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!