PRAYERS, QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

WORD 2day: 11th October, 2017

Wednesday, 27th week in Ordinary Time

Jon 4: 1-11; Lk 11: 1-4

A person approached me a few days back with a load of sadness on the face. Sharing all the difficulties that caused the sadness the person said, 'I am ashamed of myself. I ask the Lord so many questions when I have difficulties!" And I immediately said, "you need not! and you should not!" The person was a bit confused and what I shared then, seems perfectly fitting as a reflection on the Word today.

Can I question the Lord? Is that prayerful at all? 

What else is prayer then? 

It is not wrong to ask questions to the Lord. But it is important to wait for the answer. What is wrong is, we ask questions and move away from the Lord, abandon the Lord, quit the presence of the Lord. That is the problem most of us give in to. 

Ask whatever question you want to, because the Lord is your Father and Mother who loves you above all. But after asking the question, remain there till the Lord answers you, as the Lord answered Jonah today. The answer will come, now, later, much later, God alone knows when, but it will come. Because God answers prayers, that is, God answers the question your raise in prayer! God will surely answer...wait!

Praying can very well be asking questions, but only when you are determined to get an answer from the Lord, whatever time it takes! For God's is the kingdom, God's is the power, God's is the glory for evermore!

LISTENING AND DOING

WORD 2day: 10th October, 2017

Tuesday, 27th week in Ordinary Time

Jon 3:1-10; Lk 10:38-42

Is listening better than doing? What about that young man that Jesus spoke to, who came to Jesus and asked a question about being saved and Jesus looked at him with compassion and explained? He listened...was that enough? Or what about that son, in Jesus' parable, who listened to his father with such eagerness, saying 'yes' even before he could finish telling him to go to work in the vineyard? He listened too... was that enough? Today Mary is listening...is that enough?

Is Martha less than Mary for doing so many things, all for Christ? What is the problem here? Martha's doing was like the doing of the Hebrews, all for God but nothing with God! Whatever you do, do it with God... Listen and do! That is the point Jesus was arriving at. Like the people of Nineveh, who listened and acted, Mary was listening to act, listening to do, listening to transform herself!

Neither listening alone nor doing alone will make a difference in our lives, says the Word today. Listening and Doing is what we need to learn. Listening alone will make us useless. Doing alone will make us place the work of God prior to the God of work. So the right Christian attitude will be listening and doing - a doing that is born out of listening and a listening that moves us towards doing!

LOVE ALONE IS THE ANSWER

WORD 2day: 9th October, 2017

Monday, 27th week in Ordinary Time

Jon 1:1 - 2:1, 11; Lk 10: 25-37

Humanity has so many questions - why are the evil people thriving; why are the innocent suffering; why are there exploitations in the world; who is cause of the misery of the poor; why is there so much of violence and killing; what makes people turn against each other... how many questions we face in our daily life in today's world. Yes, Humanity has all these questions, but Love alone is the answer!

People may turn evil, but they were created out of love and they are called live with that love, in joy and fulfillment. When they make mistakes, it begins to affect the other, finally there will be a time when it comes back to them. Self centered exploitation of the other is a deprivation of love and violence and killings are but inevitable consequences of these. 

If Love is felt to be present around, if Love is felt in each one's heart, if Love is found to animate every relationship, if true Love of God governs the whole world, misery, violence, killing, poverty, suffering, injustice, exploitation and every shade of sadness and grief will be wiped out. Will it happen? Let us remember, to every single problem on earth, Love alone is the answer!

SALVATION BY DEFAULT?

There can be no Salvation by default!

27th Sunday in Ordinary Time: 8th October, 2017

Is 5: 1-7; Phil 4: 6-9; Mt 21:33-43

'Are you saved?' - this is one disturbing question that I have often witnessed and shared about, found on the lips of the non-catholic brethren, specially those of the varied denominations other than the mainline churches. That question, kind of, intrigues me at the same time that it challenges me! Let me explain myself. Salvation: as sons and daughters of Christ, we should be confident of it, because the Lord has saved us by his blood. That is why that question intrigues me! But can I take 'being saved' for granted, that whatever I may do or not do, I will be saved? That is a true challenge that this question inspires, but the answer has to be sincere and genuine; such a sincere and genuine answer will of course lead to transformation, both personal and universal! Though not in its entirety, the point that these denominational brethren try to make is the second. In today's computerised digital language, we can state it as follows: there is no Salvation by default!

It is true that there is an Auto-save Option at work - Yes, the very fact that we are the chosen children of God we are automatically saved! God has chosen us and named us after Godself, and made us God's own people. As Peter would say "once you were not a people; but now you are God's people" (1 Pet 2:10); we are made "children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ" (Rom 8:17)! This is what we refer to as our Auto-save option, but for auto-saving, something should have been done which could be saved. The Lord had made us the Lord's vineyard, but have we proved to be vineyards or are we merely a plot of useless thistles? What we sow, that we reap; the Lord has sown and looks forward to see the vine; is it not justified and mandatory that we put forth our fruits? What is there will be saved...that is the auto-save option! Our efforts to live-up to our calling and our identity is what will define us.

It is also true that there is an Auto-Recovery Option at work - at times we fail, we hang, we crash, we shut down without warning! But we need not panic. There is the auto-recovery option that is on. "For you did not receive a spirit slavery to fallback into fear" (Rom 8:15), and that is why St. Paul advises us, "do not worry about anything" (Phil 4:6)! Everything will be recovered, everything will be brought back, reconciled in Christ our salvation; he is the auto-recovery option that is on (cf. Col 1:20). But if something has to be recovered, it should have been there! Again our efforts to belong to Christ (cf. Col 2:20), our efforts to bear fruit, to make most of the short time we have (cf. Eph 5:15,16)... all these count. What truly counts is our sincere and persevering effort.

That is why, though auto-save and auto-recovery are options, salvation is never by default! We have to work it out, on a daily basis! "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling", says St. Paul (Phil 2:24). We are called to live in a situation that is surrounded by all sorts of choices; what choices do we make? A tree will be known by its fruits, it is said; what fruits do we put out? 

As Christians, what identity do we manifest? The Christian families: what identity do we have, living amidst others? What are those which mark us out as being different, being models, being examples and being witnesses? We are weak, we are limited and we have our shortcomings - no one can deny that. But in spite of these, are we prepared to "overcome evil with good" without being "overcome by evil" that is around? (cf.  Rom 12:21). We need to show it by our efforts and by the fruits, however small, that these efforts produce. We have to be transformed into the image of the one after whom we are fashioned. 

Salvation is never by defalut; it is by our choice (of what is true, what is honourable, what is just, what is pure and so on), and by our faithfulness to the call that we have received. Let us take stock of our daily living and be transformed into true vineyards of the Lord.

THE WORD AND THE FEAST

Rosary: a Childlike Prayer

Celebrating the Queen of the Holy Rosary: 7th October, 2017

Celebrating the feast of the Holy Rosary,  we can dwell on three reflections highlighted by the occasion. 

1. The Simplicity of the Prayer:

One of the prominent reasons this prayer has swept the heart of so many down the centuries is the simplicity. Not merely the repetition that is involved, but even the concentration that repetition enables, is a help for those who are not experts in praying to make a reasonable effort to pray. At times, personally I feel the presence of our blessed Mother so mysteriously close as I pray those beads...am certain this is an experience of many.

2. The Profundity of the Prayer:

The simplicity not withstanding the profundity of the prayer draws our attention. Pius V would summarise Rosary as the Synthesis of the Gospels. In fact, in meditating the four mysteries - the joyful, the luminous, the sorrowful and the glorious - we contemplate the entire salvation plan of the Father. The love of the Father comes so overwhelmingly filling our hearts as we contemplate each of those decades.

3. The Prayer of Victories:

The history of the Holy Rosary has a clue for us to understand the prayer better. This feast that celebrates the victory gained over enemies through prayer, was initially celebrated as Our Lady of Victories. Within a short while it was renamed the feast of Our Lady of Holy Rosary. The Holy Rosary is a weapon of victory over the enemies, especially the original enemy the devil, who wishes to win us over from the Eternal Love. 

Blessed Mother of the Holy Rosary, pray for us.

INTEGRITY OR SHAME

WORD 2day: 6th October, 2017

Friday, 26th week in Ordinary Time

Bar 1:15-22; Lk 10:13-16

Anyone has always the choice to make between Integrity and Shame. There is a tendency among people that it is more important to be careful than to be right. People choose to be right not because they are convinced of being right but because they do not want to get into trouble. Be it obeying traffic rules, or paying tax returns, or keeping to the social agreements or carrying out one's assigned duties, in everything people choose to do things in order to avoid consequences than to be true to their selves.

Can we follow the same logic with the Lord who knows our innermost thoughts, our unsaid words and our hidden motivations? Hence comes the whole concept of integrity: being right for the sake of being right, doing something because it is right than because it is acceptable, living out of conviction than in view of convenience. Obeying God has to come out of conviction, that is integrity. If I make use of the name of God and the practices pertaining to God for social acceptability or for my hidden agendas, I am far from integrity and the ultimate consequence will be shame. I live either in constant pressure of pleasing others or in constant fear of shame. Integrity frees me of this because truth will set you free! Look up to the Lord and you will never be put to shame! 

THE WORD AND THE SAINT

The Word Gladdens

Celebrating St.Faustina Kowalska : 5th October, 2017

Neh 8: 1-12; Lk 10: 1-12

The Word gladdens the heart because the Word is the Mercy of God, the Word is the Divine Mercy that revealed itself to St. Faustina Kowalska! When Ezra proclaimed the Word, along with the other levites and the priests, the people cried, not because they were sad but because they were gladdened by the Word. When Jesus sent his disciples to carry the good news to the villages two by two, he commissioned them to cure, heal and exorcise because taking the Word meant taking gladness to the people. 

The Word gladdens one's heart so much that it changes the lives of the one's who hear and understand it. The people heard it and when they understood it they wept, out of joy and gladness for the goodness that the Lord had shown them. The same happened to Sr. Faustina...she was so gladdened by the Word that she left everything and followed the Word. 

Helena Kowalska, who lived in Krakow, was 19 when she had the vision of the Crucified Lord and that was during a dance with her friends! She was transformed and that very night she left everything, her old life, her firends, her family, her place and moved to Warsaw, 85 kms away, because the Word told her. New place, strange circumstances but her heart was full of the vision and finally she landed up with the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy. The reason for the choice: she knew only that she was being led there. Soon the reason was clear too. By 22 she professed in the congregation as Sr. Faustina of the Blessed Sacrament(Faustina meant 'the fortunate one') and in 1931 her visions of Jesus as the King of Mercy began. The devotion to Divine Mercy began with these visions and today we know how profound this devotion has become. 

The Word, listened to and understood, gladdens our heart and changes our lives. How attentive is our listening, how humble is our understanding and how committed is our love for the Word?

The Saint of Peace - Happy Feast!

THE WORD AND THE SAINT

The Marks of Christ: Gentleness and Humility

Celebrating St. Francis of Assisi: 4th October, 2017

Gal 6: 14-18; Mt 11: 28-30

Francis of Assisi is considered a man who managed the maximum resemblance to Christ in his life, not so much due to the marks of the stigmata that he received from the Lord, but more due to the marks of Christ that he lived all his life - that is Gentleness and Humility. Learn from me for I am meek and humble of heart, invites Jesus in the Gospel today. 

Specially today, with the rising fanaticism around the world, we are called to imitate that gentleness and humility of the self emptying Lord. Don't think I am referring only to the fanatic terrorists who are threatening the peace of the world, but more to the fanatics in the garb of Christians, people who are insisting on rules and rubrics, legalities and orthodoxy, the ego and hierarchy, to such an extent that mercy and understanding, dialogue and compassion find no place within the practice of faith and religion. People refuse to see the truth that dialogue is not diluting, compassion is not compromise, instead dialogue and compassion are the ways to bear Christ to the world today, a world that is so torn by fundamentalism and inhumanity. 

Francis came at a time when the  Church was wounded due to various spiritual calamities within the Church in the 10th and the 11th century and he treated those wounds with the compassion of the Lord, the humility of the Son of God and the peace of the Prince of Peace. He showed us that the marks of Christ that all of us can bear in our life, are exactly these: to be instruments of peace, through love, pardon, faith, hope, light, joy, consolation and new life. 

May St. Francis assist us to understand the difference between true holiness and self righteousness, the distance between love and legalism and the need to move from being Christians to becoming Christ ourselves!

KNOWING GOD IS FROM WITHIN

WORD 2day: 3rd October, 2017

Tuesday, 26th week in Ordinary Time

Zech 8: 20-23; Lk 9: 51-56

Though Evangelisation is one great mission that is entrusted to every person who knows God, it is not a means to force anyone to get to know God. One cannot know God by force. In fact, attempting to make people know God by force only works against the very objective. Knowing God has to happen! It should come from within. The concerned person should feel the presence of God in and through the persons around, the situation around and the experiences that happen. Hence evangelisation essentially, is not making people know God but making people see what I have known about God, how I know God and as what I know God! 

Once I really experience God, know God and fall in love with God, people around me see the experience that makes such a difference for me, they wish to get to know God from me and begin to love the One whom I love, on their own. This is true evangelisation, and that comes from within because, without any doubt, knowing God is from within.