IT IS LOVE ALL OVER AGAIN

A matter of head, heart and hands...

October 25, 2020: 30th Sunday in Ordinary time
Exodus 22:20-26; 1 Thessalonians 1: 5c-10; Matthew 22: 34-40

If you asked me, "what is the central theme of the readings this Sunday?" and I replied, "it is about loving God and loving your neighbour", instinctively you might sigh: 'oh... the same love allover again!' Some times we might sound totally redundant speaking of love. The fact is, in Jesus' message, Love is the sole dominant theme, and everything else is only a footnote to it.

This abundance of talk on love, can result in two extremely different consequences - one, that it loses its very sense and becomes just a cliched word, repeated over and over again, used as a filling for wherever one lacks a word, or a term, or a theme to deal with; the other consequence, that it becomes a fundamental criterion, the foundational block, the preliminary question of analysis, before talking of anything else or in the course of making sense of anything at all, in christian living. The real Christian significance of love, falls in the second category, however limited in number its true followers are.

Love spoken of in the Word today, as ever, is not a mere sentiment or a feeling! It is a choice, a concrete choice for good. It is a serious matter of the HEAD. It is a decision made, a rationale adopted, a perspective that affects all other decisions and choices in life. It cannot be a mere feeling of elation, nor a sentiment of comfort, nor even a sense of protection or possession! It is a decision, a choice, a fruit of discernment. It is a choice for the noblest of feelings towards the other; it is a choice for most generous of attitudes towards the other; it is, in short, a choice for the 'good'!

St. Paul commends the way the Thessalonians chose God above everything else, of their past. The ultimate good is God, hence love is basically a choice for God! Loving God with all my heart, with all my soul, with all my strength, is the basis of this choice for good. I choose good, because I choose God. I choose God, which means I choose not to choose anything other than God, anything that goes against God, anything or anyone that chooses what is contrary to God. My love for God is a choice, a choice that is motivated and inspired by the choice that God has made for me! To say, I love God, is to say, I choose God and all that God stands for. How foolishly contradicting it would be to say I choose to love God and therefore I kill or harm my brothers and sisters! Is the choice really coherent? Is the choice really rational? Is the choice really good or Godly? Choosing God, is choosing the absolute good; it is choosing life not death; it is choosing the other not the self. That leads us to the second dimension. 

Love is a choice for the other, a matter of the HEART. It is only through the heart can we place the other before us, because it is only through the heart can we hear the unsaid sorrows of the other; it is only through the heart we can see the unseen pains of the souls; it is only through the heart we can touch the unexplored depths of a person! When we say heart, we do not mean the biological or the anatomical heart, but the heart that is the coming together of the will and the spirit of a person. It is much beyond the senses...the senses of seeing, hearing, touching, smelling and tasting - they are at times very deceptive. Heart is that faculty by which every person senses the truth, even when it is not seen or heard, by which the persons gets to know those mysteries that would never be revealed through mere words and gestures - that includes even the feelings and the innermost yearnings of the other. And love is a choice to get to know that deeper reality.

Love has to be a concrete choice for the other, especially the afflicted, the suffering 'other', who cries out from the agony of the everyday life. Only a person with love can understand the predicament of the other who is in agony. Only love can make one feel with the other, empathise with the other - a lack of love will make even the most benevolent act, a mere mechanical fulfillment of duty. In the first reading the book of Exodus presents to us the need to go out, reach out, think for, and feel with, those who are marginalised, left out, forgotten and despised in the society. Today, when nations and governments speak of development and advancement, how big a margin of people are taken for granted, pushed to the margins and left to cry in silence and darkness. Can we open the eyes of our heart; can we sharpen the ears of our heart; can we extend the hands of our heart... yes, that brings us to the third dimension.  

Love is a matter of the HANDS... it is a choice to act, to act on behalf of the needy. Love cannot remain a mere sentiment, it has to be translated into concrete decisions and transforming acts, on behalf of the needy. The list that the first reading has - the widows, the orphans, the children, the poor, the needy, the migrants... that is a specimen indication of a whole lot of persons, the list of those who are close to the heart of God: it will extend much wider today with the exploited, the enslaved, the maltreated, the manipulated, the oppressed, those who are taken for granted, those who are deceived, those who are manipulated, those who are kept in the darkness of ignorance, those who are misled and misguided, those who are not allowed to think, those who are considered only as numbers, those who are used only as vote banks... the list shall go on, unending. 

Love has to be translated in terms of actions. It has to be active, affecting the life of the person who claims to love and transforming the life of the one who is loved! There are persons today who stand witness to this: the masses who are on the streets fighting for rights, not merely their own but for justice and wellbeing of the entire humanity; the persons who are standing by the poor and oppressed, even if they are taken to task for that; the persons in media who speak up for justice and righteousness, facing all the brunt that comes with it; the persons who sacrifice the peace of their daily life and serenity of their families for the sake of the common good, risking their own lives and the happiness of their dear ones... these are people who love with their hands! And this is truly a Christ-ian love.

Love is the crux and the essence of Christ's message and it will never ever be redundant. Specially seeing the world that is growing increasingly selfish and menacingly might-oriented, love will ever be wanting. And if you and I do not offer it abundantly wherever we are, it would be a serious deficiency of God in the world today! Deficiency of God - that in fact is the serious malady that affects the world today and the right medicine is nothing but true, Christ-love, shared with all our heart, all our strength and all our might.

Let us grow up!

WORD 2day: Saturday, 29th week in Ordinary time

October 24, 2020: Eph 4: 7-16; Lk 13: 1-9

The first reading today would lend itself so well for an interdenominational war and a catholics-protestants feud, one calling the other a human trickery and deceptive scheming. Let us grow up dear friends - that is the very challenge of the Word today! 

St. Paul challenges us to grow into the full stature of Christ and that is nothing but love. Let us grow in love, love for God, love for each other, a patient acceptance of each other and loving fellowship of brothers and sisters. Love is also truthful, it is not deceitful. True love is just and genuine, stands for the right and helps one to grow up in serenity and self confidence.

How long would we go on calling each other names and breaking the Body of Christ into non negotiable bits and pieces? If we go on like this, Jesus says that twice in the Gospel today: 'you will all perish!' It is high time we realise our call to grow up and bear fruit. God has given us enough and more chances. Let us equip ourselves, not with offences and defences, but with arms of love and feet of generosity. Let us prune our ego and till our arid hearts. Let us sow seeds of love and reap the fruit of brotherhood and sisterhood. 

Love is our identity and nothing else can be: by this they will know that you are my disciples, by the love that you have for one another (Jn 13:35). There can be no worse scandal than a divided Church and of course, there can be no better proclamation of the Gospel than a loving and united community of faithful who, inspite of all their differences and diversities, live together as brothers and sisters, one in the Lord and one in the Spirit!

Oneness of Vision: Integrity

WORD 2day: Friday, 29th week in Ordinary time

October 23, 2020: Ephesians 4: 1-6; Luke 12: 54-59

At times listening to people having problems in their relationships, or sides opposing each other within a community, we would arrive at a point of no return. At that moment, one would see no way out of the problem,  no matter how much the neutral persons or the negotiators tried! We would arrive at one unfailing conviction, that 'we can arouse a person who is sleeping, but not the one who pretends to sleep!' It is true: for most of the problems today, it is not that we do not have a solution, but we do not want to arrive at it. 

Jesus gives a piece of mind to the pharisees and scribes in the Gospel today, because he finds in them the hypocrisy of not choosing things that were so obviously towards the right. It is like the crowds, in our present context, in spite of knowing that their leader is at fault, just because he or she is their leader, they make a hue and cry about the leader's conviction - a choice to go blind about the limitations of their leaders! 

Where does the root of these problems lie? Many a problem in the world today, is due to the lack of oneness of vision! That is the worst of virus that afflicts us... each one with a selfish agenda, or groups with unfounded prejudices, classes with insensitive urge for advancement, persons with inhuman tendencies of manipulation and exploitation... these are persons who could not care less about the golden rule: do unto others what you want done unto you. They have a set of rules for themselves and a completely different set for others. These are people filled with discrepancies and disparities, and will be the least likely to enter the Reign of God. The disturbing question to me today is, am I by any chance, among those in that list?

The fear of "being good"

WORD 2day: Thursday, 29th week in Ordinary time

October 22, 2020: Ephesians 3: 14-21; Luke 12: 49-53 

Our call to belong to the family of that One Father who has created us all and called us all in the Son and in the Spirit, is basically a call to reflect God wherever we are! It consists of our intrinsic and integral goodness! Being good... people are afraid to be good these days! Fear of manipulation, exploitation and being taken for granted are so live and real that persons hesitate to be good and to hold on to what is good. In spite of this widespread experience that we have, the Word today gives us three reasons why we cannot afford to be afraid of being good: 

1. Because we take on our heredity from none less than the Almighty Lord: The Lord is our banner; the Lord is our identity, it is from the Lord we take our name, as a family of God. How can we be other than good? Being good has to be our very identity.

2. Because the Love of God is poured into our hearts: A love whose measure, we can never comprehend to the full  - the length and breadth and depth and height of it so immense that we cannot but be concerned about being worthy of that love; which entails that we are good in our very being! Being good is the real power that the Lord has entrusted us with, because we know the ultimate goodness in the entire reality: the Lord. 

3. Because we have a Vocation to be a Community of Counter Culture: Jesus commissions us to be the People of the Reign, which is to be a people of counter culture, proposing a culture that is opposed to the culture of social sin, the culture of injustice and exploitation, the culture of imbalanced growth and inhuman development, a culture of total human insensitivity. When we intend to be such a community of counter culture, the rest of the world may turn against us. 

Jesus makes it clear today: if you choose me, choose me absolutely!

Knowledge is privilege, but a curse too!

WORD 2day: Wednesday, 29th week in Ordinary time

October 21, 2020: Ephesians 3: 2-12; Luke 12:39-48

God has given us a special privilege, the privilege of the revelation of God, says Paul. It does not end with that. We have been made stewards of that revelation, of that knowledge that is given by God, by God's Spirit! And this is of course a privilege; but a pressing duty too, that we share this knowledge far and wide - through our words and moreover through our very lives. 

In the Gospel, we hear Jesus deepening that awareness a step further, as he says: it is not only a privilege and a responsibility, it can become a curse too, if we are not truthful and committed to the knowledge that the Lord gives, in the revelation. He says, the one who knows but does not abide by what he or she knows, is more liable to judgement than the one who does not know and has failed in something. This is the difference between a mistake and a malice. 

God has revealed to us every truth that we need to know to live a life that is worthy of the children of God - the truth of the Sovereign presence of God, the truth of our identity as children of God, the truth of our call to holiness and the truth of how difficult and demanding that call is. In spite of knowing it, if we act as if we did not know it, aren't we making ourselves unworthy of being called children of God, the people of revelation? 

This is where the curse comes - a brother or sister of mine who has not received this revelation, is in no way going against God, while if I act so, I am making myself liable of judgement! The revelations that I have received can itself become a judgement against me. That is why Jesus says (in Jn 12:48), the very words that Jesus has spoken shall become the judge of those who refuse to live by what has been revealed to them. 

The words of a modern day philosopher, Soren Kierkegaard, should come to our mind here - it is not about being a christian, but it is about becoming a Christian; becoming a christian is a continual striving. Yes, we need to strain ourselves to really becoming every day of our lives, more and more Christ-ian.  

The Fear of Examination?!?

WORD 2day: Tuesday, 29th week in Ordinary time 

October 20, 2020: Ephesians 2:12-22; Luke 12: 35-38

All of us have had, and some would still have, 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 real point is, examinations are not something for which we need to prepare, they are just one specific moment within the long and complex process of learning. At times when we do not have the right study habits and attitudes, exams become a separate entity and a great hurdle to be crossed and not merely a formality to be undergone as part of the process. Now, that was not for a Study-skill session...but to bring out the crux of today's message from the Word. 

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, conduct our affairs accordingly and gradually keep growing and maturing in that identity, we would not need to prepare, or be afraid of, or fret about what is called the judgment moment! There are people and groups who make a huge issue of the judgement day, when we have to meet the Lord and render an account - let us stop that madness! The Lord did not create us to give an account. The Lord created us to live, live to the full, live with the true identity and inner joy of the children of God.

Added to that judgement is not a matter of merely the last day! 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 a daughter of God and I live, believe and behave worthy of that identity, why should I fear and what should I fear? When God is with us who can be against us! In our daily choices and everyday decisions, if we are against God, who can really help us? 

It is like the Spiritual Master who was asked as he was having his cup of tea, 'what would you do, if the world ends this moment?' The Master calmly said: "I would continue having my tea." That is what our disposition should be, if we are truly children of God. What if!!! What if the world ends now! What if my death comes now! What if I have to stand before the judgement seat of the Lord right now! If I have to be fearless, my choices have to be right every moment. There can be failures, repeat attempts, improvements, reappearances... but fear of examination - no! it never serves the purpose! 

Living the tomorrows at the cost of today

WORD 2day: Monday, 29th week in Ordinary time 

October 19, 2020: Ephesians 2:1-10; Luke 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 worldly inclinations. We are raised up to the status of sharing the new life that the Risen Lord offers, solely 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 unfortunate tendency today is to fend so much for the tomorrow that today is totally sacrificed. Though there is so little a chance for this right now, with the health crisis around and the pandemic restrictions, but have you noticed people visiting new sites, tourists visiting exotic places. In the present cultural trend it is increasingly becoming frequent to see people busy taking photos and selfies in the place, they hardly stop, look, observe and enjoy the place, to see which they had travelled thus far! They are so busy photographing the present moment for memory, that they fail to live the present in its entirety.

It is not just them; that was only an example, an analogy to the way we live our lives today. There is so much of worries about the future that we are in fact all the time living our tomorrows at the cost of today. What do I do if this happens? How will I manage if this changes to that? What will be my next step after completing this? Thinking all of this, we miss the real-time moment and all that it has to offer to our life and our wholesome growth! 

The Word reminds us 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, allowing, permitting and enabling us  to live our present to the full. 

If today I am called to render an account of my life, would I be able to say, 'yes, I have lived it to the full'?

ME, GOD & WHAT BELONGS...

Render what belongs to God! 

October 18, 2020: 29th Sunday in Ordinary time
Isaiah 45: 1,4-6; 1 Thessalonians 1: 1-5; Matthew 22: 15-21

The Word today has a theme that is very difficult for the world today to accept. It brings out the absolute sovereignty 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 - without others, without the cosmos, and of course without God. The episode of the tower of Babel is a specimen event already in the beginnings of Biblical prehistory. And that experience continues in every age of human history in varied ways...just think of connecting our pandemic experience to that too, it would make a lot of sense. Against this background, the Word calls us today to pay attention to three undeniable facts, but many a time denied my the human beings:

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. They grew into power and they found the slavery of the Hebrews unnecessary and thought of emancipating them. And the account from Isaiah points out that even though Persia seemingly had nothing much to do with Yahweh, it was in fact the Lord who was preparing Persia in view of emancipating Israel - it might have taken ages but that is how history works; it is not a day's work. Yes, the Lord is presented to us 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 course of history. A surrender into the hands of God and a patient wait on the Lord would bring us to an experience that would be absolutely awesome. We lack patience, and increasingly today the human tendency is growing more and more impatient. Whoever guaranteed that everything in life will go as we plan it - why should it be so? The events of the past 6 months have taught this much to us. Let us remember it is God who is the Lord of history and of time, not we. Everything belongs to God, even time and tide! 

2. God belongs to everyone: 

Saul was appointed by Yahweh, that was their experience. David was raised by Yahweh, that was their certainty. That even 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, and only 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 Caesar as it bears Caesar'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 Christ-ian 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. That is why when there are some absolute claims by people, whoever they are - whether the most prolific of theologians or some quack start ups - God would be smiling down upon and laughing at their folly! It is not for us to own God, or monopolise God and reject persons and groups depending on that! That is totally ungodly! What we should is, to respect every person with a genuine search and yearning for God and every person with a humble and authentic experience of God. God belongs to everyone. 

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

Everything, 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. At times we like to take everything away from God - that is what the world is trying hard to: to take away the power and authority from God, to take away the sovereignty from God, to take away the creation from the Lord, to take away whatever pertains to glory from God, to take the entire world away from God - and the result, all the confusions and darkness that we have unleashed on earth.

To render everything unto the Lord, is rendering unto the cause of the Lord, unto the establishing of the Reign of God. It is a call to that state of life where, 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. That is what should define me - the mark of the Holy Spirit, in Christ Jesus that says, I belong to my God! 

Isn't that a lovely reflection to remain with the whole of this week: me, God and what belongs!

The Head, the Body and the Uniter

THE WORD AND THE SAINT

October 17, 2020: Celebrating St. Ignatius of Antioch 

Ephesians 1: 15-23; Luke 12: 8-12

We have a head, none less than the Son of God; We are a body nothing less than the very body of Christ - what a reminder from Paul! Let us not be lost in petty problems and needless anxieties - of course someone will respond saying, 'only when you go through it, you will know which is petty and which is needless!' But in Paul's parlance and in Christ's thinking every problem is petty and every anxiety is needless, because we have an existence, a body, a being so deeply significant! St. Ignatius whom we celebrate today, and every other martyr we have, stand witness to such an experience! 

The Head: Let us be worthy of the Head we possess. As the head directs so the body goes, at least such is the understanding in the mechanical world. But for us as people who have Christ as our head, we have the freedom with which we can decide to act out of our personal choice - let those choices be worthy of our Head. 

The Body: Let us be one body in Christ.The Church being a body of Christ is not in the hands of the Head... it is in the way the Church and its every member, identify themselves to the One body, instead of claiming differences of origin, status and everyday operations! 

The Uniter: The Head-body rapport is not automatic, it is an act of the Spirit, the Uniter, the one who unites them both. It is the Spirit who relates us to the Lord and it is the Spirit who sustains us in that relationship. 

St. Ignatius of Antioch whom we remember today understood this relationship perfectly. He belongs to the earliest of the Christian communities, right during the Apostolic times, and 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. They had no other concern, no other word, no other justification, than what the Spirit held out for them. They were ready to lay their lives to preserve this Head-body link intact! How fervent are we about our relationship with our head: Christ our Lord?

The Spirit of Courage and Hope

WORD 2day: Friday, 28th week in Ordinary time

October 16, 2020: Ephesians 1: 11-14; Luke 12: 1-7.

The Word today brings out a crucial theme for these days - the Spirit of power and love and self-discipline (cf. 2 Tim 1:7), with which we are sealed, which brings freedom to those who belong to God. Where does this Spirit of courage and hope come from? From a life that is lived founded well on Christ like convictions and absolute commitment. Jesus brings that out in radical terms in the Gospel. 

Do not fear, do not be afraid... Jesus repeatedly assures us not to be guided by fear. When we are guided by solid convictions and not convenient compromises, when we are taken up with absolute commitment to the life's tasks 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. 

Looking at the crisis of the pandemic around, the rise of fundamentalist forces all over, the irrational hegemony of the moneyed forces in the world, the voiceless struggles of the poor and oppressed, the merciless rampage of the corporates on the economically weaker sections - all these are disheartening issues and predicaments. But a true disciple of Christ, a genuine Christ-ian, a true son or daughter filled with the Spirit, will stand firm in courage and hope! 

We have great and shining witnesses in thousands of martyrs that we have in history, and those that are suffering heroically even today, for the cause of truth and justice! Even if we do not have an opportunity to give our witness in that manner, let us at least stand by these who are doing it - then we shall have a share in that testimony! 

For that we need to be enabled 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. We will do well to pray for it.