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.