WORD 2day: 6th January, 2015

God is Love; Who are we?

1 Jn 4: 7-10; Jn 6: 34-44

God's image among God's people was continuously evolving...first they thought God was a demanding task master, but later understood God was loving too; first they thought God was an angry God but later they found God slow to anger, abounding in love; first they thought God was an uncompromising God but later they understood he was merciful too! The evolution finds its climax in Christ, who reveals God as absolutely compassionate, profusely loving, immensely forgiving and unconditionally accepting! 

Knowing God to be such a person, is in a way a great news for us; but at the same time a big challenge. A great news because we are cared for and protected in that unbelievable love. A challenge because, if we are children of God, we need to be defined by who God is. Our God is love; hence we are called to be children of love! From the way we live our life, the world should be able to understand the kind of God we believe in. This is what is called the integrity of faith: the correlation between our faith and our living!

Now that Jesus in his compassion and in his mercy, has revealed God as love, let us ask ourselves, who are we?   

WORD 2day: 5th January, 2015

To belong and to proclaim

1 Jn 3:22 - 4:6; Mt 4: 12-17, 23-25

The texts begin to orient us towards the Baptism of Jesus, which is the next major event we would be soon commemorating. Today the Word speaks to us of two key elements: Belonging to God and  Proclaiming God! These are the two fundamental marks of identity that we should have as Christians: to belong to God and be God's children and to proclaim God and invite everyone to a life worthy of God who has gifted that life to each of us.

Belonging without proclaiming would make us dead weights burdening the faith community; proclaiming without belonging would make us false prophets and hypocrites. The order is important too: that we first belong and then we speak up. That is why we see Jesus himself first withdraw into loneliness and ascertain his belonging to the One who had sent him before he began to go around proclaiming the Good News!

Needless to say, the resonance between the personal life of belonging to the Lord and the life of commitment to ministry (ministry at various levels: family, parish, congregation, community of faith etc...)is the fundamental quality of integrity that Jesus demands of us, his disciples.