Look up to the Lord and be Loved!

THE WORD AND THE FEAST

September 14, 2022: The Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross
Numbers 21: 4b-9; John 3:13-17

We have today a beautiful remembrance, the celebration of the Christian symbol of Love: the Cross. The Cross is taken more often than not, as a symbol of suffering! Yes, it was a symbol of suffering, until the loving Lord took it into his embrace, on his shoulders and climbed on it to give his life for us... all this out of the limitless love he had for us! He changed its meaning and ever since, the cross has come to symbolise love, the unconditional, limitless and boundless love that the Lord has for us.

Hence the feast that we celebrated today gives us a fundamental lesson for living our daily life: Look Up to the Lord and Be Loved!

Look Up:
At times we are lost in the troubles that we have, in the daily struggles and everyday chores; so lost in those that we have time only to murmur, to lament and to complain. We do not have the patience and the capacity to look up! Look Up, look beyond, look upon high and you will see the horizon that will give you hope.  Hope is the key to Christian way of life.

Look to the Lord:
Let us look to the Lord; it is from the Lord that our help comes! The Psalms further insist: Look upto Him and be radiant (34:5). 'Looking Up' alone is not enough, we can be deceived or distracted or misled. Looking to the Lord is the key to Christian Problem Solving. The real solutions to our problems lie in the hands of God: it is in looking to the Lord that we will have life, life in all its fullness. 

Be Loved:
God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that we have eternal life. The Son so loved the world that he gave everything up, and showed his love in the total self-giving on the Cross. We are promised a measure of love that no human mind can comprehend, because it is eternal and limitless. Such is God's love for us, but nothing can be done if I keep myself away from it. When I claim that love, in total obedience and surrender unto the Lord, I feel loved! 

As we exalt the Cross today, as we sing praises to the One who is lifted high for our salvation, let us resolve to Look Up, to Look to Him and to Let ourselves be loved!

Comparisons or Compassion?

WORD 2day: Tuesday, 24th week in Ordinary time 

September 13, 2022: 1 Corinthians 12: 12-14, 27-31a; Luke 7: 7-11

Each of us is given special gifts from the Holy Spirit, special gifts according to the particular calling that we have. If we become aware of the call that we have received, we would also become aware of the gift that is given to us, to live up to that calling. To be prophets, or to be apostles, or to be teachers, or to be leaders, or to be interpreters... these are all different calls which are lived out by means of various tasks that we are called to carry out. But the fundamental purpose of all these, the call underlying all these calls is just one: to be holy and blameless, before God in love (Eph 1:4). And we are indeed given with all the gifts needed to live that call out in our daily life. 

The Word today, taken together, explains this all important Christian lesson: be compassionate and do not compare! Our call makes us all, children of One God our Father and Mother. The diversity of the call we have recieved does not divide us; it unites us, makes us one people, one people in one Word, one Body of Christ, one heart and one mind in the Lord who has called us. As St. Paul would instruct in the letter to the Romans, to rejoice with those who rejoice; weep with those who weep (Rom 12:15), that is the way we can realise, that we are One People! 

Comparisons lead to jealousy and infights and make us enemies, and we would lose our very identity of being God's people! While compassion makes us one, one in the Lord, one in his love. 

The Communion and the Coming of Jesus!

WORD 2day: Monday, 24th week in Ordinary time

September 12, 2022: 1 Corinthians 11: 17-26,33; Luke 7: 1-10

The Word presents to us the two inseparable dimensions of every Eucharistic celebration we undertake.  The coming of Jesus Christ the Word made flesh and the communion in the Body of Christ, the people of God.These are not only two inseparable elements, but essential too. A lack of these is symptomatic of a serious decadence in the true meaning of a Eucharistic moment.

Hence the first real challenge today is to make our Eucharistic Celebrations, truly moments of communion of hearts rather than merely rituals or ceremonies. That challenge requires a bit of homework prior to the celebration itself - the Communion has to be built in the daily life situations and be celebrated at the Eucharist. If it had not been built already, how do we celebrate and what do we celebrate at all?

The second challenge is to recognise the coming of Christ, making the words of the Lord come true. Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist is a great boon given to our burdensome lives! The Lord is with us and that makes our life extremely beautiful, come what may. 

We may not be worthy but the Lord deigns to visit us. How blessed we are!

Differences, disputations and dialogue!

WORD 2day: Saturday, 23rd week in Ordinary time

September 10, 2022: 1 Corinthians 10:4-23; Luke 6: 43-49

We live in a world of pluralism today. Not just India, or countries like that, but almost every one, all over the world lives in a context and a culture of pluralism. Everyone finds one's neighbour different, different in his or her creed or convictions or value systems. In such a situation, what should be a true Christian disposition? Can it be one of disputation, debate or delirious defence? The result would range from a kind of disrespectful cynicism to a hateful dissent. Are those fruits proper to a tree that is Christian? How can anything be its fruit other than love:  for by this they will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for each other.

If so, what would be the right disposition? Compromise? Relativism? An anything-is-ok mentality? No! Never!, says St.Paul in today's first reading. Between Controversies and Compromise, there is something called Comprehension. That, and that alone, is the need of the hour today. An attitude of mature Dialogue. 

What is the use of talking so much of God as love and of Christ's teachings of a forgiving and forbearing love, if we dont begin to live it? Will we not be foolish builders, building our beach side castles? Let us form ourselves into solid bulidings of enduring love and never failing faith, that we may teach the whole world, the lifestyle of true love.

"Trained" to be Apostles

WORD 2day: Friday, 23rd week in Ordinary time

September 9, 2022: I Corinthians 9:16-19, 22b -27; Luke 6: 39-42.

The Word today insists on the need to be trained, in being an apostle. An apostle we are, each of us by virtue of our baptism. That call is not merely a privillege, it is an obligation, a duty and a demand placed on me. Considering it merely a matter to boast about leads to some unfortunate developments within the faith community, situations such as infights, ego clashes, jealousy, clericalism and unchristian 'politricks'. 

The Gospel calls these practices: blind leading the blind and both into the pit! Neither you know what it means to be a Christian, nor do you allow those who aspire to really understand what it takes to be a Christian; in living wrong values you bring judgement upon yourself and in the counter witness that you give you make people go away from the Word and Lord, rather than bringing them closer to Christ experience. Instead, taking the call seriously - the call to be a Christian, the call to be an apostle - leads one to a fuller realisation of the gift that it is and at the same time of the demands that it places. 

One of the important demands that comes up is, to be trained! Both St.Paul and Jesus, today speak of this training. It would consist of fundamentally three things: humble acceptance of the call to be an apostle; attentive listening to the Word that comes to us; and diligent practice of the Word that is heard. Falling short of these three steps would make us either arrogant bigwigs or pretentious bullies but never trained disciples. 

The need to be trained is in simple terms, growing grow gradually into the image of the Master who has chosen us, called us and sent us! 

Life and Vocation - a wonderful reminder

THE WORD AND THE FEAST

September 8, 2022: Birthday of our Blessed Mother
Micah 5:1-4a (or) Romans 8:28-30; Matthew 1:1-23

The readings prescribed for the day do not speak to us directly of Mary... but they have a truth which the birthday of our Blessed Mother teaches us very strongly. The truth is that of the choice that God has made of us! As St.Paul would say writing to the Ephesians, God chose us in Christ before the foundations of the world! 

The Birth of Mary signals in utter silence the beginning of the climax of God's plan of salvation. No one would have known when this girl was born, that she was destined to be that woman of whom the Son of God will be born in the fullness of time. Every life is a vocation - that is the wonderful reminder that we have from today's feast. In fact, that is the mystery we are. 

We enshrine within ourselves a marvellous design which we ourselves are not aware of. The design that is part of the mysetery that we are - our very life and the vocation that it enshrines within it. Mother Mary is a splendid example for us to learn from. She leaves us this strong lesson: from eternity God has chosen us for a particular purpose and each of us has to discern that purpose, to live our lives to the full.

Today as we sing a happy birthday to our Blessed Mother, will sing to the glory of the Lord for the great things God has done to her, and to us through her. Let us not lose sight of the same wonders that God continues to do for us and that God wants to do more! Let us respond just as our Blessed Mother with our readiness to surrender and our capacity to ponder in silence... on every wonder that happens around us. 

Never lose the Focus

WORD 2day: Wednesday, 23rd week in Ordinary time

September 7, 2022: 1 Corinthians 7: 25-31: Luke 6: 20-26

The first christian community in fact expected that they would see Jesus around in his second coming already in their time... they were preparing for it intensely. The moment they began to realise it was getting delayed, they began to grow lax in their life of virtues! It is in this context that Paul writes to them...about celibacy, purity and single minded dedication to the Lord. His call was: never lose focus, for everything will come to pass in no time!

The second coming may be at an appointed time which the Lord alone knows and we wait for it, with patience and focus. But, if we believe that the second coming is a moment of judgement, that moment is here and now... for our choices every moment determine the judgement that is going to be! Every time I choose something or avoid something, I am bringing upon me a judgement by myself. That is what Jesus tells us in the Gospel: I make myself blessed or unfortunate! I need to be informed, alert and categorical about my choices - they determine what I will be judged to be. The crux is that I never lose the focus, even as I am involved in my hectic activity of my everyday!

Conforming to whom?

WORD 2day: Tuesday, 23rd week in Ordinary time

September 6, 2022: 1 Corinthians 6: 1-11; Luke 6: 12-19

Do not be conformed to the standards of this world, but be renewed in spirit and create a counter culture, reminds St. Paul in his letter to the Romans (cf. 12:2). In today's first reading he chides the Corinthians for their behaviour which was no different from that of the others. He does not denounce them for the disputes they have, but loses his patience with them because they are not able to handle that dispute among themselves. 

It was a clear sign of the absence of something that was essential to their identity, according to St. Paul: mutual esteem inspired by love. Instead what dominates here is mutual competition provoked by ego. It is a reality, obviously, even today in our faith communities where there is an un-Christian understanding of authority and inhuman practice of domination!

Aren't there churches today that are closed down because of factions? Haven't there been clashes between different groups within the same community of faith? Aren't there leaders disrespected or rejected or maltreated just because of some differences, however flimsy and fiery those differences may be. The call is clear... as a son or daughter of God in Christ's footsteps, to whom do I want to conform... to the world or to my Lord?

Love! Do not Judge!

THE WORD AND THE SAINT

September 5, 2022: Celebrating Mother Teresa of Kolkata

1 Corinthians 1: 5-8; Luke 6: 6-11

The Word today speaks to us of the ills in Christian living... at times we consider sins like adultery, fornication and killing as serious faults, and rightly so. But the harm is when we consider habits like gossiping, judging others and criticising as less grave and so go on with it as if they do not matter much. That cannot be truly Christian... According to Jesus, looking with lust is equally evil as adultery; speaking ill of the other is equally brutal as assaulting the other physically; character assasination is as criminal as killing a person! It is not exactly in what we do that the seriousness of the matter consists, but in what we are aiming or intending to do through our actions or words or dispositions. The intention is what matters most!

The saint we remember today, Mother Teresa of Kolkata, understood this perfectly and that is why she always believed and taught: if you are busy judging people, you would have no time to love them. She lived that in her life! Even with those who were around her, maligning her name and wishing her evil or destruction, she was loving and kind, generous and sacrificing. She never grudged doing good for the very ones who were hating her and spreading malicious opinions about her. She was totally "Christ-ian" in this regard - animated by nothing else but love. 

Love, is both the fundamental and the supreme disposition of a true Christian. Love is patient and kind; it endures all things! At times when we have difficulties and tribulations due to the regretable disposition of the other, let us love, not judge! Let us be filled with compassion for the suffering and the weak, as did Mother Teresa, to be called truly Christ-ians and ultimately saints or persons of the true God!

FREEDOM OF THE CHILDREN OF GOD

A different kind of reasoning, relationship and renunciation

23rd Sunday in Ordinary time - September 4, 2022
Wisdom 9: 13-18; Philemon 1:9-10,12-17; Luke 14:25-33

Wisdom and Freedom have a lot to do with each other. Wisdom is a specific gift from the Holy Spirit to the children of God. And freedom is no less a gift, and very specific to the children of God. A true child of God is necessarily a person of freedom and a truly free person is very close to being a Child of God. This is the crux of the Word this Sunday - the meaning of the Freedom of the Children of God.

If we are really convinced of our identity as Children of God we would realise we are given with a freedom that makes us so different from what the world preaches. We think freedom is the ability to do whatever we think... but that is not what freedom is all about. Freedom instead is the capacity to do the right thing, without any external force. When we have this capacity, we would be totally different from the so-called majority in the society today. Because this freedom amounts to a different kind of reasoning, a different kind of relating and a different mindset of renouncing.

Freedom of the Children of God is seen first and foremost in a different kind of Reasoning that one possesses. Taking up the cross willingly, giving and forgiving without any compensations for it, looking at everything from the perspective of God... these make a different kind of reasoning that we are called to possess. The first reading speaks to us of an important fact - that we may not understand everything in life and we need not be worried about it. We need not understand everything. We need not feel obliged to be in control of everything. Let us leave that part to God and things will become clearer to us in the due course of time.

Freedom of the Children of God is manifested in the kind of Relationships we treasure. While everywhere, possession and entitlement, gain and profit, benefits and advancements rule the roost, we are called to think of giving up, forgiving, accepting, welcoming someone without any conditions and so on. St. Paul instructs Philemon to accept Onesimus as a brother in Christ and even tacitly asking Philemon to free Onesimus from his slave-ship. A redefinition of relationships is a natural outflow of the freedom of the Children of God. We cannot but be reminded here of the numerous cases of inequality and discrimination among and within the Christian communities... a clear sign that we have not yet truly experienced or even understood the freedom of the children of God.

Freedom of the Children of God is best seen in the Renunciation that seems so natural and far from being a deprivation. Have we not come across people who renounce a few simple things in life and are extremely mindful of that fact - reminding themselves of it so often, making sure others know that they have renounced (whatever it is), making up for the renunciation in and through other means (sometimes going to another extreme). Jesus presents renunciation not as an extraordinary means of following God, but as an inevitable means of being disciples. Renouncing something is important; but renouncing the so-called merits of the renunciation is the true renunciation!

Freedom of the Children of God permits us to live a life that is free, full and highly inspiring. It helps us reconfigure our way of thinking and our list of priorities. It helps us redefine our relationships, in terms of maturity and mutuality and not selfishness and exploitation. It helps us renounce not just a few things, but renounce the very merit of renunciation, that we may become truly free in our spirit. May we grow everyday in this great gift we have received from the Spirit of the Lord: the freedom of the children of God.