THE WORD AND THE FEAST

2nd February, 2016

Mal 3: 1-4; Heb 2: 14-18; Lk 2: 22-40

The Feast of the Presentation of the Lord
The Closure of the Year of Consecrated Life

The readings of today were offered for our reflection only recently, on the 8th day after Christmas. They are given once more today, but they open a whole new perspective today with all that surrounds it liturgically today!

We celebrate the feast of the presentation of the Lord and the close of the year of Consecrated Life that Holy Father Pope Francis announced from Dec, 2014.

Keeping all of them in perspective, we have one lovely challenge posed: the Challenge of Total Offering to the Lord. Not just persons in Consecrated Life, but every one of us is called to offer ourselves totally to God and that alone can give us true meaning and happiness in life.

From the readings of today, we can pick up three signs of our total offering to the  Lord:

Familiarity: As the Holy Family which enters the Temple with that ease and eagerness to perform their spiritual duty, so are we called to remain always familiar with the Lord.

Flexibility: Performing the duty was not merely a ritual, even for us it shouldn't be so! We are called to be pliable in the hands of God, as malleable as the silver and gold in the hands of the smith, so that we can become what the Lord wants us to.

Filiality: It is towards filiality, we are ultimately invited to, as the letter to the Hebrew reminds us. This filiality inspired and enthused Jesus to belong to God totally and we are called to imitate the same self-giving!

Let us grow more and more, familiar, flexible and filial. 

WORD 2day : 1st February, 2016

The Curse of Compromise

4th Monday in Ordinary Time
2 Samuel 15:13-14,30,16:5-13; Mk 5:1-20

The society today has many issues to sort but if there is something that seems to be having apparently no solution, it is the curse of compromises. It has no solution because one does not see it as a problem,  and  at times we find unlimited justification for such compromises.

Just because Saul was a Benjaminite,  today we see a man cursing David on Saul's account forgetting and justifying all that Saul did against David. How many compromises are made just because someone is on my side,  known to me or related to me!

The people in the Gospel were ready to live with the demoniacs and their troubles... they didn't want too much of disturbance in their cosy lives. They even ask Jesus to leave their neighbourhood because Jesus was making everything new. They were more for compromises.

The world has begun to put up with anything. They compromise on everything for certain gains and calculations. Would Jesus like that?  Or would we give up on Jesus due to this curse of compromise!