Do I relate to God in the core of my being?

WORD 2day: 17th November, 2017

Friday, 32nd week in Ordinary Time

Wis 13: 1-9; Lk 17: 26-37

'Fools say in their heart, 'there is no God',' goes Psalm 14:1. Though it is not the spirit of the times to get into an argument with people with variant religious convictions, sometimes it is important to challenge the insincere ones regarding some opinions that are held and promoted with hidden motives and contrived plots. 

The readings today are quite strong against those who probably have religious choice of convenience, than conviction. Many manipulate their or other's religious sentiments to their own convenience and comfort, to achieve their ends and to exploit others. These are the worst kind of human beings one can imagine of - not true even to themselves!

But leaving alone the tendency to point a finger at someone, it is important for me to evaluate my faith! Faith is not merely saying 'yes' to a set of truths, but it is a personal relationship with the person of Jesus Christ, with that Merciful God that he revealed to us, with the Spirit who lives on with us and within us. 

Is it not an ample opportunity for me today to raise this question in my heart: What does my faith mean to me? What are the SIGNS of real faith in my day to day life? Do I really relate to God in the core of my being?

ME - the core of the Reign!

WORD 2day: 16th November, 2017

Thursday, 32nd week in Ordinary Time

Wis 7:22 - 8:1; Lk 17: 20-25

The Reign of God is within you! (Lk 17:21) - this was the statement, they say, that provoked, sustained and gave meaning to Liberation theology in the 70s. Not only that. This was also the teaching that took Jesus to the cross. 

What is so provocative about it? To answer that question from the Gospel, we need to listen to the first reading and the psalm. They speak of the Wisdom of the Lord, the Word of God, that abides with us and within us, the Lord who has come to live amidst us, the whole grace of incarnation. Look at those attributes given to that indwelling Lord: in the form of Wisdom, the Word, the Spirit who is intelligent, holy, unique, manifold, subtle, active, incisive, unsullied, lucid, invulnerable, benevolent, sharp, irresistible, beneficent, loving, steadfast, dependable, unperturbed, almighty, all-knowing, penetrating, all-intelligent, pure and most subtle! The Indwelling Spirit, the Lord who dwells within me, making me the core of God's Reign.

Jesus' proclamation of the arrival of the Reign, or the year of the Lord or the fulfillment of the Word (Lk 4:19,21) was looked at as an offence, because Jesus underlined the proximity, the closeness of God to human beings. Jesus declared every common person the beholder of the Reign, you and me as the core of the Reign!

Even today, if I choose to, I can see God as some one far, distant, removed and isolated. But if I am sincerely observant, I can feel the presence of the Word, the Wisdom, the Incarnate Son walking beside me and I can feel God close and intimate to me because, "God loves nothing so much as the man who lives with wisdom" (Wis 7:28). We need to look at the Reign of God residing within us, at the core of our being. We are indeed the core of the Reign, we need to evolve into it, by our daily choices and lofty ideals.

Faith is to respond!

WORD 2day: 15th November, 2017

Wednesday, 32nd week in Ordinary Time

Wis 6: 1-11; Lk 17: 11-19

The readings seem to converge on one thought today... that the Lord wishes, expects, and demands a response from us! Our God is a self revealing God... through signs and wonders and prophets and wise persons and finally through God's only Son, and continuously even today in and through God's Spirit, God continues to reveal Godself to us in various ways.

The more we are given, the more we are expected to respond! It is not that God gives, so that we would repay! No! But it is that, we are given so much, we are filled with such goodness, we receive "grace upon grace" (Jn 1:16), that we realise it is right and just to give God thanks and praise! 

To know the right thing to be done at the right time and choosing to do it, is a gift of the Holy Spirit...we would be blessed to possess it. And the Lord says today, "set your desire on my words; long for them, and you will be instructed!" (Wis 6:11). Doing the right thing, at the right time, is a response that we give to the Lord and that response is what is expected from me! When I don't respond, I waste what was entrusted to me, as a gift, a treasure! 

Our response to the self revealing God - that is our faith. Growing in faith is learning to respond more and more adequately. Failing to respond is dwindling in faith. Let us grow in faith everyday - let us be attentive to respond to the Lord in every way!

Remaining true to our Salvific Core

WORD 2day: 14th November, 2017

Tuesday, 32nd week in Ordinary Time

Wis 2:23 - 3:9; Lk 17: 7-10

The first reading today states a tremendous truth - we are made for eternity, incorruptible by nature, because we carry the image of God within us! That is the fundamental truth of salvation. We are all saved in the core of our being, none of us is destined to destruction, none of us is rushing towards perdition! But we have a responsibility to keep that truth alive, because it all depends on the choices we make. 

By nature we are God's own children, but if we by our daily decisions and life choices, resolve to break away from God and from the gifts that God has placed within us, we are ruining our own salvific core. We are called every day, every moment to go on living in faith founded on hope and guided by love, to live a life of love and mercy; and at the end of it say, 'we are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty!' 

God who loves us will never desert us, unless we decide to break away from God. It is so important for us to repeat to ourselves - God is with us, that is what God has so clearly promised. The real question is are we with God? By our choices and priorities, are we really with God? We are all saved in the core of our being, because our core is God. Our responsibility is to remain true to that salvific core!

Holiness: Faith lived at the Core

WORD 2day: 13th November, 2017

Monday, 32nd week in Ordinary Time

Wis 1:1-7; Lk 17: 1-6

Holiness is a matter of the innermost being. It does not consist merely of the external signs and shows. Words not said, thoughts not expressed, acts merely contemplated, reactions withheld... these determine my holiness more than what the world around perceives me to be. That is why the strange link between faith and forgiveness in the Gospel today. 

While Jesus teaches the disciples to forgive brothers and sisters, they respond saying - 'increase our faith!' Can sound strange, but only apparently so! One cannot consider oneself to be a person of faith, holy and spiritual, if one's relationships with others is not right. If faith is relationship with God, forgiveness is relationship with my fellow beings! If the latter fails, the former is meaningless. If we want really to be spiritual, we have to forgive, accept, and love our brothers and sisters, as God does with us! 

Lets ask the Lord to "Increase our faith" (Lk 17:5); increase in faith means what the first reading tells us: honesty, simplicity of heart, shunning deceit, being truthful, in short: being godly at the core of our being, not merely in the external show! Yes, holiness is faith lived at the core of our beings. Faith is our daily life lived in the presence of the Lord. The more we grow conscious of the continuous presence of the Lord the more holy we shall grow!

Authentic Faith and Right Relationships

WORD 2day: 11th November, 2017

Saturday, 31st week in Ordinary Time

Rom 16: 3-9,16,22-27; Lk 16: 9-15

Note those words used in the first reading today - friend, fellow workers, fellow prisoners, compatriots, brothers and sisters - it is all full of relationships! Faith without relationships is empty. In fact faith in itself is a relationship, a relationship with God that defines every other relationship in life. Yes, it is all about relationships, but the right ones.

Faith and Right Relationships are connected to each other. Faith creates right relationships and right relationships mark authentic faith. How do we understand right relationships - they are relationships that are centered on God. They are not relationships that turn out to be possessive, selfish, self centered, self seeking, materialistic and mundane. They are relationships that center on God, that promote true selfless love, that respect the mutual dignity and freedom and that edify each other towards the spiritual maturity. These are Right Relationships, nurtured by Authentic Faith. 

When Jesus speaks of choosing one master and letting go of the other, this is what he means. By "money" he means all that is mundane, all that is materialistic and all that is merely utilitarian. By "God" he meant, all that is spiritual, faith centered and truly Divine. Relationships, if they are right, will surely lead us to this Spiritual Edification!

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How long yet that they taste the Lord!

WORD 2day: 10th November, 2017

Friday, 31st week in Ordinary Time

Rom 15: 14-21; Lk 16: 1-8

A couple of days back, a few of us priests had gone for a programme out and were returning by bus! As always, we were enjoying each other's company with cheer and laughter. I noticed an old lady who was sitting by a window and staring at us. She was quite stern faced and gloomy and before I could notice it fully, her eyes caught mine and she asked, 'are you all priests'? (ofcourse, we were in civil clothes and not clerical). No sooner than I nodded in response to her question, she began to curse - you are all liars, the church is finished, it will no longer stand, you are all living in the name of god! Though it was bad that all who were around were looking at us with pity, I could only look with pity at that old lady, and her bitterness that was so vividly portrayed on her face! Certainly she has some experiential baggage that makes her resent so badly. This event instantly popped up in my mind as I sat with the Word today.

How long yet that the bitter people of the world turn around and taste the love of God? Just like the pagans that Paul speaks of and the steward in the Gospel who suddenly discovered his insecurity, the proud and the arrogant, the resentful and godless of today need to come back to the Lord. The role that you and I are called to play here is to be reminders, signs, pointers, of that love and meaning that God alone can offer. For that we need to first take in that love as much as we can and hold it out to the world. For as St Paul affirms, 'those who have never been told about him will see him, and those who have never heard about him will understand.' 

THE WORD AND THE FEAST

Feast of the dedication of the Lateran Basilica: 9th November, 2017

THE ARCHBASILICA OF ST. JOHN AT THE LATERANS, is the oldest, not only among the four Major Papal Basilicas of Rome, but among all the Churches in the West. And this is the most important of all Catholic Churches, even more than St. Peter's because it is the Cathedral of the Bishop of Rome, that is the Pope's Cathedral. That is why it is called the Archbasilica and it is known as the Mother of all Churches. When a Pope is elected and consecrated, he takes possession of this Holy Seat at a formal occasion, making himself the Bishop of Rome. The Basilica is named so, because it was originally the palace of the Laterans, a family of Royal Administrators. It was confiscated from them during the rule of Nero. But when Emperor Constantine married Fausta, the sister of Marcus Aurelius, the Domus Faustae (Fausta's Palace) came into Constantine's hands who in turn gave it to the Bishop of Rome. Later in 324 CE, Pope Silvester I transformed it into the Cathedral of Rome and dedicated it to Jesus Christ the Saviour. Later  in 10th century it was rededicated to St. John the Baptist and once again in 12th century rededicated to St. John the Evangelist. Thus the Church has a principal patron Jesus Christ the Saviour, and two additional patrons, John the Baptist and John the Evangelist. Hence the name, Archbasilica of St. John at the Laterans. 

We celebrate the dedication of this Basilica today and the message is clear: that we are called to become the dwelling places of God, sources of life and wellness to whole humanity. 

BEING FORSAKEN AND MOVING AHEAD

WORD 2day: 4th November, 2017

Saturday, 30th week in Ordinary Time
Rom 11: 1-2,11-12, 25-29; Lk 14: 1,7-11

At times we dare ask that question: has God forsaken me? All the expression of an endless love on God's part notwithstanding I ask that question, and wait for an answer - how cheeky!! 

Forsaking, is not within the precincts of God. Being Forsaken -is an absolutely human parlance! God never forsakes, not even if it is the worst of beings that God is faced with. Because when God creates someone, God does so out of love! That love never changes, as does God's righteousness never change. 

God's righteous love, accepts me whatever state I might be in. But at times, I reject God, keep myself away from God and remain indifferent towards God. I look for other things - human respect, worldly success, material affluence, social status and mundane glory! God is sideline and forsaken. Jesus challenges us: move ahead my friend!

Grow up and realise that it is not God who forsakes you; you forsake God! Realise it... and then you will be truly able to move ahead and get on with God.

Hope - that makes us Christian!

All Souls Day - 2017

What is the difference between a Christian and an unchristian outlook on anything? 

Hope! The difference is hope. It is hope that makes us see a possibility even in the worst of our daily problems. Hope gives one the serenity and tranquility to approach every day problems with grace. One big unsolved question for the whole humanity is how to understand the end of life and beyond. 

For a Christian, life is changed, not ended; it is transformed not terminated, explains the preface of the Mass for the dead. Jesus' resurrection fills us with hope and that hope does not disappoint us. The hope is towards eternal life, it is the eternal destination that characterises the culmination of this journey on earth. 

Death is just the horizon beyond which we are not able to see what really exists; for if we see, there is no more place for hope (Rom 8:24). All that we see is the Risen Lord, who lives with us and lights our path. And in the Risen Lord is our hope. We hope to see every one of our brothers and sisters gone before us, united in the Risen Lord, as do the saints we celebrated yesterday and our prayer today is that these brothers and sisters of ours join their ranks and that we, at the end of our journey, join that wonderful family, the family that is founded on faith, united in love and kept alive in hope!

It is hope that makes us truly Christian!