RETURN TO THE REIGN

THE WORD IN ADVENT

December 1, 2019: First Sunday of Advent 
Isaiah 2: 1-5; Romans 13:11-14a; Matthew 24:37-44

Let us begin with wishing each other a HAPPY NEW YEAR! A blessed New liturgical year begins today! And right at the outset the Lord invites us today, to RETURN to the REIGN of God. 

The Church is the sign and the sacrament of the Reign of God. We are the Church, the people of God! Therefore we are expected to be the signs, the bearers, the heralds of the Reign of God today to the world. And how can this happen if we are not people of the Reign, if we are not mindful of ushering in the Reign of God here on earth, or making the Reign felt concretely, if we do not really believe in what Christ said: 'The Reign of God is amidst you!' (Lk 17:21) Hence, the invitation today, to return to the Reign is basically a wake up call, to wake up to the reality, to wake up to our real identity, to wake up to our dignity as the People of the Reign and to live up to that identity on a daily basis.

Advent is an invitation to CLIMB the mountain of the Lord... yes, to walk in the way of the Lord, to walk in the light of the Lord...as the first reading repeats in different words. It is fundamentally an invitiation to climb, and invitation to go up, in fact to grow up. 

We are invited to go up, grow up, up above our tendencies of conflict and our feelings of rivalry and jealousy, above our petty considerations of ourselves and self centered striving for pleasure. It is a call to transcend what is popularly considered to be 'desirable' and reach the thinking worthy of the Reign - where swords can turn into ploughshares and spears into pruning hooks; where all manipulation and exploitation will give into genuine love and sincere goodwill for the other.

Advent is an invitation to CONDUCT ourselves worthy of the Reign. Put on the Lord Jesus Christ, invites us St. Paul. And in doing it, let's not wait for an opportune moment... for "now is the acceptable time, now is the time of salvation!" (2 Cor 6:2). Waiting for another moment will be a mistake, a blunder, a foolishness on our part. 

Let us make the choice, a choice for God, a choice for the light, a choice for the good, a choice to be alert and aware, a choice to be the people of the Reign. Let us not blame the world, the society, the times... the choice is ours, and let us make it now - To accept the invitation of the Lord and "walk in the light of the Lord"(Is 2:5). We will find the joy that the Lord can give, the joy that the Light can shed, the joy that cannot be taken away from us, and in that joy we will find the Reign of God amidst us!

Advent is an invitation to CELEBRATE the Reign of God amidst us, not waiting to reach the end but celebrating it all the way. Advent is not a preparation towards a celebration, it is a celebration in itself, a celebration of the peace, the prosperity, the security and the salvation that the Lord brings us. The invitation is to RETURN... yes, we are not going in search of the Reign somewhere in a far distant land; the Reign is not lost nor hidden, we are! We are lost, loitering around. We have forgotten out real destiny - the HOME. The Reign is our home and we need to return to it. We need to realise its presence right amidst us. 

The Reign of God becomes a reality when we celebrate our love and joy together as brothers and sisters in the Lord. This is the meaning of the phrase, All the way to heaven is heaven! As we pray in the responsorial psalm, we are walking, walking towards the Reign, but all through the way we are called to celebrate the Reign of God..celebrate the love we share, celebrate the equality we have, celebrate the justice we stand for, celebrate the brotherhood and sisterhood that we work to establish forever - that celebration is returning to the Reign!

As we begin the new year, and the wonderful season of Advent, let us pay heed to the invitation from the Lord - to Climb the mountain of the Lord, to Conduct ourselves worthy of the Reign and in that joy, to Celebrate the Reign of God, every day in our relationships in our family, in our communities, in our parishes, in our localities and wherever we are. May the joy of the Gospel, the joy of the Reign, fill our hearts all through this new year. 

The Feet that bring the Good News

THE WORD AND THE SAINT

November 30, 2019: St. Andrew, the Apostle of Social Network
Romans 10: 9-18; Matthew 4: 18-22

"How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!" St.Paul quotes this word from the scripture (from Is 52:7), to insist upon the blessedness of being an apostle of the Lord, being sent to bear forth the word to the others.

St. Andrew played a special role during the life and ministry of Jesus Christ. Andrew as a disciple of Christ always had the role of bringing good news to persons... according to the Gospel of St. John, he was the first one to announce to someone else, "we have found the Messiah" and he was the one who brought Peter to the Lord (Jn 1:40,41); along with Philip, he brought the Greeks to meet Jesus (Jn 12:22); and he brought that boy who gave the five loaves to feed the five thousand (Jn 6:9). Amidst all the opposition and threat, the apostles bore witness to his name: they were the beautiful feet which brought the good news to the world. 

The feast today reminds us yet again our call to be proclaimers of the goodnews to the world... each of us, without any exception, of course each in our own way. Andrew is proposed as the patron of social network...because he used every opportunity to make Christ known to people and to bring people to Christ. Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI described social network as the modern day pulpit and invited us to proclaim Christ not merely from the housetops but also from the laptops...and here we have a great role model for it. 

May we dedicate in our own way every effort of ours to proclaim the Reign of God through the social network. May we dedicate the social network which offers us such a great promise, that it may forever be an instrument in the hands of God, to bring God's will to fulfillment. 

The final word is the Lord's

WORD 2day: Friday, last week in the Ordinary time

November 29, 2019: Daniel 7:2-14; Luke 21:29-33

Calamities, Persecutions, Demoralisation these are what we see in the case of all those who had to pay with their blood, the price for their faith in Christ. Not just the first Christians or the three centuries of persecution that followed, all through the centuries we have people persecuted for belonging to God. Sadly, we as Christians have persecuted others too...sometimes in arrogance, sometimes in the over zealous stands that we have taken, and sometimes with an insensitive silence in history.

The first reading speaks of all these types of calamities and persecutions, but finishing however with a note of hope on the eternal dominion of the Son of Man. That is the typical outlook of a person of God - to see all that is so evil but all the time to see through them all, the benign face of God.

The Gospel reaffirms the hope presented in the first reading, from the mouth of the very object of that hope: the Word made flesh. In spite of these frightening scenes all around you, be firm that the Lord is still in control, because the final word with always be the Lord's!

Perseverance is a virtue in imitation of the faithfulness of God. 'Let us never grow tired of doing what is right' (2 Thes 3:13), as the Lord himself who never gets tired of loving us! Whatever be our situation, if we are truly persons of God, if we believe that we are children of God in the true sense that we have surrendered ourselves in the hands of the Lord, then let us take a deep breath and say, the final word will always be the Lord's!

Lion's mouth and heads held high

WORD 2day: Thursday, last week in Ordinary time

November 28, 2019: Daniel 6: 12-28; Luke 21: 20-28

From the lions' mouth the Lord delivers Daniel. Another phrase, but it happens literally in Daniel's life. The Gospel presents to us a scene of vengeance, violence and fearsome events... the ultimate message is just one and simple: hold your heads high, the Lord is near!

In the Joy of the Gospel, the exhortation that Pope Francis gave in 2013, he explains, a Christian has to be joyful but that joy will not be experienced in the same way all the time. That is what the readings today wish to impress on our minds. 

At times there will be troubles that threaten to overpower us, temptations that tend to drown us, sinful tendencies that vouch to ruin us, concerns that refuse to leave us... but even at the worst of these moments a true Christian will not lose heart, will never give up! Because at the core of his or her heart, there is joy, the joy that Christ gives, a joy that no one or nothing can take away(Jn 16:22)!  

That is infact what Jesus tells us today in the Gospel - even if you find yourself at the mouth of a lion, or at the threshold of destruction, or at the brink of death - all that you need to do is - believe in the Lord, trust in the mercy of God and "stand up and hold your heads high, for your liberation is at hand!"

The Writing on Our Wall

Wednesday, last week in Ordinary time

November 27, 2019: Daniel 5:1-6,13-14,16-17,23-28; Luke 21:12-19

"The writing on the wall" - the familiar phrase in English, has its origin in the first reading today. The meaning is very clear and that is precisely the message of the Word today. It is clear to all of us even as we choose things on a daily basis, to what consequences they will lead us. 

When we commit some mistake, we are prone to say - 'I did it without knowing', at least in vernaculars exists such a formulation, don't they? But none of us can claim a total ignorance, while most of us do not want to really accept the fact that we do know the consequences of our choices; unfortunately we feign ignorance and desperately look for someone or something to blame it on. In all sincerity we know, what we sow, we reap. 

Our choices of negative tendencies like manipulation, disrespect, abuse, violence and exploitation cannot but lead to situations of hopelessness, darkness and death - King Belshazzar is sadly made aware of it today by Daniel. It was too late to mend things. If we do not want to reach that extreme, we would do better to take guard right now! What are we really up to?

But there is yet another writing on the wall that is presented: Jesus says, if you choose to belong to me, if you choose to be called my disciples, if you choose to respond to my call, you will be derided, persecuted and even killed, but do not fear; in your endurance you would have won life, life in all its fullness, life in the very author of life, life everlasting! That is a frightening and challenging writing, but at the same time a consoling one, a promising one, a hope-filled one!

Let us Stop, look intently and understand the writing on our wall... shall we?

The Reign: End or Beginning?

WORD 2day: Tuesday, Last week in Ordinary time

November 26, 2019: Daniel 2: 31-45; Luke 21: 5-11

If you have already noticed, you would find that this week's readings have a bi-dimensional orientation - a preparation towards advent (a new beginning) and at the same time a reflection on the end times. This is a truly Christian disposition: a bi-dimensional approach to life. 

A reflection on the end times has to be radically open to the new beginnings, lest it becomes a vain curiosity or a hopeless negativity. This is what is noticed around very often: all the talks about the nearing end of the world and the kaliyuga and the messianic stories of saving the world from destruction, the deterministic submission of one self and one's life to stars and stones and simplistic soothsayers! You can look at everything as a frightening hopeless end!

The end we are speaking of is the new beginning of the God's Reign - something that we are working towards on a daily basis! A focus on the new beginnings, the new earth and new heaven, on the definitive coming of the Reign should have a mature openness towards the end time perspective, lest it remains a simplistic dream of an all-bright future, without any personal commitment to it. With the Reign-perspective even the so-called end here becomes a new beginning! 

Dreams, visions, apparitions, messages and extra natural phenomenon have no value in themselves, unless they help a better living here and now, and a preparation for a more holistic future. The Word today reminds us of this need - the need to question ourselves on our life style, our criteria and choices in daily life - whether they are really worthy of the Reign, that we are called to announce to the world as disciples of Christ! 

Ask yourself: Is the Reign, a beginning or an end!

Chosen for the choice!

WORD 2day: Monday, Last week in Ordinary time 

November 25, 2019: Daniel 1:1-6,8-20; Luke 21: 1-4

So many were lining up dropping a bit of their possessions into the temple treasury, but Jesus picked on a poor despicable widow to compliment. In spite of the state of slavery and meekness,  Daniel was picked up for the glory of God to be revealed. Why were they chosen?  What makes these special?  Their choice! They were chosen because they were explicit in their choice!

It is true that our Christian life is a call, for that matter life itself is a call. We are called by our very life to be human beings; and added to that in our baptism we are called to live our life as Christians. There is a call, with which we have begun - this call presents me with innumerable calls, every moment in my life where I have to choose! Every time I do or say something, I make a choice! 

Look at these choices - is it possible to every time, for every small step, that I stop, think and make a choice? It is too tedious! But we make so many choices on a daily basis - how do we do it? Because we have a choice, a big choice, an over all choice that we have made and that choice leads us to the individual, little choices we make on daily basis, sometimes without even giving a serious thought to it. Hence the need to check that big choice, that over all choice - that is what we call our life choice!

The widow chose to give away even the little placing her trust that God will fend for her. Daniel gave up the sumptuous food and drink and all comforts promised in order to remain faithful to the Lord, for he was convinced every blessing came from the Lord. They made a choice - a life choice for God; So God chose to raise them up!

The choice they made sets them apart. Entering the last week of the liturgical year, we would see this thread running through the coming days to remind us of our own priorities and choices. What is my life choice?

JESUS CHRIST IS KING

And I am His Ambassador

Solemnity of Christ the King: November 24, 2019

2 Samuel 5: 1-3; Colossians 1: 12-20; Luke 23: 35-43

Jesus Christ is the same, yesterday, today and forever! Jesus Christ is the king - yesterday, today and forever! We celebrate the Kingship of Christ this Sunday - what a wisdom for the Church to invite the faithful to end the liturgical year with their King. And next Sunday we would begin a new liturgical year. Today, the readings invite us to reflect on the kingship that Christ holds and the way he exercises it! How many types of leaders we have - there are those that showcase themselves to be 'saviours' of human kind but make choices and alliances that promote nothing but their own interests, there are those who show themselves to be champions of rights and turn out to be no different from the oppressive ones when it comes to certain situations, there are those who are outspoken but at times totally unaware as to what they speak builds or breaks, and unfortunately there are a majority who care truly nothing about those whom they would rule or govern and specially those in need or those difficulties but fend for themselves and their own! How many.... and how many colours they change! We are presented today with Jesus, who remains the same yesterday, today and forever!

St. Paul summarises the entire feast that we celebrate today, in just three verses in the second reading - Col 1: 17,18,20.

CHRIST IS before all things, and in him all things hold together (Col 1:17). The first reading establishes the kingship of Jesus in the line of David - God makes David the king of Israel and promises that his line will never end. In fact, in God's mighty plan, the kingship seems eternal, without beginning or end, for God places David a king, to rule in God's name and for Israel it was always Yahweh, who was the King! When Jesus claimed, 'before Abraham ever was, I am' (Jn 8:58), they were unable to grasp it; let us not blame them, even we do not grasp it. Because, we human beings cannot think out of the categories of time and space. God is eternal, which means timeless! God has always been... and that is from where everything good comes.

Every leadership in Christian community therefore derives from God; it is an invitation, a commitment to act on behalf of God, at the service of God's people! Jesus Christ is King, Jesus Christ has been king from eternity, as the first-born of all creation, to him all glory and majesty! True Christian leadership is a participation in this ministry that Jesus carried out while he lived on earth: the ministry of love and service.

CHRIST LIVES in each of us, through him God is pleased to reconcile all things on earth or heaven (Col 1:20). The verse speaks to us of a future, of the universal harmony in the One Lord, One God, the new earth and new heaven where only Love will reign, that is, only God will reign, for God is love (1 Jn 4:8). Everything that moves towards harmony, peace, love, fellowship and universal brotherhood and sisterhood, resembles Christ. And anything that militates against these values of reconciliation, is against Christ.

Jesus Christ is King, Jesus will be forever the king. Everything, everyone is moving towards that union with God, in Christ our Lord. It fills us with a hope, despite all the tribulations we go through here and now. But it is not automatic, it all depends on the choices we make today. If we choose the Lord, we endear the Lord. On the contrary, if we choose the passing glories and fleeting pleasures of the moment, that is what we will have. As St.Paul instructs us elsewhere, if you sow to your own flesh, you will reap corruption from the flesh; but if you sow to the Spirit, you will reap eternal life from the Spirit (Gal 6:8).

CHRIST RULES as the head of the body, the church (Col 1:18). The Gospel presents us a strange sort of a King. Jesus is the one who rules...who rules from the Cross as his throne, who rules with the thorns as his crown, who rules  not with the sceptre in his hands but with the marks of nail on his hands, who rules not with laws but with love, a love that abounds without any measure whatsoever. 

The most important truth to reflect on today, is the fact that the ruler has appointed you and me as his ambassadors - the ruler is not understood, so will we be -not understood; the ruler is not welcome into the schools and public places and the moral arena in the world today, so will we be not welcome to voice our opinions for truth and for justice. But as his ambassador, what should I do? What am I ready to do? 

Yes, Christ is King, but  I am his ambassador, wherever I am... in my service of love, in my witness of faith, in my joy of hope, in my testimony of humility, in my commitment to truth and in my yearning for justice, I have to prove myself that I am the ambassador of that Eternal King. How worthy am I of the king whom I represent! How faithful and loyal am I to the King who has died for me, and who calls me to do the same! You are the people of God, Royal Priesthood says the Word, yes, that is what we are...we share the kingship with Christ - a kingship that consists in loving service to humanity and loving surrender to the Lord!

Long live my King! And let me today live my life worthy of my King!

God, right next to us!

WORD 2day: Saturday, 33rd week in Ordinary time 

November 23, 2019: 1 Maccabees 6:1-13; Luke 20: 27-40

It is easy to glory in a God of the past, recount miracles and remember feats. It is also not difficult to think of a God of the future, dream dreams of prosperity and share stories of great tidings. The real challenge is to believe in the God of the present, the God of the moment, the Lord of my life, the God of the living. 

The strength of my spiritual self is seen in my ability to relate to God on a daily basis, on a moment-to-moment basis. When Jesus today reminds us of the God of the living, and not a God of the dead, he is inviting us to experience God and live with God every day, every moment! 

We are fond of living on a spiritual nostalgia of an experience 'once-upon-a-time' or we are fond of looking at a bright light some time, some day. Like the people we see in the bible who thought of their ancestors or thought of a future splendour, but missed the great and moving presence of the Lord amidst them, in their daily events and difficult moments, let us not end up making up stories and throwing questions at the Lord. 

All that it takes to experience God right now and right here, is being still. Be still and know that I am (Ps 46:!0). Being still would be the famous "mindfulness" that is making its rounds now among the psycho-spiritual gurus...it is all there in the Word. If only we can open our eyes and our hearts to allow the Word to speak to us and the permit the Spirit to inspire us, we shall behold them all, here and now.

Become aware of all that you are involved in - what you are doing, why you are doing that which you are doing, what is the ultimate purpose of all that you are doing - become aware, and see that the Lord is right there beside you in everything and at every moment. Let us be still and experience the presence of the living God, the God of the living, living right next to us!

Be consumed by your Zeal

THE WORD AND THE SAINT

November 22, 2019: Remembering St. Cecilia 

1 Maccabees 4: 36-37,52-59; Luke 19: 45-48

Clicked at the Shrine of St. Cecilia in Trastevere (Rome),
the principle Shrine of the Saintly martyr.

Zeal for his house will consume him - Ps 69:9 - that is what John refers to when he recounts the event that we hear in the Gospel today from Luke! Judas Mattathias in the first reading and Jesus in the Gospel are presented as burning with zeal for God, for God's house. 

When we accept God as our king (the theme of this entire week) we should be burning with zeal for God, for things that belong to God, for values that stand for God, for persons and their dignity that directly springs from God, for life and love that signify God...we should burn with zeal to preserve, promote and uphold these! 

How easily we give into the pressures of this world and the so-called 'developed' society! Does this prided 'development' in anyway promote true and lasting happiness of humanity? Does this 'developed' society in anyway assure the dignity of every person or speak up only for the moneyed and the muscled? How much of individualism and materialism it keeps perpetrating? 

The saint we celebrate today, St. Cecelia is a third century martyr, who suffered for the absolute love that she had for her king, Our Lord Jesus Christ. She was burning with zeal for the love of God and wanted to belong to Christ and Christ alone. 

If we think of our Christian life in terms of king-subject relationship, our love for Christ is our allegiance to our King... let us be filled with zeal for our king! And for that we should have truly and absolutely accepted our Lord as our King!

Identify your King!

WORD 2day: Thursday, 33rd week in Ordinary time

November 21, 2019: 1 Maccabees 2:15-29; Luke 19: 41-44

Though there is a choice of celebrating the presentation of our Blessed Mother - that is the occasion of Joachim and Anne presenting the child Mary in the temple - we shall continue with the week day readings, because they have an important message and prepare us towards the great feast we look forward to at the end of this week!

Who is your king? – yes, that is the crucial question that will be asked these days of the week running up to the Solemnity of Christ the King. The parable we heard yesterday of the return of the king who demands an account, the siege of Jerusalem that Jesus speaks of today in the Gospel and the call of Mattathias to gather in his leadership against the persecuting forces… all these present a crisis situation; a situation demanding a definitive choice. The scheme with which the week began continues... the first reading presents the crisis and the Gospel indicates our response! 

Sometimes external pressures like the work ambient, the political milieu, the personal addictions or the overpowering temptations can present a crisis situation to us… a situation that actually offers us an opportunity to make a radical choice for God or against God! Even a simple affair like the choice of words we use, or an ordinary decision we make on a daily basis, can determine the radical belonging to or rejection of God in our lives! May our everyday choices be such that the Lord never need to weep over us, as he did over Jerusalem!

Hence, an all important question for me to answer: who is my king, the king after whom I would be able to go, just as the people do in the first reading today: leaving behind everything, just everything! That requires that i firmly, in my daily life, identify my kind!

Take yourself seriously!

WORD 2day: Wednesday, 33rd week in Ordinary time

November 20, 2019: 2 Maccabees 7: 1,20-31; Luke 19:11-28

The end time disaster narration continues in the first reading, while the recommendation given today is: take yourself seriously! Look at your life, look at what you are, look artwhat you have, look at what you are given, look at the tasks entrusted to you and take them seriously! The urge to be faithful to God is never a question of maintaining the status quo. 

As spiritual masters always warn us, not to progress in spiritual life is to regress! Faithfulness to God is not lived or manifested in remaining where we are (maintaining status quo) or merely in moments of legal fulfillment of rules and routine practices of piety. It takes fundamental radical choices at crucial moments to tell not just the Lord but the world too, that I belong to the Lord, to the One who has created me, the One who has called me and commissioned me. 

Like the young lad, who as his mother and 6 other brothers, in the first reading chooses God over everything that the king promises and over his very life, our choices need to speak for themselves; not just the choices of life and death, but the choices of what we want to do with what we are - the talents, the gifts that the Lord has given us, the choices of what we want to do with every moment of life that God has gifted us with. 

We can choose to enrich them and enhance them, or  just bury them and be inactive! We could easily fall into the category of 'you-wicked-servant', if we are not mindful! The choice today, is mine - would I be ready to take myself seriously and keep growing!

Allow the Lord to touch you!

WORD 2day: Tuesday, 33rd week in Ordinary time

November 19, 2019: 2 Maccabees 6: 18-31; Luke 19: 1-10

The Sunday liturgy this week called our attention to end times and the theme follows on during the week. If you pay a keen attention to the readings these days, the first reading continues to talk about the disasters of the end times, while the Gospel would offer a recommendation, as to how to confront them. Yesterday, the recommendation was to have a new vision: O Lord that I may see! Today the recommendation is to allow the Lord to touch you.

The Zacchaeus episode in the Gospel is an evergreen example of an encounter that transforms a person. As St. Paul would say, 'if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation' (2Cor 5:17). When we allow the Lord to really encounter us, the Lord transforms the whole person. Nothing remains the same, everything is new because we begin to see everything from the perspective of the Lord. 

As Pope Francis says, 'Faith is not just to see Jesus, it is to see with the eyes of Jesus' (Lumen Fidei 18). When our faith is authentic, the whole perspective changes. What seems to be important, what seems to be necessary for someone may seem totally secondary to me, because I see as the Lord does, because I think as the Lord does, because I love as the Lord does. That happens only when I allow the Lord to touch me.

Eleazar in the first reading demonstrates the same to us - 'such pretense is not worthy of our time of life' (2 Mac 6:24), he says, caring the least to safeguard his life, because he did not want to lead the others astray from God. A life touched by God, cannot be contaminated by anything ungodly! What matters is that we allow God to touch, to touch our selves, to touch our innermost being!

Blind trust or Singular focus?

THE WORD AND THE FEAST

November 18, 2019: Dedication of the Basilicas of St. Peter and St.Paul

Acts 28: 11-16, 30-31; Matthew 14: 22-33

St. Peter's Basilica, Vatican

Basilica of St. Paul outside the Walls

Just last week we celebrated the memory of the dedication of the Basilica of St. John at the Lateran! Here are two more (of the 4 major basilicas) - the Basilicas dedicated to these two Pillars of the Church - to Peter at Vatican (the famous Vatican St.Peter's Church) and to St. Paul outside the walls of Olden Rome. 

The Gospel presents to us Peter, who did not mind the turbulent sea, the raging waves, the frightening darkness... all that he heard was the call of his Lord, beckoning him, "Come." He steps on to the sea and begins to walk. The limitedness of his faith notwithstanding, he was a man who trusted the Lord blindly! 

The first reading presents to us Paul, arriving in Rome! Not a pilgrimage or a tour, he reaches as a prisoner... and remains in house arrest. He doesn't seem to bother at all about that, because his only concern was to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ - and that he was able to do, peacefully! For him that was all which mattered. In prison or free, under prohibition or not, he could not but preach the Gospel. "Woe to me if I do not preach the Gospel," he said (1 Cor 9:16).

As we thank the Lord for the gift of these great apostles Peter and Paul, let us pray for the gift of the blind trust they had in the Lord and total dedication they demonstrated for the WORD. Actually, it was not blind! It was blind only in as much as it did not see the dangers, the risks, the stakes, the difficulties, the hurdles, the challenges, the hindrances, the blocks and pitfalls that lay around. But it was because, their eyes, their ears and their hearts were fixed on just one point: the Lord, the Lord's goodness, the Lord's love for them, the Lord's commission which had to be carried out by any means. More than calling it blind trust, we would do well to call it, the singular focus!

THE END TIMES

How do I confront?

November 17, 2019: 33rd Sunday in Ordinary time

Malachi 3: 19-20; 2 Thessalonians 3: 7-12; Luke 21: 5-19

Reflecting on the third World Day of the Poor

Today is the last Sunday in the Ordinary time, and next week we would be celebrating the solemnity of Christ the King. And the Word this week reminds us of the second coming of the King, that is the END times! Some get a strange a kick out of talking about the end times and spiritually terrorise those who listen to them. There have been cases of people who had bought trenches to secure themselves when the mystery stories did their rounds in 2012...about the end of the world! Let us remember dear friends that we have been living in the end times for the past 2000 years!!! Even St. Paul had to warn the Thessalonians not to make too much of these!

For a true Christian what should the 'end time' mean? Should it be terrorising? Should it make one go into a delirious tantrum or a plaguing paranoia? Those are in no way Christian responses to the thought on end times. Because for the one who believes in Christ, the Lord who has overcome the world (Jn 16:33), the Lord who has gained victory over death (Rom 6:9), the end time is not dreadful, it cannot be a threatening darkness! The first reading says so plainly, "but for you who fear my name, there will arise the sun of justice with its healing rays!" (Mal 3:20). 

Pope Francis has thought of a proactive and truly Christ-ian way of approaching the End times... and that is why he proposed three years ago to punctuate this Sunday as the World day of the Poor! That adds another live dimension to our central theme here.

Hence, the Word and the reflection on the poor in the world today,  instruct us on how we should confront the end times. What if the end of times were tomorrow, or today or now! We have begun our life journey, a journey of perfection towards union in Christ and this journey has to necessarily end, and that end is nothing but union with Christ. How my soul should long for that: like the deer that yearns for running streams, so my soul longs for you, my God! (Ps 42:1) 

The first reading tells me, what I need to do first and foremost, to prepare myself for the end times is to LEND my ears to the Lord. When I hear the word of the Lord and live it with all my heart (Jas 1:22), not beset by occasional set backs but ever trusting in the mercy and goodness of the Lord, I need to fear no one; I need to fear nothing, not even the gates of hell! But the secret is eagerness to lend my ears to the Word of the Lord.

The second reading challenges me to AMEND my ways in the Lord, go on living my every day life with serenity and peace. There is nothing to worry or fret as the Thessalonians did, for my soul finds rest in the Lord, and my salvation comes from God (Ps 62:1). All that I need to do is remain mindful of my ways! A sincere humility and daily conversion leads me to a genuine Christian life. When I begin everyday in the presence of the Lord planning my life and end it in God's presence evaluating it on the basis of God's teachings, I come to know of the things that I can be happy about and the things I need to grow in. A saint is not someone who has never failed, but is someone who has never remained the same after a failure! The secret is my willingness to amend my ways to walk in the light of the Lord. It is here that the reflection on the world day of the poor can be located: the hope of the poor shall not perish for ever (Ps.9:19). The world today has to reconsider its understanding of development, progress and economic growth! It is such an inhuman phenomenon to just ignore and take for granted an entire percentage of persons, for the sake of the pleasure of a few! What has been my role in this?

The Gospel invites me to TRANSCEND all fears and trust in the Lord. Humanly speaking, I cannot end all my fears, but I can transcend every one of them. When my heart trusts in the Lord, when my eyes are fixed on my Saviour, when my hand rest in the hands of the One who leads me, I can transcend all my fears - like Peter who dared to step on to the turbulent sea and walk, like Paul and Barnabas who stood before the angry Sanhedrin and spoke, like the apostles who defied every authority and spread the message of Christ... they were all once filled with fear... they were the same weak men but with the Spirit they could transcend all fears! Nothing - no threat, no punishment, not even death - could frighten them. The secret is my capacity to transcend all fears with the Spirit of power, love and self-discipline (2 Tim 1:7). Not giving into pessimism is a crucial Christian trait and we need to grow in it. Looking at the economic discrepancies that exist, the digital divide that dehumanises, the capitalistic globalisation that makes exploitation ever more prevalent, can we give up our hope? We cannot. Every Christian and every Christian community has to make a difference - only then the Lord's wish today, that the hope of the poor shall not perish for ever, shall come true!

The End of times is near... in fact we are living in the end times... it is not a matter to be spoken of in alarm or in whispers... the message of end times is, a call to lend my ears to the Word of the Lord, a challenge to amend my ways in the ways of the Lord and to transcend all fears with the Spirit of the Lord! Let us live every day of our life, as if it were the last day of our life, every moment as if it were the last. Let us live our lives to the full, ever acceptable in the eyes of the Lord!

Act or Attitude of Prayer?

WORD 2day: Saturday, 32nd week in Ordinary time

November 16, 2019: Wisdom 18: 14-16,19:6-9; Luke 18: 1-8

Our help is in the name of the Lord, proclaims Psalm 124. The Lord alone is our refuge and our strength. The Lord knows when we sit and when we stand, even before a word is on our mouth, the Lord knows it all. This trust is called the attitude of prayer - a total abandonment into the hands of the Lord! 

Isn't it opportune here to dwell a little on the act of prayer and the attitude of prayer? Not that the act of prayer is any less valuable, but what is important to be cultivated within  us and in our younger generations is more the attitude of prayer, which covers more than just an instance, the entire life and the lifetime.

At times when we pray, we sound like knocking at the door of the Lord as the last resort...'I have tried everything Lord; and now I have nothing more to try and so I come to you!' This is one of a typical act of prayer - is this wrong? No. Definitely not wrong. But certainly, not the ideal or the best. 

The disposition has to be clear from the first moment: "You are everything Lord and I surrender myself to you; guide me along and accompany me, that I may never stray from Your will and guard me from all those which plot to take me away from You and Your holy will. Yes, I will do my best but I know even the best is not truly sufficient. It is your holy will that completes everything and I surrender myself to it." This is an attitude of prayer!

Let us live our life with the Lord - every bit of it - our duties, our desires, our trials, our preoccupations; let us live them all with the Lord and be prepared always to say: Not mine, but Your will be done, O Lord! (Lk 22:42)

Signs of Real Faith!

WORD 2day: Friday, 32nd week in Ordinary time 

November 15, 2019: Wisdom 13:1-9; Luke 17: 26-37

'Fools say in their heart, 'there is no God',' goes Psalm 14:1. Though it is not the spirit of the times to get into an argument with people with variant religious convictions, sometimes it is important to challenge the insincere ones which are held with hidden motives and contrived plots. The first reading is actually drawing that difference - the difference that actually exists between those who are sleeping and those who are pretending to sleep; between those who do not know and those who do not want to know! One is inability and the other is arrogance!

Between these two, lies another group of people who wish to wake up, who have all the willingness and possibility to know, but are procrastinating their decision. They know more or less, what is expected of them, but are waiting for a time when they can really launch themselves towards that righteous path. The Gospel warns these - it would be too late before you realise! Come on, Gird up!

The Word today is quite strong against those who probably have religious choices of convenience, than conviction. In this regard, it is easier for us to find someone to point a finger at, but what is important is for me to evaluate my faith! How much am I drifting along with conveniences and comfort zones, instead of standing firm with convictions and commitments? What makes me, as a Christian, better than someone who says he or she does not believe in a God? 

Faith is not merely saying 'yes' to a set of truths, but it is a personal relationship with the person of Jesus Christ, with God whom Jesus revealed to us, with the Spirit who lives on with us and within us. Is it not an ample opportunity for me today to raise this question in my heart: What does my faith mean to me? What are the SIGNS of real faith in my day to day life? 

God - close to us and amidst us!

WORD 2day: Thursday, 32nd week in Ordinary time

November 14, 2019 : Wisdom 7:22 -8:1; Luke 17: 20-25

The Reign of God is within you! (Lk 17:21) - this was the statement, they say, that provoked, sustained and gave meaning to Liberation theology in the 1970s. Not just that. This was also the teaching that took Jesus to the cross. What is so provocative about it? 

To answer that question from the Gospel, we need to listen to the first reading and the psalm. They speak of the Wisdom of the Lord, the Word of God that abides with us, the Lord who has come to live amidst us, the whole grace of incarnation. It is all about the Indwelling Spirit, who is the power of God almighty, the concrete expression of God's wisdom, the continued existence of God's Word amidst us.

Jesus' proclamation of the arrival of the Reign, or that of the year of the Lord and the claim about the fulfilment of the Word (Lk 4:19,21) were looked at as an offence, because Jesus underlined the proximity, the closeness of God to human beings. When God was thought of as a distant judge who would judge everything and everyone on the last day, Jesus spoke of God in terms of our daily life and ordinary choices.

Even today, if we choose to, we can see God as some one far, distant, removed and isolated. But if we are sincerely observant, we can feel the presence of the Word, the Wisdom, the Incarnate Son walking beside us and we can feel God close and intimate to us because, "God loves nothing so much as the person who lives with wisdom" (Wis 7:28), says the first reading. 

Let us make a concrete effort to feel God close to us and right amidst us!

You are Blessed - Realise and Respond!

WORD 2day: Wednesday, 32nd week in Ordinary time

November 13, 2019: Wisdom 6: 1-11; Luke 17: 11-19

The readings seem to converge on one thought today... that the Lord wishes, expects, and demands a response from us! 

Our God is a self revealing God... through signs and wonders and prophets and wise persons and finally through God's only Son, and continuously even today in and through God's Spirit, God continues to reveal Godself to us in various ways. Those who do not notice those revelations should be blind in their mind, or blocked in their spirits or bonded with the evil!

On our part, as children of the Lord, we need to realise that the more we are given, the more we are expected to respond! It is not that God gives, so that we would repay! No! What can we give the Lord or how much can we really repay God's goodness? Is there anyone who can merit what God gives or anyone who can recompense God for God's bountiful goodness?

The fact is that, we are given so much, we are filled with such goodness, we receive "grace upon grace" (Jn 1:16), that we realise it is right and just to give God thanks and praise! What a blessing it is to to know what to do at the right time and the way to do it! More blessed it is to know that one has to do something and cannot just keep quiet, because God has given without measure.

To know the right thing to be done at the right time and choosing to do it, is a gift of the Holy Spirit...we would be blessed to possess it. And the Lord says today, "set your desire on my words; long for them, and you will be instructed!" (Wis 6:11). Let us pray for this gift: to realise our blessedness and respond aptly! 

Bearing God's Image within

WORD 2day: Tuesday, 32nd week in Ordinary time

November 12, 2019: Wisdom: 2:23 - 3:9; Luke 17: 7-10

The first reading today states a tremendous truth - we are made for eternity, incorruptible by nature, because we carry the image of God within us! That is the fundamental truth of salvation. We are all saved in the core of our being, none of us is destined to destruction, none of us is rushing towards perdition! 

But there is something which can change everything drastically! We have a responsibility to keep that truth alive, because it all depends on the choices we make. By nature we are God's own children, but if we by our daily decisions and life choices, resolve to break away from God and from the gifts that God has placed within us, we are ruining our own salvific core. 

It is not as if we are doing something extraordinary or achieving unthinkable feats when we accomplish within our limits, whatever goodness we can! It is actually what we are, it is our very nature; because we are endowed with God's nature. And so, craving for recognition and appreciation, boasting about oneself and one's so-called achievements are a folly. St. Paul would remind us repeatedly of that. Jesus explains that today: when you have done all that you ought to, remember you have done no more than your duty.

The problem gets real bad, when we are not what we are created to be, we do not do what we are called to! We shield ourselves away from the salvation that God, from all eternity, has prepared for us. What a ruin that would be!

The Word reminds us today: we are called every day, every moment to go on living in faith founded on hope and guided by love, to live a life of love and mercy; and at the end of it say, 'we are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty!' God who loves us will never desert us, unless we decide to break away from God.

Faith and Forgiveness!

THE WORD AND THE SAINT

November 11, 2019: Remembering St. Martin of Tours.

Wisdom 1:1-7; Luke 17: 1-6

Holiness is a matter of the innermost being. It does not consist merely of the external signs and shows. Words not said, thoughts not expressed, acts merely contemplated, reactions withheld... these determine my holiness more than what the world around perceives me to be. That is why the strange link between faith and forgiveness in the Gospel today. 

While Jesus teaches the disciples to forgive brothers and sisters, they respond saying - 'increase our faith!' Can sound strange, but only apparently so! One cannot consider oneself to be a person of faith, holy and spiritual, if one's relationships with others is not right. If faith is relationship with God, forgiveness is relationship with my fellow beings! If the latter fails, the former is meaningless.

This is what the first reading calls 'the simplicity of heart' - thinking what one lives, living what one says and saying what one thinks - all of these put together is true faith. Lord increase our faith. 

St. Martin whom we celebrate today was someone who lived this in his life! He was gracious with his unfortunate brothers and sisters and he experienced the same graciousness in bountiful measure. If we want really to be spiritual, we have to forgive, accept, and love our brothers and sisters, as God does with us: that is true wisdom that leads to true faith. 

Lets ask the Lord to "Increase our faith" (Lk 17:5).

WE ARE PEOPLE OF RESURRECTION

Reward, Reconciliation & Realisation

November 10, 2019: 32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time

2 Maccabees 7:1-2,9-14; 2 Thessalonians 2:16 -3:5; Luke 20: 27-38

"And I will raise them up on the last day" declared Jesus regarding those who partook of him. Resurrection is our hope, Resurrection is the foundation of our faith. The crux of the salvation that Jesus offers us is Hope, and hope is the confidence of things that we are yet to receive and the greatest of all that we look forward to is resurrection! This is what Jesus in his incarnate self showed us - he lived his life for God, he died for God and by God he was raised; when we live, we live for God; if we die, we die for God, and we will be risen in the Lord! This is the foundation of our faith; for as St.Paul says, "if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile" (1 Cor 15:17). The readings today, help us understand what resurrection could mean to us. 

Resurrection is a REWARD, a recompense that God sets before us for the commitment with which we live our life. We come from God, and it is our destiny that we return to God. We are loved into existence by God and we bear God's image in the core of our being. Every day of our life is an opportunity to cherish that image within us and bring it to fulfillment within us. Every person we come across is a companion on this journey and every situation we live through is a means to nudge towards the destiny. 

There could be moments that are trying and those are moments to stride across, as we see in the first reading. When we find ourselves in such moments as those, when we have to choose between God and godlessness, between righteousness and injustice, between good and mediocrity - and we decide to choose God, righteousness, goodness - we can proudly say with St. Paul, "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. From now on, there is reserved for me the crown"(2 Tim 4:7,8).

Resurrection is RECONCILIATION, a reunion with my creator, an experience of my oneness with my God, whose child I am. In the letter to the Colossians, we are told, "you have now been reconciled in the body of his flesh, so as to present you holy and blameless before God provided that you continue securely established and steadfast in faith"(Col 1:22,23). 

Haven't we heard sometimes people making remarks such as, 'after all, would we live another 25 years!' Absolutely true, that we are on an earthly sojourn and our eternal abode beckons us. That is why St. Paul prays in the second reading today, 'May the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and to the steadfastness of Christ.' It is in that love of God and the faithfulness of Christ, that we are assured of 'eternal life' which is participating in the nature of God, who alone is eternal. In our resurrection we become one with God, we are reconciled to God, and we become eternal like God!

Resurrection is REALISATION, a concrete experience of what has been promised. We are called to live as the people of Resurrection. Christians are Easter People... while there is in store the eternal life that has been promised, we are invited to live that resurrection every day, every moment, specially in those moments when we are prone to hopelessness and desperation. 

We need to realise who we are, we need to realise who our God is! Jesus says of us - "they cannot die anymore, because they are equal to angels and are children of God, being children of the resurrection" (Lk 20:35). As Paul explains to the Romans (ch.6), we have died with Christ, in his crucifiction and we will live with him! We are called to live our lives, as people of resurrection, not losing heart on any trial, not giving up at any temptation, not desperate with any failure, not bogged down by any evil - but people filled with hope, comfort, courage, steadfastness, strength and love of God.

We are people of Resurrection; let us live our lives mindful of the reward that the Lord has set before us, preserve ourselves holy and blameless to be reconciled to the Lord in eternal life and realise the fruits of that resurrection right here and now, in our daily lives.

Note: the photo used in the design is my click in the Catacombs of St. Callistus in Rome. The Catacombs are profound symbols of Resurrection, they speak volumes about life, death and eternity!