GOD'S PRESENCE, PEACE AND EVERY BLESSING!!!

The Solemnity of the Mother of  God

Num 6:22-27; Gal 4:4-7; Lk 2: 16-21

It is a fresh start, a new year, a treasure of 365 days! It is a gift, a gift in all ways: precious, beautiful, wrapped and presented. First of all, it would be too rude not to receive it as a gift. Secondly, it is wrapped...and it is important that we receive it with a sense of wonder, surprise and gratitude. Trying to know everything, in the name of predictions and presumptions, would strip it of its wonder! To approach it with a wry and dry mentality will make it devoid of its surprise. Let us approach it with gratitude and a sense of childlike curiosity, prepared to receive the gift on daily basis, one day at a time!

The greatest gift we can have, that with which we begin every new year, is the loving presence of God! The babe in the manger is a the highest gift that we can have. The Emmanuel, God with us, is the most precious gift that we can behold. That the Lord is with us fills us with hope: that whatever it be as the year unfolds day by day, we would never be alone facing it. We have the Lord with us. 

We celebrate the gift of our Lord: given through the Mother of God! The Mother of God is a gift, a reminder and a challenge to us. The Mother of God, is a gift: God gives her to us as a protector, a guide, a refuge as we begin this new year, with all its surprises. The Mother of God, is the reminder of the Word made flesh, the Lord who has cast away all distance and difference and become one like us, just to show us how much God loves us. The Mother of God is a challenge, a challenge to give, to give endlessly. She gave herself, when the Angel approached her! She gave the world the Son of God, born of a woman, when the fullness of time came. She gave that child to the Lord, offered him in the temple and offered him to the Father's work! She gave her young son, for the sake of the salvation of the world. She gave up everything and gave everything! She stands as a challenge for us today, to give, to give and never to count!

This year, which is given into our hands today, as a gift pack, will be filled with peace if we live it in the way that the Lord wants us to; after the example of our Blessed Mother. She said that yes, and she said that for her whole life, not knowing what it meant and where it will lead her. All that she was assured was, the Lord was with her. We are assured too that the Lord's presence will go with us, that the Lord's countenance with shine on us. Let us begin with hope and that will give us peace.

May the Lord bless you and keep you!

May the Lord let his face shine upon you, and be gracious to you!

May the Lord look upon you kindly and give you peace!

May your New year 2015 be filled with God's presence, peace and every blessing!

WORD 2day: 31st December, 2014

Thank you Lord for 2014

1 Jn 2: 18-21; Jn 1: 1-18

There is a discussion of the last hour today in the readings and indeed it is the last hour of this year! As we begin this day, let our hearts be filled with thanksgiving! The light, the true light, the Word, the Eternal word is here amidst us! Let this day be dedicated to thank the Lord for all the good that the Lord has done for us in the year that is just passing by. 

We would do well today to list the goodness that we have enjoyed from the Lord. It would do good also to list the not-so-happy experiences and find out what they have to tell us for our life. It would be wonderful if we review our lives once again today, affirm to ourselves the marks of the people of God; and resolve to do away with those that do not fit in.

There is one message that the Word wants to leave strongly in our minds, as we end this year and get ready to start a new one, and that is: "The Word has become flesh; and dwells among us!" The Lord is with us and that is the note of hope with which we await the new year! Good bye 2014!

WORD 2day: 30th December, 2014

Surrender or Manipulation? What is our disposition?

1 Jn 2: 12-17; Lk 2: 36-40

World or things of the world as opposed to the love of the Father: by now it is considered an outdated way of thinking. Indeed the dichotomy that is involved and implied is a bit old fashioned but the difference between the two choices, is real and concrete. Even our prayer for example could have within itself hidden a sense of giving more importance to the world and the things of the world instead of our love for God our Father and Mother. 

Just yesterday, there was the last minute preparation going on for a mega event, while unfortunately the forecast was for a likely cyclone showers! Immediately a group got down to pray and say, 'please stop the rain'! Praying here is something wonderful, but a subtle point to be noted here is: how prepared are we to accept the will of God in things that we have planned; instead of asking the Lord to adjust to our designs?

Whoever does the will of God remains for ever, reminds St. John in his epistle today (v.17). Prophetess Anna, or even Prophet Simeon for that matter, waited for years together, in relentless patience towards the will of God. Can we really abandon ourselves to the will of God: a surrender so beautifully symbolised by the Divine Kid in the manger these days!

DB VOICES

DB VOICES... a Youth Choir in the city!

A new initiative with don bosco youth of the city of Chennai, to form a youth choir, took off with a bang on 28th December, 2014. A band of 25 singers and 6 musicians, from three salesian parishes (namely, Basinbridge, Ayanavaram and Vyasarpadi) sang for the Priestly Ordination of the two deacons of the Province of Chennai. This was their first programme as a choir, formed merely a couple of weeks before. The singing was awesome and the music was divine! They are aware that they have greater milestones to achieve! All that they need is our assurance, affirmation and accompaniment! 

Thanks to Frs. Deva Joe and Edward Michael who trained them for this programme and thanks to many more who are with these youngsters and their magnificent dreams! We look forward to seeing and hearing you more dear young friends. Congrats to you all. You have a lot more to achieve. March on!

WORD 2day : 29th, December, 2014

Love: the light of Life
1 Jn 2: 3-11; Lk 2: 22-35

Hatred, violence,  vengeance,  aggression and terrorism abound today in forms varied and vicious. The talks of conversion and reconversion rob faith of its fundamental essence.  The readings today give us a clear cut criterion to judge who is right and who is not. The one who loves one's brothers and sisters is in light. And whoever says he or she is in light,  yet hates one's brother or sister,  is still in darkness (Cf. 1 Jn 2: 8&9).

Jesus the light can never cause hatred or division. There can be people who claim to be interpreting the Light but causing divisions and hatred and rivalry. Let them be certain,  says the Word, that they are still in darkness.

Let love, the light of life, guide us on as we come to the close of this year!

FAMILY: WHERE GOD ABIDES

The Feast of the Holy Family

28th December, 2014

Celebrating the feast of Holy Family... we are given a challenging model, a role we have to play as families in today's context.

The Holy family offered the Lord to the world: Do we do as families? Do we offer the Lord to where we live? Do our way of life offer the values of the Lord to our surroundings? Do the families and individuals around have the Lord to take away from us, when they visit us?

The Holy family brought the Lord to Jerusalem. The Lord said he lives where two or three are gathered in the Lord's name! What about our families...aren't we gathered in the name of the Lord and by the holy will of God? If so, aren't our families responsible of bringing the Lord to the community, the gathering of the families? Are our Church gatherings, our communities real union of families or some mass of people congregated?

The Holy family created a space for the Lord to live with them. Have we created a concrete space for the Lord in our homes? It is not about the altars we have at home, neat and decorated. It is not about the pictures we hang or the calendars we stare at. It is about the living space, it is about a membership in the family!

The Holy family does more than just standing around and blessing us today! They challenge us to be bearers of the Lord to the world. Can we accept that challenge?

THE WORD AND THE SAINT

St. John, the other apostle

1 Jn 1: 1-4; Jn 20: 1 a,  2-8

John is literally a great gift of God to us, as the name itself suggests. John refers to himself in the Gospel as the Other Disciple and that specificity gives us a guarantee of the great tradition that is behind that name and that experience.

John stands for a loving personal relationship with the Lord. That is what we are challenged towards in our daily concrete life. Can we say an whole hearted yes to that call?

THE WORD AND THE SAINT

St. Stephen, the first Martyr

Acts 6: 8-10, 7: 54-59; Mt 10: 17-22

Persecutions and Martyrdom have never been alien to Christian Faith. St. Stephen is the first Biblical evidence to it. Continuing in the line of the prophets and persons of God who have been treated at will by the world in the Old Testament, we see Jesus and most of his disciples facing the same end in the New Testament. Some one posted on the facebook yesterday saying they were offended when they heard the congregation praying for Christians in Iraq and the person questioned: "Why only Christians? Why not others?" Infact, 'Christians in Iraq' should by now be a collective term for us...it should stand for and remind us of every person persecuted for truth, every person tortured unjustly, every person discriminated and trampled under the tyranny of violence and force!

St. Stephen knew what it meant to suffer for Christ; it meant suffering for the things that really matter; it meant standing for true beliefs and convictions that can elevate your spirit to the heavens open and the angels coming down! It was Stephen who also imitated his Master literally: While Jesus prayed for those who crucified him and offered his spirit into the hands of his loving Father, Stephen prayed for those who stoned him and surrendered his spirit into Jesus' hands.What an example for us to emulate!

Merry Christmas

CELEBRATING GOD'S LOVE

The Solemnity of the Birth of the Lord, 2014

Today, we celebrate love! Christmas is a festival of love, the love that God has for us! This love is not something that we can easily understand, not a love that we can easily explain nor a love that we can easily imitate! Because it is a scandalous love! Yes we celebrate a Scandalous Love today! What makes this love so scandalous are the three negatives that this love is characterised by. Let us dwell a bit on those...THREE SCANDALOUS NEGATIVES...each negative more scandalous than the previous.

First negative is: UNCONDITIONAL. This love has no conditions, absolutely no conditions. That is why even after repeated failures and faithlessness on the part of the people with whom God had made the covenant, God still continues to love humanity. Christmas, the mystery of incarnation, is an ample exposition of this 'unconditional' love; a love without any conditions absolutely. Infact, with conditions it would not be love, isn't it? 

How many conditions we pose to love a person: he or she has to avoid this or do this or that; he or she has to take me seriously; he or she has to love me in return to the same extent I do, if not more; he or she has to fulfill a list of duties and measure up to the responsibilities given to the person... and what not. As you keep following those lines, I am sure you were wondering if you can just relieve a person of all these binds. As humans we feel, we cannot. These conditions seem legitimate and necessary. But God's mind would respond in the negative: whether you keep to your call  or not, whether you live up to your identity or not, God loves you and there can be no second thoughts to it. It disturbs our mind to think of such a love: that is the scandal involved in this love. God loves us scandalously! God's love is Unconditional!

The Second negative is: ILLOGICAL. There is no logic to God's love. In the love that God has for us or in the love that the Lord teaches us to have for each other, there is no logic whatsoever. Humanity takes God for granted and abandons God's ways at the first occasion that presents, God draws ever nearer and sends more prophets and finally even God's own Son! For God so loved the world, that God sent God's only Son, that all who believe in him will be saved.

The world teaches us a flawless logic: some one is good to you, try to be good to them, but it may not be absolutely necessary, because what matters is what you will gain. If something leads to gain, choose it; if something leads to a loss refrain from it, reject it: whether it is a person or a thing. This is the logic of the day! Without this logic one would be considered, unfit, incapable, useless, impractical, loser, inefficient and so on! But God's love is illogical and it is the same love that God manifests today at the manger, that Jesus taught us: love your neighbours; love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. Today, seeing the insane stand that the present political faction is taking against the minorities in our nation, we may be inclined to hate them, wish their ruin and see their end. We may be harbouring hatred and praying for their downfall. First command that the Lord gives: Love them. "It is illogical", you may shout! Yes, that is what it is: God's love is completely illogical. And we are born of that Love (Jn 1:13). If it is so for the society at large, take our families! Your brother may be doing everything against you; your sister may be totally ungrateful for all that you have done; your mother-in-law may be the worst for understanding you; your daughter-in-law may be totally disrespectful towards you; your spouse may not care for you at all...You are called to love that person! Love that person truly! That is the call of Christmas.

The third negative: UNREASONABLE. God's love has no Why? True love has no why! Ask God why God should love humanity...there is no reason for it. God made humanity and that warrants that God could deal with humanity in any manner, as tyrant task master or a domineering boss, but God gives us absolute personal freedom and loves us every moment! But why? That question can never be answered. 

There should be reason to whatever we do, says the world today. I love my children, I love my parents, I love my spouse...because they are what they are to me! But why should I love my neighbour, why should I love a stranger, why should I love a person who is far away on some other part of the planet, why should I love the next generation to come, why should I love the child which is yet to be born, why should I love the nature: should I demand a reason for these, I would not be truly 'Christ'ian. The love that Christ stands for or the love out of which Christ is born today, is an unreasonable love. This is the highest of the scandals we have: a love without reasons! God had so many ways of manifesting God's saving prowess in the past: Abraham, Moses, Joshua, Samson, Deborah, Gideon, David...and so many who were such great powerful instruments of God. But why should God finally decide to send God's son? Was there a need to send the Son and get him killed! Why couldn't God find some other person in the line of those prophets and kings? Any number of those why...would only meet with silence; the Silence of this holy, calm, mysterious night, where God is made Man! Such an unreasonable love.

The question: Are you prepared to imitate that scandalous love of God, so Unconditional, Illogical and Unreasonable? If you do, your life would be a daily Christmas - mysterious, miraculous and meaningful. If not, we would miss the point of today's celebration: the celebration of God's Scandalous love!

WORD 2day: 24th December, 2014

Fourth Wednesday of Advent
2 Sam 7: 1-5, 8b-12, 14a, 16; Lk 1: 67-79

Celebrating the Promises

Christmas is a celebration of the promises, remind the readings today. On the day immediately before Christmas, this message comes as a call to understand what Christmas is really: it is to remember that the goodness of the Lord never ceases. God's love is everlasting. It is unconditional and counts no cost. That is the message of Christmas; that God gave God's only Son that we may all be given the power to be God's children (Jn 3:16; Jn 1:14).

Christmas shines as a proof of the fact that God has still not given up on you and me! As Pope Francis often says, God is never discouraged with you. It is important that we don't give up on ourselves. We are loved and that fact will pull us up from any level of existence. 

The Rising dawn, is the imagery for today! The dawn... the sign of hope... the light of day... the warmth of God's love invites us to live our life to the full. The Lord is near, it is time to Arise and Shine (Is 60:1).

WORD 2day: 23rd December, 2014

Fourth Tuesday of Advent

Mal 3: 1-4, 23-24 ; Lk 1:57-66

With the hand of the Lord...

What would this child be? What would I grow up to be? What would be my destiny? We are reminded of that famous song: Que Sera, Sera! When a child is born a bundle of mystery is born. We would do well to receive it with that reverence and wait on it to unfold itself in its own time! But at times that seems very puzzling, or even frightening as if we are at the mercies of something or someone else - as the song we referred to says. Christian hope is not exactly that!

Our sense of mystery does not come from the mere fact that the prospects are hidden, but from the truth that it lies in the hands of God, who has willed us into existence, with a specific plan for each of us. John the Baptist was foretold as the Elijah to come and prepare the way; the son born of a young maiden was foretold to come and rule the world for ever; each of our birth too has been forethought by God from all eternity. 

The hand of the Lord accompanies us, as it did with John and with all other persons of God we come across. It would be our task to recognise this Hand in everything, accept its pointings and walk with love in justice and truth! The Coming of the Lord is at hand!

WORD 2day: 22nd December, 2014

Fourth Monday in Advent
1 Sam 1: 24-28: Lk 1: 46-56

Grateful Hearts and the Saintly song!

It is a saintly song to sing in exultation for the great things that God does to us. Today we have Hannah and Mary singing to their hearts' content. Only a grateful heart will have reasons to exult and only a heart that finds reasons to exult is truly saintly. There can be no sorry saints; even the worst affected of all exults in the great things that the Lord has done for her or for him. Mary is an epitome of such a saint and Hannah is her foreshadow!

Mary and Hannah have a lot in common: they bore their child in strange circumstances, both ran the risk of being misjudged, both realised that the Lord had seen with pity on their lowliness and both offered their child to God without reserve. Hannah sang the song of exultation and Mary adapted it! The most important of all similarities is their grateful breaking forth into a song of exultation.

As we near the Christmas day, the readings invite us to count our blessings and name them one by one. We will be surprised to see, how long and how many of them escaped our attention! Let us sing from the depths of our hearts a song that is new and glorious: My soul magnifies the Lord!

H.O.M.E

4th Sunday of Advent: 21st December, 2014

27: 1-5, 8b-12, 14a, 16; Rom 16: 25-27; Lk 1: 26-38

We are in the last Sunday before the all important feast we have been preparing ourselves for! Just 3 days to go for Christmas. Today the readings speak of the importance of getting ready with a home for the Lord. David in the first reading is concerned with building a home for the Lord and in the Gospel we see God preparing a worthy home for God's son to be born into this world, the worthy home being Mother Mary's immaculate womb. And it leaves us with one pertinent question: have I prepared a home to receive my saviour yet?

How do I prepare a home, a worthy dwelling for the Saviour who visits us? We can prepare a home by growing within us and among us the four qualities that are exemplified for us in the readings, by the persons involved.

Humility: Being humble is the first quality we are required to have. Mary is presented to us as the epitome of this humility. She acknowledges her lowliness before God and thus she is exalted high above all. The Lord teaches humility to David,through Nathan. The king David as a humble son, learns from God and accepts his state of unworthiness. We are called before the Lord to realise our state of mind and state of life, to be grateful and to acknowledge the goodness we have felt from God.

Obedience: Being obedient is the next important criterion for God to visit us. 'Be it done unto me, according to your word', said Mary. She knew the best thing that could happen to her was the Will of God for her life and so she submits herself totally to God's will. David too may have been rebellious at times but he was an obedient son, who always returned to listen to God and obey God's commands. We need to be obedient to the Lord to really receive the Lord into our lives- there can be no doubts about this!

Mercy: Being merciful, is the third important quality towards making a place for the Lord, worthy of the nature of the Lord. St. Paul brings out how the eternal mystery of God's love and mercy, was being manifested in the coming of the only Son of the Father. It is because the Lord is merciful, that in God's eternal mercy, God deigns to reveal Godself to us and thus come and dwell amidst us. 'Be ye merciful as your heavenly father is merciful', invited Jesus. Yes,that is the only way we can invite the Lord and make the Lord's presence felt among us.

Empathy: Being empathetic towards the needy, the suffering, the homeless, the lonely the least, the lost, the last, the hurt and the broken, is the most apt way of welcoming the Lord home! That will be the home that the Lord best loves, rather than homes that are merely spic and span because no one has entered that home; than the homes that are elegant because there is so much of money spent merely on external pomp and splendour; than the homes that are closed and secured, out of reach for the poor and the dirty, the needy and the clumsy. The Lord comes to identify himself with the poor, the sinners, the outcasts, the least, the marginalised; it is there the Lord would dwell. If we empathise with these, we would as well receive the Lord!

Humble, Obedient, Merciful and Empathetic, we can make a HOME for the Lord and there is no much time left: let us get into action NOW!

WORD 2day: 20th December, 2014

Third Saturday of Advent

Is 7: 1-14; Lk 1: 26-38

The Trustworthy Lord with us!

The world today seems lost and dissipated because by and large it has lost any solid foundation on which to base itself. Everything and everybody seems so flimsy and fragile that the moment you begin to feel secure things fall apart. And there is only one thing that we can stand firm on: Christmas says it all - the promises of God!

We stand on the promises of God. They alone do not fail us, come what may. The readings today bring this out in such vivid fashion that we do not need any interpretation to it. The first reading presents the promise made in King Ahaz's time and the Gospel presents the realisation of that promise. And in all this, Mary finds a special role. Her yes did not stop with the Angel disappearing but it continued all her life; she founded herself on the promises of God and as Elizabeth declares, "Blessed is the one who believes that what God promised will come true!"

Emmanuel, the Lord with us, is the foundation living with us. It is the Lord who resides with us and strengthens our confidence in this life through the promises and through the trust we have that the promises will come true. May this Christmas be a moment for us to rediscover this trustworthy Lord with us!

WORD 2day: 19th December, 2014

Third Friday of Advent
Jdgs 13: 2-7, 24, 25a; Lk 1: 5-25

The announcements and the precursors 

The readings from today would draw our attention to the various announcements and the numerous precursors that God sent in preparation for the climax of the salvation plan which is soon to begin unfolding! The two whom we see today: Samson and John the Baptist are announced! They have more than few characteristics that they share: both their mothers were considered barren or atleast already old; both were nazarites, that is set apart for God; one we see in the temple and the other we see in the wilderness but both in total union with God; both were chosen messengers of God and they play that part more than well.

Their life and their calling have something precise to communicate to us: your birth is not by chance, it is by choice. God has willed you into existence and has wished that a specific task be carried out by you. Our life has to consist in understanding this call, unraveling this specific task and living upto it. How attentive are we to the numerous announcements made by the Lord to us, the numerous messages that the Lord passes on!

YEAR OF CONSECRATED LIFE #7

WORD 2day: 18th December, 2014

Third Thursday of Advent
Jer 23: 5-8; Mt 1: 18-25

Emmanuel,  our justice

The most challenging of all attributes of God is what Jeremiah notes today: the Lord our justice. It was the experience of God that proved salvific for the people of Israel and it was the same experience that proved their detriment when it was to deal  with their way of treating the strangers, the orphans,  the widows and the helpless.

The Lord showed them his preferential love because they were exploited  and those who exploited he reduced them to nothing. Today the Lord lives,  the Lord lives with us and we are invited to acknowledge that presence of the Lord amidst us. In acknowledging it, we acknowledge the call that each of us has received in the Lord- to be instruments of this special presence of the Lord.

Joseph received the instruction as to how to be that special presence. He carried it  out diligently and secured his irreplaceable niche in the marvellous plan of God.

WORD 2day: 17th December, 2014

Third Wednesday of Advent

Gen 49: 2, 8-10; Mt 1: 1-17

The Lord of History

Every time one reads the part of the Gospel presented by the Word today, one is filled with an awe at the wisdom of the Lord of History. History is in the hands of the Lord; the Lord creates, shapes and determines the history of humankind. How  foolish of us to think that we are making history or we are writing it ourselves. 

There are two aspects of the genealogy that impresses us at the very outset: 
First, the faithfulness of God from time immemorial. God promised something and he remained faithful to that promise for centuries and centuries together. It is this fact that inspires St. Paul to declare that even "if we are faithless, he remains faithful"(2 Tim 2:13). This faithfulness is underlined in today's Word from the first reading.
Second, the fact that the genealogy presented includes names such as Rahab the prostitute; Ruth, a non Hebrew woman; Bathsheba, an illegitimate connection and so on! It is an unparalleled statement made by God that anyone can be God's instrument in creating history and writing it, provided God wills it.

Let us believe: in and through us, here and now, the Lord is writing a history! We would do well to surrender ourselves totally into God's hands and be docile to God's promptings that we would be worthy elements of that history.

WORD 2day: 16th December, 2014

Third Tuesday of Advent

Zeph 3: 1-2, 9-13; Mt 21: 28-32

Truly God's children?

At a point in the first reading the Lord says: 'you need not be ashamed of all your deeds...'. Not to be ashamed of myself is a life of dignity and honour; that I am myself and I am proud of it. True love and true regard for each other will give one this dignity and honour. The Lord fills us with this dignity and honour as God's sons and daughters. 

In our moral integrity we are challenged to remain worthy of that calling we have, that is, to be sons and daughters of God our loving father and mother. It consists of the decision we make to hear the voice of God, listen to it, realise the call in it and act on it with love. Not hearing the voice would be a total insensitivity to God; hearing but not listening would be a disrespect; listening but not realising the call involved would be foolishness; and realising it but not acting upon it, would be a deliberate choice that would negate our very belonging to the Lord.

When we are ready to hear, listen, realise and act on God's word, we would be true sons and daughters of God; and we would never need to be ashamed of ourselves, our deeds or our lives. The point is, are we really God's children!

WORD 2day: 15th December, 2014

Third Monday of Advent

Num 24: 2-7, 15-17a; Mt 21:23-27

It's all around you!

There are those who make religion a fairy tale or a horror story. The recent times have seen bands and bands of such people, writing, preaching, proclaiming and shouting at the top of their voice about signs and events, mysteries and milestones...all exciting but so shallow and Un-Christ-ian! It is not for us to know the time and the hour...but the call is to be prepared and alert, watching and praying constantly, that we may never miss when the Lord visits us.

That visit is not something about which we would shudder and shiver, if we live our every moment according to the will of the One who has commissioned us. If we are true and honest about our experience with God, we would find God and Godly signs and God's call to act, every moment of our lives! It is all around us... in faces that surround us, in events that envelope us, in experiences that beckon our choice and in persons who challenge our priorities. 

Let us be convinced of the fact that the Lord is present in our days, living with us, walking beside us all the way! And let this be our prayer that we may never miss the Lord: Lord teach us your ways!

WORD 2day: 13th December, 2014

Second Saturday of Advent

Sir 48: 1-4, 9-11; Mt 17: 9a, 10-13

Elijah, John and You!

They wondered why Elijah should come back, because for them Elijah meant trouble. That is the reason they could not see Elijah in the Baptist. And Jesus pointed it out on their face. 

For us today 'Elijah' would be those persons and situations that challenge us to greater commitment and total dedication. And 'John 'would be those people who put us into a spiritual uneasiness by their witness in life. 

What would be your response to the urgency of the Reign today: the increasing compromises in Christian living and the senseless alienation of life from the Christian belief. Keep Elijah and John in your mind for a practical and concrete dedication towards the integrity of the Reign. 

REJOICE

Third Sunday of Advent: 14th December,  2014

Is 61: 1-2 a,  10-11; 1Thes 5: 16-24; Jn 1: 1-6, 19-28.

Rejoice...again I say rejoice! Today is called the Gaudate Sunday, asking us to celebrate in foreboding joy, the Lord and his coming.

Joy is the key Christian value in today's world, maintains strongly our beloved Holy Father Pope Francis. He says a christian should be able to convince the world that one can be filled with joy and live one's life inspiring the same joy in those around and in the world at large. It is possible that one gets confused as to what this joy really means. But as to Christian joy,  there should be no doubt what it means.

J-Jesus... first and foundation.

Christian Joy is to place Jesus first in life. When the Lord is given the first and the central place in life, every thing else falls in place. Relativising every thing else in relation to God is a source of an immense serenity. John the Baptist knew that well and bears witness to this serenity!

The foundation of Christian Joy is the Lord himself.  It involves a grateful recognition of all that Good had done to us. Like our blessed mother we would break into a song of praise and thanksgiving: my soul magnifies the Lord;  for the Lord has done great things for me. Like Isaiah today and like Jesus himself who would quote the very same verses of Isaiah... we would acknowledge the working of the spirit on our behalf.

O-Others... prior and principle.

The other comes prior to the self in true joy. True Christian joy would take into consideration the other immediately after the Lord,  who is the source of joy. Selfishness and avarice,  pleasure and exploitation cannot form part of Christian joy.

The very principle of Christian joy is the community and the sense of the people of God! The Don Bosco Youth Centres in Chennai have this tag line attached to them: No one has the right to be happy alone. The call "rejoice" today, comes to the community as a whole to rejoice in the Lord who has willed to act on their behalf.

Y-You... last but not the least

You come at the end nevertheless "you" matter much to the Lord. It is not true to think that Christian spirit requires that you negate yourself to the extent that you think your self is evil!  It is not. You are precious in the eyes of God and you form an integral and important part of God's salvific plan.

Rejoice... is the call today. Let's rejoice in the Lord and prepare ourselves more intensely with that joy, to receive the Lord when He comes.

YEAR OF CONSECRATED LIFE #6

THE WORD AND THE FEAST

12th December, 2014: Feast of Our Blessed Mother of Guadalupe

Zech 2: 14-17; Lk 1: 26-38

The Lord comes: with our Yes!

The feast of Our Blessed Mother of Guadalupe during the Advent is an opportune moment to reflect on the importance of our cooperation with God's will. The Lord speaks of the plan to be one of us, be with us and make us God's own. And the Gospel presents to us the shortcut to become God's own, with a role model in place: Our Blessed Mother. 

It is because of her total surrender that she enters so powerfully into the plan of God as an instrument so crucial in the hands of God. We have a call to make the presence of the Lord felt in the world today and in our context. The Reign of God is nothing but making the influence of God felt on every bit of what is happening around us. It is only with our Yes, that this can become a reality. The Lord throws the challenge open to us and awaits our Yes: with our Yes, the Lord comes into our history, as with Mary's Yes, the Lord entered the history of humanity so concretely.

Do you really want God to enter you life? Do you want your life to journey towards its fullness? Then ask yourself: Are you ready to say YES to the Lord and the Lord's plans? If you do, you too will sing with our Blessed Mother- 'My soul magnifies the Lord'!

WORD 2day: 11th December, 2014

Second Thursday of Advent
Isa 41: 13-20; Mt 11: 11-15

The Reign Suffers

Jesus speaks of the Reign that suffers at the hands of the violent. It follows from Jesus' assertion that the Reign of God rests amidst us. Yes, the Reign lives in those who live the values of the Reign. Most of the times when I speak to persons, especially the Religious, about the Reign of God the session would not come to an end without a question: "are all that you spoke of, possible? Can we really establish such a Reign in our context?" 

My response is: it is not about establishing the Reign. The Reign already exists, in the persons who stand for love and mutual care, in persons who thirst for justice and truth, in persons who are ready to give up even their lives for the sake of fullness of life for all. The question is do we form part of that Reign already in our life or not. And if we do form part of it, it would be seen in our everyday choices, our priorities and the causes we stand for and speak out for. 

When we do it, we will not be surely left in peace. We will have troubles from every corner and the Lord assures us in the first reading today: 'Fear not! I will help you!' Because the Reign of God is the Lord's doing and we are all agents of that the Reign here on earth.

WORD 2 day: 10th December, 2014

Second Wednesday of Advent

Is 40: 25-31; Mt 11: 28-30

The Temple Run...the life's run

A famous game on the ipads and iphones among the young today, is the Temple Run. I have been fascinated by it the few times that I have seen it. It is nothing but a man who keeps running...he has a devil chasing him and he has to keep running. On the way though he has a devil behind him, he is worried about picking up coins and diamonds so that he can move on ahead having benefits and lives. 

Looking at it, one is reminded of how our lives are ...running all the time from pillar to post for so many varied things, and in the meanwhile concerned about collecting and hoarding things for the present and the future. It has become a need today and looks so rare that anyone will shrink from this running around! A Christian is no exception to this process.

The Lord assures his sons and daughters that God will be with us strengthening us in this life and all its trials...you will run but will not grow tired, you will walk but will not grow faint...if and only if you have God with you! The Lord expresses his wish to comfort us and assist us, it is upto us to receive this grace and accept his accompaniment.

YEAR OF CONSECRATED LIFE #5

WORD 2day: 9th December, 2014

Second Tuesday of Advent

Is 40: 1-11; Mt 18: 12-14

A Shepherd in Search

The image that the readings today paint to us is of a Shepherd who is compassionately in search of his lost lamb! And more precisely the Gospel and the beginning of the first reading speak to us of the comfort that the Lord wants bring us. 

Like in the story that we hear of a little girl who was lost in a jungle. When it got dark the girl hid herself behind a bush and stayed there calm and composed. the father came in search of the girl and as soon as the girl spotted her father,she shouted "Daddy! I found you!" We sometimes think we are in search of God, while it is God who is in continuous search of us!

Advent is a time that reminds us of the God who comes in search of us. When we allow ourselves to be found, we stand to gain. When we keep ourselves away from God and hide behind blocks, we would miss graces and blessings that we would never get to understand. Let us not miss the most comforting place of all that the Lord has made ready for us: the bosom of the Shepherd who is constantly in search of us.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     

THE WORD AND THE FEAST

Immaculate Conception of our Blessed Mother

Gen 3: 9-15, 20; Eph 1: 3-6, 11-12; Lk 1: 26-38

God's Plan: Not Magic but Mystery

Today's feast is not so much to celebrate the Blessed Mother of God, as to celebrate the Eternal plan of God. God has a plan for each of us, from before the foundations of the world, reminds us the Liturgy today. At times we look at this plan as something magical and try to guess it through means of mediums and methods of all sorts: palmistry, star signs, fortune tellers and prediction professionals! God's plan is not a magic for us to manipulate; it is a mystery to be lived. God's plans unfold moment by moment, as and when we live. 

Today we see, in time immemorial the promise that God made that he will set a woman and her offspring against the evil tempter of the world. And we celebrate how this plan at the foundations of the creation, unfolded in total obscurity, in the womb which bore the womb that would bear the Son of God. What a great mystery!

It is not for us to guess God's plan or calculate God's moves: that is a radical impossibility. But we are called to believe in the God's plan, accept it and cooperate with it! God has chosen us before the foundation of the world and therefore we are not here by chance; God has willed us into existence! It is our task to discern what God's plan is for us at any particular given time and carry it out, as did our Blessed Mother all her life. 

The aspect we celebrate in our Blessed Mother today is the total cooperation that she offered to the plan of God, because of which she lived all her life, holy and blameless. Let us fix our minds on the Word today: that we are chosen before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before God in love. 

W.A.I.T.

Second Sunday of Advent: 7th December,  2014

Is 40: 1-5, 9-11; 2 Pet 3: 8-14; Mt 1: 1-8

One fourth of the Advent is gone;  and soon it will be Christmas!  The Lord will be here anytime, warn the readings today. Last week liturgy invited us to watch and this week it invites us to WAIT.

Waiting can be of two fundamental kinds. It can be a passive indifference or it could be an active participation in the expectant events. A Christian waiting can never be an indifference and a passive helplessness regarding things that happen. That is what the world calls fate. A Christian waiting at advent is an active participation in the historical events that announce and usher in the Reign of God.

What does this wait concretely consist of?  The liturgy today offers a clarity on this.

To wait is to Wish the coming of the Lord. True Waiting begins with a real wish,  a want,  a true desire that the Lord comes. It cannot be based on a dubious or a half hearted acceptance of an inevitable situation. A truly Christian waiting for the Lord should begin from an ardent desire that the Lord should visit us. Sometimes this wish or desire can be half hearted because of the fear of the changes that the Lord can effect with the coming.

To wait is to Allow the hand of the Lord. 

Isaiah today speaks of the changes that we need to look forward to; that the valleys be filled and the hills be leveled! It cannot be a true Christian attitude to want the Lord to come but not being ready to do anything or give into any change personally or as a community. It is a readiness to allow the Lord to challenge us to perfection.

To wait is to Inhabit the dwellings of the Lord. 

The second reading speaks to us of the need to conduct ourselves in holiness and devotion. The Gospel presents to us a people who went in search of the man of God that they may get closer to God,  purify their ways and dwell in holiness and devotion. How eager are we to dwell in the courts of the Lord? How prepared are we to inhabit the new heavens and the new earth that the Lord promises us?

To wait is to Tremble at the presence of the Lord.

Let each one work out one's own salvation with fear and trembling. John the Baptist personifies the need to prepare oneself in earnestness for the day of the Lord. He gives the ways and means of being prepared for the Reign of God. When the people looked for a saviour in the Baptist, he admits it with trembling before the Lord that the One who comes after him is mightier than him.

Lets WAIT... wish heartily the coming of the Lord,  allow the hand of the Lord to change our lives,  inhabit the dwellings of the Lord and tremble at the presence of Lord. Let us take stock of the journey so far and continue in earnestness. 

WORD 2day: 6th December, 2014

First Saturday of Advent

Is 30: 19-21, 23, 26; Mt 9: 31- 10:1, 5a, 6-8

The greatest gift of God, is God's continual presence with us!

Life, food, water, protection, healing, assurance, sustenance, love and care...these are given to us gratuitously by God. All these are gifts that we have received, whether we acknowledge it or not. The greatest of all and the gift beyond all these is God's continual presence with us. More precisely, the fundamental gift of all is the presence! 

God's presence is manifested to us in various ways: as providing presence that fulfills our needs; protecting presence that safeguards us from dangers; probing presence that challenges us on our life's journey; and above all, guiding presence that accompanies us on a constant basis. The last of these, is a bit different presence because, all others will be taken care of by God, even if we are mere passive receivers. But the accompanying presence of the Lord can be experienced only if we actively acknowledge, accept and allow the Lord to act on our behalf. 

Advent is a spiritual exercise precisely to grow in our capacity to become aware of this accompanying presence! It is a moment when we learn to see, practice to understand and be prepared to allow God to have God's way in our life. Are you on that journey?