The folly of God, the crucifix alone can drive home the true lesson: love until it hurts! Love never hurts!  

THE WORD IN LENT -18

The  Prodigal Father
Second week in Lent: Saturday,  7th Mar, 2015.
Mic 7: 14-15, 18-20; Lk 15: 11-32

I have always loved this version of the interpretation which says it was not as much the Son who was prodigal with his money as the Father who was prodigal with his mercy. I love it not merely because it sounds rather novel,  but because that seems more likely the point that Jesus wanted to draw-the unconditional and limitless mercy of God.

God offers to cast our sins deep in the ocean,  the ocean of God's  love and mercy. The Word invites us to focus on the right perspective of Christian living... an optimism of continual renewal and unconditional acceptance. Oh how blessed and loved we are!

THE WORD IN LENT -17

Do not Kill

Second week in Lent: Friday,  6th Mar, 2015

Gen e 7: 3-4, 12-17 a,  17-28b; Mt 21: 33-43, 45-47

There is a common phrase in today's readings: come let us kill him! At times we target a helpless individual just because the person is different from us or thinks different from us. Inspite of knowing well that the person is right and just, we tend to gang up against the person merely because he or she is an hindrance to our way of thinking or our way of being. Our words,  or judgements,  the remarks we pass,  the comments we circulate can be really killing the person, worse even than sentencing the person to death. Character assassinations, insensitive treatment of persons,  selfish manipulation of individuals and exploitations of all types are some ways we do away with persons around us!