Think good; Do good; Be good!

THE WORD AND THE SAINT

September 23, 2024 - Remembering St. Pio of Pietrelcina

Proverbs 3:27-34; Luke 8:16-18

Yesterday we reflected on our call to be good and the difficulties involved! 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 is the runway to happiness, but rarely taken by people today!

We prefer to complicate our lives, make it distrustful, enigmatic and suspicious. Neither are we happy nor do we allow others to be happy. While it is so simple to be happy and make others happy, we prefer to complicate lives. We fear that people would take us for granted, and make a fool of us, and so we choose to be unhappy!

At times, that is the 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 is what is said in the first reading; in other words: think good! do good! be good!

St. Pio of Pietrelcina, or simply said, Padre Pio... taught this in other terms. He said: to fail in charity is like wounding God in the pupil of his eye. What is more delicate than the pupil of the eye? To fail in charity is like failing against nature. What defines our nature is charity, in thoughts, deeds and our very being. 

You wish to be good? Really?

It isn't that easy!

September 22, 2024 - 25th Sunday in Ordinary time

Wisdom 2: 12,17-20; James 3:16 - 4:3; Mark 9: 30-37

Why should I be good? There are more than just a few who ask this question, specially today when the whole society seems to be discouraging me from that. And not just that, people take advantage of those who wish to be good and the person soon feels forced to give up on being good! Just give this a thought... is that not what we see around us today? Most of us want to be good, but on a second thought we begin to wonder whether we really want to be good, given all the consequences of it... the Word this Sunday invites us to reflect on this experience. We could make three easy statements on the basis of a reflection on today's Word. 

If I wish to be good, I will be mostly alone! 

Or atleast the majority will be against me, opposing me and trying to get me renounce my wish to be good. The first reading presents that so vividly. Even if not so directly as we see in the case of the first reading, we will certainly sense people talking behind our backs, pulling down our spirits, assassinating our character, calling names and fixing us into pigeon holes. How are we going to react to them? Are we going to go around convincing each of them that we are good and we want to be good? Are we going to be bogged down by all the pressure that they create around us? Examples we have in abundance, of persons who start out to be good but soon find themselves in swamp, struggling to keep alive.

If I wish to be good, I will have to suffer and who knows, even be killed! 

Think of the scores of whistle blowers in the world who have been erased from the face of the earth in the recent times. Being good is not all that easy. You need to resolve to be good, in spite of the eventual rejection and every such risk. Jesus was clear about what is going to happen to him; he instructed the apostles about it time and again, although they did not really understand what he meant. They were busy playing the game of the majority, seeking the prime places and the limelights. Jesus today takes his time off, makes sure no one interrupts, in order that he can drive home this lesson deep into the hearts of his beloved brothers. That is what the Word wants to do to us too: drive home the lesson deep into our hearts...we have no reward here below if we want to be good, but still we have to be good! Now comes the question...but why? Why have we to be good? The reason? 

If I wish to be good, I am godly! 

If I am a child of God, as Jesus tells me to be, I have to be good. God is good, all the time: we know it so well! If God is good, I who am God's child, I have to be good too! I have to be good even though there are no rewards for it. Apostle James says, if I am of God, then I will be good, pure, peaceable, gentle, full of mercy and good fruits (cf. Jas 3:17). People may not appreciate it, but I have to be good because I am a child of God. People may take advantage of me and take me for a ride, but I still have to be good because I belong to God. I don't need a reason; or rather, I don't have a reason to be good, other than the fact that it is my very nature to be good, for I am created in the image and likeness of God and it is godly to be good!

Let us ask this question to ourselves: do I really wish to be good? If so, are we prepared for all its consequences? Let us remember, Wisdom shows itself by doing good; we become children of God by being good.

The call to be ONE

THE WORD AND THE SAINT

September 21, 2024 - Celebrating St. Matthew, the Evangelist and Apostle
Ephesians 4: 1-7,11-13; Matthew 9: 9-13

One Lord, One faith, One baptism, One God... Paul stacks up the meaning of the feast today, in describing his own wish for his children. Yes, every time we celebrate the feast of an apostle we are celebrating our call to be One! The division within the Church is because, the sense of this Apostolic succession is lost somewhere. That is an ecumenical point of view and important. But more important is a socio-existential point of view of the Church today.

The Feast of Matthew and the reminder from the scene of his call, give us this message with an enviable clarity: are we ONE? How many categories we have created for ourselves to stand divided - denominations among churches, divisions within churches based on rites and languages and even on the basis of caste (so despicable!). 

Matthew, when he was called, left everything on the table and followed him. A lot of things were at stake for him when he made that choice - he cannot turn back, he will have people on his back, he will have to answer so many people, he will be criticised by many, he will be branded by the world as 'out of his mind', he would be going behind a person about whom he can only pretend to know until the person himself reveals with clarity - how many things against that odd choice that he made! But still he made that choice - to leave everything and follow Christ.

Can I today, leave everything? My desires, my identities, my attachments, my clingings, my holdings, my support system, my ego ...everything! Can I leave them all, and follow Him who calls me?

The Resurrection Community

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

September 20, 2024 - 1 Corinthians 15: 12-20; Luke 8:1-3

The Word today points to an identity that has to be the most fundamental to any follower of Christ.  It is totally centered upon and rooted in that pivotal event of our faith - the Resurrection. 

First and foremost of all the effects that Christ has on his followers is the Resurrection effect: that is a life filled with hope! The year of jubilee that we are preparing ourselves towards, gives us an opportunity too to realise the importance of this element of 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', St. Paul would instruct ( cf. 1 Cor 12:13). 

Today, our faith communities are challenged to ask themselves, are we one body? are we made into one by the Risen Lord? are we "following" the Lord? do we have the "mind" of Christ in us? In short, the question is, Are we truly Resurrection Community?

Humility and Gratitude - signs of a Spiritual person

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

September 19, 2024 - 1 Corinthians 15: 1-11; Luke 7: 36-50

By the grace of God I am what I am, states St. Paul today in the first reading. That statement brings out two salient features of a truly Spiritual person. The first is Humility; the other quality flows from it - Gratitude.

As we know, humility is a sign that one knows oneself, understands oneself, places oneself in the right perspective and accepts what the Lord has called one towards. It is not abasing or belittling oneself; that would be a misunderstanding and a belittlement of the Creator. Therefore, humility is simple, looking at oneself from the perspective of God!

Flowing directly from humility, is gratitude! The more one is forgiven, the more one loves; because love flows from the goodness that God makes us feel welling up from within us. That is the source of gratitude, feeling the goodness flow from within, well up within, and flowing out of oneself. 

Humility and Gratitude are qualities that are indispensable markers, for a life that wants to define itself with the adjective, "spiritual". A humble person is a grateful person; and a grateful heart is a holy heart. The woman who was forgiven, was offered a totally new life and that made her so exuberantly grateful that she did not hesitate to expess it through all means she thought best. 

A spiritual person is humble and grateful; and a grateful and humble person is definitely a holy person.

Faith, Hope and Love

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

September 18, 2024 -  1 Corinthians 12:31 - 13:13; Luke 7: 31-35

These days the Word has been speaking to us about living our faith in action, beginning with the Sunday that has just gone by. And today, we have the discourse about the most concrete and fundamental expression of faith - an essential and exclusive element - Charity. It is essential because without it we cannot make sense of faith; it is exclusive because where there is no charity, there is in fact no faith, what we find is at the most, a fake faith or a misunderstood faith. 

At times Charity could be miunderstood and misinterpreted as approving of everything that the other does, invariable of what it is or what is the value at stake, merely because I have to prove that I love that person. The understanding of the world today is this... while Jesus reminds us, it is childish; it is infantile; Charity would hurt at times, it would cause mutual suffering at times... but always towards the good of the other! 

"Good of the other" - that is the key to understand the right sense of love or Charity! That does away with selfishness, pride and jealousy. That is the key that places the other at the centre and that is the key that can make our regard for God, as the ultimate Other, true and sincere. That is why, it is love that makes our faith authentic and valid. These three, faith, hope and love abide; the greatest of these is love! 

One body and the gift of Life

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

September 17, 2024 -  1 Corinthians 12: 12-14, 27-31a; Luke 7: 7-11

The first reading speaks to us of One body that we need to make up, one body with many parts, each part bringing its significance to the whole. The Gospel speaks to us of the life giving Lord, who is ready to give life to the one body, if only we live up to our call of building up that one body! The Lord has the ultimate power, the only One who can give life! If only we live together in union of heart and mind, as one body of Christ, the Lord will give us life and we shall spread life allover the world. That is an inspiration from the Word today.

Each of us is given special gifts from the Holy Spirit, special gifts according to the specific calling that we have received. 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).

As St. Paul instructs us elsewhere, to rejoice with those who rejoice and to weep with those who weep (Rom 12:15), is the way we can realise, that we are One People and grow to be One body of Christ! And that body will be enlivened, filled with the Spirit and made a vibrant message to the people of the world - that the Lord is the God of life; and every being shall come to the Lord to be enlivened, to be awakened in the Spirit. 

The Eucharistic Dimensions: Encounter and Communion

THE WORD AND THE SAINTS

September 16, 2024 - Remembering Sts. Cornellius and Cyprian
1 Corinthians 11: 17-26,33; Luke 7: 1-10

The Word presents to us today, two inseparable and consequential dimensions of the Eucharistic celebration: Encounter and Communion. These two dimensions are inseparable, complementary, consequential and dependent on one another; and that, at two levels! One at the immediate level, and the other at transcendental level! 

The Body of Christ is the key to understand these levels and and these dimensions. Christ comes alive and encounters us at the immediate level during the celebration and we are called to grow in that communion at the tranformational or transcendental level, that is in continuity of our daily life. The second is the Body of Christ which is he people of God - who encounter each other at the immediate level within the eucharistic celebration and are challenged to grow and transform themselves into that communion at the transcendental, or transformational level of their faith life. 

When these two dimensions are not experienced in and through a Eucharist, that celebration remains merely a ritual and the Lord shall certainly not approve of it. We do ourselves more harm through it, warns St. Paul. While these two dimensions blend in and bear fruit at the immediate and the transcendental levels, creating a community of love and peace, the Lord shall expressedly congratulate us, as he does to the centurion!

The saintly martyrs we celebrate today, one a Pope and the other a Bishop, were great models in this teaching and practice. They recognised the real challenge of making the Eucharistic gathering truly a moment of communion of hearts rather than merely a ritual of ceremonies. For us today, that needs a bit of homework prior to the celebration itself: communion has to be built on a daily basis and celebrated at the Eucharist. If it has not been built already, what do we celebrate at all?

Good Teachings and Right Teachings

WORD 2day: Monday, 22nd week in Ordinary time

Septermber 2, 2024: 1 Corinthians 2: 1-5; Luke 4: 16-30

The world today runs after so many preachers, sages, gurus, leaders, speakers, trainers, etc. There are many who practice it as a trade! Some have fans and followers across the globe. They are all good... talented... interesting... exciting... thought provoking. But the question is, how right are the teachings? It is important to differentiate good teachings from right teachings.

Teachings that are worded beautifully, formulated creatively and expressed attractively but do not lead to true harmony, self transcendence, compassionate love and mutual concern based on the fact that there is Some One who unites us all, invites all to form one beautiful community of brothers and sisters... how "right"are they?

The readings today give us a clarity: good teachings are based on human wisdom while the right teachings are founded on the power of God. The Gospel presents the sad fact that the world prefers the former to the latter.

St. Monica and the Grace of Tears

August 27, 2024: 
Remembering St Monica, the Saintly Mother

Monica, this saintly Mother has always been a point of great admiration in Christian hagiography. What a great example we have in her, as a mother and as a child of God!

There are three lessons that this saintly mother can teach us:

1. The grace of tears:

Pope Francis encourages people to pray for the 'grace of tears' when pleading to God to help others, when recognising their own sinfulness, when contemplating the greatness of Christ's love and when experiencing God's mercy. Monica had the grace of tears and she prayed with tears every time she prayed for her husband and her son.

2. The power of tears:

When the widow of Nain cried, the Lord could not resist his compassion for her. He was moved to the point of a miracle. Just so, Monica saved her son, by the sheer power of her tears. What if we realise, that our tears can save, atleast ourselves!

3. The witness of tears:

Tears become a witness, witness to the love of God. The genuine tears of a loved one speaks volumes about the immeasurable love that God has for a person. Tears are not signs of weakness, they are signs of inner strength to remain with a person who is suffering or struggling!

Let us pray for the gift of tears, as Pope Francis recommends!