WORD 2day: 4th September, 2014

Realisation leads to transformation

1 Cor 3: 18-23; Lk 5: 1-11

A person who has been coming to me for some time now, to share some experiences of concern in his personal life, remarked the other day: "but, you keep saying for everything, become conscious!" I said, "yes! that's the key! become conscious, or you can make no change. Realise and you can change, you can grow, you can transform!" Realisation alone leads to proper self understanding: realisation of one's limitedness to humility and realisation of one's givenness to gratitude! It is this realisation that made Peter fall at the Lord's feet; it is the same realisation that made Paul remind us, life or death, everything belongs to God, we belong to God!

Realisation, Awareness, Consciousness, Self-knowledge, Self-realisation... various terms referring to the same reality: "Be still and know that I am God". It is not merely knowing, for we all know and we know a lot. It is more than knowing; it is, knowing that I know; it is knowing what I know and what I do not. It is a realisation that leads to transformation; that act of casting the nets into the deep, for a true catch! All that we need to do is move ourselves into that depth, the depth of realisation and the Lord will lead us to transformation.

Will my India remain?

Taylors Road, Chennai, 3rd September, 2014:

Just last evening I had a wonderful experience and I would wish to share it loud and wide. Across our institution, we have a locality where there is a settlement typical of the Chennai city. And amidst the scores of houses that stretch in four different directions, right at the middle stands a simple little chapel to Our Lady of Good Health. For the past 39 years they have been celebrating the feast of our Blessed Mother, with a novena during the days between 29th August and 8th September. September 2, has always been the appointed day for a Eucharistic Celebration to be held at that chapel. Its a mere wayside chapel and has no place even to place an altar inside. Hence usually a stage is set up beside it on the road and an altar placed on it with all due decorum. This year, they had invited me to preside over the Eucharist and I gladly obliged. At the entry of that lane, at the middle of which is the chapel, there is a temple dedicated to Lord Vinayaka (the elephant-faced deity of the Hindus). Incidentally, these days are also the days of festivities around Lord Vinayaka, and as I entered that lane I noticed that temple too decorated splendidly and music blasting away, in the usual Indian style. When I reached the chapel and when it was time for Mass, one of the organising crew went straight to the temple people and informed them that it was time for mass. Instantly, the music ceased! And the Eucharist commenced. It was our turn to blast on the speakers... and then the rest of the festivities continued! Incidentally, it is remarkable to note here that quite a few of the members on the organising committee were hindu brothers! 

It left me thinking last evening and I am endlessly proud of my Indian heritage, a culture of peaceful coexistence and respectful collaboration, a seedbed of authentic interreligious dialogue! Will my India remain the same... how I wish and pray! 

WORD 2day: 3rd September, 2014

Defining Spiritual Persons...

1 Cor 3: 1-9; Lk 4: 38-44

Paul feels bad about the fact that he is not able to speak to the Corinthians as to Spiritual people, because of jealousy, rivalry and division among them. He presents those predicaments as directly opposed to being spiritual people. Jesus in the Gospel shines as a role model in being a Spiritual person or a person of the Spirit. He heals, casts out demons and refuses to gain any popularity mileage out of it. He rebukes the demons even, not to announce his Christ image, as he wants himself to be experienced in the depths of their hearts, by each one hearing him or following him. 

Are jealousy, rivalry and other divisive mentalities totally absent today in faith communities? Leave alone the communities, what about my heart, is it totally free of it? If not, I still am an immature believer. St. Paul, in a way, defines who a spiritually mature person is: one who is integral in his or her outlook, unifying in his or her relationships, loving in his or her consideration of the other and God centered in his or her understanding of one's own identity vis-a-vis the faith community. 

Spiritual Persons are persons of the Spirit, and what matters to them is the action of the Spirit within themselves and within their communities. 

WORD 2day: 2nd September, 2014

To have the Mind of Christ

1 Cor 2: 10b-16 ; Lk 4: 31-37.

They believed firmly that no human being can ever deserve the love of God. All that one can do is live in fear of the wrath of God and live a righteous life in order to avoid punishment. Jesus turns the tables and makes it clear that one need not deserve to be loved... God loves us and that is all that matters. In his own self Jesus demonstrated how God is close to every human person and how compassionately in love God is, with God's children. It is not about begging God for love, but it is about claiming that love with authority that comes from the very fact that we are sons and daughters of that loving God.

Recently talking to a group of youngsters, I shared the same thought and it seemed like they took advantage of the concept of "claiming with the right of the children"... when I had to remind them, that it first requires that I live as a true son or a daughter, knowing my duties and my obligations, my priorities and pertaining choices! In short it is to have the Spirit of the Lord with us, who makes us realize that we are the sons and daughters of the Lord almighty. Above all these, to know our privilege as children, to understand the value of being God's sons and daughters: in straight terms, to have the mind of Christ!

WORD 2day: 1st September, 2014

Good Teachings and Right Teachings
1 Cor 2: 1-5; Lk 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.

GOD WHO RELATES...

Encountering, enchanting, empowering

22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time

Jer 20: 7-9; Rom 12:1-2; Mt 16: 21-27

Our trust and our belief is not in a power or in a principle which is called God, but in a person... in three persons...who reveal themselves to us. In acknowledging that revelation and accepting it, we grow in a relationship called faith. The readings today present to us the way God relates to us.

Encountering God

We have an encountering God...a God who meets us on our everyday journey, intercepts our daily routine, and comes up with questions and proposals that demand our utmost attention. Not just questions that take an answer, but questions that lead to life choices, radical commitments and fundamental stands.

Enchanting God

In this encounter and in the ways that God reveals Godself to us, God is ever enchanting. Sometimes when God encounters we are so mesmerised, enticed and gripped by the experience that we make decisions, make choices which otherwise we would not have made at all. God overpowers us, complains Jeremiah today. Yes, God overpowers us with love, with God's love.

Empowering God

It is when we come out of that mesmerised state, we realise what we have done...that we have fallen for God, fallen in love with that wonderful person and given our word for so many things that are so difficult in our world today: a world with such warped, strange, queer and sometimes nauseating principles, policies and priorities. A prolonged commitment seems an impossibility, a tough enroute to happiness seems an impracticality, selfless love and sensitive hearts seem an unavailable commodity. But God empowers... God empowers us with encouragements and at the same time corrections, as we see in Jesus' conversation with Peter. It is only through God's empowering love that we can know, choose and hold on to what is Good, what is acceptable and what is perfect.

WORD 2day:30th August, 2014

From the eyes of God
1 Cor 1: 26-31; Mt 25:14-30

We are not  called to do great things, we are instead called to do the right things, those proper to our call. As Mother Teresa would put it, it does not matter how big a task we do, but it matters how much love we put into what we are upto.

At times we compare ourselves with others...how much more or less we have than the other. It is an insult to our maker who has created us with such uniqueness that i am just one of my kind. However little or great the task entrusted to me in my life, what matters is not what is the outcome but what has been the effort.

We are called today to avoid both belittling ourselves in comparison to others and boasting in contempt of others. We will avoid both if we understand our life and all that is involved, from the eyes of God. For what do we have that we have not received? (cf. 1Cor 4:7).

WORD 2day: 29th August, 2014

The Christ logic: The Martyrdom of John the Baptist

1 Cor 1:17-25; Mk 6: 17-29

St.Paul boasts often saying, there is a different kind of a logic that is at work in us... and the first person who lived by that logic even before Christ the Lord, was John! Infact Christ called him the greatest of those born of a woman. The sufferings of this world are nothing compared to the glory that awaits us in the Lord, St. Paul would remind us.

Be a servant to be the Leader, be the least to be considered the best, be ready for the Cross in order to taste the true love of God... identifying ourselves with Christ is a serious affair. We would either be judged "strange"or "challenging". Many went through this ordeal due to this Christ logic... Jesus himself was affected by that wasn't he?...they called him 'possessed'...they called him 'out of his mind'...and finally villainised him and killed him, just as they did with John the Baptist.

Applying today the Christ logic... what do we expect of the world? Persecutions and pressures, what would be our response to them? In today's culture of hatred and violence, what would our style be? Do we dare to make our's the Christ logic?

WORD 2day: 28th August, 2014

A Life without God? - Remembering St.Augustine

1 Cor 1:1-9; Mt 24: 42-51

"Stay awake", warns the Gospel today and that seems to be a constant reminder these days... with the rising political friction, ecological crisis and social turbulence. Stay awake and don't miss the the Lord, instruct the readings ... resounded by the famous expression of the saint of the day: St Augustine - "I fear the Lord passing by!" 

The anxiety not to miss the Lord comes from the absolute dependence on the Lord, that was so typical of Augustine, just as we see also in St. Paul. They both believed and taught that we are made for the sake of the Lord and that we would find our true fulfilment in the Lord alone. 

The scourge of today's humanity seems to be exactly this - that we are looking for happiness, joy, advancement, progress and development without having to do anything with God! Is it really possible?

WORD 2day: 27th August, 2014

The Lord be with you: Remembering Saint Monica

2 Thess 3: 6-10, 16-18; Mt 23: 27-32

The loftiest wish one can make for another is, that the Lord be with him or her! But a Christian hears it almost all the time that he or she is out there to pray, specially in union  with the other brothers and sisters. Today St. Paul makes the same wish and prays that we may be blessed with peace. That peace and serenity will come only with the presence of the Lord and that is the meaning of the wish, 'Lord be with you!'

But this wish is at one and the same time, a blessing and a challenge. A blessing because it is in that moment of blessing that the Lord decides to intervene definitively in favour of the salvation of the entire humankind. It is a challenge because, the Lord being with us all the time, is a bit inconvenient. The Lord would be aware of everything we say or do, because the Lord is close at hand. Would I feel comfortable if the Lord knows all that I am involved in? Or would there be areas, where I would rather be by myself, without God?

In fact, it is this sense of God, the sense of God's presence all the time with me that amounts to a spirituality that is profound in its simplicity. Saint Monica is a great example in this regard. Her incessant prayers for her son and her spiritual endurance in waiting for the grace of God to bear fruit are lessons taught so powerfully.