WORD 2day: 2nd May, 2017

Bread of life and a life giving spirit

Tuesday, 3rd week in Easter

Acts 7:51 -8:1; Jn 6:30-35

Just back from the funeral of a veteran religious, a missionary in India for the past 60 years and reflecting on these readings, it makes an altogether new sense. The bread of life that Christ is, prepares one to give one's life for others. Stephen is a splendid sign of those who are prepared by this bread. It is all about others and about giving.

The others would mean even those who are not the so-called acceptable ones, even those who are against you, even those who are responsible for your troubles. That is what Stephen does, as he prays for those who stoned him. He prays as his Master, the life-giving bread did...Lord forgive them!

Giving, would mean giving of oneself, a self-giving that is so typical of the bread from heaven. Christ is synonymous with total self giving and every disciple of the Lord is called to live out this absolute self giving in their daily life. 

Bread of life, gives me life and challenges me to a life-giving spirit. 

ADIEU BRO. SANTI

Dear Bro Santi...

You have left us for your eternal reward.
You deserve it much...for we know the work you have put in.

I have never lived with you,
though I have lived very long, very close to where you have always been.

I have interacted very little with you
but every time you have been very courteous and respectful to me.

I have not expressed much of my admiration to you
but I have admired your dedication and self-giving in the number of hours you spent in your office.

I have not tried to get to know you so far, so much
but the little that I know, is all about the work, the work and the work that you have done.
that is why a farewell to you on the Labour Day,
the feast of St. Joseph the Worker,
is so fitting and
you deserve it all!

May you rest, rest in peace, rest in heaven!

THE WORD AND THE FEAST

Work your way to heaven

Celebrating St. Joseph the Worker - 1st May 2017

Gen 1:26-2:3; Mt 13:54-58

We are disciples of the Carpenter's Son; that is how the people to refer to Jesus today. We celebrate not just the dignity but the divinity of work today. Karl Marx insisted that Work should be the extension of one's being, not a commodity to be sold or paid for. That is what the Christian perspective holds on too. The first reading from Genesis today presents to us work as participation in the creative power of God. We become co-creators with God when we make our work the expression and extension of our being. It is the way we fulfill the purpose for which we have been created. Infact, that is the way for us to trace the path that God has designed for each of us to reach heaven.

Three tendencies that are directly against it are:

1. Laziness and inactivity: deliberately choosing not to do anything and scheming to be parasitic on the labour of others;

2. Compulsion and burden: looking at work as a compulsion and carrying it out grudgingly, blaming everyone and the situation for the lack of inner joy;

3. Commodification and exploitation: looking at a person as a means through whom things can be produced and sold and commodified and stripping the true dignity of labour from the person.

These are totally anti-Christian attitudes to work. Work shoud become a joyful, conscious and deliberate choice to give of one's best towards building a better place for the entire humanity. In the highly commercialised, globalised, world today, may St. Joseph, the Worker inspire us to work our way to heaven.