A Child's traits for the Reign

THE WORD IN ADVENT

December 1, 2020: Tuesday, 1st week of Advent

Isaiah  11: 1-10; Luke 10: 21 -24

Maria, a 8 year old kid was setting up the crib at home...she brought all her dolls too, to be part of the crib. She had arranged all the animals...lion, tiger, deer, rabbit, bear and panda, all of them altogether, one next to the other! The dad objected to it, 'but my love, they cannot be one next to the other...it does not happen that way. The lion will attack the deer, the tiger will kill the rabbit, the bear will eat the goat!' Maria looked quizzingly at the father and said: 'but dad! why should they! They are all my friends, all of them! They are friends too among them! They like each other!' That is the Child's world...so close to the Reign!

Lion sleeping with the lamb, bear playing with a kid and all peaceful on the holy mount- when we read these lines, we feel like saying, it's utopian; it's like a child's dream! Precisely because of this Jesus makes that exclamation today: that the Father has revealed such things to mere children while the expert eyes are busy prying over the obvious.

The Child's capacity underlined here by Christ and advocated as required traits for the persons of the Reign, are threefold. 

Firstly, it is to see! Having that freshness of perception which would allow the person to observe any simple sign. 'It need not be always that way'...is a fresh attitude of a child. Nothing needs to be the same all the time! We need to see, see the possibility!

Secondly, it is to accept! It is sporting that openness of mind that would not rule out any thing as total impossibility, because with God everything is possible. It is like in a child's world, the dog will talk, the cat shall respond, the dolls shall miss when they are not caressed, even the tables and chairs keep chatting with those in the living room! Accept it...it is possible.

Thirdly, the humility with which one is able to wait on the Lord, as did the kings and the prophets who waited for the day of the Lord. In God's time everything shall take place and all that we need to do is remain open and prepared, waiting and willing!

The Feet of those who bring Good News

THE WORD AND THE SAINT

November 30, 2020: Remembering St. Andrew, the Apostle

Romans 10: 9-18; Matthew 4: 18-22

"How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!" St.Paul quotes this word from the scripture (from Is 52:7), to insist upon the blessedness of being an apostle of the Lord, being sent to bear forth the Word to the others. A prerequisite is that the person has received the Word, to share it with others.

 

St. Andrew has played a special role during the life and ministry of Jesus Christ. Andrew as a disciple of Christ always had the role of bringing good news to persons... he brought the good news of having found Christ to Peter (Jn 1:41); along with Philip, he brought the Greeks to meet Jesus (Jn 12:22); and he brought that boy who gave the five loaves to feed the five thousand (Jn 6:9). Amidst all the opposition and threat, the apostles bore witness to his name: they were the beautiful feet which brought the good news to the world. 

Today Andrew is proposed as the patron of social network...because he used every opportunity to make Christ known to people and to bring people to Christ. Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI had described social network as the modern day pulpit and invited us to proclaim Christ not merely from the housetops but also from the laptops...and here we have a great role model for it.

 

Let us today thank God for the numerous fingers that bring good news to the world... keying in on the smart phones, feeding in from the laptops and desktops, posting messages and videos and so many ways of sharing the Word with others. May every effort of these persons to proclaim the Reign of God through the social network, be a blessing to them, as much as it is to the world. 

Let us dedicate the social network which offers us such a great promise, that it may forever be an instrument in the hands of God, to bring God's will to fulfillment, and not an instrument of perdition. Let us strive in our own way to bring the Word to all whom we can!

W A T C H

A journey begins...

November 29, 2020: 1st Sunday of Advent

Isaiah 63: 16b-17, 19, 64:2-7; 1 Corinthians 1: 3-9; Mark 13: 33-37

Happy New Year! This Sunday marks the first day of the New Liturgical Year that we begin. On this beautiful and happy day, we begin a fresh journey and the first phase of this journey is going to be a preparation to receive the King! And what does the Word say, right at the outset? It says: WATCH.

W: Wake Up
It is a moment to wake up! The call to wake up rings all over the readings today. Let us get in touch with an ordinary experience of ours. Which is difficult: to wake up from sleep or to decide to get up from bed. We wake up, but not really; the sleep lingers on! That is a risky terrain, we miss a lot in that zone! Hence the call is to wake up; to decide to get up, shake oneself up, open one's eyes fully and see that it is time to begin, time to journey on, time to start again.

Between the resolutions we make and the concrete realisation of it, between the good will that we have for so many things in life and the everyday living out of the same, between the high ideals that we keep speaking of and the daily values that determine our decision making, there is a wide gap! A discrepancy that makes our life so flimsy and fragile. Should we not at every step of our journey with the Lord, reduce this gap and keep growing towards that integrity of life? That is the first call...to wake up to see that gap!

A: Awaken Others
Your life is not lived alone! Your faith has to be lived in communion, in relationships of love and unity. Awakening each other is a special call that is given to us, but it requires that we are awake. But how do we awaken others, if we ourselves are asleep, or half asleep! That cannot work. Do you remember  that some five years ago, Holy Father announced a year for persons living their Consecrated Life? The call he had given was: TO WAKE UP THE WORLD. He explained it immediately, that it would first of all mean they wake themselves up, reach out to the others and share the experience of being awake and thus make the whole humanity awakened! Advent is also the time to call out to each other, remind each other and journey together.

Waking up the other is not merely giving command to the other to rise, but it is more sharing my experience of being awake. There are many wake up calls... the climate crisis, the pandemic now, the economic melt down, the political stand offs... all these are wake up calls, efforts to wake up the other. In our personal lives too, there are wake up calls - may be a fight with a spouse, a misunderstanding with children or parents, a tiff with a friend...these could be moments to wake up the other! But I need to check first, am I really awake, to awaken the other?

T: Thirst for the Lord
The first reading presents us a model of thirsting for the coming of the Lord. The prophet yearns for God's coming and wishes that it happens right away. In various ways he expresses the longing for the Lord, the Father, the Potter to come and shepherd us, protect us and mould us. The prophet seems to blame the Lord, that the Lord gave us up to sin! In a way it is true, as some young friends ask: why did God give me the possibility of choosing sin? God could have made me in such a way that I always choose good! Ah! that is one tricky type of reasoning. But, let us beware - it is the freedom that makes us Children of God. If not we would be like any other beings: animals or plants. We are in the image and likeness of God, and freedom to choose is a key element of that image! But what matters in that choice is, how much do I thirst for God?

The thirst for God has to be expressed in our concrete seeking for the Lord. We need to seek the Lord, on a daily basis: in those who are around us, in the situations that surround us, in anxious faces and hungry stomachs, in hearts longing for love those darkened with hatred...we are to dig deep and look for the face of the Lord! He is coming; indeed He has come! It is upto us to unveil the Lord's presence amidst us.

C: Cleanse yourself
To seek the Lord, it goes without saying, is a moment of cleansing, a moment of self purification. It is only through this purification that we can really get to see the Lord. The Lord is near and we need to feel the urgency of purifying ourselves. What a gift we have in these four weeks, if only we use them to the full! 

Here is a suggestion: Pick up one element a week and begin working on them; report the progress to the Lord at the end of the week and start on another element in the new week! That would be a great journey and that is the journey of self purification that the Lord invites us to. And by the way, have you made your Confession yet! Decide on that...a lovely way to mark this Advent journey: a loving celebration of the Sacrament of Reconciliation.

H: Hold firm to the Lord
In the second reading, St. Paul hits the nail on its head: 'God is faithful', he declares! Yes, in our yearning to behold the revelation of Lord Jesus Christ in our own life and in our times, God is faithful. The point is we need to hold firm to the Lord. Perseverance is a rare virtue. We are good willed, and spirit filled...but for only a while. That would surely not suffice. We need to persevere in our good will, we need to hold on to the choice for the Lord, we cannot give up even when we face all the possible odds. 

On this journey we begin today too...let us stay firm and hold on to the Lord and the Lord will see us through all moments of crisis and confusion. All that we need to do is, make a pact with the Lord and journey these days close to the Lord...and we will see, we would have reached somewhere by the end of this season!

We begin a journey today, to WATCH - to Wake up, to Awaken, to Thirst, to Cleanse and to Hold on to the Lord who is to come. Let us embark upon this journey, together as a community of loving people, and feel close to each other and feel the Lord close to us. The Lord's words resound today in the Gospel: What shall I say to you, I say to all: WATCH.

Neither inaction nor hyper action!

WORD 2day: Saturday, 34th week in Ordinary time

November 28, 2020: Revelation 22:1-7; Luke 21: 34-36

Behold I am coming soon! At times it annoys when we hear people go hysteric about this statement. However, it is not a statement to make everyone panic, but a gentle reminder as to how one should live one's daily life. It is not something that should make is run for cover or throw spiritual tantrums, but a constant life style that should make us conscious any time in our life about who we are and what we are called to. 

St.Paul understood this well and instructed the Thessalonians: "For you yourselves know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. ...But you, beloved, are not in darkness, for that day to surprise you like a thief; for you are all children of light and children of the day; we are not of the night or of darkness" (1 Thess 5:2,4). If you are frightened of it or if you are interested in frightening the world about it, imagine how far you are from being true children of God!

The message is clear: that neither inaction nor hyper action is expected of us; neither carousing nor drowsiness! It is not a call to live your life on pins and needles, anxious about the next moment; nor is it a call to live our life in mourning and bewailing for the lost moments. The call is to make the best of this moment and live the 'here and now' to the full, conscious and loving. 

The Gospel presents us that call: be vigilant at all times! Neither inaction, which is the product of lamentation of the past, nor hyper action which is a frenetic preparation for an unknown future at the cost of the present, would help us, says the Word today. What matters is we live our daily lives, every moment, with responsibility to God and availability to our brothers and sisters, conscious of our choices and conscientious of our failures. But all the time serene, because one who says he is coming soon, is our Saviour!

The secret is to live our lives as children of the light, here and now, calm and composed, but awake and vigilant!

Signs of the Times

 WORD 2day: Friday, 34th week in Ordinary time 

November 27, 2020: Revelation 20: 1-4, 11- 21:2; Luke 21: 29-33

One of the key terms popularised by the Second Vatican Council is "signs of the times" and the Council itself tried its best to be true to the spirit of that term. The Council challenged the faithful and the church as a whole to learn to read the signs of the times and respond to it. It is obviously a never failing criterion: to be attentive to what is happening around and the message we can gather from it, in order to render the way we live our faith in Christ, relevant and meaningful.

There is however a feeling among many that the "signs" from the Lord in the present times, are few and far between. The truth instead is, the signs abound: in our daily lives, through things that happen around us, through persons who live with us, those who live worthy lives, those who suffer for no cause of theirs, those who are oppressed, those who have scores and scores of woes to meet on a daily basis, through the crisis we see in the nature around us, through the humanity that has pushed into a hue and cry that is so artificial and human made with this pandemic... there are signs aplenty. 

Our responsibility is two fold: first, to learn to gather these signs, as coming from the Lord! At times we can become careless and callous to these, that we would never read the right message at the right time. A delayed action is no good! Secondly, we have the responsibility to act upon the sign we receive and respond to it, regardless of the risks and the sacrifices that are involved. We are so negligent in this second part that we habituate ourselves to becoming blind to the signs that are around. There are those who repeatedly remind us of that - and they become a nuisance in our eyes, if not even villains!

Whether we gather them or not, respond to them or not, they are there! We would do well as true sons and daughters of the Reign, if we are present to them and through them strive to build the Reign here on earth. If not, we ourselves are the losers!

Judgment: our choice!?

WORD 2day: Thursday, 34th week in Ordinary time

November 26, 2020: Revelation 18: 1-2, 21-23, 19:1-3, 9; Luke 21: 20-28

Happy are those who are called to the wedding feast of the Lamb...the final banquet, the moment of redemption...the end of days, the judgment seat... these are all the pictures that the Word paints before our eyes today. Let us not create for ourselves an idea of some horror stories or sort of shake-up narrations. They are, after all, logical ends towards which we are all journeying.

But a further fact to remember is that these need not be always an end time phenomenon, instead it has to be an everyday experience...the judgment is a continuous happening and it is not entirely an act of the Lord; the choices that we make at any given point of time, at any moment of a given day, the choice of our words, thoughts, actions, decisions...those are already judgments that we bring upon ourselves (cf. Jn 3:18).

The reason is this: our choice! Every time we react in a way to something or someone, we make a choice! You may say, "No! but it was just a spontaneous word, or a spontaneous act; not premeditated at all!" But remember, though it is a so-called spontaneous word or act, it has a history; there is a whole lot of experience behind it; there is a whole lot of judgement that goes with it. Why you choose a word, not another; why choose a particular way of reacting and not some other... they depend, even if unconscious or subconscious, on the attitudes or the disposition you have towards that person or that event. That is where our judgments, the judgments that come on us, rest too! That is why Jesus said: judge not, you shall not be judged!

Coming back to the parable...we are all called to the wedding feast, that is to unite with the Lord and enjoy the eternal bliss. But the choices we make on a daily basis, at a particular point of time, is our response and that decides whether we enter the banquet or not. Hence, instead of yarning tales of suspense and horror, let us realise our responsibility in making right choices, conscious choices, charitable choices, holy choices, Christ-like choices, every moment of our daily life: Judgement is our choice, indeed!

Perseverance...!?!

WORD 2day: Wednesday, 34th week in Ordinary time

November 25, 2020: Revelation 15:1-4; Luke 21: 12-19

Perseverance, in terms of targets and achievements in the world, is holding on endlessly. The same, when it comes to our relationship with God... it is giving up limitlessly. Difficulties, problems, temptations, struggles, misunderstandings, loneliness, desperation, distress... in all these, whatever level it goes, if I can give everything up to God and say, 'Lord you see to it,' - that is truly perseverance.

It is to give up totally into the hands of God, regardless of the successes or failures, gains or losses, happiness or sadness, prosperity or misery! It is not praising God and exalting God when everything goes fine. And come one trouble, finding every reason to doubt God, speak against God, question God, lament against God and feel discouraged about God. This is lack of perseverance. 

Faith is all about giving up everything and walking with our hands in the hands of God. If we can do that - in the midst of difficulties to remain calm and trust in the Lord; in moments of failures to sit by the Lord and recount what went on; in moments of anxiety to tell myself that God is there all the time with me and all that I need to do is surrender - that is indeed what Faith is all about! 

Faith is knowing that the Lord is, and being there with the Lord, come what may!

Curiosity or Care to Change?

WORD 2day: Tuesday, 33rd week in Ordinary time

November 24, 2020: Revelation 14: 14-19 ; Luke 21: 5-11

When will these things happen? We are more interested in knowing when certain things will happen and curious about predictions and premonitions, foretellings and soothsayings, magics and myths - than understanding what is the right thing to be done and making the right moves in life at the right time.

Curiosity is good, to an extent that it incites my interest to get to know things that I don't know. But it is not absolutely good or helpful, as it is always determined by its motivations. Some are curious about others; some about everything else other that what affects them. Some are curious, these days, to get to know things so that they can publish it first before the rest of the world - how many breaking news are merely results of curiosity with absolutely no respect to persons, their experiences and their feelings! It is not about the breaking news that comes live on the TV, but the breaking news that goes from our mouths to others' ears, those that go from our mobiles to others', those that are sent from our whatsapp pages and facebook pages to the rest of the world, without really feeling anything about what the person or persons involved are going through right then. Forget that dimension...what about what it does to me? Does that curiosity in anyway make me a person bit better that what I was before?

Curiosity is eagerness, craze to know! Knowing alone is not sufficient. What do I do on the basis of what I know. Knowing God, hearing God's Word everyday, celebrating the sacred mysteries regularly... what is happening to me? What kind of growth is taking place within me? Am I prepared to take decisions that are important, some times hard, and necessary? 

Mistakenly we postpone the necessary and crucial transformations in life for an 'opportune' time which sometimes does not come at all or it gets too late by the time they come by. The month of November insists on the urgency that is involved in personal conversion and community dedication to growth and maturity in faith. And specially this week marking the end of the liturgical year, and leading us to the season of advent - invites us to a better understanding of the end time spirituality that we are called to live in these times.

The sickles are already kept at the base...the harvest time is near! Mindful of the short time that we have, we have a calling to live: live our lives to the full, here and now.

Good people or God's people?

WORD 2day: Monday, 34th week in Ordinary time

November 23, 2020: Revelation 14:1-5; Luke 21: 1-4

Are we called to be good people? Yes, but not just that. The Word today challenges us: it is not enough to be good people, but we are called to be God's people. Being good seems a bit of a relative opinion these days. We are good to some, and not so to some others! According to some, I am good and for some others, I am not good. I am good at times when I see an advantage in being so, but when it is not going to favour me in anyway, I give up on that guard. Being good seems so relative.

Just have a look at the posters with politicians doling out their "generous" gifts to the unfortunate lot, the numerous NGOs scripting out projects for the eradication of social evils for decades and decades together, the so-called social activists voicing the woes of the downtrodden. And these days, the scenario is worse... to see poses with masks and microphones...everything seems a show! People who do good and claim to do good, do it with various intentions and it is that which makes all the difference.

One thing it is to be known as people who do good and the other is to be people of God. Doing good has no end to it and is evaluated in its quantity, in the volume of the good we do. Being God's people is in one way simpler and in another way a lot more demanding. 

It is simpler because it does not matter what you do and how much you do but with how much of love you do whatever you do! You need not be giving away tonnes of things to others in charity or announcing everyday one scheme, which means nothing to none. What matters is you have true compassion for the other, in the depth of your heart.

More demanding because even a slight intention of selfishness or vain glory can negate the true effect of the good that is done. It is what is in your heart that makes your gift valid or not in the sight of the Lord - whether it is sacks of gold or a mere two pennies! You can hide what you have in your heart to everyone, but to God? 

To be marked as people of God is to belong to God and to put our whole self and all we have at the disposal of the One who gave it all to us. It is important to be people who do good, but more important it is to be people of God.

A KING WITH A DIFFERENCE

Shepherd, Servant and Sovereign!

November 22, 2020: Solemnity of Christ the King
Ezekiel 34: 11-12, 15-17; 1 Corinthians 15: 20-26, 28; Matthew 25: 31-46

Christ the King Sunday marks the beginning of the last week of the Liturgical year and thus it serves as a fitting culmination of the year, a climax to end the year with! The one whose birth, life, death and resurrection that we remembered and celebrated all through this liturgical year, is our King, says this Sunday. 

We celebrate our King today, our King who is madly in love with us, our King who had given up everything for the sake of the love that he had for us, our King who even today is ready to give up on anything, all just for the love that he has for us. Our King, definitely, is different from the rest of the kings we can think or see around. To be served, to have authority over all, to rule over all and to hoard as much as possible for oneself: these are what being a king would mean today. 

Enough to look around we have all sorts: rulers who were all their life hoarding things and died so miserable and despicable; rulers who pose themselves shamelessly as 'greatest ever' and think that they can never be dethroned; rulers who do all they can to please every one whom they can merely to stay in power and hold on to the throne; rulers who manipulate every one and every thing and project themselves to be the saviours but all the time gnawing at the very roots of the happiness of the common folk; rulers who openly suppress rights of people and rule by fear; rulers who have all secret pacts to destroy anyone who stands against them, caring nothing about the innocents and vulnerable who are trampled in the bargain! Oh...what range of them! But we the people of God, are a privileged lot because we have a King who is a contrast to all these !

The King we have is a Shepherd King: he comes in search of us, strains himself for our good, provides for our needs, binds our wounds, leads us, directs us, feeds us, nourishes us, defends us and does everything necessary for our peaceful and happy life. None of us can ever deny the fact that we have the protecting and providing hand of God hovering over us, because without that we would find our life tough and sometimes even terrible. A King who comes in search of us, not one who waits in his throne for us to go begging!

Certainly you have come across that cartoon that was circulated during this COVID lock-down - the devil laughing at God saying, "Ah...I managed to close all your Churches!". And God smiling back retorting, "And I have just opened one in each home!" Whether we go in search of God or not. God is ever search of us. All that we need to do is open the door of our hearts and he shall enter, and make home with us!

The King we have is a Servant King: it is strange that our king, kind of depends on us. All that he is concerned about is not so much to "rule" us as to "serve" us. He wishes that we feed him, clothe him, console him... he says he depends on us! What sort of a king is he who depends on his subjects, a king who wants his subjects to give him in mercy to eat, who identifies himself with his subjects who are in want and in dire need. What sort of a king is he who feels sad when his subjects are sad, feels abandoned when his subjects are left to suffer alone, feels neglected when his subjects are left without no one to care for. Truly he is a servant king, who desires that we play his role, take his side and be his ambassadors when there are our brothers and sisters who are in hunger, in need, in dire want, in loneliness, in suffering! 

If the King is a servant, the subjects and servants of the king, what do they become? Kings? No, servants of the Servant king! The more I humble myself, the more I become a true subject of my King. The more I reach out in service to the needy, the more I grow in the image of my King who came reaching out to me, leaving behind all the regalia of a king. The more I look at every one around me as person whom I need to serve, the more I become like the King who announced: I have come to serve, not to be served! What an example we have!

The King we have is a Sovereign King: every knee shall bow and every tongue confess the he is King and he is Lord! The dependence that we see in the king is not a sign of weakness, it is the very nature of our King and Lord who is a relational Being; God who is a community, God who is three persons, in relationship with each other, and defines what right relationships should be like. God orders the movements of the planets and the heavenly bodies but gives each of his sons and daughters, a divine freedom that fills them with respect and dignity. We are given a royal identity, that we are sons and daughters of the Sovereign king. 

The Creator, the protector, the ultimate judge, the righteous arbiter, the King of the Universe...that is what the Lord is. There can be millions of inventions and thousands of theories with which people in history have tried to do away with God and replace God with something! But it has never worked. There is invariably a point after which no one can proceed without compromising on certainty and clarity in their negation of God. Besides all these, there is no need for anyone to try to prove God! God does not need our proofs...and if God does need them, it cannot be God. We do not try to prove God... we experience God and share that experience with the others. So, let us not get upset when we are not able to "prove" God's existence to people around us...but we need to get worried when we are not able to communicate God-experience to others in and through our life, because we have not had it ourselves! That is what we need to strive for - to have a deep God-experience within us, so that we can share it with all those around us. 

Yes, we have a King who is all powerful, governs every aspect of this universe, but when it comes to his love for us, he loves us so tenderly that he looks so weak like a servant, so humble like a shepherd and yet no one can deny the Sovereign that God is!