A Child's traits for the Reign

THE WORD IN ADVENT

December 1, 2020: Tuesday, 1st week of Advent

Isaiah  11: 1-10; Luke 10: 21 -24

Maria, a 8 year old kid was setting up the crib at home...she brought all her dolls too, to be part of the crib. She had arranged all the animals...lion, tiger, deer, rabbit, bear and panda, all of them altogether, one next to the other! The dad objected to it, 'but my love, they cannot be one next to the other...it does not happen that way. The lion will attack the deer, the tiger will kill the rabbit, the bear will eat the goat!' Maria looked quizzingly at the father and said: 'but dad! why should they! They are all my friends, all of them! They are friends too among them! They like each other!' That is the Child's world...so close to the Reign!

Lion sleeping with the lamb, bear playing with a kid and all peaceful on the holy mount- when we read these lines, we feel like saying, it's utopian; it's like a child's dream! Precisely because of this Jesus makes that exclamation today: that the Father has revealed such things to mere children while the expert eyes are busy prying over the obvious.

The Child's capacity underlined here by Christ and advocated as required traits for the persons of the Reign, are threefold. 

Firstly, it is to see! Having that freshness of perception which would allow the person to observe any simple sign. 'It need not be always that way'...is a fresh attitude of a child. Nothing needs to be the same all the time! We need to see, see the possibility!

Secondly, it is to accept! It is sporting that openness of mind that would not rule out any thing as total impossibility, because with God everything is possible. It is like in a child's world, the dog will talk, the cat shall respond, the dolls shall miss when they are not caressed, even the tables and chairs keep chatting with those in the living room! Accept it...it is possible.

Thirdly, the humility with which one is able to wait on the Lord, as did the kings and the prophets who waited for the day of the Lord. In God's time everything shall take place and all that we need to do is remain open and prepared, waiting and willing!

The Feet of those who bring Good News

THE WORD AND THE SAINT

November 30, 2020: Remembering St. Andrew, the Apostle

Romans 10: 9-18; Matthew 4: 18-22

"How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!" St.Paul quotes this word from the scripture (from Is 52:7), to insist upon the blessedness of being an apostle of the Lord, being sent to bear forth the Word to the others. A prerequisite is that the person has received the Word, to share it with others.

 

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

Today Andrew is proposed as the patron of social network...because he used every opportunity to make Christ known to people and to bring people to Christ. Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI had described social network as the modern day pulpit and invited us to proclaim Christ not merely from the housetops but also from the laptops...and here we have a great role model for it.

 

Let us today thank God for the numerous fingers that bring good news to the world... keying in on the smart phones, feeding in from the laptops and desktops, posting messages and videos and so many ways of sharing the Word with others. May every effort of these persons to proclaim the Reign of God through the social network, be a blessing to them, as much as it is to the world. 

Let us dedicate the social network which offers us such a great promise, that it may forever be an instrument in the hands of God, to bring God's will to fulfillment, and not an instrument of perdition. Let us strive in our own way to bring the Word to all whom we can!

W A T C H

A journey begins...

November 29, 2020: 1st Sunday of Advent

Isaiah 63: 16b-17, 19, 64:2-7; 1 Corinthians 1: 3-9; Mark 13: 33-37

Happy New Year! This Sunday marks the first day of the New Liturgical Year that we begin. On this beautiful and happy day, we begin a fresh journey and the first phase of this journey is going to be a preparation to receive the King! And what does the Word say, right at the outset? It says: WATCH.

W: Wake Up
It is a moment to wake up! The call to wake up rings all over the readings today. Let us get in touch with an ordinary experience of ours. Which is difficult: to wake up from sleep or to decide to get up from bed. We wake up, but not really; the sleep lingers on! That is a risky terrain, we miss a lot in that zone! Hence the call is to wake up; to decide to get up, shake oneself up, open one's eyes fully and see that it is time to begin, time to journey on, time to start again.

Between the resolutions we make and the concrete realisation of it, between the good will that we have for so many things in life and the everyday living out of the same, between the high ideals that we keep speaking of and the daily values that determine our decision making, there is a wide gap! A discrepancy that makes our life so flimsy and fragile. Should we not at every step of our journey with the Lord, reduce this gap and keep growing towards that integrity of life? That is the first call...to wake up to see that gap!

A: Awaken Others
Your life is not lived alone! Your faith has to be lived in communion, in relationships of love and unity. Awakening each other is a special call that is given to us, but it requires that we are awake. But how do we awaken others, if we ourselves are asleep, or half asleep! That cannot work. Do you remember  that some five years ago, Holy Father announced a year for persons living their Consecrated Life? The call he had given was: TO WAKE UP THE WORLD. He explained it immediately, that it would first of all mean they wake themselves up, reach out to the others and share the experience of being awake and thus make the whole humanity awakened! Advent is also the time to call out to each other, remind each other and journey together.

Waking up the other is not merely giving command to the other to rise, but it is more sharing my experience of being awake. There are many wake up calls... the climate crisis, the pandemic now, the economic melt down, the political stand offs... all these are wake up calls, efforts to wake up the other. In our personal lives too, there are wake up calls - may be a fight with a spouse, a misunderstanding with children or parents, a tiff with a friend...these could be moments to wake up the other! But I need to check first, am I really awake, to awaken the other?

T: Thirst for the Lord
The first reading presents us a model of thirsting for the coming of the Lord. The prophet yearns for God's coming and wishes that it happens right away. In various ways he expresses the longing for the Lord, the Father, the Potter to come and shepherd us, protect us and mould us. The prophet seems to blame the Lord, that the Lord gave us up to sin! In a way it is true, as some young friends ask: why did God give me the possibility of choosing sin? God could have made me in such a way that I always choose good! Ah! that is one tricky type of reasoning. But, let us beware - it is the freedom that makes us Children of God. If not we would be like any other beings: animals or plants. We are in the image and likeness of God, and freedom to choose is a key element of that image! But what matters in that choice is, how much do I thirst for God?

The thirst for God has to be expressed in our concrete seeking for the Lord. We need to seek the Lord, on a daily basis: in those who are around us, in the situations that surround us, in anxious faces and hungry stomachs, in hearts longing for love those darkened with hatred...we are to dig deep and look for the face of the Lord! He is coming; indeed He has come! It is upto us to unveil the Lord's presence amidst us.

C: Cleanse yourself
To seek the Lord, it goes without saying, is a moment of cleansing, a moment of self purification. It is only through this purification that we can really get to see the Lord. The Lord is near and we need to feel the urgency of purifying ourselves. What a gift we have in these four weeks, if only we use them to the full! 

Here is a suggestion: Pick up one element a week and begin working on them; report the progress to the Lord at the end of the week and start on another element in the new week! That would be a great journey and that is the journey of self purification that the Lord invites us to. And by the way, have you made your Confession yet! Decide on that...a lovely way to mark this Advent journey: a loving celebration of the Sacrament of Reconciliation.

H: Hold firm to the Lord
In the second reading, St. Paul hits the nail on its head: 'God is faithful', he declares! Yes, in our yearning to behold the revelation of Lord Jesus Christ in our own life and in our times, God is faithful. The point is we need to hold firm to the Lord. Perseverance is a rare virtue. We are good willed, and spirit filled...but for only a while. That would surely not suffice. We need to persevere in our good will, we need to hold on to the choice for the Lord, we cannot give up even when we face all the possible odds. 

On this journey we begin today too...let us stay firm and hold on to the Lord and the Lord will see us through all moments of crisis and confusion. All that we need to do is, make a pact with the Lord and journey these days close to the Lord...and we will see, we would have reached somewhere by the end of this season!

We begin a journey today, to WATCH - to Wake up, to Awaken, to Thirst, to Cleanse and to Hold on to the Lord who is to come. Let us embark upon this journey, together as a community of loving people, and feel close to each other and feel the Lord close to us. The Lord's words resound today in the Gospel: What shall I say to you, I say to all: WATCH.

Neither inaction nor hyper action!

WORD 2day: Saturday, 34th week in Ordinary time

November 28, 2020: Revelation 22:1-7; Luke 21: 34-36

Behold I am coming soon! At times it annoys when we hear people go hysteric about this statement. However, it is not a statement to make everyone panic, but a gentle reminder as to how one should live one's daily life. It is not something that should make is run for cover or throw spiritual tantrums, but a constant life style that should make us conscious any time in our life about who we are and what we are called to. 

St.Paul understood this well and instructed the Thessalonians: "For you yourselves know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. ...But you, beloved, are not in darkness, for that day to surprise you like a thief; for you are all children of light and children of the day; we are not of the night or of darkness" (1 Thess 5:2,4). If you are frightened of it or if you are interested in frightening the world about it, imagine how far you are from being true children of God!

The message is clear: that neither inaction nor hyper action is expected of us; neither carousing nor drowsiness! It is not a call to live your life on pins and needles, anxious about the next moment; nor is it a call to live our life in mourning and bewailing for the lost moments. The call is to make the best of this moment and live the 'here and now' to the full, conscious and loving. 

The Gospel presents us that call: be vigilant at all times! Neither inaction, which is the product of lamentation of the past, nor hyper action which is a frenetic preparation for an unknown future at the cost of the present, would help us, says the Word today. What matters is we live our daily lives, every moment, with responsibility to God and availability to our brothers and sisters, conscious of our choices and conscientious of our failures. But all the time serene, because one who says he is coming soon, is our Saviour!

The secret is to live our lives as children of the light, here and now, calm and composed, but awake and vigilant!

Signs of the Times

 WORD 2day: Friday, 34th week in Ordinary time 

November 27, 2020: Revelation 20: 1-4, 11- 21:2; Luke 21: 29-33

One of the key terms popularised by the Second Vatican Council is "signs of the times" and the Council itself tried its best to be true to the spirit of that term. The Council challenged the faithful and the church as a whole to learn to read the signs of the times and respond to it. It is obviously a never failing criterion: to be attentive to what is happening around and the message we can gather from it, in order to render the way we live our faith in Christ, relevant and meaningful.

There is however a feeling among many that the "signs" from the Lord in the present times, are few and far between. The truth instead is, the signs abound: in our daily lives, through things that happen around us, through persons who live with us, those who live worthy lives, those who suffer for no cause of theirs, those who are oppressed, those who have scores and scores of woes to meet on a daily basis, through the crisis we see in the nature around us, through the humanity that has pushed into a hue and cry that is so artificial and human made with this pandemic... there are signs aplenty. 

Our responsibility is two fold: first, to learn to gather these signs, as coming from the Lord! At times we can become careless and callous to these, that we would never read the right message at the right time. A delayed action is no good! Secondly, we have the responsibility to act upon the sign we receive and respond to it, regardless of the risks and the sacrifices that are involved. We are so negligent in this second part that we habituate ourselves to becoming blind to the signs that are around. There are those who repeatedly remind us of that - and they become a nuisance in our eyes, if not even villains!

Whether we gather them or not, respond to them or not, they are there! We would do well as true sons and daughters of the Reign, if we are present to them and through them strive to build the Reign here on earth. If not, we ourselves are the losers!

Judgment: our choice!?

WORD 2day: Thursday, 34th week in Ordinary time

November 26, 2020: Revelation 18: 1-2, 21-23, 19:1-3, 9; Luke 21: 20-28

Happy are those who are called to the wedding feast of the Lamb...the final banquet, the moment of redemption...the end of days, the judgment seat... these are all the pictures that the Word paints before our eyes today. Let us not create for ourselves an idea of some horror stories or sort of shake-up narrations. They are, after all, logical ends towards which we are all journeying.

But a further fact to remember is that these need not be always an end time phenomenon, instead it has to be an everyday experience...the judgment is a continuous happening and it is not entirely an act of the Lord; the choices that we make at any given point of time, at any moment of a given day, the choice of our words, thoughts, actions, decisions...those are already judgments that we bring upon ourselves (cf. Jn 3:18).

The reason is this: our choice! Every time we react in a way to something or someone, we make a choice! You may say, "No! but it was just a spontaneous word, or a spontaneous act; not premeditated at all!" But remember, though it is a so-called spontaneous word or act, it has a history; there is a whole lot of experience behind it; there is a whole lot of judgement that goes with it. Why you choose a word, not another; why choose a particular way of reacting and not some other... they depend, even if unconscious or subconscious, on the attitudes or the disposition you have towards that person or that event. That is where our judgments, the judgments that come on us, rest too! That is why Jesus said: judge not, you shall not be judged!

Coming back to the parable...we are all called to the wedding feast, that is to unite with the Lord and enjoy the eternal bliss. But the choices we make on a daily basis, at a particular point of time, is our response and that decides whether we enter the banquet or not. Hence, instead of yarning tales of suspense and horror, let us realise our responsibility in making right choices, conscious choices, charitable choices, holy choices, Christ-like choices, every moment of our daily life: Judgement is our choice, indeed!

Perseverance...!?!

WORD 2day: Wednesday, 34th week in Ordinary time

November 25, 2020: Revelation 15:1-4; Luke 21: 12-19

Perseverance, in terms of targets and achievements in the world, is holding on endlessly. The same, when it comes to our relationship with God... it is giving up limitlessly. Difficulties, problems, temptations, struggles, misunderstandings, loneliness, desperation, distress... in all these, whatever level it goes, if I can give everything up to God and say, 'Lord you see to it,' - that is truly perseverance.

It is to give up totally into the hands of God, regardless of the successes or failures, gains or losses, happiness or sadness, prosperity or misery! It is not praising God and exalting God when everything goes fine. And come one trouble, finding every reason to doubt God, speak against God, question God, lament against God and feel discouraged about God. This is lack of perseverance. 

Faith is all about giving up everything and walking with our hands in the hands of God. If we can do that - in the midst of difficulties to remain calm and trust in the Lord; in moments of failures to sit by the Lord and recount what went on; in moments of anxiety to tell myself that God is there all the time with me and all that I need to do is surrender - that is indeed what Faith is all about! 

Faith is knowing that the Lord is, and being there with the Lord, come what may!

Curiosity or Care to Change?

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

November 24, 2020: Revelation 14: 14-19 ; Luke 21: 5-11

When will these things happen? We are more interested in knowing when certain things will happen and curious about predictions and premonitions, foretellings and soothsayings, magics and myths - than understanding what is the right thing to be done and making the right moves in life at the right time.

Curiosity is good, to an extent that it incites my interest to get to know things that I don't know. But it is not absolutely good or helpful, as it is always determined by its motivations. Some are curious about others; some about everything else other that what affects them. Some are curious, these days, to get to know things so that they can publish it first before the rest of the world - how many breaking news are merely results of curiosity with absolutely no respect to persons, their experiences and their feelings! It is not about the breaking news that comes live on the TV, but the breaking news that goes from our mouths to others' ears, those that go from our mobiles to others', those that are sent from our whatsapp pages and facebook pages to the rest of the world, without really feeling anything about what the person or persons involved are going through right then. Forget that dimension...what about what it does to me? Does that curiosity in anyway make me a person bit better that what I was before?

Curiosity is eagerness, craze to know! Knowing alone is not sufficient. What do I do on the basis of what I know. Knowing God, hearing God's Word everyday, celebrating the sacred mysteries regularly... what is happening to me? What kind of growth is taking place within me? Am I prepared to take decisions that are important, some times hard, and necessary? 

Mistakenly we postpone the necessary and crucial transformations in life for an 'opportune' time which sometimes does not come at all or it gets too late by the time they come by. The month of November insists on the urgency that is involved in personal conversion and community dedication to growth and maturity in faith. And specially this week marking the end of the liturgical year, and leading us to the season of advent - invites us to a better understanding of the end time spirituality that we are called to live in these times.

The sickles are already kept at the base...the harvest time is near! Mindful of the short time that we have, we have a calling to live: live our lives to the full, here and now.

Good people or God's people?

WORD 2day: Monday, 34th week in Ordinary time

November 23, 2020: Revelation 14:1-5; Luke 21: 1-4

Are we called to be good people? Yes, but not just that. The Word today challenges us: it is not enough to be good people, but we are called to be God's people. Being good seems a bit of a relative opinion these days. We are good to some, and not so to some others! According to some, I am good and for some others, I am not good. I am good at times when I see an advantage in being so, but when it is not going to favour me in anyway, I give up on that guard. Being good seems so relative.

Just have a look at the posters with politicians doling out their "generous" gifts to the unfortunate lot, the numerous NGOs scripting out projects for the eradication of social evils for decades and decades together, the so-called social activists voicing the woes of the downtrodden. And these days, the scenario is worse... to see poses with masks and microphones...everything seems a show! People who do good and claim to do good, do it with various intentions and it is that which makes all the difference.

One thing it is to be known as people who do good and the other is to be people of God. Doing good has no end to it and is evaluated in its quantity, in the volume of the good we do. Being God's people is in one way simpler and in another way a lot more demanding. 

It is simpler because it does not matter what you do and how much you do but with how much of love you do whatever you do! You need not be giving away tonnes of things to others in charity or announcing everyday one scheme, which means nothing to none. What matters is you have true compassion for the other, in the depth of your heart.

More demanding because even a slight intention of selfishness or vain glory can negate the true effect of the good that is done. It is what is in your heart that makes your gift valid or not in the sight of the Lord - whether it is sacks of gold or a mere two pennies! You can hide what you have in your heart to everyone, but to God? 

To be marked as people of God is to belong to God and to put our whole self and all we have at the disposal of the One who gave it all to us. It is important to be people who do good, but more important it is to be people of God.

A KING WITH A DIFFERENCE

Shepherd, Servant and Sovereign!

November 22, 2020: Solemnity of Christ the King
Ezekiel 34: 11-12, 15-17; 1 Corinthians 15: 20-26, 28; Matthew 25: 31-46

Christ the King Sunday marks the beginning of the last week of the Liturgical year and thus it serves as a fitting culmination of the year, a climax to end the year with! The one whose birth, life, death and resurrection that we remembered and celebrated all through this liturgical year, is our King, says this Sunday. 

We celebrate our King today, our King who is madly in love with us, our King who had given up everything for the sake of the love that he had for us, our King who even today is ready to give up on anything, all just for the love that he has for us. Our King, definitely, is different from the rest of the kings we can think or see around. To be served, to have authority over all, to rule over all and to hoard as much as possible for oneself: these are what being a king would mean today. 

Enough to look around we have all sorts: rulers who were all their life hoarding things and died so miserable and despicable; rulers who pose themselves shamelessly as 'greatest ever' and think that they can never be dethroned; rulers who do all they can to please every one whom they can merely to stay in power and hold on to the throne; rulers who manipulate every one and every thing and project themselves to be the saviours but all the time gnawing at the very roots of the happiness of the common folk; rulers who openly suppress rights of people and rule by fear; rulers who have all secret pacts to destroy anyone who stands against them, caring nothing about the innocents and vulnerable who are trampled in the bargain! Oh...what range of them! But we the people of God, are a privileged lot because we have a King who is a contrast to all these !

The King we have is a Shepherd King: he comes in search of us, strains himself for our good, provides for our needs, binds our wounds, leads us, directs us, feeds us, nourishes us, defends us and does everything necessary for our peaceful and happy life. None of us can ever deny the fact that we have the protecting and providing hand of God hovering over us, because without that we would find our life tough and sometimes even terrible. A King who comes in search of us, not one who waits in his throne for us to go begging!

Certainly you have come across that cartoon that was circulated during this COVID lock-down - the devil laughing at God saying, "Ah...I managed to close all your Churches!". And God smiling back retorting, "And I have just opened one in each home!" Whether we go in search of God or not. God is ever search of us. All that we need to do is open the door of our hearts and he shall enter, and make home with us!

The King we have is a Servant King: it is strange that our king, kind of depends on us. All that he is concerned about is not so much to "rule" us as to "serve" us. He wishes that we feed him, clothe him, console him... he says he depends on us! What sort of a king is he who depends on his subjects, a king who wants his subjects to give him in mercy to eat, who identifies himself with his subjects who are in want and in dire need. What sort of a king is he who feels sad when his subjects are sad, feels abandoned when his subjects are left to suffer alone, feels neglected when his subjects are left without no one to care for. Truly he is a servant king, who desires that we play his role, take his side and be his ambassadors when there are our brothers and sisters who are in hunger, in need, in dire want, in loneliness, in suffering! 

If the King is a servant, the subjects and servants of the king, what do they become? Kings? No, servants of the Servant king! The more I humble myself, the more I become a true subject of my King. The more I reach out in service to the needy, the more I grow in the image of my King who came reaching out to me, leaving behind all the regalia of a king. The more I look at every one around me as person whom I need to serve, the more I become like the King who announced: I have come to serve, not to be served! What an example we have!

The King we have is a Sovereign King: every knee shall bow and every tongue confess the he is King and he is Lord! The dependence that we see in the king is not a sign of weakness, it is the very nature of our King and Lord who is a relational Being; God who is a community, God who is three persons, in relationship with each other, and defines what right relationships should be like. God orders the movements of the planets and the heavenly bodies but gives each of his sons and daughters, a divine freedom that fills them with respect and dignity. We are given a royal identity, that we are sons and daughters of the Sovereign king. 

The Creator, the protector, the ultimate judge, the righteous arbiter, the King of the Universe...that is what the Lord is. There can be millions of inventions and thousands of theories with which people in history have tried to do away with God and replace God with something! But it has never worked. There is invariably a point after which no one can proceed without compromising on certainty and clarity in their negation of God. Besides all these, there is no need for anyone to try to prove God! God does not need our proofs...and if God does need them, it cannot be God. We do not try to prove God... we experience God and share that experience with the others. So, let us not get upset when we are not able to "prove" God's existence to people around us...but we need to get worried when we are not able to communicate God-experience to others in and through our life, because we have not had it ourselves! That is what we need to strive for - to have a deep God-experience within us, so that we can share it with all those around us. 

Yes, we have a King who is all powerful, governs every aspect of this universe, but when it comes to his love for us, he loves us so tenderly that he looks so weak like a servant, so humble like a shepherd and yet no one can deny the Sovereign that God is!

The God of the Living

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

November 21, 2020: Revelation 11: 4-12; Luke 20: 27-40

The God of the living - that is how Jesus presents his God and Father, and our God and Father. Resurrection is the foundation of our conviction that our life is not merely made of the few years that we spend on this earth. Our life is part of the Eternal Stream, that is God and we have but a few years here on earth. We come from, and we are meant for, a union that is eternal and all our efforts during this life has to be towards ensuring that union for ever. 

What would be the fallout if we had this truth right in front of our minds while we live? We would not unnecessarily fret to make ourselves comfortable at the cost of the other. We would not long to possess something or someone, leading to undue striving to control the other and manipulate situations. We would not harm others or harm the nature just because at present we would like to make more money or make life more easy. We would not calculate everything in terms of gain and profit and dividends and surplus.

These months have done this in a great sense - the uncontrollable dance of the disease, the threatening face of death, the gnawing claws of misery, the frightening stare of unemployment...how many forms of impermanence we have experienced... but have we changed in our attitudes? Time and again, something or the other - like a storm, or a flood, or an earthquake, or a fire - comes by to remind us of our vulnerability...but do we learn our lessons? How many times we get to stare into the eyes of death, may be our own dear ones, those known to us, famous personalities... seeing them make that last lap of journey in front of our eyes... does that in anyway change our mindsets?

Anyway, should we wait for such terrifying moments to repent and reset our values? Jesus offers us a wonderful criterion: the criterion of Resurrection. Live as Resurrection-people - it means the ability to see far ahead of this limited life we have! Live as people of the Eternity - it means living a life that will never end, will go on in its goodness and love. Live as people who really believe that your life does not end here and now... live as people who belong to the God of the living!

Sweet in the mouth; bitter in the stomach

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

November 20, 2020: Revelation 10: 8-11; Luke 19: 45-48

Jesus was attractive; people rallied after him so willingly and readily. He was interesting to listen to; so many pharisees and scribes hung on to his lips. He was famous; the mere name drew not just crowds but even prominent persons like Zachaeus, Nicodemus and others. He had charming ways; even Herod wanted to see him atleast once! All these were true only in as much as they all looked at Jesus from a distance. When Jesus got near...he turned demanding. 

The people came to him and he challenged them to live a life of destitution, with no place to even lay their heads. The people listened to him and he called them whitewashed sepulchers, inviting them to true personal conversion. Individuals approached him and he challenged them to total reformation of their personal and public lives. The people led him with such celebration into the city of Jerusalem and he enters the Temple and drives out the vendors and money lenders, challenging the social system that the people were so easily justifying and living with.

The Lord's promises are sweet, but when we take it to heart they are demanding. If we truly listen to the Word of God, we cannot remain the same forever, we would be challenged to change, to transform, to become more and more like the Lord himself. But that is not an easy process, though it has to form part of the life of every Christian. Hardly do we take it seriously... the reason - initially it looks attractive but as we get into it, it gets tougher and tougher.

The Word may be sweet in the mouth; but for sure it will be bitter in the stomach, churning the unwanted elements out and paving way towards the Reign. Are we truly prepared?

Smile upon or Weep over

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

November, 19, 2020: Revelation 5:1-10; Luke 19: 41-44

The Gospels picture Jesus as weeping, in two places: once in John (11:35); and the other is the passage we have today from Luke (19:41). In the first instance he wept for his friend; and today he is weeping for Jerusalem, that is the chosen people of God, the people called to come under the wings of the Lord who wanted to protect them all as a hen does to her chicks. But the people weren't prepared. Jesus wept thinking of their obstinacy, their choice against God's plan of salvation! 

In the first reading we have another instance of weeping: John who weeps for the fact that there was no one worthy to open the scrolls. Opening the scrolls means being the mediator between God's ever present love and our absolute need for that merciful love. There is one who is worthy: Jesus, the Son of God...the One mediator who revealed to us who God really is to us and what we are called to be. 

In our obstinacy we can remain in our own shells and do what pleases us, instead of opening our hearts and letting Jesus in. We can be so hardhearted that we can miss out the greatest treasures presented to us, in simple and ordinary ways, everyday. We can have the Lord speaking to us all day, we can have the Lord showing us the way, we can have the right persons we need at the right time... but in our hardheartedness, we could miss it all!

Let us not be people over whom Jesus would have to weep. Being sensitive to the messages that Lord gives us on a daily basis, through the Word, through the daily events, through persons we encounter, through the insights that dawn on us... we will be prepared to receive the Lord and the love of God that he mediates. Let the Lord smile upon us, not weep over us!

Called to Praise the Lord

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

November 18, 2020: Revelation 4: 1-11; Luke 19: 11-28

John impresses upon us how important and essential it is for us, as creatures of the Creator Almighty, to give praise to our Lord and King. Praising God - can never be done enough and it is always in want, in contrast to the boundless glory that the Lord possesses! The Word today distinguishes among three types of people who give praise to the Lord:

The first are the Psuedo Praisers: who praise the Lord with their tongues but are far away in spirit from the Lord. They are those who deceive themselves putting up a mere show of their allegiance to God, while in fact are all the while doing their own will. Wantonly, they make of themselves people unfit for the Reign.

The second are the Pointless Praisers: who think praising the Lord alone is enough to inherit the Reign. Their praising is pointless, in fact the Lord himself had declared: 'not all those who call me Lord Lord, will enter the Reign of God' (cf. Mt 7:21). They keep praising as a part time occupation, doing things diametrically opposed in the rest of their lives! Does it work so? At times due to spiritual laziness and other times due to undue attachments to the unhelpful attitudes, they hardly drag themselves towards the Reign. Ultimately, they fall short of entering the Reign. 

The third are the Profound Praisers: who do not consider praising the Lord as a duty in itself. Their very words, actions and life gives praise to the Lord. Their witness leads, not only themselves, but even those around them to praise the Lord to the heights. They live their life to the full, and seeing their lives, people are inspired to give praises to their King and Lord. They do have their share of weaknesses and faults, but they are quick to rise and get back in line with the Will of God. These are the People of the Reign, true and profound in their praise.

Obviously...apart from God, there is only one who can truly say to which of these categories I belong: Myself!

Letting Jesus enter our homes!

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

November 17, 2020: Revelation 3: 1-6, 14-22; Luke 19: 1-10

To welcome Jesus into our homes: that is the task given to us by the Word today. Obviously when Jesus comes its a blessing - 'today salvation has come into this house' (Lk 19:9). But it is more than that... it is a Challenge too: 'because you are neither cold nor hot, i will spit you' (cf. Rev 3:16). That is indeed a point to reflect on and think seriously about. 

Letting Jesus in, is fine...but once he comes, things cannot remain the same! You cannot remain both dead and alive at the same time; hot and cold at the same time; or belonging and not belonging to the Lord at the same time! You cannot have certain value systems in the heart and speak of different ones in public; you cannot have hidden motives and feign goodness in your actions and choices; you cannot be both this and that - you have to be either this or that!

The Word instructs me today: I have to make a choice and choices are all! 

Like Zachaeus who not only changed from his old ways but made up even for the mistakes, for his wrong doings and every thing that made others' lives less happy, we are constantly called to make some drastic choices. Choices for good, for what is beautiful in the eyes of the Lord and for what is true. At a given moment, it may be difficult to do it, demanding to make such a choice and requiring a lot of effort and sacrifice. But I cannot imagine otherwise. I have to go through those struggles, take my time, but the Choice, I have to make. That choice will truly determine, who I am and on which side I am. That choice alone can truly say, whether I am ready to let Jesus enter my home, my heart or not!

The choice is ours - to keep to our old ways or to let Jesus enter our homes. The home that he enters, the hearts where he resides...will be marked by the choices, or the Choice 'to be blameless and holy before him' (Eph 1:4).

Lord, that I may see again!

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

November 16, 2020: Revelation 1:1-4, 2:1-5; Luke 18: 35-43

Repent and get back to your original ways, invites the first reading today. With a plenty of good will and an abundance of spirit we begin something new and good... just imagìne the day of our first communion, for some confirmation, for some others the day of religious consecration and for others the day of your wedding! But in a short while the energy drains, the spirit goes faint and a mere good will becomes drastically insufficient. The reason: we are not attentive enough to note the initial changes that happen...we remain so insensitive to what is happening within us that we are caught unawares at a much crucial time. That is why the prayer today: "Lord grant that we may see again!" (Cf. Lk 18:41).

Staying in touch with the Lord keeps us in touch with ourselves, to constantly check our pride, insensitivities, arrogance, unforgiving attitude, judgmental tendencies, loose talks and compromises against true love: these are the blindnesses that set in, so gradually that we do not even realise it! The first reading tells us: I have this complaint to make; you have less love now than you used to! How many spouses have this to tell each other. How many of us have this to tell ourselves, with regard to some good work we began with all enthusiasm, but fell apart in the process!

Going from bad to worse, at a point of time, we become so blind that we do not recognise what sad levels we have reached. And it is the Lord alone who can restore the original spirit by enabling us to see... empowering us to realise and restart... "make us see again!" The first reading again gently instructs us: think where you were before you fell...before you lost your interest...before you got dissipated... before your interests began to wobble... think where you were and repent and do as you used to at first.

We are reaching the end of this liturgical year. It is a time to evaluate our journey thus far, not to get discouraged or merely to judge ourselves, but to gently remind ourselves of our initial fervour and start again! It is time now that each of us make it our prayer: Lord, that I may see again!

A 3G ON THE WORLD DAY OF THE POOR

GRATITUDE, GUILT AND GIVING - 3 sensibilities provoked!

November 15, 2020: 33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time

4th World Day of the Poor

Proverbs 31: 10-13,19-20,30-31; 1 Thessalonians 5:1-6; Matthew 25: 14-30

Today is the fourth commemoration of the World Day of the Poor, instituted at the request of Pope Francis at the end of the Year of Mercy in 2017, calling us to keep alive the sensibilities that were provoked during reflections of that entire year! Here this Sunday's Word brings home to us the same sensibilities... and we shall dwell on them in 3Gs.

Gratitude - because what I have is given by God!

The parable that Jesus narrates speaks of each one having what was given them by the King and what they do with that is what the story is all about. Whatever I have, I have it because it is given by God. You may protest - no, I earned it, I merited it...could be. But the opportunity, the contacts, the success...do all have it? If I had it, I was more fortunate than so many. Without giving into a boisterous 'theology of prosperity', I need to admit that if I am blessed with comforts, with conveniences that many do not have today, I have to be grateful. 

When I complain, I cannot be grateful. We know of that famous saying - I complained of not having shoes until that day when I found one not having his legs! Gratitude is one important sensibility that we are called to possess - Gratitude is a sign that I acknowledge what I have received and I realise the value of what I have received. The last man was not grateful, he was afraid, lazy and crooked and that is why what he received did not fructify.

Guilt - because what I have is not only mine!

Some may not like this word used here, certainly! It is not even to alliterate with the G's that this term is chosen here as the second sensibility but with a lot of consciousness. Pope Francis when he invites the world to observe this day as World Day of the Poor - do you think he is saying, now all of us rich get together and pool in some money to give to the poor? No! He is raising a big question - why are they poor? 

At times, when we travel around, when we encounter poor people with nothing to eat or nothing to wear or nowhere to stay... do not we feel guilty of the well pressed clothes that we wear, of the well presented recipes that we enjoy, the well planned travels that we make, at times the well guarded houses that we live in. Are we going to leave all these and go to the streets - no, it may not happen! But that little feeling of uneasiness within us, that needs to be there. That uneasiness drove Francis of Assisi to sanctity; that uneasiness dragged Mother Teresa out of the confines of her convent to the peripheries of the world. It would not benefit us, if we wish to soften the word to 'being sensitive' or to 'being aware'...no, it is being guilty! Let us not get into poetic polemics like. 'everyone is poor is some way' and so on. It should pain each of us, to see people poor; it should pain each of us to see persons suffer. The world today has to feel that guilt of having pushed its children to poverty and misery. When that third servant failed to be fruitful, the worst fact was not that he was not fruitful, but he was not even guilty about it. That was the most miserable fact. The king just could not digest that!

Giving - because that is why I have!

If I have anything, it is a clear sign that I am called to give! That is what a Christian life should be - Christian life and hoarding wealth for its own sake cannot go together! Oh, what a statement that is to make! But that is the fact. One cannot say, God has blessed me and therefore I am going to be happy! Yes I am happy with the blessing - but I am given to give! The beautiful philosophy of Stewardship that God has been insisting on right from creation, has widely been forgotten, negated and dumped down the drains. How can I not give when I know someone needs it and I have it. To add to that, I have it more than I need! 

In a country like India, for an instance, or wherever in the world, we can see the rich getting richer and the poor becoming poorer - can things remain the same? The worst of the scenario, the social organisations and governmental bodies which are to fend of every citizen, are worried serving the purposes of the Corporates and the moneyed! How long are we going to be happy collecting something from somewhere and giving it elsewhere? Giving has to be a duty! Giving has to be our essence! Giving has to be our being! I should give naturally, spontaneously and without a second thought, if I want to be seen as a child of God, because God gives, give abundantly.

"Stretch forth your hand to the poor (Sir 6:7)," invites the Holy Father this day! The ugliness of poverty and misery that has always been around us today, has gathered more flesh to torment humanity with the pandemic that is causing havoc world wide. The call is to look out for the most affected, the worst hit, the totally lost, the utterly broken, those who feel they have nobody, those who are struggling to even live their next minute in life... to those we need to stretch forth our hand, our heart, our minds and our love. 

Listen to these words of Pope Francis: 

“Stretch forth your hand to the poor” challenges the attitude of those who prefer to keep their hands in their pockets and to remain unmoved by situations of poverty in which they are often complicit. Indifference and cynicism are their daily food. What a difference from the generous hands we have described! If they stretch out their hands, it is to touch computer keys to transfer sums of money from one part of the world to another, ensuring the wealth of an elite few and the dire poverty of millions and the ruin of entire nations. Some hands are outstretched to accumulate money by the sale of weapons that others, including those of children, use to sow death and poverty. Other hands are outstretched to deal doses of death in dark alleys in order to grow rich and live in luxury and excess, or to quietly pass a bribe for the sake of quick and corrupt gain. Others still, parading a sham respectability, lay down laws which they themselves do not observe. Amid all these scenarios, “the excluded are still waiting. To sustain a lifestyle which excludes others, or to sustain enthusiasm for that selfish ideal, a globalization of indifference has developed. Almost without being aware of it, we end up being incapable of feeling compassion at the outcry of the poor, weeping for other people’s pain, and feeling a need to help them, as though all this were someone else’s responsibility and not our own” (Evangelii Gaudium, 54). We cannot be happy until these hands that sow death are transformed into instruments of justice and peace for the whole world.

Gratitude, Guilt and Giving... these three sensibilities can truly keep us alive and attentive to the suffering brothers and sisters around us, and all over the world. Those sensibilities, if they are authentic will certainly transform themselves from mere words and individual actions to a collective mentality and a global culture...that is true evangelisation, making God felt everywhere, making God present everywhere, and making God's Reign present here and now!

True Christian Love

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

November 14, 2020: 3 John 5-8; Luke 18: 1-8

Taking care of strangers, widows and the orphans was a special commission given to the people by God. And that was an experiential learning on the part of the people who were themselves strangers, orphans and sojourners, in a foreign land. It is an experience that cannot be explained in terms but only experienced...and those who experience it, can never forget it!

However, the term stranger or foreigner was, and is,  indicative of every one in need, people in insecure circumstances and people who have nothing to hold on to, wherever they are. Today we have every category you can ever think of within this definition of the people in need. The exploited, the immigrants, the refugees, the unemployed and the homeless!

They already have a grave situation in their lives, that of poverty, insecurity, homelessness, unemployment, lack of prospects and so on. Added to this, if they are exploited further - that is, their little taken away from them, constantly threatened with evacuation, needlessly suspected for all miscues, blamed for all social lapses... we can imagine how doubly unfortunate, orphaned and oppressed they could sense. 

There is yet another, more treacherous, attitude in the world today, against which the present Holy Father, Pope Francis has time and again warned the people of God - the attitude of indifference. Passing them by as if they did not exist! Not caring what happens to them, not bothering who is rendered homeless or who is left to die without food or who is condemned to suffer with no employment or who is crushed under the burden of debt... all that matters is the so-called development that parades affluence and divinises comfort and pleasure!

We cannot conform to these standards! We cannot even remain neutral in these circumstances... that is not possible, for a true disciple of Christ. We have a responsibility towards this part of suffering and neglected humanity. Pope Francis leads us in this true Christian love!

Informed convictions and Single minded perseverance!

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

November 13, 2020: 2 John 4-9; Luke 17: 26-37

Commandments make it easy for us to choose the right things in life. They are similar to the laws, which are already reasoned out discernments made, for the sake of providing individuals and societies ready made choices, to maintain order and keep going. Just as any society needs law, a religious or moral community needs commandments. 

The Jews had their commandments... which they believed were given to them by God! The commandments showed them the right way to go, the right choices to make and the right decisions to take. Jesus makes it further simple for them and for us, simplifying those commandments in their plurality, into just one key criterion: LOVE.

The readings these days portray a sense of urgency as we approach the fag end of the the Liturgical year. Like a person or an organisation evaluates a project towards its completion, so we are invited to think about our choices and the single mindedness in life, at the end of this liturgical year. Can we look back and make an evaluation - as to how  we have journeyed with the Lord all this while?

At times we feel bad to obey a commandment or to keep a law,  as part of our spirituality - because we think it undermines our "progressive" thinking and capacity for mature commitments. We feel it is childish to stick to commandments and obey a directive! But maturity in fact lies in Informed Convictions and Single minded Perseverance -  knowing what the commandments intend and seeking those very goals is Informed conviction; knowing what my weaknesses and limitations are and making use of the commandments to bind myself to something good and growing in it, is Single minded perseverance. 

Informed convictions and Single minded perseverance... the way to achieve them: listening to the Lord  daily and living every moment of our life in God's light.

To be or not to be a Reign person!

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

November, 12, 2020: Philemon 7-20; Luke 17: 20-25

Paul does not request or exhort Philemon to forgive and accept Onesimus, not anymore as a slave, but as a brother in the Lord. He almost commands and takes for granted that it is done. This is because forgiveness, love and union of hearts are no more options to choose from. The very fact that one chooses to be a Christian, that is a follower of Christ, he or she has already chosen these to be values of life! They are to be the very way of life for a Christian because: the Reign of God is amidst us.

Misunderstandings between husband and wife, misgivings between the families,  fights among siblings, the bitter experiences of past, nothing of these can give me an excuse to remain stubborn in my shell and refuse to build communion. What a shame it is to see sealed churches, divided parishes, division stricken religious congregations and communities, and hearts with discriminating and dividing sensibilities, within the so called family of God! That should be considered an anomaly, a serious deficiency, an abominable virus!

There is no more a sense of magnanimity in treating everyone as my brother and sister... it is after all what I am expected to do, the normal way of being as a Christian... because the Reign of God is within me! Priding in the fact that we live together, we accept each and we work together, is a sign of immaturity in terms of true Christian lifestyle. It has to be taken for granted that we are brothers and sisters and we accept each other - the mark of maturity however lies in, how genuinely and deeply we love each other as brothers and sisters in the One Lord.

In short, the choice we have is very fundamental: either living a Christian or not, on a daily basis! I am either a Reign person or an anti-Reign person... the choice is mine!

Taking God for granted!!!

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

November 11, 2020: Titus 3:1-7; Luke 17:11-19

Speaking on the eve of his 97th birthday, one of our elderly Salesian priests once said, "you will not understand the difficulty of living this old...everything, every little thing is difficult. Even putting on a shirt or a pant is such an herculean task. With the missing balance, even using a toilet or washing the face is such a problematic affair!" (He lived on till 102). As we think of it, don't we really feel guilty about the numerous times that we take so many things for granted?

We have today a typical event in the Gospel where there are the majority who take things for granted, but that one spiritually sensitive person who returns to the Lord to tell him, that it really made a difference what the Lord had done to him. Thats not a simple quality, nor is it very common! It is a spiritually in itself - of not taking God for granted.

 

This quality of not taking God for granted has to come from, not taking people around me for granted. That is what the first reading tells me. If the latter does not happen, the former will only be an external show, an hypocrisy. Not even God will be pleased with it, of course! 

The challenge is: that we recognise persons, accept persons, appreciate them and affirm their presence, thank God for them, and take care of them. We need to be, not only sheep of the Divine Shepherd, but also the Shepherd's hands and legs, reaching out to the needy and the marginalised. It is easy and pleasant to proclaim that the Lord is my shepherd, but to recognise it truly in concrete terms and submit to the shepherding of the Lord, it is not an easy task. It means, walking with the Shepherd, following the Shepherd and doing what the Shepherd wants! Let us begin by not taking God for granted.

My real worth - where do I get it from?

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

November, 10, 2020: Titus 2:1-8, 11-14; Luke 17: 7-10

Where does one's real worth come from? From merely your age or the social status that is offered to you or from the great successes that you parade to the world? From the possessions you have or the positions you hold? From the following you pride in or the flags and banners you cheer for? As a person, your true worth comes from WITHIN you, says the Word today.

It comes from within, meaning each of us understands what one is called to, what our commission is and we strive to live it on a daily basis, without making a fuss out of it. At times we do the little that we do, and go about trumpeting it all around. Worse still some times we do not do anything much but go around building it up as if we have moved mountains. Both of these are pretensions, one worse than the other!

And the worst of all is doing everything that we do, merely to be noticed and praised and to be given the social recognition that I am an important person in the vicinity. I want so badly, everyone around me to notice me, recognise be, accept me, appreciate me and hail me... or at least, everyone to have a good word about me! But is that the real source of my worth! Am I not selling myself to their whims and fancies? Am I not surrendering myself at the feet of those, that they dictate to me when I have to be happy and when not! What a way to squander the precious gift of life that I have received!

What is missing here is the fact that, first of all we forget the fact that our life is precious, and a gift; secondly, we fail to remind ourselves, it is the Lord who has given this life to me...not those around me! Thirdly, and above all, there is the image of God so deeply ingrained in me - that is the goodness WITHIN me. 

Christian life is all about living that essential goodness which we have within from the very fact that we are children of God, and never expecting to be lauded for what we do, because what we do is what we have to do! Jesus puts it so plainly in today's Gospel: we have done only what we ought to have done (Lk 17:10).

The Temple that you are!

THE WORD AND THE FEAST

November 9, 2020: Dedication of the Lateran Basilica
Ezekiel 47: 1-2,8-9,12;  John 2: 13-22

The feast that we celebrate today is the remembrance of the dedication (on 9th, Nov, 324 CE) of the Basilica that stands on the property which was called 'Lateran' because it belonged to that family but acquired and given by Emperor Constantine to the Church earlier. The Church which was built was dedicated to the two great John's of the Gospel: John the Baptist and John the Evangelist! This Basilica is one of the so-called Four Major Basilicas of Rome (the other three being those of St. Peter, Mary Major and St. Paul outside the walls of Rome). There is yet another importance attached to this Basilica because this is the Cathedral, that is the Official seat of the Bishop of Rome - that is none other than the Holy Father himself. Hence THIS is called the Papal Cathedral, and not the all-famous Basilica of St. Peter! 

Temple. Temple of the Lord. Temple of the living God. Temple where lives God. That temple you are! And it is from here the Lord wants his glory to be spread far and wide, from the temple of our selves, from the altars of our daily struggles and sacrifices. The Lord's zeal for the temple flares up today and that temple is not the structure that stands in places, but the persons that we are.

Humanity is the sanctuary where Divinity resides: I need to realise that I am not merely what I see! I am more than me. There is the indwelling Spirit who resides within me. The Divinity that is within me is the true dignity that defines me. First of all, to think of it that the Lord chose to dwell within me; secondly to think of the mystery that I am made of! Both these should make me awestruck but what is happening around us today is so loathsome. 

The Robbers' den experience and the Market place experience is everywhere! But the Lord invites us specially as God's children to realise the Blessing that we are. We are a blessing to many, as Ezekiel says about the waters that flow on from the Temple which make fertile every land that it flows into! 

In simple words, we are called to be persons worthy of the Lord, communities worthy of our faith and societies worthy of the sacredness of the humanity - to realise the Temple that we are!

SEEK! AND YOU SHALL BE FOUND!

Awake, Await and Alert

November 8, 2020: 32nd Sunday in Ordinary time

Wisdom 6: 12-16; 1 Thessalonians 4: 13-18; Matthew 25: 1-13

Seek and you shall be found! No there is no mistake here...neither grammatical nor biblical. Seek and you shall find, said Jesus once. Here the Word this Sunday tells us... seek, and you shall be found! Just dwell a while on those words, and you shall understand, how true they are! The first reading has a lovely explanation to it.

Wisdom comes; it is not earned. Knowledge can be gathered, not wisdom. Information can be collected, not wisdom. Wisdom, is what you do with the knowledge you have and the information you collect. Wisdom, is the next step, the step that follows knowing. I know the earth is being destroyed by greed - that is knowledge; but what do I do about it? I know the humanity is being demolished at its core - that is knowledge; but what do I do about it? I know I am giving less and less space for God in my life - that is knowledge; but what do I do about it? Wisdom, is what is born out of knowledge, after knowledge, beyond knowledge. Wisdom is an insight, wisdom is a gift... wisdom comes! But do you think it would come, without you wishing for it, longing for it, looking for it and seeking it? 

Wisdom is God's gift - it is the presence of the Spirit of the Lord, it is the revelation of God, it is the Word of the Lord...that comes, illumines and lets us understand what we know and what we do not know! Wisdom is that capacity to live our daily life, with the knowledge we have, however limited it be, living every moment with meaning and purpose! Oh, what a gift that is... to live with meaning and purpose! That is what the Lord offers us today as a gift... to seek that Wisdom which will help us live our life with meaning and purpose. St. Paul in the second reading and Jesus' parable in the Gospel give us clue, as to what it means to live with meaning and purpose... whether we are alive, or dead, we stay with the Lord forever, says St. Paul.

Wisdom of life is to know, what really matters in life. The wealth? The positions we hold? The power we have over others? The secrets we keep from others? The so-called status and name that we earn among others? If only we think a bit harder, we know these finally do not matter. But that is knowledge; what do I do about it? Yes, we are back with that question. That is what we need to ask ourselves...what do I do about it? I need to seek to be with the Lord, to stay with the Lord, never leave the side of the Lord, even as I engage in my daily duties and chores. That is wisdom - that ability to combine the necessities of daily life and the things that finally matter. Jesus had it so clearly in his mind and he imparted the same to us - to live your daily life, but never to lose sight of the the ultimate things that matter - the Lord and our life with the Lord. Therefore we need to seek... seek that wisdom!

Wisdom has to be sought, if it has to come! Wisdom comes, to those who seek! That is why we said... seek, and you shall be found. Seek wisdom, wisdom will find you. Seek the Lord, the Lord will find you! We cannot find the Lord. We cannot arrive at the Lord! The Lord will find us ...but we need to seek. Just like the Bridegroom would arrive, but the maids had to be ready! They cannot go find the bridegroom, the bridegroom will find them...but they have to seek, to be found.

What does it mean to seek wisdom... to seek the Lord! It means, as Jesus instructs us today, with three key words: awake, await, alert. 

AWAKE. That is the first disposition asked of us. Be awake... if those so called foolish maids were awake, they could have at least thought of their oil shortage a little earlier, not at the nick of time. That is what we need to be - awake, awake to our life, awake to our surroundings, awake to our attitudes, awake to our priorities, awake to our life style, awake to our value systems, awake to our daily choices...if we sleep over them, we will catch ourselves unawares when the crisis comes. Remember when this pandemic began far away from our place, how we took it so much for fun and laughed at it. And even when it came, how we were lighting lamps to it and clapping hands to shoo it - the heights of slumber, and we are paying for it. 

Being awake is not being agitated! At times we think, being awake is to get agitated, tensed and worked up with every simple thing around. No...being awake is not being agitated...instead it is being aware, being aware of what is happening, what is developing, what is brewing...so that when time comes I am prepared to face it.

AWAIT. That is the second disposition required of us. To await... to wait on the Lord. We do not have explanations for everything the very moment they happen. We do not understand them. We are at a loss... how many people lost their dear ones these days, just from nowhere! How many families have gone through the economic struggles and psychological break downs! Why? Why, is the question that comes upper most in our minds. But a better question, a more faith-filled question, a more hope-filled question would be - What? What does the Lord want to communicate? What does the Lord want to do? What is this event communicating to me? That 'what', will come... it will come from the only place that can provide me an adequate response on that - from the Lord. I need to await.

Awaiting is not being asleep! I wait... in the meanwhile...I go to sleep! That was the mistake the maids made...being asleep. Being asleep is losing time, not acting on something that I can, postponing something that I could do it now, letting go of a golden moment and rushing at the peak hour! Awaiting is not inaction, awaiting is being prepared for the right moment of encounter...but for that I have to be awake too!

ALERT. That is the third disposition demanded of us. Being alert...is to observer everything. The so-called foolish maids, could have been alert to see that the wise maid had an extra vial with them, then they would have been alerted. Or the so-called wise maids, could have alerted the other five, to better get something to back themselves up! They cared nothing... just for that they should have been left out of the palace (alright! that is a different discourse for another time). But being alert is to know the signs of the times, to understand what is happening, to connect the dots and be prudent - it is not only about things out there. It is about me too! Yes, looking into myself, knowing what is happening deep within me, understanding the signs of my mind, my spirit, my heart...that I may be alert to the changes and to the situation I am driving myself into...so when it comes, I know, I am prepared, I am awake and I am waiting!

Being alert is not being anxious! In the name of being alert, if I get anxious, I ruin every day of my life. There have been some these days who have closed themselves up in their personal rooms, not getting out even to meet those who are there, even their family members - out of fear of infection. They might have saved themselves from the virus, but have given themselves up to depression and stress! Anxiety, can kill us alive. Being alert is being actively and wisely involved in every thing around me, with a keep observation and prudent precaution, that I may live the moment, without ruining the future.

Awake, Await, and Alert...are the key words we are given today by the Word for our spiritual lives... to seek the Lord, to seek the light of the Lord, to seek with thirst and longing... and we shall be found! The Lord shall come and dwell with us!

Wealth - the right attitude to it

WORD 2day: Saturday, 31st week in Ordinary time

November 7, 2020: Philippians 4: 10-19; Luke 16: 9-15

Wealth: is it good or bad? 

Money and God...won't they go together?

Then how do we ask God for wealth and consider prosperity as a blessing from God? The Word today speak to us about the right attitude to develop towards wealth. Just three points to begin with...

1. Wealth is given.

It is a gift and should be treated as such. We are given and it should fill us with gratitude and not arrogance.

2. Wealth is given to be given.

It is never given for yourself...you are a custodian of what is with you. You possessing the wealth is a blessing; the wealth possessing you is a curse!

3. Wealth is given to be given to those who cannot give.

The only purpose today wealth is used, apart from fulfilment of needs, is to make more wealth. It is a sickening tendency that is the cause of the growing selfishness, cruel exploitation and demeaning inhumanities.

Wealth and power are good as long as they are instruments. When they begin to use and dominate persons, dehumanisation begins! God sees the heart, says the Gospel and everyone will see a heart that is filled with God.