WORD 2day

17th June, 2013

The Beatitudes continue to inspire the Liturgy! As we reflected last week, the crux of the beatitudes, that is found in Mathew's fifth chapter, is the invitation to the followers of Christ to be a Contrast Community! We see that sense of 'contrast' flooding the readings today. Be it the first or the Gospel, the readings point to us the two choices we have in life always - inspiring the monumental words of Robert Frost - "two roads diverged in a yellow wood - and I took the less travelled by, and that has made all the difference". Mahatma Gandhi speaking of the Sermon on the Mount to Lord Irwin said, "when your country and mine shall get together on the teachings laid down by Christ in this Sermon on the Mount, we shall have solved the problems not only of our countries but those of the whole world." Let our life show if we are Christ-ians or not. Let my choices define who I am and what relationship I have with Christ. If I believe Christ is my personal saviour, the way I look at the world and all that happens around, will totally be in contrast to the way the mainstream of today thinks and calculates. St. Paul speaks of this in such powerful terms, a conviction that cost him everything - his career, his freedom and even his life! It takes courage for me today to accept, that even I have received the same saving faith, as St. Paul's, in the same Spirit!   

My God loves me!!!

The joyful cry today is, "I am forgiven". Forgiveness is a beautiful experience! An experience that can give a person a boundless joy, a total renewal and a new lease of life. That is what the readings insist on today! The Lord is merciful, the Lord forgives, and the Lord forgives without any conditions! When a person experiences that forgiveness in all its fullness, with sincerity of heart and earnestness of spirit, the person changes, the person changes radically, the person changes into a new person altogether, to the extent of saying, 'it is not I who live, but Christ lives in me!' 

Yes, I am Forgiven...
Not because, I deserve to be...

David deserved to die, and he knew it very well. When Prophet Nathan pointed it to him, he knew the Lord was well aware of the criminality of his heart, the lustful desire that killed Uriah, the selfishness that nullified every gift of the Spirit within his being. But when he came to his sense and surrendered himself to the Lord in all his weakness, emptiness and nothingness - instantaneously he was forgiven! 'your sin is forgiven, you shall not die!" David knew he did not deserve it, all the same the Lord forgave him. The Lord forgives me, without measure, instantly when I express my genuine remorse... the Lord forgives me, not because I deserve to be forgiven.

I am forgiven...

Not because of the good I do...

St. Paul explains with such force today, nothing of my obligations fulfilled really merit all that the Lord gives me! It needs to be said in the commercialized world today, which makes religious practice too a divine commerce with God. I give, and I expect; I do, and I want a return; I do good and wish always to be treated well. Sometimes my spirituality and practices of piety become subtle credentials to indulge in an unconscious or subconscious bartering or bargaining, with God. It's surely not the good I do that merits me the forgiveness of God for the proportion will never be realistic. The Psalmist so well expresses it, 'Blessed is the one to whom the Lord imputes no guilt and in whose spirit there is no deceit. If I were to be forgiven, to the measure of the good I do, least can I imagine that I will stand anywhere before the Lord; I am forgiven, so immeasurably, not because of the good I do. 

I am forgiven...

because I love my God... 

Grace that justifies me as St. Paul says, the Faith that saves me as Jesus says... they are in concrete terms the love I have for my God who has given me life and called be God's. It is the relationship I treasure with my God, the love that I nurture every day and every moment within my heart that assumes various names at various instances, such as 'grace',  'faith' and so on. The foundation is the love that I have for my God... 'her sins, which are many are forgiven, for she loved much!' Yes the Lord forgives me, because I love my God...and more because, 

My God loves me!!!

This is the crux! God loves me and there is no other reason needed for me to be forgiven! The love of God is a prodigal love, a boundless love. The mercy of God is limitless grace, a gratuitous gift. My God loves me...and My God forgives me! I have nothing to fear and nothing to hide! My God knows me and My God has accepted me totally! My God loves me and all I have to do is what the Psalmist tells me - "Be glad in the Lord and Rejoice, O righteous and shout for joy, all you upright in heart!"

I will rejoice in the Lord, for I am forgiven! not because I deserve to be, not because of the good that I do, but because I love my God...and most of all because, My God loves me!!!