WORD 2day: 24th July, 2017

Stand up, Cry out and Carry on!

Monday, 16th Week in Ordinary Time

Exo 14: 5-18; Mt 12: 38-42

Look at the images given to us today - the raging waters, the pressing enemy forces, the stone hearted beneficiaries, the swallowing sea monster, the gulf that separates the south and the north, the hard headed wicked generation - there is everywhere threat and the so-called evil stands out. What are you going to do?... Stand up, Cry out and Carry on!

Stand Up against the evil: Jesus never feared the pressurising crowd. He was able to stand up and call a spade a spade. He was able to chide them on their face - you evil generation. A person of God needs that spirit to be bold, to stand up against the evil and to stand up for the truth.

Cry Out to the Lord: It is never by my own power that I can fight the powers of evil. No I cannot. I need to cry out to the Lord, just as Moses did. Moses was mindful of the fact that he was about God's business and it belonged to God to accomplish whatever has to be, in and through God's servants. In whatever we do, we need to acknowledge the presence of God and the workmanship of God.

Carry On with the Lord: Never give in to the pressure of pleasing the clamouring crowd. The world will keep shouting at you, criticising you and giving you easier and more pragmatic alternatives. But what matters is to carry on with the Lord. That is what we see with both Moses and Jesus - they never obeyed the crowd, they never gave in to the expectations of the world. They carried on with the One who had called them: their Father!

THE JUST JUDGE

A Judge Merciful, Patient and Forgiving

16th Sunday in Ordinary Time: 23rd July, 2017

Wis 12: 13, 16-19; Rom 8: 26-27; Mt 13: 24-43

One thing that is certain about anything is, that it will end. Our life too will end! However not necessarily at the end of our life, but at every moment of our life, as we make decisions, as we go through actions, as we choose our words to speak and our opinions to make, we are liable for judgement. The one who judges us is not anyone who is placed above us (our superiors or bosses) or those who are around us (the people whose opinion we depend so much on); but it is Lord God, the Just Judge!

The Lord alone can judge, for it is the Lord alone who knows our innermost thoughts and fundamental attitudes. When the Lord judges, the Lord judges not our actions but our attitudes, not our decisions but our dispositions, not our choices but the underlying intention and the priority. Nothing can escape from the all knowing, ever present God who knows us through and through. That is both a challenge and a grace: a challenge because we cannot deceive God; a grace because the Lord can never judge us rashly - the Lord is a Just Judge.

The Just Judge is Mighty but Merciful. The book of wisdom, in the first reading, so beautifully brings out the fact that the Lord is mighty but merciful as a judge. The Lord knows everything and sees through everything, but treats us with mercy and kindness. As St. Paul expresses in the second reading, the Spirit of the Lord knows us and inspires us from within. At times we fail repeatedly in our daily life, with tendencies that overpower us and with temptations that make us fumble. The Lord knows it all, but the Lord's mercies never cease! The Lord has perfect control over us and can decide to pull out the weeds at anytime, but that is not who God is! God is merciful and loving, slow to anger and abounding in love!

The Just Judge is Particular but Patient. The Lord is not satisfied with any mediocre life. The Lord is particular about the way we are to live our life. The Lord has set an ideal as the acceptable way of life and wants us to live up to that. Nothing short of perfection is acceptable in the eyes of the Lord; but the Lord is patient. The Lord endures the wait. The Lord walks with us, step by step as we proceed towards this perfection. When we lack in perfection we actually are not testing the patience of the Lord, for the Lord's patience is endless, but we are running the risk of not being "gathered into the Lord's barn" (Mt 13:43). There is no end to the Lord's patience, but our possibilities are limited and it is we who have to feel the urgency!

The Just Judge is Firm but Forgiving. The Lord is demanding but absolutely understanding. The Lord's firmness never belittles the readiness to forgive. The justice of the Lord is guided by love, the absolute love that characterises the Lord alone! Firmness of God is in the very nature that we have inherited as sons and daughters of God. We are called to be plants, giving fruit, blossoming flowers and putting forth the yield, because we are children of God. We would belong to the Reign when we give fruit, however small or negligible it be: just a small mustard seed can give rise to a tree that houses hundreds of birds, a bit of yeast can leaven a bunch of dough. The Lord gives us chances but never relents from the demand to bear fruit. Forgiveness is never a compromise, it is always another chance to start anew, firm in conviction to reach the perfection.

The Lord is a just judge, loving and merciful, patient and kind, understanding and forgiving! Yet it is our duty to realise our call and bear fruit, grow into plants and not into weeds!

THE WORD AND THE SAINT

Faith is not just clinging

Celebrating St. Mary Magdalene: 22nd July, 2017

Song 3:1-4; Jn 20: 1-2, 11-18

At times those who wish to show themselves as being faithful and pious have recourse to practices like spending time and energy to appease God, pilgrimage, fasting or other forms of self denial. The feast of Magdalene reminds us of the fact that the love of God is totally gratuitous and greatly challenging. 

The Lord teaches Mary Magdalene, that faith is not merely clinging on to him, but going ahead of him, announcing the Lord's presence to the world, bringing the great news of hope to all around and waiting for the command from the Lord for further action. A mere sentimental attachment to the Lord is an easy alternative while an integral living, a courageous announcement and a personal transformation, makes oneself the message to be shared with all! 

This is true faith: a personal transformation that leads to a convinced proclamation, through a compelling witness. Let us not look to cling to Jesus; let us take Jesus to others by becoming ourselves so filled with Jesus, just as Mary Magdalene was. 

WORD 2day: 21st July, 2017

The Bloodshed and Mercy

Friday, 15th Week in Ordinary Time

Gen 11:10 - 12:14; Mt 12: 1-8

It is popularly spoken of that there is a constant warfare going on in the world between good and evil. Today looking at the situation around: the gau-rakshak craze, the hindutva rising, the ISIS phenomenon, the growing terrorist outfits, the sans-value clamour for world supremacy...all these seem to establish that the evil is mightily powerful. But can we leave it at that? Is there no place for the good? 

The Lord is there, standing by and always standing for the innocent and the good. There seems to be an ongoing contest between the Mercy of God and the bloodshed of humanity. This bloodshed will not stop until every one on earth stops everything, listens to the Lord and experiences the mercy of God! It is the Mercy of God that can save us from all bloodshed, because it is out of this mercy that God chose to shed the blood of God's only son. Will that Mercy stop all bloodshed today?

WORD 2day: 19th July, 2017

The real sign!

Wednesday, 15th week in Ordinary Time

Gen 3: 1-6,9-12; Mt 11:25-27

The story of Moses unfolds, or the story of Israel with Moses at the head. The Lord gives Moses a sign. Read carefully the first reading today: the sign is not about the changing water, festering frogs and buzzing flies, the actual sign the Lord gives is people serving the Lord on the Mount. We cannot get lost with intermediate signs and temporary glamours - like the crying statues, the bleeding icons and so on. The actual sign is in serving the Lord as a people of God. I remember a movie called Joshua, where a new prophetic man enters a community. Everyone thinks he will do great things and develop the society, but all that he does is touch individual hearts and build up the community and every thing else follows! That is what the Lord wants of us today - to touch each other's heart and build up true communion. Once that is done everything will follow. Those who see will exclaim like Jesus does in the Gospel today, giving praises to the Lord. Let us grow in genuine relationship, true mutual concern and sincere care for each other - that is the real sign!

After a Break...

It has been quite some time I blogged...
due to an important chain of events.
Am back in Rome now after 3 years...
And this movement from India to Rome 
took some time, effort and concentration.
I reached Rome on 14th of July...
And here we are...
Let us resume our journey on!

THE WORD AWAITS...

To be Receptive, Perceptive and Productive

15th Sunday in Ordinary Time: 15th July, 2017
Is 55: 10-11; Rom 8: 18-23; Mt 13: 1-23

“The Word is active and alive” says the famous words from the letter the Hebrews (4:12). Isaiah today, presents the same theme drawing our attention to the Word that comes from the Lord and does not return until the Word has accomplished the purpose for which it came! There is no doubt that the Word is active and alive, effective and efficient, powerful and purpose filled… but an unforgettable fact is that producing fruits depends on more than one thing! First and above all, it depends on the receiver, clarifies the Liturgy today. It is not that the Word will be automatically powerful and change-causing, independent of the one who listens to it. Right at the origin when the Scriptures deal with the creation narration, there is a difference made about the way the Word acted in relation the human persons vis-à-vis the other creatures.

The Word awaits the response of the person in order to create in and through the person the desired effect. This is due to the Personal Freedom that the Lord empowers us with. The readings, the first and the Gospel, presents a beautiful analogy…the Word as Seed. The analogy is exceptional because it takes into account this crucial aspect of the readiness of the concerned person to respond, in order that the Word may bear fruit. The Word requires that the receiver is a Good Soil, so that the Word may have its way!

To be good soil, we have to be Receptive:

Unlike the pathway that gives the seed away so easily, and does not have any room for the seed to penetrate, we need to be receptive in order that the Word may have some effect in us. The receptivity consists in our readiness to listen, our love to understand and the willingness to retain.

To be good soil, we have to be Perceptive:

Receiving is not enough, states the parable. The rocky ground and the land covered with thorns did receive the seed, but were not deep enough or prepared enough to send down its roots. Being perceptive consists in spending time with the Word. Allowing the Word to sink into us, to spark insights within us and to challenge our present style of life… these are the qualities that a real listener of the Word will have. Otherwise we would be, as James warns us, fooling ourselves (cf James 1: 22-25).

To be good soil, we have to be Productive:

The yearning for the Reign of God, that St. Paul refers to in the second reading as the mark of being children of God: that is a longing for a change, the eagerness to grow, the energy with which the seed bores the soil to put its head out into the world. We have to moan with the pain of a woman in childbirth; we cannot be complacent with our ordinary, below average spiritual life, if we really want some change to happen within us. The Word challenges us towards this change. It is left to us, to our personal freedom and to our yearning for perfection, to make solid resolutions and follow it up with concrete actions.

The Word awaits such productive grounds, that it may accomplish the task for which it was sent by the Lord. A receptive, perceptive and productive person, is the good soil on which the Reign will germinate, grow and spread into a great tree where birds of all kind will come, reside and rest.

WORD 2day: 13th July, 2017

God sends me before...
Thursday,  14th week in Ordinary time

God sent Joseph before the other brothers to save the tribes of Israel in time of dire need. Jesus sent the apostles two by two to prepare the way before him. God  sent God's only son born of a woman that we may be saved. Today God sends me before God could enter into any social reality or phenomenon to do my best to it, by that preparing the way for the Lord and the Lord's Reign.

WORD 2day: 12th July, 2017

Wednesday,  14th week in Ordinary time

We are all sent... sent to proclaim, sent for others, sent to bring back.

Sent to proclaim the Reign of God, all our life irrespective of opportunities we have or not.

Sent for others, not for ourselves though we have our own life to live. My openness and my other oriented thinking should manifest utmost selflessness.

Sent to bring back, to bring back the lost not by force or fright, but with gentleness and example. First I need to come back to the Lord if I have to bring others to the Lord.

Sent, sent with a purpose, let us me mindful as we go.

THE POWER OF MEEKNESS

9th July, 2017: 14th Sunday of the Ordinary Time

Zech 9: 9-10; Rom 8: 9, 11-13; Mt 11: 25-30

To be powerful, to be the leader, to be dominant, to be in command... these are the dreams people always grow with and crave for. The world advocates it as "normal" ambition of "normal" persons. I know of a priest, who when he comes to a religious house will invariable go to the kitchen and eat with the kitchen staff who cook for us. There is another person whom I know of who owns a property worth a few crores, but eats every meal with the orphan children who live in the orphanage that he runs! These are choices, choices for the weak, the meek, the humble, the powerless and it is here that there is real power! 

The choice of Yahweh in the Old Testament was for such people. God was, God of the poor, the God of the oppressed, the God of the suffering. The concept of 'Anawim Yahweh', that the prophets speak of: the vulnerable, the suffering, the poor, the bowed-down, the people in submission - the Lord stands by them; they are the privileged people of God. The definitive choice of God is seen absolutely in the choice that God makes, to become a human person, go through all that a human person goes through and accept death, even death on the cross (cf. Phil 2). The First reading says the Lord comes not on great splendid chariot or with the power of the horses or powerful weapons. The Lord comes on a colt! "Learn of me for I am meek and humble of heart!"

The readings today present us with three challenges, to be people of God. 

The first is, the challenge to create a counter culture: the people of the Reign are called to be prophets who challenge the present order. The Lord repeatedly instructed during the past week through prophet Amos: Do not be conformed to the world! Challenge the culture that justifies domination and subjugation. Challenge the world that idolises wealth and power and prominence. Do not succumb to the culture of craving for power.

The second is, to challenge one's own ego: the more you do away with your ego, the more you give space to the spirit of the Lord within you, says the first reading today. It is very logical, the less space I give to my ego, the more space I can give to the other; the more space I give the other, the more space I am able to set apart for God.

The third challenge is to create a society that is meek, humble and peaceful. The Lord promises, all those who are tired and heavy laden, 'come to me and I shall give you rest'. But in the very next verse, he says: take my yoke upon you and learn of me - and you will find rest! The conditions placed for the real rest, is taking the yoke from the Lord and learning from the Lord to be humble and meek. 

It is in this meekness that a person is strong. Meekness is not weakness; it is the mighty weapon that Jesus taught us to use to the best of results. Creating a peaceful world, creating a warless society, creating a just and egalitarian society, the change has to begin from within: having a heart that is founded on the balanced ground of the Lord; developing within, a spirit that is unscathed by jealousy and rancour; nurturing a soul that is sweet and filled with love! This sweetness, love, forgiveness, mercy and serenity is the real power of meekness!