Warned - to be on the right side!

WORD 2day - Tuesday, 15th week in Ordinary time

July 18, 2023: Exodus 2: 1-15; Matthew 11: 20-24

Yesterday we spoke of the situations of injustice in the world and the readings drove us to a reflection on it. Today, the readings issue a warning to us! The Lord is patient and merciful, but at the same time just and righteous. 

The Lord has a predilection for the poor, the oppressed, those who are sinned against, those who are denied of their rights, those who are constrained to live in conditions that they actually do not deserve to suffer. The warning is this: that we take care to see where we actually belong! We are not called merely to judge who is right and who is wrong and give a verdict on persons. We are called to remain on the side of the right, the truth and justice. It is not that we may be oppressors, but even if indirectly by our inaction and silence we allow the oppression of a person or a people go scot-free, we are on the wrong side, on the side of injustice! 

As the famous holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel says, "We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented." Our help is in the name of the Lord, affirms the Responsorial Psalm today. When we are a help to the oppressed, we are acting in the name of the Lord. The Lord raises Lord's judgement, Lord's Hero from where and when, we know not. But surely our help is in the name of the Lord, and let us strive to be always on the side of the Lord. If we fail, the Lord warns us today, "I tell you that it shall be more tolerable on the day of judgement for the land of Sodom than for you."

Standing for the Reign of God

WORD 2day - Monday, 15th week in Ordinary time

July 17, 2023: Exodus 1: 8-14,22; Matthew 10:34 - 11:1

One statement that we often hear in the context of varied problems in the society today, be it the ongoing ukraine issue, or the burning manipur issue or issues similar to those, is the following: "its unfortunate that these problems are prevailing and it can never be justified on whatever ground that people are denied their fundamental right to live in peace, specially the extent to which the inhuman selfishness of a small group of people can cause havoc in the world!" One cannot but think of the prevailing situations of inhumanity, cruel hegemony, political manipulation, socio economic oppression and human right violations all over the world, when we read the first reading today! 

When we find ourselves in front of these suffering brothers and sisters, we cannot close our eyes or switch off our minds. No one can be neutral, in our own way, we have to take our stand - that is what Jesus says in the words - "I have come to bring not peace but sword!" Swords are never sweet... neither for the other nor for the self - because swords come back too! That is the challenge. When we wish to set fire, we need to be prepared to face that fire ourselves. We need to keep our house clean and our attitudes well grounded. 

Our solidarity, our affirmation of justice and peace, our simple gestures of care and concern for the oppressed brothers and sisters, though it may appear to be like a mere glass of water, will be much rewarded in the Reign of God, because however simple, those gestures show that we stand for truth, liberty, peace and justice - in short - for the Reign of God!

THE WORD-HEART ENCOUNTER

Show off, Show in and Show down?

July 16, 2023: 15th Sunday in Ordinary time

Isaiah 55: 10-11; Romans 8: 18-23; Matthew 13: 1-23

The Word as seed and our hearts as the ground - this is an imagery very close to the heart of Christ and it was picked up by the apostles rightly - be it James, or Paul, or Peter, in their apostolic letters. The Word-heart encounters are crucial to determine the quality of our faith - if faith is rightly understood as right living and not only right believing. Of what use is right believing if it does not lead to right living? Is it not like having a full bottle of water in hand, and dying out of thirst?

Isaiah declares the absolute potency of the Word - there is no doubt about it, it yields fruits. The variance of this fact is due to the openness or otherwise of the one whom the Word encounters. Certainly, a logical statutory warning has to be indicated when it comes to interpreting the parable that Jesus narrates today. The warning is to see that the seed has to do with the ground, while the Word has to do with persons, persons with choices, personal freedom and will, desires and dislikes, weaknesses and strengths. Hence the primary responsibility here rests with the person who is in a position to receive the encountering Word, or not. 

Secondly, everything of what is said to happen in a Word-heart encounter happens in the core of silence and interiority - no one can monitor its progress except the person himself or herself and the Word! But there is an expectation, an expectation such as a child birth - as the whole creation that yearns in pangs of child birth, every persons whole hearted positive response to the Word is salvific, not only to the person but to an extent, to the entire creation, the whole humanity! That is why every time a person's sanctity is recognised universally, it adds to the salvific experience of the whole human community. 

Returning to the conditions of encounter between the heart and the Word, we can understand the three unfavourable conditions that Jesus points out in the present human tendencies:

The first is Show Off or Exhibitionist syndrome - all that we wish to make of the encounter is only a make believe show, a manifestation of self where true or false, a putting up of an appearance. It goes well today with the media crazy world - where people are ready anytime to strike a good pose for a selfie or a instagram post, and return to their real, wrecked selves the moment later. There are always available more than one facades for the sake of the display requirements in the culture today. The reaction to the Word or the related experiences too - be it emotional, so-called spiritual, transformational or anything - remains only at the level of displays. Enough to imagine the hundreds of evangelical and charismatic conventions that ends up as any other show biz! What salvific value can it have, other than a psychological assuage?

The second is a Show In or a Receptionist Syndrome - we wish the encounter has its limits, the limits of the drawing rooms of our  lives. Imagine receiving a guest at home, what do we do, we show them in, we make them feel at home in the drawing room, seated warm and cosy with a drink and a snack - beyond that we do not invite them, nor does a decent guest venture beyond that. At times we treat the Word too that way - we allow the Word to encounter our hearts, but just for the moment and once we have had an initial 'good' feeling, we get back to our 'normal' lives. Most of us remain at this stage, we are very enthusiastic about the encounter - the Sunday Masses, the daily Masses, the Bible reading, the Spiritual TV time etc. - at the end of it all, we return without much ado to our so-called daily routine and the encounter with the Word has its parallel existence without crossing roads with the rest of the life. 

The third is a Show down or a Victim Syndrome - we are enthusiastic about the encounter, we allow the Word to enter our lives, but we have our lives already filled with so much cares and worries, so much threats and temptations, so many wants and desires, that the Word is choked, there is no place to enter, there is no space to breathe, there is no scope to settle down. The Word has to very quickly bow out, because we are persons, persons with our own freedom and dignity, will and discernment, that the Word respects and can only wait for us to understand the folly we are into. The worst of it is, after all this, we picture ourselves a victims. The thistles and weeds were permitted, if not planted and nurtured, by us at varied moments of our lives. Whom can we balme for it? We have a show down with the Word... arguing the pros and cons and finally the Word has to leave - not because it cannot bear fruit, but because we do not want it to.

If the encounter with the Word has to be fruitful, first of all we need to treat these experiences as an Encounter - an encounter and not merely some momentary meets or hit-and-runs. An encounter where we spend time, we dialogue and we allow the other to make a difference in our own world. Word wishes to encounter us, and not just swish past us. Every day is an opportunity for us to encounter the Word, how prepared are we to set up that encounter and get a make over of our own selves? 

The Commission, the Challenge and the Assurance

WORD 2day - Saturday, 14th week in Ordinary time

July 15, 2023: Genesis 49:29-33,50:15-26; Matthew 10:24-33

The Lord calls us, commissions us and that involves a Challenge and an Assurance! 

The challenge is to belong to God, come what may. It is not an easy task considering the prevailing atmosphere today. I know of so many youngsters who are so inspiring by the absolute choice that they have made for God and the will of God. People who have had great ambitions and plans, but have just thrown them into the air for the sake of a vision that God inspired. Persons who have had prospects so promising, but have ignored those just because they felt they have been called for a specific mission, a mission in the footsteps of the Master-saviour. Daring individuals who have made choices for which they are being derided, called names and have suffered worst experiences of want and willful deprivation. A challenge! 

When this challenge is taken up, one could find oneself on a tossing sea or a troubled sky, but nothing would disturb the person for he or she has found a ground so firm, a base so strong, a root so deep - the Lord who calls, commissions and walks one through. At the end of all the tribulations, pervades a serenity, a sense of accomplishment, the same sense with which Jesus gasped on the cross, "It is accomplished." That is the tone in which Jacob aka Israel speaks today of his end and what should come after. 

The Lord does not leave us merely with the challenge, he attaches an assurance! The assurance of God's caring presence with us! Pope Francis in the encyclical Lumen Fidei calls this 'the accompanying presence of God' (LF 57). An assurance that arises from the fact that God loves us, that God values us, that God cares for us, and above all, that God counts on us!

Sent forth to Endure...

WORD 2day - Friday, 14th week in Ordinary time

July 14, 2023: Genesis 46:1-7,28-30; Matthew 10:16-23

Enduring till the end is the test of the strength of one's faith. Israel(Jacob) today expresses that great satisfaction in having endured till the end, on seeing Joseph alive..."Now let me die!" - a sense of fulfillment! As later we would hear Simeon exclaiming in the Temple of Jerusalem on seeing the child Jesus, "At last all powerful Master, let your servant go in peace. For, my eyes have seen the salvation you have prepared for the nations!" 

Jesus teaches the same to us, his followers, "the one who endures till the end shall be saved" (Mt 10:22). Endurance that Jesus demands is for two reasons - first, because all the troubles that a follower of Christ faces is for such a noble purpose, a cause so great, that anything can be given up for its sake - the Reign of God on earth. 

Seek first the Reign of God... even if you have to give up your home, your dear ones, your belongings or even your life, for you will be rewarded hundred percent, says the Lord, here on earth and in the eternal life! Secondly, because the mission entrusted to us is so vast and so immense that these troubles can measure no where in comparison to it. He says with a tinge of humour, even if you have to run from one town to the other due to persecutions, "you will not have gone through all the towns of Israel, before the Son of man comes." Such was the determination of the early Christians and the Apostles who led them from the fore. 

To proclaim through our daily lives the Reign of God and if we have to face hard consequences for it, to be prepared to endure it all the way - that is the call for me today.

Sent forth with a Mission

WORD 2day - Thursday, 14th week in Ordinary time

July 13, 2023: Genesis 44:18-21,23-29,45:1-5; Matthew 10:7-15

The theme of yesterday continues today - being sent, and sent to go forth on a mission! Joseph, the beloved son of Jacob (or Israel) is considered the closest 'prefigurement' of Jesus in the Old Testament. Notice in his life the situations that change - from a predilected son to a slave, from a slave to a prisoner, but from a prisoner to the highest of the officials and there, established as the one who would save his own kith and kin from famine! 

Is it not the same with Jesus, as St. Paul describes in his letter to the Philippians (chapter 2): from Son of God to a human being and a slave; from a slave to death and that on the Cross; but from the Cross raised to be the highest of all names to which every one on earth and heaven shall bend their knees; and there, established as Lord he saved us his brothers and sisters and reconciles us to God our Father and Mother.

As Joseph notes in the last verse of the first reading today, "it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you", it was with a mission that Jesus was sent to us and it is with a mission that Jesus sends us today - he says to each of us: "As the father sent me, so I send you"(Jn 20:21). Each of us is sent! 

The mission as we said yesterday, we have to discover in our personal lives and when we do discover we will understand that it is at one and the same time, a privilege and a responsibility, an honour and a challenge. But if we do not manage to discover it, we would have wasted our life, its significance and its purpose!

Sent to go forth

WORD 2day - Wednedsay, 14th week in Ordinary time

July 12, 2023: Genesis 41: 55-57, 42:5-7, 17-24; Matthew 10:1-7

The naming of the Apostles - with a function given to them: to chase the evil spirits and to heal the sick! Apostles are those who are 'sent' (literally too, 'apostolos' in Greek means that); sent in the name of God with a specific mission. 

Joseph of the Old Testament, was an apostle too - sent ahead by God to Egypt in order to provide for God's people at a later time! Providing was yet another important mission of God. So, providing for God's people, liberating them from the ungodly forces and giving them a life in all its fullness - those are the duties of an apostle, on behalf of the Lord who sends him or her. And all these carried out for one purpose to make present the Reign of God amidst the people here and now! 

Jesus had a big following - his disciples; and from them he sends these 'Apostles.' We are among his disciples already by our Baptism and he wants to send each of us with a specific mission. And each of us sent, exactly to where we are - to our homes, to our neighbourhoods, to our parishes, to our societies... to establish the Reign of God, that is, to assure the needs of all, to stand by the neglected and guarantee them their rights, to stand against the ungodly forces, the unjust systems, the corrupt and inhuman dominations, to empower the people towards a peaceful, serene and human existence. 

When Pope Francis calls the Church to "take to the streets of the world" and to "reach the very outskirts of existence", in short to be "the Church that goes forth", he is reminding us our call as 'apostles', and our mission as heralds of the Reign of God. 

Have we made real efforts to understand our call and our mission as apostles, right here and right now?

Encounters

WORD 2day - Monday, 14th week in Ordinary time

July 10, 2023: Genesis 28: 10-22; Matthew 9: 18-26

Encounters with God - the Word presents three of them today; Jacob's encounter with God, the ailing lady and the little child encountering Jesus. Two messages that stand out in the totality of today's events. 

Firstly, any encounter with God rejuvenates. Jacob was given a new vision of life; the lady with the hemorrhage was given a new life; and the little child was given back her life! One cannot remain the same after having encountered God. 

The second message, which is carried specially by the Gospel account, is about the special encounter through TOUCH - It is interesting to note the two accounts of Luke which seem to point to a fact: whether you touch God or God touches you, the fruits are the same! The lady sad and suffering touched Jesus, and Jesus touched the little child dead and gone... the effect was the same - a new lease of life. Touching God or God touching us, they are the same - for they are fundamentally an encounter and "Faith is born of an encounter with the living God who calls us and reveals his love" (Lumen Fidei, 4). 

May be another important feature can be underlined too - that God met Jacob on a ground and while he slept; Jesus encountered the diseased lady on a road and amidst a jostling crowd; Jesus touched the little girl in a room and while she lay dead! It does not matter where we are, or what we are upto, the living God can encounter us anywhere and anytime, provided we are ready and willing to accept and behold the encounter. Behold I stand knocking at the door, says the Lord!

Struggles - aren't they salvific?

WORD 2day - Tuesday, 14th week in Ordinary time

July 11, 2023: Genesis 32: 23-33; Matthew 9: 32-37

It's puzzling! Among a few puzzling details of the Old Testament is the likes of today's account from Jacob's life. The Lord (!?!) wrestled with Jacob, says the reading today - and elsewhere we see a similar account of God trying to kill Moses (Exo 4:24). Whatever may be the exegesis, the first disclaimer here is not to take these lines literally. There is a symbolic or a interpretative meaning to these happenings! 

One thing we can guess here is that these men had something really to struggle with, a struggle of life and death! But they stood firm on the side of the Lord who had called them and after that struggle of life and death, there is something remarkable, a change that is radical, a happening that defines history forever. For, Jacob after that struggle comes to be called Israel, a name that would define the People of God forever. Incidentally, Moses after that struggle comes to establish a new covenant with the Lord in the sign of circumcision - again something that would define the People of the Covenant, ever since. 

Jesus had a similar struggle, constantly there were people who followed him as there were the others who tried their best to demonise him (Mt 9:34). The struggle went on right till the cross - the struggle of life and death, but he stood by the Father who had sent him. And after that struggle, he was not anymore merely Jesus, but Jesus the Christ; there came the event that changed the World for ever, it changed the history not only of the world but of you and me! 

Today we are saved, in his struggle, in his death, in his wounds, in his blood and in his Resurrection! The question to me is - how ready and willing am I for a struggle?

KNOWING GOD

As God reveals...

July 9, 2023: 14th Sunday in Ordinary time

Zechariah 9: 9-10; Romans 8: 9,11-13; Matthew 11: 25-30

Do we know God? That is a very complicated question, isn't it? Anyone, needless to be humble, enough to be realistic, would say, knowing God is not a human task. It is almost impossible. That is why God comes to our aid, with God's grace! It is sheer grace that we get to know God. Yes, it is always a "given"! Only by God's grace, and God's self revelation do we get to know God, despite our inability and our limitedness. This is a grandiose gift, but at the same time a risky terrain. What is the risk?

Being a grace and a supernatural gift, in the process of knowing God, we might sometimes settle for what is a limited understanding of God, if not an erroneous understanding. Attributed to the philosopher Xenophanes is the saying which goes: "if cattle or horses had hands and could draw, then the horses would draw their gods like horses, and cattle like cattle." The danger pointed out here is, if we are not sincerely attentive to God, we might paint God the way we are, the way we think and the way we wish - instead of getting to know who God really is, and what God reveals Godself as. 

This is one challenge that Jesus had during his life time - and God continues to have even now - to make people understand who God really is. People who thought that they knew everything about God, that they were very close to God and closer than anybody else, that they were true authorities on God-talk, actually did not know God. Instead, those who were, and who are, simple and innocent, unsophisticated and humble, find God much closer and much clearer to themselves. That is the way of the Lord and that is why Jesus glorifies the Father today: I bless you Father, Lord of heaven and of earth!

It is imperative to know God, but know God as God reveals, not in the way we wish to imagine God. At times we create our own god, which could be far away from what God truly is, and what God reveals Godself as. Jesus' primay aim within the incarnational design was to reveal God to us and to receive that revelation fully, the Word traces us a way, a passage, an itinerary that Jesus intended to teach us. This itinerary, to know God, can be presented in these three terms:

From power to peace:

I bless you Father, God of heaven and earth... the words of Jesus in the Gospel portrays a fundamental understanding of God - the God of heaven and earth, the God Almighty! But look at this God almighty... God renounced that mightiness, made Godself so vulnerable in the event of incarnation and came to live amidst us - to show us how much God loved us. That is why the Prophet Zechariah, in the first reading speaks of a God who is victorious and triumphant, but humble and riding on a donkey, a God who banishes chariots, horses and bows of war, a God who proclaims peace for the nations! 

God prefers peace to power! God chooses compassion instead of glory, as the psalm says. That is the God we are introduced to, by Jesus the Christ - a God who is compassionate, loving, caring and peace-giving, and not power mongering, competitive, egocentred, self promoting, exploitative and arrogant. If we have to truly know God, we need to move from a power-oriented thinking to a peace-centred mentality. Blessed are the peace makers for they shall be called the children of God. 

From death to life:

There is a constant struggle between the unspiritual and the Spiritual, not just out there in the world, but within us every day. When we feel tempted, angered, tired or anxious, there is this conflict within us - what to choose the easy way of the unspiritual or the long-winded way of the Spiritual. That is a choice between death and life - death, not in the sense of the end of life, but in the sense of it absence. Many choose to die, way long before they are buried, a culture of death that keeps threatening the humanity. 

There is a tendency and a propaganda in the world today, to make everything easy. Why should we think of a consequence that might come after a few decades? Why should we think of remote effects on persons whom we may or may not know? Why worry about a so-called unknown future, while we have the concrete presence right in our hands? These are the modes of thinking propagated by the culture of death. Are we going to give into these? If we wish really to know God, we would dare choose life; we would choose to move from death to life! But that is not as easily done as said. With all the mindblowing campaigns around, it could be absolutely tiresome. And that is why the next passage that Jesus suggests...

From fatigue to freedom:

When we find it tiresome to choose life, when we find it hard to choose peace, when we find it exhausting to know and understand God, Jesus says: come to me, and I shall give you rest! learn from me, for I am meek and humble. It is in this meekness and humility, that you will find God and Godliness, for God has chosen the meek and the humble! Those who pride in power and authoritarianism, those who gloat in glory and pomp, those who crave for luxury and splendour, unfortunately are far from God, far from knowing God. And that is a very serious warning that Jesus gives us!

What we need to have is the rest, the calm, the serenity, the peace, the freedom that the Lord alone can give! Not in a frenetic search or an anxious scampering that we would know or discover God, because it is God who reveals... it is in the calmness and stillness that we can know God. Isn't that the meaning of what the psalm 46 tells us - be still and know that I am God! Come to me, I will give you rest, and learn from my meekness who God is - that is the invitation of Christ today. To know God not though our fatigue, but in freedom. It might sound logical to say, as soon as I know God, I will surrender myself to God. But the truth is other way around, when we surrender ourselves in freedom to God, we begin to know God. 

It is only in our choice for a life giving lifestyle, our preference for peace and our free submission to God, we shall know God, know God as God reveals.