Assisi...sanctity brewing!!!

October 4, 2020: It is indeed a day to remember and thank God for St. Francis of Assisi, a great man after the heart of the Lord. But the same Assisi, today draws our attention and interest towards another tremendous testimony of sanctity brewing...Venerable. Carlos Acutis, a 15 year old boy, who lived from 1991 to 2006, whose body has been found incorrupt and a miracle reported of healing of a Brazilian child suffering from a rare congenital anatomic disorder of the pancreas in 2013. Now everything is set for the Beatification of Carlos Acutis, to take place on 10th October, yes, coming Saturday!!! 

This Saturday (3rd Oct) the Holy Father was at Assisi to sign an encyclical (Fratelli Tutti)... and next saturday again Assisi will be in the limelight for the beatification ceremony to take place in the morning by 10 am. 

Carlos Acutis has been described as a Saint in Jeans...and a Saint who was a cyber geek...yes he has created a whole lot of cyber legacy about Eucharistic Miracles and various other Catholic devotions - a lovely example for the youth today who are so attached to the social network!

Check the site that the to-be-Blessed, Carlos had created: www.miracolieucaristici.org

Get the Gospel right!

WORD 2day: Monday, 27th week in Ordinary time

October 05, 2020: Galatians 1:6-12; Luke 10: 25-37

Can there be more than one Good News? That is the key question that the Word responds to today - there can be varied good news from all quarters and varied directions, but ultimately the Good News is one! And it is in relation to that One Good News, to that ONE GOSPEL, that every other good news has to be tested, and found right or not. In a context of pluralism today, this is a key concern: getting the Gospel right!

We recently celebrated the memory of the birth of a great person Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, called the Mahatma of India, who firmly believed and advocated that truth from the Rig Veda: let noble thoughts come to us from all directions! That is a much needed attitude for a world situation like that of the present. Fratelli Tutti, the encyclical that Pope Francis promulgated on Saturday, inspired by St. Francis of Assisi, insists on that too - 'a love that transcends the barriers of geography and distance' (Fratelli Tutti, no.1). 

But can that dissipate our focus and make us eclectics collecting from everywhere and putting them all into one boiling pot and go with a false claim such as, 'everything is one and the same'? That is what we need to be careful about, warns Paul. You cannot equate everything...of course, let noble thoughts come from all direction - but you need ascertain that they are noble, truly noble; indeed, transcending geographies and distances is important, but you need to ascertain it is for true love! That is the essence of Paul's warning - to be clear about the absolute criteria, because the Gospel is ONE, and it is love and compassion! 

Jesus speaks of it in Gospel with such clarity. It is not justified merely because a priest and a levite did it. It cannot be disregarded merely because an ordinary samaritan chose this way to respond! Look for the right Good news, the right Gospel, the ONE absolute criterion for being people of God: the right elements that account for the right Gospel are love of God and love of one's neighbours. When BOTH of these are not compromised for any thing else, however good or desirable they seem to be, then we are well on our way to the Reign of God. It is a sign that you have got the Gospel right!