WORD 2day

30th April, 2013

Peace is the first gift the Risen Lord gave his disciples and then followed the Spirit, the guarantor of Peace! All of us wish peace in the world; fb posts against violence, tweets against violators, movements against warring nations, all these are attempts to uphold peace. Wonderful but not Sufficient! It is from within that true peace is born. For the disciples shattered by Jesus’ death, it was the very presence of the Risen Lord amidst them that brought peace within. Then they were able to ‘Rise and keep going’. When we find this peace-within even the worst of events around us can be faced with an incredible serenity. In the first reading, Paul who was left to die, when surrounded by the disciples, he rose and entered the city… as if nothing happened…and of course he went on proclaiming the Good news! Being sure of the presence of the Lord with us and within us, can give us a peace that nothing can take away! Peace be with you!

WORD 2day

April 29, 2013

Sometimes when we live our life to the full, people can see God in us. They thought Paul and Barnabas were gods! Catherine of Siena, whose memory we commemorate today accomplished great feats for God and the Church during her life time! People found in her the glory and the splendour of God's presence. Her total belonging to God, her wisdom in discernment and her courage to stand up for God were her exceptional traits and that is what we celebrate in her. 'If a person loves me, the person will keep my word' says Jesus and declares, 'my Father will love the person, and we will come to the person and make our home with the person.' This is how we become the dwelling place of God: by keeping the Word...we are called to live our life as dwellings of God! St.Paul raises that interesting question in 1Cor3:16, 'dont you know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you?'

Agents of New Heaven and New Earth

5th Sunday of Easter: 28.04.2013

Behold I make all things new!

The times are bad; there is evil every where.

Why is there so much of killings and violence; war and terrorism; where is humanity going today?

Bomb blasts, terrorist attacks, political unrest and threats of nuclear war – what is brewing in today’s world?

Poverty, misery, hunger and starvation – is it true that the world does not have enough for all?

These have become common starters for a discussion today!

Dear brothers and sisters,

The Second reading today tells us, ‘He will dwell with them and they shall be his people’… As people of God, what is our responsibility? It is to listen and believe in the words the Lord says today – Behold I make all things new! We cannot give into desperation! No, we cannot!

“Never lose hope, Do not let yourself be robbed of hope!” cries our beloved holy father, Pope Francis. Yes, our call is to assist the Creator to make all things new – to behold a new heaven and a new earth!

The Liturgy today presents to us the invitation, the challenge to assist at the creation of this new heaven and new earth amidst the cries of agony and apathy. Not only does it beckon us to the task, but outlines the way to accomplish the task – a line of action with three key elements: Primacy of God, Care of the least and the Commandment of Love.

The First reading offers a compelling example   - the first community of disciples, existed for the gospel and lived in faith, in a spirit of prayer and fasting! Their life was a testimony to the marvels that God accomplished every day in and through their lives, because they live constantly in the presence of God. The primacy of God is in crisis today – and that explains the whole lot of tribulations that humanity faces today. Hence the first line of action is to reinstate the primacy of God.

The Care of the least, the concern for those who are suffering, the commitment to the marginalized, the prophecy that challenges the neglected justice and denied rights – is an inalienable part of this process of creating new heaven and new earth. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain any more. And the Lord will do it through you and me! Every hand of a disciple of Christ should wipe the tears in the eyes of those in agony. Every word of a Christian should give new life to those who have lost hope. Every community of faith should sustain those who mourn and cry in society around itself.  

Commandment of Love, comes as the essence and the summary of the whole Christian presence. Christ speaks of the time that he will not be with his disciples and immediately presents them with the Commandment of love, as if to say – where there is love there is Christ. The corollary is more significant and consequential – where there is no love there is no Christ. “By this all will know that you are my disciples – if you have love for one another!” One cannot build the new heaven and the new earth, without a genuine Christ-like love in one’s heart.
Today there are many who propose projects and make manifestos  those who gather masses and garner public opinion, those who initiate movements and influence the society - all in the name of creating a new social order or creating a new world, in the name of progress and development. The WORD today gives us the touchstone of Christian outlook - the commandment of love. St. Augustine said it in beautiful words, "Love, and do what you will. If you keep silence, do it out of love. If you cry out, do it our of love. If you refrain from punishing, do it out of love."
Give God the primacy in daily life, Care for the least, the suffering and those in need around you, Love one another as Christ loves you - and you will be able to see the new heaven and the new earth, that is the Reign of God on earth. This is what the Lord tells you and me today!
May your Reign come O Lord!

WORD 2day

26.04.2013
'Let nothing disturb you' was a constant counsel of St. Teresa of Avila! 'Let nothing upset you' Don Bosco used to repeat! The source is here, as the Lord declares today - "Let not your hearts be disturbed." Crises and confusions, discouragements and disappointments, temptations and tribulations make life so difficult - but one perspective can set everything in order - the perspective of faith: "believe in God and believe in me." Invariable of what is happening around me, what matters is for me to understand, everyday of my life that God is in-charge. God knows what is coming and where i am going, for the Lord declares - "I am the Way, the Truth and the Life!"

WORD 2day

25th April – St. Mark
‘The Lord worked with them’ reads the last verse of the Gospel today! The Apostles had this privilege it looks like, as we read the Acts and the letters…the Lord worked with them. The words, I will be with you till the end of times, was a concrete experience of the Early Christian Communities. Specially, the apostles are found to be so fiery, fearless and focused because they saw, experienced and were convinced that ‘the Lord worked with them.’ St. Mark, apart from being the evangelist that he was, represents the generation that immediately followed the apostles and received the Christ-ian heritage – a reminder for me that even today, if I am conscious and convinced, the Lord works with me!

WORD 2day

24.04.2013

One who believes in me will never be in darkness. How many times i find myself in darkness, in confusion, in a state of indecision! Who is to be blamed? The Situation? The times? Or persons around me? If i really believed in the Light... i would have known that the Light has always been there with me! How capable am i to listen to the Lord's voice, with the certainty with which the First Christians do as the first reading suggests today. They set apart Paul and Barnaba, because the Spirit of the Lord wanted them to. Its only with the eyes of faith that one can behold the Light of Christ, which bears the presence of the Trinity as a whole! Its only when i am in a position to behold the Light, i can safely think of being a light to those around me!

WORD 2day

WORD 2day:
They were already affected by persecution yet, there they were proclaiming the Lord... they knew their life had changed forever from the very moment they encountered the Risen Lord! They had become the flock of the True Shepherd, they had heard his voice, they beheld his presence and they followed him with all their heart. What an example for me, to challenge myself, whether I really belong to the flock of the Divine Shepherd!

WORD 2day

The metaphor of the flock and the shepherd continues. we are called to be God's flock, the flock that is gathered by the Lord and led by His hands, protected by the Lord and called in the Lord's name to gather everyone into one fold. We pray today that our words, our actions and all that we are, make us worthy to belong to the flock of the Divine Shepherd.

We are God's Flock?

4th Sunday of Easter: 21 April, 2013.

The Shepherd presents to us
the criteria to be called the Flock of the Divine Shepherd...

- to LISTEN  to the Voice AS A COMMUNITY (Gospel)

- to be a FLOCK that is OPEN TO ALL (I Reading)

- to be a FLOCK that is TRANSFORMED by the LAMB (II Reading)

Do you love me?

UNLESS I SEE…

II SUNDAY OF EASTER, YEAR C, 07.04.2013.

The Invitation to see... the invitation to believe

A week later (Jn 20:26)… yes we are celebrating the day, a week later! A week after that great event, which is still fresh in our mind, that event which gives meaning to our Christian life, a week after the day which had a dawn that gave light and hope to the whole human kind, a week later we celebrate today the Low Sunday, or the end of the Easter Octave.

Today the Liturgy has two verbs that dominate the message… to see, and, to believe. The first reading presents to us what the faithful saw when the apostles were around; and what the people saw in the Christians! The second reading speaks of the things that John saw revealed to him by God, as things seen and yet to be seen! The Gospel presents to us Thomas, who wanted to see in order to believe and Jesus who invites him to see and to believe! The Liturgy invites us to see and to believe!

There can be five kinds of people: those who don’t see and so don’t believe; people who see but don’t want to believe; people who want to see in order to believe; people who believe and therefore see; people who believe no matter what they see! It’s important for us to know to which category we belong to.

The first category is almost an impossibility…today everyone is given to see. But this fact notwithstanding, if someone has not seen the wonders of the Lord, and has no clue as to believe in the Lord, it is not the person’s mistake.

The second group is abundant today… they see but are adamant not to believe. Pride, Negative Influences, Arrogant Independence makes these persons purposely turn down the Divine Revelation.

The third group is where majority of us fall into. We would like to see, we long for signs and wonders, we rush to places to catch a glimpse of reported miracles, we storm the heavens with a prayer for a sign, we pick up news and reports that indicate something extraordinary, we look for something that will provide a justification for what we want to believe.

The fourth group is the exemplary group that keeps the faith community going! The persons who believe so fervently, that they see things so wonderful and inexplicable around them. They believe ardently and so they begin to see and the more they see the more they believe.

The last category is where we are invited to be; to be persons who believe no matter what they see. During the holy week I would have heard the confessions of over 300 hundred persons, and so many of them struggling with what they see in their own life on a daily basis – problems, concerns and crises. There are those who see what is happening to the innocents who suffer, the just who are stifled, the kind who are trodden over. The world today has countless instances of unjust policies, inhuman practices, usurped justice and unheard cries. In spite of all this we are challenged to believe! 

Dear Friends, Thomas was someone who loved Jesus to the core, he wanted to go with Jesus and die with him; he was convinced that Jesus was dead, Jesus was killed for the sake of Truth, for the sake of liberating the people from meaningless ritualism and slavish faith. He was so sure of the death and suffering of Jesus that the wounds of the nails and the lance were the absolute proofs for the identity of Jesus. But Jesus comes with all his mercy to assure him of the same, that he died, that he was killed, that he was wounded… all because he wanted them to believe –, to believe in the unlimited forgiveness of God, to believe in the unconditional love of God, to believe in the Mercy of God! Right enough in the year 2000, Blessed Pope John Paul II initiated the tradition of celebrating the Divine Mercy on this Sunday, the Sunday when the Risen Lord appeared with such merciful understanding to strengthen his disciples in faith.

Today the same Risen Lord invites us to see, to see and to believe! To see him present in our lives and believe that he wants us to act on his behalf everyday! To see him wounded in every person who is in need, who is troubled, who is depressed, who is broken…and believe that it is the Lord beckoning us to act with mercy and love. If we respond to the invitation, we can rightfully proclaim with all our heart, My Lord and My God! 

May the Divine Mercy fill our hearts and make us ever merciful to all those with whom we live specially among them, those in need.