About prayer and wisdom

WORD 2day: Monday, 7th week in Ordinary time

February 21, 2022: James 3:13-18; Mark 9: 14-29

Jesus speaks today of those demons which can be sent out only through prayer and fasting! And it looks like James is naming some of those demons... jealousy and ambition. These are prsented by James as the opposites of wisdom. It is against wisdom that comes from the Spirit to have jealousy and ambition - how true!

Jealousy is a misunderstanding of oneself, in relation to others. It is a constant comparison with the other and a feeling of incompleteness which is imaginary and negative. What can one really do to fill in that incompleteness, which is actually not there! It is a very foolish question, isnt it? That is why it is against wisdom. 

Ambition is a misunderstanding of oneself, in relation to God. God has a plan for me and that which will give me serenity and meaning is a happy surrender to the will of God. When that does not happen and I am all the time worried about proving myself to those around, I kill my serenity and lose my mind. Certainly, that is against wisdom of the Spirit. 

And these evil tendencies from the evil one, miliates against the Spirit within us! That which can save us and lead us to serenity, meaning and inner joy is Prayer to the Spirit and the Wisdom from the Spirit.

LOVE AND BE LOVED!

My identity, my mission and a promise!

February 20, 2022: Seventh Sunday in Ordinary time

Samuel 26: 2, 7-9,11-13, 22-23;  1 Corinthians 15:45-49; Luke 6: 27-38

The more we love, the more shall we be loved... loved by the Lord, loved by our fellow beings, and loved by the entire universe around. It is not that the Lord God lays a condition to love us, but the fact is that, we shall be able to experience the unconditional love of God as much as we are ready to love one another. Today we have an interesting set of readings, that impress on us why David was loved by God and by his people,  how God's love promises us a dignity that is incredibly immense and how love alone can set us apart as the people of God. It is not merely a romantic reflection on the value of love, but a concrete explanation of what it entails to really love!

To love is to forgive; it hurts, but it is my identity. At times love is imagined to be some kind of a pleasant feeling and ecstatic experience. But it is not all. Love involves hurts, pains and heart aches. It consists of forgiveness... showing the other cheek, blessing those who curse, and respecting those who vow to destroy you. True love hurts... not the one who is loved, but the one who loves. The one who loves, empties oneself to truly love the other. The best of example is the mystery of Incarnation itself - for God so loved the world that God gave God's only son as a ransom! Can we ask a question, 'why'? Why should God do this? The question does not stand, because it is the very identity of God. God is love. 

We are called to the same mode of living, because that is our identity too! We are created in the image of God; God is love and therefore our image, our identity is love! Anything against it is a distortion of that image. Today when forces speak against and work against the Christian people and the Church, what do we do? We love. Our identity is love. In that love we forgive, we express compassion, we spread love! Be it in the family, or in the society, we need to keep this identity very clear. We are sons and daughters of Love, and therefore, love is our identity.

To love is to give; it drains me, but it is my mission. Love one another as I have loved you, said Jesus and one of the simplest proofs that he gave for one who loves is, Giving. One who loves gives. God loved, God gave - gave everything, absolutely everything. God loves, and God gives! If we love, we need to give, give from what we have and what we are, without measure, without expectation or without any self-benefitting agenda. If I am disciple of Christ, I cannot but give. Giving is a sign of love as a mission. I am sent to give, just as Christ came to give and was sent to give, give of himself, give everything, even his life! So am I, sent to give, because I am sent to love. 

The Martyrs whom we celebrate and venerate... why do we do? Because they died? Because they suffered? Not all who are killed or not all who suffered are proclaimed martyrs...the Church has a wisdom behind to see if they were killed for the faith, if they suffered for their faith. Being killed for faith or suffering for faith means, carrying out the mission of love to the end. I am not sent merely to go and brainwash people and bring them to be baptised! I am sent to love people, to give of myself  in love for the people, to give God's love to people! We can never lose sight of this, because to love is our mission.

To love is to trust; it may look delusive, but it is a promise! When I give and forgive, when I love and do everything for the other, I have a promise that can never fail. That the Lord my God will find me modelled after the image in which I have been created. That I shall attain the fulfilment of my life and life's purpose. David seemed a loser in the eyes of his companions who were with him, for he could have killed Saul and become the king right away! Jesus speaks of allowing ourselves to be robbed, cheated, taken for granted and being treated as the evil ones wish...I may look like a loser, but I am not! I have a promise and I rest on that promise.

When evil forces encamp against us and the wild beastly powers surround us in ambush, strangely we are called to love, to forgive, to give and to do good! It could be governments, or it could be hostile groups, or private individuals or brainwashed mobs... when someone is out there to hurt us and break us, what do we do? It is a pertinent question for a true Christian and a true Christian community any time - we remain firm and continue to love! We continue to serve, we continue to give, we continue to do all the good that we can. Because we are not doing it for the recompense, or for a recognition, or for teaching anyone a lesson. We do it, because we have a promise: that the God who looks on, has a plan for us! 

Nothing should discourage us from loving, because it is our identity to love. Nothing can stop us from loving because it is the very mission that we have been sent with. Nothing needs to motivate us to love, because we have a promise, that when we love, we make ourselves loved. The more we love, the more shall we be loved... loved by the Lord, loved by our fellow beings, and loved by the entire universe around. Let us love, and be loved!

Treating as you please!

WORD 2day: Saturday, 6th week in Ordinary time

February 19, 2022: James 3:1-10; Mark 9: 2-13

Being called 'children of God', is a great gift in itself; what can be greater than being called so by God! Just as we heard the voice of the Lord in the Gospel declaring Jesus as the Son of God, so are we children of God... but we need to be transfigured to be declared so my God. Transfigured in the sense that we become or grow to be more and more acceptable in the eyes of God, on a daily basis,

We need to therefore, constantly check our attitudes, actions, and priorities in life. The way we treat and deal with persons around us would be the primary criterion that would determine whether we are acceptable in the eyes of the Lord. The worst of the maltreatments that we mete out to people is by our words, with the weapon of the tongue!

At times we need to ask ourselves, who gave us the permission to "treat people as it pleases us", especially when it comes to the words we use against the others. First of its kind is abusing people with our words - a violence often times underestimated but can really create havoc. A second type is the cynical criticism, that intends no good for the person but only damaging the esteem of the person. The worst of its kind is, gossip and backbiting, an hypocrisy that characterises the evil that lies within us. Once we train our tongue to speak only what is good, truthful and necessary, we would well be on our way towards being acceptable in the eyes of the Lord.

If at all we wish to be called children of God, we need to resolve on one basic principle: that you will respect every person, without any conditions or discriminations; and never to treat the other as you please!

Let my life speak!

WORD 2day: Friday, 6th week in Ordinary time

February 18, 2022: James 2:14-24,26; Mark 8:34-9:1

What would your answer be, if I were to ask you: what is faith according to you? Is it some kind of a belief in a concept? Is it some kind of a memorised truth and assent to it? 

Thoelogically, faith is a response! It is a response given by a person, from within, to a revelation that God gives to a person! The classical definition is that, faith is a personal response to a Self-revealing God. If it is a response, it has to be seen as a response, it has to be seen in action; it cannot remain in the level of a mental assent or a grasp of a concept. If it remains at that stage, it would be incomplete - this is what James says in very concrete terms - If you have faith, show it in action.

Jesus too reiterates the same fact: if you have faith in me, show the world that you have faith in me. How do I show? In my way of life, in my priorities, in the perspective of my decision making, in the way I look at reality, in the way I relate to persons, in the climate that I create around myself, in the kind of society that I promote, in the kind of humanity I uphold! 

What if I claim that I have faith and I am inactive in my Christian commitment? Worse still, what if I declare that I have faith and I do things that are contrary to truth, justice and love? What if I claim to be a disciple of Christ and I act selfish and unjust, discriminatory and insensitive?

It is better that I don't claim by words that I have faith in Christ; let my actions show, let my life speak!

Thinking God's ways!

WORD 2day: Thursday, 6th week in Ordinary time

February 17, 2022: James 2: 1-9; Mark 8: 27-33

God's people think in God's ways! It is not enough to call myself a child of God, I need to become one! To become a child of God, I need to grow to be like God in every way, which means my words are God's words, my acts are God's acts, and my thinking is God's ways of thinking! 

Thinking God's ways means thinking love... and love is not favouritism. If I, in the name of love, love only my own and discriminate the others, am I thinking God. Today, there are any number of reasons to discriminate, divide and dehumanise people! Racist thinking, though people say is of the past, there are tendencies today so obvious and so deliberate, where people discriminate on the basis of colour and origins. Casteist thinking in the Indian context for example, as evil as, sometimes much more inhuman than racism and other discriminations. The rich-poor divide, which is increasing enormously by the day, is equally inhuman and there seems to be no way out of it. And to add to all these, with the pandemic today, there is a new type of discrimination on the basis of those who have taken the vaccine and those not! How mean of all of us!

Thinking God's ways means, thinking love; love knows no discrimination, love knows no selfishness, love knows no injustice! Love is ready to suffer for the sake of the other, even when it knows very well that the goodness will not be recognised readily. But thinking God's ways means, thinking truth, thinking justice, thinking equality... it is thinking true love!

Obey the Word or obey the world?

WORD 2day: Wednesday, 6th week in Ordinary time

February 16, 2022: James 1:19-27; Mark 8: 22-26

What are we called to: to obey the Word, or to obey the world? The "world" here would mean the popular tendency in the society today, to be counter-witnessed by a disciple of Christ, who is in the world, but not of the world. What kind of a witness does the world need today? That which kindles hope, that which renews faith and that which spreads love.

The world teaches to look at persons as trees, objects walking around from where I wish to get all that I can and all that I need. Consumerism, exploitation and the use-and-throw culture of the world today, looks at persons around as sources from where we can get something for ourselves. It is not that we do not know the facts - the facts of indifference and exploitation, the facts of insensitivity to the other and objectification of persons, the facts of looking at everything and everyone in terms of profit and gain! We know the facts, we see the facts, we hear the facts, but we act and live, as if we have not seen or known anything. Because that is what the world teaches... you be about your business.

The Word teaches us to look at persons as persons, plainly and distinctly, as persons with feelings and problems, as persons with needs and responsibilties, as persons with something to offer to us and also with the need to be sustained by us! Compassion, kindness, forgiveness and love - that is what the Word teaches us to offer to others. We know there is nothing that can make us people of God other than compassion; we know it is kindness and mercy alone that can make us children of God; we know that it is only forgiveness that can promote life; we know that without love I cannot call myself a Christian... but at times nothing of this knowledge makes any difference in our choices!

It is not enough to see, we need to percieve; it is not enough to hear the Word, we need to live it; it is not enough to know, we need to live by the Word. Are we ready?

Are we blind or do we wish to be blind?

WORD 2day: Tuesday, 6th week in Ordinary time

February 15, 2022: James 1: 12-18; Mark 8: 14-21

Why is God testing me so much - have you heard people say this in their difficulties? In fact, this is one of the prominent human questions to the Divine: why me? Why Lord, why have you caused me to suffer? But it would not take long to realise how dumb such a question is, if only we sincerely give a serious thought to it. At times we blame God because we do not see! We are not able to see, but the facts are right before us. 

When an evil befalls, like a war, or a pandemic, or a disaster of many kinds, we ask: why Lord, why this? But if only we pause a while and go into the reasons and causes, would we not be able to see that it has not got to do with God, but with us, with human greed or insensitivity, personal ego or collective indifference, social evil or global exploitation. We do not see, because we are not capable of perceiving it, we are not prepared enough to understand it. 

Worse is the case when we choose not to see, when we prefer not to perceive! There are all the signs of warning about destruction and disaster, but we still choose to go ahead as if there is nothing wrong, because we do not wish to disturb the present system or structure, because we wish to shirk the responsibility from our shoulders, because we resist any inconvenience even if it is for a lasting good in the longer run! And then we find it so easy to blame it on God!

Is it not just that the Lord flings at us all those questions that he does in the Gospel today - do you not understand? do you not see? do you not hear? do you not remember? are you without perception! It is never late, and certain never too early, to take a deep look at the reality of our lives and become aware of the wrong choices and decisions we keep making. Is it so difficult to do? If so, we are either blind or we wish to be blind!

No sign, for those who do not find!

WORD 2day: Monday, 6th week in Ordinary time

February 14, 2022: James 1:1-11; Mark 8: 11-13

Why does this generation ask for a sign... no sign shall be given to this generation! Actually, what Jesus means is - no sign can be given to this generation. Yes, no sign can be given to those who cannot find the signs in what is already happening all around. 

To find the signs of the presence of God and the signs of the lessons of God, one needs the wisdom from the Spirit. And those who need this wisdom, they must ask with faith and no trace of doubt! If only a person is attentive to what is happening around, to what is happening in one's own life, to the effects of the choices one  makes and to the cause of the various effects that one undergoes, he or she shall without fail behold these signs. 

If one is totally taken up with what one is attracted to, totally immersed in the events and experiences that give him the pleasures of the moment, gripped with the likes and dislikes without really attending to the messages from the Lord, the person would be destined to miss the signs. What is the use of giving him or her any number of signs? They would be speckles of sugar sprinkled onto the sea!

The pleasures of life are like the withering grass; the excitements of moments are like the drooping flowers. What looks so splendid at a moment, soon disappears into the think cloud. It is the wisdom of the Lord that makes us understand this all important lesson: what lasts is the law of the Lord, the Word that enlivens us and the Spirit that enlightens. If we cannot find ways of holding on to the teachings of the Lord, founding our lives on the Word of God, and following the promptings of the Spirit of the Lord, we shall profit out of no sign whatsoever!

IN GOD WE TRUST

Trust, in God, do we?

February 13, 2022: Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Jeremiah 17: 5-8; 1 Corinthians 15: 12, 16-20; Luke 6: 17, 20-26

In God we trust, is a famous dictum, not just because it is found printed on the much sought after dollar bills of the United States of America, but because it is the motto adopted by the nation since almost seven decades (to be precise, 1956). This phrase is famous, but is it practised? It is popular but is it meant when and where it is used? This is not to criticise the Nation in reference here, but to bring our attention to such a statement that we make so frequently... that we trust in God. Do we? Do we really trust in God, in our practical day to day life? 

One of the first questions to be answered here is, what does 'trusting' mean? Trust is the firm belief in the reliability, truth, or ability of someone or something! When I say I trust, I know that the person or the thing, is capable of something that is in reference. To trust, therefore is to know. To trust is to use that knowledge to rely on that someone or something. To trust is however not totally foolproof. Because trusting is a leap that one takes from what one knows about someone, to a judgement about what that someone is. The knowledge one has can be deceptive, or purposely created and shared to deceive. Remember the episode of Adam and Eve with the serpent... they trusted the serpent! That is why the whole idea of who is trust-worthy and who is not, arises.  

Here comes the second question, what does it mean, when I say, I trust in God. It means that I know God, I have gotten to know God, I have my convictions about God, I have a relationship with God as a result of knowing God. Can I say, 'O God, in you I trust', without really knowing God? Can I claim to trust in God, without really developing a true relationship in God? Do I really trust in God or do I trust in what I have created for myself as trust-worthy gods? May be riches, may be power or position or dominion over the other, may be the pleasures of life, may be my ego, may be the opinions of the world, may be the false image that I wish to give the world about myself... anyone of these I could create for myself as my trust-worthy deity.  

The question that remains to be answered is, do I really trust in God? Or am I using God for my own purposes - pacifying myself, justifying myself, satisfying myself, fending for myself and reaching my own ends! The world today teaches this generation to look at the what is here and now, to consider the facts and concrete reality as seen, to value statistics and believe in calculated precisions. In the name of science, certain knowledge is created and spread and everyone is directly or indirectly obliged to accept it, submit to it and act on it. What is 'spiritual' is considered unreal, what is 'theological' is considered unscientific, and what is 'transcendental' is considered a waste of time. To add to the predicament, there are those who misinterpret the 'spiritual', manipulate the 'theological' and maneuver the 'transcendental' to suit their own ends. As St. Paul says to the Corinthians in the second reading today, these are the 'most unfortunate of all people' and not only that the most dangerous of all, misleading every one. 

The contrast that repeats itself in the first reading and the Gospel - the blessed and the cursed - consists in trusting truly in God or trusting in the gods that we create for ourselves! 

The worst of the possibilities is that we intentionally create deities for ourselves and for others around and make people trust in them. As the society today creates success, popularity and comfort as deities and propose to people to chase after, for the sake of happiness and meaning in life! It is enough a person is successful and moneyed, whatever he or she says becomes trust-worthy, today. Look at some bigwigs who make statements about corona variants and vaccines, who have nothing but money and might! What a ruin such mentality can lead to!

Another possibility is that we are mistaken in our understanding and conceive God in a manner much limited and wrong. Some so-called preachers who delight in making fancy predictions and frightening propositions, make people fall for this and there are persons who trust in some rites, rituals and rules as those which can really save them from all pain and suffering in life. What a deception it can cause when they really get to know the Truth!

The only possibility that can do us eternal good is to earnestly pray with the psalmist today: happy is the one who trusts in the Lord. In God should we trust... in God, who is Love, Truth and Goodness. Only in love, should we trust, not in hatred and vengeance, not in proving one's point and winning over all others. Only in Truth should we trust, not in half truths and fancy ideas, not in the deceptions of the evil one. Only in Goodness should we trust, not in craftiness and deceit, not in manipulations and exploitation. 

Only in God should we trust, for in God lies our eternal salvation. We are called to resurrection, to eternal life, to that salvation...which cannot be made sense of except in relation to God. May our every day life choices and priorities show to ourselves, that only IN GOD WE TRUST. 

Feeding the Ego!

WORD 2day: Saturday, 5th week in Ordinary time

February 12, 2022: 1 Kings 12: 26-32, 13:33-34; Mark 8: 1-10

We see Jesus feeeding the four thousand people gathered around him, just as he did with the five thousand a little before (Mark 6). He was feeding the people, because they were in need. They did not have anywhere else to go. They had to eat, and Jesus fed them and left that place as soon as he could.

In the first reading too, we find Jeroboam feeding his people - providing them with new gods, new feasts and new rituals and sacrifices, not because they were in need, or not because they had nowhere else to go - but because he did not want them to go elsewhere, and he was in need of assuring himself of his kingship! What was he feeding? The people? No, his own ego!

This is what happens even today - there are those politicians and powerful people who want to feed their own ego. And they create gods: gods of needs, desires and attractions, thus feeding themselves by making the people go after fake absolutes. Much worse, there are religious leaders who create feigned experiences and fabricated explanations, all in the name of feeding the people but in actuality feeding their own egos and their own personal projects, in the name of God!

Jesus seems to give a three-fold criteria in the good we do for others! Are you doing it entirely for the other, or do you have a gain hidden? Are you ready to put yourselves in trouble for the sake of the good of the other, even without they knowing it? Finally, are you ready to move on, after doing good, without waiting to reap the fruits of it, even if it were just a simple gratitude or appreciation? If these criteria fail, I need to seriously raise the question... do I seem to be feeding my own ego?