Seeking God and shunning evil

WORD 2day: Wednesday, 13th week in Ordinary time

July 1, 2020: Amos 5: 14-15, 21-24; Matthew 8: 28-34

Seek Good and Shun Evil... it is such a simple and straight forward directive from Amos today! It is a universal dictum, but is it as simple as it sounds? Do we really and absolutely seek good and good alone; God and God above all? More importantly, do we shun evil, and shun it absolutely? 

The world today holds out a culture that seems to be a subtle mixture of both... some good are seen to be 'too impractical' and we are advised not to seek them. Some evil are so subtly deemed 'acceptable' and made so hard to be shunned right away. The majority advocates evil, but in a clandestine form, in a very sweet coated form. It is a meager and meek minority that stands for an absolute good - unfortunately they are despised and even eliminated by the rest of the world!

Sometimes it appears a better prospect to live with certain forms of evil and remain acceptable and comfortable in our living zones, than to choose good or 'the right' and be isolated. When we seek good, when we seek the Lord, we have to by all means do away with certain things in our lives. But we conveniently keep the Lord away at those points, so that our comfort zones are not affected, like the people in the Gospel today who came and begged Jesus to leave their locality. They did not mind living with the evil spirits, but they were upset that they lost a herd of swine! They wondered how much more they will have to lose if Jesus stayed on with them!

If we really want Jesus to stay on with us, we will have to do away with a lot of things! Are we really prepared? Or would we choose to tell the Lord to leave us in peace? Seeking God and shunning evil... is it a natural quality to me?

To live by faith is to be just!

WORD 2day: Tuesday, 13th week in Ordinary time

June 30, 2020: Amos 3: 1-8, 4: 11-12; Matthew 8: 23-27

There is a close link between justice and faith, far more closer and incredibly more intimate than the world of popular religiosity can ever imagine! In fact, a faith without justice or justice without the dimension of faith,  would be equally inhuman and oppressive. 

Amos points out to the people that they were living an unjust life because they do not really behold the presence of the Lord who had done so many wonders on their behalf. We become evil, unjust, selfish, blood thirsty and inhuman when we do not realise who we are, from whom we come, what our roots are, where our real treasures are and who is that who sustains us! Realising these, in short, is faith and a real one at that, will certainly challenge us to live just.

Beholding the presence of the Lord is the first sign of faith. At times of trials, when there is a suffering because of our just way of life and at times of temptations, when our mind sights short cuts and the world suggests that as the way of the smart, we need to behold the presence of the Lord beside us and stay calm! Even if we have to face an ordeal because of it, real faith would encourage and empower us to stand for justice and stand with those who are denied justice.

The wind and the storm, the demons and the diseases, they recognised the Lord and bowed down at the sight. The human will and freedom refused to do it and it still happens, when we do not from the depth of our hearts behold the mighty presence of the Lord, in such a simple manner around us. When we recognise it, our life changes, our perspectives widen and we grow more and more holy and just. Indeed, to live by faith is to live just!

The Two Great testimonies of Faith

THE WORD AND THE FEAST

June 29, 2020: The Solemnity of Sts. Peter and Paul

Acts 3: 1-10/Acts 12:1-11; Galatians 1: 11-20/ 2 Timothy 4: 6-8,17-18; John 21: 15-19/ Matthew 16: 13-19

"I have neither silver nor gold, but I will give you what I have: in the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, walk!" The first reading highlights the fact for the apostles the true treasure, the true strength, the true source of well being was Christ! They depended on no one else, they feared no one and they cared about nothing else other having Christ with them. 

"It is no longer I who lives, but it is Christ who lives in me!" The second reading underlines the intimate relationship that the apostles had with Christ, their Master and presents the same challenge to us: to have a love for Christ that would consume us totally in our body and soul, making us aglow with the love for Christ and Christ's mission of the Reign of God.

These two pillars - one a rock and the other a foundation, stand testimonies to how a life in Christ has to be lived! One shows in action and the other in his commitment; one in his total dependence on the Lord and the other in a total consumation for the Lord. Let us pray for the faith of the Church - that it may grow forever in its integriy!

Some Traditional Trivia... interesting to know

Peter to the right of the Square

Paul on the left corner of the square

- Originally this feast was called the Martyrdom of Apostles Peter and Paul 
- There are just three Basilicas built on the tomb of the Apostles...
    1. St. Peter's Basilica, Vatican
    2. St. James's Basilica, Campostella, Spain
    3. St. Thomas' Basilica, Mylapore, Chennai, India 
- Peter was Crucified (crucified upside down on his request!!!)
- Paul was beheaded (there is a church built on the spot where Paul was believed to be beheaded...in the immediate outskirts of Rome)  
- The Vatican St. Peter's Square leading to St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, has the statues of Peter and Paul adorning the square as we overlook the Basilica... as traditionally, Peter holds the keys, and Paul holds a sword!

LET US THANK GOD FOR, ADMIRE AND IMITATE...

ST. PETER, 
IN HIS INTUITIVE FAITH AND INTIMATE FRIENDSHIP WITH CHRIST;

ST. PAUL, 
IN HIS TOTAL DEDICATION TO THE GOSPEL AND SELF-CONSUMING LOVE FOR CHRIST!

READY TO WELCOME GOD?

Welcoming... God, God's Message & God's Messenger

June 28, 2020: 13th Sunday in Ordinary time

2 Kings 4: 8-11, 13-16; Romans 6: 3-4, 8-11; Matthew 10:37-42

'Welcome Holy Spirit' - you are familiar with that famous hymn, aren't you? Can you go back and think of what you felt the first time you heard those lines - Welcome Holy Spirit... a little amused at least, at those lyrics? Perhaps, it was inspired by Benny Hinn's book Good Morning Holy Spirit (or was it the otherwise?)... anyway, the words do tickled a smile in people's hearts those days. Though now we have gotten used to that hymn, the words are still very homely, down to earth and totally informal. In fact welcoming God, is a beautiful attitude, though God is always there and all the time everywhere! So what would welcoming God, really mean?

Welcoming God would mean an entire life style, a totally unique priority list, an entirely unworldly mindset if we can use that phrase! That is what Jesus says. Just imagine this conversation between two real people, who had both lost their fathers just a few weeks earlier... one said, for him it was an obligation to stay home, losing a few prospects of his future and career, just to ensure his mother felt safe and secure. The other said, he just couldn't do that, as a matter of fact. He was a Priest, belonging to a Congregation, who had a whole parish community to take care of... he shared how with his call and commitment as a Religious, he could not prioritise the care of his mother. However, he luckily had his siblings to leave that to. In fact, when it comes to giving priority to God and God's call, nothing can claim precedence. This is the message that the Lord wants to communicate. 

Welcoming God would mean prioritising God over everything and all. How many Christian families today stand shattered and challenged because of the kind of priorities that the members in the family held on to: Egocentric spouses, money centered siblings, career centered parents, pleasure oriented kids, materialistic mentalities and Godless lives! Sometimes an experience such as what we are facing today, a lockdown or a quarantine, a sickness or a setback, makes us realise how weird our priorities have been! But should we wait for such situations? Are we looking to blame it on something, without really taking stock of our real priorities in life? Welcoming God would mean, rearranging our priorities and looking at God's place in our daily life, yes... our daily life - not the occasion show we put up, may be weekly or seasonally.

Welcoming God's Message is one of the daily dispositions of welcoming God. It would be hypocritical to SAY that I need God and LIVE as if I don't. I may do things that show others that I need God. I may speak to others about me and my life, giving them an idea that I value God. But if that is not translated into my daily life and my regular choices, I am failing to live a life that is integral. What matters most is not what I feel like or what I keep saying, but what I really live on a daily basis. 

Welcoming or Accepting God's message truly means changing my life according to that message; it is dying to sin and being alive for God in Christ, says St. Paul today. Dying to sin, means saying no to those which would do away with God. God cannot be where there is hatred; God cannot be where there is injustice and exploitation; God cannot be where there is lie and evil; God cannot be were there envy and treachery; because God is love and love is against all these! Welcoming God's message would mean saying no to all these, and choosing God above all, above my pride, my anger, my hurts, my tendency to settle scores, my wish to see the doom of the other! Yes, it means choosing love, when I say I am ready to welcome God and God's message.   

Welcoming God's Messengers, is a disposition of openness and humility - being open to God and God's marvellous and mysterious ways of revealing Godself to me - through persons, events and signs. A new person we come across, a poor person we see suffering, a hapless person we exploited...all these are messengers of God! And being humble is to receive God's message from anyone, even those from whom we least expect it! The Shunammite woman we come across in the first reading had a special eye for this observation! She spotted the Messenger of God in Elisha and the consequence of it, we know so gladly. 

Welcoming God's messengers would truly mean being open minded, being authentic in our relations with all, being forthright in our dealings with anyone, being truthful and honest about our feelings and attitudes, being ready to form them all according to the mind of Christ: did not St. Paul instruct us to put on the mind of Christ - let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus (Phil 2:5). It is easier to think of God's messengers as people who are set apart, people who are in ministries, people who are so-called 'chosen'...but not just those! God's messengers are all those who bring God's message on a daily basis - parents for children, children for parents, bosses for employees, employees for bosses, the poor on the streets, the neighbour in living quarters, the stranger in a bus, anyone who challenges us about our priorities, our mind in Christ and our way of life. Are we ready to notice, accept and welcome them?

If we really give a serious thought to our Christian living today, it could really be a mighty big challenge. A remarkable thinker of the past century, Dietrich Bonhoeffer writes in his book The Cost of Discipleship, "being a Christian is less about cautiously avoiding sin than about courageously and actively doing God's will." Is this not what we are repeatedly reminded by our Holy Father today? 

Let us pay heed to the precious question from the Word today: Are you ready to Welcome God, to welcome God's message and to welcome God's messengers... in whatever form and whichever way? What would my response be?

The devastation notwithstanding

WORD 2day: Saturday, 12th week in Ordinary time

June 27, 2020: Lamentations 2: 2, 10-14, 18-19; Matthew 8: 5-17

Destruction, devastation, desecration, disease and death bed...these are the situations elaborated in the Word today... so akin to the situation we are experiencing in the world - not only due to the virus and the health crisis, but due to inhuman discrimination and intolerant retaliation, due to exploitation of the poor and the manipulation of the weak, due to evil minded greed of the powerful and the insensitive approach of the rest! 

But that is not all. Alongside these unfortunately oppressive forces, there is an insistence on mercy, healing, forgiveness, faith and trust... be it in the first reading or in the Gospel! And that is what we need to focus on and reflect with our mind and heart - all the possible devastation notwithstanding, the Lord is with us, for us and the Lord loves us. 

The words of the centurion, which we repeat every time we approach the Eucharistic table, is a splendid prayer that we can make - much more in an emergency situation like these days: "Just say a word Lord and the world shall be healed!" But just pause a while there and see the explanation that the centurion gives for that. That he is in authority and when he says something, it is done. Just so he says, the Lord who is in authority, just says a word and things shall happen. That is the key!

Humanity has for long now taken the authority into its own hands. With the liberty and the faculty that God has given us, we have taken everything under our control and kept the Lord out of as many things as possible: from the public life, from the governance systems, from the ethical categories, from the schools...from everything we have kept the Lord out - at times even from our own families and daily life! And then we begin to wonder, if the Lord says a word, will it not happen? How hypocritical and opportunistic of us!!!

But all these notwithstanding, the Lord wants to heal us and the Lord wants to make us whole! What can separate us from the love of God, St Paul would question in his letter to the Romans (8:38,39). Absolutely nothing can separate us from the Love of God that is poured into us through Jesus Christ, yes, nothing... except our own obstinacy! Let's beware!

Of course, the Lord wishes to...

WORD 2day: Friday, 12th week in Ordinary time

June 26, 2020: 2 Kings 25: 1-12; Matthew 8: 1-4

The first reading today is an anticlimax... everything seems finished, everything seems done and dusted, all that has been seems useless at a point in life. This is what we call the breaking point. Each one reaches that in life, at some moment or the other. How one deals with it, depends much on what one has done the rest of the time in life - that is, how one has prepared onself for varied experiences of this kind, in life. 

Talk of depression, stress and anxiety disorders are more these days - not because the situation all around has gotten worse than what it has always been. It is because we have become less prepared for all that life can offer us in time. We are prepared for good times and for jubilations, but for trying moments and tribulations? Are we not seeing that from the way people panic when crises of the sort we are facing today world over, comes our way?

When the man asks Jesus to cure him, if he wishes to, Jesus says, "of course, I wish to!" That is what the Lord tells us today: of course, I wish to be with you, strengthen you and help you out at times of trials and difficulties - but what can I do, you have accustomed yourself to doing things by yourself, to taking things under your own control, deciding things on your own and working on things on merely your own terms! I don't seem to have a place in your life! 

Of course, the Lord wants to, but are we willing to go into the presence of the Lord and surrender ourselves, and say, "if you wish to...do what you wish with me!"

What is your choice: the exile or the Reign?

WORD 2day: Thursday, 12th week in Ordinary time

June 25, 2020: 2 Kings 24: 8-17; Matthew 7: 21-29

The Word today has the classical challenge: what do you choose? Our life of faith and our daily life meet each other on that hot seat called, Choice! Rise or ruin, happiness or doom, fullness or nothingness - the choice is mine! I cannot escape from it. We have seen in the book of Deuteronomy this basic philosophy of life that the people of God were taught: behold I place before you today, life and death! (see Deuteronomy 30:15) Today we have an illustration of the same lifestyle in the reading taken together.

The first reading says, Jehoiachin did what was not desirable in the eyes of God and his house crumbled - his mother, his servants and all, his people were destroyed, the entire salvation plan that God was taking forward in and through the so called chosen people of God, went to ruin! Chosenness is not guaranteed by anything other than reponding to that choseness by our daily personal choices.

The Gospel affirms that the one who hears the Word of the Lord, and does the will of God the Father and Mother, has already found favour in the eyes of the Lord, and his house is built on a rock; no rain, no thunder, no floods, no disease, no fear of death, no suffering or sickness can ruin it! In all these the chosen one will live strong, clear, hopeful and blessed. 

Taking the readings together we can understand what the Word tells us today: the choice is yours - the exile or the Reign. If you choose your own will, your own ego, your own ways and your own logic of profit, exploitation and manipulation... you are already walking towards your exile. You may think you are rising up, your are rushing towards prosperity or proving yourself to the world; you will all of a sudden realise, you have entered into an exile which is a million times worse than all the quarantines that we keep speaking of these days.

Instead, if your receive the Word of God, respect the will of God and follow the promptings of the Spirit, it would seem you are walking through fire, drowning in suffering, slipping into misery and trapped in troubles - but you are actually and already treading into the Reign, growing into the Reign, entering into the Reign of God, the fulfillment of the entire life and of the world. 

Let us pay attention today: what is our choice - the exile or the Reign?

x

John: God has been Gracious

THE WORD AND THE FEAST

June 24, 2020: Birthday of St. John the Baptist 
Jeremiah 1: 4-10; 1 Peter 1: 8-12; Luke 1: 5-17

The readings today summarise in a perfect sense who John was. The first reading describes his identity, the second his self-understanding and the Gospel, his blessedness in the eyes of God.

The Voice: his identity. 

He stands out as a prophet, a prophet who ensures the continuity between the Old Testaments prophets and Jesus, the prophet par excellence. His identity as a voice explains also his priority to make God's Word known. The Word is announced by the Voice: the call for us... to make present to the Word in the world.

Our Reflection: Is my identity in relation to the Word, in relation to the Lord, in relation to my saviour?

The Servant of God: his  self-identity.

John was filled with a sense of his mission. He was sent to prepare the way of the Lord, as a precursor to run before the Lord and get the spirit of the Lord's people up and awake. He challenged people to conversion as a foretaste of the Reign of God that Jesus wanted to establish. The challenge for us, is to recognise God's will at work in our lives.

Our Reflection: Do I consider myself as an instrument at the service of the Will of God... in my family, in my work place, in my parish or wherever I am!

Blessed from the Womb: God's chosen one.

John becomes the most proximate witness to us for the words that Isaiah, Jeremiah and other prophets always insist upon: the Lord chooses us before we were ever formed in the womb and the Lord has a specific plan for each of us. Such a blessed one, was killed so brutally and it looked like he ended up a big failure! In God's wisdom lies our true happiness. The invitation for us, is to understand the real purpose of our lives from the perspective of God.

Our Reflection: The so called goals and ambitions, purposes and plans of my life - how seriously do they seek to know, understand and accept the plan and purposes of God?

In the identity he received from God, in his self identity and in his blessed life right from the womb of his mother, John stands a witness and a challenge to our life in God! In fact, as his name means, we are called to realise God has been gracious to us and respond to that grace, with our true childlike love and surrender. 

Be mindful: the pearls, pigs and our pride!

WORD 2day: Tuesday, 12th week in Ordinary time

2 Kings 19: 9-11,14-21,31-36; Matthew 7: 6, 12-14

A look at the scene reported in the first reading, fills us with a nostalgia: will something like that not happen today, and save us all and the entire humanity from this gruesome pandemic that is on an unrelenting raid? Just on the verge of being conquered and subjugated, the people of Israel miraculously experience the liberating hand of God! What a great wonder it would have been!

But we forget to see the other elements that were there: to total submission of kind, the good will of the rest, the support of the prophet and everything else came together with the will of God. Today, aren't we testimonies to the blunders made by human pride, occasions lost by human ego, evils brought in my exploitation of the other and disasters created by human greed! How can something like that really take place today?

This what Jesus is warning us of in the Gospel...throwing your pearls to the pigs! You have pearls directly from the hands of the Lord, handed over to you in love: your life, your soul, your goodness, your image and likeness to God, your happiness, your loving relationships, your capacity for goodness... how are you treating them all? We have saints - those are ones who have given the right place to these pearls and adorned their world with it.

The sad fact is we are too prone to throw our pearls to the pigs like our greed, our passion for pleasure, our desire for power, our insensitive consideration of the other, our wish to exploit the other, our craving to dominate every thing for our own happiness and and satisfaction! This group is the crowd that enters through the wide and spacious gate! Are we in their numbers?

Or do we want to enter the narrow gate, with that slender minority which loves truly, walks justly and lives fully their life, mindful of their pearls!

A self-critical conscious Choice

WORD 2day: Monday, 12th week in Ordinary time

June 22, 2020: 2 Kings 17: 5-8, 13-15, 18; Matthew 7: 1-5

Judge not, and you shall not be judged, instructs Jesus today. Not to judge others does not mean justifying whatever he or she does. Between judging the other and justifying the other there is an attitude that Jesus deems Reign-worthy and that is, a Self-critical Conscious Choice.

The first need is to be self critical. When I find something wrong in the other, charity requires that I first become critical of myself... it is seeing the log that is in your eye before offering to remove the splinter from your neighbour's. Once I am aware that I too possess the same, or a similar, or a bigger weakness, my attitude changes completely. I am in a  position to act with prudence and humility.

The second need is to set the home tidy first. "Do not do like they do" ... that was the instruction that the Lord had given the people when they come into contact with other people in their wanderings. St. Paul too has a similar warning for us, isn't it? Writing to the Romans, he tells us: do not be conformed to the world, instead be transformed in the Lord (cf. Rom 12).

The third need is to make a conscious choice. Do not let yourself be carried away by your emotions and the anger of the moment. How many times this happens, that we lose our cool in a moment of restlessness, and feel bad to have said something or done something that we can never undo! If we judge and react to our brothers and sisters merely in the whiff of the moment, it would not be a conscious choice, and later we will have no other choice than to regret it all our life.  

In short, the Word invites us today to live our daily lives conscious of who we are, what we are called for and where we are bound to! Let us take our daily life seriously and live on a daily basis with sound self-critical conscious choices... the Word shall be the lamp to that path!

Glowing for the love of God

THE WORD AND THE FEAST

June 20, 2020: Remembering the Immaculate Heart of Mary
Isaiah 61: 9-11; Luke 2: 41-51

Following the Sacred Heart, we remember the Immaculate Heart - so fitting and meaningful a tradition! The Heart of Mary, immaculate originally by the grace of God, but manifests more than that... a total dedication to God and the role God has to play in the salvation history of human kind.

The heart of Mary gives us three lessons to live by.

1. The heart was pierced by sorrows as Simeon predicted. In the book of Lamentations, we come across the picture of the lamenting daughter of Sion and Mary is prefigured in this imagery. But no matter how much the heart was was pierced and hurt and tortured, it always glowed for the love of God and the fulfillment of God's will.

2. The heart of Mary was absolutely open to the working of the Spirit and it was at the beck and call of the Word. We see this right from the moment she heard the greeting from the angel. Openness to the Spirit is a matter of the heart and Mary exemplifies it to the utmost.

3. The heart of Our Blessed Mother was filled with 'God-thoughts' and that was because she kept everything that was happening in her life in her heart and pondered over them. She recognised, acknowledged and accepted interventions of God in her life, and found herself being moved and animated by the Lord, the Lord's Word and the Lord's Spirit.

Imitating Mary, let us open our hearts to God, glow for God and allow ourselves to be guided by the Lord and we will experience strongly the presence of the Lord in our hearts. May the Immaculate heart of our Blessed Mother be a guide post on our journey towards the merciful heart of God, our Father and Mother. 

Love made Flesh

THE WORD AND THE FEAST

June 19, 2020: Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus
Deuteronomy 7: 6-11; 1 John 4: 7-16; Matthew 11: 25-30

Today we celebrate the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, the fount of love, the most symbolic expression possible of our relationship with God. The great devotion that we have for the Sacred Heart, has come from and passed through immense experience of God's love in a concrete manner. Sr. Margaret Mary Alacoque was chosen as the champion and apostle for this devotion and today we have a treasure in its form, to reflect upon, to learn from, and to attach ourselves to.

The Sacred Heart symbolises...

1. Covenant: God's initiative in love towards humanity, towards you and me. The heart reminds us of the covenant we have with the Lord - to belong to the Lord, to be people of the Lord! "It is you that the Lord our god has chosen to be God's own people out of all the peoples on earth," says the first reading. 

2. Compassion: God's continued relationship, filled with compassion towards us. The compassion which calls us to 'come and rest'; the wounded, scarred, pierced heart, that offers to heal, soothe and fill our hearts. "Come to me," calls the Lord and promises, "I will give you rest." 

3. Commitment: God's invitation to imitate the total, self-giving love of God. Loving one another is a commitment, not merely a sentiment or a wishful feeling. It is a concrete commitment towards the over-all well being of each other. Only when we love, are we born of God's love; if not, our very sonship or daughtership in relation to God becomes null and void. Anyone who lives in love lives in God, says John in the second reading today. 

Love made flesh, Most Merciful Sacred Heart of Jesus, fill us with the same love that your heart burns with - Amen.

Prayer of the Persons of God

WORD 2day: Thursday, 11th week in Ordinary time

June 18, 2020: Sirach 48: 1-14; Matthew 6: 7-15

Elijah and Elisha - they have been churning our minds these days! Wondrous deeds, challenging words, and above all, demanding prayers! There is a characteristic difference in the prayers that persons of God make and that is what Jesus tries to teach us today. Prayer is not about begging God for things that we badly need, it is discussing with God my Father and Mother, the concerns that fill my mind at a point of time.

The Our Father is one such prayer, a prayer of a person of God; a prayer that puts God at the centre and not my needs; a prayer that is bothered not so much about receiving the blessings as about being blessings to others; a prayer that does not seek a secure life but a sincere life; a prayer that is not all about bringing pleasure and happiness to myself, but that which educates and forms me to find my real happiness and pleasure in accepting whatever it is, from God's hands. The prayer of a person of God, is born out of one's life and renews one's life, at one and the same time.

Prophets are persons of God, par excellence. They stand for God, they speak for God and they challenge us on behalf of God. Jesus was a challenging prophet too, and that is why he calls us all to be prophets like him. And in being prophets, the first call is to be persons of God, to be persons who come from God, persons who think in terms of God, persons who strive to grow in the mind of God. And the prayer that they make will manifest this reality without any doubt. 

Let our daily life be in imitation of these prophets, these persons of God; let our daily prayer be a prayer of a person of God.

To stay clear of trivialities

WORD 2day: Wednesday, 11th week in Ordinary time

June 17, 2020: 2 Kings 2:1, 6-14; Matthew 6: 1-6, 16-18

The only condition placed before Elisha, that he may receive a double share of the Spirit possessed by Elijah, was that Elisha should see Elijah being taken away by God. What does it really mean? The challenge here is not to miss what is central  to whatever we are involved in, being distracted with the trivialities.

The Gospel places the same condition before us. The actions that we do will have their true value depending on the fact whether the centrality of the right element was ensured. What we do, will be judged only by the central motivation behind what is done and an unassailable focus that has to be in every thing that we do and we are in our life.

Praying, fasting and alms giving are the three actions mentioned in the Gospel today and they together epitomise the entire religious practice of a Jew. The point is: not to miss what is central to it in getting distracted with the trivialities of human recognition and immediate rewards. Yes, they are trivialities - human recognition and immediate rewards. But these have today taken the centre stage, leaving behind the real centralities.

In our relationship with ourselves, with others and with God, we are invited to pay attention to the most central of all concerns: to do what is most pleasing to God at a given instant. Any other concern is only a triviality, however good and  practical it could be. The spiritual prudence that Jesus teaches us today is to stay clear of the trivialities and place God at the centre and at the core.

The Father's Perfection

WORD 2day: Tuesday, 11th week in Ordinary time 

June 16, 2020: 1 Kings 21: 17-29; Matthew 5: 43-48

Coming to the end of the Beatitudes, Jesus today summarises the beatitudes into just one evocation: be perfect as your heavenly father is perfect. And what does that perfection consist of? The essence of it is Love, an unconditional love, a limitless love, a non-judgmental love that respects the inner self of a person and the person's true intentions!

The first reading is an extreme type of an example for God's love and mercy. As the psalms and other books in the Old Testament describe, God always manifested Godself to be slow to anger, abounding in love, ready to forgive and longing to remain in relationship with humanity. Though Ahab's acts were so gruesome, the mere fact that he repented for those and felt sorry for his foolishness, turned the entire issue upside down. Ahab finds favour in the eyes of God, Ahab becomes lovable all over again. Definitely not a solitary case in the history of humanity!

The message is pretty clear. For anyone may it be, the merciful Lord awaits and awaits with an ever burning love, to get us all back into Lord's own embrace for eternity. But this getting back will not happen automatically. It needs more attention to basics through developing traits such as personal integrity, spiritual identity and sense of belonging to the Reign. 

Above all these, we are challenged today to possess the epitome of Christian life style: Love, the Father's Perfection!

That Extra Mile

WORD 2day: Monday, 11th week in Ordinary time

June 15, 2020: 1 Kings 21: 1-16, Matthew 5: 38-42

Jesus presents to us the most impractical of all his teachings... showing the other cheek, giving more of what you are deprived of, and walking that extra mile with the one who tries to take advantage of me. This was in fact the teaching that inspired the "satyagraha" movement of Mahatma Gandhi.

The first reading presents us with the exploitative element that is always present giving us the opportunity to practice our virtues and attain our salvation. At times the evil around us threatens to take the better of us, but the Word today reminds us of a fundamental attitude we are called to: "do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good" (Rom 12:21).

Looking at the evil that is present, the treacherous exploitative forces around and inhuman policies that deprive the innocent and vulnerable of their ordinary life and its possibilities, there are so many who are prone to adapt the same methodology to fight back: perpetrating evil by violence and killing, justifying exploitation of another category of people by the so-called deprived or making rules and policies that seem to salvage the situation for some but put the rest of the humanity into a sense of hurt and revenge. What is the real solution: it is nothing other than true love, a love that is modelled after the mercy of God, revealed in Christ.

That we can identify ourselves as disciples of Christ, we are expected to be spiritually prepared to allow ourselves be taken for granted without letting the goodness within us go down the drain; we are called to be who we are - good and loving - regardless of what others are! It is of course difficult and demanding...but that alone can make a difference in the world - that extra mile.

SACRAMENT OF THE SELF-GIVING GOD

The Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ

June 14, 2020: Deuteronomy 8: 2-3, 14b-16a; 1 Corinthians 10: 16-17; John 6: 51-58

It is a beautiful day to think of the most loving mystery of our faith: the Lord becoming our nourishment! God feeds his people and moreover, God feeds the people with God’s own self! What a mystery and how loving to think of it!

One of the most beautiful and meaningful tabernacles that I have seen, I picture it so well in my mind, has a metal carving of a pelican mother, pecking her breast to tear her flesh open and feed her young ones with her own blood dripping from her body. Such a beautiful image to refer to Sacrament contained in that sanctum sanctorum. It is from the famous Christian legend that made the early Christians adapt that symbol for Christ himself.

Jesus' act of giving his body and blood to the believer is in keeping with the identity of the God whom the people of Israel always believed in and experienced. The God of their faith was signified in that act and that is why, when he declared, 'I am the bread from heaven, and those who eat of me shall not die', the people were shocked; some were enraged, many others deserted him! It was indeed a hard teaching for them. But it was a fact: Jesus did give himself, his body and his blood for the everlasting life of the whole world (cf. Jn 6:51). In this act of giving his body and blood, Jesus reveals to us three profound dimensions of God.

The first is, God as a parent: God as Father and Mother, is a fabulous revelation that Jesus has made of God. It was not entirely a new dimension; the people of Israel did experience it in an intense manner. Moses reminds them of that in the first reading... he reminds them of how God walked them through the desert and provided them with the food and drink that they needed. The provident God was actually a father, a mother, a loving parent, though the people preferred to look at him only as an awesome God and an almighty God. Jesus introduced God as "Abba", "Father", a loving parent, a lover par excellence. In giving his body and blood as food, Jesus highlights this element of God, the element of nourishment of the children, the element of feeding and the element of fending for the needs of the children.

Every time we come to the Eucharist, shouldn’t we imagine it as a child coming to the Mother asking for food! Just imagine that scene and the love that is involved in the mother giving the food and the trust with which the child asks for it. That is Eucharist. In this particular time that we find ourselves unable to approach the Lord in this Sacrament, is it not this longing that we need to nurture and treasure within us? Sad it would be if some find nothing lacking, during this experience! Loving it would be, if we long for it and every time we make a spiritual communion express our willingness to stay with the Lord and stay with the Eucharistic love always!

The second dimension is, God as a friend: There is no love greater than a person laying down one's life for one's friend (Jn 15:13). Jesus taught this model and lived it to the letter. As he shared that last supper with his friends he made it very clear to them, that it was a prefigurement of what has to happen on the Cross very shortly. The bread to become his body and the wine to become his blood... we do it in memory of him right until today, in memory of that friend-God who came down to live among us, be like us and give of himself to us.

Every time we break the bread, we are challenged to be friends of God, to imitate his sacrifice, to burn with the same love for our brothers and sisters. The second reading elaborates this. Every time we raise that cup, we are reminded of that last drop of blood that came from his side, reminded us that we are called to live not merely for ourselves, but for others, for those who are in need of love and meaning in life. It is easy to ask the Lord who is my friend…as that person asked Jesus, “who is my neighbour”…but Jesus would never answer that. Jesus would only tell me, to whom I need to be a friend, that is, to whom I need to reach out, to whom I need to give, to whom I need to extend my loving arms! What an eucharistic message that is…to constantly reach out in love!

The third dimension is, God as part of us: The most difficult-to-digest dimension is this: God as part of us, God as dwelling in us! If you eat of this body, you will remain in me and I in you, says Jesus. God wants to remain in us, to dwell in us, to form part of us! God becoming part of us!?! Isn't that kind of scandalous? But that is the truth. What a difference it will make if only we realise and believe in that truth! We will come to you and make our home with you (cf Jn14:23), abide in me as I abide in you (Jn 15:4), you will abide in me and I will abide in you (cf. Jn 6:56)... we find these repeated teachings where Jesus reveals a unique dimension of a God who wishes, longs and seeks to abide, not just with us, but IN us. If we truly understand its implications and effects, we would have attained the eternal life that Jesus promises.

Every time we get down to pray, be it in the family or as a community or personally, we need to picture to ourselves this God, God who is part of us. We are not trying to cry out to a God who is far away; we are not complaining to a God who does not know what is happening in our life; we are not trying to convince a God who does not understand what I am going through… we are getting in touch with that God who dwells within us, who is part of us, who is suffering with us, who is feeling the same loneliness as we do, who is much more close to us than we can ever imagine! Every prayer should remind us of the Eucharistic Union that we celebrate with the Lord, the Eucharistic Union that we are called to live every moment of our life, because God is PART of us.

As we celebrate and thank God for this greatest gift of all, today, let us strive to experience God as our Father, our Mother, our Friend, and above all... Our God as abiding within us. Thus shall we be transformed more and more into Him.

Speaking in Action

THE WORD AND THE SAINT

June 13, 2020: Celebrating St. Anthony of Padua
I Kings 19: 19-21; Matthew 5: 33-37

Do not swear at all; just act! Do not just promise; be righteous and noble! Do not just speak; but live! If at all you speak, let your actions speak before your words, your promises and your propaganda.

Elisha speaks in action, just like Elijah did while he figuratively communicated that he passes on the mandate given to him, to Elisha. Elisha responds in concrete by burning the plow and slaughtering the bulls... that was a response in action, commitment made visible, readiness made absolute. The episode reminds us of the famous phrase, "burning the boats", choosing a point of no return for the sake of the Lord.

The Saint of today is no less an example for the same. St. Antony has a fame that makes him a favourite among most of the people of God. Leaving out the signs and wonders and miracles reported in and through his intercession, one thing that stands out in this person of God, is his complete dedication to God. He lived his entire life, for God, for God's Word and for God's Reign. A saint who not only spoke, but continues to speak in action!

Each of us is invited specifically at our own moment in history to live a call that is specific to each of us. Realising this call and responding to it with a sense of absolute commitment is the message that the readings present to us: not to reflect and come up with some sound and sweet interpretation; but to look for a way of living our faith concretely on a daily basis. Let every word be worthy of being accompanied by an admirable action; let every action of ours be inspired by the Word that has called us and commissions us. 

Let us listen to the Word, and speak the Word, above all, in action.

The Lord in the Gentle Breeze

WORD 2day: Friday, 10th week in Ordinary time

June 12, 2020: I Kings 19: 9a, 11-16; Matthew 5: 27- 32

The storm went thundering, the fire went blazing, but the Lord wasn't there! The Lord of surprises manifests himself in the gentle breeze and gives us the most powerful of all messages: "Be still and know that I am God" (Ps 46:10). We will find the Lord if only we earnestly seek. We will see the face of God, if only we seek it with all our heart. In our daily life and routine, can we truly declare, 'it is your face O Lord that I seek'!

Knowing God, experiencing God and manifesting God is not a matter of accomplishment, but a sense of simple acknowledgement. Knowing God is a grace, for we cannot know God unless God reveals Godself. It is in acknowledgement of that self revelation of God that we are blessed. Experiencing God is possible only if we are open to our daily happenings and the message they have for us. We would miss a treasure, if we fail to meditate on those daily events, even if they are just ordinary simple things! 

Apart from these, that is knowing God and experiencing God, there is something that we have to take upon ourselves, choose to deliberately do, accept the responsibility for: that is, to manifest God. To manifest God, to reveal God, to make people know God, to enable the world experience God - this is a task given to us and when we do it, we are being instruments in the hands of God. That is what we are called to, each in our own way. In our words, our actions, our choices and the way we relate to people we are called to be those who manifest God: will those who seek God, find God in us?

If that has to happen, our daily life has to be a life of simple commitment to the Lord in all its sense. The tasks we undertake, the relationships we enter into, the commitments we accept on ourselves, the daily duties we perform, the normal cares on our shoulders and our minds: these are all ways to our sanctity, provided they are done with a purity of intention that befits the Lord who has called us to all these. This is the meaning of the gentle breeze, the ordinariness of life, the simple routine of the daily existence. 

The Lord in the gentle breeze invites us to personal integrity, simplicity of commitment and purity of intention, on a daily basis, in simple things, in ordinariness of daily life. 

Being Apostles of Encouragement

THE WORD AND THE SAINT

June 11, 2020: Celebrating St. Barnabas, the Apostle of Encouragement

Acts 11: 2b-126, 13: 1-3; Matthew 5: 20-26

The spirit of the Reign is a spirit of encouragement and empowerment, it is not merely cynicism and critique. Barnabas stood for this spirit of the Reign, and that was the reason the apostles named him so - the term Barnabas, meaning 'son of encouragement' (cf. Acts 4:36). Today as we celebrate this Apostle, some one who was not among the 12 nevertheless proved himself equal even to Paul, in his passion for the Reign of God. 

Some characteristics that stand out in Barnabas are his relentless passion for proclamation, his courage to brave all odds, his capacity for being sincere even to the extent of having confrontations with his close friend, Paul (Acts 15). 

The Reign-lessons this great apostle gives us today can be three:

1. Build up persons, that is the way to build up the Reign of God.
Bringing Saul to the Christian community (Acts 9), going errand to solve the confusion within the churches (Acts 11), ready to play the second fiddle for the sake of the common mission... these were the marked traits of this apostle that built up persons around him.

2. Be faithful to the Lord, with a firm heart, that is the way to belong to the Reign.
Be it when they praised him as Zeus, or when things did not go well with the other apostles, or even when he had to part ways with Paul his close collaborator, Barnabas remained firm in what he believed to be right and God's will. That was his way of belonging to the Reign.

3. Rejoice in the matters of the Lord, that is the way to invite people to the Reign.
Barnabas, along with Paul  and later by himself, did go through tough times for the sake of the mission entrusted to him. But nothing stopped him, not even imprisonments and lashes and threats of killing deterred him from rejoicing in the Lord, for the opportunity to suffer for the Word.

Let us take these lessons to heart today, specially in moments of crisis and uncertainty, anxiety and anguish. Let us be encouraged, and be encouragements to the others today. Let us give hope to those around and remain firm in the Lord rejoicing in the encouragement that the Spirit brings us. May the apostle of encouragement, St. Barnabas intercede for us. 

Holding on to the Lord

WORD 2day: Wednesday, 10th week in Ordinary time

June 10, 2020: 1 Kings 18: 20-39; Matthew 5: 17-19

Faith is holding on, it is holding on to the Lord against all odds. Hence perseverance is the capacity to hold on for a longer time, longer than your normal patience can really hold. Amidst crises of various kinds, and specially amidst some injustice that you experience for no cause of your's, the capacity to hold on, is tested more intensely.

Today we witness some spectacular events in Elijah's lifetime. This could both be a positive lesson and a negative one at that. Positive, when we think of the greatness that God reveals right in front of the eyes of everyone. Negative, when we think of the fact that people who look for these kinds of sensational happenings to prove God, or find reasons and justifications amidst sufferings like saying 'God is angry' and 'God is displeased' and all the human absurdities attributed to God! 

However, there is one formidable message that we can derive from Elijah's experience: one person's faith could save and revive the faith of an entire people... when we hold on to God, we hold our fellow persons up. So it is with us, even in our families for instance. When a person sees many in the family or all else in the family going away from God, the person's faith could prove instrumental in bring the rest of them back to God! How many today, stand testimonies to this phenomenon!

Holding on to God is not an easy thing anyway. Just because it is challenging the Lord does not go easy on that demand... he is unwaveringly stern on that call - to remain firm! It is of course, not merely calling out, 'Lord! Lord!", which means to hold on to God. But it is to keep the Word of the Lord, to live by the commands of the Lord, come what may. When we do that we hold on; if not, we fall. 

How prepared am I to hold on to the Lord?