O my divine Bread from heaven!

WORD 2day

25th May 2013

'Their ways are always before him, they will not be hid from his eyes.'

The verse from the first reading says it all...like a mother who has her eyes always on her child, as she is about all her odd jobs...always looking at what the child is upto, what the child is playing with and what the child needs...that is how God looks at each of us...telling us, as another verse says, "beware of unrighteousness". The readings remind us of our origins.. We are from the hands of a God who has loved us into existence! We were children... all of us, we were children so innocent and pure and to be always that, is our call. To remain children...  not meaning merely weak and vulnerable, but being totally dependent on God, truly simple and innocent and spontaneously loving towards each other. Let us heed the call and inherit the Reign of God.

FEAST OF MARY HELP OF CHRISTIANS

24th May... Mary Help of Christians...

These are terms that are so so sweet to the ears of any salesian! Don Bosco's Madonna, Our Lady Help of Christians, is celebrated today with so much joy and gratitude for the guidance and providence felt through her all through the year and all through the life of a salesian. 

At times, I have felt (as I do even now), that the title Mary Help of Christians, is a bit too sectarian and fanatic sounding. However, the term has a historical significance that cannot be denied or done away with. It is not merely a title but a faith expression of a people of a particular period of time, who experienced God's closeness to them through a special intervention of the Blessed Mother of God. 

The battle of Lepanto won in the 16th century was a victory of the Christians over the Muslim oppressors; and Don Bosco's experience of a ever present mother in the Blessed Mother, specially when the Waldensian anti-catholics were up against him, made him polemic about the Lady help of Christians. For a Salesian today this experience is not merely handed down from Don Bosco as a tradition, but experienced and shared on a daily basis with a presence of this Mother, so close and caring. The invocation Mary Help of Christians, Pray for us...could be traced back right up to John Chrysostom of the 4th century, historically seen from the 16th century; but is identified with a spirituality lived and passed on by Don Bosco to his sons and daughters.

Though today many, like me, substitute this invocation with a neutral 'Mary Our help', the original title evokes a specific faith experience that underlies an affectionate relationship a Christian should have towards this Heavenly mother so graciously gifted to us by the Saviour. Mary Help of Christians, Pray for us.

WORD 2day

24th May 2013

Relationships of true love... are signs of the presence of God! The readings today invite us to a reflection on this dimension of our daily life. The first reading draws our attention to a 'faithful' friend and the Gospel speaks of the faithfulness that should exist between two persons brought together in holy matrimony. Faithfulness is the key, to understand the Word today. God made the covenant with the people and till the end God remained faithful to that covenant. Hosea draws a parallel to this faithfulness of God, by projecting Israel as the spouse of God, but an unfaithful one at that. Faithfulness can make us in ordinary life, a shelter, a price-less gift to the other, a life-saving remedy; and in faith life it can make us worthy of God! In a time when we see all around us breach of trusts, breakage of hearts and bribery made a rule, Faithfulness is the imprint of God within our beings!

WORD 2day

23rd May 2013

Have salt in yourself and be at peace with one another - a queer combination! But that is the mind of Christ. Be righteous yourself, but do not judge others. Let not your righteousness cause you to look down on others, for that will already be a loss of righteousness, in Christ's terms. Righteousness - Being Right - or in very simple terms being good. The most crucial problem of our times is that we have lost the sense of sin, said the illustrious theologian Karl Rahner. Subjectivism, relativism and individualism have taken away the simplicity of Christian life. We believe something, profess something and live something totally different. Let us strive to bring the Christian Simplicity back into our lives. Let what we pray, what we believe and what we live be the same... this was the earliest mode of Christian living. Without straining to find out where down the line have we lost it, let us resolve to make it present today, here and now.

WORD 2day

22nd May 2013

The Holy Spirit present amidst us is the guaranteeing element of our rectitude. St. Paul writes to the Corinthians saying, "no one who speaks by the Spirit says, 'Jesus be cursed' and no one can say 'Jesus is Lord' except by the Holy Spirit" (1Cor 12:3). Jesus introduced the Spirit to us as the Divine Counselor and that is what the first reading today underlines - the Wisdom, following which we are sure of being on the right. Speaking on the feast of the Pentecost the Holy Father said, 'the Spirit creates disorder in the Church' and added 'through the variety of charisms and gifts the Spirit inspires.' It is from this disorder that the glory of the Lord will go forth. Monopolising is not Christ-ian...'do not forbid him' Jesus tells John today in the Gospel. The onus is on each of us to behold the charism and the gift that the Spirit has entrusted each of us with and live it to the full. The more we live it, the more we love the Spirit and the more we love the Spirit the more we love life! LET US LIVE OUR FAITH EVERY MOMENT OF OUR LIFE.

Pope Francis Speaks on the Holy Spirit

WORD 2day

21 May 2013

We seem to live in days of delusion. Injustice and Corruption at all levels, falsity in every field from politics to sports, total despise to human dignity both at the public and private spheres of life, killing of the innocent and oppression of the weak, throttling the throat of the have-nots with the arms of greed - everything that we see around cries foul. Is this what the book of Sirach, calls the 'temptations' to be prepared for, the 'time of calamity', ot the 'testing in the fire'? Be whatever it may be, the invitation is clear - to be prepared, to be steadfast, and not to turn aside! The metaphors of Jesus with the image of a servant  and the child, converge on one point - to be dependent on the Lord! 'Cleave to him and do not depart', challenges the wisdom of Sirach. To remain in Him, is the constant call. Everlasting joy and mercy are with Him..and we shall surely possess it in abundance and share it with the rest, if and only if we remain with the Lord.

WORD 2day

20th May 2013: Monday, 7th Week in ORDINARY TIME...

After a long time it reads, 'Ordinary Time'... the challenge of 'faith' is to keep it alive during the 'ordinary' time, during the ordinary moments of life! High excitements, peak experiences, moving moments, miraculous events, adventurous fortunes... these bring out the best of our faith expressions! But the test is the ordinary phase of life, which is the reality for the most part of our life. Those are the moments, when we will have to see the presence of God in every ordinary thing, every ordinary person around and every ordinary experience of the day...that is the Wisdom that resides in the creation that the first reading speaks of today. And when we are faced with that challenge and we find it so difficult to really see through and perceive the element of God, we are taught today to pray, 'Lord, I believe, help my unbelief!'

People of the Spirit

Solemnity of Pentecost: 19th May 2013

A day when we have to wish the Church, happy birthday!...and as every birthday is a day of reminder to grow up, to mature.. also for the Church today is a day of reminder to grow up and mature as the Reign of God, the ultimate purpose of the Community of faith on earth. The Church does not exist for herself, taught Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, on 19th Feb 2012. The Vatican Council II instructed us the same truth, while saying the Church exists to proclaim and plant the seeds of the Reign of God. The reminder comes from the first instances of the birth of the Church... the event of the coming of the Spirit. Today for the Church and for every Christian to grow up and mature, the presence of the Spirit is indispensable. 

How do we recognise the presence of the Spirit? There are three signs today suggested by the Liturgy of the Word to ascertain the presence of the Spirit.

1st Sign: COMMUNION (I Reading)

The first sign of the presence of the Spirit is Communion. When they spoke in various tongues, every one understood in their own language. The first gift of the Spirit is the 'oneness of heart and mind' that is achieved by the gift of UNDERSTANDING. Where there is division for the sake of ego and personal opinion, where there is manipulation for the sake of having one's ways, the Spirit is absent! Any division of the hearts of the children of God is created by the evil spirit! Communion, the fruit of Understanding, does not in anyway mean a homogeneous uniformity. It is a divine blending of differences. Yes, the Communion offered by the Spirit is born out of a RESPECT FOR DIFFERENCES which are appreciated as the richness that is so natural in the very creation of God, the differences that are brought in a harmonious symphony by the Spirit. 

One who possesses the Spirit of the Lord, uses the gift of UNDERSTANDING that arises from an authentic RESPECT FOR DIFFERENCES, to bring the people of God together, as community of people with one heart and one spirit.

2nd Sign: COMMISSION (II Reading)

The second sign of the Spirit's presence is Commission. A commissioning which begins with a CALLING... as we are called into one community in the Risen Lord, called to be children of God who call out, 'Abba Father'. This calling does not end with a domestic understanding of being children cuddling at home, but a call that fills us with the FIRE OF MISSION, for we are not filled with the Spirit of cowardice to fall into fear, but the Spirit of adoption that urges us on to go forward and live a life of witness, that is bold and befitting the one who called us.

One who possesses the Spirit of the Lord, is aware of the CALLING that one has received and is courageous to bear witness to that calling with the FIRE OF THE MISSION, that burns from within as Jeremiah says.(Jer 20:9)

3rd Sign: COMPASSION (Gospel)

The third and the most fundamental sign of the presence of the Spirit is COMPASSION, without which the very name 'Christian' has no meaning absolutely. Compassion is an active form of LOVE, the only expectation that the Lord has from us - to love each other as the Lord loves us. Love, is not a mere feeling but a feeling with, it is feeling with the other, what the other feels. While speaking of the Early Christians it was said they were of one mind and one heart - that was love. While St. Paul instructs, 'Rejoice with those who rejoice and mourn with those who mourn' (Rom 12:15). That is true Christian love, that is the way that the Lord loved us. To love is to LIVE LIKE JESUS. Fundamentally, this is what the Spirit enables us to be - to be like Jesus, to live like Jesus. Hence, 

One who possesses the Spirit of the Lord, is filled with LOVE and vows to LIVE LIKE JESUS.

The coming of the Spirit was a radical change of lifestyle for the disciples and all who believed in Christ. Today, if we are to celebrate this feast with real meaning, there has to be a radical evaluation of our life style - whether we promote communion, accept our commission and burn with compassion! If we do, we are the people of the Spirit.

Come Holy Spirit, Fill us with your Fire!

WORD 2day

18th May 2013

We are very close to the commemoration of the event that changed the face of the earth... which initiated the story of a community that made the earth look totally new! That community had to wait after they were convened by the Risen Lord, till they were filled with the power from above. Today in the readings we read of two more who waited for their time...Paul who was in imprisonment and John whom Jesus said would remain till an appointed time. As they waited, be it Paul in the prison, or John the evangelist, or the community which kept waiting but vibrant... they were all convinced of their faith and were committed to share it. Praying for the Spirit means, preparing for the Spirit. And it is the Spirit who testifies, because the Spirit is truth (1Jn 5:6). Let us pray for the Spirit, the truth that sets us free, the truth that enlightens our life and the truth that becomes our way! Come, Holy Spirit, Fill us with your fire!