THE CHALLENGE TO GRADUATE

The need to move on, move in and move up!

May 14, 2023: 6th Sunday after Easter
Acts 8:5-8,14-17; 1 Peter 3: 15-18; John 14: 15-21

Our life is a process, a process of continuous growth; so is faith. Our faith is not a static assertion of some facts or some set of information, as we often mistakenly imagine it to be. Faith is a dynamic experience, a rapport within and with persons and realities around based on the relationship we have with God as its foundation. In this progress, we are called to keep moving on! This moving on need not be always moving out, it could also essentially be a moving in. And especially in faith, it is basically a call to move up, ever more closer to the One who has called us, scaling up towards our perfection. We have today from the Risen Lord, the challenge to Graduate in our life our faith!

Jesus seems to be winding up his course... and he challenges his disciples to Graduate. He does the same to us: he challenges us to Graduate, in our life of faith and not remain the same little children we began this journey as. And the challenge can be broken up into three movements - moving on, moving in and moving up!

Move on! says Jesus to his apostles and to us. In a little while the world will no longer see me, tells the Lord. He prepares to bid them farewell, telling them the current phase is getting to a close, and the new phase is round the corner; they need to get ready for it. Move on, don't get stuck - be it to good times or to trying times, don't get stuck. There were glorious times when they went around with the Lord and saw miracles and wonders, healings and resuscitations. There were tough times when they saw the very same Jesus being crucified and buried, hid themselves from the threatening powers. The Risen Lord invites them not to get stuck to any of these, for they were phases of transformation, periods of growth, through which he wanted the disciples to graduate, progress, grow up. The apostles understood this...they moved on! They were all over the place preaching Christ and ushering in the new phase that Jesus had promised them. In the first reading today we see Phillip doing that in the Samaritan quarters, opening up the Jewish world to the rest of the human kind and reaching out with the love of God, a love that was universal - that was a graduation, a moving on!

Today, we are called to move on too... from many attitudes that we developed within us with the pandemic and the lockdowns and other negative experiences we have had in the recent past...are we still stuck to those fears and anxieties? We need to move on... from our tendency to get stuck to the past, get weighed down by the negativities we have had. Let us move on; moving on is an essential mark of graduating in our faith life. Let us not get stuck to our negative experiences in life but look at them as a source of inspiration for progress, for moving on, for graduation!

Move in! clarifies Jesus. As a means and an aid to graduate, Jesus promises an advocate. I shall ask the Father and the Father will give you another advocate, the Spirit of Truth and Jesus goes on to clarify: the Spirit is with you, the Spirit is in you! The Indwelling Spirit is the Spirit of Truth that Jesus promises as the guarantee of graduation. Though graduation is moving on, it may not always mean moving out, it could be more moving in. Moving into oneself. Becoming aware of one's own innermost thoughts, attitudes, tendencies and priorities and working on them with the help of the Spirit who dwells within us to assist us and to strengthen us. St. Peter invites us to exactly this, when he calls us in the second reading to live a life in the spirit, that we may be raised as Jesus was raised in the spirit - and that involves suffering for the right, for truth, for righteousness, for justice and for integrity.

Sufferings and downfalls, sometimes can serve as a school of solitude! To enter that interior castle within our self, understanding ourselves at a closer view, analysing ourselves and growing through it... that is moving in, moving in to ourselves, moving in to our conscience, moving in to our interior self, moving in to the core of our being and becoming aware of what and who is at work there! Is it the Indwelling Spirit...that is would be a sign of graduation in faith.

Move up! invites Jesus. Move up, as an expression means to get closer to a person, in order to say something or do something! And Jesus invites his disciples to move up to the Father and experience in the Father the love that Jesus came to share with them. Jesus is challenging them, and us, to graduate to that experience where "you will understand that I am in my Father and you in me and I in you!" Naturally Jesus seems to be instructing his disciples towards the next level of their encounter. He seems to be telling them: I came in order that I may put you in direct touch with my Father, and here comes the Spirit to sustain that relationship...here you go, grow in that communion! A true graduation of faith life.

Our life of faith is not merely doing something or fulfilling some requisites, it is a relationship, a communion, an integral harmony within and without, where everything dissolves into One, True Bliss (Sat Cit Ananda). There cannot be contrasts and confusions, there cannot be competitions and compromises, there cannot be hatred or indifference... what remains in that graduated faith life is - Oneness, Love and Eternal Happiness! Love each other as a sign of your love for the Divine who loves you so intimately, unconditionally! In that love and harmony, you shall sense the indwelling divine, the Advocate the Father has given you, the presence of God within that you need to become more and more aware of.

Graduate... that is the challenge today! To graduate in our life our faith and move on to the higher plane of living your faith, to move in and find the source of true meaning within you and to move up to the Divine and establish a long lasting relationship. May the Risen Lord, the Spirit of God and the love of the Father help us grow everyday!

GPS Enabled!

WORD 2day: Saturday, 5th week after Easter

May 13, 2023: Acts 16: 1-10; John 15: 18-21

Almost gone are those days when people bound for a place that they have never been to, find their destinations with the help of people on the road, bystanders, fellow passengers etc. With the ChatGPT and other forthcoming innovations, GPS has by now become a minimum technology available to people. With the smart phones in every hand, persons are today GPS Enabled: the Global Positioning System - which tells us in detail where we are, where we are upto and how we get there!

Today in the first reading we find the apostles - GPS enabled. They are instructed where to go and where not to go, where to be in any given time and where not to be. They had their GPS enabled. The GPS here is... God's Powerful Spirit. 

Jesus warned them wherever they go there will be people against them, because they are his disciples. But nothing to worry because they have the GPS enabled! Here the GPS is...God's Protecting Spirit. 

Come what may, with all the troubles and persecutions the disciples will go on and on! The early Christians we see in the Biblical account could not just be stopped from living and proclaiming their new found life in Christ, because they were GPS enabled. Here the GPS is... God's Propelling Spirit.

The invitation to us is, to be disciples of Christ in our daily life with all its struggles and temptations-disciples who are GPS Enabled!

We, the Spirit and Love!

WORD 2day: Friday, 5th week after Easter

May 12, 2023: Acts 15: 22-31; John 15: 12-17

It is a fascinating point of view when we understand the formulation we see in the first reading today: the apostles when they communicate their decision after a crisis, they say, "it has seemed good to us and to the holy spirit..." The presence of the Spirit was experienced as someone who lived amidst them!

When the Holy Spirit takes hold of us, all that we do, all that we choose, all that we decide will be guided by love and love alone! The disciples, apostles and the entire early Christian community, were ready to give up their tradition, their heritage, their laws, all because they loved their new brothers and sisters in Christ. They did not want to over burden them. 

It was indeed keeping much in line with what Christ had taught. Jesus had in fact gone a step further and said: not just traditions and laws, but even your life, you should be ready to lay down! That is true love. If the Son of God has given up everything for the love that he has for us, why do we hesitate to give up anything... especially our ego, our selfishness, our vain glory, for the sake of love of our brothers and sisters!

We and the Holy Spirit, if we are in constant rapport, we will be filled with true love! If we are filled with true love, then we would make true disciples to Christ, the Son of God who is Love! We, the Holy Spirit and Love, we will make a wonderful "Christ"ian Community. Are we ready?

A Joy that is complete

WORD 2day: Thursday, 5th week after Easter 

May 11, 2023: Acts 15: 7-21; John 15: 9-11

The ultimate wish of the Lord is our joy, not a joy as that which the world promises, but a joy that is complete, wholesome, flawless and endless. The joy that the world gives is conditional, limited and time bound. It lasts for a while and leaves a vacuum when it disappears due to some reason. 

The joy that is promoted by the world is based on feelings, things and doings! It comes from what we do, what we achieve, what we prove to the world. That explains why it is so flimsy and passing. It disappears as soon as that feeling changes, or when that thing is no more, or when we fail to achieve something that we dreamt of achieving!

The joy that the Lord gives comes from what we are; it comes from the fact that we are loved, that we are accepted unconditionally and that we are united to the One who never changes! It is not the various rules and regulations that we uphold that matter, but love! 

Love is all that matters! And in that love that God has for us, we find our true joy, the complete joy!

The Key - to Remain

WORD 2day: Wednesday, 5th week after Easter

May 10, 2023: Acts 15:1-6; John 15:1-8

To be circumcised or not to be: that seemed to be the issue for most of the Jewish Christians, including a few disciples. But for persons like Paul or Barnabas or even Peter or James, it was a non issue! For them, something else mattered much more!

Paul said that plainly when he exclaimed, 'For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything' (Gal 5:6). What did really matter to him, he was vociferous about that too: 'for His sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard everything else as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ' (Phil 3:8).

Remaining in Christ, that is what really matters. Rituals, practices, piety and devotions - all of them make sense only in relation to the proportion to which they help me remain with Christ. Even the most regular of all practices would mean nothing if it does not help me remain in Christ.

Remaining in Christ is a challenging task indeed - it may at times prove boring and monotonous and not immediate in its results - but it is the key to being disciples of Christ. Let us focus on the key element: Let us Remain in Christ.

Let not your hearts be troubled

WORD 2day: Tuesday, 5th week of Easter

May 9, 2023: Acts 14: 19-28; John 14: 27-31

You will have enemies in abundance, yet let not your hearts be troubled. There will be opposition from every side, yet let not your hearts be troubled. People may plot and contrive against you, yet let not your hearts be troubled. Your situation may be difficult and hard, yet let not your hearts be troubled. 

Being untroubled amidst all troubles - the disciples had perfectly understood what the Lord had said... they were unmoved in the face of all persecutions because they had something that the world could not give. They had within them something that no one else could find or even understand. They had peace!

Peace, a peace that the Lord alone can give. A peace that no one can take away. A peace that shines amidst darkness. A peace that does not arise from compromise and convenience but from conviction and commitment. A peace that is a result of truth and integrity. A peace that is not an external silence but an internal tranquillity. A peace for which it is worth even giving up our life.

We need to grow towards that peace... and the key to grow towards it is, not to let our hearts be troubled!

The plot, the power and the perseverance

WORD 2day: Monday, 5th week after  Easter

May 8, 2023: Acts 14:5-18; John 14:21-26

The Jews and the non Jews together plot to get rid of the apostles but what triumphed was not the plot but the power of God. The Power of God was more and more getting manifest in the life and works of the apostles and they were bearing unimaginable witness to the Christ-experience.

But what did the apostles do to acquire such power as to stand before the authorities and systems which seemed so frightening to them earlier - it was simply their perseverance. They remained with the Lord, although at times they were tempted to leave and return to some other way of life. But they stuck on to the Lord.

Not just temptations, they were threatened, they were beaten up, they were arrested and they were flogged, but nothing could stop them from living their life for the Lord and for the Lord's message. Every persecution made them more strong in their commitment. They spared nothing to express their total belonging to the Lord. 

The plots will abound even in our life - from within and from around us! But if we are strong in our mind and heart, these plots will be overcome by the power of the Lord, invested within me by the Lord. All that we need to do is stay with the Lord and pray: strenghten us O Lord to stay with you.

CHOSEN TO BE A PRIESTLY PEOPLE

Chosen to belong forever

5th Sunday after Easter: May 7, 2023
Acts 6:1-7; 1 Peter 2:4-9; John 14:1-12

God “chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before God in love” (Eph 1:4). That is our identity; we are a chosen race, royal priesthood, holy nation, God’s own people in order that we may proclaim the mighty acts of God, the God who has called us from darkness into his marvelous light (1 Pet 2:9).

What is my identity of myself?

Are we merely people who are looking upto God for some favours? People who wait on God to come and solve our everyday problems? People complaining to God about those around us who are not living upto our expectations, disappointing us, troubling us, not understanding us or causing us grief? Can we take a breath and imagine what identity God has invested in us and to what level we have diluted in our daily living of our faith.

We are Chosen…

It is not by chance that I am a Christian, that I am chosen. At times we tend to subscribe to the opinion that we are Christians merely because our parents were Christians, that every thing is by chance. It could be true that I have inherited my Christian identity from my parents, but ultimately I am chosen in and through the generations, right from eternity, to belong to the Lord who has willed me into existence.  

It is the Lord who has chosen us and it is never the other way around: “You did not choose me, but I chose you”, says the Lord (Jn 15:16). It is the Lord who has chosen you and me, and all that we need to do is happily walk holding his hand.

We are Chosen to belong…

Last week we celebrated the Good Shepherd Sunday and we prayed for Vocations to Priesthood and Religious Life. That is a special call, a call for a ministry, just like Stephen and the 6 others are chosen today in the first reading for a special task – that is what we call Ministerial Priesthood. But there is another call that is universal… that is the call to Royal Priesthood… each and every one who is chosen in Christ, who is washed in the waters of baptism, is called to this priesthood. Yes! We are all priests unto the Lord! We are Chosen Race, Royal Priesthood… We have a special call to belong to the Lord. That is the crux of this priesthood. 

The ordained priests are ordained for a special ministry, while all of us share in the priesthood of Christ. The Priesthood of Christ consists in belonging to the Father. “I am in the Father and the Father is in me” says the Lord (Jn 14:11). The priesthood that we share with Christ is to be in God, the Father and Mother; to belong to God, to be grafted on to God, to remain in God as the branches remain in the wine and give fruit.

We are Chosen to belong forever…

In belonging to the Lord, in remaining with Christ, in sharing the priesthood of Christ we inherit the greatest of all patrimonies: a dwelling place in the courts of the Lord. That is what is prepared for us, that if we belong in our life to God, we would belong to God forever even in death. Christ has gone before us to prepare this place for us, and when he comes we should still belong to God, we should still be his Priestly People, that we may receive that dwelling place prepared for us!

Every day is an opportunity, through our ordinary tasks and daily duties, by our conscious choices and deliberate decisions, to deepen our belonging to the Lord, to realize we are chosen, that we are chosen to belong to God, chosen to belong forever, as a chosen race, a Priestly People!

Joy and the Holy Spirit

WORD 2day: Saturday, 4th week after Easter

May 6, 2023: Acts 13: 44-52; John 14:7-14

The disciples were filled with joy and holy spirit, says the first reading today. It becomes hard to connect that this statement is actually the ending note of a preceding passage, that speaks about rejection and insult of the apostles by their own fellow Jews. Elsewhere too we would read that they returned happy that they were able to suffer for the sake of the name of Jesus (eg. Acts 5:41). 

This fact would however make sense once we read and understand what Jesus tells us in the Gospel today: whoever believes in me will do the works that I do and will do even greater. The apostles seem to have inherited it from their Master to consider themselves blessed for having to suffer for righteousness sake, to thirst for justice and truth, to seek the Reign of God above all.

It has become a normal experience for persons to deride when one speaks of truth, peace and justice! Be it the young or another generation, be it religious consecrated persons or parents in families, they exude a wry smile when we speak of standing by truth and standing for the right! They seem to say, that sounds good when said, but living it is not feasible. The honesty of these people has to be appreciated certainly, but an inevitable question that remains to be raised: when will we be mature enough to stand up for what we believe, and be courageous to shake the dust off our feet and keep walking towards the Reign!

Death Rather than Sin

May 6: The Inspiring Teenage Saint - Dominic Savio

Dominic Savio is called the boy with a will - yes, he was just a boy, but a boy with a great will, a great consciousness and a great conviction.

There were three things that made a great impact on Dominic Savio and drove him towards his extraordinary Sanctity.

1. His Name: Dominic knew what his name meant. It meant that he belonged to the Lord. That is why when he met Don Bosco he said, it would be a shame if he did not live a life worthy of the Lord, having a name so profound. 

How many of us are serious about the name that we have? 

How many of us know of the Patron who is given to us due to our name?

2. His Guide: Dominic instantly clung on to Don Bosco when he met him. He found in Don Bosco a sure guide to sanctity, though he met him only when he was 12. Even before he could meet Don Bosco, he had taken his famous motto, 'Death rather than sin'. But he saw that Don Bosco had a special role to play in his attainment of sanctity. Dominic was very serious about it and Don Bosco acknowledged it and accompanied the teenager all the way. 

Do you feel the need of a Spiritual Director? 

Do you have an ardent desire to journey towards sanctity of life?

3. His Desire: Dominic wanted to be a priest. His devotion to Eucharist right from when he was a 5 year old boy, and later after his communion when he was just 7, and later when he met Don Bosco in 1854, he was determined to become a priest and serve the Lord. But the Lord willed it differently. Dominic's desire to become a priest, gave him a perspective for whole of his life. 

How many of us have clear understanding of what we wish to grow to be? 

Do we seek to know God and orient our lives accordingly?

When Dominic was just 7, as he received his first communion, he set himself this axiom: Death rather than sin. How much have we learnt God's will for us? This is God's will: your sanctification (1 Thes 4:3), reminds us St. Paul along with Dominic Savio. 

Will we dare to say with this young boy: death rather than sin!