Really Knowing...

WORD 2day: Monday, 19th week in Ordinary time

August 8, 2022: Ezekiel 1: 2-5,24-28; Matthew 17: 22-27

Growing in Faith is not merely growing in knowledge of something - knowing more about scriptures, knowing more about religion, knowing more about values etc. It is much greater than that but one of the most fundamental requirement is knowing: knowing who oneself is! That self knowledge and self definition determines much of one's choices! 

The Word today reminds us of the true nature and glory that is embedded in our very beings, which we very often forget, neglect and reject. When we do not realise the glory that is within, we go in search of very many other replacements, which can in no way fulfill our lives.

Added to that fact, the way I understand myself affects the way I look at others. The way I look at others determines the way that I relate to them. The way I relate to the others is plainly expressive of the kind of concept I have of God. For instance, when we look at others as strangers and foreigners then we expect that they deserve every thing that we do for them. When we look at the other always in communion with ourselves, all that we do for them we actually do for ourselves. And, looking at the other as unconnected from me puts my very belief in One God to question. 

It is high time we look at everything being one whole, connected to each other - that is true Spirituality!

The Glory and the Call

THE WORD AND THE FEAST

August 6, 2022: The Transfiguration of the Lord

The disciples see their Lord in his glory and all that they want is to remain in that state of splendour and delight! The call is to climb down, move on and keep walking, taking advantage of the light that the moment has shed! Though Jesus was all the time with them, the disciples needed that experience on the mount to behold his power and glory. 

Our life of prayer, that is, our relationship with God who shares every moment of our life, is punctuated at times with ‘peak’ experiences, to sustain us in the tedium of the daily journey. Retreats, pilgrimages, charismatic conventions, supernatural experiences and miraculous events – these are very useful and important, but cannot become a daily need! 

Effective substitutes for these that the Church suggests to each of us, are the Sacraments of Eucharist and Reconciliation – which when celebrated with the zest and the earnestness that they truly deserve – can become peak experiences on a regular basis. St. Peter in the today's reading warns us against laxity and invites us to walk in Christ’s light every day and every moment, accepting the apostles’ testimony as a light to our path. 

On our daily journey, let us observe the glorious presence of the Lord in the ordinariness of the day. Let the gentle beckoning of God keep sounding in our ears all this day – “This is my Son, my Chosen. Listen to him.”

True blessedness from God

WORD 2day: Friday, 18th week in Ordinary time 

August 5, 2022: Nahum 2:1-3, 3:1-3, 6,7; Matthew 16: 24-28

Today we hear the hope giving words of Nahum. But just a few days earlier we heard from Jeremiah a sharp criticism of the self proclaimed prophet Hananiah, saying the prophecies of prosperity can be accepted as such only after the things prophesied come to pass. However the words of Hananiah were soon proved to be mere search for popular acceptance!

Nahum's promise of the restoration of God's people is not merely a pleasing statement on the part of the messenger. It comes combined with a call to be prepared, alert and girded. Jesus takes that a step forward to say, it takes a ready acceptance of the daily cross and a loving preparedness to walk in the ways of the Lord, to experience the true "blessedness" from God.

Prosperity, fame, popularity, joy, sense of fulfilment, peace and a sense of being loved... these are ofcourse signs of God's blessings. But they cannot be the main focus in our daily life, instructs Jesus. When we strive to live acceptable in the eyes of God, all the rest will follow.

Thus, what really matters is..the true "blessedness" in the sight of God!

A heart worthy of the Covenant

THE WORD AND THE SAINT

August 4, 2022 - Remembering St. John Maria Vianney
Jeremiah 31: 31-34; Matthew 16: 13-23

The day will come when you will not have to teach your loved ones to know God...for every one will know God in those days, promises the Lord. Jesus applauds Peter, saying his knowledge of Christ was exceptional, because it was God given! The day had come when Peter would know who the Lord was, as we read in Jeremiah.

The reality is that, God reveals Godself to us and we get to know God so intimately. But our memories are so very fickle and short lived. We give into our human tendencies so easily and readily as if there were nothing so great between us and God! Our memories may be thus short, but not God's. God forgives, waits and and readily renews the covenant that God made with us.

John Maria Vianney, remained a great reminder of this fact to his people. Not just his parish of Ars, but the whole region in and around that small little village, came to know the immeasurable love of God through the sacraments and the life of the holy pastor Vianney.  Today too, we are called to be the signs of the promises of the Lord, and challenge humanity towards a heart worthy of the Covenant, beginning right from ourselves. 

The Lord promises to give us a new heart, a heart of flesh, a heart that takes after the sensibilities of God, a heart that sees as God does, a heart that hears as God does, a heart that feels as God does, a heart that loves as God loves... a heart that is worthy of the covenant that God has made with us.

The Remnant and the Rest

WORD 2day: Wednesday, 18th week in Ordinary time

August 3, 2022: Jeremiah 31: 1-7; Matthew 15: 21-28

The Lord renews the covenant with the people inspite of their failures because the Lord had always loved them with an everlasting love. The Word today warns us that those who will finally taste the fruits of God's faithfulness are the remnant and the rest, of the people who come by and stick to the Lord.

The Remnant are those who choose to differ from the mainstream inspired by a genuine conviction and sincere effort to be integral. While the entire human race goes after and lives by a value system and the majority justifies what seems so obviously so ungodly, the remnant are those who stick out their necks and see the truth and say the truth; they decide to differ from the crowd.

The Rest are those who are least expected to be favoured in the eyes of the Lord. The world has its own criteria of judgement but the Lord has a totally different set of criteria... single minded dedication to the Lord, genuine love for God's people and authentic life after the mind of God - these are what pleases the eyes of the Lord. What certainly does not please the Lord is an outward show, popularity gimmicks, insincere lifestyle and manipulation of minds and persons. 

Don't conform to the world; instead be transformed in Christ into new beings, St. Paul would instruct! And those who refuse to conform to the world would certainly be the remnant and the rest.

Being true prophets

WORD 2day: Monday, 18th week in Ordinary time
August 1, 2022: Jeremiah 28:1-17; Matthew 14: 13-21

The readings today remind us of our call to be a prophet. First of all, we need to ask ourselves, do we really know that each of us baptised in the Spirit is called to be a priest, a prophet and a prince (or princess)! Of course, knowing is one thing, but being convinced of it is totally another thing.

Being a prophet is not speaking things that others would love to hear from us -like the so called fortune tellers and prediction prodigies do to woo more and more customers. Jeremiah warns Hananiah today in the first reading against his false sense of prophecy! And we read the sad end of Hananiah. The Gospel has a symbolic message in the same lines.

Jesus chides his disciples for their lack of faith. It might look a bit too demanding on Jesus' part to expect the disciples to remain unperturbed when they are almost sinking. But the point that the Master makes is that his disciples should be perturbed by nothing, absolutely nothing! 

"Let nothing disturb you", he would say. In today's world so immersed in numerous kinds of concerns, wouldn't it be prophetic to live a life so unperturbed! 

PILGRIMS TO PARADISE

Wisdom, Knowledge and Discernment - a journey kit for the wayfarer

18th Sunday in Ordinary time: July 31, 2022
Ecclesiastes 1:2,2:21-23; Colossians 3:1-5,9-11; Luke 12:13-21

A wise man lived in a tent in the deserts of Arabia. Numerous people went to meet him everyday either for a blessing or a counsel or merely to see the saintly man! Once entered a man who was totally surprised that there was nothing, absolutely nothing inside the tent – not even a stool for a furniture! And he asked the wise man, “Where are your furnitures?” The wise man looked up and instead of answering that question, retorted, “and where are yours?” “But I am only a traveler, a passer-by” protested the visitor. And without losing his calm the wise man quipped, “So am I; a traveler, a passer-by!”

We are all travelers, passers-by, pilgrims towards our heavenly home, pilgrims to paradise! We do not have a permanent home here, we are looking towards it, says the letter to the Hebrews(13:14). When the Word of God repeatedly reminds us that we are merely “strangers and pilgrims” (Heb 11:13; 1 Pet 2:11), it is not a negative outlook on our life here and now, but a lasting perspective to understand it in the right manner! We are not permanent here on earth, however famous or important we are – and that is an obvious truth, so much forgotten or so much neglected by our ambitious world! We are not in an oblivion, as if to say we do not know our origins nor our future! No! The second reading today tells us, “Brothers and sisters, you are risen with Christ” – We are resurrected people, people of the Risen Lord, who awaits us in the heavenly abode, for us to be with him for eternity! We are on a journey, we are on a pilgrimage! And on this pilgrimage we need a travel kit! The Liturgy today reminds us of three essential components that should find their place in that kit – those components are Wisdom, Knowledge and Discernment!

The first of the components is Wisdom – the capacity to know the difference between the vanities and values in life! There are those who run after wealth all their life and finally discover that they have infact lost their whole life for nothing! Attachments, Ego, Vain glory, prestige, power and pleasure can mislead our minds and spoil our spirits, leading to a life so empty and erroneous. Persons entrusted to us by God, Love that brightens every morning and illuminates every night, Relationships that give meaning and make us feel wanted- these can help us live our life for others and ultimately for God, who is the very source of that life and the only One who can throw light on its real meaning! Vanities and Values – both shine but it depends on me to differentiate the real brilliance and the fake lustre.

Knowledge is another necessary element to never lose our way on this journey! Knowledge is not merely a collection of information, it is the capacity to choose between the virtues and vices! St. Paul instructs us through his letter to the Colossians today (3:10) that to put on the new person, is to be renewed in the fullness of knowledge after the image of the One who has created us! God is the fullness of knowledge, that is, the fullness of Virtues who shows us how our lives have to be lived! “To make them know the beauty of virtue and the ugliness of vices” was the task given to Don Bosco, the educator of the young, by the Risen Lord and the Blessed Mother. The right knowledge guides us on our path and leads us through right choices.

The third and the most difficult of all is Discernment! To store up right treasure in the right place! The clarity of what is truly the treasure to be sought and the choice of the right place to store them, is the most important truth every religion and faith intends to present. The readings today direct us to this discernment! Living in a world of consumerism and globalization, days of technological advancement and communication revolution, we are today made to think deep with the situations of war, violence, killings, greed, corruption, domination, deception, exploitation and dehumanization all around us. The choice is ours, either to be carried by the current or to swim against the current! If we are carried by the current we are dead and buried in this world of vanity! If we dare to stand against it and swim countercurrent, we are people of the Risen Lord, the followers of the living Lord, real pilgrims to paradise!

The plight of a prophet

WORD 2day: Saturday, 17th week in Ordinary time 

July 30, 2022: Jeremiah 26: 1-11,16 ; Matthew 14: 1-12

Constant threat to life, drastic insecurities of life, total unacceptance from the rest of the so called normal people, pressures of helplessness...these form part of the usual plight of a prophet, not just in the days of Jeremiah and John the Baptist but even today. That explains why real prophets are a rare phenomenon. However, it has often occured to me that, the difference between a true prophet and a self-righteous egoist is very thin and dangerously subtle.

The first element that can demarcate the two is the FOCUS. When Jeremiah spoke to the people and the princes, he never looked for support or people who can come to his defence. His focus was determinantly on what God wanted him to say and nothing else.

The second element is DETACHMENT from the result. Though the message is definitely pointed towards a change, a result, the prophet is not excessively anxious about it. At times a self righteous person can be on a ego trip claiming credits and proving his point. A true prophet desists this tendency naturally.

The third element is absolute FEARLESSNESS. A fearlessness that makes them hard people to handle for the authorities and the hierarchy. But that fearlessness comes from their unwavering trust, confidence and hope in the never failing presence of the Lord!

The plight of the prophet is the plight of every Christian, if he or she lives one's Christian call to the full. Are we prepared really for this plight?

Beware of Selective Hearing Impairment

THE WORD AND THE FEAST

July 29, 2022: Remembering Martha, Maria and Lazarus
Jeremiah 26: 1-9; John 11: 19-27.

The auricular experts explain that there are different kinds of deafness... mild hearing loss, moderate hearing loss, moderately severe hearing loss, severe hearing loss and profound hearing loss! At times spiritually too these hearing impairments can be calculated in a similar fashion, but we need to add one more crucial type of hearing challenge. That is, Selective Hearing Loss - hearing only what I want to hear, or refusing to hear what I do not want to hear merely because it causes me inconvenience. 

When Jeremiah spoke to them about the impeding danger and their need to return to the Lord, the pople deemed him liable to death. The Word of God keeps rushing into our hearts. It would cleanse it, refresh it and fill it with life, if only we allow it to. If we are biased, prejudiced and suspicious, we would break no ground towards perfection. At times with these biases and prejudices, we fall prey to the syndrome of 'hearing merely what we want to hear'!

When Martha told Jesus, "if you were here, my brother would not have died!" Martha's (and Maria's) hope in the Lord was plainly expressed in those words. But the Lord challenges them to journey further in her hope, not to get stuck to cliches, not to remain with mere statements and memorised aphorisms...but to go all the way out in trusting the Lord. It is like what St. Paul says about Abraham (Rom 4:18)... Jesus invites Martha and Mary to hope against hope! 

Martha's confession about Christ has nothing less than the confession of St. Peter! The faith that Martha had in Jesus was so profound that she believed when Jesus was around nothing could go wrong. Jesus acknowledges the trust that Martha had in him, but invites her to go a step ahead and trust that even if things went wrong, she had nothing to fear for the Lord was with her always! Martha, Maria and Lazarus are given to us, in contrast to the people whom Jeremiah encountered, as persons who accepted the challenge from the hands of the Lord... to hear completely, to hear integrally... and to avoid the prevalent malefficence of selective hearing impairment. 

To hear and trust in the Lord, is simple in times that are pleasant. It isn't that very simple to trust in the Lord "always". Even when things go wrong, or especially in such situations, we are called to be calm but vigilant; seeking solutions but not begging remedies. Not looking for any solutions anxiously, but daring to remain patient with the issues of life is a clear sign of total trust in the Lord that the Lord alone is our hope! 

Amidst all our pressing concerns and pressurising opinions of the world, let us beware of selective hearing impairment, and hear, listen and trust in the Lord wholeheartedly. 

The Pot and the Store house

THE WORD AND THE SAINT

July 28, 2022: Celebrating St. Alphonsa 

Jeremiah 18: 1-6 ; Matthew 13: 47-53

Being a pot in the hands of the potter gives me the hope that I will never go waste. The potter knows me and knows the world that is around. God will make certain that I am relevant and needed in God's own time and design and use me as the store house of God's grace for others! Saints are such instances!

St Alphonsa was merely 36 when she died and half of that short life was spent in sicknesses of varied nature. But the Lord used her powerfully to bring out the best in her in keeping with the purposes the Lord had defined. She was a simple pot, weak and humble but holding the best of gifts as the store house of the grace of God. It is all about our docility to the mighty will of God.

In the parable that Jesus tells us today about the Reign of God, he brings out a fundamental element of either belonging to the Reign or not belonging to it. The angels will separate the good from the bad; the wicked from the righteous; the docile from the obstinate; the obedient from the rebellious; the discerning from the naive. It is said the hymn in heaven is, "I did it God's way"; while in hell it is, "I did it my way." The secret is here: doing it God's way! Living our life in God's way!