Work - the likeness of Divinity in humanity

THE WORD AND THE FEAST

May day 2026: Celebrating St. Joseph the Worker

May day, for a Christian holds much more than mere glorification of work. This is because of the very nature of God that sanctifies this essential aspect of human existence. The first reading underlines the fact that the work of creation is an essential image of God and goes on to imply that right from the origins, it has formed a characteristic part of humanity, which holds the likeness and image of God.

St. Joseph pictured as a worker, the working hand and the leader of the Holy Family, is not merely an imagination but a practical possibility and the Church today capitalises on this possibility to draw inspiration from a saint who reminds us of this essential element of our human existence and the way to go about it with serenity and simplicity.

Work is a participation in the Creative initiative of God. Work can never be a slavery; it can never be carried out solely for an external gain or out of external pressure. Work when it is done merely for the material returns, it becomes a commodity and that is where exploitation and alienation begins. 

Every person has the right to work and the duty to do his or her part in the upkeep of our common home, not in damaging it to ruin. How lovely it would be when every person does what he or she can to make this world a better place..that would be paradise, the garden of Eden, the Reign of God here and now.

Today, let us promise to respect the dignity of labour and look at our opportunity to contribute through work as a personal participation in the image and likeness of God and in God's creative mission.

Called to be messengers

WORD 2day: Thursday, 4th week in Easter time

April 30, 2026 - Acts 13:13-25; John 13:16-20

St. Paul makes a long list of messengers running right upto John the Baptist; Jesus in the Gospel, speaks of sending his own apostles as messengers. 

Messengers are people of God, people of the Message, people who carry what the Lord wants God's people to know, persons who share with the world what the Lord wants to. 

The Message, is the core of our faith. It has been so, it is so and it will always be so! They call it the Kerygma! The message was announced through ages through prophets and persons of God (cf. Heb 1:1). 

At a point in history, the Message became the Messenger... that was the crucial phase of history when the Message, the Sender, the Messenger (or the Medium) all came together in one sacred and mysterious union - in the person of Jesus Christ, the Incarnate Word. Wow! What a wonderful experience, we are speaking of here! 

After this crucial phase of the identification of the Message with the Messenger, in Christ the Message of the loving Father made Messenger,  we see that, what once was done by a select few among the people, has been handed over to the entire people of God and every child of God. This is indeed the call of every Christ-ian. The wonderful experience now becomes a duty given to us. 

We are His messengers and we are called primarily to live the message and in and through that, announce the Message to the World. Now the question is - am I aware of the Message? 

Do I really know the Message? Am I convinced that I am a messenger? Do I love the Message as much and in order that I may live that message?

Set apart...to become!

WORD 2day: Wednesday, 4th week in Easter time

April 29, 2026 - Acts 12:24 - 13:5; John 12: 44-50

The Word grew and spread, today’s readings tell us. While the Acts of the Apostles speak of one type of spreading, the Gospel seems to insist on another. As apostles, we cannot keep the Word all to ourselves; we would not be "apostles" if we did. We are obliged to take it to the whole world. We have an urgent calling to bring the Word to the entire world and spread it to those who are ready and eager to hear it! 

The second type that Jesus insists upon is interior spreading. The Word I have received, the Word I bring to others, cannot be something foreign to me. First and foremost, I must ensure the spread of that Word within myself. May I listen to, understand, love, and live this Word within me even before I intend to bring it to others. Letting the Word spread throughout my entire being, transforming me into that Word itself, is the simplest way to spread the Word. 

When I succeed in letting the Word spread within me—in my heart, my mind, my body, and my entire spirit—I will become the living Word, just as Christ was the Word incarnate! In that way, all I would need to do is be there, to simply be. 

Therefore, the calling we have is not only to listen to and proclaim the Word, but to understand that we are set apart, just as Paul and Barnabas were... set apart, to become the Word, to become the message, to become the Gospel.

To be called Christians

WORD 2day: Tuesday, 4th week in Easter time

April 28, 2026: Acts 11:19-26; John 10:22-30

It was in Antioch that the disciples were first called Christians, evidences the first reading today. They needed a name, a different name to refer to the people of the new way of life! They were initially called the people of the Way... it was obvious, because Jesus had declared "I am the way, the truth and the light!" But however it was too abstract. They needed something concrete to refer themselves to. And looking for one, they narrowed down on that with a reference to a person, to someone central to their lives and convictions, the One who inspired this way of life: Christ himself.

It takes time to be called a Christian, to be identified with the name of the Nazarene who made a crucial difference in and through his life. Even today, it is the same: it takes time to be identified a Christian: our lifestyle, our attitudes, our priorities, our relationships and our loving ways should merit the name. There is another subtle but important detail: We have to be called Christians, we cannot be calling ourselves that!

Yes, we have to be called Christians... no use claiming ourselves that name, priding in it or tagging ourselves with it. We have to be called... which means, we have to live. Seeing our lives, seeing our convictions, seeing the difference we make, seeing the ideals we hold on to, seeing the formidable challenges we pose to humanity and the society around, people should be inspired to call us 'Christians'... we should be called Christians.

As Jesus says in the Gospel today, 'the Father and I are one', so should we be able to say: Christ and I are one. What a model we have in St.Paul who declared, "it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me!" (Gal 2:20). When that happens, we could be called Christians, too!

The real birth of the Church

WORD 2day: Monday, 4th week in Easter time

April 27, 2026 - Acts 11: 1-18; John 10: 11-18

We have been seeing throughout last week, that people listened to the Word, they were touched by it and they joined the disciples... and they became a church. However, the real birth of the Church was only when the so-called Gentiles listened and accepted the Word... until then it was seen just as a rebellion within a group of closed people!

St. Paul would declare in his letter to the Galatians, "there is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male or female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus" (Gal 3:28). It is when the whole people are made heirs to the promise made to Abraham, it is only when every one was made into one fold, under One Shepherd, Christ Jesus - that the real Church was born.

The real spirit of Resurrection is opening up! Yes, it is opening up the closed tomb, opening up the closed minds, opening up the dampened faith, opening up the hopeless spirits, opening up the thoughtless ritualistic minds, opening up the hypocritical prejudiced mindsets, opening up the closed mentalities, opening up the secured borders of kinship to the fellowship of the Reign of God, opening up the world to a whole new Spirit: behold I make something new, a new heaven and a new earth!

The challenge is alive until today, to remain one flock, one fold, one people - which means to stay clear of all discrimination within the Church, to choose not to conform to the standards of the world but to be renewed in the Spirit of the Lord and to put on the mind of Christ, the Risen Christ. Constantly, on a daily basis, we are invited and challenged to renew our faithfulness to the One Shepherd and be transformed more and more into worthy members of the Shepherd's flock.

A "Go" that binds...

THE WORD AND THE SAINT

April 25, 2026: Celebrating Mark, the Evangelist

1 Peter 5:5-14; Mark 16:15-20

We celebrate today, a young saint from the Biblical times - Mark, the evangelist.

Mark comes out as a dedicated young man convinced of his call and enduring in his response. The apostles and disciples were extremely different from each other in their calibre and character. But what bound them together was the 'Go' that they received from the Lord. It was the commission from the Master that kept them going. We see generations of them following each other in responding whole heartedly to the project entrusted.

To Go, meant to go to the unknown lands, to meet unknown people, to get into unknown territories, to get out of one's comfort zones. This is exactly what the Holy Father keeps insisting - a Church that is on its move, a Church what has hearkened to the command of its Head, a Church that is continuously trying to make newer sense of this world and of living life to the full.

Mark becomes the representative of the generation that immediately followed the 12, and Mark leaves indelible trails by his commitment and dedication. He was the first one to record a written account as a Gospel, say the researchers. And he did this mostly from the teachings and sermons of Peter, the elder brother among the apostles.

The call is to the young today: can you dedicate yourself to the commission from the Lord... to Go!

Becoming one with Christ

WORD 2day: Friday, 3rd week in Easter

April 24, 2026 - Acts 9:1-20; John 6: 52-59

When Jesus said he would give his flesh to eat, the people objected calling it impossible. When Paul said he would preach Christ to the end of the world, people again objected calling it unbelievable. That is how the world is... you keep doing all the good you intend to. 

Saul, who became Paul, knew what it meant to become one flesh with Christ. He knew he could not remain the same... he was called to be a new creation. That new creation, was the imitation of Christ. He was convinced that he was called to become, not merely an apostle of Christ, but one with Christ! He knew the passion that filled Christ's heart and understood the mission that occupied his mind. That is how he grows to be one flesh with Christ -  he felt, thought, and acted, like Christ. He was able to even say, it is no longer i, it is Christ who lives in me!

When Jesus offers us his flesh, this is exactly what he intends for us - to transform with world into the Reign of God, we need to be transformed into people of the Reign and this can happen only with our total internal transformation into Christ... becoming one with, or becoming, Christ. 

The invitation is clear: to become like Christ, to live like Christ, to become one flesh with Christ. We are given all the opportunities to progress on this call but the challenge is that we take this task to heart. May the body we eat and the blood we consume make us more and more one with Him.

Drawn by your Daddy!

WORD 2day: Thursday, 3rd week in Easter time

April 23, 2026 - Acts 8: 26-40; John 6: 44-51

The Word taken together today have a wonderful message for us... if we are Christians, it is not by chance; it is by choice... not ours, but the Lord's. You did not choose me, I chose you, says the Lord. The Lord has chosen each of us by name and if only we are aware of it and convinced of it, we shall see an immense difference in the quality of our daily living.

We have come to know our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, drawn by God our Father and Mother in heaven! It is the Lord who has willed to draw us to Godself. Our 'yes' at Baptism and a reassertion of it at Confirmation are our response to this initiative of God. The point of discussion is, whether we are faithful to the yes all our life, at every moment of our daily life.

Especially at moments when we see we are surrounded by tests and trials, sickness and death, fear and threats, oppressions and corruption, decadence and exploitation, anxiety and helplessness, boredom and hopelessness... we are called to remember that we are lovingly drawn by the Almighty, that we are being guided by the Lord who has drawn us all in name of God. Do our lives today manifest that difference, making the world understand the power we possess in our call?

But that difference does not come just in an instant. It is a long journey, in itself. The Bread of life and the Blood of the new and everlasting covenant, are the nourishment in this journey. All through the journey the Lord accompanies us and instructs us... and if we really listen, we will soon realise how special we are, and how we are lovingly drawn by our daddy!

Testimonies of true joy!

WORD 2day: Wednesday, 3rd week in Easter time

April 22, 2026: Acts 8:1b-8; John 6: 35-40

There was great joy in the city. In spite of having to desert their hometowns and go into diaspora, the community of believers bring joy wherever they go. Earlier we read, that the apostles where flogged for having preached Christ and when they left, they went with joy because they were able to suffer for Christ. How was it possible for them! It was because, they carried the Risen Lord in their hearts.

The resurrection experience filled the apostles, the disciples and all the believers with joy, with a joy that could not be replaced by anything else under the sun. The words "Nothing can separate us from the love of Christ" (Rom 8:35) was a concrete life experience of the early Christians. The source of this experience is the total and loving self giving of the Lord.

Jesus was so filled with his Father that in his total self-giving he rejoiced and brought joy to all around him and to the entire humanity. Imitating their Lord and Saviour, the first Christians were filled with Christ, and in their self-giving to each other and to God, they brought true joy and eternal hope to each other. We are today called to accept the challenge of living our Christian vocation, even in moments of crisis and anxiety in our life experiences, emanating divine joy, in our joyful and loving self-giving.

How joyful is our testimony as Christians, today?

The height of Discipleship

WORD 2day: Tuesday, 3rd week in Easter time

April 21, 2026: Acts 7:51-8:1a; John 6:30-35

We are given the picture of the martyrdom of Stephen... the height of discipleship, giving one's life up for the sake of Truth. The real courage that is exhibited in the passage of today, where Stephen dares to say what he saw and heard, or what he was given to see and hear.

The Gospel presents the same courage manifested by Jesus, challenging the Scribes and the Pharisees and offering himself as the bread of life; infact, Stephen is presented to us as an ideal disciple who did what Jesus did, who lived the way Jesus lived and who died the exact way Jesus died. The cue is the prayer: "Into your hands I commend my spirit". While Jesus makes that prayer to the Father, Stephen makes it to Jesus: "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit". This, incidentally, is the first prayer that we see, addressed to Jesus, in history.

The height of discipleship consists in the courage to imitate the master in every little detail...in our life, our prayer, our convictions and our priorities. What is our mental disposition in front of crises in our lives?

A disposition of fright would right away disqualify us from being convinced disciples. A disposition of rash and ruthless denial of reality and insensitive neglect of the consequences of the surrounding crisis, again is a disqualifier for a disciple of Christ. Instead, sensitivity to the truth, faith to see the presence of God even amidst the confusion that could surround, the readiness to state the facts and stand for truth, the compassion to look not only at our need and our boredom but at the needs and anxieties of everyone around us, and finally the trust in entrusting ourselves and the entire world to the Will of God - these would be true signs and the height of our discipleship always.

How close are we in our lifestyle to Jesus, our Lord and Master?