Belong to the Lord, here and now!

WORD 2day: Saturday, 33rd week in Ordinary time

November 22, 2025: 1 Maccabees 6:1-13; Luke 20: 27-40

I will rejoice in your saving help O Lord, we repeat in the responsorial psalm today! Take that in contrast to the lament we hear from the dying king in the first reading. After having done all the damage that he could, at his death bed he does realise his folly. Too late for anything to be done! We wonder how many of the dominant personalities today have to go through this... let us hope they do not wait for their death bed to realise their wickedness! One wonders whether today's evil heads would realise even on their death bed the damage they have caused to humanity!

Just a moment! Let us not be lost in judging that king in the first reading, or the evil bigheads of our times! The challenge is to each of us: are we able to say as the psalmist says, 'I will rejoice in your saving help O Lord'? That would require that we understand what that help is. The help actually is the grace of the Spirit, that helps us understand our foolishness, our worthless ego, our pointless anger, our heartless unforgiving attitude and similar marks of folly. We need to realise these in our daily life and in our ordinary relationships, beginning with the closest of our brothers and sisters!

In our empty pride and selfish scheming, we loitter into areas of evil that are totally ungodly! At times we go to the extent of forgetting our real call to be children of God. The Lord gives us chances, ample opportunities to realise our folly and return to our original dignity. There is no use waiting till our death bed and them praying for the mercies of the Lord. Our Lord is the God of the living, not of the dead! Let us belong to the Lord, while we live, not merely when we die - concretely, here and now!

Taking possession of His temple

WORD 2day: Friday, 33rd week in Ordinary Time

November 21, 2021: 1 Maccabees 4: 36-37,52-59; Luke 19: 45-48

In our living rooms or in the offices, we could have a normal experience of piling up unwanted things little by little and at a point of time we would decide to do away with all of them and get the room or office cleansed. And surprisingly at that time, all that we were hoarding up as probable "usables" would become worthy only of the trash bags! The Word today speaks of such an experience, reminding us of the need to belong to God.

In our own bodies and minds, in our daily living, we begin to accumulate things we consider important: our immediate pleasures, our addictive dependencies, our bloating ego, our unforgiving rancours, our tendencies to prove ourselves to the world, and so on. The Lord reminds us, the beginning of every new day is an opportunity for us to turn the tables over, to throw the trashes into cans, and renew ourselves into what we are - the dwelling places of God!

God wishes to take possession of God's temple cleansed and put in order. Let's open up our lives and allow God to enter God's abode. Let's resolve to rededicate ourselves to the glory of God. Let the Lord take possession of the Lord's temple!

Am I among the few_

WORD 2day: Thursday, 33rd week in Ordinary time

November 20, 2025: 1 Maccabees 2:15-29; Luke 19: 41-44

The very fact a few are mentioned among the Israelites who stood firm in their faith is an indication that a great number of them strayed away from it. It continued in Jesus' time too. Only a handful were ready and open enough to behold the unfolding of the promises of the Lord in and through the life of Jesus. And Jesus cries over the rest of the city. Not just the city at large, but his own close companions... did he not ask them, "are you going away from me too"?

The situation is no different today! There aren't too many who are totally convinced of what they believe and it is becoming more and more difficult to remain absolutely faithful to the truth not giving into any compromises. It is one thing to be unjust, arrogant and evil, and do what I feel like, considering or respecting no one. But it is completely another thing to deceive people with my apparent goodness! I put up an appearance to be the best of everyone put together; but only I know within me, how evil and how conniving I really am! How many compromises and how many facades!

That is why, the only one apart from God, who can say who I really am, is only myself! It is easy to find a fault on me and point a finger at me; it is also possible that no one finds anything wrong with me - both of these are not sufficient. The crucial question would be that I ask myself - do I belong to the majority who seem to be namesake followers? Or am I among the few?

Take yourself seriously!

WORD 2day: Wednesday, 33rd week in Ordinary Time

Novembre 19, 2025: 2 Maccabbees 7: 1, 20-31; Lk 19: 11-28

The end time disaster narration continues in the first reading today, while the recommendation given for this day is: take yourself seriously! Look at your life, look at what you are, look at what you have, look at what you are given, look at the tasks entrusted to you and take them seriously! The urge to be faithful to God is never a question of maintaining the status quo.

Regardless of our successes and titles we will be judged on the basis of our faithfulness to God or its lack. It does not matter whether we have worked on a little or an accomplished great thing, but it does matter what our level of faithfulness was, as we worked on it! This faithfulness becomes more and more subtler as the things involved get more and more important - like our spiritual life, our faith life, our commitment to our relationship with God.

What was the mother in the first reading we have today: a prophetess? a leader? a queen? No one... just a simple woman, an insignificant mother thus far and shoots all of a sudden to fame - simply because of the faithfulness of her sons. Behind that faithfulness, remains the whole life lived by the mother, and with the mother - the values imparted and the convictions rooted. She deserves all the limelight, as she nurtured them amisdt the obscurity of the ordinariness of life.

The Lord has entrusted us with the great gift of life - and we are to bring it back to the Lord, with all that we can add to it. Meaning, significance, merits, kindness, forgiveness, empathy, integrity and so on. It is not the noise and the fanfare that surrounds that will decide our final destiny, but that one moment of intense silence before the Lord where the Lord sees what I have made of my life finally. That moment will be happy, if today I take myself, my life and my call, seriously!

The Witness of Choice

WORD 2day: Tuesday, 33rd week in Ordinary time

November 18, 2025: 2 Maccabees 6: 18-31; Luke 19: 1-10

We are called to witness to the Lord, the Lord's Gospel and the Lord's Reign. The most powerful of witnesses is the witness of choice, the witness of making a choice for God over many others that claim a reckoning!

Our choices determine, the person that we are! Our choices manifest the sort of community we form! Be it our personal choices, or our collective choices as a community, or society or as whole humanity, we constantly keep making statements as to who we are, through our choices.

Eleazar makes a choice for God by not scandalising the little ones of God against a life for God. No one would have objected to it, if he had saved himself of extreme troubles; in fact they were merciful towards him. But what did not allow him was his interior, personal choices for God! And that became the greatest of witness to his fellow believers!

Zachaeus makes a choice to hold on to Christ and let everything else go, a witness of inspiration that he gives as an elder! Those who knew the old Zachaeus certainly would have been blown away in surprise. His choices were absolutely unbelievable!

The long and short of the message today is: even if don't give a great witness per se, I need to atleast refrain from causing scandals for the little ones. However, both these are equally demanding and not exclusive of each other. We know the amount of damage that scandals are causing to the believing community these days. The crux of our Christian life is making a choice for God, for a life worthy of God and a life that is uplifting for the people of God!

Let me see again!

WORD 2day: Monday, 33rd week in Ordinary time

November 17, 2025: 1 Maccabees 1:10-15,41-43,54-57,62-63; Lk 18: 35-43

Born in a society of multireligious nature (India), and today living in a society that idolises this state of multi-religiosity in theory (Italy), personally I feel gifted with experiences and circumstances that can illumine the way one perceives things. At times, at the first look, they do not come across to our observation and understanding. That is why the call from the Word today, to see again - just as that person without sight asked Jesus: Lord, let me see again!

One sad fact is that in traditionally multireligious climate of places like India, there are tendencies recently to neglect the possibilities of co-existence and shared experiences, absolutising identities and polarisation of the society, dividing humanity on varied bases. Another extreme ar the situations (like in Europe) where multi-religiosity is idolised without really understanding the nuances, where there is a tendency to level everything, compromise on convictions and mix and match things to suit one's convenience!

In these extremities, what is important is that we see, and that we see again! That is, see closely and understand everything with a close attention and then initiate a process of dialogue, that does not raze down uniquenesses but accentuates the value of differences which contribute to each other, which humanise the society more, and make the meaning and the dignity of living as human persons, truly felt and experienced by all. 

This infact is what evangelisation and re-evangelisation is all about - to throw new light; to make persons see again! For such a mission entrusted to us, we need to make this our daily prayer: Lord, let me see again!

Gathering the signs!

WORD 2day : Friday, 32nd week in Ordinary time

November 14, 2025: Wisdom 13:1-9; Luke 17: 26-37

Every now and then in the story of humanity, a story makes its rounds that the end of the world is bound to begin shortly... in a week or in a fixed time foresaid... with three days of darkness and other demonic signs. Though there is a curiosity that these horror stories evoke, they are merely manifestations of a spirituality that seeks some excitement all the time. Isn't that a very weak form of spirituality?

Jesus invites us to grow in our capacity to gather the signs from the experiences of ordinary day to day life... the lessons arising from the clashes caused by evil tendencies, cravings incited by selfishness, inhumanities provoked by senseless egoism, insensitivities and indifferences that make this world a worthless place to live in! People who make of everything and every person, a commodity, a means to their own gain and a possibility of profit!

Look at the entire scenario of today's armed stand-offs all around the world: every one of those is human made and so miserably evil... leave aside the question who started it and who is perpetrating it! Every time there is a disaster, human made or natural, there are those who shamelessly draw profit from it... what kind of a human person would do that? Worse still, a follower of Christ falling into that mode of living, that is a senseless shame. It is a clear sign that they do not gather any signs of what God wants from them!

The call hence, is to gather signs and understand the invitation from God. It is not about when the end of the world would come... but what does God want of me here and now, right here and right now! It would be unwise to remain deaf or blind to the messages that the Lord sends... let's remain awake and read those signs and channel our courses towards one united goal: the Reign of God here on earth.

Me, the Spirit and the Reign!

WORD 2day : Thursday, 32nd week in Ordinary time

November 13, 2025: Wisdom 7:22 - 8:1: Luke 17: 20-25

The Reign of God is among you, says Jesus in the Gospel. While the first reading gives us the cue where to initiate it in concrete: from the Spirit who dwells within us. This is the crux of Christian life in the world today!

It is the Spirit's doing that initiates the Reign in this world. Hence the call that we have received to establish the Reign of God, begins with realising the Spirit within us. It is to become aware of the indwelling Spirit and live a life that is worthy of this inner presence, that waits to spread itself into a light that would lead the entire world from within each of us.

The second need is to keep the Spirit alive and nourish it with our choice for God on a day to day manner. When you sow flesh, you grow flesh; when you sow the Spirit, you grow in the Spirit, counsels St. Paul elsewhere. Our growth in the Spirit depends on the interest we manifest in feeding our selves with Spiritual nourishment. When the Spirit grows within, the Reign around me springs!

Thirdly, we are challenged to live that Spirit out, manifest that Spirit, bear witness to that Spirit, make the Spirit felt in our very beings, with courage and commitment, inspite of the threats and troubles around us. Once we choose to live our life in the Spirit to the full, the Reign of God begins to dawn on this world.

There is a crucial connection between the Spirit and the Reign, and the connection is ME!

Faith is... to respond!

WORD 2day: Wednesday, 32nd week in Ordinary time

November 12, 2025: Wisdom 6: 1-11; Luke 17: 11-19

The readings seem to converge on one thought today... that the Lord wishes, expects, and demands a response from us! 

Our God is a self revealing God... through signs and wonders, and prophets and wise persons, and finally through God's only Son, and continuously even today in and through God's Spirit, God continues to reveal Godself to us in various ways. The question is, do we pay attention, listen and acknowledge what is being revealed. 

The tricky fact is that, the more we are given, the more we are expected to respond! It is not to be misinterpretted as if God gives, and expect that we repay! No! But it is that, we are given so much, we are so filled with such goodness, we receive "grace upon grace" (Jn 1:16), that we realise it is right and just to give God thanks and praise to the Lord!

To know the right thing to be done at the right time and choosing to do it, is a gift of the Holy Spirit... we would be blessed to possess it. And the Lord says today, "set your desire on my words; long for them, and you will be instructed!" (Wis 6:11). Doing the right thing, at the right time, is a response that we give to the Lord and that response is what is expected from me - anytime, anywhere! When I don't respond, I waste what was entrusted to me: a gift, a treasure!

Our response to the self revealing God - that is our faith. Growing in faith is learning to respond more and more adequately. Failing to respond is dwindling in faith. Let us grow in faith everyday - let us be attentive to respond to the Lord in every way!

Bearing God's image within

WORD 2day: Tuesday, 32nd week in Ordinary time

November 11, 2025: Wisdom: 2:23 - 3:9; Luke 17: 7-10

The first reading today states a tremendous truth - we are made for eternity, incorruptible by nature, because we carry the image of God within us! That is the fundamental truth of salvation. We are all saved in the core of our being, none of us is destined to destruction, none of us is rushing towards perdition!

But let us beware! There is something which can change everything drastically! We have a responsibility to keep that truth alive, because it all depends on the choices we make. By nature we are God's own children, but if we by our daily decisions and life choices, resolve to break away from God and from the gifts that God has placed within us, we are ruining our own salvific core.

It is not as if we are doing something extraordinary or achieving unthinkable feats when we accomplish within our limits, whatever goodness we can! It is actually what we are, it is our very nature; because we are endowed with God's nature. And so, craving for recognition and appreciation, boasting about oneself and one's so-called achievements are a folly. St. Paul would remind us repeatedly of that. Jesus explains that today: when you have done all that you ought to, remember you have done no more than your duty.

The problem gets real bad, when we are not what we are created to be, we do not do what we are called to! We shield ourselves away from the salvation that God, from all eternity, has prepared for us. What a ruin that would be!

The Word reminds us today: we are called every day, every moment to go on living in faith founded on hope and guided by love, to live a life of love and mercy; and at the end of it say, 'we are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty!' 

Let us remember... God who loves us will never desert us, unless we decide to break away from God.