MERCILENT 2016 - 16th February

BE GOD'S : Believe and belong to the Lord your God.

Tuesday in the First Week of of Lent
Is 55:  10-11; Mt 6: 7-15

Yesterday we were invited to reflect on being Godly and today we are reminded of our fundamental nature of belonging to God: we are God's own...God's sons and daughters. 

At times we get so busy with all that we involve - things, persons, activities, dreams, plans and projects - that we forget to whom we belong. It is like a player in the midfield playing so vigorously that he forgets for whom he is playing. Funny, isn't it? That is what happens with us, so regularly and so unwittingly. Most of our problems in life crop up from this situation...our frustrations, our competitions, our anxiety to prove ourselves, our arrogance, our pride, our self conceit, they come from the fact that we are not mindful of the fact that we are all God's. 

God's word, God's plan, God's design, God's reign - these are the overriding principles that should govern our lives if we are convinced that we are God's.

The Mercilent Attitude for today: Belong to God, in all that you are and in all that you do.

MERCILENT 2016 - 15th February

BE GODLY: Unconditional in your giving

Monday, 1st Week of Lent

Lev 19: 1-2,11-18; Mt 25:31-46

Be Holy, for I am Holy, invites the Lord today. We are called not only to be God's people, but also to be Godly people. That explains the motto of the year of Mercy: Merciful like the Father. It is not only about showing mercy to others, but doing it as God does! That is where the key is. The Word today gives us clearly what to do (the Gospel), what not to do (first reading), what not to fail in doing (Gospel) and what to abstain from (first reading). All of them put together, the call is to become like God; to be Godly.

Observe the quality that is underlined in the Word - it is about giving and not to worry about getting it back, it is about doing good and not being worried about receiving good, it is about loving and not insistent about being loved  in return...St. Francis' prayer strikes a chord here: Grant that I may not seek so much to be understood as to understand, to be loved as to love, to be forgiven as to forgive! I cannot have conditions in the good that I do: how much; to whom; under what circumstances; why they...these analyses will make our giving conditional. The Lord instead gives and gives, never counting the cost nor the consequences. Can I grow to be as unconditional as that - that is being Godly.

The Mercilent Attitude for Today: Give, without laying conditions for it!

TESTING TIMES

Mercilent 2016- 1st Sunday: 14th February

Dt 26: 4-10; Rom 10: 8-13; Lk 4: 1-13

Testing Times never lack! Every person goes through these times in quite a succession! Lent is proposed to be a workshop to train us for testing times that might come our way, all through our life! Today the Word gives us three lessons on confront these testing times:

1. Our Disposition: Be Prepared to Wander

The First reading invites us to understand our history! Every one who has reached some significant point with the Lord in his or her life experience, has passed definitely passed through a phase of wandering. It is an essential spiritual experience to get closer to oneself, to each other and to the One who leads us.

2. Our Approach: Never Cease to Ponder

Yes, the One who leads us into the wilderness knows what is in store! We would miss it all if we do not keep pondering on the way. Pondering is such a powerful exercise that it can makes sense of everything that happens, in its own time of course. When we cease to ponder we run the risk of wandering without purpose; the point is wandering with a specific purpose, in a specific direction...which the Lord alone knows.

3. Our Attitude: Be ready to Surrender

That specific purpose, that specific direction will be revealed in time, just in time! Hence the challenge is to surrender and not to fret. Surrendering would first involve the humility of saying to myself: I am not in control of everything. Secondly it would mean lifting my eyes to accept that God is in-charge. And thirdly it is a serene acceptance of God's will with utmost cooperation on our part, not rushing through or forcing things. 

It may be tough to find times so testing, but only when we are tested, we could be sealed OK.

MERCILENT 2016 - 13th February

BE SHINING: Conform not to the world but to the Lord

Saturday after Ash Wednesday

Is 58: 9-14; Lk 5: 27-32

Let your light Shine, bids Jesus. This 'shining' is not to project our own selves but to show the way to the rest of the world. It is not about hogging the limelight, but leading the world by example. While the world would look at a person as a tax collector, a sinner, a trespasser, a male or a female, some one important or less important, the Lord would see every one as a son or a daughter, someone so lovable and someone belonging to the Lord!

When I begin to see everyone as God's beloved, I begin to see the point in reaching out to each and every one of them, in the way each one needs. The world's categories such as, useful or not, worthy or not, feasible or not, do not mean anything in the categories of the Lord. The more we conform to the Lord the more we get to realise the folly of the order that the world has created for itself, not addressing each one by their utility. When we refrain from this utilitarian logic...the Lord, the Lord's perspective and the Lord's will are the essential prerequisites to Shine! 

The Mercilent Attitude for today: Shine; let the Lord shine through you.

MERCILENT 2016 - 12th February

BE INTEGRAL: Mean what you say and do what you believe

Friday after Ash Wednesday

Is 58: 1-9; Mt 9:14-15

Prayer, Penance and Philanthropy... all three are tricky! They can be performed or they can be lived, depending on our personal disposition. What am I aiming at? A personal satisfaction at doing these? A social affirmation in being faithful to these? An appeasing of my conscience in being rigorous with these? In a special manner the Word today deal with Penance - are they means to prove my prowess? 

Isaiah blasts all egocentric motivations for penance: the sense of achieving great feats in fasting and abstinence means nothing when those practices do not lead me to true relationships and compassionate disposition towards others. What would it matter if I fast the whole day but all through the day get frustrated with everyone around me and keep yelling in anger against all? How would it be if I make sacrifices but am all the time conscious of the sacrifice I have made and serious about making it known to everyone around me? Will it really matter if I am doing great things in the name of penance this whole day, but can't spend a loving moment with persons around me who deserve or need it?

By penance, we mean to say: I wish to reduce myself and my needs, that I may encounter the Lord more in and through persons and situations around me! Do I even notice the Lord present around when I am busy telling the world I am making penances this day! Let me notice the bridegroom present with me: let me be integral in my prayer, penance and philanthropy.

The Mercilent Attitude for today: Smile at others from your heart.

MERCILENT 2016 - 11th February

BE PRO-LIFE: Choose Life even if it means Death

Thursday after Ash Wednesday
Dt 30: 15-20; Lk 9: 22-25

One of the pronounced acts of mercy is being pro-life! The readings today give us a precious insight into being pro-life.

Being Pro-life is not merely not killing someone or something. It is promoting life in all its forms, and specially in its fullness. While the first reading says the Lord has set both life and death in front of us, for us to choose, Jesus says he chooses to die! In choosing to die, he infact was choosing to live to the full and give life to all of us, life in all its fullness. 

The message that Jesus offers us is very clear: choose life, even if it means death. Even if you have to die, or sacrifice, or suffer, or be antagonised, be hated, be branded negatively...choose to stand by life, be a pro-lifer! Anything that stops you from living your life to the full, be it your so called situation,or your personal attitude, it needs to challenged. For yourself, for others and for every one around you, wish life in its fullness and work towards ensuring it. 

The Mercilent Attitude for today: Be Pro-life!

MERCILENT 2016

I desire Mercy, not sacrifice!

Ash Wednesday : 10th February, 2016

Wish you a Merciful Lent - Mercilent 2016!

May the season we start today, be a season of mercy! We are invited to receive the Mercy of God, experience it so intimately that we share with it authentically. 

God our Father and Mother declares, 'I desire Mercy and not sacrifice' and our Lord and Saviour invites us to go and learn its true meaning! (cf. Mt 9: 13)

Lent is not all about myself and all what I do for my own sake! It is about others, it is about the Other. It is about growing towards the Father, it is growing to be like the Father.

PRAYER: Prayer is to grow towards the Father: more open and more docile. It is growing out of myself, growing out of my petty plans and enslaving self image!

PENANCE: Penance is to grow to be like the Father... thinking more about the others and the Other. Convinced that I should decrease and He should increase, we grow to be more and more like the Father: merciful, loving, kind and forgiving!

PHILANTHROPY: Love of persons around, is an easy way to grow out of oneself! It is in being sensitive to the needs and struggles of the other, that we learn to perspectivise those that are our own! Every good deed that we do should take us to higher plane of living our Christian life: forgetting our own wants and reaching out to the more needy. 

WORD 2day : 8th February, 2016

To Rest or to Reach out

Fifth Monday in Ordinary Time
1 Kgs 8:1-7,9-13; Mk 6 : 53 -56

The first reading speaks of the first temple built for the Lord... ever since, it had been a point of contention. However, how do we understand the temple for the Lord: a place of rest for God? Would that be a good way to understand?

In contrast to the established temple in the first reading,  we have a wandering Lord in the Gospel. Could anyone stop Jesus from his work... no one could -they only thought he was going out of his mind.

Jesus considers reaching out to people compelling and urgent. There was a constant urge in his heart to move on. He wished to build his resting place amidst the cries and woes of people, sickness and sadness of the afflicted, trials and troubles of their daily lives. Let us learn to see the Lord dwelling in true and sincere encounters.

CALLED

An identity, a mission and a promise...

5th Sunday in Ordinary Time: 7th February, 2016
Is 6: 1-8; 1 Cor 15: 1-11; Lk 5: 1-11

We are called...by our very existence, our choices, our upbringing, our traditions, our context, our experiences, our adventures, our explorations, our convictions and our challenges... we are called! On a daily basis, we need to become aware of this call and respond to it whole heartedly!

Our calling is our identity...not merely a tag! A tag is not our identity, it changes as often as we decide or others decide to! Our call determines our identity, our deep seated understanding of ourselves

Our calling is our mission...not merely a job! Mission is life long, it is a process and not merely a performance. It is our life, its journey, its twists and its turns, its ups and its downs, its ebb and its flow: it is the way we live our life!

Our calling is a promise...not merely the present! There is much to look forward to, there are things that are unexpected, there is a need to put out into the deep and just wait for a surprise! 

The Lord who has called is there all the time, let us adventure in the Spirit!

WORD 2day : 6th February, 2016

The Strange Choices

Remembering St. Gonsalo Garcia
1 Kgs 3: 4-13; Mk 6: 30-34

The choices we make are based on the priorities we hold. We are aware of so many psychological testing based on the types of choices a person makes, leading to the reasons and applications of the same into an analysis.

Today in the Word,  we have some strange choices: Solomon who chooses a less attractive but more divine choice; Jesus who makes a tiring tough choice of being with people; the apostles who have just returned from hectic outing but glad to be with Jesus once again... and another group whom we celebrate today, Paul Miki and companions who chose to die for the sake of the Gospel. Incidentally among this group we have the first proclaimed Indian saint : St. Gonsalo Garcia.

When we are united with the Lord, in heart and mind, our choices will be strange and people will notice it. Don't be alarmed, we do have company!