WORD 2day: 22nd October, 2014

Lite it up! Live it up!

Eph 3: 2-12; Lk 12:39-48

God has given us a special identity, observes St. Paul... the identity of the people of God, that of the people of light! We are brought to light! It does not stop with that but we are called to take that light to all. We are made stewards of that light and it is both a privilege and a pressing duty that we carry this light far and wide. Carrying this light, or bringing people to the light would take shades of various kinds: the best of those is to let my light shine!

Letting my light shine, is an obligation I have, because no one lights the lamp and puts it under the bushel. A light is rather kept on the lampstand that it may give light to all who enter the home.  Being the light, shining as light or bringing the light to the world would mean, to become aware of the great privilege of being known as ambassadors of the Gospel and of our duty to announce the Gospel. In short, the call we have is to live it up! On a daily basis to understand the dignity of being called God's people and to live up to that dignity.

The message goes well and coincides with the festival of lights celebrated all over India today: to lite it up! to live it up!

Lord, let my little light shine!

WORD 2day: 21st October, 2014

The Fear of Examinations?!?

Eph 2:12-22; Lk 12: 35-38

All of us have had, or have still, a fear of examinations! And the usual remedy proposed by teachers is, learn your subjects on a daily basis, revise your classes everyday and when the exams come you will be better prepared. The point is, examinations are not something for which we need to prepare, they are just an end of a process of learning. At times when we do not have the right study attitudes, the exams become a separate entity and a great hurdle to be crossed and not merely a formality to be undergone. Now, that was not for a Study-skill session...but to bring out the crux of today's message.

The Word reminds us how the Lord has chosen us and given us an identity that is entirely a grace: the identity of being the people of God, of being the offsprings of God, of being God's beloved children. When we are conscious of that identity, on a daily basis and conduct our affairs accordingly, we would not need to prepare, or be afraid of, or fret about what is called the judgment moment! Every choice that we make is a judgement we bring on ourselves... whether it is monitored or not; when I know that I am a child of God, that I am a son or daughter of God and I live, believe and behave worthy of that identity, why should I fear? It is like the Master who was asked as he was having his cup of tea, 'what would you do, if the world ends this moment?' The Master said: "I would continue having my tea."

WORD 2day: 20th October, 2014

Living the tomorrows at the cost of today

Eph 2:1-10; Lk 12: 13-21

The message from the Word today follows from that of yesterday. We belong to God, who has made us God's people in spite of our human tendencies and wordly inclinations. We are raised up to the status of sharing the new life that the Risen Lord offers, sheerly because of the boundless mercy of God. The life that we have is a gift, a gratuitous gift that the Lord gives us to live! Yes, life is to be lived, lived to the full knowing well that it has been given free, absolutely free.

The tendency today is to fend so much for the tomorrow that today is totally sacrificed. People are so busy photographing the present moment for memory, that they fail to live the present in its entirety. There is so much of worries about the future that we infact are all the time living our tomorrows at the cost of today. Life is given to us to live, and not to worry. If only we are convinced that we belong to God, our worries about tomorrow will be mellowed down, to allow us live our present to the full. If today we are called to render an account of our life, would we be able to say we have lived it fully?

ME, GOD AND WHAT BELONGS...

29th Sunday in Ordinary Time: 19th October, 2014

Is 45: 1,4-6; 1Thes 1: 1-5; Mt 22: 15-21

The readings today have a theme that is very difficult for the world today to accept. It brings out the absolute sovreignity that God has over reality. The post-modern mind and the new age spirituality clamours for an autonomy that sometimes borders on an absolute independence of the human person and a meaning made in total isolation. The episode of the tower of Babel is a specimen event already in the beginnings of Biblical prehistory. Today we are called to pay attention to three facts:

1. Everything belongs to God

The first reading recalls the role of Persia and the Persian king Cyrus, in the emancipation of Israel. It was possible because Persia was first able to grow into a super power. And the reading from Isaiah points out that even though Persia seemingly has nothing much to do with Yahweh, it was infact the Lord who was preparing Persia in view of emancipating Israel.

The Lord is seen as the Lord of history, and not merely the Lord of Israel. Everything belongs to God and God is in control of everything. At times when things may not be going the way we would want them to, all that we need to do is remain calm believing that God is working out a history. A surrender into the hands of God and a patient wait on the Lord would bring us to an experience that would be absoutely awesome.

2. God belongs to everyone

That Cyrus was raised to power by God comes as a special learning for the people of Israel. They were being challenged on their claim to monopolise Yahweh as their own. God slowly opens them up to the reality that God belongs to everyone. What matters was to have what it takes to be called God's own. The Gospel brings it out subtly in the reflection that Jesus makes on the coin, saying it belongs to Ceasar as it bears Ceasar's image. Hence the condition to belong to God is to have God's image imprinted on our selves.

No one, absolutely no one, can monopolise God and it is not Christian to think of it that way. God cannot belong to a particular group of people. It can be true the other way about, that we belong to God. But to claim that God belongs to a group would be human folly without doubt. Hence, we need to respect every person with genuine search and yearning for God or with an experience of God.

3. Render and don't hold back what belongs to God

All that we have belongs to God. What is that you have, which you have not received? (1 Cor 4:7) asks St.Paul. We are called to render to God all that belongs to God : our talents, our skills, our learning, our abilities... everything we are called to render unto the Lord... that is, unto the cause of the Lord; unto establishing the Reign of God. All that we say, think or do, has to be unto the Reign of God. Thus we will totally belong to God and have the mark of belonging to God: the Holy Spirit.

But for St.Luke...

Remembering the Evangelist St. Luke: 18th October, 2014

2 Tim 4: 10-17b; Lk 10: 1-9

Today we celebrate St. Luke, an evangelist par excellence who has an irreplaceable contribution made to the Scriptures. If it were not for Luke, we would have no Magnificat -the song of praise sung by our Blessed Mother, no Benedictus -the song of praise by Zecharaiah, no song of Anna,no account of John's birth or no account of the Ascension! 

But for St. Luke we would not have met Zachaeus in Jericho, the ten leprosy patients on the way, or the Women disciples who followed Jesus, or the good thief on the Cross or Jesus on the way to Emmaus. But for St. Luke we would have missed the greatest of stories ever told -the Prodigal Son and other inspiring stories of the Good Samaritan, the Rich man and Lazarus and Jesus' walk to Emmaus after resurrection.

There is yet another speciality of Luke, which is his way of making sense of the Reign of God. Though even the other Gospels, be it the synoptics or that of John, they speak of the Reign of God. Luke, in his turn speaks of the Reign of God as being amidst us. "Reign of God is amidst you", says Lk 17:21. The same is recorded in Lk 10:9, which we hear today: "the Reign of God has come near to you". This specific message of Luke invites us to recognise in action our call to be the agents of the Reign of God. It is a call to live our life as the people of the reign thus ushering in the reign of God here on earth. May St. Luke inspire us to get in touch with the Word of God more and more and help us towards making the reign of God felt, present and flourish wherever we are. 

WORD 2day: 17th October, 2014

The Spirit of Courage: Remembering St. Ignatius of Antioch

Eph 1: 11-14; Lk 12: 1-7.

Ignatius of Antioch whom we remember today belongs to the earliest of the Christian communities, right during the Apostolic times. He is said to have been a student of St. John the Apostle. He was the Bishop of Antioch and is a representative icon of the first Christians who were persecuted and killed. The readings of the day bring out the very theme that the memoria too stands for - the Spirit of power and love and self-disciple (cf. 2 Tim 1:7), with which we are sealed. Where does this Spirit of Courage and fearlessness come from? From a life that is lived founded well on true convictions and absolute commitment. Jesus brings it out in radical terms in the Gospel today.

Do not fear, do not be afraid... Jesus repeatedly assures us not to be guided by fear. When we filled with true convictions and not convenient compromises, when we are taken up with absolute commitment to the life task entrusted to us, we will be truthful to God who has created us, chosen us in Christ and commissioned us to be the people of God. That truth will indeed set us free (cf. Jn 8:32). When we live by truth, we will not fear anyone or anything. The martyrs are shining witnesses in this regard and we are called to emulate that fearlessness in our witness too. We will be enabled to do it by the Spirit of Courage, that is poured into our hearts, that which we hold on to as the mark of our belonging to God. 

WORD 2day:16th October, 2014

Before God and God alone...
Eph 1:1-10; Lk 11:47-54

It is not an impossible task to make people think that I am good, virtuous and honourable. That actually is the predominant concern for many and that has proved the root cause for many wrong decisions made and later regretted. We are not called to create images around us and bask in the opinions we construct among others.

The crux of the problem is that we have the responsibility to account for every special blessing that the Lord has showered on us. As St.Paul today points it out, it is between God and me, and public opinions and image creation will not suffice. "To be holy and blameless before God in love"... that is the task given to us and can there be make-believes when it comes to the fact that God Himself is the judge!

5th Centenary of the birth of Teresa of Avila

It's Jesus of Teresa!

15th October, 2014

Today we celebrate the feast of St. Teresa of Avila. It is the 500th year after her birth. The Carmelite family all over the world begin today the fifth birth centenary year. Just reminded of a wonderful episode from St. Teresa's life...Teresa was fond of introducing herself to everyone as Teresa of Jesus. Infact that is another name by which she is known, apart from Teresa of Avila. She loved Jesus as her own spouse; she referred to him as 'beloved' - so romantic a faith. It is said that in one of her visions,when Jesus appeared she asked,"who are you?" And Jesus replied, "I am Jesus of Teresa". Nothing can replace a personal love that we ought to have for Jesus. St. Teresa of Jesus, inspires us to an ardent love for our Saviour. Needless to say, we would be repaid with a love several times deeper and in fact, we love because he loved us first (1Jn 4:19). 

WORD 2day: 14th October, 2014

Integrity matters
Gal 5:1-6; Lk 11: 37-41

Integrity is one virtue that Jesus never compromised on. Dichotomìes and discrepancies between words and actions, between belief and life: they were immediate disqualifiers according to Jesus, in the pursuit of eternal life.

Even a simple life-practice backed up by a strong conviction can become an entry pass to the Reign. Be it the 2 pennies dropped by the widow, or the vial of perfume broken by the 'sinner' woman, the simple prayer made by the thief on the cross beside Jesus... they were reasons enough for them to inherit the Reign of God.

Let us believe in what we pray and practise what we preach or hear preached... lest we become "fools"in the eyes of the Lord.

WORD 2day: 13th October, 2014

Freedom is not free!

Gal 4: 22-24, 26-27, 31 -5:1; Lk 11: 29-32

Freedom, is not an all sweet gift. It was Jean Paul Sartre who made that provocative but profound statement, "we are condemned to be free". Freedom comes with the duty attached. We are free, free to choose and the responsibility of the choice is laid entirely upon us. It would be childish to clamour for freedom but shy away from responsibility. We are free children of God, declares Paul. With that comes the condition that we are to be held responsible for all the choices we make. Just this morning, as I was speaking to a group of youngsters, I raised a query: who decides I should be happy or not? And they refused to answer, with a knotty smile on their faces! Yes, it is our choice, or rather our choices. The free choices we make amount to the consequence we face. 

The Lord grants us the greatest gift of freedom, and leaves us with the responsibility for our choices. That is why, when we choose not to see the presence of God, when we choose not to find the moments of grace, when we choose not to realise the opportunities to do good, when we choose not to identify our brother or sister in the person next to us, we are choosing to rush towards a state that is so sad and so inhuman. We are free children of the promise (cf. Gal 4:22-24); yes we are given the great gift of freedom. But Freedom is not free; we have to pay for it with our personal responsibility!