HAPPY 2019

SOLEMNITY OF MARY, THE MOTHER OF GOD

January 1, 2019

Let us begin the new year 2019 with grateful hearts. Here are 3 messages we can start the year with...

1. Obey the Mother; Follow the Son:

We start the year with Mary the Mother of God. She is intent always on leading us to her son...Do whatever he tells you (Jn 2:5) : that is her refrain all the while. When the Church Fathers at Ephesus, in 432, thought of resolving the confusion whether Jesus was God or Man, they thought of defining a dogma on Mary... what a way to understand the nature of Jesus through the vocation of Mary! She was called to be Mother of God and that is what she is... Mother of God, Mother of us all, Mother of the Church. Obey the Mother, and you will automatically be following the Son. Beginning the year with the mother is a guarantee of walking it through with the Son!

2. Open your hearts; Begin with God:

Happy New Year we wish each other: just look around and tell me, what is new? Same old house, same old people, same old things and same old problems... aren't they? There was this kid whom the Parish priest met a week after Christmas and found him very sad about Christmas... and he asked the kid why? Did your parents not give you gifts? No they gave, he said. Did they not buy you new clothes? Hmm..that is the problem, he said. They bought... but the same colour as last year! We cannot help smiling at it and say to ourselves: how often we think as that kid did. We are so adamant not to see things in a brighter light. Every time we have something that would stop us from being happy. We are so judgmental with everything, specially with people, that we cannot see anything new. As Mother Teresa would say, we are busy judging and so we do not have the time to love. Look at every person every time with a new open heart and you will see life will be much more blessed. 

3. Own up; Give Peace a Chance:

Today is also 52nd World Peace Day celebrated by the Church. Pope Francis declares to us this day, "Good Politics is at the service of Peace"! It is easier to read this message with the politicians and leaders in our minds; if we are that, we better take this message seriously. But for the majority of us, it might sound not connected to, if we are not diligent enough to see through the message! Calling us to be at peace with ourselves, with others and with the entire universe, Pope Francis means by 'politics', a much greater reality than merely party politics or even governance. It is the call and commission we have to live as responsible citizens of the world, loving fellow persons to the entire humanity and a grateful part of God's amazing creation! That is the key to peace. We cannot do anymore with threats and pressures and sanctions at various levels; it has to become a conviction and a challenge to each and every one of us, to take up the cause of peace and give peace a chance, wherever we are and in whatever way possible!

Happy New Year 2019! May God be with us, accompany us and grant us peace!

To be Christ amidst Antichrists!

Mentality of the Last days...?!

The last day of the year 2018

1 John: 2:18-21; John 1: 1-18

As you go through the readings of today, do you get a feeling of tearing the last leaf of the calendar, or turning the last date on your diary or opening the last page of a novel... that is very dramatic! But the truth is, life goes on! It is good to end something and start something anew. That should begin from our mindset. 

Today as we look back at 2018, we find so many events and happenings that in a way disturb our minds - the political roller coasters, the economic manipulations, the legal tragedies, the social calamities, the religious inhumanities... all of them pose a big question in our minds : is the end near? Yes, the end is here, for the year; but yet another will be born anew. And nothing will change if our mindsets don't. 

John speaks of the antichrists who have already come - there is no doubt about it. It is no useful task for us to start investigating who is the antichrist that has come. What matters is to believe and to make it true that the Word has become flesh and has come to dwell amidst us. In and through us, the Word has to live on, even amidst the antichrists who are possibly all around us. That is the call: each of us, to be Christ amidst the antichrists in the society. It means a challenge, a personal, social, communitarian, ecclesial challenge for us to make Christ present here and now. That alone will amount to the mindset of the last days, not fear nor recklessness. With discernment and determination let us resolve to be Christs amidst the antichrists today.

WHAT MAKES YOUR FAMILY HOLY?

Humble, Obedient and Loving You

December 30, 2018: Feast of the Holy Family
1 Samuel 1: 20-22,24-28; Colossians 3: 12-21; Luke 2: 41-52

The Feast today presents to us the model of the Holy Family... especially at a time when the Church, led by the Holy Father, keeps reflecting so much about the vocation and mission of Christian families in the world, we have a clarion call: to grow to be like the Holy Family. 

The Question is, what makes your family HOLY?

It's Humble, Obedient and Loving You that makes your family H.O.L.Y.

The family will not become holy by itself... it is YOU who has to make your family holy! Rarely do we take that onus on our own selves. We look for someone who is failing in his or her duties, someone with some weakness to shove all the responsibility, and go ourselves burdenless. 

Humility versus Blame Game

Humility is the first ingredient of holiness. Humility is all about truthfulness and there can be no holiness without truthfulness. Humility is to understand the reality that is me and accept it as it is. It is neither overrating myself nor trampling myself. Joseph and Mary, stand out in this  humility, as they knows exactly what their role is as parents in the holy family and play just that. They never overdo, nor do they shirk in anyway their responsibility.

Obedience versus Ego Trips

Most of the times the fights in a family are not about what is right and what is wrong, it is about who is right and who is wrong. Authority is what is contended here... who has the final word? Should the wife always obey the husband? Or is it fine to have an henpecked husband? The solution is not wife obeying husband or husband obeying the wife; it is not about children obeying the parents or parents complying in everything with children; it is about husband, wife and children all obeying God! Knowing exactly what God wants of me, and doing that in peace and unity. It is important to be on our Father's Business!

Love versus Self Seeking

Whether Mary or Joseph or Jesus, there is something that dominates the picture - true and genuine love. Love never seeks its own good! Love is always concerned about the other: Joseph about Mary, Mary about Jesus, Jesus about the people... it is always about the other, not about oneself! The less I concern myself with my self, the more loving I become. Jesus who is Word made flesh, Joseph who takes charge of the holy family merely because God wanted him to, Mary who said that yes without even calculating the risks involved... all the three are epitomes of the love of God. 

The feast of today has a special invitation to us- to grow into holy families... each of us holy unto the Lord, each of us into a humble, obedient and loving persons, forming families that represent love, families that bear the name of God!

Light and darkness, love and hatred!

5th day in Christmas Octave

December 29, 2018: 1 John 2: 3-11; Luke 2: 22-35

This is a sand art, which is made at
the Vatican St. Peter's Square as Crib for this year

Christmas is not over yet, we are still in the Octave! There is a gradual revelation of the Son who has come into the world - Simeon today identifies the Light that has come into the world: a light of revelation for the gentiles and glory for Israel (Lk 2:32). The light, which makes us see the right facts, the light which helps us understand the real meaning of our life, the light that Christ is, the light that Christ brought into the world - that is LOVE: whoever claims to be in light but hates his brother or sister, is still in darkness (1 Jn 2:9)...they have still not seen the light, the true light, the Christ, the Son!

Being in the light is love and any form of hatred is a groping in the dark. It may seem so clear that you are getting rid of your enemies, overpowering the weak and establishing your own dominion! Soon you shall realise your folly and come to know that love alone can truly rule. Every thing else is fear and threat, which shall find its own destruction. God is love and the world today seems to more and more consider God a superfluity, some even consider God unnecessary. The choice however remains before you and me... the light or the darkness? Love or hatred?

Light and darkness, Love and hatred...everything is around us today in every situation. What is our choice - to accept the light and to behold the Christ? or to abide by the world and remain in darkness? Light is love, hatred is darkness. Amidst the vast crowd that does not mind being in darkness for reasons known only to them, let our light shine - because we have beheld the Lord, because we have seen Love!

Innocents - Massacred even today!

THE WORD AND THE FEAST

December 28, 2018: Feast of the Holy Innocents
1 John 1:5 -2:2; Matthew 2: 13-18

Innocents - those who are unaware of anything wrong, those who are unaware of the evil that surrounds them, those who are untouched by the sinfulness that threatens to swallow them. The feast today is a remembrance of millions of innocents who are sacrificed even today on the altars of selfishness, licentiousness, irresponsibility and insensitivity! The Church remains so strong with regard to abortions, because of the inviolable dignity that life possesses, right from its very beginning. 

The world is running swift into a dungeon of selfishness and cruelty, which does not even think of the others, leave alone wishing the good of the others. There are persons and systems which work together to exploit the innocent and the ignorant. As a people of God, we need to stand against such systems and uphold the inalienable rights of every child of God. 

When the Church comes up with a stand for life, there is a select group of people (with all possible 'isms' as their tags) who come against it making a hue and cry in the name of rights. Whose rights are they talking about? Their own. Then what about the right of the affected? Isn't that selfish? Yes, let us not deny the numerous cases of child abuse that is brought against certain sections of the Church - without doubt these are to be detested too! Nothing, absolutely nothing can go against the innocents!

People of God cannot be against life, specially the life of the innocents, because life belongs to God and God stands without doubt with the innocents! Innocents are sacrificed  today in the name of modernity, development, forward thinking, rights and what not! Can we take a stand here and now? Can we open our eyes to the innocents who are massacred even today!

Why Proclaim?

THE WORD AND THE SAINT

December 27, 2018: Celebrating St. John the Evangelist

1 John 1:1-4; John 20: 1a, 2-8

Evangelisation has been a commission given to us by the Lord himself - through the disciples and apostles that Jesus had and handed over to us in time: Go and Proclaim! But look at the world today, beset with a terrible problem of religious violence and religious fundamentalism - killing, persecutions, attacks, polarisation and even wars in the name of God! Is evangelisation needed today? Is it so important to proclaim one's God at the cost of life, peace and harmony? Don't you get that question very often in your heart? 

If you do so, you are one step closer to understanding what evangelisation means. Is evangelisation, proselytisation? Is evangelisation adding to our numbers by hook or by crook? Is evangelisation a crisis management of making sure as many as possible are somehow drawn into the safe zone that we called 'the saved'? Is evangelisation brainwashing the other, specially he weak - economically, spiritually or socially? These questions are current and they need to occupy the mind of a person who wishes to understand what truly evangelisation is!

John, whom we celebrate today, puts it in such simple terms: "I write this, that your joy may be complete!" He would put it so, because he had in fact heard it from Jesus himself (eg. Jn 15:11): "I say these things, that your joy may be complete". Here lies the key to understand Evangelisation and its necessity.

We are called to share our experience with the world, so that the joy of the world, the joy of each person around us, the joy of the entire humanity be complete. Why proclaim: so that the joy that God truly wills be complete! But that requires that those who proclaim, possess that joy and then go on to share it! That is evangelisation - not judging, nor coercing, nor frightening, nor canvassing but sharing, sharing the joy that one has experienced.

Hence, called to proclaim, do I possess that joy? If I do not have it in me, how can I give it to the world? Having experienced that joy, do I feel the urge to share it? My joy becomes complete when I share it. The joy is the message, the joy is the person that I have in my heart: the Word made flesh!

The Birth of Christians

THE WORD AND THE SAINT 

December 26, 2018: Feast of St. Stephen,  the first Martyr

Acts of the Apostles 6: 8-10, 7:54-59; Matthew 10:17-22

No it is not a mistake... it is meant: the birth of Christians...just after the day that we celebrated the birth of Christ

I was amused when I looked at this picture of St. Stephen when I was looking for something to post... amused because the picture spoke what came to me as a reflection of the readings today.

If anyone read the Gospel of today and complained that they did not understand what exactly it meant, they could be directed to the first reading and that would make an elaborate and concrete explanation with example, of what Jesus says in the Gospel. 

Holding the Book (the Word) and the Stones together, with such serenity in the face and an olive branch in the other hand... portrays Stephen to the detail. Accepting to be a disciple, to belong to the apostolic community and to proclaim Jesus through service (Stephen was a deacon), was a bold acceptance of the consequences that Jesus spoke of already. Stephen seems to have accepted that demand, along with a firm faith in the promise of the Lord : do not search for what to say or what to do...the Spirit will enlighten you as to that! Stephen, enlightened by the Spirit, does exactly what Jesus did on the Cross: prays for those who persecuted him! 

To celebrate the feast of St Stephen immediately after the Christmas day also brings out a sharp message: yesterday was the birth of Christ, today is the birth of Christians...yes, the first time some one died to belong to Christ forever!

BORN UNTO US

Not just a child!

CHRISTMAS 2018: Isaiah 62: 1-5; Acts of the Apostles 13: 16-17,21-25; Matthew 1: 1-25

We are gathered here to celebrate a birthday, a birthday that initiated a new birth to the entire humanity, a birthday of a very special person! We are not here to celebrate the birth of a helpless infant or a chubby child who would be playing with a globe in its hands...It is not just a child who is born today!

We are here to celebrate the birthday of the One of whom Isaiah spoke: for unto us a child is born, a son has been given to us...he is named Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace (Is 9:6) 

If it were a mere child, why should the King be so alarmed? Why should the world fear? Why should the world wonder what is in store? The Kings are in fright because the one who is born is a Prince, the Prince of Peace! It was 1914, this very same day, the Christmas eve, it was a friday, the morning was noisy with bombshells and bullet rounds but the evening came and there was a total silence. The darkness thickened as the silence deepened, with Germans on one side and the British and French on the other. But something strange was happening...something was breaking through that darkness - a small lit candle appeared on the German horizon...what a foolish thing to do in the war front - betraying your location making oneself vulnerable to the guns of the enemy! As the British rose to an alert yet another strange thing happened breaking the silence of the night - a solemn orchestra began a lovely hymn : Stille Nacht, Heil'ge Nacht... It took just a few seconds for that beautiful sound to reach the opposite camp! The British were wonder struck and the guns went down while the voices rose singing the same hymn - the beautiful carol Silent Night, Holy Night. Very soon the French began in their language Douce Nuite, Sainte Nuit...One carol followed the other and more candles appeared. The Germans walked over the fence and the British and the French did the same and soon they were in the No-man's Land shaking hands, embracing each other, exchanging gifts - strange gifts like their uniform buttons and cigars, smoking pipes and lighters - there was an unofficial, unauthorised, unarranged and unprecedented ceasefire! Not a shot was fired all night...In one of the zones the ceasefire continued for the next one week! The whole battalion had to be reassigned to another region in order that the war be continued in that place. This is called the Great Christmas Truce in history. The next year in many zones on the border they tried to observe this truce and it was not as successful as in 1914. In 1916 there was a strict and deliberate prohibition for the truce! It's over a century since then...the world is afraid of this prince of peace! If he can bring peace to the warring factions - can he not bring peace to your hearts, to your families, to your relationships...make peace, allow the prince of peace to be born!

If it were a mere child, why were the shepherds notified and why is it that they were given such a prominence in the story? Because the One who is born is a shepherd, true shepherd who is born to die, born to lay down his life for his sheep, the Divine Shepherd! Why should God  be born to die! Why? God could have made one of his prophets die for us - why should he die himself? A friend asked another this question and the argument went long...the friend was not convinced. They went their way. The other friend one day invited the former to an outing and asked him to bring his beloved little son along. The outing consisted of a boating on a lake and in the middle of the water, the friend pushed his comrade's son into the water. Shocked and angry the friend jumped into the water got his son brought him to safety and was about to charge on his friend...he stopped him and asked him, why did you jump? You could have asked me to save your son, or the boatman to save or called for a security personnel...while the man shouted back - because he is my son and I love him more than anything in this world! He concluded - that's the same with God. For God so loved the world that God gave God's only son. For God so loved the world that God decided to come into the world in and through God's son. That is the Shepherd we have -who is not worried about making laws that are merciless and insensitive, who is not worried about establishing his own ego and prove to the world that he is capable of things that no one can imagine, who is not power mongering or money minded... he is a shepherd who is love and compassion, who decides to be born to die. Every one is born to live, there was only one who was born to die and that was God's only son! In his death he brought us life!

If it were a mere child who is born today, why should the world fear this child? Why should everyone look at this Child and the philosophy that this child brings into this world, as a threat? Because the One who is born is a wonderful counselor. If only we heed to His counsel! The world has a counsel, an advice - make sure you get your share and a little more if can be, never less than that. Make sure you get and get, and keep getting without anyone cheating you! Doesn't matter what you do, make sure you succeed, you gain, you stand to win! The Child born today has a different counsel. Have you heard of these two brothers - one was married and had two kids, the other remained single. They had a common farm, their inheritance. And they worked together on the farm producing every year grains in abundance. They shared equally the produce. One night the married brother thought on his bed, 'it is not fair that we share halves. He is single and he needs a future that is secure. After all, I have my family to stand by me if anything happens in case!' So, from that day he would get up in the middle of the night take a sack of grain from his barn and quietly slip it into his brother's barn. The single brother thought to himself one day, 'it is not fair that my brother and I share the produce equally. After all I am single while he has three more people to fend for." And he began to transfer quietly a sack every night into his brother's barn from his own. Both of them on their own, were wondering why after all these nights of transferring sacks of grains there has been no difference...until one mid night they bumped into each other, each one with a sack on his shoulder walking towards the other's barn. They dropped those sacks, embraced each other and cried in love. That is Christmas giving! Can we bump into each other with sacks of what we want to give the other? What a place this world would be if we were to take this counsel seriously: Give! Christmas is giving...that is the Christmas advice - give and give and give. That is the most fundamental characteristic of love.

The One who is born is the Prince of Peace, the Divine Shepherd, the Wonderful Counselor - are you ready to accept that birth? Then, Merry Christmas to you!

The WORD in ADVENT - Necessary traits to receive the Reign #3

Live in the Lord

Monday, December 24, 2018

2 Samuel 7: 1-5,8-12,14,16; Luke 1: 67-79

We began the journey with the fact that we stand on the promises of God! Yes, the Lord is faithful to Lord's promises, but you need a special disposition to behold the fulfillment of the promises of the Lord. 

Look at our prayer experiences; at times we implore the Lord for something and we see it doesn't come immediately. But let us be very clear, the Lord answers every query: the Lord either says 'yes' and gives, or says 'no' and forbids, or says 'wait' and responds at the right time. But when it delays, we tend to lose our focus and be at our own business. We lose our sight so much that we are not prepared to behold them, when the promises of the Lord are fulfilled... there we go, still busy complaining about something else. 

We will be able to behold every response from the Lord, only when we learn to continuously live in the Lord! Christ living in me is a Promise, I living in Christ is my way of beholding that promise! The call is to learn to live in the Lord. Did not the Lord invite us, 'Abide in me, as I abide in you'? (Jn 15:4) Only when we live in the Lord can we truly behold the Reign of the Lord and hold it up before the world.

We are on the last day before Christmas. Christmas was a key moment when humanity beheld the eternal promises of the Lord, the promise to be amidst us. Today let us take some moments off our busy external preparations and sit in reflection for a while, going over our lives thus far and thanking the Lord for all the promises that have been fulfilled in our lives. That would be a beautiful preparation in itself to behold the Child of Eternal Promises tomorrow... or is it tonight already!

The WORD in ADVENT - Necessary traits to receive the Reign #2

Open up to the Lord

Sunday, December 23, 2018

Malachi 3: 1-4, 23-24; Luke 1: 57-66

Today being Sunday, we have another set of Word to reflect upon today... we shall reflect on them separately. Here continuing the message of the last three days before Christmas..let us continue our list of traits.

The second trait that we are reminded of today is, to be open to the Lord. Open you clouds of heaven and rain forth our Saviour, we pray these days of Novena. The clouds can open and rain forth, but if we are not open enough to receive the Lord, if we haven't opened our hearts to receive the Lord, everything would be in vain. Hence the call, to open ourselves up to the Lord! 

This is an age of whatsapp and instagram. One who for an instance might receive close to over 200 messages everyday, how many of them would he or she read fully? Most of them do not even open all of them, some of them read just the beginning and by then they know what it is all about. Just a very few are read with attention. At times our attitude to life too becomes this way: we get so used to life and daily events of life that we do not pay attention to many but just a few things around us. New people, new events remain merely strangers and strange happenings, familiar people become 'same old people' and not worth paying attention to, just a few whom we consider 'important' we attend to. Is that a Reign attitude? 

The Word today says, NO! To Read the Message in every event and in every person, is the task given to us. If we miss this task we would miss Jesus when he comes. The Messenger is sent. The Messages are all around. It is there for our taking. We need to receive them, read them with care and respond to them with life. 

WELCOMING TO THE EARTH THE SURPRISES OF HEAVEN

Open, Obedient and Outgoing 

Fourth Sunday in Advent: December 23, 2018

Micah 5: 1-4; Hebrew 10:5-10; Luke 1:39-44

The central event of Christmas is welcoming to the earth the surprises of heaven- a lovely definition given by Pope Francis during his Catechesis on Christmas on Wednesday, 19th December. The past three weeks have been reflecting on receiving the Reign here and now...and here we have the last Sunday to clarify what are we waiting for: for a Surprise! Pope Francis has initiated a lovely reflection with that Catechesis, when he said, the first Christmas was full of surprises - for Mary, for Joseph, for the Shepherds, for Herod, for the Magi, for the world, for everyone. The biggest of the surprises was the little baby, God made human! The most important question here is: are we surprised at all?

We are far too sophisticated to be surprised by anything. We don't wish to be. We want everything to be certain, secure, under control and within our purview; then we feel powerful! That is why we have forecasts getting more and more accurate but not our efforts to mend our ways; we have predictions of the market values precise to decimals but we would like to do nothing to give equity a chance! But the Lord is a Lord of surprises! The one whom we await is a Lord of surprises! We are preparing ourselves to receive the Lord of surprises and how can we really do it?

The Word today instructs us on how to welcome to the earth the surprises of heaven... three attitudes that can help: they are being Open, Obedient and Outgoing.

Open... being open is being open to be surprised, being open to difference, being open to novelties and not getting stuck to the 'it-has-always-been' mentality. Micah pictures that in the first reading. He says, be ready to be surprised while great nations wait to behold the salvation of the Lord, there are simple and poor cities that would actually do behold the Lord. While the entire world thinks of something, the Lord does something totally different. We need to be open too, in our thinking, our acting and in our decision making, open to changes, open to newness, open to difference instead of going by what has always been. The traditions are good, but not good enough as being open to the signs of the times and responding to them as God would want us to. God has always spoken from unexpected quarters - son-less Abraham, fugitive Moses, unfortunate Joseph, boneless Gideon, fragile Esther and the list goes on. Be open: the Lord can speak to you from any quarters today, through any experience, in any person. Do not close your ears or your minds, be open to receive the Lord and the Lord's surprises.

Obedient... being obedient does not mean doing merely those things that are convenient to you! When Jesus said, 'Behold, here I come to do your will' (as says the letter to the Hebrews in the second reading), Jesus meant everything that he had to...right up to the death on the Cross. So when we expect to receive a person so obedient, we are called too to be obedient, in order that we may receive the surprises that God has in store. To be obedient is to listen and to carry out order - to listen is easy but what follows is what truly matters. Are we ready to carry out all that the Lord calls us to? Or do we have excuses like, 'no that is not possible in practicality', or 'what will the world think of me if I do it' or 'you know that is outdated by now' or 'come on, you don't literally mean it, do you?' We are not so eager or willing to receive the Reign here and now because we think it may not fit into the framework of the world today! We are convinced that it is good, but we are equally certain that it is not practical or feasible too! Can we really welcome the Lord of surprises this way?

Outgoing... being open and obedient becomes difficult because it demands us to be outgoing, that is, to think less of ourselves and think more of others! Look at Mary in the Gospel today. In spite of the problems that she herself had to tackle, here she is 'hurrying', 'going in haste', 'as soon as she could' to be of service to Elizabeth, about whom God surprises her with a news. When we get a news about others, their needs, their cumbersome experiences, what is our spontaneous reaction: judging whether they deserved it or not? gossiping with the others about the fate of these unfortunate ones? Or is it one of making haste to be of assistance? Being outgoing actually means, open to see and understand others, obedient to perceive and commit oneself for the good of the others and going out of oneself to help people.

The Surprises of Heaven are all epitomised in that single bundle of Joy that comes in search of us - the Child who is about to be born! Let us prepare ourselves, become more and more aware of our inner disposition and be ready to receive the surprises that God has to reveal to us. If we are really prepared, we shall 'have a good Christmas rich in the surprises of Jesus', as Pope Francis wishes us. 

The WORD in ADVENT - Necessary traits to receive the Reign #1

Exult in the Lord

Saturday, December 22, 2018

1 Samuel 1: 24-28; Luke 1: 46-56

We have entered into an intensive preparation towards the great day of commemorating the Divine born human... the last three days to Christmas. The Divine became human in order that we humans realise the Divine within us. That journey has not ended yet and that is why every year commemorating this event makes so much sense, at least till we reach the desired end.

We began the journey of learning what it means to live the Reign here and now! In these last three days of preparation we shall reflect on the necessary traits that we need to develop in order that we may receive the Reign, and thus begin to live it here and now! Receiving the Lord, who was born two millennia before is symbolic of receiving the Lord's Reign today, here and now.

The very first trait is to Exult in the Lord - be it Hannah or Mary, they had enough reasons to lament (the insults they faced from the people, the problems they faced within their families etc.) and enough people to settle scores with (for Hannah, the High priest Eli; for Mary even Joseph who thought of keeping her aside in secret). But it never occurs to them. All that they think of is to exult in the Lord! 

Exulting in the Lord precludes pushing aside all the troubles and trials we might have had and looking at the great things that God keeps doing in time! It is never getting stuck to moments in life that are wearisome and opening our hearts to acknowledging the goodness of the Lord, praising him from the depth of our hearts. 

The WORD in ADVENT - Living the Reign here and now #20

Reach out, Receive the Reign here and now

Friday, December 21, 2018

Song of Songs 2: 8-14; Luke 1: 39-45

Living the Reign here and now would mean that we actively receive it here and not just passively wait for something to happen. To long for the Lord and to receive the Lord with true love in the heart: that is the objective of the season of Advent. And in the context of the Second coming of the Lord, Advent involves longing for the Reign and receiving it with commitment! At the fag end of this season the first reading brings that longing strongly to the fore. But the Word taken together offers us an insight totally different. 

To begin with, it is not enough to long for the Lord and imagine that the Lord will come to stay with me, as if the Lord has to come from somewhere... the Lord is already in our midst and we need to feel the presence of the Lord. This is the same with the Reign, as Jesus teaches us: The Reign of God is amidst you! The way to feel the presence of the Lord or the Lord's Reign is to Reach Out to those in need, those in want, those in struggles, those in loneliness, those in grief. See our Blessed Mother reaching out, in the Gospel.

The second insight is, though when we reach out, that is when we go to do something for someone in need, we feel that we are giving - the Word today says, No! In fact, in reaching out, we receive! In reaching out to the other who is in need, we actually receive, we receive meaning to our life, we receive peace in our hearts, we receive the Lord who is in our midst, we receive the Reign into our midst. In reaching out, we receive and we begin to live this Reign here and now!

The WORD in ADVENT - Living the Reign here and now #19

Trust, Surrender to the Lord!

Thursday, December 20, 2018
Isaiah 7: 1-14; Luke 1: 26-38

Living the Reign here and now demands that we trust the Lord, trust in the Lord's promises and Surrender ourselves to the Lord. The world today seems lost and dissipated because by and large it has lost any solid foundation on which to base itself. The famous title of the book by Zygmunt Bauman sets us think - 'the Liquid Times'. Everything and everybody seems so flimsy and fragile that the moment you begin to feel secure, things fall apart. And there is only one thing that we can stand firm on; and Christmas says it all - the promises of God!

We started the Advent journey with this reflection, remember? We stand on the promises of God. They alone do not fail us, come what may. The readings today bring this out in such vivid fashion that we do not need any interpretation to it. The first reading presents the promise made in King Ahaz's time and the Gospel presents the realisation of that promise. And in all this, Mary finds a special role. 

Mary's YES to the Lord was an absolute trust placed in the promises of the Lord and a total self surrender that followed: Behold, the handmaid of the Lord! Her yes did not stop with the Angel disappearing but it continued all her life; she founded herself on the promises of God and as Elizabeth declares, "Blessed is the one who believes that what God promised will come true!"

Emmanuel, the Lord with us, is the only true foundation living with us. It is the Lord who resides with us and strengthens our confidence in this life through the promises and inspiring us to trust, that all God's promises will come true. When we truly trust in the Lord, a surrender follows and in this surrender to the Lord, we begin to live the Reign here and now. 

The WORD in ADVENT - Living the Reign here and now #18

Wait, Bear fruit and Praise the Lord

Wednesday, December  19, 2018

Judges 13:2-7,24-25; Luke 1: 5-25

Living the Reign here and now involves an enduring wait, timely action and constant acknowledgement of the Lord. This is a special type of fruitfulness that the Lord expects of us. We have two episodes of such miraculous fruitfulness narrated today... both bring out the same salient characters that we just mentioned: to wait, to bear fruit and to praise the Lord. 

When the Lord is with us, and we acknowledge and appreciate that presence and found our lives on that presence, we become fruitful in a miraculous way. From where we do not expect and from circumstances that are most unlikely we will  see shoots of new life - that is Lord's doing. The parents of Samson and John are given as models of the people of the Reign - just like them, we might feel we are incapable of doing such a great task of bringing forth the Reign but we wait on the Lord, wait till the appointed time when we shall bear the right fruit expected of us and that would fill our hearts and our minds with praises to the Lord.

There are two verses that these events remind us so strongly of. First, from John: Apart from me you can do nothing (Jn 15:5). And the other, a corollary from Paul: I can do everything through him who strengthens me (Phil 4:13). How true! With my Lord around, it is not difficult at all, to be fruitful. 

All that we need to do is, even during the darkest hours wait on the Lord, be filled with the graces of the Lord, and when we are expected, bear fruit. Bearing fruit would be the greatest of all praises, if we constantly acknowledge the presence and guidance of the Lord in our lives. This is already living the Reign here and now!

The WORD in ADVENT - Living the Reign here and now #17

Decide, Grow in Integrity

Tuesday, December 18, 2018

Jeremiah 23: 5-8; Matthew 1: 18-24

Living the Reign here and now is deciding to grow in total integrity! The Word today brings home this message to us through one name that is common to both the first reading and the Gospel... David! 

David was such a loved person to the Lord, even after the blunders that he made and after having received the deserved punishment! What was so special about David? Obviously, he was not the perfect of the people available. But he was the most integral of all, because when he made a mistake and that mistake was pointed out, he accepted it and repented. 

When we talk of integrity, we are not speaking of a spotless perfection in a person, but of the capacity to look at reality and accept it for what it is. Even Joseph had his own plans of keeping Mary away, but when Lord God revealed his plan, he was able to look at the divine plan and accept it, and carry out the task entrusted to him.

Not just the Messiah coming in the line of David, but the Lord wishes that each of us fall in line with David, in his humility, in his docility, in his availability, in short, in his integrity. When we begin to grow in our integrity, we would be earning more and more critiques or even hate mongers. 

What is going to be our response - find fault with these critiques, lament at the injustice done to us, refrain from being just and good for the fear of suffering, play it safe and feign compliance with the crowd, or the worst of it all - accept their value system and live according to their standards or decide to grow more and more in our personal and collective integrity: as a child of God and as people of God! That is already living the Reign here and now.

The WORD in ADVENT - Living the Reign here and now # 16

Reflect, Realise your real lineage!

Monday, December 17, 2018
Genesis 49:2, 8-10; Matthew 1: 1-17

Living the Reign here and now requires we understand who we really are and where we come from. The readings today remind us of how important it was for the Jews to know their lineage and how it played a crucial role in their understanding of the coming of the Messiah. The first reading reminds us of the promises given to the peoples and how they understood it in such relationship with their lineage. The Gospel presents us how this promise, in keeping with the lineage and people's, was fulfilled in time!

In any traditional society, people place a great importance on the lineage of a person and the historical background that a person hails from. Issues like the surname in the European context, or the family names from the father or the mother in some cases, the clans in tribes and sometimes the caste identities in the Indian subcontinental contexts... how dear and important they seem for so many! But the real question today is: which is the most significant lineage for you and me?

The Word today insists on the one lineage that matters: that we come from God! It is God who formed us and created us;  it is God who willed us into existence;  it is God who has a plan for us; it is God who waits to make sense, for us and through us for many others. If only we realise this lineage and that this lineage alone matters, we would find God very close to us, and find ourselves genuinely close to each other. 

What do we need to do, if this realisation has to happen: take time and reflect! Yes, from the overwhelming chores of days, from the countless customs of the living contexts, from the limitless expectations constantly shoved upon us, let us take a time off... to take time and reflect... reflect on the real lineage that matters... the lineage that we have from God! It is from God that all God's people take their name! When we realise this all-important lineage that we possess, we shall begin to live the Reign here and now.

WAITING IN THE LORD WITH JOY FOR THE REIGN

Faith, Hope and Love

Third Sunday in Advent: December 16, 2018

Zephaniah 3:14-18; Philippians 4: 4-7; Luke 3: 10-18

An expectant couple, a lover on the park bench, a child on the birthday eve, a starved person on a set table... these are vivid snapshots of the joy of waiting! There is a pain involved, but a pain that is part of the joy. There are myriads of reasons to be disturbed and be restless about, but they are all overwhelmed by the joy that resides beneath. That is the picture that the Church wants us to contemplate this Sunday: Waiting in the Lord with Joy for the Reign. 

This Sunday is called the Gaudete Sunday (Gaudete in latin simply means 'Rejoice')... taking off from the entrance antiphon which invites us to REJOICE, because the salvation of the Lord is near. Note the colour of the vestments today... they are not merely the violet, but purple or pink... to add the necessary element of joy to the waiting! A Christian waiting should be joyful, the liturgy reminds us today.

The whole creation groans as with pangs of childbirth...for a peaceful, prosperous, perfect world. Every religion and every spirituality is a yearning towards that state of existence, called in various names. We believe it to be the Reign of God; "We are seeking God's Kingdom" reminds the Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium(180) of Pope Francis. This waiting, this Christian waiting for the Reign of God is a joyful waiting, not a miserable waiting, not a servile waiting. The readings today bring to our attention the marks of this waiting: 

The first mark is the Assurance of FAITH. The first reading is full of words like, gladness, joy, exultation, rejoicing, shouting, dancing, singing... all these words of Zephaniah was used by the people of Israel in their liturgy because it consoled them in their times of exile... the prophet reminds them the day of the Lord is near! What fills their hearts and their lives is faith - a joyful and total abandonment into the hands of God, one who creates and directs history. A total assurance that the Lord is for them; the Lord stands in favour of them and the Lord will lead them to the prosperity that they are waiting for. Our life, to be truly Christian, to be truly worthy of the Reign, has to be based firmly on this assurance of faith, that the Lord is with us and the Lord is for us. When at times things go wrong in our lives - a break of relationship, or a repeated failure in career, or  a disillusionment with one's dreams... we need to remember in faith: When God is for us, who can be against us!

The second mark of a joyful waiting is the Aspirations of HOPE. Hope is not an empty dream or a fanciful imagination that things will dramatically and miraculously change over and everything will be fine at a point of time. Hope is the aspirations of a heart, the desire for a better world, the yearning for a bright tomorrow, the thirst for justice and truth, these are infallible signs of the Reign. That is what we are invited to.. to hope, and only that hope will thrust us into action, into doing our little bit, our essential part in making those dreams come true! We need to do our bit: John the Baptist instructs those people what to do and what not to do. Today, we have each of us our part to reflect upon and do... to change the world in our own way. Are we going wait for some change to come from somewhere without we doing anything for it? Or are we going to be filled with that vision, to reach the promised land, each and every one of us hand in hand.

The third mark is Associations of LOVE. When is a person filled with such joy while waiting? Only while the person is waiting for the love of one's life! This is the chief characteristic of our waiting. We are not waiting for something to happen, but we are waiting for someone to come, someone whom we love with all our heart, someone whom we know so well. We are waiting with joy because we know the person would bring us exactly that - joy, joy without ending! The love that fills our hearts, fills our lives too and that is why our life changes while we are waiting. In fact the waiting is for the change to happen within us, that at the moment of coming we are in the best of our selves to encounter the moment, meet the person, enjoy the love and grow into the Reign.

We are waiting... we are waiting for the Reign... but the Reign is already here, the wait is to make it more and more visible! Hence, each of us has the responsibility, to make the Reign of God felt, here and now, through living with an abundance of assurance of faith, with limitless aspirations of hope and divine associations of love with each other. The joy of waiting for the Reign, has to radiate that joy to every one, everyday in every way.

The WORD in ADVENT - Living the Reign here and now #14

Look, Listen and Renounce Arrogance

Second Saturday in Advent: December 15, 2018

Sirach 48: 1-4,9-11 ; Matthew 17: 9a, 10-13

Living the Reign here and now requires that we look, listen and renounce our arrogance so that the Lord can have his way! One of the sayings tough but totally true is: you can wake up someone who is asleep, not the one who pretends to be sleeping. The question of Elijah comes up and Jesus responds more than a bit in those terms. 

Jesus lays bare the arrogance that the Jews had, which was instrumental in doing away with such numerous prophets. Jesus knew all the while what awaits him with such stiff necked people. Before we go ahead to blame those people, let us direct the question to ourselves: how prepared are we to receive the revelation from God, even from those quarters that we may not totally like! 

At times our likes and dislikes determine what we would consider to be true or not! Can truth me so relative, that when someone whom I like tells me I believe it and when someone whom I don't like says it, I scorn! As the ancient Indian wisdom would say: Let truth come from all directions! We should be able to look at the reality around and listen to the messages that abound. For that we need to necessarily shed our arrogance!

In our arrogance, we would miss the Lord passing by, we would miss the words that can give us new life, we would remain stunted and dwarfed in our spiritual life. Renounce arrogance to receive the Lord, because the Lords stands at the door knocking... if we have to listen, we need to wake up and look. In doing so, we shall begin to live the Reign here and now.

The WORD in ADVENT - Living the Reign here and now #13

Just live, you have nothing to prove

Second Friday in Advent: December 14, 2018

Isaiah 48: 17-19; Matthew 11: 16-19

Living the Reign here and now is just living one's life! The world insists on proving yourself to everyone around and that is where all frustrations arise. Most of our happiness is short lived because much of it depends on whether or not others accept me, whether they affirm me or not, recognise me or not, appreciate me or not! Even if not dancing to the tunes of the others, we are most of the time conditioned by what the others say, what the others feel and how the others judge me. At times this goes to the extent that I forget to live my life, I live someone else's opinions and prejudices!

We are given with a great gift, that is our life. And every one of us has come into this world with a purpose, however small or big you judge them to be. The Lord however has always a new insight into the entire journey. The more we consider people's opinion as leading criteria or directions to decision making, we cease to live our life. 

The Lord bares the foolishness of this way of life as he says in the first reading today - that the Lord himself has taught us how to live and how not to. If we follow the precepts of the Lord, we would live an upright life and we would not need to cringe at anyone's feet! As the Word instructs today: the vindication shall be from none other than the Lord! All that we need to do is, as St. Paul would suggest in 2 Thes 3:12, just go on quietly doing your work and earning your living. 

This is one of the hardly found Reign value among the so called people of the Reign...whether Christians or not, we are unduly conditioned by the opinions and judgments of the others. Would we dare grow out of it and begin to think only of living upright, knowing well that we have nothing to prove? All that we need to do is live in the presence of the Lord and when we do that we live the Reign already here and now!

The WORD in ADVENT - Living the Reign here and now #12

Learn at the School of Suffering

Second Thursday in Advent: 13th December, 2018

Isaiah 41: 13-20; Matthew 11: 11-15

Living the Reign here and now requires that we learn to suffer with hope! The poor and needy ask for water and there is none, their tongue is parched with thirst. These lines from the first reading today, bring to our minds the pathetic scenes of poverty stricken nations, refugee camps, relief camps, war torn zones... where people are in dire need of food and water, looking up to someone who would come to their aid. Why do they suffer? Merely natural reasons? Justified political reasons? Is it all of their making? Today people suffer so much more due to human made calamities than due to those that are natural. 

The ones who suffer are not merely the greedy and the trespassers, the wrongdoers and the offenders, but majority of them are the innocent, the poor and the vulnerable! There are only sufferers and those who make them suffer today; there are only oppressors and the oppressed today - you are in either of the group! Where exactly am I?

The first possibility is, you stay off from being part of the causes of the problem, that is being  part of the group of exploiters and oppressors! Then you are oppressed, suffering and bearing the brunt of the callousness of the world. 

The second possibility is, you are part of the cause of the problem. You are in a way, however small, a cause of the sufferings of the innocent, the vulnerable! What reward do you expect for yourself? Do you really think this is what your life was made for!

But surprisingly, a majority of us like to be in the third group, calling ourselves 'in the middle'. Beware, nothing of that exists! You are  part of either the first or the second! If you say, I do not actively oppress anyone, see if you passively approve of it. Even if you are comfortably and conveniently silent about the wrongdoers and the wrongs, you are part of the cause of the problem!

It takes true courage to suffer and suffer with hope! To tell the world, that there is something that is incomparable to all these suffering that awaits us: the Reign. In fact, at the school of suffering we learn to live the Reign here and now.