GOD WHO RELATES...

Encountering, enchanting, empowering

22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time

Jer 20: 7-9; Rom 12:1-2; Mt 16: 21-27

Our trust and our belief is not in a power or in a principle which is called God, but in a person... in three persons...who reveal themselves to us. In acknowledging that revelation and accepting it, we grow in a relationship called faith. The readings today present to us the way God relates to us.

Encountering God

We have an encountering God...a God who meets us on our everyday journey, intercepts our daily routine, and comes up with questions and proposals that demand our utmost attention. Not just questions that take an answer, but questions that lead to life choices, radical commitments and fundamental stands.

Enchanting God

In this encounter and in the ways that God reveals Godself to us, God is ever enchanting. Sometimes when God encounters we are so mesmerised, enticed and gripped by the experience that we make decisions, make choices which otherwise we would not have made at all. God overpowers us, complains Jeremiah today. Yes, God overpowers us with love, with God's love.

Empowering God

It is when we come out of that mesmerised state, we realise what we have done...that we have fallen for God, fallen in love with that wonderful person and given our word for so many things that are so difficult in our world today: a world with such warped, strange, queer and sometimes nauseating principles, policies and priorities. A prolonged commitment seems an impossibility, a tough enroute to happiness seems an impracticality, selfless love and sensitive hearts seem an unavailable commodity. But God empowers... God empowers us with encouragements and at the same time corrections, as we see in Jesus' conversation with Peter. It is only through God's empowering love that we can know, choose and hold on to what is Good, what is acceptable and what is perfect.

WORD 2day:30th August, 2014

From the eyes of God
1 Cor 1: 26-31; Mt 25:14-30

We are not  called to do great things, we are instead called to do the right things, those proper to our call. As Mother Teresa would put it, it does not matter how big a task we do, but it matters how much love we put into what we are upto.

At times we compare ourselves with others...how much more or less we have than the other. It is an insult to our maker who has created us with such uniqueness that i am just one of my kind. However little or great the task entrusted to me in my life, what matters is not what is the outcome but what has been the effort.

We are called today to avoid both belittling ourselves in comparison to others and boasting in contempt of others. We will avoid both if we understand our life and all that is involved, from the eyes of God. For what do we have that we have not received? (cf. 1Cor 4:7).

WORD 2day: 29th August, 2014

The Christ logic: The Martyrdom of John the Baptist

1 Cor 1:17-25; Mk 6: 17-29

St.Paul boasts often saying, there is a different kind of a logic that is at work in us... and the first person who lived by that logic even before Christ the Lord, was John! Infact Christ called him the greatest of those born of a woman. The sufferings of this world are nothing compared to the glory that awaits us in the Lord, St. Paul would remind us.

Be a servant to be the Leader, be the least to be considered the best, be ready for the Cross in order to taste the true love of God... identifying ourselves with Christ is a serious affair. We would either be judged "strange"or "challenging". Many went through this ordeal due to this Christ logic... Jesus himself was affected by that wasn't he?...they called him 'possessed'...they called him 'out of his mind'...and finally villainised him and killed him, just as they did with John the Baptist.

Applying today the Christ logic... what do we expect of the world? Persecutions and pressures, what would be our response to them? In today's culture of hatred and violence, what would our style be? Do we dare to make our's the Christ logic?

WORD 2day: 28th August, 2014

A Life without God? - Remembering St.Augustine

1 Cor 1:1-9; Mt 24: 42-51

"Stay awake", warns the Gospel today and that seems to be a constant reminder these days... with the rising political friction, ecological crisis and social turbulence. Stay awake and don't miss the the Lord, instruct the readings ... resounded by the famous expression of the saint of the day: St Augustine - "I fear the Lord passing by!" 

The anxiety not to miss the Lord comes from the absolute dependence on the Lord, that was so typical of Augustine, just as we see also in St. Paul. They both believed and taught that we are made for the sake of the Lord and that we would find our true fulfilment in the Lord alone. 

The scourge of today's humanity seems to be exactly this - that we are looking for happiness, joy, advancement, progress and development without having to do anything with God! Is it really possible?

WORD 2day: 27th August, 2014

The Lord be with you: Remembering Saint Monica

2 Thess 3: 6-10, 16-18; Mt 23: 27-32

The loftiest wish one can make for another is, that the Lord be with him or her! But a Christian hears it almost all the time that he or she is out there to pray, specially in union  with the other brothers and sisters. Today St. Paul makes the same wish and prays that we may be blessed with peace. That peace and serenity will come only with the presence of the Lord and that is the meaning of the wish, 'Lord be with you!'

But this wish is at one and the same time, a blessing and a challenge. A blessing because it is in that moment of blessing that the Lord decides to intervene definitively in favour of the salvation of the entire humankind. It is a challenge because, the Lord being with us all the time, is a bit inconvenient. The Lord would be aware of everything we say or do, because the Lord is close at hand. Would I feel comfortable if the Lord knows all that I am involved in? Or would there be areas, where I would rather be by myself, without God?

In fact, it is this sense of God, the sense of God's presence all the time with me that amounts to a spirituality that is profound in its simplicity. Saint Monica is a great example in this regard. Her incessant prayers for her son and her spiritual endurance in waiting for the grace of God to bear fruit are lessons taught so powerfully. 

WORD 2day: 26th August, 2014

Be scandal proof!

2 Thess 2: 1-3a, 14-17; Mt 23: 23-30

I was shocked a few years ago, when I saw a video posted by an anti catholic brother. He was criticising everything 'Catholic' and went to the extent of calling the then Holy Father, the Anti-Christ who is to come. Taking the matter to another priest, I expressed my shock at this. And the priest just smiled at me and said: "a fruitful tree has to foresee the stones coming its way!" 

Oppositions, today more than ever, keep growing to unbelievable proportions against the faith and tradition that we have grown with. There are splendid ways of God that we come across in spite of all these oppositions. At same time there is no dearth of examples that fail to communicate God's benevolence to us. What we are to do is, simply remain calm and composed at times when we are troubled. No use lamenting the absence of witnesses for the Lord, but being one myself - that is what really matters. And whether we are a model or not, it is important and urgent today to observe, notice and identify the counter witness! And it is more important and crucial to be scandal proof! 

WORD 2day: 25th August, 2014

Growing to be children of the Reign

2 Thess 1: 1-5, 11-12; Mt 23: 13-22

Children of God or Children of the Hell... what decides our identity? Not what we claim to believe in nor the group we belong to? It will depend on my personal integrity says the Lord today. If I declare what I believe and live what I am convinced of, I will be a daring disciple of Christ and that is what Christ wants of us. When we live in such a way "that our God may make us worthy of his calling and powerfully bring to fulfilment every good purpose and every effort of faith, that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you and you in him, in accord with thy grace of our God and Lord Jesus Christ" (2 Thes 1:11-12.)

To grow to be worthy of our calling as children of the Reign, is the call that we have everyday. Let nothing that is part of us - our speech, our action, our attitudes, our values - let nothing that is part of us offer a message that is against the Reign of God. Let everything that we are involved in be a proclamation of the Gospel, proclamation of the goodness of God, proclamation of the glory of God in Lord Jesus Christ.

Key persons unto the Kingdom

21st Sunday in Ordinary Time : 24th August, 2014

Is 22: 19-23; Rom 11: 33-36; Mt 16: 13-20

One image that dominates the liturgy of the word today, is the image of the Key...every person wants to be a key person. Becoming conscious of one's mission and situating it within God's plan is the real secret behind being key persons in the eyes of the Lord. Every prophet, we see in the Old Testament, is enamoured by the love of the Lord and surrenders totally to the Spirit shining as a key person within the believing community. Our tasks of being part of the Parish Pastoral Council, the cooperators to the animating nucleus of the Parish at the zonal or the division levels, are some key roles that people aspire for today. The call is be key persons, yes; but not unto our own glory but unto the Reign that the Lord wants us to build here on earth. 

God Given Role: 

Being key persons unto the kingdom would mean, we understand our key role from the perspective of God. At times politics enters the religious ambit and shatters every bit of truth that can exist. Loss of focus and confusion of meanings are the outcomes of such an influx and personal integrity is left at stake. The Lord reminds us in the first reading that it is the Lord who robes one with or strips one of authority.

Guided by Wisdom:

Wisdom is not merely knowing; it is knowing that one knows and knowing what is to be known at a particular point of time. It is, more than capacity, a grace! A key person unto the Kingdom should be equipped with wisdom much more than anything. To make the right decisions at the right time and to make the right changes at the right time towards an authentic growth towards being true people of the Reign, the key persons, if not all, should be guided by wisdom.

Personal Knowledge of God:

The Gospel today gives us the ultimate criterion to be key persons unto the kingdom: it is to know God, on a personal basis. To have encountered God, experienced God, tasted God, felt the concrete presence of God is one of the fundamental criteria to play any key role in a community of faith, a community of people of God. Mere borrowed experiences and brainwashed theories cannot make one an authentic key player within the community of the Reign. 

Each of us can turn to be a key person unto the Kingdom, if we realise the God given role that we have, be guided by Wisdom and yearn for a personal knowledge of God in our lives. The more key persons there are, the more the Reign can be established on earth.

WORD 2day: 23rd August, 2014

We, the glory of God

Ezek 43: 1-7; Mt 23: 1-12

The talk of the glory of the Lord reminds me immediately of the famous saying of St. Irenaeus, "the glory of God is the human person fully alive." It is so true, that the Lord does not glory in the whole universe, but in the human person that God has created, precisely because the Lord created the human persons in God's own image and likeness. Bearing God's image and likeness is much more than just being a special creature; it is being God's own, it is bearing that dignity that comes from God, it is having God as our father, our mother, our Master, our Lord, our source, our destiny, our model, our meaning... our all. 

Let us not be carried away by the scandals on earth and the misleading examples around. Let our eyes be fixed on that one source and summit. The Lord alone is our Master. When we journey on this way, we will have with us those who have gone before us, those who are struggling along with us, those who are on the verge of giving up, those who are contemplating to commence the same journey and so on. Let us feel a sense of solidarity with all, encourage each other and grow up (cf. 1 Thess 5:11), to be true sons and daughters of God , manifesting the glory of the Lord here on earth. Just as Ezekiel saw the glory of the Lord enshrined in the Temple, let the world today see the glory of the Lord in us, the living temples of the Lord (1 Cor 3:16).

WORD 2day: 22nd August, 2014

The Dry bone syndrome
Ezek 37: 1-14; Mt 22: 34-40

The world is experiencing a time that is strange in all its sense and meaningless in  its totality. There is some invention or development every single day in the field of social networking, making it easier and easier to stay in touch and communicate to each other. But the paradox is that world is growing colder by the day towards those who are suffering, those who are struggling, those who are left without hope, those who are exploited and targetted, denied their rights, robbed of their dignity and incessantly dehumanised. It is an experience we can call the dry bone syndŕome. Bones strewn all around but having nothing to do with each other.

The spirit, the breath of the Lord that the Lord commands Ezekiel to prophesy about, is nothing but the Spirit of the Lord, the love for God and the love for one's neighbours. It is Love that can give life to this heap of dry bones. It is the love that God lavishes upon us and the realisation of it, that can urge us to love others (2 Cor 5:14).

WORD 2day: 21st August, 2014

The task of becoming God's people
Ezek 36: 33-28; Mt 26: 1-14

The readings today seem to underline the urgency of responding to God's invitation. The urgency in no way does away with the demands of the criteria. The demand is not just to be good people, but to be God's people. However we may try, that task seems to be practically impossible, with all the traps and trials around in our living conditions. The Lord òffers to fill us with Lord's own spirit. It is only through that, one can live according to the norms of the living Lord. Let us put on the Spirit of the Lord and enter the daily banquet of the Lord...well on our way to becoming the Lord's people.

Joseph: Biblical Icon for Family Living #2

My contribution in the Salesian Bulletin - August Issue...

WORD 2day: 20th August, 2014

A warning and a lesson... BE COMPASSIONATE  

Ezek 34: 1-11; Mt 20: 1-16

The careless shepherds and the sensitive land owner: the readings today present to us a dynamic contrast. It is a warning and a lesson offered together, to every person who has in some way or the other, care over others. It could be pastors who have care over the whole flock of the faithful, or the parents who have the care of children, or the teachers who have the responsibility towards their wards, or friends who have a natural ascendancy over their peers, or employers who have a say over their employees and so on.

The warning is: You are not indispensable and you are answerable! The ascendancy you have is a service required of you. Jesus would instruct those given charge not to lord it over the people (Mt 20:25) and St. Peter would perfectly learn it from his master (1 Pet 5:3). It is a service of love and a task entrusted by the Lord, to be compassionate towards those under our care.

The lesson is: Treat persons for what they are and not for what they have to give you! Whether it was the one who came into the field at the dawn of the day or the ones who came close to the dusk, they were persons in need and persons who had stomachs to feed. The land owner saw what they were and not what they gave him in the form of labour. He gave them all, what they needed at the end of the day to live life at peace.

In both, the warning and the lesson, the Lord underscores a heart that is compassionate. Indeed, that is the identity of the Lord himself.

WORD 2day: 19th August, 2014

Absolute centrality of God: the Jesus style!

Ezek 28:1-10; Mt 19: 23-30

The Rich and the Poor: how do we differentiate them? It might seem a naive question. In fact, it is. Rich are those who hold wealth and the poor are those who do not. It is fair and clear. But today, the Lord invites us to go a little deeper and understand what it means to be "poor in spirit". 

Often, being rich and a sense of arrogance is considered to be naturally linked to each other. Though its authenticity could be questioned, an arrogance arising from the wealth one possesses makes one totally ungodly - that is an undeniable fact. The second category are those who are rich but act discretely, but are all the time conscious that they are so discrete and decent. They consider that a great favour they do to the rest of the society, punctuating all the time the fact that they have chosen to be so considerate towards everyone! Yet another category are those who are rich but are humble and grateful, acknowledging everything as a blessing from above.

The Jesus style of life is an attitude of absolute centrality of God, where it does not matter whether one possesses wealth or not, whether one has abundance of riches or not; a centrality that leads to a childlike dependence on God, with total trust and absolute confidence in the provident love of God. This is being poor in spirit; and that is how I can inherit the Reign of God.

WORD 2day: 18th August, 2014

Knowing is one thing; but living with God?

Ezek 24: 15-23;  Mt 19: 16-22.

I remember a scene from the movie, "I am Gabriel", where the messenger from God tells a person to make prayer mats for everyone in the town. And a day later, the person happily shows all the prayer mats made and the messenger replies calmly but sternly, "making them is one thing but what is more important is using them!" The readings today seem to give us a message similar to that.

Knowing what is right is one thing, but the more important thing is to live by it. Ezekiel is presented a sign, to make the people realise how thoughtless they were growing about God. They were fulfilling their daily duties and keeping the so called "law" or the religious duties. But whether they were really in touch with the Lord, is the true concern. The rich young man, knew the laws and lived the laws, but missed the point as to why he was doing all that: to make God the centre of his life. 

With all the various things that we do we may know what is to be done at a given point of time: the rites and the rituals, the rules and the regulations, the laws and the demands therewith. It is completely another thing to realise why do all that we do! To make God the centre of our lives, the foundation and the meaning of our lives. That would mean 'selling everything', 'giving up' and 'loving everyone genuinely'; for in love is God revealed,

THE SAVING LOVE OF GOD

The call to grow into my Salvation: 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Is 56: 1-6,7 ; Rom 11: 13-15, 29-32; Mt 15: 21-28

Will the Hindus be saved? Will the non-believers be saved? Will those who belong to this particular church be saved? - These are questions frequently asked by those who have not truly understood the omnipotence and the mercy of God, and the relationship between the two. God wills that all be saved, declares St. Paul (1 Tim 2:4). The Universal Salvation of God has been effected once and for all, from the Cross. What is left for us is to claim it for ourselves from the Lord, in Lord's Mercy. 

Is it on our merit that we can claim it? Or are we left so desperately at the mercy of the Lord that we live till the last moment of our life with intense insecurity and total obscurity? Both these options are out of place when we remember the SAVING LOVE OF GOD. I can never merit it for I do not deserve the love that the Lord showers on me. I am not desperately left to in obscurity for I have the hope in the fact that Jesus has given me the power to become a child of God (cf. Jn 1:12). The readings today highlight this salvific act of God's love on my behalf. 

God's saving love knows no history. As the second reading points to us, the salvific love of God does not depend on what history I share and with whom? It does not keep in mind the account of the undeserving acts, in which case I would be damned to eternity. The appeal that God's love makes to us, is made afresh every day and every moment. It is in every single moment of choice that I make, that I have to receive this love, so freely and so generously given.

God's saving love respects no geography. As the second reading and the Gospel point to us, God does not love us on the basis of the background that we come from, the family that brought me up, the institutions I got educated in and the ministries that I have carried out. No, there is no geography in God's salvation because the whole earth, what is within it and what is around it belongs to God. Lord God is the Lord of the universe! And that is precisely why God's salvation is universal.

God's saving love holds no memories. I need not despair at the bitter past that I have had, nor need I to make such great acts of reparation to appease my God! They are in no way related to the love that my God has for me. The love that the Lord has for me is so absolute and boundless that nothing on earth or beyond the earth can separate me from that love in and through Christ Jesus. That love of God does not keep count of my faults or my failures; all that counts is the choice I make at a given moment, a choice so lovingly absolute for God, and for everything that belongs to God. My salvation is assured on the part of God; but on my part I need to grow into my salvation: through my daily choices and everyday commitment. 

DB turns 199

WORD 2day: 16th August, 2014

The key to the Reign in the hands of a child

Ezek 18: 1-10, 13b, 30-32; Mt 19: 13-15

The Reign of God belongs to such as these, says the Lord pointing to the children. The condition seems to be plain: to become children to inherit the Reign. Ezekiel gives us the key to become children: a new heart and a new spirit! Children indicate two qualities essentially: Freshness of Vision and Purity of Intention. 

Freshness of vision gives one the capacity to learn new things; Purity of intention gives the capacity to love truly. Learning new things, or looking at things every time with a fresh disposition makes life interesting and keeps one young. Starting anew every time with a fresh vigour and renewed dedication makes life fully lived. Purity of intention removes duplicity and hypocrisy. It makes life simple, uncomplicated and meaningful. It allows one to live life with love in his or her heart, without a preoccupation to survive or succeed. 

The point is very clear in the readings today: A clean heart, or a child's heart, is the entry pass to the Reign of God and the access codes are freshness of vision and purity of intention. The former helps us to live without prejudices and the latter fills us with the sense of the Divine.    

Assumption: the fulfilment of the Hope

Solemnity of the Assumption of our Blessed Mother

Ap 11:19, 12:16-10; 1 Cor 15: 20-26; Lk 1: 39-56

The crossing of the red sea and the Exile were the watershed for the God experience of the people of Israel. It was their walk from slavery to freedom that gave an identity to the people of the Old Testament. In the New Testament too it was a similar experience that proved to be the watershed...the passing from death to life; the event of life giving Hope! The hope that Jesus' resurrection brought to humakind reaches its fulfilment, when Mary shares the fruits of it as the first one to do so, in union with her Son and Lord Jesus Christ.

Mary was instrumental in bringing in the light of the world. She remained faithful to the One who had called her and thus wins favour in God's eyes. Hence it is that many a saint spoke of her as the lady of the Apocalypse, bringing forth the Son and fighting the dragon. She is given these honours due to the humility with which she went about doing the will of the One who had called her.

It was this humility and docility that make her so grateful and recognizant of God's mighty presence with her on a constant basis. This recognition makes her a strong person: so free and so responsible. When she sings that hymn of glory to the Lord it was not merely a wishful prayer but also an expression of commitment towards the Reign of God, the reign of equality and justice to all.

May the feast of Assumption bring us to a humble recognition of the ways in which God wants to use us here and now, that we too may one day experience the fulfilment of our Hope in the Lord.

WORD 2day: 14th August, 2014

Obstinacy of Human Selfishness - Remembering St. Maxmilian Kolbe

Ezek 12: 1-12; Mt 18:21 - 19:1

The Rebellious people have eyes to see but do not see; they have ears to hear but do not hear. How good, loving, forgiving, merciful and bountiful God is to me - I am so aware of it right until the time that I myself have to be good, loving, forgiving and generous with those around me! I begin to count, calculate, justify, judge, grudge and grumble when I have to give or forgive or show mercy or be loving. I have the eyes to see God's goodness but I lack the vision to see that I need to be good too. I have the ears to hear the merciful whisperings of the Divine but I don't have the ears to hear the pleading for mercy in the eyes of my brother and sister! What is this but an awful obstinacy of human selfishness?

The Obstinacy of Human Selfishness does not allow me to share with the others whatever God has given me; it blocks even the natural consciousness and awareness of the extent to which I have received. In comparison to the amount of love that God has showered on us, where does the level of love that I show to others stand? In comparison to the sins and the wickedness that God has forgiven in me, where do the simple faults committed by my brother or my sister stand? Maxmilian Kolbe, stands tall in this regard as he offers to give of himself to a brother of his, whom he know not, from whom he received not, for whom he did not make any calculations whatsoever - a simple but profound way of loving as God does!

WORD 2day: 13th August, 2014

The Sign that saves!

Ezek 9: 1-7, 10, 18-22; Mt 18: 15-20

There would be hardly any of us who has not seen this symbol in the recent days...

it has come to symbolise the Christians suffering in Iraq. It is drawn or spray painted on the doors of the houses of Christians, to tell the plunderers and soldiers that those houses are accessible at will. The Christians are made to live in a constant fear and anxiety.

In the first reading today we see in the vision of Ezekiel, the angels were given a symbol on the forehead of people, by which they are spared! Jesus too gives a mark by which we will be known as people of God...the mark of loving forgiveness. "By this they will know that you are my disciples: if you have love for one another" (Jn 13:35). In the Gospel today, Jesus explains what this 'having love for one another' is. It is to forgive, to care for each other and above all to pray together, with one heart and mind. This is the mark that Jesus expects of us, as our identity, as a sign that saves us! It is not those who call him 'Lord Lord' who would be saved but those who do the will of the Father (Mt 7:21), Jesus would say. The sign that can save us is our life of daily forgiveness and undying love.

Today in a very special way let us pray for those brothers and sisters who are persecuted in Iraq and elsewhere for the mark that they bear, as disciples of Christ!

WORD 2day: 12th August, 2014

Obey and be not rebellious...

Ezek 2:8-3:4; Mt 18:1-5, 10,12-14.

When a child places its trust in someone, be it father or mother, or a loved one, or a teacher or a friend, the child obeys without questions. That is what makes a child so vulnerable in front of those. That vulnerability makes the child so special and so valuable in the eyes of the Lord. Obedience, docility, humility, surrender - these are the dispositions that are expected of a child of God, in the presence of God. 

The first reading so figuratively presents through the experience of Ezekiel, the message that Lord gives to each of the Lord's sons and daughters: to be children, to obey and not to be rebellious, but to receive the Word of the Lord, take it in, savour it, understand it, live by it, and announce it to the world. 

"Obey and you will not have sinned" says the famous monastic rule. And that is the strength of obedience. The first sin recorded in the Word is of rebellion, and the atonement for it was offered in Obedience, on the Cross! The Word instructs us today, if you are to be called children of God: Obey and be not rebellious!

WORD 2day: 11th August, 2014

Real Magnificence of Humanity: Remembering St. Clare

Ezek 1:2-5,24-28; Mt 17: 22-27

We belong to a God who is mighty, grandiose and magnificent. And because we belong to this God we too are mighty and magnificent. And this magnificence   loses its true colour if it is detached from its origin, that is God. It dissipates into arrogance or pride and degrades humanity. As long as it is strongly linked to the Lord, it is ready to put up with sacrifices, sufferings, unjust treatments, and so on. As St. Paul would put it, "the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed to us" (Rom 8:18). We remember today St. Clare, the feminine version of St. Francis of Assisi. She, just like Francis, is a lived example of the magnificence of humanity lived in constant union with its source, that is God. We have seen the impact that such persons can have on history. Are we ready to tread the path traced by such as these?

GOD IS...

For all Seasons... GOD IS!

19th Sunday in Ordinary Time: 10th August, 2014

1 Kgs 19:9a, 11-13a; Rom 9:1-5; Mt 14:22-33

The ongoing persecution of Christians in Iraq has shaken the peace-loving part of the world to its core. The Holy Father these days is continuously and strenuously calling for prayers and spiritual support to those witnessing to their faith at the cost of their lives and their dignity as human persons. Explicit and Implicit persecutions are on from various segments of the society against the Christians for their faith and their belonging to the Church. How many times we are segregated and looked down upon for the reason that we are Christians, apart from the cliched idea that 'christians are honourable people'! Leave alone these persecutions and oppositions, what about the daily struggles that we have and what does our faith do to those? These are the questions that fill our mind as we reflect on the readings of today.

Whether joys or sorrows, trials or triumphs, celebrations or temptations, successes or struggles, the Lord is. God is with us! God is present with us and God walks beside our tossed boats. God speaks to us in gentle whispers and caresses in our moments of discernment and decision making. In moments of struggles and strivings he is there as our stronghold. How convinced are we about the Lord's presence with us at all moments: For all seasons... God IS.

However, it is our responsibility to meet God...

We are invited to meet God IN THE CALM OF OUR LIFE... At moments when everything is calm and quiet, serene and simple, we tend to miss the presence of God. Grateful hearts behold that presence instantly and childlike spirits rejoice in that quietude. The Lord invites us through Prophet Elijah to behold the Lord in the "sound of sheer silence" (as the NRSV translation phrases it 1 Kgs 19:13). 

We are invited to meet God IN THE STORM OF OUR DAYS... Our lives never lack moments when storm clouds batter against our weak spirits. We shall not be moved, if we are sure of the Lord who is present with us. We shall remain strong and composed if we know that the Lord is around even if we are not able to see God because of the darkness that surrounds and because of the deafening noise that threatens. At times we may be misled to look at God and suspect God to be a ghost, that is look at things that are happening and villainise God, blaming God for every misery that is around. When things are settled, at hindsight we will recognise how good God is and how God has been with us all through those moments.

We are invited to meet God AS THE NORM OF OUR LIFE... Added to these, the Lord invites us to encounter him as the norm of our lives, special in times of trouble. The life and miracles of Christ are not merely wonders and showpieces. They are lessons to be learnt, ways to be adopted to live our life like him, with him and in him. In the second reading, St. Paul cries over the numerous signs that the Lord gave the Jews, which they utterly missed and totally squandered. Let us not miss the lessons that come through every experience that we live in our daily life. 

The Lord's invitation resounds as it does to Elijah, "Go out, stand and watch! the Lord shall be passing by! Don't let the Lord pass by." St. Augustine makes that inspiring statement in this regard: I fear the Lord, passing by. Let us behold the Lord always, because for all seasons, God is!!!

WORD 2day: 9th August, 2014

Just a bit of faith...

Hab 1:12 - 2:4; Mt 17:14-20

Righteous shall live by their faith!
Faith... if we have it we have everything; if we have everything but faith, there is  a lack that nothing else can complete. This is why Jesus expresses his displeasure in such plain terms to his disciples.

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.

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.

WORD 2day: 8th August, 2014

The true blessedness from God

Nah 2:1-3, 3:1-3, 6,7; Mt 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 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 forward 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.

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

WORD 2day: 7th August, 2014

A heart worthy of the Covenant

Jer 31: 31-34; Mt 16: 13-23

The day will come when you will not have to teach your loved ones to know God...for every one will know God in those days, promises the Lord. Jesus applauds Peter, saying his knowledge of Christ was exceptional, because it was God given! The day has come when Peter know who the Lord was, as we read in Jeremiah.

The reality is that, though God reveals Godself to us and we get to know God so intimately, our memories are so very fickle and short lived. We give into our human tendencies so easily and readily as if there were nothing so great between us and God! Our memories may be thus short, but not God's. God forgives, waits and and readily renews the covenant that God made with us. 

The Lord promises to give us a new heart, a heart of flesh, a heart that takes after the sensibilities of God, a heart that sees as God does, a heart that hears as God does, a heart that feels as God does, a heart that loves as God loves... a heart that is worthy of the covenant that God has made with us.

WORD 2day: 6th August, 2014

The Transfiguration of the Lord : The call to burn till we are consumed!

Dan 7: 9-10, 13-14;  2 Pet 1: 16-19; Mt 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. It 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 offer in Himself and to never rest from our efforts to build the Reign of God here on earth. It is a call to burn until we are totally consumed, totally consumed for the sake of the mission that the Lord entrusts to us, consumed living our daily life to the full, empowering every person to live it to their full. 

WORD 2day: 5th August, 2014

Growing recognizant of the faithfulness of God...

Jer 30: 1-2, 12-15, 18-22; Mt 15: 1-2, 10-14

"You shall be my people and I will be your God": everytime that I hear this statement...I am filled with an awe about the unfailing love of God. What are all my actions in front of this unbounded love of God? What do my so called great sacrifices and pious practices measure up to, in comparison to the immeasurable love of God? 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. 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 of the same team...how forbearing are we? How patient and non judgmental can we prove to be! That would be a reflection of how recognizant we are of the unending love and unfailing acceptance of God!

WORD 2day: 4th August, 2014

Being true prophets: Remembering John Maria Vianney

Jer 28:1-17; Mt 14: 13-21

The readings today remind us of our call to be a prophet... by the way, do we really know 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, but being convinced of it is totally another thing.

Being a prophet is not speaking things that others would love to hear from us -like the so called fortune tellers and prediction prodigies do to woo more and more  customers. Jeremiah warns Hananiah today in the first reading against his false sense of prophecy! And we read the sad end of Hananiah. The Gospel has a symbolic message in the same lines.

Jesus chides his disciples for their lack of faith. It might look a bit too demanding on Jesus' part to expect the disciples to remain unperturbed when they are almost sinking. 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. In today's world so immersed in numerous kinds of concerns, wouldn't it be prophetic to live a life so unperturbed! John Maria Vianney is indeed a shining example in this.

THE LORD REMAINS... DO I?

18th Sunday in Ordinary Time: 3rd August, 2014

Is 55:1-3; Rom 8: 35, 37-39; Mt 14:13-21

Nothing can separate us from Christ, declares the second reading, because we are part of Christ and Christ is part of us. Christ chose to be so!

Christ INVITES us to come, eat and drink from his love, from his generosity, from his compassion. He provides in times of our need, in moments of our struggle, in moments of our crises. Christ reminds us here of Jehovah Jireh, the God who provides.

Christ CHOOSES not to part with us. In the Gospel account we find the disciples telling the Lord that they could send the people away. But the Lord insists that they give the people something to eat. It is that compassion that ends in a miracle. Christ chooses to remain with us  forever.

Christ REMAINS with us whether we are conscious of it or not. Nothing separates us from the Lord except our decision to keep ourselves away from Him. In our need, in our troubles, in our struggles, in our concerns...the Lord promises to be with us and provide us with every bit of care we need. Not even death, but our free choice against God can separate us from God. That places the entire burden on our part to remain with the Lord.

WORD 2day: 2nd August, 2014

The plight of a prophet

Jer 26: 1-11,16 ; Mt 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 has often occured to me 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!

WORD 2day: 1st August, 2014

Hearing what I want to hear 

Jer 26: 1-9; Mt 13: 54-58

Recently, I had been to a hearing test centre and the technician there was explaining to us: 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 these hearing losses 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. This is the syndrome that we see the people are in, in both the first reading and the Gospel.

When Jeremiah spoke to them about the impeding danger and their need to return to the Lord, they deemed him liable to death. When Jesus spoke to them on issues that really challenged their daily life, they looked at him with suspicion and despised him for the "ordinariness" from which he hailed.

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 guarded, biased and suspicious, we would break no ground towards perfection. On this first friday of the month, let us allow the words from the Sacred Heart to fill us and challenge us, so that we may not fall prey to the syndrome of 'hearing merely what we want to hear'!