Lift up, look up and live on!

THE WORD IN LENT

Tuesday, 5th week in Lent - April 5, 2022

Numbers 21:4-9; John 8:21-30

Falling is a daily experience in our life and that is why we need to constantly rise up and move on! It is not falling but remaining fallen, out of laziness or stubbornness, that renders a person 'lost'. However the same experience of a fall, when approached with true humility and a broken heart, can become uplifting and enthuse one to live on. The difference is, we need to be drawn by the Lord, towards the Lord! No one can come to the Father, unless the Father draws them!

How can we be drawn to our God? The Word today gives us the formula: lift up, look up and live on.

Lift up Jesus, as your Lord and saviour, as the one who alone can rescue you, as the one who has the ownership over you. Declare it from your heart and surrender.

Look up, and gaze at that power drawing you to himself, realise you need the Lord and confess your dependence on the Lord. Allow yourself to be drawn into his eternal love and merciful forgiveness!

Live on! When you lift up the Lord and look up to the Lord, you will live on, you will find meaning in life beyond all the pressures around you; you will find an inner peace inspite of the turbulence that surrounds you; you will have that joy that the Lord alone can give!

Turn to the magnificence of the Lord constantly and surrender yourself completely, you will see the way to live on, with fullness and joy!

To see God's light

THE WORD IN LENT

Monday, 5th week in Lent - April 4, 2022
Daniel 13:41-62; John 8: 12-20

We have a dramatic episode in the first reading today. Though the innocent Susanna being blamed is a lent-worthy theme, the point of reference today is Daniel. Daniel, who was illumined by the light of the Lord and filled with the Spirit, delivers Susanna from the treacherous plotters and the mindless mob. 

Daniel was capable of idenitfying that those who testified were wrong, and were ill motivated. Today the world is so full of those who testify wrong and promote evil, either knowingly or unwittingly.  It becomes so crucial today to instruct the ignorant and to illumine the confused. it is indeed listed as one of the spiritual acts of mercy and that is the call that Daniel's episode offers us today.

We are called to fight against the treacherous plotters, deceivers who lead people astray, people with hidden agenda who manipulate the weak and the vulnerable. We fight them by throwing light on the truth and standing by it amidst threats and treason. Tougher still is the other task: that of illumining the ignorant and the mindless, who do not have clear thinking of their own, who swallow all that they are told, who follow the mob so blind that they do not even know what they live for. At times some faith choices of persons too become such a following of the mob, unfortunately. 

Christ is the Light that illumines our minds, reveals falsehoods and bears testimony to truth. Christ sheds light on what we need to do, where we need to journey towards, and where we are at this moment! The call is to surrender to the Lord and pray for God's illumination, that we can see God's ways, share it with others, and let the whole world see God's light!

TO JOURNEY WITH HOPE

A roadmap to perfection!

Fifth Sunday in Lent: April 3, 2022
Isaiah 43:16-21; Philippians 3:8-14; John 8:1-11

We are at the end of such a significant week! We have loads of thoughts to reflect on and take to heart. Expectations, Celebration, Gratitude, Mystery, Wonder, were the feelings that dominated the week that has just passed! And today the dominant note is one of HOPE. The Liturgy of the Word too invites us to the same sentiment of faith. Last week the Liturgy called us to Celebrate. Every celebration is to reinforce the energy within persons or the community to go on with life – and following it right on, the Liturgy today calls us to journey on with hope. 

Holy Father Pope Francis, when he greeted the faithful, for the first time, gathered at St.Peter’s Square - he said it in simple words: “Iniziamo un cammino, il vescovo e popolo!” Let’s begin a journey as Bishop and his people! A journey, he said; a journey with hope! Our Christian life is a indeed a journey, a race towards a finish as St. Paul says.  Our lenten practices are a journey too - we have been following it: from the desert to the mountain, to the holy ground and the promised land. It is a journey to perfection. 

A Journey needs a roadmap… and today’s Word of God provides us with the Roadmap, the Roadmap to Perfection, in three ‘P’s – Persevere, Prioritize and Progress.

For the Hebrews under slavery and burdensome labour, the prospect of journeying to the promised land, a land flowing with milk and honey, was a fantasy. When they actually undertook it, they could not believe their own selves. The Psalmist expresses it so well, “When the Lord restored the fortunes of Israel, it was like in a dream!” (Ps 126:1) When they embarked on that journey, it was in no terms easy… they were faced with the endless desert, with no food and no water, they were faced with a sea with freedom on the other side and death approaching them from behind, they were faced with treachery within and immorality that abounded…but those who stuck on to the journey crossed the Jordan into their promised land. 

Persevering through Problems, is an important ingredient towards success in faith. We see, in the first reading today, how this faith was rewarded for the people of Israel. The journey of Christian life is not different – with its own share of deserts and seas and temptations and death – but a disciple of Christ is called to Persevere right through these problems, and journey in faith.

What if we lose the vision, the direction, the energy… it is St. Paul again who instructs in various words… set your hearts on the thing above and on grace that Christ brings, he instructs. I consider everything as a loss, as a trash, as a garbage… because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ. The second dimension of the roadmap to perfection, is Prioritising Christ above anything or anybody else in our daily life. 

When our self considerations of comfort and career, or our considerations of attachments and allegiances become more important than God, Christ and all that pertains to our circle of faith, we can easily lose direction, lack vision and get lost in the mire of daily concerns and personal glory. What we need to do is fix our gaze on Christ, look to Him and be radiant (Ps 34:5). Thus we will journey on, with hope!

The third dimension of the roadmap is the most important! With the lost direction, with the lost time and with the negative experiences we can be caught up in the past. We see today a group of people who brought that lady to Jesus today… they were so impressed with themselves that they caught that lady sinning, they were so caught up with the law of the Moses given in the past, they were so involved in the fact that Jesus had insulted them so many times in so many ways, all things of the past… that they failed to see what was going on in the mind of that woman. The grief that was crying out from her eyes, the shame that was constricting her heart and her body, the anger that was swelling in her mind, the guilt that was tearing her apart – nothing mattered to those people who stood with stones in their hands. Jesus saw what they did not see! The person who was there on the ground waiting for the stones to be pelted, thinking to herself, it was better to die than to live, it was better to be stoned than to be looked at with the past in reference. It would have been easier for Jesus to send those self made judges away than to reassure that woman of her worth! Without a word on her burdensome past, Jesus tells her – Go and sin no more! Go… Go… Go on… To go on, with Christ in focus, to press on forgetting the past and to progress in the path of Christ…that is the call today!

With the hope that God awaits us there where we are headed to, we are called to progress. Falls, faults, failures and fake successes…let them not deter us. To rise, to restart and to resume our journey is an act of hope. That is what Jesus calls us to. To journey with hope, to never be discouraged but persevere through problems, to prioritise Christ without losing our focus, our vision, our direction, to progress constantly towards that fullness that Christ wishes to offer us. 

Like pilgrims set on a journey towards the house of grace, we are called to journey on!!! The Compass is set… Christ is the coordinate points… Christ is the direction… God our Father and Mother awaits us at home… lets journey on, in the path that Christ has traced, with joy and with hope.

To be hated for no reason!

THE WORD IN LENT

Saturday, 4th week in Lent - April 2, 2022
Jeremiah 11: 18-20; John 7: 40-53

Jeremiah was hated for living a righteous life. Jesus was hated for the good he was doing and the joy he was bringing to the poor and the oppressed, and moreover because he was from Galilee! The world does not need a reason to hate you. It will find a reason by all means, unless you compromise with it. The moment you stand for what you believe and live in conformity to only what you stand for, you got to be prepared!

Think of a case like that of Fr. Stan Swamy in the recent times - what did he do to be taken to task! Think of so many others in similar circumstances, and many others who are not killed but framed, persecuted, disturbed, and taken to task in varied ways. For what? What is the mistake on their part, apart from being on the side of justice, on the side of the Truth, on the side of God and God's people!

Being persons of God would mean that even in the face this hatred you continue loving, that you continue doing good, that you do not retaliate nor seek to avenge those who harm you in one way or the other. The best example is the Cross that shines before us specially during this season of lent, the greatest sign of the power of mercy! 

Forbearance towards those who do wrong against you, is definitely a competence of a person of God; no one else can do it, and there can be no other explanation to such an attitude or act. The rest will easily compromise and go with the flow. After all, the pragmatic perspective of the world teaches us that: to adapt to the world in which we live, and survive, or else be extinct and disappear!

Are we daring enough to be ready and be prepared for opposition when we decide to be good? In simple terms, are we ready to be hated for no reason? 

The Godless and the Thoughtless!

THE WORD IN LENT

Friday, 4th week in Lent - April 1, 2022
Wisdom 2:1,12-22; John 7: 1-2, 10, 25-30

Enduring all odds is a necessary quality for a servant of God. If only a person wants to remain faithful to what the Lord has called him or her for, the person has to grow tough from within. One cannot allow something to affect him or her so easily, if the person wants to go all the way with one's vocation, the call to be a minister of God, or a person of God, or simply to be a child of God.

Endurance means the capacity to dedicate oneself for a cause and to stand by that cause come what may. Here we are speaking of the Lord's chosen ones and their capacity for total dedication. There are two types of situations that can make one lose one's endurance: the opposition of the Godless and the indifference of the thoughtless.

The Godless interpret everything that you do in their own sense and malign your name and whatever you are upto. The first reading says, their malice makes them blind to anything that is godly. They are those who confuse the everyday failures of the human beings with the eternal nature of God... they cannot look beyond what is happening here and now and they get lost in making their present moment as pleasing to themselves as possible, that they lose a holsitic vision of life. 

The thoughtless are the so called 'religiously diligent' people but who are lost in their own world, who wish that everyone fits into their framework of understanding; they try to fit even God into their own framekwork. Jesus is struggling against these in the Gospel today.

We may be faced with the Godless who oppose us, malign us, persecute us...are we going to give up being messengers of the Lord? We may be surrounded by the self righteous lot who find fault merely because we do not fit into their frameworks...are we going to lose heart? If we are broken because of these experiences, that would be a fragrant offering we can give the Lord but we need to endure! The worst of everything is if we ourselves fall into one of the two categories - the godless or the thoughtless. Let us beware! Let nothing disturb us and let us never be weary of doing good (2 Thes 3:13).

Testimonies through endurance and faithfulness

THE WORD IN LENT 

Thursday, 4th week in Lent - March 31, 2022
Exodus 32: 7-14; John 5: 31-47

The Gospel today is a very dense passage where Jesus speaks of his testimonies to himself and to God who has sent him. In the extensive discourse, what he wants to highlight is that we know, we understand, we come to believe, but we fail to stand firm for long on these counts. A bit of a trouble, or a small delay in favours, or an untoward incident that breaks our plans, or an unexpected turn of events that gets us into crisis, take us away from God in no time. We see people going away from God, denying God, or creating their own gods when things do not go the way that they wanted.

The call is to be testimonies to the Lord and to what the Lord wants to accomplish in and through us. The recent events between Russia and Ukraine are disturbing but in those we have great tales of endurance and testimony. 

How ready and willing are we to hold on to what God wants from us? How daring are we to stand for what is Godly, instead of what is most convenient? The loud and clear critique of the Holy Father against the war and its justifications, is a strong message to the world, not to be wavering in our standing by the Lord. However faithful and merciful the Lord is, we find ourselves wanting in our fidelity to what is really good and what is truly from God. 

The Word today inspires a few other questions: how enduring are we in our commitment to the Lord? How prepared are we to hold on, in the face of struggles? How forgetful are we about the great things that the Lord has done for us all through our lives? How persevering are we to wait for the wonders that the Lord has in store for us!

The call is to believe in the Lord and to check how much our thoughts and words bear testimony to the Lord, the Lord who is forever faithful!

The Word Judges

THE WORD IN LENT

Wednesday, 4th week in Lent - March 30, 2022
Isaiah 49: 8-15; John 5: 17-30

We know God is merciful, but mercy is not devoid of justice; it is infact the perfection of justice! Hence Mercy cannot become an escapism on my part. Can I deceive the Lord who knows me through and through? Can I escape from the Word which cuts through right till it divides the soul from the spirit and the joints from the marrow?

God's mercy is there for the taking! Yes, it is freely given without any conditions, but I should be in a position to make it my own, and that responsibility is upon me. The Word today points to us how the Lord is so enthusiastic about saving us and intervening into our lives for our wholeness, at the right and the appointed time. It also adds, that we will be judged on the degree of our diligence in this regard, our diligence of cooperating with God merciful will.

How readily do we turn to God in times of tests? How early do we spot ourselves straying away from the path? How mindful are we about what we are called to do, in order to prevent unnecessary developments in life? As a way to keep ourselves from going astray Don Bosco would often say, do what you are supposed to be doing with a sense of diligence and that will take you steadily on your way towards sanctity.

Realsing that I am called, knowing what I am expected to do, understanding the purpose behind the calling and being diligent in carrying out God's will for me at every single moment... that is the way we live as the people of the Word, because it is the Word who judges us!

Living waters flow on

THE WORD IN LENT

Tuesday, 4th week in Lent: March 29, 2022

Ezekiel 47:1-9, 12; John 5: 1-3a,5-6

We have a wonderful imagery today to ponder over: the flowing water that enlivens! Ezekiel speaks of it and John presents it; Ezekiel underlines the presence of the flowing water by the Temple while John points out the very presence of Christ as the life giving spring!

For that man who had been waiting for years to get into that life giving water, the fact that Jesus approached him was like the waters came to him, instead of he going to the waters. But it is not all that comfortable, when the waters really flow! That is why Jesus asks him that question: do you want to be well again?

We may think it is a dumb question to ask - but it matters! What if the man was comfortable drawing pity from the others? What if the man gained much more than what he could have with his limbs alright? Hence, the need for Jesus to ask him, if he really wanted to be healed! It is our choice to be healed, to be well, to be wholesome!

We may blame people around, the situation around, the events and experiences, and remain in self pity! That will never lead us to wellness, health or wholeness. If we really want to live our life to the full, we need to receive the flowing grace willingly. It might require of us certain changes...which may not be comfortable - the man was asked to pick up his mat and walk... all this while people were carrying him around! Are we prepared for the inconveniences of grace?

The Lord reaches out to us, flows into our lives to enliven us and Jesus invites us to become the waters (or the sources) that enliven people around us, that we reach out to others and flow into their lives, enlivening them! If we have the living waters within us, that is the bountiful grace of God within us, we will flow on... because living waters, forever, flow on!

Yielding to Grace

THE WORD IN LENT 

Monday, 4th week in Lent - March 28, 2022
Isaiah 65: 17-21; John 4: 43-54

At times we speak of Grace as some'thing' to be received from God: terms like more graces, special graces, immediate graces, etc betray such an understanding. The most Christian understanding of Grace would be the continual proximity of God. The Lord promises us to be with us and the Lord is always faithful to this promise. The challenge is that we realise this presence and feel it concretely. When we do that, everything turns new - the earth, the heaven, the life, the experience, the persons around, the problems that persist...everything is renewed! But the need is that we YIELD!

The Gospel today brings out this message very subtly. The Court Official's petition for a favour was a bit irritating for Jesus - Jesus expresses that but the official finds favour when he yields to the terms of Jesus: 'You Go and your son will live'...the man turns and walks! He wanted grace, the proximity of Jesus, but he willingly yields to experience it in Lord's own terms. If I remain stubborn as to what I want to experience and that I must experience it in my own terms, then I restrict the great wonders that can happen around me.

When I am ready to allow Grace to operate in Lord's terms, it means I have total confidence in the Lord, and I am not using the Lord as a standby. It is a sign that I have surrendered to the way God has planned things for me, not stubborn that what I think has to happen and in the way that I want it to happen. Above all, it very clearly expresses the fact that I am nothing in front of the Lord who is omniscient and omnipotent, apart from being someOne totally in love with me. 

Yes, Yielding requires three major qualities of Faith: Confidence, Surrender and Humility. It is to say wholeheartedly : 'God is in-charge!" The best prayer is what the Lord himself has taught us: Your will be done! That is yielding to Grace.

THE CALL TO CELEBRATE

Realise, Return and Rejoice!

Fourth Sunday in Lent - March 27, 2022

Joshua 5: 9-12; 2 Corinthians 5: 17-21; Luke 15: 1-3, 11-32

Rejoice O Jerusalem and all who love her rejoice! Right at the entrance antiphon, the Liturgy today makes its central theme crystal clear – The call to Rejoice, because we have a promised land! From the desert to the mountain and the holy ground, we are called to fix our gaze on the promised land! It is a call to Celebrate, because we have the promised land, the grace of  returning to the Father’s house, the great gift of returning to the Mother’s heart of the Lord, to feel the sweet embrace of the forgiveness that God wishes to offer each one of us! 

Jesus narrates a beautiful story today, a parable par excellence that speaks to us of that house, that heart and that embrace... that promised land in the merciful presence of the Lord.

Our life of faith has to be a celebration, a perennial joy, a loving experience, a journey with our hand in the hands of God. What a joy to have a God who is so close to us, so close to us that the very moment we wish to return to God, we bounce right into God! From the call that we received last Sunday, the call to bear fruit, the whole week Jesus has been teaching us of the fruits that we have to bear – the fruit of communion, the fruit of forgiveness, the fruit of love, the fruit of humility and so on. When we take to heart the call, and embark on that journey, there would sure be moments of fall and failure. Jesus assures us today – the worst issue is not to fall, but the worst is not knowing that you have fallen.

The first step towards a true Christian life is the REALIZATION of who we are. With the life situations, the daily choices and commitments, it is possible that I forget who I am. The First reading today pictures to us God calling the people of Israel through Joshua, to realize who they were and all that God had done for them! That exactly is the first line of action that Jesus gives us today through the example of the younger son in the parable. We read that ‘he came to his senses’... that is, he finally realized who he was! Pope St. Leo the Great would say, "O Christian, recognize your dignity and, now that you share in God's own nature, do not return to your former base condition by sinning. Remember who is your head and of whose body you are a member. Never forget that you have been rescued from the power of darkness and brought into the light of the Kingdom of God." The message is clear – to become aware of my dignity as a Christian and to remember who I am.

The second step is presented in the second reading, where St. Paul reminds us that God has reconciled to Godself through Christ and has given us the ministry of reconciliation. It is infact an invitation to RETURN to God, reconciled to God, to our brothers and sisters in God. In doing that we become new creatures; in returning to God we become newly born. Jesus recounts the father in the parable as saying about the younger son who had returned to the father, that he was dead and he is come alive, that he was lost and is now found! So, the call is to return to God. If we truly realize who we are, we cannot but return to God, because we cannot stay away from God. St. Agustine’s words, “Late have I loved you, O Beauty ever ancient, ever new, late have I loved you! You breathed your fragrance on me; I drew in breath and now I pant for you. I have tasted you, now I hunger and thirst for more. You touched me, and I burned for your peace” are words of beauty and wisdom which makes us understand that we are made for God and our hearts would always be restless, until they rest in God. Let us Return home, let us Return to the bosom of God. The Sacrament of Reconciliation is the direct highway to the heart of the One who waits for us eagerly for ever right at the door post to spot us from far, to run to us and embrace us. James says that in such simple words – Come close to God, God will come close to you (Jam 4:8).

The Realisation and the Return to God create an atmosphere of joy that one cannot hide. That atmosphere is the state of life to which Jesus calls us today as the third line of action. “REJOICE in the Lord always, I repeat, Rejoice,” cries out St. Paul (Phil 4:4). Christian life is a celebration, a celebration of every moment, a celebration of every experience be it ordinary or extraordinary. In the parable Jesus speaks of two decisions that were made – the first one was, “I will arise and go to my Father”, a decision that leads to celebration, joy, happiness and rejoicing. The second decision was that of the Elder son – He was indignant and he refused to enter the house!

The Choice is ours dear friends! What decision would I want to make? To arise and go to God and thus run towards a Celebration or become angry, upset, unforgiving, unloving, grumpy, jealous, and cold towards my brothers and sisters and refuse to enter the house, thus remaining in sadness and grief. Let us pay heed to the call, the call to Celebrate – to celebrate the love and the mercy of God, to celebrate our faith and celebrate our brothers and sisters in faith! 

With the younger son of the parable, let us arise, let us go to God and let us celebrate life in the Father’s house!