Made children of light and of life in the Son!

Conversion – from darkness to light

THE WORD IN LENT 2026 – WEDNESDAY FOURTH WEEK

March 18 – Isaiah 49: 8-15; John 5: 17-30

Conversion as the journey from darkness to light, cannot be taken up as a task all by ourselves, and we know that well. We are made capable of this journey by God, by God’s promises, by God’s faithfulness. We are formed by the Lord, we are made into God’s people, we are made the covenant of God – that is, we are made children of light by the Lord, says Isaiah in the first reading.

Jesus reiterates that in the Gospel, reminding us that we are made children, in the Son - in the Son who has been sent to us, sent for us, as the fulfilment of the covenant of love that God has made with us. Jesus makes us understand that we are made children of life, of eternal life by the faith we profess in Christ, the One who has been sent for our salvation.

The Word today explains to us what it means to have been made children of light and of life… it means the certainty of love, guarantee of life and fearlessness of light.

Isaiah outlines the glory of the day of salvation – when the Lord will restore the land, liberate the prisoners and do away with the darkness. He presents it in terms of the certainty of God’s love, the covenant of love that has no end. “I will never forget you” – those are truly strong words indeed, from the Lord. God remains faithful to that promise of love, by sending God’s own Son to be our salvation.

Jesus, the fulfilment of the covenant, offers us the guarantee of eternal life, provided we unite ourselves with him and in him. This is essentially the choice to make that journey from darkness to light… the choice cannot but be ours, although it is the Lord who enables us in this task. Jesus manifests his Sonship, the Sonship in which we are made children of God. This he does fearlessly, because he has the light of the will of God, and he is the light that leads us to eternal life. The light makes us fearless, fearless of anything in the world that can threaten us, fearless of anything around us that can lead us astray, fearless of anything that vies to destroy us! As long as we are determined to do the will of the One who calls us and sends us, we shall be in the light, and we shall be fearless… because we are made children in the Son.

To be enlivened by the life-giving Water!

Conversion – from darkness to light

THE WORD IN LENT 2026 – TUESDAY FOURTH WEEK

March 17 – Ezekiel 47: 1-9, 12; John 5: 1-3, 5-16

Conversion, is the internal journey from darkness to light – that is the theme the Word continues to reiterate this week! We know what it takes to undertake this journey from the obscurities of our daily life towards the light that leads us to eternity. Although we know what it takes, we are not always in a position to undertake that journey. Our fears, failures, discouragements, temptations, doubts and compromises, prevent us from pulling ourselves up and moving towards that light that beckons us.

We have a very powerful example of this in the man whom we encounter in the Gospel passage today – ill for 38 years, the cleansing water right in front of his eyes, along with his inability to get to it… we are presented with an existential problem of knowing and choosing! 

However, the Lord deconstructs that vision… the incredible and unlimited mercy of God says – what is there if you are unable to reach the healing waters, the life-giving Water is right there reaching out to you! That is the Gospel event today – Jesus, the life-giving water stands right in front of him asking, do you want to be well again? What an opportunity! All that the man manages to do is only lament that he is not able to go the waters, so unaware of who it is that stands looking over him! How many times this happens to us – when the Life-giving springs offer to renew us totally and give us a new and transformed life, we are out there asking for something so insignificant vis-à-vis the eternity.

The first reading pictures to us this in a more picturesque manner… the life-giving waters that flow from the sanctuary generating life wherever it flows, symbolising Christ who comes forth from the Father creating a new earth and new heavens as we reflected yesterday. Jesus reaches out to us and wants to enliven us in every way possible. All that we need to do is recognise that presence, allow the waters to flood into our lives and make us whole again.

The question is – are we ready to say, “Yes Lord, I wish to come alive again; wash me clean and enliven my entire self!” If we say so, we are choosing the light and leaving the darkness; we are encountering the life-giving water and being born anew! That is true conversion.

To behold the new heavens and a new earth!

Conversion – from darkness to light

THE WORD IN LENT 2026 – MONDAY FOURTH WEEK

March 16 – Isaiah 65: 17–21; John 4: 43-54

Lent as a time of Conversion, is the underlying theme during this week which invites us to rejoice. Isaiah gives us a reason to rejoice in the first reading today: because the Lord rejoices in us and the Lord wants us to rejoice in what God is creating for us – the new heavens and a new earth! That is the promise of the Lord. But every time we hear such a promise, we begin to suspect it. That is because, we do not believe.

The Word raises a very pertinent question today – do we believe when we see miracles? or we begin to see miracles when we believe? The new heavens and the new earth – the Lord deigns to create, but it remains on our part to behold it. And it happens on a daily basis… the Lord keeps offering us moments, experiences and circumstances to behold the new heavens and the new earth.

The experience of conversion is beholding this gift that God offers. To look at what God has willed into existence for us, including us. It takes to look at what God continues to offer us in God’s holy will. All these can happen only if we have enough light to behold! I am the light – Jesus declared in the Gospel we reflected upon yesterday! The question remains – Yes, Jesus has declared, but how ready am I to receive that light, to behold that light?

Jesus in the Gospel points to us how unprepared we are and how obstinate we are in refusing to see, in refusing to behold what the Lord is doing for us. There could be two major reasons for it, or three.

Firstly, our obstinacy not to see… because we want every thing the way we want, anything different we are not ready to see. That is the merit of that official who approaches Jesus – he wanted Jesus to come to his house, but Jesus told him to go and he will see the miracle… he did not insist, he turned and went, went towards the miracle and he beheld it!

The second reason is our impatience… we want things when we want it, we cannot wait for God’s own time! We want it then and there, and when it does not happen we start looking for other channels…as we surf on a TV or by now on our mobiles…and we miss the real miracles prepared for us… we are not there to behold them.

And a third reason, is the most disturbing and we need to avoid: that we are already blind, blind because we are overpowered by evil and negativity. God forbid! May this not be so in our case! Let us take to heart our call to conversion: the call from darkness to light, to behold the new heavens and a new earth.

CONVERSION… FROM DARKNESS TO LIGHT!

Chosen in our nothingness; led through the darkness; towards the light of eternity!

THE WORD IN LENT – LAETARE SUNDAY 2026

March 15 – 1 Samuel 16:1,6-7,10-13; Ephesians 5: 8-14; John 9: 1-41

Listening and Fasting: Lent as a time for conversion... we have reached the fourth Sunday of the season – the Laetare Sunday – Rejoice, is the call! The first two weeks we had reflected on the term “Listening” and the last week we reflected on the term, “Fasting”, and now we turn to the term “Conversion”! That is the call with which we began the lent – repent, convert, come back to the Lord. Beginning today these last two weeks before the Holy Week, the Word would draw our attention to this experience – the experience of conversion. We begin with reflecting this Sunday how conversion is a blessed journey from darkness to light.

We are capable of this journey from darkness to light, because we are chosen. But let us remember, as the Word reminds us today, we are chosen in our nothingness! The first reading presents us this message with such simplicity, in the figure of David the shepherd boy who was chosen to be the King of Israel, a choice that looked weird and dumb to many, including Samuel the prophet who was an instrument in that choice. It was a strange choice, because it was a choice of nothing, it was a choice that seemed so bleak as a future…but we know it did work, because it was God’s choice.

We are chosen, that does not say that we merit to be chosen; it is not because we have what it takes to make that choice go right, but merely because God’s love has chosen us. It is indeed a reason to rejoice. It is not a rejoicing in despite of others, but a rejoicing in recognition of our nothingness, which is so precious in the eyes of the Lord…Rejoice o Jerusalem, rejoice my people, rejoice my sons and daughters, the Lord invites. You were darkness once, but now you are light in the Lord; be like children of light – the reminder from Paul is a stark reminder of the fact that we have just reflected on.

The Lord does not just choose us and leave us to our sorts… the Lord leads us on. Like the shepherd leads the sheep, so does the Lord lead us on – this is brought out by two symbols that stand out in the Word today: David the shepherd boy who was chosen to shepherd the people of God, and the experience of the Lord as my shepherd. This shepherd leads us on, not merely in times of sunshine and glory, but in specially in times of obscurity and darkness. More specifically, the Divine Shepherd leads us through the darkness! None of us can escape the darkness that surrounds us; the presence of God does not guarantee us that there won’t be darkness, but that when there is darkness, we would not be alone; we would not need to fear or panic. Because the Lord leads us right through that darkness, the valley of death, the depths of darkness.

We have enough and more of this experience of darkness in daily life – the problems and challenges we face, the misgivings at home and the lack of understanding, the crises at work and tussles with persons, the temptations that assail us and the troubles we have to face, the evil that threatens us and sometimes takes over our own minds and choices… all these darknesses exist close around us. But the message is – do not fear, Christ will shine on us… we shall rise and shine with the Lord. Jesus us telling is today, do not worry – go and wash in the mercy of God… there is the great sacrament of Penance waiting for us, just for our taking. Go, wash and be light, invites the Lord, and leads us right through the darkness that wants to bind us.

Howsoever the darkness tries, it cannot overpower us, unless we allow it to. The reason is, we have the Shepherd by our side who leads us towards the light, the light of eternity! Jesus today approaches us and says the darkness that seems to be around us, is no object of fear – it will be turned into an instrument to give glory to God, when the Lord leads us to light. When we walk out of that darkness and become the light that the Lord wants us to, the world will not recognise us – just as the people who had seen that blind man in the Gospel could no longer recognise him. He was healed, he changed, and he soon came to see, not just see but see the Lord and believe in the Lord. While the Jews… they remained blind, blind to the Lord who was right there amidst them working wonders; they chose to remain blind, they chose not to walk towards the light.

Once again let us turn to that man who received sight, who became light – it meant that he had to testify for the Lord, stand up and proclaim the Good News that he had received. He brought problems to himself, but he had already moved from darkness to light; nothing could blind him anymore. That is our call too; and that is the conversion we are called to… to walk from darkness to light, the light of eternity. From doubts and despair, from discouragements and disgruntles, from obstinacy and obscurity, we are called to walk into the light. When we do that, we shall experience the One who declares, “as long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world” and invites us to become the light of the world.

It is good to ask ourselves today, if we would dare to say as that man in the Gospel – I know I was blind, and now I can see… Lord, I believe!

Fullness: love not sacrifice!

Fasting – from lack to fullness

THE WORD IN LENT 2026 – SATURDAY THIRD WEEK

March 14 – Hosea 5:15 – 6:6; Luke 18: 9-14

From lack to fullness – this week’s inspiration towards fullness, leads to the summit of such reflections: what I want is love not sacrifice. In fact, the whole discourse on fasting or any other “sacrifice” that is thought of as Lenten practice is brought into critical question in this teaching.

Sacrifices that we propose to undertake lose their real sense, if we fail to arrive at the real objective to which they have to bring us. For instance, if I am not able to relate normally on an ordinary basis with my brother or sister, if I am unable to respect someone with whom I share my daily moments of life, if I am not ready to see someone without tending to judge him or her even before getting to know the person truly…what would a great act of penitence mean or how would a big sacrifice I decide to make really matter? This is the wisdom of the Word today.

The Lord seems to say, the only sacrifice that the Lord considers worthy is the sacrifice of love – a sacrifice, an action that comes out of love! Whether an act or a decision comes out of love or not, only each one can say. This is so because there are so many opportunities of faking love, masking our selfishness, hiding out judgements, playing between the real and the good image of ourselves etc., hence truth alone can set us free, ready to receive what the Lord wants to communicate.

The Lord knows our hearts, our intentions. Even the best of our acts or practices can become worthless in the eyes of the Lord when they are not authentic and sincere. We know it, each one of us; and God knows it, the Spirit who penetrates our mind and our spirits.

At times we claim that we are not able do much in a situation around which does not help… but the question is – is this claim authentic, or is it an escapism or conformity! The point is, a true image of comes through whatever we do or not do… it might take time for others to notice, but before God everything is bright as the dawn… and the Lord invites us to set aside our seeking for public respect or professional image, and work on the inner image, the core of our selves – that is what truly matters to God, and that is what fullness is all about: love, more than sacrifice.

Fullness – towards God fully!

Fasting – from lack to fullness

THE WORD IN LENT 2026 – FRIDAY THIRD WEEK

March 13 – Hosea 14: 2-10; Mark 12: 28-34

Fasting is a movement from lack to fullness – just yesterday we reflected that at times because of some justified tendencies, instead of moving from lack to fullness, we seem to be retracting from fullness to lack, on a tragic retro march! And this is why the Word points to us the most popular of these retro marches – instead of turning to God in everything, we turn to everything that is created by God, an unfortunate inversion of things. Instead of moving from the creation towards the Creator, we forget the Creator and get lost in the creation and the creatures!    

Come back to the Lord your God, calls out Hosea in the first reading today. The Gospel too instructs us in unequivocal terms – you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. That singlemindedness alone can save us from losing our way, going the wrong way and leading the others in the way to perdition. Only then shall we grow closer to the Reign of God.

Fasting as a Lenten measure, has to lead us from lack to fullness! There can be at least two real dangers in this prescribed motion – that we get stuck to the creations or the creatures, given to us by God; or we look forward to what God can give us and therefore we tend to feign recognition of God. This is the danger of the retro march, once again pictured for us in the Word today.

The question left to us is clear – where is our focus: on God or what God can give or what God has given? Let us take a serious moment of silence before we come up with any response to that question… that it be true and profound, not confused or compromised. Giving the right place to God and never replacing that choice with anything else, come what may – that is the life we are called towards. The symbol is clear and loud – the way to the Reign of God: how close are we or how far are we? Who can answer that question, except each one for oneself!

The Fasting, or the Lenten practices, that we observe or any spiritual practice for that matter has to take us closer to God, not stop with our personal satisfaction, popular opinions or conformity to traditions. Towards fullness is moving toward God fully.

 

 

 

Towards fullness or on a Retro march?

Fasting – from lack to fullness

THE WORD IN LENT 2026 – THURSDAY THIRD WEEK

March 12 – Jeremiah 7: 23-28; Luke 11: 14-23

From lack to fullness – that is the journey defined for us which we are discussing. The past few days have been inviting us to think about humility, about contrite heart and lowly spirit in front of the Almighty Absolute Mercy that God is. But if we look at the human tendency of the day (I know I am generalising it too much), we see an arrogance, a pride, a hardheartedness that denies God and anything to do with God…at times because of this tendency, instead of it being from lack to fullness, we seem to be moving from fullness to lack, a tragic retro march!   

Reflecting on this Jeremiah speaks to us of “turning the backs”, of stubbornness, failing to listen, and so on… he says about the people of his time, which holds so good for our times – sincerity is no more, it has vanished from their mouths. We find this prominent in very many settings today! There is the retro-march tendency that can be noticed in many facets of human society: from families to individualism, from faith to ruthlessness, from integrity to arbitrariness… it is indeed a growingly tragic phenomenon!

The world does not stop with this… it continues to spread that tendency by maligning even the good, the gentle, the simple, the God-fearing ones… this is what happened to Jesus. He was accused of being under the influence of the evil one, because he was not falling in line with the schemes of the arrogant world.

Let us look at the tendencies of the world – the rising number of divorces, the cases of infidelities justified, the lack of respect for persons, hyper dependence on things and pleasures, investing on fleeting joys and false grounds – aren’t these really retro marches, considering the fact of how the Lord has created us in God’s own image, in the image of fullness, in the image of glory, in the image of all-encompassing love?

The message is a simple and clear warning – beware of your steps! Are you really moving from lack to fullness or retro marching from fullness to lack and incompleteness? Fasting is a choice for God…and not being with God is being against God!

 

 

Slavery to law or Fulfilment in obedience?

Fasting – from lack to fullness

THE WORD IN LENT 2026 – WEDNESDAY THIRD WEEK

March 11 – Deuteronomy 4: 1,5-9; Matthew 5: 17-19

From lack to fullness – Reflecting on fasting this week, the discussion on laws and customs comes in very significantly: “take notice of the laws and customs that I teach you today and observe them, that you may have life” says the first reading from Deuteronomy. Obedience is a very strong perspective, inevitable when speaking of faith. It is in obedience that one expresses his or her deep faith. 

However some teachings Jesus and some of his practices did bring into question the concept of faithfulness to the law or the customs… be it his questioning of the strict rules of sabbath, be it his interactions with the so-called sinners and publicans, or be it his hailing of the Samaritans. Hence he had to make it explicitly clear to them: I have come not to abolish the Law but to complete it, bring it to its fullness… in fact even this is a movement from lack to fullness. 

Jesus was not all out on destroying the law or deconstructing the customs, he was merely questioning the annoying interpretation of the law in terms of its letter and the senseless practice of the customs without really coming into grips with the core purposes for which there were instituted in the first place. Not eating, abstaining from, practices of piety and works of charity – all of them, even on our part, if they are done without purpose or mindless of their implications, we are not really keeping up the law; we are in fact killing it! 

Whenever the book of Deuteronomy speaks of the choice between life and death, obviously, it speaks in terms of laws and morals, customs and traditions, commandments and precepts. It was so prominent a vision that it was beginning to lead the people to slavery, because they were observing the law but mindless of its objectives and purposes.  

Obedience and the spirit of it, is the sole remedy we find proposed by Jesus in his words and his life – Food, for me, is to do the will of the One who has sent me… obedience of Christ, the messianic Sonship which dares to give of itself totally for the salvific plan of God. Lent, as a set of ardent practices, has to lead us to this: a sense of fulfilment in obedience!

Heart of stone or heart of flesh?

Fasting – from lack to fullness

THE WORD IN LENT 2026 – TUESDAY THIRD WEEK

March 10 – Daniel 3: 25, 34-43; Matthew 18: 21-35

From lack to fullness – that is the project of our reflection for this week. And the Word yesterday invited us to look at the close connection between this fullness and humility… the movement towards fullness is essentially a movement from hardheartedness to humility, we reflected. Today, we have the Word indicating to us a formidable sign of this humility – a contrite heart, a broken spirit… which is diametrically opposed to hardheartedness; a heart of stone that has to be replaced with the heart of flesh.

The first element of this sign is the readiness to recognise our imperfections. At times we find it so had to say that we can be imperfect – we either think whatever we do is right or we are convinced that what we feel is right is absolutely right for everyone. This not only leads to an arbitrariness but also to a haughtiness that makes me consider everyone else subject to my judgement.

A second element of this sign is the admission of our imperfections. Even when we recognise a glitch within us, we might sometimes try so hard to hide it or cover it up that we end up reinforcing it and making it stronger than before and more harmful that earlier. Only a contrite heart will enable me to admit my mistake and ask for pardon, admit my imperfection and look for ways to grow up, admit my folly and make me submit myself to the graciousness of the other and that of the Other.

The third essential element of this sign is, as a just follow up of admitting my imperfection, permitting the imperfection of the other. A sincerely contrite heart will certainly recognise the contrition of the other. An honestly broken spirit will readily sense the brokenness of the other. An authentically humble person will respect with great regard a person who seeks forgiveness. This is the message that Jesus wants us to behold from the parable he narrates today – that we become persons who measure up to the forgiveness and compassion we have received from the merciful Lord, by being ourselves merciful towards the others.

Yesterday we reflected on the fact that humility alone can help us understand the reality of how we keep ourselves away from the absolute mercy of God, through our hearts of stones… when we allow this heart of stone to be replaced by a heart of compassion, we move definitively from lack to fullness.

 

 

 

From hardheartedness to humility!

Fasting – from lack to fullness

THE WORD IN LENT 2026 – MONDAY THIRD WEEK

March 09 – 2 Kings 5: 1-15,18-20; Luke 4: 24-30

Fasting is a spiritual exercise that should enable us move from lack to fullness. The danger at times is that our spiritual practices make us either self-righteous spiritual recluses or self-trumpeting identity seekers! This is the sad fact that Jesus wants us to be aware of. We are reminded here to go back to those first three days of this season of lent, when the Word instructed us how our prayer, fasting and charity should be during lent, and what they should lead us towards.

Holy father when he speaks about fasting in his Lenten message of this year, he says “in order to practice fasting in accordance with its evangelical character and avoid the temptation that leads to pride, it must be lived in faith and humility.” There is, therefore, a very close affinity between spiritual practices and humility. The Word today brings out this message in a very concrete event narrated in the first reading and interpretatively referred to by Jesus in the Gospel – it is about Naaman.

Naaman in infuriated – not because Elijah refused to cure him, because he did not; not because Elijah maltreated him or called him names, because that never happened; not because Elijah asked for exorbitant remuneration to carry out the miracle of healing, because that was never a concern for Elijah. Naaman was angry because his ego was offended. He was not disrespected but he ‘felt’ insulted. He was not maltreated but he “felt” he was despised. He felt so, because his heart was hardened with pride and self-glory. His ego of a minister in the courts of the king was so big that he looked at the way Elijah treated him was belittling.

Elijah was clear about his stand – that he was not curing Naaman but the God of Israel was; that he would not want to have anything to do with the great political guest who has come but wanted his king not to despair on account of anyone. Elijah was acting on God’s behalf… and before God Naaman, justifiably, cannot hold on to his haughtiness; but his heart was hardened not to see the truth. Fortunately, a little bit of humility, put into his heart by his servants, brings him to healing, to wholeness, to salvation!

Fasting has to bring us to see the truth, to be grounded – that is to be humble. Humility alone can help us understand the reality of how we keep ourselves away from the healing grace of God, the love and compassion of God that makes us whole. When we move from hardheartedness to humility, we move gradually from lack to fullness.