LOVE-LENT 2017 - THE WORD IN LENT #25

Love: cannot be killed

Friday, Fourth week in Lent - 31st March, 2017
Wis 2: 1,12-22; Jn 7:1-2,10,25-30

True love annoys people today. Compromises and make ups are appreciated much; they are found to be practical and concretely viable. Speaking of the ideals or absolutes or of genuine relationships seems useless activity and impractical waste of time. After every talk that I have given to persons of various categories, speaking of true love, I have had the same feedback: "it is so wonderful to hear, but..." There is hardly  anyone who would take up that challenge and say, why not live up to it. Everyone is concerned about its probable futility and likely failure to bear any fruit. The easiest excuse they give is, we would be singled out, left alone to chase the wind, found unfit and declared losers.

The Word today presents the same scenario, with the Gospel in a special way placing Jesus into that category. Beyond the titles of strange and unfit, Jesus was considered a man to be eliminated. Jesus seemed to be speaking things that will not help the normal running of human life; he was considered a danger to the human minds of his times. Even today, the world at large would be in favour of that opinion. Jesus still seems an unfit in this world - that is why they are taking him off from their public lives, from governing principles, ethical considerations and social ideals. Because Jesus would differ from every prominent principle today: inhuman development, loveless autonomy, heartless economy, truthless politics and godless religion. 

If we stand by true love, if we take the side of Jesus, we need not be anxious - true love cannot be killed; even if the world manages to, it will rise again on the third day! True love cannot be killed, keep loving!

LOVE-LENT 2017 - THE WORD IN LENT #24

Love: refraining from using persons

Thursday, Fourth week in Lent - 30th March, 2017
Exo 32: 7-14; Jn 5: 31-47

The world today is fond of loving things and using persons. When someone wants to gain something or get something done, he or she does not mind using persons and manipulating them towards the desired end... making things achieved greater than the persons sacrificed. There are alternatives for everything, including persons in life - if not this one, the other; if this one does not work, try the other! We find individuals who are ready to switch sides in no time, simply because they have a point to gain - there are no principles, nor values and absolutely no absolutes - everything is relative to one's own whims and fancies.

This is what the Lord suffered in the hands of the people of Israel - they were so quick to abandon the Lord as they felt it is not going to work waiting for Moses endlessly - they found a ready alternative. This was their temperament all through - their memories so short that they were complaining and whining every other moment, in spite of the tremendous wonders they witnessed. This was the same with what Jesus experienced - they were so hard headed and stone hearted that Jesus could not break through. They had their own logic to hold on to and their own point to prove that they refused to see the truth unfolding right in front of their eyes. 

True love would mean not to give in to the temptation of using persons and loving things, but to treat persons with dignity, remain sensitive and relate genuinely!

LOVE-LENT 2017 - THE WORD IN LENT #23

Love: a journey from death to life

Wednesday, Fourth week in Lent - 29th March, 2017
Is 49:8-15; Jn 5:17-30

The Word today speaks of a change that is radical, a movement, a journey from death to life - all occasioned by love! God's love reaches out to everything that is dying and leads it to life. Jesus, the Son of God does the same as he promises: anyone who listens to my words, believes in the one who sent me, has eternal life;... he has passed from death to life. 

Look at the world today - is it filled with life or death? There is so much of wealth in circulation but those who have it are anxious about protecting it and those who are deprived are anguishing in need - neither of them are happy! There is so much of technological advancement - more than enhancing life, technology has come to destroy, manipulate and dehumanise life. There is so many possibilities of knowledge - no one really knows what is truth, everything happens underground and there is a constant conspiracy against peace and harmony, happiness and well being. There is a culture of death that surrounds us and threatens us. Are we going to give in?

We need to stand up and face situation. We to rise up to the occasion. We need to prove ourselves to be people of Life...people who can bring back life into this world, because we have the one who can give us life, eternal life, life in all its abundance. Love of Christ urges us to take up that journey from death to life, and take this entire world along. 

LOVE-LENT 2017 - THE WORD IN LENT #22

Love is a life-giving stream

Tuesday, Fourth week in Lent - 28th March, 2017
Ezek 47: 1-9,12; Jn 5: 1-3,5-16

In the name of love at times we tend to possess each other; mutually stifling existence. Two imageries that I have always been fascinated about love: one is about a butterfly behind which you frenetically go to hold it in your hands but you fail as it always flies away from you. A while later you sit letting it be by itself, it comes gently and sits on your shoulder. That is true love. Secondly, a fledgling that you wish to hold in your palms, if you hold it too tight the poor creature will be suffocated to death. You hold your palm fully open it will just fly away from you. The key is how balanced your holding is. 

The Word today gives us another imagery, love as a life giving stream: life giving because true love enhances life, renders life wholesome and meaningful; stream because love flows on, it cannot afford to stagnate. It is this flowing that makes it life giving and the life giving quality requires that the stream keeps flowing to reach out to more and more. God's love is true and it is truly a life giving stream! 

How life giving and how flowing is your love? Let your love be genuine and let your love be flowing... neither possessive nor devoid of life. 

LOVE-LENT 2017 - THE WORD IN LENT #21

To Love is to Forget

Monday, Fourth week in Lent - 27th March, 2017
Is 65: 17-21; Jn 4: 43-54

We go a lot by our memories; we make judgements on the basis of our past experiences; we decide someone is good or bad basing ourselves on memories! 

To love actually would mean to forget the past, specially the negative past, and live the moment to the full, open to the reality every moment of our life. People are unique each one with his or her individuality and experience. When we start judging others, we become too busy to love them. In judging we make people objects; we begin to use them to prove our point, instead of being open to what they are and what they can become. 

God is ever ready not only to forgive but even to forget. That is the spirit of true love, that forgets the other's shortcomings and starts anew everytime. The new earth and new heaven is a gift from this love that is so forgetful of the past, so unassuming in its acceptance, challenging us to the same. 

TO LOVE IS TO BE LIGHTED

LOVE-LENT 2017 - THE SUNDAY SCHOOL

Sunday 4: 26th March, 2017

1 Sam 16:1, 6,7, 10-13; Eph 5: 8-14; Jn 9:1-41

"We are children of the Light", the readings remind us today and invite us to live in the light! To awake from the slumber of the darkness, to avoid the works of the people of darkness and to acknowledge being anointed to announce the good news to the world - that is the call to be children of the light. We have the light within us, the Light of the world is with us, we are lighted to shine, we are lighted to shine as testimonies to the Light that longs to lead everyone to fullness of life.

We are called to SEE. Blindness is not merely of the physical eye... blindness of the heart to perceive the something that is so apparent is the worst of all blindness. Physical blindness is a handicap, but Spiritual blindness sometimes is a choice, a choice against something obvious! Not to see the goodness of the other, not to see the good the other has done to you, not to see the great things that God has done for us, these are the blindnesses out of which the Lord calls us today. The darkness within us can surround us so much that we may find so comfortable within it. That was the problem of the pharisees and the scribes: they were so cosy in their own world but Jesus disturbed them! He called them to light, he called them to awake. The Word today, calls us to AWAKE and see the Light, shining on us!

We are called to SEE LIKE GOD. As children of God we are called to see like God. The first reading presents to us an incident where the Lord gives us a practical lesson for our life. David, the least of all in the family of Jesse was chosen against all odds to be the ruler of Israel. There are other such occasions too that we find in the Bible: Joseph the sold slave, Gideon the weakling, Esther the orphan girl and so on. The message is clear: to see like God. As the Lord clarifies it (1 Sam 16:7), the Lord sees the heart and not the external appearances; the Lord sees the internal disposition and not the eternal display; the Lord sees the interior openness and not a stubborn self righteousness. To see like God would mean to avoid the works of the people of darkness, who try to close their eyes to any good that someone can do because of a prejudice they have at heart; who look for any lame excuse to judge and vilify others merely because they do not like the other; who look at others as threats and wait to see their ruin. Avoid the works of darkness and put on the armour of Light!

We are called to MAKE OTHERS SEE GOD. We are anointed people of God, chosen children of God. Peter reminds us in his letter, "You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation. God's own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light" (1 Pet 1:9). By our baptism we have been anointed and by the sacrament of confirmation we are confirmed in the anointing - that we are to announce to the world the good news of the love of God. That we may see and see like God, we are given the Light of the Lord. The Light shines within us with such splendour that it radiates to the world around us! We are commissioned to be testimonies of the Light that shines in the world. 

If we can say like that blind man in the Gospel - "One thing I know, I was blind and now I can see!" - we are testimonies to the Light that shines within us, the Light that can give meaning to the world. When we really see and see like God, the works of God will be made visible through us and that is what we are called to. Let us thank God for having given us God's light and let us be lighted to be testimonies of the the Light of the world.

LOVE-LENT 2017 - THE WORD IN LENT #20

To Love is to Reign

Friday, Third week in Lent - 24th March, 2017
Hos 14: 2-10; Mk 12: 28-34

We are children of the King; the King who reigns in love, the King who is rich in mercy, the King who is ready to lay down his life for his children out of love. 

To reign we need to belong to the King and to belong to the King we need to do what the King wants us to do. The first one is to love the King and the latter is to love the king's children, that is, our brothers and sisters. To love, the King and his people, is to reign! 

Here, to reign is not to dominate but to submit oneself to the others' well being; to reign is not to rule but to serve; to reign is not to have authority over the others but to grow responsible for the others. To reign is to do to the others what God has done to me - love without limit, love without conditions, love without measure. To love is to reign!

LOVE-LENT 2017 - THE WORD IN LENT #19

Stubbornness of Heart kills Love

Thursday, Third week in Lent - 23rd March, 2017
Jer 7:23-28; Lk 11:14-23

Love has to do entirely with the heart - yes love is the language of the heart and if the heart is found to be stubborn, there is hardly any room for love there in. 

There are people who claim to be in love but very soon after their wedding their married life becomes a tough experience, the reason is exactly this - the stubbornness of heart. Each one is fixed or fixated on those ideas or attitudes of their own, that the heart grows more and more stubborn. This stubborness will not let love grow; it will only make selfishness grow and thwart love at its core. 

Stubbornness of heart can arise due to three reasons: 1. My ego does not allow me to change my mind; 2. I don't want to lose the little and passing benefits that my old way of life gives; and 3. I am determined to go with what is against the truth and righteousness. 

Let us beware, stubbornness of heart kills love!

LOVE-LENT 2017 - THE WORD IN LENT #18

Law - a gift of Love

Wednesday, Third week in Lent - 22nd March, 2017
Deut 4:1,5-9; Mt 5: 17-19

Rules and Regulations are many times detested by people. At times we look for loopholes and bypass rules; we look out for ways and means to evade laws. But the Word today instructs us, the so-called laws or precepts or commandments from the Lord are not imposed on us in anyway! We are free to choose to subscribe to these on our own, while the world wishes to break free of any rule whatsoever and instigates people to think that freedom is to do anything one wishes! The truth is being free is to the capacity to choose the right thing to say or to do at the right moment. How do we know what is right? The Lord in true and profound love has thought out for us a way in anticipation and the precepts we have from the Lord is the way set out for us. 

In the name of freedom today, people tend to justify aberrations, promote promiscuity and sanctify selfishness. Jesus challenges us to pay heed to the commands from the Lord and choose to live by it, despite the hardships they cause. If the motive is to stay close to the Lord, the Lord will empower us to stay clear of any falls!  Love of the Lord is close to us and the laws are just an expression of it.

LOVE-LENT 2017 - THE WORD IN LENT #17

Love: Recalling goodness at the heart of the fire

Tuesday, Third week in Lent - 21st March, 2017
Dan 3:25, 34-43; Mt 18:212-35

Being good and recognising the goodness in others is a faculty related to true love. The three levels of this faculty is spoken of in the Word today. 

First level is being good ourselves: as God is good. God is good all the time, and we are called to imitate that eternal goodness. 

The second level is to readily recognise the goodness in others: just as we appeal to the mercy of the Lord knowing well how rarely we deserved it.  Our love for God and God's love for us should inspire us to look at each other with that goodness as a framework.

The third level is to recognise the goodness of the other even at most trying moments of life: just as we see Azarias today praising God from the heart of the fire. It is not enough, the Lord challenges, that we recognise the goodness in others when we are experiencing moments of joy and tranquility. We should be able recognise that goodness even when we are at the heart of the fire, even when we are going through the rough patches in life. Recognising the goodness of the others should become our second nature and it will happen only when we grow deeper and deeper in our personal goodness.

TO LOVE IS TO THIRST

LOVE-LENT 2017 - THE SUNDAY SCHOOL

Sunday 3: 19th March, 2017

Exo 17:3-7; Rom 5:1-2,5-8; Jn 4:5-42

Life is beautiful, no doubt; but it never lacks its share of problems, difficulties, confusions, traps and temptations. The beauty lies precisely in the manner in which a person lives these moments more than the happier ones. Anyone claiming to be a person of faith, has to manifest a level of maturity that shows him or her capable of living with a constant thirst. The liturgy today invites us to reflect on this aspect of one's faith life - learning to live with thirst. 

Life has its own patches of dryness and no one's life is an exception to it. The dryness is more severe in some, when compared to the others. What matters is not actually how much more or how much less, but how a person handles with one's own share of dryness. Handling aridity in life is a faith-skill. We see the people of Israel in their driest patch of their history - the sojourn in the desert. They are brought forth from slavery across the Red Sea, with great and mighty signs and wonders. But once in the desert, they complain for every little thing lacking patience to the core. They long for the onions and garlic of Egypt, they long for the flesh and meat they once had in plenty, they fret that they are without a drop of water! It is easy to laugh at them or judge their impatience, but we will do well before that to think of ourselves and our lives. Issues in the family, the employment issues, the financial crisis, the relationship issues, sickness, misunderstanding... as soon as a problem begins in our lives don't we begin to complain too? The Lord teaches us - to TURN TO THE ROCK, when struggling to handle aridity in life. Dying without water, the people get water from the least expected source... in the dry parched desert and worse still, a dry boulder of a rock in that desert. If we turn to the Lord, our Rock... we will see solutions to our problems, clarity to our confusions, help in our difficulties, from the least expected quarters. Let us turn to the Rock.

The second reading instructs us how to comport ourselves while feeling the thirst. When in the thick of a problem or in the eye of the storm, where do we fix our gaze? On the problem: that will only magnify the problem. On ourselves: that will only make us more and more depressed in self pity. Instead the reading invites us to fix our gaze on Christ, on the Lord who, even while we were undeserving sinners, was ready to lay down his life for us. Such is the love of God for us and should we fret when we are in a crisis? We are invited to RETURN TO THE SPRING, to the saving grace that loves without measure, the love that has been "poured" into our hearts from that Spring. 

In the Gospel, Jesus speaks of a thirst with which we should all live! It is not the thirst for a material good, a thirst for a interim peace, a thirst for a breath of relief but a Thirst for eternal life, a Thirst for perennial peace, a Thirst for fullness of life - a life-giving Thirst. He offers to give us the living water, the spring "gushing up to eternal life" (Jn 4:14). "All who are thirsty, come to me and drink" he declared elsewhere (Jn 7:37). We are called to live with that thirst, constantly longing for God. Like that deer that yearns for running streams, like the parched land that longs for rain, our soul should thirst for God, teaches the psalm (42). Let us thirst for God, let us thirst for a deeper and deeper relationship with God. let us thirst for the Spirit, let us thirst for the fruits of the Spirit, let us thirst for a life that is united with God, let us thirst for a life that is filled with God. Let nothing disturb us...let nothing separate us from God...hardships or distress or persecution or famine or perils or sword, not even death; let nothing separate us from God. Let these days of lent help us RELEARN TO LIVE IN GOD. 

LOVE-LENT 2017 - THE WORD IN LENT #16

Love: To dare to belong

Saturday, Second week in Lent - 18th March, 2017
Mic 7:14-15,18-20; Lk 15: 1-3,11-32

To say the Lord loves me is to trust in the goodness of the Lord. To say I love the Lord is to dare to belong to the Lord. The former is many times easier than the latter. 

In the first reading today, Micah speaks to God with a right of a child who belonged to the Lord, though he acknowledges his own shortcomings. In the parable that Jesus narrates we have the younger son who fell short of perfection but soon realised that he belonged to his father. They both dare to declare to the Lord that they loved the Lord. 

That was very daring of them, which the elder son dared not do. He did not feel that sense of belonging to the father, though he lived all the time with the father. What a lesson to learn, that it  is not to be taken for granted that I dare to belong to the Lord, just because I am most of the time around him. Even if were to stray a bit away from the Lord occasionally, it is important to feel that strong sense of belonging to the Lord, only that will bring me back to him. To love the Lord is to dare to belong to the Lord.  

LOVE-LENT 2017 - THE WORD IN LENT #15

Be Calm, you are Loved!

Friday, Second week in Lent - 17th March, 2017
Gen 37:3-4,12-13,17-28; Mt 21:33-43,45-46

Come let us kill him - this is the common phrase for both the readings today. There are always persons and situations which are against us, no matter where or when. And life itself is full of such varied episodes - there are ups and there are downs, there are moments of exuberance and there are moments of dullness, there are moments of strength and there are moments of trials, there are moments of grace and there are moments of crisis... how we face them depends on the perspective we choose. 

If we choose to believe that we are loved - as did Joseph and as did Jesus - whether we are in situations of want or in situations of plenty, we would live with just one disposition: the disposition that the Word presents to us - Be calm; you are Loved! 

When we know and we are convinced that the Lord loves us all, then we can be calm. And the vice versa is true too - when we learn to be calm and surrender, we would see that the Lord loves us with an immense love and that we are called to recompense that love, pay back in fruits.

When we are not mindful of that fact - we get anxious and make irreparable mistakes. What matters is to be calm and see not only the fact that we are loved but also the fruit we need to bear, that is - our call to love.  

LOVE-LENT 2017 - THE WORD IN LENT #14

Love: a Lord centered life

Thursday, Second week in Lent - 16th March, 2017

Jer 17: 5-10; Lk 16: 19-31

Blessed is the one who puts one's trust in the Lord! The Word today invites us to understand an important fact regarding a life of love. Let us reflect on it in three steps.

One. Achieving a loving way of life cannot be done by a self centered way of life. Me, myself and mine can never allow me to think of the others and of their good. What matters to me would be the absolute for me: my career, my personal wishes and desires, my personal dreams etc.! The one who lives his life just at my doorstep would matter nothing to me for it is never within my perspective.

Two. Not even the other centered life would lead me to true love, because it would make me belittle myself or make myself a slave to the other. My values would be warped and influenced greatly by the goodness or the wiles of the other. I would relativise everything because of the other and I would have no absolute reference point to guide myself. Would that make my life truly loving, guess it won't.

Three. The right way to grow in a truly loving way of life, is to live a Lord-centered life. When I let the Lord have the central place in my life, I would see that everything else falls in place. The Lord is love and a Lord centered life would be love centered life. The Lord shall be the absolute reference point and nothing would be relativised. 

It is a Lord centered life that would help me grow in a loving way of life and curiously the other way around is not so certain. Let us check if we are engaged in a Lord centered life; love would find its place without much difficulty.

LOVE-LENT 2017 - THE WORD IN LENT #13

To love is to suffer; as the Lord suffers

Wednesday, Second week in Lent - 15th March, 2017

Jer 18: 18-20; Mt 20: 17-28

Jeremiah has a very serious cause to present before the Lord - the Lord called him to make him the light of the nations, the prophet to God's people. But Jeremiah finds that he has become not only a laughing stock but even a person who is looked at with apathy. They were plotting against him. Is this becoming the light of the nations and prophet to the people? 

The Lord says, yes it is. To be truly God's servant and to live for God's people is to suffer! Jesus experiences the same. I am reminded of what the mother of St. John Bosco told him, when he finally became a priest after all hardships - she said, 'to begin to celebrate mass is to begin to suffer' -why so? We have the answer in the readings today and in the lives of all God's servants. God is love and God's love is always put to test with the hard heartedness of the people. When God suffers, will not servants of God suffer?

To truly love is to suffer - because it entails looking for nothing in return, having no demands on the one whom we love and continuing to love with the good of the other in mind. This is what Jesus did, while we constantly look for our remunerations, affirmations, recognition and recompense. The challenge is to grow up and love, 'love until it hurts' as Mother Teresa says.

LOVE-LENT 2017 - THE WORD IN LENT #12

To love is to serve; as the Lord serves

Tuesday, Second week in Lent - 14th March, 2017

Is 1:10,16-20; Mt 23:1-12

The anawim of Yahweh is a concept very close to the hearts of the prophets - Isaiah refers to this category of people who draw the special attention of the Lord readily. All over the Old Testament, this fact is seen that God sides with the oppressed, the needy and the suffering. God chose to serve the needs of the poor and the helpless. 

Jesus when he lived among us, was himself as epitome of this choice of God... He moved with the outcast, the lonely, the poor, the oppressed and the so called sinners. He not only served the least and taught us to serve but made serving the little ones the key criterion to inherit the Kingdom of God.

We are challenged today to serve, to serve like God does.... those who are helpless in dire need. In serving them shall we become true sons  and daughters of God! 

LOVE-LENT 2017 - THE WORD IN LENT #11

To love is to give; as the Lord gives

Monday, Second week in Lent - 13th March, 2017

Dan 9:4-11; Lk 6: 36-38

God gives and forgives without reserve or measure, we know! Though the Lord does not expect anything in return, the Lord expects that we receive and give; that we be forgiven and forgive. 

The measure we receive and the measure we give, be it forgiveness or love or compassion or understanding... it should be balanced. Our readiness to bear everything and share love, should be more than the ordinary people, who do not identify themselves with God and god's own people.

Love has to be shown in concrete reality: the Lord shows God's love through forgiveness and through God's motherly providence. Likewise does Love invite every one who is loved by God, to love everyone around, to forgive and build up communion, that we will build up the Church and ultimately build up the Reign of love, the Reign of God.

TO LOVE IS TO CHANGE

LOVE-LENT 2017 - THE SUNDAY SCHOOL

Sunday 2: 12th March, 2017
Gen 12:1-4; 2 Tim 1:8-10; Mt 17:1-9

God's love is on demonstration today and we are invited to behold that true, genuine, authentic and matchless love in the name of Jesus our Lord and Saviour! The Love of God invites us to change, for to love is to change!

Change is a task: observe that God's love gives us a task...a task to give! Are we ready to give? Yes...a bit of our changes in the pocket, a few of our currencies in the wallet, some of us a little more...may be our enjoyment of a movie or two during the season of lent, or our stylish make overs or things of that sort! But Observe, calls the second reading today: observe the love that God has for us. Because of that love, God gave, God gave Godself, God's own son, the only Son, the Word who was One with God. 

Change is a growth: understand that God's love makes us grow...from death to life to immortality. We understand from our daily experience that growth is fundamentally a change, a change from simpler form of existence to a more complex form of existence. The reminder today is that every change has to be a growth. Just a couple of days back Ezekiel spoke to us of a change that is not acceptable in the eyes of the Lord - a change where a righteous person falters from his righteousness. That's definitely not the change that is expected of us.

Change is a challenge:  God's love that challenges us to change is not merely a love that gives but a love that gives everything, gives all that God is...The Gospel reminds us of that: Jesus shows us and his disciples, what he has given up for the sake of the love he had for us! The first moment we find it, we feel like holding on to it. The apostles wanted to remain there...Jesus reminds us: "No... your call is to give, to grow, to give all, to give of yourself; that is my love!" The fundamental challenge here is accept God's love into our heart: to fill our hearts with God's love! Abraham was ready to leave everything and walk because he was ready to accept that challenge. Gradually he was filled with God's love and in a little while he was ready to give up his only son for God's sake. By then he had experienced what God's love means and what change it can bring about in his life. That is why he did not consider anything on par with God's love. In our life to, if we believe in God's love, that has to be seen. It has to be seen in our lives, our day to day relationships, our choices and our responses to events. To behold God's love is to be held by God's love and hold out that love to all whom we come across! 

May our lives be transformed, changed forever, by God's love into God's love!

LOVE-LENT 2017 - THE WORD IN LENT #10

Love for the sake of loving

Saturday, First week in Lent - 11th March, 2017

Dt 26: 16-19; Mt 5:43-48

You ask a loving pair, 'why do you love the other', and if they manage to give you a ready reason... that is not true love! Curious? Strange? 

If you have a reason, the danger is, it is merely a liking and not truly loving. What if the specified reason disappears? For instance, one loves the other for the sake of the good looks...what if something happens by way of an accident - will the love too disappear? Or one loves the other for the reason that the person is very kind...what if there is some change in the situation and the person loses his or her calmness and gets irritated - will love disappear? Reasons are conditions, when conditions change does the so-called love too change? That is what is happening in today's society.

Does a mother need a reason to love her child? Does God look for a reason to love you? God loves us because God loves us. And just like Godself, God wants that we love each other without expecting anything in return. Loving is growing in godliness in our lives that we accept the other as God-given person to love and wish their well being, do our best for the same and make sure that they are happy. Loving for the sake of loving, no reasons should bar us from loving the other and reaching out to the other, if we wish to be authentic disciples of Christ.

LOVE-LENT 2017 - THE WORD IN LENT #9

Love sees the intention not the incident

Friday, First week in Lent - 10th March, 2017

Ezek 18: 21-28; Mt 5:20-26

I remember when we were doing our college, it should be so even now, there would be three internal assessments and they would take the better two of the three for the final tabulation. This comes very close as an imagery to explain the message of the Word today.

Or let us consider another imagery - that of a person who wins a gold medal in an event at one occasion and he or she lives on with that glory for all his or her life. 

A Christian version of Righteousness is not such as the above titles - you do your best now and then and they are picked and chosen for your reward, or you peak at a certain moment in your life and you think you can live in that glory for all your life. There are two elements that bring about that difference. The first one is, consistency of one's goodness, which determines the authenticity of the righteousness.

The second and the more important element is the fact that love does not value so much what is done as  why it is done. if love is capable of forgiving faults against it, it is because of this truth. Love rejoices in the interior goodness of the person, who might sometimes falter, more than the external acts of goodness which has intentions of a different nature, What matters most is the intention - even the best of acts done with an intention that has a tinge of evil in it cannot go well with true love; while even a simple act but with the noblest of intentions will be considered precious, because love sees the intention and not the incident.

LOVE-LENT 2017 - THE WORD IN LENT #8

Taking refuge in the LOVE of God

Thursday, First week in Lent - 9th March, 2017

Esth 4:17 ; Mt 7:7-12

The World is trying its level best to hide God. They don't want to attribute anything good to God. Creation, they wish to attribute to some irrational coincidence; life, they try hard to attribute to some invisible process that they cannot explain; and all scientific development, they wish to attribute to the human mind that created itself or evolved all by itself! It is in this dark scenario that we as Christians are called to bear witness to God today. 

Esther was a capable woman, who had used all the assets that God had given her for the good of God's people. But inspite of her capacity and commitment we see her totally surrendering to the Lord: taking refuge in the Lord. 

Jesus looks at the people and says, "Ask, Seek and Knock"...humble yourself and place yourself at the receiving end at least a while in you life and you will see the blessing. The Lord promises, "if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, pray, seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven and save them, and will forgive their sins and heal their land" (2 Chr 7:14) 

Jesus invites us - ask, seek and knock to prepare ourselves towards us taking refuge in the lOVE of God.

LOVE-LENT 2017 - THE WORD IN LENT #8 

LOVE-LENT 2017 - THE WORD IN LENT #7

Love - the Power to Transform!

Wednesday, First week in Lent - 8th March, 2017

Jon 3:1-10; Lk 11: 29-32

Jonah was given as the sign to the people of Nineveh - but what was the sign? The sign was that the Lord loved the people of Nineveh, however sinful they might have been. Ordinarily they should have perished and that is what Jonah wanted - that the sinners perished. But with the Lord that is never a solution because God is love, and love alone has the power to transform. Jesus comes as the personification of that love, to transform the world and make us children of God. 

Secondly, Jonah was intent on going away from the plan of the Lord, not because of malice but because he feared that the people of Nineveh will escape from the punishment that was their due. But the Lord's love and insistence transforms Jonah's heart and Jonah takes the message of the Lord to the people. Love awaits to transform each of us and set us up as agents of transformation for the people around us. Are we filled with that love which is the power to transform? 

LOVE-LENT - THE WORD IN LENT #7

LOVE-LENT 2017- THE WORD IN LENT #6

Prayer - A loving rapport with the Lord!

Tuesday, First week in Lent - 7th March, 2017

Isa 55: 10-11; Mt 6: 7-15

There are various definitions and explanations for prayer. Over and beyond all these explanations, the importance of prayer is something that is known to everyone. Prayer is also presented as one of the most fundamental elements of the Lenten practices. If so, this lent calling our attention to love, what does it say of prayer?

A simple and inevitable understanding of prayer is, perceiving prayer as a loving rapport with the Lord. Having a loving rapport with the Lord would mean, first of all to label that relationship - who is God for you: Mother, Father, Friend, Guide, Protector...? That rapport would ensure an attitude of respect and intimate connectedness, praising God and doing everything worthy of God's glory and dominion. The loving rapport ensures that all our needs are met, like a mother would do for her child. The rapport does not stop with the Lord but is made meaningful only in loving rapport that I have with my brothers and sisters, inspite of their weaknesses and limitations.

Our prayer when it is truly a loving rapport, it can do marvels! Yes, as the Lord assures that God's Word does not return until it has accomplished its purposes, so should our prayer be! Love is an energy that makes things possible. Love makes life possible, love makes care possible, love makes forgiveness and acceptance possible - when we say prayer can accomplish anything, it actually means the loving rapport with the Lord will illumine every situation here on earth - because prayer is nothing but the loving rapport that I have with the Lord.

LOVE-LENT 2017: THE WORD IN LENT #6

                                      

LOVE-LENT 2017 - THE WORD IN LENT #5

Love - Giving the other their due!

Monday, First week in Lent - 6th March, 2017

Lev 19: 1-2,11-18; Mt 25: 31-46

If you love me...many begin their demands this way today...those who are in love, those who are married, the parents to the children and vice versa and even friends. Love is not mere words, it is not merely some feeling, but it is a way of being, a mode of identification for a true Christian. 

The fundamental truth that has various forms is that to love is to give! Giving the other their due without grudging. Love is not looking to receive; it is always looking to give, give with cheerfulness, give with generosity and give without calculation. Violence or war, abductions or protests, litigations and demonstrations ...where do they come from? From a person, or a system or a mechanism that refuses to give the due to the right person! Let us refill this world with love, meaning to say, let us give each one their due and the world will be a better place.

LOVE-LENT - THE WORD IN LENT #5

TO LOVE IS A CHOICE

LOVE-LENT 2017 - THE SUNDAY SCHOOL

Sunday 1: 5th March, 2017

Gen 2:7-9: 3:1-7; Rom 5:12-19; Mt 4:1-11

Why did God make the tree, if God wanted them never to eat of it?

Why should that fruit be there first of all, if God knew it would not help them?

These top the list of FAQs that arise from today's Word. This lent we are called to look at this reality from the point of view of love. What stands out is the fact that to love is a choice!

God chose to gift us with the capacity to choose, yes Choice is a gift. If we get to see, it is this capacity to choose is the fundamental element of human dignity. Freedom and Autonomy are two things that define a human person. When they are missing there is a breach of human rights, loss of human dignity and a crisis of very humanity. This is what is happening in many a places today where this freedom and autonomy is not given, or controlled or hunted out. God made us human persons out of love; in love God has given the capacity to choose!

God made a choice to love us and gave us a sign of God's love in that choice, yes Choice is a sign. Choice is a sign that we love, that we give importance to someone. The Word today establishes how God made a choice to love us and gave us a sign of that choice through Jesus Christ the only Son of God. For God so loved the world that God gave the only Son that the world may have life. A Sign of God's everlasting love is the fact that God chose to love us regardless of what and who we are.

God invites us to take up the same call to choose to love authentically, yes Choice is a challenge. The world claims it loves, but it loves things and uses people. The true love that the Lord teaches us is to love persons and use things. But that is a choice, a choice which is a challenge. We need to make a choice to be authentic come what may, we need to forego of our ego, we are called to put the Other and the others much before me and mine. 

Yes...to love is a choice...a choice which is a gift from God; a choice that has been given s a sign from God. a choice that challenges me to put God and my neighbours before myself. May this season of Lent help us to grow in this love.

LOVE-LENT 2017 - THE WORD IN LENT #4

Sabbath - Taking time to Love!

Saturday after Ash Wednesday - 4th March, 2017

Is 58: 9-14; Lk 5: 27-32

Sabbath for the Jews, we know, was sacred and there was a beautiful lesson within it. People are busy making a living, that they forget truly living their life. Jesus did not despise Sabbath, but brought strongly home the lesson behind this observance. Jesus teaches us : Sabbath is the time taken to love - to love God and to love neighbours! It is a time to forget about me, mine and my job and look at the Lord, the persons around me and spend time with them. 

Today in our hectic lives, we are so busy running after our work, our so-called progress and our career that we lose sight of so many beautiful things in life - like a filial relationship with God, a loving relationship with our families, a rejuvenating time with our friends...even these have become some corporate affairs to be planned and executed, lacking its spontaneity and warmth. Recently, when I had rung up to a caterer asking for a meal to be arranged for a big group of persons on a Sunday - he bluntly told me that he cannot, because it was Sunday. "It is enough you arrange it later during the day", I insisted. But he replied with the same determination and clarity of priorities, "I go to Church in the morning and the rest of the day I spend with the family, I don't take up orders". He is not one of those top notch business persons to forego an order so lucrative, but he was clear about his priorities - he was absolute about the time set apart for God and for his loved ones.

We would do good to look at Sabbath not as a legal requirement or the Sunday obligation but as Jesus insists, as does Isaiah - taking time to be with people, to spend time with persons, to share love and be rejuvenated. Sabbath therefore is not one day, or certain days; it is a mindset, an attitude, a love with which we give importance to the Other and to the others. Just as this season of Lent, Sabbath should be a time taken regularly to refill our lives with love. 

LOVE-LENT - THE WORD IN LENT #4

LOVE-LENT 2017 - THE WORD IN LENT #3

Fasting - Christian love in Action!

Friday after Ash Wednesday - 3rd March, 2017

Is 58: 1-9; Mt 9: 14-15

Fasting is such an important element of Lent and it is considered so important that people use a phrase like 'when does the lenten fast begin' referring to the very season itself. In the Word today Jesus is relativising it, to the horror of the Pharisees and the Scribes. The hypocrisy of the Pharisees and the Scribes is actually in taking offence at what Jesus seems to be saying. Yes, it is hypocritical because, Jesus has not said anything new! He only lives in action what Isaiah said in words. What Isaiah says and Jesus lives is: Fasting is not merely, not eating...fasting is taking up pain on yourself that you may add to the comfort of someone, taking up a sacrifice that you may make someone cope with their suffering, taking up an extra burden on yourself that you may ease the fatigue of someone, giving up something that you consider dear that you may make someone feel wanted - all these because you love that someone!

If fasting makes you angry, frustrated, depressed, self-righteous or judgemental - that is more a sin than a virtue! Who gains from what you don't eat, if you are not going to give it to someone! Will giving alone make you holy - definitely no. Giving with true love, giving with joy and giving without counting the pain -that is true fasting! In fact, fasting is true love in action!

LOVE-LENT - THE WORD IN LENT #3

LOVE-LENT 2017 - THE WORD IN LENT #2

Choose life and Lose Life - True Christian Love

Thursday after Ash Wednesday - 2nd March, 2017
Dt 30:15-20; Lk 9:22-25

The Word today sets one thinking, even a bit confusing. The first reading tells us to choose life and the Gospel challenges us to lose life! Do we choose or do we lose it? 

The confusion will be cleared and we will understand that both these injunctions - to choose life and to lose life - are one and the same, if we look at it from the point of view of love!

True Christian love is about choosing and losing life at one and the same time: choosing life which is God and ready to lose our life for God, for others in the name of God. The two pronged love that Christ stood for, advocated, lived and died for, is what is spoken of in the Word today. Choosing God is choosing life; not to choose God is choosing death! Losing life is being ready to give up one's life for having deliberately chosen God. Choosing life is to choose to love God; losing life is to choose to love God so much that one is ready even to lay one's life down for God and for God's purposes.

Love teaches us to choose God as a way to choose life; it prepares me to lose my life for the sake of those whom God has entrusted me with, specially the most needy and the most suffering. Love makes my life precious and it is the same love that makes me capable of giving up that life! The school of love is on. 

LOVE-LENT 2017 - THE WORD IN LENT #2