Is God on your priority list?

Monday, 13th week in Ordinary Time

July 2, 2018: Amos 2: 6-10, 13-16; Mt 8: 18-22

Is God on my priority list? This is the question that came to my mind when I dwelt a little on the readings today. The question does not mean, do I go for the eucharist everyday nor does it mean do I read the Bible every day nor whether I spend a fixed time in prayer everyday! It means, whether God really matters to me, whether what God wants absolutely matters to me, whether God is the first on the list of criteria that would affect my choice or decision making. 

Because there is a difference between the two things that we are referring to here: one is our practices of piety which are very important, but the other is our concrete life with God which is much more important as it takes for granted the practices of piety and goes beyond it... to the way these practices affect my everyday life. If there is a discrepancy between these two, I am far far away from the way that Jesus points out to me!

If I say, 'Yes, God is a priority in my life', then the way I live by myself, the way I relate to persons irrespective of who they are and the so-called strata of society they belong to, the way I look at the world and the reality around me, would be totally different. God may be one of the important considerations in my life, but that will never suffice. God has to be my priority - the first criterion and an absolute criterion!

LIFE, ME & GOD

1st July, 2018: 13th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Wis 1:13-15, 2:23-24; 2 Cor 8:7,9,13-15; Mk 5: 21-43

Life is a precious Gift from God. The first link that we have with God as someone outside of us,is the the link that we have from the fact that it is God who has given us life. Can we think of what is life? What constitutes life? Can we create life... yes, we can multiply, clone or enhance life, but creating it from nowhere, from nothing... Can we?

GOD OF LIFE

God is the author of life and the God we have is God of life, not God of death, says the book of Wisdom as we read today. Anything that enhances life and promotes it, comes from God. Anything that militates against life, in whatever way, it is contrary to God. The World today is being filled with forces that threaten life: unbalanced development, inhuman godliness, inauthentic means to living, unfettered exploitation of the other, disoriented conception of oneself... these are all principles in today's world that go against life. Abortions, Suicides and Genocides are dubbed as assertion of rights! 

LIFE OF GOD

The life that we have is the life of God, reminds us St.  Paul in the readings today. God has given us life, not only that,  God has given his own life that we may live! It is like that twin child who as told by the parents, your brother is dying and we need that you give him blood that he may live on! And the child after much frightful moments, said 'yes'. And once that blood was given to the ailing brother, the twin turned to the parents and asked: 'okay, now that I have given it, when will I die?' Giving blood that child thought, was to die and give life to the sick brother! God did exactly the same. The Son of God gave us his life to redeem us. The life we have is the life of God. We are living a life that is lent to us. We have brought in death into the world and into our own lives, by our faulty choices and warped priorities; but God has given us life so that we may live on in spite of our iniquities. Our life has been leased to us!

LIFE IN GOD

Whether we touch God or God touches us, God gives us life, a renewed life, a holistic life, a life that is abundant. I have come that you may have life, life in all its fullness - declared Our Blessed Lord. Reaching out to the Lord, or the Lord reaching out to us, we receive a new lease of life! All our brokenness, our sinfulness, our sicknesses, our infirmities, our inner conflicts... everything will be whisked away with that one glimpse from the eyes of the Lord. All that we need to do, is surrender into the hands of God and receive life from God's hands. At times we think or act as if 'my life belongs to me'! And in that vision of life, I will have added nothing but pain and meaninglessness to my life, which will show up at a moment when it would seem a point of no return. And then would follow depression, desperation and desolation. But if from the very moment that I realise, if I would begin to live my life, as a life lived in God, I would save myself a life that is so meaningful and wholesome.

The God of life has given me the very life of God, and all I need to do is resolve to live my life IN GOD.