WORD 2day: 20th August, 2016

The Glory, the Chair and the Good

Saturday, 20th week in Ordinary Time

Ezek 43: 1-7; Mt 23: 1-12

The Glory of the Lord rests on the Temple and the authority of Moses rests with his Chair... Jesus seems to relativise both of these as he instructs his disciples to earn their honour and respect through their actions rather than titles and posts! Names on the plaques, photographs on the flexes, titles on the invitation cards and posts to be attached after names... these are the driving forces that make people do good in today's world. Jesus seems to belittle doing good vis-a-vis the quality of being good! 

The difference between doing good and being good is one of quality...the former centers around the result and the latter revolves around the inspiration; the former is conditioned and the latter is unconditional and natural; the former is opportunistic and latter is timeless and priceless!

What is your choice: just to do good and look to reap its fruits; or to be good come what may!

WORD 2day: 19th August, 2016

The Dry bone Syndrome and the Hope Therapy

Friday, 20th week in Ordinary Time

Ezek 37: 1-14; Mt 22: 34-40

The World today is affected by what we can call the dry bone syndrome - everything seems mechanical, lifeless, insensitive, dry, boring, meaningless, devoid of joy, in fret but without direction... coping with life seems a herculean task! There is a nostalgia among the veterans that the so-called splendour of the past would never return. There is an urge among the up coming generation that the so-called development is not sufficiently paced. There is this generation in transit who try to adapt to both missing out on the goodness of both. The result is frustration, despair...the dry bone syndrome! 

The only possible therapy to this is Hope Therapy... the few who still hold on to the right values and appreciate the goodness in both tradition and modernity, who refuse to compromise on the fundamental values and remain open and flexible towards changing scenarios! They do this because they are filled with genuine love - not with ego and the urge to prove oneself - but with genuine care for the other and sincere wish for the good of the other and of the humanity. That which we call love, is the hope for the times! Hope will never deceive us, says St. Paul. Beyond holding on to the hope given by these good-hearted, love-filled few, we are called to join that band - as hope givers!

WORD 2day: 18th August, 2016

God's Holiness in us!'

Thursday, 20th week in Ordinary Time

Ezek 36: 23-28; Mt 22:1-14

God wishes to display God's holiness in us... what a realisation if only we understand what God wants to communicate by this. At times we reduce our human nature to sinfulness and wickedness, jealousy and egocentrism, lawlessness and insensitivity. The truth is not that: the truth is that we possess within us the holiness of God, the splendour of God, the glorious and majestic image of God. If only we realise it!

When we understand our true nature and the spirit that dwells within us, the spirit from the Lord, our world view will be entirely different and our perspective holistic. That wholeness is Holiness, and that holiness is God's splendour within us. 

We are called to be holy...holiness here is knowing the right perspectives of life and living with right priorities on a daily basis. We claim to have accepted the invitation of God, but if we do not have this balanced perspective and wholesome priorities, we are doomed to be cast out from that presence of the Lord, for it is no holiness that does not result in concrete wholeness!

WORD 2day: 16th August, 2016

Pride Kills

Tuesday,  20th week in Ordinary Time

Ezek 28: 1-10; Mt 19: 23-30

When our eyes are so stuck on what we have received that it ignores or despises the giver, our downfall has sure begun.  This is history and even a story of the present.  Humility as often understood is  not an abasement of oneself but an acceptance oneself in relation to everyone around.

What we possess does not define us.  In fact it should not.  If it does we reduce ourselves to what we have.  What we once have,  another moment we may not.  But what we are would remain for the most same despite changing situations and varied developments.

To know truly who we are and to accept it with serenity is what humility is. Let's beware,  Pride Kills!

WORD 2day: 17th August, 2016

What deserves the Lord's reward?

Wednesday,  20th week in Ordinary Time 

Ezek 34: 1-11; Mt 20: 16-30

Whatever be the commission given by the Lord,  big or  small, simple or complicated,  what counts is not the outcome but our faithfulness to it.  What we do and how much we accomplish may be our concern and that of others surrounding us. But for the Lord how we did it and why we did it matters more.

Shepherds or labourers or hired workers... the purity of our motivation and singleminded commitment to the Lord's purposes, that is what deserves the Lord's reward!

LIVING THE KINGDOM FIRE

20th Sunday in Ordinary Time: 14th August, 2016

Jer 38: 4-6, 8-10; Heb 12:1-4; Lk 12:49-53

I came to set fire... and how I wish it is ablaze already! 

That yearning of Christ has always been satisfied through the century with a spirit of proclamation, sense of perseverance and the passion of prophecy manifested by persons of God.

Jeremiah was called to proclaim what the Lord wanted, and he was taken to task by the truth-haters! Could he modify, manipulate and meddle with the Word of God? Absolutely no! He had to proclaim and he did it, to the extent of going upto the brink of death. the Word was like fire burning in his bones (Jer 21:9). He just could not shut up.

The world will try ceaselessly to tame you, threaten you and domesticate you. Are you going to give up? How early or how far? The letter to the Hebrew says, upto death! There were people who did that. The saint whom we remember on this day...Maxmillian Maria Kolbe is a typical example of that. Why should he die for someone whom he did not even know? He decided to give up his life because that flame was afire in him. He just could not contain it.

Peace and Prophecy...do they go together? That is the question Jesus sets to answer. If we are talking about true peace, prophecy is for peace! If we are speaking of a peace that is filled with compromises, siding with exploitation, promoting insensitivities of any kind, then peace and prophecy are diametrically opposed! What peace are we thinking of? Prophecy here would mean - protest, challenge, change -in short, standing up for the Truth! Speaking up, Rising up, Teaming up against injustice and corruption today, is Christian Prophecy. Are we ready for it? Jesus was doing it, because for him Kingdom meant everything. He was filled with a passion for the Kingdom and he just could not silence it.

Living the Kingdom Fire today, is to have the fire, keep it burning and be consumed by that passion for the Kingdom, wherever we are. Are we afire?

WORD 2day: 12th August, 2016

Goodness as Penalty!

Friday, 19th week in Ordinary Time
Ezek 16: 1-15, 60, 63; Mt 19: 3-12

The Word today brings out the Merciful face of God at its best. The Lord is upset that the people of Israel have abandoned the covenant that they had entered into with the Lord. When the Lord contemplates even a penalty, he contemplates it in terms of goodness! Being good to them and being good to all those who will respect the commandment, this is what the Lord contemplates. The people of Israel lose that privilege as  'chosen race' but every race becomes special provided they had chosen the Lord. 

It is again back to that key element of any spiritual maturity: choice!  The Lord is always good...and we can taste that goodness if we choose to! We can become chosen race, if we choose God to be our priority!

THE WORD AND THE SAINT

Clare and the Christian Bhakti Marg

11th August,  2016
Ezek 12: 1-12; Mt 18:21 - 19:1

Emotional energy and relational attachment to the Lord and Master is not all that weak as it is often looked at with prejudice.  Though this alone may not be the needed disposition for a mature faith,  this  is an essential element of spiritual attachment to the Lord. 

Bhakti Marga is an important way of being united with the Lord in an Indian tradition.  It is translating one's capacity to love genuinely into an intimate devotion to the Divine Master.

St. Clare for me has always stood out as an ardent bhakta who was guided by her total attachment to the Lord. That was missing in the relationship of the people of Israel with Yahweh who had done so much for them.  Jeremiah is  asked to remind the people of that while Jesus explains that one who recognises what one has received from Lord, will not count when he or she gives!

Bhakti is not merely about God and me; it is also about me and others!

THE WORD AND THE SAINT

Sowing and Growing

Celebrating Deacon St. Lawrence - 10th August, 2016

2 Cor 9: 6-10; Jn 12: 24-26

Martyr St. Lawrence gives us the occasion to hear yet another time this classical lesson that the Lord wishes to give us: what you sow you reap; what you are you grow to be! It is important here to notice that the crucial element is not what we do or what we become, but what we are! This is what St. Paul calls, becoming a new person in Christ. To be so transformed in Christ and into Christ, that we are seen as Christ, as another Christ, as alter christus!

Every Martyr gives us this lesson: to die for Christ's sake. It does not mean only dying in the sense of losing one's life, but dying to oneself, dying to one's ego, dying to one's undue attachments, dying to one's fixed ideas, dying to one's weaknesses and fixations. That is martyrdom too...a martyrdom of a totally different nature, a martyrdom that is required of everyone. A martyrdom that has to be undertaken with a sense of gratitude and cheerfulness, inspite of the inconveniences it can cause.

What have we sown around us? What are we growing into? Let us become aware of our sensibilities and check if we are cheerful givers, who are ready to give up, in order to grow up!

WORD 2day: 9th August, 2016

Live the Word from within

Tuesday, 19th week in Ordinary Time

Ezek 2:8 - 3:4; Mt 18: 1-5, 10-14

The first reading today has a beautiful symbolism...the Lord tells the prophet to eat the scroll and then to go and speak to the people the Word of God. The idea is clear - there is not use in knowing what the Lord says, or saying what the Lord says - what matters is living what the Lord says. That we will be able to do only if the word resides within us - thus the call to EAT the scroll containing the Word.

The disciples, we see today in the Gospel, heard the word from Jesus, spoke about it, but they never personalised it. They were unaffected by the Word and that is why they were worried about who will be the greatest among them. The Lord challenges them to listen to the word, eat the word and live the word from within! Are we prepared, because the Lord calls us too!