Just a bit of faith

WORD 2day: Saturday, 18th week in Ordinary time

August 8, 2026: Habakkuk 1:12 - 2:4; Matthew 17:14-20

Righteous shall live by their faith! It is a famous verse, oft repeated, almost a bumper sticker material. But what is the meaning of it... does it mean, that all those who say they have faith are righteous? or that those who live are all righteous, those who escape tragedies are all righteous, while others are not? What do we really mean when we repeat that verse over and over again? It will be clear only when we understand what we mean by those two words: faith and righteousness!

Righteousness...in simple words it is living the right life...doing the right thing! But, is that all? What is the right thing in the eyes of the Lord? How do we know it? It is simply whatever is the most loving thing to do at a point of time, that is right in the eyes of the Lord (love understood in the proper sense of the term, not some emotional feeling). So doing the right thing in the eyes of the Lord...not for the returns, not for the privileges but for its own sake. Being right for the sake of being right, that is being right in the eyes of the Lord.

Faith... if we have it we have everything; if we have everything but faith, there is  a lack that nothing else can complete. Because faith is our link, our network, our umbilical chord with God, our father and mother. If we lose it, we are lost! This is why Jesus expresses his displeasure in such plain terms to his disciples, when he found them lacking in this 'touch' with the Lord.

Now lets come back to those words...the righteous shall live by their faith! Prophet Habakkuk speaks of the great promises of the Lord and recommends the anxious awaiting hearts to faith and says, in faith the righteous ones shall see every word of the Lord come true! The delay that is involved in the designs of the Lord coming to pass, is a painful crisis to every expectant heart. We would be listed among the ranks of the righteous if we hold on in faith and have the patience of seeing the power of God shine through and until then, go about doing good, living a life that is right in the eyes of the Lord.

A bit of faith will make us strong, enduring, persevering, resilient, patient, persistent, serene, unassailable... yes, just a bit of faith, that is all it takes.

True blessedness in God

WORD 2day: Friday, 18th week in Ordinary time

August 7, 2026: Nahum 2:1-3, 3:1-3, 6,7; Matthew 16: 24-28

Today we hear the hope giving words of Nahum. But just a few days earlier we heard from Jeremiah a sharp criticism of the self proclaimed prophet Hananiah, saying the prophecies of prosperity can be accepted as such only after the things prophesied come to pass. However the words of Hananiah were soon  proved to be  mere search for popular it and general acceptance!

Nahum's promise of the restoration of God's people comes combined with a call to be prepared, alert and girded. Jesus takes that a step ahead to say: it takes a ready acceptance of the daily cross and a loving preparedness to walk in the ways of the Lord, to experience the true "blessedness" from God. Blessings from the Lord or in a more formal theological term, Grace from God - is not something that we can ever deserve. It is not as if, we become good and the God gives grace; we behave ourselves and God rewards us with grace! No...that is a very childish way of looking at things and a very naive concept of God. Unfortunately, majority of us hold on to that. 

Grace is basically God's divine presence with us! That defines all... will that ever be revoked from us. Never. God loves us and God is present all the time with us. Therefore, the Grace of God is there, is there always, is there just for our taking. But the problem begins when we realise, we are not there to take it. We have made choices, we have used our powers, we have held on to things that are so opposed to God, that we have moved ourselves far far away from God, from God's presence, from God's grace! Now speak of the blessings that we clamour for...

Prosperity, fame, popularity, joy, sense of fulfilment, peace and a sense of being loved... these are of course signs of God's blessings...but they cannot be our focus in our daily life, instructs Jesus. What we need to do is strive to stay with God, strive to live acceptable in the eyes of God, strive to remain in the presence of God, in the grace of God, and all the rest will follow. What matters thus is... the true "blessedness"  in the sight of God!

To burn till we are consumed!

THE WORD AND THE FEAST

August 6, 2026: The Feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord
Daniel 7: 9-10, 13-14; (2 Peter 1: 16-19); Matthew 17: 1-9

"A lamp shining in a dark place until day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts" - a wonderful comparison that St. Peter presents to us, though the second reading is only optional for this day's liturgy (being a week day). That phrase would apply to our faith, our life of witness, our trust, our commitment to the Reign of God and every bit of our faith and its expression here and now, all leading us towards that eternal glory that awaits us as children of God(Jn 1:12), co-heirs with Christ(Rom 8:17), people meant for the future glory (Rom 8:18).

Our Christian life is rich and its richness will be lost if we lose the sense of mystery in understanding it. Mystery is not merely something that is unknown and incomprehensible, but it is something that is beyond all our rational calculations and empirical conditions; yet it is not totally alien from our experience; it is part of our lived experience, an experience we live on a daily basis, an experience that sustains our faith and offers meaning to our life.

The feast of Transfiguration is a symbol, a prefigurement and a surety of the glory that rests within us, as children of God. However, we are warned not to lose our grip on our daily living, on our concrete initiatives towards ushering in the Reign of God in the pretext of dreaming about a future that is glorious and splendid.

In practical terms, to be people transfigured is to live our lives with our eyes fixed on heaven and our feet planted firm on ground, to never lose the hope that the Lord offers in Himself and to never rest from our efforts to build the Reign of God here on earth.

Taking up that imagery of the lamp shining in the dark, today's feast is a call to burn until we are totally consumed, totally consumed for the sake of the mission that the Lord entrusts to us, totally consumed living our daily life to the full, totally consumed empowering every person to live their life to their full... totally consumed in the glory that we have treasured within us - the image and likeness of God and totally consumed in the glory we have promised to us - the Reign of God and God's glorious people.

The Spirituality of the Remnant and the Rest

THE WORD AND THE FEAST

August 5, 2026: Dedication of the Basilica of Mary Major - Our Lady of Snows
Jeremiah 31: 1-7; Matthew 15: 21-28

The theme of yesterday continues, the unending faithfulness and love of God. The Lord renews the covenant with the people in spite of their failures because the Lord had always loved them with an everlasting love. Today the Word warns us that those who will finally taste the fruits of God's faithfulness are the remnant and the rest of the people who come by and stick to the Lord.

The Remnant - these are those who choose to differ from the mainstream inspired by a genuine conviction and sincere effort to be integral. They are remnant because, they are the few who remain, who choose to remain, combating all the lures of the times and the wiles of the evil one, all for the sake of being with God.

The Rest are those who are least expected to be favoured in the eyes of the Lord. The world has its own criteria of judgement - the acceptable, the chosen, the privileged, the gifted, the special and so on; but the Lord has a totally different set of criteria... single minded dedication to the Lord, genuine love for God's people and authentic life after the mind of God.

A feast like today - the dedication of a Basilica from the 5th century... reminds us of our tradition that dates centuries and even millennia... but what does that matter if we do not today, here and now, within our hearts and in our own personal lives do no live by what the Lord wants: do not conform to the world; instead be transformed in Christ into new beings!

The grand basilica stands in reminder of the Reign of God which is mighty bigger and wider than this... waiting for everyone to enter and become sons and daughters. But unfortunately, those who will finally enter will be only the Remnant and the Rest!

Note: if you wish to listen to a very short history of this feast day, click the link:

https://www.franciscanmedia.org/dedication-of-saint-mary-major-basilica/

Growing conscious of God's faithfulness and love

THE WORD AND THE SAINT

August 4, 2026: Remembering St. John Marie Vianney, Cure of Ars
Jeremiah 30: 1-2, 12-15, 18-22; Matthew 15: 1-2, 10-14

"You shall be my people and I will be your God" - every time that we hear this statement... we need to be filled with an awe about the unfailing love of God. What does really matter what I do and what my merits are, in front of this boundless love of God? What do my so called great sacrifices and pious practices measure up to, in comparison to the immeasurable love of God? Hence a constant question that should be present in my mind always is this: how worthy is my faithfulness to God vis-a-vis the faithfulness of God towards me?

The only concern that should fill my mind is how to translate that awe into attitudes, attitudes of absolute gratefulness, total obedience and boundless humility towards God. If these attitudes develop in us, how peaceful we can grow to be! They would reduce to the minimum our tendency to judge others or consider others unbearable. How irritable we get and how fast we lose our patience with people. Between husbands and wives, between friends, between colleagues, between collaborators in the same team... how forbearing are we? How patient and non judgmental can we prove to be! That would be a reflection of how conscious we are of the unending love and unfailing acceptance of God.

John Maria Vianney whom we remember today, stands out in this character. He was not a great intellectual or an aristocratic legend who commanded respect instantly! He was a simple man, humble person but profound in his consciousness of God's faithfulness and love. It is with that quality that he brought the entire faith community around him, back to a filial relationship with God. How much we become people and persons of God depends much on how conscious we grow of God's faithfulness and love!

Note: For a few pictures taken at Ars where the Saint laboured...go to link:

https://www.facebook.com/antonychristy/media_set?set=a.2126828617388398&type=3

Real Prophets or Prophets for Profit?

 

 WORD 2day: Monday, 18th week in Ordinary time

August 3, 2026: Jeremiah 28:1-17; Matthew 14: 22-36

The Word today reminds us of our call to be a prophets... how far are we aware of the fact that each of us baptised in the Spirit is called to be a priest, a prophet and a prince (or princess)? Of course, knowing is one thing, and being convinced of it is another; but being it, much less said, is totally a different thing.

Today we have umpteen number of preachers, prophets and evangelists... all proclaiming from rooftops and laptops, day in and day out. Especially during these moments of crisis and lockdown... there are numerous of them, everywhere in every form! Let us beware dear friends, as the first reading points out, being a prophet is not speaking things that others would love to hear from us -like the myriad of fortune tellers, prediction prodigies, healer wheelers, and prosperity preachers today who do things to woo more and more  'customers'. Jeremiah warns Hananiah today in the first reading against his false sense of prophecy! And we read about the sad end of Hananiah. 

The Gospel has a symbolic message in the same lines. Jesus chides his disciples for their lack of faith, especially Peter. It might look a bit too demanding on Jesus' part to expect the disciples to remain unperturbed when they are almost sinking, and Peter to remain calm when he was almost drowning. But the point that the Master makes is that his disciples should be perturbed by nothing, absolutely nothing! 

"Let nothing disturb you", he would say to them often. In today's world so immersed in numerous kinds of concerns, with the crisis all around us, wouldn't it be truly prophetic to live a life so unperturbed! Not to be prophets for profit, but real prophets who live with a serenity that comes from knowing that 'it is the Lord' who is in charge. The Lord says that today: do not fear, It is I. 

The plight of a true prophet

THE WORD AND THE SAINT

August 1, 2026: Remembering St. Alphonsus Marie Ligouri
Jeremiah 26: 11-16, 24; Matthew 14: 1-12

Constant threat to life, drastic insecurities of life, total unacceptance from the rest of the so called normal people, pressures of helplessness...these form part of the usual plight of a prophet, not just in the days of Jeremiah and John the Baptist but even today. That explains why real prophets are a rare phenomenon. However, it is an undeniable and curious fact that the difference between a true prophet and a self-righteous egoist is very thin and dangerously subtle.

The first element that can demarcate the two is the FOCUS. When Jeremiah spoke to the people and the princes, he never looked for support or people who can come to his defence. His focus was determinantly on what God wanted him to say and nothing else.

The second element is DETACHMENT from the result. Though the message is definitely pointed towards a change, a result, the prophet is not excessively anxious about it. At times a self righteous person can be on a ego trip claiming credits and proving his point. A true prophet desists this tendency naturally.

The third element is absolute FEARLESSNESS. A fearlessness that makes them hard people to handle for the authorities and the hierarchy. But that fearlessness comes from their unwavering trust, confidence and hope in the never failing presence of the Lord!

Just yesterday we celebrated a prophetic founder, St. Ignatius and today we have another: St. Alphonsus Ligouri, the founder of the Redemptorist Congregation - a great theologian, lyricist (incidentally, those who know the famous Italian carol tu scendi dalle stelle, it was he who penned it), musician, pastor, writer and thinker. He was a true prophet too and he had to pay its price. As a bishop and as a founder-leader he was a demanding prophet. We cannot judge the internal matters of the Congregation he founded, but anyway, the fact was that he was expelled from very congregation he formed and he suffered this trauma in the last years of his life. However, his focus, his detachment and his fearless love for the Lord, kept him going.

Are we courageous enough to remain focused, and fearlessly attach ourselves to truth and the Truth? That will make us prophets, but are we ready to face the plight that awaits?

Doing it God's way

WORD 2day: Thursday, 17th week in Ordinary time

July 30, 2026: Jeremiah 18: 1-6; Matthew 13: 47-53

Have thine own way Lord,

have thine own way

Thou art the potter,

I am the clay

Mould me and make me,

after thy will

while I am waiting

yielded and still.

What a beautiful prayer it could be for us to make this day, inspired by the passage from Jeremiah... to accept the Lord as the potter, who makes me, moulds me and uses me to behold the glory of the Lord and share it to the world! If only this is always the case, that we are in the hands of the Lord and that we do just what the Lord wants us to do - the world will be a paradise, the Reign of God here and now. For is that not what we pray: May your will be done, here on earth, as it is in heaven!

In the parable that Jesus tells us today about the Reign of God, he brings out a fundamental element of either belonging to the Reign or not belonging to it. The angels will separate the good from the bad; the wicked from the righteous; the docile from the obstinate; the obedient from the rebellious; the discerning from the naive. Yes, the criterion is: doing the will of the Father, being clay in the hands of the Divine potter, not rebelling, not disobeying, not trying to act too smart!

Have you heard it said, that the anthem in heaven is, "I did it God's way"; while in hell it is, "I did it my way." The secret is here: doing it God's way! Living our life, God's way!

Selective Hearing Impairment

THE WORD AND THE FEAST

July 29, 2026: Remembering the Holy Siblings - Martha, Maria and Lazarus
Jeremiah 26: 1-9; John 11: 19-27

Thanks to our beloved late Holy Father Pope Francis we have the feast of the Siblings today... remembering Mary, Martha and Lazarus who were disciples of the Lord, together as siblings. Is it not apt to celebrate this day as Siblings day? With that joy, let us pay heed to the Word today.

The auricular experts explain that there are different kinds of deafness... mild hearing loss, moderate hearing loss, moderately severe hearing loss, severe hearing loss and profound hearing loss!

At times spiritually too, hearing impairment can be calculated in a similar fashion, but we need to add one more crucial type of hearing challenge. That is, Selective Hearing Loss - hearing only what I want to hear, or refusing to hear what I do not want to hear merely because it causes me inconvenience.

When Jeremiah spoke to them about the impeding danger and their need to return to the Lord, the people deemed him liable to death. The Word of God keeps rushing into our hearts. It would cleanse it, refresh it and fill it with life, if only we allow it to. If we are biased, prejudiced and suspicious, we would break no ground towards perfection. At times with these biases and prejudices, we fall prey to the syndrome of 'hearing merely what we want to hear'!

When Martha told Jesus, "if you were here, my brother would not have died!" Martha's (and Maria's) hope in the Lord was plainly expressed in those words. But the Lord challenges them to journey further in her hope, not to get stuck to cliches, not to remain with mere statements and memorised aphorisms... but to go all the way out in trusting the Lord. It is like what St. Paul says about Abraham (Rom 4:18)... Jesus invites Martha and Mary to hope against hope!

Martha's confession about Christ has nothing less than the confession of St. Peter! The faith that Martha had in Jesus was so profound that she believed when Jesus was around nothing could go wrong. Jesus acknowledges the trust that Martha had in him, but invites her to go a step ahead and trust that even if things went wrong, she had nothing to fear for the Lord was with her always! Martha, Maria and Lazarus are given to us, in contrast to the people whom Jeremiah encountered, as persons who accepted the challenge from the hands of the Lord... to hear completely, to hear integrally... and to avoid the prevalent malefficence of selective hearing impairment.

To hear and trust in the Lord, is simple in times that are pleasant. It isn't that very simple to trust in the Lord "always". Even when things go wrong, or especially in such situations, we are called to be calm but vigilant; seeking solutions but not begging remedies. Not looking for any solutions anxiously, but daring to remain patient with the issues of life is a clear sign of total trust in the Lord that the Lord alone is our hope!

Amidst all our pressing concerns and pressurising opinions of the world, let us beware of selective hearing impairment, and hear, listen and trust in the Lord wholeheartedly.

Time to return to the Lord - today and now!

WORD 2day: Tuesday, 17th week in Ordinary time

July 28, 2026: Jeremiah 14: 17-22; Matthew 13: 36-43

Rescue us, O Lord, for the glory of your name - the response for the psalmody inspires us to pray today. These words would mean so much in today's context too: tears, fears, death, sickness, influencing, hunger, unemployment, migration, terror, wickedness, enmity, slandering, sledging and all that is happening all around us - how tiring it has become everyday to expect some news or some difficulties in living our human existence today!

Who has been the reason for all this - war and confusion: is it true that God has abandoned us? Or is it that we have abandoned God, and God's ways?

All that God sowed into our lives has been good and nothing but good; where does this hatred, exploitation, greed, manipulation, violence, vengeance and the rest of the evils come from? All from within us; from our evil thinking, from our evil tendencies, from our evil choices, from our abandoning of God. And if we want things to be set right, there is only one way out - that we leave this way of the evil one and return to the Lord, in hope, faith and love!

And when do we do this? Wait for the last minute possible? It is fine so, if we are ready to face and endure all these evil till that last minute and remain still strong enough to cling to the Lord. That is what the world seems to think today: there is time; there is time for thinking about God and all that pertains to God. We can always make it up to God, there is no hurry - people think - because God is loving and merciful and at anytime that we turn to the Lord, God will receive us into God loving mercy!

Yes, it is true... God is loving and merciful, ready to forgive and ever willing to reach out to us in embrace. That is on God's part. But imagine, if I go so far away from God that it would be so difficult for me to return to the Lord! In my thoughts and choices, attitudes and actions, decisions and priorities, if I am so far away from God... even if I decide to turn to God - it would be a herculean task to return. That is the experience of so many today, people wriggling under the pains and slaveries that they wish to get away from, but unable to. 

Should we wait for that last moment? Is it not time to return to the Lord, today and now?