WORD 2day: 20th June, 2017

Generosity - growing towards Christian perfection

Tuesday, 11th week in Ordinary Time

2 Cor 8: 1-9; Mt 5: 43-48

Being Generous is an essential element of Christian perfection and this generosity has a few existential elements that make a Christian more and more God-like. 

First, generosity in forgiveness. It helps me look the faults of others as something that can be ignored, and the person as much more important than their faults.

Second, generosity in giving. It helps me not to keep the count, being unconditional in giving.

Third, generosity in sharing. It makes me ignore the fact whether I have much or not; making me ready to share even the little that I have.

Fourthly , generosity in praying. It makes me wish everything good for all, even those who do not wish the same in return.

Fifthly, generosity in loving. It makes me embrace the other without expecting anything in return. 

Looking at these dimensions, can we not say, they make us grow in our perfection and become like God?

WORD 2day: 19th June, 2017

The Mystery of Now

Monday, 11th week in Ordinary time

2 Cor 6: 1-10; Mt 5: 38-42

NOW is the watchword today - the post modern gurus and self help specialists insist on the now, the here and now. Though it has its great value, this kind of a thinking can have its own set of problems. The Now is reduced to either an insensitivity to the past or carelessness of the future. That is, a society that does not bank on its true past and the rich heritage is insensitive to its past and it misses to reap the fruits that have been initiated long ago. And the other is a mindset that cares for nothing that is yet to come, concentrating only on the moment that is there and making the most of it, draining it of its inherent potency and losing out on the great lessons a moment can offer.

When Paul says, Now is the favourable time and today is the day of salvation, he does not mean to disregard the past or neglect the future. He invites us to unravel the mystery of the moment, the mystery of now. The present moment contains within it the fruit of the past and the seed of the future, and a conscious living of present can make my life so wise and wealthy. Forgiveness and Generosity are the two values upheld today: Forgiveness relativises the past and Generosity relativises the future - both emphasising the mystery that is treasured in the present. 

Living the present with the mindset of Christ - absolutising the space for God and the space for the other, will make us understand that the present is given to us to forgive the past and generously give the future - that is the mystery that is embedded in the present. That is what Christ did, the Apostles proclaimed and we are called to live!

ALL FOR US

Celebrating a God who is all for us

Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ

18th June, 2017 : Dt 8:2-3,14-16; 1Cor 10: 16-17; Jn 6: 51-58

We celebrate today a God who is all for us - it is neither an empty phrase nor an exaggeration. God is for us in everyway and if God is for us, who can be against us. 

Why does God choose to be the food - to nurture us, nourish us and strengthen us in our daily living.

Why does the Lord choose to give His flesh - to become part of our flesh, to be so incorporated in us to make us feel alive.

Why does God do all these for us - because the love of the Lord is immense and unconditional, exceeding all limits and boundaries.

What is the call: to nurture each other's faith, to be part of each other's lives, to be worthy children of that unfathomable love of God!

WORD 2day: 17th June, 2017

Yes, No and New Creation

Saturday, 10th week in Ordinary Time

2 Cor 5: 14-21; Mt 5: 33-37

Whether we live or die, it is for Christ - an absolute allegiance to Christ is what Paul recommends as a sign of true disciples of Christ. Let your yes be yes and your no, no. Such candidness can give rise to problems and challenges. But challenges and problems would not matter as I am a new creation in Christ. 

The Newness refers to the difference in priorities - what the world finds important does not seem so to me and what the world does not bother about seems very important to me; what the world advocates to everyone as the source of happiness in life appears to me a source of sorrow and what the world wants me to avoid as a plague, becomes a way to more permanent happiness that comes from the Lord. The New priority marks the newness that I possess in Christ.

Being in Christ would mean being rooted in Christ, being built up in Christ, being born anew in Christ - making Christ's values my own, Christ's mind my own, Christ's priority my own...No one can be in Christ except through the Holy Spirit. It is the Spirit that gives me the courage to maintain my yes, no and my nature as a new creation in Christ. 

WORD 2day: 16th June, 2017

Caring for the Earthenwares

Friday, 10th week in Ordinary Time
2 Cor 4: 7-10; Mt 5: 27-32

Commercials that we see, for the most, have to do with our body - health drinks, hair care, skin care, cosmetics, jewels and dresses! Is there anything wrong here - ofcourse not! Caring for the body is an important part of our life. We have come a long way from the type of thinking that looked at the body as alien and something to be kept under constant control. But the danger is, has the world gone overboard? Is it being exaggerated to such an extent as to absolutise the care for the body, making it the top most concern? The Word today warns us against this exaggerated mindset that the world seems to be proposing.

The body has to be taken care of, it cannot be despised as if it is of no value! Neither should it become the sole focus forgetting the rest of the faculties that makes us so special. The Spirit or the Soul that we possess is what we are, the image of God within us, the spark of the flame that burns so bright...however it cannot be perceived or experienced or cared for without linking it to our body. That is why our bodies are compared to earthenwares that contain treasures within. They cannot be trampled upon without respect - with habits like abuse, despise and objectification. But neither can they be thought of as treasures in themselves - then it would be so disappointing to care for something so passing! Care for the body, keep it as the dwelling place of the Spirit and tend the Spirit within - that would lead you to holistic life!

WORD 2day: 15th June, 2017

Witness: Deeper, brighter and freer 

Thursday,  10th week in Ordinary time 

2 Cor 3:15 - 4:1,3-6; Mt 5: 20-26

'Preach not by words, preach by virtues' - St. Anthony would often say. Just as St. Francis who  would repeat, 'preach always, when needed use words'. Witness is the first form of proclamation that the Church recommends to every baptised person.  A life of witness, is a life marked by the Spirit of the Lord - this is the crux of the Word today.

We cannot be mere common people, we have to become committed people. We cannot be just any people, we have to be inspiring people. We cannot be just acceptable people, we have to be challenging people. We cannot be satisfied with just a mediocre life of non-disturbance and mind-myself mentality, we have to be people who disturb the world and be the conscience wherever we are. 

This means that our life has to be lived in a personal and common space that is much deeper - going to the roots of what rules and regulations mean.

It means that our words and more so our actions, should shine brighter in a world that is filled with so much fear, fear to have personal opinions, fear to have personal choices, fear to live a convinced life.

It means that our mind, heart and our spirit is more free, looking at the right and the good as something to be lovingly chosen and integrally held on to.

All these are possible only with the Spirit who can deepen our perspective, brighten our convictions and free our spirits! The Lord is Spirit and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.

WORD 2day: 14th June, 2017

The Reign - that which lasts

Wednesday, 10th week in Ordinary Time

2 Cor 3: 4-11; Mt 5: 17-19

Moses allows divorce; Jesus forbids. Moses insists on the sabbath; Jesus relativises it. Moses gives cleanliness rules; Jesus despises the insistence on the external cleanliness. We can go on listing certain elements that people, not only during Jesus' time but even today, consider contrasting each other, between the law given by Moses and the lifestyle proposed by Jesus. They are not constrasting one another - the latter is outgrowing the former; the latter is letting the former evolve! Evolving is always towards a destined finality - and here the destiny is 'that which lasts' - not to lose ourselves in passing and transient concerns but to focus on that which lasts. According to Jesus that which lasts forever is the Reign of God. 

Reign of the God is that absolute criterion against which all these rules, regulations, legislations and customs shall be understood, interpreted and made sense of. Reign of God is the righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Concentrating on the interior peacefulness and happiness, leads to integrity - which is the only possibility of each of us becoming agents of the Reign of God, bringing all God's will to fulfillment. 

THE WORD AND THE SAINT

Celebrating St, Antony - the Preacher par excellence

13th June, 2017

Is 61: 1-3; Lk 10: 1-9

St. Antony is considered a preacher par excellence - his tongue that remains as a relic even today bears testimony to this fact. It is not only his eloquence that sets him apart as a preacher, but the quality of his preaching came from the corresponding life that he lived! It is so interesting to note that he lived along side another giant of a saint - St. Francis of Assisi, who was born 13 years before him. Though the two initially did not know each other, there were moments when they entered each other's life and left mutually edifying indelible marks. 

The Learned Preacher - the Augustinian Fernando

Born in 1195, Fernando Martins was his baptism name and he joined the Augustinian Monks when he was just 15, at a monastery close to his place in Lisbon. After two years there, he asked to be transferred as his friends and relatives were often visiting him there whereas he wanted to live a life of rigorous solitude, though the Diviine Providence was planning something greater. He was transferred to Coimbra and there he studied theology and was ordained a priest. He was a learned preacher when saw five Franciscan friars' dead body arriving at a neighbouring Franciscan friary, martyred at Morocco. 

The Ardent Preacher - the Franciscan Anthony

His zeal to be a missionary flagged in him and he asked to change his habit into that of a Franciscan, because his longing to be a preacher by life was reflected in their way of living. The Franciscans there, were taking care of the Church of St. Anthony of Egypt, whose name Fernando took for himself as he became one among them.  Anthony would often say, the best way of preaching is preaching by your virtues! And that is what he was aiming at when he asked to become a Franciscan and he wanted to go to Morocco. It happened exactly so, but it did not last long. Within a few months he got too ill and had to be sent back to Portugal, where he never reached. On the way due to a shipwreck he landed in Sicily. 

The Humble Preacher - the Provincial Anthony

In Sicily, the Franciscan friars nursed him back to health but they did not know him much. From what they saw, he was a simply friar and they placed him in a small responsibility of assisting the Provincial on his journeys. In one such journeys, when the Provincial had gone for an Ordination of some Franciscans and Dominicans, there was a mishap - that no one was prepared with a sermon. When asked on the spot to preach, everyone declined and the Provincial ordered Anthony to say just a few words - that was the beginning of the change! Every one there was amazed at the knowledge, the power and the sanctity that emanated from every word that Anthony uttered. Francis of Assisi, the founder heard of this incident and was impressed at the fact that such a learned man remained hidden all this while. Francis was looking for such a humble model to be convinced that learning and humility could go together. In 1224, he placed him responsible for teaching theology to his young friars in formation. And soon Anthony was asked to go to Northern Italy for the ministry of Preaching. And by 1226 he became the Provincial of Northern Italy. 

He lived just 35 years, as he died in 1231, but had accomplished great feats for the Lord within the short while. That is why it took less than a year for the Church to make him a saint - he was canonised already by May 1232. The sanctity was so visible, already when he lived and after his death through numerous miracles. A Preacher par excellence, because of his humility and holiness, St. Anthony challenges us to preach by our virtues wherever we are. St. Anthony, Pray for us! 

WORD 2day: 12th June, 2017

Blessedness: Suffering or Consolation

Monday, 10th week in Ordinary Time

1 Cor 1:1-7; Mt 5:1-12

Christian life is a call to living a life of love and communion. In a life of true love and communion - such as a loving couple, or a well bonded family, or a truly spiritual Religious community, or a well animated parish community - it is hard to find which is more blessed: suffering or consolation. That is what Paul expresses today. He says there are sufferings but they are not so abhorrent, because it comes from the Lord and is experienced for the sake of the Lord. There is a consolation that comes after that suffering which again comes from the Lord. Which is more blessed now - the consolation? or the suffering which was the cause of the consolation? It is altogether a different perspective. 

The perspective comes from the Beatitudes that Jesus taught those with him when he lived. It was a totally different perspective but a very true perspective. Beatitudes serve as a lasting guideline for us, to live our lives as true Christians. It is a call and a challenge - can we make it true in our personal, family and communitarian living?

CELEBRATING THE GOD OF COMMUNION

The Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity : 11th June, 2017

An Accompanying, Relating and Self-giving God
Exo 34: 4b -6, 8-9; 2 Cor 13: 11-13; Jn 3: 16-18

The feast of the Holy Trinity is an invitation to a life of communion, communion between persons, communion within the family, within the local church, in the universal Church and above all, an invitation to the ultimate and perfect communion with God! Communion defines what it means to be a Christian: and that is because we believe in a God of Communion!

Entering into the theology of the Holy Trinity will take us too far; but the verse from St. Paul in the second reading today (1 Cor 13:13), summarises it all. The Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Love of God and the Fellowship of the Holy Spirit. Already in the early Church the understanding of the God they believed in, the idea of the God whom Jesus introduced them to, the concept of the God who has been with them all this while, was clear and concrete. 

What we believe in, affects what we live. If not, we either do not really believe or do not live our own life. If we really believe in the Holy Trinity as we should, we should be promoters of communion in our interpersonal relationships, in our family, in our faith communities and in the locality wherever we live, ultimately challenging the whole world to this communion of humanity. The divisive forces cannot really take the upper hand if each and every individual loves, longs for and promotes passionately this communion that the God we believe in stands for. 

The God of Communion is an Accompanying God. God accompanies not because we deserve that accompaniment, but because God takes responsibility over us, as God's people. That is the covenant that God has made: you shall be my people and I shall be your God. In the first reading today, when Moses asks God to be with the people, it is exactly this covenant that is invoked. An accompanying God is the basis of the communion between God and humanity, and it is our belief that God has kept this possibility open right from the beginning.

The God of Communion is a Relating God. Communion is unreal, unless through relationship. And God relates to us continuously, God communicates constantly and wishes to remain in constant touch with us. If we realise, respect and recognise the role of this relationship, it will be reflected in our day to day relatioships: encourage each other; agree with each other; live in peace, exhorts St.Paul. Anyone who says he loves God and does not love his brother or sister, is a liar, warns St. James (1 Jn 4:20). 

The God of Communion is a Self-giving God. God is not merely almighty, God is all-loving and all-giving too! God gives and forgives, it is said; we get and forget! For God so loved the world that God gave the only Son, Jesus Christ, that we may have life! For Christ so loved his brothers and sisters that he gave his own life, his body and blood, that we may have life! For the Spirit so loves us that the Spirit dwells in our hearts, in our bodies, in our selves! The God of communion seeks communion with us, and seeks communion among us. 

The Trinity is the right corrective the world so divided and so threatened by hatred today. Killings, exploitations, corruption and manipulation are painful manifestations of the lack of communion. Personal Intergrity, Christian Fellowship and Universal Brotherhood are the three fundamental forms of communion that we need to work towards these days. Let us begin with our personal selves and reach wherever we reach, so that we can rightfully say that we believe in the God of Communion and that we stand for the Accompanying, Relating and  Self-giving God, the God of Communion, the Loving Father and Mother, the Life-giving Son and the Indwelling Spirit.