GROWING THROUGH TEMPTATIONS - THE DIALOGUE OF SALVATION

THE WORD IN LENT: 1st Sunday

Temptations: Crisis, Choice and Clarity

March 1, 2020: Genesis 2:7-9,3:1-7; Romans 5:12-19; Matthew 4:1-11

Temptation is a daily experience, sometimes consciously lived through and some other times unconsciously. However much we try to, we cannot live a life without temptations - that would even make life uneventful and our commitment less challenging. Big, small, mighty, risky, simple, profound, drastic... temptations can vary in their dimensions and gravity but the fact is, they are there! The Word today invites us to look at these moments of temptation as Spiritual moments, moments out of which we can grow, moments through which we can deepen our faith experience and re-found our footing in our journey towards spiritual perfection. This happens when we are ready to enter into a profound dialogue with God, our Father, our Mother, our Master, our Maker, our Model, the one who challenges us to perfection: Be ye perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect!

Temptation ...is a moment of CRISIS. Crisis, is probably the word that is heard the most today. World economic crisis, the political crisis in parts of Eastern Europe, Africa and the Middle east, the ethical crisis, the faith crisis and so on. Crisis is simply the experience of a drastic reduction of something that has to be. Lack of money, lack of political stability, lack of ethical certainty, lack of adherence to faith... at the ground of it all there is a fundamental lack - the lack of meaning, the lack of sense of worth, the lack of real fulfillment in life. 

The Gospel today gives us a beautiful insight into this situation of crisis, the moment of temptation. 'At that time Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil'...and the insight is this: The Spirit of the Lord is present with us, as ever, even at the moment when we feel tempted! That is a tremendous insight. When we go through a moment of crisis, a moment of difficulty, a moment of tendency to sin, a moment of pressure to give up, we think we are all alone. No! We are not alone. The Spirit of the Lord is with us, ever present beside us. All that we need to do, is to turn to the Spirit - in a profound dialogue. Listen to the whispering of the Spirit and speak our heart out at those crucial moments, as did Jesus in the Gospel today. And the Spirit will give us the strength to fight and overcome those temptations unscathed. 

Temptation ...is a moment of CHOICE. Every crisis requires a categorical choice to be made. When Eve was faced with that situation standing in front of the tree, she had to make a choice - to be God's or to be like gods! And Adam, when he was faced with a situation, in front of Eve, he had to make a choice to conform or to challenge, to compromise or to stand firm! Jesus makes that choice... not to make himself a king or 'like god', but to belong to God always and remain the loving son of God; not to conform to the power seeking, pleasure-mad world order but to challenge it and to stand firm in his identity as the son of God. 

All that we need to do, turn to our innermost self in dialogue, look at our origins and see who we really are. As the first reading of today says, we have the breath of God within us; we are sons and daughters of a God who has loved us into existence. I remember the counsel the Director of Novices, when we were novices, used to give us: when you are faced with moments of crisis in your religious life, think of the first moments when you felt called by God. That is a wise counsel, and the Word today gives us the same. When you are faced with a difficulty, a lack of meaning, return to your origins... the moments when you felt loved by God, called by god, chosen by God and commissioned to live this life... and the life will become meaningful with all its ingredients - sadness and joy, love and suffering, loneliness and celebration. Turn to your inner self in dialogue, you would see there the real you! Restart your journey from there.

Temptation ...is a moment of CLARITY. If we go through the moments of crisis and difficulty in dialogue with the Spirit, in dialogue with the Word made flesh, and in dialogue with the counsel of the persons of God, we shall come out of those trying situations with a clarity that has never been there before. It is not merely the calm that comes after the storm, but a step further in one's maturity, a state deeper in one's self understanding, as the person relearns the basics through the experience. 

St. Paul affirms this, in the second reading as he reminds us of the 'abundance of grace' and the 'gift of justification' that comes from Jesus Christ! In and through the moments of temptation, if lived in dialogue with the Spirit, we shall learn to love God above anything else, as Jesus exemplifies. More than the needs of food and drink, more than proving himself powerful to the world and more than having the dominion of the world, Jesus chose God, chose to remain faithful to God, chose to love, serve and worship God and God alone! The lesson is clear to us: Give God the central place in our lives, the prime place in our lives, come what may. 

Let us live our lives, every moment of it, in dialogue with the Spirit, specially moments of difficulty and crisis! Inspired by the Spirit, strengthened by the Word of God and nourished by the Sacraments, our daily dialogue shall become salvific. During our moments of temptation, let us turn to the Spirit, and the Spirit will remind us to return to our Origins and we will learn to the love God above all. 

Let our prayer today be - A clean heart create for me O God, and a steadfast spirit renew within me! Amen.

Return to your Original Glory

THE WORD IN LENT: Saturday after Ash Wednesday

February 29, 2020: Isaiah 58: 9-14; Luke 5: 27-32

Point for Dialogue #3: the Real or the Present

Note the terms that appear today in the readings: Remove, Renew, Repair, Restore, and finally Repent! It is a clarion call to Return to our original glory, the glory of the children of God. And that return is not an easy task - it involves a great effort of discernment and deliberation.

The Lord invites us to return to the wholeness, with which the Lord created us. The image and likeness of God, the fullness of life and happiness that the Lord is, the glory and the brilliance that reside in God, the love and forgiveness that mark the nature of God - this is what we are called to return to. 

In fact, the Lord wants to initiate a dialogue between what we truly are and what we have made ourselves into. It becomes a tough call, not merely because the dialogue is difficult, but because we are so convinced that we are what we have made ourselves into: our weaknesses, our failures, our selfishness and so on. There is of course a stand off here between the real and the present - the really real and what we are at present!

Look at the world around. Cold wars and coups, cross border terrorism and international crisis, fanaticism under various garbs and the resultant polarisation of societies, the luxurious spoils of the first world and the empty crying stomachs of the unfortunate sections of the globe... the disparities and the disdain - they arise from the fact that we have lost our original innocence and glory, and think that this is what human nature is all about. 

The prophetic invitation today is to realise our original glory, and return to that glory of oneness, of unity, of brotherhood and sisterhood, of love, of mutual concern and of true peace. Let us return to our original glory, the glory of the Children of God. 

What you do or Who you are - which matters?

THE WORD IN LENT: Friday after Ash Wednesday

February 28, 2020" Isaiah 58: 1-9; Matthew 9: 14-15
Point for Dialogue #2: A Show or the Spirit

What you do matters, of course. But why you do it and how you do it matters more. The reason for choosing to do something, and the way that something is done, depends so much on the person that you are! Yes, what you do receives its true value from who you are as a person and it is not, or at least it should not be, the other way about! 

The prayers said, the rites performed, the sacrifices undertaken, the vows made and fulfilled, the practices kept up - all these will have their value, depending on the quality of daily life, types of ordinary choices and the respectful interpersonal relationships that one has in life. 

What a scandal it is to have a wide gaping space between one's beliefs and one's practices, between one's religious practice and one's personal relationships, between one's religious convictions and moral values. And that is precisely why there should be a profound dialogue between what I do and what I am, between a mere show and the real spirit! 

The readings today invite us to turn to integrity - to speak what we believe and to live what we speak; to stand up for what we believe and to live personally what we stand up for. Integrity gives one the authority that comes from Truth, in a way, it comes from God! 

Let us remember today, that real godly persons are those who live a life of integrity. A life of integrity is where my actions come from what I believe and my belief is conspicuously beheld in my daily life, in my words and in every one of my actions. 

Life or Death - what do you choose?

THE WORD IN LENT: Thursday after Ash Wednesday

February 27, 2020: Deuteronomy 30: 15-20; Luke 9: 22-25
Point for Dialogue #1: Life or Death

Life and Death: both are present right in front of us! The choice is ours. The choice is a bit tricky. And as all truth, it is dialogic. There needs to be a profound understanding before we choose one of these, or anything for that matter in life. 

Let us beware, choosing to live may not always be a choice for Life; neither does choosing to die for a cause, mean a choice for death! There needs to be a dialogue between our innermost selves and the choices we make on a dialy basis.

In the name of a happy life, a comfortable life or a prosperous life the world today runs after false guarantees: Money, Pleasure, Power, Domination, Ego and Social Status... and the result - promiscuity, exploitation, loss of self and human dignity, lack of respect for life... in short, a CULTURE OF DEATH. That is what the world is battling against today. 

Instead if we choose love, sacrifice, mutual respect, empowerment of the other, wishing the good of the other, universal brotherhood and sisterhood in the One God who has created us all - it would cost a lot personally - but it would be definitely a TURN TO LIFE. We see Jesus getting ready to lay down his life in the Gospel - was it a choice for death? No a concrete and absolute choice for life, for eternal life, for you and me. 

Hence, today, let us not tread the beaten path towards the culture of death, but resolve to turn to life, in every way, every day. Let a live dialogue be on, within ourselves that we will always have the Truth in front our eyes. 

LENT 2020 - READY TO DIALOGUE?

We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God (2 Corinthians 5: 20)

A reflection on the Holy Father's Message for Lent 2020 

Ash Wednesday, February 26

As it is customary, the Holy Father has a concrete message for the season of lent that we are about to begin. Apart from the traditional picture of  prayer, penance and philanthropy that is always so helpfully right in front of our eyes at this time of the liturgical year, Pope Francis offers us an impressive image to behold all this season - the imagery, the icon, the framework of DIALOGUE, within which everything needs to be viewed in this holy season. 

God invites us to a loving Dialogue! Conversion is a dialogue, dialogue with a love so real, so deep, so unlimited and unconditional. It is truly a dialogue, not a threatening indoctrination that God wants us to experience. It is a friendly dialogue, with our eyes fixed on the outstretched arms of the crucified Son of God. It is an appeal that God makes that we let ourselves be saved in the Spirit who sustains that daily dialogue, the dialogue of conversion, the dialogue of salvation. 

The Dialogue of Conversion is an urgent need - in prayer, in the sacraments and in the Word, a dialogue with the Master. It is urgent because conversion is not the end of a journey, but every bit of the journey where we make concrete choices, for God and against anything that would separate us from God's love.

The Dialogue of Salvation is not an empty chatter - it is a deep and profound inward journey where we are able to encounter ourselves, confront ourselves and challenge ourselves towards real sense of life and true experience of love.

The Dialogue that draws our attention to our richness - in compassion and sharing we dialogue with the others, with the world, with the society, with those who are exploited, those who are marginalised, those who are suffering, in order that we are able to build a better world, a world of justice and peace founded on the love of God. 

Lent 2020 comes with a direct challenge to each of us: are you ready to Dialogue?

Dialogue with yourself – understand the core-call that you have received from the Lord, your commitment at baptism and your heartfelt response to the unconditional love of God.

Dialogue with the Other – respect, love and share your life with the other, your neighbour, your fellow brothers and sisters, without any discriminations and divisions, as true children of God.

Dialogue with God – recognising the love that the Lord has always shown you, recognising that love on the Cross, in the suffering Son of God who came as a living proof of God’s everlasting love.

Are you ready to dialogue? 
Let us make this a season of dialogue, dialogue of conversion, dialogue of salvation. 

To lift yourself or be lifted up!

WORD 2day: Tuesday, 7th week in Ordinary time

February 25, 2020: James 4: 1-10; Mark 9: 30-37

Humble yourself before the Lord and the Lord will lift you up! Humility - the message continues today from yesterday. Humility is knowing the truth, realising its real sense and accepting it without regrets. The Lord has created you and knows you through and through; there is nothing that can escape the Lord and there is absolutely no need to hide it from the Lord! The Lord loves us anyway.

If only we know and understand this truth, and be convinced of it, that in spite of our weaknesses the Lord loves us - it would do so much good to ourselves and to the entire humanity. Because it would lead to two crucial dispositions in life that is so blatantly missing in the world today. 

The first disposition is that, what we are is willed by God and hence we need not compare ourselves with anybody else. All that we have is given by God and hence all that we need to do is be grateful and live our life to the full. When we are not at home with what we are and not satisfied with what we have, the world is pushed into the malice of greed, exploitation and criminality. 

The second disposition is that, we are loved and all that we need to do is remain in that love, grow in that love and share that love with everyone around. Like a child who feels secure in the arms of its father or mother, and is able to smile at everyone around without any fear or ill will, so should we be in the hands of the Lord who loves us without measure. 

When these dispositions find their place within our hearts, we would never be anxious about lifting ourselves up, but we shall be lifted up; the Lord shall lift us up.

The real ascendancy!

WORD 2day: Monday, 7th week in Ordinary time

February 24, 2020: James 3: 13-18; Mark 9: 14-29

Trying to prove one's ascendancy comes very natural and instinctive to everyone. It is ingrained in our very beings - of course we have heard the theories such as the survival of the fittest and the natural selection, where one proves better than the other to exist, or becomes extinct. As human persons can we go on with this as our mentality - unfortunately, that is what is happening in the world at all levels, be it  interpersonal, familial, social, national, international or global level. Every one is trying to prove their ascendancy over the other! It is in this context, we can read the Word today and it makes an absolute sense.

Where does our true ascendancy lie? In proving physically powerful, intellectually superior, economically influential, politically potential and socially dominant? The Word says - it lies in being humble and wise! A humble and wise person will be a person of faith and a person of true and profound Christian faith will be humble and wise! 

Humility makes one know, recognise, realise and accept the real truth about oneself. That one is not all-powerful but related, interrelated and interdependent - on God, on fellow beings and on the entire reality. When this humility takes over there is a natural ascendancy that is seen in a person. That is faith!

Wisdom is knowing the truth and being able to put it into practice in the concrete situations of life. It is not knowing something, believing something else and living something totally different - so dissipated a life-style. Wisdom is that lovely coming together of knowledge, daily life practice and mode of responding to situations. That is Christian faith!

Without these our life is so full of tendency to prove, to justify oneself, to establish oneself superior than the others - a demon that is devouring humanity and the universe right now. These demons can be driven away only by prayer!

HOLINESS - THE IDENTITY OF THE PEOPLE OF GOD

Be you holy, as I am holy

February 23, 2020: 7th Sunday in Ordinary time

Leviticus 19:1-2,17-18; 1 Corinthians 3:16-23; Matthew 5:38-48

What makes one a Christian? Take a pause and answer this question within your hearts!

Is it Baptism? 
Yes, of course, but only if it were received with a personal choice and every promise given at the proper moment is lived to the full everyday of one's life. The mere rite does not make you a Christian automatically.

Is it being enrolled in a parish? 
Yes, but only if the belonging to the parish makes one feel one with the Universal Body of Christ, the Church. The mere fact that you belong to a geographical jurisdiction of a Catholic parish does not make you deserve that name Christian.

That which makes our Baptism efficacious, our belonging to a parish meaningful, and makes us truly Christians is our realisation of our identity, as people of God - a realisation that has to be manifested in our personal holiness and in our holiness as a community of believers.

In the Apostolic exhortation Gaudete et Exsultate, Pope Francis reminds us that it is not merely a wish of the Lord, but an expressed invitation to holiness - the Lord has been calling humanity right from the time of Abraham, to "walk with God and be blameless". The Word this Sunday, invites us to understand and accept this call to holiness, an universal call that the Lord gives to each and every one of God's children. 

Holiness is not a super-human quality. It is definitely not alien to being human. Because it can be seen at our very origin. God made us in God's own image and likeness says Genesis (1:27). So, holiness is our original nature, not sinfulness; Holiness is the core of our being, not sinfulness. Sin and sinfulness have come to mar and obstruct our original nature. This is why to the chosen people, God says through Moses, "Be holy, because I the Lord your God am Holy." Because I am holy you can be holy too. Yes, dear brothers and sisters, we ought to be holy because we are FROM GOD.

The call to holiness is as old as humanity, as right at our origin, we were created with the potential to be holy, to grow holy and to remain holy. Yes, coming from God, holiness becomes our very nature. All that it takes is to be still and know God, be still and understand what God has made us as, be still and realise the real image within us and live it to the full. Be still and know that you are from God.

Holiness is a choice, a choice made not once for all, but at every moment, at every circumstance, at every crisis. It is a choice made for God, because we realise and gratefully acknowledge the choice that God has made for us. You did not choose me, I chose you, says the Lord (Jn 15:16). It is the Lord who has chosen us. It is not that we loved God but it is God who loved us first, reminds us St. John (1 Jn 4:9,19). God has chosen us and God has loved us abundantly! And our response is Holiness, because we belong to God, we are OF GOD.

The call to holiness has a path well laid out too, in our life. The situations we find ourselves in, the difficulties and temptations, the particular commitments and fatigue that we are entrusted with each day and the demanding circumstances that we have before us to deal with - these are the ways to holiness for each of us. It is right there we have to make our choice and say to ourselves, to the world around and to our Lord, that we belong to God, we are children of God. 

Holiness is not an act, it is an attitude; it is not a set of actions but a habit; it is not merely an appearance but an internal becoming! holiness is a daily effort to become more and more like God. it is returning to the image and likeness of with which we were formed in the love of God. We need to grow in every way to be like our God, for it is God who has breathed God's Spirit into us. That requires that in our words, thoughts, attitudes, acts and choices of daily life we are called to become LIKE GOD.

The call to holiness is not something that we have to do, it is something that we have to become, we have to grow into. As in the exhortation already mentioned, Gaudete et exsultate, Pope Francis would explain, it is not in the amount of things that you accomplish, nor in the number of sacrifices you offer to the Lord that you are saved, but in the measure you are able to unite yourself in heart, mind and soul to the Creator and translate the Creator's will into your daily life - that is holiness. 

Our Blessed Mother and the Saints are our models and Jesus is our Way. St. John traces that course for us when he says, 'we will be like him because we will see him as he is" (1Jn 3:2). We are called not to be merely good people but God's people. Every word and act of our's has to reflect God's presence to those around us. 

We are People of God and our very identity is Holiness. If we miss out on holiness we lose everything. We are from God, we are of God and we are called to become like God because we are people of God. Because we are the temple where God chooses to dwell, we are the presence of God that the world so badly needs today! 

Celebrating the Petrine Ministry

THE WORD AND THE FEAST

February 22, 2020: The Chair of St.Peter

1 Peter 5: 1-4; Matthew 16: 13-19

We celebrate today the pastoral responsibility that the Lord places on the successors of St. Peter. You are Peter; on this rock I shall build my Church. And the gates of the underworld can never hold out against it. The Church has stood the test of time - 2 millennia and still counting, despite all the forces which wanted it to buckle under pressure!

The First reading has a few remarkable elements that seem to explain perfectly the role of Papacy: 'presbyter among presbyters', 'not lording over the people', 'being example to the flock'! This is exactly what Pope Francis is trying to do: stressing the Collegiality of the Bishops as Bishop of Rome, not lording over but challenging everyone with his very life. Restraining from making a hero-idol of him, it is important as a Church that we begin to hearken to his passionate call to live as light of the world and salt of the earth, spreading love and hope to those around us. 

We have a duty today, to pray for the Holy Father, as there are so many forces today in the World that wants by all means to destroy the Church and its moral authority on the planet! The Lord promised that the gates of hell will never prevail over the Church, but we need to remain worthy of the promise, by being communities of genuine faith and integral living.

Thank you Lord for Pope Francis; guide him, protect him and fill him with the joy of the Spirit! God bless our Pope!

Live what you believe!

WORD 2day: Friday, 6th week in Ordinary time

February 21, 2020: James 2:14-24,26; Mark 8:34 -9:1

"There are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the Reign of God come in power!" The Reign of God coming in power...when does this happen? It happens when faith and works unite in one single act of living. As long as that "faith-works" divide, translated as 'religiosity-social concern' conflict or 'contemplation-action' controversy or 'personal salvation-social commitment' confusion, still exists the Reign of God will be a mere talk. 

Every now and then, Pope Francis appeals to the whole world, not to be satisfied with policies and principles, laws and legalities, regulations and sanctions, but to get down to daily living and build a world of fraternity, it was the same claim as James: faith without works is dead! What we believe has to be lived. 

To take up the Cross and follow in Christ's steps, is not an easy decision. But there is nothing less than that expected of us. Jesus is categorical - If anyone wants to follow me, let him or her do this. When the gap between what we believe and live, the distance between what I preach and practice, the space between the private life and the public manifestation, become lesser and lesser, the Reign of God grows stronger and stronger. There can be no threat more powerful than this to the corrupt world order!

Hope we see, and hope more that we could make it happen, that the Reign of God come in power, right amidst us!

Partiality and Privileges - order of the day!

WORD 2day: Thursday, 6th week in Ordinary time 

February 20, 2020: James 2: 1-9; Mark 8: 27-33

It is natural to like those who like me and hate those who hate me! At times when asked, is that alright, we tend to respond with a, "what's wrong in it?" When we like some one or when we recognise someone because they like me or because they appreciate me, I recognise and accept them for the gain that I have, instead of the person that they are. 

It is a materialistic attitude to look at a person in terms of what I will gain out of that person. When this logic is in place, our relationships become calculative, insincere, exploitative and guided by hidden agenda. 

Just because Peter praised Jesus, Jesus did not spare him when he was wrong. Just because the people did not understand him, Jesus did not denounce the people outright. Just because someone is favourable to me, I cannot justify him or her for everything. Just because someone is "useless" to me, I cannot treat the person like a trash. 

Speaking of a 'use and throw' culture today in the world, both present Holy Father Pope Francis and the emeritus Benedict the XVI, denounce as a 'culture of death' and a robbing of humanity of its true dignity. Living as Christians today, when partiality and privileges seem to be the order of the day, these principles have a great role to play. 

Not just today, but every day of our daily life, let St.James' words reecho in our hearts: Brothers and Sisters, show no partiality!

To see... like a disciple!

WORD 2day: Wednesday, 6th week in Ordinary time 

February 19, 2020: James 1: 19-27; Mark 8: 22-26

We are reflecting on the letter of St. James these days, starting from this Monday, till the end of next week. James has written a letter that is incredibly practical and down to earth. Today he explains to us who is worthy of being referred to as a 'religious' person, or a faithful, or in familiar words - a disciple of Christ. 

We have, from James' letter today and even other letters, various indications like, slow to anger, slow to speak, quick to hear, attentive to the Word and particular about its practice, and so on. But the crucial characteristic that Apostle James points out is, care for the orphans and widows, empathy with the weak and the suffering. These come naturally when we learn to look at persons as persons; not as things to be used or cases to be dealt with or problems to be solved or burdens to be borne! 

That is the same education that Jesus wants to give us - that we graduate from looking at persons as trees moving, things existing or means to our own end; to looking at persons and observing their needs and aspirations, joys and sorrows, longings and yearnings, problems and prospects - as persons in their entire sense, with respect for their uniqueness and love for what they are.  

James would insist much on this, as we would see in the coming days, because for the Master, the persons who bear the image of God were the sure sources through which God shares, reveals, speaks and directs. Let our eyes be open that we see in every person around and recognise our brother and sister...making ourselves worthy disciples of Christ, worthy to live on the Lord's holy presence.

Do you still not understand?

WORD 2day: Tuesday, 6th week in Ordinary time

February 18, 2020: James 1: 12-18; Mark 8: 14-21 

How agitated Jesus gets today with his disciples! Jesus expects them to rise above the ordinary or the normal. As Jesus warned us this Sunday: if our perfection does not surpass those that of the scribes and the pharisees, that is, if we do not rise above the 'usual' way the world looks at reality, we will not be considered fit for the Reign of God! 

The so-called normal attitudes of the world, the value systems propagated as "normal" by the world, the life style of the so called successful that stands counter to what the Gospel teaches... these are the temptations that we have today! Of course, they do not come from God, reiterates St. James. 

Our desires, temptations, sin and resultant death: this is the cycle that Jesus wants us to understand, resist, surpass, and triumph over. None of us can ever say after an act of unrighteousness, that we were not at all aware of its nature! Let us not deceive ourselves! 

We know what we are surrounded by, we know what we go through on a daily basis and we know what is appreciable and what is not worthy of our call to be children of God. In spite of all the graces that we have received and the gratuitous gifts that we have received from the Lord, if we still insist on giving up on our call to commitment and righteous living, we will soon hear that question addressed to us by Jesus: do you still not understand?

The Lord our Rock!

WORD 2day: Monday, 6th week in Ordinary time

February 17, 2020: James 1: 1-11; Mark 8: 11-13

During his life and ministry, Jesus was convinced that he had nothing to prove! He was what he was - the Son of God, the Word Incarnate. He spoke what he believed and lived what he spoke. That gave him an authority that the Pharisees and the Scribes could never understand. It came from his holistic self-understanding, an understanding in terms of the ONE who had sent him: "For I and the Father are one", he declared (Jn 10:30). 

Many a time we identify ourselves with the riches we have, the social status we enjoy, the titles and the offices we hold, the adulation from others and the image that others have of us. These are like the drooping flowers and the fading beauty, reminds St.James in his letter. What will all the titles and possessions, achievements and accomplishments become when at that one moment we are no more!

Our identity rests in one thing that never changes: the truth that we are sons and daughters of the One God, that we are created in the image and the likeness of that One God who has loved us into existence. When we get this fact imprinted in our hearts...no trial or no doubt, no suffering or no shock will ever affect our perseverance (James 1:4). 

It takes a lot of inner strength to found ourselves on the unsurpassed foundation, the unshakable ground, the one unchanging source of meaning we have... let our life be founded on that insurmountable refuge, the Lord, our Rock!

LAW - OUR CHOICE!!!

LAW - to Love and Abide by the Word

February 16, 2020: 6th Sunday in Ordinary time

Ecclesiasticus 15:16-21; 1 Corinthians 2:6-10; Matthew 5: 17-37

Choice is the central theme running through the readings today! And there is another dominant theme that qualifies this choice - that is LAW. Law for the people of Israel was the way ordained by the Lord. Law was for them the guarantee of remaining  people of God; it was their part of executing the covenant that the Lord made with them: I shall be your God and you shall be my people! To speak or act against the law was for them a serious and punishable offence. There is a discussion on two other themes- "maturity" and "wisdom" in the second reading from St.Paul. Combining all these, Jesus in the Gospel presents to us a mature and wise attitude towards LAW. He invites us to Choose LAW... that is to choose to Love and Abide by the Word. 

Faith is a Choice...

Faith is not a blind leap, it is a conscious Choice! As Pope Francis' exhortation, Lumen Fidei n.3 affirms, faith cannot be associated with darkness, instead faith is a light that enlightens one to choose, to choose believe in God, to choose to see God alive in one's life. The first reading presents to us the same perspective today: we have the choice between water and fire, between good and evil, between true joy and fleeting pleasures, between the right and the convenient, between conviction and compromise, between life and death! 

The choice is ours! We cannot ride on the shoulders of tradition and custom, and justify our acts and habits. We have to grow up! Our maturity has to be seen in the wisdom we possess. It is God who gives us this wisdom, as St.Paul reminds us. Jesus embodies that wisdom and presents the same to us in his words: I have come not to abolish the law, but bring it to its fulfillment. 

A Choice beyond the Law...

Jesus declares that his disciples should make a choice, not against the law but, beyond the law! He gives a new meaning to law, and presents the way to go beyond, to transcend a mere slavish legalism and reach the heights of saintly perfection, through love and compassion. The words of Jesus, "You have heard that it was said,...but I say to you", heard repeatedly in the Gospel today presents Jesus as the New Moses, and describes the community of disciples as the New People of God! "See I am making all things new," declares Jesus by this (Rev. 21:5). 

The new law...how do we understand today that new law, the law beyond law... L - to Love, A - to Abide, and W - the Word. To love the Word and Abide by it...is the new law that Jesus gives. The Word presents to us a guarantee to sanctity. To know the Word, to reflect on it and understand it, to love it and strive to abide by it, is the sure way to be real children of God, worthy people of God. Our life does not comprise merely of avoiding evil, it is much more profound and meaningful. It is to live, to love, to relate, to do good, to mature, to be happy, to make others happy and thus together as a community of God's children, to renew the world and fill it with joy.

To Obey the Law...

Jesus teaches the people today not to go against the law but to understand what it really means to obey the law. For Him, to obey the law was not to obey the letter of the law but to obey the Lord of the law! It was so for the people of Israel; they obeyed the law as an act of obedience to YHWH. But when the Lord of the law was with them, and they did not realise it. The Word lived and moved among them, but they did not comprehend it. 

The danger for us too is the same: that we may be, by definition, the best of Christians - missing no Sunday Mass, regular with reading the Bible and reciting the prayers, strict with our fasting and abstinence, visiting as many pilgrim shrines as possible - but let us beware, we may be missing the point. These are good but not good enough - the Word instructs us: Love and Abide by the Word... to love the Word, and to live by it; not being merely hearers of the Word  but doers(Jam 1:22); to say YES to the Word and mean it, to face all the consequences of that Yes and live through it. 

Our YES to the Word has to be our choice, our choice to go beyond the Law and obey the Lord of the law, to live and fill the earth with love and compassion; to challenge the present standards of the world towards a new world, new heaven and new earth!

Can we live divided lives?

WORD 2day: Saturday, 5th week in Ordinary time

February 15, 2020: 1 Kings 12:26-32, 13:33-34; Mark 8: 1-10

For the people of Israel there was no difference between their political life and their religious life. For them everything was just one; an integral mode of living as people of God; forever the people of the Covenant: 'I shall be your God and you shall be my people'. But at a certain point, as we read in the first reading today, the misery befalls them - Politics and Religion part their ways. Further, something that happens makes things worse: using religion for political ends or politics for religious reasons. It becomes almost an unjust alliance and remains so even to this day! 

That is socio-political history, but it can happen in our personal life too: the division between our religious life and our civil life, and worse still if we use one for the manipulation of the other. Jesus is totally against this division and considers it always an hypocrisy. 

One cannot call oneself a shepherd and still remain untouched by the miseries of the people. One cannot call oneself a 'Christ-ian' and live a life that is totally insensitive towards others. One cannot call oneself a child of God and look down on his brother or sister, or much worse ill-treat, exploit or oppress them. 

We see both Jeroboam and Jesus doing something for the people. Both of them did not want to send the people away. But but the difference between what they did lies in the fact of what they intended by it. Though Jeroboam did something for the people, his idea was to keep his power and dominion alive - it was using religion for politics! While Jesus fed them not because he wanted to be powerful but because that was the need of the people! 

When one uses religion for politics, God for usurping power and spirituality for material gains, he or she is giving into idolatry. Worse if that person claims to belong to Christ - so divided within oneself, externally professing Christ but totally against Christ at the level of one's inner self. Can we live such divided lives?

Ephphatha: Hear the Warning!

WORD 2day: Friday, 5th week in Ordinary time

February 14, 2020: 1 Kings 11:29-32,12:19; Mark 7: 31-37

Ephphatha, says Jesus today and the man's ears were opened! Ephphatha, says the Minister of the Lord at our Baptism - not to open our physical ears, but to attune our spiritual ears of the heart, to the voice of the Lord within us and all around us! That is the source of true wisdom. Solomon who was given this great gift, lost it in the inebriation of his glory. What about us?

Persons often attempt to justify their acts saying, 'I did it without knowing,' 'unknowingly,' 'without my knowledge,' etc. Though some cases could be due to ignorance, most of the cases of our failures and faults are not so much in a state of ignorance as that of indifference. Every time we make a choice for something that is not right, that is not ethical, that is not moral, that is not virtuous, there is a voice within us that tells us: No, do not! We are either indifferent to it or we stifle it, when we are taken up with the momentary excitement of choosing it! 

The grace that we are reminded of today in the Word, is that of being always attentive to that inner voice, the most important reminder of God's unceasing presence with us. As Isaiah would say, "and when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left, your ears shall hear a word behind you sauing, "this is the way walk in it." (Isa 30:21) It is a gift given to every disciple of the Lord, every child of God. It all depends on us, how much we use it or develop it, so that we will always remain close to the Lord and never abandon God to follow the reckless ways.

At times when we ask questions like, 'why this', 'why me', 'why now'...it would be better to get into a deeper introspection and find out if we have been somewhere indifferent or resistant to the serene and calm voice of the Lord. If we have, it would be good to pray that the Lord says looking at us: Ephphatha.

A right sense of Openness

WORD 2day: Thursday, 5th week in Ordinary time

February 13, 2020: 1 Kings 11: 4-13; Mark 7: 24-30

Some may find this difficult to accept. But it is anyway true, what Gustavo Guttierez the famous theologian says, that Jesus was taught by the Syro-Phoenician woman. He was taught to open up his mind and see that everyone was God's child, loved and sought after by God, not just the so-called 'chosen' people. Every one is chosen, and every one is acceptable in the presence of the Lord, provided the person feels called and is serious about his or her call.

This is an essential sense of openness that every son and daughter of God should possess - this is exactly what Jesus teaches us too as his ongoing revelation of a Father who wants every one unite as one family of brothers and sisters. An openness that is needed today all the more, when religion becomes an easy reason to divide, turn people against each other and cause inhuman violence!

But we have to learn it the right way - it is not to say anything is alright, everything acceptable and everything is same. Solomon falls prey to that falsehood, and gives into compromise. Openness is not compromise, it is not a cocktail or a hotch-potch of everything that is there. 

Openness is true respect for the other, without making them one among the many and at the same time not excluding anyone from the circle of hospitality. Let good thoughts come from any side,  it is said. Yes, that would help only when you know the absolute good and hold on to it. When there is no true ground, you would be swept to nowhere. 

Let us pray today for the true wisdom from the Spirit, that we may know the One True Beautiful God, and see how we are connected to each and every person, in and through that Loving Father and Mother.  

The inner stuff that we are made of...

WORD 2day: Wednesday, 5th week in Ordinary time

February 12, 2020: 1 Kings 10: 1-10; Mark 7: 14-23

Wisdom is seen in what comes out of one's mouth, out of one's mind and out of one's life! Queen of Sheba found that with Solomon and praised God. Jesus invites us to pay attention to such an outlook on life - being mindful of what comes out!

From the fullness of the heart does your mouth speak, they say. From what fills your mind does your choices emerge and from your choices is your life's direction determined. And hence, the most crucial element to pay attention to in our existence, in not so much what we do and what we say, as what we think and how we think! Is it not clear then why St. Paul instructed us to 'put on the mind of Christ'.

Do not try to do all that Christ did. Do not try to do all that some saint did. That is not what you are called for. Instead, try to get into the mind of Christ; try to get into the mind of these brothers and sisters of ours in Christ, who have gone before us and shine as examples. Getting into their minds, find out why they did what they did. That will give you a clue to how to think and what we think. And from there will be born choices, a direction for life, a direction that will take you closer and closer what God intended of you! 

It is so pointless to be taken up with what one eats and what one avoids, what one does and what one restrains from, what one promotes and what one denounces - they are all meaningful one in as much as one is clear and transparent about what one really believes and what one is convinced of - that is the inner stuff one is made of. Let us be mindful of it and be attentive to it: the inner stuff that we are made of. 

Prayer and the Pray-er

WORD 2day: Tuesday, 5th week  in Ordinary time

February 11, 2020: 1 Kings 8: 22-23, 27-30; Mark 7: 1-13

Solomon prays and Jesus teaches what is not truly prayer! Solomon acknowledges the goodness of God as the crux of all prayers and Jesus teaches us that as long as we really don't experience and strive to grow worthy of God's goodness, our prayer will merely be a lip service: "this people honours me only with lip service, while their hearts are far from me. The worship they offer me is worthless, the doctrines they teach are only human regulations," quotes Jesus from Isaiah. 

This is no new or isolated teaching of Jesus - it is in fact the linking thread all through his teaching of faith and expressions of faith. It has to be something that is lived from the core of our beings not merely a performance for the sake of the those who are seeing, those who are expecting and those who are valuating us constantly. That is the essential difference between a performance-prayer that the pharisees and scribes upheld in contrast to the integral prayer that Jesus lived and taught.

In short Jesus was trying to contrast between a mere prayer and a pray-er! It is not enough that we say prayers, we need to become pray-ers... persons who pray; pray with their lives, pray with their everyday choices, pray with their value system, pray with their entire self - they do not merely say or perform prayers, but become in themselves pray-ers! That is what Jesus was...every bit of his being, all the time was united with the One who sent him, thus he was a pray-er! Let us seek ways of growing to be true pray-ers. 

To Rest or to Reach out?

WORD 2day: Monday, 5th week in Ordinary time 

February 10, 2020: 1 Kings 8:1-7,9-13; Mark 6 : 53 -56

The first reading speaks of the first temple built for the Lord... ever since, it had been a point of contention. However, how do we understand the temple for the Lord: a place of rest for God? Would that be a good way to understand? 

In contrast to the established temple in the first reading,  we have a wandering Lord in the Gospel. Could anyone stop Jesus from his work... no one could. They even thought he was going out of his mind. He was so busy... doing what? Just meeting people. Just reaching out. Is that not a more likely understanding of God - a God who reaches out, instead of someone who rests in an abode!

Jesus considers reaching out to people compelling and urgent. There was a constant urge in his heart to move on. He wished to build his resting place amidst the cries and woes of people, sickness and sadness of the afflicted, trials and troubles of their daily lives. Let us learn to see the Lord dwelling in true and sincere encounters. The Lord continually reaches out, in spite of us trying to contain the Lord in one place, one tradition, one thinking, one religion or one form! Whether we will truly be made whole by the Lord, it depends on us.

Have a second look at the Gospel and how it ends today: all those who touched him were cured. It does not say, all those whom Jesus touched were cured, but all those who touched him were cured. It depends on us to truly open ourselves and touch the Lord, to truly behold the real presence of the Lord amidst and we shall be made whole! The Lord is here amidst us not to rest, but to reach out. If only we behold the Lord every moment of our lives!

THE LIGHT OF FAITH

Be illumined! Illumine!

February 9, 2020: 5th Sunday in Ordinary time

Isaiah 58: 7-10; 1 Corinthians 2: 1-5; Matthew 5: 13-16

"The Light of Faith: this is how the Church's tradition speaks of the great gift brought by Jesus": so begins the encyclical Lumen Fidei, issued by Pope Francis in 2014. Light is an image very often presented in relation to faith, the faithful and the life of a faithful. It is an explicit call by the Lord right from the Old Testament times that the people of God have to be light to the nations (Is 42:6). With Christ's call today to be light of the world, it becomes an inevitable criterion to be identified as Christ's disciple or not!

Faith as Light: The first reading reminds us of a Zen story that we would have heard, of the Master who asked his disciples: When do you think it is dawn? The disciples attempted various responses, like - when we see the difference between a tree and a pillar; when we can identify a black thread from a white, and so on. The Master, discontent with everything, finally said: it is dawn, when you look into the eyes of the one next to you and see your brother or your sister! 

The first reading  tells us exactly that... when you accept the gift of faith from the Lord, your eyes are opened that you can see into the eyes of those around you and see your brothers and sisters; in their suffering and in their pains, you can feel your heart weeping and your eyes welling. We are reflecting today on the theme of LIGHT... the light that illumines us, the light that makes us see the real meaning of life and the true sense of being human. What can do that task better than our faith - Faith, is the light that illumines us, a light that directs our journey of life, a light that opens our minds to see clear and live upright. It is the Light we are offered by the Lord, as a gift!  

The Faithful as Light: Once we accept that gift, the gift of faith from the Lord, we as faithful, we become the Light! Receiving the light, we become the Light. The Lord sets us as the light to the nations, the light to the world, the light on the lamp stand, the city on the hilltop! Our faith does not rest on human wisdom, or logical reason, or scientific thinking, or systematic and mind blowing theologies! Our faith is primarily founded on the power of God, reminds St. Paul in the second reading today. 

Illumined by the Light, we become the light! Jesus declared, "I am the light of the World" (Jn 8:12); but did not stop with that. He challenges us today in the Gospel, "You are the light of the World." Every person of faith is called to be a light that is set on the lamp stand, to spread the light to the entire house, to illumine those around him or her. But it is important that we remember always that the source of our light, is the Light which illumines us all, the Light eternal of which we are rays, the eternal fire of which we are sparks.

The life of the faithful as Light: Being the light...what could that mean? It involves two important elements: One, everyone sees you; and two, one is able to see because of you! Theologians and Pastoral thinkers always raise a pertinent question, what would be the most apt mode today, of proclaiming the Good News to those who have not heard it. The answer is as simple as it is tough: "by living my everyday life!" One may wonder, but where is the proclamation here - actually, it is in the very living! 

Our life cannot have two shades - personal and public, sacred and profane, spiritual and secular... If I am a Christian - I should be seen! That is the first dimension of being light - my life has to be lived in its integrity. When the light can be seen, then one can see, because of the light. When my life can be seen by the other as an open book, the other can draw an inspiration to live by, and that is proclamation; that is evangelisation; that is illumining! It is through my life, my words, my actions and everyday choices that I become a light to the other; "if you bestow your bread on the hungry and satisfy the afflicted; then light shall rise for you in the darkness!" and thus one will become the light in darkness to the upright.

Let us keep this light burning in our hearts whole day today, and our everyday. To evaluate our daily life and see, if we really possess the Light of Faith, if we really live our life in a manner as to become light to those around me! Let the Eternal Light of Lord fill our hearts to be illumined and to illumine!