BLESSED ARE THE HUMBLE

Mark of the People of the Reign

September 1, 2019: 22nd Sunday in Ordinary time
Ecclesiastes 3:19-21,30-31; Hebrew 12: 18-19, 22-24; Luke 14: 1,7-14

Humility is one lesson we learn so hard. Blessed are those who are humble by nature. The best of our qualities and talents would amount to nothing when we lack this one single virtue: Humility! The Word today invites us not only to be humble, but also to be with the humble and to be all for those who are humble, that we may be people of the Reign of God. 

The Guru of the ashram was old and dying and he announced to his band of disciples: 'I wish to appoint the humblest of you all as the next Guru.' The bickering began among the disciples, each one trying to prove he is more humble than the other. There was one among them who stood still and away from all debating. The Guru seemed impressed. He thought to himself, 'that should be the right one to succeed me, perhaps!' and he called him over to himself and asked him: 'what about you? are you not interested in the contest?' The disciple replied, 'Oh you don't get it, how much ever they fight among themselves, they will never find anyone more humble than me!' The Guru was heart broken and he dismantled the whole ashram before he died! Spiritual Masters say, the moment you think you are humble, you cease to be so! How true it is!

Be Humble - that is the first message today. Being Humble is not putting up an appearance. It is not doing something to prove to others that I am humble. It is going about my duty with such sincerity and integrity that I may not be even noticed for the good that I do - but that does not disturb me at all.  

At times there are people who make a big show of the so-called good that they do, and sometimes even of their own simplicity! Do you remember the posters of our politicians posing with a broom in their hands claiming to be simple and committed to cleanliness of the nation. Or similar ones where they pose with some poor people in their huts and gullies. They would have spent a fortune on those hoardings and advertisements! Let us remember - we have nothing to prove to anyone, not even to our own selves. All that I need to do is, be truthful, be real, be authentic. Humility is acceptance of truth. 

Be with the Humble - identify people who are truly humble. Jesus had the special eye for the humble ones. Be it Mathew, or Zacchaeus, or Nathaniel, or the Centurion, or the Pharisee who asked him about the commandment of love... Jesus recognised the humble and sided with them. In another episode like today's, when Jesus was at dinner at Simon the Pharisee's, he was able to see through the sinfulness of the woman and identify her humble repentance. She was gifted with his empathy. Jesus sided always with the humble, not with the haughty. 

If we are truly people of God, besides being humble ourselves, we would look out for the humble and stand by them. Just become aware of your tendency... among a group of new people whom you meet, who is it that you feel drawn to: the most brandishing among them or the quiet insecure of the band? Or when you deal with persons who depend on you, whom do you promote: the so-called talented and gifted or the rare ones who never get to reach the limelight? There is a statement about myself, in whom I choose to be with. 

Be all for the Humble - being the voice of the voiceless, the stronghold for the weak. When we stand by the humble we stand with the Lord, because the Lord always stands by the humble. This is the third message that the Word offers us today. Be for the humble of heart, stand by them, empathise with them, support them and spread the spirit so that the Reign of God may be felt amidst us, here and now. 

Today, we see reports of so many humble persons being taken for granted, exploited and drained of even the little that they have. We have truthful and integral individuals taken to task, punished and crushed by the demonic culture of corruption and greed. Those who fight for justice and truth are labelled rebels by the authority and derided as jobless by the public. What is our response as people of the Reign?

The Word today invites us to understand that the humble are blessed in the sight of the Lord. Those who are humble, those who are with the humble and those who are all for the humble, find favour in the light of the Reign of God - they are truly the people of the Reign.

Sanctity: Doing my part!

WORD 2day: Saturday, 21st week in Ordinary time

August 31, 2019: 1 Thessalonians 4: 9-11; Matthew 25: 14-30

‘To aspire to live quietly, to mind your affairs and to work with your own hands’, is the practical tip for peaceful living that St. Paul gives his spiritual children at Thessalonica. It seems that gossip and judgments about others has been a problem for centuries on.

Uncharitable curiosity about others’ lives, passing judgments and spreading prejudices about others, looking out for an opportunity to blame my negligences and failures on someone else, villainising someone merely because I do not agree with him or her – these are fast becoming “normal” in a society that is influenced by a maddening media craze!

Yesterday, the Word invited us to reflect on personal sanctification. However, holiness does not consist of my private life alone, it involves my social relations, my willingness towards contributing my mite to the social order and my commitment towards making this world a better place to live! 

A mentality like, I care nothing until it concretely hurts me, coupled with the inhuman tendency to seek self-centered goals at any cost, is doing all the damage possible to the world today. It looks like we are acrimoniously endangering humanity and accelerating its end at a demonic speed.

It is no reason or moment to lose heart. However little, let us do our part, so that the Lord may rejoice in us, and address us, “Good and faithful servants!”

Personal sanctification - not to run out of Spirit

WORD 2day: Friday, 21st week in Ordinary time

August 30, 2019: 1 Thessalonians 4: 1-8; Matthew 25: 1-13

This is God’s will: your sanctification! St. Paul has the gift of saying the greatest of the things in simplest of terms. Today, he puts across in straightforward terms the life task that we have – our personal sanctification. 

Our personal sanctification comes as a result of our self understanding. ‘Don’t you know that you are the temple of God?’ (1 Cor 3:16), St. Paul would ask elsewhere. That self-understanding as the dwelling of the Spirit of God, is the starting point for a whole journey of personal sanctification. 

At times we tend to understand sanctification in terms of the other, deciding for ourselves who that other will be, depending on our convenience. We wish to do better than someone and derive satisfaction that we are good. We propose to ourselves some one as a point of comparison - either adulate him or her making ourselves little or judge and criticise them in order to feel so pathetically self righteous. Both of these do not fit into the mind of Christ.

My personal sanctification: it is not a victory gained once for all but it is a constant vigilance and continuous labour, explains the parable that Jesus narrates in the Gospel. The lamp of our life needs to keep burning; the oil is given by God – ‘God who gives the Holy Spirit’. The Spirit is the oil that we need to keep our lamps burning, burning always with the desire to remain sanctified dwellings of the Spirit! Not to run out of Spirit, is what I have to ensure towards my personal sanctification.

THE WORD AND THE FEAST

The call to be prophets – Remembering the Martyrdom of John the Baptist

August 29, 2019: Jeremiah 1: 17-19; Mark 6: 17-29

The call to be prophets, like Jeremiah and John presented to us in the Word today - is not an elitist call, that is reserved for a club of specially chosen specimen. No, it is a call that is addressed to every baptized child of God. But what is the world in general moving towards?

The world seems to be at home with a culture of sin today! Be it social or economic or political or cultural arena – there is a cloud of sinfulness that pervades and waits to consume everyone present. Religious and Spiritual realms, unfortunately, are no exceptions to this in any sense.

More treacherous than this situation, is the lack of sense of sin, that justifies sinfulness, sometimes without even the conscious assent of the persons involved. We have become so mindless of sin that certain of them do not even appear to be so... judging the other, discriminating the other in our minds, giving into our prejudices and not really giving a chance to the other and so on.

The question posed to us by the feast today is, which part we would rather play? The seducing forces that draw people to sin; or the wicked plotters who play the protagonists in spreading sinfulness; or the passive infected who continue to perpetrate sinfulness by their mere inaction; or the silent spectators who aid the spread more than do anything to stop it – all these groups are represented in the Gospel today. There is also John the Baptist, who dares to stand for truth and righteousness, even at the cost of his own life! 

What would be my choice?

THE WORD AND THE SAINT

A life of Integrity – Remembering St. Augustine

August 28, 2019: 1 Thessalonians 2: 9-13; Matthew: 23: 27-32

Yesterday was the mother, and today the son! St. Augustine is known for his passionate search for truth! And in the process he came across the Truth beyond all truth, the One Truth that accounts for all other truths and he declared, “Late have I known thee!” 

The Word of God both encourages and challenges us, explains St.Paul in the first reading and it depends on each of us, what we make of these encouragements and demands! And Jesus lashes it out at us; he minces no words: the demands are so categorical and so inescapable. We can of course pretend and wield facades that create an aura that is all hoax... but how long and to what extent? What would we achieve at the end of it all? 

Augustine tried it - he created a make-believe world around him and wanted to live in that preposterous state all his life. Thanks to the mercy of God, through the tears of his mother he saw the horizon of truth. He learnt to understand the call from God, as St. Paul says today, "as God's message and not some human thinking". That made all the difference.

Being worthy of God is the project that the Word and the saint of today propose to us and it is a matter of the inner self. No amount of exterior adornment or  rationalisations or self-justifications can give the internal peace, which comes only from a life of communion with oneself, with others and with God. This in one word could be called, “Integrity” – and that is what Jesus calls us to: a life of integrity.

THE WORD AND THE SAINT

Pleasing God alone: Remembering St. Monica 

August 27, 2019: 1 Thessalonians 2:1-8; Matthew 22: 23-26 

Not to please humans but God, invites St. Paul today in the first reading. Our spirituality can reach its dreary bottom if we are constantly conditioned by our intention to please those around and live up to their praises and affirmation, and strive to evade their critiques and denunciations. 

An externally illustrious life, with a painful emptiness within, cannot endure in its glitter for long. On the contrary, a life that might look apparently uninteresting could inspire and change people and history for ever, if it is built on deep spiritual convictions. 

St. Monica, a simple mother with her perseverance in prayer and firmness in her hope, believed that her son will one day turn to the inner richness that God alone could give and she saw her belief come true! 

Our spirituality cannot consist of straining out gnats, that everyone around may praise us for our diligence and in the obscurity of our privacy swallow camels without any qualms. How impoverished we shall be if we are so attentive about our external image, others' opinions, social status and success banners but mindless of the dirt, the negativity, the selfishness and the connivance we harbour within! 

St. Monica understood this truth in her heart and saw through the misery of her son's spirit. And she knew exactly what was lacking there within him. She prayed hard and won for him, his salvation through God's mercy! 

May the saint of today inspire us to thank God for our mothers who are our first catechists!

Conversion - turning to God!

WORD 2day: Monday, 21st week in Ordinary time

August 26, 2019: 1 Thessalonians 1: 5, 8-10; Matthew 23: 13-22 

Evangelisation is one topic that the Church can never tire itself speaking of, because it is the primary reason for its being. As soon as the Church speaks of evangelisation, the anti-church civil society would interpret it as ‘Conversion’ and in turn those factions never tire themselves of accusing the Church of conversions. 

Conversion - while it would mean mere numbers for the referred-to civil society, the readings today present to us what true conversion should be for us, the people of God. It is not so much numbers, as a way of life that counts. It is a choice made for truth, justice, love and peace - in short, for God! 

Right priorities and right values are crucial within this discourse. St. Paul underlines it in such clear terms writing to the Thessalonians, that our faith should be active; our love committed and our hope firm. Active faith is love of God, committed love is self giving towards the others and firm hope is the confidence in our self identity that we are chosen by God and made for eternal happiness.

Faith in action, love as concrete compassion and hope as unceasing optimism – these are the reasons why Pope Francis is so fond of repeating – a ‘Christian’ can never be sad! 

ENTERING THE NARROW DOOR

It is a demanding task!

August 25, 2019: 21st Sunday in Ordinary time

Isaiah 66: 18-21; Hebrews 12: 5-7,11-13; Luke 13: 22-30

The experience of standing in a queue, the tedium of entering the metal detector at places with extra vigilance or waiting for the token number at the bank… these are no rarities in our ordinary life. Jesus draws a simple example, one similar to these, our experiences.

The door to the Reign of God is narrow, not many take that door, though everyone is invited to enter the Reign. There are many other doors, which seem more comfortable, more spacious and more adorned and people prefer them, knowing least that they do not lead to the Reign of God, the greatest treasure in store for us!

Entering the narrow door is a task quite demanding – the readings today point to three traits that are needed to be able to enter the Reign through the narrow door. As Jesus tells us in the Gospel, many try to enter but they cannot.

To able to enter the door, one should be strong! Strive – says the Lord – Strive to enter – To strive means to struggle, to make all the efforts possible, to try real hard. One needs to be strong in mind, heart and soul to strive to enter the narrow door into the Reign. It is Spiritual strength we are dealing with here. Be Strong, but avoid Spiritual Obesity, warns the Lord. If you are obese, you cannot enter the narrow door – it’s obvious! 

Spiritual Obesity – Pride and Elitist mentality – which gives into self righteousness and judgmental attitude can never get us into the Reign of God. I am baptized, I am a born-again, I am a consecrated religious, I am a Sacred minister – nothing can get you in! From the east and the west, the north and the south everyone will enter and sit at the table in the Reign says the Lord. Mind you, there are no reservations here in. A bit of disciplining, as the second reading suggests, can get us in shape.

To be able to enter the door, one should be in communion! The way is long, we reflected on that last week. Communion with each other and Communion with those who have managed to enter the door before us, can really make the task easy and enjoyable. Our forerunners are our example, our model and can even be our helpers – but finally, the one who has to enter is me! It is you! That is why we are warned today – Be in Communion but avoid Spiritual Infantilism. At times we make our faith so infantile that we think everything depends on the candles we light, the formulae we repeat, the food we give up and the coins we drop. These are means to strengthen our relationship with God – but they are not everything. 

What matters most is our personal life of commitment and integrity. You cannot enter the narrow door in groups… one by one you have to do it. That means you cannot ride on the goodness of the other, either the living or those gone before you!

To be able to enter the door, one should be patient! The wait is long, for the door is narrow! Waiting on the Lord is a spiritual talent. To wait patiently, amidst failures and pressures, amidst temptations and struggles, amidst dark nights and heavy burdens, it is the only way one can be prepared and prompt when one’s time comes! There is a warning here too: Be Patient but avoid Spiritual Lethargy. In the name of patience I cannot procrastinate my commitment and postpone my conversion to a later moment. ‘Repent and Believe, for the Reign of God is near’ says the Lord. 

Being patient is not being busy with something else till my turn comes… but persevering, enduring and constantly working on myself that when my turn comes, I am in shape, prepared enough and fit to enter the narrow door that leads me to the behold the eternal glory of the Lord Almighty!

I am the door, if anyone enters through me, he or she will be saved (Jn 10:9) declared the Lord elsewhere! Jesus is the door, the narrow door, the demanding door – He is compassionate, yes; but at the same time uncompromising. The choice is ours to choose the narrow door, make ourselves strong, united and patient, to endure our everyday life and make straight the path for our feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed (heb 12:13). The door is narrow but there is enough space to enter, if we are in ready and willing.

All, but not all…

One by one is the call…

Let us enter the Narrow Door, one and all.

THE WORD AND THE SAINT

August 24, 2019: Remembering St. Bartholomew, the Apostle.

Revelations 21: 9-14; John 1: 45-51

Known in the Gospel of St.John with the name Nathanael, Bartholomew received from the Lord a great compliment. A man in whom there is no guile, says the Lord. Though he did not believe what Phillip said and originally did not believe that Jesus was the Messiah, Jesus recognises the goodness in him. 

The readings today have three lessons to teach: 

One, the readiness of Jesus to appreciate the goodness in a person even when the person did not believe in him. How many times friends turn the worst enemies when they begin to disagree with each other! 

Second lesson is from Bartholomew, who accepts the call to 'come and see' and goes, sees, believes and remains with the Lord. 

The third lesson is from the feast itself - a remembrance of the Apostles is a special invitation to each of us to recognise the call we have received to to go into the world and proclaim God's Reign. 

Bartholomew took the Gospel right upto Armenia and Arabia. There exists a legend that Bartholomew reached even India's western borders! Each of us is reminded today of our call to bear the goodnews to the ends of the world, to establish the Reign of God - beginning with the closest of our contexts - that is, right wherever we are!

How do I become God's child?

WORD 2day: Friday, 20th week in Ordinary time

August 23, 2019: Ruth 1: 1-3, 6-14, 16-22; Matthew 22:34-40

Approaching today's readings with the question, 'how does one become a son or daughter of God' - there is an example and a theory! The example is that of Ruth and the theory is presented to us by Jesus himself in the Gospel. 

Ruth, a moabite, who lost her hebrew husband, still becomes a part of God's salvation plan and becomes one of the few women referred to in the long history of the Israelites. How does it happen? The answer is, true and selfless LOVE. And that is the connecting link between the readings today.

Love is the only way one can become a child of God, as John puts it so simply in his letter - 'Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God' (1 Jn 4:7). John learnt it from his master and beloved friend, Jesus who dared to synthesise the whole of the law and the prophets (that is, the whole of Hebrew Scripture) into two directives, which actually amounted to just one command: LOVE. 

Now we are back with the question we began with: how do I become a child of God. Neither some ritual, nor some practices of piety, not even some grand acts of heroism can achieve that status. There is only one way, taught by the Only Son of God and that is the way of love. Let us love one another and become God's children.

THE WORD AND THE FEAST

August 22, 2019: Celebrating the Queenship of Mary 

Isaiah 9: 1-7; Luke 1: 26-38

On this day, which is exactly a week after Assumption of Mary into the presence of God, a tradition in the Church celebrates the Coronation of Mary as Queen of Heaven and Earth. Though it is just a memoria, it is worth celebrating and reflecting!  

In what does Mary's Queenship consist? 

We are not dealing here with a contestable fact that would irk the Non-Catholic friends, as if we are claiming an undeserved and an over-exaggerated place for Mary within our religious convictions. It is obvious that we have misgivings with the non-Catholics, but certainly they cannot miss this point, if only they reason it out logically.

The choice of the readings today beautifully expresses the Church's stand on this: The glory of the Lord that is revealed in incarnation is the point of focus, according to the first reading from Isaiah, while the Gospel presents the role of Mary in that glorious event - a humble role of a servant who tells God, "Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it done unto me according to your word!" 

Her Queenship does not consist in pomp or splendour, but in filial submission and total dedication to the plan of God. She remains the same even now, forever - a humble handmaid who carries out the plan of God. If only our non-Catholic friends believe in the life eternal that is promised to us, where will they place that lovely person who was an instrument in the hands of the Divine, in executing the magnificent salvation plan? Obvious, as close as possible to the Divine, above every other being on earth, because she proved so worthy of it.

Leaving aside making sense to the non-Catholic friends, those within the fold need to understand this fact: Mary is Queen, in her simplicity, in her humility, in her docility, in her total submission to the Lord. Let us never lose sight of this in our over enthusiastic celebration of this loving Blessed Mother of ours! Let us take her as our model, an inspiration, a challenge to make ourselves simple, humble, docile and totally dedicated to God's will. 

There is no surprise Mary was crowned the Queen, because Jesus had said: One who humbles oneself, will be exalted!

The standards of the Undiscerning mind

WORD 2day: Wednesday, 20th week in Ordinary time

August 21, 2019: Judges 9: 6-15; Matthew 20: 1-16

Just yesterday we reflected on God's choices; today we get to reflect on the human choices. If God's choices were strange for noble reasons; the human choices are strange too, but for all wrong reasons - lack of judgement, result of manipulation, jealousy and maliciousness! 

The first reading is a picturesque presentation of this situation, by way of a parable narrated by Jotham - how we end up at times happily choosing the bramble as our shelter and hope! We create standards for ourselves, which are no standards at all in the sight of God and in the perspective of eternal life, and then we wish to live up to it, even at the cost of lives - Oh, what a colossal loss of life and meaning! All because we lack that one great gift of discernment.

Discernment - it is a very important grace that we need in our daily living - to make the right choices! Haste and Imbalanced judgements make up for the mistakes we land in. But the moment we realise that, we are called to return to the Lord, and be God's people. We need not think of what hour and what stage it is; it's never too late with God's love, as long as the will to return is nothing but genuine. 

 All that God wants is that we choose to say 'yes', when he calls! The choice is truly ours.

The standards of the Almighty

WORD 2day: Tuesday, 20th week in Ordinary time 

August 20, 2019: Judges 6: 11-24; Matthew 19: 23-30

The Lord's choices are curious, infact, strange! There is a series of them we can cite from both Old Testament and the New. Today's first reading presents to us one such personality - Gideon, a fear-stricken young man who defines himself as the least of all in Israel - is chosen by God and called, "Mighty Warrior". The numerous others like Jacob the less-stronger, David the puniest of the sons, Solomon the son of the coveted wife and over to the New Testament the uneducated  fishermen and  despised sinners as disciples and apostles -  the list is endless. 

The whole of Salvation History is accomplished in and through these so-called odd choices. One thing is very clear: "it is impossible for humans; but for God everything is possible." While the world and we ourselves look for something, God looks at something else and expects something totally different from us! 

Infact, that which God sees and expects is the most appropriate and when that coincides with what I see and expect from myself - the miracle happens: the first becomes the last and the last becomes the first! What I need to know and follow is what St. Paul counsel the Romans in his letter (12:2): Do not conform to the standards of the world! Be renewed in Christ and you shall fit the standards of the Almighty. 

A God who never gives up on me!

WORD 2day: Monday, 20th week in Ordinary time

August 19, 2019: Judges 2: 11-19; Matthew 19:16-22

While we were in the period of initial formation as aspirants to priesthood, there used to be periodic assessment of behaviour and it used to be communicated to us in person by a one in charge of our discipline in the formation house. I remember a phrase that was often used - 'you have a lot of good will; but good will alone is not good enough!' It seems funny to look back and take note of that remark, but looking at our life and the way we live, very often that statement applies well to most of us. 

Like the young man in the Gospel today, who had so much of good will to inherit the Reign of God, found out from Jesus that, that was not going to be good enough! The Lord has great hopes on us, but we fail repeatedly to live up to that. 

The first reading presents to us a pattern of failures of Israel, not just an act of sin but a habit of sin, a regular falling short of their call. But the Lord never gave up on them; God offers them opportunities after opportunities to return to their glorious calling - to be God's chosen people! 

Pope Francis repeats this message very often: God never gives up on us, God is never tired of us, God is never tired of forgiving us. Yes! One of the tools of deception that the evil one uses on us is that of self pity - trying to say, I am so bad that I would never be worthy of God - and thus keep us away from God, far from returning to the source of love, goodness and meaning in life.

God has great hopes on us and invites us to "Go... give up all that tends to replace God... and return and follow the Lord!" Are we ready? 

RACE - AN ANALOGY FOR CHRISTIAN LIVING

Urgency, Perseverance and Focus

August 18, 2019: 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Jeremiah 38: 4-6, 8-10; Hebrew 12: 1-4: Luke 12: 49-53

"Let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us"(Heb 12:1), invites the Liturgy today! Race - is a common analogy that is used to refer to something that requires a relentless effort and an enormous endurance. Today, the Liturgy of the Word invites us to look at our Christian living in the light of this analogy. 

Christian life is a Race; Living the Christian faith is like running a race...which has its starting point and the finish line in the person of Jesus Christ - "the pioneer and the perfecter of our faith"(Heb 12:2). Given the situation of the Greek Culture that was just spreading its philosophical wings over that part of the globe where Christianity was emerging out of Judaism, it was easy for the people to understand the analogy of Race applied to the life of faith. The analogy seems quite prevalent that we see apart from the letter to the Hebrews that we read today; also St. Paul uses it with facility, in his letters to the Philippians (Phil 3:14) and to Timothy(2 Tim 4:7,8). Extending the analogy a little more, we shall try to understand our Christian life today. 

Christian Life is a Race, a race of Hurdles! Obstructions all along the way, does not in anyway hinder the progress of the athlete, the athlete has to jump over those and run towards the goal that is set before one's eyes. If at every hurdle the person contemplates a back off or grumbles over its presence, the race is lost and ruined. Jesus today warns us of such hurdles and Jeremiah is presented to us in the midst of such overpowering obstructions. But Christian life has to go on! Jeremiah, when he was finally lifted up from the dungeon, he went back to proclaim the Word of the Lord! Up and across each hurdle, our life of faith, moves on!

Christian Life is a Race, a Relay Race! We are not running alone, we are in a team. Some one has run the race before us and they have passed the baton on to us. It is our responsibility today to run and we will not be running it forever. We will have to finish our course and pass the baton to the next! Faith has to be lived, and passed on. In the encyclical, Lumen Fidei, chapter three Pope Francis states that those who believe are never alone, faith is always shared and it tends to be spread; it has to be handed on! The second reading presents this beautifully recalling to our attention that we are surrounded by a cloud of witnesses(Heb 12:1).

Christian Life is a Race, a Marathon! It is not just a sprint, that I strive for a short time and I clinch a victory; it is a marathon, it is long and it is taxing. Speed is not enough, it demands also stamina! Endurance and Perseverance are inevitable subjects of attention when it comes to our Christian life. In Jesus' footsteps, St. Paul too instructs us, in his letter to the Thessalonians - never to be tired of doing what is right(2 Thes 3:13) and in the letter to Timothy - to endure every suffering and carry on our life (2 Tim 4:5). At times it can be boring, tedious or exasperating, but our character rests in staying on the track!

Be it what it may, the analogy of the Race requires of us three important mindsets!

The first is a sense of URGENCY. The Gospel presents this with the image of FIRE. Just as an athlete needs the fire within to run, a Christian needs the fire within to glow in his or her life. The fire that Jesus came to set, and badly wants ablaze. Jeremiah had it ablaze within his heart (Jer 20:9), the apostles, the martyrs, the first Christian community - all of them had it so ablaze within them, that it consumed them and spread wild to the world. Do we have it in us?

The second is the strength of PERSEVERANCE. The Second reading presents it with the image of the BLOOD. In every race, there are those who are ready to beat us, to over power us - in our Christian life too there are elements that are on the prowl to beat us, to over power us - the element of sin, the element of godlessness, the element of materiality! A Christian needs to fight these elements constantly, struggle against them relentlessly, right up even to the point of bloodshed. 

The third is the sense of FOCUS. The first reading presents it with the image of the MIRE. With those around want us to fail, with the tiredness that catches on, with the target that lies quite away in a distance... there are chances for the athlete to lose heart. The training is to focus on the finish line! The darkness of the dungeon or the Mire that was all around, did not in anyway take away the focus of Jeremiah! He had his eyes focused from where came his help! The second reading has those phrases - "looking to Jesus"(12:2) and "Consider Him(Jesus)"(12:3), underlining the need for us to Focus on Him, who is our beginning and our end, our alpha and the omega, our pioneer and perfecter. 

With a sense of Urgency in our will to live our faith to the full, with the strength to persevere all trials and with our focus always on Christ - let us run this race set before us. We are not alone, we have the example and the help of those who have gone before us - the saints and martyrs. We have our brothers and sisters around us, united in the One Lord, to support us and sustain us. With the example and the help of the Crucified Lord who sits at the right of the throne of God, as the Risen Lord, let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us.

Choose to be little!

WORD 2day: Saturday, 19th week in Ordinary time

August 17, 2019: Josh 24: 14-29; Mt 19:13-15

As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord, declares Joshua before the people. He leads them by example! Just like Jesus who made it clear to the people that following him was not always a pleasure trip – ‘the foxes have their holes and the birds have their nest, but the son of man has no place to lay down’ – Joshua too makes it clear that choosing to serve God and giving a word on that, is a challenging task! 

To choose God, to choose God as the absolute, to choose God above all - these would mean today choosing to be little! Choosing to be little is choosing to be laughed at, choosing to be jeered at, choosing to be labelled 'conservative' or 'irrelevant'. I feel this much more in a context in which I find myself - the European West. This culture which was once upon a time so dominated by the God-talk, is today turning, if it has not already totally turned, Godless. 

It is not our task to be sitting in judgement on the people around, but to take into account our personal daily life, our personal choices and priorities, and the elements of our daily life that truly matter to us. There we will have a clue - do we want to be accepted by the world and found relevant to the times or do we want to choose to be little, to be that little flock that surrounds the Lord, like children who feel secure in the embrace of a mother? What would our choice be?

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         

A love that gives

WORD 2day: Friday, 19th week in Ordinary time

August 16, 2019: Joshua 24: 1-13; Matthew 19: 3-12 

The gratuitous love of God and the conditional love of humans – that is the contrast that the Word brings to the fore today. Taking the reins from Moses, the young Joshua consolidates his people reminding them of the great history of faith and wonders that they have behind them, the great things that God had accomplished for them though they deserved none of them! 

The love that God lavishes on us, and the measure in which God does it, we do not deserve it at all. It is a gratuitous gift from God and God has never counted the cost, even to the extent of sending the only Son of God as a ransom on our behalf (cf. John 3:16). That love is the model set before us, by Jesus. 

When Jesus changed the commandment of Leviticus (19:18) from ‘love your neighbour as yourself’ to ‘love one another as I have loved you’ (Jn 13:34), Jesus made a deliberate choice to propose God’s love as the model. Accepting one another, forgiving one another, being good to one another, wishing the good of the other with all one's heart – in all these we are called to measure up to none less than God, who is Love itself!

At times in problematic marriages, what we observe is exactly a lack of this. They say we were totally in love, until one day when we decided to break up! What is so painful to realise is that it was no love at all in the first place. They were trying to please each other or get pleased by each other - how long can that go? 

Any relationship which has to last for life should not be based on expectations and fulfillments, but be modelled on the love of God - a love that expects nothing, but gives everything!

CELEBRATING THE FRUITS OF THE RISEN LORD

August 15, 2019: Solemnity of the Assumption of Blessed Virgin Mary

Revelations 11:19, 12:1-6,10; 1 Corinthians 15: 20-26; Luke 1:39-56

"...The revered Mother of God, from all eternity joined in a hidden way with Jesus Christ in one and the same decree of predestination, immaculate in her conception, a most perfect virgin in her divine motherhood, the noble associate of the divine Redeemer who has won a complete triumph over sin and its consequences, finally obtained, as the supreme culmination of her privileges, that she should be preserved free from the corruption of the tomb and that, like her own Son, having overcome death, she might be taken up body and soul to the glory of heaven where, as Queen, she sits in splendor at the right hand of her Son, the immortal King of the Ages" 

These were the words with which Pope Pius XII in the year 1950 defined the dogma of the Assumption of our Blessed Mother, in the document Munificentissimus Deus (art.40). Today's is a beautiful occasion when Holy Mother the Church invites us to celebrate as a solemnity on three major counts.

First of all, we are invited to Celebrate the Faith, the Faith of Mary, the young girl who cooperated with the Divine Plan and totally abandoned herself into the hands of God with her words - Be it done unto me according to your Word. The first concern for her was the Word - the Word of God which became flesh in her womb - and she became the Temple of God, the Ark of the Lord as we read in the first reading today. God acknowledged her faith, her response of faith, her obedience of faith with wondrous gifts! If the Immaculate conception is understood as the grace that God gave in preparation for her role in the Salvation history, Assumption can very well be understood as the reward that God blessed her with for her Absolute Cooperation! We are called to celebrate this faith, which Elisabeth acclaims in the Gospel today - Blessed is she who believed in the fulfillment of what God has spoken!

Secondly, we are invited to Celebrate the Hope, the hope of Resurrection, the core of our faith. "If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in sin" says the part of the epistle that just precedes the second reading of today! Christ is the first fruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ, we hear in the reading. God anticipates that for Mary as a sign of hope for us who belong to Christ, to show us that we are destined to be fruits in the line of Christ. Everyone who thinks and laments of death and the darkness of death, is today invited to open his or her eyes in hope and look at the fact that Christ has overcome death and each of us is called to overcome death, as Mary, a human being just like you and me, has overcome that death. Nothing, not even death has any claim over us... God alone, God's only Son and our Saviour Jesus Christ alone can claim us to Himself. We are called to celebrate this hope, which St. Paul affirms that death will be the ultimate enemy to be destroyed!

Thirdly, we are invited to Celebrate the Love, the love that God Almighty had lavished on his predilected daughter, the love that Jesus showered on his sweetest mother, and the love that the Holy Spirit covered the most beautiful handmaid of God with.  Pope Pius XII in Munificentissimus Deus (art.25), makes a splendid reflection saying, the primary reason for belief in the Assumption is "the filial love" of Christ for His mother. Mary herself knew how much God loved her - she proclaimed "My soul magnifies the Lord, for the Lord has looked with favour on me and done great things for me!" Just like Elisabeth who felt the blessings of the Lord by the mere presence of Mary, we too will feel that love, that favour, that blessings from the Lord, if we stay close to Mary, our sweet loving mother. 

Today, Celebrating the faith we are called to become like Mary, persons who listen to the Word and thus become bearers of that Word, like she became the Ark of the Lord! Celebrating the hope we are called to fix our eyes on the Saviour and ever yearn to belong to Him, so that we can taste the fruits of his Resurrection, as Mary participates in the fruits of the Risen Lord. Celebrating the love of the Lord, we are called to become personification of this love in our contexts, and inspire people as Mary did, to praise the Lord in the words that our Blessed mother gives us today - My soul Magnifies the Lord!

                               

THE WORD AND THE SAINT

Choice to die was a choice to live!

Remembering St. Maximilian Kolbe - August 14, 2019

Deuteronomy 34: 1-12; Matthew 18: 15-20 (or) Wisdom 3: 1-9; John 15: 12-16

Maxmilian Kolbe, a saint of our times who is looked up with awe! He lived the Words from 1 John 3:16 to the letter - "... we ought to lay down our lives for our brethren." That is the sign given to us to testify for true love - as Jesus himself states in the Gospel, Jn 15:13 - "there can be no greater love than to lay down one's life for one's friends." It is a choice that Kolbe made, knowing well what is going to be the fallout of that choice. Right enough, Pope John Paul II declared him as 'the Patron Saint of our Difficult Century'. 

A saint from the greatest of all tragedies of the just gone century in the concentration camp of Auschwitz, where Kolbe chose to die in place of another (Franciszek Gajowniczek, who was present at the canonisation of the saint). Let our love be genuine (Rom 12:9); but if it were really so, sure we will have to be prepared for hard times and painful experiences! Celebrating St. Maximilian Kolbe, is a challenge we accept to dwell on a man who did not just read the Word or hear it, but someone who lived it. He did it not for the sake of a duty or a work given to him, but for the sake of what his heart that prompted him to do for the Lord who loved him, exactly what the Lord did to him. 

That is why when Kolbe decided to die for a man whom he knew not, he did not consider that act a great feat. For him that was what he could do, all that he had to give at the moment was  his life and he gave it - he loved his Lord with the whole of his heart, with the whole of his strength, with his very life. The Love of Christ urges us!

A God right beside us!

WORD 2day: Tuesday, 19th week in Ordinary time

August 13, 2019: Deuteronomy 31: 1-8; Matthew 18: 1-5, 10,12-14

God goes before you, says the first reading! God comes after you, says the Gospel! A great piece of assurance today, as the readings together affirm the tremendous presence of God that accompanies us every moment of our life. God goes before us in our difficulties and comes after us in our failures! 

In short, the Lord is someone who lives with us everyday of our life and every moment of our days. Living in the presence of God, was the principal concern for Moses. It was the prime example that Jesus wanted to leave us too. We may think this is a very redundant and repetitive message - but if we are truly sincere and honest, this is a challenge beyond what we can imagine.

What does it mean to believe in a God who accompanies us all the time, literally, and not just a figurative sense of it? Are we truly living a faith of that sort? Faith in this perspective would become our awareness and acceptance of that presence. Prayer would become our readiness to involve the One who is present with us in our daily and regular chores. Communion would mean that we make no decision without consulting the One who is there present with us. Service to others would mean a spontaneous and selfless reaching out inspired by the summit of all goodness who resides with us.

Just imagine that mode of living: Faith, Prayer, Communion, Service to others, Celebration of the faith, everything will be totally redefined if only we undauntedly believed in the concrete presence of God with us every moment of our daily life. At times, we prefer a God who is far above us to a God who is just here, right beside us!

Half a Shekel or Life to the Full... a God-talk.

WORD 2day: Monday, 19th week in Ordinary time

August 12, 2019: Deuteronomy 10: 12-22; Matthew 17: 22-27

I run every risk of being misunderstood if I write, Christians have to be people with a dual citizenship! With the pseudo-religio-political claims that prevail in our land today, that 'all Christians are westerners', the risk is real and concrete. But let me stay clear of it, by immediately explaining myself further that we are undeniably legitimate citizens of the country we belong to, but at the same time, we eternally look forward to the one that God has prepared for us (Heb 11:12). 

The first reading today underlines the primacy of God and God's place in our lives! In the Gospel, Jesus shows us an example of looking at everything in life, absolutely everything in life, from the perspective of God. Even a question of paying tax leads Jesus to reflect on the fact that we are sons and daughters of God, that we are free by virtue of our participation in the Divine Nature of God! 

Paying half a shekel was a duty of a slave, according to Jesus. That is not what is asked of a Son or a Daughter. While a slave intends to pay the half-a-shekel that is expected of him, the Son gives the entire life to the Lord, surrenders the totality of one's life, bringing that life to its fullness thus. So living a life that is worthy of God who has created me and loved me into existence, is to live a life filled with God, and live it to the full... not in terms of half-a-shekel!

The capacity of Jesus to move from the ordinary things of the daily life to a reflection on our relationship with God, is something amazing and something that we need to practice ourselves too. Let us at the end of this day, look back and see how many God-talks we were inspired to, all along this day.