WORD 2day: 4th November, 2015

Love is a battle... Ready for it?

Wednesday,  31st Week in Ordinary Time
Rom 13: 8-10; Lk  14: 25-33

Love... it's a term that is by far the most spoken of,  not merely from a Christian perspective but that of the whole reality today. But that is no statement that guarantees the right usage of the term,  because more often than not it is misused and abused. A great percentage use it to mean a kind of feeling, a sentiment,  an emotion that warms up one's heart.

Love is not all those.. love is a decision,  a choice,  a commitment that would demand so much from me that,  I would find myself in a battle. Yes,  responding to the call to love is like undertaking a whole expedition,  against evil and hatred, for goodness and genuine fellowship. To accept to genuinely love, means being ready for any cost I would have to pay. After having launched myself into this battle, if I turn back and find myself wanting,  I will be considered unfit for the Reign. On a daily basis let us hearken to this call to love...which insists that we take a commitment every day which could be dangerously demanding. Am I truly ready for it?

WORD 2day : 3rd November, 2015

Belonging to each other

Tuesday, 31st week in Ordinary Time
Rom 12: 5-12; Lk 14: 15-24

The Church is a reality in continuous evolution,  it needs to grow into the Reign of God. And in this evolution every one of its members should grow and evolve... from being children to children of God. From being individuals who are worried only about himself or herself to persons who strive for communion with others, persons who readily wish to identify oneself with the Reign that Lord invites them to.

We may have oxens to tend to, land to till or the new found family to cater to... they are not wrong! But the Reign has to come before them all. My private concerns cannot overrule the concerns of the Reign. My life, my choices,  my priorities have to be those of the Reign... this will happen only when I manage to grow up to set myself aside and give the needy other a prominent place in my list of concerns because within the Reign,  we belong to each other (Rom 12: 5).

THE WORD AND THE FEAST

Celebrating Hope!
2nd November,  2015: The Day for the deceased

Just recently I came across a funny conversation as part of a script I was reviewing. One asks the other- what happens when you bury a mango or a coconut in the ground.  The other says a mango or a coconut tree grows. Then he retorts, 'if that is so,  why doesn't a human tree grow when we bury a human being?' The conversation ends there on a comic note but isn't that what we believe?

Today we celebrate the hope that Jesus brought to us: that we have overgrown the traditional understanding that the wages of sin is death. Because in Christ Jesus we have been given the guarantee of life eternal. For us death is not the end but just a bend beyond which awaits something that we can imagine : the glorious life in the Lord.

BEING SAINTS!

The ABC of Being Saints

Solemnity of All Saints 

1st November, 2015

Rev 7: 2-4, 9-14; 1 Jn 3: 1-3; Mt 5: 1-12 

I have always loved to listen to and recount the anecdote about this boy who was taken to a traditional Cathedral for the first time by his mother. The boy was tremendously impressed with the splatter of colours on the floor due to the rays that shone through the stain glasses on the walls. The boy with his eyes wide opened looked at those stain glasses and asked his mother...'mama,  what is this? ' 'Oh they are the saints! ' said the mother looking at the pictures on the stain glass. That stuck to the boy's mind. And the next day in class when the catechism teacher asked,  who are saints... he shouted out. .." saints are those who let light shine through them! "

I think that's the best possible definition for a saint. A saint is the one who let's the light,  the light of the Lord shine through him or her. 

A saint is the one who ACKNOWLEDGES the supremacy of God,  allowing God to take charge of one's life. 

A saint is the one who BELONGS totally to God, placing God at the centre of his or her life, feeling close to God.

A saint is the one who COMMITS oneself to God's cause,  to God's people,  to God's will, on a daily basis! 

That is the ABC of Being Saints in our lives today! 

THE WORD AND THE SAINT

29th October, 2015
Remembering Bl. Michael Rua

The Second in Command

Bl. Michael Rua reminds us of the importance of cooperating with the operating grace! A man who never felt bad to play the second fiddle with Don Bosco around. A son who was found to be a perfect heir to that saintly father. A salesian who was capable of replicating his role model Don Bosco. A leader who was gifted in taking forward the dream left behind by the visionary founder. A holy man for whom righteousness was his second nature. He was a perfect second in Command,  first to Don Bosco and the rest of his life to the Lord who led him!

THE WORD AND THE SAINT

28th October, 2015: Remembering Apostles Simon and Jude

Eph 2: 19-22; Lk 6: 12 -16

The Name Game

We remember the apostles Simon the zealot and Jude son of James also called Jude Thadeus. These apostles have become relatively less known,  they say, because of the confusion with their names. Simon was confused with Simon Peter and so lost his prominence. Judas confused with Judas Iscariot and so became infamous. Reflecting on this fact in tradition,  I was struck by the opening prayer of the Eucharist today, which goes thus: 

O God, who by the blessed Apostles
have brought us to acknowledge your name...
The apostles were all about acknowledging God's name,  not their own. Whether Simon or Jude or any other apostle, they were all out to spread the Good News and give glory to God,  building up the Body of Christ on earth: the People of God.

Building is our work but we are very much part of the building itself. We are all building ourselves up together to give glory to the name of the Lord. Let's beware of the name game that is going rampant these days: divided among ourselves under so many names and calling names at each other, maligning each others' names and playing the dirty worldly name game! That is not very becoming of that One Name we have on earth by which we will be saved,  the most sweet and glorious name of Jesus. The division in the Church is the greatest of all scandals against the Gospel. With that one Cornerstone, let us unite and give glory to God's mighty name!

WORD 2day : 27th October, 2015

Midwives of the Reign of God

Tuesday,  30th week in Ordinary Time
Rom 8:18-25; Lk 13: 18-21

Paul gives us a vivid imagery for the whole creation - the entire universe is waiting to be recreated, be made new, be born anew, to give birth to the New earth and New heaven... Jesus likens that recreation to the coming of the Reign of God.

The creation and the renewal... what is our role in it according to Paul?  We who are already made new in Christ are invited to be facilitators in this process of re-creation; midwives in this process of new birth. We are called to assist the world in bringing forth the Reign of God  into this world like a large plant, or a seasoned dough...

Let us understand where we belong - to the Reign and not to world. Let us strive for the ultimate renewal - from within,  not a mere external adjustment.

WORD 2day : 26th October, 2015

Not Slaves but Heirs

Monday,  30th week in Ordinary Time
Rom 8: 12-17; Lk 13: 10-17

The point of discussion in the Word today is the difference between slaves and heirs and their respective traits. A slave is governed by fear, is ruled by law and bound to restrictions. An heir is governed by freedom, is guided by love and empowered with spontaneity. Jesus proves to be the rightful heir,  experiencing God as the Abba and feeling the need to render a child of God wholesome. Laws and regulations did not matter to him;  threats and warnings looked despicable in his sight. The greatest of all good news is,  Christ has given us the same Spirit that was in him,  that in our spirit we may be convinced that we are rightful sons and daughters of a merciful God.

AN EMPATHISING LORD

30th Sunday in Ordinary Time : 25th October,  2015
Jer 31: 7-9; Heb 5: 1-6; Mk 10: 46-52

"God"...How do you understand that term... the Almighty,  the Omnipotent,  the Mighty One? ... you are still short of arriving at the God whom Jesus introduced to us. In and through Jesus we have a God who is all these but more than all these,  a God who is close to us,  a Father who loves us,  a mother who cares for us,  a beloved who longs for us,  a friend who stays close to us and a SavIour who came down to save us... in short,  an Empathising God!

How do we understand an Empathising Lord? 

1. LIKE US
We have a Lord who is like us... like us in every way except in our sins. A Lord who came among us,  ate,  drank, laughed,  cried,  enjoyed, celebrated, loved, worked, faced hardships and temptations... He was like any of us,  just like us and therefore, when we suffer,  when we are troubled,  when we have problems and temptations,  the Lord perfectly knows what we are through. He is not someone who would judge us from afar or look down on our weaknesses but some one who would put His hands around our shoulders and comfort us, someone who would sit by our side and say, 'it's okay! I have been there too'! The second reading brings this out strongly.

2. LIKES US
We have a Lord who likes us... who loves us,  who feels for us,  who wishes that we were happy,  who wants to heal us,  who wants to give us all that we need,  who wants to walk us to prosperity and fullness,  who wants to give sight to us,  who wants to listen to us,  who wants to reach out to us! God our Father and Mother who spared no effort,  giving up even the only Son; the Son who keeps back nothing, not even his own life- his body and his blood;  the Spirit who comes down to dwell within us,  within our poor bodies,  in our lowly conditions,  in our daily toils. This is the Lord who loves us, likes us so much that he is ready to do any thing for our sakes. In the first reading and the Gospel we have a exposition of the Lord who is merciful and kind,  who is in love with us. The Gospel in a special way speaks of a Lord who listens to a lone cry amidst the large crowd, and has mercy on that person and heals the person in love!

3. LIKENS US
The Lord who came down to be like us,  the Lord who dies to show how much he likes us,  does not stop with that... God wants to liken us to Godself. The first and the second reading presents to us a God who wants to make us God's sons and daughters,  God's children, God's beloved ones,  God's favourites. God invites us constantly towards this fullness of becoming God's own. We become God's own by opening or eyes of faith. We become God's own by crying out with faith. We become God's own by trusting in faith that God can do and will do everything for us! Thus becoming God's children we will be with God, close to God and like God,  for we will see God face to face,  as says St. Paul.

We have an Empathising Lord who was like us,  who likes us and who longs to liken us to Himself.

WORD 2day : 24th October, 2015

The Spiritual and the Unspiritual

Saturday,  29th Week in Ordinary Time
Rom 8: 1-11; Lk 13: 1-9

Not all those who suffer are people who deserve it and not all the good we enjoy we deserve it. What God gives God gives without even counting whether I deserve it... but in the course of handling them I prove whether I had deserved it or not! The Word invites us to think of the distinction between Spiritual and Unspiritual we would make in our lives.

'Spiritual' is thinking of God and godly things; it is putting the good of the other first vis-a-vis the good that can happen to me! It is counting the blessings from the Lord and acknowledging every bit of the Lord's doing in my life.

'Unspiritual,' would be thinking all the time of increasing gains and reducing pains; it is putting my pleasure before anything else,  even in the smallest of things that I get to do for others. It is constantly complaining against God and claiming absolute personal credits for any thing that is good in my life.

Where do I belong: the Spiritual or the Unspiritual?