THE WORD AND THE FEAST

To stand and to wait on

Celebrating the Archangels : 29th September, 2016

Dan 7: 9-10,13-14; Jn 1: 47-51

The Archangels Michael, Gabriel and Raphael are familiar and popular among us due to their presence in the Scripture. Today as we celebrate their part in God's design, we are called to recollect the invitation they give us: to stand before the Lord, to wait on the Lord and to be instrumental in the fulfillment of God's will. These are the three functions of the Archangels and we are called to live those very dispositions.

To Stand before the Lord is to be in God's presence all our life. It is refraining from pushing the disposition of prayer to merely a few minutes of the day. It is instead, knowing that we are constantly in the presence of the Lord and we can speak to, share with and take directions from the Lord anytime and anywhere!

To wait on the Lord is to be at God's beck and call. That is what we all are created to be but the freedom that God has given us makes us do it as our personal choice. Angels are the extensions of God's power...they carryout the orders from the Lord. The invitation here is to be ready and willing to carryout orders from the Lord, without mixing it up with my wishes and reservations.

To be instrumental in the fulfillment of God's will. To be God's representatives, to be God's consolation, to be God's aiding hand, to be God's voice for justice...these are what we are called to be - Angels of the Lord making the Lord present amidst us by our own Godly dispositions.

May Michael, Gabriel, Raphael and the hosts of God's Angels inspire us, protect us and help us to be God's people always!

WORD 2day: 28th September, 2016

Following, looking back and looking firm.

Wednesday, 26th week in Ordinary Time

Job 9: 1-13,14-16; Lk 9: 57-62

Jesus gives us a hard lesson on discipleship today. If you have made a choice for God, you have made a choice for struggles and situations that will estrange you from the rest around you. What are you going to do? Look back and moan? Or look firm and go on?

Job's determination to please God is gradually being shaken by the conventional thinking friends who attribute the human qualities of anger, dissatisfaction, expectations and disregard to God. Job declares from his heart that God is omnipotent and omniscient but struggles to live his daily suffering on par with that interior conviction.

Jesus declares that precisely the determination to surrender oneself and one's total being into the hands of God is the hallmark of a follower of his. Jesus had a mighty share of suffering, struggle and strife. But that in no way deviated him from holding on to God and looking firm in his choices.

If you and I have decided to follow Christ - what do we do? Look back and moan or look firm and go on?

THE WORD AND THE SAINT

Is death better or life - Celebrating Vincent de Paul

27th September, 2016

Job 3:1-3, 11-17, 20-23; Lk 9: 51-56

Job complains against the unfairness of life and prefers he were dead than living. How many times we contemplate such thoughts, unmindful of all the blessings that preceded such experiences and all the blessings that are yet in store. We always want to be kings of good times and queens of cosy times! There are moments that bring out the preciousness of life, by allowing such experiences which highlight the goodness that surrounds us always. 

When Jesus sets his eyes towards Jerusalem, the Samaritans detest it. They forget the goodness that Jesus had shown them thus far, respecting that woman at the well, narrating that parable that extols the samaritan and recognising that one grateful soul among the rest of the ingrates. Can we have everyone please us all the time? Is that the fairness of life that we mean?

If we were to ask Vincent de Paul today's question, 'is death better or life'... he would say - neither! It is living according to the will of the Lord, showing to everyone around that compassion that the Lord is - that is what life is all about! Vincent de Paul was not the best of persons in the beginnings of his life journey, but soon he realised the true call that he had received and today we have a saint in him, a saint of mercy and compassion, a saint of mercy in complete action.

WORD 2day: 26th September, 2016

The Naked Truth - God alone is!

Monday, 26th week in Ordinary Time

Job 1:6-22; Lk 9: 46-50

Naked I was born, naked will I die! God gave and God has taken it back. Blessed be the name of the Lord... Job is given by the Word today as the brilliant example of a child of God! His properties burned, he remained calm. His cattle were taken, he bore it all. His servants were killed he held on to the Lord. His children died altogether, he broke down but in the bosom of the Lord! That was Job, of whom the Lord was proud of.

Jesus is teaching a similar lesson too in the Gospel ...your ego, your social status, your position and power, your possession and your attachments... nothing can stand the test of time. God alone will. Whether we believe or not the Lord is. Whether we praise the Lord or not, the Lord is worthy of all the praise in the world. Whatever we do and whatever we are involved in, even without our own full knowledge of it, we are serving the purposes of the Lord. Ultimately that which is going to prevail is God's will. God alone is almighty and God's purposes alone give meaning to anything that exists. The truth finally is, who ever we are and whatever we have, everything will pass. The naked truth is, God alone is, God alone will forever be.

INDIFFERENCE - the most unChristian attitude of all

25th September, 2016 - 26th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Amos 6: 1.3-7; 1 Tim 6: 11-16; Lk 16: 19-31

Indifference, the worst of all vices and the most dangerous of all attitudes, is one thing that the Lord cannot bear! Woe to those who are indifferent, warns prophet Amos. And that is precisely what Jesus presents in his parable too. It is something that God just cannot stand - the Lord will 'spit you' out of his presence, if you are lukewarm! (Rev 3:16) If you have a living faith, then fight the good fight of the faith, challenges St. Paul in his letter today. 'Blessed' are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness(Mt 5:6), not those who remain in their safe havens caring nothing for anyone around. St. Paul recalls to our minds today, how Jesus bore witness to his faith and to the truth right upto his cross! "For this I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth," declared Jesus with a courage that disturbed Pilate.(Jn 18:37). When it came to bearing witness to truth and righteousness, or feeling compassionate for those who were helpless, or reaching out to the sinners and the outcast, or speaking out for the rights of those who were oppressed - of their right to be healed as sons and daughters of God, of their right to dignity and of their closeness to the Reign of God - Jesus never hesitated; and his true disciples would never hesitate too!

Today we are living in a world that has innumerable justifications for being indifferent towards others - one's duty and family, corrupt system and government, anti-people policies and laws,  legitimate development and technology, rapid growth and advancement - the list can go on endlessly. And it is effortlessly easy to cast the blame on someone else and hide behind the mask of myself being part of the 'affected' and the 'left behind'. In simple terms, the Word challenges me today to place myself in the shoes of the rich man and look at the world around me! Have I done whatever I could in my context, for justice, righteousness, dignity of all and true freedom of the children of God. If I say, 'what can I really do?' - beware, that could be the visible trace of Indifference within!

Indifference is the most unchristian quality one can have. The readings today outline the three levels in which INDIFFERENCE grows.

FIrst Level: Indifference as a fruit of Blindness - the inability to see the suffering around, the incapacity to sense the heavy burdens that persons around me carry, the failure to feel the unseen tears of those crying out for help... these are unchristian to the core. LOOK says the Lord, perceive the suffering in the eyes of your brother and sister... even if you cannot do much, atleast be there for them!

Second Level: Indifference as a sign of Selfishness - even after seeing the suffering and the pain, if I fail to be moved, if I refuse stand by someone because I could get into problem, or because I could lose my opportunity to go ahead in life, or because I could earn enemies in the bargain, I am unworthy of being called the disciple of the Lord who died for me! THINK of the others, and not solely of yourself, says the Lord. Can I think of anything other than Me, Myself and Mine? I am my brother's keeper!

Third Level: Indifference as a form of Malice - it is a sin! "Silence encourages the tormentor; never the tormented!" says Elie Wiesel an Holocaust survivor, who received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986. He continues,"the opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference. The opposite of art is not ugliness, it's indifference. The opposite of faith is not heresy, it's indifference. And the opposite of life is not death, it's indifference." How perfectly Jesus would agree to these words! For, this is what Jesus meant by that parable! You just cant be silent spectators, you just can't stand by the sidewalks and see things happen, not even sit in the stands and cheer! No... FIGHT the good fight of the faith!

THE WORD AND THE SAINT

Padre Pio - the saint of the times!

23rd September, 2016

Eccl 3:1-11; Lk 9: 18-22

A time for everything says the Word today. There is so much discussion about time, the times and the right time - it is nothing but sticking to God's design, God's eternal design, God's timeless plan! That will set everything right.

Being people of the times in no way exempts us from being people according to God's design, because God's plan is eternal and it applies to all time. In this regard Padre Pio was a saint of the times. He was totally dedicated to doing God's will time in and time out! 

Two things that stand out in Padre Pio, a man who died in out times (1968) and was canonised in our times (2002), are the willingness to turn sufferings salvific and the closeness to the Mercy of God. Not merely with the Stigmata, also because of the people around, the superiors who did not understand and the affluent who detested his choices, Padre Pio suffered extreme situations. But he made them all determined ways towards his sanctity. He is known to be the modern saint of the Confessional, because he believed firmly in the way to heaven through the confessional. The Sacrament of Reconciliation, the peak experience of God's Merciful embrace, became for Padre Pio the most used pulpit to proclaim God's love and invitation.

May Padre Pio inspire us today to grow through our sufferings and bring us close to the Merciful love of God.

WORD 2day: 22nd September, 2016

Seeking Christ is a vanity too!

Thursday, 25th week in Ordinary Time

Eccl 1:2-11; Lk 9:7-9

Vanity of vanities, everything is vanity...says the first reading today. There is nothing new under the sun, what are we toiling for? What are we seeking and searching and anxious for? That is the wise question that the philosopher raises in the Word today. It is important to take note of this question - routine, monotony and boredom are not reality that are external...they are attitudes and dispositions that are internal. How we look at things, how they matter to us, how they affect us and how we relate to them - that makes all the change that can be there.

Seeking Christ...today Herod seeks to see Christ. All of us have this wish to seek and experience Christ. But is that also a vanity? Yes, that will turn out to be another vanity, vanity of all vanities, if we do not seek for an internal change, for a transformation of the heart. If we seek, see, pray and claim to experience Christ, but there is no change in our inner disposition and attitude to life and to others, then that seeking and experiencing would be a vanity!

Vanity of Vanities...everything is a vanity, if we do not allow ourselves to be touched, transformed and continuously made anew in Christ.

THE WORD AND THE SAINT

Celebrating Matthew and Mercy

21st September, 2016

Eph 4:1-7, 11-13; Mt 9:9-13

We celebrate the feast of St. Matthew... the celebration this year should be a very special invitation as we are in the year of Mercy...the Mercy that overlooked the sinner that Matthew was and penetrated his child like soul that yearned for meaning in life. It is a special occasion to celebrate this feast this year, as our Holy Father reflects in his encyclical announcing the Year of Mercy: Misericordiae Vultus. The Holy Father reflects through the words of St. Bede, the mercifulness of God revealed in choosing a so-called sinner, a tax collector to become a close collaborator with the Christ, in God's salvific design.

When Matthew was called, he was a tax collector, a sinner by self identity and by the social standards. He could have been a young man who was following the trade of some of the elders and getting trained in it, sitting at the tax booth. Naturally the rest of those who were with Jesus loathed the very idea of joining him in their band. Jesus was not only being merciful himself, he was training his disciples to be merciful too. He was teaching them to see the interior beauty of a person and not to get stuck to the external judgments. That is Mercy - staying away from prejudice and allowing a person to be whatever he or she is, not forcing the person to be what the society frames him or her to be.

Matthew stands as an icon of God's forgiving mercy that embraces us in spite of all our unworthiness. God's Mercy is greater, deeper and broader than anything else that we can think of.

WORD 2day: 20th September, 2016

The best thing that can happen to me!

Tuesday, 25th week in Ordinary Time

Prov 21: 1-6, 10-13; Lk 8: 19-21

The first reading speaks to us of a variety of categories of people - the king, the virtuous, the just one, the hard working, the haughty, the wicked, the mocker... the message seems to be: whoever you are, what is important is live a life that is pleasing to the Lord; do exactly what the Lord wants you to do.

In fact, this is not a note of threat, but a wisdom par excellence. Because the best thing that can ever happen to me is what the Lord has planned for me! Once I am confident of that, then I can live my life with a serenity that nothing else can offer me. The Gospel has Jesus underlining the same fact. Mary could have been the mother of the Son of God. Not even that is the best thing that can happen to her. That biological motherhood is not as important as the Spiritual Motherhood that comes out of the fact that she listened to the call from the Lord, kept it in her heart, pondered over it and lived her life exactly according to it. That is where she stands as a great example to allowing God to have God's ways in our life.

When we allow that to happen, then God has a freehand in my life and I become the rightful child of that Father and Mother. And thus I become a brother or a sister of my Lord, Jesus Christ!

WORD 2day: 19th September, 2016

Let your light shine!

Monday, 25th week in Ordinary Time

Prov 3: 27-35; Lk 18: 16-18

Be good, be just, be righteous...the Proverbs gives us a list of qualities of a just person who is acceptable  in the eyes of the Lord. Be good, be a light, shine before the world invites the Gospel. Let your light shine, let it shine day in and day out, let it shine regardless of the people and the situations around.

We do like to be good, we do wish to shine our light before the world...but is it so in all circumstances?

Like the electric bulbs which gives only as long as they receive, we are good to others only as long as others are good to us; we are good to the world only as long as the world around is good to us.

Like the oil lamps that sustain their burning as long as what they received lasts. We decide to be good for a little longer, anyway it lasts just as long as our memory of good done to us  lasts.

Consider the candle, which is initiated into burning and shining. It keeps burning as long as it exists, without expecting anything from outside! This is our call: to shine, regardless of what others do to us. Be good inspite of the evil that may rest around you. Be Godly, however ungodly the world around you gets!

WWW - Weath, Wellbeing and the World

18th September, 2016: 25th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Amos 8: 4-7; 1 Tim 2:1-8; Lk 16: 1-13

We have needs, wants and desires... they are but human. When they are fulfilled we are happy and grateful; when they are not, we keep beseeching the Lord. Prosperity, from the time of the theology of the promised land, has always been looked at as a blessing from the Lord. Wealth makes our life easy and our living pleasurable. By the very fact that it is a blessing, it is obvious that it is 'given' and it is to be given. Wealth is a means provided for one not only to live his or her life, but also extend his hand to the needy, the unfortunate, the underprivileged, the have-nots, so that their life becomes blessed through one's instrumentality. Wealth, is a blessing, and more over a means, to be a blessing to the others! Prophet Amos minces no words in the first reading today. Swindling the other, manipulating the other and hurting the other for one's own well-being, is not Christian attitude; and it is no well-being at all.

Well-being is not merely one's individual pleasure and possession! Even if one possesses everything, if there is not harmony in his or her surroundings one cannot cherish those possessions. How many individuals who possess enormous riches but lack an internal serenity bear witness to this fact. How many nations today which seem rich and affluent but lack peace and security attest to this fact. Authentic Well-being is harmony in every sense, within oneself, around oneself and with the entire universe! It is the 'quiet and peaceable life, godly and respectful in everyway', that St. Paul speaks of in the second reading. Selfishness and Greed can never lead us to this well-being. Concern and Compassion, a collective thinking of 'all to be saved and to come to the knowledge of truth' - only such an outgoing spirit can grant the world, a real Well-being.

The world and the life we live today is an opportunity given to us, reminds Jesus in the Gospel with his intriguing parable of the prudent steward! Intriguing it is, because it seems to advocate slyness and fraud. But that is not the point. The focus lies on another perspective, and it is: However limited and burdensome, the present life we live is all that we have, here and now to make our journey to our 'eternal abode' pleasant and meaningful. It is said, how we live our life here will define and determine how we will exist hereafter. We have the gift and the giver: of these what matters to us, is the crucial question. It cannot be that both gift and the giver are important - one cannot serve two masters, warns Jesus. Once we give the first place to the Giver, the Eternal giver, the Loving giver, the Wonderful giver, everything else falls in place. Wealth becomes a means, Well-being becomes harmonious living and the World becomes an opportunity for us to create a paradise here and now, as we live our life in peace and harmony with our brothers and sisters!

WORD 2day: 17th September, 2016

Sowing, Reaping and the Seed

Saturday, 24th week in Ordinary Time 

1 Cor 15: 35-37,42-49; Lk 8: 4-15

We are so worried about the plight of the farmers as the tussle for water sharing continues between the two southern states of India. Timely, that the Word today speaks of sowing and reaping, burying and raising... what is crucial here is to understand the seed.

The Word keeps coming to us in various ways in our daily life- daily experiences, accidents, anti social happenings, political developments, international affairs and domestic fights and house hold events... everything keeps giving us a lesson. If only we pay the needed attention to every bit of our life, we would see ourselves learning from them and becoming more and more wise. Added to that if only we hear the Word from the Lord in and through them, we become more and more loving, forgiving, peaceful, in short Godly. That is the experience of Rising... those who are in Christ will rise!

WORD 2day: 16th September, 2016

The gift of hope

Friday, 24th week in Ordinary Time 

1 Cor 15:12-20; Lk 8:1-3

The worst of experience in our day to day life is having nothing to look forward to. We call it boredom, monotony etc. When it comes to our spiritual life this boredom - dubbed spiritual boredom or spiritual dryness - can be very trying and painful. It can lead to a slackening that can be detrimental to one's progress. Jesus gives us a gift par excellence: Hope! An endless optimism is triggered off with Jesus' resurrection, telling us today a Christian, if he or she is truly convinced of it, can never give into despair! Nothing, absolutely nothing, can drive us to despair for we have Jesus who makes our life meaningful and hopeful. That explains why so many just followed him throwing all their lives at his feet!

THE WORD AND THE FEAST

The Mother with a sword

Our Lady of Sorrows-15th September,  2016

Heb 5:7-9; Lk 2: 33-35

Not a warrior mother who fights for her survival but a sacrificing mother who bears all sorrows for our sake - the sword is the reminder of what good I can do to others through my suffering,  through a suffering that is willingly and purposefully accepted.  Mary stands tall with her swords,  all of them pierced and trying to drain her of her hope and faith. The greatness of the blessed mother rests on the fact that she never took credit for what she was undergoing.

THE WORD AND THE FEAST

The Raising and the Lowering

Glorifying the Cross: 14th September, 2016

Num 21: 4-9; Phil 2: 6-11; Jn 3:13-17

The readings today are filled with the terms regarding raising and lowering - being raised by God, being raised by people, self-lowering...everything points to the element of making God the priority and making God's will the absolute criterion. God has a design and that design is the original and the absolute good that is in creation. When we tamper with it, there is a mighty big ruin that we cause. 

We know it is important for the cocoon to break itself open and the creature to squeeze itself out - only then will there be a creature so beautiful and subtle to fly around. We know it is important for the seed to bury itself in the ground, get suffocated under mud and force itself out of the ground to yield multi-fold. 

At times in spite of all the love that we have for God and despite all the goodness we possess, we find it so difficult to accept pain - pains of different kinds - psychological, physical or spiritual. The moment we are able to subject ourselves to pain with serenity, the moment we are ready to go through a bit of the darkness of the unknown, the moment we are prepared to grope a bit in the shady parts of our life...all these with complete trust that the Lord is certainly around, I begin to rise! When I rise, people will look at me and give glory to the Lord, the Lord of the Cross!

WORD 2day: 13th September, 2016

Can you say, Do not Cry?

Tuesday, 24th week in Ordinary Time

1 Cor 12: 12-14, 27-31; Lk 7: 11-17

There is a talk all around these couple of days about the ongoing rioting in Karnataka (a state in the South of India)...there are any number of messages being circulated among the Tamils spreading hate against the kannadikas and the same among kannadikas against the Tamils! Don't we see that these messages spread are only adding fuel to the fire? How many are really intent at this time to spread messages of hope, unity, assurance and good will? How many refuse to succumb to the evil that is spread by the political miscreants and stay clear of this mob mentality? Those are truly people of God, able to see the oneness of humanity beyond all differences and disparities! Like Jesus, do we have the eye to see the sufferings of all people beyond the fact that they are different from us? Are we able to say to ANYONE (without allusions to affiliations) suffering, 'do not cry'?

WORD 2day: 12th September, 2016

The Communion and the Coming of Jesus

Monday,  24th week in Ordinary Time
1 Cor 11: 17-26,33; Lk 7: 1-10

The Word presents to us the two inseparable dimensions of the Eucharistic celebration.  The coming of Jesus Christ the Word made flesh and the communion of the Body of Christ the people of God.

It's a real challenge today to make our Eucharistic Celebration truly a moment of communion of hearts rather than merely a ritual of ceremonies. That needs a bit of homework prior to the celebration itself.  The Communion has to be built in the daily life and celebrated at the Eucharist.  If it had not been built all already what do we celebrate at all?

The coming of Christ making the words of the Lord come true and Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist is a great boon given to our burdensome life!  The Lord is with us and that makes our life extremely beautiful come what may. We may not be worthy but the Lord designs to visit it's.  How blessed we are!

WORD 2day: 7th September, 2016

Never lose the Focus

Wednesday, 23rd week in Ordinary Time

1 Cor 7: 25-31: Lk 6: 20-26

The first christian community in fact expected that they would see Jesus around in his second coming already in their time... they were preparing for it intensely. The moment they began to realise it was getting delayed, they began to grow lax in their life of virtues! It is in this context that Paul writes to them...about celibacy, purity and single minded dedication to the Lord. His call was: never lose focus, for everything will come to pass in no time!

The second coming may be at an appointed time which the Lord alone knows and we wait for it, with patience and focus. But, if we believe that the second coming is a moment of judgement, that moment is here and now... for our choices every moment determine the judgement that is going to be! Every time I choose something or avoid something, I am bringing upon me a judgement by myself. That is what Jesus tells us in the Gospel: I make myself blessed or unfortunate! I need to be informed, alert and categorical about my choices - they determine what I will be judged to be. The crux is that I never lose the focus, even as I am involved in hectic activity!

WORD 2day: 6th September, 2016

Life lived on the Shore

Tuesday, 23rd week in Ordinary Time

1 Cor 6: 1-11; Lk 6: 12-19

We have seen people playing on the sea shore, or we ourselves would have done it. There is so much of fun with the ever active waves and the quick moving sand. But that is not what the sea is all about, it may just be a tiny fraction of the reality called the ocean. At times looking at the way life is lived today, it gives us a feeling of the activity on the shore, merely the shore. Is life truly lived in its depth? So much of uneasiness and boredom, jealousy and envy, fights and frictions, greed and competition, hatred and indifference...what does it all indicate? A life lived on the shore, not in its depth.

One of the chief elements of a life lived in its depth would be discernment - taking time to understand what is the right thing to be done at the right time. If only a person takes a few moments every day, or before every important decision, a few moments to go into oneself, understand the situation around, empathise with the persons involved, take stock of the true issues that are at stake and then decide on the best of the options available, that would make a huge difference for oneself and for every one around. How many people we see today, apparently ruining their own life, living in total unhappiness and misery, all because they are satisfied living their life merely on the shore!

THE WORD AND THE SAINT

LOVE , don't Judge!

Celebrating Saint Mother Teresa of Kolkata

1 Cor 1: 5-8; Lk 6: 6-11

The Word today speaks to us of the ills in Christian living...at times we consider sins like adultery and fornication serious faults, and rightly so. But we consider habits like gossiping, judging others and criticising as less grave and so go on with it as if they do not matter. That is truly not Christian...Christ would say looking with lust is equally evil as adultery; speaking ill of the other is equally brutal as assaulting the other physically; character assasination is as criminal as killing a person! It is not exactly in what we do that the seriousness of the matter consist, but in what we are aiming to do through out actions or words or disposition. 

Mother Teresa understood this perfectly and that is why she always believed and taught: if you are busy judging people, you would have no time to love them. Love, is both the fundamental and the supreme disposition of a true Christian. Love is patient and kind; it endures all things! Let us Love, not judge! Let us be filled with compassion for the suffering and the weak, as did Mother Teresa to be called truly a Christian and ultimately a saint!

FREEDOM of the Children of God

23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time

4th September, 2016 - Canonisation of Mother Teresa

Wis 9: 13-18; Phlm 1:9-10,12-17; Lk 14:25-33

There is a story told of a man who went on a long long journey in search of an old sage in the forest who allegedly had the most precious diamond in the entire world. It was an overwhelming moment when the man met the sage and asked him if he really had the diamond. Because, the sage said as a matter of fact, "Yes. I have it". The man with much trepidation regarding the price he would have to pay, asked the sage, "can you give it to me?" The next moment, he could not believe his eyes, the sage held it out to him and said, 'here, take it.' The man took the diamond and hurried back anxious the sage should not suddenly change his mind. That night as he lay down to sleep, his eyes would not close and his mind would not stop wondering. The moment he saw some light he got up and went straight back to the sage and said, 'here take this diamond back, but give me that heart that allowed you to part with it so easily'. 

If we are really convinced of our identity as Children of God we would realise we are given with a freedom that makes us so different from what the world preaches. We think freedom is the ability to do whatever we think... that is not what freedom is all about. Freedom is the capacity to do the right thing without any external force. When we have this capacity, we would be totally different from the so-called majority in the society today. Because this freedom amounts to a different kind of reasoning, a different kind of relating and a different mindset of renouncing.

Freedom of the Children of God is seen first and foremost in a different kind of Reasoning that one possesses. Taking up the cross willingly, forgiving without any compensations for it, looking at everything from the perspective of God...these are different kind of reasoning that we are called to possess. The first reading speaks to us of an important fact that we may not understand everything in life and we need not be worried about it. Leave it to God and things will be clear to you in the due course of time.

Freedom of the Children of God is manifested in the kind of Relationships we treasure. While everywhere, gain and profit, benefits and advancements rule the roost, we are thinking of giving up, forgiving, accepting and welcoming someone without any conditions. St. Paul instructs Philemon to accept Onesimus as a brother in Christ and even tacitly asking Philemon to free Onesimus from his slave-ship. A redefinition of relationships is a natural outflow of the freedom of the Children of God. I cannot but be reminded here of the numerous cases of inequality and discrimination among and within the Christian communities... a clear sign that we have not yet truly experienced the freedom of the children of God.

Freedom of the Children of God is best seen in the Renunciation that seems so natural and far from being a deprivation. I have come across people who renounce a few simple things and are so mindful of that fact - reminding themselves of it so often, making sure others know that they have renounced (whatever it is), making up for the renunciation in and through other means (sometimes going to another extreme). Jesus presents renunciation not as an extraordinary means of following God, but as an inevitable means of being disciples. Renouncing something is something, renouncing the so-called merits of the renunciation is true renunciation! 

Mother Teresa whom we receive today from the hands of the Church as a wonderful and exemplary Child of God, was an epitome of this Freedom! Just apply what we discussed so far: she reasoned differently (seeking the so-called useless and worthless of the society), she related differently (she had only one thing in her mind - the Reign of God) and she renounced radically! A great example of the Freedom of a Child of God.

Freedom of the Children of God permits us to live a life that is free, full and highly inspiring. May we grow in this great gift we have received: the freedom of the children of God. 

WORD 2day: 3rd September, 2016

Nothing greater than the Person!

Saturday, 22nd week in Ordinary Time

1 Cor 4: 6-15; Lk 6: 1-5

God has an extremely soft corner for God's children! God has been too good, compassionate and forgiving, loving and accepting, never counting the cost when it comes to loving God's children...even to the extent of sending God's only Son to die for our sakes! The question is, what matters to us, the prodigal children of God : our ego? our wealth? our social status? our popularity? our comfort? our image in front of others? our rules and our systems? our selfish interests? For how many of these reasons we are ready to sacrifice the persons around us - our own parents, life partners, siblings, kith and kin!

The Lord reminds us today: there is nothing more precious than persons around us. Our judgments of others, however right or wrong they are, cannot take away the value that is inherent in every child of God!

WORD 2day: 2nd September, 2016

Mind your Business!

Friday, 22nd week in Ordinary Time

1 Cor 4: 1-5; Lk 5:33-39

At times we mind everybody else's business, forgetting the all important business that we have, our life! The Word today instructs us to mind just our business. How hard can one try to satisfy everyone around? Is it worth the effort at all? How many lives are made so boring and barren merely out of living up to the expectations of the world around! The secret of a truly fruitful and meaningful life is: knowing your business and going about it.

Knowing who we are - as St. Paul shares in his letter today, what is expected of a steward is that each one is found worthy of the one whose stewards we are! Knowing who we are and striving to be faithful to it, is the Christian meaning to our life. Christ did just that. He knew he was the Son of God and he lived his life to the full worthy of the identity that he inherited from the Lord. We are called to be his stewards, and we are called to live worthy of it, notwithstanding the praises or critiques, the affirmations and the discouragements that might come our way. If we try to patch up with unfitting elements merely because those around us are looking for it, if we mix up unblending elements just because the world around enjoys it... we may lose the true sense of our calling. The best thing amidst all the mixed voices around is to know and mind our business!

WORD 2day: 1st September, 2016

Everything belongs to God

Thursday, 22nd week in Ordinary Time
1 Cor 3: 18-23; Lk 5: 1-11

During the Eucharistic Celebration, post the Lord's prayer, there is a section where the priest prays 'save us from all distress'. In the old version of the missal, the words used to be,  'free us from all anxiety'. Some of my priest friends for sounding novel,  adapted and practical would change it as, free us from all needless anxiety... and I would pick an argument with them-  for a Christian every anxiety is needless!  Every anxiety is needless because everything belongs to God. 

No anxiety,  whether about eating or drinking,  life or death, success or fear,  nothing,  absolutely nothing is warranted if I truly believe in my Lord.  The Lord is in control... all that I need to do is my duties to the best of my abilities and leave the rest to God.  Call it Nishkama Karma, or detachment,  or Kantian categorical imperatives... be it what it may, the point is God  is in charge and I need not worry or be anxious.  It is a difficult mindset but the most liberating one.