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.