Seeking Christ is a vanity too!

WORD 2day: Thursday, 25th week in Ordinary time

September 22, 2022: Ecclesiates 1:2-11; Luke 9:7-9

Vanity of vanities, everything is vanity... says the first reading today. There is nothing new under the sun, what are we toiling for? What are we seeking and searching and anxious for? That is the wise question that the philosopher raises in the Word today. It is important to take note of this question - routine, monotony and boredom are not reality that are external... they are attitudes and dispositions that are internal. How we look at things, how they matter to us, how they affect us and how we relate to them - that makes all the change that is possible. 

Seeking Christ... today Herod seeks to see Christ. All of us have this wish; we seek and experience Christ. But is that a vanity too? Yes, that will turn out to be another vanity, vanity of all vanities, if we do not seek for an internal change, for a transformation of the heart. If we seek, see, pray and claim to experience Christ, but there is no change in our inner disposition and attitude to life and to others, then that seeking would indeed be a vanity too!

Vanity of Vanities... everything is a vanity, if we do not allow ourselves to be touched, transformed and continuously made anew in Christ!

In plenty and in want...

WORD 2day: Wednesday, 25th week in Ordinary time

September 21, 2022: Proverbs 30:5-9; Luke 9: 1-6

We have today persons who earn exhorbitanly high salaries, in some fields. There are otheres who put in a lot of work, even more than the former sort, but earning not even just enough for their upkeep and their family's. But no one bothers about the other! The one who gets more still aims for more and the one who gets less goes on slogging for more! People in want and people with plenty are living side by side, as two worlds that exist within one! There are those in want dreaming of  shortcuts to get rich; and those in plenty, who seem to have forgotten the one who gives.

Jesus instructs his apostles on being a messenger of God. The crux of his instruction is not merely about whether to have or not to have, whether to possess or not to possess, but it is all about depending on God or not! Poverty within the worldview of the Reign of God, in terms of Jesus' thinking, is a fundamental dependence on God. Being grateful for what God gives, and being expectant like a child to be given things in love.

It is more than what the book of proverbs suggests in the first reading today. While the passage from the proverbs carries a tinge of cynical realism, the Gospel offers a proactive sense of dependence out of true human freedom, that defines a true disciple and a dedicated apostle. This is the same as St. Paul suggests, to learn to live in want and in plenty, because we can do anything through the one who strengthens us (cf. Phil 4:12,13). In plenty or in want, what matters is how mindful we are for the true wealth of a Christian - not what we possess, but the One who gives that to us.  

The Right thing to do!

WORD 2day: Tuesday, 25th week in Ordinary time

September 20, 2022: Proverbs 21: 1-6, 10-13; Luke 8: 19-21

Doing the right thing is better than sacrifices says the first reading today. And the right thing... how do we know it? It is imprinted in our hearts. All that I need to know is listen to my heart, listen to that inner voice that instructs me, provided that voice is protected, promoted and purely cultivated. 

The Word of God, comes to us through various ways: direct proclamation is just one among these many ways! There are situations and persons whom we come across who bring us a challenge to face and respond to. The Word of God comes along, instructing us on what is right and what is to be avoided. There is the inner voice within us, that "sound of sheer silence" (1 Kgs 19:12), which tells us what is that right thing to be done at the right moment. 

What do we need to do? First of all, be attentive: attentive to the Word that comes across to us. Secondly, be sincere: sincere to admit that we have received the Word and to recognise the demands that it places. At times because of the demands that the Word places on us, we pretend not to have heard, or not to have understood the real meaning of the Word. It would serve no purpose and we in fact would deceive ourselves by doing it. Thirdly, our task is to be diligent in carrying out, amidst all struggles, what the Word tells us.

The Gospel today assures us that when we do all these three we would be considered not merely disciples, but mother, brother, sister, in short, coheirs with Christ to the Reign of God. But when we stop short of them, we would be deceiving ourselves warns the letter of James (1:22).

Think good; Do good; Be good!

WORD 2day: Monday, 25th week in Ordinary time

September 19, 2022: Proverbs 3:27-34; Luke 8:16-18

The first reading today has a wonderful set of practical tips for a happy living. Those tips can altogether be summarised in the phrase: think well of all; speak well of all; do good to all. This can be called the runway to happiness, but rarely taken by many! We prefer to complicate our lives, make it distrustful, enigmatic and suspicious, losing all the goodness that we can create, share and experience. Neither are we happy nor do we allow others to be happy.

To a person who was sharing about a problem in the family, I had to ask, "What is your choice: to be happy or not to be?" And the person said, "of course, to be happy!" and immediately added, "but I am afraid I won't be able to do the things that you told me to. The others would take me for granted and make me look more and more like a fool!" Then I had to conclude, "so, you choose to be unhappy!"

At times, that is the sad fact! We choose to be unhappy and we are experts at making ourselves unhappy over anything at all. Jesus today seems to tell us, "you want to be happy? choose it! manifest it! Let it be seen in your lives, in your choices!" Lighting the lamp and putting it on the stand, is the metaphor to living a life that is God-worthy and making it known to others that they may be challenged. 

The simple formula to begin with this kind of a life is, to live as said in the first reading. That can be summarised in simple words: think good of all, you will not have things to worry; do good to all, at least your heart will be light; and above all, be good within you! Let that goodness be your nature, not just your external show!

WWW: WEALTH, WELLBEING & WORLD

The Web of Life in today's World

25th Sunday in Ordinary time - September 18, 2022
Amos 8: 4-7; 1 Timothy 2:1-8; Luke 16: 1-13

We have needs, wants and desires... they are but human. One has to be attentive about the difference between these three- how many times we confuse among these! Our wants and desires fill our minds so much that we make of them much too big than what they ought to be - we are happy only when we get some desires come true, we are fulfilled only when we get things that we want... yes, we turn these ordinary wants and desires into needs! Just imagine today, the number of things that we have made necessities of life: are they really needs? or just wants and desires? Be what they may be, the fact is that, only when they are fulfilled we are happy and grateful; when they are not, we keep beseeching the Lord, sometimes requesting, sometimes begging, sometimes obstinately pressurising, sometimes fighting, sometimes complaining and so on! 

Prosperity, from the time of the theology of the promised land, has always been looked at as a blessing from the Lord. Even today how many preachers take up this as a way of alluring people - whether tey are alluring towards God or towards themselves - we are not here to judge! The focus here is on that so-called prosperity... in simple terms, Wealth.

Wealth makes our life easy and our living pleasurable. By the very fact that it is a blessing, it is obvious that it is 'given' and it is to be given. Wealth is a means provided for one not only to live his or her life, but also extend his hand to the needy, the unfortunate, the underprivileged, the have-nots, so that their life becomes blessed through someone's instrumentality. Wealth, is a blessing, and more over a means, to be a blessing to the others! Prophet Amos minces no words in the first reading today. Swindling the other, manipulating the other and hurting the other for one's own well-being, is not Christian attitude; and it is no well-being at all.

Well-being is not merely one's individual pleasure and possession! Even if one possesses everything, if there is no harmony in his or her surroundings, he or she cannot cherish those possessions. How many individuals who possess enormous riches but lack a internal serenity bear witness to this fact. How many nations today which seem rich and affluent but lack peace and security attest to this fact. Authentic Well-being is harmony in every sense, within oneself, around oneself and with the entire universe! It is the 'quiet and peaceable life, godly and respectful in everyway', that St. Paul speaks of in the second reading. Selfishness and Greed can never lead us to this well-being. Concern and Compassion, a collective thinking of 'all to be saved and to come to the knowledge of truth' - only such an outgoing spirit can grant the world, a real Well-being.

The World and the life we live today is an opportunity given to us, reminds Jesus in the Gospel with his intriguing parable of the prudent steward! Intriguing it is, because it seems to advocate slyness and fraud. But that is not the point. The focus lies on another perspective, and it is: however limited and burdensome, the present life we live is all that we have, here and now, to make our journey toward our 'eternal abode' pleasant and meaningful. It is said, how we live our life here will define and determine how we will exist hereafter.

We have the gift and the Giver: of these, what matters to us is the crucial question. It cannot be that both gift and the giver are important - one cannot serve two masters, warns Jesus. Once we give the first place to the Giver, the Eternal giver, the Loving giver, the Wonderful giver, everything else falls in place. Wealth becomes a means, Well-being becomes harmonious living and the World becomes an opportunity for us to create a paradise here and now, as we live our life in peace and harmony with our brothers and sisters!

INDIFFERENCE - THE MOST UNCHRISTIAN ATTITUDE OF ALL

From blindness and selfishness to malice

26th Sunday in Ordinary time: September 25, 2022

Amos 8: 4-7; 1 Timothy 2:1-8; Luke 16: 1-13

Indifference, the worst of all vices and the most dangerous of all attitudes, is one thing that can be considered absolutely unchristian, something that the Lord cannot bear! Woe to those who are indifferent, warns prophet Amos. And that is precisely what Jesus presents in his parable too. It is something that God just cannot stand - the Lord will 'spit you' out of his presence, if you are lukewarm (Rev 3:16) and indifferent. If you have a living faith, then fight the good fight of the faith, challenges St. Paul in his letter today. 

'Blessed' are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness (Mt 5:6), not those who remain in their safe havens caring nothing for anyone around. St. Paul recalls to our minds today, how Jesus bore witness to his faith and to the truth, right upto his cross! "For this I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth," declared Jesus with a courage that disturbed Pilate (Jn 18:37). When it came to bearing witness to truth and righteousness, or feeling compassion for those who were helpless, or reaching out to the sinners and the outcast, or speaking out for the rights of those who were oppressed - of their right to be healed as sons and daughters of God, of their right to dignity and of their closeness to the Reign of God - Jesus never hesitated; and his true disciples would never hesitate too!

Today we live in a world that has innumerable justifications for being indifferent towards others - one's duty and family, corrupt system and government, anti-people policies and laws, legitimate development and technology, rapid growth and advancement - the list can go on endlessly. And it is effortlessly easy to cast the blame on someone else and hide behind the mask of myself being part of the 'affected' and the 'left behind'. In simple terms, the Word challenges me today to place myself in the shoes of the rich man and look at the world around me! Have I done whatever I could in my context, for justice, righteousness, dignity of all and true freedom of the children of God. If I say, 'what can I really do?' - beware, that could be the visible trace of the Indifference within!

Indifference is the most unchristian quality one can have. The readings today outline the three levels in which INDIFFERENCE grows.

First Level: Indifference as a fruit of Blindness - the inability to see the suffering around, the incapacity to sense the heavy burdens that persons around me carry, the failure to feel the unseen tears of those crying out for help... these are unchristian to the core. LOOK says the Lord, perceive the sufferings in the eyes of your brother and sister... even if you cannot do much, atleast be there for them!

Second Level: Indifference as a sign of Selfishness - even after seeing the sufferings and the pain, if I fail to be moved, if I refuse stand by someone because I could get into problems, or because I could lose my opportunity to go ahead in life, or because I could earn enemies in the bargain, I am unworthy of being called a disciple of the Lord who died for me! THINK of others, and not solely of yourself, says the Lord. Can I think of anything other than Me, Myself and Mine? I am my brother's keeper!

Third Level: Indifference as a form of Malice - it is a sin! "Silence encourages the tormentor; never the tormented!" says Elie Wiesel an holocaust survivor, who received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986. He continues,"the opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference. The opposite of art is not ugliness, it's indifference. The opposite of faith is not heresy, it's indifference. And the opposite of life is not death, it's indifference." How perfectly Jesus would agree to these words! For, this is what Jesus meant by that parable! 

You just cant be a silent spectator, you just can't stand by the sidewalks and see things happen, not even sit in the stands and cheer! No... FIGHT the good fight of the faith! That means living our life to the full, living our life for the other, living our life in a prophetic sense of love and compassion for the other. Remember, that is how indifference grows and moves - from blindness to the other and selfishness of sorts to malice that makes you evil. 

Let us take care that no trace of indifference invades our lives... we are called to fight, fight the good fight of faith, until we reach the bosom of our loving Father and Mother, as one family in heaven! 

Sowing, Growing and what is in between!

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

September 17, 2022: I Corinthians 15: 35-37, 42-49; Luke 8: 4-15

The Word today speaks to us of sowing and growing, and what goes on in between these - between dying and being reborn! Our Christian history is so full of martyrdom, and it highlights in a vivid manner, the aspects of dying to ourselves and being reborn in Christ is a criterion for Christian living (cf. Rom 6). In fact, it is true of every Christian... our very life has to be one of daily martyrdom - dying to our ego and growing in a deep sense of being; dying to our petty desires and growing in the sense of the Will of God; dying to our pleasure-seeking tendencies and looking at the nourishing value of suffering and hardships in life. 

Many of us who claim to be followers, disciples and apostles of Christ, still refuse to die to certain tendencies and elements within our self, which militate against the Spirit who wants to dwell within us, for we are called to be the temples of the Holy Spirit (cf. 1 Cor 3:16, 6:19). When there is a resistance to death, there is a resistance to new life, a resistance to resurrection. Where there is resistance to dying, there is a big struggle against growth.

These are indeed instances that are against our becoming totally the dwelling place of God: like the parched land or the scorching heat or the choking thorns. They are everyone's experience and cannot be cited as valid reasons for our personal lack of commitment to belong to God and for our lagging in efforts to grow closer to God. God has sown, God has called us and chosen us and appointed us each, in our life and in our own context. What matters now is our personal commitment, perseverance and loving decision to belong and to grow into the image and likeness of the One who has loved us into existence. 

The Resurrection Community

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

September 16, 2022: I Corinthians 15: 12-20; Luke 8:1-3

The Readings today point to an identity that is so fundamental to a follower of Christ. The first of all the effects that Christ has on his followers is the Resurrection effect: that is a life filled with hope! If Christ were not raised from the dead, our faith would be in vain - declares St. Paul today. We are filled with a hope so great that nothing, not even death can take away the meaning of our life. 

Secondly, we find today Jesus amidst the first community that he himself had initiated - the Twelve, and some women! That is another Resurrection effect - the fruit of rising above all the pettiness of the world, discarding the divisions, despising the differences of gender or geography, and becoming one community, one people! 'We are all baptised into the one Spirit - Jews or Greeks, free or slaves, we are all filled with the same Spirit', instructs St. Paul ( cf. 1 Cor 12:13). 

Today, let us look at our faith community, the Church, the local church and our own family or religious community: is it one body? is it united in the Risen Lord? is it "following" the Lord, the Risen Lord in every way? Does it have the "mind" of Christ? Are we really Resurrection Community?

One of the infallible signs as we reflect today, has to be - the hope we have in persons: never giving up on persons, never judging persons and never descriminating persons on any count! In a world that is full of expectations and standards of descrimination and division, our challenges is to be this ideal community: the Resurrection community.

Teaching us to Suffer

THE WORD AND THE FEAST 

September 15, 2022: Remembering the Mother of Sorrows

1 Corinthians 15:1-11; John 19: 25-27

A heart pierced with an arrow is a famous symbol today, a symbol very romantic. But there was a heart that was once told: one day a sword shall pierce you! And that heart remained patient and bore that piercing for the sake of that one "yes" that was pronounced at the beginning of the string of those events. The Mother of Sorrows is an icon that challenges us to understand the meaning of Christian living. 

As St. Paul would say, 'the reign of God is not a matter of food and drink, enjoyment and fun, a romantic feeling or a colourful happening'. It is a matter of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit (cf. Rom 14:17). Righteousness, requires a hunger and thirst for it (cf Mt 5:6); Peace and Joy in the Holy Spirit consist of doing the will of the God, come what may.

Following immediately the Exaltation of the Cross, the feast of today, establishes the truth that, in living a Christian life, there are certain things clearly difficult and demanding. It requires an absolute choice to live a truly 'Christian' life to the full. Mary made that choice and stuck to it right up to the end and that is what we celebrate today... the mother who stood right there, right up to the cross, right up to the last minute of the gruesome salvific sacrifice. She has shown us what it means to be a disciple of Christ, the Lord of the Cross! 

May our Blessed Mother, strengthen our spirits, increase our endurance and deepen our faith. 

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!